In a post written on 20 November 2010 on his blog VELOCITY CULTURE Ron Martoia made the following staggering statement.
An ancient way of viewing spiritual progress and movement that has really come back into vogue is that of a journey sometimes however the ancient literature will use this interchangeably with pilgrimage.
In this metaphor God is horizon. He is being moved toward but has not yet been apprehended. This is the very idea we hear in the cliche’ “it is not the destination but the journey that matters.” I think one of the reasons this has seen a renaissance of usage in recent years is the postmodern condition that wants to highlight that certainty and “arrival” are not all they are cracked up to be and that the idea of movement toward something seems far more humble. (Emphasis added).
Was that the reason why the Israelites wandered in the wilderness for 40 years and most of them never reached their destination because they believed the cliché “It is not the destination but the journey that matters?” I can only imagine what it must have been like when they danced around Moses in a ring-a ring-o-roses kind of way and chanting: Don’t worry Moses, be happy! It is not the destination but the journey that matters.” You may recall that Moses never reached his destination in the Promised Land as well. Perhaps Ron Martoia would like to tell us whether these words were eventually incorporated in the Song of Moses? Or maybe he should don his composer’s hat and write an new song for us.
This is just another one of the Emergent Church’s enigmatic and strange transformational gizmos that leads to nowhere fast. But what lies at the root of their humble but terrible movement toward a destination they never seem to reach? Ah! but of course, their turning back to – no, not God – Roman Catholicism. Not even the late Pope John Paul II knew what his destination was. Dave Hunt wrote in an article “Death of a Pope” (The Berean Call):
John Cardinal O’Connor declared: “Church teaching is that I don’t know…what my eternal future will be. I can hope, pray, do my very best—but I still don’t know. Pope John Paul II doesn’t know absolutely that he will go to heaven, nor does Mother Teresa of Calcutta….” Cardinal John Krol, as spiritual leader of Philadelphia’s more than one million Catholics, admitted that his personal major worry was about “getting to heaven.” Cardinal Ratzinger (now Pope Benedict XVI), who headed the Congregation for the Doctrine of Faith, watchdog of Catholic orthodoxy (Holy Office of the Inquisition), and successor to John Paul II, expresses the same uncertainty of salvation—as he must. . . .
In a book highly rated by 250 evangelical leaders, the Pope wrote, “Baptism and the Eucharist…create in man the seed of eternal life.” Rejecting the sufficiency of Christ’s sacrifice and His triumphant cry, “It is finished!” (Jn 19:30), the documents of Vatican II begin thus: “It is the liturgy through which, especially in the divine sacrifice of the Eucharist, ‘the work of our redemption is [still being] accomplished.’” Rome anathematizes anyone who dares to confess the very assurance of a finished salvation that the Bible repeatedly promises (1 Jn 5:13).
Stephan Joubert summed it up well when he quoted the well-known Song “The Unreachable Star” from the Spanish author, Miguel de Cervantes’ novel, “The Ingenious Hidalgo Don Quixote of La Mancha”
No matter how hopeless, no matter how far . . . To fight for the right, without question or pause . . . To be willing to march into Hell, for a Heavenly cause . . . And I know if I’ll only be true, to this glorious quest, That my heart will lie peaceful and calm, when I’m laid to my rest . . . And the world will be better for this:
That one man, scorned and covered with scars, Still strove, with his last ounce of courage, To reach . . . the unreachable star . . .
They all claim to follow Jesus Christ but can this be the Christ of the Bible – a Christ who takes them on a humble journey or pilgrimage with no destination in sight, or at least a destination that is in sight like the metaphorical elusive horizon or the unreachable star that always remains unattainable? If that were true I would rather be an atheist.
