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Despite the blatherings of Church leaders to the contrary, equality is not a Christian virtue - indeed equality is not any kind of virtue, but on the contrary a sin, evil in aim and effect.
http://charltonteaching.blogspot.co.uk/2012/12/lets-be-clear-equality-is-not-good.html
http://charltonteaching.blogspot.co.uk/2012/12/the-desire-for-equality-is-natural-to.html
Specifically, Leftists are very fond of quoting as-if-axiomatic a phrase along the lines that "all men are equal in the sight of God" - and this is quoted as if it was a Biblical text.
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But it isn't from the Bible, and indeed contradicts the Bible in about as wholesale a fashion as possible. Neither in its general tenor, nor in any of its specific teachings, does the Bible ever at any point advocate equality.
Is that clear enough?
Attempts to extract equality from the Bible are transparently prejudiced; no unprejudiced person (that is, no person who did not already, for other reasons, 'believe in' equality) could ever come away from studying the Bible having learned there that Men are equal in any significant way, shape or form.
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Presumably this 'equal in the eyes of God' phrase comes from a mutilated memory of the US Declaration of Independence, with its meaningless/ false phrase 'created equal', but the DoI is not a Christian document.
And indeed it seems that an explicit advocacy of the evil principle of equality entered human discourse only at about that time - only in the past few hundred years have humans pursued equality as a goal, evaluated human affairs in terms of equality.
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Yet, equality is typically given first place in the public pronouncements of many or most of the mainstream Western 'Christian' church leaders.
In other words, many or most major Christian leaders take as axiomatic and argue from, a principle (equality) which is very obviously not merely un-Christian but anti-Christian in its origin, history and current tendency.
Of course, they blend and surround equality-talk with genuine Christian stuff; thus evil is made superficially plausible and desirable.
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This is a precise example of the Antichrist phenomenon as I understand it from the writings of Fr Seraphim Rose and other Russian Orthodox Fathers.
The Antichrist can mean a specific Man who will rule the world in the times leading up to the second coming - who will rule the world in Christ's name but under Satan's direction; but the term also includes a class of phenomena and a range of people and institutions that use Christianity as a cover for anti-Christian efforts.
Therefore, explicitly atheist and secular individuals and those of aggressively non-Christian religions are not (by this account) Antichrists - but the Antichrist term really applies to those pseudo-Christian leaders and institutions who associate their teachings positively with Christianity, who use pro-Christian motivations of people and aspects of Christian life; but are actually engaged in the destruction of Christianity.
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Of course this is sometimes difficult to discern, and sincere Christians may be duped, and the most devoted servants of Satan (cunning master of lies) may imagine they are serving Christ.
Yet, for those who are not inside the web of lies, Antichrist phenomena may be very clear and obvious; as is currently the situation with respect to a large majority of the leadership of the Church of England.
That the majority of Church of England Bishops, especially the most senior, most clergy, and half or more of the laity are currently working as agents and allies of the Antichrist is not one of those 'difficult to discern' phenomena - indeed, what is difficult, is to deny their very obvious, in-your-face, search-and-destroy, anti-Christian zeal.
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So the only legitimate question is whether the anti-Christian activities of the Church of England (and the other mainstream Western churches) is too obviously and explicitly evil for them to count as an Antichrist phenomenon.
After all, the Antichrist is supposed to be subtle in his anti-Christianity - and modern Liberal 'Christians' fail to qualify on that count.
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ReplyDeleteit isn't from the Bible, and indeed contradicts the Bible in about as wholesale a fashion as possible.
ReplyDeleteHow would you respond to those who quote Romans 2:11 and Galatians 3:27?
Mormon scripture -- specifically the Doctrine and Covenants -- does explicitly advocate equality. Mormons also believe the U.S. Constitution to be a divinely inspired document -- "just as much from my Heavenly Father as the Ten Commandments," according to prophet George Albert Smith. (Many Mormons believe the same of the Declaration of Independence, which is where "all men are created equal" comes from.)
ReplyDeleteI wonder if this will attenuate your admiration for that religion.
Could you be a bit more specific on this point. It doesn't seem heretical to say "G-d loves all men infinitely" (which might be said "equally" but it doesn't catch the point well does it), or that "G-d desires all men to be saved", or something like that. Anyways please use some specific examples how it is evil I am having trouble how to articulate this idea of yours.
ReplyDelete“Regali ex progenie Maria exorta refulget” [Mary shows herself to us all refulgent, born of royal stock].
ReplyDelete@JP
ReplyDeleteRomans 2:11 - For there is no respect of persons with God.
Galatians 3:27 - For as many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ.
As I said, nobody would infer from those verses a principle of equality unless they already, for other reasons, 'believed in' equality.
@WmJas - Fascinating.
ReplyDeleteAnd yet Mormons are seemingly the least concerned by Leftist conceptions of equality of the mainstream US Christian/ Near Christan denominations - with clear patriarchy, different marriage roles, marriage explicitly elevated above singleness, authority of elders etc.
I guess in this instance it depends on what is meant by equality. I think I could make a stab at this, but it isn't really the time or place here.
What this does confirm for me is that the 'key' to understanding Mormonism does NOT lie in its systematic theology: that is a red herring.
