Kamsaki
12-08-2005, 23:17
Be prepared, Ladies and Gentlemen, for possibly the longest and most self-contradictory religion post you have ever read. A few disclaimers; this is not meant as offensive to Christians, nor even as a refutation of your faith. In fact, by and large, I will be arguing your case. However, it is not my case. I am neither Christian nor Antichristian, and should you find anything derogatory, I apologise, but it is not intentional. On the other hand, if you find anything I say about you as members of a western society offensive, then tough luck. =P
Not so long ago, I had an unusual epiphany. It was a pretty simple one, and one that most would probably just shrug at me and go "So what?" at. It was this: People desire to get into heaven.
Maybe it's just me, but I thought this had an unusual thought pattern to it. Normally, when we think of the word desire, what springs to mind? Covetation is the word that the Old Testament applies to this idea of wanting what belongs to someone else, and is heavily frowned upon in Christian circles. Marital partnerships, material wealth and posessions, the other player's place on the football field... Desire has an innately negative connotation about it. Want. Lust. Temptation. It goes under many names, very few of them openly flaunted as a positive aspect of society.
Desire embodies that aspect of human nature that strives for the fulfilment of self-interest. And yet, undeniably, Christians want to get a good place in the afterlife. From first glance, this could very easily be simply seen as a continuation of this desire to the penultimate level; penultimate, in that it stops short of being God himself.
I wanted to look into that a little deeper. All sorts of theories about Christianity including the Heaven concept as a recruitment drive cropped up here, there, everywhere I wanted to look, but none of it really seemed satisfactory. So, perhaps surprisingly for me, I decided to check out a little Christian Literature and scripture (M. Scott Peck is a very enlightening read, though not, oddly enough, very theologic in nature). Several things struck me, but Three in particular stand out that tend to go rather unnoticed.
Number One is the unusual ambiguity with which Jesus himself approaches the Kingdom of Heaven. He uses a very Jewish approach to what is not far separated from an actual earthly kingdom, even though God resides there. If you actually read through his statements in the Gospel taking it to mean a Kingdom of God's People in that context, you can see why the Disciples were so shocked at his crucifixion, because what he gave them led them to believe that God had come to bring it to Them rather than to bring them to Him. It's almost as though the promises could be made to fit to a large range of existing beliefs about the nature of God's Divine Intervention.
Secondly is a bizarre quote from Matthew 7, Verses 21-23. Jesus himself makes it clear that not all those who are his followers will be judged favourably. Even miracle workers and preachers who tell people about him will be judged by their conduct, and if deemed to have done evil (even if they claim they've been Forgiven through his discipleship) will be turned away if they have not tried to change their ways.
The other point is the allegory of Salvation to a Healing process that I've heard several times lately. Arguably, the term Salvation actually originates from the word Salve; rather than a final, resolute state of "Healed"ness, it refers to a treatment used to sort out existing wounds rather than a preventative measure. Okay, so the word may have evolved some, but the idea of a spiritual Healing is still very much commonplace.
The apparent problem with this allegory is that we do not judge someone's health by the state of their body. A young kid can have scrapes, bruises and swellings all over his body and still be considered healthy. What counts, when we analyse health, is a person's ability to recover from and manage these sorts of pains or injuries. Health is not a snapshot in time; it is an ongoing process. Counter to that, people argue that Salvation is a one-shot deal.
But this is not an appropriate distinction, as I think those verses in Matthew outline. You are not saved by Jesus's universal redemption, nor by mere acceptance of it. What has happened, rather, is that God has effectively said "Okay, you're Human, and having seen what that's like, I have excused everyone from that aspect of sinfulness". He still will reward those who accept this change and use it to reform themselves into those who care for their fellow man, but a raw faith in Jesus's existence and mission is not sufficient. It is the Ongoing process of self-repair that really matters, not the one-shot superdrug that cures all known illnesses.
After all, the second you think you're perfectly healed and stop maintaining your natural defences, the diseases catch like wildfire.
It always struck me that the Salvation issue was a sort of cheap "Get out of Jail Free Card". Now I see, apparently, that scripture states that what is rewarded is not coming to Jesus; anyone can do that, just like the rich young man in Matthew 19. What is rewarded rather is using that chance, when given to you, to make a change for the better in your life and to continue to do so for as long as you stay in this life.
That brings me neatly to the central core of my discussion. The aim of the Christian way is to lead the life of continual self-refinement according to that which Jesus suggested. And What Jesus taught was, very simply, Human Empathy. Be kind to your fellow man. Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. Give up your cloak and anything else that the others need. Shelve your covetations and desires and place them at the furthermost corner of your mind.
