Notes from the Margin

Case In Point...

2008-09-29T07:54:00.000-07:00

The text below is from an email sent from a friend of mine. They had found it on the Internet and wondered what I thought about it... note: 'blitzkreig' (hopefully not their real name, most of all because it's spelled wrong...i before e...hello?! ;) is the individual who posted it.

blitzkreig
May 9th, 2007, 01:27 PM

Before I quote the article just let me say that as kooky as this cult sounds, it must have some kind of "secret sauce" or magical attraction which isn't evident from my perspective. They just appear to me to be so phony only a fool would be deceived. A fools fool. The problem is the ones I know of who have become lured somehow into this cult are very smart people who are professionals like lawyers, doctors and business men who are multi-millionaires. Church Board Members. Heads of Christian agencies ... The target in Canada seems to differ from those in the USA for some reason and they are nibbling at society people. In Korea, Japan and the USA it seems to be youth. To be forewarned is to be forearmed. Put on the whole armour. Speak to your university aged children about this and get their radars tuned in to detect this awful cult. Search the Internet for more and more gruesome details as there are so many parents, wives and husbands who have lost loved ones to this cult and as a result many websites dedicated to the anti-cult message. And please pray with me that the Lord intercedes in the lives of those who are already trapped here in Canada and around the world.

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This posting is a case in point of what NOT to do when faced with contradiction: ignore the evidence.

So, 'blitzkreig' has a dilemma. On the one hand he or she (let's just use the pronoun 'he') perceives:
1. The cult to be "kooky" (which, by the way, is defined as "when someone does something a little strange, or when something is not quite right", which is perfectly fitting for my point).
2. Providence to have a "secret sauce" or "magical attraction" which Mr. Blitzkrieg cannot perceive.
3. Providence members to be "phony."

However, on the other hand, he perceives:
1. People he knows who are members of Providence that are "smart" professionals, like lawyers, doctors, and "multi-millionaires" (haven't met any of those yet!), "church board members" and "Heads of Christian agencies."
2. That the cult members in Canada "target" different people from those in the USA, Korea, or Japan, who "target" youth.

'blitzkreig' seems to be suffering from a case of cognitive dissonance. His brain is trying to process conflicting pieces of information in order to make sense of his reality. This dissonance is painful and he seeks to resolve it as quickly and effortlessly as possible (true for the majority of us--I don't fault 'blitzkreig').

However, the healthy and logical way to resolve this contradiction would be to take some time to investigate the matter further, to determine what information has either been misinterpreted or misapplied. But, unfortunately too many people would rather blitzkrieg through logic, and go straight to ignorance. Ignorance being the bliss they are seeking.

'blitzkreig' ignores the fact that he himself calls the 'people he knows' as 'smart' and inferring from what he describes, successful, educated and informed members of society. But he ignores these facts because they contradict a preconceived desire to believe that Providence lures in naïve people (presumably through the use of the 'secret sauce').

You might ask yourself why someone would choose ignorance? The answer is simply fear. 'blitzkreig' is fearful of what he does not know. So fearful, that he is paralyzed from investigating it in any responsible way. If he personally knows Providence members, why not just go ask them why they joined a cult? Which is better, to accept the word of an anonymous stranger on the Internet, or someone in your own community you know by name? Perhaps he's also fearful that they will feed him the same 'secret sauce' (could it just be Thousand Island dressing?) and convert him to Providence? Perhaps 'blitzkreig' is intimidated because he isn't so smart himself, although he does consider himself smart enough to warn the world that Providence is an 'awful cult' without having investigated it. (Talk about frightening mind-control!...)

