| It has been often noted that the core teaching of Jesus is the same as in other systems - treat others as you wish yourself to be treated. When Origen in the second or third century said that universal salvation was possible, he was close to breaking through. That is, if he had used the Greek Bible to illustrate universal salvation in the machinery of Revelation, the unique nature of the system would have become evident. The superstition would fall away and the religion would come about - a new creature. But the problem with that view is that the errors of the conformist superstition would stop the flow into the coffers. It was a money machine, from the beginning. It is historic fact that things were so bad that one of the first act of the first Christian emperor was to prohibit the priests from accepting inheritances. Marriage was later prohibited for priests for similar reasons.
At any rate, Justinian I made Christianity safe from people like Origen. Procopius, Justinian's secretary, said that Justinian slaughtered thousands of thousands of thousands in the process. Today many Christian scholars regret that Origen's virtuous effort was outlawed by Justinian and the church, but fail to see that it is the superstition most of all that oppresses Christians, since they willingly now follow the edicts of a depraved and very bloody murderer. Not of course for fear of Justinian's revenge, but out of lack of faith. Origen's effort, which could be called Chrestian, was bad for the money side of the business. Only in the past few generations have we been free enough from the church state enforcement team to speak of the things Origen and others did so many centuries ago. Yet now. Christians have generally generated a lack of interest in the Greek Bible. What a crying shame it is that such remarkable questions posed by Jesus are unavailable to the world for the layers superstition the church has covered the Greek Bible with. Such a shame that the vital difference between this system and all the others is so obscured by the conceit of the people who claim it as theirs. The Greek Bible works - the questions there (and they are obvious) point to the choice we must make to get safety for ourselves or to risk our safety for one who obviously is in trouble. The Romans had a saying - When one is protected, all are safe. The one person Origen way would have helped is still there and still in as much need some 17 centuries later. Self-oppressed though Christians are, I know that they can one day see the importance of Origen's effort. They can benefit the world and be a light in it. |