Just to give you some context, this is a historical book that centers around the history of the Jews while under the command of Judas Machabeus and his brethren. The Jews were persecuted and occupied by a number of invaders, and Rome was on the horizon, though they were not yet conquered by Rome. The scripture I am including here describes how the Jews recaptured a holy place and see the desecration that had taken place, and how they respond. These events are less than two hundred years before Jesus was born.
1 Machabees 4:36-51
Then Judas and his brethren said: Behold our enemies are discomfited. Let us go up now to cleanse the holy places and to repair them. And all the army assembled together, and they went up into mount Sion.
And they saw the sanctuary desolate, and the altar profaned, and the gates burnt, and shrubs growing up in the courts as in a forest or on the mountains, and the chambers joining to the temple thrown down.
And they rent their garments, and made great lamentation, and put ashes on their heads, and they fell down to the ground on their faces, and they sounded with the trumpets of alarms, and they cried towards heaven.
Then Judas appointed men to fight against them that were in the castle, till they had cleansed the holy places. And he chose priests without blemish, whose will was set upon the law of God: and they cleansed the holy places, and took away the stones that had been defiled into an unclean place.
And he considered about the altar of holocausts that had been profaned, what he should do with it. And a good counsel [remember counsel is one of the gifts of the Holy Spirit] came into their minds to pull it down, lest it should be a reproach to them, because the Gentiles had defiled it; so they threw it down.
And they laid up the stones in the mountain of the temple in a convenient place, till there should come a prophet, and give answer concerning them. And they took whole stones according to the law, and built a new altar according to the former. And they built up the holy places, and the things that were within the temple, and they sanctified the temple and the courts.
And they made new holy vessels, and brought in the candlestick, and the altar of incense, and the table into the temple. And they put incense upon the altar, and lighted up the lamps that were upon the candlestick, and they gave light in the temple. And they set the loaves upon the table, and hung up the veils, and finished all the works they had begun to make.
This is one of my favorite passages in the Bible that deals with historical events. There are several reasons I love how these events were recorded in the scripture, which Catholics consider part of the sacred canon of the Bible, while Jews (who do celebrate the memory of these events in their sacred calendar) and Protestants do not consider it part of the canon. The first reason that I love this passage is that it allows the reader over two thousand years later to look over the shoulders of these soldiers and witness their response when they see how their holy places and God's house were profaned. Soldiers were extremely pious. They were distraught at the profanity they had found.
Second they then get down to business and restore the sanctity of the place. Again one is able to look over the shoulder of the leader, Judas, as he considers how to handle the resanctification of the holy place. Here is a mention of the Holy Spirit giving him counsel, advising him to tear down the sacred altar because having been profaned it cannot remain as it is without being a blemish and a shame to those who would worship there. At the same time, though, Judas realizes that deciding what to do with the removed stones of the altar is beyond him or anyone alive among the Jews, and so they put the stones aside "till there should come a prophet, and give answer concerning them."
This shows two things. One is that the Jews continued to have faith that God would send a prophet when it is time, and so even though it had been very long since a prophet had arisen from God among the people, with confidence they put aside this complex and thorny decision for the next prophet. Secondly it shows their great humility. No one pushed forward and declared themselves to be "wise" enough to know what to do with the profaned stones, or claim to be "channeling" God (yikes) as we see so often today among the multitude of false prophets abroad around the globe. This is why I share this passage with you because it is a crucial part of understanding a genuine relationship with God.
Another thing I love is the loving care where they record how they sanctify and restore the temple, the courts and the altar. They understand that this is God's home, because wherever an altar is sanctified to him, God commits that his presence is there.
I hope you have enjoyed this reading and come to love it as much as I do. And remember that though they did not live to see it, around one hundred and fifty years after these events a prophet came to the Jews indeed, however he was the Messiah himself, Jesus Christ.
Oh, and here is something else to share with you. Chapters four and five describe how Judas fights against all the various oppressors, retaking lands that had been captured. On one particular day this is written:
1 Machabees 5:67
In that day some priests fell in battle, while desiring to do manfully they went out unadvisedly to fight.
This is just information about what had happened, not a hidden message or exhortation about the role of priests. But it does tell you, if you want to understand Biblical times better, that while no one stopped priests from fighting with the army, it was a very rare event because priests are the precious role of serving God and are not, in general, considered as military resources. Lest anyone imagine a role of "fighting priest," I include this passage to show you there is no Biblical justification for warrior priests at all.
Showing posts with label sanctification. Show all posts
Showing posts with label sanctification. Show all posts
Saturday, November 14, 2009
Wednesday, November 11, 2009
Catholics may need to "Atlas Shrug"
Ayn Rand is known for her rather goofy opus called "Atlas Shrugged," where industrialists, feeling "unappreciated," eventually "go on strike" and "disappear," until ungrateful society begs them to "return." This was, needless to say, a quite godless and unspiritual book, but generations have found it fascinating, and that's cool.
It occurs to me that the Roman Catholic Church needs to borrow a leaf from "Atlas Shrugged" and simply walk away from many of the social services programs that they have in place. Why do I feel this way? For three reasons:
1. In progressive and anti-Catholic or anti-Christian governments there is pressure on Catholic charities to loosen their doctrine in return for continuing to receive government money. My advice: walk away from those programs totally. Let them give the money to someone else to do their "social programs" their way. It is a blessing in disguise as the Church can concentrate its mission on what is central: the saving of souls and the transmission of solid faith formation.
2. I obviously do not feel this way in the truly needy populations of the world where the Catholic Church provides vital and often willfully invisible (as in pointedly ignored by the media) services to the most dire of the sick and the poor. So shift the resources that Catholics give from the ungrateful areas (that obviously have "other sources") to those who are truly thankful and in need. It only makes sense. If you give the same gift every Christmas to two sons, and one thanks you and the other punches you in the face, I would suggest giving both gifts to the son who thanks you.
3. The world is not starved for social services programs; it is starved for sanctity and prayer. I think the Catholic Church needs to downsize its social involvement, even where it is sad and painful to do so, in order to return to prayerful and dedicated attention to the sacraments, education and overall sanctity. Downsize and refocus the mission. That way all those critics of the Catholic Church will have to change from criticizing the way we conducted our social programs to criticizing us for not having enough social programs. That would be cool, like bonus points, to the main purpose which is to refocus on the sacred work.
Jesus Christ brought God, not a soup kitchen community organizer. Plenty of charity can indeed and must be done through individual, congregation and community involvement, but I believe the time for us to lead large social programs is over when so many don't give a flying you know what if we do AND seek to erode them and use them as ways to whip up hatred against the Catholic Church.
I say, take the money we use in social programs in the higher developed countries and regions and instead reallocate and devote them to the formation of priests and other religious. Hey, isn't that what everyone is saying we ought to do? "Clean up" all those "bad priests?" Save an altar boy?
Not to minimize at all, as my regular readers know, my zero tolerance for sexual and other abuse or emotionally predatory behavior. So don't waste my time thinking I'm not condemning all abuse in the strongest terms, as I have all along.
