Francis Berger
  • Blog
  • My Work

Is It Possible To  System Distance Within System Christianity?

6/15/2021

7 Comments

 
In an earlier post, I explained my recent practice of classifying Christians into two distinct groups:

The standard practice of labeling Christians as progressive, liberal, radical, conservative, traditional, or whatever has been rendered obsolete. As far as I'm concerned, the successful global totalitarian coup of 2020 has cleaved Christians into two distinct camps: System Christians and Non-System Christians.

I then proceeded to outline System Christianity in the following manner: 

System Christians aim to work within the institutional, organizational, and bureaucratic frameworks the System offers because they are convinced "good works" can only be achieved through such means.

System Christians believe the divine mission of Christianity is somehow wedded to the System and that Christianity possesses the power to transform the System into an earthly kingdom of God. System Christians yearn to secure a place at the global governing table of public-private partnership in order to help manifest this vision (presuming they honestly believe in the vision).

System Christians outsource their thinking entirely to the System and its latest flavor of leftism. Thus, any input they offer the System rarely, if ever, rises above the level of echoing or parroting the System's output; more specifically, the trending and topical talking points, platitudes, and plans surrounding issues such as climate change, anti-racism, equity/equality, reformed capitalism, mass migration, etc.

. . . System Christians do not believe in "rendering unto Caesar the things that are Caeser's, and unto God the things that are God's". In their minds, it is far more lucrative and efficient to render God and the things that are God's unto the System. 

That last line above sums up System Christian well. All System Christians put the System before God. For some, the System has become  a god.

The big problem with System Christians is quite obvious - the System they follow is directly and purposively opposed to God. 


An even bigger problem among System Christians is that most appear incapable or unwilling to discern that the System with which their churches are aligned is in fact directly and purposively opposed to God. Put another way, that the System itself has become Satanic in its motivations and objectives.

This utter lack of discernment is especially prevalent among the laity/worshipers, who tend to regard their churches' support of System agenda issues such as birdemic lockdown measures, climate change, and anti-racism as something inherently respectable and good.

Bruce Charlton has referred to the three issues noted above as Satanic Litmus Tests. The birdemic measures, climate change, and anti-racism may "sound" or "appear" virtuous, even Good, but they are anything but, as Dr. Charlton succinctly explains:

If you support any or all of these; you are objectively on-the-side of the mainstream, global, totalitarian Leftist Establishment: which is the side of Satan against God. And obviously, therefore, you are anti-Christian - despite whatever you may believe or assert.

In a follow-up post, he added:

I think it is worth reiterating that what these Tests do is detect and identify those who are objectively on the side of Satan in the current spiritual war. 

The question of whether you are (overall) a nice person, or what is regarded as a 'good' person is irrelevant; whether you are a pious and observant church member is a separate issue; whether you live by Christian ethics to a higher degree than many or most people makes no difference at all. 

If you fail the litmus tests you are working-for Satan's triumph in this world, you are aiding his agenda - know it or not, like it or not, deny it or not. 

This ought to be very obvious to you, since the evidence is truly colossal and indeed overwhelming - and the fact that is not obvious to you shows the depth of your unrepented sin.


William Wildblood later expanded upon the spiritual dimensions of the Litmus Tests in a post of his own: 

. . . 
However, there is a greater point beyond whether any of these things actually have any truth in them or not or whether there is some truth but we are presented with a very one-sided picture. The real point is that the remedies proposed for these supposed material evils are Trojan horses which are used to bring about profound spiritual evils. This is what really matters and what a person of spiritual discernment should able to see. The evils of the virus, of racism and of climate change (real or unreal) are as nothing besides the evils of the proposed solutions to them. Shall I define these evils? Outwardly, it's a simple matter of totalitarianism and humanity reduced to controlled servitude. Inwardly, it is the closing tight shut of the door to spiritual freedom and truth. It is the absolute enforcement of materialism. 

If you care about freedom and truth and beauty and real goodness you are now on a collision course with the worldly powers. You can no longer be a passively good, decent, nice sort of person because if you are you will sooner or later be sucked into what is a kind of de facto Satanism. I realise that might seem a shocking thing to say but the reality is, or is becoming, that if you don't actively stand for God then you are against him, and there is, or soon will be, no neutral ground.

