Life of Christ: Matthew 11

John the Baptist, Jesus' cousin, came preaching repentance under the Law of Moses. His message was harsh judgment, which he most certainly expected the Messiah to bring. He realized those of the Nation of Israel who were unrighteous would be treated at least as bad as Gentiles who rejected the Law. Because his was an accurate view of the Law, John had harsh words for the Pharisees and other Jewish leaders who sought to use his popularity to enhance their positions. Matthew shows how Jesus points out the distinction between Jewish traditions and the Word of God.

After sending His Disciples on their mission, He left to take part on His own. Word of Jesus' miraculous signs came to John the Baptist, who was still in prison. This was not quite what John had told everyone to expect, with references to an ax laid at the root of the tree. Jesus answered by quoting Isaiah's prophecies of the Messiah, matched by what the disciples themselves could see in His miracles. Of course, He bore no grudge to his cousin for not understanding, but encouraged him to reconsider what the Messiah must be and do.

Turning back to the crowd He had been blessing, Jesus queried their understanding of John's place in revelation. Was John someone easily shaken by winds of fashion? Should he have identified with the Jewish leadership? No, he was the last great prophet of the Old Testament, predicted by Malachi, the last book there. John was indeed the herald of the Messiah. No one under the Law of Moses held a higher office before the Lord. Yet anyone entering the Kingdom of Heaven under the New Covenant would be greater than John.

Matthew writes in Greek the words Jesus spoke in Aramaic, the common language of Hebrew people in His day. We can't be sure what word He used in verse 12, but the English translation "violence" is surely a mistake. It carries connotations Jesus did not mean, for He was describing the transition between the Old and New Covenants, and how completely the Talmudic teachings were wrong. The Jewish traditions had sealed up all hope of redemption by asserting only those whom God made wealthy were in His favor, and only the wealthy Pharisees at that. When John made it clear wealthy Pharisees were excluded, it became obvious their teaching was false. John said it was repentance, turning to Jehovah with a zeal for His Word. Thus, it was this exuberant zeal Jesus referred to, a zeal all the more evident in response to His teachings.

John's preaching laid the ground for a clear vision of purity and faith, a renewal of Elijah's ministry -- whose manner of dress John copied. Jesus' preaching showed these things were themselves gifts of God. John raised a very high standard of supreme commitment and asceticism. Jesus showed no man could achieve it; it was a matter of grace. The Jewish leadership, along with far too many other Jews, were like petulant children, who could not lower themselves to embrace either message. They rejected John as demon-possessed, and Jesus as immoral. Jesus reminded everyone the truth of what He taught was seen in the fruit of His harvest: Those rejected by everyone else were eagerly serving the Lord.

We have read how crowds followed Him all around Northern Galilee, and vast numbers were healed and delivered from demons. Yet these seldom included the comfortable classes, those who were heavily invested in the status quo. Aside from the rare person of importance, it was almost solely the poor and disenfranchised who turned to Jesus' teaching with that exuberant zeal. Everyone with a lesser response would be left empty. Thus, most of those living in the cities of Northern Galilee ended up worse off than pagan cities infamous for moral filth. Pride in their Jewish heritage would hardly open the gates of Heaven for them.

Jesus was seized by a moment of rejoicing in His Father's mysterious will. The paradox of God's wisdom was in choosing the outcasts, the poor benighted children who could never grow up to the Talmudic standard. These truths were committed to the Son, because the Father alone understood what was going on. He alone really knew Jesus. How wonderful it was someone so insignificant in the Jewish world should be the Messiah. Jesus became ever more confident in declaring Himself the Son of God, the one true Voice of Heaven on earth.

His Voice spoke how very accessible was the Lord. All those who had given up hope were extended an invitation to come and take up the yoke of holiness Jesus offered. This yoke was far easier than any previous teacher had shown, yet harder than anything the Pharisees could bear. The work of God was true rest, the shalom Israel could never keep under the Law.

Come Out

How do we know things? We are forced to rely on our senses from birth, but eventually our minds develop the innate ability to abstract and conceptualize beyond the concrete reality in front of us. In this fallen world, that will carry you just so far. Beyond that, we must wait for God to reveal Himself and animate the dead spirit within us. From that time forward, we are held accountable for knowledge which cannot be gained from the senses or mere intellectual processing. We must rely on revelation as the fundamental source of understanding.

This position is at first very uncomfortable for us. Letting go and letting God handle things seems almost irresponsible, and so we are told by those around us who remain fallen. We juggle the paradoxes of the Kingdom, trying to identify a path of action which best accounts for God's commands. Yet those commands often strike us as contradictory. We can't seem to turn off the logic-seeking mental framework, the demand for some clarity so we can feel at peace with world. That instinct is rooted in our sin nature. The only peace which really matters is peace with God; all else is by definition chaos.

In the New Testament, the paradoxes of ultimate truth in a fallen world are often referred to as "mysteries" -- a word transliterated directly from the the Greek word musterion (μυστηριον). In general, that refers to some element of ultimate truth which will not make sense on a human level, will not be logical. Yes, we do as humans develop the ability to embrace the concept of paradox, and paradoxes are easily found even by fallen minds. However, these same minds tend to reject the paradoxes of the Kingdom because such minds lack the ability to cross the gulf between spiritually dead and spiritually reborn.

This is the principle behind the Covenant of Noah. The world cannot be left to run its course with a majority of humanity in a fallen state, or we will return to that unimaginable level of evil prevailing in the days of Noah. God left a requirement for humanity to be governed, by delivering power and authority into the hands of a few to restrain the rest. Sinners with power are supposed to prevent sinning overmuch by other sinners. The primary objective is to minimize chaos so the revelation of God cannot be quite ignored. The covenant assumes the worst, and it barely achieves the objective. Indeed, Jesus and His followers made it clear this situation would gradually degrade until it was at least as bad as before the Flood. Yet, this is what God in His wisdom decreed. We are allowed to understand it, knowing the flaw is with humans, not with God's planning.

This is not to say fallen humans are capable of no good thing. They simply cannot be righteous. Consider artistry: As early as the Exodus, we see the concept all skill and artistic talent comes directly from Jehovah. This is among the few things the Lord offers to all, lost and saved. Native intelligence, too, is a gift He grants broadly. By this intelligence, fallen leaders can grasp some elements of justice as God sees it. Thus, we see at least the concepts of justice in the stated plans and procedures of governments.

Yet, we also see their absolute inability to make bring those good government plans to fruition, at least in the long run. Further, that native intelligence brings too often an arrogance which challenges God on His throne. The world has long been led by elite thinkers who may not themselves hold the reins of power, simply because that's the safest way to obtain their long term objectives to actually control things. It is not possible to infer good motives ever, since the mere desire to govern is primary evidence of sin. To enjoy leading is one thing; actually ruling is another. These elite thinkers use their divine grant of intellect to devise various means to amassing influence and power. It's an artistry for them. They are always there, in the midst of every government from birth, and they prevent good plans from becoming good government.

It hardly matters what we call this secret element, only that we note their ubiquity in all human government. Of late, it would appear most of them are joined in a grand league, following pretty much a single plan. They are able to join forces primarily because they hold themselves at some level aloof from all others. Only by uniting can they really pull it off, perhaps "once and for all." This has long been Satan's desire for them, and they have tried repeatedly. We are assured by Scripture this will eventually succeed in some fashion.

We are also warned a great many of those we consider our own will join heartily in the plans of this elite club. This is also by Satan's design. Whatever it takes, they'll offer a facsimile of God's justice as bait to draw us in, when Jesus told us His followers were never supposed to have anything to do with human government, because His sheep had other priorities. It seems in every generation or two, we forget that. We cover that up by all manner of reasoning, the same reasoning used by those arrogant and devilish elite. We forget the Lord told us to hold ourselves aloof and unite in Him.

I discussed elsewhere how we, while free from the Law of Moses, can surely learn from it, by discerning basic precepts of how Creation was designed to work. A critical part of that, something we have almost completely forgotten, was holding ourselves apart from this fallen world. The Jews today still tend to exemplify this concept to varying degrees. We know from historical records they were hard-headed about their cultural heritage, and refused to change their mode of dress, eating habits, daily rituals, and in every way kept themselves from adopting the immoral ways of their hosts in all the lands to which they wandered. We could learn a lot from that. Instead, we send our kids into the fallen institutions to be molded according to some false image of goodness, we bring their gods into our homes via electronic entertainments, we adopt their whole sinful culture, and never seem to notice we are no different. Just because the Law has been fulfilled does not mean it's of no use to us.

Church, come out from among them!

TXU: Thieves and Bandits

Sometimes it doesn't pay to be honest and try to correct past mistakes.

TXU Energy is like every other public utility: They have their customers over a barrel. Once they decide you belong on the dirt list, they will do every nasty trick in the book to make your life miserable. Let me provide an example.

I know a fellow who left Texas when he lost his job. He left owing TXU an unpaid balance on his electric bill. It took a year or so before he got a job in his new state, and got enough spare income to pay that bill. This was something he really had wanted to do all along.

He called them on the phone and tried to arrange a payment by phone using his bankcard. It took about a half-dozen calls to find a phone clerk intelligent enough to know how to handle it. The numbers were passed and the bill was paid. Of course,TXU couldn't have it that simple.

No, they docked his account twice for the same bill. On a Friday evening. When he tried to call back, they insisted there was nothing anyone could do. Oh? That was a lie, of course, but even escalating the call didn't get a proper answer. Every utility has a procedure, but he was on the dirt list, remember? They made him call the billing company which handles these transactions. But it was Friday night. Maybe they can fix it Monday.

Meanwhile, they get to keep his money. They knew it was all he had, probably because they tried to hit his account again. I've read about this somewhere, and know it's a common tactic for punishing late payers. Drain their account for a weekend and see if they starve. Oh, what fun!

This is how the big guys operate. You see, those with money and power are unaccountable, except to others with money and power. Folks like my friend or myself, we are out of luck. This is the way it is in the fallen world. The people who can afford it least are the ones who lose, and there is no means to compel honest behavior.

TXU: thieves and bandits.

Revelation 13

We continue examining the major figures in the Last Days -- that period of time between Christ's Ascension and His Return. While it is abundantly clear John writes of things happening in his day, each would be an example of a type. That is, while The Beast is the Roman Empire, any government which operates with certain similarities to Rome is also an example of The Beast. Or, while Nero is as much an example of the Antichrist as any man who ever lived, he is but one example. It is critical we understand John was explaining the situation of his day in terms of eternal principles, as a means to facing ephemeral circumstances.

John opens this vision on the shore of Patmos, and sees the indescribable beast rising from the sea. That is, he sees an evil government rising from the fallen human population of the world. While the seven heads are specifically identified in a later chapter, it is enough here to note it is a blasphemous mockery of the sevens of holiness: the seven lights, the seven angels, the seven spirits, etc. The ten horns and crowns indicate a total dominance over the human race. We take a moment to observe Rome set a precedent in human government, depersonalizing offices, procedures and citizens in a hideous and crushing dehumanization of all men. The law of contract has displaced the law of covenants. This was a departure from the previous very personal rule of ancient governments among mankind. Thus, the Beast is described as utterly rapacious. It's no surprise to learn the Beast gains all this directly from Satan.

Among humans, to see something suffer a fatal blow, then recover, creates the image that thing is indestructible. This goes for governments, as well. For those languishing under the lash of oppression, this creates a sense of dread. For those who willingly serve such a power, it becomes the excuse for elevating their favorite Beast to godhead. It is common to hear such things as, "There's no other place I'd rather live. This is the mightiest nation on earth; no one can defeat us!" We know it certainly seemed that way in Imperial Rome, yet we have seen it throughout these Last Days. When such governments proceed to make official pronouncements claiming divinity, divine favor, or divinely ordained power and authority, their actions are those of total unaccountability. For this, Satan empowers them further, as this serves his purposes.

Without fail, such governments always turn against true believers. This is because those following Christ cannot ever give the unconditional allegiance human governments demand. We always reserve our ultimate allegiance for Christ. Thus, every human government makes enemies of Christians, labeling them in various ways as enemies of the State. Because the State has been granted the authority of the sword over this world under the Covenant of Noah, this empowers it to dominate in things of this world, even as it speaks evil of the Kingdom. But those who truly belong to Christ can never treat the State as God. John makes a solemn warning not to compromise on this. Further, he shows how any entity which uses means of force on the earth will inevitably fall to such force. Thus, the Kingdom outlives all states and governments, even at the cost of property and life.

For every false god, there is a cultus, a religion to enforce a proper regard. John reveals in verse 11 a second beast rising from the earth. This is simply the reverse of the symbol of Satan's lying flood being swallowed up. These lies surface in one form or another all the time. In this picture, John describes yet another blasphemous mocking of Christ, the Lamb of God. However, this lamb speaks the exact same lies as Satan. John draws the dramatic image of a national civic cult, a religious devotion to the State. In John's day, this was the cult of emperor worship. Since that time, it often reappears in various forms of cheer-leading and political enthusiasm. This is all a facade, though. While the Beast appears indestructible, it's a lie. While the Second Beast appears to perform signs and wonders, it's all a lie. These deceptions are enough to persuade people to build monuments to the State, or to men who represent the State, often at great cost of resources. These monuments become sacred. Who dares observe they tend to hide the very real evil are charged with civil blasphemy, and their lives are destroyed, figuratively if not literally. This civil cult becomes the means to enslaving all, much as tattoos on people in Rome were the mark of ownership by some person or institution. The hand is the minimum mark, for it shows ownership by the State over all human activities. Marking the forehead is reserved for true devotees. Either way, every human necessary for life becomes subject to State control.

