NT Doctrine — 1 Timothy 5

Posted on June 8, 2024 by ehurst

The basic theme here is not obvious to western Christians. The first generation of churches were expected to act like synagogues. A primary feature of synagogues was to implement and enforce the Hebrew customs for extended family households; the people in your synagogue and your family were the same people. For communal Hebrews this was instinctive and generally mandatory, but not so much with Gentiles, who likely joined a church without their extended family joining them. Both Jews and Gentiles were often cut off from family for confessing Christ. Your church may well include blood kin, but what mattered is that they were spiritual kin.

Paul advises Timothy to treat everyone like family, and to set the example in filial piety. When it’s necessary to pull someone up from a headlong rush into sin, do so in such a way as to make it clear you seek their best interest. This is nothing at all like the western habit of showing off how smart you are on some matter, and then pretending you are “just trying to help”. That would never fly in the Ancient Near East. This is not about you; give real help when it really helps.

A primary function of a Christian synagogue was carrying the burdens of a family. In a world where the majority of females got married at about age 15 to a man 10-20 years her senior, it was common for them to outlive their husbands. All the more was this true when men were exposed to more threats to life and limb than is common today. Meanwhile, the Old Testament bore a very strong statement insisting that extended families care for these widows.

Paul mentions “a window indeed” referring to someone who is cut off from any earthly family support. Is the church truly her only family? Then she should be supported and supportive. She should be wholly devoted to the church household in order for the church to feed and house her. If she has outside commitments, then she cannot give full attention to the church to justify such support.

If she’s below age 60, she’s too likely to get lonely for male companionship. The image here is someone still sexually active. Paul makes it clear he’s referring to putting these women on the church payroll as staff. These were something like modern nuns, though not so rigorously organized as is common today. Still, their activities were rather similar, emphasizing service and worship within the church community.

The concept of eldership was not so foreign, but Paul saw the need to advise Timothy on the uniquely Christian version of it. Again, this is family. Elders were effectively heads of households within the wider church community. Paul says they deserve support, as well, as the Greek word time refers to both honor and honorarium (“double honor”). It’s a privileged position; they should not be easy to take down. By the same token, any rebuke must be in the presence of those they lead, so that the other elders learn to take their roles seriously.

It is vitally necessary to grant some men a higher privilege; there’s no other way churches can exist. It’s rooted in the reality of dealing with humans. But by the same token, it must be obvious to everyone involved that there’s no human favoritism. It’s a privilege, not a right. Men are chosen for the role because God uses them that way even without the privileges. Fit elders would not argue with a godly rebuke.

Regarding the final verses here, I wrote elsewhere: “Paul… also advised him to drink wine, because water alone was not only regarded as extreme asceticism with most people, but wine would offset the effects of questionable water quality in that part of the world. Timothy need not be embarrassed how it would look. In the real world, we all know a sinner may not be obvious at first, but eventually his evil will slip out. The same with a good man, whose actions may at first seem a little odd. Once they saw Timothy acting truly magisterial, silly questions become obviously silly.”

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It’s Not the Same

Posted on June 7, 2024 by ehurst

I’m willing to bet most of you have never heard of The Monkey Wrench Gang by Edward Abbey. It’s presented as a fiction novel about eco-activists using unconventional means to save the environment. It was published while I was in college (1970s) and was quite the rage among the lefties of that time.

The essence of it should be obvious: Engage in vandalism that promotes their long term goals of saving the earth and nature. You can still get the book from the usual vendors, and if you know where to look, there are PDF copies online. However, this book is not really the point here.

Back when the Internet was still pretty new, some early adopters of the “monkey wrench” concept were underground patriots, those who resist government control. Among the early sites, now mostly all gone, was one that featured a patriot-libertarian slant. A substantial portion of the website was taken up with a right-wing adaptation of the “monkey wrench” concept.

I’m willing to bet most of you can guess what kind of stuff the author was promoting. I don’t recall any of it rising to the level of terror tactics. His concept was to engage in hijinks that weren’t actually destructive, but highly annoying and likely to hinder federal enforcement activities that blossomed under President Clinton. For example, spotting those huge government Chevy Suburbans coming into town, waiting until the wee hours of the morning, and letting the air out of their tires, or maybe splashing water-based tempera paint on the windshields using water-balloons.

