Biblical Rebellion: Implications 3

Education: By no means should anyone in Christ render their children unto Caesar for a single hour. It is irresponsible to trust servants of the State for something so critical. Having worked within the public education system, and studied it from the outside, I can assert with full confidence it is specifically designed to squelch intellectual development, as well as any streak of independence and self-reliance, and certainly to prevent a mind ready to receive spiritual enlightenment. These things are anathema to the State, and the education professionals are hostile, as well. However, for the most part they are deceived about such things. The system carries a heavy bias against true intellectual development.

While vastly superior to public school philosophy, neither is the classical education route the best way to go. This is nothing more than a rehash of The Enlightenment Period of the 18th Century. From this period arose the standard definitions of analytical reasoning and the Scientific Method. What so many would like to forget is this was an outright rejection of God and revelation. No amount of trying to blend the two -- which is no more than reviving Thomism and Aristotelian assumptions -- can wipe away the fundamental rejection of revelation. Truth mixed with falsehood is often the greatest deception. The fundamental assumption of rational thought assumes there is nothing man's mind cannot grasp, and rejects the biblical doctrine of the Fall. Reason can only describe what can be sensed in this world, but is completely inadequate for spiritual tasks. Therefore, classical education must be applied with a distinct understanding of its limits.

Instead, we must recognize the necessity of intellectual development itself, which is the essential foundation lying under education. Our culture, such as it is, militates against such a thing. We take too seriously our adult recreational and money-making prerogatives and scarcely engage our own development, much less that of our children. How can we fulfill the command to raise up children of the Kingdom when we can't be bothered to sacrifice the time that requires? We've been without it so long, our very assumptions about life make it a foreign concept. We have pronounced no biblical standard of stirring the mind and heart both with a view to wrestling with the revelation of God fully.

There is no room here to outline what could fill several books, but the sole purpose of intellectual development and education is service to the Kingdom. The process by which we arrive at decisions which reflect our allegiance to Christ is what we should seek to enhance. This calls for a healthy dose of skepticism and even cynicism regarding what we are told by anyone who isn't God. Not only are we entirely too trusting of earthly authorities, but we lack the means to wisely analyze and discern what they say. A critical element of biblical wisdom is understanding human nature along with nature itself, so we can estimate the results of any path taken. This requires a strong background in classical knowledge, but also requires an strong element of spiritual sensitivity, so we accurately see what is the ultimate end of anything, and its importance in Kingdom service.

Every person in the Kingdom has his own unique abilities and talents, particularly in terms of intellect. It is not possible to shape a course of education by herding groups together until long after the strong foundation for each has been laid. Educational methods for efficiency are nothing more than passively winnowing out those who don't fit some arbitrary pattern, because people will not and cannot be made to learn something which holds no appeal to them. Learning basic facts is carefully made unappealing, and so-called measures of learning are structured to produce a deceptive result, statistics which mean nothing. It requires maturity to make that voluntary sacrifice to gain insight into broader academic necessities of human intellectual development. Maturity cannot be built without a foundation which sets the mind free to explore. This means finding and understanding individual limitations, then working to bypass them, all of which requires truly understanding how the brain and body work together with the spirit to create each unique manifestation of God's image. As noted already, it is this righteous development of the individual which serves as the first defeat of the godless State.

Life of Christ: John 1:1-18

Prologue: John opens his Gospel with a powerfully moving effort to explain the nature of Jesus in a Greek tongue ill-suited to the task. He takes advantage of established common figures of speech and loads them with new meanings. The result is an unconventional but fascinating work of art, rather like using subtle shades of clay to paint a monotone picture with high relief, or using thick gobs of paint for sculpture. If you cannot read it with spiritual insight, it may make some sort of sense, but you'll be forever lost in the wordy details and miss the whole point. Over-analyzing the simple but elegant Greek grammar serves little purpose.

John's first paragraph is both an honest statement, yet gently mocks the high intellectual phrasing of great works of philosophy. He puts forth a fundamental principle of understanding -- The Word -- using a term typically referring to reason and study (logos). Yet this is no mere principle, but a Person. This Word is both beside God and is God at the same time. He was always there, was the Agent of Creation, and the very essence of Life. Further, He is the essence of what it means to be enlightened, because He is Enlightenment itself. Nothing has the power to dim His light. In other words, we do not somehow reason our way to Him; He reveals Himself. To someone versed in the assumptions of Greek philosophy, this is preposterous, gobbledygook.

To place the Word in real time and space, John describes the other John, the Baptist, also a cousin of Jesus. His life had one purpose: to establish himself as a credible witness of the living Revelation. Unlike some Eastern religions, there was no claim this prophet was somehow merged mystically into the godhead, nor some incredibly wise man with special enlightenment like a Greek philosopher. He was simply a servant of the Light. Further, everyone in this world is in darkness, and the only light there may be in any human mind comes from this Revelation, the source of all intelligence.

He was a human life in this very world He created. Yet, all the world seemed unable to grasp who He was. Indeed, He came to His own special nation of people, and they rejected Him. At the same time, anyone who somehow comes to receive His revelation can join Him as family relations of God. These who receive Him can approach God as His own dear children, but only by coming through the Living Revelation of God, and embracing His teaching. These become Children of God, not in the sense of blood kinship, and not based on some human decision, but by God's choice.

So John asserts this Divine Principle became a real human, walking around on the earth like other humans. Yet anyone with eyes to see could discern His glorious origin was God, because He was so completely full of grace and truth from birth. This is the paradox of God made human, and John the Baptist spoke of that paradox. He announced this Word was born and called to minister later in time than John, but was his senior, not by right of birth, but by right of pre-existence. So mighty and obvious was His grace, His divine power and favor, it just overwhelmed those who knew Him. Moses was certainly the one who brought the highest human knowledge of God via the Law, but the heart and spiritual knowledge of God came through this Revelation, Jesus Christ.

It is not possible for any human eyes to see God. What Moses taught was surely the clearest explanation of what God requires of men in their flesh. But that does not reveal God Himself. To really know God as a Person requires you know His only Son. He is now residing in God's very presence, yet what we know of Him is the fullest revelation of God.

John manages to insult both the meaningless mysticism of Eastern religions and the rational assumptions of Western philosophers. Both were quite popular in John's day. Instead, John insists the real truth is altogether grounded in the reality of concrete events in history, yet rooted in the Heavens, completely out of reach of human reason. This sets the tone for the rest of this Gospel.

Life of Christ: Introduction to John

The Early Church scholars unanimously name Jesus' cousin, John son of Zebedee, as the author of this Gospel, probably published around 90 AD. It was surely composed in Greek by someone with a good school boy's grasp of grammar, but not born to the language. Yet this mind is very well read, educated in a different sense than is commonly assumed. This all makes good sense when we see it as John, the youngest of the Twelve, member of a prosperous Galilean fishing family which also owned a house in Jerusalem.

John and Jesus were related through their mothers, who were sisters. We find John more perceptive than the other disciples on the one level which mattered most: the spiritual. John's Gospel is loaded with comments on what Jesus was thinking at one time or another, and he was clearly the closest friend to the Lord, the favorite. No surprise the narrative contains no mention of John, aside from the self-effacing "disciple whom Jesus loved."

That's because the point of this Gospel is to ensure everyone is forced to confront Jesus' claim to divinity. While there may be an attempt to answer Gnostic heresies, against which we know John struggled much in his ministry, that would be secondary. Rather, John fills in something missing from the other Gospels; they had been around for some time. Indeed, he assumes his readers have been exposed to the narrative outline of Jesus' life, and seeks to explain more thoroughly why He can be understood only if we assume He is God incarnate. At the same time, we must understand what sort of man that would be.

The narrative is thematic, with brief episodes pulled together out of chronological order to make the point. In a true biblical sense, we need not have a precise chronology of Jesus' life. Far more important it is we understand just who He was and what He accomplished. John seems to thumb his nose at pedantic obsessions with mere events. It makes an odd combination to use such a basic level of Greek to explain something far above the most esoteric ruminations of high Greek philosophers. It makes no difference what you know, can do, or what power you have in this world; if you don't know Jesus, you are just a fool.

John is aware his primary audience would be a Greek-speaking world with little familiarity of Hebrew culture and history aside from Scripture itself. Yet John was intensely Hebraic in his world-view, and sought to bring his readers the essential elements of that outlook. Many have said Paul was the ultimate bridge between a minor Jewish sect and a faith which conquered the world. Academically, Paul is head and shoulders above all others. Yet John was no less intelligent as the other edge of the conquering sword of the Spirit. Outliving all the other disciples by some decades, John maintained the witness of the other-worldly focus. His was an intensely spiritual authority, a spiritual man in a very materialistic world. There are no parables, but much of Jesus' teaching about Himself. John thus manages to use the parabolic method of teaching by overloading Greek language with an impossible task, making it obvious his readers must see beyond the words with eyes of the Spirit.

If You Must...

If you must use Windows, protect it with VIPRE. I've tried all the free products, and most of them stink. Some less than others, but all stink. When Alex posted on his blog about a sale, I decided I couldn't resist. I got a license for my wife and my mother. On each machine, it immediately picked up spyware ignored by AVG Free 8, which includes spyware protection.

It appears to be running more lightly on both machines. Now, I still hate Windows for being so wide open and vulnerable to this stuff. Linux and BSD don't suffer these kinds of vulnerabilities. However, some people just aren't ready to go through the hassle of learning something new. Fine. The least you can do is run good protection.

Don't even talk to me about McAfee or Norton. My biggest waste of time helping folks with computer trouble comes from those two products. Once removed, everything suddenly works, but the system is unprotected. It's because of the hideous stupidity of big corporations which buy up high tech companies, then promptly ruin the main product. You can't pay me to take either of them.

Thanks Alex. Great product. (No, I'm not getting a dime from this endorsement.)

Thanks for Truth

I am so very grateful the truth of God is available. So saying has no meaning if we do not see truth as a Person -- He is available. Too bad so many have shut Him out of places in their lives.

Over the past couple of days, some very big lies have been shoved in my face yet again.

1. American Exceptionalism: This founders on the rocks of Covenant Theology. The only basis on which God deals with nations is under the Covenant of Noah. The Covenant in Christ's Blood can only apply to individuals on a spiritual level, and the two do not overlap. America has no special divine dispensations by which our fallen human government can dodge the basic demands He makes of all nations. If we bomb other nations which have not attacked us, we are evil. America has sinned horribly, and the Christians living here will not much change the wrath which she has earned.


2. The Nation of Israel: There is now no Israel on earth in the biblical sense. All His dealings with Israel ended at the Cross; the veil was rent, and sacrificial system is dead and closed, and the Law was fulfilled in the fullest sense of the word. Further, what we have today as the Nation of Israel is not even the same people. They do not obey the Law and cannot even claim the promises reflected there, because they are not "Jews" in any sense of the word, having created a modern definition for that word devoid of any real meaning. This Israel cannot make any particular claim for exceptions, either. Israel's crushing of Gaza is a sin.


3. Patriotism: Patriotism is not holiness. There is only one nation which God calls "His People" and that is the Kingdom of Heaven. While that is on the earth, it is not rooted in any earthly location. It is a spiritual kingdom and this is a fallen world. In the course of our service to Christ Our King, we will inevitably do some things beneficial to the political system under which we live. However, it is utterly impossible for any human political entity to speak for God, nor can it claim to operate in His interest, since all His interests are spiritual ("other-worldly") and no government can hope to comprehend such a thing.

There is a heavy sense of weariness in facing such obvious lies. That most of the American churches buy into this crap does not make it any less crap.

Short Item: Buy Nothing Christmas

Not a bad idea. Canadian Mennonites are pretty good about knocking materialism.

Biblical Rebellion: Implications 2

Communion: More than just a name for the ritual of sharing bread and wine as symbols of Christ's sacrifice, communion means time together. While that should be obvious, this is becoming a lost treasure. Government thrives where we are isolated, and materialism depends on keeping us away from each other. I've been members of churches where the whole congregation was merely a collection of acquaintances, and precious few were actually friends. Nothing replaces setting aside time to chat with your brothers and sisters under a variety of settings.

This is not simply a matter of cultural window dressing. Perhaps you are aware men in the Middle East can hold hands in public without the embarrassment which attaches to that in our Western world. You probably don't know from ancient times, men would sit together for hours without speaking, even though close enough to smell each other. The point was not so much to fill the air with conversation, but to absorb each other. We have lost the instinct for watching without evaluating. We superficially measure what we experience with companions and rank them by how comfortable we are with them. We then meter our time with them accordingly. The spiritual approach is to begin with noting what part they play in our Kingdom service first, then getting to know them well enough to decide how we must handle them. It is our divine duty to spend time with our faith community.

By now we've established this is the primary means of rebellion. The very essence of our resistance is rejecting the shallow culture which empowers human government to become evil. A critical asset in responding to emergencies, particularly those precipitated by persecution, is the powerful communication link with others who share your commitments. While it's certainly not trite to observe they'll pray for you, it's more to the point they are better able to help you think clearly and act more quickly based on what has been shared. None of us are designed to discern the Spirit completely alone. Regardless of the results of any consultations and confrontations, the mere existence of a powerful link with others is an act of defiance.