The number of the Beast -- 666 -- has occasioned any number of silly efforts to make it represent a concrete name. While it's possible to match various names with numerical values, according to any number of schemes, none of it matters. Remember, this is symbolic of all Beasts. When any man is measured against the Kingdom, regardless of his human greatness, he will ever fall short. Things sacred are in sevens, and three sevens -- 777 -- is the trinity of holiness. Satan, the Beast and the Second Beast are this trinity. Three sixes are a trinity of failure, of sin, of falling short of God's standards. It matters not the man's name. Whomever rules on a human throne can never reach God, can never please God, but is forever stained by the mark of the trinity of Darkness.

Computer Status Update

I've been tussling with the old laptop, and finally decided I would take the risk of trying again to install an old Linux distribution. The reason was I could do little without a GUI. I managed to get one to work: CentOS 2.1, a clone of the old RedHat Enterprise 2.1. So far, it seems sufficient for the purpose. I may be able to finish the post on Revelation this evening.

Electronic Hiatus

I'm borrowing my wife's system right now to post this. My previous desktop is being sold to help fund the newer laptop. The old laptop is currently churning out a rebuild. That is, the Windows installation on that laptop began grinding to a halt, nearly unusuable. This is the one which nearly burned up. Oddly, it will still do some things. I tried about a dozen different versions and/or distributions of Linux, but none would install cleanly on the old machine. One would run from CD, but that's not useful.

So I installed FreeBSD 5.5, and it is currently trying to work out a few kinks. I'll leave it to sit overnight and try to finish up tomorrow. The newish laptop is still not yet secured. Pray with us.

Doing House Church

What does a house church worship service look like? Each one is different, though surely there are similarities. The whole point is, you and your fellow believers doing it the best you know before the Lord in your own home situation. It may not look like much, especially compared to the formal worship services we see in organized religion. Still, take it seriously, because God does.

For all their protestations to the contrary, even "non-liturgical" churches have a liturgy. They always have a procedure, regardless how loosely organize and poorly enforced. Our procedure is nothing more than the result of many years of habit. More important is the habit of the spirit to turn in full commitment to being in communion with God Almighty, which means communion with His people. Numbers hardly mean a thing on the spiritual level. In the flesh, numbers present a compelling requirement for adjusting the level of formality as required for the comfort of most of those involved. More people = more formality. Other than that, there are few requirements to satisfy Scripture.

We set worship time for 10AM on Sundays. First, we generally sit around chatting for the sake of fellowship, with folks showing up some half-hour early. As the moment approaches, I try to steer the conversation into spiritual directions. We open with prayer, wherein I lead the group to consider the fundamental requirement, the starting point of all prayer and worship, by acknowledging our unworthiness. This is typical of our strong Reformed leanings. Then we sing three hymns selected for the day. Since I have served several churches as Music Director, I'm pretty comfortable with taking the lead.

After the songs, we turn to the Bible. I teach through the books of the Bible. For me, the emphasis is the narrative of faith as it is in the Book. Our current series is the Life of Christ. Not in harmonizing the accounts for a precisely chronological story, but letting each of the Gospel writers reveal His character as they felt led by God. Thus, we are now progressing through Matthew, working to discern the underlying message, to see the logic and theme, what ties it all together. For now, I take about a chapter at a time. My notes appear here every week.

During the teaching, I always entertain questions. At the end, I specifically ask if there are any questions still. The whole thing takes place sitting in chairs, more or less in a circle. It's informal, relaxed. So far, it has yet to take a full hour. After a final prayer reflecting the theme of the teaching, we adjourn. Within an hour or so, we all gather around the table for a communal lunch. We consider it part of the meeting, an essential element of house church gatherings.

We also meet for prayer on Wednesday evenings. There is no compelling reason beyond mere human comfort for this schedule. Should things outside our control change the schedule, we would simply adjust our meeting times. We hold the particular days of the week are fundamentally immaterial beyond human psychology. God doesn't change from one day to the next, and we are not under the Law of Moses. I won't argue with Sabbatarians, because I don't think it matters. I'd be just as happy meeting on any other day of the week.

I also won't argue with anyone wishing for more formality -- or less, for that matter. However, if I am to lead, it can't get too chaotic or I can't function. It's not a matter of right or wrong, but the mere utility of getting things done. You worship according the calling of God on your life. Far more important it is you actually do it.

Worship Him. Worship Him in the purity and simplicity of your heart, in your home or that of another. Worship Him out on the park bench, during your workout, washing dishes, vacuuming the carpet... you get the idea. But gather with others at least once in the week and worship as a community of faith. Just do it.

---

By the way, we are still praying for song books. Pray with us we find some suitable for our worship. Today we had six sharing two books, and it was rather difficult.

Life of Christ: Matthew 10

In the last lesson, we saw where Jesus encouraged His disciples to pray for workers to send into the spiritual harvest of souls. A partial answer for that prayer was to deputize twelve of His followers to carry His message and work to their nation. Having demonstrated the authority of faith sufficiently, Jesus specifically empowered and authorized these men to carry that faith throughout Judea and Galilee. They were to avoid any cities controlled by Gentiles or Samaritans. This was not simply Jewish prejudice, but the proper order of Kingdom logic. We note since the Covenant of Moses applies only to that people, in that land, until the revelation of Messiah, they were not to depart the land and the people. While it was certain they would as a nation reject that message, it must be offered to them first. Before that Covenant can be fulfilled, there must be this one last act of grace within that Covenant, so the chosen deputies were sent to them.

It would be easy to lose ourselves in discussing the identities of these Twelve Disciples. Suffice to note here they are mostly pairs from their families, and several are Jesus' cousins. By tradition we feel certain the Sons of Zebedee are, and we are specifically told Matthew's father (variously called Cleopas and Alphaeus) married a younger sister of Jesus' mother. That makes Matthew, James the Less and Lebbaeus Thaddaeus ("Judas the brother of James") all first cousins of Jesus. Some of the others may have been distant relatives, but the evidence is spotty. While there may have been numerous unknown factors involved, we can be certain the primary evidence of their fitness for this privilege is the manifest results seen later. We must note in passing, even Judas the Betrayer was given the powers the rest carried. At any rate, these were granted His authority, sent out in six pairs to the cities of the Jews in Palestine.

Recalling how Jesus at the end of chapter 9 sees the Jewish peasants as the lost sheep of Israel, Jesus sets conditions for this mission consistent with being still under the Law of Moses, fulfilling the substance of its demands. They are going to fellow Jews, who were bound by the Covenant to deal with visiting preachers of the Word. These went specifically in the name of Jesus -- in the vernacular of that place and time, they operated on His behalf, in His interests, doing His work as stewards of a high person. They were to carry out the same sort of activity we have been seeing in His early ministry in Galilee: healing, delivering from demons, even raising the dead. The message was summarized in the same words: "The Kingdom of Heaven is at hand." They were to show the abundant blessings of this message by abundantly exercising His power.

This abundant message should, by rights, produce abundant support of its own. They were among their own nation, and should not need the baggage of foreign travel. This follows in the sandals of the Old Testament prophets who were sent to Judah and Israel. It signaled their responsibility under the Covenant to hear the message, as demonstrated by providing the life support for the messengers. The men were to embrace every household as their own. If that household was unworthy, the Lord would see to it (Yahweh Yireh). Rejection was not their problem, but the people's problem. Indeed, filthy sinners such as Sodom and Gomorrah were in for lighter judgment than any part of Israel rejecting the message of Christ.

Some of this obviously represents long term instructions. They were not to be foolish, but harmless. Know there would be trouble in some places, as there had been for Jesus already, yet avoid making trouble in any other sense. No authority under Moses was equal to the One who fulfilled Moses, so they were not to fear synagogue councils. Nor need they prepare formal responses to accusations before such councils, but trust God to provide the response fitting the moment. His work will always bring His support. Even if this message rips apart blood kin and households, nothing was more important than getting the word before the people. Those who face worldly suffering for Jesus' sake will find death a mere circumstance. However, for so long as it is possible, flee unjust persecution so as to keep the mission going. Moving as fast as they could, the Twelve would hardly finish their canvasing before He arrived to follow up.

It was standard rabbinic practice a disciple should mimic his teacher, though hardly to the ridiculous degree some famous rabbis had taken it. Jesus explained He meant His disciples should expect the same harassment He had received, including accusations of working for Satan. Such lies would eventually be uncovered for what they were. Indeed, there was nothing of this ministry which was cultic and secretive. Their private discussions were not a matter of privileged insider status, but were preparing the ground for broadcasting to all. There was no need to keep secrets because God Almighty was watching over them as valuable servants. Those who lacked the confidence to be bold also lacked any standing before the Messiah, thus, before the Judge of all things.

The very substance of His claims as Messiah would split households, turning close family members against each other. The divide between those inside and those outside the Kingdom would not require keeping secrets, because the division would be a natural result of the truth. This earth would never see peace. Instead, it would be constantly stirred up in turmoil when confronted with the Kingdom's demands. Following Christ meant setting aside every earthly human concern, regardless the cost, in favor of spiritual peace.

Thus, in this preaching mission, those who received men teaching Christ would be receiving Christ Himself, which is the same as receiving Jehovah. It is not necessary everyone become a prophet, nor suddenly achieve righteousness. They can be offered the full reward of prophets and righteousness simply by embracing the message and mission of those who are righteous prophets. So it is with those who accept their message in the coming tour of Jewish cities. Should they so much as offer some small comfort to the needy because of what they understood from the message, they have set their feet on the path of the Kingdom.

Matthew continues showing us how Jesus stood the Jewish society on its head. That's because they had drifted so very far from the truth of God. Without this one last attempt to set things straight, to offer the people of Israel one last chance to finally understand what God had set before them in the Covenant of Moses, the Cross would mean nothing to them. At the same time, it is important to realize in a later commission to these Twelve, the situation is changed, and the needs of the mission would be different. The procedural instructions were unique to this mission, but the underlying principles by which they faced persecution were eternal. The methods were not the mission. The mission was to bring clear and simple truth, obviously at variance with the established teachings, and to increase the number of disciples prepared to accept the calling to spread the Word.

Justice and Faith

In Zechariah, the Lord revealed to His prophet He had two Witnesses on the earth, symbolized by two olive trees feeding oil to the lamp of His revelation (Zechariah 4). As the revelation continues, we learn the two trees represented Zerubbabel the governor, and Joshua the High Priest. The Persian Emperor saw no reason to replace the heirs of David and Aaron, and chose them to serve accordingly. Zerubbabel was the civil governor, and Joshua maintained the ritual law of the Temple -- justice and faith.

In Christ, the rituals of the Mosaic Law were replaced by the Cross. Instead of engaging the sacrificial system of the Temple, we draw nigh to Jehovah through faith in His Son. With Christ displacing the Aaronic Priesthood with that of Melchizedek, and joining with that the claim to David's Throne, Jesus combines faith and justice according to God's standards in Himself. That is, for the Elect, our whole commitment to God's standards of faith and justice are fulfilled in following Christ.

We've spent a lot of time studying what it means to follow in faith, but too often we teach poorly -- or even falsely -- regarding justice. For example, if one Christian wants to suggest to another a correction in their walk, the former cannot ever appeal to human law. Nothing in civil law is binding on the conscience of a believer. While civil law may well reflect in some way the Justice of God, it cannot do so completely. Any such correction must be founded on the Word itself, the higher standard of justice. As Paul says so bluntly, "he who loves another has fulfilled the law" (Romans 13:8). In that context, it's obvious that brand of love is agape, a single word symbolizing the whole of our service in Christ.

Thus, Paul establishes pointedly Christians are under one standard before God, and the rest of the world under another. Yes, there remains a standard of justice which applies to fallen mankind: the Covenant of Noah. While it assumes the appointed civil government will be aware of God's standards of justice, at least in a general sense, we know the actual obedience is hardly consistent from one civil authority to the next, but that standard has not ever been truly met. To the degree any civil authority fails to keep order by God's standards, natural order degrades according to God's linking of the two in Genesis 9.

As for us, we know following Christ will fulfill God's higher standard of justice, regardless whether such justice is recognized by fallen men. God does not hold us accountable, but that hardly stops civil governments from punishing us. Indeed, we should be surprised when we escape all civil wrath, since serving Christ invariably offends those who take their task of civil government too seriously. That we dare to hold any authority above that of the State is a civil sin. By faith we view such conflict as the norm. By faith we gladly suffer the wrath of human government. Surely there are points where walking in faith and love may mean violent acts to protect another in the pursuit of God's justice. I dealt with that once before. Yet, for the most part, we submit to suffering in this life as just a circumstance of our flesh, and having no effect on our eternal destiny.

It is that spiritual identity as followers of Christ which matters most (Luke 10:17-20).

