My other blog – “The Room of Grace” has been my attempt to share something of the questioning that has been going on in my own mind over the last 60+ years, and how I eventually came to the conclusion that there is an enormous difference between the Christian RELIGION and the Christian FAITH - that might be described as the difference between knowing ABOUT God, and a RELATIONSHIP with God - something that I only really began to understand about 8 years ago!
I have for a very long time found it frustrating that many practising Christians are quite unable to answer the question, “What is the purpose of life?” in any meaningful way. It was around 1965 in an Anglican men’s discussion group that I asked that question. The immediate response of the Vicar was, “Peter, you can’t ask that, it’s the 64,000 dollar question (a lot of money in those days). Let’s go on to your next question”. Although I cannot remember ever doubting the existence of God, with hindsight I guess that was the beginning of my move away from traditional Christianity.
Please bear in mind that I am an ‘uneducated’ Christian – I have had no formal ‘theological’ training. I was treasurer of an Anglican Church for 8 years in the 1960’s before being drawn away because of what I saw as a lack of ‘radical’ Christianity. Later I spent some 20 years as a member of the Worldwide Church of God keeping the Sabbath and the biblical Holy Days (rather than Christmas and Easter), before the leadership announced in 1995 that much of their theology was misguided. At that time I had already been made redundant for the fourth time and I've not had a job since then. I was forced to reconsider just about everything I had ever been taught and I had the time to do it. I was already using a PC to record my thoughts. I was using the internet by 1997 and it was in 2003 that I really became aware of what was then being referred to as “the out of church Christians”, and the emerging / emergent / house church movements – and that has been an ongoing journey - but without ever finding a group locally!
Over the last 18 months or so a number of pieces of the jigsaw have been fitting into place, based to a significant degree on what I had come to understand about broken myths - see "The End of Religion". Let me say at this stage, that I am very conscious of some of the difficulties that can arise if people are asked questions that they are not yet ready to consider. I have to assume that anyone reading this blog has read something of my other blog and is comfortable with at least some of what I have written.
Apart from having no answer to the question, "What is the purpose of life?", I have long been aware of two other questions that the 'church' in general seems to be unable to answer. These are, "Why suffering?" and "Did God create evil?".
None of us have been given all the answers and at best we are only seeing part of the overall picture. Over the last 3-4 years I seem to have been developing a new understanding of the significance of the two trees of Genesis - which was reinforced by the concept of 'broken myths'.
I was struggling to explain my thoughts when I received this note from a friend:
Over the last 18 months or so a number of pieces of the jigsaw have been fitting into place, based to a significant degree on what I had come to understand about broken myths - see "The End of Religion". Let me say at this stage, that I am very conscious of some of the difficulties that can arise if people are asked questions that they are not yet ready to consider. I have to assume that anyone reading this blog has read something of my other blog and is comfortable with at least some of what I have written.
Apart from having no answer to the question, "What is the purpose of life?", I have long been aware of two other questions that the 'church' in general seems to be unable to answer. These are, "Why suffering?" and "Did God create evil?".
None of us have been given all the answers and at best we are only seeing part of the overall picture. Over the last 3-4 years I seem to have been developing a new understanding of the significance of the two trees of Genesis - which was reinforced by the concept of 'broken myths'.
I was struggling to explain my thoughts when I received this note from a friend:
Concerning the "Fall of Adam" I most wholeheartedly agree with you as well. It is a myth, a metaphor, a story told to reveal deeper truth. The "church's" version essentially says that God is TRYING to fix a broken situation, as if He never intended for it to happen.
"The creation was subject to futility, not voluntarily, but by the will of the One who subjected it, in the hope (expectation) that the creation itself would be freed from its bondage to corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God." Rom. 8:20-21
In my mind, that scripture clearly reveals that it was God's plan all along to subject humanity to futility and corruption (and the lessons that are learned from that experience) in order to free it at a later time and bring us all into the "glorious liberty of the children of God." There is no "accidental" fall implied here, or one that occurred due to man's supposedly "free" choice. It was GOD'S plan from the beginning.
For me there are partial answers here to "What is the purpose of life?", "Why suffering?" and "Did God create evil?"
It is said that there is a book in each of us. Instead of writing a book I've developed a couple of blogs. The story continues in "About this blog" above.
Iron sharpens iron - I'm always interested in sharing with the thoughts of others.
For me there are partial answers here to "What is the purpose of life?", "Why suffering?" and "Did God create evil?"
It is said that there is a book in each of us. Instead of writing a book I've developed a couple of blogs. The story continues in "About this blog" above.
Iron sharpens iron - I'm always interested in sharing with the thoughts of others.
