One of the responses in this blog accused me of trying to have the “government of God”.
I’m not sure what he meant, unless he was referring to HWA’s ideas, which I abandoned way back in 1974.
Do I study government? Yes. Do I study economics? Yes. I also studied the development of law and its philosophy.
In terms of religion, correct me if I’m wrong, but here’s the gist of the story we’re told:
Israel was given God’s law. They had trouble keeping it, and eventually divided into two major kingdoms, Israel and Judah. Israel started making up their own rules, so they disappeared in history. Judah, later known as Jews, got their act together and started really focusing on the law, but in spite of themselves, they couldn’t do it, so God figured something out a little bit better.
It wasn’t possible for the people to obey God of themselves, so Jesus came a long and gave them something called a “Holy Spirit”. Now, if you “accept Christ”, you get that Holy Spirit, and you’re forgiven, and all you have to do is belong to some authorized church that has the Holy Spirit, and you pretty much got it made.
In modern terms, we might say that God transferred his “brand name” from Israel to Christians. Of course the law still counted and everything, but the official version of God’s will was now Christianity, the new “God, Incorporated”. If you believe in the “Holy Spirit”, you have the proper corporate logo.
Of course, HWA came along and helped us see through that, so we formed a new corporate logo that had the Holy Spirit AND “God’s law”. We didn’t just keep the sabbath, we did that other stuff, too. We were the official version with the right logo.
The problem is, there are about 38,000 versions and growing, of others who believe just as sincerely that they have the official logo, and within WCG splinter groups, who knows how many are springing up?
So, this guy Paul comes along, and everybody says Paul is the new organizer of the proper Holy Spirit. We try to reconcile Paul’s stuff with our beliefs in the law, and we think we’ve pretty well got it down. Yep, we’re the ones. We’ve got the story figured.
Back in 1974, I felt that way. But then I went to Ambassador College, and I got involved in their summer project building “Imperial Schools”. It was then I realized that “God’s government” was not a good government for peons like me. In fact, I found myself thinking “If this is God’s government, God can take it and…keep it”.
I returned to my home area in North Carolina, a very troubled young man. I began to slowly realize there is no “God’s government’, and it’s all a scam. No man can form God’s government.
The nation of Israel? yeah, right. Christianity? They’re so busy arguing among themselves about truth, the world could go on forever and there’d still be no solution.
The simple fact is, no human being can form God’s government, or God’s church or whatever you want to call it, first, because there is no evidence that there ever was a God, and even if there is, we’re totally incapable of figuring out what “he” wants us to do.
So why believe in God at all? The simplest reason in the world: Because that’s exactly what Paul told us!
Look at Romans 8:7. The natural mind is enmity against God. It cannot be subject to God’s laws. Okay, if you try to form a government of God based on that recognition, what is the result?
How about this:
1.No one can claim authority in Gods name, because no natural mind can be subject to God’s laws
2. Any attempt to create such an organization will result in a continual splintering of religions and ideas right into infinity, as we see around the world today.
This leaves humans with an illusion. The illusion is this: “Since my simple mind is enmity against God, and since I cannot ‘think straight” in terms of God, then it is necessary for me to become part of something “higher” than myself, like a church of God that has the “Holy Spirit”.
Yeah? Which one? If the natural mind is enmity against God, and there are over 38,000 versions of “God” and growing, which church can you possibly choose, and if you choose, how do you know you’re right?
Answer: You can’t!
There is nothing “higher” which you can join! No “government of God”, no “church of God”, nothing higher than your own individual reasoning mind to give you guidance, and your mind is just as good as anybody else’s mind!
Did Paul say that? Yes he did, and very plainly, not only pointing out that we cannot choose to be “elect”, but that it is simply impossible for us to make that choice(Romans 9:16-22, Eph 2:8-10, and other scriptures).
So, in that regard, did Paul tell us the truth? You’re darn right he did! Prove it wrong!
What did Jesus say in regard to the “end times”? First thing he warned his followers of in Matthew 24 was deception. “many will come in my name, saying, I am Christ(or messiah)”.
If those with the “Holy Spirit” cannot be deceived, why would Jesus warn against deception right at the start? If he warned against deception, that in itself would imply that we DO possess some sort of reasoning power that would show us how NOT to be deceived, wouldn’t it?
All, right, here’s the big question: How can you know you’re not deceived?
The answer is amazingly simple, and it’s the only possible correct answer!
There is no point whatever in followng any of them, and that’s exactly what Jesus said in Matthew 24:23!
“Then if any man(woman, boy or girl) say unto you, Lo, here is Christ, or there; believe it not”.
Now, let’s compare that to the statement by Ayn Rand in “The Fountainhead”. In that book Rand was writing against collectivism, against religions, against governments, against all forms of collectivized authority that robbed men of their right to their own mind. In this passage, Rand was writing from the point of view of Ellsworth Toohey, the man who worked to control the minds of others. In this passage, he reveals his strategy for the control of men’s minds:
“Men have a weapon against you. Reason. So you must be very sure to take it away from them. Cut the props from under it. But be careful. Don’t deny outright. Never deny anything outright, you give your hand away. Don’t say reason is evil–though some have gone that far with astonishing success. Just say that reason is limited. That there’s something
above it. What? You don’t have to be too clear about it either. The field’s inexhaustible. ‘Instinct’–‘Feeling’–Revelation’–‘Divine Intuition’–‘Dialectical Materialism’. If you get caught at some crucial point and somebody tells you that your doctrine doesn’t make sense–you’re ready for him. You tell him that there’s something above sense, that here he must not try to think, he must feel. He must believe. Suspend reason, and you play it deuces wild.”
Governments grow more powerful, individual reason dies. Religion grows more powerful, the mind withers. Ayn Rand said we have a weapon against such powers: the individual mind, REASON.
And what did Jesus say? “If any man says to you, Lo, here is Christ, or there, BELIEVE IT NOT”.
What did Paul tell us? Same thing. There exists no decision procedure whatever, either collectively or individually, by which we may reach something “higher” than our own minds in order to rule over others. It is simply impossible(Ephesians 2;8-10).
That is agreement between an atheist and “believers”!
So, mister smarty pants that tells me you can’t reconcile the bible with Ayn Rand, here’s a very mature “nyah,nyah, nyah,nyah,nyah!”