Not Merciful and Kind

Posted on April 1, 2024 by ehurst

In response to a private conversation, I feel the need to reiterate a fundamental truth from Scripture: Your fleshly nature is not the real you. If you are among God’s Elect, then your fleshly nature is something you are compelled to drag around, the vessel that carries your soul through this fallen world. You cannot trust it; the flesh always lies.

Your guilt complex is part of the flesh. That kind of dead weight on your soul will not follow you into Eternity. Guilt over imperfection stays in this world.

This is particularly important when we think about the social conflict between males and females. Scripture says quite flatly that women are morally subordinate to men. I won’t use the word “inferior” because of the false baggage attached to it, but Paul makes the point that Eve was morally deceived, while Adam knew better. Women are not equipped with a full depth of moral discernment. And that we are discussing this in light of the Fall in the Garden of Eden is proof that men are not inherently superior in moral discernment, but they can be.

Adam was tasked with guarding the boundaries and failed because it’s hard work, not because he needed a woman’s guidance.

This is the nature of things. Men will ever be imperfect, and women are obliged to accept that. The definition of manhood includes dragging around a fleshly nature that will fight against God’s truth every step of the way. A great many moral failures of men are simply part of the package. Whatever it is women imagine they should demand is all wrong. God’s broad general requirement is that a woman walk from one moral covering to another. She’s under her dad until she’s married.

Meanwhile, a man should aspire to moral virtue, all while knowing he will struggle in way or another. We don’t have in our American Christian culture a kind of hero who knows he is flawed and still drives forward because the mission comes first. Paul makes much of men who pay no real attention to what’s in the mirror, until the Spirit comes and holds up a mirror in their souls.

But God does not operate by the fleshly standard of guilt and penalties. He does not engage in forensic examinations; it’s not a question of legal standing. We bandage our spiritual wounds and keep moving forward, because He doesn’t drop us simply because we make mistakes. The biblical standard of manhood includes the idea that some of us have to use various prostheses to keep going because some choice we made back in the past took away something we cannot recover. There are plenty of issues in this world where you get only one shot, but the mission does not end simply because you missed that shot.

This is the biblical standard, and God condemns the current mythology by which women demand men who don’t exist. Worse, men like that should not exist; women should wake up and recognize that their myths are from Hell. American women are not just wrong, but very deeply, hellishly wrong. “They will be saved in childbearing” means that, as a general expectation, she needs to embrace the man God brings into her life, settle in and build a family with him. Her dreams and plans don’t mean crap; she must embrace his. And she is supposed to honor and love him and obey, while he cherishes and protects her and provides what he can.

Women who claim God has called them to something else are lying to themselves. In Scripture, the only exception to motherhood is chastity and community service. Your choices are limited, ladies, but they are for men, too. This is the Word of God, and all this flouting is bringing down wrath on America. Because of the lies by which people live today, tomorrow will be Hell on Earth, because we have steered ourselves into Satan’s hands. The Devil is not merciful and kind.

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NT Doctrine — Resurrection Review

Posted on March 30, 2024 by ehurst

This is a review of a previous lesson on the Resurrection.

John 20 (Parallels: Matthew 27, Mark 16 and Luke 24)

Jesus lay in the tomb. As the Lamb, He died on the day of Passover, a High Sabbath. Then, there had been the regular Sabbath the next day. Finally, in the wee hours of morning darkness, the women who had been there when Jesus died, and had seen where His body was laid, left the place where everyone had been hiding. This was almost surely somewhere in Bethesda, the newer quarter of Jerusalem built north of the Temple plaza.

It was just a short walk to the memorial garden as the women carried their spices. John mentions only Mary Magdalene because she plays a central role in what happens next, but the other Gospels tell us at least three more came with her — the other Mary, Joanna and Salome. They discussed how they were going to get that massive stone moved from the door of the tomb. The door was a large round slab requiring several men to move it.

The doorway was a bit low and required crouching to get through it, but it was also below the ground level, with the threshold even lower, enough so to capture that stone door. It would have to be rolled back up the incline to uncover the entrance. Upon arriving, it was just light enough for the women to see that the stone was completely away from the face of the rock where the tomb had been carved.