On a simple human level, the power of a government to harm rests on the projection of force. Not just raw numbers, but the credible threat of great harm at the point of resistance is what keeps rebellion in check. We've already discussed having less to lose and making ourselves a harder target, but a strong communion changes the balance of power itself. Confrontation is not necessary to take advantage of superior numbers. All that's required is a lack of fear, and strong support goes a long way to squelching fear.

Biblical Rebellion: Implications 1

High Mobility: We have already touched on the Kingdom's casual attitude regarding ownership of material objects. That includes a similar attitude about earthly territory. Human instinct for territoriality is something we downplay in the Kingdom, even as we realize it is a necessity under the Covenant of Noah. God demands of the fallen world all entities honor justly gained territory, and defense of it. In the Kingdom, we sacrifice such concerns to God for the sake of our mission, as with all worldly concerns.

In our defense of the household itself as persons under divine authority, and the priesthood of the father figure, we willingly exchange all other creature comforts and rights to maintain that symbolic spiritual territory. We conduct that defense in a very real sense, and the first line of defense is distance. What is hard to reach is hard to harm. If it moves easily, it's very hard to reach. Even more so when we consider the threat from aimless bad fortune. A willingness and preparation to bug out is the path of least danger.

There was a time when relative isolation was easy to achieve, and certainly a blessing in every way. Not in the sense of a single household out in the wilderness, but a faith community apart from the inner city or suburbs was pretty much the ideal balance between witness and safe child-rearing. The Waco Massacre shows the willingness and capacity of government to go that extra mile these days, all for precious little offense to the bureaucrats. The next best thing to distance is a mental readiness and material preparation for varying levels of haste in moving the household away from any unhealthy attention.

In the Bible narrative, we find a broad preference for the nomadic shepherd lifestyle. While the symbol is more important than the reality, there is something to be said for reducing your liabilities to the minimum. A primary fault in Western Civilization is the unquestioned assumption more stuff is better, that to spread out and take root is Heaven on Earth. In a very real sense, bringing Heaven to Earth is what got Jesus nailed to the Cross, and He had no place to call "home." Schooling our families in the biblical culture means never feeling at home anywhere below Heaven, yet always feeling at home where the Spirit gathers His people. Catastrophe in the Bible was simply a means of moving God's people when they had other plans. Not as a rebuke, this was simply one of the many ways God might act to direct the mission according to His timing. America in particular, and the West in general, are fast becoming a single, major catastrophe. There's no place to go outside a global disaster; we have to be ready to move around inside it.

Biblical Rebellion: Complications of Independence

We understand there is one place in the faith community where physical force can be justified in some measure: children. That is, while they remain children, we as parents and parent supporters must be ready to exert our greater physical strength to change dangerous behavior. Children have a limited capacity for just about everything, and that includes sacrifice of self. Until they do, everything in their world is filtered through the desires of the self. We tolerate some measure of this until it becomes a threat to others. At that point, we find it necessary to force their compliance with good social order.

The role of parent, including in loco parentis, requires we maintain some awareness of human development. Infants do not differentiate between self and any part of the universe. When they are hungry, the whole universe is hungry. That is, there is for them no universe out there; there is only appetite. At some point they realize the world does not always jump to answer their desire instantly. It's heart breaking for them, and they cry a lot about it. For the rest of their lives, there will be many heart breaks over not getting their way. When they come to terms with that, they can be considered adults. Just understanding this carries a massive load of implication for us.

When we in Christ realize our whole existence includes the purpose of sacrificing the self in many ways, on many levels, we become a strong reflection of Christ Himself. As parents, it is a great burden to help our children draw the line, because we have this powerful instinct to indulge them from our own willingness to sacrifice for the needs of others, and all the more so those closest to us. We have this powerful urge to rescue the powerless, to relieve suffering. We get crossed up between relieving the discomfort of our children and the very real need they have of being denied some things. Indeed, that's the whammy of dealing with a world of children who just don't quite understand they aren't actually suffering simply because their appetites go unfulfilled, because too many of them appear physically adult. We are bound in Christ to help them see their sins of self-indulgence as sins.

There is no entity on earth more childish and demanding than humans operating in the role of government. That's because those who relish control over others are children seeking their own desires. No real adult desires to be caught in that pincer of having to decide what is in someone else's best interest. Thus, it's no surprise those who seek government offices are often only superficially mature. They are utterly convinced they know what's best, and hardly shrink from spanking their fellow man for failing to choose it. They call resistance to their will, and resistance to their enforcement, "crime." While it's often portrayed to us that rebels are the brats, it's often hard to be sure which side is more dangerous to good social order. Still, real adults are rather patient when no harm is done.

Because there is so very room for debate about such matters, we can't pretend to offer a neat package of reforms by which we demand bureaucrats grow up and stop being such tyrants. We do know tyranny when we see it in action, but only when we know enough about the background of what we see. When cornered, confronted with an incomplete picture, we may be forced to act on a mixture of immediate impression and prayed-out considerations of things we should not tolerate. We may not know whether the victim is a thug, too, but we can bet the government thug beating someone unable to resist is hardly better. If it were simple intervention and restraint, we would approve. We hesitate to get involved because we know we have to use physical force on our own children. Who is the child here?

One place where there are fewer questions is when God grants us our own children. Crippled we may be in our sin-darkened understanding of things, but God appointed us the parents, and no man on earth has any standing to question God's decision. So great was the danger of second-guessing parental choices, ancient Hebrew culture steadfastly refused to intervene, to the point killing your own child up to about age nine or so was not a crime. It might have been supremely stupid, sinful, and worthy of ostracism, but not prosecution in the courts. While we could hardly get away with proposing that sort of reform in this modern world, the point is we should not tolerate in the slightest degree the interference of the state in matters of child rearing.

Given the state has proven consistently harmful and evil in how it would choose to raise children, there is no excuse for the Christian cooperating. Should your immediate faith community intervene, that's fine. You remain free to take your kids and move on, but the state offers no such option. If you disagree, they will simply point a gun at you, as it were. In this one issue, we are utter rebels against human government in every sense of the word. We must plan in our faith community how to face such a thing, because it seems almost inevitable. Were it not for this one area of conflict with the state, our mission would be far, far simpler.

Biblical Rebellion: Replace the Grid

Once we have begun preparing our hearts to stand free of artificial supports, we are in a position to rebuild what support we must have to live. This is an implementation of the above mentioned alternative government. Since the objective is individuals standing on their own to the extent possible, such a government aims to reduce its power, and leadership is ever working itself out of a job. However, there will always be human needs, for which reason we fellowship in the Spirit. We are thus able to see clearly what those needs are from God's perspective. Regardless of expressed wishes, most often control is the last thing anyone needs from another. The character of the Kingdom fellowship is minimal leverage, because the greatest power on earth is voluntary sacrifice.

We thus build a highly decentralized community, in which human measures of success are of little value. The ultimate prize is the ability to plow through human weakness, differences, and barriers to offer love. Love is, again, defined as the extended consistent effort for the welfare of another. It is not the doing, but the manner. Success is simply not being like the rest of the world, and certainly not the existence government wishes for us. The escape from that evil pattern is the whole point.

The size, shape and character of your faith community depends on too many variables to offer detailed guidance. You must discern for yourself the part you play, as well. The greatest danger is following the dictates of human organizational habits. It is wholly artificial to propose a structure, then draft people to fill the slots. This works to some degree for militias, particularly if someone is well versed in military tactics, and may at times be appropriate. However, this is not the fundamental nature of a faith community, merely a possible emergency response. We have enough of human governments using false emergencies to maintain a tight regimentation and control. Our primary binding force is the Holy Spirit, which bypasses most human thinking. People of good conscience in the Lord will spontaneously organize their activities most of the time.

The largest task remains keeping love alive. This is the one thing no government can produce nor destroy. This is also the primary witness, not simply in the ability to love, but the improvement of implementation. Our witness is the change. As we become more like the Kingdom itself, we provide the single greatest threat to any human organization, particularly governments. Thus, what leadership exists in a faith community can justify your trust only by guiding and enhancing fellowship.

Tasks and operations within the group grow directly from the abilities and gifts of those present. While we should always expect to communicate needs, the substance of love is offering what we have. Plenty of routine work can be done by almost anyone. Unwillingness to share in such work is grounds, not for dismissal, but for extra attention for change. The routine work should get done anyway, but the biggest task remains coaxing those with inappropriate reflexes. It must always be a voluntary compliance. The only justification of force is in the presence of a genuine threat of harm. Otherwise, we keep applying the pressure of love in ways we each best know.

Life of Christ: Luke 24

Picking up where the previous chapter leaves us, the women waited until just before dawn Sunday morning to bring their funeral perfumes. Since they knew exactly where the tomb was, including precisely how the body was laid in it, there was no chance they were mistaken that particular tomb was open again. Worse, the body was gone. They had no idea what was going on, nor what to do, nor how to find the new resting place. It was time to panic.

All the more so were they flustered by the appearance of two angels. To their eyes, it looked like very important men, but their garments projected light with a sparkle. The women rightly fell on their faces, since clothing which competed with the rising sun for brilliance could only mark the presence of spiritual beings.

From the very first word, the whole post-Crucifixion message echoed with a note of reproof. Everyone had been exposed repeatedly to the teaching of Jesus' death and resurrection. That their minds dismissed it before the Cross is almost understandable, because their whole frame of reference excluded the proper understanding of the Scriptures. Their minds had been held in prison to a badly corrupted message. Jesus during His ministry had offered no excuse for the disciples not seeing this. All the more so since it had happened as He promised.

He had promised He would, indeed, die. He had also promised He would not stay dead, but would resurrect. Further, He noted it would be the third day after His death. Sunday was that third day. If they expected to find Jesus, they needed to search among the living, for He was alive. The angels reminded them they should have known all this, even quoting Jesus very pointed words on the subject. Now it all made sense.

The women returned in a hurry to where everyone was staying. Lacking the divine reminder these women experienced, their audience was puzzled; they simply could not get their heads around this news. The women were insistent enough Peter had to investigate. Luke offers more visual detail, indicating Peter himself was the source of this part of the narrative. The mummy-wrapping case was still in the tomb, but there was no body inside it. Perhaps the gummed strips had caved in where the torso had been, as nothing supported them. The body had not been moved in the conventional sense, and Peter didn't know what to make of it.

The next part of the story must have come from Cleopas, who was involved. He and one other man were walking that afternoon from Jerusalem about a two-hour hike to Emmaus. It was late that same Sunday afternoon, and the day's events and stories had confused just about everyone. On their walk, the two men discussed these things. The resurrected Jesus joined them on the way, but they didn't recognize Him, apparently because Jesus felt it was in their best interest. Playing ignorant, He asked them what was the reason for their intense and somber discussion.

The were utterly surprised He seemed unaware of the news which had stirred the entire city. They spoke of Jesus of Nazareth as a mighty prophet of God, His arrest and trial, and crucifixion. They had considered Jesus the one hope of their nation. Now these three days since His execution, they had heard some women had seen angels and His body disappeared from His grave.

Again, the same message of how they had all missed the point. Instead of recalling His previous words, He started from scratch, explaining how the Messiah had been promised from Creation. His death and resurrection were required to fulfill all the prophecies. For the whole two hours He laid out the clear thread of promise throughout the Scriptures.

It was not merely common courtesy they invited this stranger to stay the night at their house, but they must have been moved and hungry for more of this teaching. Clearly this man was a rabbi, so they honored him, letting him play host at the meal. As soon as this stranger had offered the ritual blessing and thanks, broken the bread and passed it to them, their eyes were opened. It was Jesus Himself! Just as quickly as they recognized Him, He vanished into thin air. Tossing aside all caution, they ran out into the night, determined to report this to the disciples in Jerusalem.

Apparently they weren't the only ones with a story of seeing Jesus. After these two related their experience, the whole place was tense. The transition from hoping for a renewed Davidic kingdom, to realizing that could not happen because their Master was executed, to the disappearance of the body, and all these confused tales of seeing Jesus alive again -- not everyone had fully awakened the dramatic shift required by this concept of a spiritual Kingdom of Heaven. More, this new concept was supposed to be the original, the message of the Law and Prophets, but twisted by generations of soulless scholarship in pursuit of man's wisdom.

In that moment, Jesus Himself materialized in the big middle of their debate. There are no words to express the sense of shock and confusion. He again reproved them for operating in the flesh. Inviting them to examine Him visually and with their hands, He first made it clear this was no apparition. To drive that lesson home, He ate some fish and honey, something ghosts can't do. Their minds were spinning.

Then He called for them to remember what He had told them before the Cross. His teaching had been a bizarre departure from three centuries of Hellenistic, materialistic nonsense. There was simply no place in their minds to hang the truth, no way to process such a radical reorientation. As they struggled to find a new mental footing, He explained again how this was the original, ancient understanding of the Law and Prophets. Instead of bits and pieces scattered over weeks and days, He laid out for them in a single lesson the more accurate understanding. Since the false Messianic hopes were dead and gone, there was at least now some room to absorb this new-yet-ancient teaching.

