More Easter annoyance

I find Easter a very annoying business - the way it has turned-out. But in a revealing way. In particular, the dating of Easter is a combination of insanity and bureaucratic incompetence that discredits the early Christian church authorities.

More importantly; Easter is revealing of the unwiseness - indeed impossibility, if coherence is required - of regarding the traditions established by the ancient Christian church as primary: as authoritative and binding. 


Firstly - Easter was declared to be the single most important celebration for Christians.

It was decided to create a movable feast, linked with the Jewish Passover festival not-practiced by Christians, to celebrate a fixed event: fixed not just in its timing, but in that it had a timing. The death and resurrection (and ascension) of Jesus constitutes a fixed point in the history of Men... so why does it oscillate unpredictable across some 35 days...

Okay, they decided to celebrate the birthday of a fixed event as a moveable feast; And Then to make that a movable feast that nobody to locate for sure until some days after after it had passed.

The people in charge of choosing the timing of Easter created a system which the church was unable to calculate in advance with even acceptable accuracy until the time of the Venerable Bede (about 700 years AD) - and even then only by a tiny number elite scholars.

(Think about it - all of Christendom absolutely dependent on a handful of elite scholars. Is that really what Jesus would have wanted?)

This is because Easter depends on the Spring Equinox and the Full Moon (approximately; the first Sunday after the first full moon after the spring equinox...) - and there was no way of exactly predicting either Equinox or moon.

But nowadays - when we actually can calculate and predict these, the definition has been changed from the actual Spring Equinox to March 21 assumed-to-be the Equinox - despite that March 21st may or may not (as this year) be the date of the Equinox...


So, this week - the Equinox was on 20 March, Full Moon on the 21 March - which ought to mean that Easter was this Sunday coming (24 march) - but because the Equinox as been conventionally allocated to 21 March, Easter is delayed by another lunar month...

Actually, I cannot find any coherent and complete explanation as to why Easter this year still is not this weekend coming; because the Full Moon this week came just over an hour after the 21 March had already begun - so presumably there is another factor that has not been mentioned in the standard definition, and which I have failed to discover. Maybe the Equinox is declared to be at mid-day, or something?

(Should this kind of crazy calculation really be at the core of Christian practice? Is that really what Jesus would have wanted?)

Easter is - or rather was, because it hardly matters nowadays - erected-on nonsense. The Christian church built itself around nonsense.

And not just nonsense, but wicked nonsense - because it led to a great deal of trouble and strife; but that T&S did Not lead to a reconsideration of the false assumptions upon-which the nonsense had been constructed...

Again; behaviour typical of bureaucracy.


This whole business of Easter so typical of the workings of bureaucracy - e.g. to make something both mandatory and impossible - that it is very revealing. Although they could not do it - the churches were in practice nonetheless compelled to calculate Easter in advance; because (the choice was made, utterly without any scriptural mandate!) to precede the Feast of Easter by the most important fast of the year - Lent.

Because Lent was linked to Easter; the church was compelled exactly to predict the day of Easter - which could not be done.

Why such incoherence? Because bureaucracy is intrinsically totalitarian; and it is characteristic of totalitarianism to be dis-honest and anti-real. Bureaucracy is always lying and incompetent - and deals with the consequences by defining outcomes as true and necessary. In sum, bureaucracy makes a false reality; and insists that it is real. 

And the consequence were serious strife, dissent, conflict about the date of Easter; which went on for many hundreds of years - and indeed still continues; with the date of celebrating Easter being a significant cause of division in the Eastern Orthodox church.


I find this revealing about the workings of the early Christian church at the highest level. They were unable to make a coherent decision. This means that the decision must have been arrived at via the systematic distortions of group decision-making - which result from the breaking down of a problem into segments, each of which is subject either to a vote, or the need for unanimity.

The decision of an individual person may be wrong, but is seldom incoherent when that individual is compelled to be responsible for it; but the decision of a group can be almost anything; and often is a decision that no individual within the group would have preferred. The decision of a meeting of church leaders is binding, even when incoherent. Incoherent decisions may - for reasons of 'group dynamics' be in practice ineradicable; because the same group cannot be re-gathered, and a better decision may not achieve consent so wrongness stands.

And this is what we find.

All this tells me that Christianity - the physical body of the church - was already an incompetent bureaucracy even in its early history. Since the early church did make such an objectively appalling mess over Easter, which it regarded as the most important of all matters; the early church revealed itself as being deeply corrupted, and such a group should obviously Not be trusted over other decisions.


As usual with Christianity; any easy or external source of authority is closed-off - because incoherent and unwise. If we had any idea of relying on mere tradition, Easter explodes it (or ought to, if we honest). Anything less or other than a profound and personal discernment is self-refuting - or, it should be, if we take seriously what we are claiming.

No Christian can (or should) be relying upon any external source of authority for final arbitration - not the authority of The Church (now or at any presumed point in the past), no person, no text, no system of logic.

The necessary essence Must Be simple, in order that we can comprehend it in order that we may have faith - so simple that it must be directly knowable by a single act of comprehension. When the Christian church made Easter its central celebration, it advertised loudly its own corruption and unsuitability.

If we fail to hear; that is our own fault.
    

Are you a Christmas Christian, or an Easter Christian?

*

I acknowledge that of course Easter is the main feast of the Christian year, but I still prefer Christmas.

When I became a Christian I fully expected that Easter would get more and more important to me and overtake Christmas, but it hasn't happened - and I still feel a much greater building of expectation during the weeks leading towards Christmas, which I also had before I was a Christian.