Matthew tells us that there had been an aftershock from the quake that struck when Jesus died. This put the guards on edge. Then an angel floated down from the sky, whose very physical form and clothing emitted light. This single being alone rolled the stone back from the door, breaking the seal in the process. All of the guards together probably could not have moved it. Nobody had to tell them this was not someone they could fight; the men nearly swooned. Who can guard against such a powerful being?

After removing the stone away from the face of the tomb, the angel rolled it a bit to one side, pushed it over on one face, and sat down on it. The guards felt utterly powerless, and probably fled almost immediately upon recovering from their shock. At some point, another angel showed up. Nobody could report how Jesus had risen and left, but He was already gone. The angels were waiting for the women to arrive.

As soon as they got close to the tomb, the angels met them and told them they were wasting time, because Jesus was among the living again. They told the women to go back and report that Jesus had risen, and that they should all go to meet Him where He had told them in advance, on some mountain in Galilee. The women hurried away. Near as we can tell, John and Peter were not in the hideout. Mary Magdalene got separated from the others, going to John and Peter, who likely had rented space for their fishing business. The other women headed for the larger group holing up, probably in the same home as the Upper Room. On the way, these others encountered Jesus Himself.

They fell at His feet, hugging His lower extremities in worship. He reiterated the angels’ message, referring to the disciples as His brethren, and made sure to mention Peter, the one who would surely have felt he deserved to be written off.

The women ran on to where the disciples had been staying during the two Sabbaths. They told them everything they encountered; it took some doing to convince anyone that they weren’t deluded, drunk or joking. Mary Magdalene found Peter and John in their separate hideout, who didn’t hesitate to take off for the garden where the tomb stood. John was a faster runner, so he got there first. He stooped down and saw how the linen casing had collapsed inward without having been disturbed. He believed that Jesus had risen.

Peter was slower, but simply blundered all the way into the tomb. He noted the collapsed mummy casing that had not been altered in any other way, and the head wrapping folded neatly close to where Jesus’ head had rested. He marveled at what he saw — obviously the body had been removed without cutting the linen strips soaked in the now dried gum Arabic. After he came out, John went all the way inside, as well. Then they all went back to their hideout in Bethesda.

Somewhere behind the men, Mary Magdalene made her way back to the memorial garden. It would appear they were gone when she arrived. The angels’ message had not yet sunk in with her. She stood outside the tomb weeping, fearing the worst had happened. Eventually she stooped down to see what was inside. Not only was the mummy case still there, but also the two angels sat there, one at each end. Again they asked her why she had not believed them the first time.

At that moment, Jesus Himself came up behind her. Being a dutiful Hebrew woman, she avoided eye contact with a man she didn’t know. Assuming this was some hired keeper of the memorial garden, she asked about the missing body, willing to take responsibility for it. Without knowing much about Joseph or Nicodemas, she likely figured that the body had been placed there out of mere convenience for the timing with the approaching high holy days. Such a powerful and rich man probably wanted it moved now that the ritual observance had finished.

It took Jesus calling her name for her to realize who it was. She called Him “Master” and tried to hug Him. It was almost humorous how He told her He wasn’t gone yet, and suggested they both had a lot to do right now. She could save the hugs for later. She ran back to the disciples’ hideout in the Bethesda quarter and added her report to all the others. Most of them would be staying for the week of Unleavened Bread.

Meanwhile, the soldiers that had been guarding the tomb reported to the Sanhedrin, indicating that they had been detached from regular duty and temporarily placed under command of the Temple Guard. They told the whole story. The officials could not allow this to leak out into the public, so they bribed the guards to tell the story that they had fallen asleep, and that during their slumber, the disciples had stolen the body. Of course, this would be an admission of dereliction of duty, a capital offense under Roman military law. The Sanhedrin promised to cover for them by explaining the situation to their officers and to Pilate, but they wanted to keep everything as secret as possible. As the fake story was being repeated around town, it meant there was a warrant for the arrest of the disciples for breaking the Roman seal.

Two of the disciples decided to leave town, Cleopas and one other. They were hiking to Emmaus where they lived. On the way, Jesus casually joined them and asked about their discussion. They were kept from recognizing Him, and were naturally shocked that this fellow wasn’t aware of all the noise about Jesus and His death. They mentioned their disappointment with how things turned out, and noted the unconfirmed claims of Him being seen alive. Upon hearing this, Jesus scolded them for being so slow to put the picture together.

