God Beyond Religion: The Importance of Grace in Deconstruction

 In my view, it is beyond doubt that evangelical Christianity and orthodox Christianity suffer from gross error. As I view people who were once evangelical who begin deconstruction, this is often the path of the journey. The first step is to move into what can be called the grace movement. From there they reject Paul and become what one could call red letter Christians, that is, they adopt only the words of Jesus. From there the final stage is to reject Christianity out of hand. Many simply no longer follow Jesus or think that being a Christ follower is important. This stems from an either-or view of scripture. Either, the bible is the word of God, or it is not valuable in any way shape or form and has no mystical revelation in it.

However, insofar as I know, the bible is the only source for understanding divine grace. I don’t think that it is over simplistic to say that the good news, or the gospel can be summed up in the concept of divine grace. The New Testament concept of grace is divine favor. It is the concept that one need not fear divine retribution. Luke recorded in the Acts of the Apostles the following: Acts 20:24  “But none of these things move me; nor do I count my life dear to myself, so that I may finish my race with joy, and the ministry which I received from the Lord Jesus, to testify to the gospel of the grace of God.” Divine grace is indeed the good news.

Now let’s look at another factor that could seem either-or to a deconstructing Christian. Either the Penal Substitution Atonement is correct, and grace is needed, or grace is unnecessary. Divine grace serves a much greater purpose than remedying penal substitutionary atonement. Divine grace believed, creates a heart of love. Divine grace is a natural attribute of a God that is love. It is important to realize that this fact is only clearly stated in the Christian bible. If one throws the bible away, one can speculate that God is love and therefore gives divine grace, but with the Christian scripture one knows that because it is in writing. Further, if one rids themselves of the current acceptable scriptural lens a lot of mystical revelation from source can be found amongst the culturally motivated input.

I am not suggesting that there is a slippery slope that one slides down if one rejects the bible and Christianity. I am saying that one cannot understand the fullness of the love of God without the concept of divine grace. It is best stated by Paul in 1 Cor 13:5 saying that it keeps no record of wrongs. One can say that “keeps no record of wrongs” is only found in some translations. This is true, but looking at the Greek word logizomai, one finds that it means reckon. So, it is really saying love does not reckon wrongs. This is important because it shows the fact of divine grace, and it is divine grace that provokes love and grace within the individual.

There are of course differing concepts of the atonement that have been accepted over the two millennia of Christianity. If one adopts a Christus Victor view of atonement, that is that Jesus Christ was victorious over death and the accuser, one has the foundation for being transformed into supernatural love. The victory over death is the assurance of eternal life, and the victory over the accuser is the assurance that any and all accusations, whether from oneself or others including the concept of a Satan, has no deleterious effect. In other words, we are eternal beings that are loved by the creative source and are actually family. Another mystical revelation of the New Testament is that we are partakers of the divine nature. This stems from the fact that we are created in the image of God. God is a conscious creative spirit. This makes us conscious creative spirits as well. Jesus certainly taught this according to the apostle John.

Yes, there is misogyny in the bible. It is even in the New Testament. Yes, the bible suggests that slavery is acceptable. Yes, the Old Testament portrays God as a vindictive violent personage. All of this is undeniably true. However, the prophet Joel mystically prophesied that the Christ Spirit would be poured out on all flesh. This was proclaimed to be a reality by Peter at Pentecost. This means that all of us innately have the spirit and the spiritual discernment to be able to distinguish between what is mystical revelation and what is the cultural input of humans. All one has to do is ask how it lines up with love, joy, peace, patience, goodness, gentleness, and self-control. This is a great yardstick, and one must also realize that grace always trumps judgment.

Yes, the important mystical message that Christianity has to offer is grace and love. While it is not that often practiced by a ton of Christ followers, it is very plainly there in the Christian scripture for those who can discern.

 

God Beyond Religion: The Hard Problem of Christian Scripture

 Let me begin with this. I love the Christian Scripture. I am not hating on the scripture. I am deeply questioning what orthodoxy has taught about scripture over the last 2000 years, and I am troubled by the canonization process, the motivation for it, and some of the literature that was eliminated from it. I believe that the preponderance of the evidence in the New Testament suggest that spiritual discernment should over-ride scriptural assertions and therein lies the hard problem of scripture. I will also address the Pauline pastoral passages that have been used to develop a doctrine of scripture that I believe to be erroneous. And, I think far too much credence has been given apostolic succession and the early church fathers with respect to this problem.

