The Bible Speaks to the Bailout

Let's review the basic principles of Covenants. If you are not under the Covenant of Grace, you are under the Covenant of Noah. If you walk in faith and the Spirit, you fulfill the law. The Covenant of Law is an amplification of Noah, an application in a specific instance. While it did point to spiritual reality, the Mosaic Law did not affect your spiritual condition. Noah and Moses reveal what God demands of fallen humanity, in exchange for maintaining natural order. In Moses, that promise is expanded to mean those who hold themselves responsible to that requirement can expect to receive from God civil order, reasonable prosperity, resistance to plagues, and resistance to conquest from external and internal threats. Thus, if any nation fails to obey the model implied by the Law of Moses, that nation can expect to eventually fall, and be destroyed.

All of this assumes there is some effort to understand the frame of reference in the Law of Moses, which puts civil human conduct in rough alignment with God's design for Creation. If you read between the lines and abstract from Moses the basic principles of justice and good social order, you should find yourself reasonably close to what God intended, and Creation itself will cooperate to provide the things humans seek: food, shelter, and safety. No one has a right to expect wealth, but some will certainly have it.

Those who gain wealth are most certainly under a somewhat higher set of demands. Since wealth always means power, the two are inseparable. You are bound by stricter requirements, because you have a much greater advantage in dealing with life's discomforts. Abuse it, and you are under condemnation. Whether it catches up with you in your lifetime is a matter for God to decide, but the principle and obligation remains. Somebody somewhere in a position of authority will have to clean up the mess.

Nehemiah ran into this issue while serving as regent in Jerusalem, under a warrant from Emperor Artaxerxes. While the focus of chapter 5 of his book is a matter of Law regarding charging interest between fellow Jews, there is a fundamental reason for that command: It so easily lends itself to the path of slavery. The emphasis of the Law is quite clear. Wealth is not an excuse to make life worse for those who are poor and powerless. When they are hungry, you are obliged to make some effort to feed them. You can't charge interest on staying alive. This had no bearing the matter of folks taking out loans to fund an extravagant lifestyle, but simply staying alive. It assumes you all live in the same community and it's not too hard to find out who is truly in need. Letting someone in your community starve to death because you were too stingy is a mark of moral shame.

Throughout the Old Testament, and reflected in the New Testament, is the basic idea you must reach out to the unfortunate, you must have mercy and be gracious. This requirement, while clearly stated as a requirement for spiritual living, is most certainly demanded of those spiritually dead. Nehemiah 5 assumes nothing about whether the people were born-again, but only their obligation to uphold the Law. The Law had nothing to do with saving souls. The crime of the upper classes -- the wealthy and powerful -- was taking advantage of weakness and poverty to increase wealth and power. If you can't get it lawfully, don't touch it. To set the example, Nehemiah himself funded his operations from his own pocket. He fed himself and his entourage at his own expense to prevent being a burden to the people over whom he had full power of life and death.

Offering mortgages to people who cannot repay with temporary teaser rates offends God, because it serves to enslave the borrowers. Using those mortgages to then turn and sell them as debt securities offends God, because it deceives those who invest in these worthless "securities." Buying tons of these mortgages is a sin because you aren't performing due diligence on whether they are legit, and you hope to profit from someone else's lies. Demanding the taxpayers then assume the debt for your lying investments is the very thing Nehemiah refused to do.

Don't be foolish enough to think these are merely ethical lapses, and "that's the way it's done." This was sin from the start. Our national leaders are putting the peasants of America in grinding poverty. Further, they are preparing the means to crush any dissent, which inevitably must come, as everyone knows. This is big sin; never mind whether anyone is born-again. If they are, they can expect to have precious little glory to offer Christ at the Final Judgment. If they are not born again, they had better assume God will not support them when the peasants finally do revolt. Whichever way you slice it, our federal government is serving Satan.

Keep Your Eyes Open (Updated 29 Sept.)

I'm hardly the only person who as been warning our ruling regime would accelerate the drive to tyranny. We already have a president who refuses to be bound by any law, not even those he agreed to personally. We have a Congress using that same treasonous process by which we gained the likes of the PATRIOT Act, this time to force everyone to vote "yes" for the bailout. By the way, the best polling seems to indicated a vast majority of the voting population of the US opposes this, but our rulers could care less what we think. Don't ever call this a "democratic nation" again.

Update: Will Grigg lays out in some detail significant justification for the view our troops are now being kept in the pressure cooker spots of the Middle East mostly to ensure they will come home fully conditioned for brutality against the US population.

Scripture warns all human governments will eventually become intolerably oppressive. There will be revolts. Both are sin, but oppression when holding the ostensible monopoly on the use of force is a greater sin. We as Christians are fools for dipping our hands into either mess, when we can avoid it. Sometimes we can't, or simply don't see how. Some refuse to see how to avoid it, and I'm expecting to meet in Heaven a lot of people who will be ashamed over it (in a manner of speaking).

As I've already pointed out, we are here to demonstrate gracious and grateful living. We are not necessarily supposed to survive the coming turmoil, but reveal His nature by how we live and die.

Meanwhile, when calling and service do not require suffering, you would naturally avoid it. I can't shake the sense a bunch of suffering is right on top of us. My household is stocking up on stuff which may be hard to get later when more banks fail, and the dollar plummets in value. It's not possible to save up everything you'll use, but it is possible to save up stuff you can trade for things you'll use.

It's also possible to stop and consider just what skills you have which can keep you alive later. I don't mean the warrior and big hunter stuff; I'm referring to an ability to make or repair things everybody uses. For example, I can fix bicycles, some electrical appliances, most motor vehicles (up to a point), and have a sense about most mechanical devices. I know some about repairing footwear, and could probably make some from salvaged materials. Other members of my family can make just about any wearable clothing, though nothing fancy. We can grow a wide range of edible crops, and yes, hunt and process edible animals. Beyond that, I have a strong sense about organizing communities for survival.

This is not meant to scare people. I admit to being very uneasy about this bailout thing, and I know the government is even more so. Recent back channel chatter reveals an awful lot of preparation for dealing with armed uprisings. It's the kind of preparation which says they know "the natives are restless." It's the kind of thing which says they really don't want to hear from us what "we, the people" would like to see our leaders do. They don't intend to let us have a say, and don't intend to move aside and be replaced peacefully. I'm honestly wondering if there will be an election, and I'm prepared to think of living under martial law.

It won't matter whom you blame, because everyone will hurt, and there is now no way to avoid it. The point is to be ready to serve regardless, to be gracious and grateful because that's how we do it in the Kingdom.

Life of Christ: Luke 18

It is natural for children to want and need some sense of excitement, some frequent and varied stimulus. In normal human development, this becomes less important as we age toward adulthood. There comes a point when guidance is no longer necessary, and we can create our own sense of fun and adventure. We absorb experiences precisely so we may relive them internally. Without that input, children will rarely be motivated for long, and lose focus. In maturity, we carry the motivation and focus in our hearts in the form of commitment.

Faith grows in a similar fashion. It is first absorbed, and the fiery filling of God's Spirit burns the paths in our souls. After a time, we are obliged to recall on our own those moments, and recreate the powerful obedience those high moments granted us.

A particularly difficult task in keeping to the path of faith as we grow is forgiving others. The Jewish leaders were particularly infamous for holding grudges. They would tolerate the same error only three times from any one person. After that, they taught, it was no longer necessary to forgive. Jesus warned His disciples to prepare their hearts for a very high tolerance of human frailty, both in others and in themselves. The real danger is creating situations which exploit human frailty for personal gain. Someone who took that route deserved a horrific death, such as being drowned tied to a heavy weight.

It is no sin to rebuke someone who wrongs you. What you aim for is repentance as a desire, not performance. When Jesus said "seven times" each day, it was not lost on His disciples, nor Luke's reader, this was more than anyone would likely need. They knew this was a heavy demand. For them to forgive the same error without limit would require a lot more faith, a much stronger commitment.

Jesus replied to their request for more faith with a parable: The Mustard Seed. We know it was the smallest seed used for domestic agriculture, yet grew to quite a large bush, rather like a small tree. The point was to note if you had any faith at all, there was no limit to what it could do, particularly in the heart. If a wee bit of faith could make a tree obey an outrageous command, could it not do wonders in making us obey God?

God's demands are entirely just by definition. However so much He demands, it is only our duty. It is not possible to fulfill them, so we remain always in need of forgiveness ourselves. Since it is impossible to gain any merit, patience with others should come naturally. Be thankful when the Father allows you the power to obey more fully. Living in gratitude is the life of the Kingdom.

Luke gives the idea more flesh by recalling a moment when Jesus traveled along the border between Galilee and Samaria. At the entrance to one village, some lepers hailed Jesus from a distance. Lepers were required by custom and law to avoid healthy people, and to warn them away if they got too close. The only way to get Jesus' attention was to call from a distance, crying for mercy. They having enough faith to go that far, Jesus simply told them to obey the Law, by showing themselves to a priest who could declare them clean of the disease. They could then re-enter normal society. In faith, they obeyed. On the way, they realized they were cleansed, but only one felt seized by a duty to return thanks to Jesus. Significantly, it was the lone Samaritan in the group of ten who understand living gratefully. Jesus remarked the man was not only healed, but this life was made whole by such faith.

