Keeping My Hand to the Plow

Posted on December 9, 2019 by ehurst

One of my readers told me the posts of the past week on both blogs have been on fire. That’s how I felt writing them. I can’t find words to express just how big this thing is for me right now.

Today I took a walk around the old Heritage Park Mall. I stopped on the north side from whence I took this image, and I prayed. The two anchors on either end were sold. The far end was Dillards and is now Life Church; the near end was Sears, bought by the City of Midwest City (local municipal government). The City wants to use the rest of the building with the Sears property as a municipal campus. That’s a pretty good idea, because nobody else wants this beast, and the City could use the expansion of space for both offices and recreation facilities. The old Mall Walkers Club would love to get back inside.

So I stopped in my walk and stood facing the side you see in the picture here. I prayed that the City could overcome the truculence of the actual owners, a bunch of jerks in California who refuse to negotiate with the City over codes and property maintenance. The whole thing is tied up in court. They are refusing to sell out of sheer spite, I am told, to teach us nobodies in fly-over country that we don’t merit their attention.

It’s not that I love the city government; I don’t like most of the officials I’ve met so far. Still, I’m praying for the welfare of the local people because I know for a certainty this is where God planted me. Across Air Depot Boulevard to the east is a strip mall, and I also prayed today for the prosperity of all the stores there. I prayed that the empty store fronts could be filled with businesses that would prosper. At least half the businesses in that strip mall sell nothing that I could want. But this is my mission field.

And it is not inconsistent with my prayer that the wrath of God will fall on America. Wrath can come in all kinds of ways; you should expect the wrath of God to be consistent with His Word. As noted in the past, this is not an apocalypse. The US will be broken up, but that doesn’t require a complete destruction of everything in the country. It means primarily the destruction of the globalist and Zionist stranglehold over so a vast number of people. The economy will suffer, for sure, because the US has dug itself into a deep hole. But the economy is not going to simply stop; it will fracture. God intends to reset things so that the focus becomes localized. The whole point is to cripple attempts at centralizing to empower globalists and Zionists further.

I realize this will tend to cut my own throat, so to speak, since my pension is federally sourced. I’m willing to let God handle that matter while I devote myself to what He has revealed as His will for me. I have all confidence that everything I need will be provided through His promises. God supports what He calls you to do. I am called to promote decentralization on every level, in every domain of human activity, with the exception for the time being of online stuff. And I encourage you doing the same thing wherever God has called you to serve Him.

Posted in prophecy | Tagged , , , , , | 3 Comments

Law of Moses — Exodus 23:1-9

Posted on December 7, 2019 by ehurst

Scripture never says that all are equal. It does say that justice is justice regardless of who is involved. Some things are wrong in themselves. It’s not a question of the person standing before the court, but of you standing before God. Doing justice is in your own best interest, and is your duty before your Creator. Keep in mind that this whole thing is a covenant, and this is Covenant Law for a Covenant Nation.

Almost everyone you encounter in a covenant nation like ancient Israel would be your fellow Israeli, and quite likely some cousin. How does one regard a kinsman as an enemy without them being such a horrific criminal that they are at the very least ostracized by the whole community? Don’t be petty. The Covenant made allowances for dealing with really evil people, but don’t seek private revenge for wrongs done to you. God is the One who chose your relatives, so seek peace with Him about your troubles with difficult relatives. There are things you have to guard on everyone’s behalf for you to receive any part of it. The covenant is its own reward; obeying the Law is a blessing in itself.

Abraham was to all appearances an exceedingly well educated man, equal to any PhD today, with many decades of experience using that education. While he may have lacked in Canaan Land the educational resources available to him back home in the Akkadian Empire, he didn’t lack the means to transmit his vast knowledge to his children and grandchildren. It would have been his duty to do educate his progeny. This was a mark of nobility. Yet, we know for certain that nobility would only last for a few generations before we start to see whole clans begin falling behind on it. Not everyone has the temperament and aptitude for a solid education, any more than everyone is hard worker. These human failings could easily be transmitted to succeeding generations. It’s natural the rot spreads quicker than noble character.

