glorycloud's Diaryland Diary ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- True Self It is now in the flow 3:46 PM Tuesday afternoon. The sun came out this afternoon. My wife told me when she got back from spending time with two of her cousins that there is a winter snow storm alert out till tonight. Right now it looks nice outside even though it is cold. I did not go anywhere today, but stayed inside reading my books and wandering my cell. I want to start writing down some of my thoughts on reading the book "Falling Upward: A Spirituality for the Two Halves of Life" by Richard Rohr. Rohr is a Franciscan priest of the New Mexico Province. You can read more about Father Rohr online if you are interested to know more about him. Rohr has written many books on Christian (?) Spirituality and is an internationally known speaker. This morning I read just few pages of "Falling Upward" and I some disagreements with what Rohr wrote. I will share my thoughts on what I read here as I read this book. Now I am not saying everything Rohr writes is not truthful, but I would like him to be more precise when it comes to what the Bibles teaches on such things as conversion for example. I will quote from the book "Falling Upward" and then write why I believe Rohr is unbiblical. Rohr writes on page ix "I believe that God gives us our soul, our deepest identity, our True Self, our unique blueprint, at our "immaculate conception." Our unique little bit of heaven is installed by the Manufacturer within the product, at the beginning! . . ." Rohr has a footnote attached to 'True Self' which means to him "I am going to take the liberty of capitalizing this term throughout this book so you will know that I am not referring to the small self or psychological self' but the larger and foundational self that we are in God." From what Rohr just wrote he believes everyone is in God. Rohr writes on page xi "There is nothing to join, only something to recognize, suffer, and enjoy as a participant. You are already in the eternal flow that Christians would call the divine life of the Trinity." The problem I have with the above statement by Rohr is that the Bible teaches that people due to their Fall in Adam are separated from God. People are not "already in the eternal flow". People are dead in sins and trespasses-we read in the Epistle to the Ephesians for example, "And you He made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins. . . But God who is rich in mercy, because of His great love which He loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus" Ephesians 2:1,4-6. People (sinners) outside of Christ Jesus do not have "little bit of heaven installed in them" by God. People outside of saving union with Christ are empty of spiritual life. Now people by creation have natural life/physical life but they do not have eternal life/ God life. We read in the Gospel of John chapter 5 the words of the Lord Jesus, "Most assuredly, I say to you, he who hears My word and believes in Him who sent Me has everlasting life, and shall not come into judgment, but has passed from death into life" John 5:24. We pass from the realm of death till the realm of life/from the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of the Beloved when we exercise saving faith "he who hears My word and believes in Him who sent Me has everlasting life." Rohr is unbiblical when he teaches everyone has divine life already him or her. I will write some reflections as I read this book "Falling Upward: A Spirituality for the Two Halves of Life" by Richard Rohr. 4:26 p.m. - 2016-02-23 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
||||||