In reflective moments I have decided to
put away theology, in terms of theological philosophy around the
world, but personal thoughts that make me, myself, an individual. I
actually have been told I have the qualifications to be a certified
minister, non-denominational, of course – but never had the
inclination to do so. It is not within my character, or being,
to stand before people gathered in some place to preach how they
should run their lives, and other important duties of a true member
of the clergy.
I detest hypocrisy, mostly because I do not like the
habit of saying one thing and doing another; but also I detest
hypocrites because of the cruelty it can bring upon others. I am in
charge of my soul and that takes effort that does not afford me to go
about worrying or telling others how to maintain their soul for
preparation of what lies in the spiritual world, in the present and
the future. I have also been told that I should have been a professor
of history, but I would not last long in an educational system that
is based upon just what is dictated by the progressive authority and
controlled by a government who has denounced the Constitution and the
concept that thinking out of the box, formulating new concepts, is
not heresy or should be against the educational administrative
institution. Indeed, this is the way that great minds are seeded and
develop and invent or discover new things and ideas.
Thus I remain an amateur theologian,
among other interests, whose interest is in the diversity, common
history, and philosophy of religions around the globe places me in a
category that most seem not to understand. But I still consider
myself a Christian, not that I hold to what doctrines that religion
and its various sects dictate, but that I believe in what the founder
of that theological philosophy tried to relay in words, phrases, and
parables in order to teach the importance of spirituality. In that
respect, no other human in written history or unwritten history has
had the impact of the man known as Jesus of Nazareth, Jesus the
Christ. Christianity is not the oldest living religion, but it certainly has logic when it comes to how humans should conduct themselves and act upon each other, and prepare for the spiritual world and the purification of one's soul. Different Christian sects look upon that in various ways but the gist of it still remains.
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| The Ark of the Covenant |
The main concept I maintain was handed
down from Moses, tablets called the Covenant that was kept in a receptacle called The Ark of the Covenant; where the commandment that there is only one God, one
omnipresence in the universe. While statues and paintings and
artwork are to be appreciated, providing humans a visual concept of the
unseen – I do not pray to them. Nor do I believe in praying to
anything or anyone other than the Omnipresence that we have come to know as God, in the English language.
For this, I have been the blunt of
hateful words, the most hurtful coming from people I care about. Even
being accused of not heresy, but being delusional and looked
upon as some mad dog that has become rabid. On one hand they believe
in the freedom of speech and thought, but when it comes to that
subject anything beyond what the organized church has developed since
the earthly death of the one they call the Savior is forbidden.
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| Theological Philosophy |
In truth, while there are some
scientific, historical, and theological facts to rely upon – much
of the spirituality can only be the faith in common sense ideology.
Logic has, for too long in human history, been pushed aside by
theological bias and doctrine that forbids thinking any other way
than what the church prescribed in its early development many
centuries ago.
This problem is certainly not solely an
element of Christianity, of course. Islam and its clergy thinks in
that line of thought – with a major difference. Christians and Jews
do not set about to exterminate opposition or people of other faiths.
They do not burn down holy temples or structures of other faiths –
well, not since the medieval age that is aptly described as the “Dark
Age”.
Christians view themselves as
missionaries to reach out to others, the lost sheep, in mimic
of the disciples turned apostles and those that followed. Nothing
wrong with that, as long as they take “No” seriously and
elegantly by someone who just doesn't want to have nothing to do with
it or is a loyal follower of their chosen faith. Jews are happy to
exercise their faith, but find it not hard to live among others who
are not believers. They are less prejudice than many Christians.
Islam has a long history of conquest,
subjugation and violence.
In more modern ages, some have developed a
more pacific view, being strict among themselves about keeping the
Five
Pillars of Islam and the knowledge of the Holy
Qur'an – but do not interfere with others, viewed as
People of
the Book, as their prophet called them: Christians and Jews.
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| Islam demands tolerance while preaching and practicing intolerance - violence. |
Jesus was a Jew and raised in the faith
of Hebrews going back far into time, and it is beyond my understanding how anyone who read the Bible can hate Jews of which even the Koran calls the People of the Book? To Christians the books in the
Old
Testament section of the Holy
Bible is all about the Jewish history, philosophy and
with one book (Psalms)
that contains beautiful poetic text. Passover
that became his Last
Supper. The latter has overridden the Passover meaning,
as established by St.
