Why Is the System So Vital to Christians?
Many Christians obsess over the system. Their biggest concern is that the current system is not a Christian system, and they pine for a day when the system will be Christian again. If not that, then at least a more Christian-leaning system, or a system that is not openly anti-Christian.
Whichever way they lean, most Christians appear to agree on the fundamental need for a system. System is regarded as a sacred construct that has been inverted. If it is not rescued and reformed, it will continue to decay into utter disorder, which is unthinkable. Thus, the system must be realigned and restored.
I don't think such realignment or restoration would do much for Christianity as a whole.
Far from being sacred, the system -- any human system on earth organizing men into societies -- strikes me as a sort of necessary evil; an inevitable part of mortal life, like suffering, entropy, and death. Sure, the system keeps us alive and offers us all sorts of necessities, comforts, and pleasures, but it also has tendency to conflict with and stultify spirit.
Christians seem to believe that a Christian system will not exhibit such tendencies, that it will instead nurture and protect spirit. I sense that Christian systems may have offered such nurturing and protection in the past, but it was always at the price of freedom, self-discovery, and personal spiritual growth (spirit was subjected to and subdued by the external forces of churches, dogma, doctrine, etc).
I very much doubt any Christian system would nurture or protect anything today. Quite the opposite.
All of that aside, most Christians seem blind to the larger point about the significance and supposed sacredness of "system." It strikes me that Jesus was not keen on the system during his life on earth and was mostly uninterested in the machinations and functionings of any system. His teachings are glaringly un-systematic, as is his offer of everlasting life in Heaven.
Although Christians will argue otherwise and point to the Gospels for "proof," I do not believe Jesus' prime mission was the establishment of a system of salvation, let alone an ideal system for earthly life.
In fact, I do not think these were even a secondary or tertiary aims.
Whichever way they lean, most Christians appear to agree on the fundamental need for a system. System is regarded as a sacred construct that has been inverted. If it is not rescued and reformed, it will continue to decay into utter disorder, which is unthinkable. Thus, the system must be realigned and restored.
I don't think such realignment or restoration would do much for Christianity as a whole.
Far from being sacred, the system -- any human system on earth organizing men into societies -- strikes me as a sort of necessary evil; an inevitable part of mortal life, like suffering, entropy, and death. Sure, the system keeps us alive and offers us all sorts of necessities, comforts, and pleasures, but it also has tendency to conflict with and stultify spirit.
Christians seem to believe that a Christian system will not exhibit such tendencies, that it will instead nurture and protect spirit. I sense that Christian systems may have offered such nurturing and protection in the past, but it was always at the price of freedom, self-discovery, and personal spiritual growth (spirit was subjected to and subdued by the external forces of churches, dogma, doctrine, etc).
I very much doubt any Christian system would nurture or protect anything today. Quite the opposite.
All of that aside, most Christians seem blind to the larger point about the significance and supposed sacredness of "system." It strikes me that Jesus was not keen on the system during his life on earth and was mostly uninterested in the machinations and functionings of any system. His teachings are glaringly un-systematic, as is his offer of everlasting life in Heaven.
Although Christians will argue otherwise and point to the Gospels for "proof," I do not believe Jesus' prime mission was the establishment of a system of salvation, let alone an ideal system for earthly life.
In fact, I do not think these were even a secondary or tertiary aims.
No comments have been added yet.
