Don’t Reverse Course

Posted on February 4, 2018 by ehurst

I rather expected yesterday’s post would be hard to take. Maybe it was the choice of words, but I think most of my readers got it. The biggest problem is that “racism” has almost no definition at all; it’s just another excuse for mindless hostility regardless of whether you consider yourself a victim of it.

We all notice a difference in cultural background. We are supposed to notice, and it does make a difference. It’s freaking stupid to pretend we should all just welcome anyone and everyone, particularly when we know that people from varying cultures prey on each other. Everyone has an instinct to look for that competitive advantage, and cultural differences create that. Throwing people together without regard to cultural difference guarantees predatory behavior. In most cultures, it’s a badge of honor to do that. We have an instinct to take advantage of people who don’t understand and play by our rules.

Whether you like it or not, a significant portion of cultural rules do arise from differences in DNA. So some of the conflict when cultures collide isn’t just a matter of point of view; some of it is hard-wired. But it’s hard wired in all races. Nobody is neutral.

In our Radix Fidem covenant, we set forth the conviction that there is no hope for improving things without the heart-led way. Mankind by his intellect and talents and so forth cannot do it without the eternal power of the Almighty. We are damaged goods from birth and nothing we dream up on our own — individually or together — is enough to overcome that damage. It requires moving the focus of your awareness from the mind up to the heart.

We further believe that, in practical terms, you cannot steer enough of humanity by any means into the heart-led way to change what we can expect from the human race. It ain’t going to happen. The only possible amelioration of this curse is individually, as a gift from God alone, at His initiative. Whether or not that makes sense to anyone doesn’t make a bit of difference. That’s the way it is. The only hope is to embrace the truth as revealed. But you don’t have to take my word for it; you don’t have to do this my way. Just get hold of the truth for yourself and I have every confidence it’s going to work just fine without my hand-holding. We can get along just fine one way or another.

Don’t choke on this stuff, folks. We have to work with things as God made them, not as we wish them to be.

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Sermon on the Mount 18

Posted on February 3, 2018 by ehurst

False Prophets 7:15-20

This passage stands on a very large contextual background. Initially, a prophet gains a hearing by performing miracles and/or predicting things that consistently come to pass. However, Deuteronomy 13:2-4 is a strong example of pointing the people back to the Covenant. If this prophet performs miracles and accurately predicts the future, he may still be a liar. How would you know?

Jesus characterizes the whole question as one of fruit. In this case, shalom is the fruit. You don’t get shalom from a liar. Your heart knows when someone is pulling you against your convictions, and that violates shalom. This is a good time to remind ourselves that a primary manifestation of shalom is social stability within the Covenant.

The Covenant of Moses is not a code of bylaws; it is an organic whole that rests firmly upon the character of God woven into the fabric of the cosmos. It’s an expression of His personality and what He expects of His people. Like anything that lives, it requires an active nurturing hand if it’s going to bear the fruit of shalom. Anyone whose presence within the Covenant community has the net effect of spoiling the fruit will also bear with them some uncomfortable vibes. The two are intimately linked in the life of Covenant believers. If you know the Covenant, you know God, and then you can spot a fake because it deviates from what your convictions can accept.

A real prophet knows he has to give it time for fruit to ripen and be tasted. Most Old Testament prophets were already recognized as such long before they began pressing a particular issue. They made it a point to establish their credibility by echoing the Covenant Law first. Jesus warns us not to be awed by someone who seeks to bypass the one most critical test of promoting a greater adherence to the Covenant. They should call you to repent and return, not depart.

In case it’s not quite obvious, the whole business of Hellenism and substituting reason for faith is what destroyed Old Testament religion, putting legalistic Judaism in its place. This was a clear departure from the very foundations of the Covenant, and brought forth a very poisonous fruit that stole away shalom. When the Messiah comes, those who perverted Moses would be excluded.

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Can’t Fight Reality

Posted on February 3, 2018 by ehurst

This is a matter of understanding Law as the character of reality.

In other words, we never view Biblical Law as a restriction we have to put up, as if reality was going to allow something that Law keeps away from us. It may seem that you can fight the Law on this, but in the end, it will fail. For us, Biblical Law is reality; it’s simply the way things are.

There is very little clear statement as most people might think of it, but Biblical Law leaves us with a firm conclusion after everything else has been tried and failed. The truth is there in terms of a priori assumptions; you can’t get there unless you start in the right place. It should be obvious, but it’s all rooted in a radically different cultural orientation. In this case, we can affirm that the radical departure from the default is the problem, and our culture is at fault here.

