Heart of the Matter Broadcast

Live from Salt Lake City Utah, this is Heart of the MatterTGNN’s original show where Shawn McCraney deconstructed religion and developed fulfilled theology., where we do all we can to worship God in Spirit and in truth. And I am Shawn McCraneyFounder of TGNN and developer of the fulfilled perspective—calling people to faith outside of religion., your host.

Let’s hit tonight off with a prayer.

PRAYER

Before we get into our show tonight, let's watch a clip from Talking To Mormons!

A Series of Concepts

Show 54 – November 13th, 2018

Now, really just sit back and think about what I am going to say here friends. I want to start by looking at a diagram I have illustrated on the board:

(LOOK AT FLOWER DIAGRAM – briefly discuss it)

Now, the world of Christianity, from all of its diverse forms and means – Catholics, Protestants of all flavors, Mormons, Jehovah’s Witnesses, Orthodoxy – you name it – all of them have been standing out over the world and telling people through their believers and apologists and missionaries a number of pretty emphatic things. They have told people:

    •        What they should or must believe about God and Jesus.  
    •        What they must do to be saved, forgiven, to escape hell, and what people must do to make God and or Jesus happy. They also tell us  
    •        What kind of Christians we must be – in almost innumerable ways - including how to live and spend our time, what sin is, how to be holy, and how to stay saved.

Conformance and Faith

Most of their stuff is aimed at how to live life and to remain or be accepted by God now . . . and especially after this life. Most of it takes what I have drawn on the board and says, gently (if it's not a cult): “Conform yourself to what we say and demand,” right?

I have spent no small amount of time reaching out to God and seeking Him in spirit and truth and learning and changing my ways as they were proven weak or faulty, and recently I had a rather young (but intelligent) Catholic priest tell me flat out if I don’t receive the Catholic Baptism I was going to hell. Forever. He took one look at my wheel of fortune or misfortune, summed it up, and delivered his verdict – after 15 minutes of conversation: I need Catholic Baptism and if I refuse it, eternal hell for me. Fortunately, Father Christopher who was there with us sort of sagely smiled patiently at his zeal.

Some of us know some former Mormons who have embraced orthodoxy and zealously think and proclaim that they now possess all the right answers to everything about God. Right? Their demand is not unlike my Catholic friend – receive the icons, the rituals, the Mother Mary, the story of our authority – and be better pleasing to God. Right?

The Complexity of Religious Dogma

And we have the Mormons, of course, who – while playing an “open, free, we-are-all-going-to-heaven card – really limited the hell out of access to God by telling themselves that only to those who hold their priesthood, enter their temples, and endure to the end all that they demand of them will get to be with Him.

Our Calvinist friends present one form of dogma while our Arminianists offer up another one that is just as failing, and here we sit, 2000 years after Jesus took care of everything and we continue, in His name and cause, to try and own and control each other.

If you haven’t noticed all of this is the result of Men and women operating under the impression that people need to do more or that they need to do SOMETHING that God through His Son has NOT taken care of. You realize that don’t you? All these religious propagators look at that wheel, and all of its unlimited combinations, and suggest that in His plan of redemption, MUCH needs to be done . . . by us.

And so for nearly 2000 years women and men have stepped out into the world and have lit a hundred thousand campfires and called all to gather round and hear what they say MUST BE DONE BY US . . . to fix and approach all the diversities God has allowed to exist on each individual wheel.

This approach is akin to looking at a world composed of many different

The Unified Approach in Christianity

Colors of eyes, and each group, hoping to bring all eye color under one roof, handing out blue contacts for everyone in their group to wear – thinking that this will bring solution and real unity.

Within Christianity, there is an approach that has been greatly ignored or refused. Again, within Christianity. That approach is to suggest that in and through Christ Jesus and His finished work, all the other views are allowed to exist and it doesn’t make much of a difference; that God knew this, and that He fixed the problem through His Son, and has not left it for people to fix – we’re just not capable.

See that’s the gig here – and it is a gig that is clearly present in the Bible – that GOD Himself, through His Only Human Son – did everything necessary so that all eye colors, all views, all approaches serve to bring the reconciled world to Him . . . in the end. . . and again, by and through Christ Jesus. It is remarkable when I get on Social Media how many people have so many staunch but varied views on what people need to be, need to do, need to avoid, need to accept . . . in order to be accepted by God now and/or after this life.

