Thursday, October 29, 2009
Holocaust denier has died of a stroke
And perhaps he is meeting people where he is no longer denying the Holocaust now...
Age of youth responsibility-a bit more
Without getting into a large theology and religious ritual and sacraments discussion, let me touch on some of the implications of what I wrote about for the seven year olds.
It is ironic that in a modern society filled with a lot of hot air about self examination and self discovery that many applaud the abandonment of the longest living and most justified form of it, which is childhood confession.
Think back to Biblical, and Qur'anic society. If a child sinned or committed an offense, the child was responsible and there was a code of punishment that the parents would have to follow on the child's behalf to atone. For example, beside any legal or civic judgment the Israelite parent would have to perform certain sacrifices at the temple to atone to God. This meant that two things were going on. One is that there is a process by which confession and atonement is followed. The other is that there is an understanding that one must only punish the child when the child has achieved an age of reason. Thus all the faiths, Judaism, Christianity and Islam, are founded in an understanding that knowledge of sin and wrong doing is a reality once a child is old enough to achieve an age of reason AND that regardless of secular restitution (let's say the child stole something) there is also a purification process needed before God.
This is why the Catholic Church has taught the sacrament of Confession, (now called Penance and Reconciliation in order to emphasis that confession is not enough but genuine regret and reconciliation is also needed) starting at the age of seven.
Children at that age have been recognized throughout history, both secular and faith history, that they have achieved the age of reason and they should and must know right from wrong. That's why children are well along at being in school by then, I mean, think about it. It is a traditional and vital part of Christian faith that children know how to discern that they have sinned and confess their sins. How do we know "that is in the Bible?" When Jesus warned about those who lead children into sin, implicit in that remark is that people are able to recognize sin when it occurs, and that includes children who have reached the age of reason.
There is no more maturity process than one by which parents and their church teach children not only what is "right from wrong" but "what is a sin" and furthermore, how to avail one's self of confession and cleansing of that sin. Why in the world do some denominations think that children do not need to recognize and confess their sins? It is part of raising a well balanced child, rather than letting society and soft porn TV do it for you.
I remember when I was six years old, approaching seven, of course, and playing around with my Catholic child friends and we'd joke that we only had a few months to go before we were accountable to God for anything we did wrong! Remember, I'm not speaking of raising children to "behave," to be "good" and "play nice." I'm speaking here of children who are raised properly who also are able by the age of seven to discern sin in themselves and others, and to have a God given process by which to repent, confess and atone.
I cannot begin to describe to you what a difference in producing mature youngsters than that, and that is the way it used to be.
This is why the Catechism of the Catholic Church makes this comment in another context, which is regarding preparation for the sacrament of Holy Communion (the "Lord's Supper" as some non-Catholics call it):
1244 The Latin Church, which reserves admission to Holy Communion to those who have attained the age of reason...
In other words, the Catholic Church teaches to seven year olds how to initiate the sacrament of Confession in order to prepare for the sacrament of Holy Communion because no one should partake in Holy Communion (or the "Lord's Supper") who is not able to discern their own sin and repent it. When I was growing up seven year old children who then went to their First Confession and First Communion from that point onward availed themselves of "going to Confession" whenever they felt the need.
Can people today only fantasize about a time when eight, nine, ten, eleven and twelve year old children would on their own initiative self-examine and decide that they needed to go to Confession? That was indeed how it was when I was growing up and indeed as children several of us would go together, not at prompting by parents or priests, when it was time to go.
Can you see what I mean by 1) how misunderstood the Catholic faith is and 2) how infantilized our modern children are? The "Greatest Generation," that Catholic component, was raised like that, for the most part, where children knew very well not only what was a crime, or what was bad behavior, but what was also sin and they took their own responsibility for initiating and carrying out their sacrament of Confession.
Leave aside the argument, the old, tired arguments, about the role of a priest in Confession. Do not even try to pretend that those of you who teach that "confession is between 'myself' and God and 'does not need a so called mediator'" are raising your children-no matter how good they are-to be at that age as introspective and recognizing of sin in themselves and others as was done traditionally. I cannot even compare the seven year old child of Biblical times, the seven year old child of early Islamic times, and the seven year old child of the early, middle and even later Christian times with the seven year old child of today and how blind to sin.... even worse than that, how blind and eager and self excusing for sin that they have become!
Children are eager to be grown up and adults have robbed them of one of the most fundamental gifts of the faith which is at the age of reason to recognize and self examine for sin, to elect to reject sin, and to have sacramental self initiated means to confess and repent sin.
Please do think about that. Children are eager to be all grown up, and instead of the ways they have always learned to be "grown up," which is to recognize, shun and repent sin, that has been taken from them, a vital part of becoming a genuine child of God upon their age of reason.
Like I said, I am not trying to have a theological discussion or debate here. I guess you might think of this as part of the "faith and reasoning" series I am teaching, where I am showing you that far from being hocus-pocus, faith in God makes total sense and has for hundreds, indeed thousands of years been reality paced with factual human development. So think about it and you young people in particular, imagine what it was like to be raised where at seven years old you could not only discern "right from wrong" and being "good from bad," but also examine yourself (and observe others) to discern sin and what displeases God, and to have the religious gift at your own initiation to partake of, as I had when I was growing up. I cannot believe it, many times as I look around, at how children have been robbed of both their childhood and their access to mature religious participation at their own free will.
Further, often children would confess to sins and the priest would counsel them in the privacy of the confessional that perhaps their tentatively confessed feelings of envy or so forth were not actually full out sins, but temptations and normal human weaknesses. Far from being strict, children who worried that perhaps wishing they had something as nice as what the neighbor's child had was not a sin of envy or coveting, but a natural feeling of sadness, wistfulness. The priest would be, and often was back then, a reassuring figure in a child's discernment of sin rather than a harsh taskmaster. I remember my friends would discuss among ourselves "I wonder if that feeling was a sin" and the child who wondered would report after confession what the priest said, and the reassurances he gave, or the gentle warnings he would impart. That is, again, why it's not just a matter of being "between me and God" but confession with that mediator present does not mean the priest is forgiving sins instead of God, but is able to, as was documented to as early as the second century of Christianity, provide context for the one confessing regarding the dimensions and impact of their sin. Catholic kids used to discuss their sins and what the priest said all the time and it was a huge part of the development of their real and active faith. Kids need spiritual feedback that is real and access that is under their control more than even, particularly in these fake times.... especially when at best good godly parents but they are still sway to the temptations of the world, and at worst the the baby momma's drug using and child abusing boyfriend are far from being the ultimate resource in sin discernment!
It is ironic that in a modern society filled with a lot of hot air about self examination and self discovery that many applaud the abandonment of the longest living and most justified form of it, which is childhood confession.
Think back to Biblical, and Qur'anic society. If a child sinned or committed an offense, the child was responsible and there was a code of punishment that the parents would have to follow on the child's behalf to atone. For example, beside any legal or civic judgment the Israelite parent would have to perform certain sacrifices at the temple to atone to God. This meant that two things were going on. One is that there is a process by which confession and atonement is followed. The other is that there is an understanding that one must only punish the child when the child has achieved an age of reason. Thus all the faiths, Judaism, Christianity and Islam, are founded in an understanding that knowledge of sin and wrong doing is a reality once a child is old enough to achieve an age of reason AND that regardless of secular restitution (let's say the child stole something) there is also a purification process needed before God.
This is why the Catholic Church has taught the sacrament of Confession, (now called Penance and Reconciliation in order to emphasis that confession is not enough but genuine regret and reconciliation is also needed) starting at the age of seven.
Children at that age have been recognized throughout history, both secular and faith history, that they have achieved the age of reason and they should and must know right from wrong. That's why children are well along at being in school by then, I mean, think about it. It is a traditional and vital part of Christian faith that children know how to discern that they have sinned and confess their sins. How do we know "that is in the Bible?" When Jesus warned about those who lead children into sin, implicit in that remark is that people are able to recognize sin when it occurs, and that includes children who have reached the age of reason.
There is no more maturity process than one by which parents and their church teach children not only what is "right from wrong" but "what is a sin" and furthermore, how to avail one's self of confession and cleansing of that sin. Why in the world do some denominations think that children do not need to recognize and confess their sins? It is part of raising a well balanced child, rather than letting society and soft porn TV do it for you.
I remember when I was six years old, approaching seven, of course, and playing around with my Catholic child friends and we'd joke that we only had a few months to go before we were accountable to God for anything we did wrong! Remember, I'm not speaking of raising children to "behave," to be "good" and "play nice." I'm speaking here of children who are raised properly who also are able by the age of seven to discern sin in themselves and others, and to have a God given process by which to repent, confess and atone.
I cannot begin to describe to you what a difference in producing mature youngsters than that, and that is the way it used to be.
This is why the Catechism of the Catholic Church makes this comment in another context, which is regarding preparation for the sacrament of Holy Communion (the "Lord's Supper" as some non-Catholics call it):
1244 The Latin Church, which reserves admission to Holy Communion to those who have attained the age of reason...
In other words, the Catholic Church teaches to seven year olds how to initiate the sacrament of Confession in order to prepare for the sacrament of Holy Communion because no one should partake in Holy Communion (or the "Lord's Supper") who is not able to discern their own sin and repent it. When I was growing up seven year old children who then went to their First Confession and First Communion from that point onward availed themselves of "going to Confession" whenever they felt the need.
Can people today only fantasize about a time when eight, nine, ten, eleven and twelve year old children would on their own initiative self-examine and decide that they needed to go to Confession? That was indeed how it was when I was growing up and indeed as children several of us would go together, not at prompting by parents or priests, when it was time to go.
Can you see what I mean by 1) how misunderstood the Catholic faith is and 2) how infantilized our modern children are? The "Greatest Generation," that Catholic component, was raised like that, for the most part, where children knew very well not only what was a crime, or what was bad behavior, but what was also sin and they took their own responsibility for initiating and carrying out their sacrament of Confession.
Leave aside the argument, the old, tired arguments, about the role of a priest in Confession. Do not even try to pretend that those of you who teach that "confession is between 'myself' and God and 'does not need a so called mediator'" are raising your children-no matter how good they are-to be at that age as introspective and recognizing of sin in themselves and others as was done traditionally. I cannot even compare the seven year old child of Biblical times, the seven year old child of early Islamic times, and the seven year old child of the early, middle and even later Christian times with the seven year old child of today and how blind to sin.... even worse than that, how blind and eager and self excusing for sin that they have become!
Children are eager to be grown up and adults have robbed them of one of the most fundamental gifts of the faith which is at the age of reason to recognize and self examine for sin, to elect to reject sin, and to have sacramental self initiated means to confess and repent sin.
Please do think about that. Children are eager to be all grown up, and instead of the ways they have always learned to be "grown up," which is to recognize, shun and repent sin, that has been taken from them, a vital part of becoming a genuine child of God upon their age of reason.
Like I said, I am not trying to have a theological discussion or debate here. I guess you might think of this as part of the "faith and reasoning" series I am teaching, where I am showing you that far from being hocus-pocus, faith in God makes total sense and has for hundreds, indeed thousands of years been reality paced with factual human development. So think about it and you young people in particular, imagine what it was like to be raised where at seven years old you could not only discern "right from wrong" and being "good from bad," but also examine yourself (and observe others) to discern sin and what displeases God, and to have the religious gift at your own initiation to partake of, as I had when I was growing up. I cannot believe it, many times as I look around, at how children have been robbed of both their childhood and their access to mature religious participation at their own free will.
Further, often children would confess to sins and the priest would counsel them in the privacy of the confessional that perhaps their tentatively confessed feelings of envy or so forth were not actually full out sins, but temptations and normal human weaknesses. Far from being strict, children who worried that perhaps wishing they had something as nice as what the neighbor's child had was not a sin of envy or coveting, but a natural feeling of sadness, wistfulness. The priest would be, and often was back then, a reassuring figure in a child's discernment of sin rather than a harsh taskmaster. I remember my friends would discuss among ourselves "I wonder if that feeling was a sin" and the child who wondered would report after confession what the priest said, and the reassurances he gave, or the gentle warnings he would impart. That is, again, why it's not just a matter of being "between me and God" but confession with that mediator present does not mean the priest is forgiving sins instead of God, but is able to, as was documented to as early as the second century of Christianity, provide context for the one confessing regarding the dimensions and impact of their sin. Catholic kids used to discuss their sins and what the priest said all the time and it was a huge part of the development of their real and active faith. Kids need spiritual feedback that is real and access that is under their control more than even, particularly in these fake times.... especially when at best good godly parents but they are still sway to the temptations of the world, and at worst the the baby momma's drug using and child abusing boyfriend are far from being the ultimate resource in sin discernment!
Age of youth responsibility/explain & warning
I had it in mind to blog about this already before looking at the news, and what I saw only reinforced what I want to say. This is directed toward young people, for whom as a whole I retain great affection, but also toward adults who have guardianship, character building and safety responsibilities toward the young.
Society has crept into a mindset that the young bear no responsibility for sin or evil, especially if they had a "bad upbringing." Also the idea of what constitutes a "child" in terms of age has undergone creeping upward that is now double in delusion what it is in reality. Here are the facts. Again, I am not speaking legally but spiritually, and I am not talking about jail, but I am talking about hell.
A child is mentally, emotionally and spiritually wired to know the difference between right and wrong at the age of seven. Period. However, a child at that age is still intensely vulnerable to the control of adults around him and her and thus while they are expected by God to know the difference between right and wrong (even if the parents teach otherwise) God understands at that age they have no choice, but a little voice of protest should begin to form silently in their minds. This is why Jesus warned in the most DIRE terms what will happen to adults (including adolescents, remember that adulthood comes quickly spiritually and I will refer to that next) who lead children to sin. Read his words and there is no mistaking that adults who lead children to sin are in for the worst of all punishment.
So my first point is that those of you out there, caregivers, teachers, security people and siblings, cousins and so forth need to understand that spiritually a child knows in their heart right from wrong, and that misleading them is the gravest of sins, warned explicitly against by Jesus. If you know some small child being led the wrong way but you cannot actually act against those who do, in your interaction with the child, cultivate their confidence in questioning the justice of things in areas where you can do so safely.
My second point is even more serious. At the age of thirteen all children are ready to be, and viewed as, adults in spiritual matters. They are not ready to be leaders, of course, and should not be portrayed as such. There are no "child gurus." Because God has wired a child at the age of thirteen to be spiritually an adult the faiths acknowledge that and have rituals accordingly. This is because as I have explained before, it is not to celebrate their "puberty" per se, but because in the days before society infantiles young adults and with birth control, extended schooling, etc., a thirteen year old boy or girl was getting ready to establish his or her own household, marry, and raise their own family. This is how it has been for centuries and was certainly the mindset during Biblical and Qur'anic times, which is when God chose to speak to his people in that context. I mean, duh, how hard is that to understand? When a child is in theory a young adult, at the age of thirteen, and biologically and mentally ready to raise a family (even if society has moved past that early a point) their spiritual development and expectations that are given by God remain the same.
Thus a thirteen year old has embarked onto the rest of his or her life where God expects-and will judge them on-their spiritual responsibilities as an adult, albeit a young adult. Again, this has nothing to do with the circumstances of their family or environment or societal expectations. This is why they are rebellious at that stage in general. It is at that point they are expected to question bull crap anti-God false doctrine that may have been given to them when they were young and helpless. Unless they are locked up in an actual cult compound and/or they are mentally diminished due to illness or mishap, a thirteen year old child is expected to embark upon faithful adult-like responsibilities to God. In the old days, many started years earlier by their own maturity.
So here is the problem. Do not delude yourselves that thirteen year olds and upward cannot go to hell. They can and they do.
Do not delude yourselves that bad upbringing postpones spiritual responsibility. It does not postpone it one iota, except in the circumstances I already mentioned. It makes it most urgent upon surrounding adults, including peer young adults, to speak up and take action as spiritual adults, starting at the age of thirteen, when one encounters the many who are almost feral animals in their lack of spiritual raising by their parents. Again, I am not speaking criminally, though of course one flows from the other. Crime is a matter for the local community and the state.
But here is what you must understand. Because God made all children ready for spiritual adulthood at thirteen, those in these almost feral conditions of either home life or depraved society will proclaim themselves spiritual acolytes of evil, or nihilism, if there is no proper faith formation. In other words, the readiness to be spiritual adults "busts out" one way or the other at that age. They are either ready to embark on genuine faith, learning to be and do as adults in service to God, or they pledge allegiance to chaos, false gods, gangs, worldly idols, and nihilism.
I had already had this in mind because I was thinking of something very sad that happened with a young adult in the family of people who could have been friends of mine, but held back, when I signed onto the computer and read the following. Young friends of the California rape victim (a crime that has received worldwide coverage) have spoken out condemning the lack of proactive security at the dance where this occurred. I applaud the girls who have spoken out because they are exactly at that age I am speaking of. The perpetrators are well beyond that age, being of 15 years and up. I must urge all of you, young people and adults, to understand the facts, not the speculation, of God's spiritual adulthood timeline. At seven one is ready to fully understand right from wrong. At thirteen one is a spiritual adult and one will be judged by God accordingly, regardless of the circumstances, except as I stated above, the most extreme genuine brainwashing, virtual or actual incarceration, and disability due to illness or mishap. Yes, thirteen years olds and upward can and do go to hell. And yes, thirteen year olds and upward are to be uplifted as young spiritual adults and when they speak the truth they are to be praised and heeded.
Society has crept into a mindset that the young bear no responsibility for sin or evil, especially if they had a "bad upbringing." Also the idea of what constitutes a "child" in terms of age has undergone creeping upward that is now double in delusion what it is in reality. Here are the facts. Again, I am not speaking legally but spiritually, and I am not talking about jail, but I am talking about hell.
