Kiln of the Soul

Inactivating This Blog

2011-05-13T14:04:00.004-06:00

All future activity will be posted at MyOpera. Those of you who link to this blog please update. For those of you who email me at my Gmail account, it's now soulkiln@myopera.com . While I do not intend closing this blog, per se, it will eventually be inactivated because I won't be posting here any more.

The reason is Google has begun an intrusive campaign, demanding a cellphone number for all accounts as the only way they will interact when something doesn't work properly. I realize they have a massive user base, but they have already displayed a contemptuous lack of accountability to users too many times.

Blogger Outage

2011-05-13T11:38:00.002-06:00

In case you didn't know, Blogger was not available for posting during the past two days. You could still read what was already up, but no one could add anything. Not even the folks who are paying for their Blogger accounts were exempt. That's an awful lot of commercial operations that couldn't post new content, some with typically a lot of posting activity.

What does this say when a company like Google (which owns Blogger) with an advertising budget bigger than the gross national product of most countries can't keep such an essential service working?

I had already decided to reduce my emphasis on this blog, using it mostly for Bible studies and a few purely spiritual posts. Frankly, I was getting more reaction and traffic at my other blog. Even more importantly, it was a move of the Spirit I should not trust Google so much before this outage hit.

Learn to hear and obey such spiritual impulses.

Ezekiel 20

2011-05-13T11:37:00.000-06:00

Ezekiel offers a date we regard as mid-August 591 BC, referring to the seventh year of exile. The elders of the Exile came to inquire of Ezekiel, but the Lord rejected their inquiry. The Lord asked Ezekiel if he was ready to place judge on God's behalf.

The Lord comes as a witness against the elders, who are representing their nation. He chose the nation, and raised His hand in their presence, as it were, swearing an oath to faithfully draw Israel out of slavery and out Egypt. He promised to take them to their own country, the best land reserved just for them. He also swore to execute the Law of Moses generously in their favor.

They rebelled from the very first word of Moses regarding their deliverance, and at every step along the way. During the Exodus, during the Wandering, during the Conquest, and ever after when they had settled in the Land, the nation as a whole preferred the pagan deities, any deity except their own God.

Every time they turned from Him, He came very near to destroying them. Only because He wished to protect His own reputation among the Gentile nations did He withhold justice against their sins. Did it gain Him anything? Was His kindness and patience repaid? No, His own people had continued to embarrass His name among the nations. Over and over again, He reminded them, and reminded them yet again in the presence of Ezekiel: If people would simply embrace the most basic requirements of His Laws, their lives would be as good as it gets on this earth.

So the Lord rebuked the elders and told them to go away, stop bugging His prophets. Let them go and inquire of their pagan idols. Apparently the portion of the nation willing to obey Him was a tiny, slender minority. The nation as a whole would lose their place, and He would simply restrict His blessings to only those who were faithful. Some day, He would restore those faithful few to the Land, and hear their prayers, receive their offerings and answer their inquiries.

This promise came on two levels. In the literal sense, this would have been hyperbole, since the Returnees never quite rose to this level of commitment again. However, by seeing it as a parable, we realize He promises to make a New Israel, one which would not stray again because it would not be possible, since it was a spirit kingdom. Those who become the New Israel must do so in the Spirit, drawn from every Gentile nation, not based on DNA or the Law.

This becomes an issue when Ezekiel is commanded to prophesy of destruction arising from the scrub forest in the Negev. Those who face the south will have their faces scorched. Among other things, this is a warning not to turn toward Egypt, expecting some good thing to come from there, as it would only embarrass them. To this the people whined Ezekiel was using a parable and they couldn't understand. It's because they didn't accept the message in the first place. The Hebrew literature and language had been parabolic from the start, as was most of God's revelation from the very beginning. It wasn't out of reach; everyone spoke in parables to each other every day. That was Hebrew. Complaints of non-literal language was just an excuse to disobey.

Ezekiel 19

2011-05-10T13:45:00.000-06:00

This chapter is written in the dirge form. It is truly a lament from God over how things turned out. It was not what He wished, but it was what justice demanded. We have two parables using common symbols for Hebrew history.

In the first parable, we have the nation, but specifically the royal house of Israel, Judah, depicted as the lion. The household is the lioness, and her whelps are various royal sons. One of them, Jehoahaz, was taken hostage to Egypt by Pharaoh Necho. Another, Jehoiachin, was taken hostage to Babylon. These things need not have happened. They were not what God had planned for the nation, but results from the nation standing under God's wrath by choosing to disobey the Law and the prophets God sent.

The second parable depicts the nation as God's vine. The best grape vines grew stretched along a framework supported by wooden staves holding it off the ground. In this case, the rods were the kings who should have kept the kingdom strong, kept her in a condition to be fruitful. Zedekiah, so long as he was obedient to his Lord and his emperor, was in good shape, as was the nation. By his unfaithfulness, Zedekiah brought down the wrath of Babylon -- the east wind -- on his nation. As the last rod, his own punishment destroyed the nation. Now the only surviving root was planted in the spiritually barren land of Babylon. That is, only those who survived in Exile would keep the national identity alive.

This is indeed a tragedy worthy of a dirge.

Doctrine of Personal Presentation

2011-05-08T09:47:00.004-06:00

It is not possible to communicate the gospel without your personal involvement in their lives.

The ultimate Truth is a Person. He cannot be contained in propositions, words or ideas. Those only serve to indicate ways to approach Him. Actually "getting it" is entirely a matter of you and God in personal communion, a one-on-one direct encounter. His chosen means to make that happen is you and I.

Evangelism is not a sales pitch. We do not convince people to follow Christ. If He does not breathe life into their dead spirits, they cannot choose Him. Evangelism is the totality of our presentation of the gospel by how we interact with others. It must of necessity include seeing us in real life over a passage of time, with our failures as well as our successes, along with all the moments do not necessarily qualify as either one. They have to see us, hear us, touch us, smell us.

It was not simply because they didn't have the Internet or other modern technology the early Christians insisted on going to the Lost world in person. There could have been no other way to bring the truth. Just as surely as some hired crier could not tell the gospel truth without living it, so a simple written message would be insufficient. The Bible is printed characters on paper; it means nothing until it is lived by someone who receives it as the love letter of God. It is not God Himself. Sending Bibles is a noble endeavor, but by itself will not save lost souls.

The same goes with discipleship, which is only artificially separated from evangelism. Life is learning, teaching and reaching, and the gospel is the full continuum of existence in the Spirit.

An audio or video recording is also insufficient. No one can be themselves when the recorder is running. That's human nature. No one can be themselves during the first few moments of social encounter, either. The gospel message is not in those first few moments, but in the personal experience which comes over a period of time. Paul spent a bare three weeks in Thessalonica, and worried mightily it wasn't enough. That should indicate something to us today about the gospel, and how cheaply we sell it when we aren't willing to invest more resources in sending persons who are the gospel message.

It is a doctrine of this ministry we will not produce audio or video recordings. The means are available, but they are not suitable. Simple written messages serve only as a reminder of things known, or to provoke an interest in things needed. To truly understand what we teach is not possible without a face to face encounter, extended over time so we can both see each other at our best and worst, and every moment in between.

The gospel message is people.

1 Timothy 5

2011-05-07T17:42:00.001-06:00

The gospel had been in Ephesus at least ten years earlier. There would be several congregations and a thriving community of faith. The New Testament model was drawn from that of the first church in Jerusalem, with one exception. Since very few of the Gentile members would have had their extended families involved in the church, virtually every congregation would have been organized as spiritual families, emulating the same care and nurture of the Hebrew extended family. That there were fewer blood ties should hardly hinder the normal familial operations. Whatever else it might be, each congregation was first and foremost a family.

In such a setting, we would naturally expect the gentle treatment between individuals. Timothy would be new to this apostleship business, and Paul reminds him serving as the ranking representative of spiritual authority was not like the military nor a business. It's a household. Everyone is treated with the same respect as your own blood kin. Elder men who ruled in a household were expected to entertain appeals to their decisions, and younger men were future leaders. Elder women were respected as if they had once changed your diapers, and younger women were treasures.

In such a setting the issue of widowhood could easily get confused. In ancient times, it was common for women to outlive their husbands, as it was rare she didn't marry someone one or two decades older. The Hebrew community had a long history of dealing with this as a mark of their justice, insuring widows were not turned out on the streets. Her extended family was commanded by God to take care of her, and we see this same ethic brought forward into the church.

It's bad enough a great many people would join the church, initially at least, without their spouses. Some would lose their spouses, and in other letters Paul spoke of letting your unbelieving spouse go, as one who was spiritually dead. Some women would then be separated from their husbands as widows-in-effect. Given the Old Testament community would have naturally provided for such women, we see the first church in Jerusalem did the same. A woman without local blood kin relations would naturally turn to the church as her new family. We would expect such women to then be free to devote themselves to the business of the church, as they would the needs of their own household. Women still raising children didn't have time for that, and it was hard to find a place for them. Besides, younger women were still likely to be lonely for male companionship. Only those who had reached the age of sixty were likely free of such things. Paul urges Timothy to resist too quickly adding a woman to the list of widows for church welfare programs.

The first church in Jerusalem had an issue with widows requiring the appointment of elders. The churches in Ephesus had almost no organic elders; virtually all of them would be appointed. Paul notes ruling elders carried a heavy burden, and doing it well was worthy of special notice. A critical task for Hebrew elders was teaching the Law; elders in Gentile churches would do something similar. Pastors lead in spiritual matters, observing the Heavenly concerns, whereas elders governed by the Laws of God and taught practical matters. Paul said they should be paid, for the same reason the Law of Moses forbade muzzling an ox while it threshed the grain. The elders should not have to earn an outside living any more than a clan elder was expected to do physical labor. He retired from such things so he could be free to manage and lead. And it would shatter their leadership if they had to worry about every petty challenge to their decisions, so Paul's answer was to require a measure of formality to reduce the silly carping. With their limited immunity came a higher burden of responsibility, so when they were found to be in the wrong, it should be dealt with in front of everyone.

Timothy was reminded to be as unbiased as possible in these matters. Paul also advised him to drink wine, because water alone was not only regarded as extreme asceticism with most people, but wine would offset the affects of questionable water quality in that part of the world. Timothy need not be embarrassed how it would look. In the real world, we all know a sinner may not be obvious at first, but sooner or later his evil will slip out. The same with a good man, whose actions may at first seem a little odd. Once they saw Timothy acting truly magisterial, silly questions become obviously silly.

Ezekiel 18

2011-05-06T15:45:00.000-06:00

Without the cultural context, the Hebrew Scriptures are often incomprehensible. Without the historical context, those Scriptures also seem self-contradictory.

It was well established under the Covenant of Moses that the sins of previous generations could handicap the blessings of their descendants. This was not absolute, but noticeable as a general statement of how things went on the fallen plane. It was specifically stated as the prophetic warning regarding the sins of Manasseh as the reason God had delivered Judah into the hands of Babylon. The generation under Zedekiah knew they were not quite so profligate as those under Manasseh, but that was not the point. They whined that those previous sins had put them in a bad fix, and there was no point trying to make up for it. They overstated the case.

In so doing, they offered a popular proverb about how sour grapes would cause your teeth to have a high friction. In this case, they complained their forefathers had eaten the sour grapes of idolatry, but it was they who had to deal with sticky teeth of God's wrath. Ezekiel declared they were missing the point. In so doing, he brings things down to the simplest level. What he describes are the most basic matters of individual morality, covered in Moses, but also universally applicable under Noah.

He mentions first the injustice of idolatry as the primary sin of Judah, notwithstanding it was not so extravagant as under Manasseh. Any straying at all is unjustified, since He was their only national God. Feasting at the pagan mountain shrines could not be harmless, nor was checking into the filthy idols Samaria promoted before their exile some centuries before. Then he notes lack of sexual restraint as no better, nor the petty greed which seeks every excuse to take things from others, as if it were no better than outright robbery. Instead, we should look for ways to help the less fortunate, and be prepared to forgive debts by making them love gifts. Indeed, in every situation we seek deescalation of tension and the broader peace and harmony of human communities. By such things God is pleased, and will seek ways to bring life, never mind what everyone else is doing or has done.

Obviously, the expectation is more than simply rote obedience to the Law, but embracing the higher demands of wishing others well whenever possible. Lacking such a desire brings men to destruction, particularly those directly guilty. So an unjust son cannot inherit much life from his father's justice, and a later generation of justice will purchase their own blessings. More, one who turns from such idiocy can have his previous sins forgotten. Repentance means something to God, just as turning from justice to evil means death creeps in where life once breathed.

God tips the balance in favor of justice through repentance. Does it seem unfair to your nit-picking absolutism? You have no comprehension of God, who is the definition of justice. If those in Exile with Ezekiel would turn to the simplest level of Noahic justice, they would forestall much wrath, just as those back home in Judah could do. But this whining about Babylon must stop. There was plenty of room for Judah to repent, walk justly, and reap a harvest of God's favor, but they have to accept the limits He has placed upon them. That was the real problem.

Echoes of Memories from Tomorrow

2011-05-05T18:53:00.002-06:00

Before computers and the Internet entered my world, I read fiction obsessively. In my youth, it began with Science Fiction. I'm one of those who found the movie versions of books so disappointing. Eventually I moved more into a certain sub-genre of Fantasy novels. I preferred the multi-volume epics, the ones loaded with obscure psychological paradoxes, not so much the big heavy sword and sorcery battles.

Then I bumped into computers, and discovered the Internet. For a long time, the books didn't get my attention. But that, too, is fading.

Tonight I'm reading a later sequel to one of the series which held me so tightly before the Internet meant much to me. I picked it up almost at random in a thrift store, simply because I recognized the author's name. I'm not at all the same guy who was absorbed in those novels, despite the author's talent having gained in richness, if anything. Instead of entering his imaginary land, I find the story itself bouncing off the features of my own inner landscape.

There are moments of recognition, as if something he crafts with his words is but a different way of saying something I've already thought or experienced. His story, his fictional world, is less real and less entertaining than my reality. Things are reversed, and I can now put down the book, leave it for days, no longer getting lost in it. It's still worth my time, but less of it in such big bites.

My inner landscape is now too rich and entertaining. I'm exploring things I didn't know could exist. Instead of yearning for the lost worlds of fiction, I'm seeking to penetrate the mists of my own clouded future in the Spirit. I'm absorbed. What I'm finding is the whispering wind, a call to a tomorrow even the wildest fiction cannot match. The rich landscape beats anything I've ever seen, and I've traveled a great deal in the past.

For example, I'd love to go back to Europe. This time, I want to explore it by bicycle, randomly rolling across places I'd never seen before, where tourists aren't likely to be crowding for their fixed and measured dose of culture no one actually lives. And I'd like to explore the Mediterranean, not on a cruise ship, but in a small cargo vessel. I want to see the ports and places tourists never go, experience the bad weather you don't see in movies and tour guides, meet the people who aren't in the tourist industry.

Not so much because I think anyone can afford to send me there. Frankly I can't imagine what talent I have, or what skill I can offer which would justify the expense, even of such a skin-flint exploration as I would like. The point is really not so much seeing Europe or the Mediterranean itself, but seeing myself reflected in hundreds of puddles, the glint of morning dew on the grass and trees, and the eyes of people who can't speak much English because they don't have much need for it. It would be a chance to measure the limits of my faith, the thousand small coves and hills, and flat farm fields of mud, the places few of us ever test because everything has been scripted, and the tour guide has never seen what was behind that little shop front.

I have no part in the staged dramas. I stopped reading the scripts and scene layouts long ago. I don't want the standard costume strung with the trinkets no longer made by local shops, just giving the appearance. What I'm seeking never gets on the stage of mainstream Christianity. Somewhere, long ago and far away, faith in Christ was something else we never saw. By our standards, it's not pretty, not clean, and not on the maps. But the voice in the wind drifting through the mists calls me still.

And as I poke around in those hidden lands of my soul, I find I recognize things I've never seen before. It's a powerful aching memory of tomorrow, singing a new song my spirit has played a thousand times.

Ezekiel 17

2011-05-04T15:42:00.001-06:00

It comes first as a riddle, but its purpose is parabolic. Ezekiel receives from the Lord a story which serves to warn the government back in Jerusalem.

The Lord compares Jehoiachin to the tender sprig of cedar taken from the top of the tree by a great eagle, Nebuchadnezzar. God had granted Babylon the authority to do pretty much what she pleased. The king had ruled but a few months in Jerusalem when Nebuchadnezzar's troops took him custody back to Babylon. He was fine. Meanwhile, in his place, the emperor had planted Zedekiah like local stock willow near good water. Not as noble as the cedar, but he was in a very good place. Zedekiah was not under crushing tribute, and he had every reason to do well and be fruitful.

But we broke his covenant with Nebuchadnezzar, sworn before Jehovah, and began reaching out to Pharaoh. In the Hebrew language, Ezekiel points out the best Pharaoh can offer is ditch water, compared to the vast flow of Babylon's protection. But Zedekiah is a fool, and believes Pharaoh's big talk about how much he would be willing to invest in defending Judah from Babylon's wrath. The Lord warns Pharaoh cannot deliver. He can't bring enough troops, nor can he actually build good battlements to divert the Babylonian army by much. We know for fact this was true, as it happened that way sometime later.

Zedekiah made this covenant, this oath, before the Lord. It was God's idea, not Nebuchadnezzar. No empire can come and go without God's notice, nor without His permit. This was not merely some rebellion against an earthly lord, but against God Himself. Zedekiah would end with more sorrow than he can imagine if he doesn't do what's right, and obey the Lord by remaining faithful to Babylon.

Ezekiel then reminds us God has a final Master Plan. He Himself will one day pluck the youngest sprout from the same tree Israel could have been, and will plant Him on a high mountain. He would grow greater and fruitful, offering His protection to anyone who comes to Him. Where no tree should even be able to grow, the Lord will make Him greater than all others. We know this to be His own Son.

Passing Clarifications

2011-05-03T08:36:00.004-06:00

1. I recently posted an article to my archive regarding Spiritual Manhood. It arose in part as a reaction to the admiration many give to peeling away the metro-sexual identity as inappropriate for Christians. Let's get one thing straight: God can use an effeminate man. Does He use them? I know by experience He does. We so easily forget the Alpha Male is a sinner by definition, someone who is intensely self-centered and willing to set aside all morality in favor of personal gratification. This business of restoring traditional Western manhood is simply a matter of peeling away our modern cultural neurosis. That such neurosis is painted on top of a very lusty and sinful manhood is so easily forgotten. We are not made better because someone on the church staff has spilled the blood of innocents and covered it up by virtue of wearing a uniform while doing it, unless he is also penitent of that sin.

2. My assertion we would lose in battle against Iran does not arise from a simple matter of tactical calculus. I could offer some such justification, but that's not sufficient grounds for asserting such a thing. It came to me as a powerful spiritual realization God's wrath stood in a certain place, and what an awful sorrow it would be if we transgressed His Laws. Our current adventures via the CIA and immoral deployments of troops and equipment are a matter of God's Laws, clearly revealed in His Word. You cannot offer the excuse your government said it was a good thing, so it must be so. If you haven't checked into the veracity of the claims regarding why we have troops in Iraq and Afghanistan, you can't possibly evaluate whether God wants us involved in Iran. My objection begins with the larger moral questions, but it is ultimately grounded in what I must consider a direct revelation from God.

3. My assertion modern Israel will fall is not a matter of prophetic revelation. It is merely a proper reading of Scripture without giving any weight to the Dispensationalist heresies. On top of this, I find it highly probable on purely intellectual grounds Israel will fall sooner than later. The timing is my personal speculation, subject to all sorts of fallibility, which finds it entirely plausible the powers that be in this world are using Israel as a tool which will soon wear out and quit serving the purpose. But the idea Israel is not protected by God for any special prophetic reason is simply a matter of Scripture.

4. That America is about to fall is both a matter of political speculation and God's Laws. The same is true, by extension, for Western Civilization as a whole. My messages against America's sins is prophetic in nature, but there is no specific revelation, as with our planned adventures in Iran. The two may well be connected, and I suspect they are, but I am not aware of anything specific which ties them. It's a spiritual truth we will lose in such warfare; it's Scriptural to assert we'll fall for our sins; it's pure political calculus which assumes a military failure in Iran will be connected with the end of America as we know it.

5. If my prophecy about Iran fails, it won't break my heart. It will simply mean I have no more use for posting things on the Internet. While it is not possible for me to explain it any better in writing, the prophecy is a point of departure regarding my use of the Internet. My personality and character will remain unchanged by any failure, but my interest in the Internet as a means of communication will of necessity be changed. I'll still read the same sites, still fix computers and use Linux, etc.

Prophet's Trilemma

2011-05-02T17:12:00.004-06:00

The call it the Lord, Liar or Lunatic Trilemma.

It was made popular by Josh McDowell, but I understand it first came from C.S. Lewis. In summary, Jesus claimed to be the Son of God, among other things. You cannot simply say He was a good teacher. Either he was lying about being the Son of God, or He was a madman who really believed it, or He was the Son of God as He claimed.

Yes, one could pick it apart logically, but the impact is still sharp. The point here is, the same thing can be applied to anyone who claims to be a prophet of God.

I have made such a claim. Further, I put myself in a bind by claiming to have a predictive message from God: If America sends troops and/or vehicles against Iran, we will fail and fail miserably in battle. I can't pretend to speak for other nations involved, or if they act alone. I know only my firm conviction what will happen to the US. I say without hesitation this is a word from God.

If we do go to war against Iran, and after a reasonable time frame, what I say does not happen, then I am wrong and it's not a Word from God. The Bible says some pretty harsh things about people who claim to speak for God and it turns out false. For the time being, I rather doubt anyone will attempt to carry out the provisions of the Law of Moses, but it would be justified, in one sense.

You see, my pronouncement of this message as being from God arises from a certain set of beliefs. This is what I honestly believe, so the liar option is gone. If my message is wrong, so are all of my beliefs. But this is not something I can simply correct by changing my mind. These beliefs, so far as I can tell, arose from outside my intellectual control. These beliefs aren't going away. That is, if I'm wrong, I'm going to question my grip on reality altogether.

It seems to me in my rational mind we are dangerously close to attacking Iran. I'm so deeply committed to honesty, I need to set this in stone, as it were, before we get there. If we attack Iran and subdue the government, and if after some reasonable interval, nothing happens to our troops and equipment, then I will find myself unable to continue writing. I won't be able to trust my own mind, and I would hate for any of my readers to keep on trusting me, and be led astray by my madness.

It's possible we won't do it, in which case we'll never know either way. The point is, I want to make clear I know what's at stake. If this fails to come true, I'm pulling all my stuff from the Net. Not out of embarrassment, but out of a concern for everyone else, because if I can't trust my own heart on this, you and I would be crazy to think anything else I say is worth the trouble.

Humorous Juxtaposition

2011-05-02T13:10:00.003-06:00

Today I've been trying to get a little farther along in Bamford's Body of Secrets, mostly about the history of the NSA. Here I am reading about all these efforts to build up secure secret communications, while trying to break that of others.

Meanwhile, I have dedicated my life to de-mystifying the Scripture. I'm doing my best to bring the mystical approach of the Hebrew authors of the Bible to our modern day Western culture. Frankly, I realize the task is well nigh impossible, in that only those with a living spirit can understand much of anything that matters -- "you must be born from above" Jesus told Nicodemus.

That means a whole world of unregenerate humanity who will never, ever understand the core of truth in Scripture. They'll read my writing as silly drivel. To them, that's what it is. So is the Bible. They don't get it because it's not for them. Still, I write and leave it all out there in the open. Anyone seeking to uncover my secrets will find I have none. I don't use any encryption, though I do resort to parables from time to time. They should be clear as glass to fellow believers, but opaque as stone to the Lost.

Mysteries, the Bible calls them, hidden only because it requires something no man can choose in order to understand.

Pharisaical Approach of Modern Theology

2011-05-01T08:51:00.004-06:00

1 Timothy is not simply about the incipient Gnosticism of the 2nd Century. Rather, it reflects the Talmudic heresies already in existence, and thus the Judaizing heresies which infested the 1st Century church even before Paul went to Rome. The Pharisees simply could not set aside their centuries of Hellenistic reasoning, their embrace of the Aristotelian epistemology, which was such a powerful intellectual drug, making the mind feel like a king, when it should be a servant. It called to the fallen human pride.

The Pharisees taught that God's Law was the ultimate truth of God, refusing to understand it was merely a shadow of a much greater truth. Sure, they understood there was a higher realm, that there were angels and such, but they so utterly mystified it, one could not talk about it. They destroyed the parabolic method of teaching by literalizing the parables. Thus, the whole of God's blessings could only ever be what comes in this life, on this plane of existence. There was no room in their thinking for blessings of the spirit, because they did not allow for the notion humans could have a spirit, a faculty higher than the mind. This was why Nicodemus was so utterly thrown off when Jesus said it required a spiritual birth to understand what He taught.

So the Pharisees began during the 3rd Century BC formulating their Talmudic traditions based on their exposure to Alexander's evangelistic zeal for Hellenic intellectual culture. They embraced the Aristotelian epistemology and reduce holiness to something a man could do with his mind and body. Thus, the false teachings which arose saying celibacy somehow made one superior in God's eyes to those who married. It made the teachings of Kosher a matter of ultimate holiness, when Kosher was never meant to offer anything more than worldly ritual "holiness". Staying away from certain foods had a health effect, of course. And staying celibate might serve some functional purpose in the lives of some, but those things were not holiness in themselves; they arose from the holiness of one's commitment to serve God.

Today, Systematic Theology is the equivalent of the Talmud in the established traditions of the modern church. I wrote it elsewhere, but it still applies here:

Starting with the expulsion from the Garden of Eden, fallen man has been granted an ever-brighter light of revelation on the path back. The bare trace in the wilderness became a highway, until the very living Incarnation of God’s self-disclosure Himself was born. God didn’t simply choose a nation, but created one from scratch, arising from a particular cultural background. Revelation cannot take place in a vacuum. Inscriptions on stone are not sufficient; it must be living and breathing, including the whole of what makes up a dynamic human identity. The ancient Hebrew world was the setting God designed for His revelation.

It’s not simply a matter of 2000 years. First, the Son Himself pointed out how the nation at that point had long previously slipped away from its genuine Hebrew identity. They were not true to Moses, much less Abraham. The teachings of Jesus were a call to return to a very different frame of reference, so for us it’s more like 3500 years. Plus, it’s 5000 miles, several shifts in language, culture and civilization, and a wholly different intellectual frame of reference.

Grace cannot be grasped by the human mind. It can’t be told, only indicated. Only a living spirit can receive it. Human awareness itself was broken by the Fall, disconnected from a living spirit. In His mercy and wisdom the Father provided the means to call us back to the place where His Spirit stood waiting to reunite us with our spirits. The shining beacon of truth is beyond the fallen mind, so God offered a lesser expression, something which could be grasped in the fallen intellect. It’s primary expression is in the Law Covenants — Noah and Moses — as indicators, something the mind could grasp as a parable of the unspeakable Truth of God the Person. To know God is to know His will; that is as much as any human can know of God. The Laws of God were within reach of fallen man, the merciful provision of a path to grace. Law is not the goal, nor the sum total of revelation, just a mere manifestation. But even with that, we have a massive gulf to span on our human level. The thread of revelation through human history included not merely a pile of logical propositions, as if truth could be objectified. Nor is is sufficient to say revelation is in the gestalt, the whole of it. It’s a radical shift in epistemology, of awareness itself.