But it has come to the point where not a single article about anything good, bad, or neutral can appear in the press without hate mongers commenting about sodomy and rape and buggering and whatever. So I say make them happy and withdraw from all social programs ALL of them in the better developed areas of the world and let them find "alternative providers." Use the social services program funding to "clean up all those pedophiles," you know, all the ones who flock to the Catholic Church. Yep, let's do that. Take the money from the social programs and use them for priest and religious formation. Seriously, as we all know the aging population of faithful religious live in great poverty and often in worse conditions than the people they dedicated their lives to serving.
I'd like to see the Catholic Church just walk away from MANY of the social services programs and instead invest those alms that are donated and income that is generated by the church toward inward, prayerful places and people of sanctity.
Ta ta I say. What say you? I think that would be music to the ears of those who demean all the Catholic Church has done. Win-win, then, no?
It occurs to me that the Roman Catholic Church needs to borrow a leaf from "Atlas Shrugged" and simply walk away from many of the social services programs that they have in place. Why do I feel this way? For three reasons:
1. In progressive and anti-Catholic or anti-Christian governments there is pressure on Catholic charities to loosen their doctrine in return for continuing to receive government money. My advice: walk away from those programs totally. Let them give the money to someone else to do their "social programs" their way. It is a blessing in disguise as the Church can concentrate its mission on what is central: the saving of souls and the transmission of solid faith formation.
2. I obviously do not feel this way in the truly needy populations of the world where the Catholic Church provides vital and often willfully invisible (as in pointedly ignored by the media) services to the most dire of the sick and the poor. So shift the resources that Catholics give from the ungrateful areas (that obviously have "other sources") to those who are truly thankful and in need. It only makes sense. If you give the same gift every Christmas to two sons, and one thanks you and the other punches you in the face, I would suggest giving both gifts to the son who thanks you.
3. The world is not starved for social services programs; it is starved for sanctity and prayer. I think the Catholic Church needs to downsize its social involvement, even where it is sad and painful to do so, in order to return to prayerful and dedicated attention to the sacraments, education and overall sanctity. Downsize and refocus the mission. That way all those critics of the Catholic Church will have to change from criticizing the way we conducted our social programs to criticizing us for not having enough social programs. That would be cool, like bonus points, to the main purpose which is to refocus on the sacred work.
Jesus Christ brought God, not a soup kitchen community organizer. Plenty of charity can indeed and must be done through individual, congregation and community involvement, but I believe the time for us to lead large social programs is over when so many don't give a flying you know what if we do AND seek to erode them and use them as ways to whip up hatred against the Catholic Church.
I say, take the money we use in social programs in the higher developed countries and regions and instead reallocate and devote them to the formation of priests and other religious. Hey, isn't that what everyone is saying we ought to do? "Clean up" all those "bad priests?" Save an altar boy?
Not to minimize at all, as my regular readers know, my zero tolerance for sexual and other abuse or emotionally predatory behavior. So don't waste my time thinking I'm not condemning all abuse in the strongest terms, as I have all along.
But it has come to the point where not a single article about anything good, bad, or neutral can appear in the press without hate mongers commenting about sodomy and rape and buggering and whatever. So I say make them happy and withdraw from all social programs ALL of them in the better developed areas of the world and let them find "alternative providers." Use the social services program funding to "clean up all those pedophiles," you know, all the ones who flock to the Catholic Church. Yep, let's do that. Take the money from the social programs and use them for priest and religious formation. Seriously, as we all know the aging population of faithful religious live in great poverty and often in worse conditions than the people they dedicated their lives to serving.
I'd like to see the Catholic Church just walk away from MANY of the social services programs and instead invest those alms that are donated and income that is generated by the church toward inward, prayerful places and people of sanctity.
Ta ta I say. What say you? I think that would be music to the ears of those who demean all the Catholic Church has done. Win-win, then, no?
Wednesday, August 19, 2009
Thoughts about the altar in churches - part 2/2 or 3
"Part 2/2 or 3" is a little wry humor by me :-) Since I write these ad hoc as I think of them, I might finish a thought in part 2 and realize that I haven't covered the topic enough and need to go on to a part 3! Even though these blogs are often serious topics, with a lot of scolding, even then I try to keep them conversational, and thus segment them accordingly. When I've talked myself out (or figured you've heard enough, LOL), and it's not fun anymore, then I do save material for later posts.
I set the foundation for what I wanted to speak about in the first part by citing what is Catholic Church thought, and thus doctrine, about altars. I then provided scripture citation regarding Abraham's building of an altar whenever he and his family, his tribe, relocated.
Whenever one discusses faith history or a sacred subject, one has to go back to the very beginning, in the Bible, and trace the origins and development of that topic such as, in this case, altars. Why? First, let me accuse the modern people of having a "let's do the minimum amount that we need to do" attitude, which is misleading. For example, many children try to get away with the least amount of homework and study possible, ("just enough to get by"), or the least amount of practice possible, even when it is something that they love, such as music or sports. Unfortunately, it is the same regarding God. Too many ministers-and their flocks-want to just flip the Bible open and "see what Paul says we have to do about altars." Who cares what Abraham did, right? Um, deny that if you dare, but you know that I am correct. Rather than plumbing the depths, of loving God so much that you want to know all there is about him, and to please him and serve his will, too many of you just hope that Paul "tells you" the bare minimum that you "must" do. But is that really enough? And does it supersede what Jesus himself said and did?
You must bare open to yourselves your own heart and motivations, since, after all, God knows them all already, even before you have them, and he knows them all far more than you ever will (since God knows what is hidden, both conscious and unconscious). Are you motivated to love and to serve God, to be sanctified, and thus you do not have to worry about a "salvation checklist?" No where in scripture does Jesus say that one should not seek to better love, know and serve God, since he, Jesus, is "enough." In other words, Jesus does not put up a barrier and say that you no longer need to read scripture (in fact, Jesus often quotes scripture from those "old" times) nor that you must understand God's will.
For example, when Jesus is asked about what to do to be saved, Jesus mentions the Commandments. It goes without saying that Jesus assumes that his followers would not only know the Commandments, but they would also read all the associated scripture! By reading the scripture you enrich and make more accurate your understanding of the fullness of God's relationship with you individually and his church collectively.
This is why I am very keen to have people think most seriously about God's expectations and God's attitude toward the most solemn sign of his presence on earth, which is his altar.
Again, I am anticipating a modern problem that I encounter all the time, particularly among many Protestant denominations and nondenominational churches. Many try to cut this line of thought off at the very beginning, with the somewhat snooty and snotty observation that altars are not "needed" because "don't you know that God is everywhere?" Um, duh, yeah, I kind of know that God is everywhere (which is why I constantly have to remind all of you that when we say God is all knowing we mean he is all knowing, including what you think, have thought and will think in the future). Obviously God is everywhere. That is not the point of an altar, to have a superstitious belief that God is "only" there. Do you not realize that God was "everywhere" during the time of Abraham too? Abraham built altars not to "bring God along."
You want to think most seriously about altars and what they mean to GOD, and not what they mean to you.