Then He launched into a recitation of the prophecies that had indicated quite accurately how the Messiah would die and rise from death. He further reminded them that the Messianic Kingdom would have to be a moral empire of hearts, not some political entity. They must have thought He was a rabbi on the good side of things, and invited Him to stay with them. This was just common courtesy; it was late and time for dinner. They honored their fascinating guest by treating Him as a respected superior. As soon as He blessed and broke the unleavened bread, the Spirit allowed them to recognize Him. And just as suddenly, He vanished.

They immediately forgot the meal and rushed the seven miles back to Bethesda and recounted their experience. As they all were discussing this, Jesus materialized in front of them, greeting them with “shalom!” Most Jews believed in ghosts, and their presence was always bad news. Jesus sought immediately to calm them down, and warned them they had been too locked into their human expectations of a political reform, and never paid any attention to what Jesus had pointedly told them several times about the nature of His reign as Messiah.

While He was in a resurrected body, it was still fully manifested in solid form. He demonstrated this by eating food. He still bore the scars of His execution, and showed them as proof who He was. He began another lecture on the nature of His Kingdom. He was careful to bring it home to them, with none of His normal cryptic statements. He finished by telling them that they now had His divine authority to declare sins forgiven, as the means of demonstrating the new situation, under the New Covenant.

We learn that Thomas had not been present for this late Sunday evening meeting. When the others reported it to him, he showed his character. He was the first one honestly ready to die with Jesus, and was still committed to what he knew best. His commitment rested on what he could verify for himself. Not given to strong emotions either way, he dismissed the wild tales of Jesus alive again, insisting he needed better proof.

It came eight days later, as the disciples tarried in Jerusalem. It was the day after the end of Unleavened Bread. They met again, and this time Thomas showed up. The doors were locked because the warrant for their arrest was still a hot issue in town. Jesus materialized in front of them and turned to Thomas, inviting him to sate his curiosity. At this point, Thomas simply reaffirmed his former readiness to die for Him.

Jesus warned Thomas that the time for hard logical proof was passing. From here on out, Thomas would need to change things. Instead of forming commitments on hard proof, it was now time to let his convictions stand on their own to drive his choices. Taking this as his cue, John reminds his readers that he saw more than enough proof over the coming days with Jesus hanging around a while. People who need proof would never get enough. We will have to take it on faith.

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Just Use It

Posted on March 29, 2024 by ehurst

You may have heard of the Halo video game franchise. It’s quite entertaining, up to a point. It’s also anti-Christian. A major premise of the game is mocking faith in Eternity and pushing the dire necessity of advancing humanity against all resistance. We must evolve and become something else, something that we are supposed to believe is within reach.

It’s a lie from Hell. Humanity is nothing but a vapor. I’m not saying don’t watch the videos or play the game. I’m saying you should understand the message and know clearly what’s wrong with it. Because it calls out to us on the basis of everything our civilization holds sacred, it’s nearly impossible to refuse that message — until you have dismissed that whole civilization.

Over and over again: This world, this reality, is not reliable. Anything that belongs to this reality is equally unreliable. That means the flesh, and everything it can know and do. The greatest victory in human history was the Cross. Of all the examples we can imagine, this was the model of heroism to which we all aspire. Our only mission is to defeat the flesh and nail it to the Cross.

Our heroes are the people who succeed at this well enough to be at peace with things which no man can control. For each of us, that phrase — “things which no man can control” — refers to everything God did not place in your hands. The world is doomed to Hell. Those who cling to it will go to Hell with it. Let it go. Cling to Christ instead.

What grows from these roots of faith?

You cannot know God and His ways without His Holy Spirit. Without Him breathing life into your dead spirit, you are doomed. This world is all you have. No philosophy is capable of cracking the secrets of Eternity from mere intellect alone. Mine is no better. Unless He calls to you through my writing, nothing I offer here will do you any good. Having the Holy Spirit doesn’t solve all your problems, but it will put you in a position to hear from Him and begin to change your outlook on this life.

The Scriptures witness to us of Jesus Christ, His Son. They do not contain Him, but they point to Him. We are accountable to Scripture in the sense that, without starting there, we cannot hope to get acquainted with Him. That’s the starting point, the gateway, if you will.