The idea a Samaritan could be included in the Kingdom raised other questions. The Pharisees taught the Messiah of necessity will come and declare Himself the new King of Israel, and set about making the Jews rulers of the earth. Some Pharisees asked Jesus when He was going to get started. His answer turned their question on its head. The Kingdom was not something men could see with their eyes. It would not be political, it would not require a revolution against Rome, nor even against the current Jewish political leadership. It was already present. Wherever Jesus was and taught, there was the nascent Kingdom of God. The Pharisees would never see it, unless they repented. Jesus intentionally used an ambiguous phrase about the Kingdom within them. Not only was it already there, but it could only be present inside a person. This sort of mystical thinking the Pharisees had dismissed two centuries before.

While on the subject, Jesus briefed His disciples on the topic, to disabuse them of other false expectations. First, they should not expect to see the Son of Man return to earth visually as ruler of all Creation. It would not come during their lifetime, so don't ever listen if someone says the Messiah has returned. It would be so obvious, no one breathing could miss it. At a minimum, there was some unfinished business at hand for Jesus, and that would include something very different from the typical expectation of the Messiah: He must be utterly rejected by His own nation.

Naturally, this raises the expectation God would punish those who rejected His Son. In the days of Noah, whose prophetic warnings were ignored, no one really expected any flood, but went about their daily lives until it was too late. Lot warned the Sodomites, too, but they came close to invading his house for daring to call their sin "sin." Instead, they partied into the night until destruction and death rained down from the sky. It wouldn't be any different for the Jewish nation on the day He finally revealed Himself as the Promised One. They'd reject Him. God's wrath would follow shortly thereafter.

When that rejection is finally too obvious to ignore, it will be time to leave Jerusalem. By the time Luke wrote this, many Christians had, indeed, left that city. However, the destruction had not yet fallen. Delaying like Lot's wife, caught by the storm of fire from the sky, would be foolish. She wanted too badly to keep her old life, and could not let it die. So she died instead. The timing would be neither logical nor convenient. It would be like the midnight arrest raid, or the early morning sweep when women grind corn, or soldiers riding up right in the heat of the day -- the Lord's hand of punishment would come and take the nation away.

The Twelve wondered where this awful thing would happen? The epigram was all too obvious for them. The Jewish nation was a dead man walking. When it finally collapsed in the last spasms of death, the carrion eaters would not be far away. This was a veiled reference to keeping an eye out for the arrival of soldiers. Rome allowed her soldiers some latitude in plundering when destroying a city. When a mass of Roman soldiers began moving, it was time to get out of their way.

We know in 68 AD, the tensions in Jerusalem became so high, a large portion of the Jewish leadership participated in a revolt. The next year, a large army from Rome fought several battles in Galilee. Some months later, Rome had crushed resistance and laid siege to Jerusalem. According to an early church scholar, at one point the siege was suspended rather briefly. The few remaining Christians in the city fled, and were spared when Titus lead his troops back to flatten Jerusalem.

Time to Strap on Your Body Armor

I'm not smart enough, not wise enough, to take it all in, much less make sense of it. The world is going mad, more than before.

Treasury Secretary Paulson is a major figure in creating the economic mess we now see; he was in charge of Goldman Sachs during the mass of swindles called "the mortgage derivative bubble." He is a major figure in the crime, and now he wants absolute authority to pass as many dollars as he wishes to his friends and associates in the banking system? We don't have a word for chutzpah on that magnitude. Last time I got a look at what he proposes, it gives him the power to buy any business in the US -- merely on the basis of them passing money through a bank -- whether they owe a single penny. He can do this at whatever price he chooses using the credit of the US government. Then he can turn around and sell it to whomever he wishes at whatever price he decides is in the national interest.

I saw a man at the bank a couple of weeks ago. He carried a half-dozen t-shirt plastic shopping bags of cash bundles, huge bundles of old bills which caused the bags to nearly cut his fingers. It took the teller an awful long time to process this cash. He had no bodyguard, and drove an ordinary car.

The candidates for US President debate everything which does not matter, and ignore everything which does. We are fed a massive pile of idiocy as "news" to keep of from even thinking about the really horrible stuff going on. For God's sake, they are bringing battle-hardened soldiers home to police the citizens here! These men are taking training which includes suffering a tazer jolt so they won't stop to consider what it does to people. The object of the training is insure they show no mercy.

At the bicycle store today, I had the manager explain to me he cannot get any bicycle staddlebags from any supplier except the most expensive ones. When the gas prices first began to rise back last spring, every one on the East and West coast went out and bought up every single available saddlebag set, and darn near all the rear luggage racks for bicycles. Now they are all on back-order for months to come. They had one set of baskets, too large for my use. This is one of the largest bicycle shops in the state.

There's a new web browser exploit. Details are sketchy because the security experts are pretty scared. Every graphical browser -- all of them -- is vulnerable, if it responds to DHTML (Dynamic HTML). Someone can craft an advertising banner, displayed on most websites in the world, so that it hijacks your browser, never show you anything what it's doing, and create clicks on URLs and buttons you can't see on webpages hidden from view, regardless of what your mouse is doing, and you could easily end up with malware installed on your computer. If that computer happens to run Windows, you may not know for a long time you've been had. About the only hope is disable the <IFRAME> feature of webpages (if your browser allows that) and disable most scripting of any kind. This nasty trick can be hidden in webpages you would normally trust. Oh, the other defense is use something like the Lynx plain text browser.

China has ordered their central banks not to allow any US banks to borrow. Most banks offer short term loans to each other, all over the world. Chinese banks are permitted to continue this activity, as long as the borrowing bank is not from the US.

And so on, and so on, a thousand crazy things. Are we having fun yet?

Humor: Only Half Joking

I can't resist. Fred Reed has the best political platform of any candidate, theoretical or otherwise, in a very long time. Hidden under the hyperbole is a delicious common-sense view of what would really put this country back where it should be.

I see that I shall have to come out of retirement and become President. It is the only hope for the country and the world. That I am willing to undergo the humiliation of the office is a measure of the depth of my sense of duty. Though perhaps I will do it under an assumed name....

Under my guidance, the military will assume a new mission of defending the United States rather than being a presidential hobby. I know: This is radical, but radical times require radical solutions....

Foreign policy. I will end the embargo of Cuba. It's stupid, gives the US a terrible rep in Latin America, accomplishes noting of use, and makes life hard for eleven million perfectly good Cubans. If the professional pseudo-Cubans in Miami object, I'll have the frauds freeze-dried and air-dropped on some starving country in Africa. (Possible slogan: "Every cloud has a protein lining.") Cannibalism gets a bum rap....

Finally, patriotism will become a capital offense. It serves chiefly as a mechanism allowing rogues and pathological short men to send our puzzled teenagers to kill someone else's. Iraq can kill its own damn teenagers if it likes. I understand the urge, having had teenagers, but it isn't my job.

Isaiah 18

Many commentators complain this is the most difficult chapter in Isaiah. Surprisingly, there is a consensus which seems useful, far more so than the answers of the few who arrogantly insist they have it all worked out. Hebrew is more about images and symbols, and precise declarations in prophesy are rare for the simple reason such concrete clarity is contrary to the nature of spiritual truth. Further, it's not immediately apparent to us the application of symbols in the context of Isaiah's prophecy. Precise translation is difficult and highly disputed, but some things are fairly obvious.

The useful consensus points to Cush, the nation of Ethiopians in those days occupying modern Sudan and Southern Egypt. This is the one place in the world where a huge population with an ancient culture is built on a land that slopes downward to the north. During Isaiah's time, the ancient Ethiopian nation ruled Egypt.

We know both Egyptians and Ethiopians traveled a great deal by reed boats, since the Nile was the center of life and reeds of various sorts were more abundant there than trees. The Nile was the source of life and the main highway. Civilization spread very little beyond the hills and mountains on either side of it in Egypt, but the Upper Nile Valley of ancient Ethiopia was less constricted. Thus, the Ethiopians had managed to scatter their influence far beyond their own borders at various times.

Under the growing threat of Assyria, of which threat even Ethiopia had heard, these tall and smooth folks had sent messengers to many lands. They sought alliances to gather a force large enough to overwhelm Assyria. Isaiah, living as royal family in the Jerusalem court, could not have missed their arrival, nor the nature of their business. They sought from Judah quick answer to their offer of alliance by swift couriers so the necessary organization could begin immediately. Naturally, the Ethiopian emissaries extolled the virtues of their rulers, of a land where the people had been fearsome warriors since the beginning of time, arising in the land of the Upper Nile Valley.

Isaiah gives voice to God's answer. There is no rebuke, but a simple answer amounting to, "Thanks, but no thanks." Were God in need of any nation on earth for any purpose, He could call them. Indeed, Assyria rose at God's beckoning. They will also be vanquished at God's behest, without any human aid. So the Lord says to Isaiah, "I am not in a panic over Assyria." We are given the image of God sitting serenely on His throne in the Holy of Holies, gazing out across the landscape at the invading forces of Assyria, without a hint of concern.

He describes the invaders as setting up their siege lines, and settling in for an extended stay. It would be rather like grape vines in full flower, with the promise of a rich harvest. But, just as the flowers reach their climax of glory and sweet smell, the whole vineyard will be pruned harshly. The promise of victory and glory for Assyria will evaporate before they can get a good start. Their carcasses will feed scavengers for the better part of a year.

As always, in Hebrew literature, the term "Day of the Lord" carries a certain ambiguity. Rather than the end of all things, it is more an end of sin. Any day when God reveals His truth and power can be called "That Day." Thus, when this massive slaughter of Assyrian troops comes about, it won't be long after the Ethiopians will come to visit again. Instead of coming to offer Judah, as a lesser entity, their protection as a mighty power, they will be offering a gift to Jehovah. They will see He is more than sufficient to vanquish all of His enemies, and the most powerful nation on earth He can sweep aside with the casual flick of His hand. Ethiopia will come in grateful recognition of the Lord's benevolent dominion on over all the earth.