An altar is where God has made a commitment to his people to be present. For example, think of the room in your home where you receive guests, such as your living room or a reception room. An altar is the place where God, who is of course present in that room and any and every room, has committed himself to being seated, even though you cannot see him. God knows that you cannot see him, and God knows that you know he is everywhere, though you often forget that he is, of course. God therefore has from the very beginning, since his relationship with Adam and Eve and onward, committed to be present at the place of the altar, even though he cannot be seen.
How do we know this goes so far back in time, even to Adam and Eve?
Genesis 4:3-5
In the course of time Cain brought an offering to the Lord from the fruit of the soil, while Abel, for his part, brought one of the best firstlings of his flock. The Lord looked with favor on Abel and his offering, but on Cain and his offering he did not. Cain greatly resented this and was crestfallen.
Most with fundamental knowledge of their faith know that the first children of Adam and Eve were Cain and Abel, and that Cain committed the first murder, killing his brother because he envied that the Lord God approved of Abel's offering more than Cain's.
Now, where exactly do you think these offerings would have been made, since they had been banished from the Garden of Eden, which is where God used to walk with their parents, Adam and Eve? These offerings would have been made on an altar to God.
I have to remind people who worry when we "assume" and "put things into the Bible that are not written there" that THEY need to better know their scripture, not I. Who wrote the first five books of the Bible? Moses. Where were offerings made to God during the time of Moses. On altars. Moses would not have to state that these offerings were made on altars "just to get it formally in writing in the scripture" because it never would have occurred to him otherwise.
Here is a modern example. "Sally left the house and drove to John's place." Oh no! We cannot understand the meaning of that phrase, because the author did not say that Sally drove "in a car!" I mean, in old English to "drove" also means to herd cattle. Might not the author have meant that Sally left the house and herded some cattle over to John's place? LOL. Do you see what I mean that far from "putting something into the Bible that isn't there," genuine lovers and scholars of the Bible always recall the context in which it is written, and they trust the divinely inspired authors to place what is need within. One does not stop using one's brain and power of deduction when one reads the Bible.
So we know for a fact that immediately after the fall of man through Adam and Eve, and their expulsion from the garden that at least one altar was built and offerings made to the Lord by their children Cain and Abel.
Cain was a farmer and Abel was a herdsman (Genesis 4:2). Thus Cain brought "an offering" "from the fruit of the soil while Abel" "brought one of his best firstlings of his flock." This means that Cain brought average produce from what he farmed while Abel brought one of the best of the first born animals. So Cain basically sampled out of what he was growing anyway some to offer to the Lord, while Abel selected one of his very best to give up to the Lord.
Think again of that guest arriving in your living room or reception room. Cain would have the guest sit in any of the regular chairs that were available in the conference room, for example. Abel would have brought into the room the best chair for the guest, taking it from himself if that was the one that he usually sat in. Now, I'm mixing into one image with this analogy both the altar itself and the offerings placed upon it, but there is a reason I am doing so, so just bear with me and don't split hairs over it ;-)
The next mention of an altar is when God sent the flood to destroy the wickedness of man, saving only Noah, who had built an ark according to God's instruction. After the earth had dried and it was safe to emerge:
Genesis 8:20-21
Then Noah built an altar to the Lord, and choosing from every clean animal and every clean bird, he offered holocausts on the altar. When the Lord smelled the sweet odor, he said to himself: "Never again will I doom the earth because of man, since the desires of man's heart are evil from the start; nor will I ever strike down all living beings, as I have done."
By the way, how do we know what God was thinking, since he did not speak aloud that thought? Again, because he told Moses, who is the author of Genesis and the four books of the Bible that follow.
So when Noah leaves the ark he promptly builds an altar and offers up sacrifice, even though he knows, I mean, duh, that God is "everywhere," since God spoke to him and helped him build the ark all along.
The altar is the place where humans have a committed meeting with God. It has been so from the very beginning and it pleases God. It also provides a stability of relationship and perspective between human beings and God. It is like the difference between knowing that your human visitor is alive, is planning to come, knows what you are doing, and perhaps is even texting you or speaking to you on the phone, and the guest actually being in the room and being handed a chair by you. Just because your guest "exists" does not mean it is not important to give him or her respect, full attention, and a place to sit when they are in your actual presence. The earliest of faith forefathers, starting obviously with Cain and Abel, understood that, and were not prompted by God to do so (otherwise that would be in the scripture). Humans as much as God desired that altars be built to define and formalize the committed presence of God in that place.
We next read about altars as they are built by Abraham, as I have already cited previously.
So that is what I think about whenever I enter a church. I immediately look for the altar. Now, can you imagine my reaction and why I have that when I do not see an altar at all? I do not care if one calls it an altar or the "Lord's table" (referring to Jesus Christ at the Last Supper). I do not understand how one feels "at home with God" in a church that does not have either an altar or the Lord's table. Next, imagine how I feel when there is something but it is either very lame or it is used for glorification the congregation, like a microphone stand or something. Yikes, can you repeat after me "Um, that's missing the whole point of an altar!"
Of course God is "everywhere." Believe you me, Adam, Eve, Cain, Abel, Noah and Abraham sure know that more than you today know and believe that! The altar is the place of committed meeting between God and the faithful. Jesus Christ, far from removing it, confirmed that and, further, placed himself on the altar on behalf of all humans. The altar in the church (non Catholic) where I frequently attend services (as a visitor and faith family member, like an "in-law" LOL) has a simple altar but with the words in gold "Do this in remembrance of me." Now, there is much that I wish they would do differently about the altar as the presence of God in that church, but I am not going to critique those who at least have a worthy altar in their church.
I think I will wrap part 2 here because, as I thought in the beginning, a part 3 where we look at what Jesus said and did in this context is really needed. But even if I wrapped up my thoughts here, which is the whole point, I think I leave you in a good place to better understand that the altar is not "just" the "old fashioned place" where the "Jews burned offerings" and "we don't need to do that kind of thing." That's forgetting that the altar became the committed meeting place of God and humans after humans had gone and lost the Garden of Eden for everyone, where God had walked in person among Adam and Eve and the animals (thanks a lot, hmm?) Scripture shows that God did not order the building of altars nor specify the sacrifices until the time of the formation of the Israelites as they left Egypt under Moses. Altars were built immediately by humans as soon as they had lost, through the sin of Adam and Eve, their day to day contact with the Lord God. There they had committed encounter with the Lord, and there they made offering to him.
I hope that you have found this helpful and has given you a deeper perspective about not only a very important and sacred topic, altars, but also better understanding God's ongoing relationship with his faithful, in all its forms and depths.
I set the foundation for what I wanted to speak about in the first part by citing what is Catholic Church thought, and thus doctrine, about altars. I then provided scripture citation regarding Abraham's building of an altar whenever he and his family, his tribe, relocated.
Whenever one discusses faith history or a sacred subject, one has to go back to the very beginning, in the Bible, and trace the origins and development of that topic such as, in this case, altars. Why? First, let me accuse the modern people of having a "let's do the minimum amount that we need to do" attitude, which is misleading. For example, many children try to get away with the least amount of homework and study possible, ("just enough to get by"), or the least amount of practice possible, even when it is something that they love, such as music or sports. Unfortunately, it is the same regarding God. Too many ministers-and their flocks-want to just flip the Bible open and "see what Paul says we have to do about altars." Who cares what Abraham did, right? Um, deny that if you dare, but you know that I am correct. Rather than plumbing the depths, of loving God so much that you want to know all there is about him, and to please him and serve his will, too many of you just hope that Paul "tells you" the bare minimum that you "must" do. But is that really enough? And does it supersede what Jesus himself said and did?
