A Little of That Roger Williams Flavor

While I would be the last to consider Wikipedia authoritative, I find their summary of Roger Williams pretty useful. He was one of the first in the world to lead a government (Rhode Island) specifically calling for complete freedom of conscience. This was quite a radical step, which demanded civil and church government keep their hands off each other. In this, I agree totally with his ideas.

Oddly, he kept a strong interest in civil affairs, and governed rather well. However, he never seemed to forget religion and law had completely separate spheres of interest. In matters of faith, it was up to the Holy Spirit to turn the hearts of men. Nothing in religion was the business of civil leaders insofar as they acted in their official capacities. In civil affairs, the church was poorly equipped to dictate government behavior. Her concerns were fully other-worldly, and rightly so.

I suppose where I part company with him most notably was his assumption it would require a new round of Apostles from God sent to restructure the New Testament Church. I understand why he felt that way, but find it rather insulting to God's Holy Spirit, for it implies He is unable to raise up a true body of believers Himself. He felt the apostasy of the current state churches were too deeply apostatized, and would require starting over from scratch, Yet, no one living could satisfy the Lord's requirements because it was all lost without special holy men.

Sorry, Roger, but the Word requires us to be the Body regardless of circumstances, and to organize as best we can. "Where two or three are gathered..." I believe he was seized with the idea even the very organization of the body would require something specific from the Lord. Yet I would suggest that is actually inconsistent with the idea of separating human and divine. All organization is a human activity, even in the very holiest and most spiritual churches.

We don't need apostles, we need to understand the culture of the Bible.

Meta: Updated Basic Reference Material

Anyone who wants to know where I'm coming from truly must read my explanation of how I understand the spiritual mind versus the worldly mind. Today I added a few paragraphs to expand on some things which gave rise to questions from readers. There's nothing like good questions to sharpen one's understanding.

Stormy Weather

Tribulation is coming. No one but God can say when, but He allows us some insight if we develop some intellect and pay attention. More importantly, we must develop a spiritual sense about things, a Kingdom viewpoint which perceives the real substance of things.

This has been one of the wettest, stormiest springs Oklahoma has faced in a very long time. Even as I write this, a huge and powerful storm front is receding to the east, having passed over before dawn. When I went out for my 5AM jog, I saw some high altitude lightening, and figured I had just enough time for a couple of miles. I miscalculated. The rain hit with about 200 meters to go, and I was quickly wet enough to rinse the sweat out of my t-shirt.

The Pharisees and the Sadducees came to Him, tempting Him. And they asked Him that He would show them a sign from Heaven. He answered and said to them, "When it is evening, you say, 'Fair weather; for the sky is red.' And in the morning, 'Foul weather today; for the sky is red and gloomy.' Hypocrites! You can discern the face of the sky, but you cannot see the signs of the times! A wicked and adulterous generation seeks after a sign. And there shall no sign be given to it, except the sign of the prophet Jonah." And He left them and went away. (Matthew 16:1-4)

It's a amazing the number of people chatting cheerily about "what God is doing in America today." They want that great miracle of blessing, seeing thousands converted. Don't forget the big budgets and buildings which naturally follow such a "revival." They don't look at the skies with the eyes of the Spirit. Call me a fool, but humor me a moment. I'm stuck in a tight spot, because I don't want to push upon my readers a hundred links. This is not a research report, but a blog post from someone with a prophetic temperament. Offering only a couple of links would fail to support my thesis. Thus, my readers are stuck with my simple assertion I have been reading a lot of stuff, and offering my distillation without footnotes. Here's the "weather report": red sky this morning.

• The economy is continuing to fail. Every effort has been made to hide it, but all government spending in the US at various levels amounts to about half our total economic output. China holds over a trillion US dollars, and has begun using them to fund oil extraction in Africa. Steadily, more and more countries are moving away from taking the dollar seriously. Once everyone officially notices the dollar is worthless, we will be in a world of hurt. The value and use of the dollar is a key element in our economic stability.


• For whatever reason, oil extraction in the Arctic is pretty much on hold, even while we vacuum up all the foreign oil fields we can. Oil companies appear to be refusing to increase refinery capacity because they make better profits by causing a shortage. Everything in our economy depends on the oil price, so inflation is a natural result.


• Investigations in economic bullying, such as threats by Congress to put the bite on oil companies, are pure dog and pony shows. At no time in the past few decades has any Congressional investigation been an honest effort to uncover truth, but a choreographed and managed avoidance of actual facts of substance.


• We are now a rogue nation, kidnapping whom we wish wherever we wish, torturing and lying about it, sticking our nose into all manner of internal affairs of other nations, propping up the most vile dictators simply because they'll deal -- all of which invites every one with a gun and a grudge to come after us.


• Meanwhile, we prosecute every law enforcement agent who does the right thing, while absolving murderers who happen to have badges. Police training now aims to provoke the worst possible outcome from every confrontation, and governments are aggressively creating numerous new frivolous reasons for confrontations.


• The bulk of Evangelical churches are sold out to big budgets and huge facilities, drawing huge crowds by whatever means necessary. Can you say "spiritual mercenaries"? Meanwhile, those who stick to the time tested Doctrines of Grace and a true and utter commitment to the God of Scripture are excoriated for daring to oppose the current trends. All the more so anyone who dares to suggest rabid support for this Administration is not appropriate.

Sure, arm yourself and prepare the survival gear. It may actually do some good. However, if you neglect the spiritual preparation, you'll miss the most important thing: the blessing of seeing first hand God's glorious wrath at work against sin. Yes, His wrath is glorious, for it is the other edge of the same Sword of the Spirit, the revelation of God Almighty. The battlefield for which that Sword is given is your own soul, not the world around you. Are you not blessed in your personal life when the Great Physician carves away satanic cancers from your soul? It's no different when He acts that way on a larger scale. You see, when whole lands reject His truth the way the US has, then Creation itself is revulsed. The majority of Americans have torn down the hedge of His protection, have stepped out from under His covering. Any surprise the storm strikes us?

Are you ready?

Reprise: It Has a Fancy Name

It's called synergism, and it's an old heresy. The biblical position is called monergism -- God needs no help from you to save you, and you can't give it, anyway (see Romans 8:5-7).

That I take a Reformed/Calvinist position is a direct result of my personal experience with God. I didn't have to be persuaded to accept Calvinism by Scripture, or tradition, or any other typical means. I was there from the start. My argument with folks like Rick Warren (Purpose Driven Church), and far too many in my current association with Southern Baptists is they somehow arrive at this position: The only reason some people go to Hell is because you and I didn't find a way to convince them to accept Christ.

For example, Rick Warren says, "It is my deep conviction that anybody can be won to Christ if you discover the key to his or her heart... It may take some time to identify it. But the most likely place to start is with the person's felt needs." If this were true one could use modern marketing principles to sell people on their need for Christian religion and convince them to convert in order to find satisfaction of their felt needs.

Sorry; that's not in Scripture. In a message I heard last December, the preacher (a pastoral candidate) used the same silly trick so popular with synergists, by misquoting 2 Peter 3:9. He focused on the apparent meaning of the last phrase in English: "not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance" (using his favorite NASB translation). Standing alone, it seems to imply what Rick Warren asserts in the quote above. Of course, this tosses out the context supplied by the preceding phrases: "The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. He is patient with you," which breaks the sentences incorrectly, but still shows some of the proper concept. The context taken as a whole says something quite different than synergists like to make of it. Here is a better phrasing:

The Lord is not slow concerning His promise, as some count slowness, but is long-suffering toward us, not willing that any of us should perish, but that all of us should come to repentance. (Modern KJV)

Even if you argue the better texts say "but all of you should come to repentance," it does not change much: The "all" or "everyone" is not universal, but restricted to the folks he is addressing. The whole point of the verse in the broader context is to encourage these believers -- folks he called "Elect" in the previous letter of 1 Peter -- to be patient. The Lord hasn't returned yet because not all the Elect have turned yet.

How hard is that for a D.Min. like that preacher to figure out? Oh, wait; his doctoral project was a practicum in applying Church Growth Movement (CGM) techniques in a particular congregation. Whence comes CGM? Norman Vincent Peale, via Robert Schuller and his friends. You know: those New Age guys who gutted biblical faith for something which sold better, trading Jesus Christ from someone else entirely. This preacher had already committed himself to another god, and was simply using the wording of an English translation to sucker Baptists into supporting him.

We must return to a truly biblical theology. Not the one sold to you as biblical by multiple layers of hucksterism, with the "proof" of truth being big numbers and big dollars. That's very moving emotionally, but completely false and wholly without foundation in God's Word. Let's try this one:

Therefore do not fear, you are of more value than many sparrows. Then everyone who shall confess Me before men, I will confess him before My Father who is in Heaven. But whoever shall deny Me before men, I will also deny him before My Father in Heaven. Do not think that I have come to bring peace on earth. I did not come to send peace, but a sword. For I have come to set a man against his father, and the daughter against her mother, and the daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. And a man's foes shall be those of his own household. (Matthew 10:31-36, MKJV)

Does that sound like we should expect a huge crowd if we adhere to the teachings of Jesus Christ? Does that sound like we should expect everyone to easily find their way to walking the path of Kingdom service? Wait, there's more:

He who loves father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me. And he who loves son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me. And he who does not take up his cross and follow Me is not worthy of Me. He who finds his life shall lose it. And he who loses his life for My sake shall find it. (vv. 37-39)

Anyone can see what Jesus is telling His disciples. All the choices you've made up to the point of spiritual rebirth are subject to God's review, since you made them all without Him. Give it all to the Lord; stop trying to hold onto your human dreams. You can't keep anything if it's not His sovereign plan for your life. You will probably lose all your dreams of safe, middle-class tranquility if you really follow Him.

