‘Government as a human act of governing oneself and one’s responsibilities and one’s dependents is very different from the modern institution of the State.’ — Alana Roberts, from her film review of The Dark Knight Rises

Thursday, March 15, 2012

Start with Jesus

The fatal flaw of fundamentalism is its absolute reliance on its interpretation of words which are, in themselves, only translations (usually into archaic English) of what was originally written and spoken in the Hebrew and Greek languages, rarely taking into account the understandings of the ancients, calling them dead traditions.

They claim to be doctors of the Law but they understand neither the arguments they are using nor the opinions they are upholding.

Other forms of Christianity—Orthodoxy, Catholicism, classic Protestantism, even modern expressions not derived from the other three—certainly are also flawed, but not necessarily fatally.

What makes a fatal flaw? Anything which debars us from really hearing the words of Jesus and doing what He commands. We may say we know the Lord. We may say we believe solely in scripture. We may know and accept the four spiritual laws. We may even work miracles. But whose voice do we hear without letting our additions to it or our interpretations of it prevent us from observing it, prevent us from really following Him?

Start with the actual words of Jesus. Then let the apostles show us how to apply them. Do not start with the apostles, or worse yet, modern advocates of their own philosophies, and then add Jesus’ words as occasion requires. Start with Jesus. Join the apostles. Hear Him as they hear Him, and with them do what He does.

Next…

1 comment:

  1. Your sequence of religions--Orthodoxy, Catholicism, classic Protestantism--shows how far we have lapsed in our 21st century. There is only a remnant of classic Protestantism; nothing has replaced Protestantism as a religious movement. That is, nothing which is not fatally flawed. Protestantism itself has deteriorated much worse and more rapidly than Orthodoxy or Catholicism as a system of religious thought.

    Thank you for your definition of 'fatal flaw.' Your definition seems both accurate and charitable. Thank you also for the instructions in the last paragraph. I am guilty of that sometimes myself: reading the Epistles of St. Paul or the works of a saint more than I read the Gospels. "Start with Jesus."

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