Francis Berger
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If The Development of Consciousness is Not a Real Thing . . .

8/8/2022

7 Comments

 
 . . . then history is meaningless and Jesus's mission is impossible. I'll try to explain in a somewhat sloppy and roundabout way. 

The painfully casual, flippant, and lazy manner in which Christians reject the development of human consciousness is truly a thing to behold. Most Christians equate ideas about the development of human consciousness with new age quackery and steadfastly insist that how people relate to the world, themselves, others, and God has not changed much throughout history.

The only thing that has changed, they claim, are external conditions. What may be interpreted as consciousness development is nothing more than people thinking and acting differently according to the stimulus, conditioning, and culture the external world doles out.

This perspective assumes an extremely static idea of human consciousness. It stipulates that the only differences between you and a ninth-century pagan Viking are the passage of twelve centuries, geography, technology, language, religion, culture, etc. Strip all of that away, and you and the Viking are pretty much the same when it comes to how you both understand and relate to the world, yourself, others, and God (or gods, in the case of the Viking).

In other words, consciousness is and was mostly passive regardless of where and when people live or lived in history. Consciousness did not influence the external world or history all that much but was, rather, influenced by the external world and history. Any development we perceive in consciousness can simply be chalked up to shifting external factors. Take those factors away, and consciousness is the same as it always has been – mostly inert, static, and passive.

When Christians encounter concepts like “the evolution of consciousness”, they immediately and inevitably equate it with “un-Christian” nineteenth-century ideas about natural evolution and progress rather than consider “the evolution of consciousness” from the Christian perspective of spirit – that is the unfolding and development of spiritual, religious and, particularly, Christian thinking and understanding over time.

Thus, the development or evolution of consciousness is closely connected to spiritual/religious development and progress. The notion that spiritual/religious thinking and understanding can and does progress (or develop or unfold) provides deep layers of meaning to both the external world and history. The external world and history are no longer merely random meaningless accidents but instead aim toward goals or, perhaps, an ultimate aim or goal.

The unfolding of spiritual consciousness implies that history is more than the changing and shifting of the external world. It implies that the various periods and eras of world history were imbued with spiritual progress – an inner spiritual dynamic unfolded into being and drove the events rather than being driven by them.

Christians who glibly reject the reality of consciousness development tend to view the world from the perspective of static orthodoxy; that is, from the perspective of a static and immutable truth entombed within a definite form rather than from the reality of truth as something dynamic and unfolding.

Put another way, Christians who reject the development of consciousness regard Christianity as an essentially “finished product”, to which little or nothing need be added nor taken away.

Most, if not all, of the essential questions have already been answered and settled. All that needed to be revealed has been revealed. All that needed to be created has been created. Man’s only spiritual responsibility is to adhere to and obey all that has been revealed and created.

The problem with static orthodoxy is its blindness to its own dynamic movement through history. Christianity, as a religion, did not appear in the world as a complete, static, and inflexible truth enshrined in a definite form. On the contrary, it came into the world as a dynamic truth, often in the most hostile of environments.

Christian dogmas, liturgy, and organization emerged from its earliest “expecting the Kingdom of God in my lifetime” origins and “progressed” through the centuries. The early movements of the Church were fueled by spiritual creativity leading to development, not by strict, static adherence or obedience to accepted dogmas and forms. When the Church -- or Christianity in general after Christianity began splintering away into its various factions and denominations – was moved by this dynamic force, it remained in touch with the spiritual unfolding of God’s Divine Plan.

Those we consider traditionalists today – like St. Thomas Aquinas -- were the modernists of their own times. More specifically, they were grounded in what came before them but understood the deeper spiritual implications and callings of their own times.

Yet from these origins, from this early dynamic unfolding, the Church and all forms of organized Christianity eventually lost sight of its dynamism and creative mission. The static ontology or metaphysics that possesses most traditionally-minded Christians today is bound up in fixating on the past – more specifically, on a particular era in the past, which is then held up as the very epitome of Christianity. All previous or contemporary spiritually-dynamic movements in Christianity are spurned in favor of affixing Christianity permanently to this one external paradigm and the belief that this one paradigm, this single aspect or movement of the religion represents the beginning and end of Christianity, a beginning and end to which all believers must inevitably return or else cease to be Christian.