You must bare open to yourselves your own heart and motivations, since, after all, God knows them all already, even before you have them, and he knows them all far more than you ever will (since God knows what is hidden, both conscious and unconscious). Are you motivated to love and to serve God, to be sanctified, and thus you do not have to worry about a "salvation checklist?" No where in scripture does Jesus say that one should not seek to better love, know and serve God, since he, Jesus, is "enough." In other words, Jesus does not put up a barrier and say that you no longer need to read scripture (in fact, Jesus often quotes scripture from those "old" times) nor that you must understand God's will.
For example, when Jesus is asked about what to do to be saved, Jesus mentions the Commandments. It goes without saying that Jesus assumes that his followers would not only know the Commandments, but they would also read all the associated scripture! By reading the scripture you enrich and make more accurate your understanding of the fullness of God's relationship with you individually and his church collectively.
This is why I am very keen to have people think most seriously about God's expectations and God's attitude toward the most solemn sign of his presence on earth, which is his altar.
Again, I am anticipating a modern problem that I encounter all the time, particularly among many Protestant denominations and nondenominational churches. Many try to cut this line of thought off at the very beginning, with the somewhat snooty and snotty observation that altars are not "needed" because "don't you know that God is everywhere?" Um, duh, yeah, I kind of know that God is everywhere (which is why I constantly have to remind all of you that when we say God is all knowing we mean he is all knowing, including what you think, have thought and will think in the future). Obviously God is everywhere. That is not the point of an altar, to have a superstitious belief that God is "only" there. Do you not realize that God was "everywhere" during the time of Abraham too? Abraham built altars not to "bring God along."
You want to think most seriously about altars and what they mean to GOD, and not what they mean to you.
An altar is where God has made a commitment to his people to be present. For example, think of the room in your home where you receive guests, such as your living room or a reception room. An altar is the place where God, who is of course present in that room and any and every room, has committed himself to being seated, even though you cannot see him. God knows that you cannot see him, and God knows that you know he is everywhere, though you often forget that he is, of course. God therefore has from the very beginning, since his relationship with Adam and Eve and onward, committed to be present at the place of the altar, even though he cannot be seen.
How do we know this goes so far back in time, even to Adam and Eve?
Genesis 4:3-5
In the course of time Cain brought an offering to the Lord from the fruit of the soil, while Abel, for his part, brought one of the best firstlings of his flock. The Lord looked with favor on Abel and his offering, but on Cain and his offering he did not. Cain greatly resented this and was crestfallen.
Most with fundamental knowledge of their faith know that the first children of Adam and Eve were Cain and Abel, and that Cain committed the first murder, killing his brother because he envied that the Lord God approved of Abel's offering more than Cain's.
Now, where exactly do you think these offerings would have been made, since they had been banished from the Garden of Eden, which is where God used to walk with their parents, Adam and Eve? These offerings would have been made on an altar to God.
I have to remind people who worry when we "assume" and "put things into the Bible that are not written there" that THEY need to better know their scripture, not I. Who wrote the first five books of the Bible? Moses. Where were offerings made to God during the time of Moses. On altars. Moses would not have to state that these offerings were made on altars "just to get it formally in writing in the scripture" because it never would have occurred to him otherwise.
Here is a modern example. "Sally left the house and drove to John's place." Oh no! We cannot understand the meaning of that phrase, because the author did not say that Sally drove "in a car!" I mean, in old English to "drove" also means to herd cattle. Might not the author have meant that Sally left the house and herded some cattle over to John's place? LOL. Do you see what I mean that far from "putting something into the Bible that isn't there," genuine lovers and scholars of the Bible always recall the context in which it is written, and they trust the divinely inspired authors to place what is need within. One does not stop using one's brain and power of deduction when one reads the Bible.
So we know for a fact that immediately after the fall of man through Adam and Eve, and their expulsion from the garden that at least one altar was built and offerings made to the Lord by their children Cain and Abel.
Cain was a farmer and Abel was a herdsman (Genesis 4:2). Thus Cain brought "an offering" "from the fruit of the soil while Abel" "brought one of his best firstlings of his flock." This means that Cain brought average produce from what he farmed while Abel brought one of the best of the first born animals. So Cain basically sampled out of what he was growing anyway some to offer to the Lord, while Abel selected one of his very best to give up to the Lord.
Think again of that guest arriving in your living room or reception room. Cain would have the guest sit in any of the regular chairs that were available in the conference room, for example. Abel would have brought into the room the best chair for the guest, taking it from himself if that was the one that he usually sat in. Now, I'm mixing into one image with this analogy both the altar itself and the offerings placed upon it, but there is a reason I am doing so, so just bear with me and don't split hairs over it ;-)
The next mention of an altar is when God sent the flood to destroy the wickedness of man, saving only Noah, who had built an ark according to God's instruction. After the earth had dried and it was safe to emerge:
Genesis 8:20-21
Then Noah built an altar to the Lord, and choosing from every clean animal and every clean bird, he offered holocausts on the altar. When the Lord smelled the sweet odor, he said to himself: "Never again will I doom the earth because of man, since the desires of man's heart are evil from the start; nor will I ever strike down all living beings, as I have done."
By the way, how do we know what God was thinking, since he did not speak aloud that thought? Again, because he told Moses, who is the author of Genesis and the four books of the Bible that follow.
So when Noah leaves the ark he promptly builds an altar and offers up sacrifice, even though he knows, I mean, duh, that God is "everywhere," since God spoke to him and helped him build the ark all along.
The altar is the place where humans have a committed meeting with God. It has been so from the very beginning and it pleases God. It also provides a stability of relationship and perspective between human beings and God. It is like the difference between knowing that your human visitor is alive, is planning to come, knows what you are doing, and perhaps is even texting you or speaking to you on the phone, and the guest actually being in the room and being handed a chair by you. Just because your guest "exists" does not mean it is not important to give him or her respect, full attention, and a place to sit when they are in your actual presence. The earliest of faith forefathers, starting obviously with Cain and Abel, understood that, and were not prompted by God to do so (otherwise that would be in the scripture). Humans as much as God desired that altars be built to define and formalize the committed presence of God in that place.
We next read about altars as they are built by Abraham, as I have already cited previously.
So that is what I think about whenever I enter a church. I immediately look for the altar. Now, can you imagine my reaction and why I have that when I do not see an altar at all? I do not care if one calls it an altar or the "Lord's table" (referring to Jesus Christ at the Last Supper). I do not understand how one feels "at home with God" in a church that does not have either an altar or the Lord's table. Next, imagine how I feel when there is something but it is either very lame or it is used for glorification the congregation, like a microphone stand or something. Yikes, can you repeat after me "Um, that's missing the whole point of an altar!"
