What Makes (You) (Not) A Christian?
Discover more from Children of Job: Dark Encounters with Enlightenment
What Makes (You) (Not) A Christian?
God, You, & the Bible (Reader Survey)
Before we get back to Job, a question for you, the reader. Where does your idea of “God” come from, if not from your direct, perceived experience? The answer, at least the one that I am going to give you, is: the Bible (this is true even if you have never read it).
Yet is it not also true (inescapable) that the Bible is only as good as whoever is reading it? Think about this. I will pick it up and unpack it in the next post.
And what is true of the Bible must surely also be true of all words, including this column. So now is your chance to improve the quality of this column, by taking a few minutes to answer—or at least contemplate—some of the following questions. (If appropriate, substitute “Moslem” or “Jew”—or even “atheist”—for “Christian.”)
1. Does God exist? (Yes, No, Maybe; alternatively: is “God” a useful word?)
2. Does enlightenment exist?
3. Is there such a thing as objective reality?
4. If so, how can we know it? If not, what?
5. Do you consider yourself a Christian?
6. What does it mean to be a Christian?
7. Is being a Christian a matter of self-identification, group affiliation, action, belief, or something else?
8. How essential is reading the Bible to being a Christian?
9. How essential is belonging to any particular Church?
10. Is the idea of enlightenment compatible with being a Christian?
11. Was Christ like us or fundamentally different (more-than-human)?
12. What is the basis for your morality?
13. Is some form of a belief in God essential to community relations?
14. Do you own a Bible?
15. If so, how often on average do you read it?
16. What’s your ratio of interest for Old vs. New Testaments?
17. Do you attend a church? Would you consider it?
18. How essential is attaining knowledge to wisdom, enlightenment, or revelation?
19. How essential is revelation to knowledge?
20. Is the Bible a work of revelation, a moral code, a manual, or something else?
21. Is it the word of God?
22. If so, what percentage? 100%? 50%? 5%?
23. How essential is the Old Testament to Christianity?
24. Is the Christian God the same as Yahweh, the God of the Tanakh (Old Testament)?
25. If so, how? If not, how not?
26. Are Jews still God’s chosen people? Were they ever?
27. Is it okay for God to have a chosen people/national identity?
28. Does the fact of a passage or book being in the Bible give it special validity?
29. Is it okay to pick and choose which parts of the Bible are true? By what criteria?
30. Can someone be a Christian without ever having read the Bible? Or without knowing it?
31. Is there such a thing as a personal God?
32. What does “personal God” mean to you?
33. Did God create Satan and evil?
34. If so, why? If not, where did they come from?
35. Does the doctrine of original sin contradict that of free will as the cause of evil?
36. If we can choose good over evil, can we choose to go to Heaven or Hell?
37. Does God act on the world and humans externally? Internally? Not at all?
38. Does God reward good behavior and punish bad?
39. If so, how? If not, why not?
40. Can God become a man (or a woman), or vice versa?
And so on; post your answers and/or add your own comments below (at the site) or reply to the email (public comments are preferred).
What Makes (You) (Not) A Christian?
so far there certainly is a wide spectrum of perspectives, almost as wide as possible to imagine.
1. Does God exist? (Yes, No, Maybe; alternatively: is “God” a useful word?)
Yes.
2. Does enlightenment exist?
I suspect this is a spectrum. What seems like a before/after divide to an individual might be a new beginning, not an arrival point. The apophatic way of casting off the unnecessary and divesting oneself of illusions may be a prelude to deeper reengagment in life and society.
3. Is there such a thing as objective reality?
I adhere to the Traditionalist great chain of being, so yes. I'm an idealist. There's no matter independent from consciousness. Reality is malleable by consciousness to a limited degree; freedom within laws.
4. If so, how can we know it? If not, what?
Reason, experience and probably grace, as something approaching awareness of objective reality in its totality is usually beyond our ken, for good reason.
5. Do you consider yourself a Christian?
Increasingly, yes, especially as a totalising evil surfaces in the world. Christ has rescued me from some dark encounters. I hesitate to say yes because my default is to despise the common run of humanity so much that I sometimes question whether I view them with eyes that have more of the demonic than the loving heart of Christ. Doing no or little harm is relatively easy. The 'sins' speak so much louder than the essence or higher potential of so many. My ego is sometimes downright Luciferian too. Struggling to accept my probable fate as a small node of light. Reincarnation has always made more sense to me than a one and done situation too.
6. What does it mean to be a Christian?
To be United to God's will, or seek that.
To know and do the difficult good instead of the expedient evil.
10. Is the idea of enlightenment compatible with being a Christian?
Yes.
11. Was Christ like us or fundamentally different (more-than-human)?
I don't believe in the possibility of being fully God and fully human. Christ was fully human and more than human, but not fully God., else he couldn't have felt forsaken. The human vehicle cannot contain the higher in its entirety but can partake of its nature, and perfectly so in Christ’s case.
12. What is the basis for your morality?
Do unto others...external
Considering, when I have the strength and presence of
Mind.
13. Is some form of a belief in God essential to community relations?
Ultimately, yes, because people will make a God of something, always, but this isn't to praise the historical iterations of God based communities.
14. Do you own a Bible?
Yes
32. What does “personal God” mean to you?
It means that God is not simply all that is or indifferent to what happens. It means God has agency and will and has qualities.
33. Did God create Satan and evil?
Indirectly, in the same way a parent knows that having a child will create suffering.
37. Does God act on the world and humans externally? Internally? Not at all?
Both. If God could not do so, his agency would be less than man's. God is not sub-human.
40. Can God become a man (or a woman), or vice versa?
Creation is a hierarchy. The higher encompasses the lower. The lower cannot encompass the higher. God can only become as much 'God-man' as the nature of man can allow but God can do so pefectly. God without creation is incomplete. "Eternity is in love with the productions of time'