Christianity

A Vehicle for Finding Truth

Jesus and the Sermon on the Mount. Courtesy Wikipedia.org.

A little more than two thousand years ago, a child of God came to Earth in the spirit of great love and compassion to help rescue his fellow children of God. The rescue had been ongoing for many thousands of years, and yet very few had taken the opportunity to escape the suffering of this mortal world. All too often, the failure came as a result of fear, attachment to the desires of this world or both.

Another aspect of the failure came from a superficial adherence to the Law of God, but only to serve the master of this world—ego. The Pharisees could be seen as good and righteous, but would not allow themselves the freedom to show compassion to a sinner in need of redemption. Their "goodness" was for the sake of being seen as good in the eyes of their fellow mortals. They portrayed the "goodness" of the Tree of Knowledge. They lacked true "goodness" in the spirit of righteousness for its own sake.

Behold the man. Jesus as a prisoner, standing before Pilate and the crowd. Courtesy Wikipedia.org.

Lessons of Humility, Faith, Responsibility and Love

The truth shall set you free, he told us. But what is "truth?" There remain hundreds, if not thousands or even millions of interpretations of scripture. Which one is right, if any? Could it be that truth only can be given directly from God? Every interpretation on this website (and everywhere else, for that matter) is only an imperfect idea—a shadow of truth. Otherwise, we would have miracles every day—every minute! Walking on water would be commonplace. Healing the sick and infirm a regular occurrence.

Some have said that the "age of miracles" is past. Because Jesus no longer walks among us in the flesh, miracles can no longer happen. Thankfully, this is false—entirely and completely.

When Jesus participated in the healing of so many people, frequently he would tell the one healed that they had done this by their own faith. Jesus wanted us to rise up and to be like him. He wanted Peter to walk on the unsettled Sea of Galilee with him; and he did, if only for a moment. But doubt set in.

Truth is beyond our language. Our mortal words can only approximate it, but fail to capture it completely. It takes humility to find this truth and so many Christians have not come close.

Jesus on the cross. Courtesy Wikipedia.org.

The Mission of Christianity

Many thousands of years ago, man fell from grace. This was the great fall from the Garden—a spiritual place described in symbolically physical terms. Adam and Eve did not literally, physically die on the day they ate of the forbidden fruit. They died spiritually. And that fruit was not physical plant material, either. It was an attitude of arrogance and separateness—ignorance of (to ignore), or turning away from the light of truth—the same truth that will set us free.

That fruit (product of creation) was made of the dichotomies of physical existence—good-evil, right-wrong, generosity-selfishness, compassion-indifference and many others. These are the blood and bones of ego. Ego clamors to be right in the eyes of others, but is always wrong even when logic and reason seem to support their position. This is the darkness pulled over the eyes of Adam and Eve—the long sleep of spiritual death.

Only a few have seen the light of truth. Only a few have shed the shackles of this mortal existence. The mission of Christianity is to help us overcome the barriers that keep us trapped in ego and physical mortality.

Perversion of the Dream

Those who seek power and who lust for the things of this world have mangled the church and made it unrecognizeable. Emperor Constantine of Rome and Emperor Justinian of Byzantium held ecumenical councils to determine what would be the dogma of the church. Too much of politics was involved. Too much of the greed for power was involved. People who disagreed were tortured and sometimes murdered. Why? Because they dared to attempt to find God's truth beyond the earthly dogma.

Many wars and other atrocities came out of this monstrosity. Ego had reared its ugly head and devoured the path to truth, presenting in its stead just enough truth to attract those hungry for salvation, but enough lies to confuse and to perpetuate the trap.

The Age of Reason has served to break the shackles of that perversion, but too many have gone too far in the opposite direction. Instead of taking the opportunity to find the truth of spiritual reawakening, too many are following the cousin of ego—secular logic. Logic, by itself, can be good, but used for its own sake becomes an abomination serving the master of this world—ego.

Now, we have the opportunity to seek God and His truth without the interference of church or state. There remains great value in fellowship, but "agreement" with mortal dogma feeds ego and creates more evil. Now, we have the opportunity to find the true meaning of the Christ. Your spiritual future depends on your fearlessness and your humility—not to your fellow humans, but humility to God and to His truth, as yet unremembered by each of us.