LEGALISM
Everyone is expected to know the law of the country in which one lives and works.
From a legal point of view, this means that no one has an excuse when he/she violates these laws.
In general, legislation is divided into two large pieces; offenses for small missteps, such as ignoring a red traffic light and crimes, such as murder and manslaughter.
In case of being guilty of a violation, it can usually be bought off by paying a fine.
Crimes risk imprisonment.
All punishments, whether it is a violation or a crime, have the purpose that a person understands the error of their acting and that a repetition of these facts is prevented.
In principle no person is written off by a legislator unless he/she has to serve a life sentence.
Furthermore, sooner or later everyone will have the opportunity to return to society.
Where necessary, this person can even request assistance from probation institutions.
” In principle no person is written off by a legislator unless he/she has to serve a life sentence; furthermore, sooner or later everyone will have the opportunity to return to society “
In this respect, the government is in most cases very mild and in a way forgiving for its subjects, even if the speeding ticket has to be paid and/or the sentence is served.
No one can evade this mechanism of legislation.
Everyone learns to live with a government that determines what is good and what is not.
Sometimes even to absurd levels, depending on what country you live in.
Anyway, people have to deal with it and will or will not have to conform to it to a greater or lesser extent.
All too often leaders who are in power try to establish and/or change laws in such a way that their views on what is and is not allowed, what is good and what is not, is expressed in the legislation.
In most cases the interests of their citizens are also considered to a greater or lesser extent, otherwise they run the risk of not being re-elected in their position of power.
Dictators such as Putin, Xi Jinping, Erdogan and Duterte have taken on such a power that they don’t fear that much they will loose that power quickly.
Then you will get laws that, (without having a proper process,) make it possible to shoot and kill drug dealers and addicts without having a proper process.
Journalists are jailed without mercy to make free news gathering impossible.
Opponents of the regime can be liquidated at home and abroad without any problem.
In the USA, Trump would also like to have that power and does everything to destroy democratic institutions with the help of lies and deceit.
If Trump manages to do this then the USA will fall into a dictatorship like the Russian Federation.
” A reign of terror will predominate to a significant degree with these kind of rulers in the countries they govern “
One should not be happy to live in Trump-country as a citizen.
The principle of “Everyone is equal before the law and nobody is above the law” is no longer applicable in such a development.
A certain leniency that governments in general show to their subjects will also cease to exist.
A reign of terror will predominate to a significant degree with these kind of rulers in the countries they govern.
Paul says in the New Testament that the government does not bear the sword in vain.
He writes this while living under the often bloody Roman yoke.
A strange statement therefore, if he means to say that Christians simply have to accept every form of government and should regard everything the government does as normal.
It has already been pointed out by the writer in another op-ed piece that the establishment of The Canon, that is to say the writings in the Old and New Testaments as we now know them, is infallible and must be fully accepted as inspired by God, is the greatest mistake the above-ground Christian church has been able to make.
After all, Christians need to distinguish themselves from evil including in governments and in their enforcement of laws in the practice of daily life.
The indiscriminate following of the government and its laws, as propagated by Paul, is therefore sheer nonsense and even dangerous because it hinders the free spirit of the Christian.
Every Christian is therefore personally responsible for how he/she answers in word and deed to the government that is above them.
A problem here is that the church in general, partly because of Paul’s statement, dictates to its members what is or isn’t good.
Over the centuries a system of (spiritual) legislation has developed in all churches that determines what is good and what is not.
This ecclesiastical legislation is even more important than that of the government, within the church falls.
” Legalism is a tool of power, developed over the centuries by leaders sitting on their big ecclesiastical chair to enslave their subjects to become silenced followers, where in their opinion hell and damnation should be proclaimed on anyone who thinks or does otherwise “
Some examples:
– Sex before marriage is a sin;
– Being pregnant before being married, is a very big problem;
– Sex is not to be enjoyed, but to produce;
– Abortion is by definition a sin;
– to divorce and remarry is in principle prohibited;
– Marriage is excluded if you hold the priestly office;
– Marriages between people of the same sex is forbidden;
– People of the same sex who love each other are by definition sinful people and should convert of their practices;
– Watching television is to be influenced by the devil;
– The Holy Communion is literally celebrating the crucified body of Christ;
– An unbaptized, deceased child or someone who committed suicide can’t be buried on sacred ground.
A very long list can be made of all kinds of church legislation and its details.
The ecclesiastical yoke is very hard and difficult to bear in most denominations.
The leaders of the Church use this moralistic law to enslave their members and by doing so making them faithful followers, not of Christ, but of their ecclesial community.
Tying together texts from the Old and New Testaments forms a creed, a credo that every member of a local church/community has to act to accordingly.
If you don’t, you risk becoming excommunicated and becoming isolated from those who are dear to you in that particular community.
Leaders of churches determine the fate of their fellow believers and are significantly less lenient than the secular legislators in the country they live in.
Christ is not the norm, but the creed whether or not put in writing.
Sad, but unfortunately too often true.
Legalism, the doctrine of the church, whatever church, is deadly for a healthy Christian life.
Each denomination has its own legislation and thus determines what is important for the connected believer.
Legalism divides Christians into an infinite number of smaller or bigger groups that usually can’t seem to agree with each other.
Legalism is a tool of power, developed over the centuries by leaders sitting on their big ecclesiastical chair to enslave their subjects to become silenced followers, where in their opinion hell and damnation should be proclaimed on anyone who thinks or does otherwise.
Where did the Spirit of Christ, the Love of God that makes all people one, go?
It disappeared in the sewer of ecclesiastical dogmatic legalism!