Meanwhile, on the human level, God never operates without an element of human deniability. Dead spirits reading the Bible will not come under His convicting power. He must call them and breathe life into them. The Scripture has no power without His Presence. Anyone reading the Scriptures without the enlightening power of the Holy Spirit cannot hope to understand them. It’s not automatic that you will understand them, but that you can if you commit yourself to finding Him there. And the longer you keep poking around in the Bible, the more your perception of what it says, and consequently what you know of Him, will change.

It’s personal. It’s not in the written word itself, but in His Spirit Presence. The Scriptures aren’t magic; it’s just ink on paper. Indeed, the honest truth is that we cannot be entirely sure the versions we read reflect the originals documents. We believe they do, but there is enough uncertainty that no human will ever be satisfied with the results of the research into that question. The best you can do is recognize the sound of His voice from whatever version you read.

The relationship with Him shapes the rules, not the other way around. Paul said that, back when Israel was under the Covenant of Moses, there were countless unknown souls who found the Lord without access to any Scripture at all (Romans 2), while only precious few of the nation that had the Scriptures ever kept peace with Him. The Book will open your obedience to the privileges of the Covenant, but it cannot give you obedience.

Should you seek God’s face about which translation is best, you might get a useful answer. You may well be led to one or another. It will not be the answer He gives to someone else. It’s not a question of translation scholarship, nor even a the lifelong pursuit of which source documents are the “most accurate” conveyance of the original documents.

Sure, I can warn you that any translation that relies on the Masoretic Text is filled with pernicious efforts by rabbis to undercut Christian faith. I can warn you that all the writers of the New Testament quoted only from the Septuagint. It was the one they trusted. Yet the vast majority of our English Bibles use the Masoretic for the Old Testament. This is why so many English translations have different wording between the Old Testament passages and the way they are quoted in the New. This is why we have so many perplexing Old Testament passages that make no sense, as if part of the text is missing. The Masoretic scholars were dishonest.

But you know something? Nobody will give you a modern English translation from the Septuagint except the Greek Orthodox, and their doctrines are quite mistaken on some of the most fundamental questions. In other words, we are stuck with an unwieldy situation. If you truly believe the Bible is magical with its own powers, you are really in for a rough ride. You’ll be jerked around by the vagaries of human capabilities for something that will never offer a solid answer.

The Scriptures will help you shape a mental frame of reference for responding to the earth shattering power of the Holy Spirit within you. The Bible helps you to formulate an expectation of what your convictions will say. But the Bible is not your convictions; it is not the Holy Spirit Himself.

Pick a translation. Use it. Seek the Lord’s face. Don’t fret over those complicated questions; there is nothing you can do short of devoting your life to deep scholarship in Bible translation. That’s not very practical for most of us; God doesn’t call all of us to that.

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The Big Reset

Posted on March 28, 2024 by ehurst

In general, western women are evil, American women in particular.

We have noted the situation we are in. The feminist cult (female supremacy) has locked up all opportunities for the future, so that there can be no marriage and family, can be no love and structure to society. What God says must be done cannot be done by men of good will. And there are so few women of good will that they might as well not exist.

This civilization cannot be saved. The sickness is terminal. There is only one solution: The civilization must be destroyed. We did not take care of the problem ourselves, so God is going to do it for us. And in the process, we will be dispossessed from the land, because we were unwilling to take the measures God required. We have failed the covenant.

What was it we failed to do? We should have seized the social controls, by violence if necessary. But the civilization we had was based on feminine moral superiority, so it’s only natural that western men cucked and simpered totally from the very beginning. Had the West actually been following Christ, we would have rejected that pagan background and restructured everything to God’s liking.

He defined the role of women, and we never had it, not even for a moment. He defined the role of men, and that was also missing from the start. The West has never been Christian by the biblical definition. Men reign; when they do not, everything is broken. Female humans are not women when males are not men.

Do you understand that civilization is just a layer on top of the fundamentals of society? If you don’t have the proper foundation, a civilization cannot endure on its own. It’s nice to have, but the moral fundamentals are the absolute necessity.

The Lord will reduce us to a level of existence that forces us to live fundamentally, mere survival. Human instincts will be restored and men will reign again. It will be ugly and brutal. When God’s wrath falls, most of the human race will be wiped from the surface of this planet. It’s time for a big reset. Failure to adapt means the vast majority of westerners will never make it.

