I am reading a book about several heresies that came up against the church and how they were squelched through violence and persecution.
Why couldn't the church just let the heretics roam? If the church has the truth, then why were they so afraid? This whole concept of faith in God starts losing air when control through guilt, fear, and shame enter the picture. It really starts to look like God is incapable to operate in our world on His own.
I know preachers who could preach for hours on having faith in God. But their NEED for control, invalidates all they claim to stand for.
2 comments:
Ah. . . My brother! It is the experience of watching man put so much energy into having "faith" in themselves that we learn to just have FAITH in GOD. From this faith I can then submit to knowing the Truth but whether I like it or not becomes the fallacy. Free will allows for actions contrary to the truth. Submission to truth appears easy until we must submit to it with our actions. Gods knows how many times I've balked! This allows me to Hope. To hope that God can just shake his head and say, "We need to work on trust" and the humility lesson I'm going to get for not acting on the truth in correlation with God's will is not too painful. For me, I can be consoled from the guilt, fear, and shame man attempts to trap me with controlling my relationship with God. Why? Because in truth we find out we do it to ourselves anyway. As a society we are pretty good about pointing the finger and playing the victim. What are your guilts, fears, and shame with God and how do your actions transpose them on to others and their actions? Can you smell the H Y P O C R I S Y!!!
What is the name of this book on heresies? One way to change or eliminate a belief is to change or eliminate the believers. It is an attempt to establish "authority" and "security" through "superiority."
This hierarchial thinking has been practiced by every "civilization" throughout the history of humankind. The Spanish Inquisition, the Salem Witch Trials, Apartheid, and the American Indian Reservations are only a few examples of eliminate the believers-eliminate the belief.
This elimination practice has nothing to do with the Divine; it is human edict... and hypocrisy.
Book recommendation: Collapse by Jared Diamond.
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