Of course God is "everywhere." Believe you me, Adam, Eve, Cain, Abel, Noah and Abraham sure know that more than you today know and believe that! The altar is the place of committed meeting between God and the faithful. Jesus Christ, far from removing it, confirmed that and, further, placed himself on the altar on behalf of all humans. The altar in the church (non Catholic) where I frequently attend services (as a visitor and faith family member, like an "in-law" LOL) has a simple altar but with the words in gold "Do this in remembrance of me." Now, there is much that I wish they would do differently about the altar as the presence of God in that church, but I am not going to critique those who at least have a worthy altar in their church.
I think I will wrap part 2 here because, as I thought in the beginning, a part 3 where we look at what Jesus said and did in this context is really needed. But even if I wrapped up my thoughts here, which is the whole point, I think I leave you in a good place to better understand that the altar is not "just" the "old fashioned place" where the "Jews burned offerings" and "we don't need to do that kind of thing." That's forgetting that the altar became the committed meeting place of God and humans after humans had gone and lost the Garden of Eden for everyone, where God had walked in person among Adam and Eve and the animals (thanks a lot, hmm?) Scripture shows that God did not order the building of altars nor specify the sacrifices until the time of the formation of the Israelites as they left Egypt under Moses. Altars were built immediately by humans as soon as they had lost, through the sin of Adam and Eve, their day to day contact with the Lord God. There they had committed encounter with the Lord, and there they made offering to him.
I hope that you have found this helpful and has given you a deeper perspective about not only a very important and sacred topic, altars, but also better understanding God's ongoing relationship with his faithful, in all its forms and depths.
Tuesday, August 18, 2009
Cleansing the palete, writing and thoughts
The palate is a part of the mouth. The term "cleansing the palate" is often used when referring to wine or food tasters, who eat something bland to remove the taste of the previously sampled item before assessing the taste of the next item. In other words, one removes the after taste so that it does not infiltrate the next bite or sip. Meals of several courses are often planned with that in mind, if not in actually providing an intermediary palate cleanser, then at least planning the order of courses so that a previous dish or beverage does not overpower the next one or ruin the flavor through unplanned combination.
The societal lack of "cleansing the palate" is one of the greatest obstacles to achieving, or even commencing, sanctity today. For example, one of my least favorite activities is to have my mind set on writing a blog posting that glorifies God, but I am interrupted with the need to blog about the dirtier works and sins of humans. However, because my heart, mind and spirit are always turned toward God, even as my fingers have to type less pleasant (but vital soul saving) blog entries, I do not have to "cleanse the palate" of my spirit and my mind, since my heart is always turned to God. White bread is often used as a gourmet palate cleanser, and so it does not seem a coincidence that one can think of God, through Jesus Christ, the living bread and staff of life, and remain cleansed in one's heart, mind and soul even when one must discuss distasteful things, such as sin and depravity in modern society, and the consequences of hell fire for all eternity.
However, since the vast majority of humans are not sanctified to God, but I do believe that many wish to be (however, they confuse it with the egocentric objective of being "very spiritual"), you need to realize that society and its dirt are a barrier to sanctification, as it requires extraordinary effort these days to "cleanse one's palate."
Let me introduce an old time admonishment, that is slang and said casually. In the old days when someone said something dirty (as in pornographic), profane (toward God), or cussed, often the listener would reply to that person, "You kiss your mother with that mouth?!"
This was in more innocent and good hearted days when often that admonishment was actually enough to make the hardened bad talker stop and be somewhat abashed. That's like back in the days when moms weren't competing to be as dirty as the celebrities, and when their children upheld their mother's level of decency. So yes, a simple expression like that caused many a cusser or dirty talker to stop in his tracks and blush. He would genuinely be ashamed to think of what had come out of his mouth, and that yes, that is the mouth that would kiss his mom on the cheek. That admonishment was a verbal palate cleanser.
Today it is just about impossible to cleanse the palate, spiritually. I don't mean to cleanse the palate to do some high and mighty worshipping or great spiritual work. I mean to go back to the normal state that one should be in nearly one hundred percent of the time! One should be living a life of having a cleansed palate, but one that is interrupted on occasion by the realities of life.
I'm not speaking of cussing here. I am speaking of living constantly within the increasing dirtiness of the world.
Here is an example of those who have to struggle because of the dirt of the world. It used to be that if you were a law enforcement official, it would be a very rare event when one had to investigate child pornography, child solicitation or child rape. The average cop might encounter one horrific example in his or her entire career! And that event would, of course, be a very low point and one that he or she not only had to prevent from depressing them, but also did not bring the sadness of it home to their family.
Now look at what the world, through human beings own choices, has brought to this example. Entire police departments have to assign full time officers to trolling through the filth of the Internet, identifying and capturing pedophiles and other child abusers. These officers have to look at more in FIVE MINUTES than most cops had to look at in their entire career. It is impossible for law enforcement people to ever cleanse their palates or have a cleansed palate, because they are standing within the tidal wave of filth.
I worry about professionals, and amateurs, who do this type of work with sincere hearts because I know that despite what they may say, it changes them forever and is a soul robbing experience. People often bandy about praying to the Archangel Michael, but this is an example where I recommend that those who must, because of their vocation, wade in such palate destroying filth, that they look at Michael as a role model, as the archangel who faces the worst of what Satan is, and yet remains totally pure and sanctified to God. Think of his role modeling as a palate cleanser. Also, do not be an egomaniac who thinks you are not affected and can do this for years at a time. Wading in filth, even for a "noble purpose" is a barrier to sanctity and your process of sanctification. Why? Because it takes up space in your mind and your heart, even as you combat it, that ought to be set only on the pure sights of God. You are having to "kiss God's cheek" with that mouth.
Isaiah 6:5-7
Then I said, "Woe is me, I am doomed! For I am a man of unclean lips, living among a people of unclean lips; yet my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts!" Then one of the seraphim flew to me, holding an ember which he had taken with tongs from the altar.
He touched my mouth with it. "See," he said, "now that this has touched your lips, your wickedness is removed, your sin purged."
Isaiah, the greatest of the prophets who prophesied the Messiah, Jesus Christ, knew that even as pure as he was, he could not be living as a human among humans with filthy lips without being at risk once he faces God, so upon the sight of God he is terrified of this knowledge. God respects this wisdom exhibited by Isaiah and thus the seraphim cleanses Isaiah's lips with burning coals from God's own altar. This is why you can look to God and his angels, such as Michael, with confidence and trust if you, through no fault of your own, are put within the filth of the times.
But what about the vast majority of people who wallow in and produce the filth? What about the many mothers today who purchase "booty enhancing" jeans and who have "tramp stamps" tattooed over their rear ends? Why should their children worry about with what lips they kiss such mothers?
It is impossible to have the television on, or the radio, to keep one company, as I used to like to do, without now being subjected to a "Viva Viagra" commercial about how long a man can have an erection, or some thinly veiled reference to oral sex. How many of you turn off the TV or the radio the instant that such filth comes on? Not so many I reckon. How many of you hold stock in those companies, or work behind the scenes on that type of marketing, all day every day? How can one be sanctified, have a cleansed palate for God in your average day, when you are in the tidal wave, either willingly or unwillingly, of filth?
