Perception, God and the Bible

We need to take back the control of our minds! In this blog post I will explore the conditions that we live under from my perspective as a Christian and believer in God. But I will try to do so in a manner that will offer some food for thought for anyone, regardless of prior beliefs. And I ask of you that you try and relate what I'm saying here to your own life and experience. Because it's so easy that we turn what we read into just empty word. Especially in these days, when so much is trying to catch our attention.

I believe that the truth is to be found in the Bible. I also believe in progressive revelation. This means that I don’t believe that the whole truth has been revealed to us yet. I believe that the truth of the Bible expands as we learn more about the world and the particular time that we are living in. And I believe that some of our current well-established interpretations need to be discarded, in favor of others that are more plausible.

We live in a world where everyone is trying to get our attention. But few seem to care about us as people. Some do. But when it comes to those that don’t, they at best want to use us to further an agenda that they truly consider noble. At worst, they want to ruthlessly exploit us purely for their own gain. To make it worse, what can be a noble agenda for one person, can be ruthless exploitation for another. It all depends on the person’s character and actual knowledge about the issue at hand.

Here is a little part of my experience: The more I learn about the world, myself and my being in the world, the more confusing I find everything. I bet many of you feel the same way. We don’t know who we can trust anymore. If we’ve started to understand just a little bit of what is really going on in the world, we know that we most definitely cannot trust politicians. Neither can we trust the mainstream media, nor public figures. And those that oppose the world views that are pushed by journalists and politicians for the most part don’t seem trustworthy either. 

To me, there is only one way out of this mess. Please tell me if you’ve found another. 

To you that don’t believe: I’m not asking you to believe without evidence. I’m only asking you to start paying more attention to your experience and being open to whatever you may find when you do so.

To me, God is not just something that I choose to believe in. To me, the existence of God is absolutely undeniable. It’s my lived reality. But since this knowing comes from personal experience, I cannot prove to anyone that I’m telling the truth. I do, however, believe that this is something that everyone can find out for themselves. That they can find this out by just opening up to the possibility that God might exist and want a personal relationship with us. By hoping that me and all those other countless people throughout history, that believe or have believed, are not just delusional. In this hopeless world, what have you got to lose? 

Something I do believe wholeheartedly, is that it’s more reasonable to believe that reality is more than what we can perceive with our five senses, than to believe that this is all reality is. If you look at history, it’s abundantly clear that we’ve never been able to trust what our senses seem to tell us about the world. Why would things be different today?

This is not an argument for the existence of God per se. Just an argument against the idea that matter is all there is. Ultimately, as I said in the beginning, our relationship with our creator is personal. It’s not about reason or rational arguments. 

With that being said, we can understand the conditions that we live under and thus gain more clarity. And I believe that, even though we ultimately can always put our trust in God, this is just what many of us have to do. Because there is a battle for our minds happening right now.

One fundamental condition that we live under, which is relevant for the discussion that is to follow is this: We only have access to the contents of our own minds. This is self-evident. And yet, many of us don’t reflect much upon what this means. When I started thinking about this, it changed my whole view of the world and how I relate to it. 

All I have access to, is my subjective experience. I cannot even know for sure that what I’m experiencing has any relation to what is going on outside of myself. I of course have to assume this to function in the world and not go crazy. And since I can communicate with others, they can confirm or disconfirm my experience. But I cannot know whether their experience is correct. Neither can I know that other people are telling me the truth about their experience. And to complicate things further, I cannot know that we mean the same things, with the words they use to describe their experience. For the most part, I can know the opposite: that words mean different things to different people.

Yet, truth seems to matter. A lot! We don’t like when people lie or deceive us. We also have emotions attached to many of our beliefs. When we do, we get uncomfortable when someone challenges our beliefs. If we have strong emotions attached to them we might get angry. Especially if we think that we have the arguments firmly on our side.

Let me give you an example of how our perception can become distorted:

Lately I’ve been thinking about when I studied psychology at the university. One subject was: “men that are abusive to their partners”. This was framed as men’s will to dominate women. Because this is what these men said in the interviews. We were given the image of a man that calculating used force to dominate their partner. But what if this is incorrect? These studies said nothing about who these individual men were. What if at least many of these men felt helpless in most areas of life, but tried to dominate the few areas where they could feel powerful? It doesn’t make it any more okay, but it sheds a totally different light on the problem. The problem is no longer dominant men that use force to subjugate women. It instead becomes broken, disempowered men that try to grab on to what little power they can in their lives, in the most dysfunctional, destructive way possible. I would never say that this is always the case. There are of course thoroughly cruel people, that use violence in a cold, calculated way. But what if these are the minority cases?

In other words: We have an event. We have the perpetrator that describes the event. He tells us how he sees what happened. Then we have the researcher that tries to understand what the perpetrator is communicating. The researcher then puts it down in his or her own words. And then we have these findings reproduced by other academics, that include them in their own papers or course literature. Then we finally have classes taught on the subject and students assimilating the information. We have now moved very far away from the actual situations and the people involved in them.

Now comes the interesting and quite frightening part. And the whole reason for this lengthy example: Our identities shape our perception of reality. If I assign a certain label to myself, such as “feminist”, “anti-feminist”, “alt-right”, “ or “anti-racist”, this label will become part of how I interpret and thus describe reality. None of us are immune to this. Labels come with an emotional charge. And while emotions are an important way of understanding reality, if we aren’t conscious of how they shape our thinking, they will inevitably distort our perception. So if someone, in this case a researcher, views information through a distorted filter, he/she will interpret the information in a way that conforms to his/her worldview. Unless he/she can be objective enough to override said worldview.