So, what should a person with a measure of intellect and self-esteem do in this instance? Well, let's try a little logic and reason:

1. Could the 'magical attraction' actually be something real and genuine? For this reason I personally refrain from any judgments about Scientology. Why? Two reasons: many successful and educated people obviously derive a benefit from Scientology, and I have never discussed Scientology with any of them, let alone a Scientologist. It too must have some 'magical attraction' (as does Christianity, Islam and every other religion, world view and philosophy), such as giving order and meaning to one's life. Which is more likely: that 'smart' successful and informed members of society, who were once the 'heads of Christian organizations' would up and join a cult that is harmful to themselves, their families, and those around them, OR that those same people simply took the time to look beyond the scare tactics of the ignorant to find that Teacher Jeong, his followers and theology is not based on lies, rape or mind-control, but rather morality, the Bible and Jesus Christ?

2. Could it be that Providence doesn't actually target anyone? I personally can attest to the fact that Providence is indeed open to anyone who wants to come. What 'blitzkreig' aught to have perceived is that people naturally seek out those they are comfortable with--those they can relate to. If you are a football player, you want to hang out with other football players. If you are a student, you are comfortable among other students. Youth seek out youth, doctors seek out doctors, multi-millionaires seek out tax lawyers. The point being that every church has its own demographic not by design, but by this process of organic self-selection. Go to your local church, community club, group or social scene and see for yourself. They are all formed by people who hold common values and shared interests.

If 'blitzkreig' had of taken the time to go beyond his own negative conjecture and search for himself, he would have actually resolved his cognitive dissonance. As it is now, he has resolved nothing, instead he has only swept it under the carpet for a while. It will never go away though, and like the dozens of other Anti-Providence people spewing their negativity onto the Internet it will forever continue to occupy their thoughts requiring more and more elaborate misconceptions in order to explain away the most simplest of reasons: they were wrong.

Followers of Teacher Jeong, such as myself, are very aware of all that he has been accused and convicted of. Above anything else, we want to be sincere in our life of faith and our relationship to others. So, in order to make sense of the contradictions between Jeong and his reputation we have had to search ourselves, God, the Bible, the testimony of others, and the words of Jeong himself. It is my hope that 'blitzkreig' and many like him will value sincerity in their own life of faith and relationship to friends in Providence. They can start at the beginning, as I have suggested, by re-examining their own perceptions, fears and beliefs for contradictions and misconceptions. That's the only reasonable way.

Water Gives Life

2008-09-21T15:39:00.000-07:00

Judging by the responses I heard regarding my last blog entry, I realize that I didn't do a great job of explaining the overall point. Most of you got lost in my "New Orleans is sinking" metaphor... ;)

In any case, this blog entry should hopefully clear up the confusion, because both last entry and this entry are essentially driving towards the same key point, which is that contradictions, unless solved, will ultimately affect your life in ways that are both poisonous and camouflaged.

Teacher Jeong talked this week about the parable of water, which is found all throughout the Bible. Its pretty basic, especially if you've studied the 30 Lessons. Water cleans stains, physically speaking. Spiritual water (the word of God) cleans spiritual stains. Most everyone can understand this fairly simple parable. An extended teaching of this concept leads into the parable of 'clouds', which is where many Christians start to get upset. Generally speaking (from my own experience in teaching Christians) they want Jesus to descend upon real actual literal clouds because they want to see it with their physical eyes. There's usually a bit of an attitude of "see you heathens, I told you so!" mixed in there too. ;)

Water is necessary to sustaining life. You can go weeks, even months (some say) without food. But without water for even a couple of days and your body will begin to shutdown vital organs, starting with your kidneys. So Teacher Jeong obviously stresses the need for water in order to sustain life. But he's not talking physically, of course. This is where most of Jesus' disciples got lost. Jesus was talking about 'bread' ("beware the yeast of the Pharisees"), but not physical bread. Meanwhile the disciples were all anxious cause no one brought any along. Imagine how frustrated Jesus must have been that his own disciples were so physically minded. Now imagine how frustrated he must be in 2008 when much of the Christian church still listens to his words in the Bible while thinking in physical terms. His disciples only had 3 years with him, while the Christian church has had 2 millennia!