Revelation 12

With the destruction of the City of Man in the last chapter, John now begins a whole new vision. Here we take a moment to examine the major players, the primary roles from Heaven's point of view. Again, we do well to recall a precise one-for-one reading of the symbols as representing some discrete earthly entity is foreign to the Hebrew mindset from which the Bible was written. These are conceptual roles, not necessarily clearly identified persons or entities.

The Woman is clearly Israel. Not the earthly nation, this is Israel as she should have been -- the wife of Jehovah. As Eastern potentates often did, He chose her while still a child, and groomed her for the role in ways not always pleasant. We know the real Nation of Israel was hardly faithful and seemed mostly unwilling to accept the requirements for her election. Thus, John does not paint her as the harlot she was, but as the chaste bride she should have been. We see in the image echoes of Joseph's dreams (Genesis 37:9-10).

Her primary function within her role as the Bride of God was to bring forth the royal heir, Christ. We see her on the verge of doing so. Opposing this event was the Great Dragon, so obviously Satan. From here we get the mythical assertion his fall from Heaven brought with him a third of all the angels. Again, while the basic principle is true -- those angels under his authority fell with him, becoming demons -- the numerical portion is not meant literally. This is another "rabbinical third." The point is, Lucifer began his existence as the Covering Cherub, the robe God wore between His utter holiness and all Creation, to protect that Creation (Ezekiel 28:11ff). A part of the judgment against him was restricting him to human space. After bringing about the Fall, Satan's goal was to prevent redemption by having the Messiah killed before His time, as we recall from the Christmas accounts in the Gospels. Thus, the image of him waiting to devour the Son at birth.

However, the Lord frustrated these plans. And while the rejection by the Jews ultimately resulted in their destruction as a literal nation, and the loss of their homeland, the conceptual Israel was not lost. She was preserved in the wilderness, the way God preserved His purpose in that literal nation by killing off the whiny generation in the Wilderness Wandering. Again we note the time amounts to 3½ years -- a period of tribulation. In a certain sense, the conceptual Bride of God is yet waiting to be brought forth at the final revelation, the redemption of all things when Christ returns.

It becomes rather obvious this is not a chronology of events, but an abstraction of things which took place outside time and space. There was in a sense a war in heaven, with Lucifer attempting to retain his status after his rejection by God for sin. The conflict has echoes and implications throughout the History of Redemption as recorded in the Bible. Daniel's prophecy mentions this as a real-time event in chapters 10 and 12. All those under Lucifer's authority lost the fight, and were condemned to the limits of human space.

We can participate in this victory over the Kingdom of Darkness. The loud voice in Heaven declares this accuser has no authority, nor credibility, before the Throne of God. However, that victory comes at great cost: We must exchange clinging to this life for clinging to the heavenly Life. Our power over the false Accuser is in the Blood of the Lamb, the spiritual DNA from rebirth; in the Word incarnated in our beings, expressed in our words and actions; and in our allegiance first to the Kingdom of Heaven over any other kingdom, and a willingness to face all manner of suffering here as the price of that choice. These are the parameters of victory, the holy trinity of following Christ on earth.

This defeats Satan's claim to our souls, depriving him of total victory. In his prison here, Satan is determined to vent his wrath on all who share that confinement. Our flesh remains subject to this woe, even while our spirits are free, beyond his grasp. So our Enemy sets about persecuting the Spiritual Israel, a phrase now meaning all true believers in Christ. To keep the conceptual Israel safe, the Lord has carried her away on eagle's wings (Exodus 19:4) to wait out the time of tribulation. Satan can touch our flesh, take our very lives, but he cannot change what we are. The spewing of water is a flood of false human religions, all the world offering everything except the genuine faith in God. As with the fake priests in the Wilderness (Numbers 16), these are devoured by the earth, because the ground upon which they pretend to stand is unstable.

Satan is left with little he can do. What lies within his power -- those humans who remain fallen sinners -- will be used against the tangible representations of the Kingdom of Heaven. Not simply the human flesh, nor the worldly possessions, but the very act of human organization around our pursuit of the Word on earth will face his wrath. Once our souls leave this flesh, we are utterly safe, as a part of the Bride of Christ. For so long as we keep a foot in this Vale of Sorrow, we will suffer for that identity. Expect it; be surprised and fearful when it does not happen. Such suffering here is the primary mark of His Servants.

For those with eyes to see and ears to hear, the message remains a call to that other-worldly perspective. We must see the world through the eyes of faith in order to understand what God is doing. For John's flock, this was clearly not a call to disregard their suffering on the human level, but instead to turn it on its head to become the mark of God's love.

The Joys of Technology

Joy for me, because it appears a donor has come forward to help me obtain a new-ish laptop. A brother in Christ has much dealings with Dell, and intends to use one of their lesser known outlets to obtain something at the lowest price possible. This will allow me to repay him at a comfortable pace for our family budget.

Consistent with the theme of this blog, I note there is plenty of technology which is joyful only for Satan. People have hailed non-fatal enforcement measures, but it turns out at least one -- the Tazer -- can be quite fatal. That's because this thing called "restraint" is not considered an asset for training the newest generation of police officers in some places.

This is not about policemen, but the State which trains them. Do you worry the Posse Comitatus Act has been so weakened it is now meaningless? I'd be much more concerned about mercenaries. Yes, this company is founded and run by a solid Judeo-Christian church boy, a Christian Right Republican.

Some incidents seem to be staged, once you dig into the details. Other cases make you wonder just what happened to taking a small risk to disarm someone who is more dangerous to themselves than to others. I would have been quite willing as a bystander to have done it for them if they were having so much trouble. For a device loudly promoted in its initial fielding as the best way to prevent such events as the beating of Rodney King, this has led to even worse abuses. Even newer technology is downright frightening.

Just how far are we from severe crackdowns on dissent of any sort? Since I don't promote true believers getting involved in politics, would we not be generally safe? Just teaching Romans 13 requires us to remain uninvolved has gotten me in trouble in some very ordinary evangelical churches. These fine church people are the ones who will be most likely to call for brutal suppression of folks like me.

History teaches clearly: Every government eventually turns to terror to ensure its own citizens allow nothing to come before their proper worship of the State. It's getting to the point you can be arbitrarily arrested and charged with all manner of creative "crimes" just because someone is in a bad mood. Indeed, there are plenty of actual idiotic laws on the books to charge anyone anywhere with something because you can't possibly know them all well enough to remain purely "law-abiding."

Church, tribulation is coming. You'll either become a cheerleader of the State, or you'll become a victim. The capricious use of new "non-lethal measures" will become standard practice, and we will enter a day of terror worse than the most dystopian Science Fiction movie you can name. Will you refuse the Mark of the Beast -- the mark of ownership of your very soul?

Update: In response to a question, I wish to refine one point made above. Yes, I am suggesting Dispensationalist Christians in major evangelical denominations will be among those most likely to persecute us who hold a Reformed eschatology, especially free and independent house church types. They will be the ones calling for the use of force, to shut us up as we cry out against supporting Israel uncritically. They will become most thoroughly un-Christlike in their service of the final Antichrist as his harlot. This would hardly be everyone who holds to the Dispensationalist heresy, but among those will be a vocal group who would not hesitate to close off free speech from folks like me, and even calling for our blood. That awful heresy will be the source of great evil -- yes, even among the born-again and redeemed of Christ, for even some of the Elect will surely be deceived in the End.

Revelation 11

As the interluded between the 6th and 7th trumpets continues, we are presented with a continuing vision of the Church Age, the Last Days between the Ascension of Christ and His Return. After his commission, John is presented with an image of what that commission will produce. Once again, in the parallel cycle of visions, we are presented the witness of the Church and the Word of God.

First, John is told to measure the Temple of God in Heaven using a measuring rod. While Ezekiel is allowed to watch an angle do this in chapter 40 of his prophecy, because the vision of the Temple in Heaven for him was a future promise, not yet accessible. For John, it is a current reality that we are members of this real Temple, as he noted in 3:12. However, the outer court is not yet sealed. Thus, the Church remains subject to persecution, as symbolized by spiritual Gentiles trampling the earthly Temple for 3½ years.

That period of time is an long-standing symbol of tribulation, specifically any period of tribulation. Thus, whether it be counted in days (1260), months (42), or years (3.5), any period lasting 3½ years is symbolic of tough times, just the sort of thing John and his flock were facing. It really didn't matter how long the actual persecutions and trials lasted. In this case, it turns out to be some 2000 years, so far. It is during this same period the outer court of the Temple will see the spiritual Gentiles facing the Two Witnesses.

These two are easily recognized from Zechariah 4 as the Two Trees -- Two Witnesses -- symbolic of Zerubbabel and Joshua. The former was the royal heir to the throne of David, representing the civil law in Israel during Zechariah's ministry, appointed by the Persian Emperor. The latter was the High Priest, representing ritual law. In the New Testament Kingdom of Christ, the place of the civil law is taken by our commitment to God's high standard or justice among humans, the standard which is required of civil governments under the Covenant of Noah, which we are pointedly reminded often figures large in John's Revelation. The ritual law is replaced directly by faith, in the Covenant of Christ. Thus, during these Last Days, the witness of God's Law and Faith remain on the earth. They are unassailable, just as the old Law of Moses required two independent witnesses to establish a testimony in court. These unfailingly point to God's standards of righteousness, before which no man can stand without Christ. We see from Genesis 9 the natural order of seasons and so forth were made dependent by God on humanity keeping a civil order on the earth. Failing such requirement, natural processes become chaotic to match civil chaos, as John notes with echoes of the Exodus Plagues.

There comes a time when that witness will be completed. In the previous cycle of Seals, this was mentioned as waiting for the final number of those to be sealed by God as His Own. Instead of the Four Winds let loose to destroy, here the final and most despicable of human governments -- the last Beast -- will rise from the Abyss and destroy any semblance of honoring either Justice or Faith. Thus, it will be a return to the conditions in the Days of Noah:

Then the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. (Genesis 6:5)

The Two Witnesses will be denied burial, which is ancient symbol of utter contempt. They will lie in the open in the symbolic places associated with evil governments. In Sodom it was a sacred duty to their gods to commit the unnatural sex acts now named for that city. Such wanton lust is a particular form of idolatry in spiritual terms. Egypt was the epitome of pagan magic, where even at their kindest, the pharaohs were racist and arrogant, holding themselves as gods. Together, they symbolize all the worst in human government, and naturally results in the ultimate injustice of all time -- the Crucifixion of Christ. Here, John reveals the root nature of human government, a tendency which climaxes in the final One World Government.

All of fallen humanity will breathe a deep sigh of relief, no longer accountable at any level for discerning right from wrong. All that matters is desire. For a brief season, things will be very hard on Christians left alive. The symbolic shortening of the 3½ years to 3½ days indicates a higher intensity, too. Still, it is notably short-lived, for no sooner than the world begins to celebrate this new freedom, but the Lord resurrects these Two Witnesses. We can surely read this as the Lord symbolically reasserting His rule in some way just before He withdraws them into Heaven. Immediately comes the beginning of The End, as noted by an earthquake. Of all the events in that part of the world, nothing made men feel smaller and more utterly helpless than earthquakes, against which there was no conceivable defense. We note the disaster kills immediately the same number of people God told Elijah He had reserved as His Righteous Remnant, a symbolic reversal.

That the rest suddenly began to acknowledge the God they had persistently denied comes far too late. The Seventh Trumpet sounds the last Great Judgment. However, we are spared that vision during this cycle, but instead the focus turns directly to the response in Heaven. We know only there is a declaration in Heaven Christ will personally take over as Lord of all governments. Eternity begins. The response is a hymn so grand no music can do it justice.

Then the inner sanctum, the Holy of Holies is opened in the Temple in Heaven. The Ark of the Covenant is exposed for all to see. Among the obvious symbols offered here is the final and ultimate revelation of God Almighty in all Creation. It is moments from being remade, as the elements of the Universe begin crumbling at the present of her Creator, with lightening, voices, thunder, earthquakes and hail. We are about the see the final unveiling of God.

Wanted to Buy: Used Win2K Laptop

Brothers and Sisters: Recently my ministry has become somewhat dependent on software which runs best on Windows 2000. Further, the nature of my work pretty much demands a laptop. I'm hoping some reader has, or knows someone who has, available to sell a laptop suitable for running Win2K: CPU between 500Mhz and 1.2Ghz; at least 256MB RAM; hard drive at least 15MB and capable of displaying 1024x768 or similar size. I'm not concerned about brand names, but I don't want a toy. This should be a machine which has proven durable and reliable.

I'll do my best to save up for the price you ask. No, there will be no tax receipts, because I don't deal in such things. However, a suitable donor can probably get a reasonable sponsorship mention on this blog, for so long as the laptop is used.

---

In other news, the grumpy old Gateway Solo is running again, just barely. It will no longer recover from suspend mode, which makes it useless as a laptop. It's also running quite a bit slower than before due to some damage I can't assess. It will serve for the time being.

For those wondering about the change of heart regarding my commitment to running Linux and BSD, it's a matter of service comes first. I still believe Debian Linux is the best OS for the desktop computer use, especially with an always-on Net connection. However, Linux on laptops is still a major hassle. At any rate, the work to which I'm called needs to run Win2K on a laptop.