*

I have, indeed, some kind of residual grudge against Easter which dates from childhood when the gift of a chocolate egg did not begin to compete with the delights of Christmas - which also included the better-than-Easter-egg delights of the 'selection box' and 'smokers set' (chocolate pipe and cigars, candy cigarettes!).

*

For a start, I am permanently annoyed that Easter is a moveable feast: this seems wrong and absurd.

It surely made no sense for the ancient church to celebrate its main feast in a way which could only be calculated by a very advanced knowledge of astronomy and mathematics - advanced knowledge which actually did not exist!

It took several hundred years before any reasonably accurate method of predicting Easter was discovered (mostly by the Venerable Bede - who died 735) - and the prediction of Eater was required to time the preceding Lent fast and special days.

Up to then Easter (the premier Christian celebration, remember) was celebrated at a variety of times in different places, and among different groups in the same place; and this itself led then (and indeed afterwards) to infighting, schisms, and inter-denominational hostilities both temporary and permanent - and still continuing.

*

I just find this annoying and silly, indeed shocking - some kind of ancient bureaucratically-minded-bureaucracy must have been responsible for setting the church off down this wrong path - only a committee could make the impossible compulsory.

*

Obviously, Easter should have been fixed on a certain annual date - if it was necessary to predict; or else if it really must be linked to lunar cycles (to reflect the Jewish passover - but why?), then the church should have dispensed with the rigidly numerically timed advance program leading-up to Easter.

Or something... almost anything would be preferable to what they actually came-up-with.

Anyway, for whatever reason, I retain this grudge against Easter; and would not even put it as second favourite among the annual feasts - that would be Pentecost/ Whit Sunday.

*

Rabbit or Man in-the-Moon - waxing or waning gibbous

Is there a Man in the Moon, or a Rabbit? 

It's partly a question of moon phase - and I have a theory as to how the two ideas arose.

The Rabbit is associated with Easter (Easter Bunny...), and is best seen when the moon is in the waxing gibbous phase - leading up to full moon; and this phase of moon is best seen in the evenings. 

My theory is that the people who were watching the moon wax towards full, in order to know when Easter was to arrive (with Easter day coming on the first Sunday after the first full moon after the vernal equinox... approximately). 

Easter spotters will have been observing the moon during the evenings of the waxing gibbous phase - when the Rabbit is the most obvious appearance; and the Man's face is not visible at all. 

By contrast, the waning gibbous moon is best visible early in the mornings.

 

Those who were outdoors and saw the moon at this time of day were probably on their way to start work, maybe a bit down-hearted; and in a mood to appreciate the cock-eyes, ironic grin of the old moon; affectionately regarded as an old Man...

That is all a bit tenuous, I agree - but the Easter rabbit idea works quite neatly. 

Note: The above photos do not illustrate the Rabbit or Man at all obviously, compared with what I see with the naked eye - indeed I cannot find any decent photos online. It is apparently one of those things you just need to See For Yourself. 

The appearances are most evident when the moon is nearest the horizon - the rabbit when nearest moon-rise and the man nearish moon-set. This is due to the (at my latitude) c1/3 clockwise rotation of the moon from rising to setting. 

Thus the rabbit begins with ears horizontal, but by moon-set the rabbit is on his side, with ears pointing down - and not obviously a rabbit. 

Similarly, for the Man's face to have eyes at the top is most evident getting towards moonset.

Easter - the sorrow, and the joy

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From Elder Neil L Andersen 

https://www.lds.org/general-conference/2014/04/spiritual-whirlwinds?lang=eng

Sin has always been part of the world, but it has never been so accessible, insatiable, and acceptable.

There is, of course, a powerful force that will subdue the whirlwinds of sin.

It is called repentance.

*

President Thomas S. Monson has said, “Where once the standards of the Church and the standards of society were mostly compatible, now there is a wide chasm between us, and it’s growing ever wider.”...

This past month the First Presidency and the Quorum of the Twelve published a letter to leaders of the Church across the world. In part it read: “Changes in the civil law do not, indeed cannot, change the moral law that God has established. God expects us to uphold and keep His commandments regardless of divergent opinions or trends in society. His law of chastity is clear: sexual relations are proper only between a man and a woman who are legally and lawfully wedded as husband and wife....” 

While many governments and well-meaning individuals have redefined marriage, the Lord has not. In the very beginning, God initiated marriage between a man and a woman—Adam and Eve. He designated the purposes of marriage to go far beyond the personal satisfaction and fulfillment of adults to, more importantly, advancing the ideal setting for children to be born, reared, and nurtured.

Families are the treasure of heaven.

**

Also two new inspiring Easter-theme videos from lds.org


https://www.lds.org/media-library/video/2011-03-007-his-sacred-name-an-easter-declaration?lang=eng

http://easter.mormon.org/?cid=HPTU041514694 

I am extremely grateful for the media produced by the LDS; they are a great source of spiritual nourishment and strength.


*

"And the graves were opened; and many bodies of the saints which slept arose, and came out of the graves after his resurrection, and went into the holy city, and appeared unto many."

*

From an Easter sermon by Adam Greenwood

http://www.jrganymede.com/2014/04/21/easter-in-pictures-and-in-words/comment-page-1/#comment-392817

Then Pilate has Jesus whipped.

They make fun of him. They dress him up like a fake king with a crown made from a thorn bush. They blindfold him and punch him and tell him to prophesy who it was.

They march him out to an empty lot by a busy intersection where they like to perform executions in public. They execute him and two criminals.

