Moral Good is Multi-generational 02

Posted on November 24, 2018 by ehurst

If you can grasp Part 1 from yesterday, then you are in a position to understand why we reject Western style free market capitalism and libertarian philosophy. Everything in the West presumes a fundamental orientation on the individual. Even when you read about communism or communitarian philosophy, it presumes the individual. Again: There is a place for the individual in divine revelation, but that place is not as the foundation for everything.

All economic and political choices must assume divine revelation, and must assume the heart-led orientation, all aimed at benefiting the tribe across multiple generations. We do not want a free market, where anything goes. We want a market that is consistent with revelation. There are things we will restrict, regardless whether there is a demand. Selling the wrong thing will afflict future generations and take away from their shalom.

There’s nothing wrong with automation to reduce the cost of production. However, it requires first that you plan for a way to employ all of those whose jobs are automated. If the market cannot absorb the extra labor, you sin by pushing ahead in a heedless reach for profit. This doesn’t require stagnation in old technology; it requires thinking wisely about whether there’s anything to actually gain for the tribe and future generations. The tribe comes first; profits are not our God.

Thus, the proper motivation for automation is to bless the folks doing the work. You should advance technology to make life better for them, so the first jobs to automate are the ones the workers would rather not do in the first place. Automation should be motivated by reducing the mind-numbing repetitive tasks. Automation should not put profits first.

This is why revelation forbids impersonal ownership of capital. It’s just a nasty form of slavery by taking away from the workers the personal link of human concern for their welfare as exercised by a real boss with a vested interest. Selling stock makes profit alone your boss. Forming a corporation to reduce individual risk is an idea from Hell. Without individual risk, there is no moral care for the people involved.

Indeed, if capital was personal property only, the owner seeking to bless his extended family household would tend to hire from among them first, and treat them better in the first place. In such a society, mistreating workers hired from anyone else’s extended family would be unacceptable, as well, because families would seek each others’ welfare as the means to long term stability for everyone. This would be in the owner’s best interest, too.

Again: Reality would support this. There would be some blessing immediately, but the effort to bless beyond oneself is always in our best interest, as well. You are accountable to God for how you use your assets.

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Moral Good is Multi-generational 01

Posted on November 23, 2018 by ehurst

Divine revelation is just another term for a living Creation, the person of reality. If you defy revelation, you defy reality itself, and it’s a personal failure. Reality will take it as a personal insult from you, but it affects more than just you.

Divine revelation says God works most closely with those who think in terms of the tribe, not the individual. There is a place for the individual, but that place is not the foundation of all logic. Divine revelation aims at building up the tribe and it’s grip on shalom, and shalom’s grip on it. Nothing else will work; you cannot isolate good moral action away from tribal shalom.

Among the ideas of modern Western society, the closest you can come to that is nationalism. Any kind of cosmopolitan or international orientation is wrong by definition. Nationalism is not even really the truth, but it’s as close as your average American can get to divine revelation. Either way, it’s not at all a matter of the individual as the core and measure of all things.

Nor is it a question of simple actions; you must get your head in the right place or it won’t make that much difference what you do. A proper biblical mindset is both tribal and multi-generational. Both of those are in defiance of the individuality at the core of Western intellectual traditions. It doesn’t matter what you do. The specific actions are not the point. Reality knows what you are thinking, and if your thinking isn’t consistent with divine revelation, reality will not cooperate.

But you will not understand the scale of reality’s response time if you think first in terms of the individual. Thus, most individuals never understand the consequences of their choices and expectations; the individual doesn’t live long enough or think in terms long enough to recognize the pattern of reality’s response. To the individualist mind, it looks like the world is inanimate and nobody cares what you think.

You cannot discuss things with reality unless your focus of consciousness is in your heart. If the intellect and reason are on the throne, you’ll never get it. Reality does not address itself to the mind, but only to the heart. Christ speaks only through your convictions. Your convictions are attuned to multi-generational tribal considerations. Your actions will touch many, and you must take responsibility for their consequences in those terms.

So shalom takes your whole lifetime just to start. You’ll see it, but only if your intentions are to create a very long time span influence. You will have to live with the sins of your forefathers, but God forgives quickly and mercy restores much of what you might have lost. It requires your commitment to a change across many generations of your descendants. You cannot make decisions for your children’s faith, but you can encourage them and anyone else who sees your faith.

God’s Creation stands waiting, ready to be your ally in pursuing shalom for the sake of those around you and those who follow you.