Life of Christ: Matthew 9

Every kingdom and empire had its enforcement. The Roman standard, symbolizing the authority of Rome, was carried at the head of every column of troops sent to assert that authority. Those troops had sworn allegiance, sometimes drafted at the point of a sword themselves, but it remained legally binding. The authority of the Kingdom of Heaven was not enforced by troops, but by faith. Faith replaces Mosaic Law, because it fulfills the Law of God. That the two -- the Law of Moses versus the Law of God -- were not synonymous is what Matthew emphasized. All the more so, the corrupt Talmudic teachings were hardly consistent with true faith. Further, faith can only come from God as a gift of grace. In that sense, you cannot have faith; faith must have you. This new revelation of faith in the life and teaching of Jesus confirms the Law of Moses in one sense, but also fulfills and completes it, closing the book on its authority on earth. Jesus had already said the Law would remain in force until it was fulfilled, but He meant the Cross. In the meantime, exposing the purpose of the Law meant showing His authority over it, and that authority expressed itself in faith.

In the Judaism of that day, it was taught all maladies were the result of sin. While it is true in the sense the Fall brought disease and death, the Jews taught every health issue was a direct result of that person's sin (or the sins of their parents). Even today, we tend to feel guilt when gripped in the sorrows of suffering. Everyone so afflicted in that day easily concluded they had sinned somehow. Worse, many afflictions would prevent one coming into the Temple to confess and repent, as was also commonly taught. Thus, Jesus addressed that issue when accosted by some fellows carrying their lame friend on a pallet. First, He announces the man's sins are forgiven. This takes care of that concern. Before continuing, Jesus must address those whose teachings brought such condemnation and guilt on the man's soul.

We need not assume Jesus knew the Scribes' minds on the issue as a miracle, since such teaching had been around for some centuries. His own education surely included it. More importantly, He realized as soon as He mentioned sins forgiven, these lawyers would think He had blasphemed. This was a major crime under the Law of Moses, either by pulling God down to a human level, or elevating something human to divine status. These lawyers would be duty-bound to report this crime. Jesus warned them it would not be blasphemy if He actually did have the authority to forgive sins -- that He was the Messiah. He asked them a question in logical terms they could understand: Which is easier to prove, that He could forgive sins or that He could heal the man? Any charlatan can say, "You are forgiven." If someone said, "Take up your bed and walk," we could clearly see and prove whether they had the authority to say it.

Turning to the man whose faith had now been restored, Jesus told him to rise and walk. The man did so, of course. In that context, it was legal proof under Jewish teaching. Jesus would not be able to heal a man still in His sins, so the healing proved the sins were forgiven. Thus, Jesus had authority to forgive sins. As a man of no great legal or political power and authority, nor wealth, Jesus showed all observers the power to forgive sins was something humans could exercise. The very idea brought the crowd to praise and wonder at God's unspeakable gift. At the same time, the Scribes were no doubt infuriated, not least because their power and authority over the people as their "God given right" was slipping away. The gift and power of faith made them insignificant, and even the legal recourse of accusations in a Mosaic Court was denied them, with hundreds or thousands of witnesses rejoicing around them.

This authority and power of Kingdom faith eclipsed the other side of the law, too, the civil law. Again, this account is not precisely chronological, as the other Gospels place events in a different sequence, while here it is by theme. Matthew, the writer of this Gospel, had no doubt already spent time with Jesus. Here was a rabbi truly possessed of a holy power, yet willing to associate with those despised by just about every upstanding Jew. Matthew worked in the toll station in Capernaum, where trade traffic on the main road south and north, or across Galilee by boat, must pass. Rome had levied taxes on their client kingdoms, and the kings collected it at the point of Roman swords. What better tax agent than a member of the nation from which it is collected? This was particularly distasteful to the proud Jewish leaders, itching to be free of political domination from pagans. Collecting taxes on behalf of such pagan overlords was sinful and treasonous. Yet, it was the civil law, but Jesus spared it nothing in pressing His claims under the Kingdom of Heaven to call Matthew away from this important task to a full-time discipleship.

Of all people, Matthew would be elated. Once a treasonous sinner, now an intimate of the Messiah, this easily outshone any other social occasion celebrated among Jews. Matthew put on a lavish celebration, and naturally invited His Master and fellow Disciples, as well as all the friends he had. Those friends would surely be other tax-collectors, a tiny defensive minority within Jewish society. This group would include other people labeled "sinners" by the Pharisees and Scribes, people who found themselves at risk of being shunned, kicked out of synagogues, treated spitefully if they dared attend Temple celebrations, and so forth. The Pharisees couldn't bring themselves to step inside the household, but as we are told in other Gospels, called from the outer gate of the enclosed courtyard in front of every large home. They inquired how a rabbi of the Law could eat with those whose sins made them by definition "non-Jews," in effect Gentiles. Jews were forbidden entering the homes of Gentiles, but Jesus reclined at their table. Jesus sent word back to the Pharisees at the gate: He was sent to heal broken spirits. Only those who knew they needed healing would submit to it. Those who felt themselves righteous could hardly repent and seek spiritual healing. It was a common Hebrew proverb. To drive it home, Jesus used a typical rabbinical phrase, telling the Pharisees to go back and study 1 Samuel 15:22: "And Samuel said, 'Does the LORD delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as in obeying the voice of the LORD? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice! To listen is better than the fat of rams!'"

There was another question: Why should the Lamb of God neglect the observance of ritual fasting? The Law of Moses called for one annual fast, but the Pharisees pressed the Talmudic tradition of fasting Mondays and Thursdays. This was probably on one of those two days. Addressing the bigger question of Mosaic Law, Jesus answered with a bit of humor, referring to this lavish occasion as a wedding feast. In a spiritual sense, it was, for this was Christ seeking His bride. It was as if to say this partying was fully appropriate, for it signaled a new beginning. As ancient Eastern royalty often did, the vestment of the royal heir took place at the prince's wedding, marked by the symbolic rule of some small portion of the kingdom held up to that point by an appointed viceroy about to retire. In this case, the Law of Moses was being retired. The personal stamp of this Messiah Prince would replace the customs of the viceroy, Moses. Therefore, this celebration at Matthew's home was the beginning of such changes, a new and invigorating rule marked by joy. This joy could not fit in the old forms of Mosaic rituals, which had reached retirement age.

Jesus must have faced that fasting question all too often. We learn from the other Gospels Jesus heard this question at Matthew's feast, but here it is recalled as a question from the disciples of John the Baptist. After having answered it yet again, Jesus is approached by Jairus, ruler of the local synagogue (as we learn from Mark and Luke). This man had faith to worship Jesus as the Messiah, and knew He could raise the dead. On the way to his house, Jesus encountered a woman with an internal hemorrhage. Her faith told her simply touching His outer garment, one of the tassels required by Moses on the hem, and not His person, would restore her health. She could not simply come up an talk to Him in public. Indeed, He was not just any man, but an important one, with crowds and bigshots in His company. All the more so since her affliction was particularly odious, described in the text as permanent menstrual bleeding, making her ritually untouchable. It would be embarrassing to Him to even acknowledge her, much less touch her, so taking this unobtrusive route would have to do. Of course, it did. Jesus turned to inform her, and to teach the crowd as well, it was her faith which simultaneously cleansed and healed her, not the touch of His tassel. The other Gospels record a much fuller story, but Matthew here is focused on the important theme of faith and its authority over every other fact of life.

The authority of faith brought the same joy where there was once deep sorrow. We find it strange those who mourn could suddenly laugh in derision, but Eastern cultures understand emotions could be conjured when needed. That is, they weren't falsely weeping over the loss of life; it was quite real. Further, this would have been quite a large crowd of mourners, given her father's importance as ruler of the synagogue. They wept because it was appropriate, as the sorrow over death was never far away. They brought genuine sorrow in sympathy to the family who had lost a child. That did not prevent them also deriding Jesus for saying something they thought was silly, even madcap. They felt the context called for it at that moment. That Jesus used the term "sleep" to enunciate a spiritual principle was quickly forgotten by His disciples, we learn later. In the Kingdom of Faith, even death is just a circumstance, a temporary condition. Simply a touch from His hand, which would normally make Him ritually impure, brought her back. Faith took priority over every other authority on earth, including death. Such power and authority simply cannot be hidden, for it reaches beyond the one thing no man escapes -- the grave.

As He made His way back home, two blind men approach, having been alerted by the incredible news of the girl's reanimation. They had faith enough to recognize He could be no other than the Messiah, the promised Son of David. They also had faith enough to realize they had no merit, but needed mercy. Choosing a private setting, Jesus allowed them to follow Him inside the house. He queried their faith, as much for their own benefit as anything else, then touched and healed them. Then He challenged their faith to obey, with a command to keep this miracle private. Jesus didn't need a faithless mob following Him around as they might a traveling showman. In this they failed, for the two men could not keep silent.

As those two left, they passed another group bringing in a man demonized and mute. Picture a man silenced by demons, with no means to cry out in torment. Instead, he was restricted to non-verbal communication. His mannerisms in this would have made it clear he was demonized. It was the faith of his friends which brought this man to Jesus, and their faith enabled his deliverance and speech. This was a final point by Matthew showing faith had authority over the Kingdom of Darkness. That sort of authority was simply unheard of in the history of Israel. While Jesus did not answer it at that time, Matthew shows the Jewish leaders understand nothing, for they tell people Jesus' authority over demons could only come from the ruler of demons. They had long ago locked themselves out of understanding it was their sins which had unleashed the demons on their land. Under the power of Satan themselves, they insisted only Satan could order demons about with such ease. Their own rituals of deliverance were elaborate and expensive, and seldom seemed to do any good. This Jesus simply dismissed demons by an authority they never grasped, the authority of faith as a gift from God.

Instead, mistaking their spiritual prison for a castle, and their chains as power and freedom, the teachers of Judaism had rejected the call of God to bring light and truth to the world. For them, the downtrodden were despicable, worthy of contempt. Matthew tells us how Jesus looked upon them as precious sheep. Without a shepherd to lead them and protect them, they had been chased, mauled and nearly destroyed. Their spirit was gone, along with hope. In desperation, they clung to Jesus and His teaching as the one last grab at salvation. For Him, they were not the trash of Israel, but the valuable treasure to be salvaged from darkness and death. He taught His disciples to see them that way, as the long awaited harvest of souls. Pray the Father send more faith laborers, for the crop is beyond measuring.

Dubious Proposition

I bump into it all the time. Somewhere in a discussion someone drives down the stake like an iron T-post and demands I deal with it. The term most often used is "propositional truth." Okay, I'm dealing with it here and now, so I'll have a link I can pull up in the future.

You can look it up easily right now, because it's been an issue revisited in the past year or two all over the Net. Virtually everything I've found is either for it or against it, but there is a large minority who like to waffle and try to explain away the argument. As with all things, I make no pretense to global authority, and I seriously doubt anyone of significance will see this. I remain a nobody in this world and that is as it should be. Aside from a handful of people I know who read this, I'm mostly writing to myself.

You will notice most of my writing is propositional. That is, I make assertions in clear language -- or attempt to be clear -- which can be verified or nullified to some degree. That is, if one were so inclined, the verity of what I assert can be debated with proofs according to certain academic standards. Except, I really don't care about debate because I'm not making any attempt to convince anyone they need to adopt my viewpoint. I'm just exposing my mind, and if you find it useful, I'm blessed and you are blessed. Still, the assertions remain testable to a certain degree.

The revelation of God comes clothed in propositions, such as: God is, and He holds us accountable. Obviously, there's a sense in which this cannot be tested. Frankly, if it were a matter of fact, there would be no faith. My favorite anecdote here is the debate in which Josh McDowell engaged early in his faith walk. Using the standard logical proofs accepted in academia, he beat the pants off a bunch of atheist/agnostic intellectuals. They admitted he won, but it didn't save a one of them. While the discussion may have been used by God to open their eyes, that didn't happen (so the story goes).

I stand with van Til on this: Born inside every human soul is the capacity to recognize the truth. When propositional truth from Above is heard in their ears, it is recognized as such. Yet, without a spirit resurrected by the Holy Spirit, the receptor's signal is ignored. It's as if the receptor has no place to transmit that witness to the truth.

The way I wrote that emphasizes the parabolic nature of ultimate truth. I can describe it with word pictures, and perhaps make a stab at using more precise language in clinical-technical terms, but there's simply no human words which can bear the load. I did it again -- I used a word picture. Just talking about such things requires parabolic language, something to which English easily lends itself. Hebrew does it even better, because the sound of the words often is itself the best way to get a feel for the subject. That's the nature of the Hebrew language: to transport the hearer into the event experientially. God chose the expressive Hebrew language and culture for the initial revelation of Himself, and I am forced to assume that matters.

Propositional truth statements remain the human channel for truth which is far more than mere proposition. Faith can be tested, but not in the laboratory of science. It can only be tested as the personal, individual experience of the one held by faith. Notice I chose my words carefully, for real faith holds us; we do not hold it. Such is not a matter of us, but of God. We choose to grasp Him in response, but our grasp is hardly sufficient to maintain contact. That's a proposition, and you'll understand it if faith has you, too. Even the lost soul can at least get the lyrical sense of it. Still, it does nothing for them if that proposition is all they get.