So, the biggest problem with System Christians and System Christianity in general is failed Litmus Tests. Nearly all Christian churches closed for the birdemic. Failuire one. Many support the climate change agenda. Failure two. And a few have vocally supported the anti-racism agenda. Failure number three.

True-believing System Christians outright reject the Litmus Tests as ridiculous, absurd, and uncharitable; but what about Christians who believe church to be important and attend System churches, but are able to discern the spiritual evils of failed Litmus Tests within their denominations?

Should they quit church altogether? Protest? Aim to reform the institution from within? 

I don't have definitive answers to those questions. Each discerning Christian must figure out these things out for himself or herself.

Having said that, I think the practice of system distancing can be quite useful if you attend a System church. 

In my case, I distance myself from all the "system" aspects and Litmus Test issues my particular church promulgates, and I refuse to support or obey these aspects.

For example, if my priest says anything positive about the birdemic measures, I silently tell myself that what he is saying is wrong and evil, and I repent my involvement in that aspect of the church, however indirect or "coerced" my involvement that aspect actually is (e.g. wearing a mask during the service).

At the same time, I remind myself that I attend church for its remaining (but increasingly dwindling) Divine and Good aspects. I hope and pray my attendance and participation might help strengthen these Divine and Good aspects.

And that's about as far as I have gotten with system distancing within a System church at the moment. 
   
Note added: To gain some insight into what a Christian Litmus Test failure at the institutional level looks like in real time, I highly recommend reading William James Tychonievich's most recent post, which describes the one-sided partnership the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints has struck up with NAACP. William's post is also an example of spiritual discernment.

Additional note added: I increasingly feel that the System aspects within the church I attend will become too overwhelming for me to contend with, and I increasingly feel that I will stop attending services altogether at some point in the near future. I also must add that I believe Divine Wisdom is at play in the current convergence of churches - God's way of communicating that the true future of Christianity is not reliant upon church as we currently know it.   
7 Comments
Michelle
6/16/2021 03:08:26

So what circumstances would have to occur in order for you to leave your church altogether? I know that the community with others is a big driver of your attendance, but at what point would you say that the net bad outweighs the net good? And what good do you see your participation doing?

I ask out of curiosity because I respect your insight. I struggled with the decision to not go back to church because I felt like my attendance was affirming the big lie, and because I so despised what they were all doing so much i could not bring that much negative feeling into a house of God.

Reply
Francis Berger
6/16/2021 06:30:55

@ Michelle - Good question. First, by their own definitions, I am not and have not really been a full and willing member of the Roman Catholic Church since I was a teen. I refused confirmation when I was 13. I married my wife in a civil ceremony. I didn't attend Mass for years on end. I attend Mass now, but I don't receive the Eucharist or go to confession. I am highly critical of and don't obey the church hierarchy. I think most contemporary Roman Catholics are willing dupes to leftism. In this sense, I have been technically "outside" of the Church for decades. In another age, I would have already been excommunicated.

Second, I don't believe Church is necessary or essential for salvation. I don't believe the future of Christianity depends on the existence of a church. I don't think the RCC or any other church is capable of providing what is needed to further the development of Christianity. I believe the RCC and other churches represent a previous mode of "obedience" consciousness that Christians need to evolve "out of". Overall, I don't think organized Christianity is a force for good. Church attendance is very much a secondary, "optional" activity in my spiritual/religious life. All of this, and much more, makes me a heretic.

So why do I attend church? Mostly because of the small community in which I live. Most of the churchgoers in this community attend church out of a sense of commitment to the community and God rather than out of a sense of commitment to the RCC. Nearly all are critical of the local priest. None believe the RCC is on the right track. Most think the pope and the Catholic hierarchy are a joke. But all deeply believe in God.

There's a good chance we may soon "lose" our priest due to the clergy shortage in the country. If this occurs, the community has agreed it will continue to meet for prayer in the church on Wednesdays and Sundays. I would regard this as a possible "good" development in the spiritual life of my community and Christianity in general.

