Strange Bedfellows...

WHATEVER IS, IS RIGHT! That is a quote from Ray Prinzing. It used to rankle me to no end. Ray was a believer in...and teacher of....total sovereignty, predetermination, predestination...what will be will be. Period, that's it, get used to it and stop whining about it. It's all for a good reason....

God is putting every individual through a process that will merge us into one with Himself. We will become joined to the Lord as one spirit.

Roger Tutt's site, Hope 4 You, has gleanings from about a hundred or so taped messages of Prinzing's (which are no longer available). Roger credits Ray's ministry with not only saving his sanity, but also saving his life.

I've always had a big problem with the total sovereignty view. Every thing in your life from major to trivial has been planned by God before the foundation of the world. In fact, for a few years it tormented me. John Gavazzoni coined a word that fit my struggle. Contrarianism. Simply put, a contrarianism is something that can be argued from two equally valid viewpoints. Thus the tension..thus the torment. I can read Preston Eby's teachings and they make sense...(although they often tick me off, but not as much as they used to) I can also read Gregory Boyd of open theism fame and they make sense too (and I actually like them better)

Once, at a conference, when I heard him preach, John G also said that oftentimes God will at least give us peace from a contrarianism that haunts us, even without providing the answers. I guess that is the phase I am in right now. It has ceased to piss me off.

And actually...I am finding this belief from other very different teachers. Not too long ago, I was watching a short You Tube video of Eckhart and he pretty much parroted (in different terminology) his belief in a pre-ordained plan. He said when evil and suffering occur, our minds cannot understand it. That is because we don't see the whole picture. Then he went on and actually likened it to plucking a teeny section, not much more than a few pigments, from a large painting. It would be incomprehensible in terms of "the big picture." What's this?? We could look it over, turn it over, consider it from every angle and it still would not make sense. That is how he sees evil and suffering. They don't make sense to our egoic minds but they are part of the big picture.

And Byron Katie has coined the phrase, "Loving What Is." In an excerpt from the book of the same name (available online) she says the following:

The only time we suffer is when we believe a thought that argues with what is. When the mind is perfectly clear, what is is what we want. If you want reality to be different than it is, you might as well try to teach a cat to bark. You can try and try, and in the end the cat will look up at you and say, “Meow.” Wanting reality to be different than it is is hopeless.

The Work reveals that what you think shouldn't have happened should have happened. It should have happened because it did, and no thinking in the world can change it. This doesn't mean that you condone it or approve of it. It just means that you can see things without resistance and without the confusion of your inner struggle. No one wants their children to get sick, no one wants to be in a car accident; but when these things happen, how can it be helpful to mentally argue with them? We know better than to do that, yet we do it, because we don't know how to stop.

Perhaps her view would be better described as "totally accepting what is."

I am hearing this particular slant from a lot of different sources. Perhaps in my next post I will take a look at the other side of the contrarianism.