Madness
“Therefore Pilate said to Him, ‘So You are a king?’ Jesus answered, ‘You say correctly that I am a king. For this I have been born, and for this I have come into the world, to testify to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth hears My voice.’” John 18:37 NASB
For this –Pues el delito mayor del hombre es haber nacido (For man’s greatest sin is that he was born).Pedro Calderon de la Barca, in Life is a Dream. (Segismundo, Act I, Scene II).
Madness has enveloped the earth. Calderon captures it perfectly. If we are born sinners, then our greatest crime is to exist. And we must pay for this violation of cosmic order. We must pay with death. Madness. For no choice of your own, you are held accountable to a capital offense under the wrath of an angry God. Your very existence is a blight on the universe. What is your sin? You were born.
Imagine living with this specter overshadowing your existence. Imagine what this does to your sense of justice, your idea of God. If it is true that you and I are guilty simply because we are born, then what can justice really mean? Madness. A world created by an insane God. Who would create such a place, punishing with eternal damnation the creatures unfortunate to be the by-product of “love”? In fact, if this is really true, the greatest antidote to the madness of God is to refuse to propagate the species. End it now. Why bring children into a world like this? The greatest love is to refuse them life.
Couple this madness with the idea that God foreknows all of this and you will see why the intellectuals of the age walked away from this God. He is no Father, no caretaker of the race. He is worse than Satan himself, knowing in advance that He intends to hold everyone guilty for acts perpetrated upon them without any choice of their own. Would you ever worship such a god? You might be compelled to do obeisance but only as a result of threat. Calderon is right. If this is the God of the universe, all of creation is a product of insanity.
Yeshua was born. Serious theological gymnastics were invented to exempt him from the blight of existing. But if we put aside the theology, and the nonsense it creates, if we read the words spoken by our Savior, we cannot accept Calderon’s conclusion to Augustine’s mistake. Yeshua was born into this world to establish a Kingdom of Truth! That Kingdom portrays the Father as the Great Hunter, seeking the lost love of His chosen people, willing to do whatever it takes to woo them back into His truly loving care. That Kingdom is filled with compassion, not willing for a single one to be lost. That Kingdom rests on grace, favor poured out on the innocent and the guilty. Yeshua came into this world to redeem it from madness, the madness of men who viewed life as burden, balance scales and blameworthiness. Yeshua was born so that you and I might be freed from the psychopathology of theology.
Topical Index: madness, John 18:37, born, sinful nature, Calderon, Augustine
Brilliant!
But easier said than done…
THANK YOU, SKIP!!
Our insanity must go to the very bottom, because we are capable of falling for the lies of the Accuser to the very deepest parts of the heart. The heart is “desperately wicked, and who can know it?”. The instant I believed that I was capable of existing under a “leaning unto mine own understanding” I became easy pickin’s. I became insane. I suffered the diseases of insanity. I believed horrible and treasonous accusations about my Creator, myself and others with that wicked heart and the despair of my heart fueled death in my life.
I am praising my Redeemer Who has “delivered me from this body of death”!!!
Daria, I woke up with you on my heart. I don’t know how to contact you on this forum, but if you are reading this, I would really like to say I would like to be your friend, if you are interested. Or we could just say “hi” or something! If you get an inclination to communicate with this still-slightly-insane person, however, you could email me at lauritahayes@gmail.com.
Love, Laurita
So many years ago, in New York, the play “Stop the World, I want to get off,” was the introduction to my seminary education. That play captured my attention and taught me a lesson I did not know I needed to learn. The world was a confusing, not very friendly place. However, getting off was not an option outside of death. Augustine had taught the world so well! We deserve so much better.
I do not, can not, believe in God based upon what I have read anywhere in the thousands of pages of books, sacred and otherwise. Notwithstanding all the madness in the world, I believe in God based on the faith, hope and love of the people I encounter every day.