Our distorted perception works something like this: I will embrace certain information. Then reinforce it in my mind. I do this by thinking about it and what it means. And by discarding other information. I can look for valid ways of dismissing information that I don’t like. Or I can discard it completely without thinking. Or I can distort it so that I can dismiss it. This last way is called a straw man and is called so because a figure of straw is easy to knock down. We often have no problem seeing this way of reasoning in others. But it’s much harder to spot it in ourselves.

In short, we look for information that supports our beliefs. And not only that. We also interpret the information in a way that suppors said beliefs and describe it to others in a way that supports our beliefs. But to us, we are only stating facts.

This is also just one side of it. Now we add streaming services, social media and algorithms to the mix. It is today common knowledge that the algorithms of the biggest streaming services and social media, suggest media based on prior consumption. This means that if you are looking into information that is more right wing, you will see more and more information and perspectives related to this. And the same goes for the left. This has today created two very distinct camps that fiercely oppose each other, even if they in many ways share the same problems and concerns.

This is of grave concern, since this creates more and more animosity between ordinary people. This is by design, since those that truly prey on us want us to fight each other instead of seeing what is really going on. We could wake up from this nightmare and start opposing our captors. Instead we perpetuate the nightmare by hating our neighbor for not sharing our beliefs and hating ourselves for not living up to impossible standards. And since we’re told that religion is the root of all evil, we learn to hate religion as well. This in spite of the fact that godlessness and the sense of meaninglessness that it produces, is arguably the root cause of much of the degeneration of our culture. 

While we’re at the subject of those that govern us in the overall framework of perception: The actions of those that govern us don’t seem to make much sense. At least when looked at from the perspective of them representing those that voted them into office. On the other hand, if you start looking at the function of government from a different perspective it start start to make sense. This perspective would be: increasing control and surveillance, and transferring money from the masses into the hands of a wealthy few so that these wealthy few can increase their power.

All of this amounts, in my view undeniably, to something dark on the horizon. Something that is planned and by design. Something that is hidden in plain sight. Something that, once seen, cannot be unseen. 

In the storm that is coming, I put my trust in God. Because I know that God exists. And I have to believe and trust that God is who he says he is in the Bible. That he knows and wants what’s best for us. I cannot se where else there is hope to be found. 

Ever since I came to believe in God seventeen years ago I’ve immersed myself in religion and spirituality. Since then, I’ve only found more reasons to believe. And even though I’ve found plenty of reasons to doubt what I’ve believed, or change my beliefs, I’ve never found reason to doubt my core faith in a good, almighty creator. 

Throughout this time, I’ve not always been a Christian. It’s a faith that I’ve been growing into over the years with a lot of going back and forth, until finally something clicked. Something that began seventeen yeas ago, but came to fruition about six months ago. It can be summed up as an ever growing, inner knowing, followed by a sense of peace and joy, that grows with the knowing.

I believe that we can only take back our sovereignty with the help of God. By reconnecting with our creator. My belief in God and all that it entails is what colors my whole perception of reality. This is the lense that I choose to view the world, myself, other people and my relation to the world and other people through. 

The best way of understanding God and his will I have found in the Bible. I choose this lense because I believe it to be absolutely true. I believe the Bible to be the word of God, handed down through ordinary humans. Ordinary humans that were not called primarily because of their moral virtues. For some of them this was part of the reason. But many of them were great sinners. I think that part of the reason why they were chosen, was because God knew that they, sometimes reluctantly, would say yes and then do what needed to be done.

To me, since our reason is so fallible, I think that the question of whether a worldview seems to lead us where we want to go is very relevant. That this question should be taken seriously when we search for the truth. 

On this point, the Bible has never failed me, while all other teachings that I have chosen to guide me have done so. What the Bible says may at first seem counterintuitive. But it has always provided me with an accurate analysis of the world and the human condition. This analysis has helped me to break free from much of the unconscious programming of my mind. That which the world has instilled in me without me knowing it. Without me having made any conscious choices about it. 

The Bible has corrected many of my distorted perceptions. Thus it has helped me to gain clarity in areas such as career, family, dreams, goals, entertainment, sex and social relations. Areas where what has seemed reasonable from a human and our culture’s perspective, has proved to break down my psyche and spirit.

In this darkness that we are now facing, I believe that Jesus is the only truly valid guiding light. The ideal that we should strive for, no matter who we are, what we’ve done or what the world tells us. In my going back and forth, Christianity has never failed me. And I’ve always been led astray when I’ve deviated from it. So the Bible and the person and message of Jesus is where I’m going to put my trust to guide me through the chaos, which is soon to unfold.

But I’m not looking to convince you of anything, even if it might seem that way. What I want you to do, is find out the truth for yourself. And when doing so, it could be good to keep in mind, that ultimately everything is personal experience, i.e. subjective perception. Subjective perception of an objective reality.

God's will - The good news and the "bad" news

The good news is that your eternal life is going to be so much grander than eternal happiness and bliss in paradise. You are going to live in such a beautiful, loving, ecstatic, blissful connection with your creator, that the adjectives that I just used cannot even begin to describe it. 

This state is even available in this life and can be experienced longer and more intensely depending on our choices.

The “bad” news is the “depending on our choices” part. The “bad” news is that if we want to experience this, we have to do our best to stop doing what is bad for us and do more of what is good for us. We have to stop doing things that take us further away from God and do more of what brings us closer to God. Which means that we have to swallow our pride and do what God says. 

