Christianity vs The Bible Part 1

For some reason I've recently encountered quite a few people who would classify themselves as Christians and have some rather firm objections to swearing, drinking and smoking. In some extreme circumstances they even object to Christians going to clubs, or being in places that they associate with 'sin' or something equally ridiculous like that.

Now, as I'm sure you all know I consider myself to be a Christian. I also happen to love a good debate. So, I thought it would be cool to explain my view on the above things in my blog, over the next few days.

Before I start, I would like to make it clear that I am open to being wrong about any of the following, and this is just my opinion on the matter. The other thing to bear in mind is the fact that much of what I will elude to is part of my theology as a whole, so I can't explain everything. If I were to try and explain my theology as a whole, I would be writing a volume of books rather than a few pages.

Right, so people often hear me, or my friends who are also Christians swearing and can't understand why we swear, or how we can match our lifestyles with the fact that we are  Christians.

These people will usually argue one or more of the following things: swearing, drinking, smoking or clubbing isn't what Christ would have done, and we need to show the world who Christ is; swearing, drinking, smoking or clubbing is a sin and we shouldn't be sinning for obvious reasons; Christians should be removed from the world, therefore we should remove ourselves by not partaking in 'worldly' activities such as smoking, clubbing etc.

Now, before I start let me say that many people have an idea of what Christianity is in their heads, meaning they have defined Christianity by a lifestyle and if your lifestyle isn't almost exactly the same you are wayward and are no longer glorifying God. This, in my opinion, is false.

John 20: 30 - 31 says "Jesus did many other miraculous signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not recorded in this book. But these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name."

Romans 6:15 to 8:17 speaks of how we die when the law comes into our lives, but as we believe in Christ we surpass the law of old and cling to a new set of beliefs, or principles, which can be found in Christ's life. Christianity is in my opinion a belief system which consists of principles that govern our lives. By living a life of integrity our behaviour will adhere to these principles.

Now, in saying this I believe that I am abolishing almost all set laws for living life, with these laws being substituted for a life governed by principles, and in doing so Christianity becomes something which is accessible to any culture, rather than creating a set of laws and requiring conversion to a culture the way that the old law, or Judaism, did.

That's the end of Part 1, check back tomorrow for Part 2.

Interlocking Sleeves

At the moment I'm working on a longer blog entry which will explain my view on how Christianity and swearing, smoking and drinking fit together. I'm sure you'll all find this rather interesting, but for now you'll have to be satisfied with today's blog.

So, what is today's blog about? Well, today's blog is more about subtle messages than anything else really. I'm sure you all know that I am, and have for a few years now been seeing a psychologist every week or two. What you may not know is that when I was younger I was one of the most emotionally tender children you would have ever met, and to some extent that part of me is still alive and well.

You see, when I feel emotion I don't really feel it, I experience it. It engulfs me on a level I can't really explain. I literally experience pain when I feel emotion. And I think that as I child found this experience overwhelming and learned to shut it out at a fairly early stage.

Because of this, I think that I've become someone who thinks more than is healthy and avoids emotion. When I do experience emotion it cuts me, leaving scars which serve as a reminder as to why I don't venture into this territory. Instead, I try to understand emotion by rationalising it on a level it's not designed to operate on.

Because of this emotional hypersensitivity I don't engage emotionally with my mom or Cate. It's just too painful. I'm not sure if either of them have ever understood me but I know that I don't understand their actions, or the way they have dealt with the situation that they have been presented with. Their decisions have been their own, but not without consequences. And one of those consequences is my inability to ever connect with them ever again. I love my mom, and Cate is a good person, but I will never be able to do any more than converse with them ever again.

Because of this barrier, I have lost my family. But, in the words of Chris Martin, everything's not lost. I have gained a group of people with whom I feel completely comfortable. I don't feel as if I should be doing something special, I just need to be myself. These people are my friends, and they are the best group of people I've ever encountered. I would do anything for my friends, and I believe they feel the same way about me.

Now I'm sure that this all sounds overly dramatic, but it's the way I feel. If you disagree, it's my blog so fuck off. All I can say is that when my friends cry, so do I. And tonight I feel like crying, so I wanted to tell them what they mean to me.

The Blue Note

Now, this week I didn't have a New Adventures blog simply because I hadn't blogged in about 3 weeks, and it would have been far too long for a single sitting, and I can't remember everything that happened. So, from next week there will be New Adventures on a Thursday, as usual. But this week I'm just going to tell a funny story or two, and give you a general idea of what's happening.

On Thursday I went with Pierre, Justin and Gareth to Gareth's university for a few reasons. First was to meet Gareth's potential lady friend, second was to have a good time and third was because I had no reason not to.

Anyway, while we were there we met up with a friend of the Jizzer's, and subsequently a friend of ours, Melissa. We decided to grab some lunch together because we [actually Gareth] had a free period and coffee time had arrived again. I gave Jan a call and let him know where we were, and he pulled through for a chat.