He is dead.

*

You had still been hoping just a little. But now he’s meat. You feel horrified and betrayed. You also feel afraid. What if they come after the people who cheered him next?

You flee home to hide. All the next day you hide there. It all came to nothing. Gloom. Hopelessness. Misery.

*

The day after is Easter.

You hear a knock on your door. You are scared. You peek out. Remember your mother that died? You hallucinate that its her.

The hallucination speaks in your mother’s voice. “It’s me. I’m alive. Touch me” She is shining and beautiful. She comes in and it really is her.

She hugs you. She hugs your children. She tells you that she loves you. She says that Jesus has come back to life because he is stronger than death. She says he brought back many of his followers with him. She is radiating happiness. She tells you that death is not the end for anybody. She tells you that you will all be together again.

When she leaves, you are crying. You feel like your heart will break with joy.

*

You rush out to share the news. You aren’t the only one. Other people have seen their loved ones. My husband, one says. My wife. My child. My father. My mother. It is so wonderful.

Jesus’ closest friends and associates even say they saw him. There is amazement and awe. There is a feeling of something sacred.

*

And his friends tell you something else. He made the dead alive again, they say, but he will also make the sinner pure. He will make the broke man whole and the weak man strong. It is certain.

You see those friends change. You weren’t impressed with them before. They were just like you. Now you see them rebuke kings and leaders.

You receive your own witness.

You also believe.

*

"Easter Worshippers" proves the global conspiracy

Even as recently as 2014 when I wrote Addicted to Distraction; I doubted the reality of a global conspiracy among the mass media; mainly because I could not conceive of a plausible mechanism that operate over such a vast volume of production...

Well, I have since changed my mind. I still don't know the mechanism, but half a decade of extra observation has clinched it: the evil, secular, materialist, leftist anti-Christian stance of the international media Is A Conspiracy.

If I had any doubts, then yesterday would have quelled them. The Global Mass Media decided that it did not want The World to know that Christians has been targeted, slaughtered and maimed in Sri Lanka; and so they suddenly invented the term Easter Worshippers, as a deliberately-confusing synonym.

This fresh-minted neologism was then used, according to Google, by about 84,000 news stories - i.e. nearly 84K items with the brand-new phrase were published yesterday!

From near-zero to tens-of-thousands of simultaneous phrase-users in a matter of hours!

That shows that it is indeed possible to co-ordinate thousands of news outlets (including dozens of  famous Twitter users) so that they walk in lockstep; it shows the kind of world we live in; and it shows us yet again What They Want.

Note added: I read-over and posted this - and then checked the hypertext links; in that time there had been 600 further usages of Easter Worshippers. At this rate, 'Christians' will have been de facto renamed within a few more months... 

My problems about Easter

(For recent readers, mainly.) 

I refrained from posting anything about my churlish "Easter Problem" during the celebrations - because (apparently) these mean a great deal to many Christians. 

But anyone who wants to understand my own reservations about this feast can take a look at some previous posts.

(My own main celebration this year was to re-read the 20th, and I believe final, chapter of the Fourth Gospel. During this reading I was strongly struck by the conversation between the risen Jesus and Mary Magdalene - and I had the conviction that the original meaning of this exchange was that Mary would ascend to Heaven with Jesus, and at the same time as Jesus.) 

Yet another Easter irritation I haven't previously mentioned; is the way that I was taught as a child (and this is still, apparently, a frequent theme - even theologically) that Jesus's sufferings during his last days were the greatest any human has experienced; and indeed of a qualitatively greater scale and significance than any other being has experienced. 

This idea has often had a strong popular appeal - I think especially among women. 

Even as an infant-school-kid, but far more so now; this emphasis on Jesus's extremity of suffering seems to me a spectacular misunderstanding, a gross misplacement of effort and belief.  

For a start, the assertion is un-proveable because we can neither know objectively nor measure the degree of suffering. And this is a fact, despite that the geopolitical system of the entire modern world is rooted in "utilitarian" values that assume suffering (and also "happiness") can be quantified. 

Secondly; although the degree of Jesus's suffering seemed very bad indeed; even as a child, it seemed easy to imagine worse - especially in duration; and I was also able to imagine that some people (perhaps many people) had actually endured worse suffering. 

Thirdly, Jesus's suffering seemed irrelevant to me-here-now. 

I am nowadays aware of various theological explanations as to an alleged purpose for the extremity of Jesus's suffering, and its personal and immediate relevance; but as a child nobody seemed to know these explanations, or else they were unwilling or unable to provide a coherent explanation for how Jesus's suffering "worked" as a way of doing something for me. At any rate, the impression I got was of a bizarre insistence on Jesus's sufferings for no apparent reason*. 

It is only relatively recently, and especially since my 2018 intensive focus on the Fourth Gospel - that I have begun to see this as more than a mistake of emphasis; and instead evidence of a fundamental error concerning "what Christianity really is" - or, more accurately, "what Jesus did for us" - and how he did it. 

*Another such bizarre insistence from early childhood, was related to "rolling away the stone" from the tomb of Jesus. I got the impression the point of this was that moving the stone must have required superhuman strength, therefore proving divine intervention. It was not long before I began to wonder how the stone had been moved to block the tomb in the first place - that this must have been done by ordinary Romans - and this seemed to me to disprove the evidence for resurrection. I just mention this as evidence of how children's minds work, and the problem of counter-productive attempts at Christian teaching in a world where the church does Not have a monopoly, and where not many people get informed beyond a primary school level of "Bible stories". 