This starts on the inside. With a change of attitude. With the cultivation of humility. “Humility” is one of those words whose meaning is so important. And for me, one of those words that I hadn’t really reflected on until a couple of years ago. What does it mean to be humble? It was right in front of me. I could seriously brag about this or that without seeing that I had a problem with humility. And I can still get caught up in stubbornly wanting to have my will, even when I ought to know that it shouldn’t matter much. When I ought to know that there aren’t many things in this temporary life, in this temporary world that truly matter. Not from the perspective of eternity. Which is the perspective that will gradually remove the dust from our eyes.

Will I let the world fool me, trap me and control me while I attempt to have “my” will? Or will I freely choose God’s perfect will and allow him to set me free? The choice is easy once we see it clearly. We can either grasp for the empty pleasures that the world provides. Or we can fulfill our divine purpose. Which means enjoying the creation the way God intended for us to enjoy it. 

When infused with God’s spirit, our senses come fully alive. Everything feels, tastes, sounds, smells and looks better. The emotions associated with our sensations become stronger. Feel more real and meaningful.

You may ask: how can an omnipotent, omnipresent, infinite, eternal being be so personal that he has a will for each and everyone of us? And yet, this is exactly how it is. God wants to write us into his love story. We were made to love God and to be loved by God. This is the whole purpose of our existence. Sadly many of us don’t always live in a way that reflects this love. I don’t always live in a way that reflects this love.

We don’t just pray because it makes us feel good. Or because it puts us in a state where it's easier for us to believe in our ability to reach our goals. We pray because God listens to us. Because God wants to communicate with us. Because God is interested in us. Even if God already knows everything about us, he still wants us to turn to him consciously. To speak to him directly. And when we do, it changes us.

If we try earnestly, this is what we will eventually start feeling with all of our being. Not all of the time. In the beginning we will just have glimpses of this relationship. But these glimpses are so powerful that they will keep us going. We will want more of them. We will have more of them. In this life or the next one. And they will be more real and meaningful than anything we can ever experience without God.

God wants to give us everything. And all he wants in return is for us to seek his love, which is by far the best gift of all his gifts.

In a sense, finding out what God’s will is, is very simple. At least what to look for is very simple. 

God’s will is simply what comes natural, when we completely stop fooling ourselves. When we truly start acting in the manner that feels best in every given situation. In other words, when we get our egos out of the way, we will see that our will and God’s will are one. If God has a will and wants what’s best for us, how could it be any other way?

We can live in a natural flow or we can go against the natural flow. Resistance or non-resistance. This can be applied to anything in life. Does what I do follow the natural flow of life or does it disrupt it? This is something that we can only know for ourselves. But it is how life operates whether we like it or not. This is God’s will. And nothing that we tell ourselves can ever change that. The big mistake that has been made with regard to this throughout history is to attach morals to it. Hence, we have made something that needs to be understood on a personal level, into collective morals and dogma, that is forced upon people by the authorities. When we understand this principle, authorities become unnecessary. Because when we understand this principle, we understand that whatever action that goes against the natural flow of life, first and foremost damages the one engaging in the action. Do I want to hurt others and myself? Or do I want to heal others and myself? Do I want to get closer to, or further away from God? 

It is this simple. The difficult thing is not to understand this. The difficulty lies in letting go of our pride. It’s difficult to admit that we don’t have everything figured out. That our approach to many things comes from a need to be right and feel superior. Not from what will lead to the most happiness for everyone involved.

Furthermore, we have accumulated so much baggage, in the form the opinions and views of friends and family, that are just as- or even more confused than we are, of societal and cultural norms and expectations, habits, perceived needs and so on. Many times we haven’t really reflected on why we’ve adopted certain ideas and perspectives. It has more or less just happened. We’ve reacted to something long ago. And then we’ve used that reaction to interpret other similar experiences or information. And so it goes. Cause and effect with no real, conscious choices. 

I tell myself that I want something because of one reason. But really, my reason is another. Or at least, I’m not telling myself or others the whole truth. One example that I ran into a while back, was that I tried to stay fit because of health reasons. This was partially true. But the reason was also vanity. If it wasn’t, I would have worked out differently. This realization led to the choice of changing my workouts. Which I did. I started working out in a way that focused on improving my body instead of growing muscles and shedding fat. Which led me to having more pleasurable workouts. It also led me to the realization that I was basing a far from negligible part of my self-worth on how I looked, rather than who I was. Which also has prompted me to examine other areas where I base my self-worth on things that don’t really matter.

I’ve had a taste of what is possible when I let go of my ego’s petty wants and wishes. When I, for example, let go of my pride and need to be right. When I try to meet every person, regardless of the circumstances, with love and respect. Or when I just accept what is, instead of wishing for things to be different. Or when I stop needing that other people see me a certain way. And so on. There is such a light sense of freedom in this. And yet, when I try to let go of old patterns, I’m shaken by anxiety. And even though it feels like crap, I feel such a strong pull from these habits, that I often give in to them. Even though I know that I get absolutely nothing from giving in and even though I know that the anxiety has no basis in reality. 

In the end, God’s will is to live in harmony and not in disharmony. Harmony is what comes easy and natural. When we just can let go and trust, we won’t need anything else. We can put our lives fully in God’s hands. But until we are ready to do this, we will have to learn more about ourselves, struggle with ourselves and feel the pain of failure. Before we are ready to hear the voice of God on the inside all the time, we will need external sources to guide us. But remember this, even if we cannot se it from our current perspective, God and his Holy Spirit are always closer than anyone or anything in the world. The Holy Spirit will always work in our lives to the degree that we let go of our ego’s petty wishes and desires.

To my brothers and sisters in the NEW AGE (and everyone else)

Truth matters! More and more so in the extraordinary times that we are living in. And what lenses you view the world through matter gravely. Because these lenses shape how you see the world, what you think about it and how you act in it. So you have to be careful what you allow into your mind. And what you allow to control your mind. 