A child is mentally, emotionally and spiritually wired to know the difference between right and wrong at the age of seven. Period. However, a child at that age is still intensely vulnerable to the control of adults around him and her and thus while they are expected by God to know the difference between right and wrong (even if the parents teach otherwise) God understands at that age they have no choice, but a little voice of protest should begin to form silently in their minds. This is why Jesus warned in the most DIRE terms what will happen to adults (including adolescents, remember that adulthood comes quickly spiritually and I will refer to that next) who lead children to sin. Read his words and there is no mistaking that adults who lead children to sin are in for the worst of all punishment.
So my first point is that those of you out there, caregivers, teachers, security people and siblings, cousins and so forth need to understand that spiritually a child knows in their heart right from wrong, and that misleading them is the gravest of sins, warned explicitly against by Jesus. If you know some small child being led the wrong way but you cannot actually act against those who do, in your interaction with the child, cultivate their confidence in questioning the justice of things in areas where you can do so safely.
My second point is even more serious. At the age of thirteen all children are ready to be, and viewed as, adults in spiritual matters. They are not ready to be leaders, of course, and should not be portrayed as such. There are no "child gurus." Because God has wired a child at the age of thirteen to be spiritually an adult the faiths acknowledge that and have rituals accordingly. This is because as I have explained before, it is not to celebrate their "puberty" per se, but because in the days before society infantiles young adults and with birth control, extended schooling, etc., a thirteen year old boy or girl was getting ready to establish his or her own household, marry, and raise their own family. This is how it has been for centuries and was certainly the mindset during Biblical and Qur'anic times, which is when God chose to speak to his people in that context. I mean, duh, how hard is that to understand? When a child is in theory a young adult, at the age of thirteen, and biologically and mentally ready to raise a family (even if society has moved past that early a point) their spiritual development and expectations that are given by God remain the same.
Thus a thirteen year old has embarked onto the rest of his or her life where God expects-and will judge them on-their spiritual responsibilities as an adult, albeit a young adult. Again, this has nothing to do with the circumstances of their family or environment or societal expectations. This is why they are rebellious at that stage in general. It is at that point they are expected to question bull crap anti-God false doctrine that may have been given to them when they were young and helpless. Unless they are locked up in an actual cult compound and/or they are mentally diminished due to illness or mishap, a thirteen year old child is expected to embark upon faithful adult-like responsibilities to God. In the old days, many started years earlier by their own maturity.
So here is the problem. Do not delude yourselves that thirteen year olds and upward cannot go to hell. They can and they do.
Do not delude yourselves that bad upbringing postpones spiritual responsibility. It does not postpone it one iota, except in the circumstances I already mentioned. It makes it most urgent upon surrounding adults, including peer young adults, to speak up and take action as spiritual adults, starting at the age of thirteen, when one encounters the many who are almost feral animals in their lack of spiritual raising by their parents. Again, I am not speaking criminally, though of course one flows from the other. Crime is a matter for the local community and the state.
But here is what you must understand. Because God made all children ready for spiritual adulthood at thirteen, those in these almost feral conditions of either home life or depraved society will proclaim themselves spiritual acolytes of evil, or nihilism, if there is no proper faith formation. In other words, the readiness to be spiritual adults "busts out" one way or the other at that age. They are either ready to embark on genuine faith, learning to be and do as adults in service to God, or they pledge allegiance to chaos, false gods, gangs, worldly idols, and nihilism.
I had already had this in mind because I was thinking of something very sad that happened with a young adult in the family of people who could have been friends of mine, but held back, when I signed onto the computer and read the following. Young friends of the California rape victim (a crime that has received worldwide coverage) have spoken out condemning the lack of proactive security at the dance where this occurred. I applaud the girls who have spoken out because they are exactly at that age I am speaking of. The perpetrators are well beyond that age, being of 15 years and up. I must urge all of you, young people and adults, to understand the facts, not the speculation, of God's spiritual adulthood timeline. At seven one is ready to fully understand right from wrong. At thirteen one is a spiritual adult and one will be judged by God accordingly, regardless of the circumstances, except as I stated above, the most extreme genuine brainwashing, virtual or actual incarceration, and disability due to illness or mishap. Yes, thirteen years olds and upward can and do go to hell. And yes, thirteen year olds and upward are to be uplifted as young spiritual adults and when they speak the truth they are to be praised and heeded.
Wednesday, October 28, 2009
Message to all Muslims
While this message will be of interest to everyone, it has been put upon my heart, what is left of it after enduring such sadness and evil of the world, to convey a message to all Muslims. First of all greetings from me personally, recalling my affection for you all, and how much I enjoyed my short sojourn in the Muslim country of Turkey.
The Holy Spirit placed upon my heart this morning, soon after I woke up, that I must explain, with the intention of clarifying, some things with the purpose of urging all Muslims to unity. Nothing I say is contrary to the scriptures of the Bible and the Qur'an and instead, rather, wipes away some of the fog of politics, corruption of faith and impurity that can only be ascribed to the actions of humans, not of the perfect God nor of his scriptures, which remain everlasting and unchanged.
Brothers and sisters, you must not continue to have hardened hearts toward each other based on your respective sects of Islam. In particular I of course indicate the ill will in many places between Shia and Sunni believers. Here is the image that the Holy Spirit gave to me to tell you. In olden days the Spanish had in their currency a coin that had a certain value, but it came with lines drawn upon it so that the coin could be divided by the owner into eighths. Islam is like that coin. The value of any part of it still derives purely from the material of the coin that all the potential pieces share. Thus people may be Shia, but it is a piece from the original coin. And people may be Sunni, but it is a piece from the original coin. Do not allow humans to hold in their hands one piece of the coin and disrespect, demean or war against those who hold in their hands their piece of the same coin. You must let go of previous human based injustices from both sides, and stop ascribing divine reasons for your differences, no matter how profound (or small) those differences are. How can you let go of ascribing divine reasons for your differences? By remembering that the pieces that you hold in your hand still come from the same coin, a spiritually united Islam, that is enfranchised by the same God and the same scriptures.
Why is this so urgent for me to tell you? The Holy Spirit has put it upon my heart that one way you will look past your differences is to realize that each of you holds part of the key that must work together to please God. I'm going to make a large generalization now, and bear with me, because I am putting into words a divine image, and that is difficult to do (and of course excuse typos or mispellings or punctuation lapses, they are not "Freudian slips" or "spiritual messages," ha, but simply my lack of good equipment and a shortage of time). It is essential that Islam puts its house into order, by achieving spiritual unity, because all the parts of Islam will play a vital role in the time, and let me say this right now, it is still far in the future, when the genuine Antichrist arises, and the end of the world draws near, to combat the Antichrist and his works.
Despite what mislead Christians think, the Antichrist, the real one, is still far off. What we are in the midst of, however, is the "first wave" of false prophets that Jesus warned about. The second error that many Christians have is that the Antichrist is "anti-Christian." That is totally wrong, for while the real Antichrist is indeed anti-Christian, he is foremost anti-God. This means he is anti-believers. The Antichrist is called such because he is the anti-salvation. He is the one who will totally oppose God's will and that means that all believers of God are his enemy and the object of his domination and extermination. That's why I must laugh when people speculate about modern people who "might be" the so called "Antichrist." You would know him, oh my goodness, you would know him... you would not have to "wonder."
Thus many Christians are "asleep at the wheel," to use a term that refers to falling asleep while driving a car. They do not recognize that any false prophets of any "faith" are active in laying the unintentional, not intentional groundwork for the actual false prophets of the actual Antichrist. It's like today we have mini-John the Baptists, laying down the crooked ways for the eventual real Antichrist, to use the example of how the real John the Baptist prepared a straight way for the Messiah Jesus Christ. Most of the false prophets of today are from the ancient pagan religions, of the so called "New Age" manufactured "religions," and those Christians who willfully misunderstand the scriptures in order to write themselves a role in divine matters. Today's false prophets do not realize they are preparing the way for the genuine Antichrist, and Satan can only marvel at their stupidity. Today's false prophets strengthen love of the world and their own works and loosen love of God and obedience to him alone. They have achieved their greatest inroads in the formerly Christian nations, but Muslims, be alert, because they work on the young people through the increasing "sophistication" of the world.
So the great myth that many Christians, those on the fringe, and those who are lukewarm in their faith is that 1) the Antichrist is within reach of these times, possible arisen or rising soon, which he is not and 2) that the Antichrist is the enemy of only Christians, while in fact he is the enemy of all the faithful believers in the one true God. Hence the Antichrist is the enemy of the Muslims too and, of course, the Jews.
So the image that was put upon me that is difficult to describe in writing is that the Sunni part of Islam is keeping in preservation the purity of the holy places and the dictates of the faith, from which Islam must continue to draw its strength like water from a well. However, the Shia Imams must be acknowledged and respected because they are like the hands that draw from the well the water of purity of belief in God. This is not to say that each side does not do all of that which I listed above; it is the urging that you not discard or minimize what either side has in their faith repertoire that I am saying. Why is this? Because the Holy Spirit has put it upon my heart to explain to you that the Twelfth Imam will return, as a young boy, when it is genuinely time to oppose the Antichrist. All that you can do now and in future generations to keep your faith pure in its attentiveness to the one true God, which we, the people of Abraham, all share, will assist in confounding the work of the false prophets who at first unintentionally, and eventually intentionally, prepare the way for the Antichrist.
The Twelfth Imam will arise, as a young boy purified in his faith, and oppose, along with the Christians and the Jews and all true believers, the real Antichrist when he arises.
This is what the Holy Spirit put upon my heart to tell you most urgently today.
The Holy Spirit placed upon my heart this morning, soon after I woke up, that I must explain, with the intention of clarifying, some things with the purpose of urging all Muslims to unity. Nothing I say is contrary to the scriptures of the Bible and the Qur'an and instead, rather, wipes away some of the fog of politics, corruption of faith and impurity that can only be ascribed to the actions of humans, not of the perfect God nor of his scriptures, which remain everlasting and unchanged.
Brothers and sisters, you must not continue to have hardened hearts toward each other based on your respective sects of Islam. In particular I of course indicate the ill will in many places between Shia and Sunni believers. Here is the image that the Holy Spirit gave to me to tell you. In olden days the Spanish had in their currency a coin that had a certain value, but it came with lines drawn upon it so that the coin could be divided by the owner into eighths. Islam is like that coin. The value of any part of it still derives purely from the material of the coin that all the potential pieces share. Thus people may be Shia, but it is a piece from the original coin. And people may be Sunni, but it is a piece from the original coin. Do not allow humans to hold in their hands one piece of the coin and disrespect, demean or war against those who hold in their hands their piece of the same coin. You must let go of previous human based injustices from both sides, and stop ascribing divine reasons for your differences, no matter how profound (or small) those differences are. How can you let go of ascribing divine reasons for your differences? By remembering that the pieces that you hold in your hand still come from the same coin, a spiritually united Islam, that is enfranchised by the same God and the same scriptures.
Why is this so urgent for me to tell you? The Holy Spirit has put it upon my heart that one way you will look past your differences is to realize that each of you holds part of the key that must work together to please God. I'm going to make a large generalization now, and bear with me, because I am putting into words a divine image, and that is difficult to do (and of course excuse typos or mispellings or punctuation lapses, they are not "Freudian slips" or "spiritual messages," ha, but simply my lack of good equipment and a shortage of time). It is essential that Islam puts its house into order, by achieving spiritual unity, because all the parts of Islam will play a vital role in the time, and let me say this right now, it is still far in the future, when the genuine Antichrist arises, and the end of the world draws near, to combat the Antichrist and his works.
Despite what mislead Christians think, the Antichrist, the real one, is still far off. What we are in the midst of, however, is the "first wave" of false prophets that Jesus warned about. The second error that many Christians have is that the Antichrist is "anti-Christian." That is totally wrong, for while the real Antichrist is indeed anti-Christian, he is foremost anti-God. This means he is anti-believers. The Antichrist is called such because he is the anti-salvation. He is the one who will totally oppose God's will and that means that all believers of God are his enemy and the object of his domination and extermination. That's why I must laugh when people speculate about modern people who "might be" the so called "Antichrist." You would know him, oh my goodness, you would know him... you would not have to "wonder."
Thus many Christians are "asleep at the wheel," to use a term that refers to falling asleep while driving a car. They do not recognize that any false prophets of any "faith" are active in laying the unintentional, not intentional groundwork for the actual false prophets of the actual Antichrist. It's like today we have mini-John the Baptists, laying down the crooked ways for the eventual real Antichrist, to use the example of how the real John the Baptist prepared a straight way for the Messiah Jesus Christ. Most of the false prophets of today are from the ancient pagan religions, of the so called "New Age" manufactured "religions," and those Christians who willfully misunderstand the scriptures in order to write themselves a role in divine matters. Today's false prophets do not realize they are preparing the way for the genuine Antichrist, and Satan can only marvel at their stupidity. Today's false prophets strengthen love of the world and their own works and loosen love of God and obedience to him alone. They have achieved their greatest inroads in the formerly Christian nations, but Muslims, be alert, because they work on the young people through the increasing "sophistication" of the world.
So the great myth that many Christians, those on the fringe, and those who are lukewarm in their faith is that 1) the Antichrist is within reach of these times, possible arisen or rising soon, which he is not and 2) that the Antichrist is the enemy of only Christians, while in fact he is the enemy of all the faithful believers in the one true God. Hence the Antichrist is the enemy of the Muslims too and, of course, the Jews.
So the image that was put upon me that is difficult to describe in writing is that the Sunni part of Islam is keeping in preservation the purity of the holy places and the dictates of the faith, from which Islam must continue to draw its strength like water from a well. However, the Shia Imams must be acknowledged and respected because they are like the hands that draw from the well the water of purity of belief in God. This is not to say that each side does not do all of that which I listed above; it is the urging that you not discard or minimize what either side has in their faith repertoire that I am saying. Why is this? Because the Holy Spirit has put it upon my heart to explain to you that the Twelfth Imam will return, as a young boy, when it is genuinely time to oppose the Antichrist. All that you can do now and in future generations to keep your faith pure in its attentiveness to the one true God, which we, the people of Abraham, all share, will assist in confounding the work of the false prophets who at first unintentionally, and eventually intentionally, prepare the way for the Antichrist.
The Twelfth Imam will arise, as a young boy purified in his faith, and oppose, along with the Christians and the Jews and all true believers, the real Antichrist when he arises.
This is what the Holy Spirit put upon my heart to tell you most urgently today.
Monday, October 26, 2009
Love and fear of God changes individuals
I am going to explain something here that many of you will have to take my word about, simply because so few of these people still exist in the world today and thus not many of you will have been able to observe in person people as the ones I am describing. What I am going to describe to you, though, is the reason why when one reads the Bible, especially the New Testament, one observes the continual use of genuinely affectionate terms such as "brother and sister" and "brethren," even among relative strangers.
When a person fears and loves the Lord, God, (and here I don't mean specifically Jesus, so hold on and I'll explain why later), one's actual personality changes without doing anything else. If you take a person who beforehand did not love or fear God, and he or she now acquires genuine fear and love of God, even if nothing else at all changes about that person, their basic personality changes. They then become the object of affection of people who would not have otherwise even necessarily liked them at all, and likewise they will have affection for people that they would not have considered liking before. This is entirely separate from them now commencing doing "more good deeds" OR being in "fellowship" with a particular church or congregation members. When one acquires fear and love of God, genuinely so, simply as an individual state of mind, you become more attractive in personality to others AND you are attracted, have a larger heart, to others in turn, even if you change nothing else about you at all. Of course in real life a person who genuinely loves and fears God does make changes in their life if appropriate. But I am explaining to you that this is a separate process, entirely due to the one change of acquiring fear and love of God.
This is why I am explaining this separate from love and reverence of Jesus. Understand that Jesus is the way to finding fear and love of God. Jesus, however, if you carefully examine the scriptures never once induced or encouraged fear of himself, Jesus. All fear is to be directed to God himself, not to Jesus. You see, when you love Jesus that is a great and wonderful thing, but it is only half the cake. The other half is that you must do what Jesus taught, which is to fear and hence with that fear love God. I've explained in previous posts that fear of God is a gift of grace from the Holy Spirit and that it is not terror, but fear of ever losing God, and fear of being given what you actually deserve, which is perfect judgment. So someone who fears God is both 1) afraid of ever losing God's grace through their own actions and 2) afraid and in awe of God's role as judge where he will respond to any and all iniquity and unrighteousness performed by a person and concluding, of course, in final judgment. Thus one is not to be in terror of God, unless you have a guilty conscience, ha, in which case you need him all the more, not less.
Over time people have become puffed up with themselves, especially with the flourishing of science and other studies in the period of human history called "the Enlightenment." (Ha, how self important even that sounds.) So for several hundred years people have been on a downward trend of fearing God, even as one could suppose their love of Jesus has increased as his word has been evangelized more broadly around the world. People are so impressed with themselves due to industrialization and intellectual matters that they have forgotten, even skipping over those words in the Bible, that they must (not optional) Fear the Lord God. In their eagerness to evangelize even the most pious have fallen into that trap. They push onto new converts the concepts of the loving Jesus, true, but gloss over the very firm and strict admonishments that Jesus gave to fear and to love only God. Jesus never drew love toward himself, even though that was a natural outcome of his truth, and he never ever allowed himself to be viewed as a fearsome object of divine worship. This is because he redirected all those appropriate impulses, love and fear, directly upward to God, where they belong.
That is why we love Jesus so much... because he himself feared and loved God the Father. He is the first role model of the Christian era in what I am explaining here.