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Random River Shots

Posted on November 22, 2018 by ehurst

Yesterday’s ride was more about just absorbing life along the way. Whatever caught my eye is where I pointed the camera. They aren’t supposed to have any particular meaning, but I will explain the context. This first one is a utilities bridge.

This is the lower dam on the river sports area. We still have a good flow and the river is much deeper than normal. There are all kinds of fixtures hidden below the water in this shot.

I climbed up on one of the timers’ observation towers for this shot of the rowing area. The boathouses are on the right. You can just make out the launching area on the other bank of the river, and it’s roughly the starting line of most competitions.

This was the day’s prayer chapel. I typically wait for a spot like this to call to me. There was one other on the ride, but nothing picturesque about it. Prayer works best when we participate instead of trying to take a directorial role.

This is the same river a mile or so downstream, at the NE 4th Street bridge. This is what it looks like with a good water flow, but the banks are brown from autumn to spring. The water rarely gets this high, and gets higher only during flood conditions. If you had to wade across this, you could, because there are only a few hidden deep spots, but the water would leave an annoying smell in your shoes that might be permanent.

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Just Ranting about Stuff

Posted on November 21, 2018 by ehurst

I challenge you to search it out for yourself. Almost every mention in the Bible of justice and doing right boils down to protecting the members of society who are defenseless. It’s typically symbolized by the image of protecting orphans and widows.

I’m sure my regular readers have gotten this message, but the rest of the world seems hostile to it: All economic prosperity is a gift from God, and the reason He gives is so that the maximum number of people can share. It’s not communism at all; it’s tribal feudalism. The only proper system of distribution is via family ties.

Everything you read in the Old Testament points to a very specific and enclosed national identity based on the Covenant. Yes, the Law of Moses said be kind and hospitable to strangers and travelers, but the focus of actually sharing wealth was within the nation, with a priority ranking system based on degree of kinship.

The Western libertarian economic system is predatory. The old saw that a rising tide lifts all boats is a Satanic lie, because those who rise in prosperity inevitably got there by poking holes in someone else’s boat. They had to neglect their moral duty to share their wealth with the tribe; otherwise they would not have enough to buy a mansion and a fleet of cars. Get that? God demands you share with your kin. Further, you covenant kin come first, while blood kin take a close second.

Then again, there are very good reasons to cut off some kinfolk. There’s a process for it, and it has to do with first having the proper governing structure. It does not start with “every man for himself” as is the whole substance of Western moral thinking. There is a revealed moral standard and God is not mocked; if you insist on ignoring His revelation, reality will one day bite you in the ass.

Because of the tension between what God says ought to be versus where we actually are, we have to carry on in this life in a complicated dance between the two. Nobody is demanding you run outside and give away all your stuff to strangers, but if God moves you that way, it’s on your head if you don’t obey. But it’s also very unlikely, given what God has revealed already to everyone.

A system where all money is nothing more than debt is predatory by nature. There is virtually no way you can do what God requires with that mess. You are reduced to a little generosity here and there and a generally otherworldly outlook that doesn’t worry about property, nor even life itself. But you can’t enforce that with our brain-dead system of government, so we are forced to live in a society that is inherently predatory.

It should make you angry, sad and maybe even depressed when you dwell on it. But that cannot kill the joy of living in a world where the Lord eventually brings the evil to an end. He is God and He is not inactive, just more patient than we are. In case you haven’t noticed, He’s slowly destroying the system right now. It’s going to be painful to everyone who is deeply vested in this system.

And you’d be a freaking idiot to not realize that we have been at war internally in the US for quite some time. Something less than half the population of the US is determined to destroy it for everyone. It doesn’t matter what rhetoric they use; their intention is to kill you or enslave you to their idolatrous dreams. And the honest truth is that if someone doesn’t kill them first, they will proceed with those plans. Part of God’s wrath is to let them go way out on a limb before cutting them off, so this misery will continue for a while yet.

It works a lot better if you stop imagining that the Constitution and Bill of Rights will protect you. Only God protects you, and those documents do not reflect His will. Don’t be surprised as stuff breaks down around you. Trust in the Lord and the heart-led wisdom only He can give.

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Some OT Background Stuff

Posted on November 20, 2018 by ehurst

Note: WordPress tells me today is my tenth anniversary on this blog.

Ref: Genesis 25-28 — I was discussing Genesis with a friend this week and remembered some background stuff that confuses most people about the Patriarchs — Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. They were not Hebrews as we think of it, but highly influenced by Abraham’s Mesopotamian background. Near as we can tell, he was either some kind of Aramean or Akkadian. In either case, the term designates a linguistic and cultural background, not so much a nation or tribal affiliation. However, we do know that these were very long-lived folk. Their ages at death are not at all out of line with noble/priestly folks from southern Mesopotamia. This meant their longevity was far greater than was common among Canaanite nations. Thus, Abraham and his kind were treated with some reverence by the locals.