Before we continue I want to ask a couple of things of you: Forget everything that you think that you know about Christianity and the Bible. Embrace the possibility that within Christianity there is room for more love, joy, vibrant bliss and ecstasy than you could possibly imagine or find anywhere else. That when Jesus said: “the truth shall set you free” he really meant this. Which implies that if we view the Bible as a boring rulebook that hinders us from doing what we really want to do, we have misunderstood it. Because yes, the Bible asks things of us, which other teachings don’t. It asks us to do some things and give up others. But it doesn’t ask anything of us that isn’t for our own good.

If we wish to bring some more clarity into what may be called “spiritual confusion”, we need to start by asking ourselves the right questions: “Does this really lead me where it promises to lead me?”, “How does this actually benefit me and those around me?”, “Where is this leading me?”, “How is it truly affecting me?”, “Does it lead to more clarity or more confusion?”, “What is the purpose of this particular practice that I’m engaged in?” and “Does it truly fulfill that purpose?”. Another question that also most definitely is important is: “Does this truly make me happy?”

I’m not pretending to know what your answers are to these questions. I only know what mine are, which I hope will become clear throughout this text.

One thing that I do know for a fact however, is that regardless of prior beliefs, God is not just some abstract creative force. God is deeply personal, has a will and communicates with us in different ways all the time. And this is a good thing, because this means that we have perfect guidance to rely on. That we’re not left to our own faulty reason when it comes to figuring our how to think, speak and act. Because even if we need to use our reason to the best of our ability, on our own we will inevitably be led astray. There are so many forces, both within ourselves and in the world that confuse and deceive us.

That God is personal, has a will and communicates with us I know as absolute truth. This I know from personal experience. I’m not asking you to take my word for it. What I’m asking is to try this way of viewing God out for yourself, pray about it, meditate on it and use it as the lense through which you view the world. Take it seriously and see where it leads you. For me, it also finally led me to Jesus and the Holy Spirit. These are now real to me. Not just abstract figures that I can read about in the Bible. And my relationship with them is growing every day.

Now comes the part where I might really lose you. Therefore I feel the need to explain what I’m saying before I say it. I believe that there is a reason behind why mainly Christians and New Agers are waking up to the state of the world. Because of this and other reasons, I’m not prepared to dismiss everything within the New Age, even though I firmly believe in the truth of the Bible.

Now, there is an awakening happening on the planet. One that is spiritual in nature. And I don’t think that anyone knows exactly what this awakening is. More and more people are awakening every day. We are awakening to the true state of the world and what powers are truly governing it. What powers are governing us. We are awakening to more and more spiritual aspects of our physical reality. And we are awakening to more and more aspects of what is going on inside ourselves. For many of us, this has become a lived, undeniable reality.

Furthermore, I firmly believe that everything that is true about this awakening is 100% biblical. This means that everything about it that is true must be compatible with the Bible. And everything that we ever need should fit into this framework. The only things that we need to discard, are empty things that don’t benefit us anyway. Things that just cause us pain and confusion. Again I urge you to ask yourself the right questions. Because it’s so easy to get lost in what sounds good on the surface, but does not keep its promises. And at least for me and my wife, it has been difficult to admit to ourselves that what we have invested much time and energy into, has not lead us where it promised. Where we hoped that it would lead us.

What exactly this means I have yet to figure out. Some people say that you should stay away from any spirituality that is not from the Bible or about the Bible. While I respect these beliefs and do not wish to dismiss them, I don’t feel that I, in good conscience, can accept them without thorough examination. 

For example, I find nothing in the Bible that contradicts the idea that we need to cultivate a non-reactive mindset. When we learn to just feel the emotions that come up in different situation without reacting to them, we can begin to allow the emotions to guide our actions instead of controlling them. Just like we should often not act on the first thought that pops into our minds either. If we learn this, I believe that it will make us better Christians. We may even clear the path for the Holy Spirit to act through us.

I also know for a fact that suppressed emotional energy gets stored in the body as tensions, which authors that often get grouped within the New Age, such as David Hawkins, have pointed out. 

And here we come to the crux of the matter. There is so much dead weight in the New Age. And what I believe is that the Bible will help us to understand what we need to shed and what can be kept. Here I find two questions helpful: “Does this have any demonstrable practical use?” and “Is it compatible with Biblical teachings?”

I have just shown two examples of what I believe can be useful. Now I’m going to give you an example of what I believe should not just be discarded, but shun like the plague: I believe you should stay far away from channelers. For those that don’t know, channeling is when someone allows their body to be taken over by a spiritual entity so that it can communicate through them. 

The Bible is full of warnings concerning this type of activity. This is simply because we don’t know what these channeled entities are. And as far as I’m concerned the channelings that I’ve read about or listened to have not given me anything of practical value. It has mostly been either gibberish or ideas about the world that can neither be confirmed nor falsified. I believe that if these channeled entities really are higher beings, that are here to help us, they should be able to tell us things that are useful and not just feed us claims about how the world works. Claims that, again, cannot be confirmed or falsified. 

Besides, the Bible clearly says that after Jesus left his earthly life, God sent us his Holy Spirit. The Bible says that the Holy Spirit is with us all the time and that it has the same power to help and guide us as Jesus. So why would you need to turn to other spirits for help?

In other words, my experience tell me that, with regards to channeling, the answer is “no” to both of the questions that I just posed.

I would furthermore advice anyone wishing to study authors labelled New Age to approach them with caution. It’s so easy to buy into a whole package when we see that it contains some truth and wisdom. Me and my wife have both been led astray by teachings within the New Age that we now can see are not sound. 

