Christians (of various denominations) often make a good deal of the assertion that Jesus Christ is King of the world, and the Universe - everything.
The intent is, obviously, to emphasize that Jesus is divine, is a god - and (for Trinitarians) that Jesus is The One creator God.
The intent is to make sure that everybody recognizes that there is no-thing, no-person, no-god that is greater than Jesus, or more powerful - that Jesus can do anything that Jesus wills. To make clear that - because he is the King of everything and always - Jesus not only should-not, but cannot (coherently) be ignored by anyone.
When Jesus is King of the Universe, then anyone who believes otherwise must be ignorant or insane; or else purposively evil. There can be no rational choice against Jesus.
But if Jesus is the actual ruler of every-thing, now and forever (and indeed always has been, from eternity) - then why doesn't he do a better job ?
This is not just a rhetorical quip - it is an unanswerable, knock-down refutation of Christ is King.
Because if Jesus rules everything, then either King Jesus is making a mess of things (and always has done); or else Jesus's idea of being a Good King is so different from my idea, and your idea, of a Good King; that most decent people would want nothing to do with such a monarch.
It is simply not-good-enough to point-out that most things "work" for most of the time, else we would not be here to discuss anything. It is not enough to point out all the good stuff that happens.
When such absolute claims are being made for Jesus's rulership, claims that include omnipotence, omniscience and the rest of it; then quantitative arguments are irrelevant: qualitative claims require qualitative consistency.
If Jesus is King of Everything and Jesus is Good, then everything should be Good.
It is not enough to wave at the "Free Will" of Men, and blame freedom for everything that goes wrong; because that just kicks the can onto why the creator-King made Men such that they want bad things; and why the King doesn't run his realm with all possible inducements to Good and excluding evil.
Indeed, the presence of exceptionally evil people, some of whom have been that way from early childhood, is the King's fault; and so are "environments" that (we believe) cause so many people to become evil during their lives.
The more powerful Jesus is claimed to be, the more Jesus's rulership and power is emphasized; the bigger such contradictions become.
My point is that such Justifications of Jesus Just Will Not Do!
And insofar as Christian belief in Jesus genuinely depends on this kind of Justification - faith is a house built upon sand.
It will not do - so, Christians Must Do Better!...
And this will require reaching a better, more coherent, less complex and abstract, understanding of who Jesus Christ was (i.e. his nature, what kind of person he was), what he did; and what it means for each person, individually.
And this when attained must satisfy each of us; so as to provide a solid basis for faith; and afterwards Must Be (and it then will be) explainable briefly and clearly to non-Christians.
Concerning the matter of why Jesus the King isn't doing a better job, it strikes me that the most common answer offered centers on the limited and "fallen" nature of human intelligence and consciousness. Put another way, Jesus the omnigod is doing the best of all possible jobs; we're simply too corrupted and stupid to understand that; hence, the need for faith in the mystery of it all.
ReplyDeleteWhenever I encounter such lines of thinking, I can't help but wonder if that really satisfies on any level. I say this simply because the ultimate answer to any serious inquiry about why Jesus the King does this or that within such a framework is a blunt "because." Is that truly the way Jesus the omnigod would set up and run things? I picture him wearing a T-shirt that reads, "It's a God thing; you will never understand."
@Frank. Ha! It also seems an obvious objection that if Jesus IS king now, with things as they are; then why should we suppose that things will ever be better in the future? Why should anything change? And, if things are already Good, if we could but understand it as God does; then why we ever even Want things to change?
ReplyDeleteWe must do better than such stuff! The answer is, repeatedly, in the IV Gospel, after all.
Then the Lord answered Job out of the whirlwind. Good enough for me, but I'm a mid wit.
ReplyDeleteBruce GC here and at 5:57, but google is insisting I am Anonymous...
ReplyDelete@P. The "answer" given to Job is suitable and satisfactory to a pure monotheist such as a Moslem or Jew, but surely not to a Christian who desires to follow Jesus.
Unless Christians can explain ourselves better; the religion will continue to seem like a mushy, muddled pseudo-monotheism, suitable for those who are insufficiently motivated to accept the rigours of obedience to an absolute unfathomable deity.