Sunday, November 8, 2015

Part 2 - The Foundation of Future Christianity: Man's Dignity






The Holy Bible stories, teachings, and laws  are meant for Man. God intended these since the beginning of time until the end, when Jesus Himself revealed "Heaven and Earth will pass away, but My Words will never pass away." (Matthew 24:35) What about Man ? We know that in Genesis, Man was created in the image and likeness of God (Genesis [KJV] 1:27). As for the end of Man, St. John wrote the Words of Jesus who said: "The world and its desires will pass away. But whoever does the Will of God lives forever." (1 John 2:17)

That is how valuable Man is from the perspective of our Creator. Everything else will pass away. Only God's Words and faithful Man will live forever. 

It would therefore be disgusting for our Creator to see how Man is being treated with injustice, sorrows, and pain -- all of which contradict God's love for faithful Man. Let me emphasize "faithful Man" because the bible speaks of death and condemnation for wicked people. King David described Man to be "a little lower than the angels" in Psalm 8: 4-6. But there have been so many cases of human beings treated by fellowmen like they are less important than beasts and demons who devour resources of the weak and lowly. 

If we are to first of all accept the Truth about Man's dignity, in order to get started with building Man as God's Temple, there should be governance policies aimed at protecting people against exploitation of weak fellowmen and deprivation of human rights to live with the honor God originally gave to Man when he created Adam and Eve. Are there such policies preventing each government from gross disregard of care for fellowmen ? Actually, there are many circumstances beyond my control or your own control. We can only hope to do our part whatever it may be given this opportunity called life. We can, at the very least, proclaim the Good News about Jesus and how God intends to save those who put their trust in Him. I am presupposing the preconditions to be an effective disciple of Jesus -- all these are already in place. What are these preconditions?

In general, these include consistent, genuine Faith in God, adequate knowledge about God's teachings in the old and new Scriptures, founded on reading the Holy Bible, reflecting on Words of God and the moral lessons taught to Man, and practicing the Way to Love in real life. This statement is an oversimplification of semantics to avoid theological doctrines. In this article, I would like to emphasize the reality that God had long given Man the top priority, although what we see at present reveals how there seems to be substantial failures with uplifting human dignity worldwide. It's not yet end of the world. We still have time to reform ourselves in order to become worthy faithful followers of God.

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Thursday, November 5, 2015


by Tomas M. Barrameda II
(Author of "Jesus, The Liberator [A Biblical perspective of Liberation Theology for the 21st Century]" ) 

November 5. 2015


Our present Christianity has an abundance of  imperfections although compared to earlier years, we may say most Christians are much better than before. In order to improve on the present, we need to see what makes our present Christianity not the way it should be as described in the Holy Bible. 

Today, I will highlight at least one of those "misunderstandings" currently practiced. It occurred to me that Christians are having difficulties becoming spiritually matured not only because many don't read and understand the substance of the Scriptures, but also because Man has been blinded by worldly things, especially those those which please the senses. Let me be more specific. In the bible, it is written: "How lovely is your temple, O Lord, of the armies of heaven." ( Psalm 84:1 ). But that was from the Old Testament. So today, a lot of people think of this message as referring to the church buildings which are being improved on an ongoing basis. 

The New Testament reveals St. Paul saying that we, the genuine Christians who believe and strive to obey, represent God's Temple by faith. ( 1 Corinthians 3:16, 17 / 1 Cor. 6:19 )

When Jesus said: The Kingdom of God is within you (Luke 17: 20-21), he was referring to humans being  temples of God. Thus, the aim of Man should be to be God's Temple. As God's temple, we therefore have to give more importance to each believer in Jesus Christ. What we are witnessing at present, when a great majority of people seem to be losing faith in God and in His teachings, and their practical lives have become evidences of love for money, power, fame, vices, pleasures, and wicked ways to satisfy their avarice and various godless desires, is the opposite of the Kingdom of God in the making. That is because lives have become founded on the "misunderstanding" of God's Temple on Earth. 

In the near future, there should be a turning of trend towards victory in the spiritual battlefield between genuine Spiritual Leaders and fake ones whose concern is to deceive people about the Kingdom of God. 

Jesus, The Liberator, will succeed in the formation of more and more genuine spiritual leaders who will build on obedient disciples by the power of His Words. We will then increase in number exponentially 2 to the 33rd power = 8.5 billion, where the 33rd power is approximately the age of Jesus when he was crucified to death, and 2 can mean God and Me. But I am sure there are more genuine Spiritual Warriors of Jesus in this world. Thus, progress towards establishing such a foundation in practical living will be much faster. 

How would I know that you are God's temple in  the present ? We are blessed by a "third" eye. Our two physical eyeballs are meant to see whatever or whoever. The 3rd has an ability to discern. You are a temple of God when I see in you the practical life of obedience to God's teachings, a consistent manifestation of Jesus alive in you. 
(To Be Continued )

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