with everything on it that people need for life.
What I believe, part 7
Christ's Teaching
Why do people not act in the way that Christ told them to act, even after they see that living in this way would bring the kingdom of heaven to earth? From all sides I hear the same answer: "The teaching of Christ is beautiful, and the world would be like heaven if everyone would follow it; but it is difficult, and because of that it will not work."
Christ's teaching is from God. Following it will make everyone happy; yet we do not do it because it is difficult to obey. We hear this so often and say it so often ourselves that we cannot see the lie that is behind it.
It is the way of all people to want what is best. People have always been looking for better and better ways to do things. Every teaching that we have in life is about what is better or best. When we know what is needed to have what is best, how can we say that we want it, but we cannot have it?
In every part of our life we do not give up because a thing is difficult. People fight with each other over land and wealth, but when we find that we can stop the fighting and protect our wealth by making rules, we make the rules. It is not easy to write them up, but we still do it, because it is better to have them than not to have them. Men are in competition with each other for wives, and they leave their children; but when we see it is better for each man to have his own family, we make changes and teach people to follow the new rules. It is difficult to feed and lead a family; and it goes against the natural animal desires to stay with one wife; but we still do it because we know that it is better this way. When people see there is a better way to do things, they do it, even if it is difficult. So how can we say that Jesus taught a better way, but then argue that it is too difficult to even try to live it?
If we understand difficult to mean that it is difficult to put off a desire for something now to get something better in the future, then why do we not say it is too difficult to dig up the ground and plant seeds when we must wait for apples or for grain from which to make our bread?
Anyone with the ability to reason knows that people are always doing difficult things now for what they believe will be a greater good in the future. Yes, it is difficult to follow Christ, because we must give up things that make us comfortable now; but we do it for something much better in the future.
No one can argue with anyone who says that we are animals, and that it is easy for us to act like animals; but who can argue with the truth that we all want to be something more than animals too? Even arguing itself makes us more than the animals, because we have the ability to think, and to see that some actions have good reasons and some do not. If I hit my foot walking into a wall in the dark, and then a person comes with a lantern that shows me where the door is, anyone would say I was stupid if I returned to hitting my foot against the wall because it was too difficult to move over to where the door was.
And so the argument is stupid that says Christian teaching is right and good for the whole world, but that people are weak, people are bad, and because of this there is no point in them trying to do better. I cannot believe that people are this stupid. They must be blinded by some other belief that makes them say this.
And that belief is the Church's teaching about Adam. The Church says that, because Adam sinned, we cannot help but do the same; there is no point in trying to change. Christ, on the other hand, obeyed God, and all that we need do is to put our "faith" in him and we will be perfect in the eyes of God. We can (and must) go on sinning because we are children of Adam. And any time we try to change that which is so natural to us, we are going against God and being tricked by the devil into trying to "work our way to heaven". But if we will not give in to this desire to make ourselves better, and if we will keep saying that our "faith" is in Jesus alone (and not in anything that we do), we will one day find ourselves in that perfect dream world that we call heaven, and we will get there without any action on our part. That is what the Church teaches.
The Church says that life in the kingdom of heaven just "happens". In the kingdom of heaven there is no work, no pain, no sickness, no death, no wrong choices. It is not at all like life as we know it here in the real world. Life in the kingdom of heaven is impossible in this world. The best that we can do here is to have faith in such a life… in the sky when we die. With this teaching, there is no reason to try to live the Christian life here on earth. Religious faith says it is impossible, and that the best we can do here is to hold strongly to religion and religious works in the belief that they will one day bring us into that world where good just "happens" without any trying on our part.
The war between what is right and what is wrong is put to one side by this teaching. It is not important, so long as you have "faith"; and a most important part of this faith is that you must not worry yourself over what is right and what is wrong. Just do what the Church tells you to do. Anything more than that does not come from faith.