My rather tepid Good Friday...

This Good Friday I find myself more-than-usually afflicted by the life-long prejudice against the time and place of Jesus's life and ministry. 

I never have, and still don't, find it inspiring or very interesting to focus on the facts and images of The Holy Land AD 30-33-ish. 

This was enough to push and keep me away from Christianity for most of my life - since (by contrast, and like Tolkien and CS Lewis) I am much more attracted by "northerness" of a Germanic, Scandinavian and British kind. 

So, I don't much want to be constantly reminded that Jesus was of a different kind, and in a very different place (and exactly this constant-reminding is the staple diet, dished out my most sermons I have heard...). 

Therefore, my inclination is to react against the usual practice of tying Christianity (or rather being a Christian) to the historical and geographical context of Jesus. 

I don't suppose I am alone in this! It is obvious that many Christian cultures have preferred to re-imagine Jesus in terms of their own times and places, or to focus on local Saints and Heroes of faith. 

This is - however - particularly difficult in Easter; where the whole thing is very specifically located. It maybe helps account (although there are also other reasons) for my lukewarm attitude to this part of the liturgical calendar - despite its status as officially the most important Christian festival.  

Therefore: I wish a Happy (ish...) Easter to all my readers!

Note added: Although prejudice should be acknowledged as such; I can justify my indifference on the grounds that far too much attention has been paid to the historical aspects of Jesus, and far too little about what he did. I believe that understanding what Jesus did, renders the historical and geographical aspects all-but irrelevant; and something that probably should (largely) be set-aside (for most people, most of the time), once the significance is grasped. 

Looking ahead - an Easter analogy

It is sinking-in that the modern world as-a-whole has-been and is thoroughly rotten. It is revealed as both evil in motivation and extremely stupid - that ultimate stupidity which is the refusal to learn.

Now we know this; we also ought-to realise that things as-they-are should end.


What is it that should end? In broad terms; that single and inter-linked but sub-specialised System that is led by active evil, manned by ultimate stupidity - manifested in politics, the mass media, corporations, 'churches', 'science'. 'law' and 'policing', 'education', 'health' services etc.


If the birdemic reaction is the crisis, and the Western world is now dead - we are living between the crucifixion and the resurrection - except that our crucifixion was unchosen, imposed-by-evil - and was entered-into without faith in life everlasting.

Hope of resurrection therefore depends on us developing faith, hope and charity - so we are more like the ghost-like, demented, barely-conscious souls in Sheol who were (according to some interpretations) visited by Jesus after his crucifixion, and who were (presumably after having been temporarily gifted with agency) told the truth of his coming resurrection, and given the chance to follow him to life everlasting.


If we are currently in a kind of Sheol, a suspended half-life; we are being faced with the choice of Heaven or Hell, or lapsing-back-into a state of sleep-walking, barely-conscious refusal-to-learn: a refusal to be (i.e. the choice Not to know that we Are).  

Not to choose is to choose Sheol - to choose loss of selfhood, unconsciousness, mere being.


And it is our choice yours and mine; and it is the choice of each person.

The fate of our nations and civilisation (which are, unlike our-selves, temporary things - as is the planet earth, solar system and the universe) is secondary to the unavoidable individual decisions of many indestructible souls, concerning their chosen destination and fate. 


Note: I strongly recommend reading Francis Berger's Easter reflections stimulated by Dostoyevsky's novel Crime and Punishment. They are genuinely inspiring.

The Easter problem, the fake-virtue of humility; and the false ideals of obedience and altruism

Easter seems to be a time when the confusion, incoherence, and errors of mainstream Christianity become most evident; as mainstream Christianity finds ever more way of being wrong, of misdirecting attention, and sowing confusion! 

Perhaps one root of this is the un-Christ-like, fake-virtue of humility.  

This leads to the preaching of two kinds of error:

1. Unselfish ego-annihilating obedience to God's will

2. Unselfish altruism 

Mainstream Christians are always saying things on the lines that all good which they enact is "not from me, but from God-in-me.". They claim that the highest Christian aim is for us to become nothing-but a channel for God to work-through. As a commenter put it: "I did nothing on my own God did everything". 

Christians repeat this without considering its implication that such an attitude depicts humans as unthinking and utterly-obedient slaves of deity; and what is worse, slaves to the kind of God who wants humans to desire nothing higher than to cease being themselves - and instead become mere tools. 

Such an attitude ultimately renders the creation of free and creative Men utterly futile - a divine mistake. 

Mainstream Christians are always preaching that we cease to be selfish and instead live to serve; that we ought to set aside considerations of self-interest, and instead help other people. 

But this is merely utilitarian atheistic materialism under a Christian disguise!

Of course, it can easily be seen what the preachers are getting-at: they are trying to combat sins such Pride and Lust. 

But the problem is that humility Just Isn't a virtue; and indeed is something close to the worst possible attitude to inculcate in a pervasively evil world of totalitarian domination of all social institutions - including the mainstream religions and churches. 

The opposite of Pride is not anti-pride; the opposite of selfishness is not doing what other people want (or "need"). 

The opposite of psychopathic gratification is not to become a non-person, one-with-God: a hollowed husk in human shape, an instrument rather than a divine Son of God, and a participant in divine creation.   

To recommend humility and living for the "benefit" of other people; is therefore to preach something other-than what Jesus did and taught - it is to preach another religion. 

There are Religions that are rooted in the oneness of God and the delusional unreality of The Self. There is a religion based on negation of the self, and absolute submission to God will. 

