The Essence of Christianity - Part 2
by P. Abraham Paul Karottuveettil, Trivandrum
(The Essence of Christianity - Part 2)
Is everything contained in the old scriptures fully convincing to everyone? As these scriptures were written later, assumptions of events related to periods of non-existence of humans in its literal form do not seem to be convincing now, to at least a few. Then what shall we do? Attempting to discredit what is in the scriptures shall neither be our objective nor our intention. While honoring the scriptures fully, it is not unfair to look beyond its literal meaning where we have doubts, to better understand this according to our modern perception.
Let us go back to Adam and Eve. The literal explanation in the scripture describe that they disobeyed God in eating the fruit of a forbidden tree and God punished them. We are taught so and thus we believe this. Perhaps those who find it difficult to believe it in its literal meaning may look at it this way. Basically the earliest ones of creation acted against the intentions of their Creator. It is certain that when the created ones act against the intention of the Creator, it will definitely lead to negative effects and disharmony. This must be easy to understand because we see it happening every day around us.
From the beginning of their existence, every minute of the day, we the descendants of Adam & Eve, somewhere, somehow are persecuting, hurting and killing each other for no worthy reasons. We continue to do many ghastly things against human nature’s intention. We compete against each other with vengeance to destroy in many ways. Bad actions against providential entity will definitely breed bad effects. All of this hurts and causes disharmony and sadness. On the other hand, for the good deeds we do, we will be rewarded with happiness, harmony and peace. If we can understand this, it becomes easy to understand the meaning of the creation story. It is also easy to understand the good deeds and the bad ones. The scriptures are to be learned not only through its words but also by its implications.
God is real. None shall have doubt about that. But can human words, human formulae, and human religious systems ever be able to fully capture that reality? Will it not be anything but idolatrous and foolhardy if anyone at anytime claims to have done this? The fact is that human beings try to approach God only with human analogy, nothing more. They have even created God in their own image and of many other different shapes. One should visualize and experience God’s effects, not God’s being. No one can ever try to see God as a disincarnate or separate self.
According to scriptures, the one that God loved the most among His creations is man, whom He made in his own image. Then God would definitely despise his loving creations, made in his own image, who indulge in hatred with each other and live in sadness. The opposite to hate is love, the most valuable thing in the eyes of God. Only deeds that evoke and involve love pleases Him. Where there is love there is compassion and kindness.
The happenings of Christ are one of the effects of God. Christ is the best thing that happened in this world. Those who believe in Christ are those who have faith in his teachings. Christ has made everyone to understand God, the effects of God, and the true meaning of the values of life, death and life after death.
Christ was not for any change of the covenants of God and the rules set by God through Moses and others. He never disregarded or contested anything in the scriptures. Christ was only against the misinterpretations of scriptures and prophesies by Jewish priestly and elite classes. Remember his saying, "Take care; be on your guard against the yeast of the Pharisees and Sadducees” (St. Mathew 16:6). In saying this, He meant about the corrupt ones willfully misguiding the lay men with their twisted interpretations of God’s covenants, rules, and prophesies written in scriptures.
Christ explained to us the real meanings of all these and how these are relevant in our life. Explaining the implications with parables, Christ made it simpler and clearer for the common man to understand, believe and follow. He removed the heavy burdens, both physical and spiritual, on people by willful false interpretations of the old scriptures. The most wonderful aspect of Christ’s teaching is that these are continuous and permanent. These were relevant 2000 year ago, it is valid now and it will be even more relevant in the future. This is so because as the mankind advance in their knowledge, Christ’s way of thinking becomes more relevant in real sense of things that matters in life.
Let us come back to our subject, the situations in our earthly life and thereafter. Look at what He taught us about these, and how compassion, kindness and love are related to these based on it His teachings.
Situation After Earthly Life
Let us have a look at the situations after our earthly life. We know that Christ did not put down anything in writing by himself. We have His teachings in the New Testament written by his disciples. In the form of epistles of St. Paul, then gospel of St. Mark in the middle of the first century, and the gospels of St. Mathew, St. Luke and St. John thereafter. If clarity is lacking or inconsistency is found somewhere in the Gospels, it is not because the teachings of Christ was not clear, it could only be due to the residue of influence of Jewish tradition on the Gospel writers.
Rising From Death
We have many literal explanations about Christ’s incarnation as man through a virgin mother, and the resurrection after physical death. But there are many who are skeptic about the happenings in Christ’s life and His resurrection and cast doubts about these literal explanations.
Here again, since we believe in the existence of God just by experiencing God’s effects, look at the effect and the experiences of the life and death of Jesus and the happenings afterwards such as those that had never occurred in this world again. Then no one should have difficulty in believing in Christ and His resurrection and eternity.
As Christians, we all believe in the Resurrection of Christ. We believe that Christ lives with us. If we don't, then the existence of our religion itself becomes questionable. Look at what Christ taught us, quoting the Lord's words as written in Exodus 3:6. St. Mathew 22:32, St. Luke 20: 37-38: “I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob. God is not the God of the dead, but of the living.”
In our prayer for departed ones we say every day: "O Thou, full of mercy, renew Thy creation at the time of the resurrection. O Lord, comfort and absolve our departed ones who died with the hope in Thee, and await Thy coming. O Lord, make them dwell in the bosom of Abraham, and of Isaac, and of Jacob. May the living and the departed together cry out, Blessed is He, who has come, and is to come, and give life to the dead, Amen"
Our God is the God of the living, not of the dead, for to Him all are alive. From this we learn two very important truths about life and death:
1) We have a living God. He is always with us.
2) Our God is the God of living ones, not a God of the dead.
According to Christ, real death happens only if our soul loses the Godly spirit. Those who are absolved of sins and attain salvation never die; and the one who live in sin not seeking salvation is already dead. So we need to see physical life in us and God’s Spirit in us (living and departed) as two different entities.
Again, in the above daily prayer for the departed we say: "May the living and the departed together cry out, Blessed is He, who has come, and is to come, and give life to the dead." This means that God’s Spirit in the living, and that with the departed, we are to cry out.
The spirit never dies. It gets corrupted due to sin. It is due to our living in sin that the presence of God in our spirit is lost. Then it becomes an evil spirit and the body is as good as dead. But as we attain salvation, we are raised from death and without salvation we remain dead.
When raised from death, Life and Spirit become one entity. Luke 20: 35-36 tells us, ‘The men and women who are worthy to rise from dead and live in the age to come will be like angels and cannot die. There no one is given in marriage. All are in an equal state of existence." Life and spirit becomes one entity in the presence of God. So our physical death and loss of our physical body become insignificant. If we understood this, then we could understand what Jesus meant when he said: “Let the dead ones go and bury their dead”
That is why we should understand that Christ’s teachings have far fetching meaning. With the advent of bio-science, it might be possible to overcome physical death in the future. Also maybe a physical body with life in it could be created by cloning. The question is whether, such a body with life will have the presence of Godly spirit. And what is the use of a body without grace of the Godly spirit. It will be a body just that of any other animal.
God’s spirit in us produce patience, kindness, faithfulness, humility, love, and self-control, giving us to joy and peace. What is the use of you gaining everything in this world without earning Godly Spirit?
What shall we do to save our spirit? Answer is simple, we have to obey His teachings and make ourselves eligible to attain salvation through His grace and mercy. How to make ourselves eligible is our next main theme. For this let us proceed through the next point in our discussion.
source: http://www.socdigest.org/articles/01jun07.html
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