Sell that to the modern "seeker."

(Republished from a previous posting somewhere else.)

Cessation of Charismatic Gifts: Another Wrong Question

Have the more flamboyant manifestations of the Holy Spirit, as seen in the New Testament, ceased with the death of the last Apostle? The question itself is wrong.

Our greatest problem is our vast distance culturally and linguistically from the Early Church. Because of this gulf, we hardly understand those manifestations. On the one hand, we have the overly enthusiastic embrace from a group of churches loosely referred to as "charismatic." Anyone who denies there is any fraud in demonstrations of the gifts can be dismissed immediately. I've witnessed it myself first hand, and overheard instruction from leaders in such churches which clearly transgress the spirit and letter of the New Testament. Frankly, most of the people I know who "speak in tongues" were taught theirs; it is hardly a "gift of the Spirit." Further, no amount of semantic wrangling can remove the implication those who don't speak in tongues are spiritually second-class. The arrogance of such a teaching is astounding, but explains how they casually reject historical Christian orthodoxy by dismissing anyone who hasn't passed through their rites of initiation by jabbering ecstatically in some worship service.

Those who claim all such manifestations have ceased are also frauds, because I've seen the real thing, too. Further, I've experienced it personally. One thing no man can take from you is something God worked directly in your spirit. Assertions of cessation are inevitably grounded in mere human logic, for nothing in Scripture says definitively it would be so. Popular references to 1 Corinthian 13:8 miss the context, since perfection hasn't arrived yet. We need not assert cessation to battle false teachings.

It's all the wrong question because of false assumptions. Get this: God cannot be placed into a neat little box to your liking. The Holy Spirit has most certainly worked in men who were obliged by circumstances to engage in pagan religious rituals. Ever hear of Joseph and the Coat of Many Colors, who served as Viceroy of Egypt? How about God speaking through Balaam, not to mention his onager? Those examples do not serve as excuses for avoiding holiness, but show clearly God is not constrained by anything on this earth -- He can work any way He so desires, and our rules make no difference at all.

Thus, He can surely still give folks ecstatic utterances, and let others live their whole lives with a pretty banal existence. He can use this one to heal just once, and that one to heal all the time, and the other over there to never see any miracles at all. I say "never see miracles" in the sense of any unusual manifestations. Rather, the only miracle which really counts is His choosing each of us, and fishing us from the flood of humanity racing off to a justly deserved eternal damnation. Anything else is just icing on the cake. Furthermore, without the clear and persistent changes in our character from the inner workings of the God of all Creation, everything else is just noise and stagecraft.

Whom Do You Serve?

My first loyalty is to the Kingdom of God. It is evil to equate hyper-patriotism with that, because America is hardly the Kingdom of God.

I still recite the Pledge of Allegiance in public, though I know the pledge was written by a secular minded communist. I still sing "The Star-spangled Banner" in public, with all the considerable skill I possess, but I don't put my hand over my heart. I don't disparage the uniforms of our services, regardless what I think of their current missions.

But why do you judge your brother? Or why also do you despise your brother? For all shall stand before the judgment seat of Christ. For it has been written, "As I live, says the Lord, that every knee will bow to Me, and every tongue confess to God." So then each one of us will give account concerning himself to God. (Romans 14:10-12)

I do not go out of my to give offense, nor challenge the Zionist neo-cons in my church fellowship to debate. What of the Christian brother in Iran? Is he evil for patriotism to his country, while we are righteous for patriotism to ours? If you challenge that on the basis of national sins, I could list some awful things we've done as a nation, too. It takes an awful blind arrogance to believe the US is somehow distinctly God's Own country.

God no longer has a nation, except in the Spirit. "His People" are only those who follow Jesus. Anyone outside Christ is damned by default, since all of us were there before He called us to salvation.

Not Forgotten: House Church

Memorial Day Weekend, when originally we took time to mourn the fallen of wars past. The assumption is it would make us reluctant to rush off to war again, but it doesn't seem to be working too well. Thus, I'm giving this weekend over to resurrection, instead.

For the past few months I've been attending a regular institutional church, simply for the sake of fellowship. We've not joined this church, and won't. I maintain my commitment to the principle such organization causes more problems than it solves in the long term. Churches should be families, not bureaucracies. We are there for the spiritual family ties.

Sometimes our fleshly minds are so locked into the wrong place, it takes awhile for the Holy Spirit to break the bonds. Too often we assume that has to be conscious, even dramatic. Not so; He often does His best work below the line of consciousness. Indeed, much of my teaching assumes that. The process of sanctification is mostly hidden, the uniquely personal interaction between a soul and the Savior. When I ran into a wall in my own soul with getting house church working, I knew it would take time for the Holy Spirit to plow, water, fertilize and plow again, until the fallow soil of my soul was ready.

While it may not really be ready in that sense, I am closer. Today I'll share this nugget from someone who wants no credit: Even if your church worship is just your own household, take it seriously. God certainly does. My wife and I are now discussing and praying together how we can make this work for His glory.

World of the Dead

Those in the world unredeemed, by virtue of lacking the Holy Spirit, are dead. That is, their spirits are dead; they are but flesh and soul. For this reason, they cannot comprehend any part of spiritual truth. It is beyond them, because it is not an area of human knowledge. It is the enlightenment of the Holy Person communing and communicating His very Self. Anything less, and they don't get it.

It's no surprise the best they can do is regard faith as mere sentiment. That is, they may apprehend there is something indefinable in the human soul, but to them there is no concept of something called "spirit," except perhaps in some pantheistic sense. Even then, it is typically described as attitude, philosophy, some nameless apprehension.

No surprise, then, they reject a Holy Spirit prompting for things not in accord to their limited grasp. The irresistible urge to pray, to worship and give thanks, to love someone no man can see -- all these are things they consider mere emotion, rooted in some poorly analyzed human need. The sense of conviction which defies all human reason is called "truculence." They cannot understand, because the part of them needed to understand is dead.

[Jesus praying] I have given them Your Word, and the world hated them because they are not of the world, as I am not of the world. I do not pray that You take them out of the world, but that You keep them from evil. They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. (John 17:14-16)

Do not marvel, my brothers, if the world hates you. (1 John 3:13)

Sabbath of the Soul

The Lord decreed in the very act of Creation there should be a rest, a time to pull away from the concerns of this world, and to contemplate things eternal.

As my brother Jason says so very well, if we neglect the ultimate reality of who we are, and whence we come, our lives can become like a full vacuum cleaner bag, or a house infested with cobwebs. We won't be any use to anyone; nobody will want what we have. A critical part of staying useful to God is taking a fair chunk of our human lives on a regular basis to be with Him alone.

Worse, without reference to God's refreshing presence, our minds can become filled with some truly horrendous filth. Not just basic, fleshly sins, but sinister idolatries which serve to work against the Kingdom. Satan has no problem waiting us out, letting things get cluttered little by little, until it becomes destructive.

Don't ignore it. Indeed, it's well past time to pull away. Not to the point we cease the mission of revealing Christ to a lost world. However, you must surely realize it is a special form of cruelty to toss your children into the arms of Molech, via the nurseries of Caesar, expecting them to somehow understand and live the mission of Christ before they are mature enough to fight back spiritually. The mere convenience of government schooling while you're trying to earn enough for that big house in desirable suburbs is defeating the purpose for God giving us children.

Childhood is the time of creation of a soul, not for direct warfare against an Enemy most of us aren't ready to face ourselves.

Bureaucracy Is the Enemy of the Holy Spirit

You can fight City Hall, but it often pays to simply ignore them. All the more so when the Lord is leading you to act.

When I moved into this apartment complex this past March, I was delighted by the fitness trails being just outside the fence. I've used them most days since coming here. Shortly after I started this exercise regimen, storms hit and broke off some trees and limbs. Since some of them blocked the paths, I got out my saw, cut them up and moved them myself. Fortunately, none of them were really large, just too big to carry.

Then I noticed the storms brought trash, too. So I started picking up some of it, even to the point of bringing along a couple of trash bags on these outings. When Mother's Day came, I noticed the picnic tables just off one trail were totally trashed. Before I got back, the maintenance crews managed to clear it off, so I took my normal round on one of the trails. Two thoughts occurred to me at the same time. One, I would think there might be some other folks willing to help me maintain the trails, if they knew. Two, with a little publicity, the major trash days could draw a few extra volunteers.

I went to the Midwest City (MWC) municipal offices to offer my services organizing this program. First, they tried to steer me to some existing programs. I knew from experience each of their ideas were outside my expertise, or would require fighting bureaucratic idiocy. I would prefer to work with something requiring no such hassle... I thought. Finally, they steered me to Parks and Recreation.

