Radically Happy

I wrote that title while reflecting on my own inner zealot: the one who throws stones at those I consider Pharisees.
This is what ChatGPT wrote back.

Ernest Prabhakar

Fractured Beatitude

This line reads as an anti-Beatitude—a deliberate inversion of “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God” (Matthew 5:8).
Where the Gospel promise is vision (they shall see), the counterfeit promise is identity (they will be).

That shift matters.

Purity Rewired into Hatred

“Pure in hatred” suggests hatred that has been:

• clarified into moral certainty
• stripped of doubt and self-critique
• baptized as righteousness

This is not chaotic rage; it is disciplined hostility—hatred that feels holy because it is coherent.

Scripturally, this mirrors the logic Jesus condemns when religious zeal becomes lethal certainty (John 16:2).

From Seeing God to Replacing God

To see God implies distance, humility, and receptivity.
To be God implies:

• final authority
• moral infallibility
• the right to judge without appeal

This is the primal temptation of Genesis 3:5: “you will be like God.”
Zealotry does not deny God—it crowds Him out.

The Psychological Payoff

Zealotry offers three powerful rewards:

• Identity: I know who I am because I know whom I hate.
• Meaning: Conflict becomes vocation.
• Transcendence: Violence or exclusion feels sacramental.

This is why zealotry is so resilient—it satisfies spiritual hunger while bypassing repentance (Luke 18:11–14).

Christological Reversal

Jesus consistently locates God not in hatred purified, but in love under contamination:

• enemies loved (Matthew 5:44)
• sinners touched (Mark 2:15–17)
• executioners forgiven (Luke 23:34)

The Gospel’s scandal is not that hatred is impure, but that love remains pure even when violated.

Final Nuance

Zealotry is not the opposite of faith.
It is faith without vulnerability.

And when vulnerability is removed, holiness mutates into sovereignty—
not seeing God, but becoming a god small enough to fit one’s hatred.