We who live today, most of us will be around to see this shocking level of destruction.

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Fighting in Two Realms

Posted on March 27, 2024 by ehurst

I’ve mentioned Richard Wurmbrand before on this blog. However, there’s something in his story that doesn’t get much attention these days. Let me approach it from a different direction.

First, we need to deal with the high probability that historical accounts of Christian persecution are often inflated. It’s the same bogus tendency to “gild the lily” in accounts of Jesus’ life, His crucifixion in particular. There’s a ton of nonsense in Christian mythology. Thus, many of the most popular accounts of early persecution are highly embellished. There was persecution, but we have to wade through a lot of nonsense about it.

Second, most persecution was political in nature, not a direct hatred for Christian faith. That’s still true today. The vast majority of hassles we face today are scattershot aimed at everyone who dissents from the globalist or Zionist agenda. They aren’t picking out genuine faith in the crowd.

By contrast, John’s Revelation refers to a very purposeful and direct opposition to that genuine faith in Christ. What we are facing today is simply the incremental loss of social and political convenience for mainstream Christian religion. The very real persecution Christians faced in the First Century was significantly different.

What Wurmbrand and his kind faced was a genuine anti-faith persecution. However, we must note that the communist ideologues made no distinction between various theologies and church traditions. It was a blunt hatred for religion itself. Thus, in his books, Wurmbrand tracks the abuse dished out to a wide variety of Christian expressions, some we would flatly disown as any kind of biblical faith.

Which brings me back to a point I’ve tried to make in the past: It’s more important to have boundaries than where they are. Nothing says you are obliged to call someone “family” whose doctrine is way out in the field, but there is a very real practical reason for helping them when tribulation starts taking a bite out of our witness. Whatever measures there are that helps them helps us, as well. We need to pray and consider carefully what constitutes harmless cooperation with allies versus what kind of cooperation is compromise with evil. Most believers with whom I discuss this are either wide open, or tightly closed up. There’s darned little in between.

Also, contexts can change, and so might the things you’ll compromise on now versus then.

But the basic principle here is that we need to know where our boundaries are, and where they should be. There’s nothing we can do about how God chooses to bless and prosper someone with a different doctrine. Give Him glory and don’t waste time and resources carping about it. We have way too many church folks playing the game of ignoring the whole discussion of what constitutes a contextual ally. For them, everyone is either family or enemy. That is not biblical. The Exodus saw a significant number of non-Israeli folks making the trip with them, and even aiding some in the Conquest.

If the real enemy — Satan and his allies in God’s courts — doesn’t differentiate between who is close covenant family, then it’s just about pointless that we should. The real issue is not that we are fighting human agents, but that we are resisting that transcendent enemy force. For Radix Fidem and friends, we need to keep track of what they are doing. Whatever problems we have, it’s the work of those higher spirit beings. There is no way we can avoid having tight consistent boundaries for our faith and religion, but that is not the issue when it comes to the broader threat from human lackeys of that enemy.

We do not restrain the hand of God, nor His plans. We are fortunate indeed to be included. Know what you believe, and stay with it. But that’s your weapon against spiritual forces. Don’t use it as a weapon against the hapless idiots whom the Devil and his friends are using. God Himself warned that there will always be folks who won’t see things the way we do, and He still loves and cares for them. We need strong habits of discerning faith itself, so that we are being kind to His people regardless of the packaging. That in itself is part of our warfare against Darkness.

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Don’t Argue with God

Posted on March 26, 2024 by ehurst

I’ve seen countless efforts to identify where in the matrix of our human behavior we become culpable before God. All of it assumes an existing objective standard of right and wrong separate from God’s Person. Thus, should God blame someone when they meant harm, or when they didn’t care, or…? It’s all a tangled mess. God has revealed the answer, but we keep ignoring it. Let me use myself as an example, since I know me better than I know someone else.

My earthly dad is long gone; there’s no one to embarrass by telling the truth now.

He had a very rough childhood. However, he made the mistake of assuming that the evil done to him was okay, and he did it his own kids. I was convinced at times that he hated me; all of his discipline was from personal anger, never according to some clear standard. Confusingly, he insisted that it was a clear standard. But I never knew when something I did was going to set him off and he would physically abuse me. And to this day I believe he enjoyed doing it sometimes. I’m also convinced he never felt guilty about much of anything; he was borderline sociopath.