Challenges of Religious Dogma

And I am presently only talking about the segment of the world that includes Jesus into their belief systems, right? If there is a God – and I maintain ardently that there is – why has He allowed for the world to be this way? The zealots and the denoms all claim that He has made the way so rigid that only the true followers will ever stand the chance of finding it – and then they claim to be the true followers! Right?

But perhaps there is another, more reasonable, yet still biblical reason why has he permitted so many interpretations, so many denominations, so many views, so much infighting, so much warfare, so much bloodshed that all stem from religious beliefs and practice . . . AND AGAIN, I AM ONLY TALKING ABOUT CHRISTIAN-BASED FAITHS! (long beat)

The Constant Choice in Christianity

When we look at what God did in and through the Bible narrative, we all have a constant choice to make. We, like most people for the past 1500 years have done, can take the book in hand and say: “This is God’s Word, eternal and true, It was written for me to know what to DO!”

Most of those who embrace this approach will find a church that suits them and their beliefs, or a denom that will tell them how and what to think, and they will sort of cling for the rest of their lives. Some will look outside the walls of their religion and shift courts, but generally speaking, most people sort of cling to what they initially bought into at some point in their lives. Catholics remain Catholics, Baptists, Mormons, Preterists, Calvinists – whatever – will remain such for life – upholding all that they learn there – with some making a single switch or two until they discover what they feel best in DOING what God has failed to do.

That’s the majority of folks in the Christian realm relative to the Bible. There is an altogether different approach that very few (relatively speaking) embrace in large part because they have never considered it as viable or because it has never been taught to them in all of their years as a Christian.

The reason it isn’t taught is because it sets people free from religion altogether . . . did you hear me? It sets them free. And because it is a view that sets people free from denominationalism and sectarianism, and therefore from religious piety, demands, dogma, and the inevitable anger that come with it, this view is NOT taught. And again, the amazing thing about it is that it is plainly described and explained in the Bible that all these groups we have been talking about are claiming to read and teach!

This fact alone proves that human beings will see what they want to see, and hear what they want to hear, so long as it supports their wants and prejudices and for this reason we have so many denoms and divisions in the faith. God knew this – so He took care of everything once and for all, by and through His Son, leaving nothing to chance and NOTHING in the hands of Man to do.

The Inclusive View of God's Completed Work

I am promoting superior to all the others that have come and gone? In other words, why listen to me – isn’t this just ANOTHER view?

Let me state this clearly – it is admittedly another view, but it is a view that allows for all others – which is what take it into a completely different category from them and their demands.

How?

This view claims that God has taken care of all things in the human race beginning to end and therefore by and through His Son all the disparate and different views are permitted to co-exist and thrive! It's sort of like there was once an enormous world war and peace was finally established which freely allows and even encouraged all people to live, think and be as they choose to live, think and be.

Everything was taken care of in the war – the war is over, live and let live, peace reigns and God reigns and gives freedom to all to do and be as they please. Of course, every now and again someone puts on a uniform and tries to go to war against a world that is free from any reason to war but the way to disarm them is to smile and walk on. Right?

Trust in God's Ultimate Victory

See, when we realize that God HAS HAD the VICTORY over all the variables in and through His Son all followers of His Son can simply smile and walk on past liars, past war mongers, past haters and demons and devils and angels and religion and all of it. We do it trusting that God has had the victory through His Son. He took care of everything necessary in establishing a saving faith and saw that it was all completed – therefore our little attempts to guide and govern have proven more than just meaningless, they actually serve to hinder the Kingdom He worked to establish.

It’s sort of like God nearly 2000 years ago created a buffet of immense proportions and invited all people to come and dine. There is Moroccan food and Mexican and Chinese, and Thai and French and German and every other type of food present for all people to dine. Millions of acres of every food type imaginable and all are invited to freely come and enjoy. This was what happened when He finished everything necessary for His Kingdom to thrive – all the way back when the former Kingdom was destroyed.

But very quickly men and women stepped up and wanted to offer their own menus. Specialty menus. Putting people on a diet of exclusivity and claiming not only that people must eat from their exclusive menu but if they eat from others, they will anger God.

Open Heavenly Banquet

Now for the biggie – God plainly describes the fact of this open heavenly banquet is in place IN THE VERY WORD all these divergent groups teach and use to divide . . . and to try and conquer each other. And the end result of seeing what He has done can CHANGE everything (from wars and division to online meanness and zealotry) that has happened in the past . . but it is really, really hard for most people to accept let alone understand.