Young people, this is one of the things I am trying to help you to understand, a time that was gone before you were born, but has become worse each year, as you've been growing up and have become young adults. Do not worry that I am being a fun destroying prude, LOL. If you think that, reread the example I have used, which is of the average police officer who maybe once in his entire career encountered terrible child pornographic filth or solicitation. Do not believe the liars of today who say it "always was there but just hidden." I mean, duh, how dumb do they think you are? Cell phones, computers, message boards and the Internet did not exist. Thus there was no way to cultivate the occasional pervert's taste into violent addictive action as there is today. Today there is a field full of weeds, rather than a field of wheat that would have the occasional, easily identified and controlled weed. You have been given, deliberately, or at the very least because they have been asleep at the wheel, a society of a destroyed cleansed palate, by your parents and their parents.
The sickening spread and virtual explosion of violence against even the tiniest infants (and even pet animals) and the total perversion of the beauty of intimacy, including sex, is happening because people are not living the way they used to be, which was with mental and spiritual cleansed palates... ones that they knew had to be restored to that normalcy of the cleansed palate, in between encounters with that which is unclean.
But to be unclean and uncleansed is the "new normal." That is the shocking and still, for me, who have seen this with my own eyes, the most difficult thing to comprehend how society has imploded and rotted from within, while calling that being "liberated." I don't think the police who spend their entire shifts hunting the worst baby raping perverts that have ever existed among humans feel particularly "liberated." I don't feel liberated when I sit down to blog and someone on the radio makes an oral sex allusion. Do you feel liberated, really? Young people, you certainly should not feel liberated. You have been chained in a meat market, out of reach of the place of the cleansed palate. Thus you cannot enjoy as you should the goodness of intimacy, of passion, or handle appropriately confrontations with filth, when they occur. Genuine liberation is to be able to operate from a clean base of stability, and thus you have a wide range of appropriate responses.
So if you are interested in being sanctified, as every human being should, which means to put God and his will first and foremost in your life, so that you can reap all the goodness of life as it exists now and have hope for the eternal bliss, you must be aware of the tide that you take for granted as "normal" that brings unclean and unease into your spirits and hearts, hindering sanctification. Shut it down, the unclean, wherever and whenever it is in your reach. Don't "put up with it" (like letting the TV drone on with filth) because as I said, as the holy man Isaiah knew, it besmirches even the unwilling.
What can you do on a practical level? First of all, this is one reason why frequent daily prayer is so helpful. People have started thinking too much of prayer as "asking God for something." Realize, instead, and remember that prayer is the ultimate palate cleanser. Prayer neutralizes filth because it removes you from it as you realign and reset your focus on what is true and good. So prayer is not just a tool for asking God for help. Prayer is the ultimate palate cleanser.
Then, as I have alluded to above, make your own space as clean as possible. For example, I stop visiting news web sites that when I click on them I immediately have some gigantic picture of fat boobs stuffed in my virtual face. Don't give them your clicks and don't let them plant those images with you. So clean up your space even though it's a daily battle, but think of weeding out the field (not taking weed, LOL). If you pull out each one as it pops up, eventually they diminish.
Also, be a trend setter and set your own example. Like I said I am no dreary prude. But there is a heck of a difference between a sharp dressed young man or woman and one who feels that I and the world need to see their tramp stamp or booty crack. There is a quiet young man who sometimes comes in for pizza where I regularly lunch and I totally love his clothes. He is so hip and yet modest. If you cultivate your own cleansed palate of taste in your own dignity and hipness, then your posse and others will follow you. You will be helping everyone with their own hip sanctification! Seriously, you do not want to be the one, like so many girls today, who wants to show off her stuff to every guy, hoping that guy goes home and hates his wife or girlfriend for not being as "hot" as her. Trust me, she'll be "hot" alright, in a way she eternally regrets. Again, this is not because God doesn't like showing off the human body. It's because God knows the hearts of all and their every thought, and he knows when people dress slutty so that they can harm the custody of the eyes and hearts, and thus sanctity and happiness, of others. Marketing people and greedy merchants better wise up to that too. How many erotic commercials fuel child molester fantasies? A lot of them and I know because as I said, I know what crime and society was like "before" and "after."
I hope, as always, that you are having a good day and that you have found this to be helpful.
The societal lack of "cleansing the palate" is one of the greatest obstacles to achieving, or even commencing, sanctity today. For example, one of my least favorite activities is to have my mind set on writing a blog posting that glorifies God, but I am interrupted with the need to blog about the dirtier works and sins of humans. However, because my heart, mind and spirit are always turned toward God, even as my fingers have to type less pleasant (but vital soul saving) blog entries, I do not have to "cleanse the palate" of my spirit and my mind, since my heart is always turned to God. White bread is often used as a gourmet palate cleanser, and so it does not seem a coincidence that one can think of God, through Jesus Christ, the living bread and staff of life, and remain cleansed in one's heart, mind and soul even when one must discuss distasteful things, such as sin and depravity in modern society, and the consequences of hell fire for all eternity.
However, since the vast majority of humans are not sanctified to God, but I do believe that many wish to be (however, they confuse it with the egocentric objective of being "very spiritual"), you need to realize that society and its dirt are a barrier to sanctification, as it requires extraordinary effort these days to "cleanse one's palate."
Let me introduce an old time admonishment, that is slang and said casually. In the old days when someone said something dirty (as in pornographic), profane (toward God), or cussed, often the listener would reply to that person, "You kiss your mother with that mouth?!"
This was in more innocent and good hearted days when often that admonishment was actually enough to make the hardened bad talker stop and be somewhat abashed. That's like back in the days when moms weren't competing to be as dirty as the celebrities, and when their children upheld their mother's level of decency. So yes, a simple expression like that caused many a cusser or dirty talker to stop in his tracks and blush. He would genuinely be ashamed to think of what had come out of his mouth, and that yes, that is the mouth that would kiss his mom on the cheek. That admonishment was a verbal palate cleanser.
Today it is just about impossible to cleanse the palate, spiritually. I don't mean to cleanse the palate to do some high and mighty worshipping or great spiritual work. I mean to go back to the normal state that one should be in nearly one hundred percent of the time! One should be living a life of having a cleansed palate, but one that is interrupted on occasion by the realities of life.
I'm not speaking of cussing here. I am speaking of living constantly within the increasing dirtiness of the world.
Here is an example of those who have to struggle because of the dirt of the world. It used to be that if you were a law enforcement official, it would be a very rare event when one had to investigate child pornography, child solicitation or child rape. The average cop might encounter one horrific example in his or her entire career! And that event would, of course, be a very low point and one that he or she not only had to prevent from depressing them, but also did not bring the sadness of it home to their family.
Now look at what the world, through human beings own choices, has brought to this example. Entire police departments have to assign full time officers to trolling through the filth of the Internet, identifying and capturing pedophiles and other child abusers. These officers have to look at more in FIVE MINUTES than most cops had to look at in their entire career. It is impossible for law enforcement people to ever cleanse their palates or have a cleansed palate, because they are standing within the tidal wave of filth.
