"Otherness and Chosen are Illusions"
There are no Chosen People in reality. There are no special groups ethnically or spiritually. For every chosen people there are all the rest in the "unchosen" folk. For every "Holy Nation" and a "People of His Own" there are the unholy and rejected. For everyone that believes in being a King or a Priest there are the common folk they intend to rule over politically and religiously.
This "otherness" reigns supreme in the cultic history of first the Israelites in the Old Testament and then that of ALL the MYRIAD of early Christ followers spawned by the various views of him expressed in the New Testament. From the specialness of Abraham over all others to the 144,000 male virgins who have not soiled their spirituality with women in Revelation, otherness rules. Those that come out of the nations are not Gentiles in Revelation. Revelation is a Jewish Christian book and it is Jews of the Diaspora that are not quite as chosen as the 144,000 who join the group. The Goyim are not wanted in the Book of Revelation and the otherness is not for them. It is me not you, us not them and we not they. It is not true, but the need for it to be true is strong in religion.
We are all familiar with Zechariah 14:
Otherness produces pogroms and holocausts. It gets soccer and football fanatics beaten and occasionally killed by the otherness of others. It splits and divides churches over and over each being more chosen and true than any others. Otherness multiplies by division and adds to itself by subtraction of others. Reading through the various and multitudinous screeds in The Journal where on man runs the ad with endless reasons as to why one needs to swing over to his otherness is burdensome. Cooperation amongst the chosen and otherness obsessed is simply not an option.
No, no, no....it is "In as much as you have done it unto the least of these, MY BRETHREN....Not nasty non RCG people.
The Apostle Dave Pack is big on special, chosen and otherness. In his mind, he fancies himself as the "me" to have those in the splinters rally under. It can be no other way and it is a ridiculous concept. Never going to happen in this age. Dave Pack would never attend a "come let us reason together session" unless he was in charge of it and everyone followed his reasonings, which as we know, have failed miserably of late. In his mind, his minuscule Church is the only one on the entire planet that is worth the time of those so disposed to be sure they are in the really true and exactly right church. It's a kind of sickness actually. After all, the Biblical consequences for being in the wrong one seem to be quite severe so one must get it exactly right or fall into the unchosen category. No stress there. Here is one man who fancies himself the one chosen minister of the God of the whole universe or all universes overseeing the otherness of a few thousand folk out of billions. That is otherness at it's best in the COGdoms of God. It is also ridiculous. For some reason it is inherent in humans to need to feel special and chosen above others to understand mysteries and even additional expansive elements of scripture that no one else sees or even would want to see if they were clear and critical thinkers.
Flurry and Weinland got all caught up in otherness as well along with Bob Thiel and have made fools out of themselves.
Otherness and chosenness seems to be much of the glue that holds good folk in the seats (well except when they gyrate) of rather transparent and dangerous to your actual spiritual health helpers of their joy falsely so called. Everyone likes the idea of being set apart and special. It just isn't actually true, but it feels good. It feels safer and that in a pinch, the God of all the Universe has your name near the top of His list to deliver, save, help and feed should the need arise. It is somewhat dis-illusionioning to find out that is not so but having illusions of choseness and otherness is comforting as long as you don't really need it proven to you. I have buried far too many children of the chosen ones whose Angels must have been on vacation when they were sorely needed to intervene. Arrows did fall on their right and left and they did fall nigh unto the chosen families as well.... I never found a parent beating on me to where I had to hold their arms until it passed and screaming "why!!" to be much proof of otherness in any special way.
We truly are all one. We have lost that view in the otherness and choseness that politics and religion sticks us with if we are so inclined. This short "sermon" resonates very well the truth that we are all the same, all from one source and all equal. There are not people more equal than others. There are huge egos and small minded men who fancy themselves as special and more in tune with their idea of truth than others, but the ego is the false self and full of, well you know. I am having some of my dad's cremains swirled into a galaxy and embedded in crystal to remind me that we are all conscious stardust for now and we shall return to it.
Enjoy this short sermon on the reality of we all are in the universe and the universe is in us. THIS is exactly what and how I would give one more sermon to the Churches of God if I had the chance... I know how he feels and how little place choseness and otherness would have in his vocabulary as well.
Dr. Neil DeGrasse Tyson
We are all familiar with Zechariah 14:
16 Then the survivors from all the nations that have attacked Jerusalem will go up year after year to worship the King, the Lord Almighty, and to celebrate the Festival of Tabernacles. 17 If any of the peoples of the earth do not go up to Jerusalem to worship the King, the Lord Almighty, they will have no rain. 18 If the Egyptian people do not go up and take part, they will have no rain. The Lord[b]will bring on them the plague he inflicts on the nations that do not go up to celebrate the Festival of Tabernacles. 19 This will be the punishment of Egypt and the punishment of all the nations that do not go up to celebrate the Festival of Tabernacles.