It’s not the data, nor the software to process it, but an entirely new operating system and logic, because grace completely changes the hardware. It’s a whole new architecture. You can only port so much of it without starting from scratch. As long as you read Scripture from a Western mind, you will miss an awful lot. You’ll get that you have sinned, deserve to go to Hell, and that Jesus is your only hope. You will have only a very poor idea how to follow Him, though. To fix the problems [of how we live today] requires a radical solution most readers are not prepared to contemplate. God’s solution is mandating a change in cultural in our frame of reference. So long as there is a Western Civilization, there will be no solution, no good human government.

I can't say it often enough, in enough different ways. What we have today is broken; that much is obvious. The solution is not simply more of the same, nor simply a different application of the same. We have to set aside the whole of Christian Church History and go back to the teachings of Jesus and His Apostles. We cannot simply read them through our modern day Christian Talmud of human intellectual traditions.

I am driven by the Spirit of God to prophesy, and to warn all who claim to serve Him: Turn! Turn from your wicked ways. Repent of Western Civilization and return to His ancient ways.

Nobody is asking you to give up English, computers, and what we know of our world through science, but to understand those things cannot rule over our reading of Scripture. Whether we can succeed in removing the lenses of Aristotelian epistemology is not the issue; we are obliged to try.

I will not be silent.

1 Timothy 4

2011-04-30T16:24:00.000-06:00

It is one thing to know you are saved by grace from your fleshly desires; it is quite another to still seek power by the actions of that flesh. Holiness is not a quality of this world, but something beyond this level of existence which can only be indicated, symbolized and demonstrated. The actions and symbols were not the point. The materialism of the Pharisees was a short step from Gnosticism, and both are reflected in the warning Paul gives here.

The Spirit of God had warned, via Scriptures and in His very Presence, that men would pervert the truth by letting demons lead them astray. The greatest lies of Satan are always just a step away from the truth. Trying to enforce the Kosher Laws on those who were not of Israel was simply wrong, given the Covenant of Moses died on the Cross. Those laws no longer applied to any human on earth. Prior to Moses, God had said through Noah all creatures were our prey, and instructed Peter in no uncertain terms God had removed the short term limitations of Moses, reopening all food to His children in Christ. But the silly notion there could be some superior grade of personal holiness by avoiding certain foods or by avoiding marriage and sexual relations were already old corruptions of Moses by the time Jesus began His ministry. The whole idea of these demonic teachings was to trap people's minds on this plane, and cause them to so mystify the higher plane, it remained out of reach, subject to fables and man-made legends.

What God has provided is His blessing, and to receive these things gratefully was closer to holiness than any form of abstention on any grounds. We are surely bound to seek and receive them in ways which reflect our commitment to eternity, but the things themselves are gifts of grace to symbolize the vast riches of that eternal life.

There are valid reasons for avoiding some things in this world on medical grounds, of exercising a certain form of restraint and physical training based on mere practicalities, but even that is subject to the calling of God. The highest profit is not a fit body, but this body of flesh is not eternal, and there is most certainly something better to follow when it expires. What matters far more than the practicalities of good health is spiritual health, of using the resources of this passing plane of existence to bring to life the higher truth. The words of Scripture mean nothing if they don't bring us closer to the Living Word. We suffer enough from the natural results of walking in Him without making up new ways to distract ourselves by arguments arising from human intellectual speculations. Paul reminds Timothy to keep everyone focused on such teaching.

Timothy was appointed by God; he needed no human approval to walk in the power of the Lord. The same silly notions of Pharisaism-cum-Gnosticism, about how long one had lived and how thoroughly the mind was trained and seasoned intellectually, meant nothing against a living truth which had been around before mankind. God did not need their permission to appoint Timothy, never mind his age or academic background. If he could walk in the power of the Ancient of Days, then his teaching arose from that power, not mere human intellect. As long as Timothy bathed his conduct in studying the Scriptures, then preaching and teaching from them, every other issue could wait for Paul to come settle.

Ignoring the posturing and social jockeying of these corrupt "teachers", Timothy was encouraged to remember and keep fresh the vivid sense of his calling, of the prophecies he received when the council laid hands on him. Those educational pedigrees and talents meant nothing in God's Courts. Paul had better degrees and they meant little to him. What mattered was the simple gospel message and the Scriptures, because it was by this the Lord worked among human souls, building up His Eternal Kingdom.

The Human Distinction in Creation

2011-04-29T05:59:00.003-06:00

The debate between Creationists and the combined secular scientific Evolutionist community as a whole is mostly beside the point. To engage the debate is to cede too much, and fails the higher purpose of revelation.

We are different from the animals; God's Word says this in no uncertain terms, placing mankind at the helm of management for Creation. We rule the animals and all lesser beings in the known universe. The grounds for seeing this dominance as just and proper is not our superiority of intellect. I have no doubt at all our apparent superiority there is derived. It is not fundamental. Were the apes, for example, given a similar opportunity to develop an intellect and culture, they would eventually match us. Yes, they could evolve to a higher level, and become something much closer to us, should they decide it matters.

There is one fundamental difference they cannot breach: they have no spirits. The Word of God is equally clear in stating the fundamental difference between us and the rest of Creation is we have an eternal nature. No other creature shares that with us. We go to Heaven and Hell; nothing else in this world will.

We could debate what it means to have a soul, but I sense in the vast load of verbiage regarding the topic one could read today, it means little more than the presence of mind, the sense of awareness of being as a discrete entity. However you want to formulate that in your own mind, having a soul would probably exclude newborns, because they aren't fully self-aware for some time after birth. Yet, we are certain they go to Heaven if they die in that state. And we could extrapolate the same for any human entity which somehow fails to develop, or maintain, a full consciousness for whatever reason. Something inside that construct is eternal, goes to Heaven or Hell.

So it's not the question of having a soul, but of having a spirit. That is, having the inherent capacity to relate to God directly. Animals do not, except in the literary sense all Creation worships God. But they can't interact with Him on the same level.

That's the whole matter. This is why, despite all the sentimental attachment we make to our pets, we must definitively state dogs do not go to Heaven. There are other examples, but what makes us different from the rest of Creation is we will be "here" when all that is removed in the Last Day. We know all matter will be burned up, completely destroyed and removed from existence, if you take the Bible seriously. Reality will go away. Then the Lord will remake things, a new Heaven and a New Earth, whatever that means. Only spiritual entities can continue.

If this is not the distinction between us and the rest of Creation, then we nothing in Scripture has any useful meaning.

Ezekiel 16

2011-04-28T13:01:00.000-06:00

Far more than mere allegory, this chapter is a marvelous adaptation of symbolic mythology from pagan sources. Hebrew Scripture seldom employs imagery of marriage for the Covenant of Moses; it was quite common in pagan literature. This is the whole point: Judah had become so totally paganized, it was necessary to address her in pagan literary terms so she would understand her dire situation.

Staying with the pagan theme, we see the Nation of Israel was treated poorly at birth, as was common among the wilder nations of that part of the world. God refers to her parents as Hittites and Amorites, not in the literal sense, but as symbols of something civilized nations hated. The Hittites were brutal warriors who destroyed much artistry, and lacked the cultural depth themselves to maintain dominance over the lands they conquered. The Amorites were seen as smelly, thieving nomads. Thus, the infant girl Israel was exposed to the elements as those nations did.

But God protected her, and kept her alive. She lived in Egypt until she was actually a nation. Then she was brought out from her slavery, only to show incredible immaturity until the last of the slave generation died. At that point, she was a lovely nation, worthy of taking as the Lord's bride. Her nakedness was a figure of speech for any unmarried lass.

The Lord raised her up from the worst background, making her queen of all His Creation. The language describes the most expensive garments available in ancient times. Even her sandals are described as the ancient equivalent of snake-skin leather. Nothing was too good for her. Indeed, the promises of the Mosaic Covenant, in terms of earthly blessings, were more extravagant than was hinted at in the Noahic Covenant for other nations. More, she was the one nation granted His full revelation on the earth, which no other nation had.

She threw it all away in harlotry. Indeed, she wasn't even a good whore, because instead of selling herself, she paid to be abused. Could she have done any worse? Israel chased every idol of every nation God delivered into her hands in battle, then rummaged around for even more idols, even making up some new ones. That she deserved her punishment is impossible to state more strongly. If that weren't enough, Ezekiel compares her to Sodom and Samaria, as if they hadn't been quite so evil.

So it is He promised yet somewhere in the future to restore her, but only on terms which would allow restoration of the likes of Sodom and Samaria, whom Judah had arrogantly used as a byword for God's wrath. As we well know, that was under the terms of coming to Christ. No longer would any earthly nation have any privilege, but all must come as individuals into a new Nation of Heaven. National identity would mean nothing under His New Covenant.

Satan Rules the United States

2011-04-27T11:03:00.003-06:00

It is fair, accurate and just to assert that the United States as a political entity is ruled by the policies and wishes we have reason to know are from Satan.

Most importantly, it is prophetically necessary to say it. This should serve as a warning to those who take seriously the message of Scripture as a whole. We are not be able to do anything about this problem -- indeed, that's a part of the problem. The notion her citizens are the government of the US is a blatant lie of the Devil. The point here is the things our national government does, as a whole, are so unquestionably evil, so completely in line with what we know of Satan through the Scripture, it is completely justified to say he's in charge of the whole thing.

Frankly, it requires only one reference to prove my point, if you care to bother seeking a justification: Four Stories This Week Prove that the War On Terror Is a Farce.

Ezekiel 15

2011-04-26T14:53:00.001-06:00

A profound parable makes for a very short chapter. Israel is the vine. When the vine is unfruitful, what can you do with it? Nothing. The wood itself is utterly useless if it grows no fruit. You can't even use it for a simple peg, because it lacks the strength to support anything people commonly used. The wood is too fragile; fire won't harden it any. It's really not much good for firewood, even.

What can the Lord do with Judah in her current state? Nothing. She can't even serve as a bad object lesson. What sort of failure makes God regret choosing someone? This had nothing to do with the higher spiritual reality, but the truth of a nation which could not even maintain the Law. Ezekiel himself wrote how God revealed there was not another nation on earth which would have acted so wicked, had He chosen it.

New Testament Church Offices

2011-04-24T09:35:00.005-06:00

It does little good to delineate titles for roles until we understand them within the frame of reference of the First Century churches in Palestine.

Pastor: The standard term in Greek was episkope, often translated "bishop." The role is that of spiritual superintendent, the watchdog, the shepherd. His function is spiritual, and only by accident does it involve organizational matters. The focus is on the issues of the spiritual plane and how those issues manifest on the fleshly plane morally. This person is not an officer of the body, but over the body. They address everything which impacts the spiritual health of the body, and by extension the Kingdom, but do not directly execute anything themselves.

By extension, this mission would include apostles working at higher levels, supervising pastors and churches. Where the field is fresh, they are the missionaries. The New Testament world was hierarchical, though more fluid than we would be used to in modern times. Their nature and qualifications are the same, but the calling of God separates them. Because of the awful drift of our modern world so very far away from this essential understanding, I would not be willing to apply the label of apostle to anyone, as no one would understand.

A specialized version of the pastoral role is evangelist. However, the difference may be little more than what the man is doing at any particular moment. Women can surely evangelize children and other women. A particular problem of modern culture is failure to recognize when childhood ends. Manhood by biblical definition starts at age 30, but a boy is to spend time among the men beginning around age 12. We are utterly lacking in the cultural context to understand how this works out in practice. Between 12 and 30, a fellow is in training to be a man. Only the most exceptional young men can lead before 30.

Elder: This is the organizational leadership. The long-established meaning and function is that of head of household. It's an office in the sense no Ancient Near Eastern household could function without an executive leader, someone who is the parental figure for all who share the same discrete situation in terms of resources. This is the man or woman who implements the Laws of God over the earthly operations of the church. While the role is ideally masculine at the top, only those spiritually qualified can bear it. They have to show a talent for leadership which is wholly accountable to the Lord, but also sensitive to the people led.

In ANE settings, this person would arise by tradition and custom. In the church setting, particularly away from the ANE social structure, we appoint those who have won the trust of the spiritual family over whom they serve. The objective is to recreate that ANE social structure as much as possible, by organizing the local body as families under an extended household. Our modern culture fails utterly to distinguish between civil and social government, which the Bible separates. Elders rule on matters of social government in the body.

Deacon: This is not a leadership position, but that of organizational trustee. This is the person who helps organize and execute, handles the doing of activities. They serve the elder and pastor both as the hands and feet, the runners and workers. Somebody has to guard the funds, and carry them to the market to obtain the supplies. Somebody has to keep the place clean and orderly, has to take care of the physical property, and keep track of calendars and planning. Aside from the execution of their service during the rituals of worship, women can serve as deacons, too.

Women do not lead in worship, nor teach, unless there are no men present. Where men are present, if a man cannot be found qualified for the job, the job remains undone. On the other hand, instructing someone in practical techniques of service is not "teaching" in the sense of spiritual leadership.

As in all things scriptural, we should not assume the logical categories are neat and precise. These are generalities by which we remain sensitive to the leadership of the Spirit in each specific context.

1 Timothy 3

2011-04-23T18:14:00.001-06:00

Given what we know of Ephesus and surrounding region during the first century, we can't imagine how the gospel could fail to breathe life into dozens of satellite congregations. And where His power walks, He always pours out a variety of gifts. We shouldn't doubt Timothy had some idea how to winnow out those unsuitable as congregational leadership for this growing number of churches. People who sensed the call felt compelled to build a life which reflected the beauty of that precious treasure, and this was the flavor of Paul's faithful saying. He chose carefully a Greek term with an established meaning: episkope, commonly translated as "bishop." The literal English rendering is "overseer," but the position described is a spiritual inspector, investigator, judge, superintendent -- a spiritual watchdog to keep an eye out for things which don't quite measure up, or things which threaten the integrity of the witness of the body.

As already noted in the previous chapter, this work was closed to women. But it was closed to an awful lot of men, too. The list of negative and positive traits should have been obvious. How can a man pretend to help others with moral issues when he had so many of his own? So this man would have to be free from moral entanglements, not a skirt chaser, always conscious of his duty and taking it seriously every hour of every day. His must be a life of self-restraint, always making time and space for the needs of others, and quick to answer their real questions about life. He must master human impulses in favor of his eternal mission. He's the sort of man whose personal home life is exemplary, or he'll have nothing to offer the wider church family. He can't be a new believer, or he'll simply not understand how much it costs to drive Satan out of one's life. He needs a proven record of holy living even non-believers recognize.

The term diakonos was also well established in Greek usage. Its primary thrust is "attendant," with a strong flavor of one who had no purpose or career except as the helper of another. This was not leadership, but service. Because we have ample examples of women in Scripture bearing this title, it is patently silly to think it refers to spiritual leadership. Only in the rituals of worship were women excluded; otherwise the term describes one rather like a Levite in the Old Testament -- organizational and logistical support for the activities of the congregation as a whole.

Otherwise, these attendants were to show the same seriousness of commitment to their mission as bishops. Timothy was reminded to avoid admitting to such service people who didn't take their job seriously. Deacons could afford to be honest at all times because they had nothing to lose and no interest in personal gain. Being a deacon means no ambition at all. Never offer the job to anyone who actually wants it, but to those who distinguish themselves as genuine servants before they are offered any title. The same with deaconesses; they should be absent from the sort of social posturing so common to ordinary women. Rather, they should exhibit an unusual level of interest in the needs of others. Among married men, deacons must distinguish themselves by a solid family life. Such servants must be exceptionally trustworthy because the reputation of Christ Himself is at stake.

While Paul was hoping to join Timothy shortly in Ephesus, he wasn't sure it would happen that way. What he wrote would remind Timothy every aspect of the mission was well within his reach, since it was all a matter of Christ using whom He called for His work. This was not something any mere man could do with great talent and skill. The very gospel truth itself was entirely a matter of spiritual power falling upon a helpless, broken world. It's almost a hymn Paul writes here. God Himself took on human form, a human of purity because it was God's own Spirit, the ultimate paradox of revelation. The one upon Whom angels gazed in worship was declared among Gentiles, so that they could join in this divine worship, in preparation for following Him someday into Heaven.

Resurrection Sunday Tomorrow

2011-04-23T10:14:00.004-06:00

Tomorrow is our Passover, as it were. It is the one day in our calendar year we celebrate the signature event of our existence as a Nation of Christ. It is the celebration of our purchase from slavery to this world, the conquest of the forces which could hold us here in this hellish existence. We are no longer the property of this world.

We are not yet settled in the Promised Land. Having tasted some of its fruits, we long to pitch our tents there. Yet it has not been fully conquered. A great many of us yet pitch their tents on the outside. The tribes of sin of still hold portions of it, still use it for unspeakable rituals of Hell. But our forces have crossed over the Jordan, and the Conquest has begun.

So many of our cultural emblems are taken from obvious natural meanings. Thus it was in the Ancient Near Eastern world. The compromise of Israel with the pagan worship practices of Canaan was the natural result of vast overlapping cultural elements drawn from a common pre-history. The rituals of Moses were not novel; most of the ritual law was easily recognized by the pagan nations. It was the common language of human worship. Only a select few pagan practices were excluded by the Law. So it is with our paganized Easter celebrations. Simply finding some historical symbolic link to pagan religion does not make something pagan.

What makes our celebrations abominable to God is what resides in our individual hearts. One man growled about our cultural practices: "It's Easter. Jesus was pinned to the sky and we hide eggs." He misses the point. Jesus rose from the tomb. Taking His sacrifice seriously does not require thrashing ourselves, whether literally or figuratively. What it purchased in the hearts of those truly changed is a life-long consciousness of our sinful nature, our immeasurable guilt. But the event which comes this time of year is about the immeasurable joy of His victory.

He is risen! He is risen, indeed.

Ezekiel 14

2011-04-22T11:23:00.002-06:00

This chapter goes to the very heart of our own modern failure to understand God. The very meaning of the term "Old Testament" or Old Covenant indicates the portion of Scripture which came before the final revelation in Jesus Christ. It's not as if God had never offered eternal life or spiritual birth before the Cross; it was always there. Rather, it was never directly referenced. The spiritual plane was always understood by those whom the Lord granted it, but there was hardly any means to speak of it. Jesus Himself spoke of the necessity of using parables to indicate things about the Kingdom of Heaven. The difference between the Old and New is how all those parables as indirect references, as symbolic renderings, were finally declared fully by giving them a tangible reality in the Person of Jesus Christ.

Rightly do we say Jesus obeyed those ancient Law Covenants with perfection. Wrongly do we understand them if we do not place that statement within the frame of reference from whence it comes to us. Obedience to the Law was not a matter of objective performance, but a personal commitment to a living God as expressed by a desire to please Him, using His Laws as the obvious guideline. That there were sacrifices for unintentional sins should remove the notion objective evaluation was ever a consideration. The standard of the Law was never objective perfection, something which would forever be lost the first moment after one embraced the covenant. Rather, it as about the personal commitment to God as Lord, a living relationship.

When the elders of the Exile came to sit with Ezekiel that day, the issue brought to his and their attention was the failure of this personal commitment. They were going through the motions, which had never been acceptable. The problem was in their hearts, which is a Hebrew symbolic reference to the commitment of one's will. They weren't committed to Jehovah, and Ezekiel called them on it. Their loyalties were divided. It didn't matter whether they had pagan idols in their homes; they had them in their hearts. That was the standard of the Law.

The promises of the Law were not expressed in terms of eternal life, but they pointed to it symbolically. Instead, those promises were expressed in terms summed up in the word shalom -- reasonable material prosperity, security from threats, and social stability. These things humans instinctively pursue. These things God provides to those who obey His Laws, and it still applies today. Not in the sense of the Covenant of Moses, which applied singularly to that Nation of Israel during that time, and in that particular place. That particular covenant was closed at the Cross, but Moses as a particular example of the more fundamental Covenant of Noah still informs us how God operates on the human level, in the fallen world of fallen flesh.

Today, through Jesus Christ we understand God really wanted to offer that higher shalom of Life in the Spirit Realm. The necessary path to that higher realm was through the Law of the lower realm; it still is today. If we fail the human obligations of the Law Covenants, we cannot begin to understand the spiritual obligations of grace. The call from Ezekiel that day was to repent, to fulfill the obligations of the applicable law, because the failure not only invited the wrath of God on this level of existence -- sword, famine, disease and collapse of civilization -- but it prevented any hope of avoiding His eternal wrath.

The three shining examples of blamelessness before the Laws were Noah himself, plus Daniel and Job. These men were also spiritual giants, but that was not directly stated. It was indicated by the symbolism of their commitment. Where they stood with God was first a matter of their commitment to His Laws. In a very real sense, their eternal standing was not the immediate issue, in that it was necessary to pass through Laws first. This matter must be settled before greater things came into play. Sure, they were secure in Heaven, but their lives could have been destroyed if they forgot the necessity of right living on the earth. But their righteous observance of the Laws was good enough to save only their individual lives, symbolizing how their spirits were safely rooted in Heaven. The broader effects of their testimony would not help anyone else simply because these men stood in the midst. It was not their physical presence, as if Laws were a matter of magic and ritual. It was a matter of their personal commitment to the Lord. So while God would save them personally on the human level on the basis of their individual commitment to His Laws, even their literal children would be required to embrace the Laws, too, or risk facing God's earthly wrath.

Ezekiel 13

2011-04-21T17:40:00.000-06:00

It is a very high duty to speak for God, particularly when predicting future events. The Law of Moses made clear the penalty for false prophecy was execution. If the prediction was near term, then it would be easy to test a prophet's words. If it was long term, or they waffled in any way, it might be hard to catch them in a lie. How were those caught in a dispute between two prophets supposed to know which one to support? Had they been faithful, it would not be so hard. Unfortunately, so few in Judah were faithful, they wouldn't figure it out until too late. You can be sure the prophets involved would know. Thus, Ezekiel addresses himself to the false prophets themselves, who made it their mission to confuse the people. These could be found in Judah and among the Exiles in Babylon.

The Lord says these false prophets were dressing up their personal political agendas in traditional prophetic formats. The people listening are warned such political "prophets" were like wilderness scavengers. They wander along neglected walls, looking for an opportunity to slip inside and raid the food supply. A real prophet would be looking to rebuild those broken down walls. These fakes are weakening the nation against tribulation, because their messages assuredly did not come from God.

God's plans for these false prophets is to ensure they don't survive. In the coming siege and warfare, these prophets would not be found, their names would not appear on the lists of those still live to be deported. As far as God is concerned, they were foreigners all along. They spoke for a god who didn't exist to a nation refusing to abide by the Covenant. They predicted peace when war was just down the road. They taught the people to relax, not worry about God's wrath. It was like advising them to take shortcuts, like building a quick and dirty wall of hastily piled rocks, coated with simple mud and painted with whitewash. Who would know? It's not as if there was anything they really needed to secure. Was not God's own Temple in their midst?

It won't be long; the first time it storms the rain and hailstones of difficult testing would knock it down. Instead of building up their obedience to the Covenant, which God promised would protect them from evil, they offered no resistance at all. The whole thing would collapse on someone who trusted in the lies of such prophets. In the end, the false prophets would know beyond all doubt the depth of their folly. They would not survive the time of testing, but would live long enough to be properly terrorized.

And it gets worse, because there were false prophetesses. They had developed their own peculiar style, suckering the people with symbolic magic, of all things. While it's not hard to figure out what is meant by the stylish charms and magic symbols on the sleeves of their robes, we can't be too sure of the significance of veils cut to match the height of the wearer. The veils were paired with some form of symbolic hunting ritual, as if they could steal away the battle spirit of their enemies before actually facing them in the field.

This silly stuff was no more effective than the hasty walls previously mentioned. God was not impressed with these pagan rituals, and there would be no other god to respond when they called. Teaching the people to believe in these vanities was highly destructive. A critical element were the fees these false prophetesses would charge for all this silly stuff. They were selling the people to demons for bread, capturing their hearts for the enemies of God. They gave support to the paganized noble families, while accusing as traitors those truly noble who refused to support this evil charms industry. Their end would be no different from the other false prophets.

Biblical Theology: Women

2011-04-19T20:16:00.001-06:00

The whole context of Scripture offers a view of women confusing to most Western Christians. Our Latin-German cultural foundation places the emphasis on tangible property versus the Hebraic emphasis on pools of talent, via persons and covenants. While the Bible refers to a man's wife as a form of possession, the image is that of a desert sheik and his retinue -- she is a retainer, a close adviser. She has her place in his domain, with special authority over certain issues relegated to her management.

In seeking to lay claim to God's promises under Law Covenants, the shalom of God -- reasonable prosperity, security from threats and disease, and social stability -- was as much her responsibility as her husband's. The Bible distinguishes between civil and social government. There is an overlap, but most things can be divided up for practical purposes of how humans organize their response to the divine imperative. A man over his household dealt with civil matters, particularly defense and those items of asset management directly relating to civil law. His wife was the social welfare manager, as well as handling a domestic assets. Women have always been valid participants in social leadership, and it reflects the way God wired women compared to men, requiring the touch of both. They are accountable to each other, and to God for each other's interests.

Under the Covenant of Moses, the same division applies to the nation as a whole. It shows up in matters of the Law. The priesthood was closed to women; it was a matter of civil leadership. Civil government was divided between priests and nobles, between High Priest and King. A priest was expected to wield the sword in some circumstances, but only they could touch the ceremonial matters of the Law. Yet kings were expected to be as close to God as any priest, and priestly support was utterly necessary in vesting a new king. The King and the High Priest were each in a position to remove the other from office.

Some prophets were priests, but most were not. There was a similar division between prophets and prophetesses as between husband and wife in a household. The men addressed civil problems in light of God's revelation, whereas women handled social welfare. We could point out similar distinctions for judges, who all acted more or less as prophets, in the sense of executing justice, or ordering execution of justice, vindicating God's side of a given issue. Deborah was both judge and prophetess. She rightly commanded Barak to go to war and reestablish shalom and vindicate God's claims over the land for His people. She was the mother hen over those tribes and their human needs. But the man should wield the sword, regardless of his relative rank. It was wrong for him to decline military command in favor of her; she didn't go along as some supporter, but as commander of the mission. God used her but was disappointed with Barak, and took away his manly reputation.

We see this structure breaking down under the Pharisees as their frame of reference became more Hellenized, or Westernized. The Talmudic legal system of Judaism did not properly represent the ancient Hebrew ways.

Church emulates the tribal Hebrew society of ancient times. The church is the tribe. Christ is the King and Priest; pastors, preachers, apostles and such are the civil executives of the King. They conduct the spiritual defense and spiritual asset management. Material assets do not have a spiritual value, but are a simple matter of management. That and social welfare is a matter of elders, deacons and deaconesses. Women can certainly lead in matters of social organization. The organizational activities of the church are under Laws, as it were. They are spiritually applied, but the authority to organize and act requires an equal dose of male and female wiring. This is a particularly Eastern concept, commonly understood among Hebrews, but is rather foreign to Western Christians.

The idea of women taking organizational leadership in a church is not some liberal, novel idea attacking the old, conservative ways. Rather, it is the Western division of labor which is novel, and departure from the established path. Women do not exist merely to handle babies, Vacation Bible School, fellowship meals, domestic maintenance, prayer and cookies. The household of faith requires a woman's wiring in every corner of the program from the human side, because all of that falls under the Laws, and women can understand God's Laws as well as any man. It is the uniquely spiritual questions which are off limits to them. Virtually the entire Western Christendom fails to properly distinguish the dividing line between spiritual and organizational.

