Teachings of Jesus — John 13:31-38

Posted on July 27, 2019 by ehurst

There is no big secret, no magical insights from this passage. It’s quite likely that you have read or heard a ton of stuff about it. The main point here is the focus John picks up in his reporting of his memories from that night. What did the Holy Spirit burn into John’s heart?

Once Judas was out of the way, Jesus said something along the lines of, “This is it guys. I’m on the threshold of divine glory!” Keep in mind that, to the remaining eleven disciples there that night, this sounds like Jesus is about to discuss plans for taking over the government of Judea, and maybe rousting out the Romans.

Then it seems like He shifts gears to something a million miles away. “Little brothers, I’m not going to be with you much longer. Where I’m going you cannot come just yet.” This would be the exact opposite of what they expected. Wasn’t this the moment to come out as the Messiah and begin the Final Era of Israel’s reign over all the earth?

Then He says something we can be sure went right past them. “Here’s the new law for My new reign: You shall love each other the way I have loved you. This is how people will know that you are My royal servants.” From our perspective two millennia later, we can understand what He’s saying here. John uses the Greek word agape and we make too much of that, as if there is some inherent spiritual meaning in it. There is a distinct meaning to it, but nothing that justifies slinging it around today as some holy word.

What Jesus hopes they’ll catch onto once the Holy Spirit descends on them is that His willingness to suffer the arrest, abuse, and crucifixion is the key to understanding His Kingdom. That will be the mark of the Holy Spirit’s presence in people’s lives: They will be eager to shed this life for eternal glory. The misery and suffering is a small price to pay. What is the Cross God has called you to bear? Carry it to the end, because that is the glory of God.

So Peter, missing the whole point, and likely speaking what the others are thinking, asks why he can’t go with Jesus right now. Wasn’t their Master headed toward His throne? Isn’t that what the glory of God means? Had not they been faithful servants these three years, training to serve in His royal court? Certainly it would mean some kind of battle, since the Jewish leaders and Romans weren’t going to surrender without a fight. But Jesus and His disciples had all these miraculous powers, so they shouldn’t have that much trouble winning. But, hey, if it meant getting killed in some way, wouldn’t that be a worthy heroic end?

I doubt Jesus would have snorted or expressed any derision at all. He simply said quite gently to Peter that before the rooster crowed in wee hours of the morning, Peter would deny Him — not once, but three times.

Not a one of them believed it. In this hour before seizing His throne, surely His closest friends would be ready to face the risks. They simply did not understand that the Cross was His earthly throne, and that His Kingdom would be strictly in the hearts of people.

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The Labels Mean Nothing

Posted on July 27, 2019 by ehurst

Let me clarify something: When I say I don’t support either side in the current US political battle, that is a strategic position. In the long run, none of the various competing sides represents what I see in Biblical Law. From their point of view, my positions are eclectic, a senseless mixture that is not logically consistent.

But in tactical terms, I know that those on the traditional right are generally less threatening to my pursuit of shalom. It’s just a broad general statement, since Zionists try to dominate the right-wing, and those folks hate me. Fortunately, they don’t dominate in all the ways they would like, so they hedge their bets by infesting the left, as well. Meanwhile, the globalist left hates the very concept of heart-led faith, and has concrete plans to silence and even slaughter those who claim Christ. So in tactical terms, I find the right less dangerous.

It’s a good idea to be aware of such things, given where things are headed in the US these days. I refer you to this clear assessment: Is It Time for America to Break Apart?.

Increasingly, we live in a country that has become de facto little more than a mere geographical entity. True, it is still formally a nation, but a nation where there are in fact at least two very distinct Americas, with radically differing visions of what is real and what is not real, radically differing conceptions of what is moral and what is not, radically differing views about truth and error, and radically differing ideas about using whatever means are available to reach a desired and posited end. For all the talk of equality and racism, the revolutionary side in actuality seeks to replace one oligarchy — which it calls “white supremacist” — with another oligarchy of its own making, in fact, a brutal, vicious and soulless “utopia” that would make Joseph Stalin’s Communist state seem like a Sandals Retreat in the Bahamas.

At the very least, it’s time to start telling the screamers that they can call us whatever they want, because their value system is so evil that the labels don’t mean anything.