The whole idea was to never face anything heavier than misdemeanor charges. Sometime later a few more sites popped up and sort of hijacked the term “monkey wrench” to refer to outright terrorism. I suppose that was just a sign of the times. Today we have Antifa and BLM on the left unrestrained by such decorum as was espoused in the original book. We should expect more of the same, and worse.

Some of you may recognize the name Marvin Heemeyer. I’ve met someone who knew him personally. His rampage with the “killdozer” was twenty years ago. He was just a decent guy who was convinced the system was hostile to human interests. His actions never produced any change, of course. He didn’t have much support among residents of the town. If someone wanted to go that route, it would require far more destruction and loss of life. I can’t imagine anyone having the resources for that. It was a monumental effort just rigging up that bulldozer.

I could imagine someone being convinced it would be worth doing. Heemeyer has quite a fan club spread across the US. The polarization and depth of hostility is only increasing. There’s already been some really inept efforts among normies to strike back. That big J6 affair is an example. Those sites advising folks on how to do mischief are all gone, and your average Joe has way more rage than knowledge. I keep wondering if those with the means and skills (like some veterans) will start taking action, but I also wonder how many are still alive.

It’s going to get ugly, folks.

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Bits and Pieces 36

Posted on June 6, 2024 by ehurst

Some interesting events this week.

1. Brandon Smith analyzes the NATO attack on Russia’s advanced warning radar. Ukraine could not do this alone, and probably would not bother on their own. The result is that, either NATO plans to pull a false flag to make it look like Russia used nukes, or they are keeping Russia from seeing something in the Middle East for some other strategic actions (protecting Israel).

2. My own State of Oklahoma Legislature is the second state to pass a law rejecting outside control from WHO, UN or WEF. I can’t even find out which was the first state, this is so hush-hush. That is, the MSM is censoring this. Even our local news stations haven’t reported on this; they don’t dare make fun of it.

3. Some of you may be aware that Alex Jones claims that outside forces will compel him to shut down operations mid-month. A lot of supporters claim this is an attack on the First Amendment. There’s more to it than that. Alex Jones is part of a network of controlled opposition, on the par with Hal Turner, Steve Quayle, Gordon Duff (Veterans Today) and other hairball weirdos. These people were put in place to distract and prevent us from noticing the real threats.

The whole point is that these guys are permitted to cover real news but are required to publish nonsense with it, so that all of it becomes dubious in the public mind. These outlets were aimed primarily at the Boomer generation, just as the Q-anon stuff was aimed at later generations. On the one hand, they keep the mass of patriots busy chasing nonsense, while drawing them in under surveillance. These things exist to be taken down, in the same sense of as the Straw Man target. It’s a form of reverse propaganda; the message is in silencing them.

4. Someone asked me if I had changed my mind about Trump. No, he’s an egomaniac who has been politically progressive his whole life. That is, until he was ready to become POTUS, and his beloved Democrats held him back in favor of someone else. He pretends to be conservative because that’s the only path left open for him. It’s all about him; it has nothing to do with any real agenda. He has no principles.

Given the current playing field and the overall plot to destroy America in particular and the West in general, he is the best option for moving forward. The kind of destruction he would bring is the least painful for the gospel mission to which we are called. We can exploit his brand of chaos far easier than we could the other brand.

The destruction of the West will happen soon, and that means America goes down with it. The only question is how it goes down. My only interest is the mandate to spread the gospel message. If I get to choose, I’d prefer Trump’s destruction of America over the odd mixture of other paths being offered.

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Waiting on His Good Pleasure

Posted on June 5, 2024 by ehurst

Let’s get real about this: The US has been at war with Russia for several years, but it’s been a proxy war so far. At this point, it seems almost inevitable that the US will provoke Russia to the point that Putin will take direct military action against NATO/US. I blame the West in general and the US government in particular. Further, it would seem this escalation will be just about any day now.

Don’t get the impression that it’s madness or stupidity on the part of US government. It is sheer and unadulterated arrogance and spite. Whether or not they grasp how it’s likely to turn out for us simply doesn’t matter. Those pushing the buttons don’t care.

