A friend stops at the barn to chat from time to time. He is an older gentleman and I enjoy his perspective on life. Our converstations cover a wide range of topics - weather, hunting, sex, God, local events, farming, and life in general. He is what most church people would class as a heathen. Church holds no interest for him, through the years he has seen too much.
When our conversations turn toward God, I am invariably amazed at his grasp and understanding of God and who He is. How can that be? A man outside the framework of organized religion perhaps understanding God better than those who are well educated in the scriptures?
As I reflected on our conversations, my mind wandered through the pages of scriptures, pausing at two similar examples in the life of Jesus. A gentile woman, one who would have been despised by those within the confines of the accepted religious framework, experienced the fulness of Jesus' ministry. A Roman Centurian, a member of the evil occupying military force, caused Jesus to marvel at the depth of his faith. His was a faith so great that Jesus proclaimed that He found no greater faith in all of God's chosen people.
Where did these two unlikely individuals receive their understanding of God and God With Us? What has shaped the theology of my friend in a manner that allows him to see God for who He really is? It was probably not in a classroom or at the feet of a noted scholar. Might it be that being created in the image of God allows us to clearly see Him for who He really is?
And might it be that the theology we have been given from our religious traditions actually clouds our vision? I am convinced that most of our theological tenets are shaped more by our intellectual endeavors than by the scriptures. We believe something and then search the scriptures to find supporting evidence that we can cite in putting forth our beliefs. The Pharisees of Jesus' day were versed in scripture and theology. Yet they largely missed the work of God in their midst.
Might it be that our intellectual theology framework disconnects us from the image of God within us in a manner that causes us to miss Him completely?
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6 comments:
One must be careful -- grasping who God is does not make one a follower. There were many instances in the Bible where demons testified to the identity of Jesus. Unfortunately, attending church regularly does not make one a disciple either. We must remember that it is only our personal relationship with the Creator of the universe that determines how we will spend eternity. Please remember, all persons involved in the organized church are not disciples in the New Testament sense of the word, but there are many of us who are, and we are staying within the church in order to bring light and life from within.
Ah yes...but grasping "who God is" is the first step in following! One cannot follow what they do not know.
I do find your following comment rather interesting:
Please remember, all persons involved in the organized church are not disciples in the New Testament sense of the word, but there are many of us who are, and we are staying within the church in order to bring light and life from within.
Your comment speaks volumes about both you and the church. You imply that the organized church has no light...in other words you must bring the light from within. If you must bring light, then the church does not have light. Therefore the organized church is not the church but it is the world.
Yes, I think you are right. Religious traditions do cloud our vision. But how do religious traditions emerge? What is the root cause for the rise of religious traditions or what I consider legalism? It simply makes no sense that we as Christians would put up with anything that would cloud or vision and understanding of God. What is the beginning of this deception? And what is the real motivation behind those who maintain the foundation of legalism? I have my ideas, but I would like to hear yours. I think that if we understand something accurately, we can then be more effective in exposing or dealing with it.
Great questions...
From my perspective, the root goes back to a more innocent time, when God walked in the garden in the cool of the day.
Adam and Eve were confronted with a choice - would they fully trust God? Would they yeild to Him in spite of what they felt? In the face of questions about whether God was holding out on them, would they choose what made sense to the natural eye or would they choose to believe Him?
Unfortunately they chose the voice of the serpent and the way of self over the voice of God. Unfortunately they chose to disconnect from their Creator. Why? Beause it seemed right to them - So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree desirable to make one wise...
I don't think that Adam and Eve intended to disconnect from God...it's just that it seemed right to them to take of the fruit and eat it - there is a way that seems right to man...
In their disconnect, they hid from the One who could remedy their situation. They attempted to cover their shame with a created covering instead of allowing the Creator to deal with the shame. They hid among the trees of the garden, the very trees of which God pronounced "it is good". They hid among the good things, the created things. These were their efforts at fixing their wrong.
Ultimately it was only the Creator who could deal with the situation.
Ever since that fateful day, humanity has struggled to trust God. And why not?? He seems dangerous, unpredictable, beyond our control.
We still feel naked, we still deal with shame. What I don't want to do I do... The image of God within us yearns to be reconnected to God. Yet when honestly look at Him, we struggle to trust Him. We need a god.
A wise man once told me that the crux of humanity's problems lies in one fact. We were created in the image of God, however ever since that time, we attempt to create God in our image.
Look at the following words from Isaiah:
He plants a pine, and the rain nourishes it. Then it shall be for a man to burn, For he will take some of it and warm himself; Yes, he kindles it and bakes bread; Indeed he makes a god and worships it; He makes it a carved image, and falls down to it. He burns half of it in the fire; With this half he eats meat; He roasts a roast, and is satisfied.He even warms himself and says, “Ah! I am warm, I have seen the fire.” And the rest of it he makes into a god,
His carved image. He falls down before it and worships it, Prays to it and says, “Deliver me, for you are my god!”