One of the introductory lessons one receives in Providence is the lesson on Parables. Its crucial, because without it you cannot solve the 'contradictions' of the Bible, most of which are embodied within the Christian faith deeply. So, the reason why the Christian faith is contradictory is two-fold. First, it is because Christians fail to properly interpret the Bible, and as such, they assume ridiculous things just like Jesus' disciples did when he spoke to them about bread. Science (reason) and religion (spirituality) will never agree unless Christianity solves its contradictions.

Second, those contradictions bear themselves out in how Christians live their life. This is because if you are confronted with contradiction at the most intimate level (such as religion/spirituality) then you cannot simply ignore it. Instead, you have to bury it, or sweep it under the rug. In this way, Christian theologians have all sorts of elaborate explanations to deal with the contradictions they find in the Bible. Walk through a Christian bookstore and you'll find that the vast majority of the books are written on this topic in varying forms.

The problem is that you can 'deal' with the contraction in many different ways, but it won't go away until you solve it. If you don't solve it, it will have drastic and far-reaching ramifications on how you live your life (in ways you are oblivious to). This is essentially the point Teacher Jeong is getting at. Essentially he is telling us to use the word of God (spiritual water) to clean our bodies and clothes (spiritually speaking). Bodies and clothes are both parables as well--ask someone in Providence if you don't know what they mean (or just read the Bible carefully). What I realized from all this is that one could define sin as an instance in life where contradiction is accepted as a viable solution to an issue.

Let me explain: its not always a sin to lie. If you lie in order to save someone's life, well then it is good that you lied, right? Okay, so when is lying a sin then? How can someone judge whether the circumstances were sufficient? Here's the test: does the lie contradict you? That is, if you lied in order to save life, well then a good person has done a good thing. But if your lie (which is in of itself a contradiction) betrays your life of righteousness, then its obvious that you are sinning through the use of that lie/contradiction.

And what is the number one complaint that non-Christians throw at Christians? "You don't practice what you preach." "You're hypocrites." "You say one thing, but do another." On and on it goes. Why is this?

It is because at the fundamental level, Christianity has not solved its contradictions. As such, broadly speaking, their words do not line up with their actions and vice versa.

Still there are many, many, many positive things about Christianity. This week Teacher Jeong broadly defined evangelism as turning hearts towards God. He said that if people hear bad things about him and therefore won't go to a Providence church, we should encourage them to attend another Christian church. The main point being to get people to turn to God.

This leads me to my last point about the negative reports about Teacher Jeong on the Internet. I can appreciate that it's difficult to determine which are true and which are false if you don't have anyone to talk to who is familiar with Teacher Jeong. Again however, contradictions cannot persist. When you come across them re-check your assumptions. If you do, you're on the right path to solving them, even if it takes longer than anticipated. If you don't, if you merely try to sweep them under the rug, you'll find them infecting the way you live your life in hidden and harmful ways...

Live According to Positive Convictions

2008-09-14T15:31:00.000-07:00

Here are the margin notes I was inspired to write down while listening to Teacher Jeong's message on Sunday...

The topic was about not just listening to God, but living according to what you've listened to. Of course, this is a message that everyone needs to hear no matter if they are spiritual/religious or not.

Too many people live in contradiction to their own convictions. That is, they think a certain way about an issue, but will quickly jettison their own conviction or sharply contradict it on another issue. As such their beliefs and lifestyle don't match up. Society becomes desperate when issues that affect the whole become carved into (seemingly) disparate parts (when they're actually not).

Imagine a city (like, say, New Orleans) being flooded with water (representing a social stress on a civilization, like, say, rapid moral decay). At first, the residents can apply a common conviction for their survival to one common end: plug the one leak (that is, repent/change behavior/live righteously). But, some will disagree with that strategy, right? Problem is, its not like they get all time they need to think it through--the deluge of water just keeps coming. Soon their opportunity to act on their common convictions will expire (because the water will be at their doorstep).

Over time neighborhoods/communities become small islands unto themselves. The situation is now worse because each household must apply a modified philosophy for survival: sandbag a perimeter around the house.