If we insist on maintaining a distinction -- propositional truth versus personal/experiential truth -- we will forever be chasing our own tails. It's not either-or; it's both-and. If we say the Bible is propositional truth and leave it there, it's just ink on paper. If we say the Bible is propositional truth and parable and a long record of experience, through which God reveals Himself, then we have something useful. The Book is precious to those born-again, but the Book is still an object, a mere tool. Thus, propositional truth is not the thing itself we seek, not the thing wherein God is found. Further, it can be asserted this Book is God's chosen channel, but it is still not Revelation. Jesus Christ is Revelation; the Bible is the chosen record of Revelation.

So we have willingly disposed of vast sums of wealth insuring our text is as close to the original as any inspired scholars can make it. There comes a point when no extra heap of cash will make a difference, because we are dealing with tangibles. Nothing tangible in this world can be truly holy in and of itself. Holiness is a quality of souls, not things. A thing is holy because its use is separated unto God and His revealed purpose. Thus, we say things which sound non-propositional such as: All Creation is holy in the hands of Jesus' followers. At the same time we realize He has promised to destroy the whole thing when He returns, including our copies of The Book.

Yep, the ultimate truth is fuzzy; it defies efforts to make it a proposition. The nature of Ultimate Truth will ever remain a paradox. If you insist on slicing and dicing and punching people in the face with demands they accept the phrase "propositional truth" or be doomed as heretics, you end up emphasizing only what man can do with it. We call it Bibliolatry -- making an idol of the Bible. Even if you abstract the concept of Bible from the actual individual copies, it's still idolatry. Systematic Theology lends itself to idolatry too easily for that reason. That's why I reject the Westminster Confession and don't teach TULIP; they are largely logical constructs layered on top of propositional abstractions of truth. Yes, I assert we Elect are predestined from before Creation; God knew us as His own before He ever made a place where we could exist. That's bluntly asserted in Scripture. Yet, nowhere is it bluntly asserted those who aren't Elect are also predestined. The term applies only to the Elect, so I don't teach Double Predestination. That concept is a mere human logical corollary, an assumption that makes sense to us. I don't deny the Lost are predestined to Hell; I assert it doesn't matter or it would be clearly stated -- it's not a part of the propositional statement of the Bible.

So there you have it -- clear as mud? Good, because if God could be reduced to propositions, He wouldn't be God. If the truth about all things could be transmitted with unquestionable clarity to every normal human mind, where would be the need of faith?

Easier than It Seems

In the New Testament, the term "mystery" is not itself mysterious as we think of it. Rather, it refers to things which cannot be grasped by human logic. It's really quite simple: If you aren't born again yourself, you can't understand spiritual rebirth. We have thousands of books attempting to bring the ultimate truth into simple terms in just about every human tongue, but those outside the Kingdom cannot understand the Kingdom. The Lost are portrayed as spiritually dead; if your spirit is dead, you can't understand spiritual things. Feel free to try and explain all you like, but if it helps at all, it will only help those in Christ. Without His hand giving life to dead spirits, they won't get it. Better they read your deeds than your words, for that gives your words meaning, and is God's chosen means to resurrect dead souls.

That's not to say those born-again automatically get it. By no means; they must spend the rest of their lives moving from the Kindom of Darkness into the Kingdom of Light. It's a miracle people ever get inside; it's a continuing miracle they progress. It's hard to say if the millions of believers exhibiting little or no spiritual understanding are refusing to cooperate, or are simply not genuinely regenerate. What we do know from ample New Testament teaching is we look for spiritual fruit. If there is none, assume the tree is dead. We know the Holy Spirit does indeed work the miracle of change in the human soul. Where He is present, change is inevitable. Our primary witness to the world is not our holiness, but our constant growth toward it. Our change is our testimony, what God uses to reveal Himself. Lack of change is lack of revelation, and we treat the unchanging as lost.

Over the centuries, some of this has gotten lost, naturally. Surely you don't suppose Satan is going to stand quietly and let the Church prosper at his expense? However, the "lost truth" is lost in plain sight. It's not hard to find if you really want it. If you'd rather have something similar but subtly different, Satan will be glad to offer it. Still, it's there for those who seek God's face. The ultimate truth of all things is fully revealed from Heaven in the person of Jesus Christ. You can do all you want with His teaching, but without Him personally, that teaching has no meaning, no power. People outside Christ lack the discernment, so if it sounds similar, it must be the same stuff. By taking our eyes off Christ and closing our ears to His Spirit, we find ourselves adopting as leaders these people who only appear to get it. We are fooled by charisma, talent, and so forth. We like those things, and assume they are marks of the Holy Spirit. That's how truth gets lost over time.

As a part of digging to make sure we have what the Early Church had, I have made much of reclaiming the Hebraic mystical mindset. Not in the sense we must become culturally Hebrew, or speak the language, or anything like that; I propose we simply realize Western civilization is quite a distance away from it. As we approach this other viewpoint on which Scripture was built, we have to distinguish between the stuff of the Bible and a bunch of other stuff somewhat similar. Thus, I make the claim modern Judaism is not the same thing as Old Testament faith. I charge modern Judaism with hiding that Old Testament faith from itself and everyone else. Nor is modern Judaism faithful to the Law of Moses, but has substituted a huge encyclopedia of teachings we call the Talmud. Jesus fussed about this when He charged the Pharisees with pressing the "traditions of the Elders" over a much simpler Mosaic teaching. Jesus said the Old Testament canon pointed directly to Himself, but their corrupt additions blinded them to this.

Thus, the 39 books of the Old Testament are sufficient to understand Christ, but only within the context of Hebrew history. Without at least a little of that history and culture, too much of the Old Testament makes no sense. All the more so if your native cultural background is Western. From our perspective, the Hebraic brand of Eastern Mysticism is about the same as all the rest, including Taoism, Shintoism, Hinduism, Buddhism, Zoroastrianism, and a bunch of other stuff. People in American churches balk at Hebrew mysticism because it's not easy to discern the difference. In so doing, they condemn themselves to a false understanding of Scripture, because almost all the writers were Hebrew people.

A critical element of Hebrew mysticism is God has fully revealed Himself. There are no hidden or dark teachings, unless your mind is closed to spiritual things. It's not about reserving the teachings to a few privileged initiates, but the plain truth is incomprehensible to those who aren't touched by God. It is God's nature to reveal Himself, and over human history He has done so by using significant events to build and clarify that revelation. Thus, the Old Testament is a very selective history book, leaving out vast areas of human events to keep track of what really mattered. Some of this other stuff was kept in oral lore by the Hebrew people. A couple of New Testament writers refer to this oral record. They mention bits of it as if common knowledge to Jews, but we can't find much about it. Unless you dare to re-examine the New Testament canon, we are forced to accept what we have and assume by faith it's all we really need. It's a spiritual principle we trust God for what we cannot know, and focus instead on what He has commanded of us.

Others embrace the whole Mysticism mess, making no distinction. There is a human hunger for secrets tied to the Lust of Eyes and the Pride of Life. That's why things like Gnosticism never die. It arises from the Fall itself. Genesis tells us the Fall drove us out of Eden, which symbolizes a barrier between us and what we once were. Before sin entered the human race, we had God Himself clearly revealed in Person. Doing His will and using His power was instinctive, unlearned because it was our nature. We fell and lost all that, but retained some vague memory of His glory through the lens of knowing life was a lot simpler and easier. Now Creation is cursed; we can't make it obey our will, and we can't command it by His Word, because we have died to that. The path back to Eden is closed. So we have to work by the sweat of our brow for everything we want and need, with hardly the ability to differentiate between need and mere desire. Instead, the whole thing is entwined in lusts (Flesh, Eyes and Pride) and we sin trying to get those things. Each reflects a genuine need, and can be met with honor and purity, but without His revelation we can't get there. So we settle for struggling to regain the power of our lives in Eden without passing through the Sword of Truth -- we aren't willing to die to self. We consort with demons to find some lost secret entrance which does not exist, and thus was born the society in which Noah found himself -- utterly lawless and deeply occult.

At the root, most every corrupt version of Mysticism contains this occult desire to bypass the Law of God and get all the goodies without Him. This is at the root of Kabbalah, for example. I'm going to make a very guarded recommendation you peruse the Wikipedia page on Kabbalah, particularly the first part. As you read, you'll realize the underlying element is elitism and power-seeking. There is also the same old heresy of objectifying spiritual principles. That is, God reveals the nature of things, and provides examples. The sullen occultists mistake the example for the thing itself, and build a stinking heap of nonsense based on that. Thus, we see references to the Tetragrammaton and the "magic power" of the four letters by which Hebrew writing expressed the name of God: YHWH (read right to left -- הוהי). While God's name is holy, so saying is not a reference to an arrangement of letters and sounds, but to the principle we cannot associate God with things He says are sin. We blaspheme God by bringing shame on Him, either by pulling Him down to our level, or elevating ourselves to His level. Neither the letters, nor the sounds they represent, are God Himself, not in Hebrew nor any other language. They are merely a symbol. Under Moses, Hebrews became shy about pronouncing that name, but that merely reflects the ritualistic nature of the Law for Israel, which never applied to Gentiles except within the borders of that land. Even then, obeying the Law of Moses was all about getting the goodies God was willing to offer to fallen man, on His terms.

In Christ, the Law was fulfilled. Follow Him and you have Moses worked out just fine, insofar as it matters. Since we are taught the goodies don't really matter, we focus on the treasures, supply, power and enlightenment of Heaven. We look for spiritual goodies. The whole of Mosaic Law and history was from the beginning symbolic of a much greater truth, a truth expressed under certain limited circumstances. Those circumstances no longer exist. So it won't matter if you say Yahweh or Jehovah. I choose the latter for my own comfort because, correctly or not, that's how God's name first came to be written in English. There is no magical power to either, for the power of God is revealed in His people who serve His calling and purpose, not in some Joe Pagan who simply makes a peculiar sound when he grabs someone with his hands. We can't buy His power with certain ritual incantations, even if they are memorized Scripture. Satan can quote the Bible better than any of us. No, "faith" is a word which means commitment and allegiance to someone. Otherwise, Paul's statement in Romans 10:10 can be shortened to start, "With the mouth..." In Paul's Hebrew background, the heart was the seat of the will, and you can't "believe from the heart" without a touch from the Holy Spirit empowering your human will.

The whole of Hebrew mysticism which we need to understand is in plain view, easily found in Scripture. Given our cultural-historical remoteness, we thus inherit a need to understand something of the Hebrew language and culture. From there, we can perceive the mental frame of reference, and it's easy to tell the counterfeits. We know them by their fruits. Kabbalism, sadly, has found its way into modern versions of Christianity. Some are still looking mostly for worldly goodies, and many have silly ideas about the printed copies of the Bible having their own holiness. Without Jesus it's just a book, and to the lost it's a book of legends and fairy tales. Ink on paper is not power; the moving of the Holy Spirit is power. Bibliolatry is a sin, and leads to a host of heresies arising from reading the words of far-away-and-long-ago with the lenses of here-and-now.

Revelation 10

Review: John writes this book to reveal the nature of revelation. The only proper understanding of ultimate reality begins with revelation, what comes down from above. It is hardly understood, but must be absorbed; one must surrender to total immersion. The very thought processes must be washed, renovated and reorganized into a framework of truth and understanding from God's point of view. Human logic itself must bow the knee to revelation, seeking to reconcile all things to the Light from above. John is almost militant in rejecting the Western rationalist frame of reference as the basis for understanding anything which matters. He demands a return to the parabolic style of teaching Jesus used, and any other approach to Revelation results in madness.

John sent to his flock a message of comfort and hope. God sees our sorrows; He knows intimately in His Son the mindless rejection of truth which brings oppression and persecution. Pain and suffering are inherent in a fallen world, and becomes greater as our awareness of sin increases. The presence of the Holy Spirit compels us to resist sin, and this divides us from the mass of humanity. After His Ascension to the Throne of Heaven, the fullness of what the Lamb has done is revealed in John's mystical visions. The very nature of sin, wrath, redemption -- how things work during this age before the Return of Christ -- is written here. While it all points to a final climax on the way to that return, it is critical we understand the pattern, the nature of things contained in these visions. Again, they are not fully understood, but absorbed into the soul where the Holy Spirit works behind the conscious mind to change our natures into that of Christ. Modern writers of Christian faith should rightly struggle to bring disciples across the divide from modern Western materialism into the mystical world of ultimate truths, opening the spiritual eyes and provoking a contemplative, other-worldly mindset. This is the only hope for facing a world which hated Our Lord first, and now hates us because of our allegiance to Him.

In the previous cycle of the Seals, we hit an interlude in chapter 7. Now we come to a similar pause leading up the last of the Trumpets. We begin with the vision of a particularly high-ranking angel. There is no reason to presume this is Christ, but an archangel adorned with symbols fitting the occasion: the rainbow of Noahic Covenant, the cloudy garment of heavenly authority, and the legs of fire showing the holiness of God Almighty in contact with the earth. Whatever else this says, it reminds us God's authority is far above that of any human authority; He rules all rulers. The angel stands on land and sea to establish the authority of his message, which is universal to all living beings. The roaring voice cannot be ignored. Our attention is fully arrested, we are brought up short, as we would be if we had heard that of a lion. The echo from Heaven confirms the authority of the message he brings, but John is not permitted to reveal the content, only the fact. We are prepared to receive a revelation which is tied to God's dealings with human authority, an authority prescribed in the Covenant of Noah, as symbolized by the rainbow.

