Although I find your interpretation of Matthew 7 less disturbing than most, I have to live day to day with the common perception of this passage that allows those who disagree with my theology to call me dehumanizing names and subject me to the real-life consequences of being thus dehumanized. It gives me no comfort to imagine that the passing down of some twee pure secret teachings is taking place in an unseen citadel of holiness amongst the properly initiated so that I (swine that I am) won't be inadvertently condemned by them.
MY DEAR BROTHER,
Not to be judgmental as the preceeding section of Matthew 7 warns, but those who choose to seek to dehumanize others who do not accept their doctrinal assertions fall far short of our Lord's definition of the character traits requisite for a Christian to possess in order to be worthy of the Name. Anything less is something else!
He should not have said what he said in Matthew 7. He should not have told the stories of separating out mankind, as in Matthew 25, in the manner in which he did. These stories have alienated human against human in his name. It breaks my heart. I cannot tell you how much. I have twisted my mind into knots searching for an apologetic that will allow me to trust the gospels again.
The Scriptures you mention do indeed "separate out mankind"--they separate the Children of God from the children of the evil one. This is a good and necessary thing--the separation of good from evil; weeds from wheat; light from darkness; Love from hate.
This necessity becomes problematic when sinful men take this process of judgment upon themselves rather than leaving it to God, leading to heinous spiritual crimes which run the gamot of those against individuals such as character assassination, up to and including those against mankind such as the Inquisition, the Salem Witch Trials, the Crusades, etc. This is why, in Matthew 7, in the paragraph immediately before the "Pearls Before Swine" injunction, our Lord strongly forbides His followers from judging others.
God alone has the Power, Authority, Capability, and Love to judge aright. Given that God's judgment is
always correct to the Nth degree, we should be able to trust His Loving--God is, after all, Love--Judgment and it should fill us with comfort and gratitude rather than "twisting our mind into knots". If God's righteous judgment did not exist, what kind of a place would the Universe quickly become? Spiritual anarchy would quickly create a universal hell. What is there about this necessary process of separating good from evil that throws you into your described state of despair? i would think the opposite would be through if you thought the whole thing through without judging God by human standards.
I take it from your font that you want me to be sure to read this part.
That would indeed be a reasonable assumption.
I have met what seems to me to be the partial Christ of the gospels. I have met a Christ who can be profound one minute yet culturally bound and, it would seem, even a little afraid of his own message the next. I have met a Christ upon whom such depths of human affect have been heaped that his less than perfect revelation seems to be a danger. I do not know how to respond to him, at this juncture, except to be extremely cautious.
The Christ you describe is based upon your own misperceptions of what you have read in Scripture--it is NOT based upon an actual meeting with our Lord Himself after which it is impossible to retain such misconceptions as you describe.
GOD IS LOVE. PERIOD! Nothing in Matthew 7 or 25 or elsewhere on earth or in heaven contradicts this all-encompassing quality of our Lord, God, and Savior. It never deviates; it never changes; it is eternally the same and rendered equally to all. i have met Him face to face and i can testify without hesitation that this is the Gospel Truth. It is most important that God be evaluated based upon Who He is, what His life was about, what He did for us on Good Friday and Easter Sunday, and what He offers to each and every one of us who turn to Him in love, trust, and surrender--NOT upon the actions, attitudes, and pronouncements of some of His so-called "christian" "followers" who are, in reality, nothing of the kind.
I am not sure I understand the question.
My brother--you wrote,
Love in its purest form is subsequently held hostage by, manipulated by and turned to the service of a particularly wretched despair ruled by the fear of one's fellow human being. What do we do with a Christ who prompts us to see to the log in our own eye in one breath and in nearly the next breath encourages us to think of certain others as if they were not quite human? It would have been better to have been left alone as I for one can now barely wrench any love whatsoever free.
Nowhere has Jesus ever done anything which can be construed as "encouraging us to think of certain others as if they were not quite human." The majority of His followers were the cast-offs of society, which SOCIETY considered "not quite human"--the prostitutes, the lepers, the Samaritans, the tax collectors, the demon possessed, etc. What He has told us as Christians is that we MUST Love our enemies with fervor at least equal to the Love we have for our family and friends.
i find this great misperception you have of our Lord heart-breaking, as i stated. It is, at best, a straw man of such colossal magnitude that it blocks out all Truth. At worst, it is an unfair/untrue/unwarranted judgment exactly equal to that rendered by those who engineered our Lord's crucifixion. i CANNOT EMPHASIZE HOW FAR FROM THE TRUTH YOUR PERCEPTION OF JESUS CHRIST IS IN THIS AREA! How can SomeOne be charged with "seeing others as not quite human" when He Lovingly forgave those who were torturing Him to death--certainly an "animal act" of a "sub-human" in my personal sinful estimation!
I am happy to regroup. As a skeptic, I regroup often. I seldom carry orthodoxy to the gospels these days. It's an interesting process to examine them without it. I want nothing more than to see things as they truly are, or as close as my human perceptions and thought processes allow.
"Human perceptions and thought processes" allow very little in the way of TRUE VISION in spiritual matters. Only the eyes of the heart when informed by the Spirit have the capability to discern Truth in these matters. This leads to the "interesting process" you allude to becoming, in essence, merely another mind game--"interesting, perhaps, but certainly neither Light-sheding nor life change-producing.
Your wording seem to convey a sense of urgency. May I suggest we allow gravity to inform the time-line of our inquiries rather than urgency. Time simply does not run out on issues of such importance. My life, and my quest for the truth, will of necessity bleed into that of those who will come after me. I can only hope to carry on my little part with as much integrity as I can muster.
The "urgency" you allude to is engendered by the fact that "a life is a terrible thing to waste." Each minute is precious when spiritual matters are in hand. (Or perhaps this is just in my own head because i am now officially a "senior citizen.")
I hope the fact that I have described my thoughts in strong terms has not unduly distressed you (or placed me on the wrong side of a CF rule). If we cannot place the hard questions then there is little hope of understanding one another, little hope of enlightenment.
i think you misperceive me as you do my Lord. You are not on the "wrong side" of anything nor are you--or can you--"unduly distress" me. (Don't mistake font size for "distress.")
Thank you! True "Peace", i have discovered, is only available from The Prince of Peace--Jesus Christ. As He said,
"PEACE I LEAVE WITH YOU; MY PEACE I GIVE YOU. I DO NOT GIVE TO YOU AS THE WORLD GIVES. DO NOT LET YOUR HEARTS BE TROUBLED AND DO NOT BE AFRAID."(John 14:27)
LOVE TO YOU IN CHRIST,
ephraim
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