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Word Gems 

exploring self-realization, sacred personhood, and full humanity

 

Here’s what to say if your pastor fulminates from the pulpit, “The Church has had its scandals and bad press, but the great men of the Bible had their sins, too – David had his shortcomings but was still king, and God expected the people to obey him. And so it is with the ministry today. If the ministry sins, it’s not the people’s place to judge but to continue to obey, as we are the representatives of God’s government on earth.”

 

 

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I wish I had known as a young man what I present here. It would have saved me a lot of trouble in my life.

Many churches, because of autocratic rulership, eventually become embroiled in sex scandals. It’s become so common now.

And I still recall an imperious pastor of long-ago justifying his colleagues, even at Church headquarters, in their sexual adventurism. As intimated in the title above, he attempted to say, in effect, “David sinned too, but it was none of the business of the people to make judgment. He still retained his high office of kingship. Your job, out there, is not to judge us but to pray-obey-pay and stay.”

 

Editor's note: I still well recall these utterly corrupt so-called ministers -- a word, ironically, meaning "servant" -- trying to justify the genocide of entire peoples: frail old men and women, down to the little babies, all to be exterminated, said the "god of the Old Testament." These "ministers" said that this was quite ok because "these people probably had diseases". Funny thing, though, in another context of pleasure, suddenly no one minded the diseases:

"Kill every male among the little ones, and kill every woman who has known a man intimately. But keep alive for yourself all the young girls who have not known a man intimately."  (Numbers 31:17,18)

The invading troops could keep the little middle-school aged girls as their play things - and then kill them when they no longer amused.

In this spirit, when it came to free and illicit sex, of the kind that these "ministers" themselves were currently allowing themselves, diseases were of no concern to this " Old Testament god" and to his agents. Pretty disgusting.

 

Unfortunately, for me, a still shallow-thinking young person, I submitted to this tortured sophism. But allow me to very briefly offer what should have been said in response. And this answer will be well in line with biblical principle.

You might want to see this movie. It’s well produced. It's on youtube for free, part of the "Bible Collection."

Jeremiah was just a young man in his 20s when he received psychic messages instructing him to confront the king for the immoralities of the nation. He was afraid to speak this message, as he knew he'd be persecuted and beaten.

Note this well: The argument of our friendly pastor, quoted above, was precisely the same argument that the king made to Jeremiah! - "who do you think you are, talking to God's appointed!"

In fact, it was not just Jeremiah, but a long line of prophets, with a dire message sent to “God’s government on Earth," telling them that no one is above the divine law, and to get over themselves.

The king and the conspiring priests did in fact claim to be above, elite, chosen, better, sanctioned – all the while Nebuchadnezzar marched toward Jerusalem, 604 BC, to put them to the sword.

postscript

I like Jeremiah. He was the one to look far in the distance to a day when the brick-and-mortar Temple would no longer be the center of Israel’s life and worship; instead, he saw a refocusing on one’s inner link to God:

Jeremiah 31:

32 It will not be like the covenant I made with their fathers when I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt—a covenant they broke, though I was a husband to them, declares the LORD.

33 But this is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the LORD. I will put My law in their minds and inscribe it on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they will be My people.

34 No longer will each man teach his neighbor or his brother, saying, ‘Know the LORD,’ because they will all know Me, from the least of them to the greatest, declares the LORD.

Notice: No need to go to the Temple to learn of God, as all will access this knowledge, having been written on the deeper inner person.

 

 

Editor's last word:

In the New Testament, more than one writer uses the term "holy of holies," part of the Temple, to indicate the sanctified mind, devoted to God.

In other words, others, too, perceived that the real Temple is not made of timber and stone. See the "ultimate reality" writing.