Yet again, because "That Day" is a spiritual reference, it manifests repeatedly at various points in human history, in various ways. We aren't sure whether the ancient Ethiopian Empire actually sent an offering to Jehovah during that period, but we do know there were a surprising number of Jews in their court in New Testament times. Further, it was but a mere century later they were known as a largely Christian nation. While modern Western minds find this a reckless disregard of chronicity, it is altogether proper in Ancient Near Eastern culture. Isaiah could care less if the response of Ethiopia was in historical proximity to the event evoking their gratitude. It had no bearing on the ultimate truth, of spiritual principles. In Scripture, we explain what we see from revealed truth. Events must be arranged in our minds as explained by higher understanding, not to suit the needs of mere human logical comfort.

Tribulation Report #020: Back to Center

We are now in tribulation. Did you notice? While August may not have been so august for you, it was a major watershed for me. If nothing else, things which had been going on for quite some time -- evil government things -- became apparent in August.

Some of my Net friends chatter about ways they might have to resist. Fine for them. I can't say God didn't put that on their hearts, but I can say it's not a major factor in the business of the Kingdom. Not that we aren't supposed to defy any earthly authority when it demands things contrary to your convictions and calling. Indeed, do what you must to serve Christ and let governments take their course. Do what you must, knowing it may well bring unpleasant consequences.

Be smart about it -- "wise as serpents, harmless as doves." Learn all you can as it rolls down upon us all, and the nation is judged for her profligate sins. Don't ignore the very real threat to your individual safety, and consider the wise planning of others:

1. "If you can, get close to your family right now and begin immediately to pool your resources, and, if possible, to help each other with your liabilities."


2. "How dependent are you on "just-in-time" provisions at the local grocery store?... Can you reduce that dependency in order to survive for, say, two weeks? Or even a month?"


3. "De-couple from the dollar."


4. "Gather intelligence on the occupation force. In the event of localized or general breakdowns in public order, the police will not protect us."

But in the middle of all this, keep your focus on the Kingdom. There is no imperative in the Kingdom to so much as survive. While you are normal for worrying about your family members, your demise in pursuit of the Father's calling is His business, and their future is in His hands.

Our primary concern is service to the King. That's the center of your being. As the dollar collapses, the economy comes apart at the seams, as martial law descends over the nation like a dark wet blanket of misery, and as life becomes cheap on the streets and society itself breaks down, you are to keep an eye on it all as you keep your hands on the wheel. If the path of the Kingdom leads you to drive head-on into a brick wall, then do so. Anything less is a failure.

Then remind yourself: The Lord God Almighty designed and created all that is. If there is anyone who knows what works best, it is He -- no exceptions. The world is fallen and bad stuff is now the norm. Sometimes, for reasons having nothing to do with righteousness or sin, that bad stuff will fall on you and crush you. If you see it coming, the worst thing you can do is try to dodge it, if that means leaving your assigned task before the Lord.

Our lives are bound to the Cross. We have already died in Him. There's nothing left but playing out the calling for each of us, which will certainly end in death, sooner or later.

Call for Fellowship and Accountability

It's one thing to have friends and fellowships based on shared interests. There is an implied covenant of looking out for the best interests of the other. This limited guardian task is based on enough common ground for it to make any sense at all.

It's another thing to covenant for accountability in the specific pursuit of close communion of service. I grant a covenant right to comment on my work to a fellow believer based on the likelihood their comments will serve to support and refine the calling which binds me to the Lord. Wise brothers refrain from commenting on things which they do not share.

In my current service, I abide by what I teach: I am doing what I cannot stop doing in Christ's name. What I teach and explore here are the various elements of the burden which the Lord has placed in my hands. More times than I can count, I held back on covering something until I could not avoid venting the fire in my bones. Because it is the truth I have from God, I have to assume He has burdened others with similar concerns. There are no Lone Rangers in the Kingdom, though many have served long stretches without much support. Sooner or later, someone else will find the same coals kindled in their souls, to the degree my work reflects truth which grabs them.

The tough part for me thus far is it seems I am blazing a very lonely trail. God forbid anyone seem to join in the discussion here without a prompting from Him. Still, I would appeal to those moved by my teaching here to at least occasionally ask a question for clarification, or state a paralleling thought. This is no mere intellectual task, though such has its place. Rather, I seek to know whether others find themselves called alongside. By no means would I pretend to have even one disciple to my leadership. I'm just a disciple myself, seeking to follow the Master.

This is not a movement or denomination aborning, but a particular interest within a much wider field of shared faith understanding. I refer specifically to the notion of independent house church worship practice, and the search for a Hebraic (Near Eastern Mystical) understanding of Scripture. If you think you have a grasp of such a thing, let me come alongside as your student.

(As a purely technical aside, I note I desire some day to have an association of such significance as to warrant using my soon-to-be-reborn server box as the means to hosting such a thing. Until then, it's just an over-powered desktop.)

Same Words, Different Reality

Jesus said, "You shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free" (John 8:32) With all the people running around, claiming the name of Jesus, saying very many obviously conflicting things, it's no surprise non-believers are unmoved. Some of the things these people claim for Christ are so obviously false, it's a miracle people still come to Christ. Does not twisting the meanings of words to make them transmit whatever you desire, contrary to the agreed meanings everywhere, make one a liar?

Ahmadenijad is a nasty little fellow held hostage by some exceptionally pernicious ideas, and he has said some very hostile things about the Israeli government. But as an executive figurehead in Iran's Imam-dominated regime, Ahmadenijad has neither the means to exterminate Israel, nor (as noted above) has he actually indicated any plausible desire to do so. In fact, it's not clear that Ahmadenijad has done anything to injure or harass any Jewish person anywhere in the world, including with Iran's small Jewish community.

Yet, we have a self-proclaimed Christian leader asserting in all seriousness:

"This is a serious undertaking that has the full support of many international luminaries, including former UN ambassadors from the United States and Israel -- people like John Bolton, Dore Gold, and Natan Sharansky. These leaders and many others have concluded that it's an open-and-shut case that Ahmadenijad has been inciting genocide against Israel, and that one of the few options we have to avoid a war with Iran is to hold him accountable under international law."

Fact: The popular quote from Ahmadenijad about wiping Israel off the map is not at all what he said. There are plenty of delusional statements from high representatives of Islam, such as the claim Solomon's Temple never existed. We don't need to make up stuff Muslim leaders didn't actually say. It would help a great deal if we bothered to understand the Eastern mindset of modern Islam, but we insist on applying our own Western rationalist reasoning processes to a bunch of Eastern mystics. Such efforts have no intention of getting at the facts. It's the same diseased mental approach which builds a purely Aristotelian Christianity which cannot comprehend the original Hebrew mystical approach of Scripture.

So, we see these "Christian" idiots suffer the same mental roadblocks as the lost they propose to evangelize. Some part of them is utterly dead, dead to the stimulus of truth. Thus, Jesus also said, "Even if someone came back from the dead, they would not listen" (Luke 16:32). If the brush of truth in any form has no effect on a person, all other brushes of truth would be equally ineffective. This is God Himself speaking on the issue, the One who knows all things.

I find I am daily dumbfounded by people who claim to be my brother or sister in Christ, and so utterly repudiating His Word. Whatever it is driving them, it can't be the same spirit driving me. So while it's possible I am the one deluded, it's not possible I am going to support them. Instead, I'll do my best to expose them.

Life of Christ: Luke 16

People of this world, whose whole existence is here below, have a very different perspective on things compared to those who walk in the Spirit. In the previous lesson, Jesus ends His parable by showing the Jewish leaders were all about petty bean-counting. What can such people expect from their dealings in a world where everyone counts beans? Jesus tells the parable of the Unjust Steward to demonstrate.

In ancient times, wealthy men would appoint someone to manage the details of their household while they gave themselves to social and political pursuits. These managers would have something like a power of attorney, and their business decisions were binding on the owner. Since the owner had to present the manager to the court to vest him, it required a similar legal proceeding to divest him. It should surprise no one in a bean-counter world some of these managers would be conniving scoundrels. When the owner suspected fraud, he required the manager to bring all his accounting materials for an audit. This often consisted largely of promissory notes from renters who farmed the owner's property. Each renter would write a promise in his own hand, which the manager would countersign, and it became a legally binding contract.

This particular scoundrel knew he had been caught mismanaging his master's assets. Having a bean counter's mindset, he made a deal with the renters to rewrite the contracts so they would offer him a kickback, probably in the form of skimming off a portion of their reduced rent-in-kind. He would still be in business, but for himself. Because his master was also a bean counter, he noted with some grudging approval the rascal's shrewd dealings. Neither of these men were spiritually minded, so that's just the way things are in their world.

Jesus' audience would have had a good laugh at this story. He noted the people whose whole existence is in this world are much more likely to pull this stunt than spiritual folk. The Sons of Light are stuck in the middle of this bean counter's world, and aren't paying nearly so much attention to shrewd dealing. Their purpose is different, and Kingdom wisdom calls for using the beans of the world, not as an end in itself, but as a mere tool. Wealth can't buy you friends, but you can use it righteously to build relationships with your fellow Kingdom servants. When you get to Heaven, it is they you will meet there, while the world's wealth will perish. Compare that to the shrewd manager, who might gain a reception in the homes of the renters, but they would watch him like a hawk, knowing what sort of man he was.