Those who were attracted to Jesus and who loved him as brethren did so not because he cured them or was smarter or more scary with his powers than anyone else. Jesus himself in the purest form shows the attractive power of a human being who genuinely loves AND fears God. Again, remember that fear of God is not being in terror or afraid, so obviously Jesus is not afraid of God. Also since Jesus knew much of God's total plan he is part of God, God's face toward humanity, so naturally he is an exception in that as in all things. However, Jesus is the ultimate role model and thus one understands that those who felt genuine love for him, both those who knew him then, and those who follow him through the centuries since he lived on earth, are in a large part responding to that lovability, for lack of a better word, of someone who has fear and love of God as the foundation of their character.
Therefore, think about the Apostles, the disciples, and the early Christians who traveled far and spread the word of the New Covenant that was brought by Jesus from God. One cannot miss the genuine affection as evidenced in the Book of Acts and the Letters (Epistles) in the New Testament between fellow Christians. But remember, with such long distances, this genuine affection was not because "they went to the same church" or "performed more good deeds and works." In fact, this was a lessening of "works," as in the Jewish Law and more of "charity," which is yes, deeds driven, but in the large part genuine feelings of love and good will. People had this remarkable genuine affection for each other even though they did not worship together, were miles apart, and did not instantly start performing more "good deeds." What was the reason? This is what I am explaining. Through Jesus people felt their individual fear and love of God tremendously increased, and this promotes a deep foundational change in character, personality and mutual attractiveness, even if nothing else in their lives changed at all.
If you read literature or personal letters and writings from as recently as several hundred years ago, when a woman or a man yearned for a person to love and marry, often they hoped for someone "God fearing." People today thinks that means someone who has the same faith, goes to the same services and congregation, joins the same fellowships, and who does good deeds. No, what God fearing means is someone who fears God. It is what it is. People used to yearn for a spouse who was God fearing because that actually makes them more attractive and invigorating a partner. All of the implications of what congregations to join and what activities to do falls as a natural outcome from what comes first, which is that they found a person who feared God to be "hot."
Likewise, outside of the love partnerships and interests, people sought out other God fearing people as neighbors, friends and work colleagues. While they did not feel "hot" toward those people, ha, keep it real here folks, the best way I can describe it is the special affection that children who are twins have for each other.
When a genuinely God fearing person encounters another God fearing person, they often feel the special bond that twin siblings feel.
This is why people had such emphasis on calling each other brethren, and brother or sister, in traditional times. They felt as though they shared a parent, and that parent is fear and love of God. Even if, like modern twins, they have separate lives and different interests far away from each other, there is in most cases a special affectionate sharing that twins find hard to describe to others who are not twins. When one reads of the passing of a twin due to death, often the remaining twin describes that as being missing part of their actual self. This is what truly God fearing and loving people share.
I can testify to you that I have seen the changes in attractiveness, in both loving and brethren type of relationships, when a person who previously did not fear or love God starts to embark on acquiring those feelings. I have seen those people change and mightily increase their attractiveness, even if they change little else about their day to day lives. They will, of course, change their lives because it is inevitable that a life with fear and love of God is vastly different from one where there was no fear or love of God, or if it was half hearted, lukewarm or insincere. But the process is dramatic even before that change to receiving fear and love of God into one's heart actually generates those subsequent behavior and life changes. I often think when I see a person who genuinely loves and fears God "Oh, what a good catch he or she is for someone," or "What a great friend that person would be." I'm thinking that from the sheer magnetism, for lack of a better word, of a person who rightly fears and loves God, and not because they are handsome, more fun to be around, belongs to a cool crew, or whatever.
People used to understand and live by that. Ever look at paintings of rigid and staid looking married couples, and wonder how they had so many children? LOL. There is a huge attractiveness of a man or woman who fears and loves God first and foremost.
That is why you can trust the affectionate words of St. Paul in his epistles (letters) even when he is yelling at a group of Christians for bad behavior that he has that genuine "twin fellowship" shared with them, and them in return, in his heart. People were not just using words of speech patterns, like "Mister" is today. In other words, we call anyone "Mister" if he's an adult male, whether he is a good person or not. People did not in the "olden days" (despite what moderns think) call each other "brother" or "sister" because that was the word that everyone used. It meant something much deeper and it was used by choice, not by necessity.
If you understand what I mean you understand then these examples. People from different even "rival" congregations should feel that "brother" or "sister" twinships if each person is truly fearing and loving God first. It's like if twins got separated and adopted into different families. They are still twins. People should be twins and feel accordingly when they encounter another person who genuinely fears and loves God, even if they are of different congregations or even faiths. That is one reason I loved the short time I spent in Turkey, a predominantly Muslim country. I found a real fellowship in feeling in my heart so many people who fear and love God first and foremost. This is exactly what the disciples and Apostles and the early Christians who were scattered throughout many countries felt, that genuine attractiveness of character and personality of a fellow person who loved and feared God the way they did.
Loving and fearing God is like the ultimate "face lift." If you fear and love God you will find that your heart warms to many more people than it did before, and different types of people than those you would consider attractive or lovable in character. Many people who hate me do not have fear and love of God in their hearts. Suppose these people did start to cultivate fear and love of God in their hearts. They still might not think I am beautiful and they might never even really like me as a person, but their hatred of me would melt away. And without that hatred in their hearts they would become more attractive to more people in their own social circles; whether they liked or hung out with me would not be important anymore.
Love and fear of God melts away the barriers in yourself that keep you from being more attractive and lovable to others.
I hope that you have found this helpful.
When a person fears and loves the Lord, God, (and here I don't mean specifically Jesus, so hold on and I'll explain why later), one's actual personality changes without doing anything else. If you take a person who beforehand did not love or fear God, and he or she now acquires genuine fear and love of God, even if nothing else at all changes about that person, their basic personality changes. They then become the object of affection of people who would not have otherwise even necessarily liked them at all, and likewise they will have affection for people that they would not have considered liking before. This is entirely separate from them now commencing doing "more good deeds" OR being in "fellowship" with a particular church or congregation members. When one acquires fear and love of God, genuinely so, simply as an individual state of mind, you become more attractive in personality to others AND you are attracted, have a larger heart, to others in turn, even if you change nothing else about you at all. Of course in real life a person who genuinely loves and fears God does make changes in their life if appropriate. But I am explaining to you that this is a separate process, entirely due to the one change of acquiring fear and love of God.
This is why I am explaining this separate from love and reverence of Jesus. Understand that Jesus is the way to finding fear and love of God. Jesus, however, if you carefully examine the scriptures never once induced or encouraged fear of himself, Jesus. All fear is to be directed to God himself, not to Jesus. You see, when you love Jesus that is a great and wonderful thing, but it is only half the cake. The other half is that you must do what Jesus taught, which is to fear and hence with that fear love God. I've explained in previous posts that fear of God is a gift of grace from the Holy Spirit and that it is not terror, but fear of ever losing God, and fear of being given what you actually deserve, which is perfect judgment. So someone who fears God is both 1) afraid of ever losing God's grace through their own actions and 2) afraid and in awe of God's role as judge where he will respond to any and all iniquity and unrighteousness performed by a person and concluding, of course, in final judgment. Thus one is not to be in terror of God, unless you have a guilty conscience, ha, in which case you need him all the more, not less.
Over time people have become puffed up with themselves, especially with the flourishing of science and other studies in the period of human history called "the Enlightenment." (Ha, how self important even that sounds.) So for several hundred years people have been on a downward trend of fearing God, even as one could suppose their love of Jesus has increased as his word has been evangelized more broadly around the world. People are so impressed with themselves due to industrialization and intellectual matters that they have forgotten, even skipping over those words in the Bible, that they must (not optional) Fear the Lord God. In their eagerness to evangelize even the most pious have fallen into that trap. They push onto new converts the concepts of the loving Jesus, true, but gloss over the very firm and strict admonishments that Jesus gave to fear and to love only God. Jesus never drew love toward himself, even though that was a natural outcome of his truth, and he never ever allowed himself to be viewed as a fearsome object of divine worship. This is because he redirected all those appropriate impulses, love and fear, directly upward to God, where they belong.
That is why we love Jesus so much... because he himself feared and loved God the Father. He is the first role model of the Christian era in what I am explaining here.
Those who were attracted to Jesus and who loved him as brethren did so not because he cured them or was smarter or more scary with his powers than anyone else. Jesus himself in the purest form shows the attractive power of a human being who genuinely loves AND fears God. Again, remember that fear of God is not being in terror or afraid, so obviously Jesus is not afraid of God. Also since Jesus knew much of God's total plan he is part of God, God's face toward humanity, so naturally he is an exception in that as in all things. However, Jesus is the ultimate role model and thus one understands that those who felt genuine love for him, both those who knew him then, and those who follow him through the centuries since he lived on earth, are in a large part responding to that lovability, for lack of a better word, of someone who has fear and love of God as the foundation of their character.
Therefore, think about the Apostles, the disciples, and the early Christians who traveled far and spread the word of the New Covenant that was brought by Jesus from God. One cannot miss the genuine affection as evidenced in the Book of Acts and the Letters (Epistles) in the New Testament between fellow Christians. But remember, with such long distances, this genuine affection was not because "they went to the same church" or "performed more good deeds and works." In fact, this was a lessening of "works," as in the Jewish Law and more of "charity," which is yes, deeds driven, but in the large part genuine feelings of love and good will. People had this remarkable genuine affection for each other even though they did not worship together, were miles apart, and did not instantly start performing more "good deeds." What was the reason? This is what I am explaining. Through Jesus people felt their individual fear and love of God tremendously increased, and this promotes a deep foundational change in character, personality and mutual attractiveness, even if nothing else in their lives changed at all.
If you read literature or personal letters and writings from as recently as several hundred years ago, when a woman or a man yearned for a person to love and marry, often they hoped for someone "God fearing." People today thinks that means someone who has the same faith, goes to the same services and congregation, joins the same fellowships, and who does good deeds. No, what God fearing means is someone who fears God. It is what it is. People used to yearn for a spouse who was God fearing because that actually makes them more attractive and invigorating a partner. All of the implications of what congregations to join and what activities to do falls as a natural outcome from what comes first, which is that they found a person who feared God to be "hot."
Likewise, outside of the love partnerships and interests, people sought out other God fearing people as neighbors, friends and work colleagues. While they did not feel "hot" toward those people, ha, keep it real here folks, the best way I can describe it is the special affection that children who are twins have for each other.
When a genuinely God fearing person encounters another God fearing person, they often feel the special bond that twin siblings feel.
This is why people had such emphasis on calling each other brethren, and brother or sister, in traditional times. They felt as though they shared a parent, and that parent is fear and love of God. Even if, like modern twins, they have separate lives and different interests far away from each other, there is in most cases a special affectionate sharing that twins find hard to describe to others who are not twins. When one reads of the passing of a twin due to death, often the remaining twin describes that as being missing part of their actual self. This is what truly God fearing and loving people share.
I can testify to you that I have seen the changes in attractiveness, in both loving and brethren type of relationships, when a person who previously did not fear or love God starts to embark on acquiring those feelings. I have seen those people change and mightily increase their attractiveness, even if they change little else about their day to day lives. They will, of course, change their lives because it is inevitable that a life with fear and love of God is vastly different from one where there was no fear or love of God, or if it was half hearted, lukewarm or insincere. But the process is dramatic even before that change to receiving fear and love of God into one's heart actually generates those subsequent behavior and life changes. I often think when I see a person who genuinely loves and fears God "Oh, what a good catch he or she is for someone," or "What a great friend that person would be." I'm thinking that from the sheer magnetism, for lack of a better word, of a person who rightly fears and loves God, and not because they are handsome, more fun to be around, belongs to a cool crew, or whatever.
People used to understand and live by that. Ever look at paintings of rigid and staid looking married couples, and wonder how they had so many children? LOL. There is a huge attractiveness of a man or woman who fears and loves God first and foremost.
That is why you can trust the affectionate words of St. Paul in his epistles (letters) even when he is yelling at a group of Christians for bad behavior that he has that genuine "twin fellowship" shared with them, and them in return, in his heart. People were not just using words of speech patterns, like "Mister" is today. In other words, we call anyone "Mister" if he's an adult male, whether he is a good person or not. People did not in the "olden days" (despite what moderns think) call each other "brother" or "sister" because that was the word that everyone used. It meant something much deeper and it was used by choice, not by necessity.
If you understand what I mean you understand then these examples. People from different even "rival" congregations should feel that "brother" or "sister" twinships if each person is truly fearing and loving God first. It's like if twins got separated and adopted into different families. They are still twins. People should be twins and feel accordingly when they encounter another person who genuinely fears and loves God, even if they are of different congregations or even faiths. That is one reason I loved the short time I spent in Turkey, a predominantly Muslim country. I found a real fellowship in feeling in my heart so many people who fear and love God first and foremost. This is exactly what the disciples and Apostles and the early Christians who were scattered throughout many countries felt, that genuine attractiveness of character and personality of a fellow person who loved and feared God the way they did.
Loving and fearing God is like the ultimate "face lift." If you fear and love God you will find that your heart warms to many more people than it did before, and different types of people than those you would consider attractive or lovable in character. Many people who hate me do not have fear and love of God in their hearts. Suppose these people did start to cultivate fear and love of God in their hearts. They still might not think I am beautiful and they might never even really like me as a person, but their hatred of me would melt away. And without that hatred in their hearts they would become more attractive to more people in their own social circles; whether they liked or hung out with me would not be important anymore.
Love and fear of God melts away the barriers in yourself that keep you from being more attractive and lovable to others.
I hope that you have found this helpful.
Why immediate obedience to God necessary
This is especially directed toward young people, those under thirties and most especially young teens (hi there!) because, frankly, I've about given up on your parents' and teachers' generations of understanding these things. They are so infested with "magical" thinking instead of 1) faith and 2) logic and reasoning based on facts. You've been raised that way too, but I have a great hope that you recognize something is very wrong: totally wrong. So this is part of the "faith and reasoning" series where I teach you how to have logical faith based on the truth, accomplished through reasoning and the facts, and also develop your skills in using classic logic to solve problems and form opinions.
Here I am going to first give you an analogy that you can all relate to, and then we will use logic to analyze the analogy.
Suppose that a society, such as the United States, recognizes all at once that cigarette smoking is dangerous for one's health and causes cancer. (I'm not doing a smoking bash here or making an extreme medical statement; I just want to use a genuine topic based on facts for the analogy). So let's suppose that everyone realizes all at once that smoking causes specifically lung cancer and that it is certain to happen for each person eventually. You will have, based on human nature, reactions that divide the population into roughly thirds. One third will quit immediately. One third will want to quit but being pretty heavy smokers or with a big addiction, they have to use various methods to quit, but they have perfect intention to do so as SOON as they can. But then we come to the other third. That third will plan to quit "someday" and use "magical thinking" to manipulate the situation, thinking that they "know better" than the doctors. So that third group will "plan" to quit someday but will continue to smoke and, actually, will work on the members of the first two groups to get them to continue to smoke along with them.
This third group gives this reaction, this very bad reaction, for a combination of reasons, but they all come down to 1) lack of faith and 2) arrogance and self pride overcoming logic. The lack of faith is simple in that they just do not believe either the dire warnings of the doctors or the evidence of their own eyes, which is lots of people getting lung cancer and dropping dead of it, including in their own families. They just refuse to believe and have lack of faith in either the policy or the facts because of reason number two, their arrogance and self pride. That arrogance and pride gets its strength from "magical" thinking. Here are examples of magical thinking:
1. I can keep on smoking longer than anyone else without getting the lung cancer because I'm physically and spiritually better than anyone else.
2. Because I know better than everyone else I can tempt people to also keep smoking, which they enjoy after all, longer, and not have to give up something they enjoy too! So I'm putting to rest their "false fears."
3. Besides, it's not fun being part of a rapidly dwindling group of smokers. I want company and to heck with the consequences, so long as I am partying out and smoking with lots of friends. Hey they know the risk so if they listen to me keep smoking and get cancer, it's their fault ("destiny") anyway.
4. I want to keep doing this wrong and dangerous thing and to rationalize it and keep having a good time with lots of smoking friends, I will tell them they were "born to die of cancer" or that it is "their destiny" if something happens and they get sick. I will make it sound like "the force is with them" or they have "karma" or they will have a better "future life" to make up for their current life being cut short by doing this dangerous smoking.
5. I'm an addict and a weakling and can't quit. But I'm too proud to ask for help, especially because I mocked the very people who did this health study and made the discovery of the danger. So instead of doing what I know I should do and ask for help, I'm too proud and self superior so I'll not ask for help, keep on doing so, and, in fact, sabotage any smoker quitting service I can, since that way I can tell myself that even if I was not proud, none of the smoker quitting services exist or really work anyway.
6. I'm neurotic, obsessive compulsive, depressed, anxious and/or paranoid. I think everyone is pretending that smoking is dangerous and pretending to get sick and die. I also think they are pretending that dead is really dead.
7. I'm all or some of the above in 6 and I think, since I can't think properly, that if people stop smoking and dying of lung cancer that "something worse will happen." Maybe the world is resting on the back of giant turtles who like to breathe cigarette smoke and if we all stop smoking the turtles will get mad and drop the earth and it will break.
I wish I was joking but I am not. I personally, and through second, third, fourth, fifth and sixth degrees of "Kevin Bacon" know people that believe all of the above: a LOT of them. They believe it not only in the actual analogy that I give, but worst of all, they believe it when you apply this analogy about acknowledging the reality of the one true God and of obeying him. They "postpone" or refuse in total to believe in God and to immediately obey him for all those reasons I have listed above.