There's that word again. Desire. Funny, huh? Desire has changed from my first paragraph as a driving force for Christianity to my most recent as the harmful entity that should be pushed aside defined by the Christian Church's main figure of worship.
However, the Desire for Heaven is an ethically acceptable one specifically because doing so requires (not simply encourages, as some Christians would claim) adherence to a set of standards wherein harmful and destructive desires are sidelined. Or, at least, a genuine effort to adhere to these standards and a continual self-assessment to try and close the gap between your way of life and the empathetic way of Jesus of Nazareth to the best of our human and fallible capabilities. Basically, this is a redirection of Earthly desire to an unearthly desire that forces its impact on earth to be a benevolent one.
So what am I getting at? Well, for one thing, I now believe that this has shown that Christianity is the Perfect Religion, and indeed the perfect Philosophy, for the selfish Western Society that currently dominates much of our world. People within it have long been encouraged to act on a self-full mandate, and arguably the ease with which the idea of the American Dream was accepted is a testament to this sad fact. Expecting them to immediately drop this mindset will not work, simply because we exist in a world where self-promotion is worshipped with as much candour as any idea of God or Nature. If, however, you offer them a promise of enormous spiritual wealth in a life hereafter as a reward for empathetic behaviour, you target them at the very level of greed that binds them in the destructive behavioural cycle of material covetation.
At its very heart, Christianity is a religion targetted at Selfish individuals and, in so doing, changes them into genuinely civil people. Islam has attempted something of a similar nature. Both religions in their early days, however, fell prey to some of the side-effects of such a targetting. The goings on in eras past, and indeed still going on, whereby people killed for their beliefs are an unfortunate but inevitable result of having those with a personal agenda as your key "recruits".
Think about it. When you promise an eternal afterlife with the creator of all things as a result of good behaviour, of course those who would have that will try to attain such an outcome by whatever means necessary and by making as few concessions as possible. It's part of the very human nature that "Reward" appeals to.
There is a very definite link between material desire and spiritual desire. However, those who truly follow the way of constant self-improvement that the Bible instructs will, if they keep it up for long enough, actually lose the material desires that constrain them. They have been replaced by a desire for something more profound than that.
Here comes the big But. It seems, to me anyway, that the more one follows the path of Jesus, the less one feels any sense of desire at all. Act Justly, Love Kindness and Walk Humbly With Your God becomes, in itself, the reward rather than the criteria. The closer one gets to Jesus, the less one desires, demands or expects a heavenly rebirth and the more they genuinely strive to live a life for others.
In fact, the more like Jesus you become, the less the church has in its repetoire to encourage you to continue. They would have you become missionaries so that, for whatever reason they would have you do it, you can go give other people their shot at eternal life as if that's the be-all and end-all of a relationship with God. They would have you remain in this idea of Jesus as someone who utterly outstrips all human potential and that we should merely accept our sinful nature rather than (no matter how apparently futilely) trying to overcome it though study, conversation with God, self-assessment and, fundamentally, engaging with those around us on a level plane regardless of their belief.
To be honest, I think that part of Jesus's vagueness in scripture is designed to lead us to this point. What Heaven actually is can be dismissed as irrelevant once you pass a certain point. Whenever you embrace the idea that the life of Jesus is worth living regardless of reward, heaven and whatever reward it embodies becomes an afterthought. (Arguably, when you reach this stage, you could already be there, but I'll not delve into that just yet)
Inevitably, the result of Christianity should be a discipleship with Jesus that transcends, and arguably bypasses, the organised religion of Christianity altogether. The more you progress, the less you desire what is perceived as the end reward and the less "Christian" you see yourself defined. In fact, though you in no way renounce your journey or fellowship with the Lord, you learn to treat everyone you meet as being at their own stage in the same journey whether Christian or Not. Rather than sitting back in the awe-struck paralysis of inaction that the idea of "Everyone is Saved!" propagates through the Church to heighten its membership, actually getting up and following him leads you to a place that could arguably be the missing link between the Nirvana of the East and the Heaven of the West, forming the foundation from which all benevolent Religion originates.
So Who is the Selfish Christian? The Selfish Christian is he or she who would twist Christianity to their own ends. However, the Selfish Christians are also those who follow the teachings of Christ's church for the sole reason that they expect reward, and they are also those who think they are comfortable enough where they are right now with enough of the "right" answers to keep themselves satisfied; those who lock themselves within the comfortable areas of their faith that suit their own lifestyle. They are those who think they have all they answers they need and stop looking, even stopping others from looking in the process.
True Discipleship of Jesus is not a companion to the Western Ideology of Self-promotion. It is a destroyer of it. Those who would dampen its principles to allow them to milk the best from both worlds, even at the expense of others seeking for their own answers... They are the Selfish Christians.