I got one call making sure I wasn't kidding. Then I got another from the maintenance chief, who was quite enthusiastic. We brainstormed about publicizing the plan to organize a clean-up day after each of the major park holidays, when trash was at its worst: Memorial Day, July 4th, and Labor Day. Then he passed me up the chain to his boss. I don't want to imply he didn't care, but I was surely not a high priority for him. By the time he finally called me, the window of time was too small to expect much. I had already gotten a commitment to at least pass the word from the Chamber of Commerce, and had contacted the local newspaper.

This man finally went to his boss with the idea, but called back and told me it would have to wait until it passed the Parks Commission. They meet on June 20. Great. That ignores my plans to organize for 29 May (next week) and much too close to July 4th. Now, I'm not blaming anyone in particular for bad faith dealings, but I hate bureaucracy for this very reason. So now I don't have official support, I can't get a tax write-off on City letterhead for donors, and I can't use the City's name to persuade local commerce to support this. It's just me and whomever happens to hear and wants to join me.

Fine. I hand-lettered a t-shirt -- front: "PICK-UP THE PARK!"; back: "MWC PARKS VOLUNTEER LITTER BRIGADE". I wore it today on my rounds, and it got a little attention. I'm preparing to buy my own garbage bags for Tuesday, and making a couple of poster board signs to let folks know what I'm doing. If anybody shows up, great. If not, I'll have at least a handful there with me to clean up what we can between 8AM and Noon. We'll start near the old Rotary Pavilion in Barnes Regional Park.

Oh, and I passed this story on to the big three local TV news stations. We'll see what happens.

Cultural Mythology: Ruckmanites

I do not worship the KJV of the Bible, nor any other document. I worship the Father of Lights who gave His Word to His people.

The Ruckmanite heresy is a peculiarly American viewpoint, assuming some underlying racist theology. Somehow the Anglo-Celtic are "God's Chosen People," and their language is God's language, and Anglo-Saxon culture perfectly reflects God's revealed will. It doesn't take much reading in any English Bible translation to discover God spoke to the world through the Semite races, in their language, and couched His revelation in their cultural terms. Surely there's a reason for that?

You can find references to Peter Ruckman, both pro and con. Having dealt with his followers, I find the following to be a fair assessment of their assumptions:

• the KJV is doubly inspired;


• the KJV is advanced revelation;


• the English KJV is as or more inspired than the original language Scriptures;


• the KJV can be used to correct the original language Scriptures;


• there is no need whatsoever to study the Biblical languages of Hebrew, Aramaic and Greek due to an "inspired" English translation;


• the KJV cannot be improved on;


• the KJV is the only Bible that has gospel or salvific content;


• those who do not use the KJV are condemned to hell; and


• all non-English speaking believers must learn English to know the Truth.

I've already made it clear I have a serious problem with modern translations only because they prefer textual sources known to be corrupt. That's not the same thing as rejecting the idea of revising and updating any translation in any language to modern usage.

I realize I remain an amateur as long as I don't become fully conversant with biblical languages. God didn't call me to make a fresh translation of His Word, only to make sure I'm familiar with it's linguistic and cultural background. He has so very many called translators, why duplicate their work? If we cannot trust at least some of them, then the Body of Christ is doomed. That is hardly an excuse to elevate the KJV translators above the apostles and prophets, then close the door and claim no one after them can know the original languages half so well.

Do they not know the KJV itself went through several editions? Have they forgotten Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ was a Jew, and not Anglo-Saxon? We sensibly reject British Israelism and the related Armstrong cult. Furthermore, Jesus made it a point to call the teachers of His day to return to their ancient Hebraic faith roots. If the Truth Incarnated thought so highly of that ancient Eastern-mystical religious base, maybe we should find out more about it.

Seventy Times Seven

Jesus was showing how His Father's standard of holiness was beyond comprehension, because one cannot simply separate sin, holiness and forgiveness as the rabbis had tried to do. God judges sin, and we are not Him. God's holiness was not about human success at repentance, but a tender conscience to revealed truth.

Then came Peter to him, and said, "Lord, how oft shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? till seven times?" Jesus said to him, "I say not to you, 'Until seven times:' but, 'Until seventy times seven.'" (Matthew 18:21-22)

The rabbinical scholars had been saying for some time one should forgive the same sin from the same person 3 times. If they apologize and express repentance, accept it. After that, you are safe assuming it is a serious problem, and you can hold it against them. Sounds reasonable to our Western rational minds, no? Peter, trying to outdo the righteousness of the Pharisees, offered to extend that to 7, a number heavy with mystical meanings to Jewish minds. It was number of completeness and holiness. Peter thought he was being generous.

Jesus showed how far Peter had to go to reach the Kingdom standard. Cutting off sin was not about stopping our fallen flesh from doing sin, but about cutting off the eternal consequence with a sacrifice by the aggrieved party. As God forgives without limit the broken soul who cannot seem to keep their flesh nailed to the Cross, so we channel that same grace to others who sin against us. In the act of forgiveness, we take power over our own sin. Standard Kingdom paradox.

In this teaching, Jesus handed us a key to something hotly argued even today: Daniel 9. Far greater scholars than I have discussed this to death, and many still reject the obvious answer. Jesus made a specific reference to Daniel's prophecy when He said "seventy sevens." In Hebrew, that's precisely word for word what Gabriel told Daniel. Whether you want to make of that "seventy weeks" or weeks of years, you can't afford to ignore the point of choosing that number.

In case you have trouble moving into the mystical mindset of Scripture, we note the number represents the final answer to sin according to God's own standard. Daniel was all so deeply concerned about Jerusalem and the Temple, because he had seen the deepening apostasy of his brethren in Babylonian captivity around him. He knew of no other way to bring them back. While having a Temple was not the answer itself, it was clearly harder without it.

So Daniel began praying for the restoration promised in Jeremiah, a copy of whose prophecy Daniel had at hand to read. God's response to Daniel was sending Gabriel with a message. There is no excuse for failing to notice the answer was couched in typical mystical Hebrew language. Assuming we can simply diagram it from the viewpoint of our Western rational minds is foolish. That's not the way God communicates. Frankly, it wasn't completely plain to the Hebrew mind, either. Nor would they expect to parse out the meaning of every word. It is wholly unwise to bring some meaning to it, but we must draw out the message in the whole Bible context. That context includes grasping the Hebrew viewpoint on the world, which can be rather foreign to our modern Western minds.

Getting hung up on the literal application of the numbers is a major mistake. Jesus said the "seventy sevens" is about holiness and forgiveness, about God bringing His standard and power to bear on the ultimate question of human sin. It was over this very thing Daniel had been praying, confessing he was partaker of the sins of his fathers. From where he stood, the best assumption was to include a rebuilt Temple in the formula. Gabriel's words, in spite of being rather mysterious, actually put this faulty idea to rest.

Seventy sevens are determined on your people and on your holy city, to finish the transgression, and to make an end of sins, and to make reconciliation for iniquity, and to bring in everlasting righteousness, and to seal up the vision and prophecy, and to anoint the most Holy. (v. 24)

So Gabriel says, "God has a plan to fix this sin problem, and it still includes your brethren, and Jerusalem. This solution will destroy sin's power, along with ending the need for prophetic visions." There are multiple meanings to this "seventy sevens." The obvious one is the meaning Jesus took from it in His lesson on forgiveness, as He was showing how He fulfilled whatever it was Gabriel promised. That one point is the key, and to ignore that is to miss the whole thing: This is about the Messiah, a figure long known of in Hebrew literature from Genesis 3:15 onward.

There were various Medo-Persian decrees to sponsor rebuilding the Temple. Depending on how you reckon which Gabriel refers to, you might just about get 69 weeks of years until the Messiah shows up. That's really not significant, if you understand Hebrew literature. It's more important to see that Messiah comes as the climax of all that is central to Jewish religious life. Yes, the Temple and the city will be rebuilt, and will be rather complete. The final stages (the city wall) will be built during troubled times. Check out Nehemiah, and you'll see a literal fulfillment of that. But troubles won't prevent God fulfilling that promise.

That new Temple would stand for awhile. At some point, the Messiah would be executed, but not for His own crimes. That implies to the Hebrew mind He would die for the sins of others, harkening back to the Suffering Servant of Isaiah. Connected with that death would be the final destruction of the Temple, at the hands of whomever is political ruler of Jerusalem at that time. It will be ugly, and the city will be under siege; it would be as if there were a flood of water surrounding it. The Temple would be desecrated by these goons.

The reason for this will be the New Covenant of the Messiah. He will offer this Covenant to just about anybody (but Jews first, we learn later). With this new Covenant, there will be no further need of the sacrificial system. Those who cling to it will suffer greatly, for they will be rejecting God's New Way.

Once the human sin issue was finally settled in Heaven, there would no further need for the ritual Temple worship. That would have shook Daniel, even while he would have rejoiced. It had already been desecrated once, and it was going to happen again. However, that last and final destruction would signal the final solution from God's hand. Sadly, the Jews as a nation would reject it. Again, this would have saddened Daniel, though I doubt he'd be surprised. This line of thought was confirmed by Paul, premier Jew-boy himself, in Galatians. There, Paul writes the name "Israel" no longer applied to a nation of people with shared DNA and religion. Rather, it would be applied to a new nation of spiritual DNA. Only those in Christ could claim the name Israel.

