The Christian Vision of the New Creation - Part 7

[Guest guest]

Dear All,

 

Here is a tremendous quote from Bede Griffiths, which is in the appended Part 7:

 

" But the climax of this theme of the reconciliation of heaven and earth is found

in the last chapters of Isaiah where it is said, " Behold, I create new heavens

and a new earth; and the former things shall not be remembered or come into

mind " . (P.89) This reveals the final destiny of humanity and creation. The

heaven and the earth which we experience through our limited mental

consciousness is only a passing phenomenon. We are destined to pass beyond our

present level of consciousness, where we see everything in terms of dualities,

of subject and object, time and space, heaven and earth, and to enter into the

unifying consciousness beyond the dualities of the mind. Then alone will

humanity find its fulfilment. As the text goes on to say, " I create Jerusalem a

rejoicing, and her people a joy " . (Isaiah 65:17-18) With the coming of the new

consciousness humanity, typified by Jerusalem, the city of God, enters into the

joy, the 'ananda' of Hindu tradition, the blissful state of pure consciousness

where all the dualities of sin and evil have been transcended and humanity is at

peace with God and creation. "

 

Here is what we concluded with in Part 6:

 

(P.86) But while we recognise this sense of the solidarity of God and humanity

with the earth and the animal world among the prophets of Israel, we must also

recognise that the opposite tendency was always there. Already in the story of

Genesis the human pair were instructed " to fill the earth and subdue it " and

there is throughout the history of Israel an element of violence and domination

which has left a terrible legacy to mankind. The Israelites were a patriarchal

people and their God was always conceived in masculine terms, while the gods of

the surrounding people with their worship of the Earth Mother were totally

rejected. (P.87) Of course, it is true that there were daemonic elements in the

religion of the people of the Middle East as in all religions, but by totally

rejecting the religion of the Great Mother with all its feminine

characteristics, Israel became subject to daemonic forces in its own religion.

Even at the time of the Exodus, the foundational event in Israel's history, the

God of Israel is represented as massacring all the first-born children of the

Egyptians and drowning the armies of Egyptians in the sea without the slightest

sense that the Egyptians as human beings have any rights before God. (Exodus

12:25; 14:24-25) Again when the Israelites were about to enter the land which

had been promised them, they were told to destroy all the people of the land,

" You shall smite them and utterly destroy them! " (Deuteronomy 7:2) Again in the

book of Samuel, Saul is commanded, " Go and smite Amalek and utterly destroy all

that they have and spare them not; but slay both man and woman, infant and

suckling, ox and camel and ass " . (1 Samuel 15:3) Of course, we must remember the

context of the civilisation in which this took place, yet what is shocking is

that it is presented as the command of a God who is supposed to be " righteous "

and this attitude of hatred for one's enemies became a permanent feature of the

religion of Israel. The Psalmist never ceases to proclaim his hatred for his

enemies and to ask God to destroy them. When personal or racial enemies are seen

as enemies of God there is no limit to the violence and hatred which they evoke.

Unfortunately this spirit has entered into all the Semitic religions and has

left a terrible record of war and violence behind.

 

A New Vision of Reality (Western Science, Eastern Mysticism and

Christian Faith)

Bede Griffiths

Templegate Publishers - Springfield, Illinois

ISBN 0-87243-180-0

Pgs. 86-87

 

Here then, is Part 7.

 

Enjoy!

 

violet

 

 

 

The Christian Vision of the New Creation - Part 7

 

(87) This is the dark side of the Semitic religions which has so disfigured

their history. It was this that led to the Inquisition, the crusades and the

wars of religion, and it would be difficult to say how much of the violence of

the Western world today with its desecration of the earth and its threat of

nuclear war does not stem from this original tradition of the biblical religion.

(P.88) Yet, when we have said this, we must always remember that there is

another side to the religion of Israel. Together with its exclusive character,

which rejected all other religions, there was also a complementary trend. The

people of Israel were a " holy " people chosen apart from all other peoples to

witness to the holiness of God. But from the beginning there was the belief that

the election of Israel was for the benefit of the whole world. This note of

universalism runs through the whole Bible together with the opposite note of

exclusiveness. But there are occasions when it becomes unusually clear. One of

the most remarkable is the prophecy of Isaiah, " In that day shall Israel be a

third with Egypt and Assyria, a blessing in the midst of the earth " . Here we

have Egypt and Assyria, the two great world powers, Assyria being simply the

predecessor of Babylon as a world power, associated with Israel as a third, and

the text goes on to say, " Blessed be Egypt my people and Assyria the work of my

hands and Israel my inheritance " . (Isaiah 19:24-25) It would be difficult to

overemphasise the importance of this text. It does away with any suggestion that

the world powers are essentially evil. They are also " work of God's hands " ; it

is only the elevation of science and technology to a place of supreme

importance, instead of making them subordinate to the real needs of humanity and

the life of the Spirit, that makes them evil and oppressive.

 

The reconciliation of humanity with nature and with God is represented in a

later chapter of Isaiah in terms of a marriage, where it is said, " You shall no

longer be forsaken nor shall your land be Desolate; but you shall be called My

Delight and your land Married, for the Lord delights in you and your land shall

be married " . (Isaiah 62:4) This brings out again the sense of the solidarity of

the people and the land, of humanity with the earth to which it belongs. But the

climax of this theme of the reconciliation of heaven and earth is found in the

last chapters of Isaiah where it is said, " Behold, I create new heavens and a

new earth; and the former things shall not be remembered or come into mind " .

(P.89) This reveals the final destiny of humanity and creation. The heaven and

the earth which we experience through our limited mental consciousness is only a

passing phenomenon. We are destined to pass beyond our present level of

consciousness, where we see everything in terms of dualities, of subject and

object, time and space, heaven and earth, and to enter into the unifying

consciousness beyond the dualities of the mind. Then alone will humanity find

its fulfilment. As the text goes on to say, " I create Jerusalem a rejoicing, and

her people a joy " . (Isaiah 65:17-18) With the coming of the new consciousness

humanity, typified by Jerusalem, the city of God, enters into the joy, the

'ananda' of Hindu tradition, the blissful state of pure consciousness where all

the dualities of sin and evil have been transcended and humanity is at peace

with God and creation.

 

A New Vision of Reality (Western Science, Eastern Mysticism and

Christian Faith)

Bede Griffiths

Templegate Publishers - Springfield, Illinois

ISBN 0-87243-180-0

Pgs. 87-89