The problem with this sort of thinking is obvious. The inflexible, universal order traditionally-minded Christians believe in does not exist. Not here and not in eternity.

Contrary to what traditionally-minded believers think, Christianity is not a finished product. This means that the creation of the world is also not finished, and neither is the creation of man. Heck, Creation is not finished. It is always moving toward goals. Consciousness determines our awareness of these goals. 

Viewing Creation as a finished product, as something static, stems primarily from the Old Testament, but if the world was indeed a finished product after the seventh day, then the appearance of Jesus and the very nature of Christ’s mission – which are historical and cosmic facts -- make no sense. The dynamism and spiritual creativity Jesus introduced into the world also make no sense.

If human consciousness or spirit is static and passive, Jesus’s coming and mission is not only impossible but incomprehensible!

At the very least, it denigrates Jesus’s mission to the level of “mere external factor”. 
  
To claim that human consciousness is shaped merely by external considerations and historical pressures is to claim that the immense effect Jesus had on the development of human consciousness and spirit can be attributed solely to external factors rather than to the deep inner workings of spirit, creativity, and freedom Jesus ignited within man.

Traditionally-minded Christians do not believe in the development of consciousness because we currently inhabit a period of spiritual regress. Since they regard evolution in the Darwinian sense of improvement, they point to the spiritual inferiority of modern man as proof of the unreality of spiritual development.

This reveals a rather deterministic attitude. Instead of a free, dynamic, and creative process, the traditionally-minded expect to see something akin to clockworks or train schedules. Instead of a fluctuating process that moves toward good, then toward evil, closer to God, then farther from God, and sometimes all the way to Satan, traditionally-minded Christians expect to find uninterrupted forward movement in the form of good, better, best.
​
Whether or not the traditionally minded ever accept the reality of consciousness development (or spiritual development) is largely beside the point. Either way, development will happen – is happening.

Against the backdrop of ever-increasing despiritualization in the world and against the backdrop of static theological framework and metaphysics, a new, more refined, creative, dynamic, mystical type of Christianity is on the rise.

Note added: The current developments in organized forms of Christianity (churches) are not to be taken as good or as an example of "free, creative, and dynamic spiritual development". On the contrary, nearly all of the movements within organized Christianity are aligned with global totalitarianism. How Christians think about and understand these movements within their respective churches will help determine the future of these institutions. For the time being, things do not look good for churches, nearly all of which appear intent on sabotaging themselves into oblivion. How Christianity "progresses" from this spiritually is of the utmost importance. 

Further note added: Some of what I have noted above stems from Berdyaev, but I can't remember which work.    
7 Comments

The Highest Belief

8/6/2022

0 Comments

 
If belief in God is man's highest belief, then is it too much of a stretch to assume that belief in man may be God's highest belief?
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Obsessing About Evil When Things Come to a Point is Not the Point of the Point

8/4/2022

7 Comments

 
The recognition that things essentially came to a point in 2020 is no justification for obsessing over the evil that brought things to a point.

Evil must be acknowledged in order to be resisted and overcome, but if evil becomes an "object" of obsession, it can be neither authentically resisted nor overcome.

Things coming to a point dissolves the gray areas and makes choices between good and evil clearer and sharper, but these choices involve more than crude rejection.

A strong disavowal of discerned evil is only meaningful if it is supported by a much stronger avowal of Good. Likewise, a strong avowal of Good is only meaningful if it inspires an even stronger avowal of Good. 

Thus, affirming that one is "against" evil is but the tip of the iceberg. The affirmation is only meaningful if it is supported by a a larger and stronger desire "for" Good.

Without this mass, this bulk of Good, the tip of the iceberg has no basis or foundation. Icebergs are identified but not much is done about them, at least not at the spiritual level. After a while, the iceberg tips become too numerous to avoid. They jut out of the water everywhere like menacing fangs and eventually cause a collision.

Discovering and confirming the Good that one is "for" must form the mass of all "things coming to a point" choices. From a spiritual perspective, that mass -- that positive "for" for Good cannot remain submerged beneath the water but must instead "roll over" and emerge to the surface, thereby superseding the affirmation of evil.  

