Redefining Christianity
The Christian experience results from the impress made upon the mind of man by the combined operations of the Spirit of Truth – the HOLY SPIRIT - as HE functions amid and upon the ideas, ideals, insights, and spirit strivings of the evolving sons of God.
Christianity is a relationship with a SPIRIT God, a sprit-to-sprit or spiritual connectivity to HIM – based on faith.
Joh 4:24 God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.
Christianity is not the product of reason, but viewed from within (Lu 17:21 Neither shall they say, Lo here! or, lo there! for, behold, the kingdom of God is within you) it is altogether reasonable. Christianity is not derived from the logic of human philosophy, religious dogmas, but as a mortal experience Christianity is altogether logical. Christianity is the experiencing of divinity – the indwelling God - in the consciousness of a moral being of evolutionary origin; it represents true experience with eternal realities in time, the realization of spiritual satisfactions while yet in the flesh.
Christianity is not derived from the logic of human philosophy, but as a mortal experience it is altogether logical. Christianity is not a system of philosophic belief which can be reasoned out and substantiated by natural proofs, neither is it a fantastic and mystic experience of indescribable feelings of ecstasy which can be enjoyed only by the romantic devotees of mysticism. Christians do experience the infilling of God, yes. Because they are full of the Holy Spirit, reason why it is just to say Christianity is the experiencing of divinity – the indwelling God - in the consciousness of a moral being of evolutionary origin; it represents true experience with eternal realities in time, the realization of spiritual satisfactions while yet in the flesh. Thus Christianity is manifesting divinity in spite of and despite our humanity!
Joh 10:30 I and my Father are one.
The olden concept that God is a Deity dominated by kingly morality was up stepped by Jesus to that affectionately touching level of intimate family morality-goodness of the parent-child relationship, than which there is none more tender and beautiful in mortal experience. Righteousness may be the divine thought, but love is a father’s attitude. The erroneous supposition that the righteousness of God was irreconcilable with the selfless love of the heavenly Father, presupposed absence of unity in the nature of Deity and led directly to the elaboration of the atonement doctrine, which is a philosophic assault upon both the unity and the free-willness of God.
Christianity is not grounded in the facts of science, the obligations of society, the assumptions of philosophy, or the implied duties of morality. Christianity is an independent realm of human response to life situations and is unfailingly exhibited at all stages of human development which are post moral. Christianity does permeate all four levels of the realization of values and the enjoyment of universe fellowship: the physical or material level of self-preservation; the social or emotional level of fellowship; the moral or duty level of reason; the spiritual level of the consciousness of universe fellowship through divine worship or communion with God.
Christianity lives and prospers, then, not by sight and feeling, but rather by faith and insight into reality not the carnality. Definitely not the morality as contrived by man. It consists not in the discovery of new facts or in the finding of a unique experience, but rather in the discovery of new and spiritual meanings in facts already well known to mankind. The highest Christian experience is not dependent on prior acts of belief, tradition, and authority; neither is Christianity the offspring of sublime feelings and purely mystical emotions. It is, rather, a profoundly deep and actual experience of spiritual communion with the Holy Spirit influences resident within the human mind, and as far as such an experience is definable in terms of psychology, it is simply the experience of experiencing the reality of believing in God as the reality of such a purely personal experience.
Christianity is manifesting divinity in spite of and despite our humanity!
The challenge of this age is to those spiritual, hence Christian, farseeing and forward-looking men and women of spiritual insight who will dare to construct a new and appealing philosophy of living out of the enlarged and exquisitely integrated modern concepts of the indwelling Holy Spirit (the Spirit of Truth), the beauty of God’s universe, and divine goodness-righteousness-holiness as imputed unto man. Such a new and righteous vision of morality will attract all that is good in the mind of man and challenge that which is best in the human soul. Truth, beauty, and goodness are divine realities, and as man ascends the scale of spiritual living, these supreme qualities of the Eternal become increasingly co-ordinated and unified in God, who is love.
Friends, we are going somewhere.
Higher life is possible.
Glory is possible.
In spite of our humanity.
Col 1: 25 Whereof I am made a minister, according to the dispensation of God which is given to me for you, to fulfill the word of God; {to fulfil...: or, fully to preach the word}
26 Even the mystery which hath been hid from ages and from generations, but now is made manifest to his saints: 27 To whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles; which is Christ in you, the hope of glory:
Divinity in humanity is possible. Operating the SEVEN LEVELS of spirituality is possible.