It is easy for me to be critical and say how stupid! Creating a god out of a created thing and then expecting it to deliver me!
Yet we continually fashion an image of a god and call it God. We use the created things to hide from the Creator.
In the NT we find the following in Paul's second letter to the Thessalonians. He is speaking about "the man of sin":
...the son of perdition, who opposes and exalts himself above all that is called God or that is worshiped, so that he sits £as God in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God.
He sits in the temple of God showing himself that he is God. Where is the temple? And who sits in the place of God putting himself forth as God? And how does he put himself forth as God.
Remember - he is NOT God. He is the man of sin/perdition attempting to hide behind a facsimile of God. He presents his desires/wishes as God's.
Why does the man of sin do this? Because like Eve so many years ago, he decides that God cannot be trusted.
Yes I think you are right. The part that I see that concerns me the most is the predatory attitude of church leadership towards those who they are supposed to be leading. Instead of leading them into a place of fully trusting in God, it seems they would rather keep them under their personal control. They build up structures, organizations and programs to persuade people that they are not just living life but that they are truly “active” in building the kingdom of God. The sad part about it all is that while there is “activity” the kingdom of God has nothing to do with it. Rather it is the kingdom of a man or a group that is being built. Secondly, church leadership uses the mechanism called legalism, in order to maintain legitimacy and the appearance of a marked difference from “the world”. The truth is that there is no real difference between the so called church and the world. It is all make believe and a complete waste of time. Legalism is the use of manipulation, coercion or force to achieve a certain behavior. There are those who suppose themselves to be “in authority” and attempt to, either directly or indirectly, dictate to their followers a certain form of behavior that if followed, will make them “acceptable”. The hidden motive for legalism is to hide either personal or group lawlessness. By setting out a standard of what is supposedly “acceptable”, one can then live like the devil, and one only has to manage how he or she is perceived in the eyes of other people. These are the “doctrines of devils” that are referred to in Paul’s letters to Timothy. This is a web of deception that few manage to escape from. And when they do escape, they are often just captured by another web. We can either live by standards set up by man, or we can live by the standards set up by God. The standards of man are cruel and heartless. The standards of God, when embraced, result in an abundant life! It reminds me of a song we used to sing as children. “Trust and obey, for theirs no other way, to be happy in Jesus, but to trust and obey”. It really is as simple as that. Or is it? Are we to be satisfied with this simplicity? I have a real desire to know what really happened in the past and what will occur in the future.Somehow it all goes back to the garden and the loss of innocence that came from the introduction of the “knowledge of the gods” or the knowledge of good and evil. This seed that was planted in mankind through Adams disobedience was responsible for the loss of innocence. Mankind now possesses this knowledge and it doesn’t seem like we can get rid of it. What are your thoughts. Should our goal be to get rid of the knowledge of good and evil, or should we be attempting to manage and mitigate its effects? Or should we consider this knowledge to be a gift and use it for the building of the kingdom of God. I believe or primary goal should be the restoration of innocence. But how can the knowledge of good and evil coexist with a true state of innocence? Is the goal of Jesus Christ to remove knowledge of good and evil? How are we to be like God and have knowledge and yet be improved by the removal of knowledge? I admit these are hard questions and I do not have answers for these questions. Do you have any thoughts?
Be careful...you might get stoned!
You do ask good questions. I don't think it is possible to regain the innocence lost. The knowledge of good and evil has corrupted humanity. However each of us still has a choice whether we will eat of the tree of knowledge of good and evil or whether we will eat of the tree of life.
The only way to cope with the loss of innocence is to eat the fruit of the tree of life. Jesus said - I have come that they might have life...
Jesus is the only anitidote for the curse of knowledge of good and evil. However, the anitidote always violates our human sensibilities and our desire to be as God.
Following Jesus leads through the cross, a cross not of our choosing but of his choosing. Following Jesus violates the very human nature imputed to us through the fall, the same nature of which Isaiah speaks about Lucifer:
For you have said in your heart:
‘I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God; I will also sit on the mount of the congregation on the farthest sides of the north; I will ascend above the heights of the clouds, I will be like the Most High.’
I will...I will...I will... We want to self exalt, self perserve, self determine. All because of our loss of innocence.
I sat in an elder's meeting of a local church...stunned. For once I was speachless. We were discussing a problem. An elder rather heatedly spoke up - we can do things Glen's way and wait on God or we can just take care of it.
The knowledge of good and evil...
The redemptive plan of God never makes things as they were. We cannot go back to the original innocence. However the redemptive plan takes us to a new place with Him. We can press on to the mark of the high calling...we can allow Christ to be formed in us.
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