There are then, palpably, two Americas. They still use the same language, but they are increasingly incapable of communicating with each other. Almost weekly words and terms are redefined beyond comprehension, and those “devil terms” have become the modern equivalents of linguistic hydrogen bombs deployed by the progressivists. They illustrate what political theorist Paul Gottfried has called a “post-Marxist” praxis that has actually moved beyond the assaults of cultural Marxism towards a new and imposed template.

But lest you be fooled into thinking this is merely left-versus-right, the establishment right acts just like an ally to the left. No, the divide is not left-right, but elite versus little people. And while the propagandists have tried to hijack those terms, as well, it’s not hard to see the real meaning of them. The real issue is nationalism versus everyone else who wants to destroy the very sense of being a nation.

And most folks who realize that they feel the call of nationalism also realize they have no help anywhere in the system. Despite how various propaganda outlets will try to shape the image of things, the coming civil war will be very much a nationalist revolt against the collectivists. The author ends the article on a hopeful note, and I have to wonder if he is daft or just trying to be positive when he knows it will be Hell.

My apparent support of the right-wing is just a tactical move, a temporary contextual response. We can expect a genuine guerrilla war in the near future, as that’s how both sides will tend to fight, while the existing government attempts to keep the pretense of actually governing over the chaos. As it is, the guerrilla warfare has already begun, but it will become more widespread as things become more chaotic. Folks will be shooting more hateful labels than real bullets, though there will be plenty of the latter.

So call me a “white supremacist terrorist” or “alt-right militiaman” or whatever and get on with it, because the labels mean nothing. God calls us to serve His truth and very few will ever understand any of that in the first place. Very few will understand the objectives of shalom from Biblical Law because they reject revelation. They are going to use all kinds of nasty labels on you and me.

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Making Noise about It

Posted on July 26, 2019 by ehurst

I confess openly that I’m not fully aware of everything God had in mind in this move. He put it into mine and Jay’s hearts to gain better control for the sake of freedom to express the message, but it comes at a cost. In the wider context, it’s some of the same kind of move Jesus made when He shared His Bread of Life message. He needed to pull away from the misguided popularity over His miracles so He could draw more attention to the message behind the miracles. The way things were going in His world at that time, it was a necessary step to insure the coming persecution would come for the right reasons, not for something He had no intention of doing. It cost Him the attention of the huge crowds.

Not that I was so popular, but let’s get real: The recent move from WordPress hosting to more independent hosting has actually reduced our exposure. I knew that going into it. I’ll keep posting computer technology stuff on the other blog, but the primary message of faith will be shared here.

It isn’t just political chatter to notice that things are changing in America. The conflict is quite public, though the actual causes are well hidden, and intentionally so. It’s a moral and spiritual truth that the Devil is suckering people into believing that they can raise the Tower of Babel again. We teach Biblical Law because it says so much about what government ought to be, and human governments these days have never been more wrong. The Tower of Babel represents the inherent evil of seeking to centralize human government for the entire world. The hideous secret is that America was hijacked as a critical element in working toward the latest iteration of the Tower of Babel.

There is zero possibility for taking America back from the hijackers. Any hope you have for shalom these days is seeking it on a smaller scale. We might hope for some sanity to return, but not until after we have passed through a time of great tribulation and America is broken up. And while I still insist it will not be an apocalypse, my prophetic sense tells me it will come painfully close.

The timing is the only thing God won’t show me, but the general trend of things is easily seen by anyone with a prophetic gift. The forces of the New Babel are very much in control, but it’s a control by mass deception, and deception on that scale is not so simple. Keep your eye on the central bankers, the folks who control the interest rates on various currencies. They are in the driver’s seat for New Babel, and they have lots of allies serving alongside. Some of those allies know more, and some less than the others, but the overall trend is the same. The plan is to crash the economy and blame Trump and friends so that the socialists can seize control of the country. Much depends on whether everything for their plan is in place before the next election.

However, the crashing is certain, and the intent to blame the right is painfully obvious. They will use that as the means to gaining popular momentum, but only with swing voters. The core of the right will not go along with it, and the left is determined to be brutal about it, so civil war is flatly unavoidable. Anyone to the right of Karl Marx will be labeled a terrorist.

And along with this is the certainty that Big Tech will strive hard to centralize their control over the Internet as we know it now. They intend being part of this future government. The Internet is a primary vector for the control of the population, pushing the globalist vision of reality. Frankly I expect to face some struggle to keep even this privately hosted blog open. At the same time, there is a technology race to keep the channels open by other means. Don’t be surprised if one or more alternative protocols for networking appear on the scene to provide a safe means of communication for those who refuse to go along with the Technology Lords.