Php 4:13 I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me.
Notice that it is “Christ which” not Jesus who.
Christ is the POWER of God, the mystery that is now made available unto you.
Level 1 is Belief i.e. accept what God says as Absolute Truth.
Level 2 is Knowledge which helps people know God and what they can receive from him.
Level 3 is Wisdom operating at a ‘mystical’ realm to some but mere Christian realm to us.
Level 4 is Faith. The ability to see the invisible and to hear the impossible.
Level 5: Truth. Self-consciousness versus Christ Consciousness and the Consciousness of God. The ability to converse mouth-to-mouth with God.
Level 6 – LOVE. God is Love. Love God with all thy heart, with all thy soul and with all thy mind. Love your neighbor with all thy heart, with all thy soul and with all thy mind. Love yourself with all thy heart, with all thy soul and with all thy mind.
Level 7. Life. The Life of God in you. The height of spirituality.
These levels are in a continuum. They just flow into each other.
In spite of these religious barbarisms.
Wherefore Hannah’s Song sounds most unspeakable:
1Sa 2:2 There is none holy as the LORD: for there is none beside thee: neither is there any rock like our God.
May the Uplifter himself uplift thy Spirit in the Name of the Messiah, even Yahushua Ha-Mashiach. Jesus is Lord...He is thy Raah...GUIDE for thy Rohi...SHEPHERD and as he liveth he will always be thy Ropheka...HEALER in his very own precious name. Amen
On Tue, Apr 29, 2014 at 7:09 PM, noelebini <noelebini@yahoo.com> wrote:
So you still go to your spam or thrash can to read my filth? See how dirty you came out of it. You seem to be crying out for help. This is what I should learn from? Sorry if I am not impressed.Please let me stay in your spam. It is a much better dwelling for me than watch you soil the royal court with all this stench.Christmas EbiniSent from my Verizon Wireless 4G LTE smartphone
-------- Original message --------From: Samira Ed i
Date:04/29/2014 1:32 PM (GMT-05:00)
To: camnetwork@yahoogroups.com
Subject: Re: [camnetwork] JUSUS CHRIST WAS A LIBERATION THEOLOGIST: THUS CHRISTIAN THEOLOGY MUST SPEAK OF LIBERATION
As I was saying...(In the spirit of Mark Antony)— unless these words have been applied contextually. Being one of those who frequently write informally on these pages, I have placed a moratorium on myself over the "N" word , and other terminologies nuanced in racism, like "Yid" or "Paki," that unnecessarily invoke hurt to a people in general. However, that's purely on subjective bases.
I'll like to congratulate Mr Ebini for his long essay. Unlike him, though, I'm going to be very kind in all decency, and refrain from dragging his piece into the latrine like he did mine. I'm congratulating him purely on its scholastic merit (if any,) for I have a feeling that he has learned from a few of us on these forums, on how to actually write something, urm, erm, intellectual (for want of a better metaphor) on religion, without trying to wade in for the purposes of stirring trouble, hugging the limelight and turning the whole conversation tits up. So on that basis, I'll be limiting my critique in that domain.
Firstly, Mr Shey should understand that there's a wide gulf between formal and informal writing. In formal writing, a writer is disallowed from using profanities; like "fucking," "shit" "piss," or "bullshit", or even words like "bloody, " and "bollocks"
I'm all for the the liberty and the beauty of free speech, as a liberating element in the concept of writing, and no words should be prohibited from the lexicon of our literature in these forums, from the lofty heights of hypocrisy, especially when we know that those people who caterwaul their objections over the use of certain terms, are far from the pious, well-spoken objectors they want others to think they are. So, I'll like to remind Mr Ebini to be conscious of that difference.
That said, I'm very fond of a ubiquitous word in my informal essays like "fuck," in all its derivations, because there are times when no word will be as suitable, to apply in certain situations. It is a very practical word and hypocrites shouldn't be allowed to shut it down. For instance, I could have classed Mr Ebini's long essay; if I had the time to read the entire article, as a "fucking piece of twaddle," if those were my feelings on his piece, because I will be doing so in an informal manner.
Having established the fact, that Mr Ebini's effort was an exercise in formal writing, I'll like to extend some kindly advice over certain baffling errors.