20 On that day holy to the Lord will be inscribed on the bells of the horses, and the cooking pots in the Lord’s house will be like the sacred bowls in front of the altar.21 Every pot in Jerusalem and Judah will be holy to the Lord Almighty, and all who come to sacrifice will take some of the pots and cook in them. And on that day there will no longer be a Canaanite[c] in the house of the Lord Almighty.
I realize it may be just me, but that approach to sincere worship never seemed all that inspiring to me. "If you don't come to my services, I will starve you out." Reminds me of a sign south of Greenville on a barn that says "Love Jesus or burn forever in hell." Nice motivator! Can you imagine Canaanites and Egyptians trying to sing Hebrew Hymns? Can you imagine the utter contempt seething from the unchosen and others who are forced to attend when the song leader says.."Smile brethren?" I can't. Forced compliance just seems to be the formula for insincere worship to me. Notice to that not much is said about Assyrians, Persians and Babylonians who regularly kicked Israel's ass over the centuries. Being unaware of Inca, Aztec and Mayans as well as Celts, Romans and Vikings will certainly mess up the seating arrangements. It is a ridiculous concept of otherness and chosen versus unchosen. As well, the author here had no concept of anything but his enemies coming to him or else. While somewhere it says "Come, let us reason together," it doesn't really mean it. The Temple still stands, his proper form of sacrifice and worship is full swing as it was and horses with bells are always going to be part of the picture. It's a rather "soon" and "shortly" prophecy that once again did not come to pass. Worship by threat and coercion so that we can win and you can lose is no way to run whatever truth is. We won't go into the DNA fact that Israelites of yore were disenfranchised Canaanites of the lower classes much like the Palestinians are today. Don't believe every story the chosen tell you about their conquest of the unchosen.
Sorry...they weren't a Christian people
The Bible says in Deuteronomy...
The Apostle Dave Pack is big on special, chosen and otherness. In his mind, he fancies himself as the "me" to have those in the splinters rally under. It can be no other way and it is a ridiculous concept. Never going to happen in this age. Dave Pack would never attend a "come let us reason together session" unless he was in charge of it and everyone followed his reasonings, which as we know, have failed miserably of late. In his mind, his minuscule Church is the only one on the entire planet that is worth the time of those so disposed to be sure they are in the really true and exactly right church. It's a kind of sickness actually. After all, the Biblical consequences for being in the wrong one seem to be quite severe so one must get it exactly right or fall into the unchosen category. No stress there. Here is one man who fancies himself the one chosen minister of the God of the whole universe or all universes overseeing the otherness of a few thousand folk out of billions. That is otherness at it's best in the COGdoms of God. It is also ridiculous. For some reason it is inherent in humans to need to feel special and chosen above others to understand mysteries and even additional expansive elements of scripture that no one else sees or even would want to see if they were clear and critical thinkers.
Flurry and Weinland got all caught up in otherness as well along with Bob Thiel and have made fools out of themselves.
Otherness and chosenness seems to be much of the glue that holds good folk in the seats (well except when they gyrate) of rather transparent and dangerous to your actual spiritual health helpers of their joy falsely so called. Everyone likes the idea of being set apart and special. It just isn't actually true, but it feels good. It feels safer and that in a pinch, the God of all the Universe has your name near the top of His list to deliver, save, help and feed should the need arise. It is somewhat dis-illusionioning to find out that is not so but having illusions of choseness and otherness is comforting as long as you don't really need it proven to you. I have buried far too many children of the chosen ones whose Angels must have been on vacation when they were sorely needed to intervene. Arrows did fall on their right and left and they did fall nigh unto the chosen families as well.... I never found a parent beating on me to where I had to hold their arms until it passed and screaming "why!!" to be much proof of otherness in any special way.
We truly are all one. We have lost that view in the otherness and choseness that politics and religion sticks us with if we are so inclined. This short "sermon" resonates very well the truth that we are all the same, all from one source and all equal. There are not people more equal than others. There are huge egos and small minded men who fancy themselves as special and more in tune with their idea of truth than others, but the ego is the false self and full of, well you know. I am having some of my dad's cremains swirled into a galaxy and embedded in crystal to remind me that we are all conscious stardust for now and we shall return to it.
Enjoy this short sermon on the reality of we all are in the universe and the universe is in us. THIS is exactly what and how I would give one more sermon to the Churches of God if I had the chance... I know how he feels and how little place choseness and otherness would have in his vocabulary as well.
Ego, specialness and misapplication of scripture has done more for disunity and confusion in the Churches of God than any Satan could ever inspire....
