🌀 Is Being Christian an End in Itself?

No one can believe in two religions. You are either Christian or Muslim or Jewish or Buddist, etc. They cannot mingle since the belief systems between the religions are often contradictory; to admit to being a Christian and Muslim is a roundabout way to believe everything, which is to say nothing at all.

However, this is not the end of the discussion. Arrogance would leave us witnessing the world flocking to different gods without batting an eyelid or without understanding. It is not just a matter of pride that men have separated, though it played a major role. The undercurrent of all religion is the desire for man to experience God, or what is believed to be the source of creation.

Thus, it is arrogance disguised as fear which causes religious ones to turn a blind eye away from other religions, or to only look at other belief systems with the intention of disproving it, but never as a system striving towards the truth. Religion is not an ultimatum, but rather a tool to reach a destination: connection with the One Source, the One God. A major result of war, even in Christianity, is the refusal to see religion as a means to an end, where people to the point of violence convince themselves that religion is an end in itself. Why else would fanatics obsess with having people convert to their own personal religion? It is based on a flawed understanding of the purpose of their religion. Yes, religion establishes and enriches culture, it flourishes in larger communities, and it creates a sense of unity - but there are different religions because people are individual in how they connect with God, especially if they have had no experience with other religions.

Who are we as Christians, to condemn other’s religions for not having it right? For not believing the same thing as we do? We waste so much breath on worrying about all the other religions to the point where we have forgotten that Christianity is not just about the rituals or the beliefs, but rather about connecting with God, being present with God, giving ourselves to God.

We are not justified because we have access to the Truth, and we are not necessarily better off than everyone else, for everyone has the power to connect with God. We are all made in God’s image. How arrogant and selfish to really assert that only those who are baptised as Orthodox will be allowed into heaven? There is in this belief a huge underlying misconception about what eternity with God means.

Being with God means to be outside of time. It is about being present with Christ. In this sense the second coming of Christ is nothing but the elimination of time. But the end of the world is not just an event that we are waiting for. No! The ‘end of the world’ really just means an end to this spinning clock which indicates a past and a future. For God there is no past, and there is no future. That is why Christ says “before Abraham was, I AM”. God is the I AM, the always present being, above time always.

Being Christian is nothing insofar as we recognise that eternity is really just dwelling in the moment. It is the eradication of past and future. Being baptised then, even with the Orthodox ointment, means nothing, unless baptism means for us renewal in the sense of transcending time. This is the deepest meaning to baptism: removing the old man deep in sin - that is, being stuck in the past-future ideology - and being renewed through Christ - accepting Christ as He IS, with us NOW. Christ is not in the future, or in the past. God is not something to be thought about, but is only experienced, and that is only done in the NOW of the MOMENT. Thus in this sense, baptism really happens every moment we catch ourselves wondering about the future, or some past event, when we bring ourselves to the present to be with God now, in the moment.

Thus anyone who understands that the present moment is all one has, has really experienced God. What happens after death is another story, not to be talked about in this post.