Faithfulness in the Kingdom is a matter of starting where you are. A spirit which can cheerfully serve faithfully in the small things will find trust for greater things. Faith and trust are more than a two-way street, but a living link to the Lord. He builds trust in us and for us, as we cooperate by holding tightly to that faith and trust. The bean counters can't be faithful even with beans, so what hope have they for eternal things? They worship Mammon, a word originally meaning "trusted things" -- stuff in this world which bean counters treasure and trust. God seeks those who trust Him personally.

It was a common teaching among Pharisees the true mark of God's favor was material wealth. Naturally, they scoffed at Jesus' teaching, rejecting His assertion they didn't serve the Lord. They had a long list of memorized speeches about how this was all according to the Law of Moses. The logic was impeccable, but empty. God knew their hearts, which is what really mattered to Him, a factor of humanity they casually ignored. They had their chance. From Moses until John the Baptist came along, it was their opportunity to find the path to the truth, to absorb the higher meanings of the Law and see it pointing to the spiritual side of things. Not only did they miss it, they got farther and farther away. Their time was past. Now the Son has come, and He is teaching the Way of the Kingdom of God. All the people they had rejected as unworthy were crowding around Jesus, trying to find out how to become a part of this spiritual Kingdom.

The failure of the Jewish leaders was not because of the Law failing. Indeed, they were zealous in nit-picking over punctuation and proper printing of the text of the Law. If anyone should understand the permanence of the Law, it was they. Yet by their relentless pursuit of creature comfort, they had twisted the Law. They treated their wives as mere property. On the most frivolous excuse, they would divorce their wives, not according to the stern restrictions of Moses. He had written she must be found unfaithful. No other provision was made. The Jewish leaders had built themselves a huge pile of exceptions. Jesus nailed it down: Serial monogamy was adultery.

Next, Jesus struck at the very root of Pharisaical falsehood. He told the story as if it were a very real historical case. The one man was fabulously wealthy. By Jewish standards, he was fabulously favored by God. Jesus names the poor man, Lazarus, who also suffered from a repulsive skin condition. In a world where dogs were not pets, but always dangerous and filthy, this man could not keep them from showing the only kindness he received -- the nasty creatures licked his wounds clean. If there could possibly be any picture of man cursed by God, in the Jews' world this was it. The image of luxury is a man so rich he used the flat disks of bread as a napkin, wiping his hands on them and tossing them out. The servants would then feed these torn pieces of bread to beggars, like Lazarus, hanging around in the street outside the outer gate of the rich man's palatial home. The Pharisees would nod approvingly at the proper etiquette of those blessed of God.

So what happened when they died? The accursed poor man, of all things, was escorted to Paradise! He was pictured as dining in luxury as a guest of Abraham, a guest of honor. Abraham was the symbol the Jews clung to: "We are children of Abraham." Worse, the man "favored by God" went to Hell. In his torment, he recognized from afar the nasty beggar he graciously tolerated hanging around his gate. Surely he had earned some small mercy in exchange? The gulf between the spiritual and the worldly was wide in this world, but truly massive and fixed in Eternity. There would be no crossing over, because it was too late.

Well, perhaps Lazarus, blessed as he was, could be sent back to warn the rich man's brothers? No. Abraham noted the Law and Prophets were the starting point, and they had not yet honored that. Would not someone they despised coming back from the dead guarantee they could hear the warning? If they allowed material wealth to blind them to the conditions of their hearts, they had already rejected God's path for them. Their eternal destiny was already fixed.

It would be hard for Jesus to offer a rebuke more blunt than that. For all their shrewdness, the Jewish leaders were utter fools, condemned before God and on the way to Hell. We can be sure, just as the rich man and his brothers, nothing could convince them. When Jesus raised the real Lazarus, a fairly wealthy man, the Jewish leaders simply planned how to kill him again. When Jesus Himself later rose from the dead, they bribed officials to say it was a lie. The truth of all these things was easily discernible when one embraced the Law, not as counting beans, but as the breath of eternity.

Video Project on Hold

Right after I mentioned the idea of making teaching videos, someone gave me an older video camera and a "capture card" -- a sort of reverse video card for computers designed to pull video into the system for processing. It works to record onto the harddrive a video stream from that older video camera.

I tried to put that card into my server box today, but something didn't work. The server simply quit running. I'm pretty sad about this, because I don't think I can afford to replace the motherboard, which is what seems to be the problem. However, the project certainly can't go forward with it.

It's not as if this is the only way I can do it, but the only way I can see. Pray with me for guidance and a solution.

Update: It appears the capture card was the culprit. It may have been flawed and created the problem with my server. At this point, I'm not sure what to do at all. Aside from having a video camera, I'm back to square one on this idea. I can wait for God's time. But I still have an investment in hardware I'm not sure what to do with. All my stuff is God's stuff, so it's His problem.

Birthday: Not What I Had in Mind

For the most part, I don't give much consideration to my own birthday. In my world, once you get past 40, it's just not very meaningful. That is, unless you are determined to fight the aging process tooth and nail.

I'm 52 today. A few days ago, my blood pressure was 124/72 -- I'm not even taking any herbal remedies to bring it down. That's the numbers for me because I'm working out pretty fiercely. As I've already said, it's part of facing tribulation, but it's also a matter of investing the leisure I now have for when it may well disappear.

So in spite of arthritis, I work out typically twice or thrice each day. That includes a collection of calisthenics for one workout, something like walking and running for the other, and at least twice each week I add one other session for what I call "iso-tonics" -- mimicking the action of lifting weights, but using my own muscles for resistance. Sometimes a long bicycle ride can count as a third workout.

Today, I decided to go see my brother, some 20 miles away. On my bicycle. All was going well until about the 13th mile out and I ran over something which shredded my inner tube on the back wheel. I had to call for a rescue. Mostly I was angry over not getting to finish the ride, since I was doing quite well.

My brother picked up my bike and me and took me to his house. We did our usual collaboration, then I went to the nearest Wal-Mart for a new tube. I've promised myself ASAP I'm ordering those solid foam airless bicycle tires. As much as I weigh, how well they "ride" is simply not an issue. I can't afford any more flats. I never get little ones; I always manage to find something which does damage which can't possibly be patched on the side of the road. It's always catastrophic. No more.

So I did manage to ride back, and I'm really spent. That counts as all three workouts for today. The flat really ate up some time, so I missed out on some other events. Such is life.

Isaiah 17

Isaiah continues a roundup of the various neighbors of Judah, how they will fare when Assyria sweeps across that region. It is critical we remind ourselves of the context in which the prophecy comes. At this point, Syria leads a coalition which includes Israel, all or part of Ammon, Moab, and a handful of other petty kingdoms in the region. This is the same alliance which demanded Judah join in facing Assyria. While there are some variations in this chapter among various biblical texts, the critical message is hardly affected.

Damascus was the arrogant capital of the region roughly equivalent to modern Syria. It is reputed to have held to a massive pantheon of pagan deities. We can be certain her grand army included a large number of mercenary forces, fielding a substantial force. However, even with the allies around her, she was no match for Tiglath-pileser's Assyrian expedition. The capital city of Damascus was virtually flattened. When she fell, all her allies were crushed, as well. Moab was already discussed, and Ammon would suffer the same eventual fate of Northern Kingdom, Israel. The region would become suitable for sheep and goat herders, since they would not have to get permission from fussy city rulers claiming the pasture lands.

Particular attention is paid to Syria's junior partner, Samaria (as Jacob or Ephraim). The land would not be completely depopulated, though it would come close to that. Isaiah offers the image of the Rephaim Valley. Famous for it's grain fields, it was for that reason also a favored vector of approach to Jerusalem for the Philistines, a nation of grain thieves. Assyria would reap the harvest of battle in the Northern Kingdom, leaving only a little for gleaning. In the ancient times of harvesting by hand, it was customary to leave some, if only for the sake of diminished returns in going after every single piece of produce. Thus, the poor peasants coming later could expect to find a few stalks of grain at the edges, a few clusters of grapes maturing too late, or a few olives left in upper branches and near the trunk of the tree. Just so, a few people would not be slain or deported under Assyrian imperial policy.

Isaiah depicts the remaining peasants of the Northern Kingdom as relieved to be out from under the idolatry mandated by Samaria, inaugurated by Jeroboam when the Ten Tribes first went their own way. These scattered remnants would turn back to the Temple in Jerusalem, no longer pursuing the Baals, Ashtartes, and various shrines scattered around Palestine. At long last, the land would have rest from spiritual bondage. Even the greatest cities will be populated as mere villages, repeating the theme of the olive tree symbol of Israel the nation, with a thin scattering of olives for gleaning. The cause of all this is persistent refusal to repent from the Sin of Jeroboam -- making faith a matter of politics. All their prosperity and growth would come to little.

Yet, even Assyria does not escape God's wrath. While it is she who will execute His judgment on Syria, Israel, and their allies, she was not so mighty as to resist God's power. He can raise them up; He can knock them back down. This tsunami of troops is but a small wave made by the motion of God's hand. All of them are just shards of grain husks in the wind of His breath. In one evening, such disaster fell on Assyria's troops as to have no words for it. By dawn there would be no mighty army, but a broken remnant, much as Assyria left her victims. This is what God does to those who dare to go too far, refusing to acknowledge His authority to call a halt. Assyria had been warned it was Jehovah who had called them, and it was Jehovah who called a halt outside Jerusalem. When she would not listen, her imperial power was broken.

Just a Tool

At my best, I am no more than a tool of the Kingdom. So it is with any of us.

Friends -- the word carries baggage like few others. We vest it with weight and meanings, often with very little conscious thought. We use the word to name TV shows, along with words of similar meaning (Neighbors, for example). We make a study of the concepts involved.