In formal writing, when quoting an authority, you had better get the person's fucking name right. It makes you sound unnecessarily silly, when you write something like this,
"As Cardinal Matzinger in September, 1984, instructed:"
Mr Christmas Ebini, I think the name is Ratzinger, and not Matzinger. I know that people think that Pope Benedict XVI was something of a mat of the old establishment he fronted, and not the rat he turned out to be, facilitating the recycling passage of old pedophile priests like Rev. Lawrence C Murphy. It is however, no excuse to cite him and get his name wrong. It is even worse, when your heading carries the most stupid misspelling of all time, "JUSUS," I mean, what the fuck is that? Jusus Christ?!!!! Is that someone we've heard of?
Another unpardonable faux pas that Mr Ebini makes, in his lame attempt to write on Liberation Theology, is to fail to establish the meaning of what "Liberation Theology" really stands for. He could've defined the concept from the get go, which would then have given him a frame of reference to work with, on how to craft his essay. It seems as if Mr Christmas Ebini has embarked on a task that is way beyond his capacity, and he found himself drowning in his own drool, waffling incoherently from one topic to another, without a central theme that connects the thread of his long epistle.
Mr Ebini therefore skips from one idea to the next, going all over the place, quoting tomes other peoples' works without helping his effort. He failed to mention communities like the African Americans, for whom Liberation Theology is an essential element of their liturgical culture. If I were marking Mr Ebini's effort, I'll be giving him an F for effort, because I'm being kind. And I have not even considered the biting booboo of his grammar.
Having written such a long piece, Mr Ebini failed to summarize and draw a conclusion, as one is won't to do in formal writings. Mr Ebini may ask himself, why is she being kind to me, when I managed to pour a dose of warm diarrhea in her own piece? And my response is this:
I do not usually respond to numbskulls who go bleating and wailing to an empty sky, infusing childish meaningless talk into an important debate. But when presented with a smorgasbord of warm salad like Mr Ebini's, I could hardly let such a challenge go, knowing how much he likes to inject himself into other peoples' pieces, with a whole new set of jingoism. I'll also finish off by advising Mr Christmas, that with the help of the ontological argument, we know that science and reason cannot disprove the existence of god, but neither have Christianity proven the contrary. None of the parties can show something concrete. We can only work with the assumption that there is no first causal creator, while hacking back to Occam's razor to show that the simpler argument about the nonexistence of god is always right. That is my established position, and the whole idea of JUSUS practicing Liberation Theology falls flat on its face because there was no JUSUS.
aNyango
My dear Brother Christmas,Good evening, sir.I have just finished reading your essay on "Liberation Theology", and I find it rather interesting. I'd also like to congratulate you for the effort in putting the stuff together and for the courage to share your views. Kudos!However, how would you explain the following apparent contradiction in your research or analysis?In paragraph #2, you wrote;
"...the scriptures does NOT present a hardcore doctrine for man to engage in activities that will only save souls but also provide conditions that would create an environment that would take care of the body as a whole in an effort to save the soul." Noel Ebini (April 28, 2014).Now, after reading the aforementioned statement, I was tempted to challenge your assertion with some examples in the scriptures but then, you changed your position in paragraph #3 of the same essay, when you wrote the following;"The scriptures provide solutions as to how a hungry stomach can be filled, how a painful body can be healed, how a hateful heart can love, how an ignorant mind can learn, how a greedy personality can share and by taking care of all these and more, then may we contemplate the saving of souls." Noel Ebini (April 28, 2014).Christian, I'm not saying that this could be one of the few reasons why the essay is so long, i.e. if you include other minor flaws in your arguments. What I'm saying is that I detect a contradiction in those statements. So, how would you like to explain away this apparent contradiction in the examples I have provided above?For starters, "Liberation Theology" is not a new phenomenon in Christianity. The concept has been around and known by several names including "Social Gospel Theology," and practiced by almost all Christian denominations, pioneered by the Catholic Church around the globe."Liberation Theology is a school of thought that explores the relationship between Christian theology and political activism, particularly in areas of social justice, poverty and human rights. The main thrust of this theology is to speak of God from the view point of the economically poor and oppressed of the human community. It considers Jesus Christ not only as the Savior of mankind, but also as a Liberator. This is interpreted as a call to arms to carry out this mission of justice and/or equality."(Encyclopedia of Biblical Christianity).Proponents of Liberation Theology include the following;Samuel Ruiz, 1924Jurgn Moltmann, 1926Gustava Gutierrez, 1928Hans Kung, 1928, etc.Kind regards and may God bless you.Your brother,Sam
On Mon, Apr 28, 2014 at 11:56 AM, noel ebini <noelebini@yahoo.com> wrote:
JESUS CHRIST WAS A LIBERATION THEOLOGIST: THUS CHRISTIAN THEOLOGY MUST SPEAK OF LIBERATIONby: Christmas Atem EbiniThe story is told of a mother who lived in one of the occupied countries during the last World War and who was unable to feed herself and her family. Its rations were too small, she went out into the country whenever she had a chance to buy some wheat or some cabbage or some potatoes, depending on what was available. It was toward the end of the war, and the food which farmers were able to sell illegally to people who made demands upon them was usually very little.One day when the mother was on her way back to town after several unsuccessful attempts to get food, a wagon passed by and some beets fell from its load. She rushed over and tried to grab what she could, but someone else got there at the same time, and the two became involved in a fight. They might have hurt each other badly if a man had not come up and stopped the quarrel. When the woman had finally quieted down, the man looked her in the face and asked; “Has your soul been saved?” Upon which she quipped; “You have not got a soul left when your stomach has been empty for three days!”From creation to God’s direct interact with the world and man, the issue of liberation in all the forms of human enslavement has been an important focus in God’s plan with the world and man. Man has been exposed to all forms of enslavement since his creation and even though God’s ultimate goal is concentrated on man’s activities to save his soul, the scriptures does not present a hardcore doctrine for man to engage in activities that will only save his soul but also provides conditions that would create an environment that would take care of the body as a whole in an effort to facilitate the process of saving the soul.Man is everywhere in chains and enslaved. There has always been a narrow perception each time the concept of enslavement is mentioned. It is common for ignorance to lead us to view enslavement and people in chains only in the sense of the African people forcefully brought in chains in the white man’s ships and intimidated to work under harsh and sub-human conditions on the plantations of the white men. We face enslavement of hate, enslavement of poverty, enslavement of ignorance, enslavement of lust and other forms of enslavement that turn to keep man perpetually in chains. The very essence of the scriptures, in its efforts to save souls, is designed to provide solutions as to how man might free himself from these forms of enslavement. The Scriptures provide solutions as to how a hungry stomach can be filled, how a painful body can be healed, how a hateful heart can love, how an ignorant mind can learn, how a greedy personality can share and by taking care of all these and more, then may we contemplate the saving of souls.According to David F. Wells, the doing of Theology in the past encompassed three essential aspects in both the church and the academy: (a) a confessional element, (b) reflection on this confession, and (c) the cultivation of a set of virtues that are grounded in the first two elements. Confessional is what the church believes, which crystallizes into doctrine and confession must be the center of every Theology which is a knowledge of given in and for the people of God. Reflection involves the intellectual struggle to understand what it means to be the recipient of God’s word in the present world; in this we look at God’s disclosure within scripture, making connections between the various parts of scripture in the way God intends in revealing his character, acts and will. Reflections also looks at the past, in an attempt to gather from God’s working in the church the ballast that will balance it in the storms of the present. Reflection must also seek to understand the connections between what is confessed and what is any given society, is taken as normative. The cultivation of a set of virtues constitute a wisdom for life, the kind of wisdom in which Christian practice is built on the pillars of confession and surrounded by reflection.The world God created and gave Adam to live in has become more complex than the simple setting in the Garden of Eden where the pioneer couples had in front of them the tree of knowledge and the tree of life. The post-flood world exposed the existence of an invisible passenger aboard Noah’s Ark, one who was not on the checklist God gave to Noah, the tempter or the devil. The modern world is full of dominated peoples, exploited social classes, despised races and marginalized cultures. From the freedom of the Garden of Eden to the chains of the southern plantations in America, from abusive colonialism of the African countries to demonic white racist regime in South Africa, man’s only hope for a better life and a healthy community is in the words of God and its promise to liberate. From the Exodus to The Cross, God’s intentions has always been to liberate the oppressed and the captive.Liberation theology is thus intended as a theology of salvation. Salvation is God’s unmerited action in history, which God leads beyond itself. It is God’s gift of definitive life to God’s children, given in a history in which we must build fellowship.The promise of God to Abraham, that was passed on to Isaac and then Jacob, is the same promise that was handed to David, leading to the liberation symbol of Jesus on the cross. The children of God have been down the line promised freedom, guidance and prosperity. Abraham was a father through whom the promises were made for many generations to come. God’s promise focused on liberation because there was no way the abundance of his blessings could be felt and appreciated if the recipients are in slavery or under oppression. When