So we have used logic to list the reactions and reasons of the three groups of people in the smoking analogy. And we have used logic to recognize that just as the analogy cites doctors who document the facts that, in the pretend USA example, that every smoker will get lung cancer and die, this analogy can now be applied to belief in God. God is the doctor who explains that if one smokes that each and every person who smokes will get lung cancer and die. Thus to transfer the work we did on the pretend case study to actuality, God is like the doctor who warns what will one hundred percent will happen, disbelief in God and sins are like the smoking of cigarettes (the thing that is dangerous and wrong to do even if it is "fun"), and hell (not being saved and not having eternal life) is like the inevitable lung cancer in our pretend analogy.
Do you see how powerful logic based on facts can be? Now you can use the logic you developed in the pretend analogy to understand why so many people deny God or worse, even when they understand the risk and reality (the consequences of "cancer") they PUT OFF obeying what they can see and suspect is true and worse, hold their friends, family and society itself back from being believers and immediate obeying of God. You can work down the list of seven I gave to you above and now substitute disbelief/sin/disobeying of God for wherever we list the action of smoking. We can list not being saved, being punished by God in this world, going to hell, and hurting other people by being unjust and/or sinning or spreading unbelief as the substitute for the getting and dying of lung cancer.
Let's work through one example, the first one. The smokers in the first example of pride think they can resist the consequences of smoking longer than anyone so they keep smoking and figure they will quit at the last possible moment. Thus they figure because they are physically and spiritually "better" than anyone else, they can keep smoking until just "before" they actually "get" cancer and then quit in the nick of time. That's the "logic" of pride in the first reasons to keep smoking example.
Now here is how it translates. Yeah, OK, maybe there is a God and maybe he will punish us if we sin. But because I am physically and spiritually "stronger" than anyone else, I will keep doing what I feel like, including sin, because I figure due to my superiority and my good deeds that if I figure out there really is a God, I will by lying around on my death bed after a really fun life and can quickly convert and be forgiven. I know that God will give me a really cool life, including with postponing obedience to him, because he made me so physically strong, good looking, popular, smart and spiritually so "complete" and "evolved" that I can control when I "flip" to believe in God, if he convinces me AND still have postponed obeying him until the last minute.
Here's the problems with this thinking. *sigh* I can't believe I even have to explain this but here goes. If one is disbelieving and disobeying God, no matter what "good deeds" you are doing, you are still 1) sinning 2) encouraging by your life other people to sin and 3) refusing to give God what is due to him on the spot NOW and FOREVER, throughout your life. The people in this category think they are so "blessed" that they can decide if or when to totally surrender to God. They imagine that they are just so wonderful that they can keep making this "personal" decision and that it's theirs to make AND that they will have ample time to "make the switch" if they must. But what happens? Let's go back to our analogy.
1. They keep smoking and get the cancer much faster than anyone else. Hmm.
2. They keep smoking and make money off of it by keeping others smoking through their business and/or their example. Thus their postponed obedience costs other people their lives.
3. They get in a crash and die before they can "make the switch." Ooops.
4. They don't realize that by the time they think they can "make the switch" that they already have the deadly cancer growing undetected. So they stop smoking and then find they have the cancer already because they "postponed" too long.
You can logic through, then, how this maps to disbelieving/postponing obeying God.
1. They disbelieve or postpone obedience and their sin or behaviors kill them even quicker. They go to hell.
2. They know what they are doing is wrong but they make money off of it or at worse by continuing to do so their children do the same neglect of God and thus they make money and tempt others by neglecting God, piling up a lot of unforgiven and some unforgivable sins. They go to hell AND they bring others with them through their delays in obedience.
3. Life happens and they get in a wreck and die or something else happens before they can repent. They go to hell.
4. They wait so long that their hearts are so hardened that even when they "decide" to "make the switch" they just can't do it, because they can't be humble, tender and flexible enough to finally do what they so called "planned" to do all along. So when they are ready to "switch" they find they can't at all, or they do it half hearted, and with a cold heart, like God is a formula to now apply. They go to hell.
I'll leave this with you to work through mapping in your own minds the other "reasons" for disbelief/postponing obeying God, listed 2 through 7, matching the smoking/lung cancer analogy and "reasons" with what that means for disbelieving/postponing obeying God. Pay special attention to the lack of one person converting in their heart to God as a bad example that then leads others back down that path to ruin. This is the heart of why God's judgment is especially stern to those who aren't really making an "individual life style choice," but are actually leading others the same way, often deliberately, as in reasons number 5, 6 and 7 but really all of them, as they want to "party on" with what they are doing, and that requires undermining those who might otherwise have repented and followed God.
*sigh*
Young people, you've been sold a bill of goods (an expression for being stiffed) by the previous generation. Previous generation, wise up.
Here I am going to first give you an analogy that you can all relate to, and then we will use logic to analyze the analogy.
Suppose that a society, such as the United States, recognizes all at once that cigarette smoking is dangerous for one's health and causes cancer. (I'm not doing a smoking bash here or making an extreme medical statement; I just want to use a genuine topic based on facts for the analogy). So let's suppose that everyone realizes all at once that smoking causes specifically lung cancer and that it is certain to happen for each person eventually. You will have, based on human nature, reactions that divide the population into roughly thirds. One third will quit immediately. One third will want to quit but being pretty heavy smokers or with a big addiction, they have to use various methods to quit, but they have perfect intention to do so as SOON as they can. But then we come to the other third. That third will plan to quit "someday" and use "magical thinking" to manipulate the situation, thinking that they "know better" than the doctors. So that third group will "plan" to quit someday but will continue to smoke and, actually, will work on the members of the first two groups to get them to continue to smoke along with them.
This third group gives this reaction, this very bad reaction, for a combination of reasons, but they all come down to 1) lack of faith and 2) arrogance and self pride overcoming logic. The lack of faith is simple in that they just do not believe either the dire warnings of the doctors or the evidence of their own eyes, which is lots of people getting lung cancer and dropping dead of it, including in their own families. They just refuse to believe and have lack of faith in either the policy or the facts because of reason number two, their arrogance and self pride. That arrogance and pride gets its strength from "magical" thinking. Here are examples of magical thinking:
1. I can keep on smoking longer than anyone else without getting the lung cancer because I'm physically and spiritually better than anyone else.
2. Because I know better than everyone else I can tempt people to also keep smoking, which they enjoy after all, longer, and not have to give up something they enjoy too! So I'm putting to rest their "false fears."
3. Besides, it's not fun being part of a rapidly dwindling group of smokers. I want company and to heck with the consequences, so long as I am partying out and smoking with lots of friends. Hey they know the risk so if they listen to me keep smoking and get cancer, it's their fault ("destiny") anyway.
4. I want to keep doing this wrong and dangerous thing and to rationalize it and keep having a good time with lots of smoking friends, I will tell them they were "born to die of cancer" or that it is "their destiny" if something happens and they get sick. I will make it sound like "the force is with them" or they have "karma" or they will have a better "future life" to make up for their current life being cut short by doing this dangerous smoking.
5. I'm an addict and a weakling and can't quit. But I'm too proud to ask for help, especially because I mocked the very people who did this health study and made the discovery of the danger. So instead of doing what I know I should do and ask for help, I'm too proud and self superior so I'll not ask for help, keep on doing so, and, in fact, sabotage any smoker quitting service I can, since that way I can tell myself that even if I was not proud, none of the smoker quitting services exist or really work anyway.
6. I'm neurotic, obsessive compulsive, depressed, anxious and/or paranoid. I think everyone is pretending that smoking is dangerous and pretending to get sick and die. I also think they are pretending that dead is really dead.
7. I'm all or some of the above in 6 and I think, since I can't think properly, that if people stop smoking and dying of lung cancer that "something worse will happen." Maybe the world is resting on the back of giant turtles who like to breathe cigarette smoke and if we all stop smoking the turtles will get mad and drop the earth and it will break.
I wish I was joking but I am not. I personally, and through second, third, fourth, fifth and sixth degrees of "Kevin Bacon" know people that believe all of the above: a LOT of them. They believe it not only in the actual analogy that I give, but worst of all, they believe it when you apply this analogy about acknowledging the reality of the one true God and of obeying him. They "postpone" or refuse in total to believe in God and to immediately obey him for all those reasons I have listed above.
So we have used logic to list the reactions and reasons of the three groups of people in the smoking analogy. And we have used logic to recognize that just as the analogy cites doctors who document the facts that, in the pretend USA example, that every smoker will get lung cancer and die, this analogy can now be applied to belief in God. God is the doctor who explains that if one smokes that each and every person who smokes will get lung cancer and die. Thus to transfer the work we did on the pretend case study to actuality, God is like the doctor who warns what will one hundred percent will happen, disbelief in God and sins are like the smoking of cigarettes (the thing that is dangerous and wrong to do even if it is "fun"), and hell (not being saved and not having eternal life) is like the inevitable lung cancer in our pretend analogy.
Do you see how powerful logic based on facts can be? Now you can use the logic you developed in the pretend analogy to understand why so many people deny God or worse, even when they understand the risk and reality (the consequences of "cancer") they PUT OFF obeying what they can see and suspect is true and worse, hold their friends, family and society itself back from being believers and immediate obeying of God. You can work down the list of seven I gave to you above and now substitute disbelief/sin/disobeying of God for wherever we list the action of smoking. We can list not being saved, being punished by God in this world, going to hell, and hurting other people by being unjust and/or sinning or spreading unbelief as the substitute for the getting and dying of lung cancer.
Let's work through one example, the first one. The smokers in the first example of pride think they can resist the consequences of smoking longer than anyone so they keep smoking and figure they will quit at the last possible moment. Thus they figure because they are physically and spiritually "better" than anyone else, they can keep smoking until just "before" they actually "get" cancer and then quit in the nick of time. That's the "logic" of pride in the first reasons to keep smoking example.
Now here is how it translates. Yeah, OK, maybe there is a God and maybe he will punish us if we sin. But because I am physically and spiritually "stronger" than anyone else, I will keep doing what I feel like, including sin, because I figure due to my superiority and my good deeds that if I figure out there really is a God, I will by lying around on my death bed after a really fun life and can quickly convert and be forgiven. I know that God will give me a really cool life, including with postponing obedience to him, because he made me so physically strong, good looking, popular, smart and spiritually so "complete" and "evolved" that I can control when I "flip" to believe in God, if he convinces me AND still have postponed obeying him until the last minute.
Here's the problems with this thinking. *sigh* I can't believe I even have to explain this but here goes. If one is disbelieving and disobeying God, no matter what "good deeds" you are doing, you are still 1) sinning 2) encouraging by your life other people to sin and 3) refusing to give God what is due to him on the spot NOW and FOREVER, throughout your life. The people in this category think they are so "blessed" that they can decide if or when to totally surrender to God. They imagine that they are just so wonderful that they can keep making this "personal" decision and that it's theirs to make AND that they will have ample time to "make the switch" if they must. But what happens? Let's go back to our analogy.
1. They keep smoking and get the cancer much faster than anyone else. Hmm.
2. They keep smoking and make money off of it by keeping others smoking through their business and/or their example. Thus their postponed obedience costs other people their lives.
3. They get in a crash and die before they can "make the switch." Ooops.
4. They don't realize that by the time they think they can "make the switch" that they already have the deadly cancer growing undetected. So they stop smoking and then find they have the cancer already because they "postponed" too long.
You can logic through, then, how this maps to disbelieving/postponing obeying God.
1. They disbelieve or postpone obedience and their sin or behaviors kill them even quicker. They go to hell.
2. They know what they are doing is wrong but they make money off of it or at worse by continuing to do so their children do the same neglect of God and thus they make money and tempt others by neglecting God, piling up a lot of unforgiven and some unforgivable sins. They go to hell AND they bring others with them through their delays in obedience.
3. Life happens and they get in a wreck and die or something else happens before they can repent. They go to hell.
4. They wait so long that their hearts are so hardened that even when they "decide" to "make the switch" they just can't do it, because they can't be humble, tender and flexible enough to finally do what they so called "planned" to do all along. So when they are ready to "switch" they find they can't at all, or they do it half hearted, and with a cold heart, like God is a formula to now apply. They go to hell.
I'll leave this with you to work through mapping in your own minds the other "reasons" for disbelief/postponing obeying God, listed 2 through 7, matching the smoking/lung cancer analogy and "reasons" with what that means for disbelieving/postponing obeying God. Pay special attention to the lack of one person converting in their heart to God as a bad example that then leads others back down that path to ruin. This is the heart of why God's judgment is especially stern to those who aren't really making an "individual life style choice," but are actually leading others the same way, often deliberately, as in reasons number 5, 6 and 7 but really all of them, as they want to "party on" with what they are doing, and that requires undermining those who might otherwise have repented and followed God.
*sigh*
Young people, you've been sold a bill of goods (an expression for being stiffed) by the previous generation. Previous generation, wise up.
Sunday, October 25, 2009
Both God and Jesus have roles in judgement
I've noticed there is some confusion among some people based on the completeness of the authority given to Jesus by God to judge all of humankind. Here is a quick way to help you to understand precisely what God does and intends.
Yes, Jesus has complete authority to judge, which he will do at the Second Coming. The Book of Revelation explains that through the eyes of the Apostle John, who is taken to heaven in vision to see some of what will happen in the final days leading up to the Apocalypse and Christ's Return. God remains on his heavenly throne while the world passes away and Jesus judges all, the living and the dead.
However, until that time comes, people have individual lives and they live and they die. Each person is judged on their death by God himself. How do we know this? Again, turn to what seems to be my most cited scripture, Luke 16, where Jesus describes what happens to a rich man who goes to hell.
"There was a rich man who dressed in purple garments and fine linen and dined sumptuously each day. And lying at his door was a poor man named Lazarus, covered with sores...When the poor man died, he was carried away by angels to the bosom of Abraham. The rich man also died and was buried, and from the netherworld, where he was in torment, he raised his eyes and saw Abraham far off and Lazarus at his side. And he cried out, 'Father Abraham, have pity on me. Send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue, for I am suffering torment in these flames" (Luke 16:19-20, 22-24).
Now, remember that Jesus has a greater point to make in telling this story, this actual event that has happened, so you must read it for both 1) the main point and 2) any other insight one can glean since everything that Jesus said is saying it "as it really is."
Notice that the rich man does not say, "Abraham! HEY! What in the world am I doing in hell? I was a great guy!" The rich man knows exactly why he is there so he does not bother to ask for an explanation, which he already knows (and in fact is gazing on the very reason, his neglect of the poor, suffering and dying Lazarus). This is because God judged that man as he woke up in hell. It's not like there's a kind of courtroom or waiting room where God calls people in and judges each one in a neutral spot in turn. One wakes up from death in the place where one is sent, with the knowledge of God's judgement. Period. The angels escorted the poor man Lazarus, carrying him to heaven. God's judgment was apparent by the fact the angels were taking him to heaven. Likewise God's judgement was apparent and the facts about "why" given into the spiritual heart and mind of the person who ends up in hell. So the first thing that careful reading and trusting that Jesus is precise and truthful and complete in all things reveals is that people die and wake up in either heaven or hell, knowing exactly why they are there, which only God can provide.
The second thing you notice is that Jesus did not say at any point that he, Jesus, was the one who judged Lazarus or the rich man. If that were the case he would have said so, since Jesus' complete ministry is to be open, freely sharing the facts of the Kingdom of God, and he would have told the disciples if he, Jesus, were the one who was already judging each person who died, even before he was alive as Son of Man on earth and before his crucifixion and resurrection. That would have been an extremely important fact to share in the Gospel and Jesus would have done so if that were the case. Indeed, it would have been mind boggling for the disciples to hear that even before Jesus was born to Mary on earth that he was in heaven judging each person who died! So even though Jesus is of course of God and thus eternal, when he speaks of his role of judge and authority to judge whether one goes to heaven or hell he means at the Second Coming.
So when Abraham explains why the rich man cannot have a drop of water, Abraham is not breaking the news to him about why he is in hell, Abraham is explaining the unchangeable rules and conditions, that no aid or comfort will be given to those in hell.
"Abraham replied, 'My child, remember that you received what was good during your lifetime while Lazarus likewise received what was bad; but now he is comforted here, whereas you are tormented. Moreover, between us a great chasm is established to prevent anyone from crossing who might wish to go from our side to yours or from your side to ours" (Luke 16:25-6).
Do you see? If Jesus had judged the rich man, Jesus would have told the disciples that "And I told him during judgement exactly how many times he had ridden past the poor bleeding hungry and dying Lazarus while riding on his horse and then I had told him each and every one of his sins and that's why he's in hell." But Jesus did not do that....God himself did that. Another way that you can understand that it was God and not pre-born Jesus doing the judging is that Jesus mentions that angels carried the poor man Lazarus to heaven, and everyone realizes that God sends angels to do his bidding. For example, when Jesus is praying before the betrayal in Gethsemane, God sends an angel to comfort him; Jesus does not summon angels. He could do so but he never did so, as Jesus and God work in harmony in all things. It is in the Second Coming where Jesus sends angels and judges. Until then it is exactly as it has always been, which is that God himself renders personal individual judgment and the sending of a soul to heaven or hell upon that person's death.
So to continue the reading, the rich man now asks for permission to send Lazarus (and can you see that he still does not "get it," I mean, he's in hell for how he neglected Lazarus in the first place and he's still trying to order Lazarus to go on his errands... the road to hell is pride, pride, pride...) to warn his brothers. Again, if you carefully read this you can glean an important insight. The rich man is not so much wanting to share the sins that got him into hell, but, and this is important, he wants to tell his brothers how bad and final the suffering of hell is!