Addendum: Perhaps a parable will clarify. The priests called the nation to the Temple of God. There he directed their attention to the glory of God. At times, he would point out hitherto unnoticed implications of His glorious revelation. They would exercise their priestly role in such as the Urim and Thummim to draw out refinements of the Covenant. The rest of the Levites were an extension of this ministry, generally providing the organizational and logistical management for it. That there were young women (ostensibly virgins) serving in the Temple facilities shows us there were no hard lines of separation to satisfy our Western obsessions with objective analysis. The service of these young ladies indicates the fabric was interwoven, that the organizational mission of the Levites required a feminine touch in some areas. That's because the effects of the broader role of priest and Levite often touched on social governance, not solely civil and ceremonial matters.

Prophets served to remind folks who had forgotten there was a God in Israel, that He met the nation at the Temple, and what route those folks should take in getting themselves back to the Temple, and back to His glorious revelation. Sometimes a Word from the Lord might be hard to distinguish in the Scripture narrative, whether it's fresh implication of the Law not yet discovered, or a reminder of something which should have been obvious. The distinction is purely organic, fuzzy on purpose, because that's how God does things. Yet it was clear enough in God's mind He said a woman could not be priest, nor Levite per se, even while a member of the Tribe of Levi. But she could be a prophet and a judge, and could serve in the Temple.

New Permanent Article Up

2011-04-17T13:42:00.004-06:00

I would invite your attention to what I believe is a significant statement on Spiritual Manhood: Character Is Holiness, posted on the permanent archive site.

1 Timothy 2

2011-04-16T19:56:00.001-06:00

Worship is life and breath for a Christian. Paul addresses what seems to have been the same sort of problems churches faced everywhere. Two particular issues can be discerned.

Prayer is a gift from God, an open invitation to conversation on His level. He speaks Spirit to spirit, and the mind can hardly follow the conversation. Much of what happens in prayer is convincing the mind to obey what God commands, to bring to bear upon the intellect the full power of spiritual communion, changing the conscious thoughts through a fresh exposure of the bedrock of conviction built into our souls by the birth of our spirits. Paul uses several different words, all meaning prayer from various angles. We seek the welfare of all mankind. Not as they seek for themselves, but as God would offer. There is much He has granted to fallen mankind through His divine Law Covenants, in which men can find the means to life as good as it can be on this plane.

A particular emphasis is upon holding up civil government leaders. Not government impersonally, but people is the specific emphasis Paul gives here. We seek their true welfare, a peaceful reign under God's Laws. In so doing, we season our minds to seek peace -- Paul uses a form of the Greek word hesuchios, to remain seated. This, as opposed to the common reflex of fallen men to think rising up in protest and other forms of activism would accomplish anything important. Believers are to avoid such strategies, relying instead on the Lord to handle politics. Unspoken is the obvious assumption that Paul, only recently released from confinement, realizes that praying for peace and living peacefully does not always please fallen men, rulers in particular, but that we intend them no offense, whether they understand or not.

This approach is the lifestyle pleasing to God, a lifestyle which by its very example calls men to repentance. In our worship, we give prominent place to praying for those around us so that we are empowered to witness God's truth to them, for the life which cries out repentance is the life which lights up the path to grace. There is only one doorway to grace for all mankind, and that is Jesus Christ. To this end was Paul chosen to testify and carry that message to the Gentiles. It is only fitting those who embrace Jesus as Lord would emphatically embrace His way of peace, of not getting too wrapped up in this world's affairs.

That other-worldly focus bears other consequences and manifestations. Women who walk spiritually aren't concerned with a fashionable appearance. Paul was no grumpy Pharisee trying to crush womanhood; his prescription here regards primarily women attending worship. If there is one place a woman's priorities are correct, this should be it. Church meetings were not the place to compete for admiring or envious eyes of others, but to deflect attention away from the self. However, this would naturally extend to life in general. Men would pray to learn how to live unobtrusively by not competing for the sort of manly attention sinners craved; women would pray the same for their own context. In worship in particular, some of the Hebrew way of things was not simply a Judean cultural bias, but a fundamental commandment from ancient times before Abraham walked the earth. It was a constant battle to get these new Gentile Christians to understand such things.

In worship, it would not do to have women chattering among themselves when all attention was given to Christ. In a world where plenty of pagan religions placed women in the leadership role, this was foreign to God's revelation since Eden. Women are not permitted to take spiritual leadership because of what the narrative of the Fall tells us. God made Adam first, and Eve was made from him, for him. If women take that as an insult, they are rejecting God's revelation. In addition, while Adam was a fool, he knew the spiritual consequences of that awful choice to heed Satan's lies; Eve did not understand. She was not equipped, and it was not her job to make such choices. It still isn't today. We have seen where Paul permits women to lead in organizational matters, but in worship and spiritual matters, she must defer to men, her covering (father, husband, other male family head) in particular.

Her defining spiritual role, in which she reflects the glory of God, is to lead children or each other, not adult men. Paul uses a word which is not merely giving birth, but implies the whole gamut of motherhood as a role. It hints of the text in Genesis, wherein the Messiah was promised to be born of a woman. Her role is utterly essential, one for which her man is unsuitable, as she is for his. And as with men in their roles, so women must cling to the same spiritual power: unconditional commitment to God, sacrificial love, purity of heart, and mortification of the flesh.

Ezekiel 12

2011-04-15T18:32:00.000-06:00

The rightful king of Judah was among the Exiles. In his place was a regent, someone referred to as a "prince" -- of the royal family, but not normally in line for the throne. Thus, Ezekiel does not call Zedekiah "king" so long as Jehoiachin lived. Zedekiah was largely under the control of the Pro-Egypt Party of nobles, and eventually broke his oath to the imperial throne of Babylon. This was contrary to the direct command of God, who warned Judah to accept the imperial yoke of Babylon. The Lord refers to them as people who can't be bothered to pay attention.

The Lord commanded Ezekiel to perform another enigmatic drama. He was to pack the bare minimum for survival, as one who plans an escape. He set this baggage in order in his house in the sight of the elders of the Exiles. As evening fell, Ezekiel was to dig through the mud brick and plaster wall of his house and prepare to escape by night. He was to cover his face, a disguise which would hinder his vision below his normal line of sight. He made sure the elders observed this whole drama.

The next morning, the Lord again spoke to Ezekiel. He was to explain to the elders this symbolism was about Zedekiah. Because of his rebellion against God's command, the city would be destroyed, and Zedekiah would try to flee to avoid capture. As we know from other passages of Scripture, Zedekiah did attempt to escape at night through a small hole in the wall obscured by his private garden. He and his closest supporters slipped out with what they could carry, with Zedekiah wearing a disguise requiring someone guide him. But he was caught as God promised. There was the ominous warning he would not see Babylon, yet would die there. Of course, as part of his sentence when brought to Nebuchadnezzar, he was blinded and taken to Babylon in chains.

Zedekiah's escort would be scattered, some killed. As they fled to distant lands, they would carry the sure knowledge Jehovah is God. Those few who survived the siege, the war, and the capture would then be compelled to declare in those foreign lands their sins, and to give God glory for His power.

Then came yet another dramatic symbol for the elders. Ezekiel was commanded to eat a meal as though deeply anxious, trembling in fear, a nervous wreck jumping at every sound. The message was the people left in the cities of Judah would soon find themselves eating each of their meals as though it might be the last peaceful food they would have for a very long time. Babylon was going to invade in force, and destroy all the cities.

Naturally, everyone was telling themselves this was all in the distant future, that they would hardly live to see it. This common refrain would never be spoken again, said the Lord. He would silence the pretty poetry of the false prophets who taught them to chant such nonsense. Instead, it would happen very soon, well before anyone among the elders would die. None of this was in the remote future, but was on their very doorstep.

Running Hither and Yon

2011-04-13T19:01:00.002-06:00

If you've been looking for the latest chapter of Ezekiel commentary, I would like to apologize. I've been a very busy boy since Monday morning, working on my mother-in-law's porch. It had to be dismantled and rebuilt. Naturally, I try to do it as properly as I can, using whatever materials are at hand. It's time consuming and leaves little time for a proper job of researching the Scripture. I expect to finish the porch tomorrow, and hopefully my leisurely lifestyle can resume after that.

Addenda to Introduction of the Pastoral Letters

2011-04-10T09:55:00.002-06:00

This introduction would be incomplete if we didn't take a moment to note in these letters we see the birth of Gnosticism. Tied tightly into the Talmudic tradition was the False Messianic Expectations, which asserted the Messiah must of necessity return to raise up national Israel. Not merely to her former status when David was the king and ruled all that part of the world, but the Messiah was to make Israel rule all the world. That is the essential error of Talmudic Judaism, though seldom admitted to outsiders. Since Jesus failed this expectation, as they had it, He could not be the Messiah, could not be the Son of God. Thus, He was just a man, and His ministry was not saving. In the process of trying to seduce a particular church, the Judaizers would not at first blaspheme Christ, but would allow He was a good rabbi. But in the end, they inevitably led to reasserting the Talmudic false traditions and either perverted the message of Christ or asserted He was not divine. From this grew the essential Gnostic twin heresy: Either Jesus was divine and not human, or He was human and not divine. This was the fatal flaw which was adopted from Hellenistic philosophy, that the two realms could not intersect, that God could/would not do that in a single human.

God Can't Forgive?

2011-04-10T07:46:00.003-06:00

I was responding to the question: "Do you go to Hell if you commit suicide?" Of course not.

I managed to get as far as saying conduct does not affect your eternal standing when another voice piped up, "Oh, I don't believe that. You can't go out and commit murder and stuff and get into Heaven."

I never got a chance to explain the question was upside down. The whole debate arises from a false approach naturally resulting from human reasoning and logic. It's the wrong question. The question has nothing to do with whether one is born-again. I can't know whether you are; I only know what you tell me, and what you show me by your conduct. It's the wrong question for me to ask, "Are you born-again?" The right question is, "Is there any reason I can't fellowship with you as a fellow believer?"

The foundation of Western philosophy is making man the measure of all things. That's why these false questions arise. When God becomes the measure of all things, we quit asking whether people are born-again. We start asking what God wants from us in regard to them.

God can forgive any sin. Indeed, they are all forgiven already, because all sin was nailed to the Cross. He can forgive before and after you claim His grace. But you can only claim it if He reaches out to you from His side first. That's the whole point of grace; it is the power of God Himself to change lives, to set us free from sin. Our lives following that moment of grace are the battleground. We fight to break free from the human fall, not with any expectation of winning on this side, but with the expectation someday the Lord will relent and call us home. Living this life is beautiful in His power only because of His power. It cannot otherwise be made beautiful. All our accomplishments as humans to harness the power of intellect and talent and make the world comfortable cannot possibly remake the world itself. We remain fallen on this plane.

Leaving us here is not punishment, but it's not what we want, not if we understand what's really at stake here. This is no selfish desire to escape and leave others behind, but we tolerate God's delay in taking us home only because we know our eagerness to leave is itself the ultimate witness, the message of God written on our lives, which He uses to awaken the awareness of His grace to others. We can't wait for our time to go, so we do all we can to keep tearing ourselves loose from this awful existence, disentangling our care and concern, cutting loose our anxieties and watching them die. We love people, and we care for them the way Christ did, but we care not at all for this life. We offer what resources we have for the needs of others because we don't care what happens after those resources are spent. It's all just a tool for the message.

If you commit suicide, it does not tell me whether you went to Hell. It tells me you lacked some measure of God's power to stay until He was ready to call you home. Any other question arising from the issue of suicide is frankly the wrong question. That's the logic of Heaven.

1 Timothy 1

2011-04-09T19:15:00.001-06:00

Paul begins with the standard formal greeting. The letter is addressed to a true son in the faith, but Paul adds the unusual element of praying for Timothy to find mercy, along with grace and peace from God. It appears Timothy gets little mercy from any one else.

It's quite likely Paul went from Rome straight to Macedonia in keeping his promises. He also asked Timothy to stay in Ephesus where he had been working already, and not to come join him right away. Ephesus needed him far more than either of them needed to see the other. There was a great deal of hassle over false teachings, and Paul mentions in passing two particular items.

First were the silly fables of events and teachings not in Scripture. Second was the Jewish fascination with endless genealogical records, as if such things could bring spiritual insight. Both of them were a source of debate over details, when none of it mattered at all. Both were tied to the Judaizers who had not rested a moment since Paul first dealt with them. The entire Talmud at that time was oral, dismissed by Jesus as mere human traditions, not at all divine in origin. It was a matter of reciting teachings and events ascribed to Moses and other major figures which actually contradicted the revelation of God. They tried to back it all up with questionable genealogies to grant themselves some authority as inheritors of some valuable legacy.

Paul reminds Timothy the whole purpose God left a record of the Law in the first place. The Law of Christ was sacrificial love, and if one could simply get their love for God and their fellow man in proper shape, the Law of Moses was fulfilled. That older Law simply indicated something of God's nature. For those who just couldn't get it, the Law was a restraint upon their conduct, making them less harmful. Some of these were the very people so eager to teach that Law. They understood the words of the Law, perhaps, but nothing of the Law itself. The Law Covenants were good only if used lawfully, that is, to promote God's standard of justice. People who yearn for God's justice on His terms use the Law as an entrance into grace. Those how see the Law as the whole of God's revelation in itself have no internal law written on their hearts, but are filled with a desire for anything but justice. Paul lists the resulting behaviors. In so doing, he warns Timothy what sort of folks were those seeking to Judaize the church. Timothy needed to shut them up, and reassert the centrality of the gospel of Christ.

Paul was a good authority on the Judaizers because he had been, not just one of them, but even worse, the Chief Prosecutor and Persecutor of the church from the day Christ died. But the Lord reversed all that, making Paul an Apostle of grace. It was Paul's mission to declare to all the world Christ came among the human race to turn sinners around, and if He could do it with Paul, He could do it with anyone. Part of the reason He chose Paul was to show all the Jews, and everyone else in the world, how grace works. When the elect see it, they can't resist it. Paul can hardly contain himself at the unspeakable joy of such a thought.

Timothy was such a miracle, too. At some point there was prophecy made over Timothy, and Paul wanted him to keep it close to his heart, and to take courage in it as he faced all these challenges. Timothy understood the nature of grace and faith, how the binding commission from Heaven was inescapable. That there could be anyone come into full possession of this, then move away from the Word, is simply impossible to fathom. Yet here Paul mentions two, Hymenaeus and Alexander, who walked away from the established faith and teaching. Their presence was like a messy shipwreck in the harbor of the church body. They had gone so far as to blaspheme the Lord, and Paul had turned them over to Satan. That means in part he had placed them under the strictures of Law, not dealing with them in grace, because they didn't understand grace. Thus, they would be ostracized as enemies of the church, and no spiritual protection was offered them.

Pastoral Letters: Introduction

2011-04-09T19:12:00.002-06:00

Paul won his case before Caesar in AD 60, and was released. We have no record of where he traveled, but in these letters to Timothy and Titus, we find references to persons and events which cannot be reconciled with the narrative in Acts. This is the primary reason we believe he was not executed until after a second trial around AD 66. The second letter to Timothy is quite obviously written from this second trial, and Paul knew his time was gone.

The problems he addresses in his earlier letters are now past, and there are new threats to the churches and the gospel. Because of this, and because he is addressing the pastors, not the churches as a whole, we find Paul writing in a different style. This may also be a matter of having a different scribe, or even the assistance of Luke as editor. At any rate, these men were both at times his right hand on mission, and Paul had no closer friends, though perhaps a few as close.

Timothy had become the acting apostle at Ephesus. Paul met him at Lystra during the First Mission, and appears to have taken him on staff in his Second Mission. Of a Greek father and Jewish mother, Paul had this young man circumcised because he was already well known among the synagogues of that area. This permitted Timothy a front row seat to Paul's hardest work, teaching and debating in the synagogues. Against Paul's lack of talent, Timothy saw first hand the relentless spiritual power of Paul's truth. We sense Timothy had some of the talent Paul lacked, but suffered his own limitations. While the younger man suffered some from a weaker constitution and was often the youngest among the men present in almost every situation, he must have absorbed that spiritual confidence which made him such a valuable asset to Paul's ministry.

1 Timothy

In this first letter, Paul is encouraging Timothy. There are admonitions interspersed with brief and powerful words of worship. Paul offers a brief reminder of things Timothy surely knew about the organization, offices and basic management of churches. However, he mentions them as a means to addressing peculiar issues. It was almost surely meant as a reference document Timothy could produce to stop arguments, because the whole letter addresses rather serious problems.

Ezekiel 11

2011-04-07T19:27:00.000-06:00

When Josiah was killed in battle, and Pharaoh became lord over Judah, there was an element within the noble and royal houses which welcomed this subjugation. The Pro-Egypt Party had been around for quite some time, at least as far back as Isaiah under King Hezekiah. They also had no argument with syncretism, because for them religion was more about politics than absolute truth. This cynical secularism remained a strong element up through the time of Jesus, treating the Law of Moses as simply their peculiar national heritage, not to be taken too seriously. What mattered most was their vast worldly wisdom and statecraft, their true god.

Ezekiel was moved in his vision to the outer eastern gate of the Temple Plaza, where the elders -- chief nobles and princes -- sat in the seats of judgment. This is where the civil courts were held, and Ezekiel sees twenty five such men, two of whom he recognizes by name. In their private councils, they devised a political strategy, a campaign with slogans to justify their rejection of prophetic messages warning them to surrender and obey Babylon's rule. The language in these verses is ambiguous, but their objective is not.

Their plan is to tell everyone to ignore such prophecies and get on with life. Nothing was going to happen to them; they were untouchable to Babylon. The image of meat in a cauldron in this context refers to something too hot to handle, or ritually forbidden. Either way, however much there was an actual God, He had given them this land and His House was in the city, so He was obliged to protect them. In other words, God was their hostage, and He could not afford to let Babylon destroy the city.

With such an open insult, God's Spirit fell upon Ezekiel forcefully and the prophecy burst out of him. Their evil schemes were not hidden from God. Their injustice as judges was nauseating to God. He turned their little slogan on its head -- the city was indeed a cauldron, fired by Hell, and the cooked flesh in it was the destroyed innocent lives. They were not safe, for God would drag them out. In their hearts they feared the sword, so the sword would come upon them. In literal truth, they were hauled to the northern reaches of Israel's former borderlands, where Nebuchadnezzar had his field headquarters. He found them in rebellion; they had violated their oaths to him and were executed there. Their meat was cooked, said the Lord. In their dying moments, they would realize Jehovah was their God, and meant what He said in His Word. They were bound to the Covenant, not free to choose their own way like the Gentiles.

At the words of this prophesy, one of the princes fell dead. Ezekiel was distraught. Was this the end of Israel? God reminded Ezekiel the vast majority of the nation, including the exiled northern tribes scattered wherever they were, had all committed a grave offense against their God and His Covenant. First, in the Northern Kingdom, the rulers had forbidden their subjects to worship in Jerusalem. But once they were gone, the Kings of Judah had so perverted worship in the Temple, no one could get to God by going there, anyway. They felt God was powerless to discipline them, so they could do as they pleased. The Pro-Egypt Party was even making plans to reclaim Samaria from the imported Samaritans. All of this they sought to do in their own power and wisdom, as if God had no say, and could not enforce His Covenant against them.

So while the Northern Tribes were scattered, far away from the Temple, God could still be found if they turned to Him in their hearts. Meanwhile, those who had the Temple had no God. Anyone who remained faithful could expect to take part in the Restoration promised sometime in the future. Those who had stayed behind in Judah were so deeply perverted, there was nothing left to save. But in that future day of return, the faithful would come and cleanse away the broken idols and other defilements, and rebuild the city and Temple. This would be the symbolism for a new Realm of God in the hearts of men, men who would be truly changed. But those who cling to their own ways will be forgotten.

Thus, the Presence of the Lord moved away from the Temple in Ezekiel's vision. Instead, it stood over the Mount of Olives, the symbolic point of departure whence Jesus later would Ascend. Then Ezekiel was returned to his real time location, and he related the vision to the elders there in his house in Babylon.

Ezekiel 10

2011-04-05T19:25:00.002-06:00

The Hebrew language does not lend itself well to literal precision, but carries a vast burden of truth when used parabolically. So we see in the first few verses here Ezekiel says far more than is apparent from the narrative alone.

The Lord did not travel, nor bring Ezekiel to the Temple, without His divine chariot. This was the four cherubim, each with four faces always moving in tight formation. His throne above them appeared as a single large sapphire to Ezekiel, the color of the sky (heaven), the symbolic domain of the Lord. The Lord was seated on His throne at that moment. He called to the Scribe to take some coals of fire from the middle of the cherub formation. Fire cleanses, burning away what was not meant to last. Whatever is anchored to this fallen plane will be consumed by the fire of God's wrath, but what is eternal, a reflection of Him and His Word, will be purified and hardened. The Scribe was commanded to cast these coals upon the city, and in the literal sense, we know the Babylonians burned the city with fire. The Scribe went to where the cherubim stood on the south side of the Temple and was handed coals by the cherub nearest his approach.

Meanwhile, the inner court nearest the Temple structure was filled with the smoke of God's Presence. He rose up from His throne above the cherubim and paused over the threshold of the entrance. His Presence filled the Temple and His glory blazed in the inner courtyard. The powerful sound of the cherubim's wings were audible across the Temple Mount.

Ezekiel doesn't tell us about the fire being scattered across the city, because his whole attention was drawn to the cherubim formation again. They had hands, which is a little unusual. We note here, while Ezekiel says this is the same as the vision on the plain near his house on the Chebar Canal, this time he replaces the face of the ox with the face of a cherub. This explains why we believe a cherub is simply a symbolic creature, typically depicted as an ox with a human head. In this case, it would be an ox body with four faces, apparently on one head. This is exceedingly hard to picture, because literal rendering was entirely beside the point.

Ezekiel treats us to yet another extended description of this flying formation carrying the Lord's Sky Throne. There were spinning wheels within wheels, yet they had nothing to do with rolling, because the name given them -- galgal -- is ambiguous, sometimes meaning "whirlwind." The whole thing was rather free floating, unattached, yet always moving together as a single unit. The glory of the Lord reseated itself upon this living chariot. They rose, then hovered a moment over the eastern gate of the Temple court.

Prayer Request: Laptop Died (Updated)

2011-04-04T08:25:00.003-06:00

I tend to use my laptop a great deal. I'm not crippled without it, but it's sorely missed. The hard drive is about dead, so I am praying I can save up and replace it. Amazon has something suitable for $50, but unless I get some donations to the computer ministry, that will take at least another month.

Update: Thanks to all you who prayed with me. I went on a service call on 12 April and the client was generous. I'll be able to get the new hard drive very soon. God is good.

2 Thessalonians 3

2011-04-02T18:08:00.001-06:00

It seems Paul never fails to end his letters asking for prayer. In this case, he had specific problems with the synagogue in Corinth. The Jews there were not simply unreasonable, but strove to assassinate him more than once. Evil was everywhere, but Paul was sure the Thessalonian Christians were strong enough to face that, because their God was strong enough to defeat Satan's schemes. So he prayed for them, that they would remain faithful to the spirit of mortification.

But the patience which God gives should not be overly indulgent with those in the church who sinned by rejecting that portion of Hebrew traditions Paul taught as belonging to the gospel of Jesus Christ. Paul used the Greek word commonly referring to Jewish customs and traditions. They weren't burdensome, but were quite different from the typical Thessalonian lifestyle. Paul and his associates made sure to demonstrate just what those traditions were. In particular, they clung to the ethic of self-support. While Paul surely had the authority as an apostle to request full-time support for his work, he and his companions chose to set the example by working at least part of the day for their own keep. In so many words, no loaf for the loafer; don't break bread with the busybodies.

Perhaps it was their exaggerated emphasis on the Second Coming of Christ which caused some in the church to become loafers. Paul makes a play on words in the Greek. Instead of working (ergazomai) some were working around it (periergazomai). That is, they put a great deal of effort into not getting anything useful done. It didn't matter when Christ returned; let Him find us faithfully keeping His Word. So Paul warned the church not to fellowship with them. Not as though they were enemies, but brothers in sin. Give them room to repent. True fellow believers would eventually come to their senses, as the Lord would convict them of sin. It wasn't necessary to make a lot of noise about it, just be consistent.

Finally, Paul prayed they would always be peaceful in every way, consciously, as in His Presence. Then he took the trouble to sign with his own hand, despite a lack of good training in penmanship. Most educated men in those days could read, but writing was a profession, and the materials were expensive. But Paul always signed his own letters to ensure no one could argue whether it was from him.

Ezekiel 9

2011-03-31T15:29:00.002-06:00

The Lord had presented His evidence to Ezekiel in the Spirit Realm. Now He demonstrates His justice. Neither took place in our plane of existence, but were in the higher reality. The wrath and judgment were established in Heaven before they were manifested on the earth some years later.

After having seen these incredible scenes of idolatry, Ezekiel hears the Lord cry out in fury, calling for the angels of wrath. What our prophet sees resembles men, six of them. There was one other, one dressed as a High Priest, symbolic of one who serves in the very presence of God Almighty. This seventh wore at his side something translated as "inkhorn" -- an Egyptian loan word signifying a mobile inkstand. This would be a case with scribe's reeds and related tools, and a container of ink attached. He simply came with the others, as the one who would ensure justice. His mission was to place a "mark" -- the Hebrew word for the last letter of their alphabet, tawv -- which would appear in their script as our sign of the cross.

There is strong symbolism in the place these seven angels stood near the altar. The luminescent Presence of the Lord rose up off the flying formation of the cherubim seen in the first chapter, and hovered on the threshold of the Temple doorway, as the One who commanded those who prepared to make a grand sacrifice. That sacrifice would be the lives of those who sinned, the guilty parties not marked by the divine Scribe. He was to mark those who wept over the gross sins of the nation. This Scribe was sent out first, to be followed by the destroyers. They were to make no exceptions, not even for the Temple precinct, but to spill blood without mercy. We note Jeremiah was told he and a few others were marked for mercy when Babylon came and destroyed the city.

When Ezekiel asked for God to explain the utter absence of mercy, and the intent to leave no remnant, it first tells us Ezekiel knew not much of the Scribe's ink would be used. We also note the Lord responded the city was already filled with blood. The people were acting as if there was no God, no one to see nor care about what they did. The point was only those who sinned would suffer. A recurrent theme in Ezekiel's book is the individual responsibility before the Lord. Indeed, in the narrative it took only a few minutes for the Scribe to return, having marked the few who were righteous.

Ezekiel 8

2011-03-29T17:22:00.001-06:00

Ezekiel sets a fairly precise date for us, translating to 17 September 592 BC. It's just a few more years before the Fall of Jerusalem. In the presence of the elders of the Exiles, the prophet is granted a vision. The person before Him is a figure of Christ, the Revealer. In the spirit He carries Ezekiel back to Jerusalem, and shows him the idolatrous abominations. Because the experience itself is non-literal, we need not see each element as something the prophet sees in real time, as it were. Rather, it is God allowing Ezekiel to see what He sees.

The first thing we notice is the Image of Jealousy, or Ashtarte (Ishtar, Astarte, etc.). The north gate of the inner court would be on the right-hand side of the Temple proper as we face the entrance, where a wall separated the Court of Israel from the Court of Women. At that time, this was the entrance used by most people, since the east and south gates took one through the palace, and there was no western entrance. The narrative is imprecise by Western standards, but the meaning is not. The presence of pagan images anywhere in the Land defiles it, and makes God feel unwelcome in His own house.