Wrapping up, He summarized how it was necessary He suffer and die, and rise again on the third day. The ancient mission of Israel was now their mission. However, now it was no longer prophecy of a coming Messiah, but a revelation of the Messiah now present. Thus, all nations could be called to repentance, because sins could be forgiven. Having seen it all for themselves, they would have a message which could not be shaken, so they were to preach to the whole world. The only unfinished business was the single unfulfilled promise of the Father, to bring them the power to carry out this message. Not by their own power, but by divine presence in their individual lives, the same Spirit which had been in Jesus all this time. They were to wait in Jerusalem until that came about.

Luke skips over some two months of narrative. The next scene is that last day when Jesus would walk on the earth before The End. Luke sets the stage for the second part of his Gospel. The disciples follow their risen Lord out of the city, to the Mount of Olives. Just over the peak, out of view of the Temple, Jesus stood before them near Bethany. Lifting His hands, He blessed them, then levitated up into the clouds. Returning to the city, they obeyed instructions to wait in Jerusalem. The time was passed joyfully, worshiping daily in the Temple. It must have been completely puzzling to the Sanhedrin and Roman officials. There was no threat of rebellion, but the spirit of the group had never been more lively.

I'm Not Billy Graham

Please understand, this is not about boasting. Nor do I wish to impress you with what I might claim to have sacrificed. If you give up something which does not belong to you, it's not a sacrifice. What I'm explaining is I've tried it, I've had the success, and it meant nothing because it was not my calling.

In 1976 I was a preacher-boy, still in college. I learned about church growth, absorbed the techniques, knew how it worked. I practiced it. Volunteering to take a 7th grade boys Sunday School class, I found a testing ground in a monster Baptist church.

There were three students, hoping I wasn't just another stand-in. I stayed. I did the work. Making my own unique type of presentation materials, I expanded on the lessons. I visited every name on my class roster. I made the boys laugh and got them talking about the lesson. In about eight weeks we would have had 30+, but the department director kept taking groups of four or five to fill other classes. Then he quit and nominated me to replace him.

I did the work. I helped the teachers in my department, giving them ideas, calling on their rosters, and even going to their homes during the week when they couldn't make meetings. The Sunday School Youth Department head kept pulling boys from our department to fill the other 7th grade boys classes across the hall. Not single-handedly, but I got the enthusiasm going in the whole youth division. And it grew, and folks copied my ideas.

Eventually, I moved on due to academic demands in my college classes and a call to work as Youth and Music at a smaller church. The adults resisted my suggestions, and while the youth group grew, and had more meetings than before, it never reached its potential. There was no roster of prospects, and no support from more than a tiny handful of parents.

Fast forward a decade. Serving in the US Army in Europe, I volunteered for the Protestant Chapel Sunday School adults class. It went from 5 to over 50 in just a couple of months. I had support, and I used the same presentation techniques, plus some even better materials. Everyone knew my name.

Since my job was Military Police, and the DARE Program was hot stuff then, they made me the first DARE Officer in that community. They gave me several tiny remote-site schools, and I ran the roads like a fool. The commanding general of my community demanded my Provost Marshal (MP Chief of Police) return me from war time mobilization (Iraq War I) to keep the program going. Even more people knew my name. I was on radio, and people called asking about me from all over that part of Europe. We got some very, very generous funding from the US Embassy staff in Bonn because I ran their DARE Program.

Neither my early church growth techniques nor the DARE Program were all that different from each other. In each case, I simply took what they gave me and ran with it, adding my own insights to enhance the instruction. I ended up speaking before some really large audiences about both Chapel and DARE. People wanted me to come back soon and do it again.

Had I stayed on that path, I don't doubt I would be pastoring my own monster Baptist church. But it was wrong. All of it. You see, my teaching in church/chapel was hardly more spiritual than the DARE lessons. Each were little more than good psychology, using my stage presence to move people into commitments of time and effort. Nothing really changed. The DARE kids, the church kids, the chapel adults -- most of them learned something they remembered, but few of them were any closer to the Kingdom.

So I threw it all away. It was not my calling. By common measure, I was successful. By spiritual measure, I was just making a lot of noise. Sure, I'll bet some folks still remember me fondly. I'm not sure I was ever the man they thought they knew. Superficially, my mannerisms haven't changed much, but what really drives me today doesn't overlap much with what drove me then.

When I critique big churches, big church programs, big budgets and big buildings, it is not because I'm an envious loser. It's because I came under a powerful conviction I was no different from some of the slimiest hucksters to ever disgrace a pulpit. While my personal life is still clean, my ministry was not. It was just another moving presentation of mere intellectual ideas and good psychology. I was a showman who could make you feel good.

No more. All those people -- I led them astray. I now pray every time I think of those days, asking the Lord to clean up the mess, because I can't go back into all those lives and correct my errors. It was the best I knew, but it fell short. God help me never deceive myself and so very many souls again.

Biblical Rebellion: Thinking Self-reliance

The other half of getting off the grid is self-reliance. While there are no Lone Rangers in the Kingdom, we can't afford to neglect any measure within our grasp. Back in the days when it was pretty easy to get a high-paying job, it was simply good economic sense to outsource everything. Your time was so valuable in terms of dollars it was cheaper to hire someone to carry out the time-consuming grind. It became rare to cook at home, even to make a cup of coffee. All the regular tasks of household maintenance were farmed out to specialists who washed our windows, kept the garden and yard, replaced the roof, and just about anything except flush the toilet for us. When the nation itself began outsourcing, we ended up with a very thin layer of production, and just about everyone was engaged in simply doing each other's laundry, or building each other's websites. Now it's all crashed around our ears and we have no economy except what we make ourselves.

The Kingdom teaches us to be aware of human time-centered reflexes, but encourages getting away from that. Sure, there is such a thing as emergencies, but attempts to control and measure time precisely and schedule human activity tightly is not a Christian virtue, but a worldly one. Effects of the spirit take precedence, and almost anything can be delayed in favor of letting God work in the moment. We can afford to let some things slip away; we need not fulfill anyone's performance goals by filling every moment with activity. Time is not money in the Kingdom, and a good economic depression can serve to make us stop and think. It is highly critical we recondition our minds to stop running like a stopwatch. A critical aspect of this reshaping and renewing of our minds is resurrecting the ancient habit of doing something right instead of quickly.

When time is more abundant than material resources, we can stop worrying about personal profit, and think in terms of Kingdom profit. Not only does a depression reduce our income, it reduces cheap imports. We no longer just replace something which fails to function suitably, but we have to fix it. We stop thinking about how cheaply we can get things, and consider whether they will endure, and how easily they can be maintained. We don't shirk spending time doing routine maintenance with our own hands. Suddenly, we come to the place we realize we never could have bought a remedy for spiritual needs, and it requires an investment of the self in a broader range of skills than was necessary when we all made big bucks focussing only on our compensated employment.

From there, it's only a short hop to realizing we possess the means to invest in other lives. In the process, we learn anyone can replace a worn water inlet valve on a washing machine, or reconnect a loose heating element in the toaster, or tack down loose weather seals around the back door. Take the time to study and understand the design and function of the things you must use. When you become competent at fixing a particular thing, offer that skill to others and become a walking solution for people in need. It is of a certainty none of us can fix everything for ourselves, and without that willing hand to share the load with others, you can't hope to find help for things you can't do yourself.

Isaiah 24

We begin here four chapters regarding the final redemption. The starting point is the judgment against sin. At the same time, Isaiah reveals underlying principles of Creation and the Fall. It is critical to keep in mind Isaiah speaks not so much from the Law of Moses, but the Covenant of Noah, and how all things point to the spiritual realities behind them. Thus, seeing this merely as a future point in time misses a wealth of understanding about how God does things, of how He relates to His Creation.

With a word, the Lord created all things. With a word, He dismisses it all. Indeed, were He not actively engaged in holding it all together, it would come apart on its own. When God acts, no living being is exempt. When it comes time to end this earth, no one will escape. There is no favored group.

Such wholesale destruction will come as a relief to the earth. It groans under the load of sinful men. Humanity is the disease on Creation, because mankind have rejected every covenant offered by God. Sin has brought every curse, and Creation is subjected to involuntary suffering. Precious few at any time have turned to the Lord.

There comes a place where the pleasures of the flesh fail to bring even that shallow happiness so many seek. Wine and song, symbols of celebration, have no meaning and bring no pleasure. It's all an act, going through the motions. In the end, it leaves bitterness. The noisy night life and house parties in the city last only so long as the city gates. Mere planks and beams can be so easily broken and burned. The harvest of sin is not simply death, but a dismal, slow passing.

In the middle of such a thing, there are just a few who really understand. When they sing and rejoice, it has meaning, because they celebrate God. From the very first light of dawn, they call upon His name. Scattered abroad in all the earth can be found His grace in human hearts, and it brings glory to the Lord. Yet, in the midst of this abundant spiritual living, Isaiah complains he has been robbed. He gets precious little of this fat harvest of righteousness and glory because he lives among conniving liars and schemers who have defrauded his people spiritually.

There is no escape. No man, regardless how fit, athletic and skillful, will eventually be captured in his sin. There is no place to hide, for God Himself pours out judgment like the rain from Heaven. Should you be alive to see it, you would think the earth itself were a stumbling drunk, unable to maintain its course in space.

Isaiah warns the punishment will begin with those in power. This points to the Covenant of Noah. Hardly to be taken literally, the image of herding rulers into the large pits used in ancient times as impromptu prisons indicates where the responsibility for failing Noah begins. Rulers have the privilege of rank and power, but it comes with a higher degree of accountability. Eventually, God does act as He has promised, and nations, kingdoms and states which transgress Noah will always fail. The Lord revealed His will for the governments of mankind via the Temple in Jerusalem. Since Israel herself rejected the Law of Moses, which was supposed to clarify Noah by example, it's no surprise no nation ever gets it right.

Short Item: No Surprise from G-20 Conference

I will invite your attention to the summary by Catherine Austin Fitts. Excellent redux. What it tells us is just what we expected: The drive to global government is proceeding apace. Smaller entities will be devoured, more and more power and control in fewer and fewer hands, all pointing back to that small coterie of private banking houses attached to the Rothschilds Family.

More difficult to measure is the resistance from states who have been burned by the G-20, and those threatened by it. Some of Central and South America don't want to play, parts of Asia-Pacific will probably opt out, and can anyone doubt certain Middle Eastern states will remain independent as long as possible?

Even evil isn't easy.

Biblical Rebellion: Get Off the Grid

To the degree possible, disentangle your life from government control. There are huge number of ways we take for granted something largely voluntary which makes us an easy target. At the same time, there is the danger you can be so obsessive about this you limit your witness. Pray. Every time you submit a document for processing, pray that you discern the ways in which this binds you under government authority. We fail to realize all the things we gain from government protection have a bad side. This is more than just paranoia about the "Mark of the Beast" and your SSAN. These things open doors, but each privilege can become a prison cell. The whole point is to think about it, and surely to pray about just how much you can choose not to cooperate with your own confinement.

Start with the most fundamental points of surrender. How necessary is driving with a license? And when giving birth, do you really need to be in a hospital and have a birth certificate? The obvious point here is not to game the system, but find ways to reduce your exposure. All the more so when you realize it's not simply an exposure to malice, but to the dangers of incompetence. Do you really have to have a bank account? When more banks close, you may not have a choice. After all, money is only a tool. God is the real supply of our needs. How much withdrawal from the system does your conviction and faith demand?

It's not just government itself, but anything with a corporate charter becomes a source of linkage. Your bank is required to collect a lot of data about you, and report it regularly upstream, which eventually gets into a government office. The same goes with every charge account you have. Need I mention your church membership profile? The laws are already in place. If any agency maintains a paper or electronic record, it takes only an order from a bureaucrat and government can demand it.

Again, this is not about paranoia, fear, fighting the system, etc. Consider the measures you can take to limit liability in things necessary for your service in the Kingdom. The primary weakness of government is high costs and incompetence. The only reason there is any success at all in government activity reflects merely the statistical inevitabilities attached to a massive level of activity by such a huge number of people. Most of them are decent enough, but the effectiveness of government activity hangs on dehumanizing all functions. Uniformity is a necessity. The less human judgment there is, and the more automated the process, the greater the level of success, such as it may be. In the Kingdom, everything is personal, with infinite probabilities reflecting the creativity of the Creator's people set free from dehumanizing traps. The aim in decoupling from the grid is to gain maximum freedom to obey the Lord.

Biblical Rebellion: The Context

In Scripture, all things are contextual. The context as I write this includes a rather frightening economic slump which seems to be affecting the entire world. This comes at the same time governments are becoming increasingly oppressive on all levels. While it would be interesting to analyze what is behind all this -- whether it be the result of planning, converging incompetence, or a combination of things -- it would have little effect on our discussion here. We are not aiming to bring down any governing agency, but refusing to be bound by them. We know what we are supposed to be doing, and will adjust our response based more on tactics than strategy, which God reserves for Himself. Even if we factor in anticipation of moves against us, we can only do the best we know at any given time. Where the governments do not seem to interfere with our mission, we have no reason to provoke their agents, nor concern ourselves with their activities.