"He said, 'Then I beg you, father, send him [Lazarus] to my father's house, for I have five brothers, so that he may warn them, lest they too come to this place of torment'" (Luke 16:27).
See? It is the horror of hell in its actuality that spurs the rich man to want to warn his brothers. It's not a genuine repentance since he is still trying to get the very poor miserable "beneath his notice" Lazarus, even as he's glorified to heaven, to go back to earth and do his bidding! So it's not like the rich man didn't "realize" "why" he was in hell since he wasn't judged until Abraham "explained" it to him: he knew full well all along since the story does not start out with "Hey! What's that poor bum Lazarus doing in heaven while I've found myself in hell? What gives?" He immediately hits up Lazarus, through Abraham, for a drop of water. This is how you can infer from what Jesus relates are the facts that people are transported, waking up to find themselves in either heaven or hell with full understanding of how and why they were judged to go there by God. Jesus tells the disciples this actual portrayal of heaven and hell and two people who go to their judgement respectively to make the broader point about what God expects regarding charity, but also to explain how the reality of heaven and hell "works." This is why Abraham explained not only the "why" of why he would not given the rich man even a drop of water or send warning to living five brothers, but also the mechanism, the physics, of heaven and hell, where the great chasm prevents any crossing in either direction. So Jesus was providing a moral and lesson in the telling of what actually happened in this case of the judgment of two men, but also describing for the disciples, who of course needed to know, how the reality of hell and the divide between heaven and hell "works."
Since that is Jesus' intention, if Jesus were "already" judging individual human beings upon their death, he would have said so. To use the expression "it goes without saying" that the disciples understood that God had simultaneously rendered/conveyed judgment to each person and had them conveyed to their place of eternity, either heaven or, of course, hell.
So yes, Jesus has all authority and he will Judge. But do not fall into the trap of thinking that upon personal death (not the End of Days when all will die and rise again for judgement) that when one dies one goes into kind of a waiting room area where one can argue one's case in front of stereotype "forgiving and easy going" Jesus. One is BANG! in heaven or hell, receiving simultaneously judgement and full knowledge of the why's from God himself. Simultaneous with being conveyed by the angels to heaven Lazarus would have received the light of God praising him for his belief and comforting him for his suffering with reward in heaven. Simultaneous with waking up in hell, the rich man would have received full knowledge of the why's of his condemnation and judging by God, which we know because as Jesus relates, it's not like the rich man was puzzled at seeing that "loser" Lazarus in heaven with Abraham. No dialogue is wasted in him asking why that is, because he wakes in hell fully knowing how and why God judged him. No, he's just shocked at how truly unbearable, unrelievable and eternal that hell actually is. It is that shock of suffering that makes him want to warn his brothers that ignoring that dirtbag Lazarus and other poor losers like him is a bad idea. In other words, by how the dialogue progresses you can see that if hell were in theory not such a bad place, but not heaven, this guy would never have bothered trying to warn his brothers, since he still doesn't "get" how unrighteous and unjust he was to Lazarus through his neglect. He's solely motivated by how dreadful that hell is and how he truly can't order the peasant around to do his bidding like he did on earth.
That's why, to remind you of a few postings ago, pride is the downfall of MANY who go to hell. Pridefulness, especially putting one's self before God's priorities, IS a grievous sin and merits hell, regardless of the other "good deeds" or whatever.
When one decides that Jesus is one's Lord and Savior, it is not so you can show a membership card to Jesus, because he's not the one checking at the door upon death: it's God. This is why Jesus repeatedly explains he is the "way." Jesus is not saying that he is judging people's entry into heaven. Remember when James and John's mother asked Jesus if he would have them sit at his right and left hand in his kingdom? What did Jesus say? He said that was up to God. Jesus promised them to go prepare the places for them in heaven. Jesus did not say that he would be the judge when they die. Jesus is the way in the sense that if one trusts him to not only save but to be LORD over one's life, then one will pass judgement from God. It is at the End of all Days, at the Apocalypse, at the Second Coming, that all who lived and died in all humanity will resurrect and be judged by Jesus. Until that time each individual person's death and rendering of judgement to heaven or hell is in God the Father's hands.
Finally, another way you can understand this is to recall one of the most insightful, but most subtle and unnoticed, of all the writings of St. Paul.
And do not grieve the holy Spirit of God, with which you were sealed for the day of redemption (Ephesians 4:30).
You see? Here Paul is reminding the readers that the Holy Spirit also partakes in the final judgement! What he is basically saying that if Christians are "All bitterness, fury, anger, shouting, and reviling...along with all malice" (Ephesians 4:30-31) then these Christians risk losing, by giving sadness and grief to the Holy Spirit, the seal which will get them redeemed. This is powerful and serious stuff, people. Again, this is why I must caution you not to allow a kind of video image of Jesus in the waiting room giving easy judgement upon a person's death to delude you that it's not something that can't be lost. One can accept Jesus as one's Savior but if one does not also follow completely his "way" and indeed, going further, grieves the Holy Spirit, if Jesus is not truly Lord, then one is not prepared to be judged favorably by God, who does the judging based on 1) one's belief and 2) one's righteousness, through the guidance and filter of both Jesus and the Holy Spirit. Paul is warning good believers of the early Christian community that they can lose the seal of redemption if they grieve the Holy Spirit through the actions as listed above.
Yes, Jesus has complete authority to judge, which he will do at the Second Coming. The Book of Revelation explains that through the eyes of the Apostle John, who is taken to heaven in vision to see some of what will happen in the final days leading up to the Apocalypse and Christ's Return. God remains on his heavenly throne while the world passes away and Jesus judges all, the living and the dead.
However, until that time comes, people have individual lives and they live and they die. Each person is judged on their death by God himself. How do we know this? Again, turn to what seems to be my most cited scripture, Luke 16, where Jesus describes what happens to a rich man who goes to hell.
"There was a rich man who dressed in purple garments and fine linen and dined sumptuously each day. And lying at his door was a poor man named Lazarus, covered with sores...When the poor man died, he was carried away by angels to the bosom of Abraham. The rich man also died and was buried, and from the netherworld, where he was in torment, he raised his eyes and saw Abraham far off and Lazarus at his side. And he cried out, 'Father Abraham, have pity on me. Send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue, for I am suffering torment in these flames" (Luke 16:19-20, 22-24).
Now, remember that Jesus has a greater point to make in telling this story, this actual event that has happened, so you must read it for both 1) the main point and 2) any other insight one can glean since everything that Jesus said is saying it "as it really is."
Notice that the rich man does not say, "Abraham! HEY! What in the world am I doing in hell? I was a great guy!" The rich man knows exactly why he is there so he does not bother to ask for an explanation, which he already knows (and in fact is gazing on the very reason, his neglect of the poor, suffering and dying Lazarus). This is because God judged that man as he woke up in hell. It's not like there's a kind of courtroom or waiting room where God calls people in and judges each one in a neutral spot in turn. One wakes up from death in the place where one is sent, with the knowledge of God's judgement. Period. The angels escorted the poor man Lazarus, carrying him to heaven. God's judgment was apparent by the fact the angels were taking him to heaven. Likewise God's judgement was apparent and the facts about "why" given into the spiritual heart and mind of the person who ends up in hell. So the first thing that careful reading and trusting that Jesus is precise and truthful and complete in all things reveals is that people die and wake up in either heaven or hell, knowing exactly why they are there, which only God can provide.
The second thing you notice is that Jesus did not say at any point that he, Jesus, was the one who judged Lazarus or the rich man. If that were the case he would have said so, since Jesus' complete ministry is to be open, freely sharing the facts of the Kingdom of God, and he would have told the disciples if he, Jesus, were the one who was already judging each person who died, even before he was alive as Son of Man on earth and before his crucifixion and resurrection. That would have been an extremely important fact to share in the Gospel and Jesus would have done so if that were the case. Indeed, it would have been mind boggling for the disciples to hear that even before Jesus was born to Mary on earth that he was in heaven judging each person who died! So even though Jesus is of course of God and thus eternal, when he speaks of his role of judge and authority to judge whether one goes to heaven or hell he means at the Second Coming.
So when Abraham explains why the rich man cannot have a drop of water, Abraham is not breaking the news to him about why he is in hell, Abraham is explaining the unchangeable rules and conditions, that no aid or comfort will be given to those in hell.
"Abraham replied, 'My child, remember that you received what was good during your lifetime while Lazarus likewise received what was bad; but now he is comforted here, whereas you are tormented. Moreover, between us a great chasm is established to prevent anyone from crossing who might wish to go from our side to yours or from your side to ours" (Luke 16:25-6).
Do you see? If Jesus had judged the rich man, Jesus would have told the disciples that "And I told him during judgement exactly how many times he had ridden past the poor bleeding hungry and dying Lazarus while riding on his horse and then I had told him each and every one of his sins and that's why he's in hell." But Jesus did not do that....God himself did that. Another way that you can understand that it was God and not pre-born Jesus doing the judging is that Jesus mentions that angels carried the poor man Lazarus to heaven, and everyone realizes that God sends angels to do his bidding. For example, when Jesus is praying before the betrayal in Gethsemane, God sends an angel to comfort him; Jesus does not summon angels. He could do so but he never did so, as Jesus and God work in harmony in all things. It is in the Second Coming where Jesus sends angels and judges. Until then it is exactly as it has always been, which is that God himself renders personal individual judgment and the sending of a soul to heaven or hell upon that person's death.
So to continue the reading, the rich man now asks for permission to send Lazarus (and can you see that he still does not "get it," I mean, he's in hell for how he neglected Lazarus in the first place and he's still trying to order Lazarus to go on his errands... the road to hell is pride, pride, pride...) to warn his brothers. Again, if you carefully read this you can glean an important insight. The rich man is not so much wanting to share the sins that got him into hell, but, and this is important, he wants to tell his brothers how bad and final the suffering of hell is!
"He said, 'Then I beg you, father, send him [Lazarus] to my father's house, for I have five brothers, so that he may warn them, lest they too come to this place of torment'" (Luke 16:27).
See? It is the horror of hell in its actuality that spurs the rich man to want to warn his brothers. It's not a genuine repentance since he is still trying to get the very poor miserable "beneath his notice" Lazarus, even as he's glorified to heaven, to go back to earth and do his bidding! So it's not like the rich man didn't "realize" "why" he was in hell since he wasn't judged until Abraham "explained" it to him: he knew full well all along since the story does not start out with "Hey! What's that poor bum Lazarus doing in heaven while I've found myself in hell? What gives?" He immediately hits up Lazarus, through Abraham, for a drop of water. This is how you can infer from what Jesus relates are the facts that people are transported, waking up to find themselves in either heaven or hell with full understanding of how and why they were judged to go there by God. Jesus tells the disciples this actual portrayal of heaven and hell and two people who go to their judgement respectively to make the broader point about what God expects regarding charity, but also to explain how the reality of heaven and hell "works." This is why Abraham explained not only the "why" of why he would not given the rich man even a drop of water or send warning to living five brothers, but also the mechanism, the physics, of heaven and hell, where the great chasm prevents any crossing in either direction. So Jesus was providing a moral and lesson in the telling of what actually happened in this case of the judgment of two men, but also describing for the disciples, who of course needed to know, how the reality of hell and the divide between heaven and hell "works."
Since that is Jesus' intention, if Jesus were "already" judging individual human beings upon their death, he would have said so. To use the expression "it goes without saying" that the disciples understood that God had simultaneously rendered/conveyed judgment to each person and had them conveyed to their place of eternity, either heaven or, of course, hell.
So yes, Jesus has all authority and he will Judge. But do not fall into the trap of thinking that upon personal death (not the End of Days when all will die and rise again for judgement) that when one dies one goes into kind of a waiting room area where one can argue one's case in front of stereotype "forgiving and easy going" Jesus. One is BANG! in heaven or hell, receiving simultaneously judgement and full knowledge of the why's from God himself. Simultaneous with being conveyed by the angels to heaven Lazarus would have received the light of God praising him for his belief and comforting him for his suffering with reward in heaven. Simultaneous with waking up in hell, the rich man would have received full knowledge of the why's of his condemnation and judging by God, which we know because as Jesus relates, it's not like the rich man was puzzled at seeing that "loser" Lazarus in heaven with Abraham. No dialogue is wasted in him asking why that is, because he wakes in hell fully knowing how and why God judged him. No, he's just shocked at how truly unbearable, unrelievable and eternal that hell actually is. It is that shock of suffering that makes him want to warn his brothers that ignoring that dirtbag Lazarus and other poor losers like him is a bad idea. In other words, by how the dialogue progresses you can see that if hell were in theory not such a bad place, but not heaven, this guy would never have bothered trying to warn his brothers, since he still doesn't "get" how unrighteous and unjust he was to Lazarus through his neglect. He's solely motivated by how dreadful that hell is and how he truly can't order the peasant around to do his bidding like he did on earth.
That's why, to remind you of a few postings ago, pride is the downfall of MANY who go to hell. Pridefulness, especially putting one's self before God's priorities, IS a grievous sin and merits hell, regardless of the other "good deeds" or whatever.
When one decides that Jesus is one's Lord and Savior, it is not so you can show a membership card to Jesus, because he's not the one checking at the door upon death: it's God. This is why Jesus repeatedly explains he is the "way." Jesus is not saying that he is judging people's entry into heaven. Remember when James and John's mother asked Jesus if he would have them sit at his right and left hand in his kingdom? What did Jesus say? He said that was up to God. Jesus promised them to go prepare the places for them in heaven. Jesus did not say that he would be the judge when they die. Jesus is the way in the sense that if one trusts him to not only save but to be LORD over one's life, then one will pass judgement from God. It is at the End of all Days, at the Apocalypse, at the Second Coming, that all who lived and died in all humanity will resurrect and be judged by Jesus. Until that time each individual person's death and rendering of judgement to heaven or hell is in God the Father's hands.
Finally, another way you can understand this is to recall one of the most insightful, but most subtle and unnoticed, of all the writings of St. Paul.
And do not grieve the holy Spirit of God, with which you were sealed for the day of redemption (Ephesians 4:30).
You see? Here Paul is reminding the readers that the Holy Spirit also partakes in the final judgement! What he is basically saying that if Christians are "All bitterness, fury, anger, shouting, and reviling...along with all malice" (Ephesians 4:30-31) then these Christians risk losing, by giving sadness and grief to the Holy Spirit, the seal which will get them redeemed. This is powerful and serious stuff, people. Again, this is why I must caution you not to allow a kind of video image of Jesus in the waiting room giving easy judgement upon a person's death to delude you that it's not something that can't be lost. One can accept Jesus as one's Savior but if one does not also follow completely his "way" and indeed, going further, grieves the Holy Spirit, if Jesus is not truly Lord, then one is not prepared to be judged favorably by God, who does the judging based on 1) one's belief and 2) one's righteousness, through the guidance and filter of both Jesus and the Holy Spirit. Paul is warning good believers of the early Christian community that they can lose the seal of redemption if they grieve the Holy Spirit through the actions as listed above.
Saturday, October 24, 2009
Understanding God
Reading, as many of you have, about the many problems of suicides, domestic violence, child abuse, murder-suicides and other signs of an increasingly sickening world, I thought of increasing one's understanding of God through the use of an old expression.
In English there is a traditional saying when describing someone who is mentally or emotionally unraveling, saying that he or she is "coming unglued." In that saying there is a tacit recognition that each human is "held together" by something, and that in trouble or illness there is a problem of falling apart.
For you to truly understand God you must recognize that God is the glue that holds individual persons and communities together. Without God (a genuine knowing of God, not idolatry) individual persons and communities as a whole risk coming unglued and falling apart.
Society, particularly relatively affluent Western society, has promoted "coming unglued" because not only is belief in God pushed out of the public square, but more fundamentally, society pushes the fragmentation of the individual and also of the society as a whole.
Let me repeat this. Even if God were still respected in the public square, society would still have tremendous problems because society has taken on a set of highly fragmenting values. Each person is evaluated with a list of scorecard types of attributes, for example, starting in their earliest childhood. Further, families have fragmented (become unglued), forcing even more individual fragmentation as family identity and safety net is lost. The home itself is often a dangerous place, even for the most helpless, the infants. It truly is "dog eat dog" and "every man for himself," even for the very young. With partially occupied residences and frequent moves, plus isolation from the community around a person (not being part of one's community by participation or emotional investment, and trust me, I know that's hard to do as they have become scorecard exclusionary) there is the fragmentation of the community and its social net too. With fragmented denominations even for those who still profess to believe in God, churches no longer have the gravitas to provide their share of glue, of community identity and safety net. Finally, marketers and media only speak to special interest groups, who they identify with, try to get money from by selling their products, and those they advocate and "relate" to, further fragmenting and ungluing individuals, families, communities and faith groups.
When one does not look to God to provide the glue that keeps body and soul together, individually and collectively, that is the wedge for then the lowering and lowest common denominators of society to fulfill the personal and community disintegration. That's why giving an alienated and depressed teenager, for example, information about God is not enough... the social and other environmental factors must also be addressed as a whole. Even a teenager such as this one in our example who values hearing about God, the true God, in their distress is not "cured" of their pain and alienation if the next day they go from their fragmented family to their fragmented school to be judged in the freak show society scorecard meat market.
Every few years or so researchers used to ask what kids want to be when they grow up, and then they'd analyze the results, looking at what occupations or interests raise or lower in popularity. But here is the problem. The past two generations don't want anything except to be "famous" with its twin non-vocation "get rich." That is the scorecard fragmentation I am speaking about. Young people want to be scorecard traits (famous, rich, "hot"), since that's what their parents, teachers, society, media and marketers have taught them, rather than to have occupations or vocations (including professions, clerical, labor, homemaker, parent, clergy, military...) They all want to do something or be something, rather than have an interest or a calling. It is not their fault: it is how society has become unglued, starting in the family and reaching its prime robotic programming in the classroom and the media.