Considering the above, I don't think my attendance at my local church is an affirmation of the big lie because it does nothing to advance the big lie. If anything, perhaps my attendance is a spiritual thorn in the side or thumb in the eye - my way of silently saying, "I see what you are doing and I am not going along with it." In this sense, I feel I may actually be bringing some positive feeling into a house of God (though I don't regard most active churches today as houses of God).

I continue to hold a deep reverence for Roman Catholics of the past, (and a few present day ones as well) many of whom I regard as among the best Christians that have ever lived (even though most of these past Catholics would have branded my a heretic and would have excommunicated me in a second). My attendance is a way of affirming and honoring them and the millions of souls the current System church continues to betray.

So, I am not waiting for another shoe to drop or anything like that in terms of not attending. From a spiritual perspective, my attendance barely qualifies as attendance at all. It is very much secondary, perhaps even tertiary in my life as a Christian.

Reply
Francis Berger
6/16/2021 08:09:28

@ Michelle - (I revised this comment a little).

One more quick point about church and attendance. Some Christians have become extremely disillusioned by their churches. Not only are they skipping church - which is my mind is justifiable, perhaps even necessary at this stage - but are also choosing to abandon Christianity itself - which to me is tragic and totally unnecessary.

Christians disgusted with their churches should resist the temptation to "throw the baby out with the bathwater", so to speak.

On the flip side, Christians who abandon their churches but choose to remain Christian outwith any church are in a far better place than those who attend church (or join a church) and are completely on board with the System agenda churches promote

Christians who attend church but are able to spiritually distance themselves from the System in System Christianity strive to maintain God above the System. But as far as I can tell, this is a precarious and delicate matter, and it requires a great deal of discernment, vigilance, and repentance.

Every Christian must make for these choices for himself or herself. This does not mean all choices are good choices.

For example, my own stance toward church attendance might actually be a bad choice. I could be better off skipping church altogether. Having said that, I don't feel that my personal circumstances concerning church attendance are net harmful to me as a Christian; however, if that feeling changes, I will stop attending in a heartbeat.

bruce charlton
6/16/2021 18:47:46

@Frank "Christians disgusted with their churches should resist the temptation to "throw the baby out with the bathwater", so to speak."

This is the difficulty of centuries in which - in various ways - some Christian churches have declared themselves *essential* to salvation - such that to be outside 'the church' is to be damned.

This may have been right and necessary in the early centuries of the faith; but it seems very obviously not right now. However, that statement I have just made is itself regarded as typical of liberal/ fake Christianity. They see no way of being other than a real-traditionalist or an apostate (one who merely pretends to be finding a new, unprecedented way of being Christian - but really is on the way out).

I am very much afraid that the result will be that when church-Christians are forced to leave their churches by the ever more blatant secularism and evil; they will also reject Christianity as being worthless without that church. They may have an inward resistance to that conclusion, but a lifetime of seeing the spiritual war between 'the' church and Satan, has left them with no alternative.

This is why I feel it urgently necessary for traditionalist Christians to discover examine their own most fundamental assumptions ('metaphysical' assumptions) - examine them with the fullest possible intuitive discernment; to establish whether they *really* believe these assumptions (which are on the verge of propelling them out of Christianity altogether) to the extent of pinning their eternal salvation upon their validity.

Reply
Francis Berger
6/16/2021 21:54:28

@ Bruce - "I am very much afraid that the result will be that when church-Christians are forced to leave their churches by the ever more blatant secularism and evil; they will also reject Christianity as being worthless without that church. They may have an inward resistance to that conclusion, but a lifetime of seeing the spiritual war between 'the' church and Satan, has left them with no alternative."


Yes, this is a serious concern. System Christianity is working on deepening its leftist/liberal/fake "religion" within the church while simultaneously marginalizing traditional Christians to the point where trads will be repulsed to the point of leaving or be forcibly pushed out.

You're right - once outside the church, I imagine many trads will simply cease being Christians altogether - mostly because they will not be able to adapt to any Christianity that is outwith church and tradition.

Reply
Ingemar
6/17/2021 20:03:14

Frank,

The way most trads rationalize the current Church crisis is to declare Jorge Bergoglio as an antipope--some make the case through Canon Law, others simply because they don't like him. But even prior to the disaster of 2013, there are the pontificates of JP II and Benedict XVI, both of whom threw bones to the traditionalist/conservative wing of the Church but in the aggregate have ratified the spirit of Vatican II.