Moses shares with Israel the revelation of God some 600 years after Abraham. The Covenant made some effort to make up for this natural disparity by warning people not to surrender to wild superstition. Given the stern warning not to let your community slip away from shalom, and the assertion that these people were a chosen nation, it’s easy to imagine whole villages of kinfolks who would become overly guarded in their simplistic reading of the Law. So this section begins with a warning to be very careful about such things.

They were to guard against rumors and idle gossip. The Hebrew language could be quite expressive and dramatic, so it would be too easy for Israelis to blow something small out of proportion. They are warned here not to look for an excuse to ruin the life of someone they didn’t like. Don’t follow the stampeding herd. If just one or two sensible people in every village took the time to double-check stories going around, it should be enough to prevent injustice. So Moses encourages everyone to seek being a fount of justice. In particular, Moses warns them to show no partiality to someone who is an underdog for any reason. This implies not showing preference for the big shots, either.

If a domestic animal goes astray, capture and return it to the owner. If it belongs to someone you regard as an enemy, don’t seek backdoor justice by letting it go, or driving it farther away. Settle your squabbles some other way, but treat those animals as God’s property merely on loan to the owner. If an animal is in distress, it won’t matter if the owner hates you, help him and his animal. Be the better person by living justly.

In verse 6, Moses uses a word specifically referring to someone who is dependent on others to survive, which is different from the term (“underdog”) used in the verses above. Don’t prey on someone who has no champion to defend him, because God will be his champion. You’ll see this over and over again throughout Scripture. Seek divine justice in all things. Don’t let someone die because of political pressure and social convenience. The whole idea of social stability is not from enforced conformity, but it comes from seeking peace with God. Refuse bribes on principle. Be suspicious of folks trying to influence you against your heart.

And the same goes for protecting outsiders to the Covenant. Moses reminds the people that they were once aliens and suffered pretty bad abuse simply because they weren’t part of the native population in Egypt. It was unjust then; don’t pretend it is suddenly okay now that you are the insiders. Show mercy to those who mean you no harm.

Posted in bible | Tagged , , , | Comments Off on Law of Moses — Exodus 23:1-9

Notional Civil War

Posted on December 6, 2019 by ehurst

Biblical Law says that, as a matter of general principle, we do not resist the government under which God places us. That’s the broader meaning of “do not curse the king.” That was how the New Testament churches handled Rome. They had a specific message from God commanding they not resist, though some were encouraged to flee when possible.

Biblical Law also says there are times when a prophetic word from God can lead to a different response. The Lord called up rebels from time to time to oppose and afflict unrighteous government. Recall that God sent a prophet to Jeroboam telling him that God would give him the northern tribes because Rehoboam was rejecting divine counsel. Rehoboam was the legal heir to Solomon’s throne, but God directed the people to rise up in rebellion against a very foolish king. Not to curse him or attack him, but He told the people to refuse to cooperate.

In other words, the real issue is not a matter of the government is always right, but that we are obliged to seek God’s leadership. The default is to play along as best we can. We need a very specific word from God to know when and how to resist.

For myself, I am utterly convinced that we should resist certain elements in our US political leadership. I plan to do so. I’ve already identified those elements as the globalists in the near term, and the Zionists in the longer term. I have no heart for fighting the purely imperialist elements in our government; they will be crushed by their own folly. However, I feel certain we should pray about how we might cooperate with the hand of God against the globalists and Zionists.

It has nothing to do with tyranny and oppression, though such things are clearly evil. But they are also standard equipment with governments in our world today, so they aren’t the real issue. The real issue is something deeper. The globalists and Zionists are trying to force the hand of God. They have made themselves odious beyond any hope of mercy.

However, I do not counsel any particular form of action beyond simply refusing to cooperate. Not in childish truculence, but we should make solid plans how to do what’s in our own local best interest. We should seek to convince folks to ditch the idea of a United States in favor of smaller and more localized government.

I’m still convinced that in terms of the Internet and most major technology questions, we should go with the flow toward centralization and standardization. That’s simply the nature of networking these days, but it’s a separate issue from meat-space politics. I believe it is a word from God that we should promote the break-up of the US, as this is precisely what God intends to do.

I won’t offer any concrete lines of geographical division; that’s the whole point. I seriously doubt it’s really all that important. What matters is that there be a boundary line drawn somewhere. The whole point is to encourage folks to stand up for themselves and what matters most to them. They can figure out for themselves where to draw the lines.