How strange we are so utterly certain we know what the Bible has to say about it, but allow the concept to hinder Kingdom service at times. Let's enunciate a fundamental principle: All things in this world are tools for the Kingdom of God. While it should be obvious how to apply that to tangible items, and sometimes even discrete concepts (such as organization), we often fail to apply that principle to things less well defined.

When my wife and I left the last church of which we were official members, there was a considerable appeal from several other members that we stay. It took various forms, but a strong element was the appeal of friendship: How could we leave our friends? It was as if our friendship had to die, because the setting in which it grew was going away. By leaving the church, we were somehow violating some ill-defined moral boundary, that we were somehow sinning.

First, we must note: If the friendship born in that fellowship was founded entirely on that fellowship setting, it wasn't much in the first place. Reducing love to a function of performance is a crass denial of Christ. If we have nothing to share outside our mutual association to a human organization, we can call that neither "love" nor "friendship."

Second, our departure from regular attendance was not a rejection of those friends. It most certainly was not a rejection of Christ, but a rejection of the leadership of that particular organization. We knew we had no voice, and we knew staying would only be a tacit approval of something horrifically wrong for us. This was no sniveling, "take my toys and go" type of reaction. It was a rejection of the very means by which supposedly democratic decisions were made.

While it would have been easy for us to make counter accusations that our friends were rejecting Christ for not departing with us, that way lies madness. As often stated, I am not about to lead some exodus from organized religion under my pastoral care. Should people choose me to pastor them, it must be on the basis of a positive conviction this is what God requires of them. I sincerely hope to see that happen, but I'm not going to build on the foundation of reaction to something someone else has done.

Friendship should build on a similar spiritual foundation. Without at least a perceived shared spiritual leading, there is no foundation of shared interest, and no foundation for calling it "friendship." That foundation assumes everyone knows that friendship is a utility, a means to a far greater end -- Kingdom service. I still love the people I've left behind, and would still be friends and friendly to any of them, with the full respect offered to any fellow Christian.

However, the shared activities are gone, it seems. That is, unless some other grounds for shared activity are found. That depends not on us, but on the convenience of the Lord. The very actions which manifest friendship must serve first His purposes, or they must end. While that may well feel like the friendship is dead, we already know we can't trust feelings to inform us of truth.

Having already rejected the false logic by which we imagine a distinction between real and ideal or between doing and being, the underlying assumption is all things are in their essence whatever God says they are. That is, insofar as an idea can have an essence, we need not give it any more attention than what God commands. If maintaining a strong bond of feeling and cooperation serves the Kingdom, we will proceed. If it does not, we let it become a memory. At His command, it can be reawakened, but otherwise can rightly dim with age.

If I confess my place in the Kingdom is that of a mere tool, albeit with some alleged intelligence and human significance, it is not insult to say the same of you, my readers and friends. The highest prize in the Kingdom is our usefulness to God. Make me but a tool in His toolbox, and I'm already more in His eyes than the vast majority of humanity.

Happens All the Time

The sharp tone and words of accusation plant the barrier forcefully. "You are not free to choose that!" Of course, we know what they are saying is you are not free follow God as best you know, but must follow God as they see Him. If not, you are excluded in some way. If that exclusion is not a function of actual membership privilege, it's something more ugly, something which casts doubt on your sanity, intelligence, your sincerity, but usually some flavor of, "You aren't a Christian; you're going to Hell."

There was a time I would literally weep when made the object of such vitriol. Over the years, I've come to expect this of organized Christianity. That is, it's a given in the very fundamental nature of organized religion. The better organized your religious observances and rituals, the more likely someone feels a sense of ownership for the results of all that activity on the internal workings of each member of the group.

So we have leaders who play God. It's not enough Scripture offers numerous examples of something less drastic. The primary example is to say, "I love you brother, but I can't work with that." Part ways and move ahead in the calling and ministry. No one of us today is an Apostle who walked with Christ, and no one of us rode with Paul on the Damascus Road. No one living today has that sort of authority.

Today I dropped out of a mailing list. Not because my pitiful little heart was wounded by harsh words, but because the rest of the group tolerates such heated and ugly denunciations. I have to wonder how anyone can claim to follow Christ and be so vitriolic, particularly over something unrelated to Scripture. Sure, I might be losing out on something, but I can't work with that. I can't support that.

At least a couple of people have encouraged me to organize my ministry in such a way as to draw more notice, to have something people expect when looking for a fresh touch of faith. The problem with that suggestion is, historically, it always ends up with someone setting out rules to exclude people. Invariably, those rules are applied in ways totally contrary to Scripture. I'm not building a kingdom of my own "truth." I'm building a truth of the Kingdom.

No, that's not some cutesy rhetorical dodge. God forbid anyone should ever claim to be a follower of Ed Hurst just because they adopt my teaching. I should hope my feeble explanations are hardly sufficient for any other follower of Christ, but that they must find something I missed, or drop something I included. My teaching is not a path to be labeled and shared, but a few points missed by other paths. All I'm saying is, "Won't you consider these things?" If not, it won't by itself mean we can't fellowship and work together.

It requires a lot to really drive me away. Today, someone on a mailing list managed that mighty feat.

Mac Attack

Well, it seems the eMac screen must have some kind of filter on it, because I don't get the same headaches I did with the big Dell monitor. So I'm using the Mac again, and it's just as well -- my son had a real need to use my laptop. I put Win2K back on it for him.

After all, my stuff is God's stuff. In prayer I felt comfortable letting my son use the old Toshiba. It will help him on his job on the road because he often stays at places which offer wifi, and he needs frequent access to the company website.

At any rate, I'm still praying for a newer laptop better suited to my use pattern.

Life of Christ: Luke 15

The difference between the worldly and materialist outlook versus that of the spiritual is a vast chasm. To those on the worldly side, there is no other side. What they see and perceive under their various philosophical assumptions is all there can be. Every bean counts, because there is no hope beyond this life. For the spiritually minded, there is no hope in this life except escaping to the other side.

The Pharisees were bean counters. For them, life was wrapped up in the concrete reality of what can be observed and measured. So deeply corrupted they had become, they could not envision the spiritual realm. For them, "heaven" was just the sky, and "paradise" would be a conquering Messiah, placing the Jews atop all humanity. All others would become their slaves, and all worldly wealth and resources would be under their control. They were utterly certain this was their divine destiny. While they did speak of Heaven and angels, it never occurred to them such concepts were the center of their religion. It was as if they denied the very existence of the spiritual realm the Lord had told them to seek, and had told them He called them as a nation to reveal.

Since this world was all they understood, the Pharisees operated on a very human standard. Seeing nothing of the spiritual dynamics of things, the whole discussion of sin and righteousness was a list of concrete human behaviors. While they did pay lip service to forgiveness, it came at a high price of compensatory conduct demanded of those seeking to rehabilitate their standing. It's not as if they really condemned folks for being greedy -- the Pharisees were probably even worse about material things -- but gaining wealth contrary to their rules was a sin in their eyes. In today's world, they would be the ultimate prissy middle class shrews, as phoney as they come. Even their mystics were hidebound rule keepers. So it was, those they called "sinners" were doomed, condemned eternally, and unworthy of any help in repenting.

During His ministry tour in Judea, Jesus spent time in fellowship with those the Pharisees labeled as irredeemable reprobates: tax collectors, prostitutes, anyone who compromised with Roman or Greek customs and dress, etc. These people gladly heard the message of Jesus, for it offered a path back to God the Person, not some false idol such as the Pharisees had raised. They hungered for a God who, while condemning their sins, longed to see them return to Him.

The Pharisees made their typical complaints, attempting to scandalize Jesus. As always, Jesus explained the mystical truth in parables.

First, Jesus spoke of a caring shepherd, the image of Israel's kings. Any decent shepherd would keep a count of his flock. Should one go missing, he might expend no little effort to find it. All of them were precious. The ones which behaved well could be left for a time while he hunted the one which had strayed. Since it could hardly find its way back, and might not follow if left free to do so, he carried it. So it is with our God; He is not willing to just let anyone go, to consign them to death. Each life is precious to Him. And when once a sinner has turned and received the Spirit of grace, God Himself rejoices.

Second was the woman with a dowry. We can haggle over the meaning of the Greek word drachma, but Jesus was no doubt speaking in His native Aramaic tongue, so the value of the coin misses the point. Silver coins of some value would make a dowry for the average peasant lass getting married. This was her personal treasure, and losing a portion of it would be embarrassing, not to mention a financial loss. It was worth any effort to search carefully to find it. So it is with our Father, who considers all the world His inheritance. The Son is no different. Particularly among His own nation, no one was beyond redemption. Each was a treasure, and their return was always an occasion for rejoicing.

The so-called Prodigal Son has become the quintessential parable of how God handles straying hearts who repent. While the father could have denied the younger son's request, we see he granted it, knowing how it would turn out. Auditing his entire estate, he gave this younger son one third the value of all property, and allowed him to depart. While trying to talk about how sinful living will destroy your life, that wasn't the point Jesus was making. Plenty of self-righteous Pharisees were quite wealthy, and were spiritually dead. The elder son was a bean counter, and all he thought about was the unfairness of it all in strictly material terms. He hardly missed his brother because there was no place in his life for love, only stuff. Nor did he love his father, but felt he had grounds to condemn something he didn't understand.