So, now instead of a common solution conceptualized from the whole of the people/city, small pockets of special interest (each household) must mitigate their concerns (the floodwaters) at the expense of their neighbors. They become desperate, and their self-interest becomes extremely narrow, no longer for the survival of their city, or community, or family... but only for themselves. And by that point, who will blame them?

I lack the time to thoroughly explain this for you, but essentially what Teacher Jeong is getting at is that people need to actually live out their common convictions in actionable ways, or else (as I've tried to explain) those convictions become splintered and society is imperiled.

He used Psalms 28 to illustrate this. I was inspired to read this passage in The Message, in particular verses 3, 4 and 5 stood out to me:

Don't shove me into
the same jail cell with those crooks,
With those who are
full-time employees of evil.
They talk a good line of "peace,"
then moonlight for the Devil.

Pay them back for what they've done,
for how bad they've been.
Pay them back for their long hours
in the Devil's workshop;
Then cap it with a huge bonus.

Because they have no idea how God works
or what he is up to,
God will smash them to smithereens
and walk away from the ruins.

The language sounds aggressive, and well should it. The interesting part is that God really has no need to smash anyone--civilization is quite adept at doing that to itself. But the truly lamentable thing here is that injustice is chief among the ailments of the ignorant; I mean, if you don't "know," how can you ever judge correctly? Some of you might know where I'm going with this, but time is short, and there are other websites for that topic.

Teacher Jeong made three key points: 1) Think about God by involving Him in your everyday life. 2) Keep a positive mentality. 3) Acknowledge God in front of others when it counts and He'll acknowledge you when it counts.

A word on point number two. Teacher Jeong used the illustration of the Israelites failing to enter the land of Canaan due to the negative report of the spies sent in beforehand. If recall, this negativity was the cause of 40 years of wandering in the wilderness.

Its explained to us through the Bible that God prevented them from entering. When we look beyond the surface level and bring this story from the page into real life something should stand out: how did God prevent them?

Did He cause their GPS to run out batteries? Did He cause them to mistakenly keep taking the same wrong 'short-cut'? I'm kidding, but I think you get my point. God didn't prevent them, in the literal sense; their negativity prevented them. For 40 years the wandered until the entire generation had died out--why? Because that generation's negativity lead them to sincerely believe they could NOT (that is, were entirely UNable to) enter the Promised Land.

When you think about it in realistic terms, isn't it that much more frightening? How often are we prevented entering our Promised land because of our mentalities of negativity?

A final word that will drive this point home: Tarahumara. The Tarahumara are an indigenous people group of the Sierra Madre famous for their long-distance running ability. They developed the ability through hunting, in which they would often chase deer upwards of 160 miles. In the late 90's several Tarahumara dominated ultra long-distance marathons, despite stopping for several beers and un-filtered cigarettes along the way.

The point is this: physically speaking, the Tarahumara should be horrible long-distance runners. But mentally speaking, a 160 mile run is achievable for them.

Is entering the Promised Land acheivable for you? If so, rather than isolated to only one or two special areas of interest, is your conviction lived out in actionable ways across the broad spectrum of your entire life?

On the Mind, Body & Spirit

2008-07-09T15:31:00.000-07:00

Here are my margin notes--spiritual things I realized while reading Teacher Jeong's messages during the month of June...

First in the order of importance is to learn how to manage and maintain the physical side of life—the body. Second, develop the spiritual side of life—your spiritual body. Finally, with knowledge of the two take action, for this is how you’ll come to truly value yourself and your surroundings; this is how to create true satisfaction (lasting joy) in life.

The “law of conscience” can also be described as having a “good heart”. God judges based on the word, but to those who have not heard it, he judges based on this universal law (having a good conscience).

The conscience is housed in the ‘mind’, a product of the brain. So when you have a choice to make, three avenues of decision making lay before you: a) decide based on knowledge acquired through the use of your brain, b) decide using wisdom cultivated through prayer and the word, or c) amalgamate the two into a holistically informed, God-willed, determination of action.