The likelihood of interference increases rapidly as conditions worsen, and our implementation of fellowship improves. Currently, we would expect our greatest chance of trouble will come from existing regulation prohibiting what we know we must do. The level and methods of enforcement figure into this. There is nothing inherently sinful about stealth in dodging bad law, since enforcement failures can contribute to change in policy. Just as force can become too expensive, so can cloaking. No one can hand you a plan which will work in every case. As in all things, each servant of God, and each local fellowship, must pray for wisdom to obey regardless of concrete results. For the most part, we can expect currently confrontation will come fairly soon.

We should hardly be surprised at resistance to our mission, beginning from inside ourselves. Rebellion starts with yourself, then your household, and expands to your community. Defining what "community" means for you may well be a major issue. Each of us have multiple identities based on our associations, and we should expect to spread the rebellion in every direction of our existence. No one can decide for you the methods you'll use in any given setting; it must flow from your own calling and convictions. Apparent resistance to our message means little, since the Holy Spirit seldom signals in advance to us whom He will turn, nor when. That's why we focus on the process, the service itself. We have enough to do discerning what to do with the things over which we can assert a measure control.

Since methods of building a faith community are covered elsewhere, we can focus here on persecution. This is not a purely spiritual exercise, since such a distinction exists only academically. The whole point here is following Jesus will get you in a heap of trouble, just as it did Him. The demands of the Word regarding accountability under the Covenant of Noah apply while we walk this earth, but for us that covenant is subsumed under the higher Covenant of Christ. We have additional responsibilities, but greater flexibility compared to those outside Christ. On the one hand, we generally do not resist aggression by the state -- we cheerfully volunteer for suffering in Christ's name. On the other hand, we cannot make that choice for others, since each must volunteer on his own terms for suffering to be an actual sacrifice on the Cross. For those unable to volunteer, we are obliged to shield them best we can.

We are here on earth to serve, to be a witness. God may choose to let our lives be extinguished in the small scale, but in the broader sense, we need to keep an eye on keeping our witness alive. The Early Church relied chiefly on escape and evasion, taking on faith overwhelming local force was a signal to carry the message to another location. Flee if you can, and carry your mission where you go. However, the gospel has gone to just about every geographic location on this earth. Pockets of darkness exist here and there, and governments occasionally try to create new ones, but the larger scene has changed in two millenia. The primary evasion now is stealth, staying below the radar. Even there, in a surveillance society, where our every move is measured and recorded, that is increasingly also denied us. We have come to the point where we have little else but to make ourselves a harder target. As long as we keep our focus on the mission to reveal Him, we can hope to avoid becoming lost in the details of defending that mission to keep our witness alive.

Biblical Rebellion: Summation

To recap: We are rebels against this world, and against every human government by default. While we may be granted the occasional strategic insight here and there, our part in this is to focus on the tactics, the process, the service. While human governments are clearly a necessity in God's long-term plans, they are never our allies, but mere tools, as well. Individual people are not the enemy, but are made tools and weapons we will often capture from the real Enemy. When the Lord captures them, He sets them free from their dehumanizing condition, and they become rebels with us. How well our rebellion goes is measured by the spiritual power of our fellowship, not by attaining any measurable goals. Our primary means of warfare is building the fellowship, first by removing our own internal barriers to love, then laying that love sacrificially against the barriers erected by others. Our greatest power is the ability to sacrifice anything in this world, including our very lives. These are things against which no human government can defend.

Adopting worldly means will only compromise the mission. There are no Lone Rangers in the Kingdom, because the whole point is breaking the barriers to fellowship and being one in the Spirit. The nature of our rebellion is conceptually a matter of fighting division, isolation, and every human reason for not extending love to another. We must make clear love is the primary weapon. As such, it is utterly impossible to cling to the false perception love is a feeling, or some uncontrollable force. The Kingdom defines love as the choice to extend oneself, to take risks and make sacrifices, in pursuing the welfare of another. Not just what makes them feel better, but their genuine best interest, as defined by the Kingdom.

I rather hope none of this is really new, because it reflects a lot of stuff I've read repeatedly in devotional materials from all sorts of religious backgrounds. The problem is that vast disconnect between nice words of truth and a pattern of action -- a mission of service -- which arises from those words. This can only be explained by that lingering desire to maintain a rather comfortable status quo, of conforming everyone to the suburban middle class lifestyle. We in the Western churches have betrayed the Kingdom because we can't quite uproot the false assumptions growing from the lies about whether we really must sacrifice this or that human desire.

In the end, we have a jillion churches which look, sound, and act just like any secular business. We have our sales pitches memorized, our presentation factors honed to perfection, and our target markets to optimize growth and profits. And quite by accident, a few folks actually stumble into the grace of God, but never have a clue what changes that grace demands from their lives. That's because God exercises His sovereign grace often in spite of churches. Meanwhile, churches have so utterly compromised with the human governments, the Kingdom message has been diluted by so much regulation, it's dubious any church can claim to be more than a self-help social club.

For many of us, a great deal of our energy will be spent rebelling against the churches, as they have become a prime agent for enforcing human rejection of God's radical calling. An honest biblical rebellion puts us in conflict with just about everyone around us who isn't actively involved in our camp. It should therefore surprise no one the primary manifestation of our spiritual fellowship puts us in competition with institutional religion. We should not expect to see very many of them reshape themselves into a truly spiritual body unless and until Western governments openly attack churches and take away all those privileges. It doesn't require a prophet to see the Lord will be shaking His Body free of worldly restraints, and a lot of people leaving because they have no power to take the heat. We need not wait for that.

The paradox of this is we are actually not the rebels. Everything falling short of God's Word is the rebellion. Fallen human government does have a firm pattern revealed in Scripture, but every government has firmly rejected that pattern. To the degree they stray from that pattern, they have surrendered their legitimacy. So it is with any human organization of any size, type and form. But we are marked as rebels because that illegitimacy is the mainstream, the dominant form of human organization in this world. Since labels aren't that important, we adopt the rebel identity enthusiastically, because it's not a matter of what we are, or what we do, but Whom we serve.

The series does not end here; more to come!

Big Church Conference: Circus of Sin

You have these huge expensive meetings in big expensive cities. The only way to get advertising is buy it, and it's broadly more effective to go with the eager sponsors in the corporate setting. How much do we sacrifice spiritually? To what degree do we prostitute ourselves when we use the ways of the world because they are "smart" in the business sense? If, as Barna says, church and the gospel are merely a matter of marketing, then it's all good.

I would suggest Barna is speaking for Satan. Satan has no problem with the Word as long as he is the one speaking it, ensuring it has no power.

Setting aside for a moment the question of whether these conferences serve any real need, how would we do them if holiness wasn't measured in terms of mere cultural window dressing? I don't mean literal clothing -- Conservative Baptists and Pentecostals in their suits, and Contemporaries in their casual, but still stylish middle class, attire. I mean all the nice, comfy stuff we add in to make it like a vacation. When was the last time you had a real retreat in a genuine wilderness setting? You know: tents, hiking gear, cooking over a fire whatever you could bring and keep without refrigeration. No, that's too trendy. How about we pick some smaller town, offering adequate but simpler facilities? What's wrong with meeting in an empty warehouse on folding chairs, without an expensive sound system, without high-end musical instruments, etc.? Instead of $200/night hotels, how about the local flea-bag motel, a rooming house, or temporary big sleeping tents in an open field? What a blessing it would be to the local economy there! Choose a place with no ability to repay you fiscally or politically.

God help us -- did I actually have to mention "politics"? Try just once to do a conference without politics getting in the way. Organizing is no sin, but human organization is the enemy of the Spirit. Favoritism is so rife in the Christian Conference Industry, it stinks to Heaven. And let's not forget it's all about profit and the hideous worldly greed of the Pharisees coming back right into the worship. We make all those deals and contracts with "the right" organization, the right brother or sister, and giving due honor to some local hypocrite or another. Try to get speakers or musicians who will volunteer. Try not to make this or that ministry an expensive road-show. How about just spend time together in the Spirit with local believers?

Don't advertise it as "life changing" and "earth shaking" -- that happened already back at the Cross and at Pentecost. Tone it down. Let the very real changes in your life be the advertising. We can't use the old street preaching to any effect as they did in those days. What would we do these days instead? Once we figure out what today serves the same place as street preaching in that culture, we might actually have a clue how to minister. And while we're at it, how about actually having something to say? Not the Barna/Warren/Schuller flavored coolade human religion. Real faith in Christ brings us into conflict with our world, not worldly comfort and success. It causes you to abandon your worldly comforts, to toss aside all the middle class dreams of a college degree at some choice university, of a good paying job, of a nice suburban home and SUV. Instead, you invest your resources in living a radical, other-worldly spiritual life. Okay, maybe it is earth-shaking.

"You have not resisted sin to the point of bloodshed in resisting sin" (Hebrews 12:4). The context of that verse is discipline from the hand of God. He has to carve out of your life all the stuff He didn't put there so He can get you focussed on things that really matter to His Kingdom. I'm pretty sure investing your church offerings in pricey real estate and fancy facilities was not included in that. Nor all the other expensive Laodecian snobbery that goes with that. We don't officially have slaves in the US these days, but I wonder how many street sleepers feel comfortable visiting your monster church facility (unless they expect a bigger handout). How about you buy your church a couple of buses and go out to where they sleep and hold worship there? Until He has carved out of our lives all the massive burden of material goods, we aren't really serving Him.

So how about a conference in an empty parking lot? Is what conferences do so tightly bound into the setting the same result can't be had in a different setting? Then we are not conferring over the gospel.

Life of Christ: Luke 23

An educated Roman would have observed a good more detail here than meets the eye of modern readers. At the same time, Luke does not linger long over this portion of the story. He dryly states the facts, unlike the pious exaggerations so popular today. As previously noted, the most important work in the Spirit was already done. Now the events played out as mere formalities.

The Sanhedrin wasted no time in bringing Jesus before the Roman Governor first thing in the morning. Hardly a single leader of the Jewish nation was absent, so committed they were to gaining a death sentence. Luke has taken pains to show Jesus never challenged Roman authority directly as it was exercised at that time, even defending taxation. Nor did He suggest anything which would incite violence against the Jewish officials. While He did attack their teachings and proclamations, and undercut their claims to guardianship of Moses' Law, He would never suggest a violent uprising. Rather, He continually offered them a chance to get right. Clearly, they would rather be wrong, so long as it maintained the status quo.

Their charges were designed to warrant a Roman sentence, since Rome cared nothing about internal disputes among Jews. Given the well known contempt the Jewish leaders had for Rome, this whole scene is rich with sarcasm. It's hard to translate Pilate's incredulous query in English: "You are King of the Jews?" In this context, Jesus' answer would approximate "no contest," since His definition of kingship is hardly what is implied by the charge. It was painfully obvious this whole thing was a bad joke, and Pilate attempted to dismiss the case.

It turned out Pilate had one good escape: the accused fell under another jurisdiction. Things had been quite tense between Herod's heirs and Rome's governors, but Pilate seized the excuse to pass this hot potato. The official palace for Herod Antipas was in Caesarea, and he often holed up in the Fortress Machaerus in Perea. Wearing the window dressing of Jewish observance in keeping with his father's conceit for maintaining legitimacy, Antipas was in his residence on the northwest side of town. Thus, it was a short march to his court. The opportunity thrilled him; he had never seen this colleague of John the Baptist. That Jesus had no fear of him, and remained silent and serene might have been troubling to Herod, but he turned the whole thing into a big joke. He mockingly had Jesus robed in a royal garment, then allowed his bodyguards to rough Him up. While Herod declined jurisdiction, he was flattered by this act of official recognition, and it soothed tensions with Pilate.

By now late in the morning, Jesus was back before Pilate. The Governor could not find legal grounds for execution, but perhaps a beating would teach the accused to behave better. That would not pacify the Jewish leaders. When Pilate proposed releasing Jesus for the customary seasonal good-will gesture, they demanded someone who really was dangerous, named Barabbas. Pilate tried again, but the leaders had primed the crowd for a riot if Jesus was not condemned. Pilate finally gave in, but his edict was framed in a way making it clear this was their demand, not the demand of Roman justice.

With all the abuse and lack of sleep, it's no surprise Jesus needed help parading through the city with the crossbeam. The unlucky fellow who happened to be coming into town on the main road by which the public procession was heading out was Simon of Cyrene. Luke alone mentions the entourage which had followed Jesus during His ministry. Their wailing drew a caution from Jesus. Having already faced His death in the garden the night before, He warned them they should save their mourning for themselves. Jesus referred to the destruction of Jerusalem He had prophesied. He quotes a common parable of that day which meant they had not seen anything yet. This injustice was pretty minor compared to what was down the road a few decades.

Jesus Himself thus paints His human sorrow as nothing extraordinary. It's difficult to imagine a more pointed contrast between the spiritual and worldly measures of things. On a human scale, this was just another typical act of government brutality, for both Rome and the Jews. What really mattered here was not what could be seen with human eyes, but with spiritual eyes. Jesus was guilty of no crimes, but certainly had stirred some disfavor against the Jewish leaders. What really mattered was the eternal injustice -- someone sinless had to die for all sins. If anyone should weep, it is we who are guilty of those sins, for we are the ones who demanded His death in that sense.

