One last thought for the moment, if that is possible for me:
Since becoming a Christian I have viewed Christianity as being for the living, a way of life that is more satisfying than any other. I have never much considered death or the end times and all that they imply for us mortals. I believe what the Bible says about them but they are just an adjunct, a continuation of right-now belief in, and fellowship with, God.
I came to Christ by simply muscling through the alternatives and finally by grace. In retrospect, I wish I had had the information and discussion opportunities I have now by sharing with you guys. It would not have made my belief any stronger but I may have gotten here sooner, or maybe not. Instead I was surrounded by non-questioning “believers” who I think learned the scripture but missed much of the message.
As far as the Tribulation and the Rapture, I think we are tried by tribulation throughout our lives and that the belief in God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit in the ever-present rapture that sees us through the difficulties. I realize I am mixing everyday meanings with Scriptural meanings, much like we sometimes confuse everyday meanings with mathematical terminology, like the word “theory.” However, it does convey what I think. If I am wrong I am sure one of you will guide me back to the path.
Because of the duality of ourselves, being both spirit and natural/physical humans, it is often very difficult to be a Christian, especially when you consider that Jesus told us that just thinking sinful thoughts is as egregious as actually doing sinful things. Accordingly, I see life more as a maze with many dead ends and a confusing path to the goal. Many don’t even know the goal, Peace and Love in Christ, and stay eternally lost seeking other ends. Yet, once you find Christ the goal suddenly appears, bright and shiney, and the path becomes clear.
Simply being a Christian means we accept the fact of Jesus, the purpose of Jesus, and the fact that he died for our sins, relieving us of them forever by just believing and striving for His perfection while knowing we can’t get there.
Similarly, it can put a knot in your brain contemplating infinity concerning time and space. To think of eternal peace and love is beyond my grasp at the moment. In this plane, even the most satisfying and pleasurable activities, thoughts, sights, sounds, etc., soon deaden after repeated exposure. They lose their oomph. I can get lost in the feeling of the presence of God and it is a magnificent feeling, a rapture so to speak, and I try to stay aware of that throughout the day and night, but contemplating that for eternity is still difficult. Surely we become truly transformed into something beyond what we are here on Earth.
I am sure you guys can guide me through that, too.
I think you are on the right path!
Monday, June 27, 2011
John Paul II.3: God is a Playwright
Everything is trivial if the universe is not committed to a metaphysical adventure. --Don Colacho's Aphorisms
[snip]
"...Even as a lad, Wojtyla recognized the cosmic significance of language, and was struck by the "intimacy" afforded by words, "between the one who spoke and the one who listened." In a way, this goes to man's ontological status as "priest" or pontifex of the cosmos, the living link between time and eternity, Creator and creation, the medicine of Truth above and its side effects herebelow. One of his literary mentors taught that properly communicated -- and received -- words could "open up, through the materials of this world, the realm of transcendent truth" and universal moral values.
And if the world of the stage "could unveil the deeper dimensions of the truth of things, might there be a dramatic structure to every human life? To the whole of reality?"
In the past we have written of how we are drawn to music because it discloses vital information about the nature of reality. If John Paul is correct, the same could be said of man's universal appreciation of, and need for, drama.
Here is how Cardinal Ratzinger describes the plot line and theme of this cosmic Broadway -- actually, narroway -- production:
"Man can be and should be a synthesis, comprising every floor in the whole building of creation," ending -- and beginning -- in the living God," for "it is in this that the whole thrill of the human adventure resides."
On the one hand, the drama "has a fixed shape -- it is always the same -- and yet it is inexhaustible and is ever new. It always leads us farther on. We are not just chained to a past in which there is nothing more to be discovered; rather, it is a whole country of discoveries, in which each of us can also find himself anew" (ibid.).
In any event, God may be a mathematician, but his major is in drama. ..."
Thank you oh so very much for your beautiful testimony, dear brother in Christ!