But people who do not believe in Christ or in the Church argue the same crazy line: that the teachings of Christ are too difficult, and because of that, they will not work in today's world. What teaching could have so blinded them? The answer is that the very same teaching has blinded them that has blinded the believers. Educated people will not talk of Adam or Jesus, but they too believe that the perfect life will just "happen" without any work on our part. It is part of the "progress" teaching, and it comes from the same reasoning that the Church preaches. The scientists have breathed it in from the world around them without even knowing it. Science says that it is not its job to say what is right and what is wrong. But without thinking about it, science has taken the answers that the church gave about good and evil and made them a part of science. Both sides have agreed that it is no longer important for most people to talk about or think about what is right and what is wrong, for what is right will win in its own strength in the end, without any help from us.
All the other religions of the world talk about people trying to live a better life. And they teach that people must work at it, and use their will if they are going to make the world a better place. Only the Christian Church teaches that this is wrong. It teaches that we do not have a free will, that what we choose in spiritual things will make no difference, and that what will be will be, with or without help from us. But not one word of this comes from the teachings of Jesus Christ. Christ taught us to think about what he was saying, to choose what is best, and to work at putting it into action.
Christ used the words "son of man" over and over for himself, as a way of showing that what he was doing was no more than what each of us can do, for each of us is a "son of man". And as we believe what Christ taught, and try to obey him, we too become "sons [or children] of God". I believe that at some time in the future people will look back at this time in history and laugh at the crazy people who, for some centuries, believed that they could find a perfect life. They will talk of how we made every kind of study that we could of this life that we looked for, trying to learn how it was going to come. But then they will laugh at how we never thought to do anything about changing ourselves so that this beautiful dream could come true.
What will sound most crazy in the future will be when they tell how we had a Teacher who showed us clearly and simply what we needed to do to have a better life, and we all said that his rules were too difficult. The Church says Christ's teaching will not work because we live in an evil world; the best we can do is to pray for a new world one day. Science says Christ's teaching will not work because change does not come by reason; it comes by forces and laws that are above the control of people like you and me.
| The world is like a beautiful farm with everything on it that people need for life. |
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Farmers come to use the farm, but they each use it only for themselves, without thinking about others who are living there at the time, or about others who will come later. Each wants to have everything for themselves, and in a short time they are fighting over it all. They kill and eat a good milk cow. They do the same to a sheep which was there for them to use in making cloth. They burn furniture and wagons to cook food and to keep themselves warm. They fight over the food, and much of it is lost or destroyed in the fighting. The strongest get most of the wealth, but it is not long before someone stronger comes and takes it from them too. In time the whole farm is destroyed and no one wants to live there any more.
The owner of the farm fixes it up again and new people come and do the same thing. This happens many times. And then the owner's Son comes and says, "Brothers, we are not acting as we should. There is enough here for all of us, and there will be enough for those who come after us if we will live by these rules:
"We will not take from each other, but we will help one another instead. We will dig the ground, plants seeds, and feed the animals. If we do this, we will all be happy." A few people follow the rules and it goes well for them. But most of the people do not change.
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| To our surprise, the people are living worse now than ever. |
Over the years new people come, and in time they all hear about the Son and the rules that he gave. There is much interest in the rules, and soon they all agree that the rules are beautiful rules and they say that God himself talked through the Son when he gave the rules.
But, to our surprise, the people are living worse now than ever, fighting and robbing and wasting all that is on the farm. And how has it happened? It has happened because teachers came to the farm telling the people that the Son talked of a better farm in a different place, where his rules would work; and they said that the Son never believed his rules would work on this farm. How they live on this farm is not important. All that is important is that they look for or wait for the new farm to come.
And that is what has happened in the world. People destroy themselves at the same time that they wait for Jesus to come and fix it all up for them; or if they do not believe in Jesus, they wait for some law or force to make it all right. But no one will help themselves. Instead of waiting for an answer from heaven, all they need to do is to start obeying the answer they have already received from heaven, and stop destroying themselves.