I’ve already said for years that the US government is at war with the citizens. TPTB hate us; they want about half of us dead. The other half they hold in contempt and don’t care what happens to them. I’m not sure how this will play out in details, but I think it’s wise to plan on a general mobilization for war. At the same time, I fully expect them to try it without a formal declaration, because there’s too much to lose with a vote in Congress. Instead, it will provoke some states to act in unpredictable ways.

The Democratic Party realizes that they will almost certainly lose the next election, and are preparing to use war to prevent having that election. I suspect it will fail, but you never know. I think it’s wise to expect this to kick off an economic break-down of some sort. Shipping will be disrupted; assets and supplies will be seized for use by the government. I find martial law highly likely, because certain kinds of protests are virtually guaranteed. At the same time, I have no way of estimating what that would look like.

Nor can I guess how the action in Gaza/West Bank is going to get twisted into this, but I’m certain it will.

The Lord hasn’t given me any prophetic warnings, only a strong sense of conviction to get ready for hard times. This is likely to disrupt the current ministry operations. I’ve stepped up my purchase planning for the new computer office hardware. My wife already has her equipment. I now have that dot-matrix printer and it’s very good (and I’m hunting for continuous feed paper). Instead of a Surface device, I settled on a 15″ Latitude to replace my desktop system. Somehow, a certain degree of mobility seems important. It’s already on the way; the Lord provides for His work.

I’ve picked up other kinds of tools, for bicycles in particular, and I’ve got some replacements for parts that wear out fast. Canned goods for a low-sodium diet are limited, but we are stocking up. The other stuff you can guess; no need to spell it all out.

Should it turn out I’m wrong and it fails to take off, I will have lost nothing. All of this is where I was headed already; this just means doing it earlier than I would have otherwise. As long as the Lord provides, I’ll keep working my way down the list of priorities so that we are as ready as possible before this month is out.

Should anything serious happen, I want to be found faithful, ready for whatever our Lord commands.

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Conviction versus Doctrine

Posted on June 4, 2024 by ehurst

Following the Bible Lesson passage in 1 Timothy 4, some good questions came up.

In the early chapters of Genesis we have the story of Noah. One detail has confused people. On the one hand, Noah had to take seven of the “clean animals” but only a breeding pair of the rest. So, there was a primitive “kosher” of sorts regarding animals that were ritually clean. Yet, later on when Noah comes out of the Ark, God says that he could eat anything that moves (9:3).

The “clean animals” were not food for Noah and his family, but were offering animals (8:20). That is, “kosher” referred to ritual offerings; the demand that diet be restricted to them came later under Moses.

The issue was that the nation God built from the Patriarchs was supposed to be distinct as a nation in human terms. The elohim council members had their nations, and God had His. A great deal of the ritual law in Moses was aimed at distinguishing Israel from those other nations. It had nothing to do with the inherent holiness they gained by keeping all those laws; that was never possible. Rather, it was that they were marked out as a separate people from the rest of humanity.

Thus, when Christ died on the Cross, kosher became a dead letter. He indicated this Himself when He said that it was not what went in your mouth that defiled you, but what came out of it. On top of that, Peter’s vision on the rooftop confirmed that kosher was dead, as was the ethnic identity for the Covenant. The period of Israel’s national covenant was bracketed, and on either end of that bracket, kosher was not a matter of dietary restrictions.

Further, with Christ as the final ritual offering, there are no more “clean animals” for sacrificial purposes. The matter is closed. Our Christian identity is not based on distinctions humans understand and control, but on something rooted in Eternity. There is no national identity attached to it.

Most people don’t carry the teaching in 1 Timothy 4 far enough.

Our spirits cannot be redeemed; they are eternal by nature. It is the flesh that needs redemption. This is what the “process of salvation” refers to. We are pulling our flesh away from Satan’s grasp. The Devil retains titular ownership of the flesh, but we are confiscating it from him. We don’t have a fleshly national identity any more; the Old Covenant died on the Cross. Now we have a spiritual identity. It is an invasive thing, reaching into Satan’s turf (this world) and pulling stuff out of his grasp. Think about that image of how the Gates of Hell cannot resist us. Human lives can be rescued from Satan.

