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I think that there are many people on earth who do not have the right "theology" --whatever that is, and yet will be saved by God because they will look at their life with honesty in the end and go running into God's arms.

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okay, so the one think I need to do is to look at my life honestly in the end and go running into God’s arms. How is this not a way of justifying myself? Some people do this, other people don’t, if your right then this is the pivot point between the saved and the unsaved. A lot of people will disagree with you on this, they’ll say that you need to do other things in order to be saved, but everyone says you have to do something. This seems to be your something, but its still looks like self-righteousness. How do I justify myself? I look honestly at my life and run into God’s arms. Two very small rules but they are still rules.

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Jesus makes it clear in his communication with the Pharisees that legalistic obsession with scripture while being impervious to the Holy Spirit is the worst thing that can happen to you. The Pharisees were the most "righteous" looking people on the planet-- they were the "good" churchgoing people, who knew every detail of scripture like the back of their hand. They "knew" that they were right with God, but nothing could be farther from the truth.

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it has always seemed to me that Jesus’ message is a trap. Legalism is illegal what a nice law.

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Their grave error was in applying scripture mercilessly to others, and failing to apply it in fullness to themselves.

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aren’t we just replacing one rule with another, one legalistic Phariseetical system for another? The problem with the Pharisee’s wasn’t that they were legalistic, it was that they weren’t the right kind of legalism, Christ preaches the anti-legalism law, the anti-law legalism.

And is it really my fault that I was born with this junky DNA? I’m by nature a perfectionist, and a bit anal retentive. Legalism is a part of my hardwiring. But that’s what damns me, I’m too damn legalistic for my own good.

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The paradox of our salvation is that only through our humility can we give ourselves up to the will of God, and yet only by accepting the free gift of God's forgiveness and love can we achieve that humility (although "achieve" probably has the wrong connotation here).

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bingo! And you’re either in this paradoxical loop or your not. I have a hunch that I’m not and there is nothing you or I can do about it. It’s all that darn God’s doing, and I can’t force God to have grace on me. I’m just unlucky I guess, and majorly so being not just one of the damned, but the antichrist, the one whom all the damned should blame. What would you do if you were the antichrist? The whole world is suffering because I’m here, I can’t help but think that you just need to get rid of me and the kingdom of God would arrive tomarrow, make way the path! Maranatha! Get that stumbling block bloke outta here and the millenioum is bound to come.

What do I know? Al Larson, that dude that Doc likes so much says that most psychological problems have theological roots. I can’t help but think that the opposite is true also, that theological problems have psychological roots. After all the soul has quite a bit to do with theology. Well here we go, their too intertwined to separate. Something happened, and what is done can’t be undone, its like a Jewish weddings (how I wish I could be a Jew, or wed!) when they smash that glass bottle, they are doing something that can’t be undone. Well, its allready setteled, predestined even, events have been put into motion that can’t stop now. Like Judas… yes I will say yes I will yes.

The sky is falling. There was this funky tribe in New Guniea that I lived with that had this ancient myth that the sky was held up by giants, and that sometime they drop it. The storm follows Johan, even the fish got indigestion, I bet you anything that it starts snowing in St. Paul. And one day you’ll wake up and find yourself buried neck deep in sky. It’s falling already.

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By the way, what do you suggest I read of Levinas? Same question about Derrida. I have tried to read Derrida numerous times, and I find it as much fun as chewing on a mouthful of rocks. However I have known several very brilliant people who swear by him, and everything I read ABOUT his writing I find very interesting, so the problem may well be mine.

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second first. What have you tried to read by Derrida? Which things have you read about his writing? Hmm, a mouthful of rocks eh? His pieces are hard, but even rocks cry out sometimes. Theophanies, or falling skys, pathetic fallacies? No? I like him because his pieces are artful, the fade in and they fade out, and it takes several passes on the same piece before I start to pick things out, and then its just a matter of making connections, and that’s where I start to have fun. There are a few pieces I haven’t been able to begin to crack yet, and no pieces I’ve exhausted, but there are some I know quite well. I’m big into his “Circumfessions” right now which appears in a book simply called “Jacques Derrida” which he co-wrote with an English dude Bennington. I think I’m going to start reading his “Memories of the Blind” soon. It’s a compainion piece to Circumfessions, both are something of a combined self-portrait of Derrida.

I don’t know, what are you interested in?

As for Levinas he’s less artful, but more gentle (and less Gentile) then Derrida. There are two really good starting points that I’ve found for him. The one that I started with is a book called “To the Other” by one of his students named Peperzak. It’s really good because it gives a bio and an intro to his ideas and his faith and then it includes a short essay by Levinas with Peperzak’s commentary. His two big books (which I must confess I’m still working myself up for) are “Totality and Infinity” and “Otherwise that Being or Beyond Essence.” Peperzak’s book is sort of an intro to Totality and Infinity, which in tern prefigures his ideas in Otherwise than Being.

The other good starting point for E.L. is an interview that I just read last week called “Ethics and Infinity” its short and a very quick read, large font without much text on each page, about a hundred pages long. I like the end of it best when he starts to talk about the face and responsibility. He ends by trying to avoid the natural conclusion that the ego is guilty and should commit suicide. He says he doesn’t want to promote suicide but he has to squirm a bit. Ultimately all that you can say is that the ego doesn’t have the right to die, and also, that it doesn’t have a right to live as well.
Otherwise there are two good readers on him, and lots of it are religious reflections that are really cool.


-Wislawa

for love is strong as death,
passion fierce as the grave.
Its flashes are flashes of fire,
a raging flame [shalhevet-Yah = the very fire of Yah(weh)].

Canticles 8:6


Edited by - Wislawa on 12/15/2001 8:23:11 PM

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Oh Semeia I love you, do you understand what I mean by this?

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Semeia: What's so funny about that is that earlier I read your post about Gossip, and my thoughts about it were too complicated to write a response, but I tried to, and the first thing I wrote was, "Wislawa, I just love you." And then I decided that sounded funny, me being married with three kids and all, and maybe someone would take it wrong, and then I decided I couldn't write a response anyway, and I deleted it!

It probably doesn't reflect that well on either of us to admit that we understand what the other is saying... we have some pretty odd thoughts!

Anyway, I'm in the middle of watching a corny movie with my kids that I better get back to--but I'll be back on the board (a little bit) next week. By the way, I totally agree that "most psychological problems have theological roots"... and "that the opposite is true also, that theological problems have psychological roots." In fact, I lean a little more strongly to the latter as far as which came first.

Thanks,
Semeia

"The opposite of sin is not virtue, but faith."--Soren Kierkegaard

Keep fighting those traditions, Good Luck!!!!
A software architect theologian, what next, a theological bus driver?

P.S I have to admit bro, I was a little anoyed with you and semeias "radical" views on the bible, but I am starting to appreciate your voices. Hope all these posts can help my growth in the lord. Hey! that is what we are all here (on the planet) for, right?

Our natural greatness is seen as part of God's image, and that natural greatness has been conferred on us to enable us to achieve our supernatural destiny:to be related to God and to obey him freely.---Diogenes Allen

Edited by - faithfullservent on 12/16/2001 01:59:13 AM

Edited by - faithfullservent on 12/16/2001 02:01:08 AM