So how does a sad and troubled teen "become famous?" Suicide. How does a teen escape a problem situation, from the most dire to the ones that in hindsight are only painful parts of growing up, when there is no safety net in family and community, and they've never been taught God as the glue? Suicide.
Now we also have the double whammy where a society that is only individual scorecard oriented now deprives individuals of their livelihoods. We no longer are a world where people can survive without a paycheck from somewhere. What do you have when someone lacks God as the glue, there is no church or community cohesion and safety net, and there is an economic desperation? Murder-suicide.
HOW LOW DOES HUMANITY, THAT HAS BEEN SO BLESSED, HAVE TO SINK?
What did anyone think (when they took a break from their hits on the bong) would happen when the glue of God, authentic self esteem, family, community and church was continually removed? What does any idiot think would happen if one removed the glue from any structure that is made up of parts held together by that glue? It all falls down.
In English there is a traditional saying when describing someone who is mentally or emotionally unraveling, saying that he or she is "coming unglued." In that saying there is a tacit recognition that each human is "held together" by something, and that in trouble or illness there is a problem of falling apart.
For you to truly understand God you must recognize that God is the glue that holds individual persons and communities together. Without God (a genuine knowing of God, not idolatry) individual persons and communities as a whole risk coming unglued and falling apart.
Society, particularly relatively affluent Western society, has promoted "coming unglued" because not only is belief in God pushed out of the public square, but more fundamentally, society pushes the fragmentation of the individual and also of the society as a whole.
Let me repeat this. Even if God were still respected in the public square, society would still have tremendous problems because society has taken on a set of highly fragmenting values. Each person is evaluated with a list of scorecard types of attributes, for example, starting in their earliest childhood. Further, families have fragmented (become unglued), forcing even more individual fragmentation as family identity and safety net is lost. The home itself is often a dangerous place, even for the most helpless, the infants. It truly is "dog eat dog" and "every man for himself," even for the very young. With partially occupied residences and frequent moves, plus isolation from the community around a person (not being part of one's community by participation or emotional investment, and trust me, I know that's hard to do as they have become scorecard exclusionary) there is the fragmentation of the community and its social net too. With fragmented denominations even for those who still profess to believe in God, churches no longer have the gravitas to provide their share of glue, of community identity and safety net. Finally, marketers and media only speak to special interest groups, who they identify with, try to get money from by selling their products, and those they advocate and "relate" to, further fragmenting and ungluing individuals, families, communities and faith groups.
When one does not look to God to provide the glue that keeps body and soul together, individually and collectively, that is the wedge for then the lowering and lowest common denominators of society to fulfill the personal and community disintegration. That's why giving an alienated and depressed teenager, for example, information about God is not enough... the social and other environmental factors must also be addressed as a whole. Even a teenager such as this one in our example who values hearing about God, the true God, in their distress is not "cured" of their pain and alienation if the next day they go from their fragmented family to their fragmented school to be judged in the freak show society scorecard meat market.
Every few years or so researchers used to ask what kids want to be when they grow up, and then they'd analyze the results, looking at what occupations or interests raise or lower in popularity. But here is the problem. The past two generations don't want anything except to be "famous" with its twin non-vocation "get rich." That is the scorecard fragmentation I am speaking about. Young people want to be scorecard traits (famous, rich, "hot"), since that's what their parents, teachers, society, media and marketers have taught them, rather than to have occupations or vocations (including professions, clerical, labor, homemaker, parent, clergy, military...) They all want to do something or be something, rather than have an interest or a calling. It is not their fault: it is how society has become unglued, starting in the family and reaching its prime robotic programming in the classroom and the media.
So how does a sad and troubled teen "become famous?" Suicide. How does a teen escape a problem situation, from the most dire to the ones that in hindsight are only painful parts of growing up, when there is no safety net in family and community, and they've never been taught God as the glue? Suicide.
Now we also have the double whammy where a society that is only individual scorecard oriented now deprives individuals of their livelihoods. We no longer are a world where people can survive without a paycheck from somewhere. What do you have when someone lacks God as the glue, there is no church or community cohesion and safety net, and there is an economic desperation? Murder-suicide.
HOW LOW DOES HUMANITY, THAT HAS BEEN SO BLESSED, HAVE TO SINK?
What did anyone think (when they took a break from their hits on the bong) would happen when the glue of God, authentic self esteem, family, community and church was continually removed? What does any idiot think would happen if one removed the glue from any structure that is made up of parts held together by that glue? It all falls down.
Killed for a piece of watermelon
A grandfather who with his wife had custody of their two grandsons shot the six year old dead when the grandfather was angry thinking the little boy had taken a piece of watermelon to eat. Trying to shield the boy the grandmother was gravely wounded. This happened in June. The grandmother died this week.
Anyone else notice the insane perverted violence just keeps escalating? Anyone interested in actually doing something about it instead of making it worse?
And by the way, watermelon jokes in households of the same name qualifies as making it worse. Regular readers know I'm for subversive humor when appropriate, but that kind of "joshing" is just criminal mental voodoo and as I warned YEARS AGO when I was trying to study the insane beliefs of the cultists IT WILL REBOUND ON YOU FOR YEARS AND UNTO THE NEXT GENERATIONS. Clean up your minds and your souls people. You don't fix error and perversion, nor save your souls, with more error and perversion. DUH.
Remember what the Bible says that sinful AND foolish thoughts are SIN. Each time someone either mocks someone else (and when they have the first thought of it), these are individual counts of sins. This is especially true and most certainly not mitigation if one is using the mocking or re-enactment for an occult reason (to "even the balance" or whatever) since that is blasphemy and idolatry. So each idea to do that is a sin, each subsequent thought of planning it is a sin, and each deed that each person does to accomplish the tableau and deeds are sins, and then the actual deed is a sin, and the feeling of the persons who are the object of the tableau and deeds, when they are sad or afraid, is a sin of violence against their spirit. Each time one "techs" or does other voodoo, "evening the balance" of acting out or preparing tableau to "cancel out" supposed "imbalance" seems to have on the average one dozen sins per person newly formed and attached. I have no hope for the vast majority of you as you only make things worse, not better.
For those of you readers who don't know what I'm talking about, be glad. A walk or a talk among the occult of this "New Age" and other "beliefs" is total filth and I don't enjoy a minute of it. Unfortunately true "light workers" seem to have to go to the filth in order to point out the lack of sewers.
DUH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Anyone else notice the insane perverted violence just keeps escalating? Anyone interested in actually doing something about it instead of making it worse?
And by the way, watermelon jokes in households of the same name qualifies as making it worse. Regular readers know I'm for subversive humor when appropriate, but that kind of "joshing" is just criminal mental voodoo and as I warned YEARS AGO when I was trying to study the insane beliefs of the cultists IT WILL REBOUND ON YOU FOR YEARS AND UNTO THE NEXT GENERATIONS. Clean up your minds and your souls people. You don't fix error and perversion, nor save your souls, with more error and perversion. DUH.
Remember what the Bible says that sinful AND foolish thoughts are SIN. Each time someone either mocks someone else (and when they have the first thought of it), these are individual counts of sins. This is especially true and most certainly not mitigation if one is using the mocking or re-enactment for an occult reason (to "even the balance" or whatever) since that is blasphemy and idolatry. So each idea to do that is a sin, each subsequent thought of planning it is a sin, and each deed that each person does to accomplish the tableau and deeds are sins, and then the actual deed is a sin, and the feeling of the persons who are the object of the tableau and deeds, when they are sad or afraid, is a sin of violence against their spirit. Each time one "techs" or does other voodoo, "evening the balance" of acting out or preparing tableau to "cancel out" supposed "imbalance" seems to have on the average one dozen sins per person newly formed and attached. I have no hope for the vast majority of you as you only make things worse, not better.
For those of you readers who don't know what I'm talking about, be glad. A walk or a talk among the occult of this "New Age" and other "beliefs" is total filth and I don't enjoy a minute of it. Unfortunately true "light workers" seem to have to go to the filth in order to point out the lack of sewers.
DUH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Friday, October 23, 2009
Wrong: "Nothing is free"
There's an old saying that "Nothing is free" and I just had to blog quickly about it. Yeah, I really mean quickly this time as I'm tired and soon to sleep. I heard the phrase in a song I like and it was great in the context. But I realized I could and should write something very important about it, which is that for the most important matters on earth, that practical and wry truism is wrong.
1. God is free. I don't mean some mushy just kind of wander around believing in some sort of godly spirit etc. I mean all the Abrahamic faiths: Judaism, Christianity and Islam. Knowing God is totally free to everyone, and knowing God within the faiths of one's forefathers is absolutely free. In fact, that's the whole point of God having made himself known to the faith children of Abraham, Jews, Christians and Muslims. He's there and he gives his words and his attention for free. No one should "pay money" to know God, the actual true one God. God requires our attention, not payments made between human beings.
2. Air is free. How quickly people forget that the very thing of life that is needed the most, air, is free, all the time and everywhere. [Remember the line from a pop song: "All I need is the air that I breathe and you."]
3. Sun is free. For thousands of years humans lived with no light to speak of but the sun. It is always there, even behind the clouds, keeping the earth warm enough for life.
4. Photosynthesis is free. Anyone can harvest a growing plant, and anyone can put a seed into the ground and watch it grow. The world's first "manufacturing capability," plants, have always been free, and one need not give a credit card number to make a plant grow and bear fruit.
I hope that you have found this helpful :-)
1. God is free. I don't mean some mushy just kind of wander around believing in some sort of godly spirit etc. I mean all the Abrahamic faiths: Judaism, Christianity and Islam. Knowing God is totally free to everyone, and knowing God within the faiths of one's forefathers is absolutely free. In fact, that's the whole point of God having made himself known to the faith children of Abraham, Jews, Christians and Muslims. He's there and he gives his words and his attention for free. No one should "pay money" to know God, the actual true one God. God requires our attention, not payments made between human beings.
2. Air is free. How quickly people forget that the very thing of life that is needed the most, air, is free, all the time and everywhere. [Remember the line from a pop song: "All I need is the air that I breathe and you."]
3. Sun is free. For thousands of years humans lived with no light to speak of but the sun. It is always there, even behind the clouds, keeping the earth warm enough for life.
4. Photosynthesis is free. Anyone can harvest a growing plant, and anyone can put a seed into the ground and watch it grow. The world's first "manufacturing capability," plants, have always been free, and one need not give a credit card number to make a plant grow and bear fruit.
I hope that you have found this helpful :-)
Gaining wisdom
Fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. (This and other citations regarding fear of God are in the Bible: see my previous posts on these topics via the labels.)
Fear of the Lord is appropriate and just for two reasons. First is that one should fear (as opposed to be "scared" of) God because only then does one have the proper perspective regarding humanity and all their many flaws and God's mercy and love, and ultimately, his perfect judgment. People must fear losing God, fear losing his love, and fear bringing down upon one's self the consequences of sin and disobedience.
Second, Fear of the Lord is the antidote to human pride. Human pride is toxic in both secular and spiritual matters, and it leads to numerous errors, evils, lack of justice, sin and ultimately eternal chastisement. When one genuinely fears God one is taking the best medicine against the deadly human ailment of pride.
Fear of the Lord is appropriate and just for two reasons. First is that one should fear (as opposed to be "scared" of) God because only then does one have the proper perspective regarding humanity and all their many flaws and God's mercy and love, and ultimately, his perfect judgment. People must fear losing God, fear losing his love, and fear bringing down upon one's self the consequences of sin and disobedience.
Second, Fear of the Lord is the antidote to human pride. Human pride is toxic in both secular and spiritual matters, and it leads to numerous errors, evils, lack of justice, sin and ultimately eternal chastisement. When one genuinely fears God one is taking the best medicine against the deadly human ailment of pride.
The road to hell is paved with pride
Pride: inordinate self-esteem; conceit; worldly, materialistic
A damning vice:
...Rash and self-willed, such men in their deriding do not regard majesty; whereas angels, though greater in strength and power, do not bring against themselves an abusive charge...They promise them freedom, whereas they themselves are slaves of corruption; for by whatever a man is overcome, of this he is also the slave (2 Peter 3:10-11, 19).
Do not love the world, or of the things that are in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him; because all that is in the world is the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life; which is not from the Father, but from the world. And the world with its lust is passing away, but he who does the will of God abides forever (1 John 2:15-17).
Stirs up strife:
The greedy man stirs up disputes, but he who trust in the Lord will prosper. He who trusts in himself is a fool, but he who walks in wisdom is safe (Proverbs 28:25-26).
Prevents instruction:
They answered and said to him, "Thou wast altogether born in sins, and dost thou teach us?" And they turned him out (John 9:24). [These are the Jews, specifically the Pharisees, who refuse to believe in their pride that the man witnessing to them had been cured of his blindness by Jesus.]
Leads to enmity:
Proudly the wicked harass the afflicted, who are caught in the devices the wicked have contrived. For the wicked man glories in his greed, and the covetous blasphemes, sets the Lord at nought. The wicked man boasts, "He will not avenge it"; "There is no God," sums up his thoughts (Psalm 9B (10): 3-4).
Leads to ruin:
Pride goeth before disaster, and a haughty spirit before a fall (Proverbs 16:18). [Yes, God's word in the Bible is the origin of the famous expression "Pride goeth before a fall."]
Will be abased and destroyed:
For lo, the day is coming, blazing like an oven, when all the proud and all evildoers will be stubble,
And the day that is coming will set them on fire, leaving them neither root nor branch, says the LORD of hosts (Malachi 3:19 or in some older Bibles Malachi 4:1).
[The prophet who calls himself Malachi (which was like saying "anonymous" back then, since he was in fear of denouncing, even though he spoke with God's authority, the wickedness of the chosen people the Israelites, including the priests) is repeating God's words and notice that God is going to burn not only the evildoers but also the proud.]
A damning vice:
...Rash and self-willed, such men in their deriding do not regard majesty; whereas angels, though greater in strength and power, do not bring against themselves an abusive charge...They promise them freedom, whereas they themselves are slaves of corruption; for by whatever a man is overcome, of this he is also the slave (2 Peter 3:10-11, 19).
Do not love the world, or of the things that are in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him; because all that is in the world is the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life; which is not from the Father, but from the world. And the world with its lust is passing away, but he who does the will of God abides forever (1 John 2:15-17).
Stirs up strife:
The greedy man stirs up disputes, but he who trust in the Lord will prosper. He who trusts in himself is a fool, but he who walks in wisdom is safe (Proverbs 28:25-26).
Prevents instruction:
They answered and said to him, "Thou wast altogether born in sins, and dost thou teach us?" And they turned him out (John 9:24). [These are the Jews, specifically the Pharisees, who refuse to believe in their pride that the man witnessing to them had been cured of his blindness by Jesus.]
Leads to enmity:
Proudly the wicked harass the afflicted, who are caught in the devices the wicked have contrived. For the wicked man glories in his greed, and the covetous blasphemes, sets the Lord at nought. The wicked man boasts, "He will not avenge it"; "There is no God," sums up his thoughts (Psalm 9B (10): 3-4).
Leads to ruin:
Pride goeth before disaster, and a haughty spirit before a fall (Proverbs 16:18). [Yes, God's word in the Bible is the origin of the famous expression "Pride goeth before a fall."]
Will be abased and destroyed:
For lo, the day is coming, blazing like an oven, when all the proud and all evildoers will be stubble,
And the day that is coming will set them on fire, leaving them neither root nor branch, says the LORD of hosts (Malachi 3:19 or in some older Bibles Malachi 4:1).
[The prophet who calls himself Malachi (which was like saying "anonymous" back then, since he was in fear of denouncing, even though he spoke with God's authority, the wickedness of the chosen people the Israelites, including the priests) is repeating God's words and notice that God is going to burn not only the evildoers but also the proud.]
Thursday, October 22, 2009
Another child murdered, dumped in the trash
How long? How long must we sing this song?
How long are our children victims of the perverts who rule, one way or the other, and destroyed?
When will the beast within human beings stop being fed?
How long are our children victims of the perverts who rule, one way or the other, and destroyed?
When will the beast within human beings stop being fed?
Opened the Bible to this reading
Wisdom 17:8-13
For they who undertook to banish fears and terrors from the sick soul themselves sickened with a ridiculous fear. For even though no monstrous thing frightened them, they shook at the passing of insects and the hissing of reptiles, and perished trembling, reluctant to face even the air that they could nowhere escape.
For wickedness, of its nature cowardly, testifies in its own condemnation, and because of a distressed conscience, always magnifies misfortunes.
For fear is nought but the surrender of the helps that come from reason; and the more one's expectation is of itself uncertain, the more one makes of not knowing the cause that brings on torment.
For they who undertook to banish fears and terrors from the sick soul themselves sickened with a ridiculous fear. For even though no monstrous thing frightened them, they shook at the passing of insects and the hissing of reptiles, and perished trembling, reluctant to face even the air that they could nowhere escape.
For wickedness, of its nature cowardly, testifies in its own condemnation, and because of a distressed conscience, always magnifies misfortunes.
For fear is nought but the surrender of the helps that come from reason; and the more one's expectation is of itself uncertain, the more one makes of not knowing the cause that brings on torment.
Wednesday, October 21, 2009
Tuesday, October 20, 2009
Extremely cool dinosaur research
Look up and read the article "Pterosaur Windsurfed Across Surface of Prehistoric Seas" in the blogs section of www.discovery.com.
