Thoughts from Mark "Hat" Rackley

You make known to me the path of life;
    you will fill me with joy in your presence,
    with eternal pleasures at your right hand.

• Psalm 16:11

“This, then, is how you should pray:
“‘Our Father in heaven,
hallowed be your name,
your kingdom come,
your will be done,
    on earth as it is in heaven.

• Matthew 6:9-10

“Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moths and vermin destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moths and vermin do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal.

• Matthew 6:19-20

For we know that if the earthly tent we live in is destroyed, we have a building from God, an eternal house in heaven, not built by human hands.

• 2 Corinthians 5:1

For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.

• Ephesians 6:12

“A German Marxist philosopher, Ernst Bloch’s work focuses on the possibility of a humanistic utopian world, free of exploitation and oppression. During World War I, he took refuge from the conflict in Switzerland, and in 1933 fled the Nazis, ending up in the United States. Here he began his key work, The Principle of Hope (1947). After World War II, Bloch taught in Leipzig but with the building of the Berlin Wall in 1961, he sought asylum in West Germany. Although he was an atheist, Bloch believed that religion’s mystical vision of heaven on earth is attainable.”

• Sam Atkinson (senior editor), The Philosophy Book, Big Ideas Simply Explained

Ernst Bloch (1885-1977) was a German Marxist philosopher (Jewish).  His idea was that people are developing and changing so that the world’s living condition will improve over time.

But let us look at the Scriptures in relation to his idea of religion’s mystical vision of heaven on earth.

Psalm 16 speaks of pleasures and joy being in the presence of God, but in Heaven, this is taken up a notch, and no place on earth is free from sin, pain, suffering, and death.

Matthew 6 states that Jesus taught His disciples to pray for God’s will on earth as it is in Heaven.  Regardless of any small victories, this is asking for Jesus to return.  The ultimate in God’s will being done on earth is God banishing Satan from it.

And Jesus would not tell us later in the Sermon on the Mount to store treasures in Heaven if heaven on earth could be obtained.  That would be like having your cake and eating it too.

Second Corinthians 5 speaks of our earthly tent compared to our heavenly mansion.  And it considers that the earthly tent can be burned out from underneath us.  So, even the best we have on earth is temporary.

And Ephesians 6 speaks of our fight being against darkness and evil, which reign on earth and have no place in heaven.

Bloch was an atheist, but many of his influencers were mystic theologians from the periphery.  When you are attacking Luther and the Catholics at the same time, what’s left?  And it seems contradictory to have a “religious” foundation to a Marxist, atheistic utopia.

But any true biblical scholar cannot truly defend an earthly utopia, only brief respites from the pain and suffering that comes with life.

And Bloch died before Climate Change became a major scare tactic.  Even if some of the climate changing is man-made, we will never be able to correct it.  Thinking that we can is either insanity or arrogance on steroids.  While one thing in our lives makes life a little easier, the side effects or other things in general make things worse.  In a global view, we can destroy ourselves, but I give us no chance at all in achieving utopia.

In an accidental way, Max Bill, the Swiss architect and artist, erected the Endlose Treppe (English translation Endless Steps).  It is an outdoor edifice that is made of a stack of North American Granite blocks designed like a spiral staircase, with a granite block base, but the endless steps end within easy sight.  It was made to honor Ernst Bloch, but when you see it, it is nothing but a stairway to nowhere.

If you like these Tuesday morning essays about philosophy and other “heavy topics,” but you think you missed a few, you can use this LINK. I have set up a page off the home page for links to these Tuesday morning posts. I will continue to modify the page as I add more.

Soli Deo Gloria.  Only to God be the Glory.