Another story of carnage, of oppression, of injustice comes to our attention and we wonder why?
From where does this come? What is the source?
“It is our nature,” say some.
“It is in our nurture,” say others.
So we build elaborate doctrines to elevate men to arbitrate good and right and truth: these men will beat back the evil and defend us from the carnage. Only to find that those we follow have done worse, in the name of the people, in the name of good, in the name of God.
We wail at our dissolution. We weep at the injustice. We moan at our plight. “See,” we say, “We are doomed. Not even the best amongst us can prevail. Don’t judge, for you can succumb to the same nature. Don’t condemn because you haven’t walked in the shoes that nurtured the evil.”
But it never occurs to us that we are lost, because each INDIVIDUAL refuses to FIND. Find what?
Most men never choose to apprehend wisdom and understanding. They wander the streets of life, vainly imitating the actions and words of others. Some will learn to fish: most will follow the fisherman into the wilderness on the HOPE that he will fish for them.
A paltry few men will pause to listen to the ranting voice in the streets –a voice that shouts the exhortation to possess wisdom and understanding at all cost–and fewer still will take to heart the exhortation to seek, ask, and knock.
Men refuse WISDOM because its price is free, and they will despise UNDERSTANDING because its price is exorbitant.
The cry of wisdom fades in their ears after a moment or three and they remain oblivious to the cause and effect of success, prosperity, life, and blessing. They blame the meagerness of their survival and the injustice of life on the intentions of divine will, or the moral superiority of Altruism, or the selfish indulgence of the successful, or the evil actions of demonic hordes.
Having abandoned purposeful existence, men subsist by clinging to those who will live the rigor of life for them. HERE is the source of the Destroyers.
Since men make no effort to find wisdom and refused to pay the price for understanding, they have no way to make a choice.
WHO is the right person to cling?
WHO can tell?
WHAT are the tools of measure?
Like a sea captain who loses sight of the stars and has pitched his charts and sextant into the abyss, these intentionally indolent souls are tossed and blown by every wind of doctrine. Well, no, that isn’t right. They are beguiled by one specific doctrine.
The doctrine of the Destroyer is always the same.
Intentionally indolent and apathetic men always gravitate to HE who absolves them of the burden of finding wisdom and acting on understanding.
Intentionally indolent and apathetic men swear loyalty to HE who claims the sole authority to beat back the evil.
Intentionally indolent and apathetic men will sell their souls, check their brains, and empty their bank accounts to HE who says he can give order to Divine will.
Will it matter that the Destroyer says man is a sacrificial animal?
Will it matter that the Destroyer says that man should never seek justice, for real justice would be God’s justifiable wrath?
Will it matter that the Destroyer will soon preach that they should not expect much from life, that suffering is the natural state of human existence, that prosperity and health are selfish obsessions?
Will it matter that the Destroyer will eventually tell them that the only health and prosperity and blessing man will ever really know is some other place and some other time, in some distant utopian future?
Will it matter that the Destroyer will eventually tell them that divine will is what everyone can objectively see, or not see, depending on the moment and the person?
Will it matter that the Destroyer never decreases manifest evil by an inch?
Will it matter that the Destroyer will lay law upon law, burden upon burden, demand upon demand, upon their shoulders and never deliver on his proclamation to lift the weight from their souls?
Will it matter that the Destroyer will make them twice the sons of Hell with every spirit-crushing edict?
Will it matter that the Destroyer will eventually threaten compliance to his edicts with a gun, or a guillotine, or a flaming stake?
Will it matter that the Destroyer will eventually threaten compliance to his edicts with extortion–he has the power to grant them access to Heaven, to Valhalla, to Paradise: fail to comply and suffer divine displeasure.
The answer is: Of course not.
The Destroyer’s promise to remove the responsibility–the rigor from life–will satisfy their indolent and apathetic souls. They will go to their graves believing the Destroyer had sound doctrine and never once questioning that he never delivered on his promise to remove the burden of life, the consequence of evil action, and the nameless faceless gremlins of bad.
It will never occur to them that, in fact, the burdens increased proportional to the proclamation that sacrifices and suffering were the natural state for sinners.
It will never occur to them that the cause and effect of Divine will became ever more unintelligible with every proclaiming of God’s manifold mystery.