If anyone has anything they'd like to contribute, please do so. I'm still journeying too, so any directions or advice would be greatly appreciated. ^_^
Not so long ago, I had an unusual epiphany. It was a pretty simple one, and one that most would probably just shrug at me and go "So what?" at. It was this: People desire to get into heaven.
Maybe it's just me, but I thought this had an unusual thought pattern to it. Normally, when we think of the word desire, what springs to mind? Covetation is the word that the Old Testament applies to this idea of wanting what belongs to someone else, and is heavily frowned upon in Christian circles. Marital partnerships, material wealth and posessions, the other player's place on the football field... Desire has an innately negative connotation about it. Want. Lust. Temptation. It goes under many names, very few of them openly flaunted as a positive aspect of society.
Desire embodies that aspect of human nature that strives for the fulfilment of self-interest. And yet, undeniably, Christians want to get a good place in the afterlife. From first glance, this could very easily be simply seen as a continuation of this desire to the penultimate level; penultimate, in that it stops short of being God himself.
I wanted to look into that a little deeper. All sorts of theories about Christianity including the Heaven concept as a recruitment drive cropped up here, there, everywhere I wanted to look, but none of it really seemed satisfactory. So, perhaps surprisingly for me, I decided to check out a little Christian Literature and scripture (M. Scott Peck is a very enlightening read, though not, oddly enough, very theologic in nature). Several things struck me, but Three in particular stand out that tend to go rather unnoticed.
Number One is the unusual ambiguity with which Jesus himself approaches the Kingdom of Heaven. He uses a very Jewish approach to what is not far separated from an actual earthly kingdom, even though God resides there. If you actually read through his statements in the Gospel taking it to mean a Kingdom of God's People in that context, you can see why the Disciples were so shocked at his crucifixion, because what he gave them led them to believe that God had come to bring it to Them rather than to bring them to Him. It's almost as though the promises could be made to fit to a large range of existing beliefs about the nature of God's Divine Intervention.
Secondly is a bizarre quote from Matthew 7, Verses 21-23. Jesus himself makes it clear that not all those who are his followers will be judged favourably. Even miracle workers and preachers who tell people about him will be judged by their conduct, and if deemed to have done evil (even if they claim they've been Forgiven through his discipleship) will be turned away if they have not tried to change their ways.
The other point is the allegory of Salvation to a Healing process that I've heard several times lately. Arguably, the term Salvation actually originates from the word Salve; rather than a final, resolute state of "Healed"ness, it refers to a treatment used to sort out existing wounds rather than a preventative measure. Okay, so the word may have evolved some, but the idea of a spiritual Healing is still very much commonplace.
The apparent problem with this allegory is that we do not judge someone's health by the state of their body. A young kid can have scrapes, bruises and swellings all over his body and still be considered healthy. What counts, when we analyse health, is a person's ability to recover from and manage these sorts of pains or injuries. Health is not a snapshot in time; it is an ongoing process. Counter to that, people argue that Salvation is a one-shot deal.
But this is not an appropriate distinction, as I think those verses in Matthew outline. You are not saved by Jesus's universal redemption, nor by mere acceptance of it. What has happened, rather, is that God has effectively said "Okay, you're Human, and having seen what that's like, I have excused everyone from that aspect of sinfulness". He still will reward those who accept this change and use it to reform themselves into those who care for their fellow man, but a raw faith in Jesus's existence and mission is not sufficient. It is the Ongoing process of self-repair that really matters, not the one-shot superdrug that cures all known illnesses.
After all, the second you think you're perfectly healed and stop maintaining your natural defences, the diseases catch like wildfire.
It always struck me that the Salvation issue was a sort of cheap "Get out of Jail Free Card". Now I see, apparently, that scripture states that what is rewarded is not coming to Jesus; anyone can do that, just like the rich young man in Matthew 19. What is rewarded rather is using that chance, when given to you, to make a change for the better in your life and to continue to do so for as long as you stay in this life.
That brings me neatly to the central core of my discussion. The aim of the Christian way is to lead the life of continual self-refinement according to that which Jesus suggested. And What Jesus taught was, very simply, Human Empathy. Be kind to your fellow man. Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. Give up your cloak and anything else that the others need. Shelve your covetations and desires and place them at the furthermost corner of your mind.
There's that word again. Desire. Funny, huh? Desire has changed from my first paragraph as a driving force for Christianity to my most recent as the harmful entity that should be pushed aside defined by the Christian Church's main figure of worship.
