"Christianity has made the way most difficult, and it is only an illusion, which has snared many, that Christianity has made the way easy, since it helps people precisely and only by making the beginning such that everything becomes much more difficult than ever."
"If an existing person is to relate himself with pathos [i.e. with passionate inwardness] to an eternal happiness, then the point is that his existence should express the relation…yet no one knows it except the individual himself in his own consciousness….He needs only to attend to his own existence; then he knows it. If it does not absolutely transform his existence for him, then he is not relating himself to an eternal happiness; if there is something he is not willing to give up for its sake, then he is not relating himself to an eternal happiness."
"Although in the world we frequently enough see a presumptuous religious individuality who, himself so exceedingly secure in his relationship with God and jauntily sure of his eternal happiness, is self-importantly busy doubting the salvation of others and offering them his help, I believe it would be appropriate discourse for a truly religious person if he said: I do not doubt anyone’s salvation; the only one I have fears about is myself; even if I see a person sink low, I still dare not despair of his salvation, but if it is myself, then I certainly would be forced to endure the terrible thought."
"Suppose that a person with a deeply religious need continually heard only the kind of pious address in which everything is rounded off by having the absolute telos [i.e. eternal happiness] exhaust itself in relative ends – what then? He would sink into the deepest despair, since he in himself experienced something else and yet never heard the pastor talk about this, about suffering in one’s inner being, about the suffering of the God-relationship. Out of respect for the pastor and the pastor’s rank, he perhaps would be led to interpret this suffering as a misunderstanding, or as something that other people presumably also experienced but found so easy to overcome that it is not even mentioned."
"God rescues from delusion the person who in quiet inwardness and honest before God is concerned for himself; even though he is ever so simple, God leads him in the suffering of inwardness to the truth."
(Excerpt from "Concluding Unscientific Postscript to Philosphical Fragments" by Soren Kierkegaard)
(Excerpt from "Concluding Unscientific Postscript to Philosphical Fragments" by Soren Kierkegaard)
Such a reminder of how we are living the truth of the gospel with our lives. How easy it is to cling to religiocity over God. A question that my pastor recently asked that I am still trying to answer is "Are you in Love with GOD or Christianity" We need to remember that our love and devotion is to Christ and what He did on the cross and not get lost in the works.
ReplyDelete"I am the way the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me." John 14:6