God is sovereign - We are not raindrops that return to the ocean. We don't step off the wheel of death and rebirth and become one with it all. We are created beings, and God, who created us, is a being of a different order. In order for the word "love" to have any kind of meaning, it has to imply a relationship.
The person of Jesus is the proper object of worship - "I am the way, the truth and the life" does not refer to his parables or any of the enlightening encounters he had during his 33-year mortal life. It is he Himself, the Son facet of the triune God. There is no way one can realistically regard him as just a wise teacher.
God really does insist on our spotlessness - The rest of creation, at least what we know of it, does not involve the question of free will. The laws of physics, chemistry and biology spotlessly govern the actions of all other objects and beings. We, on the other hand, can choose to knowingly defile it, and, inevitably, each of us do. The above-mentioned Son is necessary to mitigate God's profound disappointment in us for so choosing. We'd be in a world of hurt without Him.
God interacted with a particular group of people in a particular locale to begin revealing his nature to the entire species - The argument can be made that philosophically-minded ancient Hebrews, with little knowledge of the world outside a few square miles, were attuned to certain things coming onto their radar screen, making their sense of being special a self-fulfilling prophecy. Where it falls short is that, as Judeo-Christian scripture and thought made its way beyond the confines of that particular locale and people, it made sense to billions of other human beings elsewhere like no other worldview ever has. The flood, the Ten Commandments, the ups and downs of great kings like David and Solomon, the visions of the prophets, and the particular circumstances of the birth, life, death and resurrection of Jesus happened in a certain place to a certain people. That's just the way it happened. Lots of aspects of reality are like that. Elephants aren't native to Wyoming.
All of this is deadly serious - There's a reason clergy is enlisted during the milestones of life, such as weddings and deaths. The things that occur sequentially in this three-dimensional universe have eternal implications.
People who went to a church as children where this was clearly conveyed, some of whom speak of being saved as children, may have a well-duh reaction to these realizations, but they were a big deal to me. I pretty much went all the years of serious ontological inquiry in my life concluding the opposite of each one of these.
I still kind of surprise myself publicly asserting this stuff, but less and less so all the time. That happens when you draw near to Him.
But not all of us turned a deaf (or dumb?) ear to Jesus as children, can you grant us that? Your journey is your journey. Except ye become as a little child. At the risk of being berated for citing a rock lyric from a Nobel prize winner after you stopped believing in that prize: you were 'so much older then, you're younger than that now.'
ReplyDeleteRock lyrics are usually a lot of silliness. For instance, that one touts moral relativism: “Good and bad I defined these terms, quite clear, no doubt somehow, oh but I was so much older then . . .”
ReplyDeleteTurning their will and their lives over to a God of their understanding has worked for millions of alcoholics and drug addicts for nearly 80 years. The Lord (spirit of the Lord) does indeed work in mysterious ways. Your journey is yours and ours is ours. OK, let's go listen to Mahler's Symphony #2 The Resurrection. Da da dadadadada....
ReplyDeleteYou never stop growing as a Christian. All it takes is willingness, an opening of the door which is being knocked-on by the Lord. Pass it on. "Preach the gospel always. If necessary use words." (attributed to Francis of Assisi)
ReplyDeleteYou never stop growing as a human, a Protestant, Catholic, Jew, Muslim, Buddhist, or whatever, I'm sure they'd all say, at the end of the day, rich man, poor woman, powerful or no. But there is a passage there in that Bible about the truth being hidden from the wise and prudent: Jesus prayed: "I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes." KJV Matthew 11:25
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