There are things that can happen to your flesh that defile you, and some of that is permanent. The most obvious example is sex. You get only one shot at doing it right. All sex creates an undying moral connection with the partner. If your first is a godly choice, then you win — as long as you never stray from that relationship. The moment you do, you are defiled in your flesh. You are permanently crippled for life.

And when you die, it does not follow you into Eternity. It affects only your life here.

Paul was encouraging Timothy to make a clear distinction with this principle. It was part and parcel of the teaching that Timothy could marshal divine power in his apostleship there in Ephesus. Timothy was relatively young, and by human reckoning unqualified, but he was ordained by God. This was an intrusion of the Spirit Realm into the Fallen Realm. To be more precise with our imagery here, it was an exposure of the Spirit Realm’s ultimate truth by peeling back a false layer of fleshly deception.

Divorce and remarriage cripples you in the flesh. You’ll have to live the rest of your life with the defilement, and it will hinder some things. It allows Satan to retain a certain limited authority over your life, and you cannot redeem it from slavery to him. It means you’ll have a tough time with some issues, and it will defile your children — all of them. It doesn’t mean God won’t mitigate the damage; He will choose what He wants to offer on that. Still, it’s something where you get to choose that comes with permanent consequences.

The best analog is what Paul says there about how following certain rules do give you an advantage in this life, but those things have no effect on your eternal destiny. They are good ideas on a human level, but not necessarily a matter of holiness. Holiness is your devotion to God, and He doesn’t give the same convictions to everyone.

Smoking cigarettes is nasty and will kill you, but it’s not a sin in itself. Whether you take care of your diabetes or high blood pressure is a matter of conviction, not holiness. You can eat anything you like, but you should be aware that some foods will shorten your lifespan. Only God can decide whether that matters to Him. He might be planning on bringing you home early.

If God convicts you to be stay fit and healthy, then it’s necessary for you to work with Him to realize how He defines that for your calling and mission. It does not justify making it a doctrine for others to follow. We need to learn the boundaries between matters of personal conviction and matters of divine doctrine.

Note: It’s very easy to see how the various early heresies developed from this. When flesh tries to grasp the above doctrine, it tries to insert human logic. If fleshly failures don’t keep you from going to Heaven, then why bother worrying about righteous action? The answer is because God says He wants us to live by His definition of righteousness, not the human version. He wants us to strive against the flesh and redeem it from slavery. There are choices we can make that hinder this process, some permanently, and those are things we try to avoid.

It is inevitable we will fail at various points. The whole point of “salvation” is not going to Heaven; that’s not why Jesus died on the Cross. The reason He died is to open the Covenant to everyone. The whole point is living a covenant life. We still have work to do here to glorify His name; that’s why we exist in mortal form. Our primary purpose in living is to testify that God alone deserves all glory, honor and praise. The way to carry that out is to discipline the flesh. The law code of past covenants gives us some idea how to do that.

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The Mythology of Evil

Posted on June 3, 2024 by ehurst

One of the biggest problems we face in promoting an ancient Hebrew outlook is the cluttered field of lies contained in western mythology.

All the way back to Beowulf we have a string of powerful evil men who, using some connection to dark forces in the universe, are able to rise and torment the good or innocent humans. This is read back into the Bible, but is wholly unbiblical. These dark evil lords do not represent a proper understanding of Satan and his agenda.

There are no dark forces in Creation, and certainly nothing capable of opposing God against His will. That’s a sort of Zoroastrian pagan mythology. There is nothing dark in Creation; there is no matching dark and light forces. There is a very subtle difference between that and the proper Hebrew symbolism of stability versus chaos. Chaos is not darkness; chaos is just a reset of things that have gotten off course. It can result in evil, but it is not inherently evil itself. Stability and order can also result in evil.

And lest we forget, I’ve already posted a few times trying to explain that the biblical concept of evil is not something inherently dark, but an outcome that is unpleasant in context. To get a proper grasp of evil requires that you not take yourself too seriously. Not every unpleasant situation is inherently dark; it may be that you were simply standing in the wrong place and/or at the wrong time. Or maybe you are Job.