Again, we cannot quite picture what happens as Ezekiel is told to dig through a hole in the wall near this doorway, and finds a hidden door. Upon opening and entering this doorway, Ezekiel saw the high council of Elders (predecessor to the Sanhedrin) bowing to what amounts to the pantheon of Egyptian nature deities. Each of these Elders also kept such images in their private quarters. They reasoned to themselves God was not aware because He had abandoned them. Of course, we know He left them because they were unfaithful in the first place.

Back out near this northern doorway between the Court of Israel and Court of Women, we find Judean women ritually weeping for Tammuz. This is a common deity found in many Ancient Near Eastern civilizations -- starting earliest with the Dumuzi of Sumeria, the Egyptian Osiris, one of the Canaanite Baals, and the Syrian Adonis. These symbolized the annual rite of fall weeping for the god of vegetation dying. In the spring they would then celebrate his rebirth, often with unspeakable sexual acts. It's hard to imagine reviving such a cult in the very courts of the Temple.

But it gets worse. Inside the Court of Israel, on the raise porch of the Temple, the raised area between the Altar and doors of the Temple itself, were twenty five men worshiping the sun. This was the number of chief priests plus the High Priest. They turned their backs on God's Temple, ritually forbidden -- they were to exit the inner Temple and Court of Priests walking backwards while facing the Temple. But they stood facing the sun, in flagrant violation, as ritual leaders of the whole nation.

Obviously the idolatrous corruption had left nothing untouched. Not just the people slipping into idolatry, but openly led into it by the leaders of the nation, those with power over everyone else. It's not enough they had violated God's justice in every possible way -- the Land "filled with violence" -- but flaunted their infidelity with the boldness of a woman committing adultery in the street outside the door of her home while her husband watched. Would any man tolerate such a thing? It would be justice to stone her with her lover on that very spot, and so God intended to punish without mercy.

2 Thessalonians 2

2011-03-26T19:44:00.001-06:00

Now we come to the point of this second letter to Thessalonica. Some one or more persons was trying to convince the church there the Day of the Lord had come, as if that would explain their persecution. Paul warned them not to believe any such notion, whether it come via spiritual revelation, a report of teaching or a bogus letter from Paul himself. During those three short weeks with them, he warned there would have to be certain conditions fulfilled before the Lord's Return.

Paul runs through a brief summary of what he had taught them in more detail, which details are no longer available to us. However, the outline is not hard to follow. First there must be a general apostasy, but it is paired directly with the rise of an Antichrist. This draws a picture of the church drifting far, so very far it mistakes some Satanic deceiver for Christ. In other words, the genuine Return of Christ would be preceded by a fake one. This someone will eventually reveal their pretension to being God Himself. In his previous letter, Paul draws a picture of Christ coming in the air, we rise to meet Him, He changes and redeems all Creation, and then comes Eternity in Paradise. The qualitative difference is indescribable, so anything short of that means Christ has not come. Signs and miracles are not evidence of any new revelation from God which contradicts plain teaching.

Granted, the deep mystery of such a preposterous presumption is already at work in this world. Satan began the day Christ ascended, planning and preparing the way for his fake Messiah to displace the truth of Christ. The only thing stopping him is the restraining hand of God, working through some force Paul does not declare here. Nor does it matter, because the point is we have not yet seen any such global deception focussed in a single individual just yet. This Antichrist's time has not yet come, so clearly this is not yet the Day of the Lord. And when this Son of Perdition does come, he won't last long. God will obliterate him with just a puff of His breath.

There is a clear distinction between those who embrace the Cross and those only pretending. The Cross is death, and those who don't quite grasp the nature of mortification aren't there yet. The Antichrist will come with an easy gospel, signs and wonders, and a solid majority of humanity will embrace whatever he's selling. It's not as if this hasn't been offered in numerous packages already, but the following has never been quite universal in any sense. The final revelation of the Antichrist will provide the context which will so clearly separate those who willingly give all for Christ and those who seek something else, because the reign of Antichrist will seek to destroy those who really do know the truth and recognize him.

This is the whole point, which Paul implies but does not state plainly. The Great Tribulation will bring a truly different level of persecution, something which would make the situation in Thessalonica pale in comparison. The very same false Messiah who fools those on the path to Hell is the one who will make it Hell on earth for the redeemed. Paul reminds them they haven't seen that yet, nor have they seen someone manifesting as an earthly fake Messiah.

So Paul gives thanks the Thessalonian Christians are not so easily fooled by such things. From the very first, they embraced the truth of Christ, and took up the Cross. People don't come to that by simple persuasion, but by a mighty miracle of God calling them to life. Paul warns them not to depart from what he first taught them, because his message had not changed since that first encounter there. For this truth they embraced the suffering of this world's rejection, and found the consolation of His love and power.

More on the Sense of Calling (Updated)

2011-03-24T19:23:00.003-06:00

I suppose this is connected to the previous strong impression I had of wanting to work with military people as a mission field, but lately I'm sensing a need to look into reading a bit on church and non-profit administration.

Granted, I'm a long way from wanting to see a church managed like a business, as is the common assumption in all church administration these days, but I admit I understand that model all too well. I know how to make it work. I know quite a bit about the automation part of it, of course.

So in my prayer for guidance, I'm asking the Lord to clarify how these two items fit together. That's not to say I can't imagine some possibilities, but that I don't want to presume anything.

For example, I still have this powerful drive to keep working on my physical fitness. My spirit won't let me take it easy. Every day I feel provoked to keep pushing, so I stumble out of bed and do something sufficient to make me sweat. Later in the day I race-walk at least two miles, then try to do something like hard work for a couple of hours before mid-afternoon. I'm having a tough time imagining why it matters so much, but I am certain only that it is required for what comes next.

Pray with me, if you feel so inclined.

Update: Okay, let's refine that just a bit. I've been looking at internships and other ways to become acquainted with relief and disaster recovery work. Since I am no fund raiser, it will have to be something where my skills are sufficient for someone else to pay my way. I'm not concerned with a salary or wages, only room and board and basic medical care.

Ezekiel 7

2011-03-23T10:47:00.000-06:00

This chapter is a dramatic recitation of the destruction decreed for the Nation of Israel, in the guise of the surviving Kingdom of Judah. It is loaded with puns and figures of speech which sometimes elude us today. Yet the tone and message are unmistakable.

Fundamental is the use of the term, The Day of the Lord. While it was typically a sign of God's wrath against the enemies of Judah, it was always more about His wrath against sin. Since the nation had become their own worst enemy, they were the object of this wrath. So we have the image of God returning all their sins upon their heads. Only when the price of sin is fully acknowledged can one truly understand God's revelation, for in His justice is all we can know of His character.

There is also the image of disaster upon disaster, yet paradoxically a singular disaster unlike anything before: God rejects His own people and takes from them the Promised Land. In this there will be no mercy. They sowed their sins and will reap a harvest of rods for beating them. So very many would perish, there would be none left to wail for the dead. The few escapees would be too busy fleeing and staying out of sight to conduct a proper mourning.

In the customs of the nation, someone selling their inherited land would do so mournfully, while the buyer would rejoice in God's generous provision. In the next Jubilee, the land would revert to the clan which originally held it. However, before this next Jubilee the Babylonian army would come and no one would repossess anything, because no one would be in the land. Nor would there be any point to mustering the forces and preparing for war, since God had already decreed their defeat. So few would be those who escape, they would escape with only their very lives, hiding in the mountains like wild birds, as refugees in their own land. They would have no heart for recovering what was lost, fortunate to find even sackcloth and ashes for the duration of the Exile.

No earthly treasure would be sufficient to buy their way out of this. Actual silver and gold would be useless burdens, since there would be nothing to exchange for it. God's blessing upon their material needs had turned to curses. Though He had established the Temple as a glorious symbol of His power and majesty on the earth, they had so defiled it He could no longer bear it to stand. We cannot forget the half-century of Manasseh's profligate idolatry, turning every aspect of the Temple facility into unspeakable insults to God. It was so defiled, it might was well be plundered and destroyed.

The crimes of the nation had forged chains for their captivity. The glory of Jerusalem, the place kings came to visit, would become a camp ground for the most depraved of nations. This echoes how bringing Israel into the Land had hardly been much of an improvement over the filth of the Canaanites before them. When surrounded by invaders, there would be no fresh word of prophecy, and the priests would be unable to even remember the Law they worked so hard to ignore. The rulers would be completely unable to lead. Instead, from king to peasant to the lowest slave, there was only terror and dread at the hand of God's wrath.

Ezekiel 6

2011-03-21T07:57:00.000-06:00

The primary crime of Israel against the Covenant had always been idolatry. The Lord commands Ezekiel to remind his audience this was the central issue. Thus, Ezekiel declares war on the high places where the pagan shrines typically stood, as well as the shadows of particularly large trees, places of natural shelter in ravines, and so forth. God made them as gifts to fallen man to show His kindness, and fallen man chooses to revere the thing itself, but treats God with contempt. That Israel descended into this idiocy, when the clear revelation forbade it, was proof of their obstinacy.

So war was to come upon the whole land. Wherever a son of Israel built a shrine, or used a shrine from the Canaanites before them, there would be a place of war and slaughter. Naturally, such a total devastation would spread to the cities and towns, and no place would escape. Like an adulterous wife, God was justly angered by Israel's profligate abuse of the Covenant.

But the Lord promised to save a remnant, so there would be a witness to His righteous wrath. This is proof He intended to save the nation, though as by fire. Whether as a nation, or as within the life of an individual, whatever part has been sold into sin will be destroyed, but what He preserves will remain useful to Him. We note a solid majority of the population of Judah perished under Babylon's conquest and reign. The returning Remnant was a tiny portion, indeed.

Then Ezekiel was instructed to celebrate (or mourn; it is ambiguous) to mark well in advance the day of destruction. He was to chant a warning song: There is no escape from God's wrath. If an idolatrous Jew flees the land, he will be pursued by pestilence. If he hides within the land, he will die by the sword. If he hides in the city, in the Temple grounds itself, he will die by famine during the siege.

The point of all this? Let no one mistake: God is sovereign. Whether the nation would prefer to renege on the Covenant or not, there is no option. They will serve Him or be destroyed. From the southern border to the northern reaches, the whole land of Palestine would be desolate to match the moral desolation of a nation who rejects her own God.

2 Thessalonians 1

2011-03-19T17:47:00.000-06:00

It's not hard to get in trouble in this world. If you go out of your way to make things difficult for others, they will eventually be difficult with you. If you go out of your way to do good things for them, the only problem might be whether they realize it is for their benefit. Most people will at least refrain from harassing someone trying to be nice. But if you simply mind your own business, and interact with others in kindness because you have a gospel to demonstrate, only the evil will attack you.

Paul opens his second letter to the Thessalonian church with the usual greetings. He reaffirms how relieved he is to know they are still in the grip of grace, that his prayers from the previous letter are being answered, as their faith grows and their love washes over everything and everyone they encounter. This gives Paul the excuse he seeks to brag on them. Here is a church which knows how to handle persecution. It doesn't hinder them; it only makes them stronger. This is the way it should work.

That's because God is in the business of revelation. He seeks to reveal His nature through His Son, by revealing His expectations for humanity. He does this by using those who embrace His expectations, and thus embrace the Son. In so doing, they part from this world, aggressively shifting their focus onto His realm. Finding yourself on the outs with those still clinging to this world is not only expected, but desirable. It reveals who is His and who is not. It reveals how just is His justice. In the paradoxical realm of God, it is just His people suffer in a world which is hostile to Him.

And in some future time, it will be justice for Him to turn the tables. When He comes back and reclaims all Creation, those who remain His enemies will then be on the receiving end of tribulation and wrath, and His servants will rule in His rest. We can scarcely picture how the angels will carry out His final Day of Wrath. Paul describes it simply in terms of being driven from His Presence. In That Day, the only place not in His Presence will be unspeakable torment.

We who are His will stand in His glory. Everyone will have crowns to cast at His feet, and some will be truly admirable crowns of obedience under the most trying conditions. This will include the Thessalonian Christians. It is a high and worthy calling to face tribulation for His Word. Few are able to fulfill it. His power is available, but too many cling to what they thought they had in this life. But those who abandon this fallen plane of existence will stand before Him with a powerful testimony of His glory.

Ezekiel 5

2011-03-15T19:53:00.000-06:00

The siege continues. The fate of the population of Jerusalem is declared long before it happens. The Lord uses Ezekiel's hair and beard as the symbol of his wrath on the nation.

The sword was to be sharpened, and used as a barber's razor. The war was coming and would cut down the nation. Barring certain limited contexts, shaving someone's head and face exposed them to shame. Israel had shamed God repeatedly, so they would be shamed among nations. The hair was to be weighed with the precision of God's measured wrath. A third would burn in a fire in the symbolic city on the clay tile, to show a third of the people would die of siege itself, from disease and famine. Another third was to be chopped up with the sword, showing the actual assault at the end of the siege would take another third of the people. The balance was to be thrown to the wind, lost and dispersed, pursued by the sword. That is, except for a tiny portion saved, tied up in a corner of his garment, as God would save a tiny remnant. But even those would face the tribulation of purification from their sins.

Who can find words to describe the depth of God's sorrow and justified anger? The nation had the singular blessing of God's clear revelation, not offered to any other people on earth. They had the Covenant and the prophecies, and guidance of God in selecting what lore and literature constituted His own communication. Having such a grand advantage, one would naturally expect them to take full advantage of the opportunity to stay somewhere in the vicinity of God's favor. Not only did they fail, they could not live up the much lower standards God had for nations with far lesser revelation. Israel was more offensive to God than any nation on earth.

So the result would be Israel and Judah would become the by-word of taunts and curses: "May God crush you like Judah!" We can hardly imagine how this was received by the Exiles in Babylon.

1 Thessalonians 5

2011-03-12T20:38:00.000-06:00

People throughout the ages have always asked the same two questions about the Second Coming of Christ. They want to know how to be sure they are included and when it will happen. Having covered the first, Paul now addresses the second.

Jesus warned flatly not to attempt tying signs and events to setting dates. For all this, a great many ignore His warning, pretending not to set dates and times, yet always discussing how this or that event simply must fulfill certain prophetic statements about His Return. No doubt Jesus and the Apostles saw this coming, Paul warns the Thessalonians they shouldn't need reminding on this point. He had told them bluntly when among them there is absolutely no way to know before the event comes. You surely know what you have in your home is worth stealing, but you can't possibly predict the behavior and decisions of the burglar. Jesus is coming to steal us away from death. When human wisdom is so sure things are safe and secure, Jesus will turn everything upside down. The point of associating it with birthing is not the pain, but how sudden and relentless is the moment when it arrives.

The domain of Death and Hell is spiritual darkness. We do not belong to darkness; we have already escaped Death and Hell. His coming will not surprise us one bit, because we are not taken in by all the human wisdom of those spiritually dead. When That Day comes, we will be waiting in eager anticipation. We belong to the Dawn of Eternity, and spiritual enlightenment is ours, carrying the daylight within ourselves. It violates our new divine nature to spiritually slumber. When others around us seem unconcerned with spiritual things, we live for nothing else. Our rest is in the work of the Spirit; our peace in the battle against sin. The spiritually dead can't comprehend such things. Spiritual sleep and frivolity are for those who live for the Darkness.

Paul makes mention of putting on the spiritual armor as one who stands watch at all hours of the day and night. Our commitment prevents surprise inside attacks like a breastplate, and our assurance of His mark on us is like a helmet which deflects unseen blows. These are provided because His election in us is immutable. It all rests upon His death, His ultimate sacrifice which bought us, so it won't matter what time of day or night He comes. We embrace His death and already hold His life in us. We share this, and support each other. Thus, the Thessalonians should have no trouble with letting slip the good spiritual habits already at work in their community.

Part of those habits is not making trouble for the leadership of their church. This is hard work, work someone must do. Don't hold them in contempt simply because you aren't one of them. It's not a question of who does what, but what they are doing as a whole. A significant element of the witness and nature of the Body of Christ is peace. If you are at peace within yourself, it should hardly be a problem to live at peace with others. You can easily be peaceful even in the correction of those who act inappropriately. You can be peaceful with those who easily lose their grip on peace, and keep them strong. You can afford to suffer discomfort from everyone, because peace is your nature.

Don't take the sins of others as an excuse to meet them on that lower level, wallowing in worldliness. Keep yourself disentangled from their failures, and keep acting justly when it seems pointless. Never lose your peaceful joy, because you can be a walking prayer meeting. Keep your grip on thanksgiving regardless of circumstances; that's the way Jesus operated as a man. Don't put a damper on things you don't understand, because the Spirit remains aloof from mere intellectual grasp. Don't discount prophecies simply because their purpose isn't obvious to your mind. Rather, give both the ancient and current prophetic words time to change you, testing them against the imperatives of the Spirit, not the logic of your mind. Thus, you accumulate a great store of reliable lessons as your mind learns to subject itself to the Spirit. This makes it easy to dismiss quickly both old and new-fangled ideas which contradict His Word, which are unjust by His standards.

Paul's closing is a prayer for the Thessalonians. He prays God drive them through the process of change into holiness to the very end, so as to prevent them slipping back into sin, whether sins of the body, the mind or spirit, until His Return. They can be confident this is within reach, because it rests on God, not any of us. Upon this foundation, he asks they pray for his ministry. Corinth, from where he writes this letter, presented no small challenge for Paul. He admonishes them to offer a genuine formal greeting to everyone in Christ. They are to read this letter to everyone in Christ who crosses their path. Finally, he commends them to the grace of Jesus Christ.

Change of Plans

2011-03-11T17:57:00.003-06:00

I was going to post the next chapter of Ezekiel this afternoon, but a mass of grass fires in the area have interrupted my plans. We left for a few hours, but our trailer park was spared. I'm home right now, but there are a few flares still burning in our area, one just a few hundred yards north. Since the winds are stiff from the south, that isn't a threat, but it has surely destroyed my beloved woodlands trail.

At any rate, many folks have already lost homes, businesses, and I heard at least one school house. Vast acreages of grassland and woodland have gone up in smoke. Central Oklahoma is on fire.

Pray for us.

Tyrants and the Wrath of God

2011-03-09T20:57:00.005-06:00

On my other blog, I painted a rather nightmarish image of our slide into slavery as a nation. This is coming. I may be mistaken in some details, but this is in substance already upon us.

Get used to it.

It is the hand of God delivering us unto tyrants. It is the primary means of His wrath and judgment upon our nation. There will also be a string of fearsome natural disasters, too, but the rise of tyranny is primarily the sentence of God upon America. To resist is to sin. Escape if you can, but do not resist. It will be with us until He relents. He will relent when we repent.

Thus saith the Lord.

I've already offered here what it means to repent. I don't mean going back to the old Early American false piety, or any other historical revival movement you care to name. It's going to mean going back much, much farther, to the days of the Early Church before it became westernized. We have to reject the materialism of Aristotle. Until we go back to the ancient Hebraic life of faith Jesus and Paul taught, we will not have repented.

Ezekiel 4

2011-03-08T20:26:00.001-06:00

Ezekiel was called upon to produce a prophetic drama. First, he took a fresh clay tablet, the most common material in that part of the world for writing and drawing. On this tablet he drew a likeness of Jerusalem under siege. Perhaps some of it was symbolized with extra bits of material place physically close to this clay tablet on the floor of his quarters. Then he erected a small iron cooking plate as a wall between himself and the little diorama. He was himself to act as if he was besiging the city, too. This was a direct prophecy of what was the fate of Jerusalem, contrary to the hopes and dreams of the Exiles for a quick return to normal life.

Ezekiel was to lay on his left side for a number of days matching the years for which the Northern Kingdom was to be punished, and on his right side for a similar representation for the Southern Kingdom. There is much of debate about the numbers, but they weren't meant to be precise. Rather, they were representative. Depending on how one counts the precise starting and ending dates, it was roughly 390 years between the exile of the Northern Kingdom and the Return. From the final destruction of Jerusalem to the Return was roughly forty years. Numerical precision was not often of any real concern in Hebrew prophetic literature. What matters most is these years of fulfillment of God's wrath had not yet happened. God's wrath was upon the His people for defying His Covenent.

Whether we are to see Ezekiel literally unable to move day and night, or merely during the time when his intended audience might come to visit is also not important. What matters is Ezekiel would spend a little over a year at this task, roughly approximating the length of time the siege of Jerusalem lasted. During that time, he would have no reason to move around much, as those under siege. He would eat what amounts to siege food, because it was the sort of thing one might have left over in storage after a while. The ration was small, some 8 ounces (220g), as was the water at about a pint (0.6l). The prophet would waste away as would those under such confinement. We struggle to imagine the sort of military campaign which took months just to deploy, then many months camping around a city before the residents were starved and desperate enough to surrender or be easily taken. The actual work of breeching the walls didn't come until the attacking commander felt the time was right.

Ezekiel balked at cooking over a human dung fire, as might well happen under a long siege. This would violate God's own Laws about defilement. The Lord granted him some wiggle room to use dried cow dung, which is frankly a common cooking fuel to this day in the Middle East. The symbolism was sufficient, and we are reminded yet again not to scrabble over the details lest we miss the point. Ezekiel was warning his fellow exiles to settle in for a long stay, because God was not going to bring them home for at least a generation.

A Spiritual Itch

2011-03-07T20:29:00.004-06:00

Without dragging this out too long, I profess to having a strong spiritual itch to serving alongside military folks. They are my mission field. It's been that way most of my life, and it really hasn't changed much. Of course, there is no way I can wear the uniform again.

So I'm asking for prayer support. Somehow, somewhere, I need to expose my calling as elder to folks who do wear that uniform. For now, I'm not aware of any normal channels by which I can simply volunteer to work in a chapel, for example. Besides, this itch runs in a different direction. For the time being, I can only assume it means working in some sort of contractor situation. Not sure what skills I have that would be marketable, but I'm willing to try just about anything plausible.

Pray with me as I seek the Lord's face regarding this vision, this spiritual itch.

Giving Shape to That Nameless Urging

2011-03-06T18:56:00.003-06:00

For as long as I have not found a sense of peace of about what I'm doing in the Kingdom, I can be sure I am not yet engaged in my calling. During this past decade, I have known beyond all doubt the Lord was marching me through a personal wilderness, taking laps around my personal Mount Sinai, until I had been reshaped into some different instrument of His will.

Surely this has been a taste of Hell. But the fires of Hell can only burn sin. In the life of His child, it burns away sin if they learn from it. Thus, the name of this blog. What is not consumed by the fire of the kiln is hardened against the sins of this world.

I've tried and tested a lot of things along the way. It was necessary to test things so as to test myself and shed the useless baggage. The computer ministry fulfills the biblical necessity of being ready to support myself by working with my own hands. The writing and teaching are methods of the mission, as would be the likes of singing and graphical arts.

That I claim to be called as a prophet of God is not an office, not a calling in that sense. It is merely a primary tool or weapon for the calling. On the office I have been correct for the past few years, knowing I was an elder, not a preacher. I can preach well enough, but that's not my calling. There are two primary offices in the New Testament: pastor and elder. I am the latter. My calling is to promote the stability of the body as one who teaches the Laws of God under grace, the means by which the body organizes and stays on task.

During the past few months, I have felt a steadily growing sense the mission was at hand. By no means should anyone assume that translates into knowing how much longer I must walk this earth with the sense I'm not yet fully engaged in the mission. It means only I'm closer and not yet there. The tension in my spirit, not in my emotions, is very high. I've been called to reexamine my readiness, to go back and question and inspect everything going into this.

It begins now to take a shape. This is the theme, the underlying reason for what I am about to do. This is the sword in my hands. It matters not what the battle is, nor where it is; I feel certain this is the primary emphasis. There is still a vast array of things I could be doing in terms of what it would appear is my mode of employment, so it's not about that. What I do know is I'm an elder of the Body, called to bring a prophetic message of leaving the Sodom and Gomorrah of our day, of escaping the civilization set for destruction and rebuilding what God intended.

Nor would I pretend to be seeking any particular measure of success. This is not about establishing a group, organizing a new religion, or any of those other observable results. Those things may happen, but they are not the mission. The mission is to press the case.

Or maybe I'm just going farther insane. You, dear reader, can feel free to make up your own mind about it. For myself, I can't walk away from this.

1 Thessalonians 4

2011-03-05T18:26:00.001-06:00

It is all too easy to substitute a human sham for divine grace. The logic of this world is ill equipped to lay a just and holy path of action drawn from divine truth. Such an attempt will always fall short because of the inherent lack of grasp, denying the ruling power of the Spirit-spirit union in those spiritually alive. Those spiritually dead cannot even comprehend, are completely unable to credit the vast shift in priorities which arise from spiritual birth.

That Paul has taught sacrificial love as the definition of holiness cannot be processed on the level of mere human intellect. Fallen assumptions of what love compels men to do cannot make it past the Cross, cannot survive the grave. So Paul points out some of the more obvious differences he had already taught the Thessalonians. The sacrifice of love means self-restraint in human sexuality. The dominant culture in that part of the world knew no restraints, utterly shameless. The shift from Gentile pagan sexuality to the ancient biblical standards came as a culture shock to most converts. Even worse is when someone manipulates a new believer because of their ignorance of such things. Paul warns God knew all secrets, and His justice did not fail. Rejecting any part of the ancient Hebraic view of human sexuality was not simply rejecting a foreign culture or Paul, but was rejecting God and His clear revelation on such matters. The implanting of a new living spirit in your life is not for nothing.

Of course, brotherly affection was not hard to grasp even from the pagan viewpoint. All the more so would they understand this since it is the very nature of the Spirit Himself breathing in our souls. Thus, Paul praises the Thessalonians for getting this right. He urges them to continue exploring that, and to realize such love also expresses itself in other changes. Macedonians were not particularly industrious, and a fake brotherly affection could lend itself to sponging off others, to being rowdy and overly demonstrative in public displays of affection as a means to manipulate people into taking care of their worldly needs. Paul set the example himself in Thessalonica during that short three weeks, working for his own keep. That was brotherly love. What kind of testimony was it for Christ if everyone became panhandlers?

Apparently Timothy reported the Thessalonians suffered some confusion over the Lord's Return. Typical pagan mythology and human logic left the dead as simply dead. We who serve Christ have a living hope, because of His example. He rose from the dead, in part to show His plans for us. After spiritual birth, it is only the flesh which expires; the spirit rests in the arms of the risen Savior. God Himself said we who remain when His Son returns will see first those who died rise to meet Him, and we will follow. Jesus will drop down through the clouds with a grand announcement all the world will hear. Those whose bodies died will be raised in new bodies first, then we will be transformed and join them in the sky. There was no need to sorrow over someone who died before His coming again.

Ezekiel 3

2011-03-02T19:53:00.000-06:00

Ezekiel's vision of calling continues. The Lord directs him to eat this scroll of divine judgment. The expanded emphasis of filling his belly translates to absorbing this message from God and allowing it to permeate his whole being. To those of a mind to obey the Lord, His justice is sweet. To those who resist His revelation, His words are wrath.

The Judean exiles to whom God sent Ezekiel would have no excuse for not hearing this message from God. This was one of their own people prophesying to them. Had God chosen to send Ezekiel to any other nation, as with Noah, that nation would hear and repent. Israel is singled out as God's own people, and the nation most likely to reject His Law. All the granted privileges simply gave them an attitude, making demands of God, not showing gratitude. Just as emery is harder than flint, so Ezekiel's calling and commitment to God's message would grind down the willful sin of the people. The prophet was to take comfort in knowing God would eventually make the message heard. So it mattered not whether they appeared to listen, Ezekiel was called to speak.