But these are not Christianity. 

From a Christian point-of-view; to recommend humility and altruism is, in the context of The West in 2026 - pretty much to guarantee a chosen damnation via assimilation to evil societal norms. 

Instead; the proper virtues by which to resist sins such as pride, selfish-short-termism and so forth; are the Christian virtues: 

Love of Jesus in thanks for his divine creation of Heaven, and his continuing guidance and comfort; Faith in his offer of the possibility of resurrected eternal life beyond death; and confident Hope that this shall be our personal "destination". 

The karma of materialism: "From an academic point of view, it's a tremendous privilege to watch a civilization collapse in super-slow motion high-definition real-time"

The title comes from a recent comment by "Epimetheus" (brother of Prometheus, the word meaning 'afterthought'):

The whole situation is remarkable. For those who are paying attention, and from an academic point of view, it's a tremendous privilege to watch a civilization collapse in super-slow motion high-definition real-time. Not many people in history get to sit in comfy chairs, eating plenty of food, and watch what we are watching.

This captures my own view - at least some of the time.


Anyone interested in history must have wondered what it would be like to participate in the collapse of the Western Roman Empire, the suicidal eco-destruction of Easter Island, or any other of the catastrophic civilizational transitions.

We wonder - could the people not see what was coming - when it seems so obvious to us, in retrospect? Having seen, could they not at least stop actively making matters worse?

Apparently not. And we can now understand that the essence of these matters is that the collapse happens precisely because people can't see.

This kind of collapse is self-inflicted, and occurs as a direct consequence of the axiomatic assumptions of the people. They cannot perceive the collapse, and cannot stop causing collapse, because it is a product of their most cherished motivations.


To borrow and adapt a phrase from Rudolf Steiner: we are witnessing The Karma of Materialism.

In other words, for more that two centuries, and increasingly, the world has been embracing materialism (aka. positivism, abstraction, reductionism or scientism - equivalent to 'leftism' correctly understood, in its many manifestations); such that God is denied, the spiritual dimension is assumed not to exist, and life has become reduced to (ever more short-termist) personal gratifications.

This has built-up to become dominant; has instantiated in bureaucracy - which has interlinked into The System (world and national government and the mass media, plus all other functional systems) - and in the past generation such a way of regarding the world has been willingly, eagerly, assimiliated into the minds of the masses.


Our way of thinking is now materialistic - so that materialism now structures our world-view.

Much of reality is now invisible - by assumption. 

And this crisis and the impending collapse is the destined consequence and revelatory fruit ("karma") of this Modern mindset.


In one sense there has been a top-down coup and takeover of most of the world (all the powerful, wealthy and influential bits, at any rate) by a tiny Global Establishment. But in another equally-important sense; the coup was invited, initiated, encouraged and actively-facilitated by the great mass of people from all over the world; which is why the impending collapse remains invisible.

Where I see the most obvious global totalitarian takeover imaginable; the masses see the world Establishment (at last!) working-together altruistically to defeat a deadly plague. Where I see a deliberate, active, coordinated and stubbornly-resistant policy of destroying civilization; most people see nothing more than a temporary - necessary albeit regrettable - suspension of unneccessary activities, as the alternative to extinction.

The people are getting, by and large, exactly what they want - and so are The Esablishment: so everyone is happy!


Yet, as so often, giving depraved and corrupted people what they want is a short-route to disaster.

This is, it seems to me, God's role in the current crisis. God has simply allowed the mass of people to have what they want, what they have chosen, what they insist-upon despite numerous attempts to teach them better and to provide experiences from which they could have learned better.

The sheer volume and intensity of actively-chosen and insisted-upon corruption in the world had been building-up for so many decades, and it is now so great - and all the signs are that it would-have increased further - that God has decided (for the good of our eternal souls; for the sake of those of his children who may thereby choose Heavenly resurrected life everlasting) to bring things to an end, by this means of allowing people what they demand.

(Or maybe the pressure of evil became so strong that stopping or reversing it was not possible, without massively and coercively encroaching on human free agency.) 


But politics is a very simple and crude matter - it is never susceptible to fine-tuning: especially not at a global scale. Most things are (over the long term) all or nothing. And what the Establishment want, and was the masses of people want, is impossible.

Materialism has us in its grip. We deny the ultimate purpose and meaning of life; and the consequence is that our lives lack purpose and meaning; and people are reduced to fear and despair - and the pathetic attempts at propitiation (but of what?) by repetition of official mantras, observances of official rituals, displays of prescribed symbolism...

These constitute the shell of a pseudo-religion that nobody really believes. In actuality it represents the lineaments of the materialistic demonic cult of a selfish, cowardly hedonism that people are too dishonest even to acknowledge to themselves.


So what we want (as a civilization) will bring everything down on our heads; and this is what those who live long enough will be 'privileged' to observe: and it is a privilege (or could be).

We each need to take proper advantage of this privilege; derive proper benefit from it.

May it be that we will learn from the experience, rather than becoming consumed by the generalised fear and despair. The most important thing we can do is to maintain faith, hope and love - and to understand. Understand consciously and explicitly. To think clearly and honestly.

Whatever we can or cannot do; we can always think: and know that thinking is reality, with permanent objective consequences.

 

The significance of Good Friday

For me, the significance of Good Friday is that this was when Jesus died; which he needed to do in order to fulfil, to complete, his core mission. 

He did not need to die in the way he did, because any mode of death would suffice; and death was inevitable one way or another, sooner or later, for Jesus as for all mortal Men...