People can change, but the range of possible change is limited. Thus, some things are simply burned into fallen human nature. The Lord shows via human history that some things aren’t going to change much even with the full redemption He offers in this life. The burden is upon us to seek out and embrace what He wants to do, not make up some wild nonsense and ascribe it to Him. Just because you can imagine it doesn’t mean God works that way. You cannot trust your reason to discern whatever it is God might be willing to do; He reveals it only in the heart.

So there are some things you have to accept from the hand of God. This requires a heart-led conviction that what He does is always good and right by definition. If you aren’t held in the grip of that truth, you never will get it. You’ll always suffer that burning sense that God is cheating you out of something until you understand that you are the one who’s messed up, not God. This whole thing cannot work without the conviction; it won’t work as an intellectual exercise. You have to know Him personally in your heart, not via some artificial edifice of taught theology.

A certain level of racism is burned into human nature. It’s there; you have to deal with it. Calling it “evil” and demanding people change is pure folly, not least because it’s just a false denial that you aren’t somewhat racist. If we take it for what it is — a natural human tendency — and try to understand how it’s supposed to work, we have some hope of making life on this earth tolerable. Any other course of action, any other theoretical approach, is doomed to failure.

God’s Law presumes a tribal instinct. We are supposed to cling together for stability and prosperity in clannish ways. It’s the fundamental feudal nature of Creation itself; if we fight it, we will lose. The only sensible hope is to work with it as established and immutable fact. Any imaginary efficiency and improvement is just a lie. Human relations must of necessity include a certain amount of tribalism, so let’s stop wasting resources and effort on fighting it. Let’s take it for what it is, a gift from God for our best benefit. You’ll notice it keeps coming back to the social stability called shalom — often translated as “peace.”

The path to peace, as in harmonious and beneficial living, takes into account the necessity of a somewhat tribal social structure and feudal living. Whatever you propose against such a thing is the real ignorance and evil in this world.

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Family Business

Posted on February 2, 2018 by ehurst

Here’s a thought experiment: What is the business model of Radix Fidem?

As a matter of context, we don’t have a profit model because it works as a non-profit, a totally unregistered charity. That’s our effect in the business climate, a purely pragmatic issue in the context. But that’s just a small part of the larger consideration of the who, what, when, where, why and how. It ends up being more of a contrast than a comparison.

The first issue is introducing an element absent from all other businesses we know about: This is all about family. Our whole consideration is feudalism, and frankly it views people as the ultimate store of value. In that sense, it’s ownership of people, but the ownership is not any of ours. We are an agency of the ultimate authority of God as owner of all Creation. Still, the most challenging concept is that such ownership of humans is both morally good and necessary. You either embrace it or don’t participate.

So the fundamental business model is adding people to the treasury. We are seeking to expand the effective ownership of souls, growing a larger domain of mobile assets. This assumes a certain growth in attached physical assets, but we treat that as a variable after the fact. It’s not a matter of negotiation at all. The only deal we make is the person; people are the product of our business process.

It’s entirely voluntary, and we as agents treat it as fundamentally transient. Relative permanence is a matter of product development; it’s an indicator of maturity. For example, when an asset is moved, a mature asset will voluntarily work to reduce the shock of departure. The ultimate value is not in the physical proximity and direct contributions to the work, but in the indirect contribution of warmth and care. While warmth and care produce measurable results, there are no set guidelines for the thing itself. Each member evaluates it subjectively for the purpose of their own mission within the business.

This brings us to the issue of brand promotion. Obviously this rests entirely on what prospects can observe. It has to be a better choice in the market, but we never forget how it appears to those who aren’t part of our operation. A part of our branding is this warmth and care under the banner of “love.” It’s a love for all of Creation. While humans are the pinnacle of our business, a critical element in this love is placing people properly into the context of Creation as a whole. This is the definition of “love” for us.

We tend to organize this branding activity under the structure of Biblical Law. We define Biblical Law in many different ways, but as a part of branding within a business plan, it’s a matter of breathing life and substance into moral character. As we understand it, this is the whole essence of product development.

Product development is primarily the responsibility of the product. This returns us to the matter of voluntary participation. Nobody else is going to make it happen; the most we can do is put the next step within reach. Only you can make the move. Our currency of exchange internally is sacrificial compassion.

Welcome to the family.

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Serenity in Other Words

Posted on February 1, 2018 by ehurst

Don’t get distracted.

