God is dead in the Society

 

God is dead in the Society

DOI: 10.13140/RG.2.2.25444.55683

       Forty years after I was baptised, I trust that my only way to contribute the faith is by writing. I do wish that I may upload an essay with a topic related to ‘death’ on the day of my 40 years anniversary of my baptised. As ‘death’ and ‘four’ are homophones in Chinese. I may put myself to be considered as a man of treason as I would like to recall the famous proposition of Friedrich Nietzsche that ‘God is dead’. As we may not apprehend ‘God is dead’ simply as a proposition with an intention to be an anti-Christ, it may disclose the more critical fact that God was killed by us (Christian) and allow malfunctioning of the God in our daily life. Therefore, it may be a reality that God is dead in the society.

       Flash back to 40 years ago, nobody attended my baptise ceremony. The only one I know who appeared in my baptise ceremony declared that he came to see some other who was baptised in the same ceremony. It is shameful for the church to boast their love to their brothers and sisters and discard their endless bully to those who are not in a group with them. At that day I ensure I can obtained support by more than hundred signatures from my school to clear my name that labelled by those wickeds, those wickeds with arrogant and without listen to the God, Mr. xx Tse judged me, ‘you are wrong as everybody says you are wrong,’ But those said ‘I am wrong’ was only four of them. Should I report his cases to the Office for Safeguarding National Security? As this so-called human being who beguiled the post of an elder imagines how to die for his religion one day under the suppression of his supposed wicked Chinese government. However, this so-called man avenge to a young sister by the advantage of his post of elder after the young sister discovered his act of smoking at a corner of the venue during an activity of the church.

       There are full of bullies in the churches. I may be judged as not willing to serve the church, but it might be ridiculer or crazy that if I can serve the church happily under a circumstance with endless bully. After decade I graduated from my secondary school, my old schoolmates would inform me that they believed God at the first sight they meet me again. It is a proof that I have made myself an image of a preacher all around the school in the sight of my schoolmates, not only I was noticed by the schoolmaster on those days. However, the church can pay only notice and love on those in company with them. As having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end.[1]

       Which church is free from bully? It should be a good church if there is no bully in the church. A common way of bully in a church is musical bully. As one like to criticise one’s peer wrong in singing while his peer never concern good or bad in singing. The gift of singing makes you somebody, promotes social stratification, allows you to look down your congregation with mercy and shows off your beautiful voice. Supposing service in the realm of music for church for years, the fact is the participation in musical bully on the congregation of the church for years. In 2017, I was suffered from musical bully. I have not received any one word of apologies more than six years now. I will never forgive his act according to Cap. 347. Don’t ask me why I don’t forgive other seventy-seven times, as I was never forgiven as I couldn’t sing one time due to too tired. Yes, people might like to forgive others, but please put your trespass out of my body first. Have you any feeling that what you are doing?

       Sometimes, I want to test the God, the forbidden act that you should never do. I do want to know whether God never concern my suffering from the injustice I come across. In 2019, I wrote three prayers for guiding children in finding God during a service of a short period preaching exercise. However, the leader of the activity makes it as his creation in a publication of the church accidently. Four years now, God may have no intention to clarify the copyright. In 2006, I was laid off trustily caused by disturbance of my boss’s Fung Fei setting as his setting stopped in front of my seat where I filled the place by gospel posters. It might be my mis-understanding that considering God is the one who would bless me in another aspect, it is still extraordinary out-proportional in my renumatal in compare with those who trust no God. Whether God is unable to bless me? I know God would not step into human society casually. But I was treated as traitor and unbeliever while I murmur for my unfortunate due to the injustice. Whether you accept or critiques prosperity theology is depend to you standpoint. You may consider whether the application is benefit to you or not. You may consider whether the guy who prosper or not is your people or not.

       People are apathetic while an obvious unreasonable phenomenon happened. It is logical to act rationally, but people act obvious irrationally.

       The pastor of my present church said: the theological graduates nowadays are generally too arrogant. My pastor know none, the theological graduates have been too arrogant for many years. The point is whether they remember that “God opposes the proud but shows favor to the humble.”[2] They study the Bible.

       My point is: it cannot be manipulated the faith without that three years training in theology as faith concerning a life, but it also cannot be manipulated the faith based only on the surficial training of theology within that three years training as faith concerning a life.