At the same time, attempting to discover, affirm, and navigate Good while remaining in a state of intentional or unintentional oblivion to the reality of obvious and clearly discernible evil renders one blind to the dangers present in the water. Ultimately, collisions ensue.

Unfortunately, "point"-blind navigators rarely, if ever, understand what they hit or what hit them. Quite often, they don't even register the collision! In worst-case situations, they deny the reality of the collision altogether! 

Things coming to a point is not about balance; it is about the discernment of evil followed by a powerful upsurge of being for Good that eclipses the discernment.   
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7 Comments

Missed the Point? Dismissed the Point? Then What's the Point?

8/3/2022

14 Comments

 
Belief in the existence and reality of the spiritual war is a major tenet of Christianity. With this in mind, one would have presumed that Christians would have been percipient to the spiritual substance, significance, and seriousness of what transpired in the world in 2020.

One might also have expected that Christians would have been at the vanguard of recognizing, understanding, and resisting the immense evil that tore through the world in 2020 and continues to ravage the world today.

And by resisting, I do not mean running out into the streets fueled by revolutionary zeal, pitchforks firmly in hand. The resistance to which I refer happens primarily in the heart – in the perceptive discernment and rejection of evil, which then ignites a fiery hunger to push on with greater determination toward God and Creation.

And in cases where a Christian individual or institution succumbed to the immense demonic pressure that the spirit of non-existence and self-annihilation unleashed in 2020, well, one would have hoped such failure might lead to repentance – to the sincere acknowledgment of weakness, corruption, and sin – so that the weakness, corruption, and sin could be washed away instead of compounding the demonic pressure.

One would like to believe that Christians really do care about their salvation; that they would go to great lengths to defend it. More importantly, that they would use this defensive “from” position as a launching pad to aspire toward a glorious “for”. That they would not merely cower to protect themselves from evil but would courageously aim for the Good with increased devotion and ardor.

Because Christians believe in the existence and reality of the spiritual war, one would not have expected the leaderships of most Christian churches to side – willingly and fanatically – with the spirit of non-existence and self-annihilation when he declared the churches to be non-essential “services”. One could not have anticipated that most of the believers within these churches would so sheepishly obey the anti-Christian dictates and trustingly tolerate the oppressive abuses.

And now, more than two years later, one is dismayed to find many of the most intelligent and well-read defenders of the faith callously dismissing the spiritual substance, significance, and seriousness of 2020 via a seemingly endless stream of rationalization, justification, obfuscation, and denial.

One is discouraged to see the keenest Christian minds – steeped in centuries of precious tradition – resort to word games, strategic thinking, and self-deception whenever they are asked about the obvious evil that has been flooding the world since 2020.

One assumed that these Himalayas of the mind would have been among the first to recognize the point of 2020, but even if they missed it then, one holds out hope that they will eventually “get it” and stop flippantly dismissing it.

But most have dismissed the point.

So what’s the point?

There is still world enough and time to get the point, but that requires honesty and the right motivation.
14 Comments

The Romantic Christian Maxim That Has Apparently Shaken Christianity to Its Core

8/3/2022

6 Comments

 
Be vigilant! Take  personal responsibility for your individual discernment.

Such sacrilege is insufferable! Insufferable, I say!  
6 Comments

All Salvation is "Not Alone, But With the Holy Spirit"

8/1/2022

2 Comments

 
Commenter Lao'c left the following on yesterday's post about "going it alone", which included the following excellent thought by Wm Jas Tychonievich - "The ultimate spiritual authority is the Holy Ghost speaking to each believer's mind and heart, and all other authorities are downstream from that."

The comment: 

you make it sound too simple to 'walk with the Holy spirit'.

The problem is that is it very easy to make up some un-truth and then claim/believe it came 'into your mind and heart' from the Holy spirit.

As an example, the famous Dr.Charlton believes that Joseph Smith, founder of Mormonism, was a true prophet. Supposedly 'Holy spirit' told him that.

However, my own connection with Holy spirit tells me that Joseph Smith was a false prophet, with all that follows from this regarding Mormonism.

So necessarily, at least one of us' 'Holy spirit' is broken in a bad way. Clearly both cannot be true at the same time. And this is not a trivial matter, it is a matter of accepting or rejecting Mormonism.

