Homer enjoying his God-created freedom.
The biggest challenge facing Christians is the seeming nebulousness of Christian values and principles.
Freedom. Love. Faith.
Christians like to believe that they have nailed these down at the personal level, but real-world experience indicates that this is very far from true. Most Christians have no direct knowledge of these values and principles and rely instead on external, secondary sources for knowledge and guidance.
Sometimes these external secondary sources originate from Christian traditions; however, they are often merely echoes of the materialist totalitarianism currently dominating the world.
Of all purported Christian values, none is as ill-defined as freedom. Everyone appears to know what freedom is, but very few genuinely know it. The conventional Christian attitude toward freedom assumes the existence of something termed “necessary freedom.”
Necessary freedom implies that when God created man from nothing, he simultaneously made man an actual being; that is, created him with the inherent freedom and agency to act, think, and make moral decisions and choices.
In this sense, man’s freedom and agency are created in the same way man’s skeleton and hair are created. They all originate from nothing, which God then somehow made into something. Man has no say in the skeleton God created for him and can do very little to alter his created skeleton. Yet he is completely “free” to utilize the freedom God gave him because freedom is not the same thing as a set of bones.
And what is this freedom God gave man? Moral choice? The freedom to choose between the tempting demon on one shoulder and the consoling angel on the other?
Depictions of such choices usually involve a subject agonizing over which to choose—the demon or the angel. The dilemma usually involves some externally imposed circumstance in which the individual must choose. Is such torturous deliberation the essence of freedom? Moreover, is God’s gift of created freedom to make such choices gift at all?
Everyone appears to know what freedom is but very few directly know it, let alone experience it. Choosing what to have for lunch or which car to buy represents a scant definition of freedom. Moreover, the act of choosing itself is often tiring and burdensome, and doubt usually mars the brief liberation we experience after having made our choice.
Maybe I should have had the fish? Perhaps the Corolla was the better option?
FOMO. FOBO. Multi-billion-dollar advertising and marketing firms pummel and manipulate you and your supposed created free will choices incessantly, day in, day out with this stuff.
Let’s kick up the moral implication a few notches. Maybe I should have cheated on my wife with that hot secretary? Perhaps getting the peck during the birdemic was not the best decision after all?
None of this is true freedom.
The above does not imply that such externally imposed moral choices are avoidable in mortal life. All I am saying is that racking one’s brain over the demon and angel presents an extremely limited understanding of what freedom comprises. Freedom is bigger and deeper than that.
To begin to address what I mean, I turn to Dr. Charlton, who recently posted some interesting observations concerning Jesus and the Second Creation:
Jesus Christ's work came naturally to him - he was not acting upon instructions.
When he awoke to his divine creativity, Jesus knew what needed to be done - because he was a Man (as well as perfectly aligned-with God's creation); and he spontaneously realized that what Men needed to live wholly by, for and from Love; was eternal Heavenly life - that is, to be saved from evil, entropy and death.
Jesus knew this for himself, and from himself.
Jesus knew what needed to be done. He knew this for himself, and from himself. In other words, Jesus knew what he needed to think and do directly. His alignment with God and Creation elevated him far above the level of “created freedom” and its free-will choosing.
To put it another way, do you think Jesus knowing what needed to be done involved a prolonged deliberation with himself about choices? Do you think he agonized over angels and demons on his shoulders before committing to the Second Creation?
No, as Berdyaev observed, Christ was a free man, the freest of the sons of men. He was free from the world; He was bound only by love. Christ spoke as one having authority, but He did not have the will to authority, and He was not a master.
Jesus exemplified an entirely distinct level of freedom that I have often referred to as spiritual freedom.
The essence of spiritual freedom lies not in making the right choices among externals; the essence of spiritual freedom lies in not having to choose at all.
The essence of spiritual freedom involves knowing exactly what to think and do for yourself, from yourself. The business of choice based primarily on external factors or secondary sources never enters the equation.
Jesus was the freest of the sons of men because he liberated himself from the “necessity” of choosing between externally imposed, worldly factors. No angel or demon dared perch on his shoulders.
Of course, we are not Jesus, yet he did call upon us to be free. As the Grand Inquisitor in Dostoevsky’s The Brothers Karamazov notes, Jesus sought to increase man’s freedom.
How?
By following his example and striving toward spiritual freedom, the sort of freedom that should come naturally once one accepts that Heaven and eternal resurrected life are possible. The old inquisitor considers this Christ’s folly. He accuses Jesus of expecting too much of man because the last thing man yearns for is freedom, to say nothing of increased freedom.
In other words, the last thing men want is direct knowledge. The last thing men seek is to know good and evil for themselves, from themselves, using Christ’s image only as a guide.
The last thing men desire is to be free of the world, assured of the knowledge of eternal, resurrected life. Such freedom is far too burdensome, and they will avoid it all costs in favor of submission to externally imposed choices and angel/demon wrangling.
The last thing men want is to know that their freedom is inherently theirs. That it is uncreated. That they brought it with them when God formed them into Creation. That they are ultimately responsible for that freedom.
That the whole point of Creation and Jesus’ Second Creation is the authentic spiritual operation and alignment of that freedom via direct knowing, not free will choosing.
This is difficult to achieve consistently in mortal life, yet not impossible, at least intermittently.
We should strive for spiritual freedom at all times, motivated by the knowledge that every experience of direct knowing not only "sets us free" but also provides a small, feint glimpse of the overarching purpose of Creation and Heaven.