And you should not get the feeling you are being targeted or persecuted unless you have good evidence. It may simply be time for chaos to come on your human activities. Of course, that’s the other lie, that human aspirations are of any real value. The Bible makes it very plain that all human activity is vanity. The whole point of the Fall is that humans are utterly incapable of grasping the nature of good and evil by their own capabilities. Only God can reveal it, and it’s not the kind of revelation that can be delivered in a neat package to be kept and managed by humans. The nature of revelation is a living connection that must be maintained, moving and shifting as human events pass.

In God’s creation, there is no Grendel. There is no wicked creature(s) capable of tapping into dark forces, because there are no dark forces. There is no inherent evil, because evil is inherently contextual. Satan is nothing like Grendel, the Dark Lord of Mordor, etc. Those images are all false.

Indeed, the one really nasty thing Satan can do in this world is restricted to the End Times: He is not permitted to attack faith itself. Everything he does is limited to attacking humanity at large, and all of his efforts to plan and provoke humans to wickedness are restricted to basic stupidity. He was confined to human space, and his powers are distinctly limited to what is here within the time/space continuum. He ends up doing only the same thing he did in the Garden: He tempts humans to trust their own capabilities instead of relying on God.

Thus, the evil we can expect to see is limited to what humans can dream up in their own ambitions. Until the final apocalypse comes, that’s all we have to face, along with cyclical natural disasters. And the latter are merely expressions of chaos, resetting things periodically. Humans might read that as “the end of the world” because they are frustrated with the way their grand ambitions keep getting crushed. They blame it on Satan, when the real problem is their ambitions, not whether God will permit those ambitions to be realized. Human ambitions are inherently stupid in the first place. Humans without God will always reach for something that could not possibly exist.

It is the nature of mortal existence itself that militates against human ambition. The material of which this reality is constructed in itself cannot be pushed to meet human ambitions. For example, humans could never become space-faring beings, because space is so incredibly hostile in the first place. Just the background radiation out there would extinguish us in very short order. There is no material nor power within our reach that can create sufficient shielding, and at the same time sufficient propulsion, to take us very far outside our planet’s gravity well. Just a short visit to the moon or space stations does terrible things to the human body.

But the real reason humans can’t overcome all this is that we keep turning to deceptions any time we get organized enough to reach for such things. There is an incredible amount of deception about just the limited exploration we already have done. The whole point of the deception is to protect the activity from the vagaries of human sentiment about the costs and return on investment, among other things. We cannot do that stuff without robbing whole nations and depriving them of the bare necessities of life.

And once that lying gets started, it demands a context in which men lie to each other even when they are on the same team reaching for the stars. It generates the kind of self-serving plotting that robs the programs and makes them ineffective. The disasters to which they have admitted are sufficient testimony of that. It gives new meaning to the concept of “lowest bidder contracting”.

These flaws cannot be overcome. They are human nature. To rule over other humans in order to centralize sufficient resources for grand ambitions is so morally perverted in itself that nothing good can ever come of it once you scale up beyond a hundred people or so.

In God’s eyes, those ambitions are off-track, completely the wrong path for humans to take. His purpose in putting us here is to expose those failures in human ambition. The whole system is designed to make us fail such things. It is simply not possible; the deck is stacked against us. Those ambitions point to nothing; it is all vanity. That’s the whole point; our only hope is to kill off those ambitions and just live simple lives with only the barest minimum of human organization.

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Nothing Special Required

Posted on June 2, 2024 by ehurst

I had a good visit with one of my readers yesterday. In our conversation, I was reminded of an important principle that I need to share.

In the Radix Fidem community, we teach that miracles and prophecies belong to the Covenant. You may get random samples of those blessings outside the Covenant, but for the covenant community, they are just par for the course. When God has anything important to say about current events, He always tells His covenant people first.

Here’s the thing: If He isn’t saying much about current events, then they don’t matter. It’s just the random background noise and there’s no reason to tell us anything except what we already know.

Now, we have had multiple prophecies that God is going to break down the US as we know it. However, the details about how He will do that have not been consistently reported, only that He will dissolve the Union. Personally, I’m expecting states to secede and form new regional governments after some major political polarization over any number of egregious provocations. I have no clear vision of what kind of violence and destruction might go with that, but I expect some. I do have a strong sense that it’s going to get rolling this year, and I doubt that it will be quick to finish, but will drag on for months, maybe years.