There is way too much evidence to show the Early Church considered Daniel 9 fulfilled completely by 70AD. Further, Jewish scholars thought so, too. To see there is somehow a gap between the 7+62 weeks and the final week is completely foreign to a biblical perspective. It's a measure of desperation to shore up a false understanding arrived at outside of the Scripture.

Computer Talk: They Have Learned

The current Debian release is a departure, a significant step upward in usability.

It wasn't that long ago you had to individually configure all your hardware in Debian manually. I tried it more than once in the past. The motherboard, primary chipsets, and core components would work, but beyond that there was essentially no detection at all. Even after you got it all working, the software package versions were just a little too conservative. You could find yourself a full generation behind all the other Linux distros. But you had to stay with that if you wanted any kind of bug support. So when Klaus Knopper came up with Knoppix, all singing and dancing, fully detecting hardware and configuring, and running really up-to-date packages, it took off like a rocket. People couldn't help noticing the sexy female voice announcing the system was being started -- just a symbol of how advanced it was.

Of course, some of its highly modified packages were completely unsupported. It really was designed to run from the CD, and this irritated the huge number of folks who loved Debian, but wanted something easier to install. When Kanotix came out, with more moderate packaging, with the same hardware detection, and actually designed to install to the harddrive, it seemed to answer a lot of wishes. However, over the last year it hit some real road blocks, and hasn't had a new release for quite some time.

Just in time, Debian itself got the message, and accelerated their latest release -- v. 4.0 "Etch." Finally, some hardware detection and configuration is fully automated. Somehow a great number of popular packages have been identified with a priority to ensure they are made the "stable" designation to be include in the current pool. It still requires digging about to set up some things, and there are plenty of disagreements with licensing to force building a few things from source. Some packages are available for Debian, but only from that project's website. Also, the packaging structure can be pretty fine-grained, requiring a bit of research to identify just what you need for one purpose or another. Some items require using the Debian-specific configuration tool, or it won't work at all -- such as CUPS. Identifying the Debian tools for many things remains a challenge for someone who haven't used it less than two years running.

Still, I firmly believe Debian has become a decent desktop Linux distribution. For the issues which aren't obvious to the outsider, there's quite a bit of useful information scattered across the Internet. Yeah, it's not all centralized yet, such as one finds with Ubuntu. While the Ubuntu folks are quite friendly and patient, more so than on many Debian forums, I must say I've found more of their tweaked packages broken. Even where the vanilla Debian answer is more convoluted, it tends to work better in the end.

I may have become a convert this time. I find it works better with my hardware than FreeBSD does. I'll let it stick around for awhile. For those of you wondering how this fits in with my normal flow of spiritual discussion, consider this: You have to use a computer to read my stuff, and I have to use one to post it here. In my service of the King, I have to consider what tools are best adapted to His purpose in my life. There's no place for Gates and Windows in my tent.

Get Outside Yourself

The most powerful tool for healing your soul is to get outside yourself in serving someone else.

I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ lives in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me. (Galatians 2:20)

Wanna be closer to Jesus? Get up on the Cross. A critical part of that image is serving Him by serving others. Few things compare with serving others for relieving depression, sorrow, or simple boredom. Serious clinical depression has been found somewhat helped even by forced labor on behalf of the needs of another. Naturally, we realize there can be too much of a good thing, but seeing the overall spiritual principle can change your world.

That spiritual principle is grace flowing through you. It can't help but affect you and bless you when His grace passes through. Further, it's an act of divine worship. Who hasn't experienced the manifold blessings of worship? Try it. The next time you are getting down, get up on the Cross, and get out of yourself.

Testing Another OS, Again

With the recent release of Debian 4.0 "Etch" it seemed a good opportunity to take it for a more extensive test drive. Having seen how it works on my ancient laptop from the console, I've decided to see how it works on my desktop system. However, unwilling to simply wipe away all my work in FreeBSD, I swapped out harddrives.

I may have something useful to report later.

Prissy Victorian Silliness

The biblical Hebraic culture was rather matter-of-fact about human sexuality. For a more extensive treatment, try this.

One of the worst elements of Victorian culture still inflicts us today. It assumes women do not like sex, should act shocked at the mere mention of it, and makes all men beasts unless they are as prissy about it as women are supposed to be. It gives rise to all manner of idiocy, because it ignores human nature, and attempts to usurp spiritual nature, too.

It's one thing to propose conservative standards of dress and conduct, and to prohibit rough talk. Scripture makes clear what sexual perversion is, mostly by excluding anything beyond certain clear boundaries. That we today have added so very much junk to those boundaries is a source of endless trouble. It's really quite simple: One woman, one man, bound for life, nothing prohibited for which they both freely agree. It was always intensely private. Polygamy was never the ideal, but in a world where men had a far higher mortality rate, it was virtually necessary.

Let me clarify a few things. The biblical perspective assumes younger men are forbidden sexual fulfillment until they grow up -- that is, they become mature enough to take responsibility. Sowing one's wild oats is wholly unacceptable, because it cannot be done without causing someone else to sin. Most men did not marry before age 30, because they couldn't support a wife and family. Only among wealthy families would men marry in their 20s. Such restraint is considered "sick" today.

For young women, there is virtually no lower age limit, except to note she must be able to conceive. Menarche has been, at various times throughout history, as early as 12 and as late as 21, depending on a number of factors. In our modern times, with a host of environmental toxins and food contaminants, we see girls hitting puberty far too young. On top of this, we have a horrendous social psychosis making it both necessary to entice, yet superficially forbidden to indulge.

Worse, we have this insipid attitude girls ought only to couple with guys their own age. This is utterly wrong from the biblical point of view. The norm was for them to marry fellows 10-20 years older. The Bible recognizes females are mature that much earlier than men, so it pairs them accordingly. There is nothing at all dirty about older men being drawn to younger women. It was never acceptable to marry according to feelings, but according to good sense handed down from elders. Men might notice a filly was cute, but would keep watching long enough to see if she was also possessed of a tolerable temperament. Everyone knew without having to discuss it: Genuine love and devotion would come in due time, where hearts are committed to truth and righteousness.

Violence was something men never brought home, because fouling your own nest was the height of foolishness (biblically defined as spiritual and moral depravity). Men eager for violence were foolish, anyway. However, it was expected men would act to defend self, home, and nation. Not in aggression, but conquest of another must come only after repeated attacks from them, and failure of every attempt to live at peace. Someone bent on your destruction could be subjugated, if not annihilated.

However, knowing people are sinful, fallen, and wholly likely to do bad things all too often, there is no sin in factually reporting the evil men do. All the more so if one could draw a scriptural lesson from it. Only in a truly idiotic world are we required to keep the facts of human nature away from "innocent minds," since none are innocent as soon as they know right from wrong. Thus, it is essential children know as soon as they can understand what the consequences of sin are.

Given our world is currently swinging far to the side of evil, is it any surprise worldly minds want to seal up the Bible from everyone?

She Can't Preach

These last two months have been financially rough for us. It comes from having to pay all those utility deposits and other fees when you move into a place far away from your previous quarters. Naturally, the Father has done quite well by us, and we have gotten by just fine. However, we ran a little short of groceries this week and decided to hit a food bank.

This one is run by a local church of a Methodist flavor. They asked, but did not require, all the recipients to attend a chapel service. Perhaps you know urban mission clients often complain of getting "an ear beating," but that's not my attitude. I love a good worship service.

The pastor is a woman. I'll bypass that issue for a moment, though, and focus on a real complaint. This lady broke just about every rule in the book from my homiletics classes. She did read a passage of Scripture, but only as a vague run-up to her homily (a fancy word for "sermon"). Rather, she preached on the Apostles' Creed. I have no quarrel with that creed, but it's not the Bible. It merely reflects the Bible. Even neo-orthodox theologians like Barth knew better than that.

A religious lecture is one thing, but calling something a homily or sermon must by definition be exegetical. Any other form of preaching is manipulative at best. Teaching and preaching from the Word means pointing out what a particular Bible passage says, and how it applies to us. This lady strung together a bunch of verses and devotional declarations, and didn't even really follow the Creed very well.

Okay, I have to say it: This is typical of women's preaching styles. In the military I've worked with female chaplains, and in my various volunteer activities across denominational lines, ran into a few more ordained women. Most of them lacked the personality for real pastoral care, and only one came close to knowing how to preach. You can argue from the Bible women aren't to pastor, but that's not my point. I have yet to see a woman who was actually able to do the job.

Missions to America

On the heels of my declaration regarding the authority of Scripture, I spotted this news item about an African Methodist Bishop decrying the US Methodists' abondoning allegiance to the Bible.

A United Methodist bishop from the Democratic Republic of Congo says it pains him that liberal Methodist leaders in the U.S. are unfaithful to Scripture....

Yemba was recently in the United States to attend a Council of Bishops meeting in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. He says new democratic institutions and relative peace in his once war-torn country have helped spur church growth in the Congo.