Abraham was regarded as a prince, with his own substantial private army. He was still just one of a whole class of nomadic petty lords who didn’t hold territory with proper political boundaries. Instead, they moved into areas where there wasn’t any other large groups consuming the local resources, and spread out their herds. When scouts noticed a better area, they packed up the numerous tents and loaded the wagons. The areas Abraham sojourned were unsettled for the most part, and his camp was a small town with everything necessary for life done in-house. In almost every scene in the narrative, the principle figures were seldom alone. There were always servants and slaves, along with children, and often other relatives. They simply aren’t mentioned unless germane to the story. You should read the Old Testament under the assumption that no was alone unless the narrative specifically says so.

Abraham traveled from Padan-aram down through the unpopulated central highlands of Palestine with that vast household of armed men and servants, and all those domesticated animals. It was quite a caravan with hundreds of humans and wagons. The idea that Jacob traveled back up to Padan-aram alone is ludicrous. He had at least one armed bodyguard, and probably a couple of servants. That’s just for someone traveling in a hurry. More deliberate travel was undertaken with a substantial entourage. To the ancient reader, all of this would have been obvious and not worth mentioning. So if you read the passage where Esau comes in famished and encounters Jacob making stew, the more accurate image is Jacob supervising servants making the stew, and Esau walking in with at least one servant behind him.

Don’t get the idea Jacob was a prissy mama’s boy; by age 12 every noble boy was required to start training in arms. The biblical image is a man who focused on domestic stability and managing the daily operations of the household. It wasn’t exceptional, but quite common among educated and civilized men. Esau was the oddball, and frankly irresponsible. Remember that in Hebrew culture, a hunter was not a model for kingship, but a shepherd. You can be sure Jacob knew about herding sheep, if you consider his conversation with the shepherds at the watering hole near Haran.

Keep in mind that when Genesis refers to “Philistines” down on the coast it’s not a lie, but using current terms. The actual Philistine people didn’t arrive on the Palestinian coast prior to about 1300 BC, almost 1000 years after Abraham’s time. Hebrew people centuries later would not have recognized the ancient names for the tribes living in the coastal region back then, so when the records were copied (either by royal scribes or priestly scribes in the Temple) for later generations, the text was updated. The name “Philistines” was inserted so everyone would recognize the geographic reference (roughly Gaza today). The Patriarchs didn’t meet the actual Philistines, but whomever lived there before the Philistines invaded.

You cannot read an ancient Hebrew text with modern Western thinking and expect to understand it.

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Mixed Rides Photos

Posted on November 19, 2018 by ehurst

These images were collected from two different rides. First was the Grand Boulevard — River Trails loop. I rode it clockwise, and stopped at a park on the east side where the trail crosses over Interstate Highway 44. Aside from a maintenance crew, I had the place to myself. The view is looking northeast.

This is my beloved framing spot below the last dam on the Oklahoma River Reaction District. The water flow is still quite heavy and has been for a few weeks. That means the river downstream looks like a river instead of a trickle. It was louder than the massive flow of Interstate traffic just north of the dam.

Today I rode around Draper Lake. Despite the harsh cold, the crews are back out and working on the bikeway. This is the tail end of the old Westminster Road bed now transformed into a bikeway. It’s almost ready for paving, and I spotted the paver at the other end of the dam. They are building up the trail bed with loads of red clay in a lot of places. In the far background, the bikeway parallels an access road as they both run over a ridge.

This is the unpaved portion of the trail below the dam. The heavy equipment is scraping and shaping the trail so it has drainage on both sides. A lot of dirt will be required at the creek crossing farther off to the right of this image.

I stopped at the persimmon patch and they are now quite ripe. We’ve had several hard freezes. These things are soft and sticky, and quite sweet and not the least bit astringent. On the bikeway there are wild animal droppings full of the big seeds from these things, most likely left by deer.

This is a finished crossing. The road gets all new concrete, while the aprons get bollards to prevent motor traffic entering the bikeway. That is, unless someone has a key to unlock and drop that center bollard.

This is a crossing about half-way done. All this concrete for just a dirt road, but that’s how it’s engineered. The bikeway runs from left and right, parallel to the main Draper Drive in the background.