Thus, I conclude that the only part that matters is the fact itself that the US will cease to be a single country, and that we will suffer some economic troubles in the process. The rest is not that important; it will be just random human blindness chasing whatever the Devil and his gang offer. It’s not really our concern. The political, military and other shenanigans are nothing special.

We have been warned about American Zionists censoring everyone. Lots of people expect some kind of economic disaster; that doesn’t require prophecy. It will bring a strong rise in general crime rates. Lots of prognosticators have warned about power failures, Internet restrictions and outages, and likely trouble with the cellphone networks. We are at a very high risk of general mobilization for war, and even weapons of mass destruction. Those are not prophecies, but common human insight.

As regards the violence and destruction from political turmoil, we just need to do what we already know to do. We handle those things with the same kind of preparation that we make for what He has revealed. The problems will be the common stuff we might expect any time and anywhere. I’m sure some of it will be amusing, but none of it is important.

The big stuff comes later when the earth’s magnetic poles shift radically and our magnetic shield from solar activity gets very, very weak. It’s already on the way to that, and it’s measurable. For that, there’s really nothing we can do to prepare. That is, the preparation will be simply more of what we are already teaching.

There’s really nothing our community can do, except try to stay connected to each other as long as possible. Our primary mission is loving each other the way Christ does; that’s our fundamental Covenant Law delivered at the Last Supper. Keep asking each other, “What can I do for you?”

Whatever God intends for us does not require any special preparation.

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NT Doctrine — 1 Timothy 4

Posted on June 1, 2024 by ehurst

There is a unifying theme in this chapter: We do not accomplish a spiritual mission by worldly means. Holiness is not a quality of this world, but something beyond this level of existence that can only be indicated, symbolized, and demonstrated. The actions and symbols were not the point.

The Spirit of God had warned that men would pervert the truth by letting demons lead them astray. The greatest lies of Satan are always just a step away from the truth. It was bad enough that there were a host of pagan cults people kept trying to drag into the church. They had all kinds of silly rules about diet, sex, etc. But trying to enforce the Kosher Laws on those who were not of Israel was simply wrong, given that the Covenant of Moses died on the Cross. Those laws no longer applied to any human on earth.

Prior to Moses, God had said through Noah that all creatures were our prey, and instructed Peter in no uncertain terms that God had removed the temporary limitations of Moses, reopening all food to His children in Christ. But the silly notion that there could be some superior grade of personal holiness by avoiding certain foods or by avoiding marriage and sexual relations were already old corruptions of Moses by the time Jesus began His ministry. The whole idea of these demonic teachings was to trap people’s minds on this plane, causing them to mystify the higher plane so that it remained out of reach, subject to fables and man-made legends.

The eternal realm is our home; we belong there. The flesh must be humbled before the heart and trained to accept leadership. That’s what the law codes were for — to give an example in context of how eternal living appears. With the end of the Old Covenant, we seek only to understand what it signifies about God’s character.

What God provides is a blessing. We are to receive these things gratefully; this is closer to holiness than any form of abstention on any grounds. At its most innocent, this whole thing was confusion over what God gave for our use versus what He said to avoid. God’s Word is clear on most things and His blessings were well known. We are surely bound to seek and receive them in ways that reflect our commitment to eternity, but the things themselves are gifts of grace to symbolize the vast riches of that eternal life.

There are valid reasons for avoiding some things in this world on medical grounds, of exercising a certain form of restraint and physical training based on mere practicalities, but even that is subject to the calling of God. His provisions in this world often come with limitations, but an individual call to restriction does not constitute doctrine. The highest profit is not a fit body. Spiritual health matters far more than the practicalities of physical health; we use the resources of this passing plane of existence to bring to life the higher truth. The words of Scripture mean nothing if they don’t bring us closer to the Living Word. We suffer enough from the natural results of walking in Him without making up new ways to distract ourselves with arguments arising from human intellectual speculations. Paul reminds Timothy to keep everyone focused on such teaching.

God appointed Timothy; he needed no human approval to walk in the power of the Lord. The silly human notions, about how long one had lived and how thoroughly the mind was trained and seasoned intellectually, meant nothing against a living truth which had been around before mankind. Timothy’s age or academic background made no difference. If he could walk in the power of the Ancient of Days, then his teaching arose from that power, not mere human intellect. As long as Timothy bathed his conduct in studying the Scriptures, preaching and teaching from them, then every other issue could wait for Paul to come settle.

