Part 1 of this series provided a foundation and overview. We must make ourselves conscious that the only thing egalitarian about our human existence is that we all start out doomed to Hell. We are fallen, and our human existence itself is a big lie, and our human capabilities are deceived and deceiving. This is not what God had in mind for us when He placed Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden.
Eden is not a place, per se; Eden is a condition of life. We are supposed to be in our eternal form without a mortal fleshly nature. In Eden, we were not dragging around a mortal body full of lies and defilement. To return to Eden is a path of living that increasingly denounces the flesh and embraces our eternal nature, trapped inside of this defiled mortal frame.
It is utterly impossible to explain the situation in human language; the intellect cannot grasp the truth of things. That’s why the Eden narrative is obviously not literal, but symbolic. It’s a parable, mixing in some literal elements with a broadly metaphorical image. It’s not about the story itself, but what the story should tell you about our situation as fallen creatures. It’s not human history, but moral truth.
Note: There is nothing morally superior about literal expression. Divine truth is not propositional. If it’s a proposition the mind can handle, then it falls short of truth. Thus, it is no insult, no weakening of revelation, to say that the Eden narrative is mostly symbolic. Divine truth is the living connection between us and God; it is inherently personal.
Something in us pulls away from God’s divine revelation and the utter necessity that we depend on Him for every little thing. The issue is not the things, but the ongoing dynamic connection that is depicted throughout the Bible. Truth is not objective; it is intensely personal in nature. Truth cannot exist separate from God. He cannot simply spin it off to stand out there on its own, waiting for us to find it somehow. Truth exists only as a trait of the Creator Himself. The only way to know the truth about anything is to know God personally, and to keep that connection alive.
Thus, the only valid purpose of human existence in our mortal frame is to fight through that mortal frame back to clinging closely to the Father. We are not in His class; we cannot trust our own capabilities to discern the truth, as if God could wind us up and let us go. We must constantly defer to Him as to what is good and evil. The question exceeds the powers of human reason. Reason is fit only as a slave; it is otherwise our enemy. It’s capabilities can barely handle the task of organizing and implementing what the heart knows about good and evil.
Good and evil are not in the choices and actions themselves, but from the context of our response to the Father. It’s whatever God says to us in our hearts within that moment. How does the New Testament say that we already know God’s truth? It’s written in our convictions. Not as words or concrete ideas, but it’s written on our hearts as conviction, as moral imperatives. It cannot be formulated as established principles because it’s alive and moves with the living Spirit of God. It will not be the same in every context. Only the heart is capable of recognizing the common threads that hold it all together. Our faculty for reason is not able.
Not all of us are called to be or do the same thing in every context. God most certainly does not “play fair” with us. He has decided what role each of us should play in His plans. He favors all His children, but that favor is not the same for each. The favor is not measured by reason; the favor is measured by the assurance that we are at peace with Him personally and individually.
Your divine inheritance is yours alone. Your flesh may envy what God gives someone else, but your heart knows that you cannot make good use of the things God gives to your brothers and sisters. We are each individually appointed to different blessings. Our gifts vary naturally. A church body should not be all one thing; not everyone has the same gifts of the Spirit. What a monstrosity it would be if God treated us all exactly the same! Why would we need each other if everyone was alike? We need each other because the Lord designed us to work in community.
But the nature of that community is rooted in Heaven, discernible only with the heart, not with human reckoning. Divine truth may or may not make sense; His requirements are quite unreasonable. The reason must be compelled to obey without a cause it can recognize.
You should not be able to herd Christians. We should love each other and cooperate when we can, but we must remain hesitant about some things. Your primary duty is to follow your convictions while keeping a close eye on the boundaries of Biblical Law (aka, The Covenant of Christ). If the fundamental law of Christ includes loving feudal submission to the Father, then that naturally means we will want to please Him. We are not exempt from studying the various written commands to get a feel for our Father’s divine moral character. But in the end, we must learn to recognize that He will lead us all in different ways.
We simply cling more to those whose leading from the Lord doesn’t interfere with our convictions. We should always be ready to walk alone to remain faithful to our calling and mission. Yet, we should always be ready to fellowship with odd people who claim His name. The whole job of church is not “getting things done” but of learning the boundaries of fellowship and shared faith.
The most challenging part of that for us today is that the Covenant of Christ is feudal, calls for a tribal social structure, and is very strongly anti-western. Any church formed on that basis is held together by conviction, not rules. While the leadership must be feudal, they will understand that you are only loosely attached, ready to move on at any moment when the Spirit calls. This is quite contrary to the western style of reverence for the institution itself. It’s not a question of whether your church leadership could be wrong, but that it’s guaranteed not everything they choose will be appropriate for you. It’s on you to decide when and how you must dissent. The whole mission of the church is the ongoing negotiation between members on whether and how they should stay together or part company.
A church is a family, not an institution. It’s a spiritual and moral kinship. The shared covenant is the whole identity. The covenant assumes there is no loss of love simply because it’s time to go somewhere else, or that there is insufficient grounds for continuing as a single community in the first place.