I intend to promote this smaller, more local brand of nationalism in my writing. And very specifically, I will point out that this is the only way forward, because we certainly aren’t going to slaughter the globalists. That would work, but there’s simply no will to go that route. I would say prophetically that the window has closed on that; it certainly would have been possible as recently as two years ago, but not now. The economy has crumbled too much since then, and there is nothing left to save in that sense. All that’s left now is simply survival, and that calls for a different way of handling things.

So there’s nothing sneaky or underhanded here. I’m announcing openly that I’m on the path of notional civil war, aimed at breaking up the US. While there’s no doubt going to be some bloodshed, it will not be a major factor in a growing political will to withdraw support and cooperation from the federal government. We simply cannot afford it any more.

I will point out that the greatest threat to this information warfare is the so-called “Deep State.” In case you don’t know the real meaning of that term, it refers to the hidden bureaucracy of government that adheres to its own political agenda and policies. The Deep State is frankly hostile to the will of the people. It is not a precise agency so much as a presence within the bureaucracy. However, we know that the CIA, much of the FBI, and a huge swath of the military are all globalist. And there is a very large overlapping Zionist component. They have a lot of allies in Congress, and moles in the Administration. For the most part, they hold the reins of government action and funding.

Could Trump have driven them out in his first year in office, the US as a whole might still have some useful life left. He didn’t and it doesn’t. The one best way to disable the globalists now is to break the link between the centralized government they control and the various populations they seek to control. The Zionists are different kind of threat and will require a different kind of resistance. We need first to break the federal stranglehold.

The government apparatus identifies with the ruling class’s interests, proclivities, and tastes, and almost unanimously with the Democratic Party. As it uses government power to press those interests, proclivities, and tastes upon the ruled, it acts as a partisan state. This party state’s political objective is to delegitimize not so much the politicians who champion the ruled from time to time, but the ruled themselves. Ever since Woodrow Wilson nearly a century and a half ago at Princeton, colleges have taught that ordinary Americans are rightly ruled by experts because they are incapable of governing themselves. Millions of graduates have identified themselves as the personifiers of expertise and believe themselves entitled to rule. Their practical definition of discrimination, intolerance, racism, sexism, etc., is neither more nor less than anyone’s reluctance to bow to them. It’s personal. (source)

Let them call us whatever they like; we serve Christ, not their god, Satan.

Posted in prophecy | Tagged , , , , , , | 5 Comments

Draper Points 3 & 4

Posted on December 4, 2019 by ehurst

We begin where we left off with yesterday’s post. On the map, this first one is image 08. We are looking across a small cove with yet another feature of the high lake level. The grass and shrubs don’t normally grow down in the water itself, but the water crept up over them after the warm weather that gave birth to the grass. We started this last spring with the water just a few inches lower.

I was quite mesmerized by this tight little cove, almost a natural boat slip in the shore. It was caused by water run-off cutting away the rocks on either side back when the lake level was much lower. Because of the odd mixture of erosion from both directions, this little spot made some funny slapping sounds as the wind whipped small waves against the shore. There was no way I could avoid capturing my own shadow.

I distinctly remember this bank was a lot wider a couple of years ago. The high water erosion took a big bite out of this spot because of the lack of protection at the baseline until it finally started hitting bedrock. There is now exposed a thin shelf that drops off quickly. For quite some distance there stands this very thin high bank topped with grass. The road on the left side had been cut through years ago, and is now a low spot that holds water much of the year.

This is another example of rocks exposed first by washout during lower water levels. Now it’s a very lovely spot in the high water. The black stones are not an anomaly; the same sandstone that is mostly red has streaks of this black coloring in lots of places. I don’t know the geological details, but the black stuff, once exposed, tends to be harder than the red. I’ve seen places where the red turns almost purple, but those tend to oxidize back to red with time.

Looking across this cove, we see a very large hump that formed a small point that never got a number. You would be hard put to climb up from a boat if the water level was lower, because most of the point is almost a cliff all the way around. However, with the exceptionally high water level, it’s not apparent from this angle. There wasn’t much to photograph while I was out exploring that hump, but the central core is exposed bedrock up to the top, with a very thin covering of grassy soil and a few trees clinging in deep pockets.

