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EXPERIENCE THE FULLNESS

 

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See Colossians 2:9 below: after verse 9, click on the cross-reference to Col. 1:15 about Christ, the Annointed One: "Who is the icon [image] of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation"; then scroll down in the bottom frame to verse 19: "For all the fullness was pleased to dwell in Him". This is repeated in the cross-reference Heb. 1:3 – "His Son is the radiance of His glory, the very icon [image] of His [the Father's] person" ("image" is "eikon" in Greek).

What is this "fullness" all about? Here's the answer: read verses 9 and 10: "For in Him all the fullness of the Godhead dwells bodily, and you have this fullness in Him, Who is the head of all principality and power" when you've been "buried with Him in baptism" and "raised with Him through faith in the working of God" (verse 12)....

 
Next, click on all of the cross-reference links after verse 10: you'll see this "fullness" is a major theme in all of the Gospels and the Apostles' letters. The Messiah – the Christ – came to make us perfect and holy like Himself: these cross-references that use terms like "holiness," "transformation," "walking in the Spirit," "partaking of the divine nature," etc., all describe what is called in Eastern Christianity "Divinization" or "Theosis" (←get the two free booklets on these topics!). Read carefully all these cross-references, especially Mt. 5:48; Rom. 1:7; 1 Cor. 1:2 & 30; 1 Cor. 10:16; 1 Cor. 15:49; Eph. 4:11-16; Heb. 12:14 and Heb. 13:4-6; 1 Pet. 1:14-16; and 2 Pet. 1:3-4, so Theosis is a very scriptural doctrine.

We are called to be saints or holy ("holy" and "saint" are one and the same word, "hagios" in Greek), to partake of Christ in communion ("koinonia" in Greek) – the Lord's Supper, thus to become partakers ("koinonoi") of the Divine nature, to participate in His glory, so we must strive for and pursue holiness (Heb. 13:4-6). Holiness and perfection are possible in Christ! Don't think so? Henry Ford once said – "There are two kinds of people: those who think they can't, and those who think they can. Both are right."

What you really believe is reflected in how you behave. A "norm" is a target or goal that is expected of us. The norm for us is holiness and perfection. When people say they want to be "normal, just like everyone else," they really mean that they want to be average, not different than most others. But holiness and perfection aren't just the average, they are higher norms. You don't need to be smart or rich or strong, though, in order to be holy and perfect. If you have experienced Christ, the visible image, the icon, of the invisible God in Whom all the fullness of the Godhead dwells, you're on your way to experience this same fullness that is in Christ. God partook of human nature so that we can become partakers of the Divine nature (2 Peter 1:4). How should we then live (behave)? Get The Benedict Option and related articles and books, many of them free.

You can read the rest of our newsletter at https://agape-restoration-society.org/ARC-News/a-n_2025-01-25.htm, and share it!

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AGAINST CHRISTIAN CIVILIZATION

 

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(Click the pic!) Is Christianity really dying? The author of the article "Against Christian Civilization" paints a rather morose picture of Christianity on its last legs, but is it really Christianity that is dying? Or is it the mashup of "Judeo-Christian faith" and secular humanist democracy that is dying? The secularized, democratized version of Christianity that says you can reinterpret the faith to suit the latest liberal ideology certainly ought to die, and is. It has devolved into Moralistic Therapeutic Deism (MTD), defined in Wikipedia as follows:

  1. A God exists who created and ordered the world and watches over human life on earth.
  2. God wants people to be good, nice, and fair to each other, as taught in the Bible and by most world religions.
  3. The central goal of life is to be happy and to feel good about oneself.
  4. God does not need to be particularly involved in one's life except when God is needed to resolve a problem.
  5. Good people go to heaven when they die.

The idea of "religious freedom" has devolved into a vague belief that you should be nice to people because it's nice to be nice: it is a logical paradox, circular reasoning, It's like when a mother tells little child to be good and the child says – "Why?" So she answers – "Because I said so!" That appeal to mom's authority might hold until the child's teenage years, but then evaporates when the kids are introduced to "freedom of thought" and begin to feel their hormones and explore alternatives. The attraction of satisfying one's desires often wins out over the fuzzy moralism of "Because I said so!"

And then the next generation – the "fuzzies" – is taught that there's no moral authority, you can do whatever you choose, it has no moral compass at all other than the pleasure principle. If there is no resurrection from the dead, no eternal reward or punishment, as St. Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 15:32, "Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die." They may theoretically believe that some sort of deity exists somewhere "out there in space," but deep down, their real belief system is the pleasure principle. What you really believe determins how you behave.

So now we've come to the logical conclusion of this Moralistic Therapeutic Deism (MTD) ideology – satisfying one's urges, feel good about oneself, try to be nice to others if it's convenient and doesn't interfere with one's selfish desires, the government can and should take care of all our problems, etc. – is unravelling. People are beginning to see it doesn't work, so they are returning to the ancient Christian faith that is based on eternal beliefs and behavior: the article "Believe it or not, Christianity is making a comeback" tells us how many leading figures in modern western society have realized the bankruptcy of MTD and have returned to the fixed, eternal truths of traditional, "orthodox" (and often big-O "Orthodox") Christianity.

We must pray that this trend among leading intellectuals and social media heros will spread to the masses!