It will never occur to them that Bible says that wisdom will make a man rich, understanding is to be obtained at all costs, and God is fully knowable, that justice and righteousness are fully attainable human mandates.
No, it will never occur to them because they got what they wanted. To be indulged in their indolence and apathy, affirmed in their incompetence, and absolved of their responsibility for the rigor of their own life.
The price was the rise of the Destroyer who spread destruction, enabled exploitation, advocated plunder, and eradicated individuality…
The Price was their … death.
re-reading old posts….as I sometimes do because there is so much information here to consume and digest, it takes several times to get it all…and there is a desperate lack of intellectually stimulating and spiritually sound commentary in the Christian blogosphere…I would liken the depth (or lack thereof) to the equivalent of conversations in a bar that revolves around how much beer you can consume before vomiting.
this:
Intentionally indolent and apathetic men always gravitate to HE who absolves them of the burden of finding wisdom and acting on understanding.
Intentionally indolent and apathetic men swear loyalty to HE who claims the sole authority to beat back the evil.
is brilliant….thanks for the mental nourishment John…so many are starving out here.
Just link arms and sing Kumbaya… it doesn’t really matter what we believe after all…. it will all pan out in the end!
you are too funny…..dare I say..snarky even?
yeah, beliefs have nothing to do with behavior…you’re right. So we can be totally ignorant or off base and still be OK. Cause God is sovereign after all, right?
Truth, wisdom and understanding are just silly notions I think God came up with to keep us occupied during our lives here. He really didn’t give us any ability to apprehend any of it. And He would certainly NEVER expect us to figure anything out.
yeah… que sera sera . Don’t worry be happy. It matters not what the truth is. It matters not what is right or wrong. Who cares what anybody thinks. God has it covered. It won’t matter what anyone believes. We’ll all be one happy Rodney King family: “we’ll just alllll get along!”
oh wait… that particular line of thought is trending close to Universalist version of Pantheism.
humm… maybe it really does just all pan out in the end and hell doesn’t even matter.
>whispering< (wonder how long it will take the “orthodoxy” crowd to start screaming heretic?)
the Orthodoxy Club still gives a lot of wiggle room inside as long as you agree on some “essentials”….essentials someone, somewhere came up with and then named their collection of assumptions after a city or council…just to make it sound official-like and give it some authoritaaahh of course…..hehe
I suggest, that hereafter commenters on this blog be known collectively as the Synod of Snarkville.
John, think you can canonize the ideas here? you know, just to make it official so everyone will take things seriously and not have to go out and think for themselves.
speaking of thinking for yourself – I just thought of something…imagine that.
I was thinking about a pastor I knew who stepped down (my guess is under outside pressure of course and guilt) because his adult daughter finally admitted she had been playing the part of Christian but really didn’t believe as she had been taught…
you know how SGM policy is that pastors/elders can’t hold their positions if they have children who are unruly, rebellious, etc? And they base this on the single verse Paul wrote to Timothy or Titus, can’t remember which, about the qualifications of elders and being able to manage your household or whatever?
I always wondered about that, because how in the world does SGM logically hold the father responsible for the salvation and sanctification of his children when they are CALVINISTS?? Either those kids are elect, or they aren’t, and there isn’t one thing the father or SGM can do about it either way – except they certainly feel justified punishing someone for the lack of faith of someone else by removing them from a ministry position despite their supposed inability to bring about a cause or effect in their children…talk about inconsistent and stupid.
The only thing consistent about SGM and so many other churches is their inconsistency and convenient applications of truth as they see fit – after of course, THEY have defined truth.
I’m of the opinion that when scripture speaks of elders-it means older people in the faith. Hence-someone who probably is done raising their kids and the faith of their children (as adults) is truly known.
I know some friends who have pastored and parented well-I also know way too many who have kids that feel they live in the ministry fishbowl and are confused about their own faith.
MM, the ministry fishbowl…..yeah, I hated swimming around in that thing. It made my faith all pruney.
once I realized I could breathe outside of it, life hasn’t been quite the same 🙂
[…] have seen a glimpse of where and how the Destroyers rise, and their methods of Moral Seduction. We’ve detailed the headwork behind the tyranny, […]