I think that the hard problem with Christian scripture is every bit as difficult as the hard problem of consciousness. Yet, until it is solved, it will simply drive more and more people away from being a follower of Jesus Christ. For some that is fine, but I am writing this to those who cannot deny the beneficial relationship they have with the Christ and see following his teaching as a viable way of life. When I say follow his teaching, I am not referring to evangelical or orthodox dogma. I am referring to parts of the Sermon on the Mount, his teaching on loving one another, his insistence that we are in God and that God is in us. I am referring to the teaching of the Logos, the Word, and its development over the millennia beginning with Egyptian Hermeticism. I am referring to all the mystical revelation that Paul received with respect to love, the fruit of the spirit, and the new humanity. And finally, but in no way exhaustively, I am referring to his teaching that each of us are divine and human.

While I am no longer sure that Christianity in its broad sense is profitable for humanity, I am certain that being a follower of Jesus Christ and acknowledging everything that goes along with the cosmic Christ and Christ consciousness is viable and beneficial for those who have been born into western civilization. While it could be of benefit to others, it is certainly not a must for everyone. Orthodoxy and Evangelicalism have already sullied the name of Christianity with its inflexible insistence on exclusivity.

What is the hard problem of Christian scripture? It is its misuse and miss interpretation. Jesus told the Jews in John’s gospel that they were searching the scripture to find life and that was the wrong reason. His claim was that the purpose of the scripture was to explain that life was found only in him, their Messiah. If we switch over into Greek culture and the Greek language, it would be that the purpose of scripture was to find life by finding “the Christ.” So, in Jesus’ view, the purpose of scripture was to find Christ consciousness. The Talmud backs this up by saying, “Every prophet only prophesied for the days of the Messiah;” (~Cohen, Abraham. Everyman's Talmud (p. 477). BN Publishing. Kindle Edition.)  

It is a hard problem because Jesus also said that to find and understand Christ consciousness, one would need the comforter or the spirit. It is the comforter or the spirit that would guide one into all truth. The one thing that Jesus did not say is search the scripture for in them you will find an inerrant God given set of rules for faith and practice. That is nowhere in scripture. He did however show where it points to him in Luke chapter 24. This makes the hard problem a quandary. Does one follow the Spirit or does one follow the book? And, what if, God forbid, the voice of the Spirit of Christ tells you something that contradicts the book?

So, how did we arrive at the place where there is a hard problem of Christian scripture? Actually, it came about early on in Christianity. If not at the end of the first century, it most definitely came about very early in the second century. How so you ask? Well, there was early on a variety of Christianity’s, that developed a variety of Christian scripture. There was disagreement about what was and what was not Christian scripture. If one takes the time to familiarize oneself with the early heresies, one finds that there is much in some of them that makes sense and rings true. That is not to say that they had entire truth, but they had valid points of mystical, spiritual truth. In my view, the preponderance of the evidence in accepted scripture substantiates this.

Marcion of Sinope immediately comes to mind. While I do not accept everything written about his heresy, I rather like his take on Paul and some of the other earlier apostles. He thought Paul more right than the others. He only included ten of Paul’s letters in his canon, Yes, first and second Corinthians was in the group of ten, and no, I am not in favor of silencing women, accepting slavery, or excommunicating people but there is a lot of mystical revelation from the creative source in Paul’s work.

I haven’t mentioned the other heresies for the sake of brevity but suffice it to say that the variety in the first 200 years, points to a diversity that is far more eclectic, synchronistic, and inclusive. Again, I should point out that the Talmud shows that there was sometimes irreconcilable disagreement with the interpretation of the original Jewish canon amongst the rabbis.

Evangelical Christianity, and Orthodoxy for that matter, have tried to eliminate the hard problem of scripture by canonizing certain early Christian works and discarding others. They even went so far as to burn some of them, and we would not know what they said were it not for a serendipitous find in the mid twentieth century. The Nag Hammadi Library was found in 1945 and the Dead Sea Scrolls were found in 1947.

Sola Scriptura Does Not Solve the Hard Problem:

Sola Scriptura does not solve the hard problem of scripture, it exacerbates it. Up until the Reformation, two things informed the church. The handed down apostles teaching and the scripture. Further, at the time of the Reformation, it was taught that salvation was only found in the church. The church held the keys to the kingdom and therefore were the sole arbiter of all things Christian. The original reformers were not claiming sola scriptura beyond salvation. The five sola’s of the reformation were faith alone, Christ alone, scripture alone, grace alone, to the glory of God alone, and this all simply related to salvation. The rest of the apostle’s teaching was accepted by the so-called Protestants. The Roman Catholic Church had the magisterium in addition to the scripture, and the Orthodox Church had the Patristic Fathers which is similar to the magisterium. The fact is that before the Reformation there was never a time when the scripture alone was sufficient. This coincides nicely with what Jesus said about what the comforter or the Spirit would do.