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

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It’s Not Ours

Posted on May 31, 2024 by ehurst

Consider the logic: Human nature is loaded with desires on multiple levels. Even in the fabric of petty individual desires there are threads of something much bigger, of a discernible human imperative. The instinct for self-preservation is just the face of a greater ambition to propagate the species. The mass of fiction in which we become a space-faring race reflects that. We are driven to spread our seed as far and wide as possible.

The mistake is assuming that all of this is a gift from God. It is not; it is a disciplinary gauntlet meant to make us see the futility of trusting our own capabilities. The essence of being human is not what we actually are. The ultimate truth is that we are eternal beings who have no need for propagation and survival.

To be human is to live a lie. Not in the sense that we willfully deceive from within, but that we have embraced a external deception that ends in futility. Everything about being human has a distinct shelf-life. It will all expire, and the whole thing will be revealed as a small bubble, a brief passage, in the wider existence of Creation.

We weren’t designed for this. It was not our original condition. We were made for Eden, but we were led astray by forces we hardly comprehend. Revelation indicates we were a test of some moral truth that is far outside our reach. It’s not that we will cease to exist when the test run is finished; only our mortal passage will be tossed aside. No, our existence as eternal creatures is merely a reflection of who God is, and He says He intends to keep us around after all of this is over.

If you can grasp it: We will be commissioned to judge, to replace those incomprehensible higher beings who argued with God about the His plans and works. We are in training for this mission. The human situation is where we gain the moral fiber necessary to judge righteously.

The scary part is that not everyone around us here will be there. While it is impossible to explain in clinical terms, the underlying logic is available to us. Some people are simply part of the landscape, part of the broad deception that is our human existence. As a metaphor, we could say they are simply part of nature. They are part of the mortal animal and plant life around us, the Garden growing aimlessly without guidance. They are mere humans; there is nothing else to them. Our eternal souls were stuffed into these human forms for a time, but there are way more of the humans than are needed to house the eternal souls.

Even saying it that way doesn’t capture the truth. It’s just a parable. The clear statement of revelation is that, unless you are among the Elect, you cannot respond to God’s call. He alone can awaken an eternal spirit in humans. In essence, it has to be there before He calls, asleep and waiting for His touch. That’s what it means when Scripture says something about “elect before the foundation of the world”.

Not everyone is Elect. You cannot receive divine revelation without the Presence of the Holy Spirit. You must first be born from above. It’s not random, nor is it our choice; the biblical Doctrine of Election makes that clear. To human eyes the distinction is invisible. It makes no sense; it violates a human sense of morality. But human morality is not from Heaven. It does not reflect reality; it only seems to. The Holy Spirit infuses us with divine moral truth. We need to stop fighting that process by insisting that human moral reasoning be included.

It’s not a question of the Elect being “better” than the mortals, but that we simply are Elect. Our lives are no less tragic, and our fleshly nature no less hostile to the Holy Spirit. But the ultimate meaning of this passage for us is quite different than it is for the non-elect. What they have here is all they have; their existence is futility in itself.

The whole point of being more spiritual and less worldly is that we connect with that otherworldly realm to which we belong. It’s not a question of merit, but of simply being what we are designed to be. We don’t belong here; they do. We are supposed to manifest the difference by walking in our eternal privileges. That means being at war with this life, at war with our fleshly natures. It means alienation from everyone who isn’t Elect, and from their concerns and ambitions, their desires and instincts.

We don’t manifest it for the sake of those who are not eternal, only for those who are. It’s our call to our eternal brothers and sisters, who are designed and empowered sooner or later to recognize they belong. More importantly, our mission to manifest our eternal nature is to prove that God is right against the dispute of those other beings in His divine courts.

Don’t get wrapped up in this world. It’s not ours; it’s not our concern.

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Until I Die

Posted on May 28, 2024 by ehurst

Standard caveat: This is not prophecy. What follows is merely my best understanding of what my convictions indicate I will experience in the days ahead. These are my plans based on rather fuzzy expectations. Your mileage may vary.