But Jesus did need to die; in order to resurrect, and ascend to Heaven. 

I believe that Heaven as a state-of-being already existed before Jesus died, and that Lazarus was probably its first inhabitant - albeit Lazarus returned to dwell on earth, for a while. 

But in order for "everybody" who thenceforth desired resurrection and eternal life to be able to achieve these; Jesus himself needed to die, be resurrected, ascend. 

That salvation for "everybody" includes those who had died before the time of Jesus - and who resided as spirits in Sheol/ Hades, or had reincarnated, or were ghosts, or even demons who were not fully corrupted...

Which is what "the harrowing of Hell" on Easter Saturday, represents in a symbolic but distorted fashion. 

Charles Williams on the implications of God's omnipotence

*

From 'The Cross' in The Image of the City, and other essays; by Charles Williams (edited by Anne Ridler, 1958). Excerpted from page 136:

*

Easter... began in the Cross. 

I say 'in' rather than 'on', for by the time it began He had become, as it were, the very profoundest Cross to Himself... The Cross was He and He was the Cross. 

His will had maintained, or rather His will in His Father's will had maintained, a state of affairs among men of which physical crucifixion was at once a part and a perfect symbol. 

This state of things He inexorably proposed to himself to endure; say, rather, that from the beginning He had been Himself at bottom both the endurance and the thing endured. 

This had been true everywhere in all men; it was now true of Himself apart from all men; it was local and particular...

He was stretched, He was bled, He was nailed, He was thrust into, but not a bone of  Him was broken...

It was the Cross which sustained Him, but He also sustained the Cross. 

He had, through the years, exactly preserved the growth of the thorn and of the wood, and had indued with energy the making of the nails and the sharpening of the spear; say, through the centuries He had maintained vegetable and mineral in the earth for this. 

His providence overwatched it to no other end, as it overwatches so many instruments and intentions of cruelty then and now.

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Does God consider justice more important than love?

http://www.jrganymede.com/2016/03/21/how-important-is-justice-to-god-an-easter-meditation

The simple message of Christianity - emphasized at least twenty-nine times in the Fourth Gospel

If the Fourth Gospel (named 'John') had been accorded the primacy of authority that it deserves; then Christianity would be understood differently, and much more simply. 

Because that Gospel repeats in different words and explains in different ways the core of Jesus's work - which is that Jesus offered us eternal life through belief in him. 

I have listed below twenty-nine instances from the 'John' Gospel in which this matter is referenced. 

Of course this immediately raises the questions of what is meant by eternal life; and what is meant by believing in Jesus. 

Most of the rest of the Gospel provides these explanations - for example that believing in Jesus is like a sheep following a shepherd - that Jesus will lead us to eternal life. 

Or that eternal life is a resurrected life and therefore only attainable by passing through the portal of death. 

And that this life eternal is qualitatively superior to this mortal life - this indicated by analogies of the life eternal with (for instance) bread, 'meat'/ food, water... but of an inexhaustible and wholly-satisfying nature, beyond anything possible on earth. 

But that core message of Jesus Christ's teaching - of life eternal, and that this life eternal comes via Jesus, is emphasized over-and-again. 

In the past couple of thousand years, Christianity has been elaborated (and distorted) from this simple core and into a variety of vast and complex systems - often focused on morality and behaviour; and with many and various justifications. 

All kinds of other things than life eternal have (in most times and places) become emphasized far more strongly than the core message. 

The simple, direct and personal relation between Jesus the Good Shepherd and those who love and wish to follow him, has often been made indirect - mediated by some interpretative source as the church, theology or scripture. 

Yet the Fourth Gospel shows us that we can answer the question 'What is Christianity?' or 'What is a Christian?' by a single sentence... Albeit it will probably take many sentences and much honest thinking to clarify what that sentence means - especially in the context of Modern Man whose consciousness and assumptions are so very different from those of the time and place of Jesus. 

As Easter approaches - when the complexities of Christianity reach a kind of climax - we might wish to try and keep this core of Jesus's teaching near the front of our minds. 

Twenty-nine indications of eternal life 

from the Fourth Gospel

1. That whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life. 

2. For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. 

3. He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him. 

4. But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life. 

5. And he that reapeth receiveth wages, and gathereth fruit unto life eternal: that both he that soweth and he that reapeth may rejoice together. 

6. Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life. Verily, verily, I say unto you, The hour is coming, and now is, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God: and they that hear shall live. For as the Father hath life in himself; so hath he given to the Son to have life in himself; And hath given him authority to execute judgment also, because he is the Son of man. 

7. And shall come forth; they that have done good, unto the resurrection of life; and they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of damnation. 

8. Search the scriptures; for in them ye think ye have eternal life: and they are they which testify of me. And ye will not come to me, that ye might have life. 

9. Labour not for the meat which perisheth, but for that meat which endureth unto everlasting life, which the Son of man shall give unto you: for him hath God the Father sealed. 

10. For the bread of God is he which cometh down from heaven, and giveth life unto the world. 

11. And Jesus said unto them, I am the bread of life: he that cometh to me shall never hunger; and he that believeth on me shall never thirst. 

12. And this is the will of him that sent me, that every one which seeth the Son, and believeth on him, may have everlasting life: and I will raise him up at the last day. 

13. Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me hath everlasting life. I am that bread of life. 

14. I am the living bread which came down from heaven: if any man eat of this bread, he shall live for ever: and the bread that I will give is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world. 

