Wrongdoers and Welldoers: the Perennial Split of Mankind
1. The Fact of Division
Throughout history, wrongdoing has continued, resulting in a series of disasters. Why is this? I see only one explanation, the one given by the Bible. Mankind is divided between welldoers and wrongdoers. Until the goal is reached, crop and weeds grow in the same field.
"Wheat and tares together sown, unto joy or sorrow grown."
Henry Alford, Come ye thankful people come (1844), paraphrasing Matthew 13:24-30, 37-43.
What happens to the weeds at harvest-time? See Gehenna.
2. The Necessity of Division
But why does God permit such rampant wrongdoing? If he can turn some wrongdoers into welldoers, why not all? To let some of them persist in wrongdoing seems unjust, or at least wasteful.
"For God to realign some selves now and others later (or never) is unjust."
It is difficult to make sense of this objection, but since it is often raised it is necessary to address it. Probably what is really meant is that it is unjust of God to be aloof from any self because they are not really evil. This argument was dealt with earlier, where it was established that no wrongdoer has a right to God's help.
But if God was not obliged to help any, it cannot be unjust for him to help some. If someone has obligations to several people and fails some of them while doing more than his duty for others, we blame them for favouritism. But God has no such obligations so we have no reason to suspect him.
If the division of mankind is permanent, this objection is more significant, because on that assumption it is a permanent preterition that is accused of injustice. I have worded both objection and reply in terms of the milder ("universalist") view, but the reply is the same either way.
"For God not to realign all selves is wasteful."
God does his utmost. For details, see Optimal Realignment (and Predestination).
3. The Manifestation of Division.
Realignment manifests itself in a tendency toward good deeds, including true beliefs. God the Indweller inspires welldoers. Not that realignment immediately transforms all one's habits; compliance with natural principles and pursuit of our developmental task are learned gradually through persistent effort. But every welldoer makes that effort, develops some good habits, and is willing to learn more. This is how God's real friends can be distinguished.
"Not every one who says to me, Lord! Lord! shall enter the Kingdom of Heaven, but he who does the will of my Father who is in Heaven."
Matthew 7:21.
"My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me."
John 10.27. (When selves refuse to hear God's voice we must infer that they are not his "sheep".)
4. The Channel of Division
Those good deeds arise from heeding. Heeding is the immediate human response to God's realigning action, the awareness of our dependence.
"God so loved the world that he gave his only son, that whoever heeds him should not be lost but have the life of the age to come."
John 3:16. The word used by the earliest Christian writers (and also, though with the doctrine less clearly stated, by the "Septuagint", the Greek translation of the Tanakh they used) for the saving intention towards God is pistis. The usual translation is "faith", but that word has accrued negative connotations, as in the definition of faith as "believing something you know is untrue", and I think it better to avoid the contaminated word. "Trust" would be better but "heed" seems best. For the role of reason see "How we reason".
(Sacramentalism, held (1) by Roman Catholics, Eastern Orthodox, Lutheran and Anglo-Catholic and (2) less clearly, by many others) "At the time of Moses God provided circumcision as a means of grace along with heed. Christ told his apostles to practice baptism, the Christian equivalent of circumcision, and the New Covenant Book sometimes refers to baptism as if it were identical to conversion, so at least it must be an important part of the process."
These texts are talking about the reality that baptism symbolises, not about the physical event.
Paul of Tarsus says that Christ sent him "not to baptise but to preach the gospel" (1st Corinthians 1.17). This means more than that it doesn't matter who does the baptising; it tells us that baptism is not a significant component in the event of becoming a welldoer, but merely a conventional expression. The central component in that event is hearing and responding to the message of God's grace.
There is nothing especially Christian about baptism. When the New Covenant Book was written, baptism was an accepted way of expressing a renewed reverence. Modern reverence groups should dispense with this anachronism and welcome new members in the same way as any other organised group, by membership application form or some such procedure. Divisions over the issue of when and how people are to be baptised are as frivolous as would be a dispute about the colour of the membership form.
(Synergism, held by later Lutherans, Methodists, Arminians, Quakers et al.) "When God has done all he can, a self only realigns if they choose to. If one self is realigned and another is not, the fact that the first heeds God is not only an effect of realignment, it is also a cause of realignment."
This supposes that a misaligned man's efforts can have a salvific effect. It is true of course that certain gross wrongdoings can cut us off from realignment in this life, suicide being the most obvious and final of them, and in that sense deeds are relevant. But the question is whether to propose this to the misaligned as a motive, and the answer is clearly "no". A misaligned man does not desire realignment, and it is nonsensical to advise him of how to maximise his chances thereof; if he openly denies his need, such advice is impolite and means nothing to him; if he pretends to accept it, it panders to his self-deceit. In either case, it can only confuse matters.
5. The Expression of Division
Ekklesia
God's friends have resumed humanity's developmental task, and constantly work at it. This involves making accords in every field of development in compliance with the relevant natural principles.
But God's foes do not participate in this work. In every field they persistently develop the world in a distorted manner. Whenever they participate in a project, at best the result is distorted and at worst they positively obstruct any welldoers involved. Hence, when welldoers make accords with wrongdoers, pursuit of the task tends to be hindered.
Therefore, God's friends always seek accord with one another rather than with his foes. Thus the godly part of humanity separates itself from the wicked part, so as to pursue the developmental task without their interference. Because of this separation, the godly part of mankind is called the ekklesia ("called out").
The ekklesia takes many forms. In all these activities God calls the new humanity to "Come out from among them and be separate". For the new humanity, each is a form of ekklesia.
General Objections
"You seem to want something like a communist cult."
The collaboration I want is simply a return to human life as originally planned, in which the freedom of every man is a basic principle, and the separation espoused is simply the recognition that it is welldoers, not wrongdoers, implementing it; it says nothing about how those welldoers are to interact among themselves. There is no interference in families or with private property, or subversion of the diversity of businesses or other associations.
"Isolatating ourselves from others is always bad."
Separation is not isolation.
One point is that, through trade, welldoers use for their own purposes much that wrongdoers have produced, including materials, knowledge and techniques, while avoiding entanglement in the wider purposes for which those products were made.
But separation allows more sustained accords with wrongdoers where necessary. Good can arise from such collaboration, though a project involving wrongdoers never goes in an entirely healthy direction. If good can be achieved by a mixed project that cannot be achieved by welldoers alone, then the mixed project may be justified. For instance, if wrongdoers have skills or other resources that the welldoers lack, the welldoers must cooperate with them to gain the use of those resources.
When to form accords with wrongdoers is a matter for case-by-case judgment. Long-term and intense accords should be approached with more caution, being more likely to introduce distorting effects beyond the scope of the original intention, but welldoers must assess, taking all the circumstances into account, how great is the good to be achieved compared with what they can achieve in separation.
Finally, there is one type of project that can only be done in collaboration with wrongdoers, and that is evangelism. Persuading wrongdoers to listen, and ensuring that they understand the message, both require collaboration between preacher and audience.
Christian Objections
"Ekklesia is a New Covenant Book word, and should not refer to anything before the time of Christ. The ekklesia is the new humanity founded by Christ."
That is one way to use the word. But before Christ's time it denoted the popular assembly of Athens and (more pertinently) was the standard Greek ("Septuagint") translation of the Tanakh's (Hebrew) qahal denoting assembled Israel. Much of what the New Covenant Book says of the ekklesia restates what was equally true of the qahal, just as much of what it says of reborns was equally true of God's friends before Christ's time.