Jacob’s father-in-law attempted to enslave him as a taskmaster and a con-man, God blessed him and rescued him from the spell of his abuser.Jacob went with the children of Israel to Egypt in a period of hunger in order to benefit from the favors the Egyptians extended to his son Joseph and the hospitality of Pharaoh. After the death of Jacob and Joseph, the Pharaoh, who knew Joseph and the children of Israel, also died. The children of the great promise were reduced to slaves and captives and instead of finding themselves in the promised land flowing with milk and honey, they were building roads and houses for the Egyptians and eating their crumbs. In this situation God did not ask them to build temples or worship structures in their captivity. Instead he made a prophet in Moses and sent him to liberate them. The Exodus story remains the symbol of God’s power in liberation and a sign of his promise to come to the help of the oppressed people of the world who call out to him for help. God left the Marble Palace of Pharoah and settled in the slumps of Goshen. God led the slaves across the Nile on foot but crushed their masters on golden chariots in the Nile, God refused the worship in the golden temples of beautiful Egypt but accepted the open air worship in the dusty and dry wilderness.As Cardinal Matzinger in September, 1984, instructed:A major fact of our time ought to evoke the reflection of all those who would sincerely work for the true liberation of their brothers: Millions of our own contemporaries legitimately learn to recover those basic freedoms of which they are deprived by totalitarian and atheistic regimes which came to power by violent and revolutionary means, precisely in the name of the liberation of the people. This shame of our time cannot be ignored: while claiming to bring them freedom, these regimes keep whole nations in conditions of servitude which are unworthy of mankind. Those who, perhaps inadvertently, make themselves accomplices of similar enslavements betray the very poor they mean to help.The mute indifference of Christian missionaries serving in most of the third world countries, in the areas where the violence of totalitarian and atheistic regimes abound against innocent citizens, is an issue that has discredited the genuineness of western Christianity and their local converts in third world countries who are being considered as accomplices to dictatorship. The Biblical Theological arguments of non-involvement in politics by Christians has reduced the Christian activities in those societies to Sunday church attendances and spiritual sterility. God could have not gone to South Africa in the ‘70's and stayed in the white neighborhood without going to the ghettos of Soweto. While the Christians may argue on the non politics of the church, it is disheartening for Christians to say and do nothing when God’s children are victims to the evil practices of any government or system, thus reducing Christianity to nothing more than a club of privileged individuals who talk loud about concepts they know and feel little or nothing about. Christians are to give to the government that which is the government’s as long as that which is considered the government’s is not in contradiction with the laws and principles of God as should be reflected in the life and practices of the Christian church and Christian life. At no time is it said that that which is God’s should be sacrificed for convenience to the government when Christians do not stand up and speak out against the evils, the sinfulness, the repressions, the abuse, the torture, the corruption of a government, then the Christians are giving to that government that which is God’s and the Christians would cease to be the light and the salt of the world. Thus rendering Christianity irrelevant and inconsequential.Let us visit once more Gutierrez in his view on theology and politics: "Human reason has become political reason. For the contemporary historical consciousness, things political are not only those which one attends to during the free time afforded by his private life; nor are they even a well-defined area of human existence---it is the sphere for the exercise of a critic freedom which is won through history. It is the universal determinant and the collective arena for human fulfillment---nothing lives outside the political sphere understood in this way. Everything has a political dimension. Men enter into relationships among themselves through political means".Our lives, even our worship and spiritual lives are depended on the political climates and wishes of politicians, who may wish to give us freedom to worship and practice Christianity or out rightly prohibit us from serving our Lord. A Christian who does not engage in an act to reject political decisions or political regimes that make it difficult for God to be freely worshiped by the Christian church is not in fact a Christian of the New Testament texture. Whatever one may think about the political stance or political neutrality of Jesus Christ himself, which was obviously not one of mute indifference and passive accomplice since he engaged in activities that challenged the pervasive practices of the political authorities, it seems evident that his commandments of love and his countless examples and admonitions concerning the issue in the gospels must be translated to reflect the activities of liberation theology in this era when real-life love has taken on political forms. Any Christian who says there is no relationship between theology and politics, on the simple fact that such relationship is not stated in the scriptures and thus present the Christian engagement in the face of