The closest I come to activism is the fight for freedom to spread the gospel. If you don’t see in the New Babel a visceral hatred for moral truth from the Bible, you don’t see anything that matters. My willingness to draw blood in the name of Biblical Law is more likely to manifest in a fight to keep the lines of communication open, far more than any other kind of political battle. My sense of divine calling is not to fight for political freedoms, but the freedom of the message. Oppression in general is one thing; Satan is allowed to provoke that. But silencing the gospel is something the Devil isn’t allowed to do. I have already joined the technology battle, and I am deeply moved to draw blood over that, if necessary.

I’m not asking you to join me in that, only that you also promote the gospel in whatever way God has called you. Given the context, the focus is on living that truth, on letting folks see your shalom arising from Biblical Law. How you do that is between you and God, but my job is to make noise about it.

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Divine Centralization

Posted on July 25, 2019 by ehurst

We are prejudiced. It’s required by God. He demands that we distinguish between His people, folks who are useful, and folks who are enemies. It’s not binary as most Christians think; it’s ternary. Furthermore, it’s inherently subjective in the sense that you must decide for yourself. You cannot allow other people to decide it for you. God demands that you pay attention and discern for yourself whom to treat as family, useful servants and slaves/enemies.

The point is that you treat His family as your family. This means you invest an appropriate level of trust in some folks as a reflection of your trust in God. In His divine wisdom, we should trust Him to provide some portion of what we need through His people. There are no Lone Rangers in the faith. You may find yourself socially isolated in a sea of non-believers, but that just means your family hasn’t arrived yet. In Eternity, your family is massive beyond comprehension, so you just have to give God time to make them visible in your life.

Furthermore, it requires a commonly agreed covenant, and it must be feudal once it forms. At this point, it goes without saying that a common covenant starts with a shared heart-led consciousness. If there’s anything about which we are most truly prejudiced, it is the heart-led way. This is the one and only thing we know is within human reach, even for folks who remain spiritually dead. It is the one thing we can most likely discern about someone else; it is the only indicator we have of spiritual birth.

But heart-led discernment isn’t always immediate. In more practical terms, we tend to be prejudiced against folks who aren’t focused on building up the Body of Christ. That means we expect them to manifest divine compassion. The second thing is we are prejudiced against folks who don’t respect the demands of Scripture.

Now those two earmarks of faith are things we can grasp on a human level. Your mind can absorb this from your heart very easily. And of course, this brings up all the many things we could say about churchianity and how it perverts these standards. For example, we don’t worship the Bible; that’s something portions of the historical churches have absorbed from the Judaizers. We hold that the writing is a manifestation of Christ, but is not Christ Himself. And we certainly don’t cling to the Western cultural meaning of “niceness” as our standard of divine compassion. All of this requires working to embrace a distinctly ancient Hebrew outlook on things. The Bible is an ancient Hebrew book, after all.

For this reason, some professed Christians are actually your enemies, and typically more so than random strangers who have no interest in Christ.

But in a more ideal world, many of us would be in geographical proximity to fellow covenant family. We would do for each other the things any extended family clan would do for each other. Sometimes it’s the one thing we do best; at other times it’s merely what we do better than others. That’s how any other feudal clan would do it. It’s all by the covenant seeking shalom.

This is what we mean by divine centralization. For now, this online community of faith has very limited interaction, but we still seek to do for each other what little we can to build our covenant shalom.

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Divine Decentralization

Posted on July 24, 2019 by ehurst

Make the connection here; it’s pretty simple. DIY, decentralization, doing things in-house — this is a part of the essence of holiness. Anything that frees you up to obey the move of the Holy Spirit, often in contrast to what other folks are doing, is a blessing from the Lord.

At the same time, you really need to keep an eye on what it is you are called to do. By the same token, you need to be aware of things you are not called to worry about. Still, as a general principle and a default approach, always assume that you need to be ready for DIY on everything possible.

In this day and age, we know that this will appear to isolate us from others. The spirit of this age is unbounded interdependence. It’s sold as being connected to other humans, as if it were a moral obligation. This is not what Scripture promotes. The proper attitude is that you start first with a focus on God and prepare your heart to follow Him alone on that narrow, rugged path of devotion. You avoid the Highway to Hell. Then, you accept in fellowship whomever you encounter on that narrow path.

