Biblical Morality: Intro

This is the first post on the next project, a book tentatively called “Biblical Morality.”

Introduction

Writing it is well nigh impossible.

There is no human language able to bear the load: How rich is the opportunity we have to live by the cosmic law of the universe! God created the universe according to His own character. He wove His morals into the substance of all things. It responds directly to anyone who embraces Him. It’s not some divine principle we can explain in mere words; we can’t pack it into some code of conduct.

So we do wrong when we speak, write, or even think of it in terms of duty or obligation. You can call it Law, or even better, Justice. For most Christians those words carry too much of the wrong baggage. This is an opportunity to touch the divine character itself. This is the underlying truth sought by all the various studies in science, philosophy, as well as magic and other esoteric arts — finding that handle by which we can extract from our existence the greatest possible return. We have this extravagant gift of revelation, explaining how it all works so that we can claim all the ancient heritage of things humanity has long forgotten.

It’s not hidden; it’s obscured by human reason. Our fallen nature is itself an attempt to work through all sorts of different frames of reference from the level of human resources. Redemption is simply embracing the one thing that we are all hard wired to do. God’s revelation is reality itself. Because of our tainted grasp of things, He revealed Himself in the form of law covenants. It’s the best way to get our attention, but that attention was meant to evolve in each of us into a recognition of His divine call to receive His love.

The human mind cannot know God. It can understand Law and Justice, and the Bible records a great deal about that. But we aren’t just generations away from it, more than the distance across the earth, far removed by language differences. There is a massive fundamental difference in the very frame of thoughts themselves. The Hebrew people whom God made to carry His revelation to the world had an entirely different view of reality from that of Western people. That Hebrew view of reality reflects the revelation of God; the people of God at their best were the living revelation of God.

From where we stand in Post-Modern Western Civilization, the Hebrew epistemology is totally different from ours. If you have no idea what that means, you may benefit from first taking A Course in Biblical Mysticism to understand the huge difference, and how it changes what the Bible means regardless of the translation you read.

For now, we can summarize it thus: The Hebrew people would regard our intellectual heritage as too shallow, too wrapped up in the passing plane of existence, unable to handle anything that comes from outside it. The Hebrew people knew God was not rooted in this universe, that our entire realm of existence is just a passing shadow, a minor project on God’s personal agenda. God built for them an awareness that surpasses mere human reasoning, an intellectual tradition wide open to the Spirit Realm where God lives. Our Western world has words for it, but the very structure of our thoughts excludes the whole concept. Worse, our frame of reference disparages theirs as mere superstition. What an insult to God, who made that frame of reference as His chosen means to revelation. Without that ground of understanding, you cannot understand. The West is built on sand; God’s truth is built on the rock.

You don’t simply discard your entire Western heritage; that isn’t possible in the first place. We must place that Western frame of reference in its proper place of service. The Hebrew mind would recognize the analytical approach is suitable for mere mechanics, but assigning moral value to anything requires operating from a far higher frame of reference. Reason serves the Spirit; the intellect is not the master. That part isn’t really so hard, but discarding the Western mythology of moral values is what give us so much trouble. This book is about clearing the clutter of false morals and replacing them with the foundation laid by God in His Word.

This book assumes you understand the difference between Western and Hebrew intellectual assumptions, and have done the work to at least recognize how a proper Hebrew mind works. Without that Hebrew perspective, this book means nothing. We will compare and contrast biblical Hebrew morals against typical Western morals.

This is not about saving your soul from damnation. Grace alone can do that, and we reject Decision Theology. You cannot decide to be born again because no flesh can even want it. God alone can do that; the initiative has always been His for each individual soul. What this book can do is grant you access to the best life possible in this world. That was granted to all flesh from the very beginning when men first began to call on the name of the Lord. It’s not necessary to experience spiritual birth to have this free gift. If you are born again, you will find grace demands you live by this same moral code anyway.

This book simply restates in our modern Western context what anyone could find in Scripture if they bothered to read it with Hebrew eyes.