Satan is in charge...my 1+1=3 just kicked in

     My friend told me how excited he was when his daughter learned about Satan.  Dad puffed up like a proud peacock because his sweet little  girl got it.  She was able to say it out loud; Satan was the enemy.  The Sunday School had done well.  I must say I was rather shocked at his enthusiastic display of delight.  I thought,  "Thank God, his daughter now understands, at 4 years old, the horrific battle, which would confront her for the rest of her life." I wondered how a person who found such joy in celebrating salvation in Jesus could be so equally delighted in something so seemingly negative.  Wasn't the word gospel synonymous with good news?  I forced a smile and chuckle in response as I internally squirmed with discomfort.  My 1+1=3 kicked into full gear when I shifted the conversation toward the solution.  What about employing the resurrection power of God to thwart Satan and create good? My  friend, a brilliant and successful financier, would have nothing of it.  The world, according to him and the Bible, was destined to grow exponentially worse and worse because Satan had full reign over it. The only thing that would save the world was the second coming of Jesus.  Until then, there was no hope that anything would get better.

     Wow.   

     It was at that moment when I realized that my friend and I had irreconcilable world views.  Mine rooted in the gospel of, "Can beat can't," and his, rooted in the gospel of, "The world is f***ed."  He could drink, use the f bomb frequently, live a rich and lavish lifestyle,  (all with which I have no problem) and go to church.  He could raise his daughter  in the company of Evil because, after all, she was saved, and he could blame all of the world's devastation and societal deterioration on the omnipotence of Satan, which the all loving God had relinquished to him...for a time.  Being saved was the ticket, sheltering his family from the devastation, assuring the good life, and imposing no obligation toward the betterment of the other or the society in which he lived.  Satan would destroy the world.  That was that.  Nietzsche's nihilism had taken a new twist.  No longer was God dead, but the world was dead, or at least it was on a fast track toward death.

     Memorized verses from the Christian Scriptures raced through my mind.  "The kingdom of God is in your midst."  "Love God, and love your neighbor as yourself.  Do this and you shall live."  "Whatever you do to the least of these, you do to me."  "Share the good news."  "I have come that they might have life, and have it abundantly." And there was that nagging story in the Torah, which charges the people to be good stewards of creation.

      I had known for years that there was a small fraction of Christians who advocated for the quickening of the return of Jesus, which could only happen after the total destruction of the world, and the rebuilding of the Temple in Jerusalem, but I did not realize how deeply infected those same Christians (which now seem more than a small fraction - at least in the U.S.)  had now become with an irresponsible nihilism, and fatalism that to me is truly Evil, or ...Satanic.   Furthermore, this nihilism and fatalism, according to them, is Biblical, Godly, and predestined.  It would be logical, therefore, to conclude that anyone who does not subscribe to this ideology is not in accordance with God or the Bible.  Should I dare say, that one is not saved?  Am I not saved (and from what I might need saving I will discuss in later posts) because I believe that, "Can beat can't?" The consequences of this infectious ideology are dangerously catastrophic to this world; and may well be captured by the mathematical equation, 1+1=0, or the antithesis to grandma's wisdom, "Can't beat can." 

     It brings me back to my friend's little girl.  For the sheer joy of it, let's call my friend's little girl, Hope.  Hope has now been educated from birth by a family and church to know and understand that the exponentially increasing world horrors and societal deterioration she will experience are caused by Satan, that she can do nothing about them, that those who suffer as a result of them do because the Bible tells her so, that these horrors and the societal deterioration are good because they are signs that Jesus is coming back soon, and that she has no power to change things.  The words, "Jesus loves me, this I know, for the Bible tells me so" seem ironically sadistic against this backdrop.

     Against this backdrop, why wouldn't one cheer at the escalation of violence, war and death in the Middle East in heightened anticipation that the Dome of the Rock might be destroyed so that the Temple might be rebuilt, freeing Jesus to return on his white horse;  or delight at the thought of the earth's temperature rising exponentially, ushering in its final destruction by fire?  Why would one do anything responsible to stop these things from happening?  After all that would slow down the return of Jesus. Unless, of course, one's world view is centered in the words attributed to Jesus, such as, "The kingdom of God is in your midst."  "Love God, and love your neighbor as yourself.  Do this and you shall live."  "Whatever you do to the least of these, you do to me."  "Share the good news."  "I have come that they might have life, and have it abundantly."

     And on the third day he rose...."Can beat can't" because God said it was good...and here begins the true story of what it means to save...  

    

     

     



      

1+1=3

     When I first heard the phrase at a Steven Covey workshop that "1+1=3," I paused.  My imagination, my world view, my spirituality, and my grandma told me, "Can beat can't," that there was always a solution to a problem, and that good would always trump evil.  1+1=3 summed it up nicely.  A serendipitous moment when things converge unexpectedly to give a sense of expression to the ponderings of one's heart.  Mixed with the miraculous potential of the human spirit, the equation 1+1 could really equal 3.  Prophets saw the 3 in the groaning world they experienced.  Dreamers saw the clouds transformed into animals and creatures feeding the sky with life.  Scientists saw the quest for answers propel them into ever greater mysteries birthing new discoveries.  Teachers saw the unfolding of new knowledge igniting the quest for success. Leaders saw the progress of their followers supersede that of their own.  Nurturers saw the nurtured expand the circle of life.  Words were written into ancient scriptures, which suggested that one would do far greater things than the Divine if faith superseded the mustard seed's size.  The promise of life everlasting emanated from a dynamic love between Divine, self, and other. 

     I use the past tense, not because I don't still believe these things, but because I wonder if the world still does.

     Solutions, values, the other, faith, hope, success, discovery, education, questioning, respect, self esteem, empathy, humanity, we, honor, creation and life.

     The story begins with these words.  Where do they fit today?   Are they relevant?  Can 1+1=3?  Does can beat can't?

     Does the Divine's promise truly evoke resurrection?  If so, why does it so often seem that the ones who claim to have the most intimate knowledge of the Divine's heart seem to be the ones who no longer see? 

     Let's begin in the next post with a story based upon a real life experience, which sets for me a framework from which I will muse about what I think the authentic spiritual journey really is, and its grounding for me in Christianity; about the U.S. government and how its effectiveness is being damaged by the New American "Christianity" Movement; and about the lack of the sense of value of and respect for the other, which is preventing our country from progressing forward and damaging our national psyche.