Catharsis

κάθαρσις

Catharsis (from Greek κάθαρσις, katharsis, meaning "purification" or "cleansing" or "clarification")
is the purification and purgation of emotions—particularly pity and fear—
through art or any extreme change in emotion that results in renewal and restoration. 
It is a metaphor originally used by Aristotle in the Poetics,
comparing the effects of tragedy on the mind of a spectator to the effect of catharsis on the body. (Wikipedia)

Two other Greek New Testament words of interest are about taking off the mask of hypocrisy we all wear.

ἀνυπόκριτος
ὑποκρίνομαι

Many professing Christians today are  Disconnected! 

There was a certain prudishness about sex when I was a boy. We had discovered painfully that Santa Claus was a myth perpetrated by parents at the end of the year. The girls giggled and the boys blushed when our Sex Ed teacher made sure were were disposed of the legend that babies were “delivered” by a stork. When we put a baby tooth in a glass of water at night, sure enough the tooth fairy replaced it with a quarter!

Small children often have imaginary companions and we all loved it when mom read us kids Fairy Tales at bedtime. Growing up in Shoshone, Idaho for the first ten years of my life I was sent to the movie matinée on Saturday with 20 cents extra for popcorn. That gave mom and dad a couple of hours of peace and quiet. Snow White and the Seven Dwarves in Technicolor (1937) was mind-blowing as was the Wizard of Oz  (1939).

Kids always intuitively suspect there are many secrets grown-ups are keeping from them. Parents know all sorts of things-- but they can't or won't tell. They may ponder how to ease their offspring from the innocence of childhood into real life? Can't blame them if they are overprotective! Exploring the hidden side, fairly tales, witches and goblins is lots of fun when you are really a small person. Sometimes the offspring think they know more than their out of touch parents. But real life don't work that way. The outside world is Loco, Loco, Loco.

"Common Grace" from our loving Creator flows down on saints and sinners alike! Adam and Eve were told to be fruitful and multiply. That they have done! In just a few thousand years the world population has reached (8 billion is 8000 million) persons. For a reality-check watch the real time data depicted on the web site WorldoMeters. Specifically: Current World Population. We don't need any more babies, but abortion is murderous. Recreational sex ought to quietly come to and end for the unmarried. My $ .02.

There is probably no need for further physical sex. See if you agree. The End of Sex

Jesus Christ today, now sits at the place of highest authority in the Universe. He is holy. Holy-Holy. Holy-Holy-Holy. Because He is also Just, He judges individuals, angels and nations.

The links below should clarify that in case you didn't know.

The important point here is that our Creator knows everything! Nothing escapes His notice! It was self evident that babies (including me and my sister) happened because our parents “had sex.” It must have been awful—once per child in the middle of the night, man on top, woman on the bottom. Lights out. Hurry up and get it over quick, —guilt after—“we must never do that again.”

 Unbelievable? Nope! Standard fare in my Junior High Boys Locker Room (1945). If sex in marriage was so terrible, what about us "innocent" kids entering puberty. We thought in terms of love--whatever true love was. God only knows but we gotta find out for ourselves.

I remember the spate of books for parents —The Joy of Sex (1972), The Kinsey Reports (1948-1953). The counterculture protests: The Joys of Gay Sex (1977), Playboy Magazine (1953), The Advocate…

The Full Blown Sexual Revolution (1960-1980) — now taken for granted — was actually a major National Step Backwards as the 1996 book by Robert Bork depicted. Brian Fischer in 2009 reviewed it thus: “Judge Robert Bork wrote a book a number of years ago in which he described an America that was "slouching towards Gomorrah." Well, you can forget the slouching part. We are now running pell-mell, headlong toward Gomorrah, racing into the moral abyss at breakneck speed. We are no longer on some kind of slippery slope. The United States is going over a moral Niagara in a flimsy barrel.”

What has gone unnoticed is the illusion of progress. The Theory of Evolution -- as it was imagined and peddled by her inventors -- has now proven to be pure myth. The Scientific Revolution is now petering out. Lots of people see all the contradictions in the rhetoric of politicians and the hypocrisy of most mainline churches. But, no one bothers to read through the Bible. God has told us how we got here, what He is like. He has explained that all our actions have consequences. He is patient and forbearing, however if He doesn't intervene soon we'll drive the wide road to destruction. We have never been "masters of our own fate, captains our of own soul." That too is a myth.

It's easier to talk about sex because it's a perennial favorite in gyms, locker rooms, counselors' offices, the wardroom, the basement, and the bedroom. If you are tired of sex, there is plenty to talk about in terms of money, politics, power, origins. But please turn off the TV, be picky about chat rooms and Zoom meetings you visit. Hunker down and ask the living God to show you which was is up and how to tell right from wrong. And, yes, there are good books and bad. "Civilization" as we know of is a thin veneer over the savage beast! Please read through the whole Bible more than once a year. Hang out with good people, -- "bad company ruins good morals." Here are some links for your leisure reading on other topics.

