Fresh Meat in a Den of Hungry Lions

I have been assured by many religious leaders that Moses was given God's Laws. I'll accept that as a starting point for discussion. Even though I don't agree. However, I do know humans. As soon as Moses came down the mountain, he was faced with the truth. Moses made the delivery of the commandments. And no matter how inspired his writings, we humans were already twisting and squirming. We were debating and weaseling. We were endlessly seeking some way out.

By "some way out", I mean a desire for noncompliance with those laws. Then, later, God sent us Jesus to bring us, or at least the Hebrews, back to the original message. God sent us a reformer.

From the very beginning of this reformation, we humans have been at our old habits again. Twisting and squirming, debating and weaseling, endlessly seeking some way out. Seeking noncompliance. When we humans understood the message, we twisted. We found the limitations too repressive, and we squirmed. It was too controlling of our behavior, so we debated and weaseled.

The earliest Christians were a sect of Judaism, and the Jews were highly skilled linguists. They were skilled legalistic hairsplitters in their own right. They got to work on "interpretation" right away. Christianity died out in Judea, under the Roman General Titus. He crucified or ran them all out of the country. By that time, the center of the faith had transferred to the realm of the Greeks in Asia Minor.

The Greeks were long practiced at endlessly layering meanings of words. The Greeks were long practiced at working wonders with philosophies. Christianity was a new field of intellectual endeavor. It must have been like throwing fresh meat into a den of hungry lions. The original was hardly recognizable in the end product.

The Greeks even gave the new religion its name. Christ is a Greek word. Some will want to argue that the Protestant Reformation was another attempt at returning to God's essential message. I don't think so. I think it was just more involved twisting and squirming. It was debating and weaseling. It was endlessly seeking some way out. It was seeking noncompliance. Or, if you like, a different pack of hungry lions.

(c) Copyright 2006: George Wallace recently published a book on religion which lashes out at nearly all of the comfortable ideas about God, the trappings of organized religion, and the priesthood. His pithy comments and suggestions for a return to a God-centered personal religion will interest everyone. This article may be freely reprinted so long as all copyright attributions, and the full content of this resource box are included. www.OhGodIsThatYou.com

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