|
Morality is that which sustains life. | ||
| Christian Morality | ||
|
HOME The Basics Definitions What Sin Is Morality Applied Thomas Aquinas Fundamentalism Spirit World Creationism List |
Issues On this Page:
Gnosticism
Enlightenment Personal Christ Christ only Grace Paul Apologetics Reincarnation Gnosticism was a premodern form of heresy, where gullible persons were supposed to assume that the rip-off artists had secret knowledge which was unavailable to anyone else. With modern education and information media, the secret sources of knowledge do not exist. But gnosticism did not disappear, it went underground, because the basis of gnosticism is in subconscious corruptions such as elitism and nihilism. Nowdays, the essence of gnosticism is promoted covertly as esoteric knowledge derived through expertise. The technique is to muddle a subject making it unintelligible to others while pretending to understand it. Before it can work, the person has to have some authority which makes his knowledge superior. It makes up a large part of authoritarianism (defined as misused authority). KnowledgeEnlightenment is usually described as being something other than and superior to knowledge; so it replaces any need to study something to acquire knowledge. But then in discussions, the term enlightenment is used as being knowledge. So the pretense is to have knowledge, while no explanations exist for the logic, source, evidence or meaning of supposed knowledge. It's similar to gnosticism, where esoteric knowledge creates gods who cannot explain their superior knowledge. But instead of esoteric knowledge enlightenment replaces the need for knowledge. The truth is that there isn't anything that replaces the need for knowledge. Underlying gnosticism and englightenment is nihilism, which is an opposition to truth and reason. Nihilism is the need to wall off corrupt reality from objective reality. Knowledge A personal relationship to Christ has become a central focus in much of recent Christianity. Christ supposedly does marvelous things in the person's life. What is being called blessed is often exploitation, nihilism and bigotry without a trace of the truth that Christ taught about morality. A heavy dose of Paul is used to erase the moral truth that Christ taught by saying sin was taken care of on the cross. Why then are there so many social problems in the supposedly Christian societies? The logic is that Christ only selected some persons to be born again or true believers, and therefore a large part of the supposed Christians are not born again, true believers—only the ones doing the rationalizing are. Everything they do is said to be the infallible work of the Holy Spirit. To look for a subjective experience is a guarantee that satan will spin a person's head into knots. Satan thrives on subjective experiences. It gives him a tool for controlling people and corrupting them. That's why Christ taught that morality has to be learned as objective knowledge. Christ as the only way to salvation is a major focus in recent Christianity. It is a reaction to religious pluralism. The claim is in error because of the meaning which it is given. It is assumed to mean that organized Christianity is saving people. It is not. Most organized Christianity is so corrupted that it is being used to rationalize corruption instead of overcome it. There may be more saving being done in Hinduism, Islam or fortune telling, for all humans know. One error is assuming that getting saved is a flash process controlled by organized religions. It is not. Getting saved is a long path of moral improvement which is hard to find and follow (Mat 7:14). Basically, it is humane poverty. Christ's involvement in the process is unknown to the promoters of organized Christianity. Christ can be involved in numerous ways without organized Christianity. One method is through reading his words in the Scriptures. Another method is through spirit world activity. Another method is future activity. Whatever the method, organized Christianity is not teaching what Christ taught, which is why he said almost nothing about a church apart from warning against wolves in sheep's clothes (Mat 7-15). Grace is often used as a substitute for objective reality in Christianity. It generally means the work of the Holy Spirit dwelling within the person. Nothing is provable about subjective concerns of that sort. And for exactly that reason the subjectivity is used to combat truth. Someone's corruption is called the work of the Holy Spirit. Whatever exists in that area is no one's business. It should not be mentioned. Instead it is used to promote illogical claims in conflict with objective evidence. The conflicts with logic and objective reality show the real purpose in combating truth. If grace, or the work of the Holy Spirit, were really involved, it would not be a reason to diminish objective reality. Objective reality primarily means moral responsibilities. Subjective experiences are what satan and evil spirits use to control people. Corrupters make sin feel good as a method of leading people down a path of destruction. For this reason, objective reality, as knowledge and truth, should not be replaced by subjective experiences. Paul indicated that the subject of sin is about God instead of about the sinner. He described the origins of sin in flesh, which God created, as in Romans 7. Then the answer is said to be in atonement and reconciliation, as the followers of Paul interpret his theology. Notice that atonement and reconciliation change God, not the sinner. Christ described sin in terms of the sinner only. He said sin comes out of the mind (Mat 15:29)(Mark 7:21), and everything he said about sin was addressed to sinners and described what is expected of them. As Paul's theology replaced Christ's teaching on morality throughout Christianity, nothing is being done to diminish sin. Law, Flesh and Sin Apologetics. There has been a recent upsurge in apologetics in Catholicism. Groups are created by laymen to spell out the doctrines of Catholicism, and they call the purpose apologetics. (Protestant variations have also erupted.) It's not quite the same thing as apologetics was historically. It used to be an attempt to explain the basic principles of Christianity. Now it is nothing more than promotion of official dogma. It extends the authority of Catholicism from the hierarchy (bishops) down to the laymen's level. It is a significant increase in authoritarianism, because bishops do not easily reach laymen with their theological extravagances. For context, all official reality of Catholicism must come from the hierarchy. Laymen are not supposed to do anything more than reinforce it. It is then called the "magesterium," which means teaching authority. Only the hierarchy has teaching authority in Catholicism. The reality of the situation is that the dogma is nothing but self-sanctification which has no relationship to applications. After all of the sanctimonious talk, the promoters of the theology rival the corruption of Church authorities of Christ's time. Their dogma does not stand up to criticism, so they wall themselves off from criticism to protect their corruptions. Reincarnation. The Bible, and the New Testament in particular, is limited to the purpose of salvation. It does not go into other subjects which are unlimited and would distract from the purpose. This is why the Bible did not say the world is round and that it revolves around the sun. Those questions were left for later study. The same is true of reincarnation. The Bible does not say there is no such thing as reincarnation any more than it says the sun goes around the earth. To say otherwise is to use the Bible to reinforce prejudicial assumptions, just as occurred when persecuting Galileo. Nearly every religion and culture beyond some Biblical lines has assumed that reincarnation occurs as spirits entering animal bodies as well as reentering human bodies. To a large extent, knowledge about reincarnation is derived from persons who can see into the spirit world and acquire first-hand knowledge. It is also reinforced by the logic of evidence and existing knowledge. The logic and evidence clearly indicates that reincarnation occurs, and the Bible does not say otherwise. The primary evidence is that animal bodies could not function on the basis of chemistry without spiritual control, and one human lifetime is often too short to accomplish anything in overcoming sin—the primary purpose of material life. Also, numerous persons can remember, view and describe past-life experiences. |