15. Whoso eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, hath eternal life; and I will raise him up at the last day. 

16. It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life. 

17. Then Simon Peter answered him, Lord, to whom shall we go? thou hast the words of eternal life. 

18. Then spake Jesus again unto them, saying, I am the light of the world: he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life. 

19. The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly. I am the good shepherd: the good shepherd giveth his life for the sheep. 

20. As the Father knoweth me, even so know I the Father: and I lay down my life for the sheep. 

21. Therefore doth my Father love me, because I lay down my life, that I might take it again. 

22. And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand. 

23. Jesus said unto her, I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live: And whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die. 

24. Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone: but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit. He that loveth his life shall lose it; and he that hateth his life in this world shall keep it unto life eternal. 

25. And I know that his commandment is life everlasting: whatsoever I speak therefore, even as the Father said unto me, so I speak. 

26. Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me. 

27. Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends. 

28. As thou hast given him power over all flesh, that he should give eternal life to as many as thou hast given him. And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent. 

29. But these are written, that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing ye might have life through his name.

Christianity in England - deep past, and the present

My understanding is that Christianity came to England very early, within not-many-years of Jesus's death - to Glastonbury in Somerset - and western parts of England have been continuously Christian since. Whether Christianity was brought by Joseph of Arimathea (as legend states) or by someone else, I don't know - but I think it arrived very early. 

England has therefore been continuously Christian for a very long time - perhaps about as long as anywhere outside the Holy Land. 

Christianity stayed in England after the withdrawal of the Roman Empire in 410; initially through the whole country, but later it was pushed westward by the Anglo-Saxons - who arrived from 449 and were pagans. 

This 'Celtic' Christianity had the characteristics of the early church, which was much like Eastern Orthodoxy - that is, it was based around ascetic monks ruled by Abbots in rural settings (rather than Roman Christianity which dominated the rest of Christian Western Europe was based on priests ruled by Bishops, and mostly rooted in the urban cathedrals). 

It took the Saxons a long time to get as far as Glastonbury in 658 - and by that time, the Saxons were already Christian. Therefore at Glastonbury there was an amicable transition-fusion of the residual Celtic Christianity of the Ancient Britons and the newly-converted Anglo-Saxons, which (in the South) was more Rome-influenced via St Augustine. 

At the same time, Celtic Christianity had been converting the northern Anglo-Saxons, coming from Ireland, via Iona, reaching England from St Aidan at Lindisfarne - the Holy Island off the coast of Northumbria.  

By the middle 600s the dividing line between Celtic and Roman Christianity was within Northumbria - with St Cuthbert of Lindisfarne in the northern part and St Bede of Monkwearmouth (who became Cuthbert's biographer) about 50 miles to the South. Relations were mostly amicable. 

But gradually the Romans imposed their system (and their more astronomically accurate calculation of Easter - accomplished by Bede) on the whole nation starting from the Synod of Whitby in 1664. Cuthbert became bishop of Hexham further South in Northumbria, where the Abbey was at that time the largest stone building west of the Alps, and a centre of Roman Christianity. 

My point is that the deep history of Christianity in England is very deep. While at the same time, the leftism that has proved to be Christianity's most successful foe (and Satan's most useful and strategic stalking horse) also substantially had its roots in England. 

England has therefore been one of the leaders of Christian apostasy - and the faith is by now very weak both numerically and in terns of strength of conviction (2020 revealing the situation as even worse than almost anyone would have expected, when some of the most apparently devout Christians were revealed to be more profoundly leftist than Christian.   

In sum - England has been a place of major contention in the escalating spiritual war of these End Times. Although it would superficially seem that the battle of Christians has long since been lost - the roots go very deep; and the continued special attention paid by the Satanic forces to England suggests that things are not yet done-and-dusted, not yet over-and-done-with. 

'They' clearly perceive a potential threat from England to Their evil plans.  

England still has a part to play in the End Times - if we Christians so choose, one way or the other. And, although events are desperate here-and-now for the followers of Jesus - they are not quite so bad as they were this time last year. 

Which I find surprising and encouraging. 

William Wildblood visits a Roman Catholic Church for the Easter service

William - who is a mostly solitary and mystical Christian - describes his experience attending a church service recently; and provokes some interesting comments on what Christian churches maybe 'ought' to be aiming-at in their services...

Alone, overnight, in Durham Castle

I once spent the night entirely alone in the ancient structure of Durham Castle, comprising scores of empty hallways, passages and a hundred-plus bedrooms; the kitchens, Feasting Hall; and both an underground Norman Chapel with peculiarly eroded primitive cravings, and a severely-dignified 16th century chapel. 

I was, at the time, a Resident Don, living in the junction to the Victorian-restored and residential Keep. It was, I think, the Easter vacation, when undergraduates were absent; and also, for reasons that I cannot now remember, the place was also vacated by postgraduates, the other Dons, and even the college porter and her family who lived in the gatehouse at the back-left of the above illustration.  

The porter told me that I was the only person remaining in residence for the one night; and gave me instructions for locking-up and security. 

On the actual night in question, at first I was unfazed - just getting on with my work. Then it became dark, and mostly very quiet... 

But there were, in fact, many noises of many kinds, of the kind one would expect in very old buildings; especially creakings and short deep thuds.  

Quite suddenly I became afraid; and experienced an involuntary picture in my mind of the many dark, empty rooms that surrounded me - and I felt very alone.

I considered going out, but did not fancy venturing through the empty halls and courtyard, and liked even less the idea of returning. 

