my manifesto

part one

It is all about God.

This is the beginning statement, because all else flows from it. It is not about individuals. It is not about the good of mankind. It is not about heaven or hell.

It is all about God.

Everything in this world, everything we've ever seen (or will see), everyone we've ever known (or will know), all in this life and the next is all about God.

So what about this God?

Everything is about Him because He created everything to worship Him. He is ultimate good, and His creation was ultimately perfect for His worship. He made man, in His image, as a capstone, a jewel on top of His new crown, there to bring Him the ultimate glory. Man would love and serve and worship God, and God would love man and provide all for Him. Everything was as it should be.

Man used one of God's greatest gifts of love, free will, to turn on God. To try and make things not about God, but about man. And ever since we've been fallen. We can still meet God in this life, yes, but not the way it was intended. Not the beautiful, perfect friendship. Just mere communication at most, a small taste of the ocean of quenching love that is God. That was what we had to settle for.

And God, being perfect, waited until the perfect moment. A moment which would define all of time in this creation He had made. A moment which those before looked forward to, and those after it look back on. A moment when He re-established the connection.

He came down. He stepped into the bonds of time, into the cursed dirt that is our fallen world, as His only Son. This Son was tasked with re-establishing the connection. This son is God, incarnate in human form. He didn't just accomplish His task: He went above and beyond. The world has never been the same since, because every single person can now have the connection again. Can now know God like we were supposed to.

Cut to today.

Jesus left time many years ago. The Holy Spirit is God's incarnation on earth, and He continues the story began in Creation. He knew we needed something concrete, though: something tangible to hold us over until He returned. The Holy Spirit could satisfy all our needs if we accept Him, but some would not accept Him without first reading. And no one could accept Him completely, perfectly. We needed something solid.

God gave us His "Word". A book (well, sixty-six books) containing everything we needed in concrete form from God. A small snippet of the story, the beginning through the re-connection, to help guide us along the continuation. Guide us towards the final fulfillment, when every knee will bow and every tongue confess that God is everything. How beautiful that will be.

Everything is about God.

part two

All truth is not contained in the Word, but the Word is entirely made up of truth. And important truth, at that: it contains everything God wants to be concrete. Everything God wants us to have as "solid", as tangible spiritually and physically. So the Word is ultimately worthy of study, of analysis, of dissection, of reading and re-reading and re-reading again. It is multi-faceted. It was made immediately by man, and is thus bound as is man: by time, and language, and culture. But it was breathed by God, and is thus limitless as is God. It speaks to all time, and through all language, and despite all culture. Reading it, one must keep both aspects in mind. It was written by imperfect human beings. It was breathed by a perfect God.

It is a living thing, constantly changing in how it relates and how it reads. A 1st Century Roman Centurion would have read its books differently than a 21st Century teenager. God speaks through it to both of them. One figure in it, though, is particularly universal. One figure seems to relate as much to us, sitting at our computers on this day 2000 years afterwards, as He did to the crowd of people sitting around Him all those years ago. God's only Son, Jesus. And boy, did He blow people's minds then and now.

God's character was infinitely touchable now. Not since Adam and Eve had human beings, in this life, been able to physically listen to God like this, eat with God like this, live with God like this. And the best part is, it was recorded down for us to see and read and probe as well. And what a character.

Jesus today, as then, challenges every assumption we have about life. Reading His words plainly, thinking as little as possible about all the fluff that's been built up since, it becomes very clear why this man turned heads. He was ultimately selfless. Which didn't mean He was only concerned with helping out the poor. He was concerned with everyone. Poor beggars, rich tax collectors, Roman guards and Jewish priests. Kings and lepers. The men throwing stones and the woman being stoned. Prostitutes and partiers, noble men and pagans. No man, woman, or child escaped His endless love. Even in the middle of giving the ultimate sacrifice, He pleaded on the behalf of those torturing Him. They could not escape His love either.

And less than 400 years later, people were killing people in His name.

part three

Something creeped in. Something dark and evil and full of human ambition and desire and lacking completely in "Everything is God".

In what can only be described as the most desensitizing, gut-wrenching, and horrible rape in history, evil men (who resemble all of us at some level) took this beautiful thing, this holy church, this amazing gift of God, and used it for themselves. For political power. For money. For earthly possessions. And God let the "official" church fall. And fall. And fall.

And fall.

But the story continued. The Church of God, a collection of left-overs and peons in the world's eyes, remained. And so remains to this day. Traditionally, they haven't been popular. Often, they haven't really been organized. They were in this world, but not of it. Foreigners, really. They needed no institution or building to recognize each other. They were the ones putting God first, above everything else. And putting others, all others, second. And they exist to this day.

I count myself a member of this group. The Kingdom of God, incarnate on earth. A loose collection of individuals making up a body. People whose primary goal is to love, as Jesus loved. First God. Then everyone else on the entire planet. We recognize the existence of the earthly church. And one of our primary goals is to convert them. Not through hating, or shouting, or sign-holding or anything even resembling a creation of man. Through loving. Through the ultimate of God's creation, and gift. We don't always do it perfectly, but we set our heart towards that goal. We press on. We endure, knowing our God is more powerful than anything in this world or the next.

This is my public declaration of policy and aim: my manifesto. I pray you hold me to it.