Most of my interactions with most people amount to little more than System interactions. People everywhere relate to each other only through the System.
And this is not limited to interpersonal relationships between humans. It extends to all Creation. I struggle to remember the last time I heard someone speak about nature or the weather without referring to the climate crisis or environmentalism. Virtually all organized, institutional Christianity has reduced itself to broadcasting System-dictated agenda items, issues, and talking points.
The System only lives between us and Creation because we allow it to. No, more than that. We actively desire that the System live between us and Creation.
Relationships in Creation require free, autonomous, thinking agents motivated by and capable of love and creativity. Only such agents can know Creation directly and form knowing relationships in Creation.
Very few people appear interested in forming relationships in Creation because most people seem utterly uninterested in freedom, autonomy, and thinking, to say nothing of love and creativity. It’s far easier to permit the System to live within them and between us.
As I reflected upon these thoughts, it struck me that the most glaring example of the System living within and between people is the denial, rejection, or relegation of Jesus’ offer of post-resurrected life.
Within so-called Christian thinking, this manifests most pronouncedly in all ideas and arguments that elevate this-worldly agenda items, issues, and talking points above Jesus’ offer of Heaven, thereby downgrading the afterlife to barely more than afterthought, to something tacked on at the end of mortal life, but after — and only after — individuals have dedicated their mortal lives to the far more pressing and urgent matter of improving the world, bolstering material and societal conditions, and fixing the System.
The significance and meaning of mortal life for Christians should depend on the reality of accepting Jesus’ offer of post-resurrected life, entailing that the significance and the meaning of mortal life must be permeated and illuminated by a guiding belief and faith in Heaven. Without that, the meaning and significance of mortal life become distorted and misinterpreted.
Yet many Christians seem to believe the opposite — that the meaning and significance of post-resurrected life are entirely contingent upon our belief and faith in systems in mortal life, whatever system that system happens to be.
Thus, Jesus’ offer of post-resurrected life does little more than distort the significance and meaning of mortal life and its systems, ultimately causing people to misinterpret what mortal life is actually all about.
Within this paradigm, Heaven does little more than obscure and obstruct the relevance of pre-resurrection, this-worldly “reality” by getting in the way of all the vital System tasks and goals we need to dedicate our mortal lives to accomplishing and securing.
The known, tangible, and practical concerns of mortal life are highly relevant, but only when Jesus' offer of post-resurrected life becomes primary.
A world in which mortal life and its systems are primary and Heaven secondary is a world in which the System lives between us and Creation.
And this is not limited to interpersonal relationships between humans. It extends to all Creation. I struggle to remember the last time I heard someone speak about nature or the weather without referring to the climate crisis or environmentalism. Virtually all organized, institutional Christianity has reduced itself to broadcasting System-dictated agenda items, issues, and talking points.
The System only lives between us and Creation because we allow it to. No, more than that. We actively desire that the System live between us and Creation.
Relationships in Creation require free, autonomous, thinking agents motivated by and capable of love and creativity. Only such agents can know Creation directly and form knowing relationships in Creation.
Very few people appear interested in forming relationships in Creation because most people seem utterly uninterested in freedom, autonomy, and thinking, to say nothing of love and creativity. It’s far easier to permit the System to live within them and between us.
As I reflected upon these thoughts, it struck me that the most glaring example of the System living within and between people is the denial, rejection, or relegation of Jesus’ offer of post-resurrected life.
Within so-called Christian thinking, this manifests most pronouncedly in all ideas and arguments that elevate this-worldly agenda items, issues, and talking points above Jesus’ offer of Heaven, thereby downgrading the afterlife to barely more than afterthought, to something tacked on at the end of mortal life, but after — and only after — individuals have dedicated their mortal lives to the far more pressing and urgent matter of improving the world, bolstering material and societal conditions, and fixing the System.
The significance and meaning of mortal life for Christians should depend on the reality of accepting Jesus’ offer of post-resurrected life, entailing that the significance and the meaning of mortal life must be permeated and illuminated by a guiding belief and faith in Heaven. Without that, the meaning and significance of mortal life become distorted and misinterpreted.
Yet many Christians seem to believe the opposite — that the meaning and significance of post-resurrected life are entirely contingent upon our belief and faith in systems in mortal life, whatever system that system happens to be.
Thus, Jesus’ offer of post-resurrected life does little more than distort the significance and meaning of mortal life and its systems, ultimately causing people to misinterpret what mortal life is actually all about.
Within this paradigm, Heaven does little more than obscure and obstruct the relevance of pre-resurrection, this-worldly “reality” by getting in the way of all the vital System tasks and goals we need to dedicate our mortal lives to accomplishing and securing.
The known, tangible, and practical concerns of mortal life are highly relevant, but only when Jesus' offer of post-resurrected life becomes primary.
A world in which mortal life and its systems are primary and Heaven secondary is a world in which the System lives between us and Creation.
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