There are also the sedevacantists who have been so scandalized by the Second Vatican Council that they have declared the See of Peter vacant since the death of Pius XII.

While I self-identify as a Traditionalist, I do find problems with what I call "Dungeons and Dragons" Catholicism--as if abiding by the letter of the law and reciting incantations in se are the whole of the Catholic faith. They are important--and I would counsel any Catholic brother or sister to receive the Sacraments with the proper interior dispositions--but in an era where the Church is unrighteously mixing with the world, where does the Church end and the System begin?

We also fail to consider that in the last days there will be a great apostasy, and the message of Our Lady of Akita that warns that "The work of the devil will infiltrate even into the Church in such a way that one will see cardinals opposing cardinals, and bishops against other bishops. The priests who venerate me will be scorned and opposed by their confreres... churches and altars sacked; the Church will be full of those who accept compromises and the demon will press many priests and consecrated souls to leave the service of the Lord."

I've always maintained that the Church consists not only of whoever occupies the brick and mortar establishments and wear the cloth, but also of the Holy Trinity, the saints, angels and those who have passed into blessed eternity. If (most of) the visible structure of Church has compromised, there is still recourse for the Church Militant to the Church Triumphant through prayer and acts of devotion. This is how the hidden Christians of Nagasaki maintained their faith despite centuries of priestlessness.

Francis Berger
6/17/2021 22:28:40

That's a good comment, Ingemar. Thanks.

"While I self-identify as a Traditionalist, I do find problems with what I call "Dungeons and Dragons" Catholicism--as if abiding by the letter of the law and reciting incantations in se are the whole of the Catholic faith. "

Yes, the strict letter of law aspect never sat well with me, either. I also am reluctant to engage in any "Game of Thrones" kind of discussions focusing on intrigue and politics. Some Catholics are enamored by this sort of thing, but it has rarely risen above the level of abstraction for me. In all honesty, I don't particularly care which cardinal teamed up with which bishop to challenge the pope and his allies concerning some edict, etc. I don't believe it's a Catholic's duty to obsess over such things - and if it is, I don't want any part of it.

"I've always maintained that the Church consists not only of whoever occupies the brick and mortar establishments and wear the cloth, but also of the Holy Trinity, the saints, angels and those who have passed into blessed eternity."

Yes! For me the Church is the whole community of saints, angels, and those in eternity! Moreover, this is the community I am drawn to and feel loyalty toward. This community is more "concrete" to me than the contemporary politics of the brick-and-mortar institution. I can interact with and communicate with that community far more than I can interact and communicate with the present-day, visible Church.

And I don't necessarily think this is a negative development. Perhaps the future of the Church lies in the evolution of the Church from emphasis on the "visible, yet abstract" to the apparently "invisible, yet concrete." On increased interaction and communication with the community rather than with the visible Church. (Just a thought.)

Reply

Your comment will be posted after it is approved.


Leave a Reply.

    Picture

    RSS Feed

    Blog and Comments

    Blog posts tend to be spontaneous, unpolished, first draft entries ranging from the insightful and periodically profound to the poorly-argued and occasionally disparaging.
     

    Comments are moderated. Anonymous comments are never published (please use your name or a pseudonym). 

    Emails welcome:

    f er en c ber g er (at) h otm   ail (dot) co m
    Blogs/Sites I Read
    Bruce Charlton's Notions
    Meeting the Masters
    From The Narrow Desert
    Synlogos ✞ Aggregator
    New World Island  
    New World Island YouTube
    ​Steeple Tea
    Berdyaev.com
    Adam Piggott
    Fourth Gospel Blog
    The Orthosphere
    Junior Ganymede

    Archives

    March 2023
    February 2023
    January 2023
    December 2022
    November 2022
    October 2022
    September 2022
    August 2022
    July 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    July 2018
    May 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    November 2016
    June 2016
    March 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    July 2015
    April 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    October 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013
    February 2013
    January 2013
    December 2012
    October 2012
    September 2012

    Picture
    A free PDF is also available in My Work. 
Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.