Inside the circles of “religion”, man has railed against man for centuries. This is easily evidenced by the vast numbers of religions, and then the divisions (some call them denominations) within those religions. There may be “50 Ways to Leave Your Lover” as the song goes, but there are at least thirteen thousand ways to love Jesus according to Christian denominations, for example.
With that being said, I would believe (as most rational people would) that we have created these divisions because we can’t get along with the “other guys”. For whatever the reasons may be, lines have been drawn, buildings have been erected and lessons have been taught all to express the need of separation. Ok, I get it. In the end, God will sort out all of this in His time and His will. For now, United We Fall, Divided We Stand.
The part I cannot understand or endorse is this: Why do some spiritual leaders feel the need to attack the “other guys”? We can’t get along; point taken. But attacking each other only lends itself to demeaning our whole purpose: bringing a better quality of life to humanity in this life and the one to come.
We are suffering from an entire crop of self-appointed/self-anointed pastors, teachers, evangelists, prophets and other forms of gurus. For them, it is all about a title and not a testimony. Pharaoh had a title, but Moses had a testimony. The Prophets of Baal had a title, Elijah had a testimony. Pilate had a title, but Jesus had a testimony. Saul had a title, but King David had a testimony. Having a title means you will be known here on this earth. When you die, so does your title. Having a testimony means you live beyond your death. Testimonies last forever.
No one can stop the onslaught of religious people acting religious, offering their kind words of insight to protect the flock against the other “cults”. Be forewarned: no word goes unrecorded and God will hold us all in account for our use of them.
But how do we reconcile these attacks? What purpose do they serve? Why would God allow them? Can’t He strike them dead the moment they start their hateful verbal transaction? Well, He could, but I am pretty sure I wouldn’t be here if He did. God allows these events, these unfounded verbal barrages for a purpose.
Hear these words of wisdom from the ancient text: The Book of Splendor (Zohar)
Come and Behold: the Holy One, blessed be He, transforms matters in the world so as to lift the heads of the righteous. To enable Joseph to raise his head for being righteous before Him, He caused the master (speaking of Pharaoh) to be angry with his servants, as it is written: “The butler of the king of Egypt and his baker offended their lord the king of Egypt” (Beresheet (Genesis) 40:1). All this happened to lift the head of Joseph the righteous.
Come and Behold: he was humiliated by his brothers through a dream. He obtained greatness over his brothers and was raised above the whole world through a dream, namely the dream of Pharaoh
Vayeshev, Chapter 23, paragraph 253.
This teaching by the Rabbis from The Zohar tells us that God is at work in ways we cannot see or predict. He often takes a path we could never see coming. This clarity of direction comes to us because He lover us dearly and seeks the best for us, even when the best includes painful and sometimes unwarranted injuries caused by the words of others.
There is a great hole in the center of a man that nothing can fill. It is a boiling pot of hatred, unkindness and lies. The Evil Inclination so encompasses a man that even the words of his mouth are an outpouring of evil. The Scriptures teach that it can often be read on the countenance of the person. These people, regardless of their real or perceived station in life, are not to be entertained or considered. To do so is to bring their “evil tongue” into the household of the saints.
In the end, Asatan desires to throw us all off the path through what I refer to as “weapons of mutual distraction”. The enemy fires a shot, we fire back. They spread the lies; we refute them. We spend an entire lifetime killing snakes when the truth is we have been commissioned by the Master of the Universe to be catching fish.
May His name be praised in all we say and do.
David-Ari
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