So how are we going to find out which 'Holy spirit' is true in the style of 'Romantic Christianity'? Pistols at dawn?

-

The core of what I am saying is that most people are not ready to walk with the Holy spirit alone. They are still too attached to their own favourite un-truths and will thus attribute these lies they believe to Holy spirit, which is sacrilegous and will lead them astray.

Listening properly to Holy spirit needs the person to be quite advanced on a spiritual path. That means that what you call 'Romantic Christianity' is a path for precious few people. It not a path for masses and it certainly is not a path for those who so much love it.


Good points. Got me thinking. I responded with the following: 

I may be wrong, but your question seems of the devil’s advocate variety to me. Anyway, short and simple answer, as I understand things – Jesus provided us with the Holy Spirit to hear his call and freely accept his gift of Heaven and eternal life. The Holy Spirit is primarily available to guide us toward our individual salvation -- and at the end of the day, all salvation is individual – all salvation *just is* “not alone, but with the Holy Spirit” -- yes, and this also applies to salvation within church frameworks. Whether people accept it or not, they are and have always been walking alone with the Holy Spirit when it comes to matters of salvation, even when they choose to delegate some of the responsibility to an external spiritual authority. On top of that, they have always had to assume personal responsibility for their salvation, either within or outwith church frameworks. Having said that, I believe Jesus makes it easy to walk alone with the Holy Spirit, and it is we that complicate matters with our untruths (as you point out).


Longer answer to address your other points: Traditional Christian frameworks are supposed to help guide individuals toward salvation. Historically, they have done this. And to some extent, they still do this today. Traditional Christian frameworks provide added assistance for people to “go it alone” with the Holy Spirit, but at the end of the day, each individual is still going it alone, regardless of whether they believe that to be true or not.
The problem today is that many traditional Christian frameworks have been infiltrated and subverted; thus, the "safer" path to salvation is not as safe as it may have been in the past. This is a major problem facing conventional Christians (though I suspect very few are actually fully aware of the problem).

With this in mind, I don't think any individual can have an untruth connection with the Holy Spirit. I believe the Holy Spirit only connects with truth and does not connect with untruth. A person may attribute untruths to the Holy Spirit, but when they do, they are not speaking from their divine selves but rather some false self or other.
Since each of us is unique, we will inevitably have widely varying paths toward salvation. Believers will hear the call, but they will ultimately approach it in different ways.

The knowledge and guidance the Holy Spirit provides us individually -- assuming our questions and motivations are of the right kind -- will help align our individual “truths” with the Truth, based on "personality", personal circumstances, experiences, consciousness, choices, etc.

Our discernment to follow a certain set of doctrines or traditions or "go-it-alone" help to shape rather than determine the "success" of our salvation.

After we have made the choice to follow Jesus, the Holy Spirit will provide the guidance needed to attain salvation within the chosen framework. If the framework doesn't work, we could make another choice, and the Holy Spirit will respond accordingly -- as long as our motivation to follow Jesus to Heaven and life everlasting remains sincere and earnest!

With this in mind, I don't believe the Holy Spirit communicates much when it comes to denominational, sectarian, doctrinal matters. I believe this is more a matter of personal discernment. An individual who declares that his connection to the Holy Spirit is the *only* one is probably not communicating with the Holy Ghost but rather drawing on some aspect of doctrine or dogma. This approach reveals a "mass production" attitude toward salvation, when salvation is really more about the individual and the Holy Spirit custom-creating something tailor-made for the individual. And this applies to church-based frameworks as well. Note, I said the individual and the Holy Spirit, not the individual alone.

Thus, if following Mormonism helps an individual find a way to believe on Jesus and follow Him to eternal life and Heaven, then it is true for that individual, and I am glad for him. If following Catholicism or any other denomination helps an individual find a way to believe on Jesus and follow Him to eternal life and Heaven, then it is also true, and I am glad for him. If "going it alone" helps an individual believe on Jesus and accept everlasting life and Heaven, then this is also true, and I am glad for him.

Concerning "the advanced spiritual path", the Holy Spirit may provide individuals on such a path with knowledge and guidance concerning theosis, but once again, only if the individual's motivations are sincere and earnest.