For the elder son, and for Pharisees, it was all about their own material comfort. They felt cheated by the idea they could keep the Law -- or at least thought they did -- and still had to repent the same as the rejects. Making this parable "walk on all fours" as a mere allegory based on the wayward son plays into the hands of modern Pharisees. Jesus strung them along with lavish detail of the sinner who left it all behind. The end of the story would have stunned them. This is about two sons dead in their sins, both in their own ways. Both are offered repentance, but only one receives it; only one will enter into Heaven. The point of the parable was the crabby elder son who gave only the pretense of obedience, and bore a heavy burden of self-righteousness, self-pity, and complete failure to understand.

For Luke's educated Roman reader, Theophilus, this points out the tragedy of the Jewish nation. They rejected the real Messiah because they were so sure they knew it was all about very fleshly comforts. Meanwhile, those who realized they had nothing to lose were those who entered the Kingdom of Heaven, far more and far above anything King David had achieved. What really mattered had nothing to do with what man could measure.

Stuff Is Just a Tool

When I was seeking a laptop last fall, it was fairly important to my needs. The Dell Latitude was God's answer. It served it's divine purpose, then, at the leading of my convictions, I passed it to a Christian brother who needed it a lot more than I. His only other computer is rather ancient and cranky. The laptop, as far as I know, serves his calling and ministry needs. It was just a tool for me, and it's a tool for him. It was always God's property in the first place.

The same goes for my big desktop system and the eMac. They may continue to serve some useful purpose, but right now, I am having a problem with them. While the hardware functions nicely as designed, my eyes are giving me trouble with all the hours I spend looking at CRTs. As an experiment, I dragged out the ancient little Toshiba Satellite and used it for a couple of days. The discomfort has been relieved. It won't take much reading to find evidence LCDs are less of a strain.

I'm content to use this little beast as my primary system. But who wouldn't want something better if they could get it? I'm praying to that end.

In the eyes of some, it would seem I can't make up my mind. I "wasted" money on the Dell Latitude, according to someone close to me, then sent it off to somebody I've never met in the flesh. In the eyes of the world, it all looks foolish. So be it. I operate on a different standard. I'm praying for something more powerful than this little system (300Mhz CPU, 186MB RAM, 6GB hard drive). The 1024x768 LCD display is pretty nice. Debian Etch works okay on it. I can get suspend to disk, but so far suspend to RAM doesn't work well.

But this is what I need to use to give proper care to the Temple of the Holy Spirit. Pray with me, and perhaps the Lord will see fit to supply something more substantial. This one is somewhat limiting.

Stuff is just a tool.

Discrimination of God

The world of fallen mankind will not understand this: We are not all equal before God.

In one sense, we have all sinned, all deserve to go to Hell. In His inexplicable mercy and grace, God has seen fit to rescue some of us. Included in that rescue is the very divine presence of God Almighty inside a person, something denied others.

Discerning the Word means, in part, to know how I am to treat differently those who carry about in their persons God's own Spirit, and those who do not. That I am to treat them differently is not up for debate. The difference is not in the person, but in the presence of God.

If I don't know, there is a well-delineated safe ground of common courtesy, a civilized behavior by which I grant every human an on-going opportunity to betray some flash of power from on high, some compulsion to love what's righteous and true, and to do it. It's not a matter of giving the secret sign to be allowed into the organized brotherhood of great minds (that's sarcasm for those who don't recognize it). It's far more subtle than that, and far more open.

It's open in that the Bible clearly explains it. Yet it's closed because those without His enlightening presence can't get it -- hidden in plain sight. If your aren't changed by His grace, it won't mean anything to you.

In this world, many outcomes attach themselves to moral behavior, because that's the way Creation works. If your actions follow the pattern of God's design for human conduct, things will tend to work out. But because of the Fall, there is a random element of disaster which strikes all, utterly without distinction.

On the one hand, even the most benighted fool can stumble into a good life and still go straight to Hell after dying. At the same time, some whose lives seem the epitome of living destruction and misery will know the joys of Heaven. If it made sense, there would be no need of grace; we would all end up in Heaven just because we decided we wanted to pay the price. But no, we cannot pay the price. Not only is it far higher than any of us can muster, it's already been paid.

You and I are compelled to seek by His Spirit the distinction in persons only He can create. If we go by mere civility and prosperity, we will call "holy" those who never knew Him. At the same time we will call "sinner" those whose devotion outshines our own before God. If we do not discriminate, we are no different than those who simply cannot. In so doing we dampen and darken His shining light of revelation.

Shine His light -- discriminate in the Spirit.

Isaiah 16

The contents of chapters 15 and 16 are paralleled in Jeremiah 48. Translations of this particular chapter into English often conflict, because the tone is not immediately discernible. In the middle of preaching to Moab, Isaiah takes a shot at his own people, as well. Notwithstanding their sins, the misfortune of a neighbor and cousin is no cause for mirth.

With the picture of Moab fleeing south across the agricultural lands toward Edom, we must take a moment to remind ourselves Edom had been humbled a generation before Isaiah's time by king Amaziah. By fleeing there, Moab was placing herself under Judah's care. Isaiah advises Moab to reinstate the tribute they once gave to King David, symbolized by the sending of a lamb. Once they arrive in Sela, today known as Petra (the fortress carved into the walls of a desert canyon), they will owe some form of tribute if they wish to stay, and that tribute goes to the King of Judah. Moab would have little choice, since they would be comparable to a fledgling bird freshly kicked from the nest, fleeing across the Arnon River.

The next few verses are a call from God to His own people to give the Moabites refuge: "Let tarry with you My outcasts, Moab." Judah is encouraged to do so, and can afford it, because the Lord would ensure the Assyrians would not destroy Jerusalem. The throne of David would be strengthened by such a display of mercy. Whether Moab will listen is not the point; they cannot hear the truth of God's Word until they are given refuge. The starting point is demonstrating the spirit of mercy Moses commanded of the Jews in dealing with refugees.

Of course, it's altogether likely the Moabites will not listen. Their one claim to fame was arrogance. The royal house is pictured as a pampered and implacable brat. Yesterday's proud fool will be tomorrow's whining victim, and sympathy will be hard to summon for them. Thus, about the only people wailing for the losses of Moab will be the Moabites themselves. As far south as Kir Haresheth, the Assyrians will pull down cities until the foundations are laid bare.

Not just the cities, but the famous vineyards of Heshbon and Sibmah in the northern end of Moab, a region famous for it's wines, would be devastated. Seedlings from those vineyards were sold to many nations, but they would be gone forever from their home ground. The glorious breadbasket and fruit basket of Moab would become a wilderness. Her customers in Judah and elsewhere would miss that produce, and for this alone might express some sorrow.

Isaiah promises this will happen soon. They've been ignoring the warnings for so long, he hardly expects them to listen now. Still, the Lord had set a date. The picture is that of a bonded servant, selling his labor for a three year period. That was a common term of service in those days, particularly when someone was working off a large debt. As the term of service drew to a close, their zeal would flag, and their eyes often rest on the path home. Thus, it's a way of saying, "three years, maybe." Then would come the Assyrian hordes.

Computers: Oh, Messy OS

I got tired of some stuff on SUSE being broken. I had already planned to be running some sort of Debian by this time, but Debian Lenny is not yet "stable." So I tried Ubuntu's last stable release, 8.0.4.1.

Not good. Even though I have built the nVidia driver from scratch, something in the way Ubuntu tweaks the kernel refuses to recognize my hardware can run 1280x1024 at better than 16-bit color. Indeed, I get nothing better than 800x600 no matter what I try. If I use Ubuntu's own version of the nVidia driver, it's no better. If I use the old "nv" driver, it's no better.

Ubuntu is broke.

So I'm downloading Debian Lenny as "testing" and will update as it goes until it becomes the new "stable." I won't get much else done tonight or tomorrow.

At Twenty Paces

Dueling with Bible verses always looked silly to me.

The fundamental teachings of the Bible regarding the Kingdom of God -- AKA "The Spirit Realm" -- aren't found in soundbites taken out of context. People who have read the whole Word as a collection of complete narratives tend to understand most of my teaching. Still, it's not as if we can't find passages which blatantly say what I've been saying.

For example, I teach human reason is utterly useless in dealing with the Bible. That's not to say fallen minds can't get something from it, but the ultimate truth of God's Word is not accessible to them. Human reason arises out of assumptions specifically different from those of the Bible. You can only truly understand the Bible by the presence of the Holy Spirit in your spirit. Paul says so, not in a single verse, but in a fairly long passage, 1 Corinthians 2. Read your favorite translation and compare with my paraphrase:

Brothers, when I came to you, I did not bring compelling rhetoric or logic, but declared to you God's own evidence. For I determined to acknowledge nothing among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified. And I was among you as a man of weakness and fear, trembling much. And my teaching and my preaching were not with persuasive words of human wisdom, but manifesting the Spirit and His power, with the intent your commitment should not stand on mere human understanding, but on the power of God.

Sure, we teach wisdom among those who are spiritually mature, but it is not the wisdom of this world, nor of the authorities of this world -- all of which will pass away. No, we teach the wisdom of God wrapped in mysticism, inaccessible (to mere men), ordained by God before this age as our path to glory. None of the authorities of this world comprehended it, because if they had known, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. No, it is written, "Eye has not seen, nor ear heard," nor has it entered into the heart of man, "the things which God has prepared for those who are committed to Him."

But God has disclosed them to us through His Spirit. Indeed, the Spirit searches all things, especially the mysteries of God. No one really knows what is inside a man except the man's own spirit. Just so, no one really knows the things of God except the Spirit of God. But we have rejected the spirit of the world, and received the Spirit of God, so that we might comprehend what God freely gave us.