Paul’s pastoral epistles are the place where the doctrine of inerrancy and infallibility come into view. The problem is that they were quite likely not written by Paul. If by a slim chance they were written by Paul it was late in the first century and was written to force an adherence to the rule of a clerical class of presbyters. Still when one examines 2 Timothy 3:16 in context, one finds that even there, the scripture was only profitable in a redemptive way. Paul tells timothy that the scripture would make one wise unto salvation. It is undeniable that 2 Peter was written in the middle of the second century. While very likely by a disciple of Peter, who likely knew him, it was written at a later time when it had begun to be important to establish authority. It is unwise to use any of these passages to overthrow Jesus assertion that the comforter, the Spirit would be the one to guide into all truth.

So, the hard problem of scripture can only be solved by allowing the Spirit to guide one into all truth. This would not be as difficult as one thinks if the doctrines of sola scriptura and inerrancy were set aside. It would be possible to discern what is mystical revelation from God and what is merely cultural input by judging it by the definition of the fruit of the Spirit and love given by the apostle Paul. That alone should be the standard for judging if a message is from the source.

 

God Beyond Religion: Inherited Sin, How the knowledge of good and evil work with death to bring a universal pathology

 Let me state in the beginning of this that I am not advocating or promoting the idea of total or even partial depravity. Nor am I advocating the concept of eternal, torturous punishment and judgment on the part of the creative source. I am referring to what the Christian bible calls sin. I am not even referring to sin as the evangelical orthodox idea that has engendered a connotative meaning for the word. I reject outright the connotation that main-stream conservative, fundamental and evangelical Christianity has given the concept of sin. With that made clear, I am not so naive as to claim that sin is not a problem in this world. All one need do is read the news, watch it on television, or have it live-streamed to understand that it is indeed a problem. Is it going to relegate some to hell while others find a way of escape? ABSOLUTELY NOT!

So let me define sin as I see it and as I believe it was intended to be defined in the Christian scripture and within the moral codes of other religious traditions. Focusing on the Christian bible it is translated from two different words, from two different languages. In the New Testament it is the Greek word hamartia, and in the Old Testament it is the Hebrew word chata. Hamartia means to miss the mark, and Chata means to miss the way. I have used the term inherited sin in the title because of Richard Rohr. He doesn’t think that the term original sin is accurate and quite frankly I agree with him. Since he prefers inherited sin and uses it I feel like I’m in good company to use it as well.

Why does inherited sin exist? Well, like the allegory in Genesis chapter three states it is a combination of the knowledge of good and evil, and death that is the cause. Here is the way I see it, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil is a metaphor for human consciousness, and when human consciousness develops within the individual to a certain point, they become aware of the phenomenon of death which causes an apparent chasm of separation between them and the creative source in their mind. This is why the fear of death, thanatophobia is so commonplace. It arises from the individual observing the reality of death, and not having the ability to be sure about what happens after death, the natural conclusion is one of fear and dread. Coupled with this is the survival instinct that is present in all living things. This survival instinct along with the uncertainty and fear of death develops greed. This is essentially the source of all sin.

The bridge between the knowledge of good and evil (human consciousness) and death and separation from source is faith. This is why the writer of Hebrews included this in his letter. Heb 2:14-15  “Since the children have flesh and blood, he too shared in their humanity so that by his death he might break the power of him who holds the power of death—that is, the devil—  (15)  and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death.” This shows a direct benefit for faith in the resurrection. Faith in the resurrection and the assurance of eternal life bridges the chasm of separation caused by death. The knowledge of good and evil offers the opportunity for one to wonder am I evil, and if one can wonder about it, one can conclude that perhaps they are and thereby do not deserve to be eternal.

This is the importance for the gospel of the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth. It is the resurrection of Jesus that gives the assurance that all have eternal life. All you ask. Yes, all. Rom 5:18  “Consequently, just as one trespass resulted in condemnation for all people, so also one righteous act resulted in justification and life for all people.” The condemnation for all people is precisely the result of the knowledge of good and evil (human consciousness.) Here is the assurance that justification and eternal life is for all by the resurrection of Jesus from the grave.

This is beneficial for all people. It is good news for all people as well. It is indeed the good news. Not only is it good news but it is also proof of the goodness and love of the creative source. This news sets a person at ease. Once they truly comprehend that they are eternal and eternally loved and accepted by a creative source that is good, they can then begin to set aside the greed and the inherited sin in favor of loving and caring for the other.

This is true for anyone from any religious tradition, and it is not necessary that they change their traditions to receive the benefit of this knowledge. In this way it is not necessary to say that there is no such thing as inherited sin as so many who have rejected and deconstructed from Christianity do. Rather, one can recognize inherited sin for what it is, missing the mark or the way, and with the assurance of resurrection one can begin to be more loving. This is as much the case for the one who believes that resurrection involves reincarnation as it does for the individual that believes that resurrection opens up a new plane of existence.