Farewell to Contention: The Short-Changed Christian (and Jew, Muslim, Hindu, etc.)

I was composing an article on the short-changed Christian. As Christians we are taught to believe the kerygma, for faith in its Jesus Christ is our salvation:


"It is true that the kerygma as we have recovered it from the Pauline epistles is fragmentary. No complete statement of it is, in the nature of the case, available. But we may restore it in outline somewhat after this fashion:
The prophecies are fulfilled, and the new Age is inaugurated by the coming of Christ.
He was born of the seed of David.
He died according to the Scriptures, to deliver us out of the present evil age.
He was buried.
He rose on the third day according to the Scriptures.
He is exalted at the right hand of God, as Son of God and Lord of quick and dead.
He will come again as Judge and Saviour of men" (From C. H. Dodd, The Apostolic Preaching and Its Development http://www.religion-online.org/showbook.asp?title=539). If we believe the historic fact to be as the above formula, we are "saved" -- forgiven and joined into the body of Christ.

Except Christ is the power and the wisdom of God the Father, the agency of God's Being which causes what we imagine to subsequently manifest, which is the natural order of the Ineffable who is imagining. Christians are not usually taught Jesus Christ as such and to imagine as causation for that which they wish to manifest in their and others' lives. Believing in a person for whom they must wait, they are short-changed of the potential of having their prayers thus answered. They see the Provider in a heaven which does not exist instead of "His" being their very own human imagination!

So I was composing this great article and was going to use Paul's exposition of the Christian's hope to substantiate my contention that he saw "hope in Christ" to be the natural order as I see it, and not the waiting for a risen man who is coming back. Then I saw Paul had said in Galatians, "Forget it. Let it go." For if I have rejected the law of doctrines as having any significance for salvation, why am I building them up as a law again? Just get on with believing the real Jesus Christ, the power and the wisdom of the Spirit of God, the intelligence that is power of the Most High who has become us, the inner Man in each imagination.