I’ll admit up front that I could be wrong on lots of things. In particular, I refer to my blather about politics and economics. I’m not trying to show you how smart I am; I’m trying to make sure the sheep of our Lord’s pasture aren’t feeling threatened. I want you to see with your heart the Lord leading you in green pastures and beside still waters. His rod and staff are defending you. Whether or not my voice reflects His song is for you to decide.

It’s not a question of intelligence when the Lord places a prophetic burden on your soul. I am utterly certain that we have missed the bullet on a modern apocalypse. There will be tribulation, but not an apocalypse. The economic system will take a shock, but it will keep working fundamentally. You might have trouble getting some imported foods, but you won’t starve for economic reasons. Sure, it’s always a good time to think about ways to economize and tighten the belt, but that’s a matter for your own heart and convictions guiding you.

That’s where the focus should be: The heart-led way. While things remain as they do for now, it’s a good time to train your mind to follow your heart. Get familiar with the space in your soul where convictions stand like bedrock. You’ll need that reference point later when people around you start going nuts.

I am convinced that we will experience a certain social chaos. I’ve been reading broadly among both left and right, preppers and conspiracy theorists, revolutionaries and fascists, etc. I’m trying to gauge where they believe things are headed, not seeking any kind of useful information and prognostications. I’m convinced they have most things wrong, but I trust the prophetic message in my soul, not my intellectual acumen — such as it may be.

Let’s get one thing clear: All human government is the result of a conspiracy to rule. There are real conspiracies, but most of them are in plain sight if you know where to look. There are also a bunch of wild theories that suggest other kinds of conspiracies. The problem is that these other kinds of conspiracies, real or imagined, aren’t capable to doing any real damage. So while globalists, for example, are annoying and troublesome, they don’t have what it takes to actually take over. That’s because their plans are based on theories that ignore reality.

It’s like that with communism, for a related example. The assumption behind communism is that people will generally act in their own economic best interests. They don’t. People make an awful lot of economic choices for entirely non-economic reasons. That’s how we are wired, and nothing can change that. It’s the wild belief that humans can be reshaped by social forces that makes a whole raft of progressive politics sheer nonsense. And what passes here in America for conservatism is no better; it ignores major elements in human nature.

So all these dark theories about forces attempting to rule the world, or parts of it, are quite accurate in terms of there being such people with such nasty intentions. But their intentions can’t be carried very far because they don’t take into account human nature. They are built on a mythology that doesn’t actually work.

Is my personal mythology any better? That’s a dumb question, actually. That question ignores all I’ve been saying about how we should not orient on objective measures of success. I am not just making noise when I assert that there is no objective reality in the first place. There is only experience and perception, and we continue to exist as the human race because we tend to share a significant measure of perception. I say that much of our shared perception is not consistent with experience. I’ve gone looking for a way of approaching the whole thing so that my perceptions do a better job of accounting for my experiences. It’s not a question of success, but of finding some inner peace. Nobody alive now is, or in the past has been, in a position to judge whether that inner peace coincides with some imaginary objective reality. Inner peace is about as much as we can hope for.

That’s what I’m trying to provoke others to seek. I’ll share what I can about mine in hopes that it will get you to start your own search. I have full confidence your heart is wise enough to help you filter out from my story what won’t work for you. Nobody says you have to follow me, but I’m pretty certain of where I’m going and I will make my voice heard as I move. So I might shepherd you to green pastures, but you’ll have to decide what to bite off from the stuff growing there; it rests on your own instincts.

I’m pretty sure the nearest thing we have to a global cabal that can actually do anything is the international banking system. The folks running that system have never wanted to govern, only to control a limited range of things that give them money and power over everyone else’s money. That’s pretty smart, if you ask me, because it’s doable. It’s consistent with the reality of how people actually do things. I think they can see a collapse coming, and want to prevent as much damage to their system as they can. So they’ll act in due time to crash the stock markets by raising the interest rates on borrowing. This will deflate a lot of debt bubbles. Some smaller central banks that can’t be saved will collapse in some countries, but the system itself will remain intact.

Meanwhile, the market correction will cause a lot of pain and it will change a few governments. But no one can tell the bankers not to do this; no has the leverage. Meanwhile, the bankers will seek to prevent a one-world government because war is their best chance to keep governments in debt. Their power isn’t absolute. The bankers’ position is already dicey enough without a government becoming strong enough to ignore them. As long as everyone in the world assumes they have to borrow to get anything done, the bankers will keep their position. They have a long enough history working together over such a vast number of people involved that they can pull it off. Nobody else can do it, and the bankers don’t try to grab more than they can handle.