However, the bishop's outlook for the Methodist Church in the U.S. is far bleaker. He says while his denomination is not as divided as the Episcopal Church USA, it will be one day if some of its leaders in the U.S. do not start to value the authority of Scripture. Any denomination that is not faithful to God's Word, he maintains, will fall apart.

You and I both know the organized institutions known by various denominational names may well continue and prosper for any number of reasons. However, Bishop Yemba is more likely referring to the vital ministry of touching souls with the truth. You can't reveal truth you don't have, and as the Bishop notes, trading the centrality of Scripture for human philosophical pretensions is killing the Anglican communion.

Back in the `70s, when I was studying ministry at Oklahoma Baptist University, I was told there was an international student who planned to graduate, go home to Africa, and lead a team of evangelists back here to the US. I never heard whether he actually did this, but I am quite certain it's an even better idea now than it was then. Missionaries from Africa is an idea whose time has come.

Out of My Hands

I am hardly an apostle. Some wouldn't even allow me the title "preacher." So I'll just settle for "teacher." Mostly I teach the Word, as best I understand it. As I noted previously, you really don't owe me your attention. If my words serve you in your Kingdom walk, well and good. If not, set them aside; I'll take no offense. I rely on the Holy Spirit to back me up. He's quite capable of making you listen to me if it suits Him.

So then, my beloved, just as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling; for it is God who is working in you, both to will and to do for His good pleasure. (Philippians 2:12-13)

In every case, my primary goal is not to replicate myself, but my Lord. I want more than anything else that you should have your own vision of His glory, that your spiritual eyes are opened to His self-revelation. We in the materialist West today are far removed from the Kingdom ways, and it requires some significant effort to break up the hardened ground of lies, destruction and death. One day you will not get my words at all; the next day you'll suddenly understand. It's not so much my words you'll understand, as what God wants to say to you. He has promised to use my life to reveal Himself. Writing and teaching are very big portions of what He called me to do in life. Even if I provoke you to argue with me, make you angry, as long as I can make you think in a way which shakes you loose from your self, I will have succeeded. Thus, you can walk away convinced I'm a complete nut-case, and still be blessed by my work.

Feel free to criticize my words and actions, even harshly. Don't think I won't return the favor. It's not about attacking each other (Ephesians 6:12). It's about calling things as we see them, and it's a necessary part of sharing the Word from our hearts. Don't worry what sinners will make of it; that's God's concern. When we do things right, even when we disagree, He'll use it to reveal Himself.

There's a sense in which none of us ever really knows of a certainty we are right. The very essence of conviction is a work of the Holy Spirit, which will ever transcend our words and our human intellect. Every answer we as individuals give from the bedrock of conviction will tend to be somewhat different within differing contexts. The communion with Our Heavenly Father is a living thing, subject to His whims, and "sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intentions of the heart" (Hebrews 4:12). Thus, at the very best, my words will be but a poor shadow cast across my world by the glory of God.

So my life is dedicated to setting you free to define your own bedrock of convictions. If you approach the task with "fear and trembling," I can't argue with the results. All I can do is decide whether we share enough to pull in the harness together. No one on this earth has the authority to compel you to do that. They may shackle the body, but the spirit remains the domain of God alone.

Celebrating Mother's Day

While observations of this sort of celebration go far back into history, here in the US, it was a day set aside to promote an end to war. Julia Ward Howe (author of "Battle Hymn of the Republic") saw the devastation war brought to defenseless victims and wanted a Mother's Day for Peace. She didn't quite succeed, but it shows what women are best at: mothering.

For the mother of my children: I am so unworthy of your love and devotion. Surely it is God's grace behind all this, because I didn't deserve salvation, either.

For my own mother: Among the millions of things you gave me, I treasure most the intellectual curiosity, artistic disposition, gentle soul, and a powerful distaste for conflict.

Yes, I even hate war. I am by no means a pacifist, though there is a streak of that in me. Not from fear, but a sure knowledge no good thing comes from killing people and breaking things. However, I know worse things may possibly happen when we don't. The world has truly become an awful place. How much worse it would be without mothers.

Where's the Fruit?

You can look up Paul's discussion on Fruit of the Spirit starting in Galatians 5. The essence of what we seek is change, change of a specific nature, change in a person's nature. It has nothing to do with ecstatic gifts and earth-shaking miracles which can be caught on film. It has everything to do with the miracle of a changed heart.

Recall we cannot possibly know if someone is born-again. What we can know is whether we are required by the Lord to treat them as fellow believers. Specifically, this is not about the absolutes of spiritual identity, but about the practical obedience in dealing with someone. That's all Scripture requires of you, to discern from the Father whether you are responsible for treating someone as a believer or not.

When we quote the Word, or enunciate a spiritual truth by the Holy Spirit's power, it has an effect. At the minimum, it will affect you for uttering it. It tends to affect others. It will most certainly affect fellow believers (though perhaps not always as you might expect). It could affect non-believers. However, if after a reasonable time, it has no effect on someone, you can safely assume you need to treat them as a non-believer.

You don't have to say anything about it, though it may be appropriate in some settings. If this person happens to hold a place of organizational leadership in a church, be cautious, but seek help and spiritual counsel from someone uninvolved in your question. In the end, if you can't resolve things, remove yourself from their sphere of authority.

If they are more or less a peer, you should try to stay out of their way. However, it may not be appropriate to withdraw fellowship with them, so be prepared to counter -- with love and grace -- their actions and words. That is, don't be afraid to have a different take on things, and be sure to backup your position with the Word.

If you are in authority over them, be aware you cannot use standard spiritual leadership techniques with them, because they don't respond to the Holy Spirit. You can surely rely on Him, but you can't rely on them to hear Him. You should correct them by the Word, but you'll need to assert your authority from your organizational role, not as senior brother/sister. In other words, human psychology is all you've got.

In some sense, there is a distinct level of privilege for those you treat as fellow believers. Sometimes it will be obvious. One pastor told a story like this: "There were some folks complaining our church was run by a clique. I told them, 'Wanna join that clique? Start showing up and get involved, because that clique is all the people who do that sort of thing.'" One fruit of the Holy Spirit is sacrifice. By itself, hyper-involvement means nothing. However, the pastor made it clear the rest of the fruit was there with it. He made the point these people responded to the Word specifically.

Thus, we cannot base our discernment on mere performance. That was never the idea. Rather, it's behavior -- words and deeds -- which betray effects from a power beyond human ken. You can't see it by any performance measures, but by the Holy Spirit working in your own soul.

Volunteer Project

The Lord giveth, and the Lord taketh away, said Job. While my current domicile is in the flight path of Tinker AFB, it's also right next to one of the biggest and best maintained city parks around. That includes the "Nature Trail" network -- actually more like fitness trails, but minus the additional workout equipment. I've been putting them to good use since moving here two months ago. It's helped bring my weight down from about 260 to 235 pounds.

Because these trails mean so much to me, I've decided to help maintain them. Now, I'm not talking just going out and picking up trash. I called the municipal parks department and volunteered to organize a community volunteer program to get lots of people involved in this. I plan to get folks to pick up litter along all the paths (roughly 8 miles of it), as well as all over the various discrete parks they pass through. If they let me, I'll also volunteer to work at preparing fallen trees and limbs for removal.

I have no idea how this will turn out. It may be I'll end up doing a lot of it alone, just as I cleaned along some 2.5 miles this afternoon. That's okay. I intend to give it a shot. Apparently the city is happy enough with the idea to plan a publicity campaign to back it up. I'm not looking forward to any kind of fame, but I can't see letting stuff pile up just because the city can't afford to keep people on the litter task every day.

Naturally, they are going to know I'm doing this as a service to my Lord and King.

Skip the Melodrama

Just the facts [PDF], as told from the Kingdom viewpoint. Note they try to keep it accurate because truth is more important than activism. They leave the individual response up to the Holy Spirit.

We have a hard time imagining such hostility. I've read and heard plenty of whining from US Christians about alleged oppression. It's not to say we don't have any, but it hardly justifies the whining and aggressive talk. Instead, we have this prime example of genuine torture and murder, most precisely for faith in Jesus, and a most gracious response from their surviving associates.

We have a long way to go in our pampered American Evangelical stronghold.

Update: I managed to contact the church in Smyrna (Izmir). They ask specifically that we pray for the widows and children of these men.

Let Your Light Shine

In the two posts previous to this one, I established a critical principle often lost in the thunder of theological debate: God wins. That is, He is right, and the rest of us struggle merely to reflect some little piece of that, the piece which He has placed in our hands. As long as we don't somehow get the idea our little piece is so very important, so utterly central to the whole "glory of God" business, so necessary for the proper functioning of His Kingdom we simply must find a way to press it upon everyone, we stand a chance of keeping a clear head.

Thus, the only thing between each of us and oblivion is the Holy Spirit. That the little piece of God's glory we bear is so small does not make it any less God's glory. In a paradox typical of the Kingdom, the more thoroughly convinced we are of our own insignificance, the more utterly fearless we can be in bearing that little piece of glory for Him anywhere He sends us. Nothing can excuse burying it, hiding it from the world. If we can do that, we don't belong in the Kingdom. The Kingdom is what the Kingdom does, in that sense.

