Christian Relaunch

The Realignment of Souls

A consequence of humanity's defection was that in the natural course of events none of us would ever adopt the alignment needed for our fulfillment. So there is no hope for man from man, and despair may seem appropriate.

But there are at least two grounds for hope.

1. Reason. As mentioned earlier (in "Creation"), God is always responding creatively to all that occurs both within and around us. It strikes me as implausible that he would abandon mankind.

"But if there are other selfkinds out there, as you have admitted is possible, God could abandon us and still achieve his purposes. To him the exact number of selfkinds that reach fulfillment is probably just a minor detail.|"

God can accept the kind of detours introduced by our defection, but that is because the exact route to fulfillment was always flexible. I doubt that the same applies to the number of selfkinds, a number specifically set by God, given (as argued in "Creation") that a selfkind cannot arise by chance

2. History. The Tanakh tells of various friends of God, and the New Covenant Book and subsequent history tell of more.

The Tanakh tells of friends of God maybe as far back as the progenitor of mankind ("Adam"), certainly including (among many others) Hebrew progenitors Abraham, Isaac and Jacob (aka "Israel", from whom they claimed to derive their tribal name), and also non-Hebrews such as Melek-Zedek ("Melchizedech") and Ruth.

The "Hebrews", also called "Israelites", were the population of ancient Israel.

"Jews" designates either all Hebrews or, more narrowly and etymologically (as in The Gospel According to John), only folk descended from the tribe of Judah or from inhabitants of Judea, the part of ancient Israel settled by Judah and including Jerusalem. This site prefers the narrower sense.

"Israel", on this page and elsewhere in this site, usually designates ancient Israel. Any mention of modern Israel will be explicit about that.

The ancient Hebrews called their god "Yahweh" (sometimes rendered "Jehovah"). Maybe they initially regarded him as merely one god among others, but later they certainly regarded him as the only god worthy of the name, and eventually as the only real god.

Ancient Israel (a nation like no other) and Christianity (a social movement like no other) have many implausible explanations and one obvious one, which is that they have been God's vehicles for saving humanity.

How far what I infer here from the Tanakh would be apparent to an earnest thinker with no prior awareness of the New Covenant Book, I cannot say. Some see the wicked predisposition of all humans, and the need for God's realigning grace, as a distinctively New Covenant Book doctrine. I think it implicit in at least parts of the Tanakh. But the question is not important here, for we have the New Covenant Book and subsequent history.

The Tanakh is too bloodthirsty to be taken seriously.

"Because of their hardness of heart Moses wrote them that commandment."

Matthew 19:8. (This applies to the whole law of Moses. The Law of Moses prescribed aggression, but established no precedent for aggression. Moses deplored aggression, but as it would occur anyway he stipulated a relatively mild form for it. The notorious "eye for an eye" was explicitly directed against even more severe retaliation. Similarly, later, the prophet Samuel influenced the Israelites' choice of monarch after warning them against monarchy.)

These considerations support the belief that God makes his foes his friends by realigning them toward our proper goal.

This element of our creed, or its form anyway, arises mainly from history. Logically we can diagnose the human ailment before prescribing the divine treatment, but historically the diagnosis only arose in response to the treatment, and has never persisted apart from it. This is because in practice admitting the diagnosis and accepting the prescription are parts of a single choice; I am unaware of anyone seriously accepting the diagnosis while rejecting the prescription, except in the course of a conversion crisis, and to persist in such a position is probably psychically impossible, entailing a suicidal level of despair.

"If God had really been acting as you claim, history would not be the series of disasters it still is."

The explanation is that some souls are still wrongdoers.

"So why has God not converted everyone?"

He cannot. Restoring humanity takes time and involves God in human suffering.