Remember, this species made it through about 150 or more million years of existence, and humans have not really made it through 10,000 years of "civilization." That's not my point in referring the article (I'm just a dino fan like many others) but it never hurts to keep things in perspective how well "dumb" animals have thrived through the eons.
Remember, this species made it through about 150 or more million years of existence, and humans have not really made it through 10,000 years of "civilization." That's not my point in referring the article (I'm just a dino fan like many others) but it never hurts to keep things in perspective how well "dumb" animals have thrived through the eons.
Tiresome accusation of "empty pews" motivations
As usual those who are either malicious or ignorant of the facts and the faith portray the Anglican initiative against a false backdrop of "concern about falling memberships" and "empty pews."
Yes, of course, all faiths are concerned about those who become lukewarm (whom God warned he would spit out of his mouth... not a good thing for avoiding hell) or fall from faith in total. So of course "empty pews" are a concern.
This is totally separate from "poaching" and other competitive motivations. Let's face it: politicians and the media have a total "winner and loser" "game" approach to life. So they see everything through those sooty glasses, so to speak.
Any Christian who knows the faith (and Muslims know this too about their faith) realizes, however, that sacred scriptures order unity: ONE church. Jesus himself repeatedly exhorted that Christians are one body and one global church.
So any unity efforts cannot be accused of being a "competitive" move. It has been one of the most grievous failures of Christians as a whole, generation after generation, that they have schismed and split. Trust me, God won't be handing out "belonged to best denomination" medals at a person's death and individual judgment; quite the contrary indeed.
Yes, of course, all faiths are concerned about those who become lukewarm (whom God warned he would spit out of his mouth... not a good thing for avoiding hell) or fall from faith in total. So of course "empty pews" are a concern.
This is totally separate from "poaching" and other competitive motivations. Let's face it: politicians and the media have a total "winner and loser" "game" approach to life. So they see everything through those sooty glasses, so to speak.
Any Christian who knows the faith (and Muslims know this too about their faith) realizes, however, that sacred scriptures order unity: ONE church. Jesus himself repeatedly exhorted that Christians are one body and one global church.
So any unity efforts cannot be accused of being a "competitive" move. It has been one of the most grievous failures of Christians as a whole, generation after generation, that they have schismed and split. Trust me, God won't be handing out "belonged to best denomination" medals at a person's death and individual judgment; quite the contrary indeed.
Vatican initiative for dissident Anglicans
Needless to say I am delighted at this plan and applaud Pope Benedict XVI and all who worked on this process.
For those of you who have been deprived of the history of the split between Roman Catholics and Anglicans (brought about by English King Henry VIII) read the Christian Science Monitor article which gives you a good idea with just a few sentences of context.
www.csmonitor.com
For those of you who have been deprived of the history of the split between Roman Catholics and Anglicans (brought about by English King Henry VIII) read the Christian Science Monitor article which gives you a good idea with just a few sentences of context.
www.csmonitor.com
Monday, October 19, 2009
More about John 12:34
Another scripture source from which the Jews who questioned Jesus misunderstood-but in mostly good faith-what the Messiah would be like is the entire Psalm 110. I leave that for you to read on your own because now you can understand the difference between the description of a human ever living Messiah, as they imagined, and the actual Messiah that God promised who, "Like Melchizedek you are a priest forever." Jesus is the eternal priest and also judge, but in heaven "Who, robed in splendor, judges nations, crushes heads across the wide earth" (Psalm 110:4, 6). From this most of the Jews imagined an actual forever living human being dressed as an awesome king and dispensing justice with God's authority. They were tempted into this imagining by being too tied down by the reality of Roman invasion and rule. Thus they mixed yearning to be free from Rome with then limiting what God's Messiah would be like and would do since they of course imagined his first job would be to defeat the Romans through God's "princely power."
This is again the temptation of the Jews to believe a human forever living Messiah based on Isaiah 9:1-6. Before we discuss it let me explain again why their disbelief is a response to temptation.
Temptation can be understood as not only being urged to do something sinful, wrong and unjust, but to either disbelieve in God or to "cut him down to size." When humans have problems, BIG problems, such as wars, oppression or occupation, they become very subject to temptation to think of God's words as applying narrowly to their current circumstances. They forget that God is on a scale far vaster than they can imagine, and easily sees and prophesies down all the generations of humanity. So it is a temptation to puff up the importance of the calamity that humans are in within one or two generations and assume-or even distort or force-scripture applies to exactly that time, rather than to the ultimate reign of God's Kingdom through all time and circumstances. Thus the Jews were particularly tempted to cut down and minimize the scope of what they imagined the scriptures to be because it resonated with their own daily hopes and wishes. So now read Isaiah 9:1-6, which does indeed describe the Christ, who would be Jesus, but through temptation the Jews came to believe he would be the defeater of the Romans in their time. Notice how the scripture opens with the statement about the light that you read my commentary about, where Jesus very clearly identifies himself. The Jews of the time totally missed that connection because of their blinders due to temptation to look for the Roman defeating human king.
The people who walked in darkness
have seen a great light.
Upon those who dwelt in the land of gloom
a light has shone.
You have brought them abundant joy
and great rejoicing.
As they rejoice before you as at the harvest,
as men make merry when dividing spoils.
For the yoke that burdened them,
the pole on their shoulder,
And the rod of their taskmaster
you have smashed, as on the day of Midian.
For every boot that tramped in battle,
every cloak rolled in blood,
will be burned as fuel for flames.
For a child is born to us, a son is given us;
upon his shoulder dominion rests.
They name him Wonder-Counselor,
God-Hero,
Father-Forever, Prince of Peace.
His dominion is vast
and forever peaceful,
From David's throne, and over his kingdom,
which he confirms and sustains
By judgment and justice,
both now and forever.
The zeal of the LORD of hosts will do this! (Isaiah 9:1-6)
See, if someone is thinking of God's greater plan, which is to bring knowledge of him to not only the Jews but the gentiles, to bring his peace upon the world, and to prepare people for receipt of grace after remission of their sins of unbelief and idolatry, that person can read this passage and have a broader vision of what the Messiah will truly be like. When, however, people are suffering under a specific crisis or oppression, as the Jews were with the Romans, they were too easily tempted to believe that the Messiah would be an earthly king who would kick the Romans out of occupied Palestine/Israel of the day.
Because of the military imagery they also totally missed that the Messiah would be "NOT military." Read that carefully and you will see what I mean. They were tempted into thinking, erroneously, as you carefully read what it says, that "forever peaceful" comes after a great blood letting by the Messiah. That is a total misread that was in their minds during the time of Jesus for three reasons 1) the military imagery made them think that the Messiah would start with military action 2) the rest of chapter 9 discusses specific military campaigns, and so they taint what is in 9:1-6 as also being of a military campaign, kind of the aftermath of bloody battles and 3) they do not understand that the "child is born to us" is one who smashes, rather than imposes, "the yoke," "the pole" and "the rod" on humans. Notice that Jesus explains that his yoke is light, his burden sweet, and there is no mention of the rod with which he will rule (it is only observed in the Final Judgement by the Apostle John who witnesses Jesus in the Book of Revelation during the Apocalypse). In fact, read how Isaiah 11 follows the same tempo where the beginning is clearly about military imagery BUT of the Messiah's bringing of grace, not swordplay.
See, someone reading Isaiah 9 would understand the two different tempos of the prophecy. The first part, Isaiah 9:1-6, is the "someday this will happen" future looking tempo. But then with Isaiah 9:7 you have a brisk "here and now" tempo shift, which is why it opens with "The Lord has sent word against Jacob, it falls upon Israel" (Isaiah 9:7). So God comforts the people with the promise of Isaiah 9:1-6 before lowering the boom on them in the rest of Isaiah 9 that they are going to be punished for their sins (and this description of soon to come righteous wrath continues through Isaiah 10 before the Messiah is prophesied again in Isaiah 11). But remember, people didn't have copies of scripture outside of the temple or the places of scholars AND just as today, people spoke in slogans and sound bytes. So when Jesus actually arrives, the promised Messiah, the people totally missed the checklist of fulfillment of prophecy that Jesus actually delivered.
I hope you have found this helpful and some useful material for further contemplation.
Isaiah 11:9
There shall be no harm or ruin on all my holy mountain;
for the earth shall be filled with knowledge of the Lord,
as water covers the sea.
This is again the temptation of the Jews to believe a human forever living Messiah based on Isaiah 9:1-6. Before we discuss it let me explain again why their disbelief is a response to temptation.
Temptation can be understood as not only being urged to do something sinful, wrong and unjust, but to either disbelieve in God or to "cut him down to size." When humans have problems, BIG problems, such as wars, oppression or occupation, they become very subject to temptation to think of God's words as applying narrowly to their current circumstances. They forget that God is on a scale far vaster than they can imagine, and easily sees and prophesies down all the generations of humanity. So it is a temptation to puff up the importance of the calamity that humans are in within one or two generations and assume-or even distort or force-scripture applies to exactly that time, rather than to the ultimate reign of God's Kingdom through all time and circumstances. Thus the Jews were particularly tempted to cut down and minimize the scope of what they imagined the scriptures to be because it resonated with their own daily hopes and wishes. So now read Isaiah 9:1-6, which does indeed describe the Christ, who would be Jesus, but through temptation the Jews came to believe he would be the defeater of the Romans in their time. Notice how the scripture opens with the statement about the light that you read my commentary about, where Jesus very clearly identifies himself. The Jews of the time totally missed that connection because of their blinders due to temptation to look for the Roman defeating human king.
The people who walked in darkness
have seen a great light.
Upon those who dwelt in the land of gloom
a light has shone.
You have brought them abundant joy
and great rejoicing.
As they rejoice before you as at the harvest,
as men make merry when dividing spoils.
For the yoke that burdened them,
the pole on their shoulder,
And the rod of their taskmaster
you have smashed, as on the day of Midian.
For every boot that tramped in battle,
every cloak rolled in blood,
will be burned as fuel for flames.
For a child is born to us, a son is given us;
upon his shoulder dominion rests.
They name him Wonder-Counselor,
God-Hero,
Father-Forever, Prince of Peace.
His dominion is vast
and forever peaceful,
From David's throne, and over his kingdom,
which he confirms and sustains
By judgment and justice,
both now and forever.
The zeal of the LORD of hosts will do this! (Isaiah 9:1-6)
See, if someone is thinking of God's greater plan, which is to bring knowledge of him to not only the Jews but the gentiles, to bring his peace upon the world, and to prepare people for receipt of grace after remission of their sins of unbelief and idolatry, that person can read this passage and have a broader vision of what the Messiah will truly be like. When, however, people are suffering under a specific crisis or oppression, as the Jews were with the Romans, they were too easily tempted to believe that the Messiah would be an earthly king who would kick the Romans out of occupied Palestine/Israel of the day.
Because of the military imagery they also totally missed that the Messiah would be "NOT military." Read that carefully and you will see what I mean. They were tempted into thinking, erroneously, as you carefully read what it says, that "forever peaceful" comes after a great blood letting by the Messiah. That is a total misread that was in their minds during the time of Jesus for three reasons 1) the military imagery made them think that the Messiah would start with military action 2) the rest of chapter 9 discusses specific military campaigns, and so they taint what is in 9:1-6 as also being of a military campaign, kind of the aftermath of bloody battles and 3) they do not understand that the "child is born to us" is one who smashes, rather than imposes, "the yoke," "the pole" and "the rod" on humans. Notice that Jesus explains that his yoke is light, his burden sweet, and there is no mention of the rod with which he will rule (it is only observed in the Final Judgement by the Apostle John who witnesses Jesus in the Book of Revelation during the Apocalypse). In fact, read how Isaiah 11 follows the same tempo where the beginning is clearly about military imagery BUT of the Messiah's bringing of grace, not swordplay.
See, someone reading Isaiah 9 would understand the two different tempos of the prophecy. The first part, Isaiah 9:1-6, is the "someday this will happen" future looking tempo. But then with Isaiah 9:7 you have a brisk "here and now" tempo shift, which is why it opens with "The Lord has sent word against Jacob, it falls upon Israel" (Isaiah 9:7). So God comforts the people with the promise of Isaiah 9:1-6 before lowering the boom on them in the rest of Isaiah 9 that they are going to be punished for their sins (and this description of soon to come righteous wrath continues through Isaiah 10 before the Messiah is prophesied again in Isaiah 11). But remember, people didn't have copies of scripture outside of the temple or the places of scholars AND just as today, people spoke in slogans and sound bytes. So when Jesus actually arrives, the promised Messiah, the people totally missed the checklist of fulfillment of prophecy that Jesus actually delivered.
I hope you have found this helpful and some useful material for further contemplation.
Isaiah 11:9
There shall be no harm or ruin on all my holy mountain;
for the earth shall be filled with knowledge of the Lord,
as water covers the sea.
Thought for the day
There's an old saying: The truth is the greatest disinfectant.
Think about it. What this adage is saying is that no matter what the contamination or problem, the truth is the best and ultimately the ONLY purifier. And it works instantly, no waiting for bogus timetables, no making the situation worse with other polluting fail "remedies."
THE TRUTH IS THE GREATEST DISINFECTANT.
Think about it. What this adage is saying is that no matter what the contamination or problem, the truth is the best and ultimately the ONLY purifier. And it works instantly, no waiting for bogus timetables, no making the situation worse with other polluting fail "remedies."
THE TRUTH IS THE GREATEST DISINFECTANT.
Sunday, October 18, 2009
Bible reading and commentary: John 12:34
One of the reasons that the Jews did not recognize that Jesus was the Messiah can be easily understood looking at this passage. A crowd of people had gathered around Jesus, asking him questions and listening to what he taught and replied. Here is the passage to look at:
So the crowd answered him, "We have heard from the law that the Messiah remains forever. Then how can you say that the Son of Man must be lifted up? Who is this Son of Man?" (John 12:34).
When the Jews say, "the law," they mean what is written in the Torah, in their scriptures, what Christians call the Old Testament. So they have the impression from some scripture that the Messiah will live forever, remaining with the people until the end of time. Where have they seen this written? Look to Psalm 89:4-5.
"I have made a covenant with my chosen one; I have sworn to David my servant: I will make your dynasty stand forever and establish your throne through all the ages" (Psalm 89:4-5).
This is one of the places in scripture where the Jews have the impression that the Messiah will be a man, a descendant of David, who will be just like David (a king with the throne of the Israelites), who will "stand forever." So you can understand that with these words of prophecy from God most Jews thought that another David, but this time one who rules on earth forever, was to be the Messiah. Thus they are confused and dismayed when Jesus says that he, the Son of Man, would have his time of death, and then resurrection into heaven. When Jesus calls himself the Son of Man, he is reminding people that he is indeed in a human form, that he is not just occupying a body, or an illusion of being one of mankind. The crowd gets that, but then figure that the Son of Man must be a different person than the expected Messiah.
This is one reason why the Jews did not recognize Jesus. They developed a certain mental image based on scripture (and done so in good faith), but then did not have sufficient trust of God that he can and will work marvels and deliver the Messiah in ways they cannot imagine, visualize, or comprehend.
Jesus tries to explain to them how this is by comparing himself to the light (not "a" light, but the light of God).
Jesus said to them, "The light will be among you only a little while. Walk while you have the light, so that darkness may not overcome you. Whoever walks in the dark does not know where he is going. While you have the light, believe in the light, so that you may become children of the light" (John 13:35-36).
Now, Jesus is not trying to confuse them or be obscure. He is with a few sentences giving them a lot to think about, knowing that there is not much time left for him, as he says this shortly before the Last Supper. So Jesus is leaving those in the crowd with a few powerful images to refute the stereotype expectations they had of what the Messiah would be like, and then left them to think about it. Some would have understood his words, looking back on them just a matter of days later when Jesus' death and resurrection unfolded. Others would never have understood.
What Jesus was saying is that yes, as Son of Man, he is there as a real human being, a member of the human race, but that as Son of God, he is also of God's light, and that light is of course eternal. Jesus is thus saying he is not at all in contradiction of the scripture, just, actually "above and beyond," so to speak, their expectations. They expected a Messiah who would be completely a human man, but one who would live and rule forever, and bring their faith to the entire world. Jesus is exactly that, but not one who is going to do so as a man living forever among humans.
You may wonder why God did not "opt" to, in fact, have Jesus do just that: to live as a human among humans forever. The answer is simple. The Messiah is needed to draw humans closer to God, not to provide a living intermediary that would, in fact, be an additional "layer" between God and humans. Jesus brought the face of God to humans but the intention is that humans have the New Covenant with God which brings them closer to God, an upward reaching toward God, rather than God sending a governor, for lack of a better world, to "rule," while God is more distant, rather than closer. This is why Jesus often explained that the Kingdom of God is at hand. By "at hand" Jesus meant both "now" but also "within reach." The Messiah makes God more, not less, accessible to humans.
The Jews, in all fairness, could not have easily imagined that this is what God planned. They would have needed a lot of faith to understand that God would fulfill the scriptures in a way that they simply had not expected. Like the square peg in the round hole, the Jews who disbelieved were continuing to walk around with their square or their circular image of the Messiah, and when they did not see a match they would move on looking for the next "Messiah candidate" (and there were plenty, though not a single one performed the miracles that were Jesus' alone as only he had God's authority).