So, I was trapped. On the one hand, I had learned to be cruel and capricious like him. On the other hand, I had a very tender conscience. I was driven to act vicious and then would hate myself, in the same way I was convinced he hated me.

I know a thing or two about guilt. And because of my religious upbringing, all of my guilt carried an uncontrollable factor of fear when I thought about God. Yet, I could not avoid God, because I was Elect and I knew it rather early in life. Try to imagine how deeply I had to hide inside my own head in order to accept all the Sunday School teaching, the Baptist college education, and all my ministry training after college. I was in my 30s when I finally got past the worst of my damaged psyche.

Part of getting past it was the realization that most of the stuff that still haunted my conscience wasn’t really me, but someone very evil using me. It’s not that I get off Scott free. It’s a matter of discerning what my actual failure was. Regarding those individual acts that I still remember as evil, those were mostly a matter of being wholly misguided by my earthly father’s influence and the wider context that supported him. I could not have known better.

Nor was there anyone around to help me understand myself. I really was enslaved by multiple factors of the twisted psychology of my youth. There comes a point where you realize that the person acting wasn’t really you, but some perverted slave master using you. I didn’t even realize that I had the option to be free. All things considered, it’s unlikely I could have done much better.

Yet, I am still on the hook for being fallen. David had it right in Psalm 51 (where he reveals God’s outlook). Not only did he confess that his sin was against God alone, but that he had no excuse on the grounds of having been born fallen. David had no sense of false guilt for the details of having Uriah killed. To be honest, Uriah was being stupid about that whole scene. It would be wholly wrong to read our cultural sense of morals back into David’s situation; they lived by their own culture. Rather, David had shamed his army (not going to war with them), he shamed his throne and he shamed the whole nation and the Covenant (coveting Bathsheba without making her part of his harem in the first place). Most importantly, he shamed God.

Notice that God didn’t condemn David for having sex with Bathsheba, but for how he went about it. The first child of this union died, but a subsequent child became the greatest king in the history of Israel.

Stop thinking about the individual sins. Try to see all of them as symptoms of something far more serious. What do you expect from sinners? Sin. Jesus said that about tree roots and fruit (John 15). Each sin act has its own consequences, but the real issue with God is whether or not you care what He thinks. And the simple truth is that you won’t — cannot — care what He thinks unless you have His Spirit in you. So the broader question is whether you are living in the flesh, which cannot impress God ever, or walking in the Spirit. It will take the rest of your life to work out the changes required.

Part of getting past the ghost of my dad’s abuse was forgiving him. It was also committing myself to acting better than he taught me, and letting people imagine I was raised well. I would simply give credit to my Heavenly Father. And then I had to forgive myself. I still have a fleshly nature; it is fully due any wrath God wants to put on it. It’s His choice to be patient and rather indulgent with me in my heart and restore the damage to my soul. That mitigates the wrath He justly pours out on my flesh.

I had to ditch the western ways of false guilt and learn the biblical path. Yes, I was a whiny obnoxious little turd at times, but the real issue was the burden of a fallen fleshly nature. Fallen people are annoying because they are mortal. All the different flavors don’t make any difference in the fundamental fact that they are doomed. We become accountable to God when He sets us free to choose. Until that point, we are not free. We shame Him when we can hear Him, and then we argue.

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Cannot Do Right

Posted on March 25, 2024 by ehurst

If you can understand the collective and honor-based culture of the Bible, then you can understand the behavior of the modern State of Israel. It’s not a secret if you know how to read it, but if you approach blindly from an American point of view, you will find it incomprehensible.

Modern Judaism still teaches under collective and honor-based assumptions. Zionism is the derived political ideology based on that. And it is inherently racist in the ugliest sense of the word. However, do not judge Zionist Israel on a western philosophical basis. There is plenty of strong condemnation right from the collectivist and honor-based Bible.

Jews severed their personal loyalty to Jehovah and trumped up a false image of Him, very much in line with the sins of Jeroboam and his false idolatry. Jeroboam referred to his false cult as worshiping “Jehovah” but defined their deity by pagan imagery. It was not the God of Israel, just something using His name. Judaism does the same thing. They have constructed a false image and called it “Yahweh”. It is based on the false intellectual assumptions of Aristotelian logic, instead of their own native Hebrew metaphysics.