Thomas Aquinas. John
Calvin established the concept of two sacraments:
Baptism
and the Last
Supper, called Eucharist.
Jesus focused his teachings among the Jews, although he had inspired
Gentiles along the way. He told the disciples that is they that
should go out among all peoples and spread his Word
of God. One hundred or more years later, Christianity did
spread by the apostles and those elected to join them and carry on
into the next generation. The early Church was organized and formed,
and soon a hierarchy was established in the form of bishops and
lesser clergy. The theologians of the time spent much effort in
obtaining, retaining, and copying that which was written after the
passing of Jesus.
Soon, the Church establishment became
concerned because there was texts that were questionable concerning
origin, so after much discussion, arguments, and debate it was
decided that there must be a canonical set of books that must be
added to the Bible (Book of Books) and it was eventually split
between the Old and New Testaments. The Church grew in numbers and
the papal authority was created after Rome became Christianized and
paganism fell into the dust bins of history.
Unfortunately, it was
not a peaceful transition, for once the Christians gained majority
within the Roman Empire, Christian mobs persecuted pagans and other
religions with cruelty and violence. eighth
of the seven ancient Wonders
of the World, contained a vast storage of knowledge and
written text from everywhere in the known world at the time.
That too
fell, along with great “pagan” philosophers and thinkers, one of
them a woman, to the violence of the Christian mob. It is estimated
that only 25% of content of the ancient Alexandria Library was saved.
That may be a lower percentage. It did not matter that the library
contained important works of doctors who established scientific
principles to improve the world of medicine and medical treatment or
that philosophical text written by those not Christian could contain
words of wisdom for everyone.
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| Bibliotec, modern Library of Alexandria |
It is surmised that at its height, the
Library of Alexandria contained at least 700,000 scrolls, which would
be the equivalent
of more than 100,000 modern printed books. Today, a modern
model of the Library of Alexandria has been created and books in
printed and digital form are stored there as a center to keep global
knowledge for humans in the future to enjoy as they did in the
ancient world of Alexandria.
Alexandria, up to that point,
had been not only an important trade center connecting North Africa
with the rest of the Mediterranean nations; but also a cultural
center where the Library of Alexandria, the 
As all of this was going on, the
prescribed Church doctrine and rites evolved, and in some cases, and
in my theological view, changed the original meaning of what Jesus
was all about, emphasizing more on the mystic aspects surrounding
Jesus, rather than the importance of the gist of his message.
And then, this is where I receive angry
and hateful criticism, Jesus became deified. In my studies of his
relayed words, as the disciples turned apostle had written, the
mystic overturned the importance of the true spirituality and
original message. Thus a hypocritical phenomenon developed. The Old
Testament book concerning Exodus
and how Israel became a nation and the Mosaic
Law was established is certainly recognized by Christians and
Jews alike – and Muslims. The same goes to the history of Abraham,
all recognized and celebrated by the three religions that comprise
the People
of the Book. Indeed, the Passover is in celebration of the
Exodus of Moses and the Hebrew tribes out of Egypt. The first law in
the Ten Commandments is:
I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery. You shall have no other gods before me. You shall not make for yourself an image in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below. You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the parents to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing love to a thousand generations of those who love me and keep my commandments.
Of
course, the early Church that established the Holy Trinity, or Blessed Trinity, and after
theological discussion, decided that Christ was not to be remembered
as just a human messenger, but because he was born through Mary by
God – he became deified. Later they added in this justification
that Jesus was part of a mysticism that compromised the Holy Trinity:
the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost; where Jesus was to be prayed
to as a mediator to God because he was the Son of
God.
This
concept was taken from words spoken by Jesus, but many have not
realized that it is not in context; because Jesus also used the
words, Son of Man,
and most references are in general terms describing those that
believe in the Omnipresence that is known as God,
Jehovah,
or Allah.
All humanity, if one believes in the Creation story, are children of
God – man, woman and child.
Thus the conflict between Old Testament and New Testament remains,
despite being ignored or discounted with unfounded explanation.
The
newest verified scripture discovered is the Gospel
of Judas,
the disciple that betrayed Jesus, which is fantastic because up to
that point the story about Judas was one sided, as told by fellow
disciples. It is interesting reading and points toward the jealousy
that permeated among the disciples.
