The Experience of Christ

[Cal]

Originally Posted by aron

The problem here is that here we trust our common sense, just like once we trusted WL. Both are suspect: we remain in the flesh of sin, with a fallen soul, and its ideational outputs. Our mental constructions are ephemeral at best, and delusional at worst. There may indeed be food, and the experience of eating food. Likewise, there is Christ (Jesus, the Nazarene, who died and rose again), and there is the experience of Christ (for the obedient believer who endures in the faith).

The above shows a lack of common sense. No, really. This is what I'm talking about. If all your mental constructs are ephemeral and delusional then the above statement is as well, and I should ignore it.

In other words, if you don't have at least some confidence in your ability to sense reality, then you can never do it. It certainly is a contradiction for you to be pontificating if you think your mental constructs are delusional.

Originally Posted by aron

Ontologically speaking, therefore, we may posit the existence of a thing called "the experience of Christ". But I caution that if we pay any undue attention to this thing, we get nothing, because it's merely a mental construction. We must pay attention to Christ. The so-called "experience of Christ" was constructed by WL to sell books and cassette tapes and so forth.

Meh. As I said, thinking in terms of experiencing Christ is useful in that it reminds us that we are to have real encounters with the living God, not just theoretical ponderings about him.

And Lee didn't invent the idea, nor does he own it. Others have taught the idea.

See here: http://lfwy.co/1D1tt2S

I don't think of ordering my life based on what Lee did or didn't do. I've learned from his mistakes, but I don't go around with a "is this like Lee" detector all the time like I'm afraid of my shadow or something.

Originally Posted by aron

Anyone who goes to the church meeting and says they're 'experiencing Christ' is not. Some, conversely, may indeed experience Christ, but they are not paying attention to that.

Yeah, you are kind of cranky this morning. But that's okay, it humanizes you when you admit such things. As for your comment. It's pretty funny. There's no such thing as food either and I've never eaten any, nor have you. "Food" is just a mental construct.