Paul's Passing Thoughts

I just received a phone call from an “elder” of the Latter Day Saints. Supposedly, I clicked an online link used to request information about LDS, which I didn’t. So, right from the start, we see solicitation deception. You might want to note something else. Church boils down to the gospel of authority. It makes perfect sense that these organizations partake in solicitation because church is an industry that sells salvation, and truth really doesn’t matter. As long as you “humble yourself,” and submit to some religious authority, you are on the magical yellow bus going to heaven. And all of these buses have something in common: they all need a paint job, have all kinds of nastiness going on in the interior, but they are the only buses going to heaven. All churches have their version of, “We are all just sinners saved by grace.”

In the past, when I was a Baptist, this phone call would have invariably ended up in a theological debate. Obviously, church culture is enslaved to endless theological debate about which magical bus is the one really going to heaven. Another thing you can note follows: EVERY theology is based on the authority of men. Name one church that was not founded by a person’s interpretation of the Bible. The church is a quagmire of debate regarding truth. More than 2000 years later, the gospel is far from being a settled issue and confusion reins.

The caller awaited my answer, which would have guided him to the next option in his sales script. If I am unchurched, he would have presented the LDS gospel. If I already go to another church, he would have preceded to tell me why LDS is true and how the other church is in error. With church, all so-called “evangelism” is the sales pitch for your salvation company.

How freeing it was to say, “No thank you, I am involved in a home fellowship movement.” That shuts everything down immediately. Why? Because my fellowship with other believers and God is not centered on a church, and debating that with me creates a problem; Churchians have to, at that time, openly admit they believe people are saved by going to a formal church institution. And even though that’s what they believe, they don’t want to admit it. That’s interesting, no? Something that you believe to be truth, but you don’t want to admit it.

However, they may have questions about the home fellowship movement. “What is your authority?” Note that they are admitting church is based on an authority. I answer that with a question. “Do you believe Christianity is a body?” Of course, they have to say, “yes.” My reply follows: “Well, we believe a body only has one head, and for us, that is Christ.”

And by the way, what is “authority” to begin with? In our present reality, individual autonomy ends up being in a much better position of truth than the church idea of authority. Church authority assumes truth cannot bring about a unified group. So, the only way to bring about unity is a submission to authority. Hence, truth isn’t truth because you think it is truth…truth is truth because some authority says it is truth. That’s why the church gospel, for all practical purposes, is merely the gospel of authority.

Individual autonomy is not only nowhere close to being anathema, it’s reality. If the authority of people and their interpretations are myriad, and individual interpretation is also myriad, what’s the difference? There is one difference; ultimately, the individual must decide who to submit to based on who they think is right, right? Isn’t that individual autonomy to begin with? Christ never showed up at any church council to proclaim any one person or any one church to be his authority. We only have the word of what men say about themselves for that. They proclaim themselves to have authority over your spiritual wellbeing…so what? The only problem with that follows: more than one man, and more than one church claims that, requiring individual choice by default. You can also apply this concept to the freewill debate. The reality of freewill is unavoidable. Church is an individual choice about which authority can save you based on your individual assessment of the argument or who you want to believe for emotional reasons. Then, ironically, you choose to believe the doctrine that the authority espouses because of your supposed inability to think for yourself. In other words, you are choosing an authority to surrender your individual autonomy to.

People are metaphysically free by default, and are therefore individually culpable for the sum and substance of their own lives. One day, you will stand before God ALONE, and will knowledge that it was YOUR choice to believe whatever you believed and to live a life dictated by those beliefs. It is your choice to believe whomever you believe.

You are defined by freedom, and will be judged by the excercise of that freedom.

paul