Standard military practice placed four soldiers with each condemned man. The soldiers were allowed to strip the victims of all property on their persons. Jesus' escorts used the typical means for dividing five items between four men. He was the center of attention. His lack of resistance, His pronouncement of forgiveness, and His whole calm demeanor stood in marked contrast to everything around Him. The Jewish leaders rubbed it in by sarcastic mocking, taken up by the soldiers, as well. For Rome, a critical element in all this was making a very public example. Thus, crucifixion took place on the main highway coming into the city, and a sign in Latin, and the two most common languages used locally, indicated the crime which brought the sentence. One of the other victims could not resist a little mocking as he died. The other was not so hardened, and sought forgiveness and favor, because his soul was not deceived by the circumstances.

Jesus promised the penitent criminal he would see Paradise, a term commonly used to mean Heaven. Luke uses Roman notations for time, which begins counting the hours at sunrise. Thus, at high noon the sky went dark. This persisted until mid-afternoon. Luke mentions in passing the Temple Veil was torn in two. Educated Romans might know this veil was too thick for humans to rip, so Luke's point is this was one of many miracle attestations. Further, anyone who read the Old Testament would know this was the final break in the power of the Law. God Himself opened His throne room to all, granting access to those who come through His Son, instead of through the Law.

The scene on the Cross was less glorious for awhile. In the midst of complete human failure, Jesus retained the authority to dismiss His human life. The attending Centurion recognized authority when he saw it, and knew whence it came. The mixed crowd of onlookers were apparently forced to agree with the officer's assessment, striking their upper chests as a symbol of sorrow for what they had seen as they walked away. Meanwhile, Jesus' entourage stood silent at a distance, staying much longer.

Typically, the Roman soldiers would remain in place until their victim was finally dead. They would take turns on the night watch, the point being to prevent any rescue. Hardy men might linger for days. One among the Jewish leaders there, a member of the Sanhedrin who had voted to spare Jesus, was Joseph of Arimathea. Luke tells us this man was one of those who had understood the prophecies rightly, and had anticipated the real Kingdom of God. It took great political courage to seek to honor Jesus and His message in this atmosphere. Seeing Jesus was dead already, Joseph requested the body for burial. His request was granted. Joseph followed Eastern rituals typical as far away as Egypt, winding the body tightly in linen strips, normally held in place with heavily scented gum arabic. He then placed the body in his own tomb, as yet unused. This paints the image of a wealthy man who could afford one of the few burial plots left in the city only because he paid the price to have it hand carved into a rock face. It was common for pious Jews to desire burial near the Temple. The space Joseph had reserved for himself he gave to His Lord.

This was Friday, 15th of Nisan, the day before the Sabbath. The women from Jesus' entourage were keeping track of the whole process, but it seems they weren't directly involved in Joseph's efforts. They did happen to see the actual burial location and tomb layout. We can safely guess some of these women had access to property and wealth, because they went back and began preparing what would have been rather lavish burial perfumes. Naturally, they stayed mostly inside their houses during the Sabbath Day following.

Biblical Rebellion: Weapons versus Weapons

Tactical victories day-to-day should reflect the ultimate strategic victory of Our Lord's Return. What we aim for in short term objectives in our biblical rebellion should be part and parcel of revealing Him through our power to fellowship against the grain of human failings. Don't miss this: Engaging fellowship in the Spirit is the primary object of every measure we take against human government. How hard is it to realize a fundamental element in government's campaign to rule all things is isolating each of us from the other? In isolation we are powerless to resist forced conglomeration. By taking a competing path to unity, we form a de facto alternative government. The primary nature of our rebellion is counteracting that shift of power from the local to the central authority.

In political theory, it is widely recognized the definition of government is a monopoly of violent force. Every government is merely a conspiracy of folks seizing power over others, whether by actual violence or only threatening it. While a strong civil culture helps, at the bottom of every ruling power is the threat of force. When any entity, external or internal, threatens that power by exercising a competing violent force, that entity becomes a de facto government of sorts. It need not seek immediately the total control exercised by the official government, only a measure of control over certain elements of the circumstances. It's competing for control, nothing more. A criminal gang is a localized competing government in effect. They seek to wrest from the official government a certain measure of control over the situation on the ground, generally using violent force.

Violent force is not necessary, particularly when, in the local situation, people willingly offer their loyalty to the alternative nascent government. It's always easy to find dissenters who feel they aren't getting a fair shake from the official government, so every rebellion is likely to draw some participants, regardless how futile. In our case, we seek to serve a competing government of Heaven, and worldly futility is hardly an issue. I've already hinted the element of force in our rebellion will remain a possibility, but only as we leave to God all options to choose. Given God's record of using His own miraculous violent force against enemies in the Old Testament, we are bound to wait until He makes it clear His intention is to use us as the agent of such force. The precedent of seeking God to know whether He desires us to go against our enemies is fully established and applicable.

Violent death of the enemy is not our literal desires, but symbolic. We want their fleshly selves to die so the Spirit can be born in them. God knows when His plans are otherwise, and may not tell us, but we can certainly rely on Him to make painfully clear when literal violence is the game plan. That is, at some point the efforts of human government to hinder our fellowship may cross some invisible line in our convictions, and we will be forced to act. We realize the tension in hoping and praying it not happen, even while we half expect it sooner or later. Since our conceptual tactics depend on fellowship, we have a hard time justifying preparing ourselves like an armed camp of rebels, when our primary weapons are those of the Spirit.

Biblical Rebellion: Universal Goals

Before we dive into current specifics, it's necessary to pass through one last portal. Having already examined a couple of parables to describe a victorious rebellion from the smaller end of the scale, it's necessary to put them in context of Kingdom scale. The ultimate end of this fallen world comes when the Bride of Christ is ready for Her Lord to return. That is, Scripture declares she must be clad in holiness "without any spot or wrinkle."

If we dig backward through the cultural layers, we find a recurring emphasis in the New Testament of the old Hebraic notion of unity. When John's Revelation refers to the Bride's garments, he speaks from his Spirit-driven renewal of the ancient biblical perspective, of faith from the cultural background in which God revealed Himself. If we are to emphasize His revelation, it should be obvious some part of our efforts will go toward revealing Him according to the character of the cultural background He purposefully chose as the best setting for making things clear.

The parabolic image of such a Bridal gown teaches us to regard "perfection" in terms of unity. Since we have seen unity tested in every way possible on the level of human organization, and found it remains human regardless of divine purpose, it should be obvious the unity referred to is purely spiritual in scope. While it should manifest in some behavioral unity in the flesh, the focus remains on the spiritual union. We can argue and debate and maintain a raucous gathering while still observing the spiritual compulsion to love each other more than life itself. Indeed, the only reason we can justify such passionate expressions of differing viewpoints is because we have a passionate commitment to the eternal welfare of our brothers and sisters. Unity need not satisfy human conceptions of unity, but those of the Spirit.

That unity returns us to the fundamental logic of the Spirit: It's not about being unified, nor about doing unity, but about serving united -- neither state nor action, but character of process. Not only that, but it's not about results nor methods. It's about desire. Were the Lord to hold us accountable for methods and results, we'd all be doomed. Only His power can grant the merest glimmer of what holiness of ways and means ought to appear in our eyes. We remain in the fallen flesh, only by grace able to go about things correctly, never mind get appropriate results. So we leave performance in His hands where it belongs, and focus on the one thing He allows us to exercise consistently: desire to please Him. For us, in our proper place in the Kingdom operations, we think of holiness in terms of desire. If I can detect a holy desire in you, I am required to make all effort to work alongside you.

That detection of desire is itself only possible by the work of the Holy Spirit. The next question is whether I can work alongside you closely, or whether it must be from a distance. In the mix of this, I am expected to voice my concerns if I see a failure of desire. That is, if your desires look to me like they are on the wrong thing, I should say so, in accordance with my gifts. You are under no obligation to act on my voiced critique, but you might do well to listen until you are certain God doesn't want you to hear me. Notice there is nothing here about exercising authority over each other. Nobody on earth is in charge unless everyone involved can find a compelling spiritual desire to be under that authority.

From a standpoint of human organization, this is a train-wreck. And so it will always be, except where the Lord makes it work. Behold, back where we started: results are in God's hands. If we can't trust Him to make it happen, we can't trust Him at all. We've already seen what happens when we give emphasis to the necessities of human organization -- every institution on earth grows old and dies, except when it's kept alive artificially, by making the organization god. When we get to the place where the most deeply wise human organizational efforts are mere tools, to be cast aside the moment the job changes, we will have spiritually reasonable priorities.

Therefore, we find the whole thing paints the picture of the Bride of Christ unified in the Spirit. When we come to the place where the Sons of Light consciously set aside the institutions as mere tools, and can cross every human barrier, in divine power and love serving as one Kingdom force on earth, then the Bride will be ready. Until then, it can be said we are keeping Him from returning to earth.

Short Item: The Frightening Truth

Oh, my. If word of this leaks out, Fundies may have to ask themselves embarrassing questions.

The Zionist revolution has always rested on two pillars: a just path and an ethical leadership. Neither of these is operative any longer. The Israeli nation today rests on a scaffolding of corruption, and on foundations of oppression and injustice. As such, the end of the Zionist enterprise is already on our doorstep. There is a real chance that ours will be the last Zionist generation. There may yet be a Jewish state here, but it will be a different sort, strange and ugly....

Israel, having ceased to care about the children of the Palestinians, should not be surprised when they come washed in hatred and blow themselves up in the centres of Israeli escapism. They consign themselves to Allah in our places of recreation, because their own lives are torture. They spill their own blood in our restaurants in order to ruin our appetites, because they have children and parents at home who are hungry and humiliated. We could kill a thousand ringleaders a day and nothing will be solved, because the leaders come up from below - from the wells of hatred and anger, from the "infrastructures" of injustice and moral corruption.

This, written by a Jew living in Israel.

Your tax dollars at work, America.

Biblical Rebellion: The Battlefield

Where is that line? At what point does human government march or stumble into the free-fire zone?

The first step in any rebellion is renunciation of the things which formerly held you. Whether you are just starting out in your Kingdom life, or waking up from that long sleep of delayed transition to full enjoyment of your Kingdom citizenship, the time is now for you to lay hold of the higher truth. Indeed, our biggest task is not realizing a radical theology, but a radical application of the theology already expressed by many in the past. If Jesus is my Savior, from what has He saved me? The question has been too often feebly answered. Get out that hammer and nails again and pin your old self to the Cross. The Kingdom of Heaven does not reach its highest realization in a peaceful middle-class existence in good old republican USA. That's but an exchange of one fallen culture for another. Walk away from the whole thing in your hearts.

Bereft of any worldly concerns, you stand truly free of the chains of this world. If your government can control you by threatening loss of your retirement plan, then money is your god. If the loss of your home causes fear, then wealth is your god. If the possibility of starvation can drive you to obey, then your stomach is your god. If the loss of physical liberty is all that keeps you in check, then comfort is your god. If none of those things can deflect your service to the Kingdom, then you are truly free.

The battlefield will always be your own flesh. When you have conquered that, and it becomes occupied territory under the flag of Christ, you can begin considering how you might carry that victory into your world. You can begin to see just what it means for government to have crossed that invisible line in the spirit.

You will also know instinctively the most effective tactics for fighting back. Fighting back is not stopping the enemy advance, per se. A far better symbol is removing anything which obscures the clear revelation of the King. Most often, it is our very lack of interest in goods, liberty, comfort or life which projects that revelation. In a few rare cases, it will certainly mean killing someone. For example, I've written repeatedly we will never stand in Christ if we do not fight government interference in child-rearing. How you work out the implications of your duty to resist is between you and the Lord, but violent resistance is an option.

The problem with resorting to violent resistance is it usually represents a failure to prepare beforehand. This assumes you had a chance to to work it out and failed. Now you have a mess on your hands and you must act. There are, of course, tactical ambushes, as it were, when earthly authorities will act by deception and spring a trap. Since we already know this, we should never, ever trust any earthly authority to be truthful. That doesn't mean a paranoid hiding in the woods for everyone, but a realization in the middle of peaceful coexistence the Devil is still at work in their hearts. Again, it won't matter if a bureaucrat claims Christ; the assumption any government policy can carry out the demands of holiness is inherently wrong. When we start out with the expectation it will eventually turn evil, we are mentally prepared to deal with human government.

While it's impossible to prescribe tactics for every eventuality in this conflict, there are a set of habits we can develop which serve to set trip-wires and provide early warning for the need to act in specific ways. We intentionally remain cheerfully vulnerable to losses of the sort we nailed to the Cross, but build a lifestyle which rejects government control of God's affairs in our world. A general outline is provided in Making Noah Work. Here we will examine contextual specifics for our current tribulation.

The Faith of Abraham: Human Government

Everything in Scriptures holds up Abraham as the earliest great example of faith. He lived and moved by the leading of the Holy Spirit, and obeyed God's higher Law of the Kingdom of Heaven.