Direct knowing is spiritual freedom and there should be nothing nebulous about any of that.
Freedom. Love. Faith.
Christians like to believe that they have nailed these down at the personal level, but real-world experience indicates that this is very far from true. Most Christians have no direct knowledge of these values and principles and rely instead on external, secondary sources for knowledge and guidance.
Sometimes these external secondary sources originate from Christian traditions; however, they are often merely echoes of the materialist totalitarianism currently dominating the world.
Of all purported Christian values, none is as ill-defined as freedom. Everyone appears to know what freedom is, but very few genuinely know it. The conventional Christian attitude toward freedom assumes the existence of something termed “necessary freedom.”
Necessary freedom implies that when God created man from nothing, he simultaneously made man an actual being; that is, created him with the inherent freedom and agency to act, think, and make moral decisions and choices.
In this sense, man’s freedom and agency are created in the same way man’s skeleton and hair are created. They all originate from nothing, which God then somehow made into something. Man has no say in the skeleton God created for him and can do very little to alter his created skeleton. Yet he is completely “free” to utilize the freedom God gave him because freedom is not the same thing as a set of bones.
And what is this freedom God gave man? Moral choice? The freedom to choose between the tempting demon on one shoulder and the consoling angel on the other?
Depictions of such choices usually involve a subject agonizing over which to choose—the demon or the angel. The dilemma usually involves some externally imposed circumstance in which the individual must choose. Is such torturous deliberation the essence of freedom? Moreover, is God’s gift of created freedom to make such choices gift at all?
Everyone appears to know what freedom is but very few directly know it, let alone experience it. Choosing what to have for lunch or which car to buy represents a scant definition of freedom. Moreover, the act of choosing itself is often tiring and burdensome, and doubt usually mars the brief liberation we experience after having made our choice.
Maybe I should have had the fish? Perhaps the Corolla was the better option?
FOMO. FOBO. Multi-billion-dollar advertising and marketing firms pummel and manipulate you and your supposed created free will choices incessantly, day in, day out with this stuff.
Let’s kick up the moral implication a few notches. Maybe I should have cheated on my wife with that hot secretary? Perhaps getting the peck during the birdemic was not the best decision after all?
None of this is true freedom.
The above does not imply that such externally imposed moral choices are avoidable in mortal life. All I am saying is that racking one’s brain over the demon and angel presents an extremely limited understanding of what freedom comprises. Freedom is bigger and deeper than that.
To begin to address what I mean, I turn to Dr. Charlton, who recently posted some interesting observations concerning Jesus and the Second Creation:
Jesus Christ's work came naturally to him - he was not acting upon instructions.
When he awoke to his divine creativity, Jesus knew what needed to be done - because he was a Man (as well as perfectly aligned-with God's creation); and he spontaneously realized that what Men needed to live wholly by, for and from Love; was eternal Heavenly life - that is, to be saved from evil, entropy and death.
Jesus knew this for himself, and from himself.
Jesus knew what needed to be done. He knew this for himself, and from himself. In other words, Jesus knew what he needed to think and do directly. His alignment with God and Creation elevated him far above the level of “created freedom” and its free-will choosing.
To put it another way, do you think Jesus knowing what needed to be done involved a prolonged deliberation with himself about choices? Do you think he agonized over angels and demons on his shoulders before committing to the Second Creation?
No, as Berdyaev observed, Christ was a free man, the freest of the sons of men. He was free from the world; He was bound only by love. Christ spoke as one having authority, but He did not have the will to authority, and He was not a master.
Jesus exemplified an entirely distinct level of freedom that I have often referred to as spiritual freedom.
The essence of spiritual freedom lies not in making the right choices among externals; the essence of spiritual freedom lies in not having to choose at all.
The essence of spiritual freedom involves knowing exactly what to think and do for yourself, from yourself. The business of choice based primarily on external factors or secondary sources never enters the equation.
Jesus was the freest of the sons of men because he liberated himself from the “necessity” of choosing between externally imposed, worldly factors. No angel or demon dared perch on his shoulders.
Of course, we are not Jesus, yet he did call upon us to be free. As the Grand Inquisitor in Dostoevsky’s The Brothers Karamazov notes, Jesus sought to increase man’s freedom.
How?
By following his example and striving toward spiritual freedom, the sort of freedom that should come naturally once one accepts that Heaven and eternal resurrected life are possible. The old inquisitor considers this Christ’s folly. He accuses Jesus of expecting too much of man because the last thing man yearns for is freedom, to say nothing of increased freedom.
In other words, the last thing men want is direct knowledge. The last thing men seek is to know good and evil for themselves, from themselves, using Christ’s image only as a guide.
The last thing men desire is to be free of the world, assured of the knowledge of eternal, resurrected life. Such freedom is far too burdensome, and they will avoid it all costs in favor of submission to externally imposed choices and angel/demon wrangling.
The last thing men want is to know that their freedom is inherently theirs. That it is uncreated. That they brought it with them when God formed them into Creation. That they are ultimately responsible for that freedom.
That the whole point of Creation and Jesus’ Second Creation is the authentic spiritual operation and alignment of that freedom via direct knowing, not free will choosing.
This is difficult to achieve consistently in mortal life, yet not impossible, at least intermittently.
We should strive for spiritual freedom at all times, motivated by the knowledge that every experience of direct knowing not only "sets us free" but also provides a small, feint glimpse of the overarching purpose of Creation and Heaven.
Direct knowing is spiritual freedom and there should be nothing nebulous about any of that.
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