Indeed, and as I grow more and more convinced that paradox is God's calling card I place this one before you.
If I am to ever love my neighbour there is one belief I must be rid of.
And that is?
Belief in Man. Note the capitalization. Believing in Man is not to love Man, nor men, that is to say individual persons, nor even your neighbour. It is the worship of an image, which is of course idealized and thus idolatrous, both for this idealization and for it being worshipped at all. After all how many do you know who profess great love for the human race but cannot get on with the people they live with on a day to day basis?
Moreover, in fact, this belief in Man is such that various stripe of humanists hold that for the Utopia to come mass murder is the necessary order of the day. And all because they believe in Man and want to improve the race. After all what else is to be done with those who cannot or will not agree with the Utopian vision of the fantic who wasnts to impose it? And even in those not so extreme, well, for example, in ordinary politics, all of which professes to believ in this very thing, centuries of effort has got nowhere. The human experiment has failed. Only die hards who refuse to face cold hard evidence refuse to face this.
Of course there is a belief in Man that is far less high minded or presumptuous. It is called having faith in human nature. It is deemed necessary for all civility and a decent life, and loss of it is bemonaned often enough. But as one who has trusted in men all my life and who has the scars of betrayal, usually inadvertent but often enough deliberately vicious, I can only say that trusting in human nature is disastrous. Of course most people think it necessary as it is, to be sure, all they have. As for misanthropism, that bitterness comes from a continuing trust held in the face of the evidence that it is not trustworthy, despite, I submit, all angry disclaimers to the contrary. True freedom is not mistrust in men, but a cheerful realization that they are not overall any real help when the chips are down. Of course all people need to thrust something or some One. We are made that way. Enter the Holy Spirit of Christ, but the most trustwothy is not trusted by us and this out of our own fear of his holy warath against sin or in proud belief we can or should save ourselves, or even, sometimes, if we are mad enough, and I was. we mistrust Him for both reasons
As for loving my neighbour, well who is my neighbour?
This question was answered in scripture where Jesus, being asked this selfsame question, told the story of the Samaritan. The neighbour was an ememy of his own people, for Jews and Samaritans loathed each other.
Now of course I have been opposed to humanisam in principle for decades. But what I speak of is here is the lurking emotional reality in the core of my own sinful heart.
This has always been resistant to such small things as words, and it is this inner reality that makes hypocrites of all of us who determine to find out and do the right thing
This inner state cannot be rooted out by human determination and God will certainly not aid us in our efforts so to do, for if he really did aid us thus He would owe an apology to the Phariaees and every serious monk who broke his health in a futile endeavour
I do not love my neighbour for I do not love God; and I do not love God, as seen in my spontaneous actions and careless words - not in anything i ever forced, the which was only hypocrisy - because my hearts is full of idols, including belief in, well, what I mentioned at the cery start of this little vignette:: Man
As in absolutely everything else in the christian life this comes down to the individual's personal relationship with the Holy Spirit of Christ for I can and do assert with increasing confidence that there is no life changing repentance, such as the New Covenant offers and indeed commmands, without it
If I am to ever love my neighbour there is one belief I must be rid of.
And that is?
Belief in Man. Note the capitalization. Believing in Man is not to love Man, nor men, that is to say individual persons, nor even your neighbour. It is the worship of an image, which is of course idealized and thus idolatrous, both for this idealization and for it being worshipped at all. After all how many do you know who profess great love for the human race but cannot get on with the people they live with on a day to day basis?
Moreover, in fact, this belief in Man is such that various stripe of humanists hold that for the Utopia to come mass murder is the necessary order of the day. And all because they believe in Man and want to improve the race. After all what else is to be done with those who cannot or will not agree with the Utopian vision of the fantic who wasnts to impose it? And even in those not so extreme, well, for example, in ordinary politics, all of which professes to believ in this very thing, centuries of effort has got nowhere. The human experiment has failed. Only die hards who refuse to face cold hard evidence refuse to face this.
Of course there is a belief in Man that is far less high minded or presumptuous. It is called having faith in human nature. It is deemed necessary for all civility and a decent life, and loss of it is bemonaned often enough. But as one who has trusted in men all my life and who has the scars of betrayal, usually inadvertent but often enough deliberately vicious, I can only say that trusting in human nature is disastrous. Of course most people think it necessary as it is, to be sure, all they have. As for misanthropism, that bitterness comes from a continuing trust held in the face of the evidence that it is not trustworthy, despite, I submit, all angry disclaimers to the contrary. True freedom is not mistrust in men, but a cheerful realization that they are not overall any real help when the chips are down. Of course all people need to thrust something or some One. We are made that way. Enter the Holy Spirit of Christ, but the most trustwothy is not trusted by us and this out of our own fear of his holy warath against sin or in proud belief we can or should save ourselves, or even, sometimes, if we are mad enough, and I was. we mistrust Him for both reasons
As for loving my neighbour, well who is my neighbour?
This question was answered in scripture where Jesus, being asked this selfsame question, told the story of the Samaritan. The neighbour was an ememy of his own people, for Jews and Samaritans loathed each other.
Now of course I have been opposed to humanisam in principle for decades. But what I speak of is here is the lurking emotional reality in the core of my own sinful heart.
This has always been resistant to such small things as words, and it is this inner reality that makes hypocrites of all of us who determine to find out and do the right thing
This inner state cannot be rooted out by human determination and God will certainly not aid us in our efforts so to do, for if he really did aid us thus He would owe an apology to the Phariaees and every serious monk who broke his health in a futile endeavour
I do not love my neighbour for I do not love God; and I do not love God, as seen in my spontaneous actions and careless words - not in anything i ever forced, the which was only hypocrisy - because my hearts is full of idols, including belief in, well, what I mentioned at the cery start of this little vignette:: Man
As in absolutely everything else in the christian life this comes down to the individual's personal relationship with the Holy Spirit of Christ for I can and do assert with increasing confidence that there is no life changing repentance, such as the New Covenant offers and indeed commmands, without it
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You can disagree with me, even spiritedly. But keep it civil as I am the one hurt by cruelty. I must protect myself from nastiness and will block or ban users if I must. And it would help if you offered reasons for your disagreements. If they are good I may respect you. If they are sound I may even change my mind