In other words, I don’t believe that everything about the New Age is evil or satanic. But I do believe that most of it leads us astray. And I do believe that some of it would qualify as Satanic. At least when taken together. 

I believe that just like we can check what is sound against the teachings of the Bible, we can actually check what is unsound against the teachings of the Satanic Bible by Anton Szandor Lavey. I believe that Lavey, in very clear language, has laid out satanic doctrine in exact detail, while promoting it as a common sense philosophy. 

The idea that we are our own gods is the first satanic idea that comes to mind. Another one is that everything is relative. That there are no absolute truths. Together with this one comes also the trivialization of everything. That nothing is really serious and that we are mainly here to have fun and explore. And yeah, the idea mentioned in the beginning, of God as just an impersonal force, can actually also be found in the Satanic Bible. What I’ve noticed is that when we have no absolute truths to rely on, our perception of reality becomes distorted. When we take nothing seriously, we end up excusing all kinds of behavior by saying that “ultimately it doesn’t matter anyway”. And when we view God as just an impersonal force, we miss the whole point of religion and spirituality.

To conclude: Mine and my wife’s experience with New Age can be summed up as follows. We did find some usefulness in some authors often classified as New Age. The aforementioned David R. Hawkins is one of them. Two others that come to mind are Eckhart Tolle and Joe Dispenza. But for the most part, it sent us on a wild goose chase. We ended up seeking more and more knowledge, self-development and abilities, while in reality getting nowhere. We found that much within it that promises healing, power and knowledge actually breaks us, disempowers us and causes more and more confusion.

When we finally decided to embrace the message of the Bible and discard everything that was incompatible with it, we invited peace and healing into our lives. While that which on the surface seemed reasonable within the New Age didn’t hold up when tested against reality, the opposite proved to be true when it came to the Bible. What on the surface seemed unreasonable in the Bible, proved true when tested against reality. And the more we studied the Bible, the more we started to see the infinite depth that it contains. This while other teachings more and more revealed the shallowness behind their often many words. Which for us at least shows the truth in the saying of st. Paul, that “…the wisdom of this world is foolishness to God” (1 Corinthians 3:19).

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Allowing God to clean our heads

When I thought that I had to do this job all on my own it felt hopeless. Because one of the first things that you realize when you decide to not let your thoughts run wild, is how hard it is to tame the mind. Luckily I have learned that I don’t have to do this all by myself. And I never have to be perfect. I don’t even have to beat myself up if I do a lousy job with it. As long as I do my best and let God be with me during the process. 

When I let God be with me, there are also certain things that I simply don’t want to have in my head. It might seem a little scary to know that God is listening to our thoughts. But he is and it’s a good thing. Because besides working as a motivator for not letting things into our heads that shouldn’t be there, he helps with the work. And here is actually the place where it’s easiest to notice God for most of us. When we make the conscious decision to open up to God, we will notice that things start to happen in our inner lives. And for some paradoxical reason, once we start noticing more of what is going on on the inside, we become more aware of what is going on on the outside. Then we may begin to notice how God also speaks to us through our experiences in the physical world.

Here is also another powerful reason why I finally embraced Christianity. Because it was first when I embraced Jesus as my savior that I started feeling powerful enough to not only clean out my bad behavior, but truly get rid of its mental roots. This has been a very noticeable change for me.

Having an unruly mind is just the predicament that most of us are in. Some, like me, more than others. We have filled our heads with so much junk throughout our lifetimes. We’ve allowed our thoughts to drift into places where they have no business being in. We’ve done nothing about it when we’ve noticed it. And we’ve watched, listened to, tasted and in general experienced things that mess up our emotions. Thing that numb us and distort our perception of ourselves, other people and the world. We’ve told ourselves that it’s no big deal. These things don’t seem to hurt us while they’re happening. So they must be okay. We are often really that stupid. I’ve often been this stupid, even if I try not to be nowadays. We think that just because it’s not painfully obvious right away that something is hurting us, there is no problem. Does this stance sound reasonable when seen in plain language?

If a memory is stuck in there it’s stuck in there. If a way of thinking gets reinforced enough it becomes a habitual way of thinking. And our habitual ways of thinking matter. Thoughts don’t just stay in our heads living their own lives, with no consequence for our being in the world. And everything that we feed our minds with affects our thoughts. All of the actions and all of the things we say have an effect on our thoughts. I would even go so far as to say that even what goes into our subconscious affects our thoughts. Many things don’t affect them that much. But if you say or do a thousand little things every day even small things matter. 

To state it clearly: it begins in our heads. But our thoughts, words and actions work together. And if we don’t bring conscious awareness into this synergy, we will turn our lives into prisons. And what I’ve noticed is that I can’t do this on my own. I need God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit. God and godliness is my goal. Jesus is my standard. And the Holy Spirit is my guide. All three are always with me, always on my side, love me and all three need to be invited into my life. All three need to be allowed to do what I cannot do on my own. I need to know what I can about the disease. I have to do my part in changing what my lifestyle. But in the end it’s the doctor that must operate on me.

Another problem is that when we try not to think of something, we end up thinking of that very thing. The solution to this problem seems to be to fill our minds with something else. So what should we fill our minds with? And how much personal responsibility do we have when it comes to this? That is, where do we let go and let God? This is something that I’m not entirely sure of. But I believe that this is different from person to person. The more we can learn about how we and the world function, the better it is. Because we are living in very extraordinary times and there are many that wish to manipulate and deceive us. But the minimum requirement is just that we put our lives in God’s, Jesus’ and the Holy Spirit’s hands and that we firmly reject what our authorities try to coerce us into.

