God: Deconstruction as the Path to Salvation

"Yeah, yeah," you're saying, "motives are all well and good, but WE want to know what you think about those Bible passages!"

Fine. Jerks.

There are two important bits here. The first goes like this:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
And someone came to Him and said, "Teacher, what good thing shall I do that I may obtain eternal life?"

And He said to him, "Why are you asking Me about what is good? There is only One who is good; but if you wish to enter into life, keep the commandments."

Then he said to Him, "Which ones?" And Jesus said, "YOU SHALL NOT COMMIT MURDER; YOU SHALL NOT COMMIT ADULTERY; YOU SHALL NOT STEAL; YOU SHALL NOT BEAR FALSE WITNESS; HONOR YOUR FATHER AND MOTHER; and YOU SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF."

The young man said to Him, "All these things I have kept; what am I still lacking?"

Jesus said to him, "If you wish to be complete, go and sell your possessions and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow Me."

But when the young man heard this statement, he went away grieving; for he was one who owned much property.

And Jesus said to His disciples, "Truly I say to you, it is hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven. "Again I say to you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God."

When the disciples heard this, they were very astonished and said, "Then who can be saved?"

And looking at them Jesus said to them, "With people this is impossible, but with God all things are possible."

Then Peter said to Him, "Behold, we have left everything and followed You; what then will there be for us?"

And Jesus said to them, "Truly I say to you, that you who have followed Me, in the regeneration when the Son of Man will sit on His glorious throne, you also shall sit upon twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel.

"And everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or farms for My name's sake, will receive many times as much, and will inherit eternal life.

"But many who are first will be last; and the last, first."
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
That's not the Workers' Wages, that's the Rich Young Ruler. This is an easy story to make a lesson out of, for anyone. It's rich with drama and inversion and just cake for anyone to spin to whatever point they want. I'll do the same. Don't think I'm claiming that THIS is what the passage REALLY means, but it's as viable an interpretation as any other....

The young man who comes to Jesus asks him about Salvation and Jesus (as is his wont) answers first according to the Law (after all, it hasn't been made obsolete yet). He tells the young man not to commit any Temporal sins.

And the young man answers that he HASN'T, and yet still he doesn't feel he is prepared for Heaven.

That's one of my major points. Obedience -- plain ol' good behavior -- can't make a Temporal being Infinite. It just won't happen. We have to spend our time, in this life, preparing our souls for Infinity, and until we begin...we can FEEL that we're not ready. This rich young man did. He asked Jesus what he needed to be, aside from behaving, to become Infinite.

And Jesus said, to the Rich Young Man, "give up your wealth." I don't think it was a financial thing -- I think it was a Constructionist thing. A Rich Man (someone who the Bible describes as nothing other than "a Rich Man") is a man who has built himself a world run by successful financial ventures. He's a man who has learned how to use money to his advantage, and how to depend upon money to get what he wants. He has separated himself from Real Truth using layer after layer of symbolic wealth.

A man like that has to overcome money in order to have any shot at Infinity, because there are very few things more temporary than wealth. It's precisely the kind of faith-based, Man-made system of power we so like to turn to, to keep from having to rely on God as our Providence. Mankind built money, designed the concept and invested in it enough belief that it has come to have a great deal of symbolic power within our reality. Money can provide food, it can provide shelter and security and even physical healing. It's one of our Constructed substitutes for God, and the more we use and believe in Money, the harder it is to recognize and value and really believe in the Real Truth that we're so deliberately obscuring.

That's where this bit comes in:
"But many who are first will be last; and the last, first."

That's the inversion that occurs between Temporal and Infinite. Because all of Man's own Temporal power comes from Construction of this imaginary, insignificant reality we dwell in. Money, popularity, technology, magic -- all are ways to power in this life, and the more a Man invests in them, the greater he will become within the Temporal world. But everything he invests in reality pulls him that much farther away from Real Truth. Those who keep their lives basic, who seek after Real Truth even within the Temporal world, and rely on God for their needs -- they're going to be weak within this world (although well provided for). They're going to be the last, in Temporal measures, because they're investing themselves in recognizing the Infinite.

That's the thing: we can't USE the Infinite. It gives us no strength, no power, no advantage, but it DOES give us significance and meaning and...well, Infinity. Every Temporal sacrifice we make for the sake of Salvation (as Jesus said) will pay for itself in Infinity.

It's a good passage. I'll get to the Workers' Wages next.