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A Mary T. Hoffman Commentary from All-Creatures.org

 

"Joyful Curmudgeon" An oxymoron?
No! I see all the beauty of God's creation and I'm joyful.  At the same time, I see all the suffering and corruption going on in the world, and feel called to help expose and end it so that we may have true peace and compassion.

 


Progress – 1 October 2006
By Mary T. Hoffman

Used as a noun, the word “progress” is defined as “the gradual betterment or the progressive development of humankind”; used as a verb “progress” means “to develop to a higher, better, or more advanced stage – to move forward.”

In my opinion, after the expulsion of Adam and Eve from Eden (the Fall) God has patiently tried to lead humans up a “spiritual ladder” in order to redeem them. The Hebrew Bible (Old Testament) is an account of God’s trying to coax humans up this “ladder.” But these fallen creatures, originally made “in His likeness,” keep undermining God’s efforts.

God provided concessions to the evil nature of humans: eating other animals and divorce, for example. Each step of the way, hard-hearted humans would fight progress; then, after killing a prophet or two – and thousands of sacrificed animals – they would comfortably settle in at a rung of the “spiritual stepladder,” follow their arrogant, religious leaders, and imagine that they were doing God’s will.

Then God would have to send more prophets and the same thing would happen all over again: up another rung of the ladder, settling in again, more “religious” arrogance and persecution, etc.

Finally, God sends His only begotten Son Jesus. And we all know what happens: His crucifixion, more persecutions in the name of God, etc. – as the saying goes: two steps forward, one step backward; except that in reality, it is more like 100 steps forward and 99 backwards. When will humans truly learn to follow the peacemaking teachings of Jesus!

A couple thousand years later, those who call themselves by His name justify killing, and arrogantly perform unspeakable atrocities against “the lower animals” – all the while citing the Bible (the Word of God) as giving them permission for their abominations! Since these people can no longer exert their power over human slaves, they enslave billions of animals.

There are people in our society who call evil “good” and good “evil”; who try to equate anything or anyone “progressive” as subversive. But God is not mocked. No matter how clever they are in fooling the public, God reads the heart, and He is a God of justice.

In a previous Blog I wrote the following: In John 14:12, Jesus says,

12. “Truly, truly, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do; because I go to the Father.”
~ New American Standard Bible

Jesus lived 2,000 years ago when slavery and cruelty (public crucifixions, for one example) were commonplace; isn’t it time that we humans move forward and become more enlightened? What greater work can we do than to extend our compassion to all living creatures?

Then we will move up one more rung as we progress up the “spiritual ladder.”

Go on to: Intelligence, Knowledge, and Wisdom – 2 October 2006
Return to: Blaspheming the Holy Spirit – 30 September 2006
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