I did not even want to speak to somebody on the phone - since this would somehow amplify awareness of the oppressive sense of the building around me. 

In the end, I adopted the cowardly tactic of distraction and hiding; I turned the television and music up loud until I went to bed; inserted earplugs, and took refuge in the oblivion of sleep. 

By the next morning, everything seemed normal and friendly, and I rather enjoyed the interval until people began to trickle back. But I still recall how thoroughly I spooked myself -- or else became aware of aspects of the situation that were normally drowned-out of consciousness by the intrusive presence, activities, sounds of many people.   

 

Rise of the Guardians (Dreamworks) - movie review

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I was surprised and very impressed by the new Dreamworks movie Rise of the Guardians. I'd rate it at Four-and-a-half Stars (from a possible Five 5 - see the postscript for why I deducted half a star).

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I had expected a humorous action adventure, like the Ice Age movies, for instance; but I got a lot more.

Indeed, RotG resembles Pixar's Toy Story 3 in being a very ambitious philosophical statement of the best kind of modern, post-Christian metaphysics - but takes things a step or two further.

http://charltonteaching.blogspot.co.uk/2010/07/toy-story-3-superb-depiction-of-best-of.html

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In other words, RotG presents a complete and complex new myth (derived and developed from various bits and pieces of old and recent myths and folklore); yet although perhaps not quite so accomplished a movie as TS3, the result is much more hopeful - probably because of the underpinning presence of a benign deity (The Man in the Moon).

(I found TS3 so very sad and nihilistic that, despite regarding it as one of the best movies I have ever seen, I have never been able to re-watch it.)

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The existential basis of RotG is that modernity is utterly lost in jaded, materialistic, empty alienation; and that the only residue of The Good is in the imagination of young children, and their fantasy beliefs.

These fantasy beliefs are represented by the Guardians.

The premier and most powerful Guardian is the Sandman who brings to children their wholesome dreams. He is depicted as a mute Harpo Marx character that communicates by mime and symbols.

The other Guardians are associated with particular emotions: Santa Claus/ Father Christmas with (wide-eyed) wonder; the Easter Bunny with the renewal of Hope; the Tooth Fairy with happy childhood memories (made accessible in later life because stored in the milk teeth) - and eventually Jack Frost who embodies innocent, shared fun.

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All of these characters depend on the idea (maybe from Peter Pan, or Terry Pratchett's Small Gods) that the Guardians power, size and existence is linked to the belief of children; thus the happiness and innocence and redemptive power of children are guarded by the consequences of their own beliefs.

Against them is the evil bogeyman, Pitch, who is a classic Satan/ Sauron/ Voldemort villain that intends to engulf the earth in darkness and fear; since the only way he can get people to believe in him (and therefore the only way he can really be alive) is when they fear him.

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The set up is therefore superficially a witty and suspenseful action movie; but underneath it there is a well-structured and emotionally-satisfying symbolic depiction of spiritual warfare between God and his angels (the Guardians) and Satan and his demons (the Night-Mares).

The moral drawn is rather like that of Tolkien's in On Fairy Stories - the importance of fantasy in our era; as being the last means of contact with reality for many or most people.

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Naturally, RotG is not explicit about all this; and indeed I doubt whether any kind of Christian symbolism was deliberately intended.

But, by implication, such an interpretation is a natural outcome of the underlying honesty and seriousness of this movie.


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POSTSCRIPT: I deduct half a star from my rating of this movie because of the disgusting and gratuitous 'sleeve' tattoos on Santa's forearms; which are very frequently on display, including the movie poster. I regard this as a deliberate and strategic act of wicked subversion on the part of (at least) the animator responsible for Santa, and also the producer and publicity people - intended to 'normalize' this gross form of self-mutilation ( http://charltonteaching.blogspot.co.uk/2012/10/actually-modern-christians-do-not-need.html ). It is a measure of the rapidity of our cultural corruption this this kind of thing now passes either unnoticed, or with a cynical grin of approval at making Santa 'edgy', 'relevant' (or something of the kind).  

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Three main problems of this life & the work of Christ

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1. Alienation, existential loneliness, isolation, to be unloved.

2. Sin - pride: to be turned inward on our own feelings, to do what we do not want to do and know it wrong, to destroy that which is Good (beautiful, real and virtuous).

3. Death - that everything we value will be swept away and lost as if it never were.

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Alienation leads to Despair.

Sin leads to Guilt.

Death leads to Terror.

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The work of Christ was threefold.

1. Incarnation.

2. Death.

3. Resurrection.

By these Christ is our saviour from Despair, Guilt and Terror

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1. Christmas: By the incarnation in this world, Man was taken up into God, and made a Son of God, a brother to Christ who calls God not just Father but 'Daddy' (Abba): we are invited to become part of the Holy Family bound by mutual love.

2. The week leading to Good Friday: By Christ's death, his self-sacrifice, all sin was put to death, Man was purified of sin.

3. Easter Day, Ascension, Pentecost: By Christ's resurrection he made a path on the other side of death, leading to Heaven, and for all his brothers - the Sons of God - to follow.

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Christ offers, therefore, the answer to all problems of life: by the Holy Ghost he offers earthly intimations of the Heavenly reality - utter belonging, unsullied joy and total significance - which will eternally be ours, if we choose.

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These are the promises of Christianity; no other religion or spirituality or ideology offers anything to approach the promises of Christianity.

Therefore either Christianity is uniquely dishonest in its promises, indeed the only essentially false world view.

Or, Christianity knows something that nobody and nothing else knows.


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