For the rest of you, back to the basics of the birds and the bees! God likes sex. He created it with the main intention of populating an empty planet with people, children, farms and ranches, villages, towns and great shining cities. Sexuality in Christ is hinted at in love songs, ballads, poems, legends of yesterday -- but the entropy about real sex is now very high. (Entropy is a physicist's way of measuring order in the universe--it's a kind of barometer of holiness. Low entropy is order and harmony.) The primary purpose of sex in the beginning was having kids. God is not an old fogey, nor a spoil sport so He did include pleasure along with intimate knowing of one's partner in the whole package.

So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them. Then God blessed them, and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it; have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that moves on the earth.”  

And God said, “See, I have given you every herb that yields seed which is on the face of all the earth, and every tree whose fruit yields seed; to you it shall be for food. “Also, to every beast of the earth, to every bird of the air, and to everything that creeps on the earth, in which there is life, I have given every green herb for food”; and it was so.

Then God saw everything that He had made, and indeed it was very good. So the evening and the morning were the sixth day. (Genesis 1:27-31)

Many people assume that Adam and Eve had only three kids: Cain, Abel, and Seth. No way! Note that by the time of Adam's death when he was 930 years old, he would have been surrounded by at least ten thousand descendants and 120,000 would not be unreasonable!

The people of God are challenged to live differently than the rest of mankind:

"But do not let immorality or any impurity or greed even be named among you, as is proper among saints; and there must be no filthiness and silly talk, or coarse jesting, which are not fitting, but rather giving of thanks. For this you know with certainty, that no immoral or impure person or covetous man, who is an idolater, has an inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God. Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of these things the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience. Therefore do not be partakers with them; for you were formerly darkness, but now you are light in the Lord; walk as children of light (for the fruit of the light consists in all goodness and righteousness and truth), trying to learn what is pleasing to the Lord. And do not participate in the unfruitful deeds of darkness, but instead even expose them; for it is disgraceful even to speak of the things which are done by them in secret. But all things become visible when they are exposed by the light, for everything that becomes visible is light. For this reason it says, 'Awake, sleeper, and arise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.'" (Ephesians 5:3-14)

Brian Morgan, an old friend, back in 1989, said, "Don't be a secret service Christian! ...When you expose your life, everything that becomes visible by the light becomes light. Light transforms what it illumines into light. Our righteous lives not only convict, they also convert...We should never introduce our ethics to people without presenting Christ as the solution for theirs. The answer to life is not found in ethics and the law; it is found in Jesus the Messiah. Do you leave the impression on your unbelieving friends that they offend you because of their ethics or that they grieve you because they are not experiencing life? What amazes me in this text is that Paul says the end of my sexuality is not physical. He takes my sexuality to a spiritual dimension, beyond the carnal, and says the ultimate fulfillment of life is found in having spiritual children. This is why the apostle could exalt singleness in the New Testament saying, "Even though I am single, I have a family and thousands of children who are holy and righteous. The end of my sexuality is not just physical sex or having physical children. It is sharing Jesus Christ and developing spiritual children in a spiritual community, a new Zion." This is the end of our sexuality and why we can tell single people, "'If you are not married, you have a high calling and can be fulfilled in your sexuality by sharing Christ." Which approach to the world of evil do you take? Are you a Pharisee whose focus on morality is solely external? Are you an isolationist cutting yourself off from the world and thus missing God's salvation? Or are you a Sadducee placing your hope on politics rather than on love and truth?"

Two Approaches

There are two different approaches to morality and ethics in society. Both give valid insights and both are helpful. The first approach deals with outward behavior, with conduct that is observable by others. Wrong behavior is behavior which damages God, oneself, or others. A wide variety of forms of harmful conduct are restrained by government, by law, by punishment, and by education. It is well known that these efforts do not solve the problem at the source. Restraint of human evil does make life bearable in a society that would otherwise revert to anarchy and lawlessness in short order. The courts of the land, are supposed to measure outward behavior against fixed moral guidelines and to determine guilt or innocence largely on the basis of objective evidence. Objective evidence does not always deal fairly with motivations for behavior, with mitigating circumstances, with the nuances connected with crimes of passion. Man-made laws in today's world typically have little to do God's Law, and the lack of justice in today's courts is legend. "Because wickedness will abound, the love of most men will grow cold." (Matthew 24:12)

The second approach in dealing with harmful or dysfunctional behavior in individuals or in society is to treat wrong or harmful behavior as disease. The cure for such inappropriate behavior is supposed by many today to be therapy or education or re-training of the offender. The liberal minded who reject the Biblical revelation of man's total depravity assume that man is basically good and can be improved by dispelling man's ignorance or by ministering to him understanding and tolerance. From a Biblical point of view it is true that wrong behavior is indeed the fruit on the plant whose root is man's depraved nature and sinfulness. Jeremiah is quite clear about this when he says, 

"The heart of man is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked, who is able to understand it?" (Jeremiah 17:9) 

