There is something in me that is perpetually frustrated and disappointed by our failure to live the Christian faith---by my own failures to do so, and by our nation's and the world's failures to do so. I think this is the frustration that was and is the fire in the belly of all the prophets through the ages. As a culture moves farther and farther from living the realities of the Faith, it deteriorates. Anyone who loves people and sees this deterioration is frustrated and seeks to do something about it. We are created in the image of God. We see plainly that humans are above all creatures on this earth in this regard; and we have responsibility that corresponds to our creative abilities and powers. This responsibility involves sincere attention to life---what works and does not work for the human family--in other words, we are responsible to be sincere truth seekers. In this light, it is fair to say that anyone who has not at least read the New Testament is a fool. I say this with no malice. One who ignores the words of the One Who said "I am the way, truth and life" can not claim to be an honest truth seeker. And if we do not seek, we will not find. And if we do not discover the Way of true life, we become a problem to the human family rather than a solution to the problems of humanity. And we do not even realize that we are a problem---that we are bringing more suffering into life than healing and light. Our lives become distracted by things that do not benefit the human family. Our selfishness and self-centeredness, traits that we are all born with, will always win the day.
Anyone who reads the New Testament, especially the teachings and life of Christ, in sincere openness to Truth, and is not inwardly transformed in a very positive way is spiritually blind. I don't know what hope there is for that person, and I pray God's mercy upon them. (Those who fall in this category may hear that statement as arrogant or condescending, though, God knows, there is no arrogance in it.) The wise of all ages have seen the solution to the human problems in Christ's teachings. To look elsewhere is futile unless and until it leads to the Truth of Christ. Christ is the center of the universe, as he is the center of human history---a fact that secularists, operating in spiritual blindness, have sought to obfuscate, an example of which is the changing of A.D. [Anno Domini, in the year of our Lord] to C.E. [in the "Common Era"]. Anything that takes a culture away from the realities of the Christian Faith takes it farther into darkness. Anyone who suppresses the Christian Faith makes democracy a less tenable form of government, because spiritually immature people cannot govern themselves, no matter how intelligent they are. Education does not substitute for spiritual maturity, and it takes a radical intervening Force, combined with sincere earnest seeking, to evoke spiritual maturity, which does not happen naturally or passively. Jesus said, "Unless one be born again he cannot see the Kingdom of God." and the Kingdom of God is the only solution to earth's human problems. Why is it so difficult for us to see that all our human efforts, uninspired by the Holy Spirit of our Creator, are futile? Has not history born this out ad nauseum? Why is it so difficult to realize that Jesus has solved the human problem in a single statement: "You are to love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use and persecute you if you desire to be the children of your Father in heaven"? Those who see this as Utopian and unattainable, and write it off, and turn toward political and military solutions, simply prolong the human misery. How long have we utilized those modalities fruitlessly? The difficulties of this teaching, and the fact that so few seem to be willing to practice it, combined with the ongoing hostilities and vanity in the human family, do more to validate than to diminish its veracity. What if we really
practiced it as an ongoing conscious endeavor? No matter how far short we fall, any movement in that direction would certainly move us in the right direction. Instead of ignoring Christ and His teachings, and blandly or viciously suppressing Christianity, what if we elevated it to the forefront of human attention? Instead of exclusively pointing out the hypocrisy in it [a perennial temptation in any endeavor] why not focus on the unquestionable good that has been evoked by it, realizing that hypocrisy is an aspect of the very evil it exposes and overcomes? As someone has said, [paraphrasing]"It's not that Christianity has been tried and found wanting, it's that it has been found to be hard, and not tried."
My hope is that our frustrations about the problems in this world will lead us ultimately toward the only true Solution, and into the endeavor of furthering His Kingdom, which will be the greatest gift we can give to those we love, and perhaps the only thing that will give us satisfaction at the end of our lives.
Response from James Willis:
Dec 29 at 9:44 PM
I realize your question is
rhetorical, part lament and call to action, but I am prompted to respond to
your question in part, below:
'Why is it so difficult to realize that Jesus has solved the human problem in a
single statement: "You are to love your enemies, bless those who curse
you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use
and persecute you if you desire to be the children of your Father in
heaven"?'
Sin, and resulting blindness.
Generally speaking only people with a real problem look for a real answer.
God calls sinners to salvation through His Son in Grace, which brings
repentance, salvation and sanctification, and restoration of fellowship with
God.
Consider those whose ears are dull,
eyes that have closed, with no understanding in their hearts:
Mat_13:15 For this people's heart
is waxed gross, and their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes they have
closed; lest at any time they should see with their eyes, and hear with their
ears, and should understand with their heart, and should be converted, and I
should heal them.
Act_28:27 For the heart of this people is waxed gross, and their ears are
dull of hearing, and their eyes have they closed; lest they should see with
their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and should
be converted, and I should heal them.
It's so important, it's in both
Matthew and Acts.