       Many pastors and preachers in Hong Kong like to entice and lead their congregation to Sodom based on their bias. Have they read the Bible?[3] Sodom was a wealthy place filled with homosexual act.[4] Don’t say that! It is a trend in present era as UK Medotist allow homosexual wedding[5] and Canada pass the C6 bill.[6] However the story of God rained down burning sulfur on Sodom and Gomorrah happened again in BC after the bill C6 passed.[7]

       No! There is democracy in the West. The world is perfect and without any deficiency once there is democracy. ‘Democracy’ has been constructed to be a symbol well buddle with all beautiful and brightly things. We have been pull down into a society under the spell of ‘democracy’ by this symbolic artifact without concerning the circumstance of a Liberal Democracy that get rid of Protestantism Christianity Moral Value, which is trusted by many scholars as the initiative of the modern democracy. American treat the holy name of our Lord Jesus Christ as a foul language. How to not define this kind of country those disregard their own deity as the centre of evil? But they define other countries as evil except itself and its friend and entice aversoary everywhere. This country is an anti-christ.

       Would you like to label me as a particular colour as I criticise your beloved USA? But you are not an American. You may treat me as hasten to pay flattering to China in this time of Sino-US wrestling. Yes! China may be less hypercritic compared with USA as Chinese treats always the God is dead. Since Zhou Dynasty, Chinese replaces the ‘heaven’ by their ethical view. Chinese consider that ‘heaven’ as their ultimate concern but it is considered as malfunction in their society as the God that agree to the supposition of Friedrich Nietzsche. People live their lives by the efforts of themselves and not allow the ‘heaven’, the God, the deities to step in. China comes to be a neglect-christ. The ultimate driving force of ethical behaviour and living is ‘behave yourself even you are alone’.[8] But a woman was suffered from breast touching while she fainted and fell in XuJiaHui Shanghai. Over five thousand years of development of Chinese ethical philosophy makes Chinese champion in ethics, but nobody can act morally.

       You may criticise me as a guy know nothing of forgiveness. You may teach me to forgive other by seventy-seven times. Yes! I agree not to demand other too high and leave some space for this imperfect world as humankind cannot be perfect after all. However, the problem today is not lack of forgiveness but too much indulgence. People are indulged to a point that many people don’t know they are wrong, never confess they are wrong, have no intention to go away from their wrong, and reach a situation that they fill up the world with extraordinary madly wrong under anti-wisdom with everyone do as one sees fit. A pious Christian who enthuse in gospel preaching and join a lot of missionary activities both local and international. One day, he came to me and said he would like to visit a prostitute. He paid and he would preach her the gospel after enjoy her sex service.

       Do you know what are you doing? In 2017, while everybody in the church enthused in musical service, a man wailed for his loss of his father. I forgot my practice in singing, but participated in conformation works for him. While the leader of singing practice delivered a guiding, an arrogant man, so-called brother in lord, scored me fiercely for hiding his wrong in singing a musical note. As I was too tired at that time with lost my concentration for I enthused in conformation service, I sung nothing correct. It was nothing forgiveness for only one musical note, in the scene that someone wailed bitterly for his losing of father. The waling that nobody would neglect, even an unbeliever. But the highly privileged musical servant of the highest God paid no attention of this wailing, but enjoy in his feeling good. What do the God want? What are this Christians doing? Which is the God want? Beautiful song from your human month or a cold water for a needed?[9] So what are you doing? A musical service or a musical bully? The God is crazy is HE accept your service. No! The god is never crazy. Therefore, you those arrogant with know nothing treat the God is dead.  You may be unconsciously follow a rigid pattern to be a sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal.[10] Whether this Christians understand or have intention to understand what is the will of the God or not? In the praying meeting one time every month, that enthuse in musical service have seldom attend.

       “Treason! Treason!’ shouted Athaliah.[11] Yes, I may be considered as a traitor as I criticise churches and USA. ‘Treason’ and ‘traitor’ – how a good word reveal some natures of the present churches on the earth. Which one would you consider as a traitor? I criticise the present phenomenon of churches and would like you to change, or you have not act properly according to the Bible and allow the whole world to condemn your religion? It discloses the natural of social constructionism of the churches on the earth. Christians stick to the relationship, pattern, tradition and what they like that social constructed by their norm circle without observe the truthes which are written in the Bible. Are you a Christian? Yes, I know that you may criticise that we cannot be good without the help of God. I am not promoting a move to encourage people to be a good man by natural effort with obey the scripture. I know everybody can be good by the help of the God. However, the phenomenon is many Christians deliberately not to act well with astray from his proper way in the faith as they trust that God will forgive them in all circumstances. Many Christians enthuse in singing and dancing, but only a few enthuse in praying and Bible reading. What are you doing, Christians? A wife of a preacher complained his husband as arrogant one day when her husband discussed with her theology. She said, ‘whether all you guy learning theology are arrogant?’ But she become a preacher with her husband to preach gospel in Africa later. What will she preach? Would she consider she has preached the gospel after she has play a boardgames with some children in Africa?