Theological gymnastics notwithstanding it is reasonable to assume that Jesus was born on earth and he became the greatest prophet who ever lived. It is not reasonable to assume he was born of a virgin in a manger with a star standing still overhead etcetera. I believe the bible and other “sacred” writings give me good direction as I go about my daily life but I gain more from what I hear when I meditate, contemplate and ponder all this: Give thanks for what you have. Love and you will be loved. Forgive and you will be forgiven. Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. Simple, but not easy. I like simple.
The end product I will happily leave in someone else’s all-loving metaphoric Hands to determine. I have faith in God, what else do I need?
Obedience
@George Kraemer – I get what your saying but, I think by the same standard, it isn’t reasonable to think man was created from the dust, woman came from the rib and side of a man or that the Creator of heaven and earth created everything in the heavens and the earth in just 6 days. And we’d have no way of knowing those things to be true except by what He’s told men, and told them to write it down.
The scriptures are given to us for many things but just a few reasons would be;
To know what our Creator has told us is right and wrong or good and evil. We don’t inherently really know those things. nor would we even have a desire (naturally) to hold ourselves to a standard of what’s upright, honest and good. I mean we’re taught by our parents and of course so are they. A parent could teach their children anything and the child wouldn’t know any better. Same goes with our relationship with our Father.
Scripture gives us a standard to hold up everything to and to hold even each others accountable for what we say and do.
We wouldn’t even know the Shabbat, feasts, new moon or any times. I mean that is why He put the stars and planets in the sky. But, we wouldn’t know that either, had it not been written down.
If we start pulling on that kind of thread, then where does it stop?
No, the scriptures are true, can be and should be trusted and held to.
I think Paul gives us a good understanding in Romans 7 of how nothing good exists within us apart from God and from His words “written down” for us. We don’t “naturally desire” to do good, for ourselves or each other, actually the opposite, and we won’t if we’re fooled into thinking we can rely and trust in our “good natural”.
If we think we will “naturally” or inherently, desire or will do good on our own, then to me, that would be a definition of and the result of, madness.
To what command?
To any and all that apply to you. Try searching 613 on my web site. Or listen to the audio lectures I did on this subject when I was in Virginia Beach.
Mark – I agree with your comments that ideally we should have a written word of God even if our languages are pathetically incapable of describing the ineffable cosmic truth without a HUGE amount of endless conflicting Midrash-style discussions. But hopefully what comes out has value and I believe it does and has. Many Illuminated people have tried, unsuccessfully. Maybe that’s why Jesus didn’t. If he was God he could have. Maybe that’s why he was always speaking in parables. More easily understood. Simpler.
I also believe the universe is millions of years old and I believe in evolution from a metaphorical “snap” of God’s fingers, aka “the big bang”. The universe is expanding, therefore by definition it had a point of creation. The only question is when and how? Evolution is not in conflict with biblical creation. We have no way of absolutely knowing anything but we have OVERWHELMING evidence that the world is not 5 or 10,000 years old. Furthermore we need to listen more closely to our ancient mythology and our personal experiences. Mythology is timeless, transcendent, wise.
At a moment appropriate to God in His wisdom, He infused ONE (or more) of His ever evolving animal creations, (the mythological Adam and Eve), with what I call a spiritual nature, some 5 or 10,000 or 50,000 years ago as the bible says, so that we could learn all about our God and His laws slowly, in keeping with our very slowly evolving human nature. We are intelligent but it takes us a long time to become functioning humans and even longer to become wise. Compared to the other animals we are downright stupid. It takes us a year to learn to walk, two years to learn to begin to communicate, 18 years to become an adult and a lifetime to try to become wise. Most animals do all this in a blink (except for the wise bit but sometimes I’m not so sure about that either). Hopefully we do eventually get there but ……????
I like Paul. I trust Paul. He is the closest person we have who writes in the first person about his actual lifetime experiences that would have included personal interviews I’m sure, not second-hand, rehashed, added to, or edited scripts by a multitude of others, over a longer later period of time, whose opus may get chosen to be included with or without editing eventually in the bible. But Paul has virtually nothing to say about the historical Jesus.Why not? He was closer in time to Jesus than the other writers but I will put that aside.