This did not make him contemptuous of human governments, even bad ones. However, he also did not shrink back from violent resistance when they crossed the lines God had drawn for him. Notice this had little to do with the lines drawn by the Covenant of Noah, but referred directly to Abraham's commitment to God. It wasn't mere custom which compelled Abraham to chase down the invaders from Mesopotamia. Those invaders did overthrow his previous government back home in Ur. This is not what made them his enemy. Nor was it the destruction of Sodom, nor any of the other Pentapolis cities. It was the capture of his nephew. Never mind Lot was living in sin, as it were. Lot's rescue was Abraham's duty to God. Had the Lord told him to let it be, Abraham would have stayed in his tents.

Once the decision was made, Abraham agreed to cooperate with his pagan neighbors in observing cultural-legal boundaries. While he refused to take his legal share of the loot, he allowed his allies to decide for themselves. In the process, he honored God by offering to Melchizedek what amounted to the forfeited portion of the loot owed to another ally. Abraham tithed what was under his lawful authority, then gave the rest back to the victims from whom the enemy had stolen it. Note this whole thing began when the Pentapolis and surrounding kingdoms rebelled against what was more or less the lawful imperial authority of the Mesopotamian Coalition. The record of Scripture indicates Abraham made no move to support either side in what was a war between pagan nations over mere worldly goods and dominance. He only acted when the conflict crossed into his area of authority, the duty he held before God to protect his nephew, who had traveled with him under his protection.

With that in mind, let me ask you to glance at the following material.

• Upcoming Financial Summit About Global Governance -- Lost in all the Obama furor, the world's leading economic powers -- the so-called G-20 nations -- are quietly laying plans for a November 15th summit in Washington, D.C., that may effect a revolution in world finance and global governance, a revolution with potentially much greater long-term impact on America than anything on President-elect Obama's agenda. According to an AP report, "EU leaders are set to call on the Nov. 15 summit to agree immediately on five principles: submit ratings agencies to more surveillance; align accounting standards; close loopholes; set banking codes of conduct to reduce excessive risk-taking; and ask the International Monetary Fund to suggest ways of calming the turmoil."



• In connection with the previous item, recall my aforementioned possible bank holiday warning.



• Yet again, consider this dark cloud on the economic horizon: Dems Target Private Retirement Accounts -- Democrats in the U.S. House have been conducting hearings on proposals to confiscate workers' personal retirement accounts -- including 401(k)s and IRAs -- and convert them to accounts managed by the Social Security Administration.



• On a parallel course, we note multiple warnings about the strong likelihood Obama's administration will bring dramatic attacks against the 2nd Amendment.

There are plenty of not-so-subtle warnings from the Patriot Underground about this. In some cases there is talk of small groups, sometimes individuals simply cooperating toward a single goal. I hear a lot of "committee of one" talk, too. I have no doubt there are a million or so of these types, if not more. By now they've all learned about 4th Generation Warfare. Those idiots who make a splash on the news being arrested before their plots can be implemented have no connection with the real deal. These folks won't get caught until they are ready, because all of them are veterans of military service, or some sort of federal armed service, and I don't know any who don't read up on tactics. A great many actually train regularly. They are easily a match for any SWAT or other elite force the government can muster.

Naturally, we should be surprised if any great number of them suddenly decide to act at once. They don't all have the same tipping point, the same line in the sand. It really depends on whether the new administration suddenly pushes hard in all directions at once. That would be incredibly foolish. Unfortunately, it seems increasingly likely. Most of the Patriot Underground do cling to a common philosophy regarding liberty, the original meaning of the Constitution, and similar thoughts. They will remind you quickly such rights as enshrined in the 2nd Amendment are not privileges granted by government, but rights bestowed on man by God. Thus, governments are bound to recognize them, or pay the price. Many have been itching for quite some time under previous administrations, including the one still in power. I'm not sure how we have avoided the tipping point already, but I have no doubt we'll hit it in 2009.

As with Abraham, I'm not real interested in jumping into such an armed revolt. I keep an ear and eye on what the Patriot Underground is saying, but I'm not really a part of them. My sympathy is mostly academic. Liberty and rights aren't the language of my thoughts. I've already noted many times I owe no allegiance to any human government, including the imaginary one which could adhere to the US Constitution. I am a citizen of the Kingdom of Heaven, and all else is just a collection of tools for serving Jehovah. It's not that I won't raise arms against a threat, but I won't do it on the basis of abstractions like liberty and rights. Any affinity I have for weapons of war is limited to their usefulness in my calling. God can do a lot more, far better than I or the whole million-plus put together, so guns aren't necessarily the key. If He calls me to play doormat for His glory, then expect to see me wearing footprints.

In my mind, I have to make room for all possibilities. Nothing would I deny my Lord at His command. Naturally, I have some very human-grade expectations, tentative and based on what I now see with mere intelligence (such as it is). We stand a good chance of a full economic crash in 2009, and almost certainly before 2010 ends. I have a strong confidence most of those in high government positions are utterly lacking in common sense, so we will probably see attempts at bolstering government's continued horrendous rate of resource consumption by way of confiscation on a scale currently unimaginable. That includes attempts to draft huge numbers into forced service of all sorts. The arrogance of those same high officials would easily lead them to use intentional affliction of starvation to make folks pliable. In other words, we could easily see the worst tactics of the Soviets and Nazis leading up the WW2 right here in the US. My place in this mess has yet to be revealed to me.

I can assure you I would by no means willingly serve such a government. How I might resist will be determined by the context at the time. Should things take a more sensible course, I might be pretty cooperative. Should anything at all in this world threaten my extended family, I'll be the first to take up arms. It happens I already know I can pull the trigger and watch someone die on those terms.

Biblical Rebellion: No Earthly Allies

So we take for granted symbolic death with the expectation of a literal death in service to the Kingdom of Heaven. Note it does not matter whether the pendulum swings toward persecution, as it has these days, or not. This radical commitment to death is also highly objectionable to most of those who claim our Savior. It matters not whether these are spiritually dead impostors or those actually born-again but deceived. Their zeal for shutting us up will be the same in the short run. In other words, seeking to work within the current organized religious structure is risky business. Not pointless, but risky, because far too many still believe as did the Pharisees that God's primary mark of favor is measurable success in this life. For the same reason the Pharisees saw no problem with executing Christ, today's church members may not react well to your other-worldly focus.

Spiritual logic escapes all but a precious few in this world. The fundamental element of spiritual logic is revealing God. All things point back to that one paramount purpose. God can be known only in the presence of His own Spirit, simply because nothing in human nature is capable of grasping Him. He places His Presence where He chooses, invariably in individual humans. While there is a lifelong process of coming to accommodate that Presence, including learning to think on a different level, we can safely assume those who have His Spirit will somehow recognize an action which reveals Him. They may not get it right away, but that's not our problem -- it's His problem. We operate in our best understanding, with impressions hard to quantify or explain, bubbling up into our conscious minds in all manner of manifestations. The purpose of these impressions is to impel action, any action which extends that revelation further. All of this will of necessity escape those limited to human logical operations.

We never ask the question whether someone is actually a member of the Kingdom. We cannot know. Questions of being, even of mere doing, are never an issue in our minds. The question is always whether we can work alongside that. We give little thought to the time frame of any such association, because we think eternally. While we may, on occasion, be granted some insight into the spiritual mechanism of events in which we are immersed, the idea is to remain centered on what we must do in each given context. Everything is contextual. The only absolute is God Himself, and precious few actions can be singled out as always wrong or always right. Would anyone be surprised most of those have to do with violating another person? We never coerce unless it's necessary to prevent a greater violation of His Kingdom. The question at every moment of our association with others is not their status or their actions, but whether we can find in our convictions room to continue.

Convictions are the primary means of knowing God's will in the process of revealing Him. As defined previously, convictions are the body of commitments gripping us, from which we cannot depart without a sense of violating ourselves before God. I can't watch someone suffer without a powerful pull to help in some way. I can't avoid teaching what I understand of the Kingdom regardless of whatever else I'm doing. If those actions bring me into conflict with some earthly authority, that's not my problem. Surely, such conflict will affect my course of action, but nothing any earthly entity can do or say will change that wordless drive to act. My convictions are those impulses which will not be silent, from which I could never walk away. They are the core of what defines my service in the Kingdom. Their existence is a miracle of grace. While the content of my convictions yield to His nurturing hand, my only contribution is seeking to clarify them, so that I can obey them.

People whose spirits remain dead cannot reach higher than human logic. While our calling in the Kingdom requires we understand such logic, we clearly hitch it to the service of spiritual logic. Thus, we can be fully aware of human logic's failures to grasp things eternal. Spiritual logic is much higher, and takes precedence in all things. To those rooted in this life, such is most certainly illogic, but that is their problem. As long as that's the best they can do, they aren't an ally. Human logic is their god, their highest standard, and "different" equals "failure" when they compare. This is not but a masquerade which makes man his own god.

We dare not give allegiance to anything rooted in this earth. All such allegiances will unfailingly demand compromise on convictions. God is higher than all things in Creation, and demands unqualified allegiance to Himself. His Kingdom interests are too obviously the best interests to all life. Everything within the bounds of Creation is a tool for the Kingdom. That includes all human authority. It's possible to be respectful in holy dissent against any earthly power, but we find throughout human history, all powers on earth eventually make room for no other power. Every government seeks to be god, however limited they may see their domain. When any government crosses that line, it is time to rebel.

Biblical Rebellion: End Point First

I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer me living in this body alone, but Christ lives in me. This new existence in my old body is fully committed to God's Son. He is worthy because He loved me enough to give Himself for me. (Galatians 2:20)

The whole point of a rebellion is getting from some bad place to a good place. The rebellion is over when the bad is removed. In a biblical rebellion, what is the end point? Death.

If we have not yet passed through His death, we cannot claim any part in His Kingdom. If He has not been granted authority to rearrange all things in your world to His liking, and make every decision for you, He is not your Lord. The whole of our lives is the process of surrendering ever more of ourselves to Him. When it gets to the point you are quite literally ready to face death, you might prove useful.

In our case, the rebellion begins when our flesh is dead and our spirits alive. In the real world, there is overlap, but getting from here to there requires seeing the goal. A war without an objective can never see victory. Victory for us is an end to sin. We know we cannot end it so long as we exist in fallen flesh, so the war is to carry the battle to our own flesh, because that is the enemy's greatest ally. In other words, we can't have victory over the world until we have victory over ourselves.

However, I am calling for a realization we are supposed to meet a very human defeat, a very human death. Look forward to it, not in the sense of suicide, but in the sense there's nothing you won't do to obey the Lord. Pass out the hammers and nails to your world. Until that battle is won, you can't really do much in this world with the time left until you are physically dead. You are dead weight on the rest of the Kingdom until you are dead in the flesh. You pull your weight when you have that dead flesh to carry around. That's what it means to be with Jesus in this world. At some point, the symbolism becomes reality, and you are with Jesus in another world.

Our defeat of the sinful Kingdom of Darkness is chiefly in our own flesh. Our rebellion is against our natural inclinations to go along and get along. Until we reject this world's values, ways and demands, we cannot hope to rebel against it, we cannot hope to make the gospel message heard. Our warfare is revealing Him. We have a fight on our hands just making it clear He is not what the human mind imagines of Him.

Life of Christ: Luke 22:39-71

Jesus could easily have fled. Judas left with little more than a good guess where he would find Jesus once he rendezvoused with the Temple Guard and Roman troops. Only if Jesus remained consistent with His habits would Judas avoid looking the fool. However, Jesus had faced everything up to now with equanimity. He refused to act from fear. On the other hand, knowing His trials and death were prophesied did not make it easy. He was still a man. They had gone to pray in the Garden quite often. If ever He needed that time with the Father, it was this very night. The arrest was at hand, and Jesus knew He had to surrender.

He led His remaining disciples across the Kidron Valley into the place they always went. To all appearances, it was a night like an other night so far. The disciples did not understand this was the moment of crisis. Jesus warned them to pray they avoid too harsh a trial. Then He walked away some distance and prayed. Jesus needed very much to hear from His Father one more time the utter necessity of this awful path, this cup of bitter poison. The Father's response was not deliverance from the sorrowful task, but an angel to bring an extra measure of strength for the task. So great was the agony, sweat poured off Jesus, much as the blood would in just a few hours. This was His last night to pray in this place.

Luke shows the paradox of spiritual crisis being so unobtrusive in the material world. Everything was about to change irrevocably for all Creation, yet the only mark on earth was a damp spot on the ground and dim memories in sleepy minds. When the time had come, Jesus was ready. The battle was over, and all that was left was tidying up the formalities. The disciples missed the whole thing. Jesus found them sleeping, because, Luke tells us, they were too burdened. The heaviness of their eyelids was a symbol of heavy minds not yet set free by the Spirit to understand. They knew nothing except Jesus scolding them for what came naturally, saying something about an awful trial.

Every trial begins with an arrest. The ignorant dreams of the disciples about a kingdom on earth were about to be taken away forever, even as their Master was being taken away by a mixed mob of troops and officials. It was truly overkill to bring such a massive group, and Judas looked ridiculous with his effusive greeting of his former Rabbi. Jesus mocked the whole thing as unnecessary. So was the response of His disciples, for it was too late to fight. The battle had been utterly spiritual in nature, and was over. If they fought now, all of them would be dead quickly, and save the Jewish and Roman governments a lot of trouble. Jesus had to ensure He died for no earthly just reason at all. Wounding a few hapless human pawns was pointless. Jesus demanded the disciples desist fighting and let it be.

