Brian Zahnd: World Made New

From Brian’s blog:

In the world after Easter the Spirit of Truth says, Imagine a world beyond violence, beyond war, beyond greed, beyond poverty, beyond disease, beyond exploitation, beyond the tyranny of economic self-interest, beyond the wreckage of ruthless competition…and move in that direction. Because that is the future!

The way civilization has been arranged from Genesis 3 & 4 onward has been according to the lies of Lord Death. But Easter is the declaration that the Prince of Life has overthrown the Lord of Death and opened a new door — a door that leads out of the Land of Death and into Resurrection Country. (Or as John the Revelator calls it, New Jerusalem.)

Jesus is the Door that leads to the alternative world of New Creation possibilities!

When someone says, “Violence and war and greed and dog-eat-dog competition are just the way the world is — it is proof that they have not yet seen Jesus as the Door to New Creation.

Don’t think of Jesus as merely the Door to an after-life heaven in a far-off place…
Think of Jesus as the Door to New Creation possibilities right here and now!

What is a Christian?
Someone who believes Jesus is the Door—
And has dared to walk through that Door.
A Christian is someone who refuses to live according to the lies of Lord Death and call it “Truth.”
(This was the “truth” of Pontius Pilate who thought the only truth in the world is the power to kill.)

A Christian is someone who has discovered that in the world after Easter we can live beyond the closed system of Death.

Let’s allow the Holy Spirit to inspire us to imagine how things can be…
And then move in that direction!