Catacomb Resident Blog

Moral Logic

08 October 2022

Let's put this in order. I'll try to use clinical language.

  1. There are two realms of existence. There is the Spirit Realm and the Fallen Realm. The latter consists of eternal spiritual beings confined to an animal existence, with the mortality of natural life. The Fallen Realm is a punitive existence, and does not reflect the nature of eternal spiritual existence. It is our duty to escape this Fallen Realm by surrendering our human prerogatives and restoring our dependence on the Creator, who has provided and revealed a path of restoration through this fallen existence, back to our eternal existence.
  2. The overlap between the two realms is the moral realm. It is not a realm of existence, but a realm of recognition of spiritual reality while confined to a fallen existence. The fundamental question answered in the moral sphere is not what works in our fallen existence, but what is consistent with spiritual truth. That there are conflicts between spiritual truth and fallen existence is self-evident. The moral realm is eternal spiritual truth injected into a mortal existence.
  3. Moral truth cannot possibly arise from within a fallen existence; it must stand on a rejection of fallen "reality". The demands of moral reality must inevitably stand in conflict with anything that stands on fallen reality. The disjuncture between the two is self-evident when viewed from the moral realm. That disjuncture is impossible to detect from the constraints of fallen reality.
  4. Intellectual reason and logic are confined to the fallen realm, and cannot comprehend the existence of any higher realm. The demands of the moral realm are understood by the heart, a higher consciousness than the intellect. The heart "thinks" in terms of moral reality, not mere reason and logic.
  5. The human mind is wholly incompetent to discern moral truth. Thus, the human intellect must be enslaved to the human heart.The human intellect operates from within the fallen realm and cannot distinguish moral truth from mere sentiment. The intellect instinctively disparages the consciousness of the heart and rejects the moral authority of the heart.
  6. The intellect is inherently arrogant. This is part of what's behind the shape of the fallen human survival instinct; it's the false moral argument that the intellect deserves to survive and prevail over the mortal challenges of this natural physical existence. By contrast, the heart recognizes that survival is a minor concern in pursuit of restoring the eternal existence in the spiritual realm. People ruled by their hearts will work to survive in context only as the means to delay; the heart knows death is inevitable, but prefers a death with moral significance.
  7. Divine revelation of the path to eternal restoration is packaged in moral terms, not intellectual terms. It is not propositional; it cannot be expressed in objective logical terms. It can only be expressed in symbols that transcend propositions. Only the heart can grasp divine revelation.
  8. The choice to trust the heart over the head does not depend on specific action by the Creator; it is built into human nature. Indeed, it is instinctive and was the dominant model for all human cultures and societies in history until quite recently. Because the reliance on the heart is an option open to all humans, fallen humanity is accountable for doing so. Failure is counted as a willful moral rebellion against the Creator.
  9. Divine revelation provides a regimen of human government that will clarify the path to restoring eternal truth. This regimen emphasizes the supremacy of the moral truth over human sensory data and reason. That no current human government today relies on divine revelation is self-evident. It should be obvious that no human government is valid according to the Creator; they all qualify as "evil". Some are simply more tolerable under moral truth that others.
  10. The necessity of resistance to evil government should be obvious. The general path, as well as the particular means and methods, of moral resistance to evil human government will vary widely with the context, which context includes the sense of conviction that individual hearts offer. There can be no clear doctrine on resistance that we would apply as a test of faith. However, given that our Creator's revelation encourages community in faith, it is predictable that some of us will associate together in shared conviction regarding our resistance, while others will form communities around a different path, and different particulars.

What we can say about human government is equally true of societies, cultures, customs, etc. All of these will tend to be evil in various ways, to varying degrees when compared to the divine revelation (AKA, the Covenant). Resisting sin means resisting all of them. The only question is how you are led to resist. That leads to the question of with whom can you gather as a faith community, based on what each of you can tolerate.

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