We were talking and having a laugh when I got up to throw a tin away. Now for those of you who don't know, at the university they have bins for different materials, each one with a different colour lid. So, the green one is for 'Other', the blue one is for 'Paper', the yellow one is for 'Plastic' and the red one is for 'Tin'.

So, I throw the tin away, and then want to throw the straw away, but at the time I didn't know which bin was the correct one [I hadn't read the lids yet]. I asked before walking across to find the appropriate bin. When I returned I said "I put it in the yellow one... That's what she said."

We all had a good lol, and then Jan says "Necrophelia - I put it in the blue one." Everyone stared blankly before packing out in laughter. I teared up a little I was laughing so much.

Later I regaled Matt with the story, to which he replied "I would have died of laughter. And then Jan would have fucked me." That was a classic rofl moment.

Anyway, the rest of the day was reasonably good too, so great. Today is Kelly's 21st party, and the truth is that I'm rather nervous because I still haven't managed to swap my Butler's shift out. Well that's not entirely true because I originally thought the party was on Friday, so I did swap my shift out. But it turned out it was on Saturday, and I now am supposed to work. I really don't want too though, because it means I'll only finish at like 22h30, if not later.

I phoned the manager, Marcell yesterday, and asked him if he could try and organise something for me. He's going to try, but I suspect that I'll end up working. If I do, I'm going to inform them that I will be leaving early. So, no qualms. Well, hopefully anyway.

This has been a completely meaningless blog, but I hope you laughed at the story. Jan truly is a wonderful man.

Hearing My Brain

I'm not sound of mind. On some sort of fundamental level, deep under the conscious thought patterns I've structured, something is brewing. It never stops. It never goes away. It just bubbles away: formulating, conjuring, processing and taunting.

I often catch myself sitting alone, in deep thought, rocking myself as if somehow swaying to and fro will stabilise the cauldron that is my subconscious. I've read research that indicates that this motion is employed when the mind is trying to find security. I suspect this may be true.

There are days when the cauldron bubbles over a bit, and I am overrun with feelings of exasperation and anguish. There are days when the cauldron overflows and my thoughts become violently scattered, emotion is numbed and the world looks darker.

But the days to be feared are the days when the cauldron is rocked off its legs. On those days the mind becomes a black hole of death and violence. The world falls out of view and reason is submerged in agony.

We have a society that loves to cover these things up. People don't talk about their problems, they smile and shake hands. They meet the social requirements so they can lie to people because they know what they would do to someone who admitted they felt the way they do. But who's truly sicker? The man who stands up and says "I'm depressed" or the man who goes home and masturbates to child porn?

There's a Dream Theater song entitled Repentance, and at the end of the song John Petrucci makes a wonderful observation. A man says "You're only as sick as your secrets, but the truth shall set you free", to which John responds "The truth is the truth, all you can do is live with it"

I don't know if it's because my mind processes things on a different level, but I do believe my demons are different to the average person's. I don't believe it's normal to rock yourself to security when you are alone in thought. I don't believe it's normal to feel truly exasperated by morals, or social norms, or humanity itself.

But as long as I notice myself rocking, I believe I'm a lot more sound of mind than most of the people I meet. I don't believe I'll ever stop rocking when I'm alone. Over the last seven years it's become a security in itself, a sign of sanity. It's not going away, it's part of my truth. All I can do is live with it.

Now, I didn't write this blog to let you all know how far down the rabbit hole I may be, I wrote it to provoke a question: What is your truth that you have to live with?

Core Beliefs

Today's blog is about a saga that's been going on in my life since the Easter weekend. I put some lyrics up in my status on Facebook and got a reply from someone who clearly didn't agree with what the lyrics had said. The way he came across was rather rude so I decided to attempt to engage with this man in a more private conversation, namely email.

I started off by explaining how I interpreted the lyrics, and then finding out what he believed the problem was. His reply to this was rather confusing, and it was at this stage that I started thinking that his definition of core Christian beliefs may be different to mine.

His reply confirmed the fore mentioned suspicion when he stated that he believes all sinful nature is gone based on Christ's sacrifice. This is not what I believe, and it's not what I believe the Bible teaches.

At this stage this man also stated the following: "i myself am immune to sickness, poverty, failure , etc simply bcoz i know what the bible says. e.g 'greater is he who is in you, than he who is in the world' "

Now, at this I became rather enraged because I don't believe that anything in the Bible teaches anything like this. In my head I said "Mother fucker, this is the prosperity gospel." I did a fair amount of research and thinking before replying and asking him to read Romans 5 - 8:17, and quoted Romans 7:21 - 25 which states:

"So I find this law at work: When I want to do good, evil is right there with me. For in my inner being I delight in God's law; but I see another law at work in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within my members. What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? Thanks be to God - through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself in my mind am a slave to God's law, but in the sinful nature a slave to the law of sin."