I have experienced walking the same roads that Paul did in Rome, Malta, Ephesus, Jerusalem and elsewhere. I toured CERN weeks after the discovery of the so-called “God” particle. I have seen the ancient drawings on the cave walls. The stones and particle accelerators and telescopes and geology and DNA speak even if the Oracle doesn’t. I wish I could have watched my shadow illuminated by the rising sun Plato-like on the cave wall. Maybe some day I will also become wise. Maybe. I live in hope.
Yes, at some point we must realize that the solution will not come from WITHIN the human sphere. But that does not mean the language of the solution revealed is anything but human, and so the circumstances, culture and time of the revelation must be part of our attempt to understand. To treat Genesis as if it were written by Newton is not only to do injustice to the text but to ascribe to Newton theories that we know now were also incorrect. Evolution is not in conflict with Genesis because, in my humble opinion, one is poetry and the other is a cookbook recipe. What does Joyce Kilmer have to do with dendrology?
Great stuff Skip!
I feel like sending your expression: “Your very existence is a blight on the universe.” to all members of the Congress and to the President up in DC. I would, only I know it would be a waste of my time. The madness will continue in politics and in religion till HE comes and disqualifies them all from their positions.
A quick question. From your phrase towards the end: “not willing for a single one to be lost”, can I risk assuming that you are with me on the UR bus? :-))
Shalom
Unfortunately, you can’t assume that as of yet. I find too much about reward and punishment to be convinced that no evil will go unnoticed. But who knows. I have changed my mind about other things as I continue to study.
@George Kraemer – I guess I’m just one of those strange people that believe the word of God as wrote down is true in everything it says. Like yeah, creation was created in 6 days and yes He did create something into nothing. Sure evolution can happen within species. All we have to do is look at people from 50 years ago and see the differences. But, one species didn’t evolve into another. That would go against what He said, that things were created after like kind. I do not believe in any “big bang theory”. Unless of course we’re calling, God creating, a big bang. But it sure wasn’t some cosmic collision that happened at a random event.
And I tend to put more credibility into Gods word then I do what science says is or isn’t true.
I’m also one of those nuts, I guess, that says that yes, Yeshua is all God, Yes He is all man, and no I don’t think it possible to really wrap our finite minds around those concepts. And it’s a exercise in futility to even try. Somethings are just above my pay grade and I’m good with that.
While I certainly appreciate the commitment to traditional explanations (although perhaps not their longevity), and I recognize that evangelical Christianity holds these things to be self-evident based on a particular view of inspiration and inherency, I am not so sure that what you say isn’t conditioned far more by the belief system of the religious paradigm rather than by the text. After all, you would have a hard time convincing me that Moses was concerned about celestial mechanics, quantum physics or dinosaurs. And if the text didn’t mean anything to the original audience because they were scientifically illiterate, then are we really prepared to claim that its moral implications apply to us in spite of its lack of application in other respects to the children of Israel recently removed from Egypt?
Mark, I am happy that you are comfortable in your position, but don’t dismiss scientists too glibly. Many of them are believers but they havent spent millions of collective years wasting their time. Think about that the next time you are in the hospital.
re 6 day creation. What took God so long? Why not just kabamm and be done with it. He is God after all.
Mark – I glad that you are comfortable with your position but I would ask, why did God take 7 “days” to create the world? What’s wrong with just kabamm or maybe 7 years! It was a huge project but He is God after all. Time as we know it is a human construct so that we can give some relevance to our temporal existence. “Seven days” and the “earth as the center of the universe” has no meaning outside our planetary motion as scientist Galileo clearly explained in contradiction to the bible for which he and fellow scientist Copernicus paid dearly to those who insisted otherwise. As we know it is a fact, not a belief.
As for God, I agree with God as did Jesus. “Why do you call me good? Only God is good alone” Luke 18:19 The clear implication is that he is denying any claim to divinity. For me, one God means One God. “I am the Lord thy God thou shalt not have false gods before thee.” The “voice” of God, the Holy Spirit is not God either, but God’s inspiration behind our understanding of God whether it be in the bible or in a quiet corner of my busy life. I have no problem with Jesus as “the Way, the Truth and the Light.” I too could be the same if I live a righteous life for everyone else I meet every day. Would that it were so.