I could have said much more on the subject, but it's probably best to leave the matter there for now. 
2 Comments

Not Alone, But With the Holy Spirit

7/31/2022

4 Comments

 
Romantic Christianity is often denigrated for its apparent "go-it-alone" approach. This raises many red flags with mainstream Christians concerned about matters of spiritual authority.

William James Tychonievich succinctly tackles this "spiritual authority" concern by pointing out that -- contrary to appearances -- Romantic Christians are not really "going it alone" at all: 


"The ultimate spiritual authority is the Holy Ghost speaking to each believer's mind and heart, and all other authorities are downstream from that."

Man, I wish I had written that. 
4 Comments

On Being Branded an Enemy of Christianity

7/31/2022

8 Comments

 
A little over a week ago I wrote a post in which I challenged the altar-civilization model promulgated by some of the writers at the Orthosphere. At the end of that post, I stated that the content was not meant as a "swipe" but rather as a call to "encourage the expansion of exploratory thinking beyond the altar-civilization model to which so many Christians seem indivisibly wed".     
 
I had not written the post to spark a debate between the Orthosphereans and Romantic Christians and was somewhat surprised when it did. The initial Orthosphere responses hinted that there was much room for agreement concerning salvation and personal spiritual discernment, but when I brought up the birdemic church closures, the overall tone of the discussion took an icy turn.

I finally disengaged after Kristor Lawson published his self-described “splash of hellfire: of hard hot adamantine opaque and impenetrable truth”, which he employed to brand all Romantic Christians as “enemies of the Church of Christ” and by logical extension, enemies of Christ and Christianity.

I suppose I could write a formal rebuttal – compose my own little splash of hellfire, but I won’t.

I am now thoroughly convinced that most Orthosphereans/Orthosphere readers are indeed indivisibly wed to the altar-civilization model. I also know that the very idea of exploratory thinking beyond the altar-civilization model repulses them. And that’s enough for me. I won’t suggest these sorts of things to them anymore.

I don’t believe Kristor, the other Orthosphereans, or their trad/mainstream readers are enemies of Christ, and it’s not my place to brand them as such. Having said that, I must confess that the deep respect I once held for some of the Orthosphereans is now quite shallow.

But I don’t want to harp on about that sort of thing. What I’ll do instead is close with two recent comments taken from Romantic Christian blogs. My aim here is to provide some insight into how “the enemies of the Church of Christ” think:

The first is from David, who runs the excellent New World Island site. The comment appeared on Bruce Charlton’s blog today:

“When I was first introduced to Mormonism (and Christianity, again as an adult, beautifully clarified by the missionaries) I was also asked to seek personal revelation. After some time I did believe it to be true, but I had no desire to become a Mormon or join the Church. I did however become a Christian.

It did not seem necessary to me that a loving God, who is primarily concerned with my salvation, would require my allegiance to a particular church or denomination, but would rather prefer a personal ongoing and unlimited relationship that was Jesus-centered and unhindered by any outside or second-hand influence.

I follow this path knowing that there is no earthly authority (no man, no government, no church) that supersedes my inner awareness of Christ who dwells within all men as "the light that lighteth every man that cometh into the world."

This is quite freeing. And therefore regardless of what happens with any church or church system in the future, I am confident this will have no effect on my faith or trust in God.”


The second is from Luke, who added the following thought to one of my posts:

“There are those who are aware of their own freedom and bear upon themselves the responsibility for their own souls, and there are those who wish to renounce their own will and flee their sense of responsibility. For a little while longer the latter may be possible, but I do not think the future will belong to them.”
8 Comments

Definitely Not a Lifeboat Christian

7/30/2022

6 Comments

 
For many Christians, Christianity amounts to little more than the sort of thing Mihály Zichy (1826 -1906) depicts in the painting below.

Though understandable, this view does not reflect my primary Christian beliefs.

Simply put -- I'm not a "lifeboat" Christian, and I have no desire to be one. 
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Lifeboat - Mihály Zichy - 1827-1906
6 Comments

The First Eggs!

7/29/2022

2 Comments

 
The ladies have begun producing eggs a few weeks earlier than expected --  I found these two little treasures neatly deposited into one of the nesting boxes earlier today. Definitely the start of something good! 
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