Because whatever may have been true in the past, our real rulers, those that pull the strings of our elected rulers, do not follow the principles of God. Their principles are ones of lies, deception, manipulation and coercion. You can fill in the rest when it comes to who they serve.

We do so many things unconsciously, until we feel that tap on the shoulder. Then our eyes suddenly open more and more to the situation that we are in. What we’ve allowed into our lives and what forces we thereby have given our consent to. How we’ve been lied to, manipulated and programmed. How we’ve lied to ourselves and explained things away: “It’s no big deal.” But it is. Anything that serves to corrupt us is a big deal. 

In my past, I used to be the king of corruption. You see, throughout my life, I’ve treated my mind like a garbage can. And as I said, everything that we don’t completely forget can pop into our memories at any given moment. This is not something that we should beat ourselves up because of. We are all in the same predicament. What we need to do is to ask God to gently remove our dirt and do our best to allow him to do this. It means for example to not dwell on loveless thoughts if we can help it. Sometimes we just can’t help ourselves. But when we can, we do our best to change the content of our minds. We fail over and over again. But even though we aim at perfection, the point is not to actually reach it. This type of goal setting does not work that way. In Christianity we set up an impossible standard, knowing that it is an impossible standard. We do this for several reasons. We do it because this will help us to be the best that we can be. We do it to learn to rely on something/someone greater than ourselves. And we do it because it’s humbling to do so.

No matter how weak our wills are, the intention has to be ours. And it has to be as clear as possible. My intention is as follows: “I want every loveless thought, memory and emotion to be cleansed from my mind.” I am going to do my best to seek God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit in every waking moment of my life. In my past I have done and thought much that has not honored God. This is something that I now wish to change. I want to truly put God at the centre of my life. I don’t want this to just be empty words, but my lived reality. And I am going to do everything in my power to stay true to this commitment, while knowing that I am a deeply flawed human being who will inevitably fail over and over again. But when I fail I will get up. I will not stop trying and I will not stop asking God to make me clean and whole. 

God help us all in this dark, sorry state that we’ve allowed ourselves to be sucked into. Do not allow us to lose our hopes, but renew our hearts, minds and spirits. Let us be the best that we can be, so that we can stand strong and confident when we face the storms of these troubled times.

Photo by Adrien Converse on Unsplash

Christianity is NOT the oppressive political religion of the DARK AGES

Jesus was the most kind, loving, peaceful and compassionate person that has ever lived. He was also a person that spoke out against worldly authorities. So how could Christianity turn into a political power that oppressed and killed people for over a thousand years? If you just open and read the Bible, it’s pretty clear that this was not what Jesus intended. That it’s not something that Jesus approves of.

One explanation is of course that almost no one, except a very small religious elite, could open and read the Bible at the time when this took place. That fallen humans in a fallen world decided to use their monopoly on biblical truth for their own gains. Many undoubtedly didn’t understand that this was what they were doing. Because the capacity for self-deception, especially among intellectuals, is endless.

Christianity was first adopted as a state religion by Armenia 301 A.D. But it was because of the emperor Constantine and the Roman empire that Christianity got a foothold as a political religion. 

As far as I’m concerned, it’s obvious that turning Christianity into a political religion went directly against the message of Jesus and the word of God. Instead of being a force for peace and liberation, it became the opposite: a force for violence and oppression. Anyone that opens the Bible and reads about Jesus will see how totally incompatible this is with what he stood for. “…the truth shall make you free” (John 8:32) is one of the most famous Jesus quotes from the Bible. If we instead get tyranny and oppression, can it really be the truth that Jesus talked about?

This does not mean that I believe that Catholicism today is bad. I neither find Catholicism nor Protestantism all bad or all good. The Catholics that I’ve met or know of seem to be good people and there are many things that I appreciate about Catholicism. Among many other things, I appreciate the colorful liturgy of Catholicism, that speak much more to the emotions than the one in protestantism. I think that this fills a deep need within humans. We need to have our emotions stirred in one way or another to keep our faith alive. This can often come from within, but there is no guarantee that it does. 

I also think that the institutionalized confession of sins fills an important function. This is because something happens to us when we tell someone about our wrongdoings. And the knowledge that we eventually will have to tell someone about our actions is a powerful deterrent for many of us. Not all of us, since some seem to use confession as a license to sin. But even though I have no proof of this, I would bet such a person would sin no matter what.

Catholicism has also, even in the Middle Ages, given birth to many wonderful theologians and mystics, such as Thomas Aquinas and Julian of Norwich. 

But what is most relevant for this discussion, is that I believe that in spite of the medieval corruption, God in the end managed to turn the corruption into something good. On many levels. In fact, God turning something evil into good is a core theme of the Bible. All the way from the initial corruption, to Jesus’ death on the cross, to when he will come back to finally make everything right forever. 

This does not mean that I condone the horrors that have been done in the name of religion. Neither do I believe that it somehow was necessary. What I believe that this has to do with, is our free will and the fact that we live in a fallen world. Now please bear with me, because this will be a somewhat lengthy discussion. I hope that I can tie it all together towards the end, in a way that is not entirely unsatisfying.

The kind of Christianity that needs manipulation and coercion to flourish is not true Christianity. From a secular perspective it would make sense that in order to grow, Christianity needs worldly powers. From a secular perspective you either have to argue, manipulate or coerce if you want others to adopt your message. But Christianity, true Christianity, needs only its truth to carry it. 

Why am I saying that Christianity only needs its truth to carry it? I’ve studied many religious teachings throughout my life. But it’s only the message of Christ, understood correctly, that has never failed to lead me where I want to go. Many other teachings seem more reasonable on the surface. But when scrutinized and applied to real life, they fall apart. And I’ve seen this in so many other people. But it’s hard to admit to oneself that something that we’ve put much time and energy into haven’t given the results that we’ve hoped for. 

