belief – Poor Roger's Almanac

Previous civilizations often understood history as cyclical, unstable, and prone to sudden reversal. Empires rose and fell. Religious systems fragmented. Political orders disintegrated. Periods of stability often concealed exhaustion beneath the surface. Historical permanence was generally viewed with caution rather than with certainty. — https://unbekoming.substack.com/p/the-speed-of-historical-reversals

Religious systems fragmented. If mankind is able to make it through another two thousand years without destroying himself and his world, what will history say about Christianity? Will Christianity even exist in the form we know it today? I find that doubtful.

What I am writing here is controversial and many will immediately, emotionally, and instinctively recoil because I am seriously questioning the religious system which I was born into and have always been a part of. Well, that was then, this is now, and I cannot close my eyes to what is unfolding in front of me just because my parents taught any one certain doctrine or because it goes against the grain of accepted belief.

"With what shall I come before the Lord,
And bow myself before the High God?
Shall I come before Him with burnt offerings, 
With calves a year old?
Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams,
Ten thousand rivers of oil? 
Shall I give my firstborn for my transgression,
The fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?"

"He has shown you, O man, what is good;
And what does the Lord require of you
But to do justly, 
To love mercy, 
And to walk humbly with your God?"

Micah 6:6-8

Tension. Decision time. One way or another. Either we try to buy our way out of jail or we simply follow the example set before us.

“However, truth will out in the long run,…” — from the next-to-last paragraph in Douglas Reed’s book, The Controversy of Zion, Chapter two.

I got through about three-quarters of Reed’s book, then put it down for some reason without finishing it, but am going to pick it up again and complete it. However, since I have forgotten most of what was previously read, I will have to start at the beginning, taking better notes this time. No doubt the second reading will reinforce the “heretical” thoughts which are roiling around in my mind, beginning with this one.

If, as Reed contends, the Judaic religion stems from the Levitical priesthood and the practice of blood sacrifice as compensation for sins and, since Christianity is based on that religion, doesn’t this make the belief that Jesus Christ, as the ultimate blood sacrifice, little more than an extension of the ancient Hebrew religion? Does this fact make it suspect and are we allowed to argue whether it is true or not? It is, after all, a belief which cannot be proven nor disproven.¹ If God “desires mercy and not sacrifice, and the knowledge of God more than burnt offerings…”, then wouldn’t this negate the idea that sinful man still needs to go through a more-sanitized, more-spiritualized, more modern and genteel ritual in order to be “saved”? Why do I need to bow down to a bloody, religiously-formed doctrine as “payment” for my sins to a God Who also proclaimed through the Scriptures,

“Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.” — 1 John 4:7-8²

It’s pretty hard to get past that statement that everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. Well, isn’t it?

I admit to my God, to myself, and to one and all that I am flawed. I am not perfect. I have my failings. Yet, I recognize that my imperfections can be worked out and overcome IF I rely on the power of the Holy Spirit to enable me AND I follow the path shown by Jesus the Christ who surrendered His own will to that of the Father. Is it an absolute necessity that my sins be washed away in a torrent of warm, oxygen-rich blood for me to gain a ticket to heaven? Hasn’t this Levitical/Judahite/Pharisaical religion of law been superseded by a better way? Can I move beyond that and acknowledge that the true way to total communion with God, Who is love, is to love my neighbor as I love myself? Love my neighbor and my enemy at least as much as I love myself. (Galatians 5:14)

Heretical? You bet. There are many, some close to me, who would tell me emphatically that, if I do not abandon these thoughts and hew to the “party” line, then I am on my way to Hell without any chance of forgiveness. However, in that, all they can do is parrot the idea that a blood sacrifice MUST be presented on my behalf and that I MUST accept it as truth.

Who is right? As Reed mentioned, the truth will out in the long run. All I can do is pursue it wherever it leads. Or, to paraphrase Ecclesiastes 12:12, on the asking of questions, there is no end. Since we do not have all the answers, but are encouraged to know God, Who is omniscient and does have the answers, I sincerely doubt that God will destroy me for asking questions. Instead, I expect that He will be more than willing to help me overcome my ignorance.

“You shall know the truth and the truth will set you free.” — Jesus Christ, quoted in John 8:32

I began thinking about this some six or eight months ago. In my whole lifetime, even in my early years, I have never been comfortable with the religious doctrine that God requires the blood of an innocent (whether person or animal) be spilled as a vicarious payment for the condition I was born into without a choice. After 67 years of searching and learning, I am just about ready to drop it entirely. However, I am still working this over, trying to make sense of it reasonably. Where will it take me? I do not know and, in this, I am taking the tack that God will lead me to the truth on the path ahead, in spite of the murkiness and darkness. My faith in His goodness is not at question nor wavering, but is actually stronger than ever, and I have no doubt that He will guide me through to the end because His main attribute, from which everything else originates, is love. Pure, uncompromising love which I am slowly coming to grips with and it is that understanding which is setting me free. And, unlike the devil, I am learning gratitude, real and honest gratitude, that I have been kept relatively safe for long enough to learn what that love means.

“My best feelings, gratitude, for example, are formally forbidden solely because of my social position.” ― Fyodor Dostoyevsky, The Brothers Karamazov

Am I to be condemned? Well, according to some people who may have never had an original thought in their life, absolutely! However, I am quite glad that my future and eternity rests, not on a religious acceptance of what MIGHT be a flawed doctrine, but entirely on the judgment and mercy of the real Supreme Court, to which I will eventually be haled in front of and ordered to present my case.

I am at peace.