human sufferings and problems to almsgiving and Sunday church attendance, is seriously distorting the gospel message. The message in the scriptures is giving hope to the slaves and repressed and comfort to the poor and the sick. The message gives them the strength and the courage to stand up and face the brutal cowardice of their slave master or taskmaster.The scriptures or gospel is an instrument from God to the poor and the oppressed to use in calling out to God to help liberate them: I have surely seen the affliction of my people which are in Egypt and have heard their cry reason of their taskmasters; for I know their sorrows; and I am come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians, and to bring them up out of that land unto a good land and a large one, unto a land flowing with milk and honey---Now, therefore, behold, the cry of the children of Israel is come unto me; and I have also seen the oppression where with the Egyptians oppress them.The liberation activities of God and his example in Egypt is not an accident. Every act and everything God has done since creation is intended to set practical examples and set precedence for the world to know of the possibilities and opportunities available to the people of the world to use. All God wants us to do is to call out to him and he will be there to liberate us. Liberation theology rallies the oppressed people to call out to God. Liberation theologians preach the active and practical word of God to the people, that which is intended to give them courage to shun” evil repression”. The chapter of the Egyptian liberation was never closed but remains open and liberation theology is taping from it as required and prescribed by God.It is no secret that the modern earthly leaders of the church have tended to direct the activities of the Christian community according to limitations in their individual faith and spiritual engagement which is also based on their privileged experiences in that material life that turns to treat aspects of divine liberation such as the Exodus narrative as a distant “entertainment narrative” good for Sunday school lectures with no obvious attachment but as Jose Miquez Bonino puts it: "It seems evident that we talk of liberation because we have some awareness - lesser or greater - of oppression. Things are not right as they are; at least they are not right for us. Those for whom things are perfectly “all right” - an integrated cosmos of personal, social, and natural reality where everything fits perfectly - would not develop a reflection about liberation. A reflection about liberation, however, can only exist where the awareness of oppression is coupled with an awareness of the possibility of freedom from oppression - a hope, a dream, a restlessness, an expectation that things as they are ought to and can be changed. Which one of these two sides appear first is a matter for discussion. What seems clear is that both together are the presuppositions for a reflection about the liberation. For that reflection to be a theology, there must be in it a reference to a transcendent dimension. In other words the idea is that God is interested in oppression and liberation and therefore, a relation to that God has to do with the way we think and act in relation to oppression and liberation".The greatest gift we get from Christianity is the hope and promise that we should expect our lives and the way we would be living after life on this earth to be much better. The crucifixion of the Lord Jesus Christ on the cross was a symbol for the Christians, a symbol to show how far Christians must be prepared to go with the fight against sin, against evil governments, against evil systems and to show the extent of our strengths as Christians to crush and defeat evil systems in the name of Jesus Christ. The death on the cross and God’s sacrifice of an only Son, was not intended for us to fill glass-stained window buildings filled with appointed elders and deacons and the circulation of Sunday collection baskets. It was intended for us to stand up and say no to the system of apartheid, to say no to the Nazi’s, to say no to the Ku Klux Klan, to say no to the republican neglect of the poor, to say no to the greed and the exploitation of the third world by the G7 nations. Jesus Christ called the people in their numbers in the fields and the mountains and taught them sermons on how they would or could liberate themselves and when they were weary, he did not just show compassion for them but he did practical things to ease their troubles. He fed them when they were hungry, he cared for them when the were sick, he raised them when they were dead, he rebuked them when they sinned, he comforted them when they mourned and he assured them and gave them hope when they were worried and confused. Liberation theology takes the word of God to the very place where it was intended: for the poor and the oppressed. Jesus himself said that the whole had no need for a doctor but the sick. He said he came to bring light to those who were in darkness. If everyone was free and whole in the world, God would have not sent his son to liberate but since there was slavery and all forms of evil in the world, God’s son came to provide a means for liberation, repentance and freedom.Thanks to liberation theology, the black people in America and other parts of the world where the white people lived in ignorance of hate, the American society is gradually learning how to co-habit in a mix-multi-cultural setting. The black worship during the deep and dark moments of white-shame was a spiritual experience of the truth of black life. The spirituality of it allowed the people to encounter the