Let us imagine in the abstract what it is that the religious take to be 'Gods Peace'. In my Episcopalean tradition one of my favorite blessings was given in the context of Phillipans 4:7 - the peace that passeth all understanding keep your hearts & minds in Christ (who lives and reigns forever). And Christians are to know that God's peace is different in substance than man's peace. (John 14:27). I am not one to quote the Bible chapter and verse - considering the dozen odd English translations alone, the letter of the law is vauge. I am invested in the spirit of Christian ethics.
But if God's peace is different than man's peace, are we then speaking of personal or geopolitical peace? I immediately and perhaps ultimately believe that the two are definitely not the same thing. There is little question in my mind that God's peace is personal. It is what I experience at Communion. Every Time.
But something about the idea of Hell threw me a curveball. Because if Hell is a geopolitical hell, as in, a real hot place at the center of the Earth, and not a metaphysical personal hell as in the inescapable madness of a meaningless existence without the possibility of spiritual transcendence and redemption, then we have a problem here.
Hell is 'required' as the punishment of a kick ass god. If you're good, he lets you off the hook is all. That is a different interpretation of the Christian God than what I have. That is the Elohist, Old Testament, Destroyer of Sodom. The King of Kings who brings down the mighty, literally. In short, this is no dude. This is the God of Abraham aka Allah the Merciful.
So let's cut to the chase, shall we? If we are to live under secular law, is the peace provided by men sufficient for the religious? Is Humanism good enough? No. If you stop a war between men (and I use war because it's easy to see it as the greatest sin of mankind, deserving of something on the scale of Hell) you can still go to Hell. Such acts, outside of the aegis of religious law and doctrine are all those things that fall outside of the scope of religious salvation.
Now Jesus Christ said blessed are the peacemakers. But blessings are not enough. Blessings are for sneezes. Salvation is the bottom line, isn't it? God demands God's Peace, or else it's off to Hell for the lot of you heathens, no matter what good you do for secular peace.
Right?
Recent Comments