Here is an example of exposed bedrock cut by heavy equipment decades ago to make this shoreline trail. Some folks older than I lament the change in the past decade to a much higher level of conservation. There is evidence of motor vehicles still using this particular trail between Points 3 and 4, but not very much. It would have to be a high clearance 4×4 able to cut through a spot in the woods near the gate that has been closed for quite some time.

Finally arriving at Point 4, this is the numbered point itself, quite some ways from a more accessible dock, just visible in the background. There was once a couple of picnic tables out here. This point suffered a lot from high water erosion, but left an overhang just visible in this shot. This is another point where a bluff runs around almost the whole point. I’m standing on an exposed rocky spot that just barely allows one to clamber down close to the water.

That’s the end of my collection this round. Most of these spots on and between the points had been mowed decades ago, and small trees were kept out. Much of the foliage visible now in its winter dress was not allowed to grow so wild until the big shift to conservation that closed the roads and saw the off-road bikes kicked out of the main lake area.

Posted in photography | Tagged , , | Comments Off on Draper Points 3 & 4

Draper Points 2 & 3

Posted on December 3, 2019 by ehurst

Here’s the map of today’s ride. The pale blue numbers indicate the officially numbered points; you can find poles in the ground with the numbers to match them. Don’t ask me to explain how certain features became numbered points and others didn’t. The pinkish numbers indicate where the pictures were taken in numerical order following the map itself. You have to click the picture and enlarge it to see the markings (CTRL+click to see it in a new browser tab). Also, keep in mind that the lake fill has been extremely high for about the past year, so the pictures will reflect unusually high water levels. This was a very long ride and it took about four hours to get back home.

This is what the tip of Point 2 looks like. Two years ago a great deal more rock was exposed. This was quiet today because the wind is from the north, and the land points south. Recent rains have made the ground just a little soft, and I waited two days before riding out this way. But this isn’t the half of it.

In the image below, you can see how I had to drag my bike through the brush on the high ground to the right because there was no safe footing past this flooded area. The water is above the road level. It was a chore, because that underbrush is very thick. These roads are typically open when it’s not too bad, but as long as it’s like this, the access gates will remain shut for a long time.

This is what the east side of the same point looks like. The bike stands where I came out of the brush. There was nothing resembling a trail at all; I just took the path of least resistance. Then I took my time wandering around each stopping point. On this eastern side of the point, the water was making just a little bit of noise, driven by the moderate breeze we had today.

By contrast, this is Point 3. It’s just a swampy grassy spot; all the rock formations are underwater. I ran across several more of those flooded spots, but nothing so bad as that first one on the way to Point 2. However, you must understand that the very long route between Point 3 and Point 4 was just beautiful. I dawdled lots of places, just enjoying the sound of water slapping against the rocks on all of those miniature points that have never been numbered.

This was just a rounded bump jutting out into the water. If you look off the left edge of the picture, there is a small tree standing way out in the water. If I remember correctly, when the lake was a lot lower, there was a series of exposed rocky outcroppings that you can hop until you got out to the tree. There was a fellow in a flat-bottomed fishing boat that was carefully watching the bottom as he drifted around on his troll motor in the vicinity of that tree.

Another rocky spot; this one shows how substantial bedrock reduces shore erosion. Farther down the shore, the high bank was washed away until that same rocky underlayer was exposed, reducing the erosion dramatically. That small tree almost falling in has been hanging like that quite some time, and there is no sign of soil collapse in this area.

Farther along the shore trail, I can’t say whether this rock was placed or if it was there all along. Way back when the shore trail was open to motor vehicles, the Parks and Recreation crew had moved a lot of very large rocks around and dropped them in odd places like this one. Still, it made a nice shot, showing how the erosion has been slow at this spot. The trees and grass do help hinder the washout, but there were some rocks just under the water farther out, so the waves don’t rise nearly so high right here.

I’ll post some more images tomorrow of this long ride.

Posted in photography | Tagged , , | 3 Comments

Law of Moses — Exodus 22:16-31

Posted on November 30, 2019 by ehurst

A major concept in Biblical Law is defilement. There are certain things that make individuals defiled, but there are other things that make the whole community defiled. The secret sin of Achan in hiding plunder in his tent defiled the whole nation and removed their divine covering (Joshua 7). Without that covering mercy from God, the full weight of our fallen nature falls upon us. In a covenant community, it afflicts everyone. There are things the community of faith must not tolerate, lest it destroy their peace with God (shalom).

