We Can Be That

Everywhere you look, you’ll find a vast ocean of blather aimed at making the world a better place. You’ll see ideas like progress toward a better human existence. In the Kingdom of Heaven, this is not a worthy goal.

Indeed, the vast majority of what humans do today is senseless and pointless. If the whole of technology suddenly disappeared, and we were left groveling in the dirt with only what our own hands have made, it would not hinder the Kingdom of Heaven at all. Nothing in the stated goals of redemption requires a single technological idea, much less any kind of advancement. Technological progress has no meaning in the Kingdom of Heaven.

The only thing we need in this life is peace with God. The circumstances mean nothing, except as the background upon which we project the shadows of our bowing to the light of His glory. In falling on our faces, we are making room for more light to shine. Following Christ requires nothing beyond a passion for serving the Lord. All the technology of human existence has no bearing on the matter.

Nothing man could possibly accomplish will be around after the Return of Christ. All of it will be wiped away in the renewing of Creation, of restoring Eden. It’s not that moral knowledge will cease. By no means is seeking such wisdom a wasted effort. We ought to do our best to understand what God has made and how it works. But there is zero moral advantage to anything civilization has accomplished in any form since it first appeared on the earth.

It’s not that God desires to see us impoverished; being a troglodyte is not holiness. Rather, simplicity makes it a lot easier for us to focus on divine glory. Everything humanity has produced is a distraction. The things that men seek will always miss the point. All material things are just tools for divine glory.

This is why religious people engage in retreats. It’s an attempt to move away from the hustle and bustle of human concerns and renew an acquaintance with simplicity of living in the joy of the Lord. There’s a beckoning call from asceticism; something inside us recognizes the health in that. It’s a good thing. Monastic movements might miss the point, but you should be shocked when there are no such urges manifested in a given population.

There is only one use for keeping track of human trends in this world: as an assessment of moral failure. We examine politics, economics, social trends, etc., only to point out how those things diverge from revelation.

That business of “to your tents, O Israel” was not for political leverage. That call was aimed at restoring to the people their fundamental identity as nation that was just passing through this world. People live in tents because they can’t be bothered to invest effort and care into building permanent structures. They avoid such building because it serves no purpose. Indeed, it serves only to hinder the return to Eden. Such things become an anchor that drags you down and keeps you from getting back to where God called you. So, you would expect someone to call out, “to your tents” when confronted with something that destroys the very foundation of a covenant identity.

We can be a covenant nation without the trappings of human politics. We can agree to an identity based on the drive to find peace with God. We can share a covenant identity of faith in the Lord. That’s what Radix Fidem is all about; it’s just a name for such a vision.