In this respect, all religions, including Christianity, are like science which is never completely settled, but is always questioning and pushing beyond the traditionally accepted boundaries. We saw this in the Era of Covid where the “science of true belief” was propagated and extolled over the reality of truth. In discussing the issue with one of my erstwhile friends who constantly pitched the “fact” that 97% of all scientists were in agreement, I made the comment that, “Correlation does not equal causation. Neither does consensus.” Just because everyone believes something does not make it true. See Galileo and the theory that the sun revolves around the earth, for example. Athanasius contra mundum, for another. And this–https://poorrogersalmanac.com/2021/06/21/the-science-of-true-belief/ ↩︎
This brings up the question that has never been adequately answered, in my opinion. What about all those people who have been born and died, and are destined to Hell because they never heard about the sacrifice that Jesus made for them and have never been given the opportunity to accept it as payment for their sins? More on this later. ↩︎

The question in the title arises from a meeting at a local church on the same subject. My wife asked me to go with her, so I did, and when the pastor asked for discussion on the topic, I gave them my opinion. After just a few minutes, I was told by some unknown person to, in essence, sit down and shut up. Which I did, then sat through an extended period in which the entire rest of the group explained all the reasons why Christians ought to be involved. None of them asked me for any further explanation. After an hour or so, I just got up and walked out. I will never go back.

Politics. Before answering the question, it should be important to understand what politics actually is. If you do not know what politics is, then you cannot answer the question. Most people associate politics with government, as in this definition, taken from Merriam-Webster:

a: the art or science of government

b: the art or science concerned with guiding or influencing governmental policy

c: the art or science concerned with winning and holding control over a government

Now, I do not dispute the description, but the word “politics” is multi-faceted (as admitted by Merriam-Webster) and can have many different meanings and connotations. During my comments at the session, I mentioned the saying that, “Politics is a dirty business”, and asked them if Christians should be involved in dirty business. To my surprise, a lot of people nodded their heads affirmatively, which only shows that they simply do not know what the “dirty business of politics” is all about. But then, American Christians, at least the modern kind, have never been known for their acumen and understanding of the way the real world works.

I also brought up a line from Billy Joel’s song, Piano Man, which should be familiar–“And the waitress is practicing politics as the businessmen slowly get stoned…”, and explained that politics, outside the government angle, is nothing more than the manipulation of people for personal gain, which, if true, ought to provoke outrage on the part of Christians toward the practice. It was at this point that I was quite unceremoniously booted from the floor and the rest is history.

“Politics is the practice of getting what you want by manipulating other people and is always at their expense, to their detriment.” (My own description of politics. Click the link, scroll down until you find it.)

Unfortunately, politics, even in government is manipulation of some people by other people, all with one purpose (usually unspoken) in mind: control and power. Control and power. Virtually everyone is consumed with gaining power over others so that their behavior and actions can be controlled. Christians usually bring up the subject of “morality” and the dire need to make people behave the way they ought to, that is, in the manner that Christians think they ought to, because, you know, the country is diving headlong into the sewer of “immorality” and needs to be rescued. Or else, there will be hell to pay. Of course! There always is. Whether anyone else wants their version of morality or not is irrelevant. It must be done! We must get involved! We must vote! Vote! Vote! Vote for the lesser of two evils, even if that means the System as a whole becomes more evil, which mechanism is really a rear-guard action that does nothing to stop the onslaught of evil, but only slows it down a little. In the end, evil wins.

“The urge to save humanity is almost always a false face for the urge to rule it.” — H.L. Mencken

“Voting is nothing more than choosing whose hand holds the club with which you are beaten. It does nothing to stop the beatings.” — another of my own quotes. You can quote me on that.

Should Christians be involved in politics? If politics is a “dirty business” and the manipulation of people for personal benefit, then the answer is an unqualified “No, they should not.” This comports with the message of the Gospel of Jesus to keep oneself unspoiled from the world and to love our neighbor as we love ourselves. However, as Christians, we are also enjoined to act as leavening agents to affect the world condition in which we find ourselves so that the entire structure is bettered by our actions. This seeming contradiction can be resolved in only one way–by determining where and in whom we place our trust and faith. As Christians, we are enjoined to have trust and faith in God alone, yet we continue to disregard this advice in preference to putting our trust and faith in man-made institutions, especially the modern form of government, that is, the totalitarian State, which encompasses and controls everything. As Christians, we have sold our souls for a pot of message, and it is coming back to bite us as a very bad case of acid reflux and dysentery. If we continue to gorge ourselves on this feast, it will kill us.

Belief and participation in the world system lead to death. This is a fact we must face and recognize as truth. Yet, knowing this, we still labor under the illusion that we can sway and impact “politics” in a positive way, for the better, if we join in, work with, and merge into the prevailing protocol. We think that we can “clean up” politics and The System if we just engage it and add our voice to the cacophony, yet we fail to understand that, in doing so, we soil ourselves and reinforce the message that men love darkness rather than light, because their deeds are evil.

At heart, we refuse to trust God. We would rather trust government. We would rather be practitioners of “the lesser of two evils” than turning away from evil entirely. We would rather beggar our neighbor through the application of law than to love our neighbor in service to him. We prefer to think we are holy because we go to church on Sunday morning and practice all the “accepted” perfunctory deeds that are expected, yet we do not know that our lives are as filthy rags in His sight. Yes, indeed, and I am the greatest of sinners, to paraphrase the apostle Paul.

What, then, shall be done? How, then, shall we live? Well, there is nothing to do except to change myself into and in conformance with His likeness, to become holy as He is holy, to accept that there is no other name except His by which I am saved. This alone brings freedom. It is the only path to life. Nothing else will work. Everything else will fail.

You can rationalize all you want. You can make all the excuses you want. You can delude yourselves until the chickens come home to roost. In the end, you are only deceiving yourself. There is only one way. Everything else will fail.

Everything else will fail.