Casual sex is forbidden. In this case, if a man seduces any woman who isn’t already engaged to another man, her consent does not make it okay. He must pay the bridal dowry and give her the status as his wife. If the father of the girl refuses to give her up, the man still must pay the bride price. Granted, this complicates things for that girl’s future, but you have to realize that seduction is a threat to the moral fabric of the community. This man is a sexual predator.

You’ll hear hundreds of disputes about what the Hebrew term translated as “sorceress” refers to here. It does matter that the Greek translation is the root of our term “pharmacy” — it has to do with herbs and chemicals. There are all sorts of proper use for herbal remedies in Scripture, so that’s not the point here. It’s that murky combination of idolatry and seeking powers not granted by God. The simplest meaning of this word is someone who abuses herbs and chemicals, and in those ancient times, it was typically believed that getting high was a means of contacting spirits. In our terms today, it’s related to breaching your internal moral boundaries and messing with demons; it’s a form of psychic burglary. You are touching a part of yourself only God can reveal when He’s ready. Someone in that ancient covenant community who sought out spirits by any means was in reality conjuring demons, regardless of what they may have thought they were doing.

Bestiality was frequently associated with idolatry, as well. It doesn’t matter what the rituals are; messing around with pagan deities is de facto provoking demons and bringing their perverting and defiling influence into the covenant community.

Looking for an excuse to oppress someone was a defiling predation. If they weren’t covenant family, you didn’t have to offer them privileges, but neither could you harass them. As long as they are peaceful within the covenant community, treat them as visitors. The same goes with widows and orphans who didn’t have a patron to protect them. These folks are your covenant family; don’t make their lives any harder than it already is. God will hear their cry and punish your whole community, so it’s on the community to reach out and protect them.

You cannot charge interest on survival loans. Elsewhere God says you shall lend to your poverty stricken kinfolk, so get used to taking small losses like that. God will prosper you and more than make up for it; this is implied. Even during the summer season, nights can be pretty cool in Palestine, so you can’t take someone’s cloak as loan collateral and keep it overnight. The implication is that you let them sleep in it and then return it the next day back into collateral holding.

You shall never allow people in your covenant community to treat Jehovah as if He didn’t matter, and don’t even try calling down curses on those whom God puts in authority over you. Is it any wonder so many nations today are under God’s wrath? These things provoke nature itself to reject you.

The First Fruits belong to God; He is your sovereign and this is the tax He collects. He makes life possible, so everything comes from His hand. It won’t kill you to surrender that first usable tenth to Him. In the case of animals, let them nurse seven days, and on the eighth offer them up. If nothing else, this makes it easier to milk the mother.

Don’t snack on carrion, even if it was one of your prized herd animals. Move the carcass to a place where carrion eaters will take care of it. Leave it for the wild dogs to clean up. This is part of what makes dogs defiling and repulsive to the community, so don’t join them.

Posted in teaching | Tagged , , , | 4 Comments

Revisiting Draper’s Points

Posted on November 28, 2019 by ehurst

This being our colder season, it is now safe to wander out into the woods and grassy areas without being eaten alive by ticks, chiggers and biting flies out at Draper Lake. This year, instead of chasing down the shoreline, I’m simply trying to visit the points and coves that are still accessible. The water is very high this winter, so I can’t even think about walking and riding along most of the shore.

I’m starting on the west end of the dam. While the first point has no number, I’m calling it Point 0 (“zero”). It receives precious little traffic because the most convenient entrance is protected from wheels to prevent erosion. I wasn’t aware of this until after I had ridden down the draw, because it was the only way to dodge the trees cutting across most of the point’s mid-section. The grass is high and very thick, so I stashed the bike and walked along the southern shore. This first shot is the only rocks I encountered out there. There is really nothing inspiring out on the end of the point itself.

The next feature to the north is Point 1. It does get a lot of traffic; it’s the easiest one to see and to drive out onto. It’s a very wide point. I walked out to the sharpest end, which is far off to the southern side. The face of most of the point is a short bluff about just a yard (meter) high. There are some spots where Parks & Recreation dropped rubble and boulders to reduce erosion, but it would take hundreds of tons to accomplish much.