The verse above from Matthew follows the parable of the
sower, and Jesus goes on to explain the role of the individual decision and of
evil interfering with the hearing:
Mat 13:19 When any one heareth the
word of the kingdom, and understandeth it not, then cometh the wicked one, and
catcheth away that which was sown in his heart. This is he which received seed
by the way side.
This describes a process of struggle for the birth of
awareness of truth. At any point in time it appears there are those that are
dull of hearing, with eyes and hearts closed, and are unafraid. I'm very
familiar with this condition in my own life experiences. Even so, there are
voices calling in the wilderness to bring the truth by the Holy Spirit.
Some are unafraid of sin, unafraid of death, unafraid of God
and His awesome power to spin the planets and know the hairs on our head.
Perhaps in throwing out the superstition of the middle ages, and substituting
science, materialism and consumerism we have thrown out the baby with the bath
water, washing fear down the drain, substituting apathy for fear.
Of course fear can be an oppression, and it can be a
terrible companion but when I climbed mountains fear was my friend and I would
listen often times objectively. If I was having an off day climbing that bit of
overhanging ice was maybe not a smart idea, better to eat first or maybe just
go home and I've done both, and lived.
Today, fear is the enemy and is hunted down with empowerment
strategies, personal talismans and idols, with secular poetry, with caffeine,
alcohol and other drugs like money, even with Nike logos like "Just Do
It". Perhaps fear is the wrong enemy. ["Twas Grace that taught my heart to fear, and Grace my fears relieved." John Newton, Amazing Grace] added by MFG.
Last week I offered some encouragement to a young man
recently married whose father in law passed away unexpectedly. In support of
his wife, I explained that during a crisis, the loss of a dear loved one,
sometimes the past is temporarily jettisoned from our memory, and hope for the
future is temporarily nonexistent, and we are simply left in an apparently
eternal now-ness where we come face to face with uncertainty and doubt, prior
to grief. In time through grief we have our dear memories restored to us, and
they become an even more precious part of who we are, and hope for the future
becomes an active part of our life and we grow beyond the chrysalis of the
butterfly, but there are those moments of metamorphosis and apparent stasis
when nothing seems to be moving or changing but where the real progress is
made.
Those moments of now-ness I think are opportunities to meet
God through His Grace. After all, He is eternally now, "I Am", so
perhaps we can meet Him at those times without all the normal trappings of
life. But it's the repentance, and the Grace that invites us that gives us the
opportunity to step out in faith, and what is faith without a little fear and
doubt to give us an easy out, a quick alternative, the very canvas of our
weakness in the flesh that gives contrast to the bold strokes of faith. It's
how we decide in those moments of invitation, those moments of encounter that
determines our fellowship with God, indeed our salvation.
I heard yesterday on KLove that a Chihuahua was found in a
house destroyed by fire, he was shrouded in house insulation and standing in a
puddle of water protected from the heat. A man of science would say there's a
logical explanation to this, that the human DNA double helix is a matter of
evolution only and that the parting of the Red Sea and the fall of the walls of
Jericho are not miracles but due to natural phenomena only. Putting aside the
fact for believers that God is entirely 'natural', of course they can't explain
away the exquisite timing of these events which gives us pause to reflect on
the majesty of God's creation. Unless of course you are given to self
actualization, can overcome all fear triggers real or imagined, and are
literally hell bent to quiet that still, small voice of God calling unto God
within us to be gathered unto Himself for His purpose. But even if one's eyes
and ears are closed, there will be a time for reconsideration because of God's
Mercy.
Your question of "Why is it so difficult..."
though, hinges on the fact that the logic or mathematics of God's mercy makes
little sense in the flesh. Love your enemies? "Hey, What about me??"
Do Good to those that hate you? "Not on my watch, I've got my defenses
up!" Pray for those who spitefully use and persecute you?? "Clearly
you have a bad translation in hand..." Consider the logic of "be
angry, but do not sin". It's perfect. For example, if a forest fire simply
refused to spread from one blade of grass to the next blade of grass, or from one
tree to the next tree, poof! there'd be no forest fire. The analogy breaks down
because forest fires are sometimes natural processes and required, but if anger
did not spread via sin what an improvement that would be.
This logic doesn't work because it requires faith in
practice and we want to dig in and do things ourselves. Waiting on God is so
passive, after all, when we can just dig in with our own tools and talents
which may work with small problems but rarely with the problems that matter.
My hope is that your ministry will continue to move others
through the work of the Holy Spirit for His purpose, and that it will be
disruptive to Satan's plans for our destruction. The book "23 Minutes in
Hell" tells the story of a man who says he went to hell, where he was in a
dark cell carved in the side of a seemingly endless pit kept company by a demon
with pure malevolence, who wanted only his eternal suffering. Do we believe
science which maintains these images and experiences are the result of neurons
firing and memories changing, or do we allow for the idea that we may not know
what we don't know and would do well to have some appreciation or even healthy
fear of our imperfect knowledge and turn to Christ our Savior and His Gospel.
After all, it's not a weakness to be a lamb in need of a Shepherd, if in fact
you are a lamb in need of a Shepherd.
In Christ,
Jim
Thanks Jim