I worry about professionals, and amateurs, who do this type of work with sincere hearts because I know that despite what they may say, it changes them forever and is a soul robbing experience. People often bandy about praying to the Archangel Michael, but this is an example where I recommend that those who must, because of their vocation, wade in such palate destroying filth, that they look at Michael as a role model, as the archangel who faces the worst of what Satan is, and yet remains totally pure and sanctified to God. Think of his role modeling as a palate cleanser. Also, do not be an egomaniac who thinks you are not affected and can do this for years at a time. Wading in filth, even for a "noble purpose" is a barrier to sanctity and your process of sanctification. Why? Because it takes up space in your mind and your heart, even as you combat it, that ought to be set only on the pure sights of God. You are having to "kiss God's cheek" with that mouth.
Isaiah 6:5-7
Then I said, "Woe is me, I am doomed! For I am a man of unclean lips, living among a people of unclean lips; yet my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts!" Then one of the seraphim flew to me, holding an ember which he had taken with tongs from the altar.
He touched my mouth with it. "See," he said, "now that this has touched your lips, your wickedness is removed, your sin purged."
Isaiah, the greatest of the prophets who prophesied the Messiah, Jesus Christ, knew that even as pure as he was, he could not be living as a human among humans with filthy lips without being at risk once he faces God, so upon the sight of God he is terrified of this knowledge. God respects this wisdom exhibited by Isaiah and thus the seraphim cleanses Isaiah's lips with burning coals from God's own altar. This is why you can look to God and his angels, such as Michael, with confidence and trust if you, through no fault of your own, are put within the filth of the times.
But what about the vast majority of people who wallow in and produce the filth? What about the many mothers today who purchase "booty enhancing" jeans and who have "tramp stamps" tattooed over their rear ends? Why should their children worry about with what lips they kiss such mothers?
It is impossible to have the television on, or the radio, to keep one company, as I used to like to do, without now being subjected to a "Viva Viagra" commercial about how long a man can have an erection, or some thinly veiled reference to oral sex. How many of you turn off the TV or the radio the instant that such filth comes on? Not so many I reckon. How many of you hold stock in those companies, or work behind the scenes on that type of marketing, all day every day? How can one be sanctified, have a cleansed palate for God in your average day, when you are in the tidal wave, either willingly or unwillingly, of filth?
Young people, this is one of the things I am trying to help you to understand, a time that was gone before you were born, but has become worse each year, as you've been growing up and have become young adults. Do not worry that I am being a fun destroying prude, LOL. If you think that, reread the example I have used, which is of the average police officer who maybe once in his entire career encountered terrible child pornographic filth or solicitation. Do not believe the liars of today who say it "always was there but just hidden." I mean, duh, how dumb do they think you are? Cell phones, computers, message boards and the Internet did not exist. Thus there was no way to cultivate the occasional pervert's taste into violent addictive action as there is today. Today there is a field full of weeds, rather than a field of wheat that would have the occasional, easily identified and controlled weed. You have been given, deliberately, or at the very least because they have been asleep at the wheel, a society of a destroyed cleansed palate, by your parents and their parents.
The sickening spread and virtual explosion of violence against even the tiniest infants (and even pet animals) and the total perversion of the beauty of intimacy, including sex, is happening because people are not living the way they used to be, which was with mental and spiritual cleansed palates... ones that they knew had to be restored to that normalcy of the cleansed palate, in between encounters with that which is unclean.
But to be unclean and uncleansed is the "new normal." That is the shocking and still, for me, who have seen this with my own eyes, the most difficult thing to comprehend how society has imploded and rotted from within, while calling that being "liberated." I don't think the police who spend their entire shifts hunting the worst baby raping perverts that have ever existed among humans feel particularly "liberated." I don't feel liberated when I sit down to blog and someone on the radio makes an oral sex allusion. Do you feel liberated, really? Young people, you certainly should not feel liberated. You have been chained in a meat market, out of reach of the place of the cleansed palate. Thus you cannot enjoy as you should the goodness of intimacy, of passion, or handle appropriately confrontations with filth, when they occur. Genuine liberation is to be able to operate from a clean base of stability, and thus you have a wide range of appropriate responses.
So if you are interested in being sanctified, as every human being should, which means to put God and his will first and foremost in your life, so that you can reap all the goodness of life as it exists now and have hope for the eternal bliss, you must be aware of the tide that you take for granted as "normal" that brings unclean and unease into your spirits and hearts, hindering sanctification. Shut it down, the unclean, wherever and whenever it is in your reach. Don't "put up with it" (like letting the TV drone on with filth) because as I said, as the holy man Isaiah knew, it besmirches even the unwilling.
What can you do on a practical level? First of all, this is one reason why frequent daily prayer is so helpful. People have started thinking too much of prayer as "asking God for something." Realize, instead, and remember that prayer is the ultimate palate cleanser. Prayer neutralizes filth because it removes you from it as you realign and reset your focus on what is true and good. So prayer is not just a tool for asking God for help. Prayer is the ultimate palate cleanser.
Then, as I have alluded to above, make your own space as clean as possible. For example, I stop visiting news web sites that when I click on them I immediately have some gigantic picture of fat boobs stuffed in my virtual face. Don't give them your clicks and don't let them plant those images with you. So clean up your space even though it's a daily battle, but think of weeding out the field (not taking weed, LOL). If you pull out each one as it pops up, eventually they diminish.
Also, be a trend setter and set your own example. Like I said I am no dreary prude. But there is a heck of a difference between a sharp dressed young man or woman and one who feels that I and the world need to see their tramp stamp or booty crack. There is a quiet young man who sometimes comes in for pizza where I regularly lunch and I totally love his clothes. He is so hip and yet modest. If you cultivate your own cleansed palate of taste in your own dignity and hipness, then your posse and others will follow you. You will be helping everyone with their own hip sanctification! Seriously, you do not want to be the one, like so many girls today, who wants to show off her stuff to every guy, hoping that guy goes home and hates his wife or girlfriend for not being as "hot" as her. Trust me, she'll be "hot" alright, in a way she eternally regrets. Again, this is not because God doesn't like showing off the human body. It's because God knows the hearts of all and their every thought, and he knows when people dress slutty so that they can harm the custody of the eyes and hearts, and thus sanctity and happiness, of others. Marketing people and greedy merchants better wise up to that too. How many erotic commercials fuel child molester fantasies? A lot of them and I know because as I said, I know what crime and society was like "before" and "after."
I hope, as always, that you are having a good day and that you have found this to be helpful.
Monday, August 17, 2009
Becoming sanctified or "spiritual"
The objective of every God fearing and God believing person should be to be sanctified. Being sanctified means that your life, whether secular or religious, modest or prominent, puts service to God first and foremost to all else. In other words, your service to God structures and informs all that you do, including routine tasks in your job or chores, your recreation, your relationships, etc. When one is sanctified one does not do things that impede God's will and, instead, you seek to further God's will.
I am including a nod toward the lame objective of the semi-believing or non-believing "New Agers" who claim to be "good" and thus want to be "spiritual." Being "spiritual" without belief in God is a structureless egocentric fraud, but I know many well meaning people fall into that trap, so I invite them to read this blog posting which is a "don't do" checklist for those who seek to be sanctified.