We will be very surprised at the odd mixture of things that keep on dragging along in the same direction until they fall apart on their own, alongside the things that will change dramatically because large forces will impact them. Don’t be deceived. When the large forces move, there will be shocking changes. It’s not that there is any great intelligence behind the changes; it’s more complicated than that. It will be quite chaotic.

Even though the value of the US dollar is declining precipitously, I’m holding some cash for emergency use. I’m trusting the Lord to provide, and He’s providing some cash right now. I get visions of disruptions in banking processes somewhere ahead. Yes, some of it is planned, but plenty of things are coming that no human could plan.

Humor me for a moment. One thing requires a little explanation. This blog, and my previous blogs over the past two decades, often focused on my explorations of computer technology. I don’t enjoy it that much any more. I feel really blessed by the opportunities to communicate in ways I could not have had prior to the Internet, but things are changing.

I was there watching it when the Net first exploded, and wasn’t that interested until I realized how convenient it was to type stuff into a computer and modify the contents without the necessity of piling up lots of papers. My household baggage was vastly reduced when I got rid of the big pile of paper notes I was keeping.

At some point I became rather obsessed with the means and methods of computer technology. For the longest time, it simply did not matter objectively what means and methods I chose, so I felt free to explore all that was possible. If you scan back over the oldest posts on this particular blog, you’ll find examples of that childlike poking around.

My enthusiasm has died. There’s too much that needs doing in the time I have left, and I can’t afford the energy it takes to explore much any more. My flesh still loves it, but as that flesh ages and pieces of me keep coming closer to expiration, my heart rules more strongly. And my heart is not amused by the youthful exuberance of poking around in computer technology. I think it’s really time to just take what is offered, what is easily obtained, and get on with the original purpose of getting the message out.

My concerns now are censorship. Not stopping it; that demon has been set loose on our world. It’s more now a matter of tactics in working around it, even as the whole thing comes down around our ears. All I’m doing with technology now is keeping track of what is cheap and effective in the current situation. I haven’t forgotten that all technology sucks, that all of it could be better than it is. I’m still quite aware of what ought to be, but there’s nothing to gain from pursuing that. The system of oppression is closing in, and strategic considerations are foreclosed. All of my choices are now tactical, exploiting opportunities while they are open, and ditching the debris when opportunities close.

The reason I’ve bothered to explain all of that is because it’s the same for almost everything we should do in pursuit of the gospel and Kingdom glory. Don’t invest in the human future in any way, because all the fun stuff will be gone soon. Leisure will die. More and more of our time and resources will be consumed in just the bare minimum of survival. Don’t get lost in battles that have no meaning. The one thing that matters is the gospel, our covenant and our convictions (yes, that’s all one thing).

Thus, I’m now splitting my limited attention on technology matters between Microsoft and Apple, hedging my bets and keeping my options open. Naturally I have Android on the side, but I trust Google less than all the others. I expect Google to crap on us first. If you have a Linux/Unix device, there’s nothing wrong with that. Keep on using it as long as you like it. I’ll even be glad to help you with it, but I’m not using it myself any more, unless I somehow come to need a server, in which case it is obviously the superior choice.

For those of you who need more specifics: I sense that Microsoft will be the last to turn against us, too entangled with government to die easily. Apple is more dangerous to itself than anyone else, but they will be around a good while, yet. Google is riding too close to the edge, pushing the boundaries and is likely to go over a cliff at any moment. For the consumer, their Android device stuff is tolerable for now, and Chrome OS is okay for what it does, but don’t lean on them too heavily for the future.

Those recent storms that swept across Oklahoma, Texas and neighboring states are just a down payment on far worse that’s coming, and far more often. Hackers and saboteurs have nothing compared to natural processes; power and network outages will become common. I’ll keep my old desktop system as is with a big back-up power supply, and invest more in mobile technology for the future, stuff that can be recharged and not require constant access to power.

I have an iPad and I’m looking at a Surface device next, all with cell capability. For printing, I’m actually looking at dot-matrix machines. It’s the one kind of printer where you are actually paying for the printer, not some bait for a high-volume ink/toner selling program. Despite the prices of those toys, all of them must be considered expendable in the end. And I have a manual typewriter in the closet, alongside lots of paper, pencils and pens.

My mission is to communicate the message until I die.

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