The manner of raising his hand before Heaven is rather like our modern military salute, rendering honor and indicating the source of authority yet again. Swearing by the Eternal One, we get but a short message: No more delay; the mystery of God would be fully discharged, complete at the Seventh Trumpet. We know Paul used the word "mystery" repeatedly in his letters. While there is some overlap in the concepts, it hardly means in the Bible what the term indicates for us today. Something is a mystery in the biblical sense when it defies human logic. It is hidden in the sense fallen minds cannot grasp it, but the elect are allowed to experience that mystery by the invasion of God Almighty into the human personality at spiritual rebirth. It's a mystery because it rises above logic and human language. There will come a time when this work of God is complete, finished, and all those whom God has elected will be marked as such. Then follows the final revelation and time will be no more.

It is this mystery which the angel holds in his hand, represented by the little book. John echoes the experience of Ezekiel 2 and 3, where the prophet in exile was called to speak to his nation. God says His Word is sweet, and so it is. Ezekiel was to take that Word to a people who would have no excuse for rejecting the message because it would be in their own tongue, from a man who was one of their own. They did reject that message, and finally so in executing their Messiah. As Paul says in Romans 11, the mystery of truth is their rejection brings the Messiah to all the world. Thus, John must take this sweet Word to "many peoples and nations and tongues and kings." In this, John represents all of us.

However, John adds a unique element to the image, for after tasting the sweetness of God's truth, it brings bitterness to his stomach. Not to the point of regurgitation, but simply heartburn. Today we use that term as a symbol of being upset, and rightly so. In the Hebrew mind, the belly was the seat of emotions and feelings. Fully absorbing the truth of God will turn your world upside down. Following Christ will magnify the common suffering of humanity, because it demands things which bring pain to the flesh. What we would like to forget is the old teachings of mortification -- the flesh must die that the spirit may shine forth in truth. All our human hopes, dreams and plans are forfeited at the foot of the Cross. Serving the Kingdom will never come at your personal convenience; quite the contrary.

Thus, we come full circle, for the whole theme of John's Revelation is understanding why human governments inevitably turn to persecution of those who follow Christ. While human governments as a concept were ordained by God in the Covenant of Noah to restrain by the sword destructive human lusts against each other, that sword will inevitably turn against Christians who do no harm. Fallen human organization is granted what little it can grasp, for true justice and authority escapes fallen man. There is no human government possible that it should not become a god unto itself, sooner or later. Thus, the come and go at God's whim. The whole mission of the Church is to carry this mystery of the Kingdom throughout the whole of humanity, knowing it will cost us our human lives. To this precisely we have been called as the natural result of divine election. It ends only with our death, but in the wider sense, it ends when God says it is finished.

Bro. Computer Minister

Today I wore my computer ministry hat all day. It wasn't that much fun, largely because I was refurbishing Win98 boxes (mostly). It's no secret I hate Windows. The only nice part was how easy those older boxes are. Scan the disks, apply updates, run clean up utilities, then install and run an old DOS-based virus scanner. None of the modern scanners will run on such slow and under-powered boxes.

Fighting off virus and spyware infestations has become a major effort with Windows. Indeed, over half the system resources now go to protecting it from the massive collection of malware which attack the massive collection of inherent vulnerabilities. One system donated to the cause was loaded with smut and gambling junk. Once I deleted all that stuff, it required a very long defrag run to close up the empty space. The scanner also found about a dozen virus-laden packages and files.

I won't dwell at length on the temptations available to the morally weak, but the Net is -- and should be -- rather like a Wild West town. Everything you want is there for a price. The problem is, when computers having seen such use are donated, it's a really big chore removing it all. Sure, I could format the disk and start from scratch, but then I'd lose all the drivers for the specialized hardware. This, with my laptop dead and no way to hunt them down again. I already have hardware for which drivers are no longer archived anywhere on the Net.

Far worse consequences would prevail had I not done the work, because these systems were donated for the purpose of passing on to mostly poor kids who ride the church buses. In that sense, the whole thing was just plain fun. I kept seeing the faces of these kids for whom, even a clunky old Win98 box would be a valuable prize.

There is one other ennobling character to this deed of service. This is the same church which ran me off early this year. This organization is quite large, has a dozen computer repair professionals, and more money than I could count. But they couldn't support his one little program. So I accepted the challenge from one of the few friends I have left at that place and managed to salvage seven systems from a pile of mismatched components. I most certainly did not want to be anywhere near that building, but the Lord made it clear this was His command.

Notice I did not say I was noble for doing it. Rather, it raised me up to obey contrary to my flesh. For the sake of the gospel message coming into the life of some kids, and their need for encouragement to strive for a higher level of faith, I'd do just about anything.

I'm blessed.

Target: Islam

The Dutch just recently announced a political movement aimed at forcing Muslims to accept apostasy -- you know, giving up your faith. That is, forcing Muslims around the world to accept the freedom of conscience. Then, of course, we've had several years of Christian Zionist propaganda about "we just need to nuke all Muslims" and similar idiocy. Not a day goes by I don't read on some news site about the deep dark evil of Islam.

Fine. Let's get this out of the way: Islam is a syncretism of ancient pagan Moon worship, a little Judaism and tribal Arabic culture, plus a dash of Christian teachings. The god of Islam is not our God. It's a false religion, just like every other religion. The only real thing is following Jesus Christ according to the Bible.

In that sense, every pagan religion is a threat to Christians. Yes, Muslim extremists do exhibit a tendency to violence. Let's talk about "Christian" Klansmen, shall we? They are extremists, too. And lest we forget Atheists, we can lay the every communist murder at their feet -- some 10 million, as I understand it. Guess what? The unifying factor in each of these is a government which backed those actions, or carried them out directly. While we might have a tough time defining any self-declared caliphate as a "State," it is a government by definition: a monopoly on lethal force where it maintains control.

The State will use any excuse necessary to gain the compliance of its subjects. The first real sign of danger is raising the specter of fear over non-existent threats. If they can't find a real enemy, they'll have some clandestine service pretend to be that enemy. Thus, we discover the bogey-man al-Qaeda is actually a creation of the good ol' CIA. Osama bin Laden was dead back in 2001, but it's so easy to hire actors which look somewhat like him. Have them make fake threats on poor quality video and tell your citizens it's real. Create a few disasters among your own people to scare them. Yes, our government would most certainly do that; look up "Operation Northwoods" sometime.

Church, the only real threat is the Beast, symbol of the fallen human government -- the State. The Beast is loyal to Satan alone. That's the real threat, because there's always a harlot church ready to get in bed with the State. Look around you. Do you not see the rising police state? The whole nation is now dominated by people who are helpless whiners, begging the State to do this and that for them. The State is only too glad, because when it gives with one hand, it takes back with five.

Yes, Islam is a phony religion, and we need to evangelize them like everyone else. But it's no real threat to us. It's only a threat when it's the excuse for government oppression. But that goes for any religion, or none. The State is our biggest threat, Church. Break those ties now, before it's too late.

Requiem

Well, the prayer requesting a newer laptop takes on a fresh urgency -- the old one died. It has become fatally sensitive to the small amount of heat typically generated by normal use. It now shuts down at random intervals, making it just about useless.

The Lord gives, and the Lord takes away. Blessed be the name of the Lord.

Hopefully, He's got plans for another one.

Life of Christ: Matthew 8

We are reminded again, Matthew groups teachings and events by themes. While generally following chronological order, the events in the next two chapters are unlikely to have occurred in quite this precise sequence. Matthew's perspective was to show to his Jewish readers how completely Jesus fulfills all the purposes of, and prophecies about, the Nation of Israel. At the same time, it was critical to show doing these things made Jesus quite contrary to what the leaders of that nation expected, as they had bound themselves to a false reckoning of what Moses and the Prophets had written.

Promptly after the long teaching session on the mountain, Jesus was confronted by a leper. The worshipful approach was the leper's affirmation he believed Jesus was the Messiah, and his words indicated full faith in Jesus' power. The question was not whether He could, but whether He would. Jesus would and did. In the process, He shows His superiority to the Law of Moses, for He touched the leper. This would normally make Him ritually unclean, not to mention risking infection of Himself. Instead, it was Jesus' purity and health which was infectious. The caution about publicity was more for the sake of obeying the meaning of the Law regarding cleansing. Rather than go about bragging he was now clean, the man should first attend to the ritual of presenting himself before a priest. It would also guarantee the priests could not dispute Jesus' evidence.

Indeed, Jesus' authority was even better understood by Gentiles and by His own people. We note in passing Jesus need not have had this conversation directly with the centurion for this to be an accurate report. Rather, the conversation carried on by messanger was considered the same thing in ancient cultures. In this case, the Gentile centurion maintained a proper respect for Jewish sensitivities. Indeed, this man was quite wise and decent, referring to his servant as "my son." We can be sure such a man was highly regarded by his staff and troops. His true brilliance was in realizing, as a man under and and over the authority of others, surely the Messiah would not lack for authority to have his command executed by all Creation from any distance. So it was. In marvelling over this, Jesus bluntly prophesied most Jews would find themselves outside the Kingdom they arrogantly considered their natural birthright, because it was about faith, not DNA. The image of reclining in the great dinner hall in the sky was a typical Jewish expression for better days when Messiah would come crush the Romans, and enslave all the Gentiles under Israel. Thus, Gentiles such as this centurion would take their place, and they would be less than slaves, but aliens.

He was Lord over the Sabbath, too. Arriving at Peter's home in Capernaum, things were pretty much out of domestic order with the matron of the house sick. The large number of guests invited with Jesus would have to fend for themselves, a deeply embarrassing prospect. Jesus paid no attention to rules and promptly healed the woman. She immediately recovered and went about the business of the day. That it was clearly the Sabbath can be seen from the context, for the neighbors would not bring out their needy until sundown, when the Jews reckoned the Sabbath to be past -- a "day" was evening and morning, so evening began the next day. Here Matthew points out directly Jesus was fulfilling prophecy, specifically Isaiah 53:4, a Messianic prophecy.

At some point, Jesus decided to leave the crowds to their own devices and make a divine appointment elsewhere. He ordered His disciples to ready a boat for departure, but while waiting was approached by a couple of men seeking to be full-time disciples. One was, of all things, a Scribe -- the term for a Jewish lawyer. Perhaps he was genuine in his own mind, but Jesus warned him to count the costs. In this case, it meant leaving behind all the creature comforts to which a Scribe might have grown accustomed. Another was hoping to finish up affairs at home. Under the Law, a man whose father died, or was approaching death, was exempt from all other civil and ritual requirements. Using a standard Hebrew figure of speech about spiritually dead people, Jesus pointed out the Kingdom of Heaven was yet a higher calling, taking precedence over the old ways, including earthly family concerns. Again, it was counting the costs, as Jesus was demonstrating by dropping everything, leaving behind an adoring crowd, at the whims of Kingdom service.

Stepping aboard the little boat, they pushed off. Typical of the Sea of Galilee at various times of the year, a violent storm struck. Even experienced sailors would panic in such a situation, since it could easily mean death by drowning. Jesus was catching up on some lost sleep, apparently unconcerned. They knew He could save them, but were short on faith enough they failed to trust His command to be out on sea in the first place. If He was sleeping, were they really in danger? Matthew seems to paint here a picture of Jesus exasperated by their panic, and stopping the storm more to end their whining than to end an actual threat. The disciples' comments could easily be read as grateful crowing at what a powerful rabbi they followed.

Equally tiresome today is dealing with silly questions about where the boat touched ashore. Pedantic reading from a Western viewpoint yields an impossible situation, as there is no place which matches the names and the physical description. First, we don't know of any place called Gergese. Comparing with the accounts in other Gospels, we get Gadara and Gerasa. These all appear to conflict, until we realize each Gospel writer addressed a different audience. Second, it's just possible Matthew's spelling is the result of minor textual corruption. Still, it hardly matters when we approach this from a proper Hebrew frame of mind.

The Decapolis was a region of Hellenist Syrians with other mixed ethnic groups who became dominant in the area sometime before 280BC. Gadara was the chief city near the southeastern shore of Galilee, some six miles inland. However, the city was on a high ridge, from which the Sea was quite visible. Much of this area would have been called by this chief city, and the inhabitants over quite some range could rightly be called "Gadarenes." Since Gerasa was the capital of Decapolis at that time, all the residents could be also be called "Gerasenes." It happens a small village just beyond the farthest northern extent of Decapolis control along the shore is today called Kursi (or Kersi, Koursi, etc.). Greek rendering would almost certainly make that Gersa, Geresa, or something similar. Further, we note the herd of pigs was quite far off, just barely visible. People who have explored that area recently tell us one finds two or three places within walking distance of Kursi where a steep slope runs into or close to the water, and cliffs with caves are all over that area.

If we picture a massive herd of 2000 pigs stampeding, they could easily have run squealing the whole six miles from Gadara, if need be, in order to drown themselves. Chances are, they were just over the line from Decapolis in Jewish territory, near Kursi. This would make them Jewish-owned pigs raised for the Gadarene market. Even if the herders could prove in Jewish courts Jesus was the primary cause of the herd's loss, it was illegal for them to raise pigs in the first place. At any rate, Jesus was not worried about pigs. Stampeding to their deaths insured the demons could do no further harm.