It's easy to write how to become something, but we also know that negative examples are also informative. So I've made a list of "warning signs," where if you do any of the following, you need to be alert that you are working away from sanctification, rather than toward it.
Here are things you might be doing, or traits that you have that you think indicate admirable fortitude (a gift of the Holy Spirit, by the way), but are deceiving and instead should be suspect.
1. If you persist in hanging onto false beliefs.
Some people think this is admirable, because they are "keeping an open mind" "just in case" up until the bitter end. This is a barrier to sanctification. Scripture show that when the scales fall from one's eyes, repentance, change and conversion should be immediate, and false beliefs must be dropped immediately and in total.
2. You are talented in finding reasons or excuses not to drop false beliefs, repent or convert.
In contrast to problem #1, this problem is not rooted in a false sense of "keeping an open mind" or "being loyal to one's beliefs" (even when proven wrong) but instead you have "reasons" to resist the truth. The problem with this, besides the obvious one that you want to get to truth, not resist truth, is that you are creating false links to past errors. It's like tying yourself down to the road using twine, then wire, then rope, then vines, when the objective should be not to tie one's self down to the road at all. You become trapped in thinking of more excuses, more ways, to tie yourself to error, rather than immediately move on to truth.
3. You have an actual, genuine reason for hanging onto false beliefs.
What if you are a minor child and have a parent who is violent, drug abusing, a blaspheming heretic who has horrific beliefs. Of course you have to think of your own well being, and I would not recommend that you "make a break for it" if that would put you or others in actual worse danger. However, what I want to warn you is to believe the truth in your heart and do not use your confinement to believe in falsehood in your heart. You may be trapped for the moment in the reality of the falsehood, but do not resign your mind to believing falsehood. Live openly the truth as soon as you are of age, out of the household, or in a genuinely safe place. But do not give into despair that you have to actually believe the garbage in your private heart, even if you have to live in its midst.
4. That you have to become "sanctified" according to a "schedule."
God is the creator of the universe, not subordinate to space, matter, energy or time. Thus if you attempt to sanctify (put yourself in service to God) according to a schedule, most particularly one based on occult beliefs, obviously you do not understand sanctification and are moving away from that goal, rather than toward it.
5. That you can be sanctified but hang onto a favorite sin.
You cannot partially sanctify. You cannot sanctify yourself in the Lord's eyes but continue to cheat people out of money, for example. Nor can you sanctify yourself in the Lord's eyes and eliminate all wrongdoings, but one, which is, for example, to continue to bear false witness. That is what can be viewed as an attempt to "cohabit" with a sin. Many times when the Bible condemns adultery, it means spiritual adultery (not literal hanky panky). This means you have a "marriage with God" but continue to cheat on the side with your favorite sin.
6. You think you are sanctified but hold yourself back from full worship and service to God because you are practicing "self denial."
This argument goes: I really love God and want to serve him, but because that would give me lots of pleasure I will hold back from being one hundred percent belonging to God, because I'm therefore suffering that loss of joy and that's a mortification and self-denial. What? That's nuts and the underlying reason for thinking this rubbish is reason #5, which is you are still hanging onto a favorite sin, and thus can't give yourself 100 percent to God because you are still "cheating on God" with your favorite sin or "lifestyle choice" (as moderns call sins today).
I hope this helps! Negative examples are very illuminating of how well one is really doing and probing genuine motivations.
I am including a nod toward the lame objective of the semi-believing or non-believing "New Agers" who claim to be "good" and thus want to be "spiritual." Being "spiritual" without belief in God is a structureless egocentric fraud, but I know many well meaning people fall into that trap, so I invite them to read this blog posting which is a "don't do" checklist for those who seek to be sanctified.
It's easy to write how to become something, but we also know that negative examples are also informative. So I've made a list of "warning signs," where if you do any of the following, you need to be alert that you are working away from sanctification, rather than toward it.
Here are things you might be doing, or traits that you have that you think indicate admirable fortitude (a gift of the Holy Spirit, by the way), but are deceiving and instead should be suspect.
1. If you persist in hanging onto false beliefs.
Some people think this is admirable, because they are "keeping an open mind" "just in case" up until the bitter end. This is a barrier to sanctification. Scripture show that when the scales fall from one's eyes, repentance, change and conversion should be immediate, and false beliefs must be dropped immediately and in total.
2. You are talented in finding reasons or excuses not to drop false beliefs, repent or convert.
In contrast to problem #1, this problem is not rooted in a false sense of "keeping an open mind" or "being loyal to one's beliefs" (even when proven wrong) but instead you have "reasons" to resist the truth. The problem with this, besides the obvious one that you want to get to truth, not resist truth, is that you are creating false links to past errors. It's like tying yourself down to the road using twine, then wire, then rope, then vines, when the objective should be not to tie one's self down to the road at all. You become trapped in thinking of more excuses, more ways, to tie yourself to error, rather than immediately move on to truth.
3. You have an actual, genuine reason for hanging onto false beliefs.
What if you are a minor child and have a parent who is violent, drug abusing, a blaspheming heretic who has horrific beliefs. Of course you have to think of your own well being, and I would not recommend that you "make a break for it" if that would put you or others in actual worse danger. However, what I want to warn you is to believe the truth in your heart and do not use your confinement to believe in falsehood in your heart. You may be trapped for the moment in the reality of the falsehood, but do not resign your mind to believing falsehood. Live openly the truth as soon as you are of age, out of the household, or in a genuinely safe place. But do not give into despair that you have to actually believe the garbage in your private heart, even if you have to live in its midst.
4. That you have to become "sanctified" according to a "schedule."
God is the creator of the universe, not subordinate to space, matter, energy or time. Thus if you attempt to sanctify (put yourself in service to God) according to a schedule, most particularly one based on occult beliefs, obviously you do not understand sanctification and are moving away from that goal, rather than toward it.
5. That you can be sanctified but hang onto a favorite sin.
You cannot partially sanctify. You cannot sanctify yourself in the Lord's eyes but continue to cheat people out of money, for example. Nor can you sanctify yourself in the Lord's eyes and eliminate all wrongdoings, but one, which is, for example, to continue to bear false witness. That is what can be viewed as an attempt to "cohabit" with a sin. Many times when the Bible condemns adultery, it means spiritual adultery (not literal hanky panky). This means you have a "marriage with God" but continue to cheat on the side with your favorite sin.
6. You think you are sanctified but hold yourself back from full worship and service to God because you are practicing "self denial."
This argument goes: I really love God and want to serve him, but because that would give me lots of pleasure I will hold back from being one hundred percent belonging to God, because I'm therefore suffering that loss of joy and that's a mortification and self-denial. What? That's nuts and the underlying reason for thinking this rubbish is reason #5, which is you are still hanging onto a favorite sin, and thus can't give yourself 100 percent to God because you are still "cheating on God" with your favorite sin or "lifestyle choice" (as moderns call sins today).
I hope this helps! Negative examples are very illuminating of how well one is really doing and probing genuine motivations.
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