So I say: Relax about vague threats of one-world government. It ain’t gonna happen. Don’t worry about an apocalypse. Focus on getting used to heart-led living so that when the tribulation comes, you’ll be a bright shining light of truth simply by virtue of having that inner peace. Whatever good anyone can have in this life rests on restoring the heart-led way.

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Gimme a Break

Posted on January 31, 2018 by ehurst

Nothing to write today. Not that I don’t have anything on my mind, but nothing worthy of your valuable time. Thanks for checking anyway.

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A Light in the Darkness

Posted on January 30, 2018 by ehurst

Statistical correlation is not prejudice. Experiential correlation is also not prejudice. What you make of such correlations may be prejudice, but it’s almost impossible for another person to prove without your cooperation. There are so few people making a good moral effort to address race relations that there is no reason to expect any progress socially. You may have luck on an individual level.

History is not a collection of facts that can be interpreted to explain events. It is a collection of rumors that can be use to characterize things that might have happened. Meanwhile, the history you learn is simply the story told by the rich and powerful, with a large helping of conspiracy nonsense by hired “opposition.” With enough cynicism you may be prepared to read history and actually be blessed by it, perhaps understand just a little of how we got where we are now.

The flu is not what they say it is (source). Pay attention here: There is no legal requirement for states to report flu deaths accurately using actual lab tests. Indeed, there is no general medical standard for it at all, particularly in terms of checking which strain is present. Further, states are not required to report flu mortality except for children (17 and under). In general, coroners are not required to sort out whether someone actually died from the flu or a combination of contributing follow-on infections. We have no idea, and you can be darned sure the people pushing claims of a flu epidemic don’t know any more than you do.

Here in the US there has long been a strong effort that amounts to incrementally shutting off dissent and genuine free speech. Notice I didn’t say there was a conspiracy to do it incrementally. A great many powers have struggled to shut it off completely since long ago, but it has been slow work for them. For awhile the Internet was wild and free so you could pick through the liars, but now governments and corporations are figuring out ways to capture and control enough of the audience to keep things as they were before the Internet.

Against this smothering influence is something TPTB cannot quite understand: a growing depth of cynicism that arises from a cultural shift. It’s not a bright hope for the future, just another form of conflict between the insiders and outsiders. This time around the outsiders banging on the doors belong to the geek culture, something the current insiders simply cannot get a grip on. They’ve tried to hire these outsiders, make them dependent on the system, but it’s not working. The outsiders have already created a replacement system; it’s just a matter of time before it takes over. As it does, you’ll witness a new and shocking level of oppression, and one that comes at you in the most insidious ways only dreamed of before now.

If ever people needed to learn the heart-led way, it’s now. It’s not that we are smarter than the rest of the world, but that we are rising above it in the sense of belonging in a different world. This one is toast; it always has been in one way or another. But in this dark and ugly world, we can still shine a bright light from the otherworld.

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Photography: High Water, Low Water

Posted on January 29, 2018 by ehurst

Two sets of pictures collected this past Wednesday and yesterday. Draper Lake is still at a high water mark, while the state is mostly in drought.

On my trek to the lake, I decided to run south along the eastern bank of the primary feeder creek for the whole lake, East Elm Creek. It’s pretty much a straight shot along this side of the ridge of land using the old shore trail. That is, until you hit a large cove (first image). This cove is on the northern edge of the highly developed recreational area. It was pretty rough riding in the first place, given that the equestrians use this trail a great deal and it was pulverized sand in places, but around the cove, it was too long overgrown and washed out in places. I ended up walking the bike over a large ridge at the head of the cove to get back to the road.

After cruising around the park area, where the boat ramp sports a nice new floating dock, I headed farther south along the shore. There was just barely enough room to walk my bike through the foliage on the shore. It was too soft to ride with the recent hard freezes drawing the moisture up into the shore sand. The freeze and thaw cycle left very crumbly wet soil (second image). Eventually I hit another cove and was forced up onto the old shore trail. Here on the spit of land that ends in the double points of 9 and 10, this trail is completely taken over by stalks of thatch grass. It was a real trip trying to navigate between them with virtually no sight of the ground beneath (fourth image). Point 9 itself is a double point, with the first lobe offering a large, flat rock layer currently just out of the water (third image). The point itself wasn’t that special (fifth image).

From there I rode straight back up the ridge line into the woods. The biggest hassle was dead-fall, some of which I dismounted and moved by hand. The trail led me back to the high ridge behind the park area, so that I could ride back out on the main road. Now we shift to pictures from the North Canadian River in the North Hills.