Unlike silly hyper-Calvinists, I don't sit in my chair waiting for God to bring His appointed Elect by me to hear me speak the Word. He said, "Go." I have a calling. If you are His, you have one, too. That calling requires we seek His face to know what sort of life we are to live with the talents He's given us, so our daily activities bring us to the field where He wishes us to harvest. By His power, by His guidance, you will reveal His glory by your normal daily activities. What becomes your normal activities will reflect a deep concern His glory is manifested. Our greatest witness of His glory will be the things we change from day to day in pursuit of that vision.

That is the spiritual truth. It has a very solid implication in our daily lives. How you gonna get that glory out there for others to see? We are inundated by a mass message from the pits of Hell, trying to drown it out -- TV, movies, games, other forms of entertainment, along with advertising, sales pitches, and endless forms of pressure brought to bear in order to conform us. Each seeks to conform us to anything, anything other than God's image in Christ Jesus. Yes, already many of the Elect are deceived, having bought the Dispensationalist lie, among others. We don't have space to list the other lies, but you probably know some yourself. It seems every means of human communication has been co-opted to this evil cause of deception.

Part of that deception has Christians lauding TV and condemning the Internet. The former has a few pet TV preachers, and churches can still buy time for local Sunday morning broadcasts ("TV good!"). The latter just happens to permit pornography, among everything else ("Net bad!"). Never mind the millions of Christians now free to speak the whole truth, requiring only a brief exposure to a keyboard wired indirectly the Net. Compare that with the TV preachers competing with dollars for a very limited exposure. The freedom of the Net to let every idiot speak his mind, or lack thereof, is the same unfettered voice to speak the truth. It waits merely on the Holy Spirit to bring it before the notice of His people.

As it now exists, the Net is pretty much impervious to any form of censorship. It may requite a bit of technological savvy, but it remains free. Any soul driven by God to speak can find a way past every government attempt so far. In earlier times, it was the BBS system on home computers; you just had to pay for dialing the nearest node serving what you sought. Fidonet, anyone? Even now you can still get uncensored broadcast programming via shortwave radio.

What will we do when tribulation comes? We can't guess all the dark schemes of demonic purpose in human minds, though in general little of it surprises those who understand the Bible. Nor can we guess how the Lord will intervene on our behalf. Still, I would contend we have a reasonable shot at getting ready for what comes next here in the West. It's no conspiracy theory to recognize the stink of Hell in the many of the current changes in government policies and behavior. Should Our Lord tarry awhile before bringing down the final curtain, we have tough times ahead as the pendulum swings toward oppression again.

We will not be silenced, unless Our Lord wishes it.

Addendum: I'm also not threatened by free speech on coffee cups. When we get as whiny as the PC crowd, we're just another aggrieved victim group. I don't believe that's a good image for the Kingdom. Go ahead; buy your Starbucks.

Wrong Question, Continued

Higher Criticism asks the wrong question(s). Period. The entire field of inquiry is ungodly. That is, the Spiritual Mind would never ask such a question, so it doesn't matter what the answers are. It's fine for sinners to dig into things, because they don't believe anyway. The question regarding the validity of their conclusions have no bearing on the Kingdom.

The logic is rather simple, even for worldly minds: There are only two valid questions.

1. Are these ancient writings are authoritative?


2. What do they require of us?

In the case of the Old Testament canon, the first question was, to the best of our knowledge, closed long before Jesus was born. In the way He quotes from it, and what He says about it, we can safely assume He did not question the authority of that canon. Paul's writings reinforce that view.

It really doesn't matter who wrote what parts. Those who served the Lord preserved it reasonably well in a useful state, and it forms the foundation. It needs no inspection, dissection, or probing. That window was closed in antiquity. Learn it and live it.

At the same time, I reject most of the westernized reasoning used by Fundamentalists. For example, because Jesus referred the Torah as written by Moses, they seize upon this as an assertion which cannot be questioned. That's not the way Jesus used those terms, so making such an application of His words dishonors Him. Now, I have no trouble seeing Moses as the human author of the whole thing, in the sense he dictated to a scribe what went into it. He probably could write just fine in several languages, but men raised in royal households usually didn't make it a habit. Materials were expensive, the work was quite labor intensive, and the penmanship was more artistically demanding than modern writing. He would most certainly have employed one or more scribes, as most important ancient men did until long after the New Testament times. So common was this, it would require direct evidence to negate it.

As for the contents of Genesis, I have no trouble at all seeing Moses as the editor. His forty days in the presence of Jehovah on Mt. Sinai was more than enough time to for him to understand what among the various Semitic oral legends would reveal God's viewpoint on history. Documentary analysis trying to discern the sources could only come from a failure to understand at the least, and quite probably a disobedient heart. The Spiritual Mind doesn't need to know. Everyone following Moses, including Jesus and Paul, accepted it as authoritative. The book as a whole belonged to the community of faith as a gift from God, never mind whose hand held the pen.

As for the New Testament canon, we have no reason to question the common practice of the New Testament churches. While I am one of the first to declare anything after the Early Church Fathers is highly suspect, if not bogus, it would require an obstreperous mind to find anything to question. The evidence supporting the current Protestant canon is simply too great, regardless whether worldly reasoning finds evidence of multiple streams and sources.

Most importantly, the validity of these two canons is supported by the Holy Spirit. In my own experience and of those I trust, the only people pushing these sorts of questions are those with doubts, and they seem to uniformly lack a trustworthy spirit. Thus, we are back to what I said in the previous post. I can't speak for all God's Kingdom, only myself. Since I find myself writing at, to the best of my understanding, the prompting of His Holy Spirit, I have to assume He decides who will pay any attention. Obviously, my writing is not a Word from God on par with the OT and NT canons. But I am utterly convinced I am right, and any dissenters are wrong. You can try to change my mind, but it would require a move from God.

The longer I serve Him, the higher that barrier gets. It is my nature to drive hard at this stuff every day, under the assumption I can't afford to slack off -- I've got too far to go. It's not a question of who is right between us, but what is right. In worship, the standards for cooperation are naturally lower. In teaching, they are naturally higher, and rightly so. Teaching is necessarily based on one's personal experience with God.

The question, then, is not whether Barth was right, nor any other theologian in history. The question is whether I can use their work. In the case of Barth, it's wasted ink. Because I've read some of his work, I can conclude anyone who embraces him forces me to hold in my mind some question of their spiritual maturity. There's nothing petty about that, because I never forget I'm a nobody. I question my own maturity every day. Such questions do not disqualify me from speaking my convictions. Speaking is a command of God.

Wrong Question

The starting point is me. The substance of my authority is the a witness from the Holy Spirit. If He does not support my teaching by a witness in your spirit, then there's nothing to discuss.

I do my best work when people ask questions, because the Lord uses them to reveal understandings which lie hidden in the the store of information I've already absorbed in my 50 years of living, 41 of them under His calling. Even the wrong question is instructive. While I bluntly chided my friend Tim on the basic question of the proper view of Scripture, the question is actually very interesting. My brief rejection of the question is hardly the end of the matter.

I still use the phrase "infallibility of the Bible" for my Western/worldly minded brothers and sisters, but I'd much rather they know I think the question itself is silly. The reason I still use the phrase is because my assumptions in practice are no different from what it implies. I do not question the Word, but I will question my understanding of it, as well as just about anybody else's understanding, at times. In my mind, all discrepancies and inaccuracies are merely apparent. Sure, I even embrace the necessity of there having been transmission errors, too. I do make a bit of the question of original documents, because that is the one thing worth fighting for, in my opinion. In so doing, I am utterly certain it reflects the cultural understanding from the which the Bible was born.

That, of course, is my standard battle cry. Until we make a reasonable effort to read the Bible through Hebrew eyes, we aren't going to understand it properly. I agree with Barth about one thing: All our mutterings about faith must remain anchored in Christ. Since He's not around in the flesh these days, I tend to think in terms of the Holy Spirit. While this puts me at risk of endless arguments from those (mostly Charismatics) who feel they own that territory, I still prefer to talk about a Spirit-centered study of God and His Book. As long as we all understand I mean by that something mostly different from the mumbo-jumbo hucksterism of TV and radio fame, we might get somewhere. Thus, I don't so much embrace Eastern versus Western as I do Spiritual versus worldly. That these two greatly overlap respectively requires I mention the difference in passing. Another significant point is this Eastern/Hebraic/Spiritual viewpoint is not what most Jews held at any given time, given the long record of prophets pointing out that very problem. However, it was the thing to which they were called to aspire.

I reject Barth's massive repetoire not because I'm too lazy to read it, but because I've read too much of it already. He and nearly all theologians since about 400AD had bought into a mental framework different from that of Scripture. It's not just the tools of logic -- deductive versus inductive, etc. -- it's a whole raft of assumptions. They kept straying into the stratosphere of human reasoning, and lost contact with the ground of God's command to live the Gospel. While Tim has already argued Barth and some of his friends really did have a practical message from all this, I contend they wasted an awful lot of time and energy getting there. To the degree they did any good, they could have gotten there a lot sooner. As it is, most of them missed the point on far too many applications.