So, let me put it to you this way:

ESSENTIAL VIEW of FULFILLMENT

ONE MAN (Adam)

• Created with choice
• Chose self
• Brought sinMissing the mark of faith and love—no punishment, just lost growth or peace. and deathSeparation from God—now overcome. Physical death remains, but it no longer separates us from life with God. to world

ONE FALL (Into Sin)

• The nature of sin then falls upon on souls, not the crime of Adam.
• We are all spiritually dead and need to be born from above.

ONE TOTAL PAYMENT FOR ALL SIN (Total Reconciliation) which took place THEN!

ONE BRIDE THAT WAS CULLED BY APOSTLES AND TAKEN AS PROMISED.

NOW . . . today . . . all humans experience . . .

ONE MORTAL LIFE (free and cleansed and reconciled to God) (back to state of Adam)

What is fascinating about this wheel is that most of the petals

Human Experiences and Influences

On it can be and are experienced on a continuum of bliss to miserable terror – and the roulette wheel indiscriminately decides. What I mean by this is some of us are born in exceptionally loving families and some are born in wholly dysfunctional families. And everything in between. The mixture of all the variables here make NO SINGLE life the same – none – even for twins – because there are just too many factors that influence other factors. As an example, if we take a set of twins who truly experience most of the same things in life but one is molested by his scout master and the other is not, we could have entirely different outcomes on the Human Being.

Even in a lesser extreme, if one twin chooses to play tennis but another plays football, we could come up with impactful influences from something that seems so trivial. But let’s work through the factors for the sake of helping us become more empathetic as Christians not less.

Factors Influencing Human Life

Family

• Expectations and upbringing – whether adopted or in a nucleus family of dad and mom
• Tenor of home (love, peace, chaos, discipline, siblings, roommates)

Genetics

• Paternal and Maternal Ancestry
• Emotional, Intellectual, Physical, Psychological make-up

Religion

• As children, youth usually from parents' point of view
• Positive/Negative experiences
• Dogma, Doctrine and Practice – at what age, susceptibilities
• Fear, guilt, shame, encouragement, illumination
• The IMPACT is ENORMOUS on how people see and understand God – I know.

Socio-economics

• Filled and unfulfilled wants/needs/hopes/disappointments/fulfillments
• Cultural expectations and ability to meet them or not
• Childhood through teen years

Early Experiences with Others

• Fulfilling, loving, building
• Trauma, pain, humiliation
• Life or Death
• Challenges, tests

Friends

• Positive experiences or Negative
• Lasting or ephemeral

Environment

• War torn or peaceful
• Healthy or polluted
• Threatening or secure
• Serve in the military or not
• Serve in a war in the military or not
• What war? Etc. Etc

Education

• Type/Level/Positive or Negative
• Quality and Quantity

Culture of Community

• White/Blue Collar, Agrarian, Urban
• Political temperament, living

The Concept of One Eternity for All

So in all of this . . .

THERE IS ONE MORE “ONE” to consider – ONE ETERNITY for all – but before we cover it, let’s talk about this ONE MORTAL LIFE we have all been given and we will do it through another Board Illustration. Presently, we “religious folk” sort of turn a blind eye to the conditions of human life and tend to take our respective views and impose them over every single human in every single situation.

For example, one of my favorites is when you ask a Christian:

What happens to the Aboriginal tribesman who in 1622, is born, and dies without hearing the name Jesus?

The standard response is one of several:

• He goes to hell forever used to be the old dogmatic standby
• If he looked to the skies and accepted the God he could understand he is fine – if he refuses that then he goes to hell forever. (OR MY FAVORITE)
• If he really searched his heart and sought God would have provided a way for him to be introduced to Jesus!

The bottom line truth of the matter is far, far, far more complex folks. I mean, since Jesus died there have been billions who never had anyone bring them the truth of Jesus.

So, then we have to resort to B – that if they accepted what they were given they would be okay. Which opens us up to having to consider,

Factors Contributing to Human Existence

What everyone has been given in life?

Let me explain by looking at another on board illustration which describes some of the major factors every single human being “is given” in life that will contribute to the walls and worldviews people of every walk of life face.

So, let’s go to the example of one hub and ten factors:

We will begin by showing that every human being comes from some sort of a family.