When it comes to the Bible it’s the other way around. What on the surface might seem unreasonable, reveals its correctness when it’s studied more carefully, understood and applied. This is something that I will come back to over and over again. The need to understand the Bible in light of what Jesus taught and stood for. How it is undeniably clear that this is the way the Bible is intended to be understood. And that the Bible cannot be blamed when people choose to view it differently. Even though they should, and often do, know better.

In this context I feel the need to mention something. Namely that the Bible is a book whose message is continually being revealed. It contains numerous passages whose meaning no one fully understands yet. But I believe that we are living in times where much that was priorly hidden is about to be revealed.

Furthermore, the Bible has never failed to provide a correct analysis of the state of the world and of our existences as human beings. Furthermore, Christianity, true Christianity as it is taught by Jesus, works. It creates a change in people’s hearts that leads to peace, prosperity, humility, kindness and so on. When people understand the core truths of the message of Jesus and take them to heart, they cannot avoid becoming better people.

This is the intellectual “why?” when it comes to my beliefs. At least part of it.

Christianity is the only teaching that has offered me true peace, joy and hope in my, for the majority of my time here on earth, rather chaotic life. It has offered meaning and a sense of coherence. This is something that I especially value in the times of chaos and fragmentation that we are living in right now. It offers a hope and meaning that I truly feel that I can rely upon no matter how dark the world gets. No matter what happens to me on a personal level.

This is part of my emotional “why?”. 

I’ve had an abundance of personal experiences that have pointed towards its truth. I’m not going to elaborate on this. But if I call this the spiritual “why?”, you might get a clue of what I’m talking about. I believe that, in the times that we are living in, this side will become more prevalent among more and more people. Because Christianity was never meant as a set of rules to be followed. It was meant to come alive on the inside. And when it does, we will find many reasons to believe that are just meant for us. As the world grows darker, more and more people will find that a light is growing within them.

My point is that I’ve been so thoroughly convinced of the message of the Bible, that I have to simply accept the parts that I cannot comprehend. This is something that I feel called to share so that others may also see and understand the things that I have seen and understood. See and understand that God has something infinitely more valuable to give you, than what our fallen, broken world has to offer.

Among the things that I cannot comprehend is the fall. Some time in the past the world fell. And for some reason God could not just snap his fingers and restore the world to the state before the fall. For some reason, this restoration had to take time. And for some reason it had to be centered around Jesus’ death on the cross. For some reason this death had to happen to atone for the sins of humanity. So, it’s pretty clear how this plays out and why on one level. But why did it have to happen in this particular way? Why couldn’t God, who is almighty, just restore the world without all the may years of death and suffering? I don’t know. But I do know a few things. I know that my intellect is limited, while God’s is unlimited. I know that which I stated in the prior discussion. I know it to such a degree that I’m willing to bet my life on it. I know that I don’t have to understand everything. And I have humility enough to admit that just because I cannot understand something does not mean that it cannot be true. 

I know that the last paragraph is not a popular one in this era of intellectual pride, where we feel that the human intellect must be able comprehend everything. That referring to the limits of human reasoning is often seen as a cop-out. But what else can you say when you cannot understand the logic of the most central pieces of a puzzle, where all of the pieces fit together in an undeniable way?

All of these things taken together amount, for me, to the necessity of taking a leap of faith. A leap of faith with regard to the things that I don’t understand. To put my trust in Jesus and that he was exactly the person that the Bible says that he was. And that he did exactly what the Bible says that he did. 

What I want to say with the rather lengthy discussion, is that none of it rules out that God used a faulty institution in service of a higher good. It also does not mean that things couldn’t have played out another way. On the contrary, if we add free will into the equation, things could have probably played out in an infinite number of ways. What cannot be altered is just the end goal of God’s plan. It is written out in clear language in the Book of Revelation. And the signs of the end is drawing near (wars, rumors of war, famine, godlessness, idolatry, rampant sexual immorality, a legion of false prophets, the rise of a one satanic world government etcetera) are written out clearly in that book. And in the gospels and letters of the New Testament. But in the end “God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away (Revelation 21:4).

The discussion above does also in no way give legitimacy to the actions of the corrupt institution. That God can use evil to do good does not make evil good. But free will in a fallen world implies corruption, power hunger, greed and all of the other human vices that plague the our lives today. 

If you’ve understood the discussion of this post, how can you blame Christianity for the evils that has been done in its name? The Bible and Jesus are central to the whole of the Christian faith. Nothing that runs contrary to the Bible, as understood through Jesus, can be true Christianity. This is not some arbitrary standard. This is the foundation that the whole of Christianity rests on.

If actions taken in the name of Christian faith blatantly run contrary to the message of Jesus and the Bible, how can they be seen as expressions of true Christianity? Christianity has grown ever more peaceful, as its message has become more and more known to more and more people. Let me repeat and rephrase this: The more people learn what the Bible actually says, the better its fruits become. And when we try to understand what the Bible actually says, we always need to start with the life and message of Jesus. This is important. All of the rest of scripture has to be read using Jesus as a lense. This is so abundantly clear that a child can understand it. And if Jesus wouldn’t have approved of something done in his name, it clearly cannot be true Christianity.

Freedom in God or slavery to the world?

Do you want to be completely free to make your own choices, with no one ruling over you? I’m sorry to be the one to break it to you, but that option is not available. You may think that it is. It most probably seems that way. But it isn’t. At least this is what I believe and I believe that I have good reasons for my belief. 

Here is the conclusion that this blog post is about written in as plain language as I’m capable of: As far as I can tell, the only options we have are to either choose God’s will freely or being enslaved by the world. 