The nuts and bolts of this are actually quite simple: the word begets prayer which begets action. Wordà Prayer à Action. Where is the ‘answer’ found? Teacher Jeong says, “… you will realize in your heart,” (ie. in your mind) what must be done.

Now, the caveat: you must control your mind! If you learn to control your mind, controlling your body will naturally follow. With both of these under control your spirit succeeds and your whole being prospers. The controlled mind manages the body, which frees the spirit to succeed. Mind à Body à Spirit.

With the mind controlled and the body managed, the spirit can succeed and in turn enlighten the mind. Again, this is how the human beings (and society as well as culture—in the collective sense) develop holistically; this is the key to balanced physical and spiritual growth. One more time from another perspective: the developed spirit acts upon the mind, producing enlightened thought, which allows you to solve physical problems in novel ways.

A human being functions optimally within a harmonious interaction of mind, body and spirit. Imagine the harmonious ‘being’ to be like three individuals (your mind, your body, and your spirit) seated in a triangle holding a taut rope in each hand. Each rope extends to the next individual and is neither slack nor stretched.

All that is required to maintain the tautness is for each individual to remain pleasantly engaged in the ‘work’ of living life— a sort of ‘edge-of-the-seat’ focus that one would display when involved in a pleasant task they are passionate about. In this posture life is neither overly taxing, nor relaxed beyond necessity. Another way to view this symbotic relationship of mind, body and spirit is with the mnemonic: One Bright Light. ‘One’ refers to the mind—we aught to be one with God’s will. ‘Bright’ refers to the body—we aught to be shining examples of moral purity in our actions. ‘Light’ refers to the spirit—we aught to be one in simjeong with God’s spirit, the Holy Spirit, Jesus’ spirit, and Teacher Jeong, whom we can know through the spirit.

Mind à Body à Spirit

Word à Prayer à Action

One à Bright à Light

Brain neurons are sensitive, however. Worry and anxiety pollutes your neurons with pain—consciously or otherwise. These forms of agony create an artificial tautness in the ropes you are holding (remember the analogy?). That is, your being strives for harmony (tautness of rope), but when this equilibrium (or harmony) is upset because (for example) your mind becomes undisciplined, your being immediately seeks to restore the equilibrium by overcompensating with (for example) your body. That is to say, one part slacks off causing the rope to become loosened. Noticing the slackened rope, the other being pulls harder to bring the rope taut again. Yet, because of this overexertion on one of the parts, the rope is full of tension—the equilibrium is broken, the situation is unsustainable.

However, for some length of time everything will appear to be in control and normal, but in actuality the rope is artificially taut. At some point the overcompensating part relents and the rope falls flat. The more time this scenario happens the more our being is conditioned to survive outside of equilibrium. The imbalance/overcompensation in our being becomes habitual, and over time this lopsided sort of life becomes a new standard under which decisions are made, life is lived, and children are raised.

The good news is that nothing is impossible if God makes it possible—including rebalancing your life. In order to do this our responsibility, outside of receiving the word, praying, and taking action, is to cultivate momentum. Momentum is a by-product of confidence. Confidence is the result of a clear and focused mind coupled with taking action. This is a very important point, because confidence is not exclusive to the realms of success. One can fail many thousands of times and maintain confidence so long as the mind remains clear and focused. That is to say, a whole lot of knowledge and wisdom can be salvaged from the ruins of utter failure. Don’t simply equate confidence to be a product of success.

Imagine a field goal kicker practicing kick after kick from the 40 yard line. Each time he misses the uprights he has an opportunity to know why. Perhaps his foot placement was slightly too high—he adjusts and tries again. With each failed kick the kicker adjusts his aim, all the time growing more confident that he’ll one day perfect the kick. No one would ever suggest that the variables are chance or fate—hardly! The variables are his persistence and skill level.

In any case, the entire process of rebalancing your life must be anchored with skill and persistence—skilled action, hopeful persistence. Each time you miss the mark (ie. sin) you have an opportunity to correct your aim (repent) and try again, with confidence, so long as your mind is clear and focused.