The Great NewsThe message that prophecy is fulfilled and we are free to pursue God in love and liberty—without fear or religious control. is that His Son took care of EVERYTHING once and for all, reconciling the world to His Father once and for all and forevermore. All have been redeemed, because all have had the redemption done for them by the Son – whether they receive it or not. This is the Good News. This is the gift unearned and unmerited and everyone who has ever lived is a recipient of this awesome and eternal grace.

Redemption and Liberation Through His Son

This act of “unconditional, selfless, Godly love takes all the reasons, conditions, and failures built-in to human existence and erases them) thereby liberating all human beings from their temporal and eternal effects; in other words, the conditions heaped upon people are neutralized by the blood of Christ – both in the eyes of God and relative to their ability to control and bind people in this life.

This is the Fantastically Good News too – that the eternal and temporal effects of sin have been overcome! By His Son! And it was all accomplished and completed THEN – at the end of that age. With this news in hand God sent His Holy Spirit to the world to call all people to receive it. First the Jews, then the Gentiles, and He calls to all in conscience, in observances, in the Laws written in their hearts and minds, in the ancient scripture, and by the lives of those who are His by adoption.

He calls to all through family, nature and the cosmos, through conscience and His imprint upon the universe. All are invited, none have any excuse. All have been called to receive and recognize and enjoy the liberation the Good News brings. And all have the constant choice, yes, the constant response – ability, no matter what the conditions or preconditions of their lives – to reach out and receive His light and love – to some extent or another.

The Calling to All

And He calls in and through all means – religious and non – through every attempt ever made by Man to do good, to reflect Him, to assist people to reaching Him.

At the end of it all of those things are in the Hands of His Only Son to bring all people to Him – through His birth, life, death, resurrection and

Reconciliation and Responsibility

In the face of all of this, every human being, armed with the capacity to choose, to think, to decide A or B, are responsible for how they receive His constant invitations to accept His Son and to then how they will apply the liberation given them in their lives. Those who seek and want and desire light and truth will find it – with the ultimate and only destination being Jesus Himself. Those who love themselves, the dark, and the realms that hold them bound will choose those things to remain in place and will allow them to hold them bound.

Evidence of Acceptance

The evidence that someone has both received the Son (in some form or another) and accepted Him and the power of His shed blood over all things is their Godly, selfless love for others. This is how all people will know who are truly God’s and who are not – by this selfless love, as it is defined in 1st Corinthians 13. Those who choose to seek light and truth in this life and receive whatever is available to them in this realm, are part of His existing thriving kingdom of light that shines down from His Kingdom above. Again, they are known to be His by their selfless love. Absent from this body they are present with the Lord with every knee bending and every tongue confessing that Jesus is Lord and Savior to the glory of the One True God.

Choices and Consequences

All who choose to reject His constant call here, who choose to refuse the light and choose to live by their will, and their ways, and their flesh will, upon physical death, go to the heavenly realms wherein His Kingdom stands. Depending on Him and His assessments of all things, these will exist outside His New Jerusalem in the realms of less light, less love, more self, and more shadow. All are welcome into the Kingdom of Light, day and night, with open gates on the North, South, East and West. Why some remain outside the gates, in some state of bondage or another, can only be assumed all the while remembering that in mortality they chose the same.

But the truly Great News is the fact that God has made it for some people to openly choose to be His, ultimately through faith on His only human Son, all will be taken into His realm – some to His very presence, with others to His vicinity – and all will forever having the ability to draw closer – if they wish.

One Eternity

Let me wrap up this segment by illustrating how I see the final One – the One Eternity of all because of the other One’s that have taken place:

ONE ETERNITY – Starting here (which is based on Godly Love or Not)

• All reconciled to God by the Shed Blood of His Son
• But ALL responsible for accepting and receiving Him by faith or not.
• By receiving the Son by faith all are equipped to love better.
• By rejecting His Light and Love all are operating in lesser form.
• Afterlife placement is therefore dependent upon a person's capacity to love as God loves.

Far Outside

The New Jerusalem

Outside This is where Close to People WANT to be! Inside the New JerusalemThe spiritual reality of God's fulfilled presence with humanity—replacing Sheol after 70 A.D. where God and Christ Dwell

The Invitation of the New Jerusalem

(Birds of a feather)

Open Gates

(The Gates are open day and night in the New Jerusalem welcoming all all the time)