How could it be otherwise? If God is infinitely more wise than we are, always wants what’s best for us. And we, on the other hand, are capable of infinite depths of self-deception. This capacity for self-deception is part of what it means to live in a fallen state.

As with so many things, I was blind to what was in front of me for most of my life. For most of my life I’ve lived in a very confused state. To a certain degree, one that is far from negligible, I still do. But the more I let God’s will guide my life, the clearer things seem to become.

When I finally started to see the state that I was in, I had ran into one dead end after another without even realizing it. I was thoroughly convinced of my ability to make it on my own and live according to “my” will. “I make my own rules” and all that crap. So much so that I became blind to everything that didn’t work in my life. To all of the dead ends that I kept running into. I thought that I was in control, but the chaos in my life told a different story.

I’m giving you a somewhat simplified version of what happened here. If you go back far enough in my life, you will find a person who completely let his animal side rule over him. At that time, I didn’t reflect much upon my behavior at all. I had to at least care about living a good life, to realize how hard it is to do so while having no firm guidelines. And while still trying to pursue my ego’s wants, wishes, goals and desires. Let alone starting to discern what comes from the ego and what comes from that which is true inside of me. In other words what comes from the guidance of the Holy Spirit. 

I would say that what got the ball rolling was that I found a certain peace in the Bible and Christianity. I honestly don’t remember exactly where I felt it first, but it was a few years ago. Back then I didn’t know really what Christianity was. So the most I had to go on was a feeling. I had read the Bible and some of the mystics. But the message had not sunk in in a way that made the faith really come alive on a personal level. In my day to day life. And quite frankly, other types of spirituality seemed more exciting. So after a while I started drifting.

Here I feel the need to interject that if Christianity doesn’t excite you, you need to go deeper into it. Invite the Holy Spirit in. Once you’ve been touched by the Holy Spirit you will have all the excitement that you need.

Anyway… At some point, probably a few years after the initial encounter with God’s peace I started noticing that Christianity and the Bible seemed to bring some distance between me and the financial hardships that me and my wife were facing. They didn’t seem to matter as much when I really felt that I had God and Jesus to lean on. I also experienced more of the peace that I just mentioned. 

At the place where I am right now, I’ve found an intellectual understanding of why, which was something that I lacked when this journey started. This intellectual understanding is growing every day.

My blogging has helped me to gain more clarity, even though I wasn’t completely blind to my situation when I started. A funny thing is that God more or less told me to start this blog. And even though I haven’t had much success with it, writing down my experiences and thoughts about them have been a huge help for me. What priorly was an incoherent mess started to become ordered. Patterns emerged. And from these patterns followed insights. Some insights have been personal. Others have seemed more universal. 

Why can’t I have things simply “my” way? Because when I say “my” way I really mean “my ego’s way”. And my ego is inevitably and undeniably slave to my lower nature. To my animal instincts. And the animal instincts are ruled by cause and effect. The world provides a stimulus and I react. Just like animals do. And so I fall victim to temptation over and over again. And today the world produces so much stimulus.

The more I live according to my own rules, the more frustrated and helpless I feel. The more I surrendered to God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit, the more happy, light and free I feel. 

In light of what I just said, telling myself that I’m free while living in the sorry state of “my” will, is the worst kind of self-deception possible. “My” will will always have me chasing after the wind. My ego tells me that I want empty gratification of the senses, admiration, success, be looked upon as smart, insightful etcetera. This while I really know that the only road to joy and peace is to live close to God and focus on what God says is important.

The Bible is pretty clear on what will give me happiness, peace, joy etcetera: Loving God. Loving my neighbor such as myself. Non-judgment. Stay faithful to my wife and loved-ones. Not worrying so much about the troubles of this world, but instead keeping my eye on the eternal. Being humble and letting go of pride. And so on.

Learning to live this way takes time though. Especially if you, like me, have a lot of baggage.

The thing with the Bible is that the more you study it and see your life through it, the more it starts to make sense. The more I study the Bible, the more the line “For the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God” (1 Corinthians 3:19) makes sense.

By looking inwardly I’ve learned a few things. I have several wills inside of me that compete with each other. Sometimes I decide on one thing. But then I talk myself into justifying the opposite. Not because of some new information. But because I argue myself into believing something else. Most of the time something that is in line with my lower nature and more instant gratification. And then I realize that I suffer because of it - or make other people suffer sometimes - and so I’m back to my original intent.

And so it goes. Even though I know this, I keep falling into the same traps over and over again.

No matter what school of psychology you look at it from, whether it’s psychoanalysis, neurology, cognitive psychology or behaviorism, you arrive at the same conclusion. We are not in control of ourselves. We usually don’t know exactly what we want or why we want it. And if we do, the reasons are probably not what we tell ourselves. And our emotions, habits, irrational desires and all of the things in the world that prey on them cause us to act in all kinds of strange manners. Manners that we explain away afterwards, because of some strange need for things to make sense when they really don’t. 

It may take a while if you haven’t understood this yet. But if you search and study these things with an open mind, you can not fail to realize that there is a God, and that this is a personal God. You will also realize that there is some sort of spiritual reality and that there is a divine order to things, ordained by God. 

In light of the above, we have a choice to make. Do we want to continue following our own wills and ge trapped by the world? Or do we freely want to submit our wills to God’s will? The God who loves us, always wants what’s best for us and is infinitely wise and powerful. 

If we realize that this might be something worth doing, we do it, once we’ve found God, by reading God’s word and works by those that try to help us understand it. And last, but certainly not least, we do it by asking God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit to guide us. 

Photo by Rafael De Nadai on Unsplash