Here is a pair of trees clinging to the lip of the bank. This pair appear to have grown up together, and the cedar is actually keeping the oak from falling in. The cedar has roots that spread wide, whereas the oak is mostly reaching down. With the wave erosion, the underside is what’s washing away. There were a couple of spots where chunks of the bank dropped into the water during the last year or so.

As time and weather permits, I’ll continue this fresh look at the points under high-water conditions. The next three (2,3 and 4) have to be done all at once, since they are clustered together far out from the shore. They are the entire opposing shoreline in the background of the second and third image here. I’ll post a map the next time.

Posted in photography | Tagged , , | 1 Comment

The Image of Truth as a Person

Posted on November 27, 2019 by ehurst

This calls for you to think outside your intellect and exercise a mystical awareness. You will need to process in terms of language as indicative, not descriptive. The terms of this post are generally symbolic and parabolic (related to parables).

There has only ever been one covenant God offers to humanity. All the other covenants mentioned in the Bible were but manifestations, derivatives of that one Covenant of Faith (“faith” defined as commitment and trust in God). That One Covenant began with Creation itself. All the rest were implementations of that fundamental living relationship God offered to bring us back to Eden. The core of that living relationship is the will of God, the plan and purpose God had in Creation. It’s His divine moral character.

The Curse of the Fall itself is based on that Covenant of Creation. Adam and Eve could have pulled up the awareness of that implication, but instead listened to the lies of Satan. And when they tested the word of Satan, they discovered it was all a lie; they found themselves ejected from Eden. The terms for living in Eden begin with faith in God.

The only question then is how far you must travel to come back to Eden. There are at least two Law Covenants mentioned in Scripture as low level manifestations of the one Covenant of Faith — Noah and Moses. Moses was closed on the Cross, but the record of its demands and Israel’s failures stand as a testimony to how Law works. If all you can do is grasp the Law as the demands of some Sovereign you really don’t understand, that will get you by, living in His Creation until you can begin to absorb what the Law tells you of your Master. Once you start moving in that direction, you begin to see past the provisions of the Law to the heart of the One of gave the Law. Once you have been seized by the awareness of His heart, you are well on your way back to the Gate of Eden.

Here’s a most difficult part for our minds: There is no single path back to Eden. The path is always a unique and individual thing. There is a certain commonality in all the paths for each of us; that’s what a written Law Covenant indicates. It points us back to the symbolism that the Law of God is God; He’s a Person and His Law is how we get to know Him. And while He is the same Person all of us get to know, He doesn’t treat each of us exactly the same. That’s the way it is with any human father and his children, provided you aren’t trapped in the perverted mythology of “fairness and equality”. The false image of “fair and equal” attempts to steal from God His divine freedom to choose, to be creative in making us all different. We are not interchangeable in every aspect of our existence. So we all can get to know the same God, and will certainly have a lot of common experiences so that we can share them, but there remains a certain element of uniqueness in it for each of us.

The written code of Law Covenant is meant to be somewhat fuzzy around the edges. It’s supposed to be imprecise because the precision comes in your personal encounter with God. Further, the precision is found in each unique context in which you seek to apply His divine will. It’s a living and intensely personal connection that you must strive to maintain against the distractions of the Devil. It is utterly impossible to embed the truth of God in your awareness with mere words, as if there could be some objective truth out there that’s the same for all of us, and consistent across time and space. That simply cannot exist.

Nothing, nothing, nothing can replace the vivid living communion with the Holy Spirit of God. The Law Covenants point to it, but the core Covenant of Faith demands it explicitly. You cannot distill ultimate truth into any body of knowledge separate from God Himself. Ultimate truth is the Person of God.

Always picture “Law” as a Person. In our context today, Law is the Person of Christ.

Posted in teaching | Tagged , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Whining Is Anti-faith

Posted on November 26, 2019 by ehurst

Message to myself: The essence of faith in this life is learning how to live with suffering and sorrow.