Crows are known for being able to clearly see what men are not.
ReplyDeleteThe non-existent equality of all, is one of those things that crows can clearly see.
It is a nice idea, favoured by humans, but it does not, and can not exist.
One creates one's worth, as one goes. This activity is called 'life'.
Thus, one may have equality, or one may have life, but not both.
Squawk!
Many Mormons believe the same of the Declaration of Independence, which is where "all men are created equal" comes from.
ReplyDeleteWhich is a corruption of the Virginia Declaration of Rights, which states "all men are by nature equally free and independent" - quite a different thing from "created equal".
This is the part from Galatians that is often quoted:
"There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus."
I may have forgotten to mention how excellent I found this post to be :)
ReplyDeleteIn which case:
Excellent post, Bruce!
One of thine bestest.
The liberal explication of the Galatians passage means that there is no such thing as men and women, among other patent absurdities. The obvious liberal interpretation then is obviously wrong. Context is everything!
ReplyDeleteEquality: From Dickens's "A Christmas Carol": 'It may be, that in the sight of Heaven, you are more worthless and less fit to live than millions like this poor man's child.'
Nice quote to have in your back pocket, to pull out as needed. ;-)
JP - I am no scholar and while I agree with you that from a modern perspective the cited scripture appears to suggest equality (if we are looking for it), in the context of the rest of Galatians 3 it appears to be specifically related to the spiritual brotherhood of all Christians who have undergone baptism (that is, a denial of worldly things by placing the spiritual hierarchically above them, where it belongs).
ReplyDeleteTo try and apply this to worldly things and suggest that it insinuates all people are equally capable of making intelligent decisions (e.g. equal votes) is completely out of context and would be twisting the message. Like if I tried to say I'm "equal" to Thomas Aquinas and have every right to lead the church as much as he would have in this world, even if I repented my sins and trusted in salvation, is absolutely absurd.
Note - the piece originally had an inattentive misattribution of the DoI quote, which I did not get round to correcting for a while - but when I had corrected it, I felt there was no need to publish comments discussing the matter, since it was peripheral to the main point of this posting.
ReplyDeleteMormon scripture -- specifically the Doctrine and Covenants -- does explicitly advocate equality.
ReplyDeleteDoctrine and Covenants is the weak link of Mormonism in numerous ways.
When you ask the Holy Spirit if the Book of Mormon is true, you may get an answer.
But the question is not, was Joseph Smith an infallible prophet? Nor is it - is Doctrine and Covenants true?
Mormons are taking the Book of Mormon and claiming a great deal more than whether the Book is true.
Prof. Charlton,
ReplyDeleteExcellent post.
What about James Chapter 2?
"My brethren, have not the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory, with respect of persons.
"For if there come unto your assembly a man with a gold ring, in goodly apparel, and there come in also a poor man in vile raiment;
"And ye have respect to him that weareth the gay clothing, and say unto him, Sit thou here in a good place; and say to the poor, Stand thou there, or sit here under my footstool:
"Are ye not then partial in yourselves, and are become judges of evil thoughts?"
@James - the Bibe never recognizes or advocates equality; but there is a recurrent theme that the poor are *better* than the rich.
ReplyDeletehttp://charltonteaching.blogspot.co.uk/2011/06/who-are-virtuous-poor-northumbrian.html
http://charltonteaching.blogspot.co.uk/2011/07/piers-plowman-and-alms-for-poor.html
You quote the "all men are equal in the sight of God", and then point out that nowhere in the Bible is equality "advocated". That strikes me as a kind of straw man argument, since "advocating" suggests some kind of social engineering in a leftist kind of way - whereas to me and many others the "equality" issue being addressed here is the idea that all humans contain the divine potential which needs to be awakened, or is covered by layers of ignorance, and that, therefore, humans with whom we disagree, or who behave badly, should not be exterminated by pogroms, hated, locked up in isolation, or even ostracised - but rather looked on as our alter ego, with some compassion.
ReplyDelete@PO - Agreed. But that has nothing to do with equality.
ReplyDeleteI think you will agree that words are a shorthand, an approximation of reality, and that one word often has different meanings, or shades of meaning. What you refer to as "equality" - and possibly what many of the social groupings you criticise mean by "equality" - is not at all what I, in this instance, mean by equality. So, apparently, we are at cross-purposes!
DeleteI Absolutely agree , Equality as well as Freedom is an elusion.. I would add that the first biblical experience with the lust of Equality was when Eve disobeyed her God and her Husband at the satanic promise "You will be AS God" This lust to be equal to God was the birth of Feminism and Equality..
ReplyDeleteIt depends what you mean by "equality"! Anyway, the idea that women should obey their husbands is an invention of our culture: it's a custom which humans invented in an attempt to regulate society, and is by no means natural or universal.
Delete@PO - My point is that equality in any meaning other than sameness is incoherent.
ReplyDeleteMy understanding of the relationship between men and women is that of Mormon theology - which is the only truly complementary Christian theology; since men and women are understood to be irreducible dyadic components of Man.
i.e. In a metaphysical, ultimate sense - there can be no Man that is not either a man or a woman: we are from eternity either a male or female spirit; regardless of our appearance in incarnate mortality.