In symbolic language, Ezekiel tells us he was lifted above himself, out of the common plane of normal human concerns. His sense of center and authority rested on a higher plane, from where the flying formation of winged beings came. It was as if he was flown back to the town where the Exiles were living. He approached them fully immersed in God's anger and disappointment with His people. He sat among them in painful expression of astonishment at their sin, and at the price of God's wrath they soon must pay.

A week later, a specific message came to him. Ezekiel was appointed as a divine watchman. This would be the guard on the city wall or in the tower, watching for the approach of any threat. Upon seeing an approaching enemy, he would sound the alarm so the inhabitants could prepare a response. Ezekiel was called to sound the alarm God's wrath was coming like a storm. God lays out four cases for Ezekiel to consider, showing that while God's justice rolls surely, the prophet has his part to play. It didn't matter what Ezekiel knew about the moral state of his hearers, nor what response he could expect from them. His mission was to warn them, or he was no better than they.

God commanded Ezekiel to walk out into the broad flat plain, the center of the Babylonian Empire. This was surely some distance away from normal human traffic. There on the plain he saw and heard the same flying formation as before, and he fell on his face. This was a fresh reminder of the context and meaning of his calling, and Whom he served. He was warned for the time being his message was to be strictly confined. He would not come and go as before, as if his life was still the same. Rather, he would resolutely stay in his quarters. Even if his fellow Exiles thought he was nuts and tried to restrict him, he was not to engage in the normal discourse of life. Nor would he even so much as open his mouth in standard socializing, but keep it shut until God gave him a specific message. Otherwise, he had nothing to say to anyone. If such strange behavior served to discredit him, that was not his concern. It's not as if they were likely to listen, no matter how Ezekiel presented his prophecies.

1 Thessalonians 3

2011-02-26T18:43:00.001-06:00

Love can be defined as the sacrificial exertion of self in seeking the true welfare of another. It is active in the sense of a commitment which is limited only by the source from which that love springs. Paul dearly loved the new believers in Thessalonica, just as any parent becomes deeply wrapped in any number of their own children.

Athens was not really on God's itinerary, but Paul was stuck there. As best we can reconstruct, the timeline goes thus: Paul left Thessalonica for Berea, somewhat off the beaten path. We can assume he had more than a mere three weeks, and ministered there long enough to build another body of converts before the Pharisees from Thessalonica caught up with him again. His hosts hastily put him aboard a ship at the nearest port for Athens. This would make him hard to track down by his enemies, while Timothy and Silas remained behind. From Athens, Paul sent back word via his escort for his two associates to join him immediately. Apparently they did. After hearing their report, he sent Timothy back up at least to Thessalonica, and Silas perhaps elsewhere, to make sure the new believers were holding steady. From there he traveled on to Corinth, and waited on pins and needles for word from Timothy, and from whence he wrote this letter.

The harsh reaction of the Pharisees in the Thessalonian synagogue was hardly going to quickly dissipate. They had lost a large number of Jewish converts, taking a big bite out of their offerings and prestige. If they were willing to use pagan thugs to stir up a riot, they would surely be willing to corrupt the local government to give the persecution force of law. We should hardly be surprised if they didn't also use any other subterfuge available, including the slimiest tactics of tempting the Christians to sin so as to question their new faith. Paul would surely know of such things as the former chief persecutor of Palestine. Paul makes note one of the first things he taught any new convert was to expect persecution as the natural condition of serving Christ.

Thus, when Timothy reported to Paul in Corinth how the Thessalonians were standing strong, Paul refers symbolically to having life breathed back into him. This reaffirms the depth of his love and commitment to them. It caused him to break out in ecstatic thanksgiving, and for quite some time it sustained his confidence in the troublesome ministry at Corinth. It also built up a longing ache to see them again.

It would be too easy to miss in the final verses of this chapter how he sincerely hoped they shared such a depth of sacrificial love. Not simply returning it to Paul, but to each other and world around them. This desperate longing for others to share what we have is the burning fire of the gospel, its power to move the dead to rise in new spiritual life. He carefully links love and holiness. The Law of Christ is agape, that sacrificial love Christ had for all of us. How hard is it to understand the definition of holiness is thus being committed with such devotion to the same sinners for whom Christ died?

The Secret of Facing Tribulation

2011-02-26T06:13:00.004-06:00

I have a secret. It's not because I'm trying to keep it under wraps. God knows I've been trying to publish it for a long time, but nobody wants to know. Or maybe they simply can't get it. I'm not in a position to fix it either way, except to keep broadcasting. That's the biblical meaning of the phrase "the mystery of the gospel." It's hidden in plain sight.

The secret of facing this coming tribulation is embracing death. Dying in this life is a blessing for us. It's your get-out-of-jail-free card. The sickness of thinking we should want or need success on this world's terms has nearly killed the Christian message in modern times. Just how successful was the Crucifixion? Count yourself nailed to the Cross already, and dismiss any hope in this world, or anything of this world. "In the world, not of it" means something.

The end of life, or The End of Time, will not come at anyone's convenience. You may hope to do this or that, reach some particular stage of life and accomplish certain plans, but God holds all the cards. His Word says this life is a joy only if you are consciously receiving it as a gift from His hand. You are supposed to cry out "Maranatha!" You want Him to come back. Barring that, you should be eager for His call to Heaven. Not eager to stay here, not for any reason. Yes, your family will miss you, but when death comes in the course of radical commitment to your calling, your death will most certainly be in their best interests. God says so.

Tribulation is the mark of God's favor. It shows He trusts you to stick around and tribulate in His glory. We bear it with joy and thanksgiving. It's a miracle.

Ezekiel 2

2011-02-23T20:18:00.000-06:00

God referred to Ezekiel as "Son of Man" in the sense of reminding the prophet he was but a mere human. Thus Ezekiel uses the term for himself in proper humility. The experience of sensing himself in the Divine Presence was enough to make him fall face down, but God raised him up as His appointed emissary. Only by the power of the Spirit of God did he stand.

His commission is to address a nation infamous for rejecting their God's authority. He was to address them in the ancient fashion of the prophets they had ignored so far, "Thus saith the Lord!" Whether they listen or don't, they would not be able to deny Ezekiel's prophecy met the test of coming true. However, the Lord warns Ezekiel it will be a hostile reception. Whatever happens, he was not to take part in their rebellion. At any cost, he must obey God's commands.

The scroll is symbolic of God's message delivered, recorded in Heaven. Scrolls were only ever written on one side, so having one covered in writing on both sides conveys the fullness of the message, something which can hardly be confined. God had a lot to say to His people, and it was not good news.

Confusion about Confusion

2011-02-23T10:40:00.002-06:00

For God is not the author of confusion, but of peace, as in all churches of the saints. (1 Corinthians 14:33)

The context is obvious: When God calls you, and empowers your ministry with some particular gift, you are not to presume the arrogance of compelling everyone to bow down to your gift. Others have gifts from the Lord, and you are expected to exercise restraint over your emotions.

You surely have heard the self-righteous intone: "God is not the author of confusion" as an excuse to enforce conformity. This is the sin of eisogesis, the sin of the Pharisees. It assumes the Greek term (akatastasia), translated into English as "confusion," is a perfect overlap for our modern usage of the term. That Greek word does not include the concept of perplexity, but aims more at tumult, riot, or rebellion. An internal conflict in your own mind is not a sin, but a sign there are sinful dregs not yet cleansed. We spend our whole lives struggling to unearth our convictions, the bedrock of our unique character before God. Disagreement among persons is hardly a sin, and does not necessarily equate to riot. Peacefully accepting God leading someone close to us in another direction is a mark of spiritual maturity. When some religious authority figure shakes a finger at you and hisses about sowing "confusion" because you aren't on the same sheet of music, you know they are a Pharisee.

Tribulation Report #047: Stubble or Stone?

2011-02-22T08:10:00.004-06:00

What will happen to churches as the economy continues to fail?

According to the grace of God which is given to me, as a wise master builder, I have laid the foundation, and another builds on it. But let every man be careful how he builds on it. For any other foundation can no one lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. And if anyone builds on this foundation gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, stubble, each one's work shall be revealed. For the Day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire; and the fire shall try each one's work as to what kind it is. If anyone's work which he built remains, he shall receive a reward. If anyone's work shall be burned up, he shall suffer loss. But he shall be saved, yet so as by fire. (1 Corinthians 3:1, MKJV)

Each of us is a mixture of spirit and flesh. In each day of testing, what remains is spirit, and what is destroyed is flesh. So it is with churches.

Things will get rougher this very year. That's not simply an educated guess, but a strong impression in my spirit. What is non-essential will be peeled away by the coming tribulation. I am praying for the people involved, that they are turned by this experience to a more spiritual mode of living. It has been so easy during the good times to find the facilities and materials utterly essential to the mission. What will be changed when the goodies are gone?

I think about the big and expensive programs. Let's take Youth Ministries, for example. The big programs, the emotional experiences, expensive multimedia shows, etc. -- is all the stuff really necessary for God's Spirit to work? What worked in Paul's day? How did they run a youth program in, say Thessalonica?

That's right; they didn't. There was no such thing as adolescence in Paul's day. It was infancy, childhood, young adulthood, then adulthood. The transition was not a thing unto itself, prolonging childhood beyond it's natural time. We have created a period of life which is totally artificial, and built vast expensive ministries around it. They'll die. Sure, some will continue thinking this is necessary because they still believe the lies about human development stages, but God won't support it.

Youth Ministry isn't evil in itself, but arose because the churches were caught in a bind. The secular society around us created this imaginary stage of life. Yes, it was an evil plot in one sense, though I'm not sure anyone can prove how detailed the plans were. Rather, it was the natural result of greed and power-seeking, and is so entrenched, the church felt forced to deal with it. But they accommodated rather than fighting it. They didn't defend the truth because they hadn't given it much thought. That itself was the result of a long train of compromises on the way to that point.

The high investment in Youth Ministry will mean a very high cost when the fire of wrath burns it away. The same could be said of a great many other investments of the churches. What happens to the giant corporate church when folks simply can't afford to drive across town any more to attend? What will happen when they simply can't keep servicing the mortgage? When they can't keep the climate controls operating, or the massive array of lights burning? The age of Stadium Rally Worship is at an end.

We are going to find out what the treasure really is. But I wonder how many are of a mind to prepare, to be open hearted to hear what God has to say. I'm praying for a move of the Spirit, because we are the Tribulation Church, and saints of God will tribulate. That's our natural environment.

Ezekiel 1 and the Faces

2011-02-20T09:10:00.003-06:00

Reviewing all the discussion of the symbolic meaning behind the four faces of each of the creatures in Ezekiel 1, I'm struck by the complete and utter failure of unanimity. The earliest church scholars could not agree between them which face represented which Gospel. Frankly, I consider the whole notion bogus. I don't believe we are meant to discern the Four Gospels in Ezekiel's vision, simply because that approach is Pharisaical (Hellenistic).

Rather, it works best to seek as much as possible to approach it from the Hebraic angle. First and foremost, we must realize this flying formation represents God's watchfulness. His attention is present upon the earth He created. Miss that and you don't have a clue.

We note each creature faces each direction with a different face. What we should get from that is each direction gets coverage with a different face, a different perspective. No matter which direction we look, there are four pairs of eyes watching, two from each kind of face. We need to seek the Hebrew literature for the common meaning behind these symbolic faces.

The human seems rather obvious, because it simply represents what any man can do. The lion plainly represents power of authority. The ox is a matter of patient strength. The eagle represents swiftness. Thus, God's watchful presence suffers no limits, cannot be frustrated. At the same time, no one can deny this flying thing is a messianic image, as well. The revelation of God is itself clothed in human mortality, yet full of authority, patient and long-suffering, and quick to apply itself in any context.

Jesus is all these things. Yet to then struggle to make this fit some necessary framework of this or that Gospel perspective is frankly artificial. I rather like the Mennonite way of handling such things: Don't read too much into the Scripture narrative. Don't attempt to nail down something God meant to be ambiguous, because you do violence to the conscience of someone led in another direction. Each delineation we add is a point of exclusion from fellowship. The more people you exclude, the more you cut God off from using you.

1 Thessalonians 2

2011-02-19T18:25:00.000-06:00

It seems in very letter Paul wrote he was compelled to defend his apostleship. A significant element in the persecution he and the churches faced was the spiteful questioning of Paul's character and motives. As with the prophets of old, he presented himself to the judgment of his flock. Could any man step forward with evidence of his sin?

First, there was the matter of whether his message was true. Paul lacked any significant talent for oratory. When he spoke, his presentation was anything but impressive, either in speech or in his personal appearance. That anyone listened at all was a matter of divine grace. Thus, his ministry in Thessalonica was not wasted, because God brought the harvest. Still bearing the wounds of the beating in Philippi, he stood boldly against similar threats in this town, and spoke the hard truth. There was no attempt to sucker anyone so they might be willing to listen, no attempt to justify or cover up immorality, and no attempt to weave a complicated and confusing narrative which simply sounded good.

Paul didn't care what people wanted; he cared only what His Lord wanted, the One who called him. His conscience was clean. No one was flattered, and Paul never asked for anything, even though he could have, as God's emissary, demand much. He wasn't seeking attention for himself from anyone. Rather, he gently shared the truth with a commitment equal to any nursing mother. Paul would have gladly sacrificed anything for their souls, even his own life. Indeed, he and his assistants paid their own way, working for their keep. Could anyone present evidence of any actual wrong Paul and his friends committed there? Paul was committed to their spiritual welfare, as a spiritual father should be. It was worth any price to see them walking in holiness.

So Paul's greatest joy was seeing them turn to Christ. The Thessalonians recognized the truth when they heard it, not some blather dreamed up by human talent and intelligence, but the very word of God. That word brought them to spiritual life. As with other churches, they embraced the persecution as the mark of their favor with God, just like the churches in Judea. As Paul and the other Christians suffered the persecution of their own fellow Jews, so the Thessalonians faced the wrath of their countrymen. The Jews killed their own Messiah, as they had the prophets before Him. They were at war with God and man, seeking to crush the gospel message. They were particularly anxious no Gentiles should embrace Christ. The wrath of God was already upon them. No one should be listening to them spouting about what God required.

God saw fit to move Paul's body out of Thessalonia, but Paul's heart was still there. He longed to go back, but Satan was permitted to frustrate this desire repeatedly. It was heartbreaking, but Paul bore it as best he could. There should be no question he would pay any price to see them, but the Lord had other plans. For Paul, there was no boasting in his apostleship, but humility God chose someone so unworthy. There was no great accomplishment in the flesh, no proud intellect, no great wealth and power. There was only the fellowship of the Spirit. The one thing Paul knew he could begin rejoicing about even in this time of separation was the assurance he would see them all again when Christ returned, as their redemption was all the glory and joy he needed.

Ezekiel 1

2011-02-19T09:35:00.000-06:00

The mystery of God's divine Truth is not hidden because of some arcane code language, but hidden because dead spirits cannot hope to fathom something declaring a spiritual revelation. Deciphering the vision of this chapter is not a matter of mere academic and intellectual pursuit of symbolisms within Hebrew intellectual culture, though it does require that. Rather, it is absolutely necessary to see this first as a parabolic indicator to something which cannot have meaning without a spirit born from above. Those with such a spiritual awakening can then offer something useful to those with it.

We are taught in our culture to demand precise distinctions, yet stumble so easily over glosses. Ezekiel did not see God in the ordinary sense of the phrase; he received a revelation of God. A revelation is not knowledge, but an imperative, a call to commitment. This is Ezekiel's call to the prophetic ministry. In the context of his world, it was imperative he first know the Lord into whose service he was called. Vestments of service to a sovereign have no meaning without an audience with the sovereign, or at least someone known to be the appointed representative to bear his name. In this case, Ezekiel is granted a vision of what he needed to know about his Master.

It was 31 July 593 BC, as near as we can determine. This was Ezekiel's thirtieth year, and his king's fifth year of exile. We should not be pedantic about him standing on the banks of the canal; this was simply a description of where he lived at the time. Five years now this select group of Judeans lived in exile in this place. Unlike the Egyptian slavery, it's unlikely this community was forced to do any particular labor. Rather, they would be a vassal township required to employ their talents and skills to live as best they could, and contributing to the general welfare of the imperial throne. If they were good at viticulture, then they would be taxed in the form of grapes and wine, for example. After some five years of this existence, Jehovah asserted His Lordship over the resources of His domain, and called Ezekiel to serve Him as prophet, a Heavenly court crier.

We could easily get lost in picking over the details of the image, but it matters not whence this or that concept arises. The symbol of a fiery storm out of the north meant to them the ultimate authority over Creation was appearing. For a civilization unacquainted with artificial lighting, anything luminescent was associated with fire. We would be fools to assume this is merely a dramatic device dreamed up by the prophet; nor was it a precise and literal revelation of which we was simply an objective observer. The man was drawn up onto the spiritual plane and could hardly describe in clinical terms what he saw with literal human eyes. His eyes were still in his head on the lower plane, and spiritual perception is not precisely a matter of five senses. Rather, it is a wholly other thing.

Into this sad life of exile God asserts something of Himself, for which the people need a reminder if they are to make any progress in recovering what was lost. Did God not know where they were, and their sorrowful estate? The revelation comes to Ezekiel of four creatures in a flying formation. Each has four faces gazing out in every direction, and the wheel within a wheel has eyes all over it. We would have to turn our heads to move, but God's watchfulness is fully dispersed in all directions, so no part of this thing turns, but merely goes and sees. Let no one doubt God knows what is going on at all times in all places in His universe. This is the probably the single most important point of this revelation. God knows in ways even those there could not understand, precisely what is happening with each and every one, down to the smallest particle of their being.

His knowledge is matched by His power to act. The noise alone is enough to portray that to Ezekiel's audience, but this flying formation appears beneath the opened heavens. God is nearby, ready to act, should his flying eyes see something calling to His attention. What does He seek? He seeks hearts turned toward Him. He seeks His own people, penitent and ready to know His command for today and tomorrow. The reference to a rainbow is not accidental, for it symbolizes a renewal of all the covenants of times past is being offered here.

Rightly does the chapter end with Ezekiel falling on his face, because that alone is sufficient response. It is the response required by the whole community of Judah in this foreign exile.

Ezekiel: Introduction

2011-02-15T19:33:00.002-06:00

In the second deportation, 597 BC, the entourage included a young priest of some means and stature. His name was Ezekiel. We estimate his age was about 25 then. Dating all his prophecies from the exile of his king, Jehoiachin, his prophetic ministry begins in the fifth year, his thirtieth, when he normally would have been vested for duty in the Temple. The prophet-statesman Daniel was already a living legend, roughly the same age, while Jeremiah was by this time middle aged.

Ezekiel lived in the wide, flat plains of Shinar, near the grand Chebar canal. There the Jews had a large ghetto outside Nippur. Being called to prophesy will quickly make any man seem strange, were he not already outside the norm. However, his prophecies are rather typical of ancient Hebrew mysticism. That is, his message is rooted in the Spirit Realm, and seldom finds a simple explanation in terms of this world.

The first half of his book comes before the Fall of Jerusalem, warning his people they fully deserved their sad fate in exile. The second half seeks to bring hope of a return some day. However, the imagery of that hope is thoroughly mixed with Messianic symbolism. He does not distinguish the application of such imagery for our convenience, because no Hebrew reader would expect it. Modern scholars who insist on ignoring the intellectual culture of the Hebrew people cannot possibly approach this material with any expectation of analyzing it sensibly. Pay no attention to such scholars.

Ezekiel struggles mightily under the burden of a calling we would find hard to imagine. Only the miracle of God touching hearts in his audience gained him any hearing at all. At some point his private home becomes a center for worship in the earliest infancy of the synagogue system. His emphasis on personal holiness is striking. His dramatic presentation, the strange and extreme actions used to symbolize his message, are equally indicative of sterling character and commitment to God's Truth.

1 Thessalonians 1

2011-02-12T19:34:00.000-06:00

Paul notes he writes this letter in the company of Silvanus (often shortened to Silas) and Timothy, those who traveled with Paul when he passed through Thessalonica. He could hardly be less than grateful there even was a church there, since his time was so brief, and Timothy could not have been there very long himself later. It was a miracle they stayed together and active. Even more so when the same persecution which drove Paul out of town was still hounding the new church. This is what's behind his mention of their patience and hard work. Were they not God's Elect, they could not have lasted these few months.

Such power to transform them could not come from mere human persuasion, but the power of God's own divine truth. It was the awakening of their dead spirits which made them able to sense that truth living in Paul and his helpers. They absorbed the necessity of mortification immediately, becoming an example for other churches in that region. So thoroughly did the gospel take them, they were eager to spread the word. Nobody had to brag on the Thessalonian Church; it was a shining example of itself. They were eagerly awaiting the return of Christ.

Such living would not be the wild abandon of mere adventurers, but full abandonment of self to holiness. They were practicing for what they expected to come any day.

Thessalonians: Introduction

2011-02-12T19:15:00.001-06:00

In Acts 17 we find Paul having freshly departed Philippi and traveling west along the Egnatian Way to Thessalonica. This would be late 49 or early 50 AD. He managed to speak in the synagogue three Sabbaths, gaining quite a following, particularly among the Gentile believers. The Jews were persuaded only of the need to have Paul arrested. Hiring thugs they stirred up a riot. In the end, Paul's host, Jason, was forced to post a bond, while Paul, Timothy and Silas slipped away.

This left the church to grow on their own with but three weeks of teaching. Paul traveled on, stopping in Berea long enough to be driven out yet again. From there he went to Athens, then back to Corinth. He had sent Timothy back to check on the Thessalonian church, and met Timothy again sometime later in Corinth. From there it was he wrote the two letters we have to the Thessalonians.

These may well have been the first of his many letters. They are not weighty in theology, but more personal. The only issue he addresses squarely is the matter of the Return of Christ.

A Singular Failure

2011-02-11T06:49:00.004-06:00

Maybe you haven't heard of the Singularitarians. That's not surprising; until today, I hadn't either. You can't get a taste of it, but you can take in huge meals of it starting here and here. That is, they are long reads, and you still may not get an honest understanding of it. Then again, it appears the Singularitarians themselves are in dispute about what it all means.

I'll do my best to boil it down: These folks believe at some point technology will surpass human capabilities and we will become obsolete, or something like that. That would be the moment of "Singularity" which will change everything beyond all recognition, as sort of global FUBAR, as it were. There are widely ranging estimates when that point will come, but the biggest name in the movement, Ray Kurzweil, uses the date 2045. He's doing what he can to prolong his life so he can see it himself, since he's pushing so hard to make it happen. Now 62 years old, that's considered plausible by most folks, since he only as to make it past 97, if his estimate is correct.

I'm not one who says God won't allow it, that we shouldn't be doing that, and shame on them. I rather think God is simply amused by it. Aside from frank and honest scientific reasons why this cult is deluded, it's major failure is an utterly inadequate view of reality. They assume this world is all there is. They presume the epistemology of Aristotle, which simply cannot account for everything observable in this world.

Let them create the ultimate in computer power; it still won't be alive or intelligent in the sense of being indistinguishable from humans, much less better. It may well fools most people, but we already know from Scripture the majority aren't spiritually aware. Human souls are not a mere manifestation of combined physical processes. That's a childish view of reality. Let them spend all that wealth chasing that dream, because it will remain out of reach, even should this global economic meltdown not be on our doorstep. Indeed, I suspect the global elite will fund it for their own evil ends.

Despite all the rosy talk of how much it will do the benefit the human race, it will never get the chance. Any advantage at all over the rest of common humanity will always be seized and exploited by evil. That's the way it works. There is a non-material reality at work here, an utterly moral principle in the universe everyone wants to ignore. On the one hand, you and I, and everyone else we might persuade to see things our way, will not be able to restrain the hand of evil for very long on this earth. There's this thing called The Fall everyone tries to ignore. We were warned greater evil would come and there's no staving it off. Then again, we should expect the definition of "human benefit" to morph into something awful, anyway.

On the other hand, any such achievement of number-crunching at any magnitude does not constitute the spark of awareness inherent in even many mentally handicapped people. We know it's there even when such handicapped people have trouble demonstrating it. The will to choose something you didn't choose for them is not the single defining characteristic. Despite the articles hinting the Singularitarians believe it is, I note they don't seem to address the real defining characteristic, which is the ability to love and care about someone despite that independent will. I'm utterly certain love is the one thing we cannot program into a computer, because if it can be programmed, by definition it's not love.

Love is utterly voluntary, the spark of humanity. Not every human exhibits this, because they are free to choose a living death without it. Indeed, it's the default in some ways to remain dead in that sense. Surely the language is inadequate to express the idea, but we all know it when we see it. Love is that moral principle of seizing the initiative to give when there is no good reason to do so. It's utterly voluntary and contrary to human reason, and it sacrificially waits for love to be returned voluntarily. Anything less is not love. We can talk about affection and a hundred other terms with a similar pool of meaning, but they don't overlap that one concept, which I suppose is best represented by the imported Greek word "agape."

Just bring it, Singularitarians. If I'm still around, though I frankly don't care whether I live that long, we'll see. It may fool a lot of folks, but those who have an anchor in eternity will know beyond the point of intellect. They'll know in their spirits. The materialistic assumptions behind the Singularitarian cult, the arrogant presumption Aristotelian logic is sufficient to account for everything which matters, is the joke on them. No matter what they come up with, it won't surpass what I have right now, which is anchored in another realm of existence they deny.

Lamentations of Jeremiah

2011-02-09T15:16:00.004-06:00

This won't be a close examination, but simply a brief overview. The book itself is not that hard to understand.

After the siege and destruction of Jerusalem, Jeremiah was released to return to Gedaliah's service and remain in the land. We have no trouble seeing Jeremiah take a walk to the city ruins. There he was moved deeply to lament what sorrow it brought to see it. He laments as if the ruins, the roads to the city, and the all nature wept over the awful price of sin.

The symbolism isn't complicated. Each chapter follows a very obvious structure from the text itself. Each verse begins with a different letter of the Hebrew alphabet, 22 letters in order. Thus, 22 verses in each chapter, except the third, in which the pattern in repeated in triplets, making 66 verses.

When we stop to consider what our sins have done to darken the bright revelation of Jesus Christ, we should hardly feel less sorrowful.

The Sins of Syncretism (Updated)

2011-02-07T05:14:00.006-06:00

Today let's look at yet another cult.

The original idea of Chrislam appears to have begun in Nigeria. It's one of several odd religious hybrids on that continent. But it's not just an African thing. Lately, the term applies to something slightly different, something more openly political in nature. The Anglicans are getting a little close for comfort, and of course, Rick Warren is in on it. While Warren, Anglicans and others can't quite be charged with promoting Chrislam, it seems they are not all the far from it.

I didn't know about Chrislam until today, but I'm hardly surprised. I was alerted to it by an email from a fellow who passionately fears Islam and buys into the hatred of Muslims because his own brand of syncretism: Christian Zionism. Swallowing the lie of Judaism is no better than swallowing the lie of Islam.

(Update: I deleted some links above and changed the statements I made, because I found I could not trust the source.)