We note also Matthew says there were two men, but the other Gospels see one. Apparently one of them commanded a lot less attention. It hardly matters, because between the two of them, the Demon Legion was a serious problem. Indeed, the whole land at that time was spiritually wide open to dark forces, as the Jews had consistently disobeyed the Word. Their corruption of God's promises, twisted into mere worldly comforts, was a direct rejection of their calling to bring the light of spiritual truth to the world. Not only had they denied that truth themselves, but tried to prevent others finding it. Their contempt and vile wishes for Gentiles resulted in the deep spiritual malaise hanging over the Promised Land. It was up to Jesus to clean up the mess, and set things right for these two men.

Thus, we draw a picture of Jesus establishing His authority.

Diner's Review: Akropolis Greek Deli

I'm poor, so I don't eat out much at all. When I do, one of the first places I'm likely to drop my dollars is Akropolis Greek Deli. It's about a mile from Tinker's Main Gate on Air Depot Boulevard.

No, they aren't big enough to have their own webpage, but that doesn't matter. Nor does it matter they are part of a chain of similar eateries in this area. Yes, I realize the the gyros are mass produced and rather mildly flavored. Service is minimal; you get to refill your own drinks, but it's free.

What makes it special is the effort these people put into speedy service and presentation. My wife and I typically order the standard Gyros Plate: Lots of thin gyros strips, a huge bed of mixed lettuce, tomatoes, Greek olives, and some of the best home-style fries and flat bread. The sauce is as good as any I've had, to include comparisons to what I found in my travels in Europe. The price was about $15 for two meals. My wife never finishes hers, and I probably shouldn't finish mine, with such large portions, but the stuff is so yummy!

If you ever pass by this part of the world, you've gotta try it!

Revelation 9

We have seen how the wrath of God against sin revealed in the Seven Seals is paralleled in the Seven Trumpets. Thus, the first four seals were about conquest and war; the first four trumpets were about political instability. Do we get the feeling John teaches we as believers should never trust human government? There's a concrete reason, as we shall see. The Fifth Seal was a revelation of God's saints; the Fifth Trumpet is a revelation of those who are not saints.

The falling star echoes Isaiah 14:12 and Luke 10:18. Neither mentions a discrete event on some specific date, but a reference to Satan's place in the grand scheme of things. A signal part of his punishment for rejecting his role in Heaven was to be cast down and confined to the earth, forbidden to come into God's presence in Heaven. John sees him given authority to open the holding place of all demons until the Final Judgment: The Abyss. This is the same place the legion of demons hoped to avoid when Christ confronted them in the soul of the man in Gadara. Once opened, a foul cloud obscures the light of revelation. The smoky haze resolves into a massive cloud of locusts. These were no ordinary locusts; they had the power to torment. Unlike ordinary locusts, they do not eat every hint of greenery in sight. Rather, they go after those lacking the Seal of God. Whatever it is they do, it has no effect on Christians.

In that part of the world, few things were dreaded so much as a locust plague. Joel 2 provides a graphic description of the normal locusts plague as the army of God's judgment, likening their noise to horses drawing chariots. Their image makes no sense, except to project the idea of fearsome and unstoppable pests. Rather than marching relentlessly to devour, they attack and destroy the peace of mind of the Lost. They do not kill, only torment; they do not devour food, but devour souls. The span of time is roughly the entire life cycle of normal locusts, but also the standard season of warfare. If we step away from the gritty details, we see a broad symbol of fallen mankind increasingly blinded by the Lord of Darkness. This is the darkness that can be felt deep in the soul, a spiritual famine. It makes people suicidal, yet at the same time fearful of death which delivers them more fully to Satan, whose name here is Destroyer. But there's more.

With the Sixth Trumpet, the authority of God's power, symbolized by the horns of the altar, calls for the release of the Four Winds. These are the same winds held back until the people of God were marked. We have just seen what happens to those not marked. The winds were held beyond the Euphrates, not a literal place, but the place beyond the boundaries of the familiar, far from home. It's the place from whence came every real threat to Israel and Judah, the legendary land of every danger and deepest spiritual darkness and death. The Four Winds stir up this spiritual death, represented as a demon army so limitless John had to be told some fantastic number: 200 million.

If the Lost souls around us were merely spiritually dead, that would be bad enough. Worse, this world will increasingly come under the influence of evil spirits without number. This is a uniform force, drawing on lost souls to build up a massive, unitary world of unspeakable evil. Good old fashioned hedonism and idolatry is almost harmless by comparison. This growing darkness turns all of human existence into a spiritual black hole, sucking in the entire Creation. While no such force can stay God's divine election from pulling souls out of this gravity well, it is clear those who come away from it late will have much farther to go just understanding what has happened to them. John saw every element of human existence torn and twisted away from the Light so that virtually nothing in the minds of newly born souls can find a recognizable point of reference in the Kingdom. It's not just a new spiritual birth, but an utterly alien existence. Today, we see countless souls apparently reborn, but unable to move beyond the doorway of Life. Their human souls are in shock at the vast array and depth of changes it brings. This is what John sees in the Army of Darkness from across the Euphrates.

The vast gulf between Light and Darkness will widen greatly. Thus, it's actually no surprise there is no repentance. Such would be simply inconceivable to those enslaved by this fearsome army. With so much in common, it's no surprise there is really very little preventing some dark purpose from binding all humanity under a single government. As the years, decades and centuries grind past, every generation is that much closer. Yes, it's clear there is room to see a final One World Government of evil without buying into the heresy of Dispensationalism.

Open Prayer Request

This is really BIG in my world:

Please pray. Our house is on fire. Everyone got out safe, so that is a major praise. I'll send out another email when I know more.

Jason P. Franklin
Husband/Father/Missionary
Westwood Bible Fellowship
www.westwoodbf.com

Briefly, Jason is a bi-vocational church plant pastor in the tiny mountain village of Westwood, in the far northern reaches of California. We have met face to face only once, but our online fellowship is long standing and close. I'm not a Baptist, but if I even thought the Lord wanted me to work with Jason, I'd pack a bag and start hitchhiking.

This tragic loss breaks my heart. I'll be updating this post as news warrants.

Update: The Franklins are staying with another family temporarily. The fire started in the attic, and while the ground floor didn't burn, the whole house is water-damaged from the usual fire department response. Thus, I would like my readers to pray specifically for them to obtain temporary quarters of their own, and the typical furnishings.

Send donations (please!):

P.O. Box 908
Westwood, CA 96137

Spiritual Profits

I heard it again, today. Someone spoke warmly of their faith and call to service, then turned right around and insisted it had to pay a certain minimum or they couldn't do it. Either they are lying to themselves about being called of God, or they simply weren't ready to serve. They still cling to the worldly minimum level of comfort.

God forbid I should ever stop to look at the financial costs. No, that's not "pie in the sky" silly religion, that's faith. Besides, the dollar Fed just spent the past three weeks pumping a quarter trillion new dollars into circulation. By the time someone quotes me a price for something, it's already out of date.

Further, God forbid I should ever boast of some "great sacrifice" and my holy poverty. I've had a belly full of that, lately, too. If you have to tell someone, it's not a sacrifice.

Today I had the joy and privilege of helping someone I trust and love, who happens to serve an organization I want nothing to do with, largely because he's one of the few who doesn't fuss about his pay. He loves what he does, and could probably get along if the church cut his pay. He asked me to help prepare some donated computers for passing on to some of the Bus Kids. Seems the official volunteers in this monster church just can't get to it, so he calls in someone from outside.

I'm so blessed by this opportunity. Their loss is my gain. I'll be glad to walk away without any tangible reward for the four days or so it will take. This is not about bragging rights, either. It's such a blessing to be able to do this kind of work, and to do it for someone who couldn't pay anything if he wanted. I get to do something I really like to do, and know it's building the Kingdom.

Welcome "We Hold These Truths"

Today I am adding a new link to the list of permanent endorsements on the right hand side: We Hold These Truths. My primary reason is because I share their condemnation of American Zionist-Evangelical dominance in politics. While Zionist politics dominate the US in both major parties, I don't expect much of fallen human politics. What I find particularly evil is the large number of churches and denominations sucked into this grand lie. So while I would eschew political activism, I most certainly stand up for condemning organized sin among professing Christians.

Please take a look at the WHTT site. No, I'm too much a contrarian to ever endorse anyone 100%, but these folks are worth my time, and I hope you find them worth yours.

Revelation 8

We take a moment here at the beginning of this chapter to note again John's use of repeating cycles in this Apocalypse. The judgments of God against sin in the Seven Seals are repeated in the Seven Trumpets from a different perspective. We also notice how the sevens in both cases are broken into 4+2+1. The first four judgments are upon the earth, for which the number four is a symbol. And so it goes, as John uses repeating cycles to emphasize the point. This cycle centers on trumpets, which were used in any number of ways to notify the people of something important happening: a marshaling of troops, the command to stand down from battle, a coronation, or a call to assemble for worship.

At the beginning of the chapter, we see the standard Temple prayer service, but this time in the Real Temple in Heaven, of which the earthly Temple was a shadow. In the daily prayer service, the worshipers gathered in the Temple courts. They await in silence the completion of the ritual, but this one is a bit longer than usual -- a half hour. The trumpets are passed to the Seven Spirits, as they prepare to signal the great events in God's judgment. Rather than the standard silver censor, the angel brings for the golden censor of the Day of Atonement. The High Priest normally would take fire from the Altar of Burnt Offering (covered in bronze) into that golden censer, receive incense from another priest. He would swing the censer to kindle the fire under the incense as he strode in before the Altar of Incense (covered in gold), and pour it out. We note the angel does not bring the prayers, but the smoke of incense which signals such prayers, which rises alongside the smoke.

These were prayers for God to reveal His wrath against sin. As noted before, we rightly pray, "Maranatha!" The meaning of "Come Lord Jesus" includes His judgment against sin. While it may affect us, too, we discount our losses in this world for the pressing necessity of bringing about full redemption of Creation. Thus, such prayers bring about the angel scooping coals from the Altar of Sacrifice a second time, and tossing it to the earth. The fire of God's wrath has been kindled, and we tumult of voices, thunder, lightening and earthquakes sound a warning to all mankind. What follows bears no accidental resemblance to the Plagues on Egypt, but these are not meant quite so literally.

The first trumpet brings a fiery hail with blood. Blood spilled on the ground is defiling, in this case destroying trees (rulers) and grass (peasants). We note here "a third" in Jewish culture symbolizes a very large amount, but something less than a majority. With the second trumpet, John recalls the recent explosion of Mount Vesuvius, just a decade or so before -- a mountain thrown into the sea. Mountains were a symbol for kingdoms, and this one represent all human government coming apart in cataclysm. As usual, the sea means the mass of humanity, and a great number died, "turned to blood." Even those who preyed on them (sea creatures) and traded in human souls (ships) were destroyed. The very source of humanity (streams flowing to the sea) was stricken by a falling star called "Wormwood" -- a bitter poison which killed slowly and painfully. Piling it on, John relates yet another symbol of dramatic change in the world order: destructive portents in the sky. We often see rulers, both earthly and spiritual, stylized as heavenly luminaries, and many of these are destroyed.

In short, John has shown us God intends to set the politics of the world ablaze with instability. Gone are the days when an empire or nation could stand for centuries. Again, we see echoes of Daniel 2 and 7, where ancient kingdoms were glorious after their fashion, but not so with latter regimes and states during the Last Days -- a term for the period of time between Christ's Ascension and His Return. We note historically, the lifespan of most earthly governments has steadily shrunk. Further, the likelihood of violent conflict within and between governments has grown. Thus, we see a clear fulfillment of John's symbolic prophecies: Nations and states arise quickly, do hideous things, and crumble violently. While John's focus would have been Imperial Rome, it's obvious this applies to every government built on the same dehumanizing principles -- virtually every government since Rome. This will continue to worsen until it reaches a fever pitch just before His Return. How quickly Christians in every generation forget the ephemeral nature of human politics!

Meanwhile, we are warned by a flying messenger: We haven't seen anything yet.

Judaism Is Not Moses Is Not Abraham

Questions I've received lately raise the need to discuss a distinction not obvious to many Bible students today: Judaism as practiced since before Christ, and the observance of the Law of Moses, and the faith of the Old Testament are three different things. While that may seem obvious, most people still seem to mix questions about each one.

The New Testament refers to a failure of the Law of Moses in its inability to save souls. It was never meant to do that. The promises of the Law were more at civil order, prosperity, and surviving natural disasters, so it hardly failed in that sense. Even today, following the Law of Moses will pretty much give you mental stability, physical health, and material success in this life. Yet so very many were content to fulfill the Law and believe that was a ticket to heaven. Nothing in the Law could cleanse the soul, only awaken the consciousness of sin. Certain passages in the Torah do point to a level of faith which could save the soul, but it was not a part of the requirements. The blessings offered under the Covenant of Moses were most certainly granted to those whose heart did not belong to Jehovah, but managed to obey the stipulations of the Law.

