The Gardians of God

They stand like huge stone figures in a Lord of the Rings movie. They cast long shadows into the past and the future. They were -- and are -- the protectors of the faith, the Guardians of God.

It is their "calling" to preserve the mystic nature of the Creator. Fearlessly defending their role, these self-appointed scholars pontificate their knowledge of the Holy to woo a human following. They're not above using harassment to keep their sheep in line. Like the modern day shepherds, dogged hounds of scholarship nip at the heals of the faithful to motivate them into fulfilling the agenda or whim of the Guardian shepherds.

Free thinking is discouraged. Performance is idolized. It was, and is, a culture of "obedience dictates your relationship to God".

As I See It, that's what prompted the disciple Phillip to ask Jesus during his last Passover meal, "Show us the God the Father and it is sufficient for us." (Gospel of John, chapter 14, verse 8)

Phillip was born into a culture having a vested interest in keeping God at a mystic level. For centuries Jewish prophets and priests regaled teachings of an remote God, unapproachable except by regulations, rather than God who craved relationship. 

Consequently, their holy book (the Torah) was elevated to the level of worship. The human instruments of God's revelation were idolized. His framework of relationship with man (Code of Moses) was overshadowed by rote obedience to religious ritual.

Only certain SPECIAL people called "prophets" could converse directly with God. Their standing with the divine was certified by miracles and acts of religious fervor.

Eventually, the knowledge and wisdom of the scholars became quoted and given the priority of the Holy Book itself. Preservation of the Faith was more important than the individuals to whom the faith was given. Devotees were the fodder to keep the Guardians' religion alive. Outsiders were shunned so as to preserve the purity of their religion.

These Jewish scholars had not moved past the writings of the prophet Malachi. God had been silent for 400+ years. All was said and done. Religion complete!

Having been raised that God was hidden from his human creation, Phillip's question came on the heels of living with Jesus of Nazareth for three years. He'd heard this Rabbi-teacher speak of intimacy with his Father. Jesus Christ's dealings with commoners, outcasts, and the irreligious was with compassion, reinforced by miracles.

While his life exhibited the marks of their prophets of old, the Guardians of God couldn't stomach Jesus' claims of a familiarity with God, much less his oneness with God the Father.

Jesus' answer to Phillip and the other disciples was tinged with frustration: "Have I been with you so long, and yet you have not known me? If you have watched me you have seen what the Father is like. . .  I am in the Father, and the Father in me. At least believe me for the sake of the works I do." (Gospel of John, chapter 14, verses 9-11)

Then Jesus gave notice to the Guardians of God, past and present. It rips their tight-fisted control between God and the faithful out of their religious clutches.

"Most assuredly, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do he will do also; and greater works than these he will do because I go to my Father. " (Gospel of John, chapter 14, verse 12)

As I See It, there's no stretch of the imagination at seeing the parallel between the Jewish Guardians of God and their Christian counterparts. Both evolved over the centuries. Both endeavor to keep the faithful in check. 

Just as orthodox Jews worship the Torah, kissing it, even refusing to touch it when reading in the Synagogue, many Christian worship their 66-book Bible. I've lived through times where (even if you didn't read your Bible) you never laid anything on top of it, let it touch the floor, or even mark in it. The words between the leather covers had somehow taken on mystic value once they left the printing press.

Then there are the endless arguments and debates over WHICH translation of the Scriptures is the MOST VALID. How often have I heard people say "if the King James Bible was good enough for St. Paul, it's good enough for me," They aren't jesting . . . their stubbornness refused to acknowledge the K-J Authorized Version was a "modern language" translation of the Greek, Hebrew, Aramaic and Latin texts, commissioned by England's King James 1 in 1604 AD.

Modern believers are largely ignorant of  facts this Bible was the THIRD translation APPROVED by the Church of England. The first was the Great Bible, commissioned by King Henry VIII (1535), and the second was the Bishop's Bible of 1568. Not one for impartiality or scholarship, King James gave translators stern instructions that their end result would conform to the ecclesiology and episcopal structure of the Church of England and its belief in an ordained (man-appointed) clergy.


Today there are even more divisions among Christians than offshoots of Judaism in Jesus' day. Jew's proudly proclaimed themselves children of Abraham, followers of Moses, adherence to the conservative Pharisees, subscribers to the liberal Sadducees, or purists of the reclusive Essenes.

Now we've divided ourselves into Protest-tants and Catholics. Unsatisfied with mere disagreement on theology, believers fiercely claim themselves followers of Luther, the demand for full immersion baptism, arguments over communion, even the succession of leadership within the church.

We call them denominations. We proudly claim they show our distinctions of religion rather than the unity of the faithful Jesus' prayed for in the Gospel of John.

Beyond that, there are the "Jesus Only" crowd who haven't moved past the four Gospels. Even many of the "Apostle Paul Only" adherents seem anchored to Acts of the Apostles chapter one. Both ignore or downplay Jesus' rest of the story.

Orthodox Judaism stubbornly resists any notion of God having more than one part. Many Christians resist the teaching of the three-fold nature of God; to them He is a twofer -- Father and Son . . . the Holy Spirit is overlooked, ignored, or feared. He is the unpredictable step-child of the Godhead. Their relationship to God is reduced to busy attempts at duplicating the acts of Jesus without the power which guided and enabled Jesus from Nazareth. They're left to best guess "what-would-Jesus-do", praying desperately for good outcomes.

 As Jesus eagerly tried to prepare his disciples for his death, resurrection, and return to the Father, he assured them a transition was coming in the Father's relationship with mankind. The outward Obedience Earns Relationship was over. Now, Obedience Was a Reflection of Relationship. The Holy Spirit could live within each believer, showing them the heart of the Son & Father, telling them the words of the Father, promising to empower their response of obedience.

Jesus had come to put a face on God . . . now the Holy Spirit was coming to put the face of Jesus on the believers who learned to watch and listen to the Spirit.

The Guardians of God often find themselves locked in lonely towers of endless religious regulations which keep a relationship with God shrouded in mysticism. Performance and obedience are the measuring sticks which neither Guardians or commoners can ever measure up.

As I See It, religious ritual will bring only temporary satisfaction of spiritual obligation fulfilled. It takes relationship, activated by God's Spirit, to birth joy and contentment on the journey of life.