Anyone who knows me would not suspect me of being on a Crusade against either Jews or Muslims. Both groups think they know Jesus, but do not, and desperately need Him. But since the gospel message was made into a product with marketing, I'm pretty sure vast stretches of Christendom don't know Him, either. It's not hard to be peaceful to anyone when you realize the power of grace and aren't hung up on the heresy of synergy -- the notion anyone is capable of deciding to follow Jesus when they are lost in sin. Paul kiboshes that without much trouble:

For they who are according to the flesh mind the things of flesh, but they who are according to the Spirit the things of the Spirit. For to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace because the carnal mind is enmity against God, for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can it be. So then they who are in the flesh cannot please God. But you are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if the Spirit of God dwells in you. But if anyone has not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of His. (Romans 8:5-9)

The proper doctrine is called monergism: God and God alone can bring about salvation. The initiative lies entirely in His hands. It doesn't make sense to the intellect of the flesh, and it isn't supposed to make sense. Truth escapes the intellect, but rests comfortably in the spirit God brings to life in those formerly dead in their sins.

We need no hostility to either Jews, Muslims, nor any those of any other false religion, including Christians who suck up to men by perverting the gospel. We can reach out to them in the sacrificial love of Christ without shaming Him. It is the way of the world to find false fellowship by blending ideas and finding some illusory peace in what the mind can dream up by it's own crafty scheming.

Colossians 4

2011-02-05T20:01:00.000-06:00

he last actual instruction Paul gives is something so fundamental, it justifies standing alone at the head of the final chapter. If we are to suggest this second half of Paul's epistle is more pragmatic than spiritual, it falls under God's Laws. The underlying theme of all the Law Covenants in Scripture is justice -- justice as God defines it.

Thus, in broad terms Paul reminds everyone in the position of lordship or mastery over any other they must be just. They must deal with their subordinates in God's justice, and particularly what is equitable or appropriate for the servant's position. Household slaves are family members; value them and treat them accordingly. Laborers are valuable productive assets. Management staff are the ones who know your business better than you. And so it goes; humans are above animals, and must be treated better. Power over another does not remove accountability. Such authority makes you accountable to God for their welfare. Everyone who leads in any way at all becomes accountable in God's eyes, for those following are actually His.

Indeed, leading or not, every encounter with another human brings the burden of accountability before the Lord. Therefore, we ought to bathe every hour of every day in prayer, giving thanks for God's grace in each moment. If nothing else, the Colossians could pray for Paul as he sought to present the gospel, even as he wore chains. They should be fully aware they represent that gospel to a lost world, seeking to purchase every moment from Hell's grasp by graceful wisdom. Every word is a payment, a tribute to God or Satan.

Paul ends with the mention of those who bore this letter for him to Colosse. He mentions Tychicus and Onesimus, which ties this letter with Philemon and Ephesians. These two would be able to handle matters not addressed in the letter. Aristarchus was there with Paul, and had been with him in the riot at Ephesus. Mark has by now long been rehabilitated in Paul's estimation. Epaphras we know, as well as Luke. Sadly, Demas eventually deserts Paul.

He instructs the Colossians to exchange this letter with the Laodecians, reading also the one he sent them (which we do not have). They were to encourage Archippus, likely a minster in Laodecia. Paul signs the letter with his own hand.

Jeremiah 52

2011-02-03T22:11:00.000-06:00

Everyone is quick to note this final chapter is a verbatim copy from 2 Kings 24:18 and verses following. It is included here for the obvious reason of pointing out Jeremiah's prophecies came true. However, Jeremiah adds a few details not found elsewhere.

In the minds of most Judeans, Jehoiachin was the legitimate king, though taken as hostage to Babylon after only a few months on the throne. Thus, his uncle Zedekiah is viewed merely as a regent, but his biographical details are entered in the registry of Kings. We are told how the siege progressed for some eighteen months, until the wall was breeched. That night Zedekiah, his closest advisers and bodyguard, all fled down the Kidron Valley through an inconspicuous gate near the King's Garden, situated between an old inner wall and a newer outer one. The Kidron runs down to the northwest shore of the Dead Sea, where there was space to move north and cross the Jordan. Somewhere there in the Plains of Jordan just north of the Dead Sea, the Babylonian pursuit caught up with them. Zedekiah's bodyguard fled, which puts both them and him in a bad light.

He was marched north to Riblah, where Nebuchadnezzar maintained his personal field headquarters for the pacification of this whole region. The punishment for Zedekiah's crime of insubordination was to see his retainers and children all executed. It was the last thing he saw, as his eyes were then put out. He survived the march to Babylon, but died in prison. Next, a few priests who aided in leading his revolt, plus their guards, were also executed, and the Temple was plundered. Finally, it and every other building of any significance in Jerusalem was burned. That is, all the wood work framing was burned, and the stonework would collapse.

Then Jeremiah fills us in on the deportation statistics. We are reminded numerical precision is not important in Hebrew literature, as the words for numbers had other meanings. The means of accounting for dating and estimations of head counts would normally vary with the perspective of the one telling the story. No one reading from a Hebrew mindset would be concerned, because context is everything. Numerical precision was simply not important, as we count such things, but the meaning of the facts is what matters. Thus, we see there were three deportations. The first was around 605 BC, and there might be any number of reasons why Jeremiah counts but a third of those reported in 2 Kings 24:12-16, but the context and choice of words would be more obvious to someone living in those times. Perhaps Jeremiah simply reports those who survived the long trip, versus how many began it.

The second deportation was when Jerusalem was destroyed in 586 BC. The group taken to Babylon was quite small by comparison. The third deportation is not reported anywhere else in Scripture, and matches well with a response to Gedaliah's assassination. In the end, Jehoiachin was rehabilitated, and treated like the client king he was by the successor to Nebuchadnezzar.

Jeremiah 50 & 51

2011-02-02T17:36:00.000-06:00

From God's perspective, human empires are mere tools. When their purpose has been served, they are discarded. There is no nation on earth so precious to God it can't be dismissed. Even Israel ran out her purpose, refusing to be God's living revelation. So He forced her to serve until His Son finished His work on the Cross. Now she is no more.

So it was with Babylon. When her purpose was complete, she was to be destroyed. During the Assyrian Empire, Babylon was a major satrapy, as were the Medes to the east, and Persia farther south. Babylon allied with the Medes to rise up and destroy their overlords. During the time Babylon ruled, the Persians rose up on the far side of the Zagros Mountains, led by Zoroastrian religion which fired Cyrus to greatness. They allied with the Medes to come back and conquer Babylon.

From the Biblical perspective, Babylon was the rod of God to punish His people for defying the Covenant. Having gone too far under Manasseh, even the reforms of Josiah were not enough to save her. The vast range of insults Manasseh heaped on Jehovah and His Temple are hard to imagine today. But while these two chapters rail at length against Babylon for her own sins, while the sins of Israel are not forgotten, we must keep one eye on the spiritual meaning behind the symbolism of historical facts. From God's throne, all facts in history point to higher divine principles of revelation. Jeremiah's prophetic viewpoint is the final best understanding of things long forgotten in the sands of time.

The vast and unimaginable glory of Babylon's beauty is contrasted to the very short time she ruled. As empires go, she had one grand advantage over most others in history: She could grow sufficient food to feed her armies. The rich soil, watered by the vast network of canals, a concept which stretches back into pre-history, brought enough grain and produce to provide far more than the citizens could consume, with plenty left over to feed marching troops. Her battle tactics were the best up to that time, and the policy of deporting the cream of every nation to ghettos near the capital city as hostages against revolts secured her power. You would think she could have stood for at least a thousand years like this, but God had other plans. Her city was taken without so much as a single siege device. The Medo-Persian troops marched into the city even as the heir apparent celebrated his accession to the throne.

Jeremiah offers us several noteworthy artistic touches. He mocks the chief deities of the Babylons, Bel (Baal) and Marduk (Merodach). He warns the Exiles to flee the capital city itself when they see the Medo-Persian armies coming, so as to avoid being swept up in the fighting. The end of Babylon to this day is just a pile of sand, never again occupied by human life. Of course, Cyrus didn't destroy the city himself, but moved his capital east to the Zagros foothills. Babylon was destroyed later when it rose again in revolt, because in her arrogance the city never forget her former greatness. Thus, we note in passing, for the Pro-Egypt nobles to claim Jeremiah was of the opposing Pro-Babylon party was mere propaganda. Jeremiah's language is quite severe against the Babylonian arrogance.

There is a piquant play on words using names familiar to the Babylonians, but using Hebrew meanings. Merathaim ("double bitterness") is a Hebraism based on mat marrati, the swamp region south of the city. Pekod is Hebrew for punishment, and sounds rather like Chaldean Puqudu, a major tribe in Babylonian politics. The problem was Babylon never quite understood her place in the order of things. While Babylon's publicists had no trouble mouthing the words Jehovah had given them the victory over His own nation, they easily forgot the reality behind those words. We cannot forget the episode of Nebuchadnezzar's madness reported in Daniel's prophecy. So it is with every nation whose rulers decide their success is purely their own making, of their own greatness. A Hebrew code word for Babylon was Leb Kamai -- "the center of those who rise up against Me" (God). She could have reigned much longer, but the arrogance was more than God could stomach.

Thus, Jeremiah refers to vengeance for the Temple, though it still stood in his day. He knew it would be destroyed. He also refers to the Medes, who at first led dominated the Medo-Persian alliance, as the rescuers of God's people. Like a prissy whore whose beauty has faded, she would become inebriated on her imaginary power and stumble headlong into the street where chamber pots are emptied. She would not get up.

Jeremiah gave this last prophecy to Seriah, the brother of his secretary, Baruch. As a part of an entourage sent to Babylon, he was instructed to read it aloud in Babylon beside the River Euphrates. Then he would pronounce this God's firm promise regarding the city and it's rulers. Then he was tie it to a stone and toss it into the depths of the river. So it would symbolize how Babylon would disappear from the pages of history, sinking from sight.

Spiritual Abuse

2011-01-31T10:21:00.004-06:00

The heart and soul of spiritual living is freedom. We know this world below, into which we are born, is a prison. It is dead, dying and death. That is the parabolic image of the fallen world and everything belonging to it. This world is slavery, fear, secrecy, insecurity, anger and wrath.

When people seek to enslave each other, that is the way of the world. When churches create an environment of fear, building rule upon rule, it is a part of Darkness. When families build upon fear and strictures, they are families from Hell.

Domination, control, clinging to the resources of this world are the response of someone afraid, and without faith. Acting upon such impulses is sin. If you cannot stand alone in the tumult, you have not yet taken the strength of Christ. First know yourself and your weaknesses. Confess them openly. Then seek others who are also open and unafraid. From that place, standing upon the Rock, you will truly understand interdependence, the free and voluntary support.

You don't depend upon the support, but upon Christ. The support from each other is simply to be enjoyed, used in as much measure as it comes to you now. Those truly free and growing will continue to support you. Their voluntary and free support will be there every time you come back, however long you must go away. That's because it was there with you wherever you went. They do not hold you, except in their hearts.

In Scripture, we see no words or admonitions about abuse in the home. That's because our modern Western definitions of abuse are all wrong. We do see admonitions about picking, carping about imperfections, and unnecessary harshness. We see failure to embrace God's place for you in the order of things. In Scripture, abuse is that demand for things which God does not justify. Not simply physical abuse, though that justifies fleeing such a relationship. There is spiritual abuse. At some point, it become obvious in your spirit the abuse, the clutching, smothering, tormenting refusal to let you breathe and know the self God called into His Kingdom is not just in His eyes.

It matters not upon what basis we call this a relationship, whether it be familial, commercial, legal, etc. Those are things of this earth. You who wave Scripture and say people should not seek to escape the clutches of Satan in human form are lying against God.

It was the Pharisees who clearly did not understand the spirit of the Covenant, and argued with Jesus who came to clarify that Covenant. Even with the best of intentions, they were deeply stained with a literalist mindset, like Nicodemas in the night when Jesus explained spiritual birth to him.

Well, all the world now recognizes slavery is a sin, so it's no longer legal, nor should it be. But slavery comes in all shapes and sizes, and by clever words we think to hide it from God. If someone willingly sells themselves into some form of slavery, then their cry for freedom is justly discounted. But if they were enticed, lied into it, dragged into it unjustly, then their cry comes before God's ears. We who seek to maintain mere legal fiction for the sake of "stability and order" are enablers of that abusive slavery.

He who has ears, let him hear what the Spirit of the Lord says. I purposely avoided citing concrete examples because only the Spirit can say what it means for you in any given context. But be sure you grasp where the Spirit leads on this matter.

Colossians 3

2011-01-29T19:07:00.000-06:00

In rejecting the things man can accomplish in the flesh, we have nowhere else to turn but Christ. Raised with Him, we live for His heavenly realm above. We are dead to this world, and the flesh belongs to it. We cling to Him, seeking His face and His business above. When He returns, this world will pass away, and our flesh with it. So let us in our own commitments regard the flesh as dead, a prison, and it's desires as torment. To give in to them is to worship another god. God's wrath is reserved for such, and it was once our destiny. So peel it off like filthy rags, all the urges of the weak and fallen flesh. Cease from dishonesty, because that has no part in us. Let us put on God's robe of the New Man of the Spirit, the robe of Christ, so that all fleshly distinction disappears. We know only living and dead in the Spirit.

There is no excuse for being difficult with anyone. What is there is this world which justifies struggling with others? There is nothing to save, so treat your human existence with the contempt it deserves. If someone has done you wrong in terms of the flesh, toss it into the grave where the flesh itself belongs. Bury it and forgive, just as Jesus has forgiven us. We have too much spiritual wealth to haggle over pitiful human dignity. Live His peace with others, and pursue what makes that peace more apparent. We admonish one another not for our personal losses at their hands, but for losses to the Kingdom witness. The objective in all things, the only one which matters to you, is His revelation.

So with such a concern ruling our lives, we should expect wives to serve their husbands, but as is fitting in the Spirit, not in the flesh. And husbands will treasure their wives as the better part of their earthly existence, not carping constantly over her natural human imperfections. Children would naturally seek to fulfill their parents' wishes, as the wishes of God Himself. And fathers won't demand more of children than children can or should do in the Spirit. Slaves and servants will be solicitous of their masters' genuine welfare, as the service appointed from God.

Everyone in Christ, do what task lies before you as your divine calling from God. Recognize the limits of your authority to choose, and give yourself with delight to serving, since your life continues only that it may be poured out as a sacrifice. If you act unjustly, God will not shield you from the wrathful consequences reserved for children of death.

Computer Ministry Update

2011-01-26T08:05:00.003-06:00

I have often said efficiency is not necessarily a virtue. It really depends on your motives, and what drives you. God is lavish toward those who wait on Him, and can be pretty rough with those who scratch for every moment, acting as if miracles depend on them.

For those of you praying with me about my computer ministry, I believe I am now led to begin a peculiar advertising campaign. I'm going to ride my bike around this area first, and begin leaving fliers in places where they shouldn't be too offensive. I'll be targeting churches, of course, but I'll probably post some on utility poles or other "public surfaces" where such things are often found.

Thanks to all of you who are supporting this by your prayers.

Jeremiah 49

2011-01-25T18:54:00.000-06:00

Jeremiah offers a series of brief prophecies for several nations. Each of them faced God's wrath in the form of Babylon's conquering forces.

The Ammonites were the northern brothers of Moab, occupying what we now today call Jordan. Once Assyria vacated the Northern Kingdom, the Ammonites moved into the tribal lands of Gad. Their chief god was called variations of Milcom, but was apparently the same as the ancient Molech, the bronze oven god in whose glowing arms were sacrificed newborns. With their wilderness fortresses so hard to reach, they were arrogant in their sense of security. While they were driven completely out of the stolen Israeli territory, as well as their own, a remnant was promised to return at some later time.

Edom was beyond redemption. They had helped Assyria in attacking Judah, and then helped Babylon plunder Jerusalem. They even sold the refugees from Judah, their own distant kin, into slavery. For this, and their other sins, their destruction was to be complete, leaving nothing. Indeed, their nation was driven from their lands by Bedouin tribes, pushing them into the southern Judah during the Exile. But the Maccabean troops conquered them and forced them to become Jews. While they remained somewhat separate from the Judeans, they were nonetheless absorbed into the Covenant by force.

Syria is called by the names of her major cities: Damascus, Arpad and Hamath. We note Ben-Hadad was almost a title by this time, used as the name for many of her kings. They were humbled quickly by Babylon.

By this time, the name Hazor was taken by one of several eastern tribes, living alongside Kedar (Ishmaelites). These two were nomads, ranging between Syrian and Arabia, fierce warriors who disappeared into the desert when outnumbered. Nebuchadnezzar was relentless in hunting them down.

Finally, Elam -- the ancient nation east of Babylon, in the foothills of the Zagros Mountains. It appears they were planning to take advantage of the fall of Assyria and rise up to rival Babylon. We know little of their history in this time, but Jeremiah promises they will be crushed the first time they even hint of rebelling against their dominant neighbor. Jeremiah also promises they would return home after some time.

Colossians 2

2011-01-22T18:54:00.001-06:00

What everyone seeks simply in living in this world is found in the Laws of God. What everyone seeks above that level of existence is found in Christ. Furthermore, whatever Christ says about the Laws of God is also binding on all. By any other name, the Talmud was still a pile of man-made lies against God.

With all the adventure and labor Paul faced in life, it was nothing compared to his mighty struggle in the Spirit. His life would be burned out, never giving it much thought, because of his single-minded commitment to affairs in the Spirit Realm. So this was the struggle he referred to the first verse. It mattered not they hadn't seen his face; he was agonized over the many threats to their spiritual development. Though it's hard to put into words what he sought from God on their behalf, he describes it in the religious language of the various proto-Gnostic and Talmudic speculations so dominant in that area. All the hidden knowledge and wisdom any man could use was bound up in Christ.

That was the whole point, to prevent them being deceived by the religious hucksters, with their sweet sounding words. He didn't need to appeal to their minds, but to their new born spirits. He wanted them to know the human intellect was given by God, not to rule the heart, but as the servant of the spirit-Spirit communion informing the heart, the communion with Christ. The ecstasy of discovery in the mind was nothing compared to the humble gratitude learned from spiritual birth. He cautioned them not to trade the Cross, and this new spiritual life, for something which simply appealed to the intellect. Ignore the claims of deep ancient secrets kept away from the majority of humanity, for Christ came in the full daylight of open and honest revelation.

Christ was all they could ever want or need. Whatever man could know of God and things eternal was in Christ, for God Himself was in that fleshly body. You want circumcision? Try a cutting off of the flesh itself, exposing a vital living spirit, new born from the dead. You want ritual cleansing from sins? How about the baptism of the Spirit, washing you clean by changing all your desires into holiness. It's a discipline the flesh alone cannot understand, much less keep. All the writ of condemnation they keep waving in your face is taken care of by His blood. If you walk in Christ, you fulfill all valid applicable Law Covenants. There is no authority under any Law which can overrule His divine power in your life.

So don't let others condemn you because your daily habits don't conform to their peculiar national culture. Kosher is nothing, and dividing of days and seasons is arbitrary -- unless you understand what they symbolize. If the symbol is all you have, then it means nothing. Why would you reverence angels when you can have God Himself in the Son? Don't surrender His liberty for lying chains of human inventions and bogus purity of fleshly observances. The people pushing this pile of nonsense don't know Christ. Indeed, their idiocy was why they rejected Him and murdered Him. Christ pulls together everything that matters into His Body, and He is the head of the real thing. Progress in pleasing God is simply a matter of obeying His Son. His Son did not bring a long list of prohibitions about touching and tasting. If your senses can detect it, it can't be important, because God has already promised to destroy all of it, and not a particle of it will follow you into eternity. So all those silly rules are things made up by people who didn't know God.

We call those rules "Talmud" but Jesus called them man-made oppression. Those rules, dreamed up by people using mere human intelligence, cannot hope to set you free from the sins of the flesh, because those rules arise from the very same flesh. You defeat the flesh by using the power of the Spirit Realm.

Jeremiah 48

2011-01-20T19:04:00.001-06:00

Moab was a son of Lot, born after the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah. These were the cousins of Israel. While not covered under the Covenant of Moses, nor that of Abraham, they were under Noah and had a strong expectation of understanding the basic Semite culture and religious history. They rejected it. This was the nation which hired Balaam to curse Israel as she passed through on the way to Canaan. While Balaam was unable to invoke God's wrath on them, instead learning God intended no such thing, he used his special knowledge of God's ways to bypass God's promises. Balaam advised Moab to make them sin by sending ritual prostitutes into Israel's camp during the season of Ashtarte's annual high celebration. The ensuing immorality broke several laws, and resulted in the predicted punishment from God.

The Moabites continually acted as if they were the rightful heirs, that Lot was the chosen, and the covenants were stolen from them. At first Israel had driven them south of the Arnon River, cutting their homeland in half. By Jeremiah's time, not only had they regained this rump given by God to Reuben's tribe, but they invaded Judah during Jehoiakim's reign. Throughout the bitter history between them and Israel, the Moabites were known for breaking every treaty and promise, always ready to lie and do whatever it took to spite their cousins.

They were also very famous for their wines. This was one of the best wine regions in that part of the world. Jeremiah makes liberal use of imagery related to this industry. Their relative isolation during this time compared favorably to wine which had not been filtered, but allowed to age with its dregs of grape solids resting on the bottom of the vat or jar. This was highly unusual, giving the image of something quite valuable but forgotten. Their punishment from God was destruction by His hired mercenaries, Babylon. With the final siege of Jerusalem, Nebuchadnezzar also crushed Moab for allying with Zedekiah in revolt. This cache of undisturbed wine jars would not survive the filtering, but would be dashed to the ground.

The names of chief landmarks are also liberally mentioned, with images of fleeing to the south, out into the wastes, or hiding along the cliffs on the short of the Dead Sea. Jeremiah promises a tiny remnant of the people would survive and return, but the nation itself disappears from history at the time of Jerusalem's destruction.

Jeremiah 47

2011-01-18T18:34:00.000-06:00

Jeremiah prophesies against Philistia. Aside from essentially stealing land God had promised Israel, there were plenty of times they defied God's Laws for Gentiles in other ways.

Jeremiah tells us this prophecy came to him prior to the time Pharaoh attacked Gaza. We have such poor records of Philistine history, we can't be sure when that happened. We know when Assyria was busy in land, they humbled the Philistines, who had been previously under Egyptian control. At some point, as Assyria's fortunes decline, Egypt suddenly changed course diplomatically and decided to support their former enemy against the rising Babylonians. Pharaoh marched north to meet Nebuchadnezzar in battle at Carchemish in around 605 BC. Best we can tell, when Assyria withdrew from Jerusalem, Philistia probably declared themselves no longer tributary to Assyria, but not under Egypt, either. This would give Pharaoh a reason to crush Gaza on this way north, just before Josiah foolishly went out to meet him at Meggido. Thus, we are left with a best guess Jeremiah published this message before 605 BC.

Yet he prophesies a far greater threat is not Egypt, but Babylon. Typically, that part of the world regarded northerly winds as a sign of pleasant weather. The rising floods were something people associated with the Nile. This imagery turns things upside down. It's rather like saying, "the end of the world as we know it." It would be so awful, grown men would cry like broken hearted children. The thundering of innumerable chariots, so easily maneuvered on that coastal plain, would so frighten the men, they could hardly think to grab their children and run.

Jeremiah notes the Philistines were allied with Tyre and Sidon, which had stoutly resisted Assyria (and Babylon later). This helps support the notion they had thrown off the Assyrian yoke. But this invasion from Babylon would cut them off from all Sidonian support, leaving the off-shore fortress safe, but unable to send help. There is some subtle implication the sea-faring nations don't keep faith with each other very well, as the Philistines were basically colonists from Crete (Caphtor).

When the Philistines called upon their gods, cutting themselves and so forth, it would accomplish just about as much as had Baal's prophets on Mount Carmel against Elijah. The whole scene would be hard to watch, even for someone who had suffered the ravages of Philistine raids. But the wrath of God would not be satisfied until the justice was complete. There was nothing worth saving there.

Madman Prophet

2011-01-17T06:42:00.004-06:00

It's really quite simple from your standpoint, dear reader: Either I do hear from God or I have moments of insanity.

There are these moments, quite infrequent, when something seizes me. It comes over me, clearly from outside my intellectual processes. Suddenly, it's just there. The mental processes immediately preceding these moments do not yet show any consistency to me. But when it appears, it is something which will not be denied. I typically write it in my personal journal.

Meanwhile, I'm praying to understand whether this thing is just for me, or for a wider audience. In the background, my brain is fully aware this whole business puts me at risk for questions of sanity. I'm not foolish enough to believe it's some absolute Word of God in the sense it should be recorded and entered into the Scripture canon. I frankly doubt whether I understand it that well in the first place.

But the driving sense I can't keep it inside is what moves me to post it, and it will always be on this blog, not the other (so far). I'm learning what to consider a prophecy, in that I find some things don't seem to have that much power. I suppose we can call them impressions which seem witnessed (backed) by my spirit, but not something which carries that much authority. It's something less, and I tend to write it differently, or keep it to myself.

In all things, I want you, dear reader, to remember I do not present this as anything which should bind you. When I post here something I consider a prophetic word, it simply may not be for you. Or, to be honest, I may be suffering some psychological problems. Okay, maybe I really don't know what I'm talking about, so it's something you can write off as ignorance. You'll have to decide for yourself, but I know there are times I cannot avoid writing these things.

That's the whole point: You don't have to take me seriously. Let me be the first to remind you of that. If you don't, it won't change a thing as far as I'm concerned. What I'm doing is the best I know, and I don't see any avenue of escape. If the message itself has no life, does not flare into a bright revelation of God in your soul, then dismiss it.

The Fire in My Bones Tonight

2011-01-16T20:55:00.003-06:00

Don't listen to my words. They mean nothing. Listen to the Spirit in your spirit. If you are not captivated, if this message does not hound you to the ends of the earth, then I'm just a muttering fool with a keyboard.

The Lord says to me: "Look around you. See this orderly world with all the fine things within easy reach? Take one long last look at it, for it will all go away. There will be shortages, and desperation as men prey upon men simply because there is nothing else to be had. Destruction and wrath is at the door."

Surely there is time for some to repent. For those who do, they can expect His promise to come true: Whatever you need in His service will be richly supplied. You will need to thoroughly reevaluate, recalibrate your expectations. Embrace the suffering and sorrow as the grace of God driving you out of the flesh. The things we expect are not simply the consequences of human action in the aggregate, but signs and wonders of nature itself convulsing to break free from the futility of fallen men rejecting the Justice of God.

Let's not do this again. Let's get the message and turn to His ways, rather than lamely seeking to rebuild the sand castles we have had for so long.

Colossians 1

2011-01-15T20:01:00.000-06:00

Jesus Christ was a real human, knowable as all men are. He was also the very God of Creation incarnate. To know Jesus is to know God, insofar as He is knowable. To obey Jesus is to obey God. And Jesus left a rather full body of teaching with other men, and gave them His divine Spirit, His Own Presence. In the ultimate paradox of truth. God refuses to be known by any other means than knowing the people who carry His divine Presence in this way. It does not perfect them among men, but makes them nonetheless His Son's Body, the fresh incarnation of His revelation to mankind.

Paul gives his usual greeting, including Timothy as his right-hand. The giving of thanks and praising God was actually common in Greek correspondence in those days, but Paul adapts the custom to the gospel message. Paul thanked God there were Christians in Colossae, believers with a testimony worth hearing. Paul notes the message came to them through Epaphras, who then told Paul of them. Paul affirms Epaphras was a faithful representative of Paul's ministry.

