The appointment of the new Archbishop of Canterbury is so absurd as to be almost comic. It must surely be the final nail in the coffin of the Church of England and seems like a deliberate act of self-harm, proving beyond all doubt that this branch of Christianity is only concerned with social justice ideology with any real religion merely a subset of that. Other Christian churches might look on with astonishment but they should consider the degree to which they too are succumbing to the world because they are, only less so.
But I want to write here about how this is actually a good thing or, at least, can be used to a good end. All churches are externalisations of the spiritual but the spiritual can only be known inwardly. The external is there merely to point to the inner. It's a support and guide for those whose inner sensibility is not established. The trouble is that support can become a crutch and then it will weaken the connection we should all be developing to God. There are times when we need the support of an external organisation but there are other times when we should be outgrowing that and now is one of those times. The usual excuses are that without an outer authority all sorts of crazy, egotistical, false and deluded notions of the spiritual will arise, reflecting the psychologies and pathologies of those who propagate them. And this is perfectly true. There is plenty of evidence for that throughout the centuries, and certainly from the last several decades. Nonetheless, this is a stage that must be gone through if a true, uncorrupted inner sense of God is to be developed. A child learning to walk will probably fall over a few times, but if he stays on his backside and doesn't stand up by himself he will never walk.
Therefore, use the current state of the churches, taken to its most absurd level in the C of E, a true pioneer in spiritual ignorance, to forge your own connection to God. For Christ is within, not in any organisation or even church. He can use churches and obviously he has done so in the past, but churches only exist to show the way to those who cannot yet find it within themselves. I don't dispute that they provide a structure to belief and a communal space for worship, and I am not saying they should not exist because we need the outer and the inner. Both together make the whole. But in the context of the present time the real need is to go beyond established churches and find God within ourselves. There comes a point at which what once guided becomes an obstacle, and many have reached that point now. The pantomime that is the modern Church of England serves to bring this home with stunning clarity.
5 comments:
I suppose one question is whether this era is part of a divine plan, or whether it simply was unavoidable given the massive scale of apostasy among Men? In other words, is it a deliberate test or is God making the best of the situation?
As you know, I incline to the latter - that we are in a situation that God did not want for us; but that he has equipped us to deal with.
It is now up to each of us whether we follow the churches into damnation; or else accept personal responsibility for our salvation - and use the churches only when they are indeed spiritually useful...
Regarding a deliberate test or God doing what he can in the face of mass apostasy, I feel it is both. The necessary development of the self, Steiner's consciousness soul, probably made where we find ourselves today inevitable and there is also the idea to which I subscribe that over the ages spirit recedes and the material world closes in. So we are in the Greek Iron Age or Indian Kali Yuga and the latter stages thereof. This is a time when individual discernment is paramount and part of that discernment is to see the spiritually corrupt state of the churches and how they are now merely organisations that exist for their own sake.
The Roman Catholic, Coptic, and EO hierarchs have congratulated her, so it exposes all the high churches as phonies.
I didn't know that. It's very telling.
wrt Jason's comments; I haven't checked for myself, but if that is true it confirms that international church leaders regard themselves as primarily loyal members of the global leadership class; rather than as Christians. Also that none of the major churches are exempt.
No surprises, but it's worth noting.
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