No “One True Church”

I’ve covered this before, but some questions came up pointing out a need for clarifications.

The natural world is pretty much an extension of the Garden of Eden. Adam and Eve were in the garden, but not a part of it. My conviction is that they had bodies rather like those of the risen Christ. They were of an entirely different kind of “flesh” as Paul put it. It was symbolized by their access to the Tree of Life. In general, what Christ could do after His resurrection, I believe Adam and Eve could do before the Fall.

After they chose to listen to the Serpent and ate the Forbidden Fruit, God clothed them in flesh rather like the creatures in the Garden. They were denied access to the Tree of Life. They became mortal in the same way as all the creatures in the Garden. Thus, in our mortal flesh, we are part of the natural world. However, we know somewhere deep in our consciousness that we don’t belong to this world. We aren’t supposed to die.

All of our problems are down to that fleshly nature we must carry around. Once we shed that, everything changes. There is no way to clinically describe all the details, but it’s the imagery the Bible uses to explain our situation. Sadly, a great many humans are nothing more than their fleshly selves; they have no eternal nature. They truly belong to this world. The Elect are not like that.

Our primary mission in this life is to support God’s reputation. Our flesh doesn’t go along with that, but it can be enslaved to some degree and compelled to cooperate. The Holy Spirit gives you the sense of mission to start down that path, and provides the power, but the will is entirely yours. Nobody, least of all our Lord, expects full compliance. The Bible is all about how to keep coming back and apologizing to God for embarrassing Him.

It’s quite possible we could get so far off track that He can’t use us here, and He’ll call us home rather sooner than He would like. We miss out on a lot of opportunities to bask in His glory here. Those who strive to be faithful and really care about His feelings will tend to be here a bit longer. It really is all about His feelings as a Father and whether we keep a tender heart for Him.

We belong in this world, but we are not a part of it. The fleshly body is not really a part of our true nature. That means that our intellects and emotions do not reflect who we really are in Christ. Those belong to the flesh, and will remain behind when we die. Our sense of awareness is not a thing in itself, only a manifestation of an eternal soul in a mortal body. Our awareness will change dramatically once we are moved into our eternal bodies. Thus, the New Testament promises that we will know everything when we are “changed in the twinkling of an eye”.

Meanwhile, we see everything as if obscured by a cheap dirty mirror. It’s too small and everything is backwards, but it’s all we have as we try to make our way through this world. When Christ returns, the natural world will be renewed, made fresh like it was back in the Garden before human activity abused and defiled it. The Devil and his allies in the Abyss will be destroyed along with all mortal flesh.

In our current situation, all we really have are our experiences and perception. They are obscured by trying to see through that dirty mirror. No two of us will have exactly the same grasp of this reality, though at times it may seem like it. When you start pressing for details, you start to realize how varied human understanding can be.

That’s why there can be no one-size-fits-all religion. Christ calls us to faith and speaks to us about organizing our response to that faith. That’s what religion is, our response to faith’s calling. We come to Him with a lot of different expectations about how it should go. Some people have a very clear notion about their own faith, but it’s pure human folly to assume your clear vision is for everyone.

This is why we have so many varied denominations, all proclaiming to be the “One True Church”. Since it is utterly impossible for any human to have the whole story, we should hardly be surprised as the variety. There is no one true church, nor can there be. Just a few faith communities recognize this, and they shape their mission to match the concept that what they do and teach isn’t for everyone. Rather, they seek to reach those who belong by simply acting according to their faith. There’s no sales pitch because only the Spirit can move people to join them.

That’s what Kiln of the Soul is like. It’s not for everyone. Sometimes what we offer may prove useful; take it run with it. Nobody in our community will ever act like it’s somehow a bad thing that you don’t agree with our whole body of teaching.