Paul spells out in some detail what his prayers for them were. It all points to that other-worldly orientation of those who serve the God of Heaven. It was His idea, His initiative alone, which called us into this heavenly life. The whole thing centers on His Son, Jesus Christ. Without Him, none of this would be imagined, nor imaginable. Whatever can be known of God is wrapped up in knowing Christ, who remains God's heir. This heir was there at Creation, and was the agent of Creation. Every authority in the Cosmos yields to Him, and nothing stands without His permit. Creation itself holds together by His active attention. He is fully God, and head of the whole body of those who can be called "touched by the divine." Through them, He asserts His authority upon the earth.

There is no other mediation between Creation and the Creator, no other way God will deal with mankind. Without the Cross, there is absolutely no approach to God. His death was the sole sacrifice acceptable to God, and all must embrace that sacrifice or remain unacceptable. This Cross becomes the distribution point for all God's dealings with humanity, and every good blessing is there only. You cannot afford to wander from that place. This is the gospel Paul was given by God Almighty Himself.

For this message Paul willingly suffered and risked his life. Whatever man must do to conquer his flesh comes naturally by living at the foot of the Cross. Anything less than being ourselves crucified is taking a shortcut, so Paul bears with grace anything God puts him through. Seeing that message take root in communities like Colossae is a rich and abundant reward, more than enough compensation. He would eagerly to take the heat off them, if he could, because that was his mission from God. Whatever it took for them to stay faithful, he would do it without hesitation.

This gospel truth was around since Creation, but was much harder to get at until the final revelation in Christ, and the subsequent revelation in His followers. Everything God could offer to mankind is bound up in His Son. We cannot begin to speak of such riches, such glory, such deep and boundless enlightenment. It is this Jesus Paul preached, calling every human to heed the message of repentance in Him, since there is no other hope. God Himself drove Paul, with a power only God could have, because Paul would have given up and died long ago without it.

Colossians: Introduction

2011-01-15T20:00:00.001-06:00

It's quite likely Paul passed through Colossae more than once, as it lay on one of the major routes between Antioch and Ephesus. Nearby was the much larger and richer Laodecia, and farther north was Hierapolis. All of them nestled in the upper Maeander Valley. But Paul apparently did not stop to preach in any of those cities. The Lord saw fit to use one of their own, Epaphras, a prominent man who came to Christ in Ephesus. He went back home and spread the gospel in all three cities. Paul naturally viewed this as an extension of his ministry, though, and provided apostolic guidance to them.

We gather from the scattered mention of details Paul wrote this letter rather early in his confinement in Rome. It seems he sent several letters at once, this one along with Ephesians and Philemon. The messenger delegation included Epaphras and Onesimus, a runaway slave returning to Philemon.

Though this letter is rather terse, we note he seems concerned with attacks on their faith from the Judaizers, as usual, but some other, more localized threats. The intellectual culture of the region was a mixture of old Phrygian, Greek colonists, and a long-standing, less than orthodox Jewish population. While this was a very strange brew of religious and philosophical backgrounds, we sense the earliest stirrings of Gnositicism and Western Mysticism. Thus, there were issues with accommodations to pagan mythology, Hellenism, asceticism, and all sorts of other wild nonsense. Paul's answer to them all is Christ. Jesus the man was God incarnate, the single mediator with God, and the sole truth in flesh. By calling the Colossians back to Christ, Paul leaves no room for the substitutes.

Jeremiah 46

2011-01-13T17:26:00.000-06:00

While the Covenant of Moses bound Israel alone, the rest of the nations of the world were bound under the Covenant of Noah. Moses was a particular application of the broader demand God made of humanity under Noah. This is not so much about a demand the nations worship Him, but that they conform to His sense of justice among men. We can be certain Egypt heard numerous prophecies from the Hebrews and ignored the call to justice.

Egypt sought to support the collapsing Assyrian Empire against the upstart Babylonians. Pharaoh Neco marched a vast force against Nebuchadnezzar, then the crown prince, at Carchemish, on the Upper Euphrates. Egypt brought up a host of mercenaries from several neighboring kingdoms. In soaring poetry Jeremiah describes this awesome sight, comparing it to the flooding of the Nile. He also described the resounding defeat which Babylon dealt her in 605 BC. The prophet describes the mercenaries breaking formation and fleeing. Nebuchadnezzar pursued them all the way home, but only the news of his father's demise stopped him from finishing off Egypt that time. He hurried home to take the throne and put down several revolts.

Some decades later, Nebuchadnezzar led his forces back and conquered Egypt. The Lord had turned His hand against Egypt, says Jeremiah. Nothing she could do would suffice for defense. Again, the mercenaries fled, and Egypt became slaves of Babylon. Jeremiah mocks the bull god, Apis, whose image Egypt normally bore into battle. This time it was more like a lazy fattened cow ready for slaughter. He also says the temple of the sun god, Amun, by now almost the Egyptian national god, would be destroyed.

One empire follows upon another, washing across the Promised Land from all directions. The people of Israel were doomed to exile in Babylon, but would some day return. Each nation who claims power over the land would end in their turn, but the witness of God's light would not be extinguished. It was critical to the process God punish His own people for their defiance of a much more clear revelation of His Justice, as they had His direct word of Law, unlike other nations.

The Ultimate Cause

2011-01-13T08:32:00.004-06:00

I'm devoted. I'm ruled utterly by this thing. You can call it what you like, but the common terms I use are freedom, sanity, truth, peace and things like that. Naturally, I can see beyond these things to God Himself, but these are the emanations of God in our lives. These are the things of God I can see, can understand and talk about. Thus, they become the ultimate cause in the sense they are as close as I can get to God and still use human language. Beyond that everything is ineffable.

This Cause is behind everything I do. My commitment to the computer service ministry is just a manifestation of my desire to set people free; it's the primary field of human activity in which I carry out this calling to freedom.

Even if I talk about God's Laws and government, I'm still pressing for freedom. I am hardly anti-government; I am against any government which defies God's ideals, so clearly communicated in His Word regarding human government. I am not anti-civilization; I am against any civilization which builds on anything except His Word. Western Civilization defies His Word, and almost every government over men in this world today defies His Word.

God's government is hardly so coercive, so pervasive as men commonly think it should be today. His prophets, when they spoke of adherence to His Covenants, spoke in terms of turning your heart to the right path, not to being forced onto it. You cannot compel men to righteousness. In the end, yes, some must die in order to save God's divine order on this fallen earth. But we do it entirely from the wrong understanding, the wrong motive, and entirely the wrong means and methods.

Freedom includes an atmosphere of sanity and understanding just how little this world matters. So long as we pretend otherwise, nothing we do will matter. What matters in this world is reaching into the realm above, of establishing the necessity of turning from this world to the Spirit. Even with dead spirits, men can be made to understand these things on some level. Without that understanding, we have doomed them to never having a chance to receive those few limited blessings God has promised in His Laws for this lower realm of existence.

Jeremiah 45

2011-01-11T10:11:00.000-06:00

While this chapter is out of place chronologically, it is excellently placed for its message. Here the narrative of events ends, and the rest of the book is devoted to prophecies against other nations, plus a final explanation of where things stood, perhaps about the time Jeremiah died.

Back when things were crazy under the reign of Zedekiah, who seemed to change his mind more often than his clothing, the scroll of Jeremiah was burned in the royal court as it was being read (roughly 605 BC). Baruch was quite young then, a nobleman from a family supporting Jeremiah, faithful to Jehovah. At the very moment his career began, he was in hot water. The royal bodyguard and the Pro-Egypt nobles were hunting him for daring to support this politically unpopular priest and prophet.

We should not see this as whining by Baruch when he came to God with his sorrows. He was simply young and didn't quite understand the larger context. So Jeremiah sent him a message from God to help him maintain his grip on faith.

There is nothing here about Law, though the Law surely warned of such things. Rather, the Lord explains in a few short phrases the nature of things from His perspective. This world is fallen, broken, and will not be fixed. God built great opportunities for the Nation of Israel, but knew well beforehand they would not long take advantage of those opportunities. God knew it would eventually fail, and how it would fail, and why. He built knowing it would have to be destroyed, because mankind is fallen and people are generally blind to spiritual realities, even when such higher truth is placed in their hands. That He also offered something to the other nations justifies Jeremiah's prophecies against them in the next few chapters. The whole world is a mess.

Seeking to make much of the situation in this world is a huge mistake. Baruch missed the point of his calling from the Lord. He was not living in a political fulcrum point so as to accomplish great things for God among men. He was living at a spiritual turning point, so he could reveal the higher truth as things crumbled politically. Thus, as a scribe of God's revelation, his mission was to ensure no one had any excuse for not knowing why all this was happening. He served that mission well, at no small risk to himself. It was a mistake for Baruch to think God intended to restore good politics to Judah. Thus, he should have expected persecution and sorrows. But in the midst of this, Baruch would not be killed, but would live to serve God in this fashion quite some years.

Best we can tell, Baruch remained at Jeremiah's side until the elder prophet passed away in Egypt. Baruch had access to both the royal archives and the prophetic archives, the records of the nation's history. That his written product of Jeremiah's prophecy includes more or less verbatim copies from those archives also indicates he himself had a hand in adding to that record, as well as helping to preserve it as a scribe who would surely have made fresh copies as part of his duties. Baruch is no less a mighty spiritual figure on the biblical landscape than Jeremiah, the prophet he served.

Simple Civic Solidarity

2011-01-10T07:00:00.003-06:00

Can you imagine?

Egypt’s majority Muslim population stuck to its word Thursday night. What had been a promise of solidarity to the weary Coptic community, was honoured, when thousands of Muslims showed up at Coptic Christmas eve mass services in churches around the country and at candle light vigils held outside.

From the well-known to the unknown, Muslims had offered their bodies as “human shields” for last night’s mass, making a pledge to collectively fight the threat of Islamic militants and towards an Egypt free from sectarian strife.

That won't be reported here in the US media.

Would Muslims here do something similar? Probably, but the shoe is on the other foot. Would we do it for them?

The Sin of Politics

2011-01-09T07:07:00.004-06:00

Politics is sin by definition. I am not referring to the evils men do in their politics, but politics itself. I haven't yet found the ancient Hebrew equivalent of the word "politics," but it is painfully obvious from the things Jesus said that it is utterly impossible for human politics to accomplish eternal purposes.

It's not as if God doesn't use politics to accomplish His will, but He forbids us going about His service using politics. That is, "politics" as commonly understood. I don't think there are many folks in the West with the least interest in what God has defined as His brand of politics. It's all about family and feudal relations and obligations. Not Medieval European feudalism, but Ancient Near Eastern feudalism. It's about covenants and people. The Lord has revealed His expectations regarding human government, but the West refuses to search it. We have chosen a weedy path in rejection to His royal highway.

We simply have this deeply burned in perverted notion anything on this earth matters. Eternal purposes are bound up in pulling away from this plane of existence, dismissing it as a passing moment of sorrow. Nothing accomplished here in human terms will have any effect on Heaven. Only what He accomplishes here, with or without us, will be remembered by God. He has said, in many ways and many places, human politics is a major hindrance, in the sense it distracts us from withdrawing out of this world. We are to put up with politics the same way we put up with every other weakness and frailty of human flesh. Sure, God has a better way of getting things done, but His ways on this earth are long forgotten by most of the human race.

Even to imagine politics matters is a sin.

Philippians 4

2011-01-08T18:23:00.000-06:00

Yet one more time, let us remind ourselves: Suffering and sorrow are the mark of God's eternal favor, His intention to strip from us the cares and anxieties of this passing valley of shadow. If we cling to this life and its comforts, we simply cannot claim to understand the Kingdom. It is imperative we separate ourselves from this plane of existence, not in the sense of caring for others in sorrow, but in caring too much about our own. This is clearly on Paul's mind as he writes to the Philippian Christians.

Of all the churches Paul planted, the Philippians suffered the most in terms of poverty. They were singularly famous for embracing this as a blessing, a special gift which kept them from loving this life too much. It was a very endearing quality, and Paul really missed that atmosphere. In this, they were his proof of the Gospel, a fellowship so very other-worldly no one could deny there was a great power behind it all. He encouraged them to stay that way.

Given this, why in the world would we have two deaconesses stirring strife against each other? Paul begged them to surrender their self-willed battle and restrain their human minds, to occupy their thoughts as servants of the Christ. The mind was not meant to rule and evaluate, but to implement the imperatives and evaluations of the Spirit speaking to the human spirit His ineffable will. They had previously managed to do this when serving while Paul was there, as had some others who we can guess probably paid with their lives, as Paul refers to them as written in the Lamb's Book of Life. In this, we rejoice, because ours is there, too. Rather, this eternal truth of our destiny should bring us to peace and gentleness in our conduct. Jesus Himself is watching, and could return suddenly any day. So there was no excuse for this carping and jockeying to prove one or another organizational issue as the one right way to do things. Let these women, and everyone else, pray with passionate abandon for God to win all the arguments, and seek that peace which the mind cannot grasp, the peace of having moved one's commitments to another plane above. Nothing can touch you or provoke you in that serenity!

Paul rattles off a list of virtues which exemplify the mind which has been relieved of command, and obeys the dictates of the spiritual plane. While such virtues echo the human moralizing common in Greek writings, he is actually using them in their spiritual sense. We are committed against all costs to Truth in the Person of God, we are completely open because our minds do not sink to lesser concerns as if they mattered, we struggle to realize God's Justice, we have cast aside all the lusts of the flesh and mere human reason, we embrace something worthy of sacrifice, we are seeking things which have that ineffable ring of Heaven's song, things too good for words, yet calling forth a torrent of praise. Paul asks them to meditate on such things, because this was what he taught them, showed them, and knew they had it if they could stay with it. It was what brought the power and presence of God close.

Finally Paul mentions how thrilled he was with their love gift sent by Epaphroditus. Yet again they poured themselves into providing for his material needs, and it was akin to the fresh flowering of spring. They always cared, of course, but he enjoyed the reminder. It was not a matter of his need, simply because he knew, as surely as his heart was beating, God would supply, that material things were mere tools in His service. Circumstances of poverty or wealth had no bearing on anything which mattered; Paul embraced what came as God's divine plan. What mattered most was the endless supply of Christ's own strength which carried Him to the Cross. But it was a good thing for them to send what they could gather, simply because it demonstrated their willingness to suffer along with him.

This the Philippians had done from the start. No other church even attempted to send him money, but since his hasty flight from Macedonia, they had never ceased trying to scrape up support for his work. The material gifts were not the point; God owned all Creation. What mattered was their faithfulness in recognizing His ownership, and it was the heavy fruit crop of God's working in them. Thus, it was a gift to God, a sweet sacrifice He savored, more than it was money in Paul's purse. By the same token, whatever it was they themselves needed in serving the Kingdom would be richly supplied by the Savior who was there at Creation. This was all for His own glory, and nothing could be better than to share in that glory.

Paul ends with a personal greeting from those with him. In particular, he notes rather joyfully the Christians among Caesar's palace staff were also sending their love. Grace abounding, indeed!

Everyday Savior

2011-01-07T10:55:00.005-06:00

Big revival or evangelistic rallies aren't useless, but most people get involved for the wrong reason. The results are mixed, but because they are founded on wrong motives, everyone enthuses at how wonderful it was. Therein lies the key: It generated a very high feeling, therefore it is doctrinally necessary to say it was effective.

The people who run those things aren't necessarily dishonest; many are just misled. They are infected with thinking we are obliged to drum up big business for God so He can do His miracles. There is nothing inherently important in the giant public assemblies. Indeed, it tends to obscure what is important by focusing too much attention on the folks occupying center stage. It's as if God can't work without them. That's blasphemous.

It's very similar to the permanent revival ecstasy pursued by almost everyone involved in organized religious activities. What ever happened to the everyday Savior? The same thing is seen in the Charismatic Renewals -- there have been several, but they are becoming an established type. What's wrong with them is the big show mindset, the demand for some over-the-top experience. These are people who are still empty, still not comfortable with their Lord, still not ready to settle down and find out what really matters to Him. As a prophet of Almighty God I assure you it's not the big emotional high.

My brother, Jason Franklin, noted in "Listening with My Eyes" we are addicted to the excitement of going off to war daily with God, needing a fresh fix of warrior truth from the daily devotional reading. When you feel the need for that, you really need something else.

When the wandering soul first encounters the truth of God, the encounter often comes with signs and wonders, even if no one notices them. God supports His own Word by backing it up, particularly when God intends for the listener to actually hear. Virtually every miracle of Jesus recorded in the Gospels falls into a particular context, and John assures us by his choice of words, these are attesting signs and wonders. That's a part of what gets them in the door.

It's a huge event, spiritually and emotionally. Our problem is confusing the two subjectively. We think something emotionally moving is spiritual. It might be, but we utterly lack the cultural orientation necessary to discern. Yes, it's the East versus West (actually modern versus biblical) epistemology thing again, but it's not hard to see. The point I make here is we become addicted to the emotional aspect and never connect with the spiritual, except by accident.

So we get this notion our emotional high is the presence of God, and we keep chasing the apparent manifestation, not the thing itself. We are wholly unable to recognize His presence and power because it's not what we expect, not what our radar is tuned to detect. Sounds like the disciples during Jesus' lifetime, no? It was certainly the way of the Pharisees, who had so confined and defined God as He revealed Himself, to the point they were clinging to a false god. Their god didn't exist.

Some today even go so far as to chase the same false Pharisaical manifestation of His favor. There is a horrific confusion of the earthly and spiritual realms. The Pharisees were so corrupted, they couldn't even get the Law itself right, so whatever good things they thought they had were not the result of observing the Law for the blessings of the Law, but their dreamed up cruddy Talmud and their wild imagination any day now God will honor his Word and set them free to be a Davidic monarchy again. It was never promised in the literal sense, but they rejected the spiritual meaning behind it, and thus rejected the actual fulfillment.

Let's get one thing straight: A fundamental need of humanity is understanding God's Justice. Justice is much better word than Law because it indicates something far more substantial. When the Galilean peasants got healed, the majority of them did not get born again. The blessing was Jesus restoring God's justice to the Nation. They wouldn't have needed healing had their rulers been faithful, but that failed centuries before Jesus came along. So the demonized and sick were suffering the injustice of failed government. Jesus restored justice, as a means to demonstrating He was the agent of God's justice, and that included justice on a spiritual plane, as well.

There appeared somewhat fewer miracles in Acts, largely because the Word was going to Gentiles, for whom the justice of God was on a different track. They weren't under the Covenant of Moses, but of Noah. They had far less promised to them, and the demands were less exacting than for Israel, so the healings were not so numerous. Still, the apostles and evangelists were restoring justice by offering the message of hope in Christ as the only sacrifice for sin, and the means to restoring right standing in God's justice.

If people get hung up on chasing miracles, they can never understand the underlying principles. I still see miracles frequently, but they are smaller corrections of justice, and it's so complex my mind can't handle it. But my spirit recognizes these things, and my mind just barely gets the message from the spirit, just barely realizes understanding is there somewhere. When someone asks me to pray for a certain thing, it's possible for me to discern on some level whether a thing requested is an appropriate prayer. Because I am called as a prophet, I have a very powerful sense of what is and is not a matter for God's justice, at least as far as my own service is concerned. Things I request from God in that office as prophet do get answered, and I have lost count of the things I am forced to call a miracle of God. But I don't chase miracles; I pursue God's justice.

I pursue it every day, all day, seeking to restore what sin has taken. Some of it I can correct on a human level, because the Lord allows me the talent and skill. That's still a miracle, but saying that seems to confuse folks who cling to modern Western ways of thinking. Some things I request are utterly beyond reasonable on a human level, but God delivers in due time, in His own way. This happens often enough I have developed a sense of confidence in His ability to get through my thick head what matters to Him, and something of a "method" (for lack of a better word) for that sort of ministry. I'm getting familiar with the territory, the protocols of Heaven, as it were.

Thus, I suppose it sounds like a big boast, but I claim if you bring a prayer request to my attention, I'll take it seriously. As you should expect, you could play games. There are plenty of ways you could attempt to deceive me, or yourself, and any response I give is likely to be colored by human frailty. However, my confidence is in the God who will reveal in His time how He views that request. I may never find out myself, but He will answer, and I'll have peace about it whatever may come. So consider carefully if you feel led to ask; pray about it yourself first. But I'll certainly perform due diligence in considering the matter, and you will get an answer which matches your faith and honesty, and reveals something of God's justice.

No big ceremony. No rallies and revivals. I'm not running a carnival with a profit motive. It's a prophet motive. No programs, organizations, goals and accounting. Keep it a secret or tell the whole world. If it mattes to God, you'll know what to do with it. If not, that's His problem, as far as I'm concerned. I'm not interested in all the stuff which drives most of this world, because I'm not of this world. I'm just staying busy pursuing His calling on my current existence here until He sees fit to take me home. Until then, it's pretty mundane, and I think God and I agree that's how it should be.

I do this every day, because I have an everyday Savior.

Jeremiah 44

2011-01-04T20:19:00.000-06:00

The very foundation of Israel's identity was the Exodus, the miracle of a God who rescued His people from slavery, marched them through a wilderness, and led them to conquer another land highly desirable. One of their greatest sins during the Exodus was whining and wanting to return to Egypt, after that land had been nearly destroyed. The whole idea of returning to Egypt always represented the perverse craving for slavery.

The refugees wasted no time scattering across the land of Egypt. The narrative mentions three cities in the Nile Delta, then uses a generic term for Upper (Southern) Egypt, Pathros. We aren't told how Jeremiah got his message to them, only that he did. They had seen the destruction of their homes in Judah. They knew why God did it -- their unfaithfulness in idolatry. They had been warned repeatedly and vigorously. They refused to hear; they had chosen a sure and sorrowful death.

A particular issue was the failure of men to restrain their wives' idolatry, which by far outstripped that of the men, who in turn seemed not to care too much about any god. This was something born in the time of Solomon, who allowed his foreign wives to bring their deities from home. It became a fashion, a feature of the upper classes. This was particularly offensive to God, hearkening back to the Fall itself, when Adam allowed Eve to make spiritual leadership decisions.

At some point, the Sudan community assembled somewhere there in Upper Egypt. The men stoutly defended the sins of their wives. Wasn't life better when they were faithful to Astarte? Jeremiah reminded them their national God took notice of their spiritual prostitution. The only reason things were bad was because they didn't even understand His Covenant Law, much less care to obey it. All the promises of a good life on the earth were bound up in that Law. They adamantly rejected the Law, and rejected their God.

Jeremiah responded they should indeed be diligent in their idolatry. But they should know for certain, whereas they swear by Astarte, God swears by His own Name: His Name will be taken from their mouths, all the Judeans in Egypt. No more will they say, "As the Lord Jehovah lives." He vowed to watch over them only so He could pour out His wrath. Sword and famine would consume them. A precious few would escape and return to Judah, only so someone would live to remember His vow in contrast to theirs. As a sign, the current Pharaoh Hophra (Apries) would fall into the hands of his enemies. This was fulfilled when he died in battle against his own general, Amasis II during a revolt.

Attainments of Heaven

2011-01-02T10:35:00.004-06:00

We see the English language such a vast, rich collection of stolen words, a whole array of subtle flavors which can be imparted to what we wish to express. Of all the languages on earth people learn, coming from some other language foundation, English is for this reason one of the hardest. Our vocabulary is massive, and our syntax complex.

Sometimes I have to wonder at the weakness of English translations of Scripture. It's not because we lack the words, but we lack the fluidity of thought. The very marvel of precision possible with English arises from our cultural distaste for ambiguity, our unwillingness to entertain thinking on more than one level at a time. The language of Heaven is intentionally ambiguous and symbolic, because the ultimate truth of things cannot be told in words, only indicated.

This helps to explain how we run into such things as the use of the word "attain" in Philippians 3.

We start with verse 11: "if by any means I might attain to the resurrection of the dead." Paul is saying he'll do anything, whatever it takes, to embrace Christ and take part in eternity. The word "attain" here carries the feeling of running into an end point. It's the sense of driving and driving until it is all done, whatever it is.

In verse 12: "Not as though I had already attained, either were already perfect, but I am pressing on, if I may lay hold of that for which I also was taken hold of by Christ Jesus." While this continues in the same vein, the word translated "attain" here is different, something seized, something possessed. Paul says he doesn't have it his possession, yet implies it has his name on it.

A little farther down in verse 16: "Yet, as to what we have already attained, let us walk in the same rule, let us mind the same thing." Here the word is rather like the arrival of an advance party, scouted out. In the context, it conjures the image of trailblazers who departed from the main path, having gone off into unexplored territory.

I admit the English word "attain" can mean all of those, but some of it is missing from our normal reading of this passage because we typically, in our minds, narrow down the meanings of such words. It leads to some confusion to folks who don't have a feel for the cultural difference. At the same time, I'm not sure what I would do to translate it differently, because the English language itself, for all its richness, is poorly suited to Scripture.

Philippians 3

2011-01-01T18:32:00.001-06:00

What is the opposite of sacrificial living? The rapacious mauling of the churches by the Judaizers. Did they never tire of their evil? It was sure Paul never tired of warning about them, so long as they continued.

He refers to them as dogs, something they would have found extremely insulting. Jews hated dogs, since the only dogs in their part of the world were nasty carrion eaters as well as predators. He uses the Greek term katatome to further mock them for their infamous demand Christians be circumcised. The word means "cut off, mutilated," signifying with intentional ambiguity they were spiritual mutilators, and spiritually cut off from the God they claimed. The true peritome -- the spiritually circumcised and purified -- were those who followed Christ. Christ did not come to lead on human terms; indeed, He refused such a role. So when people demanded fleshly performance and fleshly measures of success, they were not teaching Christ. Christ and His followers put no confidence in anything which arose from human flesh and it's powers.

For that matter, if anyone had a claim to fleshly measures of purity, it would be Paul. A Benjamite who could trace his lineage back name by name to Abraham, his whole life performed according to the strictest standards of Pharisaism, and hard charging zeal for the Torah. Been there, done that, and it got him thrown to the earth before God as a guilty criminal.

So he threw it all away. As far as Paul was concerned, he came out on the long end of the exchange. Knowing Christ was worth more than all the world and all human power combined. He tossed it all aside and now drove hard after His Savior, never satisfied with anything he might have accomplished, because it was never finished until life itself was done. Even the very worst of his suffering and sorrow after Damascus was better than anything he had up until that time. It was Christ who seized him, and he was forever after seeking to seize Christ, clinging with an ardor greater than any human love.

Did the Philippians need a human model they could see and touch? Let them model Paul in his zeal for Christ. They didn't need any Judaizing hucksters to disciple them into some secret teachings, as if Christ somehow failed, came up short. Anyone who claims such a thing is the enemy of Christ. They have it all upside down. Their god is their gnawing hunger and emptiness, never satisfied, a bottomless pit. Their home is the bottom pits of Hell; they rejoice and strut in the most shameful pride in evil. Their highest understanding is mere human intellect, and they know nothing of eternal things. Who wants to follow that?

No, we are heavenly minded. Our minds are trained to obey the Spirit of God living in our spirits. We are rooted in Heaven, citizens of His Kingdom. From such a high plane, we gaze upon the earth seeking for glimmers of His hand at work, and we want to be there to watch. We ache for the transformation of our fleshly existence into His heavenly spiritual Presence, an existence beyond human imagination. We cry out for Him to overpower our flesh and turn us into His servants, even as He has conquered and become Lord of all things Created.