Finally it makes sense!

2008-06-24T20:48:00.000-07:00

I scribbled this realization in my margin notes during a message Teacher Jeong's gave from June 11th through 15th, in which he wrote principally about 'progressive salvation' (my terminology, not his). What I understood from his teaching is that salvation always fits the situation--that is, Jews, Muslims, Catholics and Protestants who believe in God and Jesus in their own way receive a measure of salvation according to their faith. He said, in effect, that people aught to live knowing that God makes salvation history in ways that fit the situations of all the people of the world.

So this got me thinking about 'progressive salvation'. Progression implies a linear development, or at very least a staged development... that is, A to B to C and so on--point being that there is a logic behind it; one does not progress from A to C whilst skipping over B. They might for a while, but eventually they'll have to go back through B. We know that God requires us to be obedient in the small things before he'll promote us to the big things. This is a universal 'law' in one sense, as no surgeon is allowed to perform surgery if they haven't passed medical school, right? Or, no soldier is put in command of a whole regiment when they are yet unable to command a platoon. The Bible teaches us its exactly the same with God.

This whole concept of 'progressive salvation' seems to be misunderstood. Mainstream Protestant Christianity says basically salvation only exists within the context of a 'born again' experience, and New Age religions say that all roads lead to salvation. It appears that the distinction Teacher Jeong is making is that all these various forms of salvation are not equal--salvation is progressive. The Jewish faith views God as a Master and themselves as a servant. Jesus was abhorrent to many Jews because he viewed God as a Father and himself a son. This was a progression not only of spiritual intimacy, but also of salvation (sons were also co-heirs, remember). Jeong, of course, teaches that believers of God should not stop there, but rather strive to become lovers of God--a progression from Christian salvation.

Of course, this drives Christians nuts in exactly the same way that Jesus drove many Jews nuts with his 'I and the Father are one' lines. Mostly this is because people, by default, are critical of change, but also it is because they are accustomed to reading 'physically' teachings that were intended to be read 'spiritually'. For this reason many make perverted accusations against Jeong, citing his insistence that believers strive to become lovers of God.

In any case, 1 Corinthians 15:20-23 makes much more sense in light of Jeong's teaching. I've added parenthesis in order to help you read it from this new perspective:

"But Christ has indeed been (spiritually) raised from the dead, the first-fruits of those who have fallen asleep (died spiritually). For since (spiritual) death came through a man (Adam), the (spiritual) resurrection of the (spiritual) dead comes also through a man (Jesus). For as in Adam all (spiritually) die, so in Christ all will be made (spiritually) alive. But each in his own turn: Christ, the first-fruits; then, when he comes, those who belong to him."

So then, the question becomes quite poignant: who are those who belong to him?

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Forgiveness Through Change

2008-06-07T14:32:00.000-07:00

Here are my margin notes from a message in which Teacher Jeong delivered over 60 potent proverbs. One in particular caught me off guard. It reads:

Some are forgiven for their sins and treated like they were before they sinned, while others are forgiven who aren't treated like they were before they sinned. God treats a person according to whether they have changed for the better after striving with all their heart, will and life. (My paraphrase)

I must have read this proverb a dozen times upon first seeing it. It filled me with mixed emotions. In my heart I know it to be true, because I have experienced it myself in my relationship with God. I suppose the reason is shocked me so, was because it contrasts so sharply with the 'unwritten' law of cheap grace so available in Christianity.

Reading this proverb inspired me to review Jesus' sermon on the mount. How quickly people dismiss Jesus' sermon on morality as impractical--if not overtly, then by the way they live. How grateful I am to have a living example of Jesus' morality--perfected rather than dismissed, to learn from.

Teacher Jeong often says the most important thing to accomplish in your life is change--to be a better person today than you were yesterday. After meditating on this proverb and reading Jesus' words from his famous sermon, I realize that if there is no forgiveness without repentance, and that true repentance is to not return to sin, then forgiveness is obtained by positive change... and indeed, cheap grace is just another degree of self-deception.

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