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For Everything a Season

Posted on November 18, 2018 by ehurst

An issue in the mind of Simon the Pharisee in Luke 7 was that of defilement. For him, keeping oneself ceremonially clean was equivalent to holiness, and the key to God’s favor. Since he was scrupulous to maintain that ritual purity, he felt no need of repentance. This legalistic focus on the details or ritual purity lulled his mind to sleep on the natural heartfelt sensitivity to one’s own sinful nature.

However, in the case of the prostitute, it is simply stupid to imagine a ritual of penitence as somehow defiling on Jesus.

We as believers are slow to execute any kind of punitive justice because our hearts know that, as long as people still breathe, there is time for God to break through. We bear no burden for anyone making that change, but we are there to receive them into the Kingdom when they do. We are thus wholly reluctant to execute human justice on even the gravest threats under any law. We should expect it to be exceedingly rare when the Spirit moves us to close the door on human life.

At the same time, we must remain ready for the sake of divine justice to ensure no one threatens the opportunity for others to repent.

So we bear the burden of developing a sensitivity to our divinely granted dominion in such matters. There are times when we execute justice, both by swinging the sword and by restraining the sword. Only God knows which we should do at any given moment, so we must remain wide open to the guidance coming down from Heaven in our convictions. And we can never forget how this can put us at odds with worldly human justice.

This is behind Paul’s admonition to live at peace with the world (Romans 12:18). There is a tactical calculus we learn in dealing with human governments at any given moment. Sometimes wisdom requires we let things slide, but on rare occasions we must sacrifice ourselves for a moment of revelation by opposing men who don’t know Jesus.

I had a very strange dream last night in which I was called upon to have pity on a very polarizing figure in our world today — Hillary Clinton. In my dream, she knew full well I was opposed to everything she stood for, and it was in my power to do her harm. But the Spirit spoke loudly to me that it was not the right time. I know beyond all doubt her tearful pleading was fake, but that wasn’t the point. All things in God’s time.

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Teachings of Jesus — Luke 7:36-50

Posted on November 17, 2018 by ehurst

Please understand that this is not the same event that took place in Bethany, on the hill east of Jerusalem close to the Crucifixion. Luke places this in the context of working in Galilee some time earlier, and the details are different enough that we can’t collate the two. It’s not hard to imagine how people would react similarly to Jesus’ ministry, particularly if they heard someone had done something they wanted to mimic. Equally, it shouldn’t surprise us that Jesus would repeat some teachings in different contexts.

We can’t be sure of the exact details, but this passage makes very little sense unless the host who invited Jesus to dine was quite wealthy and prominent. Further, the man had taken on some distinctly Roman habits.

The dining room was equipped with a large central table. There were either Roman style couches raised off the floor, or a raised central platform with Hebrew style pads around a low table. Either way, the idea was to recline on the left side at an angle to the table and eat with the right hand. Knees were typically bent some so that feet were then well away from the table. Further, there was a substantial shadowy space along the walls where servants could move and where the general public could slip in and hang out unobtrusively and watch this formal meal with important discussions taking place among notables. This was how the wealthy and powerful flaunted it for the curious.

It’s obvious from the context that Jesus was not the guest of honor here. The most likely point of inviting Him was Simon’s own curiosity, and perhaps to allow the other quests to query this controversial rabbi. The meal setting symbolized a non-hostile setting in Hebrew culture in particular, and it smacks of yet another attempt to manipulate Jesus.

No Jewish women were present; this was typically a men-only occasion. But this prostitute had no trouble slipping up behind Jesus and engaging in her bizarre ritual. To top it off, no self-respecting Pharisee would tolerate such physical contact in public, but she didn’t actually interrupt anything. You’ll notice no one shooed the woman away. So once this woman began her ministrations, Simon thought to himself that Jesus couldn’t be much of a prophet, tolerating this ultimate sinner among Jews.

Jesus asked if He could say something, and Simon as master of ceremonies at this lavish dinner invited Him to proceed. The parable of loans requires us to understand that debts between Jews were typically limited to kin, either by blood or marriage. They were very personal in nature, with none of the formal and legal provisions we expect today. The debtor didn’t owe some impersonal corporation, but his own kin. Failure to repay hurt everyone dependent on the creditor.

But while perhaps rare, it wasn’t unheard of for such debts to be forgiven. Who would be more grateful and more likely to try doing favors in return for the mercy, the one who owed two months’ wages, or the one who owed two years’ worth? When Simon responded with the obvious answer, Jesus sarcastically noted how wise he was.

