20 June 2023
We must build a Covenant lore.
We don't need more Scripture; we need Jesus walking among us. He's not some static image of truth, but a real person who would naturally make adjustments in His self expression depending on the context. He is all things to all people, and that means He's going to act a little different among those who come from a different background. Let's acknowledge that God calls a lot of people who don't look and act like we do, nor does He expect them to live exactly like He expects us to live.
Thus, we must have a derived lore of Covenant truth as it manifests in our lives, so that it fits our needs, without trying to make it normative for the Covenant. It's the kind of stuff that becomes culture, a way of life that demonstrates the gospel truth to people who have experienced what we have. We need to pay careful attention to the meta of that lore, because how to build a lore should be part of the lore itself.
The Lord is the one provoking a restoration of Covenant living. It didn't start with our little Radix Fidem group. We are just one manifestation. There have been whispers of this for a long time. Believers have for centuries been trying to catch the fire. Unfortunately, it hasn't influenced the organizational leaders very much. They did not build their organizations with a strong meta, just their particular applications from their own context. Then they locked it down. Those who didn't still weren't paying attention to the meta either, but are loosey-goosey about reflecting the worldly context itself, instead of answering it.
That being a primary problem, we need to work a bit on how to stand alone in faith. Once we are properly rooted in faith, perhaps the Lord will grant us a wholly different kind of organization built from whomever shows up, instead of artificially organizing something from a human perspective and trying to fill slots.
One of the greatest deficiencies is the image of biblical manhood. Everyone senses it, and a great many of tried very hard to fill that need. The quality of programming varies widely, but they all share a common flaw of assuming that their particular answers are universal, without much thought given to the meta.
Wordnik says meta means: "Making or showing awareness of reference to oneself or to the activity that is taking place, especially in an ironic or comic way." Very specifically here you must grasp the concept of not taking yourself too seriously. Taking oneself too seriously shows you aren't thinking about the process at all, just assuming a given answer that disenfranchises a lot of God's Elect. When you take the time to examine the process itself, you begin to understand who God is in ways that few do.
I'm not proposing a specific answer here. The Radix Fidem community has looked at manhood already, but it's nearly impossible to write the meta for it. The meta of biblical manhood is the part that must live among us. Yes, it must be alive. It must reflect the vivid participation of real people, and change with time because some of the specific needs will change as people come and go.
And yes, it is inevitable with any such endeavor that people must come and go. Get used to that. It's part of the very nature of being human. The hardest thing for any organization to do is formulate a path for self-succession. But we must do it, or we will exclude the hand of God from what we seek to build.
There is no static definition of biblical manhood. It's going to look different in different contexts. This is not propositional truth; it is a living relationship with Jesus Christ. So a major element in our covenant lore must be the meta of doing the organizing. We need to identify elements that will outlive our generation, and hopefully the next. We need to heal the wounds we have, not the ones identified by some static orthodoxy.
Now, why would I emphasize the manhood angle and say so little about womanhood? Because of what Paul said to Timothy about the feminine nature: "And it was not Adam who was deceived, but the woman being quite deceived, fell into transgression" (1 Timothy 2:14). The current cultural and social malaise is the result of men failing first. Women could not have done the feminist damage they have if men had not refused to do their job. It puts us right back in the Garden of Eden; Eve was deceived but Adam sat on his ass and did not prevent her sin. He most certainly could have and should have stopped things before they went that far.
If we can redefine manhood according to the Covenant, then women will naturally tend to come up with a better womanhood following the moral leadership of the men. This is a part of the missing meta we need for a Covenant lore.
This document is public domain; spread the message.