The mark of faith is patience and persistence. A primary mark of rejecting faith is bristling at inconvenience. It starts with building a map of reality that includes all manner of self-serving expectations. “This isn’t right. Life should not be so painful!” But revelation says up front that life is meant to be painful, and God’s hand in our lives will always bring some pain and sorrow. Not because His love fails, but ours does. The fault is with us.

We are born broken in a broken reality. There is a measure of apparent hostility from the universe, but it’s not what all the wild horror fiction imagines. It’s broken because we are broken. As we begin to embrace divine revelation and move back toward His design for us, we find that reality can be a friend and ally. The natural world around us is cheering us on in the struggle to get right.

What we justly deserve is a life of brutal misery, a lingering painful death and eternity in Hell. What God in His mercy offers us is a way out of that. But we have to accept that our escape is only partial at best until He is finished with us in this life and calls us home.

Stop whining and serve His glory.

Posted in sanity | Tagged , , , , , | 2 Comments

Why We Teach Biblical Law

Posted on November 25, 2019 by ehurst

Among the many different ways we might formulate an answer to the question in the title, there’s one that really matters: keeping morality conscious.

The power of human coercion is emotion. The negative emotions that bind us all tend to run together: fear, anger, shame, shock, etc. It’s all one package in that sense. You might be able to analyze and distinguish different threads within a situation, but during the moment when you experience those overwrought feelings, it’s not so simple.

These days, a primary tool of oppression is the very Western cultural bias for high trust. There is some evidence that this is partly a matter of northern Caucasian DNA. But it surely comes out in our cultural background that the various Germanic tribes all carried a very heavy demand for high trust in the general population. It rests on being able to provoke shame and fear in those who find themselves outside the boundaries of social expectations. The real power here is that the shame can be provoked by shaming expressions. We rely too much on being accepted by the tribe.

But there is no real tribe, only a mythological one ginned up by the ruling elite. We are taught to believe that we have a tribal identity, but it’s one that is imposed on us. It depends on having a very large body of moral expectations, very demanding and legalistic, seldom defined beyond superficial explanations. The concept of looking into those moral expectations for larger patterns is generally discouraged. Even when we start edging over into that direction, a mythology is quickly trotted out to prevent a thorough examination in a wider context.

The whole idea is to make you feel shame to prevent serious consideration of anything else. You aren’t organically growing, or consciously building, a valid trust model; it is imposed a priori. It is presumed without discussion.

The entire concept of Biblical Law is contemplative in the first place. Every part of it is opened to exploration. This is part of my argument that Hebrew language is indicative, not descriptive. The language and culture God designed to reveal Himself is fundamentally a language of signposts, not containers of truth. Truth cannot be packaged in language, but is a living entity of itself separate from the language. Thus, language seeks to encourage exploration of truth, to get to know truth as a Person. The only shame you have to worry about is the disapproval of your own Lord. What everyone else thinks is never more than something advisory.

The Hebrew linguistic and cultural packaging of revelation is part of the revelation itself. It sets the standard for how our minds are designed to operate. Getting your head on straight makes your head ready to hear from the convictions in your heart. The whole business of familiarity with Hebrew language and culture is not being a translator, but of getting the right mindset for obedience to God.

This then makes it easier for us to shift our conscious awareness into the heart, a higher level of awareness than being simply in our heads. This makes it easier to reason out and decide how to implement God’s moral character in daily living. This frees us to sense directly the moral fabric of Creation. We expand our conscious awareness into that higher level, but then bring it all back down where the mind can implement what the heart knows.

We want people to find the full blessings of divine heritage. Their freedom is our freedom. Creation cries out for all the world to join, but we already know by revelation that it will only ever touch a very few people at any given time. We need all we can get. So we put forth the message inherent in the Law of God in hopes that some few will hear. But a major element in our message is the full truth of what it demands. We want folks to count the costs. If that doesn’t scare them off, then we know the Lord is truly drawing them.

The Law is not so demanding in what it requires of us in terms of action, but that it demands so much in terms of being fully conscious of what’s involved. We don’t guide people by provoking emotions like shame, fear, etc. We guide by example and by explanation that puts the full moral awareness on their own hearts. They have to accept the responsibility for themselves; they have to do it out of love and desire. The Law of God is its own reward.

This is why we teach the Law.

Posted in teaching | Tagged , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on Why We Teach Biblical Law