"Jesus called the people to him again, and said to them, 'Hear me, all of you, and understand: there is nothing outside a man which by going into him can defile him; but the things which come out of a man are what defile him.' And when he had entered the house, and left the people, his disciples asked him about the parable. And he said to them, 'Then are you also without understanding? Do you not see that whatever goes into a man from outside cannot defile him, since it enters, not his heart but his stomach, and so passes on?' (Thus he declared all foods clean.) And he said, 'What comes out of a man is what defiles a man. For from within, out of the heart of man, come evil thoughts, fornication, theft, murder, adultery, coveting, wickedness, deceit, licentiousness, envy, slander, pride, foolishness. All these evil things come from within, and they defile a man.'" (Mark 7:14-23) 

"The end of the matter; all has been heard. Fear God, and keep his commandments; for this is the whole of man. For God will bring every deed into judgment, with every secret thing, whether good or evil" (Ecclesiastes 12:13,14). 

The deepest healing of sin and morally dysfunctional behavior takes place when men and women receive the grace of God and avail themselves of the inner cleansing and healing offered by the risen Lord Jesus. Broken sinful men and women can and do become whole persons by the grace of God. The emphasis here is on the second method of dealing with human evil-outlined above---in what ways are we broken people and how is that we can become whole?  The healing of persons best happens in community with others of like mind. Lone-Ranger Christians don't usually last very long.

From time to time scientific papers have claimed to show evidence for genetic factors that account for adultery, prostitution, promiscuity or homosexuality. Should such factors be discovered human beings are not thereby excused for their behavior by any means. God always makes full provision for any individual to live a fulfilling life, pleasing to Him, regardless of inborn predispositions, family life, handicaps or faulty environment. Once we agree that man is totally depraved in the sight of God we may as well begin also to look for defective genes that lead to gossip, pride, irresponsibility, laziness, or a violent temper. Eventually all behavior will then be excusable on biological grounds alone. It is characteristic of modern man not only to deny God but to attempt by all means possible to rationalize or excuse behavior that is clearly wrong -- harmful to society and repugnant to God.

It is certainly conceivable that some personality types are predisposed to aberrant behavior. Genetic defects affecting the sexual organs or hormone imbalances are rare. A good deal of sexual behavior is learned behavior, governed by habit patterns and associated "brain wiring." Behavioral malfunctions can be transmitted, but not genetically, as far as is known. Dysfunctional, illegal, inappropriate, or immoral sexual behavior must be explained on some other basis than appealing to bad genes. "Sin" is contagious and no vaccine is efficacious--only the blood of Jesus can deal with root evil.

"The Sins Of The Fathers" 

"The LORD, the LORD, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children and the children's children, to the third and the fourth generation" (Exodus 34:5-7).

Revival or Ruination?

There ain’t no hope for real renewal now.  Revival unlikely! The root of the problem is our National distaste for the real God! Fairly recent a George Barna survey of Americans showed that about 30 percent of us profess Christianity as our religion. But a closer study found that only 6% of us know Jesus Christ personally. That leaves an imMoral Majority of 94%!

Jesus, his motley crew of twelve dudes, and the Apostles (such as Paul) turned the world of the First Century upside down. God never waits for a majority vote or the consensus of a church committee. God is holy, very holy, thrice holy. His very nature is just. 

"The LORD is a man of war: the LORD is his name." ... And out of his mouth goes a sharp sword, that with it he should smite the nations: and he shall rule them with a rod of iron: and he treads the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God.

If you are an observer, watching from the grandstand, getting ready to sit in the Mezzanine of the orbiting City of New Jerusalem, watch as our nation collapses soon, like a house of cards. It's all in the Book!

But we do not want you to be uninformed, brothers and sisters, about those who have died, so that you may not grieve as others do who have no hope. For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, through Jesus, God will bring with him those who have died. For this we declare to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will by no means precede those who have died.  For the Lord himself, with a cry of command, with the archangel’s call and with the sound of God’s trumpet, will descend from heaven, and the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up in the clouds together with them to meet the Lord in the air; and so we will be with the Lord for ever. Therefore encourage one another with these words." (1 Thessalonians 4:13-18)

The left two foot pedals control the Swell Shades, the Right Hand Pedal adds stops until all are sounding (hopefully in tune).
Be careful with the Trumpet stops and the Bombardes

‘It is I, Jesus, who sent my angel to you with this testimony for the churches.
I am the root and the descendant of David, the bright morning star.’ 
The Spirit and the bride say, ‘Come.’
And let everyone who hears say, ‘Come.’
And let everyone who is thirsty come.
Let anyone who wishes take the water of life as a gift.
(Revelation 22:16, 17)

Miscellaneous Related Reading

Dorian Mode Jesus and the Homosexual A Grain of Wheat Jesus, the Hound of Heaven Taking God Seriously Our House of Cards  The Times are aChangin'

Mirrors Christ in You The Consequence Engine Sex and Worship Brokeback Nation  The Ego Papers

Circumcision Christ in You Recovery Jesus our Healer  Disconnected! Conformed to Christ The Exchanged Life

 

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June 28, 2021. February 22, 2023. July 23, 2023.