Loyalty toward Church

Before we continue with our explorations into the past, we should, perhaps, in this discourse, explore regions of ourselves, seeing that we are, individually, upon our own personal quest of self discovery.

 Due to human conditioning the quest is usually connected or linked with some religious movement, which, in the case of most, has served as the catalyst to encourage this personal quest. Although within these modern days of New Age thought many have turned toward Eastern thought to assist them with their personal search for enlightenment, we ourselves will remain within the Christian Faith which can provide the same answers.

Where I personally am concerned, I have never yet found the need to search for other faiths and foreign gods to provide me with the answers of who I am, where I come from, and to where I am going. The answers are all in the faith to which I've been loyal for the past 2,000 years. Although I have experienced most cultures and evolved through them, no culture to me is significant, and I have chosen freely to dedicate myself to Christianity since its inception into the Western World, my designated place of residence for the past 2,000 or so years. Having served within the Crusades and other Christian conflicts I have no desire to desert what I had always been loyal to.

Unlike the deserters of Christianity, we seek to understand it, and this understanding will bring you the realization that Christianity was given to us for a purpose, and already knowing that nothing happens without a purpose, then we will act wisely in an endeavor to discover what that purpose is. Christianity did not go wrong, as many assume, but developed into that which it was supposed to. It was never meant to be a "kiss the other cheek" mentality, but a baptism of fire, the ultimate initiation of the spirit. Jesus himself said, "Think not that I have come to bring peace into the world; I have come not to bring peace, but a sword. I have come to turn a son against his father and a father against his son, so that your very enemy resides under your own roof."

We can safely assume that what Jesus has said has come about. Jesus was not a soothsayer, but a prophet, and there has yet not appeared one prophet who spoke with a silver spoon in his mouth. The philosophy of "love thy enemies," is the philosophy of a two sided sword, which Paul was obviously aware of, when he said, "Love those who hate you, for by doing so, you are pouring hot coal over their heads." Is this an act of love or deliberate vengeance? Jesus spat out words like "vipers breed" like a child blows bubbles while chewing on gum. His words like, "Love one another like I have loved you," were personal words to his disciples and others who comprised his entourage. His philosophy of love and its expression was based more toward a personal group perspective then a perspective that was directed generally. "He who has no sword, let him pick one up", were his words of defense, and whereas his disciples, were more his personal bodyguards than do gooders chosen to spread his teaching around the world. Peter, during the arrest of Jesus in the garden, drew his sword and sliced off a soldier's ear when he tried to put his hand on Jesus, to which Jesus said, "Put down your sword, for he who lives by the sword, shall die by the sword." A bit late to tell him that when a man's ear is missing. What was Peter doing with a sword, anyway. Was he simply doing what he was supposed to be doing, protecting Jesus? Or did he simply fancy nibbling on an ear? Under normal circumstances, Peter himself would have been arrested, and the reason that he wasn't, can only suggest that there must have been confusion and tension during the arrest, and the only reason that he was spared was in order to avoid what could easily have developed into a nasty confrontation. This gives us good reason to assume that, not only was Peter armed, but also the entire entourage that may have been with Jesus in the garden during the arrest.

The question we need to ask is – where do we, as individuals fit into the scheme of things? The drama that was the life of Jesus, its slow unfolding to the eventual scene in the garden, to his crucifixion climaxing in his resurrection – do we, as evolving spirits have a part in this scenario? Yet the drama experienced by Jesus is just one drama out of many that had unfolded long before his coming.