However, the Desire for Heaven is an ethically acceptable one specifically because doing so requires (not simply encourages, as some Christians would claim) adherence to a set of standards wherein harmful and destructive desires are sidelined. Or, at least, a genuine effort to adhere to these standards and a continual self-assessment to try and close the gap between your way of life and the empathetic way of Jesus of Nazareth to the best of our human and fallible capabilities. Basically, this is a redirection of Earthly desire to an unearthly desire that forces its impact on earth to be a benevolent one.
So what am I getting at? Well, for one thing, I now believe that this has shown that Christianity is the Perfect Religion, and indeed the perfect Philosophy, for the selfish Western Society that currently dominates much of our world. People within it have long been encouraged to act on a self-full mandate, and arguably the ease with which the idea of the American Dream was accepted is a testament to this sad fact. Expecting them to immediately drop this mindset will not work, simply because we exist in a world where self-promotion is worshipped with as much candour as any idea of God or Nature. If, however, you offer them a promise of enormous spiritual wealth in a life hereafter as a reward for empathetic behaviour, you target them at the very level of greed that binds them in the destructive behavioural cycle of material covetation.
At its very heart, Christianity is a religion targetted at Selfish individuals and, in so doing, changes them into genuinely civil people. Islam has attempted something of a similar nature. Both religions in their early days, however, fell prey to some of the side-effects of such a targetting. The goings on in eras past, and indeed still going on, whereby people killed for their beliefs are an unfortunate but inevitable result of having those with a personal agenda as your key "recruits".
Think about it. When you promise an eternal afterlife with the creator of all things as a result of good behaviour, of course those who would have that will try to attain such an outcome by whatever means necessary and by making as few concessions as possible. It's part of the very human nature that "Reward" appeals to.
There is a very definite link between material desire and spiritual desire. However, those who truly follow the way of constant self-improvement that the Bible instructs will, if they keep it up for long enough, actually lose the material desires that constrain them. They have been replaced by a desire for something more profound than that.
Here comes the big But. It seems, to me anyway, that the more one follows the path of Jesus, the less one feels any sense of desire at all. Act Justly, Love Kindness and Walk Humbly With Your God becomes, in itself, the reward rather than the criteria. The closer one gets to Jesus, the less one desires, demands or expects a heavenly rebirth and the more they genuinely strive to live a life for others.
In fact, the more like Jesus you become, the less the church has in its repetoire to encourage you to continue. They would have you become missionaries so that, for whatever reason they would have you do it, you can go give other people their shot at eternal life as if that's the be-all and end-all of a relationship with God. They would have you remain in this idea of Jesus as someone who utterly outstrips all human potential and that we should merely accept our sinful nature rather than (no matter how apparently futilely) trying to overcome it though study, conversation with God, self-assessment and, fundamentally, engaging with those around us on a level plane regardless of their belief.
To be honest, I think that part of Jesus's vagueness in scripture is designed to lead us to this point. What Heaven actually is can be dismissed as irrelevant once you pass a certain point. Whenever you embrace the idea that the life of Jesus is worth living regardless of reward, heaven and whatever reward it embodies becomes an afterthought. (Arguably, when you reach this stage, you could already be there, but I'll not delve into that just yet)
Inevitably, the result of Christianity should be a discipleship with Jesus that transcends, and arguably bypasses, the organised religion of Christianity altogether. The more you progress, the less you desire what is perceived as the end reward and the less "Christian" you see yourself defined. In fact, though you in no way renounce your journey or fellowship with the Lord, you learn to treat everyone you meet as being at their own stage in the same journey whether Christian or Not. Rather than sitting back in the awe-struck paralysis of inaction that the idea of "Everyone is Saved!" propagates through the Church to heighten its membership, actually getting up and following him leads you to a place that could arguably be the missing link between the Nirvana of the East and the Heaven of the West, forming the foundation from which all benevolent Religion originates.
So Who is the Selfish Christian? The Selfish Christian is he or she who would twist Christianity to their own ends. However, the Selfish Christians are also those who follow the teachings of Christ's church for the sole reason that they expect reward, and they are also those who think they are comfortable enough where they are right now with enough of the "right" answers to keep themselves satisfied; those who lock themselves within the comfortable areas of their faith that suit their own lifestyle. They are those who think they have all they answers they need and stop looking, even stopping others from looking in the process.
True Discipleship of Jesus is not a companion to the Western Ideology of Self-promotion. It is a destroyer of it. Those who would dampen its principles to allow them to milk the best from both worlds, even at the expense of others seeking for their own answers... They are the Selfish Christians.
If anyone has anything they'd like to contribute, please do so. I'm still journeying too, so any directions or advice would be greatly appreciated. ^_^