Abraham's Descendant: October 2012

Wednesday, October 24, 2012

Morality: The Last Bastion (Part 1)

I remember Ravi Zacharias saying this in response to a man who said "There is no God because of so much evil in this world!":
"Sir, if you believe there is such a thing as evil, aren't you assuming there is such a thing as good?"
The man replied "Yes."
"If there is such a thing as good, aren't you assuming that there is such a thing as a moral law with which you can differentiate between good and evil?"
After a hesitation, the man replied "Yes..."
Oooooppssie...

I read a blog dedicated to Atheism. It was an interesting read because not only it's something I haven't read before but also because of the honesty laid there. The sincerity of his conviction of his belief was there but something was lacking: there was no thorough examination or deep delving on how he came up to the conclusion that there is no God. And what's even more interesting is that though he claims there is no God, and he does not believe in the "supernatural views of reality", he has succumbed himself to a belief system that plays the part of the Atheism yet imparts knowledge of the so-called occultism (La Veyan Satanism). Kind of Bipolar, isn't it? A belief system teaching there's no God yet religiously following the pathway of the spiritual occultist Aleister Crowley (who was by the way a child-murderer in his time), only with a twist. Because while Crowley believed in a deified Satan, Anton LaVey claimed that man is his own god:

“

Satanists do not believe in the supernatural, in neither God nor the Devil. To the Satanist, he is his own God. Satan is a symbol of Man living as his prideful, carnal nature dictates. The reality behind Satan is simply the dark evolutionary force of entropy that permeates all of nature and provides the drive for survival and propagation inherent in all living things. Satan is not a conscious entity to be worshipped, rather a reservoir of power inside each human to be tapped at will. Thus any concept of sacrifice is rejected as a Christian aberration—in Satanism there’s no deity to which one can sacrifice.^{[10]
"Satanism: The Feared Religion", the Church of Satan's current leader Peter H. Gilmore}

Atheism literally means "no god. (How apt! In the Holy Scriptures, Lucifer/Satan has done everything he could do to take the minds of men off of God) And it seemed LaVeyan Satanism is a perfect outlet for such "me, myself, and I" sentiment. After all, to be indulgent of your personal desires is not only gratification of the being but also his being. In short the goal is to become Satan-- the prideful one. The person is not only an epitome of Satan. He is to live as Satan. He is Satan.

And this is what I really find disturbing.

LaVeyan Satanists do NOT worship Satan, or any deity, contrary to the popular belief that all satanists worship the devil. In essence, they worship their individual self. There are no "goat sacrificing" rituals or anything ridiculous of that nature attributed to Satanism. Satanism is, at its core, individualism purely and totally. It is about deviating from the conformists of humanity around you. It is finding your own way, and choosing your own way. Satanism is about exploring one's own personality and sexuality. You need not hate, nor love. You only do as YOU wish. This is the way of the LaVeyan Satanist. http://www.wikihow.com/Become-a-LaVeyan-Satanist

This is freedom unrestrained. And even the simplest common sense tells us that any excess is destructive to oneself and to others.
But this church isn't concerned about the others.
It is a CHURCH dedicated to the individual self; to the indulgent self. To the selfish self.
And this is what I'm really worried about.

If one lives in much exploring sexuality and choosing one's way or personality, if it's all about being deviant against norms, if it's all about individualism purely and totally, I'm wondering, on what basis could a "satanist" define what is good and evil? How would a satanist answer the woes of this world?
(To be continued)

Sunday, October 21, 2012

Friendship And Fellowship: Not Just Mere Footnotes (1)

"AN INTROVERT'S STATUS"

Proverbs 27:17 Iron sharpens iron, and one man sharpens another.

Being an introvert, I fully understand that lack of initiative of meeting new people and befriending others. That is a scary dimension for introverts like me. It's a step into another realm outside ourselves; that's something hideous for introverts like myself. And through this, while pondering this, I somehow came to understanding that God has designed man for friendship and fellowship. God has wired into us the need to socialize so that we will not implode. So that we can experience God through other people. We could look into another person's eye and say that God indeed has a marvelous creation.

Dealing with my introvert nature (I haven't been with a Psychologist EVER), words that I learned from my Psychology class, I have had to work out my weaknesses in my favor. For instance, my pondering, brooding side I could use in concentrating on reading the Holy Scriptures and on prayer. My being slow in speech meant I could listen more and process ideas in my head enabling me to be careful in voicing out judgments. Now this isn't to say that extroverts aren't good listeners, many of them are. I'm just speaking about my own way of dealing with my nature according to the gift God has given me and that is LIFE.

Surviving my uber-shyness, I started appreciating my weaknesses brought about by my nature. I had to take baby steps. Things that paid off.

I realized that to avoid being "stagnant" I had to face the fact that I need people around me with whom I could confide everything that was within me; all of who I am. This meant I have to take off that false armor of security (introvert nature may trigger insecurity) and be vulnerable to what other people might think or say of me. THIS EXPERIENCE has been more pronounced than any other experience in my teaching profession.

The teaching profession as everyone knows is the kind of profession that requires a person to deal with other people ON A DAILY BASIS. So I had to rub it to my face and shrug off whatever fear I had within me.

Setting aside fear while maintaining my pondering and brooding self, I learned that people would be more than willing to share their beliefs and ideas whenever needed to empower another person, to give assurance or comfort. This is really a reflection of what Bible says about relationships.

As a bearer of God's image, a man is not just a man for himself. In fact The Bible reflects that a man IS NOT FOR himself-- he is FOR THE OTHERS. And since a man is an iconography of God's image, a fellow man is his mirror of that Imago Dei.

We are to bear each other-- whatever nature we have-- because God has imprinted on us His image, signed, sealed, delivered by His Son, so that we can sharpen one another in good will and faith.

“Friendship is unnecessary, like philosophy, like art… It has no survival value; rather it is one of those things that give value to survival.” CS LEWIS