His response claimed that the passage spoke about awareness, and that if you are aware of sinful nature being gone, it is. I don't remember anything in the passage even slightly hinting at any sort of awareness leading to a desired outcome. At this stage I felt that he was not even reading or considering what I had to say and tried to call a truce.

It didn't work. He responded with something he tried to sell as an argument, but was actually just a list of almost true statements. Things like "we are made in Christ's image." and obscure verses from Psalms.

I read everything he stated in depth and after calming down I responded by addressing everything he had said in a Biblical context before saying that as long as he believed that he was doing what was right, I didn't mind. I did however, urge him to reassess his beliefs from a theological, historical and literary critic's perspective, to which he replied with some more almost-truths before telling me that no context was needed.

Then he accused me of being a Christian who was too 'young' to understand righteousness, and quoted Hebrews 5:11 - 14. I don't believe he knows what that passage is actually speaking about, but anyway.

I sent a firm message back saying that I believed that what he had said made sense if you read all the random versus he'd pulled out as blank statements, and not part of a larger work; so if you read them out of context. I also said that his raping of the Bible enraged me and I'd prefer if we stopped debating because I don't believe he's hearing me out and we're doing more harm than good.

This man's final response said that he felt sorry for me because I didn't know God and that "your knowledge will take you nowhere, ur "context" will bring you nothing.. if you read what i told you to, then you will know that what i am saying is truth."

Now, the fact that we disagree didn't anger me. The fact that he wouldn't consider what I had to say irritated me, but the fact that he continues to destroy the Bible makes me immensely angry.

I just don't understand how he can choose to disregard context. If I were to read a James Bond book without any context I would have the most distorted view of the cold war, humans and technology, but when I understand that it is a fictional book I suddenly realise it's not supposed to be an accurate reflection of humanity or a period of time.

The same principle applies to the Bible. Without a clear picture of who the writer was, when it was written, and what the overall picture is we can't begin to understand what a single verse may be trying to say.

So, the reason I've put this up is to find out what you think. Was I being unreasonable? Am I being overly strung up? Or am I completely right? What are your views?

Shorthand Messages

Well, hello all once again. It's been about 2 weeks since I last blogged, and the truth is that I've missed it. I haven't blogged for a few reasons, mostly because I've haven't had much to say, but I really want to carry on writing, so I'll continue to blog 5 - 7 times a week, and you can let me know if it's become a load of shit.

A fair amount has happened since I last blogged: I've met some wonderful people, and made a few good friends, I ran into the ocean mostly naked in front of a large number of strangers to save a friend [which later turned out to be less heroic than I'd hoped because he didn't need as much saving as I'd been led to believe], I've become a pizza delivery boy until I go to Joburg in June, I've gotten some great new music and I've encountered some people that have angered me immensely.

Now, I shall blog on a few of the above incidents, but today's blog revolves around a man who astounded me more than angered me, but by doing so has given me some food for thought.

Before we think about what he said, let's consider something that is related. Do you ever think about what you wear? Do you ever get up in the morning, and wear specific clothes so as to 'say' something? When you buy your clothes do you consider the message it will send to people you encounter?

I know I do. You may not consider it on a conscious level, but the truth is that these things are processed by our brains, and we send the same message or reiterate that message, by our body language every minute of every day.

Example, I am a fan of metal and hardcore and I like to think that I send that message by the clothes I wear. If you've never met me, I wear mostly black. So, I like wearing black t shirts and shirts, black jerseys, black shoes and occasionally black blazers [I like blazers, but for the most part the climate doesn't agree]. I usually wear dark blue jeans, just to make the different textures noticeable [yes I've thought of the different textures]. I also have long hair.

Now, I may have thought this through more than most people but the same is true for everyone, just to varying degrees. So, the question is, should this principle be carried through to other aspects of our lives?

Recently a few of my friends attended a charismatic church, and the preacher used the story of Moses and the burning bush to justify his idea that all churches should have big sound, bright lights and the like because we need to "sell the gospel" effectively. Now, this made me rather upset because besides the fact that you can't in any way extrapolate that from Exodus 3, I've never read anything in the Bible that tells we need to "sell the gospel".

But the truth is that, while he may have been taking that to the next level, we do send a message to people and if we're hoping that people are going to accept Jesus we should be intentional about the message we send. That doesn't mean we need big lights and pyrotechnics, but maybe just keeping the seats clean would help.

So, was what he had to say worthy of the reaction it provoked from me? Well, what he had to say contained an element of truth, but by trying to make Exodus 3 fit into it, well that's what truly upset me.

You see, I believe that most of what people say contains some amount of truth, irrespective of how small. There is usually some truth to be found. It's why I almost never disregard what anyone has to say. There are of course times when what people have to say is just a big load of shit, but even then if we can dig through our own perceptions and judgement, there's something we can learn.

I know this is a weak blog, but it's just a short one this time. There will be some better ones in the coming days, I hope.