Jesus healed the wounded man -- such an awful threat He was! To the massive throng which came out to arrest Him, He ridiculed their show of force. What did they fear that they couldn't arrest Him in the His daily teaching sessions in the Temple, right there in their laps? Well, they would have their brief hour of power over Him. Again, the sense of paradox was excruciating. They felt so very threatened only because He needed no earthly power to destroy them. So to feel safe, they had to side with Satan to keep what they were so sure God had given them. All the while, they had no idea what God had actually given. Not only had they missed entirely the vast spiritual riches, they had corrupted the word of Moses and lost the rich earthly blessings available through the Law. And because Jesus dared call attention to this, they wanted Him dead in the worst way.

Brave Peter, who swung the blade in Jesus' defense, had now passed the moment of his human bravery. Even as it declined, he still had the courage to at least tail the arrest party from a distance. The most probable route was down the Kiddron to the Hinnom Valley, then around below the old Pool of Siloam, and up the western side through the Tyropoeon Valley. The Residence of the High Priest was just off the street running up that shallow draw. The night was cool at that season, so while the officials and their prisoner met in the open entryway of the house, the servants clustered in the yard below around a fire. Peter was among them. Someone recognized him. Then someone else. In the idle chatter, his Galilean accent gave him away. Each time, Peter denied with increasing vehemence knowing Jesus.

The moment had come for Peter, and the rooster crowed. A glance from Jesus, standing as the center of attention in the entryway above, was all it took to remind Peter what Jesus had warned. Peter wept bitterly and ran away. Yet another spiritual paradox. Among men, he was the worst, a traitor to his Master. On the spiritual level, it was simply a matter of stripping away the last shred of human dignity so he would be ready to know the depth of his need before the Lord. Until that moment, Peter was not yet ready to use.

Things got worse for Jesus, though. As they waited for the sun to rise, the soldiers holding Him beat and mocked Him. That the officials permitted this only served to indict them as criminals. At long last, daylight shone. Jesus was brought before the officially convened Sanhedrin. They asked Him whether He claimed to be the Messiah. Wrong question. They were not competent to judge the matter. If they were to actually entertain the question, He could prove He was the Messiah. However, they had no real interest in the matter, wishing only a pretext to turn Him over to Rome, since they could not lawfully order His execution. That would only serve His plans, since He was just a step or two from taking His throne in Heaven.

They seized upon this as the one thing they felt was within their purview. Did He claim to be the Son of God? His answer was an idiom, roughly equivalent to, "You wouldn't think to ask if you weren't already convinced in your hearts it was true." Because they were spiritually blind and hardened to conviction, it was like handing them the one thing they needed. In their minds, He had blasphemed in their presence. There was no further need for legal proceedings; He had confessed.

The vast gulf between the eyes of the flesh and the eyes of the Spirit could not be more obvious. In the former, what happened that night was probably routine in many ways. It would be forgotten. Indeed, many have denied the story since it took place. Sadly, many deny the spiritual power of the story by overly embellishing it with a very human grade of holiness. Luke left out so many details because what really mattered would be hard to explain in words. Only a spiritual mind could receive the unspeakable weight of that moment in the garden. For Jesus, the hardest part was already past. He was ready for what would follow.

Biblical Rebellion: Introduction

We serve Christ. Our Lord and Master rules the Kingdom of Heaven, and we are His subjects.

Jesus once stated the principle, "No man can serve two masters." In the context, it was about giving your allegiance to the Spirit, or to material wealth and what it can buy. Everyone on this earth who does not actively serve the King of Heaven is by default actively serving something else, and that something is inside Satan's Kingdom of Darkness. There's no neutral ground. You can call it anything you like, but if you aren't working with Jesus to build up His Kingdom, you are automatically working for Satan's. This is true simply by default, as we all begin in the Kingdom of Darkness from birth. We are all bound for Hell, and by His grace, the Lord rescues some of us.

It seems so odd we have to restate such things so often. Does that not lend proof? Our entire world system is designed to make you ignore such fundamental truth. It's so easy to forget.

If you depart from the Kingdom of Darkness, you are war with it. That Kindom owns all the governments of mankind. Saying they are granted by God must remain in the proper context, as with all biblical principles. Remember the Covenant of Noah: It has nothing to do with spiritual salvation, but only a matter of sinners keeping other sinners in check. Here we go again: Sinners by definition sin. While some actions may bring benign results, as they stand before God, nothing they do is righteous. No action can be called "good" by the Kingdom standard because they stand outside the Kingdom. You are either in or out. When you come to Christ, you are rejecting the world and its ways.

Christians by definition are rebels. Everything Christ commanded puts us at odds with human government.

It doesn't have to be an armed revolt, but it is certainly a conscious rejection of all this world holds dear. We have with Christ nailed this life to the Cross. Everything we could have gained before coming to the Cross is now on the altar. All our worldly wealth, all our actions and plans, all our hopes and dreams in this life are forfeit to the Kingdom of Heaven. We gladly suffer poverty, misery, even death, because in Christ, they are all mere circumstances of service. Do you not know court judges in our land have condemned that openly? There is legal precedent for calling a sincere Christian conscience "insanity" in need of remediation. If you have a genuine other-worldly, spiritual mindset, you are in violation of American cultural and civil standards. Why do we suffer such great spiritual weakness in our land? We have found too many ways to compromise with the demands of our government, and not been willing to resist sin until our blood was shed.

I won't pretend I have it all figured out. What follows in this series of posts is certainly open to comment and suggestion. Not the basic assumptions, but the implementation. The Word calls us out of this world, to rebel and give ourselves to a course of action which cannot avoid provoking a response. How we react to that response is our witness. Some of it we can predict; some will surprise us. Tribulation is the native environment of professing Christians in this world. Let's examine what we might do in concrete terms, where we live today, to be more firmly in the rebel camp of Christ.

Isaiah 23

We do not know the origins of the Phoenician people, but first find them settled along the northern coast of Palestine. In the Bible, their name is Canaan, meaning the ancient murex red-purple dye which was their primary stock and trade at first. Great early seafarers, they were known for their devotion to profit, more or less as a deity. It was they who first taught King Solomon about borrowing, investing and interest. It was their Princess Jezebel who raised idolatry to such great political power in the Northern Kingdom. The Phoenicians did not hesitate to carry on a brisk trade in Israeli slaves. Sidon was their home city in the region, and Tyre was their colony, eventually becoming the throne, not to mention primary sea port.

Isaiah pictures the ships coming from Tarshish (most likely Spain), stopping at the Phoencian colony of Cyprus on the way, and learning their destination of Tyre has been destroyed. All their freight will bring them no profit, because the port and harbor are destroyed. During Isaiah's time, Tyre was the primary market for Egyptian grain, carrying it all over the Mediterranean. The image shows merchants in deep depression over the loss of such a powerful market. Sidon cries out as a city with no population. Egypt won't be too happy with the loss of their number one trading partner.

The residents of Tyre and Sidon are warned to flee, to leave the cities and run to Tarshish with their tears. Looking at the future ruins, people will wonder if this had ever been such a mighty city as Tyre could become vacant rubble. This was the famous city built on a rock just off shore, a uniquely wealthy city of great beauty. Who would plan such a destruction? Jehovah, the one who granted them the power to make such wealth. It's the way God handles the arrogance of worldly authority.

Isaiah depicts the Phoenicains as fleeing in all directions like water bubbling up from a spring. Too late! The Lord has decided to shake the land, to destroy its prize fortresses. Even if they flee to their colony of Cyprus, they can't rest. It, too, will be taken over by their enemies. What enemies? The Chaldeans, Babylon. While it's true Nebuchadnezzar was unable to break into Tyre after a twelve-year seige, he did destroy everything else belonging to the Phoenicians, and forced Cyprus to pay tribute. These Chaldeans were nobodies, just rude desert rats when Assyria built them up, gave them civilization and made them great. Lacking in gratitude, they rose against their former masters and destroyed them. While Tyre was safe, the Phoenicians were nearly destroyed.

From the time of Nebuchadnezzar's failed siege, weakened Tyre would hardly be of any significance for the lifespan of most kings, seventy years. They became good friends with Babylon's conquerors, the Persians, but didn't rise to any prominence for quite some time. Tyre courting the Persians was like a pitiful aging harlot. No longer pretty enough to draw customers, she entertains best she can by exerting her few remaining talents. Ancient harlots were usually entertainers in the broader sense, and it was common to find the old ones singing in the streets, haunting their old customers for a tiny portion of their former wages. After seventy years of obscurity, the old harlot Tyre would again become famous, and find new clients. However, that would be about the time the Persians demand she contribute to the rebuilding of the Temple and Jerusalem in the Restoration.

With this, Isaiah ends his burdens against neighboring nations, and returns to lashing his own people with the Word of God. Let the nations know these calamities come upon them as part of the collateral damage for punishing Israel.

Post Election Analysis

Disclaimer: The evidence I don't care who won this election is abundant. The point here is not strategizing for future elections, but to point out what everyone seems to want to ignore. This election was about race. At every point throughout, I kept hearing and seeing the phrase "black President," or variations on that theme. Thus, most of the other verbiage was smokescreen.

That the whole thing was racist should not surprise anyone who has their eyes open. It's no delusion to note relations between blacks, Hispanics, and everyone else are tense. That's a broad generalization common to Social Sciences, which is hardly true in every case, in every locale, etc. But to ignore it means you aren't discussing anything important when you talk or write about this election.

You will surely hear gracious words meant to allay the very real fears of a large segment of racist whites. I sincerely hope such words reflect the majority trend as we head down the road. Only a fool would expect future government policies to be predominately color-blind. Preferences will abound. Never mind whether you feel they are just or unjust, it will be a central theme in what follows.

The soul of American politics is to breed mindless loyalty to party, agenda, etc. In a some places, it verges on insanity as the thing becomes god. Tensions have been pushed to the point where they cannot avoid boiling over in some way. The very real danger to which I'm slowly pointing is race war. Win, lose, or draw for Obama, what we can expect to see all too soon is race war. Not in the sense of every black and every white slugging it out in the streets, but in the sense a tiny few here and there engaging in provocation and brinkmanship until there is bloodshed. Somebody will simply not be able to resist rubbing someone else's face in it, whatever it may be.

It won't much matter what the law says here and there regarding possession and carrying of firearms -- a whole lot more people will be carrying guns real soon. For those of us who have no dog in this fight, we aren't going to avoid being a target sooner or later, for the simple reason we each have a skin color and we'll invariably cross paths with someone who objects to what that color symbolizes for them.

Pray how you will prepare, in accordance with your calling from God.

The Principle of Worship

I've given a lot of space here to teaching about the work of the Holy Spirit in the human soul. While His powerful wind blows as a sail upon the hearts of the Lost, He blows within the hearts of His own. Our lifelong struggle is learning to hear the Breath of God, and discern where He points us.

Few things we might do to that end can match spending time in worship. The greatest difficulty in pursuing that principle is peeling back the layers of crud encrusting that truth. There are groups who think they own this, simply because they enjoy so much what they call worship. The resulting glow and resolve may well bring a better view of His purpose, but it's hard to be sure when there is so much baggage of an obviously mere cultural nature weighing it down.

Do not mistake mere emotional stirring for the hand of God. The deepest sinner with a talent for music and an understanding of psychology and culture can make you feel you've been in the presence of God. This is not about vessels for a cause, but whether you have to have that atmosphere to worship. You need not feel anything at all to worship. If you can't say you've been in God's presence because you weren't emotionally stirred, you have a deep misunderstanding of God. The emotions are merely along for the ride, and have no say in the matter.

I often say we worship best without any artistry. That is, we find out our own capacity for seeking the Lord's face when the conditions strip away all the comfortable associations we have with fine music (carefully selected for taste) and a large group to give support to swelling emotions. If the melody is not made in your heart first, then you are faking it. That is, you are being led falsely, and permitting it for the sake of something lower than the Spirit. Try worshiping in a small group without instruments, but with human voices alone, including all those who can't carry a tune.

Until you can worship without emotional outburst, and without all the cultural trappings; until you can worship and devote your self fully to the Lord in acknowledging His Lordship quietly; until you can strip away all the trappings of man and find that glowing center in itself, you cannot claim to worship under any conditions at all.

When we get past that, we can then begin to work at finding what His voice sounds like in our spiritual ears. For of a surety, worship is the means to clearing our hearts and minds of other impulses and pressures, and making us able to walk away knowing something regarding our service we did not know before. Worship Him because you cannot avoid it.

Tribulation Report #023: Home Medicine A

The saints of God will tribulate.

For the next few Tribulation Reports, I'll be covering medical information you'll need to know when tribulation gets deeper. No matter who wins today's election, tribulation will most certainly increase, if for no other reason our economy will crash hard. I've given up hope for a soft landing, because the idiots in Washington have struggled so hard to avoid the inevitable, instead of getting us through it safely and quickly.

Today we look at one of the top killers from before there was modern medicine: respiratory infections -- AKA colds. Yes, they were often fatal, particularly in parts of the world that experienced extended periods of below-freezing temperatures. A quick way to kill off a big chunk of the human population is to remove standard treatments for head and chest colds.