This is what we teach, not the human frame of reference, but what the Holy Spirit teaches, building a spiritual frame of reference. Because fallen mankind cannot grasp the things of the Spirit of God, for they are absurd to him. Nor can he make any use of them, because they are spiritually discerned. He who has a spiritual nature sees all things through God's eyes, and pays no attention to mere human judgment. For what fallen man can see inside the mind of Our Creator, that he may correct Him? Yet that is the mind we have in Christ.

Note: I present a paraphrase in keeping with standard Hebrew cultural practice. Teaching the Word of God is not about precise rote recital, but bring it to life in a fresh, dramatic rendition.

Tribulation Report #019: Laundry List

As the subtitle implies, I'm just running down a list of current impending crises.

1. Violent protests and violent police: Never mind who started it. As one escalates, so will the other. While most protesters tend to be selective in targeting, the police are quite random about it these days. Regardless what you think of it, the logic from the protesters point of view justifies increasing violence. The dangerous groups of the late `60s and early `70s were tame compared to what's coming soon. Expect military tactics against police in the future, with great loss of life.

2. Drug stings out of control: Since it happened to a city mayor, it can't be swept under the rug. The cops left a drug package on his porch, of which he knew nothing. Once it was taken inside, the most incredibly violent attack from SWAT was "justified." It's to the point you can mind your own business, completely obey the law, and still die from a police assault on your home.

3. Mindless war provocation: Just because it's utterly insane to provoke Russia by encouraging Georgia to attack Russian civilians doesn't prevent our government doing it. Considering the list of stupid provocations our government has done, it's amazing the Russians are so restrained. Worse, it's all too likely they'd win in a war.

4. The Treasury printing presses: They haven't even slowed a bit. The dollars are flowing like the Amazon River, with a volume so great, it's affects are noticeable many miles out to sea. Stop and think: Every single dollar is a debt bond, and we owe interest on each one. It is logically impossible to repay the debt. At some point, something has to give, and our current apparent stability is one of the most hideous lies of Satan.

5. Natural disasters: Never count God out of the equation. Since we are such awful and great sinners as a country, we can expect it to get worse. We have a long running and deepening drought in the Western States. We got hurricanes and himicanes like we've never seen, spawning vast numbers of refugees. The coming winter promises to be like a small ice age. Earthquakes will increase, as geologists and geophysicists warn of increasing tension in faults all over the country. Previously dependable natural forces are failing because we keep fooling with Mother Nature, as it were -- pollinating bees, anyone?

6. Oppressive ruling regimes: Your votes are being forged by a massive wave of voting machines which were never meant to improve voting procedures, but to control outcomes. At the RNC, delegates for Ron Paul had their votes stolen to support McCain. Not a single major news outlet is reporting that. Nothing about the process is sacred, and those in control will commit any sin/crime to maintain control. Secrecy has replaced openness at every turn. Meanwhile, privacy is just a word that means nothing.

7. Iran: Israel has decided Iran cannot have nuclear power, and won't shut up about weapons. Never mind the two are billions of dollars apart in terms of the equipment necessary, Iran can't even build a simple nuclear plant because Israel doesn't like it. Never mind Israel has hundreds of nuclear missiles they won't let any independent agency inspect. They'll be bombing Iran soon, dragging us into it, and it's just another way to go to war with Russia, their protecting ally.

8. No hope: Aside from rare individual anecdotes, there is nothing good or hopeful coming out of Washington. Anything sounding good is a lie, or perhaps it simply sounds good to you and you don't know the difference. Either way, we are in deep trouble.

Nobody can predict when the tipping point arrives on any of this, or all of it. All I can say is, don't get too comfortable.

Life of Christ: Luke 14

So many are the places where the Bible says God opposes the proud and befriends the humble, you would think it instinctive among those who claimed to teach His Word. Yet we find the Jewish leadership so childishly zealous for public approval, wearing a chip on their shoulders, as it were, they become the personification of the word arrogance. The Pharisees and scribes had developed a complex system for delineating who had which rank in various social contexts. It is said they even competed in declaring false humility when faced with a ritual requiring formulaic self-denial. To actually deny themselves in faith was simply a foreign concept. Jesus confronts various manifestations of arrogance in this chapter.

In Jesus' day, Jews would typically go out on Friday and buy the finest food available for the Sabbath. It was common for synagogue leaders to prepare a large communal meal, especially for some of the many itinerant preachers and rabbis. It was ostensibly a time of close spiritual communion. Since the most ancient times, sharing food is a declaration of peace, and implies a covenant of mutual protection. In this case, the full hypocrisy of the Pharisees was at work, for Jesus had been invited as an opportunity to observe Him closely and privately, seeking an excuse to publicly condemn Him.

One of the other guests suffered what today we would call "edema" -- a very uncomfortable swelling, often in the lower limbs. Seeing the man in such misery, Jesus asked if there was any law against healing him on the Sabbath. The only objection they could possibly have is calling healing a form of labor which was not permitted on the Sabbath. Jesus had already pointed out the arrogance of forcing people to forsake an opportune healing for the sake of such silly interpretations. Nothing in Moses said it was wrong, and the implication of the Sabbath laws was to avoid doing things to profit yourself, and sacrifice the day to God. How could an act of faith, in producing the miracle of healing for a genuine human need, be against the Law? Could they sacrifice their arrogance for the need of a brother?

The men at the dinner had no answer, so Jesus healed the man. Jesus compared it to the lower case of pulling a valued domestic animal from a pit to save its life. He saved a portion of the man's life, a fellow Jew surely more important than thousands of herd animals. It takes a special arrogance to place a fellow human's life and health below your personal profit, when the Sabbath was all about sacrificing your personal profit.

Jesus pushed a little deeper. Noting their typical jockeying for honors in claiming various seats at the several tables one might find in the home of a wealthy Jew, He shows how completely out of step the whole thing was from the ways of God. Even a man of mere worldly wisdom would not pretend he was too good to sit with the nobodies, because the host would then feel compelled to publicly place the man in a more honorable seat. Arrogantly demanding a place among the guests of honor risked humiliation if they hadn't seen the guest list. It was a parable, of course, for how one dealt with God. If you deny yourself as having any importance among men, you find honor with God, who looks for a sacrifice of the heart.

One can be sacrificial in hosting meals, too. If your whole purpose is to exchange social honors, you have no real honor, since there is no sacrifice at all. Instead, host a lavish meal for those who cannot possibly repay you -- the nobodies, the disabled and neglected in ancient societies. Eating with the poor is eating with God. If you aren't too good to be seen with them, you make a sacrifice only God can repay. Rest assured, He does. Jesus uses the standard formulaic phrase for finding oneself standing before God in the company of the righteous, His friends and allies.

Immediately, someone tries to ingratiate himself to Jesus with a pious recitation of the standard rabbinical blessing based on False Messianic Expectations. Jesus does not rebuke the man, nor reject this association of His teaching with what they all claimed to hope for, but refines that association. He tells a parable of God as a ruler, the ultimate Host who puts on the final wedding feast at the End of Time. As with all Eastern potentates, He sends out messengers as honor guards to escort His vassals to the celebration. They bail out for the most frivolous reasons, a scandalous insult to their ruler. A great man will not call off such a sacrificial offering, but will find other guests. Since His chief allies and supporters will not come, He will find others to take their seats, and by implication, their positions of trust in the administration of the domain.

To those listening to this parable, it would have been obvious Jesus portrays Himself as the messenger of God, and the Jewish leaders as those who reject His invitation. Instead, those with whom they self-righteously refuse to associate will become the new councilors in God's Eternal Court of Heaven: the poor, the crippled and unproductive members of society, the Gentiles, and just about anybody who can be persuaded to accept the terms offered by God to enter the Eternal Covenant of Peace with Him. The Jews would lose their vaunted place, and would have to come begging as everyone else. Such horrific arrogance made one unfit for the honor God had bestowed on His people. He would remove the Nation of Israel, and create a new, Spiritual Israel.

Luke connects this to other incidents where Jesus taught on the necessity of complete self-sacrifice. At one point, a huge crowd was following Him. He turns to discuss this symbolic act of following. Using an ancient Hebrew figure of speech, He refers to hating all the things we think we have in this world, including our very lives. Very pointedly, He mentions nailing it to the cross, a very nasty form of Roman execution. In their own Hebrew culture, attaching or impaling someone on a piece of wood was the ultimate humiliation, an utterly ignoble death.

To follow Jesus spiritually calls for volunteering to crucify everything you consider important in this world, in exchange for a place in the next world. It takes arrogance to start something for which you are unprepared to pay the full price. If takes godly humility to realize you are no better than anyone else, and need to negotiate your way through life. In the end, those who do not surrender wholly to God cannot be at peace with Him, cannot claim any part in His Son.

Using an oft-repeated epigram, Jesus notes the salt in those days was not exactly pure, and quickly became useless when exposed to the elements, in some cases slightly toxic. When properly used, it preserved food, made it palatable. Simply sharing your salt with another was the same as sharing food. Degraded salt was worth less than dirt. Jesus warned our presence in this world was either a savory taste on God's palate, or utterly objectionable. Only those who give themselves away completely, without reservation, to God's grace calling to faith, could hope to be noticed by God as a friend and ally.

Swallowing Lies

Regardless how you feel, there are facts which prove our political system is one big lie, built up from massive numbers of little lies.

I hope I've made it clear I could not care any less about how things turn out in the elections. I have not dog in this fight, no horse in this race. Not one person can honestly claim to represent my political persuasion; not one person can claim to represent my views in Washington, DC or anywhere else. The only choices being discussed are the collection of those things I hate worst about government. Hopefully people realize I hate those things because they are sin, as defined by Scripture. My only interest is purely prophetic and academic.