Unlike our politicians and bureaucrats who just want to get elected or appointed, scientists are just like you and me wanting to make sense of the world. And they do so objectively, honestly, openly. You might want to remember that the next time you are in the hospital being treated and maybe your life depends on them. We owe them. Science is never absolute but it is anything but hocus pocus or arbitrary.
Thanks for your reply. George
computer glitch with the above early draft being sent accidentally. Sorry
Newton’s Law of Gravity may have been superseded by Einstein’s law of relativity as we understand particle and wave theory duality physics today but for practical purposes Newton’s Three Laws of Motion are still relevant every time you start and stop your car at a traffic light, drive down the highway and hopefully not crash into another car.
Meanwhile if the bible has a complete explanation for gravity, the world is waiting to hear it, especially my grandson who graduated last week in astrophysics but I can’t understand. (I hope he can find a job.)
Meanwhile as you say, “the circumstances, culture and time of the revelation must be part of our attempt to understand.” Two thousand years later that is exactly what I am trying my best to do assuming of course that revelation was not a once upon a time thing. Or was it? Does God not speak to us today? He said He would always be with us.
I look forward to hearing your Virginia Beach tapes with the help of my X Generation and/or Next Generation offspring.
@George Kraemer – Science changes every time someone figures something out new or better but, the word of Adonai is lasting, true and can always be trusted.
I don’t discount science or medicine. Heck medicine and modern treatments just kept my mother alive for about twice the time she was given and help keep her at peace as she passed. However, I also believe that science knowledge comes directly from God to man, not the other way around. By His grace and loving kindness for all His creation, and with the terrible things we’ve tried so hard to do to destroy it with ( and with many of these great scientific breakthroughs no less), He in His mercy rains on the just and the unjust.
How arrogant and foolish it would be to assume that science and all the Brainiacs are able to figure out all this great knowledge apart from the One that created it all and sustains it all. Not a chance.
And as a side note, in answer to your question “why did it take God 6 days to create”. My answer is simple, Who am I to question the creator, the potter that formed all and whom by all came to be and remains? And why would that be a issue to us? God does nothing without purpose. So, it would be my humble opinion that He did it because He wanted too.
Blessings to you and your home George
“. . . you and I might be freed from the psychopathology of theology.”
Theology is inescapable. Someone’s theology will govern our thinking. Otherwise we are trying to operate in theological vacuum. And theologial vacuum’s don’t exist. Thus the statement “you and I might be freed from the psychopathology of theology.” is itself a theological statement. 🙂
Yes, but not all theology is psycho.
Hi Skip, couldn’t the *Refining fire (of punishment) be after judgement, where a just length will be determined by our Lord for the need of perhaps each person.. To be refined by fire and completed only after He can see His reflection in them.. Just a thought.
A good thought, but really an echo of a lot of Greek mystical religions (as noted in my lectures on Dionysus and the afterlife, recently given in Israel). In Greek religions, souls were reincarnated for recycling to work off their “crimes” until they were accepted into “heaven.” The process of purgation was part of the thinking of Dionysus cults and it seems to me shows up in Plato and Augustine. But I don’t find anything like it in the Tanakh
“Cada uno con su locura” is a popular Cuban saying.
When you visit Brisbane, this should be on the top of the discussion list. LOL
Skip, surely Mamie’s point about this “refining by fire finds expression in Malachi where we find the prophet lacerating the Levitical priests for their corruption. In Malachi 3 the setting is after the return of Messiah to sort out the mess:
“And who will stand when HE appears? For HE is like a refiner’s fire and like fuller’s soap.And HE shall sit as a refiner and purifier of silver; and HE shall purify the sons of Levi, and purge them like gold and like silver that they may be offerers of a food offering in righteousness to YHVH.” (Mal.3:3-4)
Is this not a beautiful metaphor for the refinement from God’s “fiery Torah”? (Deuteronomy 33:2) After all, isn’t only through returning to obedience to Torah that the priests will be righteous in their priestly functions?