I headed north on Midwest Boulevard and turned east at Britton Road. About a mile-and-a-half this crosses the river. I shot first upstream (south) and then downstream. You can see how very dry it has been. This is the trickle allowed to flow past a collection of dams starting at Lake Overholser way out west of OKC, then the three dams in the Oklahoma River recreation area just south of downtown. The river is alive, just barely, and we’ve had no significant rain for a few months. Yet, without the dams, the river would literally run dry at times. Anyway, the second shot downriver is really pitiful.

I worked my way north on Post Road from there to Hefner Road, east again to Westminster, then north to the crossing on NE 122nd Street. Here the first shot is downstream (north) where the river has gotten scummy over a large stagnant basin in the river (above left). The upstream shot was hard to capture against the sun, so I aimed my camera through some trees along the river bank. That green water smells pretty nasty, but if you went down there, you could find a host of mud-dwelling crawfish and similar creatures (above right).

I turned back west from there and noticed up on the northern ridge a new addition to the skyline: another rural mansion (above left). It stands just off Post Road north of NE 122nd. It just shows how long it’s been since I was up this way. There were just a few signs of dirt work the last time I passed. From there I headed west, and then left at the corner of Douglas Boulevard, where the “La Dolce Vita Ranch” stands. South took me back to Hefner Road and the sand extraction mine. A right turn took me west toward Midwest Boulevard again. I noticed that the farmer had repaired the windmill destroyed in a storm last year (upper right). From there I headed several miles south back to the North Canadian River crossing where I access the hidden trail system along the south bank of the river.

The final image is looking upstream from there to show, again, the depth of drought with the river trickling around the bend that saw so much reconstruction work a few years ago.

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Not Fatalism

Posted on January 28, 2018 by ehurst

Our doctrine is divine cynicism, not fatalism.

Nothing prevents anyone from being like a kid, delighted to explore this life. In it we find all manner of clues and cues to our Father’s love and mercy, His infinite wisdom. Remember, the natural world isn’t fallen, so what we find there is pointing back to Eden, if we can just turn on our heart-led sense of awareness. What we also learn to discern from our hearts is the mess mankind has made of the unfallen world.

We we’re put here for a job, a divine calling to duty. That job is to pass through the Flaming Sword at the Gate of Eden, to discern what really matters morally in the first place. When we gaze upon the vast works of humanity, we can see that most of it will not be here after Christ returns. Our duty is to live according to the revelation, a revelation that includes a corrective of just what kind of works will leave an eternal imprint. It’s a huge task simply because the vast majority of humanity isn’t doing it. Theirs is futility; ours is eternal.

We have a lot to do, and it’s the most fun you can have in this life. Have you not seen how Creation itself responds to our piddling efforts and plays along with the game? We are blessed to become acquainted with the person of Creation and be friends. But God Himself also throws out gifts to encourage the play, miracles of blessing that show anyone watching that we aren’t really a part of the common human fate in this world. He’s bestows His marks of favor on those who embrace the Flaming Sword.

You have to work for your just release from this life. It’s the easiest and hardest work anyone can do. Fatalism? Feh; we’re just playing and having a good time in anticipation of eternity.

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Sermon on the Mount 17

Posted on January 27, 2018 by ehurst

Justice 7:12-14

First off, Jesus quotes directly from the Talmud, something accredited to several rabbinical scholars, but is found in far more ancient traditions all over the Ancient Near East. It’s the Golden Rule, which the Talmud states in the negative: Avoid doing to others what you find hateful. The quote says this is the core of the Torah, and the rest is just commentary. Jesus states it in a positive form.

What may not be obvious at this point is that Jesus is poking once more at the Scribes and Pharisees about hypocrisy. While the pithy statement can run in several different directions, the primary thrust in this context is at hypocrisy, that it’s contrary to everything in the Scripture. Nobody is exempt from the full demands of the Covenant; no shortcuts.

The next two verses continue in the same vein. Matthew chooses Greek terms describing the path of justice as confined because of obstacles. It’s that way on purpose. What most people fail to grasp here is how this echoes His use of the image of inspection gates found on some ancient walled cities. It’s the old “eye of the needle” figure of speech, but stated here in different terms. You can’t drag all your special exemptions and pet sins into a Covenant life. You have to unpack your baggage and get rid of your special demands. There’s not much room to pass into shalom beyond just your humble self.

Cling to your fleshly considerations and you won’t even find the narrow gate. You’ll end up carried along by the crowd of those who refuse to repent. The broad and easy path makes no demands, and takes you away from God’s Presence. He is merciful, but forgiveness requires penitence. When the Messiah comes to establish His domain, the gate will be confined and narrow, calling everyone back to the full intent of the Covenant.

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