This is http://www.essayz.com/a9304263.htm Previous-Essay <== This-Essay ==> Following-Essay Click HERE on this line to find essays via Your-Key-Words. {Most frequent wordstarts of each essay will be put here.} ========================================================== %NEW OLD COVENANT COVENANT SALVATION LAW CONFORM 930426 In spite of the early insights in the Garden of Eden that the fall had to do with the desire for the knowledge of the difference between good people and evil people; the focus in the old covenant was upon what came to be regarded as legalistic rules of conformity and acceptability, by which good people could differentiate themselves from evil people, and justify regarding themselves as superior, and so as properly alienated from evil people. In the new covenant, in fulfillment of the prophesies of the old covenant, it is reveled to those who have eyes to see, ears to hear, and the desire/will/courage to perceive that they will be liberated by the truth that: our acceptability, salvation, redemption, full acceptance into and inclusion within the royal family, ultimate safety and security, and ground of being truly human---do not depend upon in what style or how perfectly we or others who are associated with us: Conform to expectations stuff/repress emotions Compete for acceptance deny our own experiences Compete for excellence satisfy others Achieve goals/expectations manipulate people Become knowledgeable/skillful transcend mysteries Fulfill addictive values support addictive behaviors Participate in collusions fix ourselves/others Wear acceptable masks wear cloths/cosmetics Avoid taboo topics avoid taboo experiences Avoid threatening insights Respect powerful people Are appropriately silent Say the right things cling to our parents Perfect our children Fix our imperfections Avoid evil thoughts Avoid evil desires Avoid evil emotions Deny our own desires Deny our own needs Deny our own humanity deny our own failures Deny our own mistakes deny our own emotions Deny our own imperfections deny our own perceptions Deny our own beliefs deny our own convictions Perfect ourselves/others save ourselves/others Rescue ourselves/others fix ourselves/others Rescue enough people fit in peacefully Are appropriately silent Are properly loyal Are properly a-sexual Are properly exclusive Avoid failures/mistakes Are politically correct Condemn the right people accept the right people Avoid evil people/behaviors reject the right people Avoid evil thoughts/feelings Avoid imperfect relations Prevent tragedies prevent suffering Hide taboo truths Respect secret classifications Respect conventional "truths" Don't leak collusive secrets Respond to others' needs Respond to others' desires Do our duty willingly Do well what we should Do avoid embarrassing others Take good care of others Respond to others' concerns willingly sacrifice ourselves Torture ourselves punish ourselves/others Control ourselves/others discipline ourselves/others Manage ourselves/others fulfill our ideals/values Perform certain rituals make specific payments Believe required doctrines recite required statements Perform required works expect specific outcomes Have required desires associated with good people Disassociate from evil people avoid forbidden behaviors Please anybody offend anybody Properly obey commandments pass any objective test Pass any religious test pass any relationship test Those people who have trusted in the old covenant have been threatened by the revelations of the new covenant and have arranged to have teachers destroyed to insure the survival of the idols in which they have trusted and which they have worshipped. Even so the new covenant transforms the lives of those who have eyes to see, ears to hear, and the desire/will to perceive the truth without the fear which paralyzes, excommunicates, alienates and disintegrates those people who are governed by and serve fear. If salvation does NOT pertain to the above foci of attention, to what then does salvation pertain? Salvation pertains to being set free to: Be true to self and other, fully honest and open. Let go of concerns about being in control. Enjoy honesty in intimate relationships with others. Work for personal and communal integrity without shame. Enjoy security as the freedom to be safely vulnerable. Give/accept gifts of the freedom to be safely vulnerable. Let go of concerns about defense of self and others. Take one's membership in the community for granted. Associate openly with the people whom one loves in truth. Tell the truth openly without embarrassment or fear. Discuss what may be learned from mistakes/tragedies. Discuss personal experiences, not just abstractions. Discuss what does/not bring pleasure and fulfillment. Express non-manipulative affection without fear/anxiety. Take good care of one's own self with personal integrity. Claim as ones' own, one's own experiences and perceptions. Be a unique person without a need to conform to standards. Be free to report honestly one's own emotions and insights Accept non-manipulative personal acceptance without fear. Take off our masks of dishonest/deceptive appearances. Make our real needs known to people who can meet them. Truly resolve conflicts among ideals, values, and people. Appreciate our imperfect parents' imperfect gifts to us. Transcend preoccupations with perfection/imperfection. Honestly affirm what we really believe and live by. Prudently budget our generosity in giving. Try to change only what is ours to change. Transcend our experiences of disintegrative shame. Be motivated by healthy guilt to change appropriately. to be truly humane. Be competent adults who respect truly humane people. Respect the needs and emotions of the child within. (c) 2005 by Paul A. Smith in (On Being Yourself, Whole and Healthy) ==========================================================