       Everybody in churches enthuses in building relationship. Don’t talk with me ‘Sola scriptura’, ‘Sola fide’, ‘Sola gratia’ …, the only reality in a church is ‘Sola relazione’. Everybody hastes to circulate the bare knowledge and experience they got or learnt, or the knowledge, experience, value, pattern … already circulated within the community of churches. Eventually, ‘Jesus Christ’, ‘doctrine’, ‘value in faith’, ‘common church activities’ … all of them become a symbolic artefacts, adopted as a tool for solidity a norm circle. People are recognised in the norm circle, and everybody gets their identities within. However, there is no difference between the God with Wong Tai Sin, both of them are a tool for the use of people. Nobody insists for the truth and raises up to against the unconscious secularisation of churches.

       You may know that mathematics and logic are considered as truth in academic sector generally. Christianity acts not against this proposition, but supports it. If you cannot make yourself not to be influenced by the common opinions of the public, or the stumble of the conventional value of the tradition, discard the unpleasure you suffered from the consequence of common bias, deny the insight given by the logic, you stray from the truth of the God and make the God malfunction in your everyday life. As you might know ‘social construction of reality’. The truth agreed by the whole world can be not the reality. Structuralism may be in a better status, as social structure has been tested by time, the knowledge created under social structure may be more close to the reality. However, as the changing of the era, the truth yesterday may not be the truth of today. It may not be wise to insist the truth created in the social structure without accept the judgement of logic.

       The only way for us to close to the God may be back to the truth. But the society has not insisted this persistence. The society either insist the element already present in the social structure or enthuse in social construction of new knowledge or both. The ultimate truth may be a great and mighty thing that too hard for us. We are looking for a temporary stand-point, either a tradition has been run for years or a trend supported by many people recently. Why the people like to promote ‘live in the time’, ‘life affect live’ …? It shows that people may touch never the God. What is Chamistic and Evanglism? People haste in forming norm circle without applying their discernment.

       It seems that it is not us, the common men can do in our life to find out the ultimate truth. Fortunately, there is a concept of ‘already but not yet’ in theology. It means that the truth is ready, but we are unable to totally embrace it by moment. We may experience and taste the spirit of professional if we insist of searching the truth. Therefore, we may make ourselves much more close to the God when we insist professionalism even we cannot own the ultimate truth by moment. I dislike for some pastors may ask me what I want him/her to do after he/she receives my comments. As a well trained pastors with well study of theology, they should know what they need to do. Stick to professional, theology find it place in every practice.

       The development of history brings our civilisation passed through fear of ghost to fear of god. The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom as said in the Bible.[12] The society of China changed from enquiry to ghost for every decision to consider abide with ethical value as a way to satisfy the will of the heaven from Shang Dynasty to Chau Dynasty in China. The way to motivate development of the society is no longer based on fear of supernatural power, but voluntary obey to the ultimate principles. However, the society nowadays is indeed is moved base on agree to either social structure or social construction. Could we apply the concept of ‘already but not yet’ as a new approach in this era? This is the professionalism. Professionalism can be a form of ideology. But it has no necessary to refer to the definition of professionalism as ideology as set by the papers and works done by the vest interest group that define it is a prove of obedience to the professional leadership of the government. In fact, the representative system can be a way of dictatorship. As the present time with popular education available everywhere, many people manipulate professional knowledge and skill. Therefore, professionalism as an ideology can be the way of conflict resolution and resource allocation based on objective professional knowledge and skill that we are commonly processed.

       How come God is dead? It is because the society, especially the Christian treat God is dead. Therefore, God is no longer present in the society or churches. However, the reality of the society is not always reality. God is dead in the society cannot prove that God is dead. In the contrary, as God can never dead, it is the society present in the condition of deceased. In a Japanese film, ‘Crying for love in the centre of the world’, the actress foresees the end of the world is coming. At last, it is not the end of the world, but the end of herself in the world.

Commenced at 2:30pm on 24 March 2023

Completed at 9:56pm on 14 Apirl 2023

Upload and publish on Researchgate on 10 July 2023

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[1] John 13:1

[2] 1 Peter 5:5

[3] Genesis 13:13

[4] Genesis 19:4-5

[5] The Revd Eden J Fletcher, “The decision of the British Methodist Conference to allow same sex marriage to be held on Church premises”, on Journal of The Methodist Church, Hong Kong, 279, Jan-Feb (2022), pp. 18-19.

[6] Karin Phillips and Julian Walker, Bill C-6 An Act to Amend the Criminal Code (Conversion Therapy), Ottawa, Canada: Library of Parliament, 2020. It is an act to ban “Conversion Therapy” for those wish to back to normal from homosexual life.

[7] ‘Most homes’ in Lytton, B.C., destroyed by catastrophic fire in 2021 after C-6 bill.

[8] An ancestral classic old book: The University refers

[9] Matthew 10:42

[10] 1 Corinthians 13:1

[11] 2 Chronicles 23:13

[12] Proverbs 9:10