musing about the mysteries of 'superiority...', pt. 1

Yesterday, I took an afternoon nap… meaning I passed out due to a long run of too many late nights coupled with early mornings. Which meant that when everyone else had headed off to bed, I was sitting on my couch musing, even pondering important things, wide awake. Stuff like fantasy football & where I can get a real QB without sacrificing any of my 3 decent RBs. A book I’m trying to outline. The unfortunate disappearance of quality sci-fi TV shows. The consistency of creamy peanut butter (vs. crunchy.) Being on the receiving end of a superiority complex.

Huh?

I flashed back to John, Phil, & Dan – three guys that had ‘correct’ theology – correct being the operative word, theology meaning the study of God, along with the understanding of His purposes, ways, & the things He does & doesn’t do. They knew which translation of the Bible was correct (KJV IS called the Authorized version, but the NKJV will do in a pinch) & which ones were not (the rest of those.) Had nailed down each passage of Scripture, using correct Biblical hermeneutics - They spoke with authority to anyone who would listen (& a few who didn’t) on these & many other topics – with the authority coming from the sure-ness of their position, which was as fixed as was their picture of a Sovereign, though often capricious & temperamental God, a God that was/is looking for things to wipe out, people to judge, & punishment to mete out… People (& their belief systems) fit into boxes – & depending on what box you were placed in, depended on the level of superiority-flaunting one was subjected to.

To the brave soul that dared enter a conversation with them would be reserved a stinging condescension – one that was tangible, one that was couched with high-sounding spiritual & academic phrases, with barbs stuck in to remind one of their place of inferiority to the knowledge that they had gained, had worked for, had achieved.

It was a theological, intellectual superiority complex. They had the special knowledge that God, in His infinite wisdom, had chosen to reveal to a limited few. And to those who God had not revealed this wisdom, (aka: those that disagreed with them) they sent waves of scornful disdain. And spoke, with spiteful 'pity,' about those “unenlightened, so called Christians” who were so much obviously less than/inferior to them, people that must not have been 'chosen' by the 'limited atonement' of Christ's death on the cross. They were the self-appointed heresy hunters within the body, the defenders of the Scriptures, the watchdogs of the true Christian faith, those that called into question the salvation of those that disagree with them.

Hmmm. Good times at 1 a.m.

To be continued...