The starting point is me. If it's you doing the writing, then the starting point is you. I would say it's really the Holy Spirit, but that gives too many excuses for climbing the lofty heights of mental struggles. Nice view, but it's a vacation from reality. Get back to work. It's starts from you and me. Since I'm writing, it's me. The substance of my authority is the a witness from the Holy Spirit. If He does not support my teaching by a witness in your spirit, then there's nothing to discuss. "There's nothing to see here folks. Move along," is the favorite put-down on Slashdot when someone posts an article stating the obvious. In an effort to win His stamp of approval, I have to invest my self, as in Galatians 2:20, into the effort to understand well enough to have something to share. On top of that, I have to be goaded into teaching by His calling on my life. If what you read causes you to believe He wants to use me to teach you something, then my authority is established.

That's the starting point. It carries a distinctly Spiritual assumption which is quite hard to put into words as a simple proposition. The very idea we can accomplish much in propositional language is foreign to Scripture. The prime example is Jesus teaching in parables. His point was to exclude those whom His Father had not drawn. Truth polarizes, because those who don't get it aren't supposed to, and those who do probably can't tell you in words just what they get. Tim approaches this via deconstructionism, but I contend that's taking the long way around. If you approach the Bible from a spiritual viewpoint, you realize it says this via using it as a basic assumption. So I start from the point of trusting God to make His Word in my mouth (or keyboard) useful to His people.

Others aren't supposed to get it, especially those in whom the Holy Spirit does not dwell. All the mighty struggle of great minds to make it palatable to those outside is wasted effort, in a sense. Indeed, it's a form of disobedience. Our mission is quite simple: Speak the truth of God, all the more so by living it. All the rest is His business. Whether the audience is lost, saved or some mixture, it's the same. If someone doesn't get it, that's not your problem. Stop trying to make them get it; that's the Holy Spirit's prerogative, and you aren't Him.

If the audience is culturally, geographically and historically far away from Jesus' fresh footprints in the sand, then it's yours to also bring them to that understanding, place and time. As some put it, we are to incarnate the Word, bring it/Him to life. Absolutes were never possible from the moment of the Fall, so don't fret. God expects obedience. Surely that assumes what He expects of you He will put within your reach? What other purpose is there for calling you into His Kingdom? Theology from a Spiritual viewpoint embraces your best understanding of what Old and New Testaments testified. The leg up you need from those who trod the path before is the method chosen by God to propagate His message. Questions about whom you trust to get that leg up is between you and God, but if you ask me, Barth and his ilk are a waste of time. If you go off chasing rabbits about whether the Word is infallible, you have strayed from the path of the Great Commission. That's also true of questions born from a corrupted understanding which assumes the human rational mind has any great part in it.

The only point in studying Barth and friends it to realize how wrong they were. Struggling with questions not answered in Scripture is asking the wrong questions. To the degree anyone today actually thinks like Barth, we see how much work we have to do getting people to adopt the Spiritual Mind.

Putting Capitalism in Its Place

In another place I noted some elements of the Law of Moses are universal. These universal elements reflect the nature of Creation itself, and Paul told Timothy they could be discerned by someone who took the time to study and truly understand the Word (2 Timothy 2:15). That there were parts of the Mosaic Law which were not universal was made obvious by Jesus' teaching. For example, see His comments of divorce (Matthew 19:1-9). Clearly, the Law of Moses was but a shadow of God's Law. The promises of Moses had nothing to do with spiritual salvation, but about prosperity, health and peace, collectively referred to as shalom. However, the Law did indeed point to spiritual salvation. Those who truly cared about God would find in the Torah a path to understanding grace and salvation.

The Law of Moses mandated certain days of the year as holy days to commemorate major events, such as Passover. A few more were added by custom, but not necessarily mandated by God. To the best of our knowledge, Purim was not required by Law. Several events connected to the Fall of Jerusalem (586 BC) were commemorated by custom during the Exile in Babylon, by setting aside days for fasting and mourning. When the Exile ended, and the Medo-Persians permitted Jews to return to Judea, they continued these commemorative fasts. When the returnees lost interest in finishing the Second Temple, the Lord sent Haggai and Zechariah to prod them. Haggai's work was verbal butt-kicking about the work, while Zechariah's was visionary: "The Messiah cannot come until the Temple is rebuilt." During Zechariah's ministry, a delegation was sent from Bethel, a few miles north of Jerusalem. They came to ask whether it was necessary to continue these fasts, since they were rebuilding the destruction and loss which were commemorated by them.

Zechariah had a word from the Lord in response. He noted both in feasting and fasting, they had failed to pay much attention to Jehovah in the first place. This sort of deeper sin was what got them in trouble in the first place. These fasts were simply mourning a loss of pride, property and comfort, not their sins which brought the wrath of God via Babylon.

So speaks the LORD of hosts, saying, "Judge true judgment, and practice kindness and pity, each man to his brother. And do not crush the widow or the orphan, the alien or the poor. And do not devise evil in your heart, of a man against his brother." (Zechariah 7:9-10)

Here, at the birth of the Messianic Expectations, when the worst false understandings were gaining dominance regarding what Messiah was all about, Zechariah warned bluntly and without murky visions. They had completely forgotten what holiness was about, already exhibiting the notion God's favor was all about prosperity. We can discern here a universal element: God judges a society by how they handle those who are not economically productive. He purposely places in our midst those who for various reasons absorb resources and produce little or nothing for it. It's not about earned support, but wholly unearned support. If we cannot give to them out of mercy and grace, we cannot rise above this material world, we cannot reach the heart of God.

You won't find it in the economics textbooks, but God says if you want success in this world, you must see to the needs of those less fortunate. It's your duty under the basic design of Creation. Further, if you want to understand God, and truly seek to embrace His ways, you'll do this as a reflection of His love for you. You'll ignore economic success because it's not your problem; your concerns are centered on obedience at all costs.

To the shame of modern American Evangelical Christianity, we have long ago abandoned this task to the government. Indeed, American Protestants begged the government to take over this task. Why do the socialists rule, and gain more power every day? Because we have abandoned this very basic principle, this universal element of God's will from the very Creation of all things. If we will not do it, Nature itself will compel others to carry the load.

Don't Render to Cæsar...

Thou shalt not render thy progeny unto Cæsar. I seem to recall Vox Day was the first person to use that phrase, or something like it.

Though I've left the Southern Baptists, along with every other organized denomination, I can appreciate the occasional bright spot of holiness and truth, such as the current move to pull Baptist kids out of the system. Instead, Baptists are being encouraged to invest the necessary resources to create uniquely Baptist "public" schools -- open to all comers, but firmly under the control of the churches. This may well be about as good as it gets for those who cannot yet bring themselves to go underground.

I've heard all the excuses why it's just so necessary we keep sending our kids to public schools. It's all baloney, and it shouldn't require too much thought to see the logical holes. After working in it five years, at numerous different systems, at all grade levels, in two states, I began to see how unalterably sick and demonic the system has become. No, I'm not being extreme. Actually, I'm understating things.

People who do not love Jesus cannot teach your children without instinctively trying to destroy their faith. There is no neutral position; you either serve Jesus or you fight Him. His calling is far too radical compared to the world's mindset, because the Logic of the Spirit has no equivalent or counterpart in fallen humanity, anywhere or any part of history. You as a parent do not have the time and energy to effectively counteract the conditioning your kids get in public school.

Sure, I have friends working in public education still. I love them dearly, pray for them, and some I respect quite a bit. However, I pity all of them. They will have much blood on their hands when they stand before God.

Sounds Hopeful

While I might well be willing to defy a law which demands I disobey my calling in Christ, it's always better when the law stays out of the way. In this case, it appears I am still in the clear.

I can't find any confirmation for this post, but it claims a small victory in the fight against the FDA taking over the health foods and herbs business, making the simplest natural remedies require a doctor's prescription. At any rate, the posting says the Senate voted to confirm their earlier action, called DSHEA for short. In essence, that previous Act told the FDA to back off the health and natural foods business. An amendment to the current Senate Bill 1082 insists the DSHEA is unchanged and still in force, if the report is correct.

As a bonus, I note the US isn't going to get away with selling genetically modified food internationally without proper labeling. The post at Rense.com notes:

GMO foods are presumed to be safe according to FDA's Dr. Barbara Schneeman although their safety has not been tested. FDA and independent research, she said, consistently shows that consumers would not buy GMO foods if they knew they were genetically altered. Therefore, she explained, to keep consumers from making the "wrong decision" and rejecting GMO food, the FDA prevents labeling GMO foods to protect the consumer from "false and misleading information". This US policy was accurately characterized by the EU delegate as "weird."

Got that? FDA doesn't like you deciding for yourself what's best for you. They discourage testing of GMO foods in the first place. And since they haven't been found unsafe yet, it's wrong for you and I to not trust them. Therefore, it is necessary for them to hide the facts from us.

Playing God

I'm sure we all would have our own sense of what "going too far" means, if we think about it. I belong to those who are quick to ask, "What's wrong with doing it naturally?" In my opinion, we have long ago gone way too far with intervening in natural processes to enhance our food supply.

I am fully aware the intent is not entirely to enrich those who use these scientific advances, though it is surely a part of it. All this talk of feeding millions more with fewer resources doesn't pan out, since very little of the surplus goes to the starving. I knew years ago there was a measurable difference in the product of natural/organic farming versus the "modern" methods involving chemicals, etc. Your mouth will tell you, but broad spectrum lab testing backs it up. Anyone trying to tell you there is no nutritional difference is careful to avoid discussing anything not on the FDA list of approved topics.

