WHen I was a kid one of the things we were taught was Christ is the light of the world. And he is. But I missed the context and the implication.

“America was founded on Christianity but instead of reverence we get a To Kill a Mockingbird trial for every page of the Bible.”

— Fred (@fwoodbridge) August 29, 2014

The Pharisees were the theologians of the day. Christ himself said that they sat in the chair of Moses. They were the conservatives, and they could not get Christ. He did not fit inside their paradigm. So they told him to be quiet, you are not qualified to teach, stand down.

I Am the Light of the World

Again Jesus spoke to them, saying, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.” So the Pharisees said to him, “You are bearing witness about yourself; your testimony is not true.” Jesus answered, “Even if I do bear witness about myself, my testimony is true, for I know where I came from and where I am going, but you do not know where I come from or where I am going. You judge according to the flesh; I judge no one. Yet even if I do judge, my judgment is true, for it is not I alone who judge, but I and the Father who sent me. In your Law it is written that the testimony of two people is true. I am the one who bears witness about myself, and the Father who sent me bears witness about me.” They said to him therefore, “Where is your Father?” Jesus answered, “You know neither me nor my Father. If you knew me, you would know my Father also.” These words he spoke in the treasury, as he taught in the temple; but no one arrested him, because his hour had not yet come.

(John 8:12-20 ESV)

The Pharisees were a clerisy: a ruling class of clerks. Seeing the world through the filters that they had made and only allowing that discourse to exist. Not allowing their world view to be challenged. The parallels with the current academic groupthink is stunning, where only those with accepted views are allowed to speak. This is often called the Cathedral, for the academic and elite speak as one, and preach progressivism.

The clerisy includes the conservative power elite — both now, where politics and post modernism are the languages of choice, and in the time of Israel, where the Pharisees were arguing with the more Hellenized Sadducees.

What does Christ do? Proclaim that he is of God, (The use of ‘my father’ would have been obvious: and this explains the comment that he was not arrested because his time had not come. The council condemned him as a blasphemer). And say that the clerisy do not know him, and are not part of him.

Our current clerisy consider us all as voting fodder, to be manipulated in the ballot box and milked of money. They have bought into the progressive dream that a government can do anything. The Stuart Kings were not that foolish — even before one of them was decapitated by Parliament. the consequences of their policies have been the failure of marriages, the shattering of families and the multicultural destruction of society.

Do not be them, and do not be like them.

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On the destruction of society, one can bring into a western nation others provided they will integrate. Having the same religion helps. Besides, in England, it improved the cuisine as the Huguenots (then the French refugees from the revolution, and many from Europe) became british. It is when you have a group that refuse to bow their heads to Christ first and then the crown that you have problems.

Arab Christians from the Levant? Great. Muslims that will convert. Superb. Fundamentalists — particularly when they are taught that the greater nation is theirs to rob and enslave, are a cancer. The current example would be Pakistani child sex circles in Rotherham. But an earlier, example would be the first Mormons, who managed to be such a poor set of neighbours that they were kicked out of Ohio.

Yes, we are all one in Christ, but that is in Christ. If one moves to England, one becomes English, if Germany, German: you learn the language and adopt the customs. Otherwise, you stay home: even in the English speaking world there are radical differences between nations, regions within the nations, and one can have culture shock.