Here's how it works. Most humans have allergies which affect the respiratory system. Something out there will release pollen, fine dust will blow around, or any number of other things. Our bodies launch a response to fight off the presence of these allergens. Those defenses tend to leave us vulnerable to things which, frankly, are around most of the year. They don't affect us because our bodies' standard defenses keep them out. Fighting allergens changes the tactics, and our standard defenses lay down, as it were.

The mucus membranes simply dry up briefly. That's the first defense gone. That means a sinus reaction to the first cold virus to come along. Would you believe central forced-air heating only aggravates this? Along with dry, warm air come allergens hiding in the heating ducts all summer. Wake up some morning with your sinuses dry and slightly uncomfortable? You will surely get sick.

So the sinuses then overreact and a heavy flow of mucus comes. But it's usually thicker, and doesn't do its proper job. It serves to hold the virus in place. Should it thicken too much, naturally occurring bacteria can incubate in the sinuses and cause a serious infection, on top of the other stuff. Should our defenses be insufficient to the task, without treatment that infection would easily become fatal. Many people in ancient times died of sinus infections, often as infants. Most of the time it was thought of simply in terms of the fever that came with it.

Another part of this allergy response is any number of attacks which cause the cilia in your bronchial tubes to stop working. These hair-like fibers anchored in the walls of your bronchial tubes and in your lungs normally push mucus back up to the top for expelling. When they fail, or become overwhelmed, that infected mucus drains down and attacks the lungs. Nasty.

While various herbal treatments, like echinacea, can help reduce our allergic response, too often we just don't know until it's too late. Treatment for now usually includes antihistamines to break the allergy reaction, and decongestants to force the sinuses to run the mucus thinner. Those treatments have the bad side effect of elevating the blood pressure, by the way. The reason they do this is because the primary defense against most such things is a higher metabolism.

If you have a roaring furnace of a metabolism, you'll fight off most of this stuff quite well. If you are used to burning lots of calories, then a respiratory attack won't drop you to your knees so easily, and you can still maintain some of your normal activities. Obviously, this means athletes fare better during allergy season. What may not be so obvious is the medication works a lot better if you already have that level of activity. So, after a night's bad sleep, you still need to get up first thing and do enough exercise to break a sweat. That will offer some limited symptomatic relief by itself.

Other known remedies include spicy foods to open the sinuses; the hotter, the better. Lots of vitamin C from lots of different sources. Hot drinks without caffeine or HFCS.

Recommendations: Plan to avoid forced-air heat. It's deadly. You are actually better with no heat at all, in terms of your body's health. If you are whiny about such things, prepare to whine a great deal. Lay in a supply of remedies you prefer, based on past experience. I am highly prone to this particular problem, and I'm very careful to watch for the least little change which might signal an allergen sapping my defenses. Know your own body.

Naturally, I'll remind everyone to work out as vigorously as possible. As we age, we maintain our fitness by shorter duration, but keeping the high intensity.

"Please Step Back"

If possible, I'd like to ask you to step back from your daily grind. Take the long view of things.

Our God has plans we cannot imagine, for purposes even more unimaginable. In these plans are a million little miracles, and far too many tragedies for our liking. While we are permitted to understand a part of His heart, we cannot know why the tragedies must be in specific cases. All we are offered is the broad understanding there is sin in this fallen world, and sin kills.

Now, come back down to a closer view. A sample tragedy, ongoing even as I write, is the major health problems for a young musical genius, Caden Welborn. I suggest you investigate his music, and consider buying his CDs. I'm doing that, myself.

Yes, pray for his recovery. We can ill afford in this dark world to lose too many bright lights of talent. Perhaps the Lord has plans for Caden which would continue to enrich us all if we are more aware of his kind. We cannot know, because this is something He sees fit not to reveal, but we know the principle remains He hears us when we pray.

But also, step back away from this particular, and again see the grand whole. With the economy heading for a major crash, what do you suppose that would do to the treatment program currently keeping all the Cadens of this land alive? Do you doubt sin has caused things to head in this direction? Sure, you can propose the notion our profligate economy has helped to fund the development of treatments, but I suggest sin is what keeps it so expensive. So while you dig into the cold academic truths about regulation and the sins it seeks to hold back, consider the implementation of such a good idea (the Covenant of Noah) does not have to be so shot full of greed.

You could easily twist your mind into knots chasing down the various threads and implications of that mess. We take for granted people will seek any and every means to prosper at the expense of others. We could never possibly hope to fix it all in this fallen world. Yet, we could most certainly tell them there is a better way, and call for Truth to set aright what He will.

Our place in this is, with one hand to reach out to the Cadens of the world with our love and support, even while we watch the world around him crumble. Then, with the other hand we hold forth the truth to a world stone deaf in their drive for "me, Me, ME!" and wait for the Holy Spirit to make what path He will in their minds. He rules; we do not.

May the good Lord of Creation carry you, Caden, through this awful disaster rolling down upon us. Deep would be our sorrow if that means losing you.

You're Not Supposed to Have Fun

In times past, we had a problem with our parents and grandparents telling us church wasn't supposed to be fun. We were supposed to sit there in stolid obedience to duty because that's the way it had to be. Somehow, the Spartan brand of Christianity failed to inspire me. I never could accept the dour and sour-faced brand of holiness which crushed our joy. It was a perverse form of worldliness.

So we got loose in the second half of the 20th Century. Fine, but that, too, went too far very quickly. Somehow, the pragmatic and worldly entertainment factor became the real god of many churches. Now we are plagued with so much of this, we can scarcely go anywhere it isn't. It seems every place I've been which was interesting and fun, it was also too much bogus and worldly.

In a sense we come full circle. Now we end up saying, "If it's too much fun, it's probably phony." The pendulum swings...

Life of Christ: Luke 22:1-38

It seems necessary to remind ourselves once again Luke tells his Gospel from the perspective of an educated Gentile. While there is an awareness of Jewish peculiarities, they are not central to the narrative as they were in Matthew's Gospel. Thus, Luke outlines the final hours of Jesus' life minus a great deal of Jewish detail. One thing which stands clear, though, is Luke makes clear the place of earthly national Israel and the reign of Mosaic Law ends once and for all in Christ.

At this point, only one of the disciples understands there will be no revolt, neither by divine miracle nor by insurrection. The Olivet Discourse was the final clarification for him. Judas was never loyal to Jesus Himself, but to a partisan political philosophy which included removing Rome. At first, Jesus seemed the best hope for his nation's long-sought freedom from pagan domination, a liberty to once again serve God wholly and faithfully. There is no reason to doubt Judas' sincere hope on behalf of his nation. By the same token, he quite obviously sees his God through pretty much the same lens as that of the Pharisees, with the primary difference being his hope for a purity of implementation. He hoped to do that to which the Pharisees merely paid lip service.

It was the day prior to the actual Feast of Unleavened Bread when Judas chose the pragmatic path. If the Pharisees could not be removed, best come to terms with them, by offering to bring Jesus into the custody of the national leadership. Jesus had been careful to avoid that until the time was right. As the Passover Lamb Himself, He must fulfil the Law while under the Law, which meant dying on that high and holy day upon which the identity of Israel was wholly dependent: The Exodus. A Roman could not fail to know about that event, at least as a national legend of the Jews. It remained the single mark of God's favor, of His carefully singling them out of all the nations of the world. While promised long before Moses, it was Moses who was chosen to implement the Covenant as God's agent. Having drained the whole core of spiritual value out of that covenant, it was already dead under the hands of Jewish leaders. They jumped at the chance to catch their number one problem in a quiet place, at night away from the crowds. Judas was at least faithful to his new commitment.

We take a moment to clarify the timing of these events. Luke is careful to lay out chronological and historical details with an eye outside the Jewish frame of reference. Everyone knew Jews, along with many other Near Eastern nations, regarded the new day as beginning at sunset. Judas was the treasurer, and would have been sent out on Tuesday, 12th of Nisan that year, to purchase food for the Passover Meal. During this trip, he could easily have stopped by the office of the Temple Guards and conferred with the captain on duty, who would certainly have summoned any available elders, priests, etc.

The next day, Wednesday 13 Nisan, the day lambs were presented at the Temple for ritual slaughter and butchered for roasting, Jesus sent Peter and John to find the house whose host would have offered to provide a room and the facilities for preparing the food purchased by Judas. They would have typically begun about mid-afternoon. Because this meal would have placed Jesus and the disciples inside the city walls, Jesus kept some of the arrangements secret from even His disciples. Peter and John had no idea where they were to make sure things were ready, so Jesus gave them a pre-arranged signal, something they would have noticed, since men seldom carried water. That task was always relegated to females. The house to which he carried this water jug was the place. After speaking to the hosts of the home, they inspected the settings and took the lamb to the Temple for ritual slaughter, then began the prescribed roasting process. The hour of the meal would mean the group arrived at this house when the first three stars were visible in the darkening sky. How much of this Theophilus might have known, we cannot guess, but Luke seems to assume some familiarity.

At the meal, Jesus noted it was a passionate desire of His to celebrate this last Passover. He was about to suffer, by which He meant all those awful things He had been describing to them over the past couple of years -- arrested, flogged, and nailed to a cross. It was the last time He would celebrate this festival, because it was about to reach fulfillment. It was one of those many symbols in the Law of Moses pointing out the higher spiritual realities. The Passover was not so much about the birth of an earthly Israel, but the birth of a Heavenly Kingdom, and Jesus was the Lamb. By saying He would not eat of it any more until it was fulfilled, Jesus pointed directly to the New Testament practice of communion. Thus, in the next few moments He redefined the meaning of certain elements of the Passover Meal to mean something new in the New Kingdom.

Luke passes quickly over much of the unique Jewish meaning of the symbolic meal to explain to Theophilus whence the practice of communion came. There was the common cup, to be shared among those present. It was the last wine Jesus would taste until the New Wine of the Kingdom. The unleavened bread of purity was His body, shortly to be given for His Kingdom of disciples. They were to celebrate in this fashion are a remembrance of His sacrifice. The final cup was the call to prepare for the future of God's promises. He made it a covenant of His blood, shed for the sins of the world. By these words, the Old Covenant was gone.

These symbols would take on shape and meaning for the disciples after Christ ascended and the Holy Spirit came. Until then, there were a few more items to which He must attend. First, was His betrayal. It was prophesied, and the traitor was present at that table. How sad, for while Judas alone did understand Jesus had no intention of changing the political order, he understood nothing else. Judas didn't betray simply his Rabbi, but his God. Luke mentions they discussed who the traitor could be, since any arrest of Jesus would surely include them all.

This created a dispute, but there were many such disputes among the Twelve. Luke also mentions their debate about which position each would hold in the coming royal court of their Messiah. Jesus turned this discussion on its head, pointing out the very idea was contrary to the way the Kingdom operated. Gentile rulers were referred to as serving the needs of the people, even as they might run roughshod over their subjects' lives. In the Kingdom, serving was greatness. He backed His assertion by pointing out they all called Him Master, and waited on Him as personal servants, which was part of being any great teacher's disciples. Yet, His very existence among them was as a servant, preparing the suffer the ultimate indignity on their behalf. Because they had followed Him faithfully, even to the last moment, He would indeed grant them authority. But it would be a Kingdom of servants, and they would rule as chief servants, with Him as the Lord Servant. Their service would make them fit to judge their own nation, but they would do so in the Spiritual Kingdom above.

The obvious head of the group, second to Jesus at this point, was Peter, as he was the eldest. Jesus addressed him as the leader, noting Satan had demanded -- and received -- permission to sift the whole group. It would be painful, earthshaking for them, but the chaff would be removed. Jesus had already prayed for Peter, receiving the promise he would bring them all back into service by his example and leadership. Naturally, Peter affirmed his commitment to Jesus, expecting to share the fate of his Lord. That was not to be. Even after affirming He expected Peter to keep the faith, He described how Peter would fail. Before dawn, Peter would thrice deny even knowing Him. Apparently, the Kingdom would turn a great many more things on their heads.

The old customs of the Jews regarding preachers and their care would come to an end. In the Kingdom, His servants could expect no help from the world. They did well by faith within the Covenant system, but that would die shortly. Now they must make plans to support themselves. They would need the tools of the world to make their way in it. They would need to carry purses, supplies, and perhaps even prepare to defend themselves. This gave a hint of not being too worried about human laws, since such laws would hardly favor them. Ownership of weapons was illegal under Roman law. Carrying any knife bigger than a small kitchen peeler was viewed with suspicion. It was likely professional fishermen might get away with bending the rules, but two of them that night were carrying longer knives, technically illegal. This was almost surely the result of not just preparing the Passover Meal, but thinking there might be trouble. Jesus had seemed so cautious about things up until now.

Jesus noted the prophecies said He would be considered a crook. It was to signal how God's truth was offensive to the mass of humanity, even His own people. They had long since moved so far away, there was no path back in this world, but only in that above. In this case, Jesus was in the company of men who had long considered how they might go about overthrowing the current Jewish government, and perhaps the Roman government, too. While it would happen in a symbolic sense, that was not at all what they were thinking. It would have been most likely a humorous moment when Jesus notes two of them bear illegal weapons, saying what would be in modern parlance, "That'll do it."