So Jesus is explaining to them that yes, he is the descendant of David, and yes, he has the throne, from God, but that the "forever" of it is when Jesus returns to God in the light of his eternity, not as his bodily Son of Man form. Jesus is explaining that the light of God is there with them, for a short time, while Jesus lives and walks among them. While the light will go back to God, those who believe in Jesus and follow him completely will therefore still benefit from the light, even though the light has gone back to God, because they are now become "children of the light." Jesus as the light of God that God has sent does indeed return to heaven, and the light itself does not stay on earth, nor can any human claim to have it, but instead, those who believe and heed what Jesus taught about God's expectations, God's Kingdom and the New Covenant are "children of the light" and therefore know the way and are not in darkness. It's like when you have memorized your way through the rooms of your home and can walk through them even in the dark, just to use a broad analogy. You "know the way" even though you don't have the light on. The children of Jesus "know the way" even though the actual light of Jesus has returned to heaven, and thus the children of Jesus do not walk in darkness, as do those who never believed in the light that he is and brought. Thus even when the light has returned to God those who believe in Jesus retain the knowledge of how to find God and the way just as if the light were still there, even though it is not.
I hope you have found this helpful.
So the crowd answered him, "We have heard from the law that the Messiah remains forever. Then how can you say that the Son of Man must be lifted up? Who is this Son of Man?" (John 12:34).
When the Jews say, "the law," they mean what is written in the Torah, in their scriptures, what Christians call the Old Testament. So they have the impression from some scripture that the Messiah will live forever, remaining with the people until the end of time. Where have they seen this written? Look to Psalm 89:4-5.
"I have made a covenant with my chosen one; I have sworn to David my servant: I will make your dynasty stand forever and establish your throne through all the ages" (Psalm 89:4-5).
This is one of the places in scripture where the Jews have the impression that the Messiah will be a man, a descendant of David, who will be just like David (a king with the throne of the Israelites), who will "stand forever." So you can understand that with these words of prophecy from God most Jews thought that another David, but this time one who rules on earth forever, was to be the Messiah. Thus they are confused and dismayed when Jesus says that he, the Son of Man, would have his time of death, and then resurrection into heaven. When Jesus calls himself the Son of Man, he is reminding people that he is indeed in a human form, that he is not just occupying a body, or an illusion of being one of mankind. The crowd gets that, but then figure that the Son of Man must be a different person than the expected Messiah.
This is one reason why the Jews did not recognize Jesus. They developed a certain mental image based on scripture (and done so in good faith), but then did not have sufficient trust of God that he can and will work marvels and deliver the Messiah in ways they cannot imagine, visualize, or comprehend.
Jesus tries to explain to them how this is by comparing himself to the light (not "a" light, but the light of God).
Jesus said to them, "The light will be among you only a little while. Walk while you have the light, so that darkness may not overcome you. Whoever walks in the dark does not know where he is going. While you have the light, believe in the light, so that you may become children of the light" (John 13:35-36).
Now, Jesus is not trying to confuse them or be obscure. He is with a few sentences giving them a lot to think about, knowing that there is not much time left for him, as he says this shortly before the Last Supper. So Jesus is leaving those in the crowd with a few powerful images to refute the stereotype expectations they had of what the Messiah would be like, and then left them to think about it. Some would have understood his words, looking back on them just a matter of days later when Jesus' death and resurrection unfolded. Others would never have understood.
What Jesus was saying is that yes, as Son of Man, he is there as a real human being, a member of the human race, but that as Son of God, he is also of God's light, and that light is of course eternal. Jesus is thus saying he is not at all in contradiction of the scripture, just, actually "above and beyond," so to speak, their expectations. They expected a Messiah who would be completely a human man, but one who would live and rule forever, and bring their faith to the entire world. Jesus is exactly that, but not one who is going to do so as a man living forever among humans.
You may wonder why God did not "opt" to, in fact, have Jesus do just that: to live as a human among humans forever. The answer is simple. The Messiah is needed to draw humans closer to God, not to provide a living intermediary that would, in fact, be an additional "layer" between God and humans. Jesus brought the face of God to humans but the intention is that humans have the New Covenant with God which brings them closer to God, an upward reaching toward God, rather than God sending a governor, for lack of a better world, to "rule," while God is more distant, rather than closer. This is why Jesus often explained that the Kingdom of God is at hand. By "at hand" Jesus meant both "now" but also "within reach." The Messiah makes God more, not less, accessible to humans.
The Jews, in all fairness, could not have easily imagined that this is what God planned. They would have needed a lot of faith to understand that God would fulfill the scriptures in a way that they simply had not expected. Like the square peg in the round hole, the Jews who disbelieved were continuing to walk around with their square or their circular image of the Messiah, and when they did not see a match they would move on looking for the next "Messiah candidate" (and there were plenty, though not a single one performed the miracles that were Jesus' alone as only he had God's authority).
So Jesus is explaining to them that yes, he is the descendant of David, and yes, he has the throne, from God, but that the "forever" of it is when Jesus returns to God in the light of his eternity, not as his bodily Son of Man form. Jesus is explaining that the light of God is there with them, for a short time, while Jesus lives and walks among them. While the light will go back to God, those who believe in Jesus and follow him completely will therefore still benefit from the light, even though the light has gone back to God, because they are now become "children of the light." Jesus as the light of God that God has sent does indeed return to heaven, and the light itself does not stay on earth, nor can any human claim to have it, but instead, those who believe and heed what Jesus taught about God's expectations, God's Kingdom and the New Covenant are "children of the light" and therefore know the way and are not in darkness. It's like when you have memorized your way through the rooms of your home and can walk through them even in the dark, just to use a broad analogy. You "know the way" even though you don't have the light on. The children of Jesus "know the way" even though the actual light of Jesus has returned to heaven, and thus the children of Jesus do not walk in darkness, as do those who never believed in the light that he is and brought. Thus even when the light has returned to God those who believe in Jesus retain the knowledge of how to find God and the way just as if the light were still there, even though it is not.
I hope you have found this helpful.
Music talk: yes I DO like bluegrass :-)
I know I've been characterized as not liking bluegrass music based on my saying so.... I don't deny it LOL! But what I mean when I have said that I don't like it, I mean the caterwauling type of singing that goes with a small portion of it. Bluegrass music, the instruments, and the songs and the vocals I like fine, so long as it's not in the edge of teeth setting off caterwauling twangy wail that's just designed to be extreme yeeeeeeowling at the moon sort of stuff!!!!!!!!!!
Listened to some very fine live music by the church's bluegrass band this evening :-)
Will the Circle be Unbroken is a long time favorite of mine, a song that in fact I bought the sheet music for, back when sheet music was hard to find, especially as I lived way far out from a city, when I was a teen.
Listened to some very fine live music by the church's bluegrass band this evening :-)
Will the Circle be Unbroken is a long time favorite of mine, a song that in fact I bought the sheet music for, back when sheet music was hard to find, especially as I lived way far out from a city, when I was a teen.
Saturday, October 17, 2009
Urgent msg re: cancer and "healing thoughts"
Rather than people being more logical (reasoning) and developing their faith in God, there has been for years an alarming trend where people "send healing thoughts" and "send vibrations" and so forth "toward" cancer sufferers and others with diseases or injuries. This really has to stop because it is part of the problem and not part of the solution. Here is the "why."
Without giving an anatomy lesson, think of cancer as the body's reaction to what it thinks is something wrong, an internal wounding or attack. So the cancer sufferer's body "thinks" that he or she is under attack, and the development of cancer is the "healthy" but inappropriate response to the perception or reality of attack. When you mentally "urge" someone's body to "heal," you are egging on the cancer response, not diminishing it. Yeah, oops.
To better understand, think about what we do know about the causes of cancer, and what we don't know. We do know some direct correlations between contaminants such as smoke from cigarettes or the breathing of asbestos fibers and the resulting cancers. This is because as I have explained, the body "thinks" it is under attack, because it really is. Cancer is then the inadequate response to something the body cannot naturally dispose of, such as the asbestos fibers. If you mentally "urge" someone's body-or your own-to "heal" itself, you are encouraging the stimulation of the very response that the body thinks it IS using to heal, which is cancer.
On the other hand, think about people who develop lung cancer but are not smokers, or maybe have not even been around second hand smoke. Why do they get cancer? They may have some other irritant that no one realizes that has finally reached a threshold point. It's impossible, really, to analyze every particle, compound, chemical or other matter that a person has breathed in their life to date. So there are many contaminants that singularly or in group also trigger a cancer response, even if they are as yet unrecognized as carcinogens, etc. There was a lot of talk about barbecue and wood burning in the science literature for a while. See, it doesn't have to be one thing. If a person was around mild doses each but multiple sources of irritants (for lack of a better word), the adding on effect can and does cause cancer. They then wonder how they got cancer because they weren't around any of the famous well known causes. Yeah, but they were around below the threshold levels of a few or many different irritant sources, and those added together makes the normal body feel it is under attack, and hence it responds with the development of cancer cells.
Let me repeat, it's not like evil cancer cells fly into a body and attach themselves. Think of cancer as the body starting a feverish campaign to manufacture its own bandages. Tumors and cancer cells can be thought of as the body's normal, healthy but ultimately futile effort to churn out more and more bandages. When you mental monkeys send "healing vibes" to people with cancer, including yourselves, you are urging your body or theirs to produce more "bandages," more futile causing cancer efforts to address the real or perceived irritants.
Researchers know that genetic miscues are a contributor to cancer. Again, genes are healthy and normal real building blocks of your body's existence. When a gene is miscued that means it is garbling instructions that it is receiving. Like if the factory manager is told to make 100 bandages and instead he hears 10000 bandages. THAT is the "problem" with cancer.
We know that thoughts have power, which is why the Bible forbids sinful AND even "foolish" thoughts. Thoughts directed at others are real and are thus a form of ESP, which everyone has to some degree. So when you think you are some sort of mental marvel magician and "spirit worker" and send "healing thoughts" to someone, it doesn't matter what you think of that person or even if your intention is supposedly pure. You are sending another irritant to the locations where the body is already fully involved in the production of cancer. You are speeding up the assembly line of the misunderstood bandages, not slowing it down. "Healing vibes" to someone with cancer or ANY illness is a grave danger. It's like you are sending more garbled messages to the bandage producing frenzied assembly line.
That, by the way, is a reason that those who voodoo or otherwise engage in sending "bad" vibes, like wishing cancer on someone, often finds it boomerangs. Cancer is the body doing natural and healthy things, but inappropriate or inadequate to the actual task. So if you send your "enemy" wishes that he or she "gets cancer," you are urging their body to be more effective in being healthy. LOL. And because you are using your mind and spirit to do bad things, you are providing your own and your supporters own "irritants" that can very well boomerang your intentions back onto your selves. People, I've been trying to explain this to you for years in order to save you grief, not because I'm lacking in items of conversation. Unlike you, I do not wish ill on anyone: even those who amply deserve it. I know that the consequences of injustice and sin will return to the person, either in their lifetime or at God's absolute judgment of them upon their death. So those of you who think people "cause" cancer, or, in turn, think that you can wish it onto someone, take a look at how well that has turned out for you, your loved ones, and the world. FAIL.
But my focus is really on those of you who in the frenzy of wishing to "do good" and "focus on cancer" during the so-called cancer awareness month, are really trying to do a good thing but don't realize the harm that you ARE doing. This is why, I repeat, God in both the Bible and the Qur'an forbids magical type of thinking, in addition to actual magical deeds. It's because you really don't understand the biological implications of the complexity of the human body and mind, say nothing of the spiritual goodness or not. Believing that you have the power to "heal" through thoughts, and not actual band-aids and iodine, is a total fail. This is why the second thing that God insists on is prayer to him, not "vibrations" to other people. Charity, not "healing vibes" when you don't even know how the disease or situation exists in reality. Pray for the well being in God's hands of the other person; don't "manifest" your trite and simplistic views of what is "good" and what is "not."
I was reading on the blog of a friend her thoughts about silence and sound. I like what she wrote but more to the point, silence is a crucial part of healthy life. Think of cancer as a cacophony of noise, clashing frantic internal assembly lines of trying to produce more well intended but inadequate "bandages." Your ill friends and family need more silence, not more sound, so everyone should silently direct prayers to God on the friend's behalf and not add to the fail noise that is going on inside of his or her's body.
It's so ironic that the generations that value "meditating" actually provide more spiritual and actual bodily pollution noise in the name of so called "healing" than any generation past. For your own sakes stop using your minds for stupid thoughts and turn them instead back toward God, in prayer, and each other in actual hands-on charity, which is where they should have been all along. By the way, I write this in honor and memory of the great Danny Thomas, who knew first hand where all good things and healing comes, through his patron St. Jude.
Without giving an anatomy lesson, think of cancer as the body's reaction to what it thinks is something wrong, an internal wounding or attack. So the cancer sufferer's body "thinks" that he or she is under attack, and the development of cancer is the "healthy" but inappropriate response to the perception or reality of attack. When you mentally "urge" someone's body to "heal," you are egging on the cancer response, not diminishing it. Yeah, oops.
To better understand, think about what we do know about the causes of cancer, and what we don't know. We do know some direct correlations between contaminants such as smoke from cigarettes or the breathing of asbestos fibers and the resulting cancers. This is because as I have explained, the body "thinks" it is under attack, because it really is. Cancer is then the inadequate response to something the body cannot naturally dispose of, such as the asbestos fibers. If you mentally "urge" someone's body-or your own-to "heal" itself, you are encouraging the stimulation of the very response that the body thinks it IS using to heal, which is cancer.
On the other hand, think about people who develop lung cancer but are not smokers, or maybe have not even been around second hand smoke. Why do they get cancer? They may have some other irritant that no one realizes that has finally reached a threshold point. It's impossible, really, to analyze every particle, compound, chemical or other matter that a person has breathed in their life to date. So there are many contaminants that singularly or in group also trigger a cancer response, even if they are as yet unrecognized as carcinogens, etc. There was a lot of talk about barbecue and wood burning in the science literature for a while. See, it doesn't have to be one thing. If a person was around mild doses each but multiple sources of irritants (for lack of a better word), the adding on effect can and does cause cancer. They then wonder how they got cancer because they weren't around any of the famous well known causes. Yeah, but they were around below the threshold levels of a few or many different irritant sources, and those added together makes the normal body feel it is under attack, and hence it responds with the development of cancer cells.
Let me repeat, it's not like evil cancer cells fly into a body and attach themselves. Think of cancer as the body starting a feverish campaign to manufacture its own bandages. Tumors and cancer cells can be thought of as the body's normal, healthy but ultimately futile effort to churn out more and more bandages. When you mental monkeys send "healing vibes" to people with cancer, including yourselves, you are urging your body or theirs to produce more "bandages," more futile causing cancer efforts to address the real or perceived irritants.
Researchers know that genetic miscues are a contributor to cancer. Again, genes are healthy and normal real building blocks of your body's existence. When a gene is miscued that means it is garbling instructions that it is receiving. Like if the factory manager is told to make 100 bandages and instead he hears 10000 bandages. THAT is the "problem" with cancer.
We know that thoughts have power, which is why the Bible forbids sinful AND even "foolish" thoughts. Thoughts directed at others are real and are thus a form of ESP, which everyone has to some degree. So when you think you are some sort of mental marvel magician and "spirit worker" and send "healing thoughts" to someone, it doesn't matter what you think of that person or even if your intention is supposedly pure. You are sending another irritant to the locations where the body is already fully involved in the production of cancer. You are speeding up the assembly line of the misunderstood bandages, not slowing it down. "Healing vibes" to someone with cancer or ANY illness is a grave danger. It's like you are sending more garbled messages to the bandage producing frenzied assembly line.
That, by the way, is a reason that those who voodoo or otherwise engage in sending "bad" vibes, like wishing cancer on someone, often finds it boomerangs. Cancer is the body doing natural and healthy things, but inappropriate or inadequate to the actual task. So if you send your "enemy" wishes that he or she "gets cancer," you are urging their body to be more effective in being healthy. LOL. And because you are using your mind and spirit to do bad things, you are providing your own and your supporters own "irritants" that can very well boomerang your intentions back onto your selves. People, I've been trying to explain this to you for years in order to save you grief, not because I'm lacking in items of conversation. Unlike you, I do not wish ill on anyone: even those who amply deserve it. I know that the consequences of injustice and sin will return to the person, either in their lifetime or at God's absolute judgment of them upon their death. So those of you who think people "cause" cancer, or, in turn, think that you can wish it onto someone, take a look at how well that has turned out for you, your loved ones, and the world. FAIL.
But my focus is really on those of you who in the frenzy of wishing to "do good" and "focus on cancer" during the so-called cancer awareness month, are really trying to do a good thing but don't realize the harm that you ARE doing. This is why, I repeat, God in both the Bible and the Qur'an forbids magical type of thinking, in addition to actual magical deeds. It's because you really don't understand the biological implications of the complexity of the human body and mind, say nothing of the spiritual goodness or not. Believing that you have the power to "heal" through thoughts, and not actual band-aids and iodine, is a total fail. This is why the second thing that God insists on is prayer to him, not "vibrations" to other people. Charity, not "healing vibes" when you don't even know how the disease or situation exists in reality. Pray for the well being in God's hands of the other person; don't "manifest" your trite and simplistic views of what is "good" and what is "not."
I was reading on the blog of a friend her thoughts about silence and sound. I like what she wrote but more to the point, silence is a crucial part of healthy life. Think of cancer as a cacophony of noise, clashing frantic internal assembly lines of trying to produce more well intended but inadequate "bandages." Your ill friends and family need more silence, not more sound, so everyone should silently direct prayers to God on the friend's behalf and not add to the fail noise that is going on inside of his or her's body.
It's so ironic that the generations that value "meditating" actually provide more spiritual and actual bodily pollution noise in the name of so called "healing" than any generation past. For your own sakes stop using your minds for stupid thoughts and turn them instead back toward God, in prayer, and each other in actual hands-on charity, which is where they should have been all along. By the way, I write this in honor and memory of the great Danny Thomas, who knew first hand where all good things and healing comes, through his patron St. Jude.
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