Let's start locally. When the Oklahoma state delegation went to the GOP convention, their votes were misreported. No, not a simple error which can be correct, it was a blatant lie. The leadership of the party simply decided for Oklahoma what that count would be and that's what was reported.

Next, let's discuss the candidates. Obama is an empty suit. He'll say anything anyone will pay him enough to say. His campaign promises reflect pure jello rhetoric -- no substance, no ideas, no proposals, no philosophical basis, nothing but a sweet vague flavor. No one has any idea what will happen if he becomes president, least of all Obama himself. At least Biden is honest about his being for sale. When the dollar figures aren't big enough, he just shoots from the hip on any subject. If what he says today conflicts logically with something he up-chucked the day before, so much the better.

McCain admitted he finally betrayed his country under torture in Vietnam. Fact: Anyone who's been tortured can tell you every human on this earth has a breaking point, and it's just a matter of time and pressure. That's not his greatest flaw. He was a born traitor to genuine American interests just like his father, Admiral McCain, who commanded the cover-up of the USS Liberty attack. His whole life of service was devoted to protecting the butts of his higher ups and any major government figures. He's a true believer in "citizens be damned, the government is always right." His running mate, Sarah Palin, is 99% fake. The Christian Right voting block is swallowing the bait -- hook, line and sinker, too.

Just a tiny sample, folks. If you find any of this political baloney the least bit stirring and inspiring, I really feel sorry for you. May God someday help us to see just what silly fools we Americans are.

Isaiah 15

Moab was the nation which grew from Lot's elder daughter. The strange story of how his daughters seduced him in the cave near Zoar was included merely to explain the complicated relationship between Moab and Israel. While Moad had by the Exodus sunk into the most degrading pagan idolatry, they were still cousins to the nation. Thus, at times they were bitter enemies, and at other times good allies.

As Isaiah prophesies of their coming doom, his tone is somewhat sympathetic. There is some debate in translating portions of this chapter, but we can make intelligent guesses. For example, Isaiah refers to "the waters of Dimon". While some manuscripts make this out to be "Rimon" -- a place not know to us -- this appears somewhat a pun on the name of the town Dibon, modified with the Hebrew word for blood (dam). There are examples in other parts of the Old Testament where such puns might be entirely humorless.

We are given a picture of wistfulness. We don't know exactly when the fulfillment takes place, but Isaiah sees the major cities and towns of Moab destroyed. It would appear to have happened more than once, but the first time would be soon, probably under the Assyrians. The destruction is clearly vindictive, not simply an act of war. Thus, the Moabites are described as going to their temples and high places to perform various rituals of sorrow. One includes a sacrificial act of shaving the entire head. They also wear sackcloth and ashes, weeping outside their homes. The cacophony from the twin cities of Heshbon and Elealeh can be heard some 7 or 8 miles (11-13km) away in Jahaz. The sense of depression echoes what we read in Job.

The primary route for refugees seems to be south into Edom. Most of the cities of Moab are congregated in the north of their ancestral lands. The landmarks mentioned by Isaiah, when they can be identified, are all toward the south. Zoar appears to be in the foothills of the eastern slope on the Dead Sea, down at the southern end. While we aren't sure about the Ascent of Luhith, it is probably another name for the road running down the wadi which empties near Horonaim. That city is on the peninsula jutting into the Dead Sea from the east side. That region should have been seasonal grassy plains, but during this disaster, it was barren. Worst of all, those who escape would face the lions which once roamed that area.

The next chapter continues this lament.

Short Item: Intelligent Evil

It's not hard to find real-world, factual data on risks and threats.

First, on a spiritual level, human governments are required by God to make some attempt to promote the general welfare of citizens and visitors. People are more important than governments, never mind silly propaganda about people being the government. That has never been true, nor should it be. No, governments are people, but will always be something other than the people they govern. As such, they bear a special requirement from God to be protective, since they alone have the power to do so.

Second, on a human level, governments are obliged to do what makes sense in pursuit of that command from God. They are obliged to use facts, logic, and do what is reasonable. They are required to recognize they can't do it all, can't win 100%, and to ignore irrational human fears -- except to explain how they are irrational. They are utterly wrong and wrong-headed when they oppress by playing off human fears.

In 2006, UK police arrested the liquid bombers not through diligent airport security, but through intelligence and investigation. It didn't matter what the bombers' target was. It didn't matter what their tactic was. They would have been arrested regardless. That's smart security. Now we confiscate liquids at airports, just in case another group happens to attack the exact same target in exactly the same way. That's just illogical.

Folks, let's get real: While governments are loaded with truly incompetent fools, quite a few "public servants" remain quite intelligent. There is no sense assuming the US Homeland Security Secretary and others in that department don't know the difference between real and imaginary threats. What they are doing with TSA controls is not incompetent foolishness on their part; they know it's baloney. They know it doesn't accomplish any good purpose. They know they aren't protecting us from anything that matters. They know they are deceiving the public, and are sucking up billions of dollars for nothing but theater. The money goes to their friends in the form of contracts for things which do not serve any public interest.

Chertoff and friends are truly evil.

God Is Laughing, But Not Amused

Human progress is inevitably sin.

I saw it again today -- someone posting somewhere a long-winded rant about how the Old Testament just does not measure up to our modern standards of civilized human behavior. I'm always amazed when people approach Scripture with a closed mind, a mind deeply infected with materialistic analytical prejudices, and then somehow can't find the unifying theme which breathes from beginning to end.

They claim to find all manner of immorality in the Old Testament stories. Well, of course you will. Not every story is told with an approving tone. The author assumes his audience can tell the difference. Besides, a great many actions aren't precisely good or evil, but mostly a mixture of both. Even from the very beginning, obeying God was not a matter of precise rules, but of commitment to His revelation. In typical Ancient Near Eastern fashion, such precision is considered goofy, so much so it's not even answered.

It's a horrendous deep mistake to judge the record of God's revelation without first understanding it within the context it was written.

The Sin of Headgames

The man who plays headgames all the time is a big joke.

God says communication has one purpose: To express the facts at least, if not the truth. If, in the process of transmitting information, you tend to break into artistic and dramatic presentation, that's one thing. If the best you can do is use information and misinformation to maintain some petty dominance, you are a jerk. That's not manhood; that's sheer meanness and it's sin. This is the number one mistake I see in marriages around me.

Women do it, too, but it's more of a standard response to certain perceived threats. It's no less of a sin, but it's more understandable. Women and men are not interchangeable. When women play headgames, it's the responsibility of the man to find out why and try to resolve her fears, if possible. Headgames are not a part of the masculine personality. The only time I see it in men is when they are being childish.

Whatever it is you think you are doing with headgames, men, it ain't working. It's only causing misery for which there is no excuse. Stop it. Grow up. If you can't be secure in your position as head of the household, you need to start from scratch and rebuild.

Just Plain Evil

You can't call it anything less than evil: Policemen flouting the law for political purposes.

Think about that for a second. We aren't talking about simple over-zealous enforcement of the law, but outright breaking the law. The only different between our police and the police in China is we have a facade called "the US Constitution" which proclaims police can't do that stuff.

I'm not politically active, except in the sense I proclaim the entire system utterly broken. It's broken within its own definitions, but even more badly broken according the Scripture. Because of both standards I firmly believe acts of protest are generally right, ought to be tolerated, and should receive the benefit of the doubt first. It's purely a matter of worldly wisdom according to the standards of the Covenant of Noah. A heavy hand is, by definition, a sin.

So we have open defiance of the law by police in Minnesota, just as we have in Denver. Worst of all, you and I both know the bulk of our citizens support this, at least tacitly:

Beyond that, there is a widespread sense that the targets of these raids deserve what they get, even if nothing they've done is remotely illegal. We love to proclaim how much we cherish our "freedoms" in the abstract, but we despise those who actually exercise them. The Constitution, right in the very First Amendment, protects free speech and free assembly precisely because those liberties are central to a healthy republic -- but we've decided that anyone who would actually express truly dissident views or do anything other than sit meekly and quietly in their homes are dirty trouble-makers up to no good, and it's therefore probably for the best if our Government keeps them in check, spies on them, even gets a little rough with them.

After all, if you don't want the FBI spying on you, or the Police surrounding and then invading your home with rifles and seizing your computers, there's a very simple solution: don't protest the Government. Just sit quietly in your house and mind your own business. That way, the Government will have no reason to monitor what you say and feel the need to intimidate you by invading your home. Anyone who decides to protest -- especially with something as unruly and disrespectful as an unauthorized street march -- gets what they deserve.

Let's factor in one other truth from Scripture: At any given time, the majority of any population is below the standards of righteousness. The fundamental principle of the Kingdom is a minority will ever make it into God's grace, for whatever reasons. The term "broad is the path which leads to destruction" in the Hebrew mystical culture refers to a path trodden down by the masses. It's an easy path because so many people use it. The path to truth is narrow and steep because so few care to try it. In other words, if anybody is righteous and closer to truth, even mere worldly truth, it is the cranks and freethinkers, not the busybodies and conformists.

Addenda: I'll note there were some violent protests, too. They are wrong for being violent, not for being protests. Human laws cannot prevent crime, only react when crimes are done. I'll note in at least one case, the assaults came when security failed to protect folks between the bus and door of the building. Too much emphasis on interdiction; not nearly enough work on securing the physical perimeter. When you stretch your perimeter so far protestors can't get within a mile of the place, you don't actually have a perimeter. It will be breeched every time.