presence of divine spirit in their midst. This worship, with the presence of the sprit makes authentic the experience of freedom by empowering the oppressed people with courage and strength to bear witness in their present existence, looking forward to God’s future deliverance. The South African experience is still fresh in our minds. Some of the western Christian churches that collaborated with the racist South African regime to discriminate against the South African majority blacks and other races, should realize and recognize the strength and mission of God in liberating the poor. If they are a people who can learn anything from ignorance, hypocrisy and bigotry, then what they must have learned is that God is no respecter of color, persons, bigots, nor users. God’s mission is to attend to the poor and the oppressed. He stands ever ready to come at the command of those seeking liberation and to those who call out to his name. In total agreement with what Richard Shaull had to say, there must emerge a new church and new ministries to give back to the church and Christianity its originally intended mission, that of saving, loving and liberating:When oppressed people become aware of their oppression, take up the struggle for liberation, and reconnect with their religious heritage, they often find that it takes on new meaning and vitality. The Bible speaks a new and compelling word and comes to play an important role in orienting their life journey. Faith is reborn as they live a new experience of transcendence in the midst of daily life and struggle. Their lives are renewed and sustained in a new community of faith, and the Christian story becomes their story as they experience joy and hope in the midst of conflict and persecution. Because of these developments, we may find ourselves today at the beginning of a new era in Christian history, a new Kairos in which the Holy Spirit is present once again as the spirit of novelty and creativity.How can I, a true son of God, who claims to be a beholder of the faith, engulf myself in comfort, peace, freedom, wealth, waste, opportunities, sublime happiness, laughter and convenience of Sunday church activities and eat with brethren who are privileged with food, wealth, family, comfort, expensive Bibles and arrogance of earthly existence while we comfort the poor with lip service, while we refuse to concern ourselves with the widows and the orphans, while we choose to discriminate against those whose sin has turned into perverse lifestyle of homosexuality instead of attracting them with our Christian love, while we ignore and condemn the drug addicts without extending, while children are starved and their parents killed by demonic governments. How can we as Christians sit down and do nothing to all the political abuse that God’s children are subject to throughout the world. How can we be concerned with incorporating God’s church as a business company with the government, with the dubious intentions of protecting our material and worldly possessions, but attempt at refusing to use the power of God’s word and his grace in liberating the poor, in comforting the widow and the orphan, in freeing the captive and in rescuing the oppressed from the tortures of the oppressor. Liberation theology rejects this form of personal and selfish considerations, our lust for power, and worldly favors and the desire for wealth. Liberation theology presents the true life of Christ as a practical lifestyle for a true Christian, that of sacrifice and self-denial. As John Calvin put it: “Show me a single person who does not believe in the Lord’s law of self-denial who can willingly practice a life of virtue!”The same Calvin put things this way: "All who have not been influenced by the principle of self-denial and yet have followed virtue have done so out of a love of praise. Even those philosophers who have contended that virtue is desirable for its own sake have been puffed up with so much arrogance that it is evident they desire virtue for no other reason that to give them a chance to exercise pride."Issues on the means used by the oppressed to liberate themselves from the oppressors might not sound logical to the oppressor. White Christians who are born into generations of racist oppressors justify the evil acts of slavery with dubious quotations and logical interpretations of biblical verses but the only logic that sounds right to the oppressed is that they should believe and have hopes that God is going to liberate them from the hands of their oppressors. From when it was started in the contemporary sense, black theology was and is understood as a Christian theological reflection upon black struggles for justice and liberation and since the black people received no support from white Christians, they searched deeply into their history and the gospel to find theological basis for their commitment to set the black people free from oppression and slavery.As Nicholas Wolterstoff commented: "Through all the dark days of its existence, there is one way in which the church has remained the sacrament of the effective pointed to a new day: Down through the ages it has been the bearer of the Bible --The word of God, Jesus of Nazareth. The church has borne that word even when the actual bearers were corrupt. And thereby, often to its surprise and its distress, it has sown the seeds of resistance and hope among the blacks of South Africa, among the peasants of South Africa, and indeed throughout the world".
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The thing always happens that you really believe in; and the belief in a thing makes it happen.
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