What, indeed, do the Judaizers have to offer? With Paul, we could never grow tired of praising the greatness of sharing in His sufferings and divine eternal rewards, compared to the transient rewards of the silly legalism of men.

Glastonbury Mythology and New Ageism

2010-12-31T07:57:00.004-06:00

Christians as a whole are rightly wary of New Age mythology. Its stink goes all the way back to the black arts of Egypt, Babylon, and even farther into the misty past before the Flood. The language of Genesis paints an image of the pre-Flood society seeking some path back into Eden which would allow them to bypass the Flaming Sword. They longed for the powers Adam had for managing the Garden before the Fall. In other words, they denied the Fall. This is the fundamental error of the New Age movement as a whole, though it takes a different direction than the secular humanism version of the same sin.

It seems apparent to standard archeology that Glastonbury was a rather organized Neolithic community. Digging around the place revealed a raised wooden road running some 1.2 miles across what would have then been a swampy area, the wood dated by tree rings to around 3800 BC. The area had a natural hill, which would have been a solid island, which seems to have been called "Avalon" -- associated with Arthurian legends and the fabled Fisher Kings of Atlantis, and so on. At any rate, there is also evidence of significant Bronze Age, Iron Age and Roman settlements.

There are other myths connected to the place. Supposedly Joseph of Arimathea came there, carrying the Holy Grail, which he buried at the top of that hill. There are claims Joseph poked his walking stick into the ground and it flowered into the Glastonbury Thorn. The supposed bones of Arthur, Guinevere and the original thorn were all lost during later historical periods. This ranks up there with the notion the Blarney Stone was Jacob's stone pillow upon which he had the vision of the Ladder of Heaven.

Scripture condemns making too much of tangible items. A prime example was the problem with Bronze Serpent. The New Testament makes it clear the real significance of that item was the symbolism, not any actual divine power. The Israelites eventually made it into an idol for worship. We see also a powerful lack of interest in Scripture for recording, for example, the exact location of Jesus' weeping in the Garden, the spot from whence He ascended into Heaven, the exact location of Calvary, and all sorts of casual disregard of other places, not to mention precise dates.

The primary sin here is in thinking any physical object can be filled with power and holiness. This world is fallen; everything on this plane of existence is fallen, too. That includes the human intellect. One of the greatest heresies still afflicting Christianity today is the notion the mind is somehow not fallen, or not quite as fallen, as the flesh. This attempts to separate the mind from the flesh, something foreign to writers like Paul. The very Fall itself was the decision to place the human intellect on the throne of discernment. That phrase "to be like God and know good and evil" could easily be translated, "to know good and evil as God knows them". God knows good and evil as the One who decides which is which, so the temptation was to place the human mind on par with God, to make logic a god. This we have done with Aristotelian epistemology, as evidenced by the heresy of Decision Theology.

But the New Age infections manifests both deep and wide in Christian faith today. Significant portions of the Charismatic Movement are nothing more than imported lies from New Age garbage. We have documented proof early founding figures in the modern Charismatic experience were directly influenced by New Age gurus. Parham got some of his silliness from an infamous New Ager, Crystal Cathedral is connected to more than one New Ager, Purpose Driven is directly connected to Crystal Cathedral and some current New Age gurus, and so on. Every where you turn, just a little digging finds these controversial and harmful movements are tied to something pagan, something utterly foreign to the solid faith of the early Hebrew Christians. You cannot trust the human mind to remain faithful.

From this awful truth of human frailty flows all manner of idiotic nonsense attempting to displace the simple truth of God. A part of that nonsense is the reverence of objects and places, not to mention people. All too soon our Lord will return and all of this stuff will be burned up and forgotten. What will then exist, though we hardly have the language to express such a thing, will be the spirits of humans and heavenly beings existing on a higher plane. The only part of man worthy of note is that part which is eternal. The mind would then become just the organized expression of that eternal personality. That's what it should be today. Don't trust your intellect to do anything more than organize your tangible response to the commands of the Holy Spirit through your spirit.

Jeremiah 43

2010-12-30T11:46:00.001-06:00

It is impossible to take any public stand without finding oneself in the middle of a political dispute. God Himself became a political football from the start, most visibly during the Exodus itself. Things had not changed much in almost nine centuries. The rising dominance of the Pro-Egypt Party in Judah was already painfully obvious. The Pro-Babylon Party was in decline, but those few who simply clung to the Covenant regardless of politics were never numerous at any time. As Jeremiah aged, the families most likely to support his ministry were whittled down, but remained important enough. His younger scribe, Baruch, was of noble birth, and could not avoid being associated with the Pro-Babylonian Party, nor could Jeremiah.

No sooner had Jeremiah delivered his prophetic warning, but the Pro-Egypt partisans burst into objections. They were sure Baruch had put Jeremiah up to this, hoping the Babylonians would come and execute those of the Pro-Egypt Party. So they called Jeremiah a liar. Then they rounded up everyone they could lay hands on and marched them off down to Egypt, including Jeremiah and Baruch.

They settled in the city of Tahpanhes, a city in the Lower Eastern Delta of the Nile. It was essentially a border fortress town. Given Pharaoh had long been influential and allied with Judah's ruling houses, there was no problem with these refugees fleeing Babylon's authority finding a good reception.

Pharaoh seldom visited the place himself, but there was a building there devoted to imperial business, referred to as "Pharaoh's House." It had a large square paved area in front, and probably served as a staging area for cargo, facing onto a navigable channel of the Nile Delta. Clay or some other material served as mortar holding the paving bricks in place. Jeremiah, with a fresh word from the Lord, went down to this pavement at a time when the leaders of their refugee colony were assembled there. Scraping through the mortar, he pulled up some pavement bricks, digging deep into the underlayer. He dropped in a handful of ordinary stones, then proceeded to put everything back in place.

It was a symbolic prophetic act. Turning to the nobles, he announced in a very short time, Nebuchadnezzar would attack Egypt and conquer completely. That very handful of stones now buried under the pavement would be under the shadow of his imperial canopy, because Nebuchadnezzar would use this spot as the first resting place in Egypt for his throne. He would then wear the whole of Egypt as a personal garment, and the two tall pillars at Heliopolis devoted to the Sun God would be knocked down and broken. The other pagan shrines and temples would be sacked and burned throughout the land. Some of the refugees would die in the fighting, some from other causes, the rest would be marched off the Babylon.

Jeremiah 42

2010-12-28T19:36:00.001-06:00

God had proved repeatedly over the history of Israel and Judah when the leaders and people were obedient, no power on earth could stand against them. When they were disobedient, no power on earth could save them. This was the simple matter behind the Covenant of Moses.

After the murder of Gedaliah, the remaining few of Judah came to Jeremiah. Addressing him according to the protocol, they asked him to seek word from the Lord: What to do now? They promised to obey whatever it was Jeremiah told them.

Ten days later, Jeremiah had a word from God. He wanted them to stay in the land. The penalties had been applied to the nation, and now for this tiny remnant, the slate was clean. If they stayed in the Land and clung to the covenant, they had nothing to fear from Babylon, nor anyone else. If they left, fleeing to Egypt, everything they thought to gain would be denied them. There would be no peace, no rest, no food, no safety.

Jeremiah warned them he knew they had come falsely to inquire of God.

Sins of the Psychopath

2010-12-26T08:32:00.004-06:00

If you've ever been abused by a genuine psychopath, you are fortunate to be still sane enough to use a computer. It's not something you can forget, and only an ineffable miracle of God can bring healing. The scars never go away. Forever after, you still find yourself seldom able to explain to others where you have walked. You'll find yourself alienated from the rest of humanity, except those who have been where you've been.

You learn it doesn't matter how it happened, or who did it to you -- you may not even know.

You also learn such academic questions as whether psychopathy's genesis is biological or environmental, because the one issue which matters most is how utterly powerless the whole of humanity are at detecting, much less fixing psychopaths. Nor does it help much if you dabble in doctrines of spiritual warfare and demon possession, because it shreds logic and learning, and requires a spiritual sense which it seems nobody wants. You find yourself in a parallel universe, interacting with the regular world, but unable to really be a part of it.

There are people in this world I cannot help. All that silly sentimental blather about reaching out to everyone, which does indeed work about 96% of the time, cannot account for the 4% (approximately) who are genuine psychopaths. You still have to conduct yourself the same as a believer, in the broadest sense. But if you don't remain aware of that hideous Satanic few, people so deeply broken no one has any business calling them "human" as a functional label, then you are not only opening yourself up to shocking experiences of evil, but you will surely be holding the door open for Satan to rip up your testimony and impair your calling in Christ.

Further, we have to consider how it is utterly essential to psychopaths they rule their fellow humans. We have to understand how their control so deeply sickens a society, at every level you find the traits of psychopathy in the offices of government. It creates a separate class, and people who are actually quite normal become harnessed to this demented, damned from Hell, crushing inhumanity with utter banality in their work-a-day bureaucratic grind.

You then can understand how our government can hire, train and reward people who are capable of torturing other humans and sleep peacefully at night. You understand how the majority of our population don't care if people are tortured in their names.

Then you understand how Jesus, Son of God and Savior, was nailed to the Cross by His own nation, which had long looked for His coming. You understand the Pharisees and Sadducees were psychopaths. We are a nation so deeply wedded to psychopathy, we cannot begin to grasp how richly we deserve God's wrath.

Yet, we also remember this can't be fixed, not at our level. We can't run away from psychopaths, because they lead our churches, our schools, our hospitals, along with our government. When you intentionally, by grace, leave your guard down, you must assuredly know what it will do to you. If you've already faced the full impact of that abuse, and the Lord has carried you through it, no one can accuse you of being a Pollyanna. And you realize, with such a deep regret and sorrow, how many are the Pollyannas you must serve, and how far too many of them will not make it across the Valley of Death. And there is nothing you can do. You understand all too well why they don't survive the encounter.

It's all in the hands of God.

Philippians 2

2010-12-25T20:03:00.000-06:00

The essence of Kingdom living is sacrifice. So long as we scramble to build and preserve even the common value of self-respect, we are not in the center of the Kingdom cause. We cannot hold in ourselves any greater value to anyone, but particularly to Christ Himself, than we do in following Him to the Cross.

Paul does not question whether there is consolation in the Savior, comfort in His love, communion in His Spirit, or tenderness for other people. He questions whether anyone has experienced them if they can't walk in unity of commitment, as if all his work meant nothing. Should there be any church anywhere on this earth during any point in history suffering but a single weakness, this would be it -- disunity in commitment. We can use all the nice language we like, but when conflict arises, it cannot be but because someone fails to offer themselves fully in sacrifice on the Cross. Someone must be walking in selfish ambition. So Paul says we cannot move forward on any matter of church administration until everyone has fully abased himself before the Lord. Everyone must be willing to fade into the background, letting the power of the Holy Spirit rule, because they cannot claim ownership of anything the Body of Christ does.

Then Paul waxes eloquent in painting the image of Christ Himself, the One who embarrassed the Twelve by washing their feet so as to restore them to unity after a silly dispute, this on the very night before He was to die. They called Him "Master," as we do, and as the Philippians did, but He led in a direction which was not obvious to all of them. Seek to think with the mind of Christ. Jesus knew He was the Son of God, but willingly and purposely avoided any semblance of human authority. The only way you could sense at all anything special about Him was simply observing His actions and words. He would rather you ignored Him unless the Holy Spirit drew you through His message, because the winds of human affection were wholly untrustworthy. He didn't resist when the winds of politics took Him to the Cross, but voluntarily embraced the penalty of fallen mankind on our behalf.

As men measure things, it gained Him nothing. He became an odd footnote in Roman Imperial archives, just another of a difficult nation to be executed for nothing in particular, except to calm a riot. But His Father, who ruled the Divine Empire of Heaven, raised up Jesus to His own right hand. You want a piece of eternal glory? Take up your cross. Because when all Creation is called to account, and every soul having lived since the beginning of time will be humbled before Him, you will be welcomed as His own.

No one can do this for you. There is no club, no movement, no membership. Paul told the Philippians each of them must come to Christ and face their own Cross alone, one to one. It didn't matter if Paul was there or not; the commitment to follow Christ and obey Him was eternal in itself. It was either the mighty miracle hand of God, or it didn't exist. And by its nature, it made you the sort of person who didn't whine over any indignity or imposition. That's what marks the Children of God, and makes them stand out as a witness among fallen mankind. This was what Paul was hoping to see. He was willing to become the drink offering poured over the meat of their commitment and service, and considered it a high honor. Were they eager to be that whole burnt offering?

Paul held them in such high esteem he was planning to send Timothy to them shortly after they received this letter. They knew Timothy was as much like Paul as any man on earth, particularly in terms of his commitment to their spiritual welfare. In contrast, it seemed as if the everyone else he might send had at least some trouble letting their personal agenda and needs get in the way. Timothy was the son Paul truly wished he could have sired in the flesh, but was surely his image in the Spirit. So Paul was planning to send him first to Philippi just as soon as Caesar rendered judgment on Paul's case, and that would be rather soon.

In the case of Epaphroditus, Paul would gladly have kept him there, such a fine helper. But he was also Philippi's messenger, and they needed to be reassured of his welfare. And Epaphroditus himself, though nearly dead at one point in his illness, was frankly more worried about their worrying. God had mercy on him, and on Paul for that matter, by restoring his health. Paul had enough on his plate, and so sent him back to give the Philippians some peace of mind. It was not merely the things he carried, nor the things he did to bless Paul's human needs, but his willingness to face death for the gospel which made Epaphroditus such a worthy man. This is an example for anyone who claims the Lord.

Reference Point for Discussion

2010-12-24T14:09:00.009-06:00

Over the years here on this blog, I've had some handful of posts which drew an unusual amount of traffic. I don't take myself that seriously, so anything over 20 hits in a day is noteworthy. Even more surprising is how desperately folks want to argue with me about some things. They come from all sorts of directions, presuming I must yield to some particular logic they hold sacred. It gets old. Much as I would like to answer each comment individually, some people are simply not on the same planet, and there is no common grounds for friendly discussion. Hostile discussions are unacceptable, though I may still try to answer them. However, I did not create the positions I take; I found them living in my convictions, and I am bound to them beyond any power of choice.

This post will become a reference point for things I won't debate, though I'll always answer questions about anything. Don't mistake brevity for harshness in this list. This post is subject to additions for issues which come up too often.

1. This is not a public forum. This is my private blog. If you don't like what I say, call me an idiot and move on. Don't come back and waste any more of your time and intellectual energy. Some of my closest brothers and sisters in Christ dismiss me as a crank on some issues, and I'm perfectly at peace with that. I still love them just the same, and I'll love you just as much for ignoring me.

2. Jesus Christ is the Son of God, alive right now, seated next to His Father in Heaven. Sorry about your god :-). I'd love to share mine with you, but I can't make you want Him; that's the job of the Holy Spirit.

3. The Church did not authoritatively decide what was and was not canon. The decision was made by the Holy Spirit working through countless Christians and churches well before the grand councils came along and rubber-stamped common practice 300 years later. That means the Protestant canon, because the additional material was added by an even later council, a political agency which no longer cared a whit what the Holy Spirit had to say. I'll still love you and offer you the shirt off my back, but I won't argue about this issue. No true child of God will reject His Word as fully authoritative; if you reject the authority of His Word, I'm not likely to take much interest in any dispute you have with my writing here.

4. On the other hand, I'm not a Fundamentalist, and don't adhere to popular notions of "plenary verbal inspiration," or "propositional truth." That's a modern Western philosophical invention not at all consistent with Scripture. You can call it what you like, but the Hebrew people who gave us the Scripture would reject such a view of inspiration as Pharisaical, a human attempt to reduce God and His revelation to mere mechanics. My position is we are accountable to what the Bible shows us about God, because it is His inspired record of revelation. Revelation is indicative, not descriptive; parabolic and symbolic, not analytical and clinical.

5. Aristotelian logic is unable to handle faith. Further, it is not at all universal in scope; it is not the standard. There is sufficient academic support for recognizing the distinct character of the Hebrew logic and intellectual culture from which Scripture arose, and that is most certainly different from what most of the world today considers "logic." Arguments from intellect and reason are somewhere well below the ground of faith, so if you want to discuss matters of faith, use Hebrew biblical logic. If you don't understand it, see this. If you have time, you'll also need to read this. If you insist on ignoring my approach, we have little to discuss in matters of faith.

6. Modern Judaism is by no means the same thing as Old Testament religion, because it is not even the same intellectual culture. Modern Judaism elevates the Talmud over Scripture, and is a deeply corrupted, Hellenized perversion of the Covenant of Moses. Jesus dismissed the Talmud as human attempts to pervert God's revelation. Please don't confuse things: The religion which Moses, the prophets, and Jesus taught among Jews was not Judaism.

7. The modern doctrine of Dispensationalism is a heresy and a delusion. The modern nation state called "Israel" bears no relation to biblical prophecy. There is no nation on this earth which is a greater threat to peace and human life right now than Israel. Jews are people who need Jesus, who need to see His love. Most of them are not Zionist. Modern Zionism is no different from any horrific human political tyranny -- racist, fascist, murderous, arrogant, etc. The worst evil governments in history are reflected in the political philosophy of Zionism. To associate that with the teaching from any part of the Bible is obscene and blasphemous.

A Small Christmas Gift

2010-12-24T07:58:00.003-06:00

In this holiday season, my prayer on your behalf --

An imprecatory prayer against Monsanto and related poisoners of the earth: She is Babylon; may she fall, and let the smoke of her destruction rise eternally before the Lord as a sweet savor of justice. Come out of her, My People; do not touch anything, nor let any part of it touch you. Her path is profit at any cost to life. Much blood is already on her hands.

This is the burden of the Lord upon my spirit. I cannot be silent.

Jeremiah 41

2010-12-23T17:17:00.000-06:00

Fast forward a few months, when most of the other crops had been harvested. It was probably early October. Ishmael and ten of his close kin from the royal household came up to visit his cousin Gedaliah at Mizpah, and old fortress now serving as the governor's palace. Being the gentleman, Gedaliah hosted them well, feeding them. In this ancient culture, sharing food is a sign of peace, and is taken by God Himself as a vow of non-hostility. This shows us the man Ishmael held his God in contempt, for as soon as they had taken Gedaliah aside for a private moment, they killed him. They managed to do so quietly, then crept about the fortress as a group, ambushing every armed man in the place. This included Gedaliah's own bodyguard and the Babylonian troops. Aside from the Ammonite king who sent him, Ishmael and his men now had not a friend on the earth, nor in Heaven.

But Ishmael was unrestrained by any hint of conscience. None outside the palace knew anything, since they were busy working, so thinly scattered. This time of year would have been the Day of Atonement, but there was no Temple any longer. By now, those in the north were Samaritans, Assyrian imports who replaced the northern tribes of Israel, a separate people now under Babylonian domination, as well. Among them were many who were faithful to the God of Israel, and a contingent came down mourning the loss of the Temple and city of Jerusalem. They bore offerings, probably in wagons or loaded on animals. They had taken appropriate measures to mark themselves as mourners -- faces shaved clean, bleeding from small cuts, clothes torn and dusted with ashes. We note this was the paganized Samaritan style of mourning, but apparently sincere. To test them, Ishmael met them with faux weeping, calling them to come and show honor to the new governor, Gedaliah. They came willingly into his trap. He commenced murdering them, dropping their bodies into an old dry cistern which previous kings had dug to secure water in case the fortress came under siege. Ten of the eighty were saved because they had something of significant value Ishmael could plunder. Gathering all this together, along with the support personnel from the fortress and all the royal princesses Babylon had left with Gedaliah, and began a slow progress in the direction of the Ammonite capital.

Had Johanan been truly worried about Gedaliah's life and the probability of Ishmael's crime, he would have stayed close to guard the man. Instead, he comes on the scene after someone who witnessed the train of baggage and captives carted away from Mizpah came to alert him. He quickly gathered his troops and caught up with the slow-moving caravan at the water works of Gibeon. Ishmael's small contingent of armed men were easily outnumbered, and those he was herding simply drove hard toward the rescuers, leaving Ishmael to make what escape he could. Somehow he lost two of his ten, probably taken down by the pursuit. Ishmael is not heard from again, escaping to the Ammonites.

Meanwhile, Johanan was well aware this whole episode would come to the attention of Nebuchadnezzar. Being now the ranking survivor, he rounded up everyone he could find still in the area and added them to the caravan he rescued from Ishmael. Then he led them south toward Egypt. They bedded down that night at the residence of Chimham, which is unknown in modern times.

Archives: A Dramatization of 1 Kings 12

2010-12-22T06:13:00.003-06:00

As the sun began to peek over the east horizon, he slipped across the courtyard and out the double doors of his home. As the chief elder in Sh'kem, he was the only elder of Yizra'el who wasn't sleeping in a tent at night. He made his way down the main street of his city, hopping over the stinking gutter that ran down the center. He had left his guest sleeping, but such an earnest man of character would be up soon enough. He wanted to confer with some of his fellow noblemen in private before the tribal elders assembled for the morning's parley.

He arrived at the gates just as they were being opened. He motioned the guards silent before they could greet him. The wide road split just outside the gates, joining the major north-south trade route that had been established long before even Abraham came into this land. On this day he turned left, which took him north around the base of Mount Eybal. Already he was passing tents on the edge of the camp of Yizra'el's elders. Here and there stood pickets, mostly for ceremonial purposes. It had been since his childhood, three score years ago, when the enemies of the Kingdom had ambitions to attack anywhere.

Slung over his shoulder was a skin of the finest wine of Sh'kem. Perhaps the grapes grown here were not better than any others, but the vintage of Sh'kem was unique, and loved by all. This skin was from his own private reserve, and few tasted the like of it anywhere. Somewhere along the edge of the vast sea of tents, he was met by his distant cousin, who hailed from Ghilad. They exchanged brief nods, and the other joined the Elder of Sh'kem as he hardly hesitated in his purposeful stride. Threading their way through the guylines of the tents, they finally approached one that stood out in the golden dawn. It was more colorful, and had more than one ensign before its door.

The guards immediately bowed to them as they approached the doorway of the tent. One of them spoke just loud enough to be heard inside the tent that guests had arrived. As they ducked the thin inner curtain hanging across the door, they were immediately met by a man somewhat younger, but by far more regal of bearing. After the standard greetings, the Elder of Sh'kem presented his gift, which brought a generous smile from the master of the tent. This one was also the most powerful elder in Ephraim. They all sat on the cushions off to one side, spread for that very purpose. The man they came to see still cradled the wine skin in his lap, and stared at it absently, while he spoke.

"Is he ready to assume command?" he asked the Elder of Sh'kem, looking up on the last word.

"He is, indeed, Sir. As soon as the news was brought that my city had been chosen for the coronation, I sent messengers to intercept him on the way from Egypt. They caught up with him on the Coast Road in the Plains. I made sure to send my chief servant to explain the whole thing on the way. He has been my guest for the past week, and we have spoken much on this thing."

The cousin from Ghilad spoke up, "What else is there to discuss? The confidence of all Yizra'el is upon the shoulders of Yarob`am."

Looking at the Elder of Sh'kem, the master of the tent said, "Make sure he is properly attired, then. Not quite royal, but in keeping with his noble status." With that, he turned as he rose to his feet in one smooth motion, and went back into the inner recesses of his tent. The two visitors bowed as he rose, then much more carefully, as they were both older men, rose stiffly and left the tent.

As they headed back toward the main road, the cousin from Ghilad asked, "Do you have such garments? I can get some, if you need them."

"Thanks, but I have already chosen something. I bought it some time ago, on a lark, after I was already too old to wear dress armor. It will fit him well, I am sure." The cousin turned aside without further discussion and was lost in the tangle of tents and animals. The Elder of Sh'kem strode in the full light of morning back up to the city gates.

He was surprised to see his guest chatting with the captain of the guard. He almost caught himself addressing him as king, and had to remind himself nothing was settled yet. Taking a few steps to the gateway, Yarob`am looked out to the southeast where, off the slopes of Mount Griziym, was the camp of Y'huwdah. The royal standard stood proudly before a tent that had been pitched on a rise in the ground. After staring a short time, he turned back and joined his host for the walk back to the house. Neither said a word until they had passed the outer doors, crossed the courtyard, and entered the main house.

The old man turned, placing a hand on the younger man's chest. He addressed his guest with hope, "The whole of Yizra'el is behind you, Lord Yarob`am. Dress yourself so that we may meet with this scion of Shlomoh, and see if he will be a shepherd to the people, or seek to enslave us."

************

It was over. Three days they had waited for Rechab`am to respond to their request. On that morning, bright and early, he was at the field of meeting, strutting like a rooster. His words and tone of voice were harsh as if he were putting down a slave revolt, as if they had no right to even ask for relief. It was all the commanders could do to restrain the guards from joining battle with the royal bodyguard right then. Hands turned white gripping their weapons, and the tension could have been cut with a sword.

Instead, Yarob`am simply turned and walked away, sounding out the ancient chant of resistance:

What portion have we in Daviyd?
neither have we inheritance in the son of Yishay:
to your tents, O Yizra'el:
now see to thine own house, Daviyd!

The chant was echoed over and again across the crowd. It seemed oddly fitting that the elders of Yizra'el, as they turned en masse to follow him, literally went back to their tents, which were only used for such occasions, there in the field beside Mount Eybal. They had no sooner withdrawn behind the curtains of their doorways when the man most hated in all of Yizra'el, Adoram, came among them demanding they assemble for a new labor assignment. They assembled, alright. Each man brought one or more of the large, fist-sized stones found all about the field. Almost as a single wave of angry humanity, they stoned him to death and piled the rocks high over his body.

In the distance, the young son of Shlomoh stood, his face turning red, then white. He turned and ran straight to the chariot waiting nearby. As the whole of the nation watched, he rode around the camp on the main road and straight south toward Jerusalem, leaving his servants to strike his tents and pack in his absence. By the end of the day, the camp of Y'huwdah was nearly deserted

From somewhere in the tents of Yizra'el, an honor guard had brought forth a long pole, brightly decorated, and presented it to Yarob`am. He graciously took the ensign, turned the staff in his hands a moment, then with a flourish, planted the heel firmly on ground before him. Almost immediately, the wave of humanity issued from their tents again, but this time with cheering and singing, and from somewhere came a crown. There was a moment when all were motioned quiet, and a solemn exchange took place, as the new hope of the nation received the crown. Then the noise suddenly burst forth again, and the feasting lasted long into the night. The Elder of Sh'kem was too old for much of that, and had simply retired a bit later than usual. Then he hardly slept for his excitement. Yes, it was over.

Upon rising the next morning, exhausted yet still excited, he went out to greet the morning sun as its light poured in through the gates. Now, before the city gate stood the standard of the House of Yowceph. It was just beginning.

Computer Ministry Report - 101221

2010-12-21T19:13:00.003-06:00

(In case you are wondering, that number in title is called a "DoD Date" -- in two digits each, the year, the month and date.)

Not much has happened, prayer partners. I've had one house call and helped one other person with simple advice on something.

Meanwhile, I've been passing out my business cards more aggressively, and created a pamphlet with more details. I've added a new section to my static website which contains pretty much the same thing as my pamphlet, plus links to simplified computer help tutorials. I'll be adding to the collection as people begin asking questions consistently.

I'm going to try reading a few do-it-yourself manuals on networking and maybe webmaster stuff.

Slow start, but I am still utterly convinced this is where God wants me.