This has nothing to do with being an introvert or extrovert. Holiness will isolate you from the mass of fallen mankind, but it will bring peace with God. The separation is painful, but the pain is not because of the isolation, but it’s because of sin. Our fallen nature makes us lonely because we are separated from the Creator, our Heavenly Father. We need to find our friendship with God first. Nobody else matters until that is settled. Without Him at the center, nothing else can possibly be right.

The only centralization we need is with Christ. Everything else calls for a divine decentralization.

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America’s Moral Autism

Posted on July 23, 2019 by ehurst

Think about the meaning of the term “moral autism.”

autism ~ noun — very rare
1. (psychiatry) an abnormal absorption with the self; marked by communication disorders and short attention span and inability to treat others as people

I found this delicious quote that sums it up very well:

Through most of the 20th century, America led something of a charmed life, at least when compared with the disasters endured by almost every other major country. We became the richest and most powerful nation on earth, partly due to our own achievements and partly due to the mistakes of others. The public interpreted these decades of American power and prosperity as validation of our system of government and national leadership, and the technological effectiveness of our domestic propaganda machinery — our own American Pravda — has heightened this effect. Furthermore, most ordinary Americans are reasonably honest and law-abiding and project that same behavior onto others, including our media and political elites. This differs from the total cynicism found in most other countries around the world.

The point is not that the mainstream media lies about every little thing, but that the overall effect is to deceive. This isn’t just a matter of one partisan agenda over another, but a very conscious intent to keep the truth away from the average Joe American. And it really doesn’t matter what the MSM is trying to accomplish more broadly, because it is by definition evil.

Worse, it dampens Joe American’s moral awareness and makes it exceedingly difficult to awaken souls. It’s not as simple as fussing about the MSM, since lots of people pretend to know enough to do that for other reasons. This is why we say little and do much that demonstrates shalom. It’s the only way to really break through.

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DIY and Holiness

Posted on July 22, 2019 by ehurst

I keep talking about doing things in-house. It’s a symbol of withdrawing back inside your own borders, of reinforcing your own domain. Of course, I’m referring to the domain you hold as a feudal grant from God. It’s your calling, your mission. It points to the things He has granted you, as both a burden and a privilege.

While self-reliance is always a good thing, it becomes especially critical during times of tribulation and wrath. That’s where we are now. It’s entirely human of us to grow up in an environment and not give too much thought to whether elements of our environment are good or bad. It takes a special sensitivity that only God can provide in awakening our hearts to begin breaking free from the demonic lures in our social environment. Renewing the emphasis on self-reliance is a way of freshening our awareness of our divine calling.

We call out to Him to come and visit, and we welcome His wrath as simply the other edge of the sword that brings blessings. We say: “Lord, let your wrath be poured out against sin, and start with mine!” For those who cling to Him, wrath is but the first stage of restoring shalom. This restores us individually to doing for Him those things He called us to do, and making room for Him to supply all the things we were not called to do.

But faith is not something that can be farmed out to third parties. If the message and covenant of Radix Fidem appeals to you, let me encourage you to be ready always to worship outside of the mainstream churches. Don’t leave your church just because I did; I won’t tell you to quit your church. Leave because the Lord is calling you to something they won’t do. Leave because you cannot serve the Lord there.

I realize that larger and denser church organizations provide all the comforts of home better than you can do for yourself. It’s hard to replace church music productions, fellowship meals, etc. I miss those things, too. But they came at the price of stifling my own divine calling, so I had to pack up what I could carry and do for myself, and step out into the wilderness where Christ stood calling to me. I’ve been worshiping in my home for more than a decade now, and it works a whole lot better. This is where I found shalom.

That’s the image behind moving to this blog service with a different URL. I’ve lost some of the conveniences offered by WordPress.com and some of them can’t be replaced. The Lord warned me in my heart that I couldn’t trust them to support me as His message through me becomes more challenging to the mainstream.

I believe I will try offering email notices manually. Once we get the email for this domain set up, I’ll establish a routine just for that purpose. Those of you who prefer getting notified of new posts by email can ask to be added to my manual process. If there aren’t any significant difficulties, we’ll stick with that. Once it’s ready, you’ll see a notice posted in the right column (AKA “sidebar”).

Pray for us as we work through the growing pains and shifting more of our community activities to DIY.

Update: It’s all set up. Check the “Contact me or subscribe” block on the upper right side.