This a delicious irony here in what Jesus said. A prostitute was a parody of good moral hospitality. Yet here this woman provided the most lavish hospitality to Jesus in place of Simon’s scandalous lack of it. The obvious implication is that Simon never saw himself much indebted to God for his sins. That’s what it means to be “self-righteous” as Simon clearly was. That perfume was obscenely expensive. This woman spared no expense in offering all she had for her sins, taking great risk to do so. She groveled extravagantly where Simon was frankly rude. She wasn’t trying to cultivate another client. She was a penitent worshiping Jesus whose ministry was a very loud call to repentance.

Jesus announced that her sins were forgiven regardless of how great and numerous they were. What was left unsaid is that Simon’s sins were not forgiven. Now the others at the table wondered who Jesus thought He was to announce forgiveness of sins, but the answer was in Jesus’ final words: Your commitment to seeking God’s favor is precisely what wins that favor. The depth from which you have to crawl to enter His Presence isn’t much of a factor, but nobody has a prior claim on God’s mercy.

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Biblical Law Is Organic

Posted on November 17, 2018 by ehurst

It’s alive; it is the Person of Jesus Christ.

Westerners struggle with any use of “law” in the context of the Bible. Automatically the Western mind imposes the image of law as objective truth, when there simply is no such thing as “objective truth.” It is a myth, an artificial construct of fallen minds.

Reminder: Biblical Law is synonymous with God’s will, divine justice, Christ’s Law, divine moral character, the Person of Jesus Christ, the New Covenant, ultimate reality, Creation and cosmic moral code. It’s all one thing and the terms are interchangeable. For example, Christ is the living law of God; get to know Him and you know God’s will.

But it remains a living thing; reality is a person. Thus, some human agency can disregard some part of Biblical Law without getting immediately into trouble. Unlawful conduct chafes the Person of Christ. He might be patient with it, or He might not. Too much depends on the Father’s ultimate plans in revealing Himself through how He guides human events. We are in no position to ascertain such things without a direct revelation, often in the form of a prophetic word. Even then, it tends to be a partial revelation. It’s functional; it’s enough to help us decide what God requires of us. It’s never enough to satisfy our curiosity.

So, for example, we can say with all confidence that all empire building is sinful. You cannot build an empire righteously. However, God can decide to tolerate it for His own ineffable purpose, or because the imperial forces manage to avoid complicating things because they are going about it in a tolerable manner. It is possible to do imperialism better or worse; Biblical Law can explain the range of mistakes that make it so. Thus, an imperial government that sends its own citizens to colonize and improve life in some conquered territory is better than one that merely maintains garrisons to oppress.

Eventually every empire will be broken down, but the length and quality of that empire’s life can be expanded by doing things well, making it something God can use. It’s rather like the difference between a good wrench and a broken stick, when the need is to turn bolts. In the final analysis, neither good nor bad empires will be remembered once Christ returns. Still, the whole business of divine law in the first place is getting between here and the Final End of All Things.

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If Necessary…

Posted on November 16, 2018 by ehurst

Much of my counsel regarding romance aims at avoiding bad relationships in the first place. Still, I suspect a very large number of my readers are already in a relationship and it may not be as sweet a match as we would hope. Some of you are even near divorce, and you need to know how to face the difficulties.

Women and men are different, and they should be counseled differently. There is a common core of spiritual and moral advice on how to train your brain, but I seldom use the same approach with both. Frankly, men need less one-on-one, and more generalities and guidance. Even when we embrace the heart-led way, men from a Western background tend to respond better to generalized teaching, while women need something more thoroughly contextual. Granted, those are just generalizations, but if we don’t make them, we end up doing nothing useful.

So for men who find themselves in a struggle and don’t want to chat with me individually, I can hardly blame you. That’s how men are. So let me suggest something that might work for you guys: Σ Frame (“sigma frame”). No, this is not a blanket endorsement, but if you need someone who can help you develop a frame of reference for handling a challenging woman, that blog is better than most of the “red pill” stuff out there. The author maintains a close contact with Scripture and some of the basic assumptions of the Bible. It’s not about manipulating a woman so much as helping her stay close to God for herself.

The blog posts are loaded with discrete human behavior analysis that we wish wasn’t necessary. Honestly, my wife is a lot easier to deal with than most of the women I’ve encountered in this world. That’s why I married her in the first place, and it was a miracle of God that I stumbled across her. The techniques the author offers can help you help your woman be more like that. It’s good material for helping a woman who didn’t get a good foundation.

I trust that as you read that blog from a heart-led perspective, you’ll decide for yourself what fits you and what doesn’t. That’s what I hope you’ll do here on this blog.

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