No, it's not the same. Natural stuff is inherently superior if you pay attention to the way nature works. The first mistake people make is growing something not suitable to the location. So in Central Oklahoma, don't grow potatoes. Why not? Potato bugs will eat your crop, requiring you to spray toxic chemicals to save them. Try growing carrots and all you'll need is natural fertilizer to keep the soil loose.

Instead, we treat God's creation as an infinitely malleable resource, subject to our every whim and commercial desire. So we have cows fed hormones to produce more milk, but then you get pus in your milk, as well as the unnatural hormones passed on into the milk. No one has yet proven to my satisfaction it's worth the risks. Never mind the awful results of feeding them animal waste: BSE. So I buy milk products from dairies whose cows don't get rBGH.

We are also starting to see disasters from genetically modified crops. Of course, you won't read it much in the mainstream press, but the word is leaking out. Worse, if any sort of cross-pollination takes place, and your field shows any DNA from the modified plants, the big corporations claim a legal right to steal your entire crop, charge you for growing their patented stuff, and sue you into the Stone Age. Meanwhile, they refuse to take any steps at all to prevent that cross-pollination. Yeah, it's about feeding the hungry millions.

Speaking of pollination, we now hear about the devastating loss of bee colonies all over the place. Bees are a critical asset in growing the agricultural products you buy every day. Someone took the trouble of summarizing all the reports on this phenomena. Right in the middle of this long article is one damning point made by the naturalists: Most commercial bee colonies are tweaked to produce huge nests and huge bees. One major problem is tiny pests attacking the bees.

Most of us beekeepers are fighting with the Varroa mites.... By letting the bees build natural sized cells, I have virtually eliminated my Varroa and Tracheal mite problems.

I still believe the free market is a very good thing, but that's not to say all results from it are harmless. We have forgotten greed is a sin. Instead, we rename it, then call it a virtue of Christian Capitalism. Hyper efficiency is playing with fire. Why do you suppose God required Israel to do things like allow gleaning and not harvest every stalk of grain? Not charge interest on loans for things essential to life? Let the land rest every 7 years, and an extra year every 50? Taking a break from commerce on the Sabbath? Perhaps it was a none too subtle hint we can trust Him to meet our needs if we simply obey, because they had nothing to do with simple ritual purity.

What I condemn here is typical Western materialism writ large in the destruction of Nature -- which is another term for God's Creation. Nor do I stoop to Western methods of thought by presenting a tightly reasoned court case. As does the Word of God, I present anecdotal illustrations of a deeper truth: We are killing ourselves slowly in every way because we ignore the Word. At some point our quest for "a better way" is no longer a blessing, but a curse in which we seek to improve on God's design.

By no means do I join the Greens in worship of Mother Earth. They would remove the whole of human population from the world except for their own elite club. It's not a question of whether I'm conservative or commie, because that's a false dichotomy used only in propaganda. Nor do I buy into Global Warming as conceived by the likes of Algore. I'm not saying it's a sin to drive an SUV, but I will observe it's going to get pretty darned expensive when the economy goes through the shake-up already at our door. For that reason I recommend you get a bicycle or break out them hiking shoes.

The Greatest Threat

Which is most likely to harm you on a daily basis: incompetence or misanthropy? If I had to choose, I would say the former.

Naturally, we are speaking of "government" in the sense of any person or agency with coercive power over you. Most of us are unlikely to escape some form of bureaucratic control on a daily basis, especially in the form of a restriction on your just and valid need to act or choose. That's the nature of the beast, according to Romans 13 and related Bible passages. Human government is by God's design reserved for the spiritual goats.

That does not mitigate our responsibility before God to call sin "sin." Those who claim there is little or no misanthropy among government bureaucrats are simply lying. I have seen it face to face while serving in the bureaucracy myself. However, even more widespread was incompetence.

I won't say how I know, but I am utterly certain I am on the official no-fly list. I'm going to guess it's because of my long-running dispute with the US Marshals. They still refer to me officially as a "dangerous cult leader," something which started while I was serving as music director of a very conventional, if tiny, rural Baptist church. Perhaps it didn't help that I obeyed the Lord's command to reach out to ex-cons and other strange folks who seldom darken the door of any religious facility.

Some have said the "cult leader" business is just petty misanthropy on the part of some Marshals. Probably so, but it wasn't petty when they kept me under surveillance, and tried to get me kicked out of an earlier position as music director at another church. This, after I had met them and proved I was on their side in the case at issue.

This was not meant to whine about my misfortune, but to use myself as the example I know best to prove the point: There is no excuse for on-going incompetence, any more than for meanness. And while you may be excused for starting out incompetent at anything you do, it is purely evil to remain that way. We do more harm by neglect than we do by intent. In terms of both bulk and depth, my greatest regrets in life come from my own incompetence. In most cases, I most certainly could have done better if I had been willing to learn better. Too often I wasn't. My excuses don't hold up.

My sorrows arising from both human cussedness and bungling are probably far less than my just due. On the balance, I believe I've suffered less than my share, and certainly less than the sorrows I've caused others. Yet I cannot for this reason run from the calling handed me by God. That calling includes the prophetic necessity of warning: The coming tribulation on those in the US will reflect the evil desire of a few, but will be greatly magnified by the incompetence of the many.

Out of Our League

If I agreed substantially with the pronouncements of the Pope and his buddies, I'd be a Catholic, obviously. Still, they get some things right. One of those areas where they make Evangelical Protestants look bad is acts of mercy. Not in the sense they trumpet their charity works as proof of their superiority. They don't have to; we are hardly in their league.

Nor is it something on which we could compare accounting figures and statistics. Having worked directly in Catholic institutions, I am well aware of the herd instinct factor, but it's hardly worse (often less so) than what I've found in several Protestant denominations. The difference between their charity work and the Evangelical variety is their realization it means getting your hands dirty. I've seen it myself, reflected in words and actions across a wide spectrum. Something in their ethos demands a personal sacrifice that can't be measured in dollars.

Indeed, for them the results of that work also take a back seat to obeying the command to give up some of the self. Sure, it needs to be effective in some sense, and they've had over a thousand years of organizational experience in making charity reasonably useful from an objective perspective, rather than merely offering some opportunity for projecting their wishes onto the needy clients. They seem to really understand what it feels like to be in the other's shoes, or even without shoes. Plenty of failures and going through the motion at times and places, but overall they do it better than Evangelicals, without rubbing it in our faces.

Maybe we can write off some of it as merely fulfilling the checklist of performance holiness, but not all of it. We hold forth a pure gospel message, and expend tremendous effort and massive floods of money "leading souls to Christ." Meanwhile, our gospel light is rather a dim candle to the brilliant love shining through Catholic charity works. Maybe it's because we spend even more time and effort on purely partisan politics than we do on our often huckstering evangelism.

Let's Hope He's Right

I really, really like Bill Barnwell's work.

Unfortunately for the "prophecy experts," they've had a 100% failure rate predicting the rapture and other catastrophic global events. Even so, the prophetic system continues to captivate longtime adherents, new Christians, and even curious secular seekers. Why is this so?

Because it treats the Bible like a Christian fortune cookie and believers are enchanted with this form of Christian divination. Second, people want to believe that all of human history has been leading up to their lives. Third, the system preys off of fear and ignorance of Biblical texts. After having the disputed texts explained by the "prophecy experts" the adherent accepts the interpretation as infallible truth and cannot conceive of any other way to view the passages. Therefore, any other view must be a "false teaching," "delusion," "lie," or of course, "liberalism."

While dispensationalist writers continue to sell books by the millions and continue to pack out conference centers and churches for their "prophecy conferences," their monopoly is coming to an end. They still hold the upper hand for now, but individual Christians and entire denominations are beginning to ask whether their long-cherished traditions line up with Scripture. Non-dispensational writers are beginning to get a broader hearing. People are beginning to pay attention.

Yes, a prophetic realignment is on the horizon and has even now has begun. Many of the central tenets of dispensationalism (two peoples of God, a rebuilt Temple, a pretribulational rapture that is separate from the Second Coming, etc.) are finally being challenged on the popular level. Dispensationalism has never been a highly scholastic and academic movement. It has dominated on the popular level though there appear to be cracks in the ship.

I note for all and sundry this whole façade was first proposed by a Jesuit priest, writing under a Jewish pseudonym, to take the focus off identifying the Pope as the Antichrist, a very popular concept until the 1800s. This was seized upon by a bunch of self-important "prophets" in the UK, but didn't really get much play until some agent of the predecessors of the Zionists (Sam Untermeyer) saw its potential in suckering American Evangelicals into supporting his cause without question. He provided funds for the decidedly unscholarly C.I. Scofield to publish his annotated reference Bible, with all this Dispensationalist hooey. He then got a seminary built to promote this stuff, now called Dallas Theological Seminary.

Great preachers like W.A. Criswell bought it, and engaging writers like Hal Lindsey pushed it. Now we have the Left Behind series. While I have no doubt these men really believe what they promote, it doesn't hurt their feelings they all made a fortune at it. God help us; we live in a purchase-driven church age.