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Admin: Subscriptions Not Working

Posted on July 22, 2019 by ehurst

Sorry to announce this folks, but the subscription plugins for WP aren’t what I had hoped. First, there are too many plugins offering more than they can deliver, and some of them open blogs up to hacking. The one I tested was way too complicated and offered too little in return. I’m going to research this for a few days and see if I can identify one that will automate the process instead of forcing me to send notifications manually.

Please bear with me on this. For now you’ll just have to keep checking the blog in your browser to see if there are new posts. This is one of the growing pains that come from switching to independent hosting.

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Teachings of Jesus — John 13:18-30

Posted on July 21, 2019 by ehurst

Cross posting from the other blog to create a synchronization point.

This lesson will be different. Harmonizing the Gospels has always been a major chore and fraught with controversies. The Last Supper narrative is part of the most thoroughly picked over portion of the story. There remains much controversy and many unanswered questions. Because of this, it’s very easy to lose track of John’s emphasis here.

First, let me help you settle the narrative outline by linking to a reference I rather like: Last Seder: A Jewish Reading of the Last Supper. This will give you enough background that you can better picture in your mind what’s going on. God help us; the biggest problem we have is overly sanctifying each little detail. Mainstream church traditions invest so much drama into this story that no one is able to actually picture it taking place. The real event was pretty mundane by comparison.

The central issue here is how Jesus gave this ritual meal new meanings. In particular, He seized upon the original symbolism and gave it new life in Himself. He was the Passover Lamb; the Exodus was replaced with the Cross and everything it means. By embracing Jesus as our Messiah, we have left behind the slavery of our old lives wallowing in human comforts. We follow Christ out into the wilderness to face a much more stern existence, but one that has far more meaning at peace with God.

Jesus knew what kind of men these were that had been His called disciples during the past three years or so. He quoted Psalm 41 where David mentions his long and grave illness during the time Absalom was building his rebellion. It was David’s son depicted in this Psalm, hoping his father would die from that illness.

The specific reference is to Ahitophel, one of David’s advisers, but Absalom’s spy. Ahitophel had been physically close to David the whole time, eating from the same table often. The disciples would have recognized this reference. It was one more thing that turned upside down all their expectations that night. So He noted that He was telling them this so their hearts would burn it into their memories for later.

He started talking about how, if He commissioned one of them to do something, whoever received them in the name of Jesus was receiving Jesus and the Father, as well. This was quite the opposite of what was about to happen, and Jesus the man choked up on it. He blurted out the statement that one of them would betray Him. Judas knew, but feigned ignorance as they all looked to one another, perplexed at the very idea.

John was to the right of Jesus, if for no other reason than this young cousin of His was His closest buddy, the one guy here who seemed most able to understand the character and personality of Jesus. Peter was the presumed second-in-command and gestured or whispered to John to ask more directly who the traitor would be. Since they were all reclining, John simply leaned back against Jesus’ chest with his head and whispered his question. Jesus replied that He would give the “sop” (Korech) to the guilty party. Jesus then took some matzo, smeared horseradish on it, placed a bit of roasted lamb on top, added another layer of matzo, and dipped it in a fruit and nut puree on the table. It symbolized a special favor for someone. This He handed to Judas; it was a significant honor.

Then He told Judas he better get on with his plan. Judas cut himself out of the rest of the meal and the symbolism Jesus put into it. He left immediately to inform the Temple officials when and where they could find Jesus for a nice quiet arrest away from the crowds. Here was the trusted adviser spying for Jesus’ enemies, a man who knew the personal habits of Jesus. Judas knew the group would eventually wander out to the Garden of Gethsemane just across the Kidron Valley from the eastern wall of Jerusalem. It was a short walk and it needed only one lookout to watch the only route between the Upper Room and road past the garden entrance.

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New Digs

Posted on July 21, 2019 by ehurst

Welcome to Radix Fidem Blog. Going forward, this will be my primary blog. Even I don’t quite know what to expect, but I do know that part of the reason we’ve moved to a new host is to make it more difficult for censorship. As God’s wrath continues falling on America, and tribulation deepens, we can expect evil people to seek every possible means to keep control of things they never really owned. Sooner or later we will become targets of their desperate measures.

Thus, I cannot make any promises about how things will go here. It really depends on what God does and how He leads me. Still, this whole thing is heart-led, so your attention and participation should also be heart-led.

Subscription should be available in a few days, because both Jay and I are working on getting things up to snuff. Bear with us.

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