But
it also dwells upon the teachings of the spiritual world and
mysticism, allegedly relayed to Judas because he was the only
disciple that appeared to understand it fully.
Questions
should always be answered in the best manner of current knowledge and
always striving for truth rather than denying a mystery or unknown
writing it off not acceptable just because it was not written. This
is true whether one is studying history, mathematics or theology.
I
have found that any organization, group or individual who discourages
questions or becomes agitated because of questions; immediate
suspicion should enter the inquirers mind. If something cannot stand
up to questioning, than the person being questioned is either not
knowledgeable, or their “facts” presented is either their
hypothesis they have come to accept as truth, or they are driven by
blind faith.
The Church, especially in the past, has been guilty of
this, and actually making false accusations against someone with new
thoughts or questions, insisting upon an answer – but instead being
found guilty of heresy and banished, imprisoned or put to death.
During the infamous reign of the Inquisition, this sort of behavior
by the Church grew into an intolerable state of corruption and
hypocrisy where many were horribly tortured and put to death in most
gruesome ways – hardly in the manner of what Jesus taught.
Fortunately
reason prevailed and eventually the Church lost its power, especially
in the United States where freedom of religion and beliefs were
pronounced and government had no jurisdiction over it by declaring
one religion to be national among others. Unfortunately one
particularly intolerant religion has taken advantage of the tolerance
of Americans and committing acts of violence sometimes in large
scale.
Mythology
of ancient cultures makes interesting reading, and it provides a
small window to view the culture of that particular civilization that
created those mythologies; but Christianity has developed its own
mythology and too often it is regarded as historical truth.
No
doubt, mythology and legends are usually based upon a real person or
event; but the truth has faded into the telling of it, either oral or
written.
In
my opinion, by observation and extensive reading of translated text;
Jesus true message has been tainted – mostly because too many are
focused upon the mystical and mythical aspects of Christian history
instead of the reason why Jesus was considered a messenger, a savior
of souls through knowledge of spirituality, the world beyond this
one. I do not believe he meant to be set above God, or even his
equal; indeed he prayed to God, his father, even as he died on the
Cross.
So
why is it not ethical to pray to God, the Omnipresence, and the one
who Moses said that God stated there should be no other gods as
substitute or additions? Divine birth a reality or not – this is
sensible when it comes to reading the Old Testament and New
Testament; and I am sure there would have been far more Jewish
(Hebrew) converts to the Christian concept if they did not deify
Jesus. As far as I have ever found in reading those books in the
Bible and texts even not canonized; that is the one and only conflict
or hypocritical doctrine.
If
you view these thoughts as heresy or whatever, well that is your
privilege; but I prefer logic to be the basis and at least included
when it comes to the thoughts of spirituality.
One
of my uncles was a minister in Thermopolis, Wyoming, for many
decades. He was well respected in his community, and respected by me
because once when he visited our family I had asked questions that
were either not found in scriptures, or it was a conflict as
aforementioned. He did not get angry, he did not condemn me, nor did
come up with some contrived answer. He simply stated, in so many
words, that all the wonders of the universe and accumulated knowledge
of humanity can not be found in the Bible. The logic being it would
take a library the size of Alexandria to hold such truths. He just
simply stated he did not know the answer to that particular question.
You can see why I respected him so much. He was an honest and good
man, and a true Christian; for he only passed the Word of Jesus, the
adopted founder of Christianity, but he lived it.
Christians
provide a bad impression upon their religion when they say one thing
and do another; their words not matching their actions. For example,
wrongly accusing and purposefully embarrassing someone in the
presence of others at a family reunion; or spreading gossip destroying a person's reputation unjustly.
Thou shalt not bear false
witness against thy neighbor is a clear entry in the Ten
Commandments. It was experiences like that, which kept me away from
Christian circles and my choice to read and study general theology,
history and philosophy rather than attend regularly in a local
Church.
If only there were more like Reverend Pulis of Thermopolis,
Wyoming; more people would attend and the Church would gain more
converts and/or members. Most importantly would be the personal spiritual experience.
The
old proverb that action speaks louder than words applies here, but it
also applies within our nation and its government; for like too many
Christians, politicians do not keep to their word and do not keep
constitutional law that has civic importance like Mosaic Law has
moral importance.
Thanks
for dropping by during my moments of personal reflection and I hope
it was not boring to you.
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