We note, however, even this was not enough. Bringing it down to that simple level was not sufficient to overcome human frailty. In the end, most of the nation was utterly destroyed, and the rest were exiled for a time. Even more confusing, some who truly loved the Lord did quite poorly. David, "man after God's own heart," was nearly a failure in some ways. Too often lacking restraint of his own (Bathsheba), he utterly failed to rule his own household. We are told of two revolts led by his own sons. Further, he failed to punish Joab for his crimes. On the other hand, we have hints from the text indicating a few of his successors didn't really love Jehovah, but managed to obey the Law fairly well and stay out of such trouble. The Law of Moses provided the necessary background for the birth of the Savior, in part because it was limited in this way.

Going a bit further, we note there is a solid saving faith from the Old Testament which is outside the Law of Moses. We note the faith of Abraham, and the Covenant of Abraham as pre-dating the Covenant of Moses. The former is the earliest known example of personal redemption based on faith -- defined as complete and utter commitment of the self -- in the revelation of God. The promise to Abraham regarding the lineage of Isaac was a signal element of the covenant, but hardly the whole thing. The Covenant of Moses was a wholly different thing. It did not affect the former covenant of faith, which was still in force, but was a separate category. Only in the New Testament references to Abraham was it clearly stated everyone in Israel was still obigated under Abraham for their personal salvation, and under Moses for national survival. Failing Moses could get them executed, and indicated a lack of true faith, but would not necessarily drop them in Hell. Failing Abraham but obeying Moses could not protect you from eternal damnation. Further, Israel was bound by Moses, but other nations were not. The man himself failed, but the story of Balaam indicates some folks in Mesopotamia knew God, and were correctly observing His commands under pre-Mosaic revelation. We can safely assume this was equivalent to Melchizedek's brand of faith, the same as Abraham's.

A wholly separate problem was the final and worst failure of all in Israel. During the Restoration, many of the Returnees seized upon a spiritual promise of redemption in the Messiah, and twisted it into visions of worldly paradise. They utterly lost sight of the mystical element of faith, the Eastern other-worldly focus which played down the discomforts of this life. Instead, they embraced a very materialist Western viewpoint, gave it their own spin, and the result is the Talmud -- a massive oral encyclopedia of commentary on the Law of Moses based on Hellenist philosophical assumptions about reality. This corruption of the ancient Hebraic frame of reference was the basis for most of the conflict between Jesus and the Jewish leaders of His day.

As we all know, the Jewish nation rejected Jesus as Messiah. They maintained their unique identity as a nation under the Covenant of Moses, but deeply tainted by human rationalist thought. Eventually this oral body of teaching -- the Talmud -- was committed to writing. This served to harden the traditions, giving birth to Judaism. Thus, we must state emphatically: Judaism is not the faith of the Old Testament, nor does it properly reflect the Law of Moses. Indeed, the term seems to have been used first by Josephus in his book, Wars of the Jews, long after Christ's Ascension.

While there are, indeed, several schools of thought within Judaism, it does not seem any one of them is truly Hebraic. None today seem to have escaped the filter of Hellenism. While there are plenty of issues which overlap between the two, Judaism proper and Mosaic observance are two different things, with only superficial similarities. Do not confuse what we see today with what was commanded of ancient Israel. More, do not confuse the Law of Moses with other revelations regarding personal redemption prior to Christ.

Nesting with Mammon

First the standard Social Sciences disclaimer: The study of human behavior requires we recognize humans are a particular type of creature with established common traits. Were it not for this, the term "human" would have no meaning. Part of this set of common traits includes behavior patterns. Behavior in particular requires we balance the tension of knowing findings are generally accurate, but never precisely true. We realize individual cases will always reflect general conclusions, but often depart in various ways. While I offer no footnotes and links, I maintain the assertions in the following discussion are based on data commonly known to those working in the field of Social Sciences, combined with Scripture.

The story of Adam and Eve is literally true. That alone doesn't mean much; it's a nice story with a sad ending. They are more important to us for what they symbolize. Because Adam and Eve actually existed as the first two humans on earth, they are prototypes for all humanity. The nesting instinct is as old as humanity, and it is the role God gave to women. She was designed to trust her man to provide things necessary for the nest: safety, food, shelter, and materials to build up the nest. If her man happens to be less than a true man of God, he will fail too much of this. The result is insecurity for her, and she transfers trust to the nest itself. She wants to extend the nest and the protection it provides. She makes allowances for his failures this way. The adjustments call for a trade-off: she tolerates his strayings in exchange for manipulating him into extending the nest for her. She harnesses his lust for conquest and comfort. Her focus, and his, move to things tangible, instead of things heavenly.

As families grow, they become clans, then tribes. In size is strength in a fallen world. These groups may decide to expand their nest at the cost of the next bunch, or there may be a predator threat, or any number of other problems. When things get rough, someone has to be in charge and make sudden decisions to organize defense. Usually everyone knows who the best fighter is. When the threat goes away, warlords tend to keep their power, and being the strongest fighter tends to mute resistance. Privilege grows, and the powerful gather around the warlord-king. They hold themselves apart, and the noble class is born. They lead tribes to compete for their relative honor and power, and conquest becomes a way of life.

We call this feudalism. Eastern feudalism is about people, and land is personified. In the West, people are objectified and land becomes more important. In both, the noble class is not so much about greed as honor, which is inextricably tied to privilege. Invade their turf, and they'll fight more because it's an insult to their honor than because you are taking their stuff. Medieval Europe saw the rise of a noble class which at least claimed to be upholding the divine order, defending His way, their honor and glory, and stuff was merely a symbol of that.

The end of feudalism in the West came about with the rise of the Merchant Class. One was either noble defender or peasant worker. The nobles jockeyed with each other for turf. As wealth accumulated to them, the nobles sought ways to gain advantages in battle: tactics and technology required learning, which called for talent, and for wealth. Among peasants were those who manifested talents and gained a middling position in the courts of nobility. Artistry also appeared. Those who were not noble, but specialized in doing things nobles liked, became wealthier than other peasants. They aspired to nobility, knowing they were not noble. In time, their efforts led to creation of modern towns and cities as places where their ways dominated.

Nobles cared about things, but cared even more about noble pursuits, in the broadest senses of the word "noble." Honor outweighed property; taking risks and being violent was acceptable. Not so for merchants. They wanted noble prosperity and privilege without getting lost in such concerns. They preferred to do away with the unearned privilege of birth, silly notions of honor, and especially wanted to keep warriors away from their stuff. Eventually, the merchants manipulated the nobles into surrendering their privileges, to the point the nobles virtually disappeared. Wealth is no longer a tool of noble pursuits, but is the pursuit.

The earth today languishes under the reign of the Middle Class, which inherited the position of the Merchant Class. Even those within that class suffer from that reign, and most certainly those without suffer. Aside from noting fallen man will invariably harm his neighbor, we can detect certain trends. The oppression by the middle classes takes a particular form, based on easily deduced concerns peculiar to the class. I note in passing, while the term "middle class" is itself a Western concept, where such a class has a significant presence, they invariably embrace much of Western values. Such values are notoriously materialistic, and so is the Middle Class.

Ancient biblical culture assumes privilege based on role. The variety of roles within an Eastern society may be highly developed and specialized, or quite primitive and simple, but the basic assumptions are the same: God grants roles to whom He wishes, and privileges naturally attach to those roles. One may not find it pleasant, but one acquiesces in what God has done. To the Western mind, this is obscene. They posit from a human rational perspective all men are men, and surely God must have intended they be equal. "No complications, please." The problem is not that God's way breaks logic, but follows His logic. Materialist philosophy rejects that logic, evaluates it as non-logic.

Thus, the primary failure of Western civilization is materialism, the curse of the Middle Class, and the curse of letting women rule, even if behind the scenes. It's not a question of giving her no input, but of giving input within proper channels, according to God-ordered roles. When the man allows her to demand a diversion from pursuing the Spirit, into pursuing material goods, we destroy the very foundation of what makes life possible in the long run. Materialism is manifestly destructive. What materialism demands and accumulates it cannot possibly keep for long. The mere fact of desiring them requires a rejection of God's logic for mankind. No one is claiming tangibles are evil, but placing them at the top of reality is. This is the root of rationalist assumptions, the utter failure to grasp the spiritual viewpoint.

The disaster of the modern church is dragging middle class assumptions into the teachings of faith. Instead of faith changing thought, we have recast faith as a refinement of middle class culture. We may realize things don't matter, but we keep hewing to a definition of righteousness which assumes you have to act in a manner calculated to serve mammon. We still assume a blessed church is the big one, with fine facilities and clean, well dressed members. We then structure our behavior to create that image, calling it "righteousness." Behavior which doesn't lead to that image is "sin." We must have that big nest! What happened to having a Big God?

There is nothing sacred about egalitarian society. Scripture assumes no such thing. Frankly, we owe a great debt of sorrow to the Puritans, who left England largely because privilege kept them from advancing materially by hard work. They found it obscene anyone could be born to wealth they did not earn, and reasoned God did not intend that. So they went in search of a place where such a social order did not exist. Their god was mammon, but expresses itself through Enlightenment assumptions about freedom, equality, prosperity -- that somehow this was surely what God intended. He did not. You cannot somehow claim such aspirations without buying into materialism. To reject the world is to reject rationalism. Let it go. Democracy is mammon; constitutions, republics, democracies, parliaments -- all of them are an extension of nesting's demands.

Church, stop wasting efforts, time and attention on something doomed from the start. Turn your focus to the Kingdom of Heaven, for no government of man can ever bring the righteousness of God.

Life of Christ: Matthew 7

Most people completely mistake the point of this chapter. While we have loads of very fine spiritual guidance built on these words, most of it misses the more substantive train of thought in the larger context. We have noted already Jesus is working to distance Himself from the typical Talmudic rabbinical teachings of His day. He began this session showing how the Pharisees and Scribes (Mosaic lawyers) were promoting a man-made corruption of God's Word. They really had no idea what it was about. As a result, their brand of spirituality was a bad joke, an obvious hypocrisy. In this chapter, Jesus points out the natural results of such a failed grasp on the Law of Moses: They didn't have a clue how God intended it be taught.

Jewish social and civil leaders of Jesus' day were infamous for harsh demands. Their way of correcting a sinner was with a bitterness utterly foreign to God. Such an arrogant and hateful approach naturally provoked rebellion, even if those corrected dare not show it. The method destroyed the mission. Pharisees sharply picked over the slightest detail of their Talmudic laws -- truly impossible to obey -- and had completely buried the Law of God. It was like trying to remove a splinter from someone else while a wooden post was hanging out of your own flesh. You can't judge if you have no discernment. Committing the teaching of God's Word to such fools was throwing Passover scraps to dogs (viewed by Hebrews of that day as we do jackals today), or tossing jewelry to filthy pigs. They had no idea what good it was.

Teaching the Word of God requires a gentle approach. People who aren't abused are more likely to listen, to be open to the truth. The Word of God is a love offering from above; it cannot be forced on anyone. We rightly condemn abusive parents, who drive away their hungry children with harsh treatment. The Laws of God are also not designed to harm and threaten, but to fill and nourish the hungry soul. The Word of God itself demands you approach people they way you want to be approached. What sort of appeal would catch your attention?

Truth is hard enough without extra human burdens. It is like a narrow, steep path, passing through a small wicket. The whole world is full of those who take the easy way out. It requires no special talent to believe in yourself uncritically, without bothering to humbly examine your life against the Word. If you are not first drawn to it with a desire which drives you through all manner of personal sacrifice, you don't have it. If you don't have it, you can't pass it on. To compensate, the Pharisees and Scribes would spend hours each day creating detailed analyses of their predecessors' detailed analyses. It salved their dead consciences, believing they served a God they really didn't know.

Most prophets of that day were also in it for themselves. It was easy to put on a show, to act a part and draw a crowd. However, if watched over time, especially in private moments, one realized they were fake. It's like checking the fruit on a tree. God's Word is inherently nutritious to the soul. A real prophet lives a changed life first, then prophesies, as John the Baptist did. They welcome a probing eye into their private conduct. Fakes will hide, because their root nature remains that of a weed. Give them time; you'll know prophets by their fruits.

Jesus warned, even among those who followed Him, there would be fakes. They would appear to follow His teaching, would appear to do miracles, and carry His name and teaching everywhere. Do not rely on miracles, for they may come in spite of a man being fake. The way to know a man of God is his obedience to God.

Following Jesus means more than mimicking Him. A shallow performance, even with full sincerity, is still a mere performance. No, it requires hearing His teachings with the heart, letting them guide decisions. People who really get it will be building the Kingdom, and building their own lives at the same time. Life founded on true faith and conviction will withstand any storm. The wash of humanity rushing against it will not move it. People who miss it, who don't really get it, but try to fake it as a mere code of conduct, will have nothing. They'll build a life like a house of mud bricks in the wadi. The first time things get tough, it'll be gone. Worse, they'll be left with a greater confusion and pain than before.

Matthew notes, whether the people really understood or not, what everyone noticed was Jesus was like no other rabbi. His teaching carried its own authority. There was no need to cite other authorities, no need to appeal to various experts. This was a teaching which carried power to change men's souls, even as it changed bodies in the crowded healing sessions. And it was the change of souls which truly turned things upside down.