It’s a bastard religion that does not come from Scripture, but from human imagination. They retain the collectivist national identity and orientation, even while publicly denying it. They still operate on the honor/shame value system, and thus utterly reject any sense of objective moral values so common in the West.

Their actions in the Gaza War are perfectly in line with denying that Palestinians are even human. That’s because they deny that all Gentiles are human; they alone are the only people on earth. It would be shameful in their eyes to treat Gentiles as humans. Their whole rhetoric in English is to placate a more powerful animal country until they can seize control. Instead of doing the hard work of slaughtering us, they prefer to enslave us.

If you approach this question from a western logic, then Israeli military actions seem incomprehensible. The brutality combined with their truculent denial of brutality, the outright lying about how Hamas is so irredeemably evil, is all part of their standard mode of operation. In their own minds, there is no sin at all in the brutality. The only issue is that they realize it provokes the Gentile nations, the western countries are particular. They’ll ignore the “international community” as much as possible, and then cynically propagandize at the same time.

It turns out the westernized commentary of the world condemning Israel is hypocritical to the hilt. Western countries would not welcome the Palestinians; they are too much like Israelis in their incorrigible nature as a collective. Palestinians hate Jews as much as the Jews hate them. In all likelihood, the Palestinians are the true literal genetic descendants of ancient Israel, while the Ashkenazi Jews are pretenders, with almost no Hebrew DNA. Everybody knows this, but refuses to acknowledge it. Instead, the whole thing is pure propaganda rhetoric on all sides.

It’s not that what the Zionists are doing is wrong by some objective standard of right and wrong. The Bible condemns the Zionists because they are wholly invalid in God’s eyes. They are a false construct sponsored by the Devil and his allies on the Elohim Council. The existence of a Zionist identity is an insult to God and His revelation. It is meant to shame Him. The State of Israel cannot do anything right in God’s eyes.

The biblical reference to “God’s Chosen” was based on the proper understanding as explained by Heiser in The Unseen Realm — God parceled out humanity as nations to his Elohim Council, but created from scratch His own nation. The secret hidden from the Elohim Council is that, with the revelation of the Messiah (His Living Word), the designation of “God’s Chosen” would morph into His Elect from every nation. It was not a human nation, but a nation of hearts, rooted in eternal souls that He had chosen secretly before the expulsion from the Garden of Eden. National identity is confined to the flesh, while God’s people bear an eternal identity that makes no reference to flesh at all.

Jesus was the revelation of that hidden plan. He came to call the Elect into His Body.

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A Place in Glory

Posted on March 24, 2024 by ehurst

Catacomb Resident Blog has been talking a lot lately about the necessity of a cultural shift in our minds to the biblical standard of collectivism and honor/shame based thinking: Collectivism 1, 2 and 3; honor/shame culture 1, 2 and 3.

Nobody in their right mind will dispute whether the Hebrew people lived in a collectivist society based on honor/shame. This is quite different from our western individualism and guilt-based culture. Everything we think, say and do is pickled in this different approach; we struggle to understand the biblical version and lack the language to discuss it properly.

And let’s remind ourselves that God Himself built up the biblical culture by hand, while western culture was left to human imagination under the guidance of spiritual forces hostile to God’s loving plans for humanity. In general, the other spirits that guide humanity hate us.

It’s not just a question of whether we can teach ourselves to understand the Bible as a collectivist honor-based culture, but whether we can understand life itself any other way. While we could take a look at Asian and some African cultures for some clues, the one big issue is that God Himself stands in the place of a collective society. Instead of drawing our identity and sense of what is right from deference to the community, we get it from God Himself. However, the Holy Spirit communicates in terms of shame/honor and collective loyalty.

The hardest thing for us is to abandon the false guilt complex upon which the entire Western Civilization is based. There is something inside of us that operates as a repository of guilt, but it is part of the fallen flesh. It is not based in your heart; it’s part of the accursed human intellect and emotions.

Thus, your guilt complex seeks restitution in terms of particular debts and restitution. Such reckoning is rooted in some imaginary objective standard of right and wrong. The Bible speaks entirely in terms of honor and shame, of personal transgression of our duty to God. It is feudal in nature.

The difficulty, then, is our instinctive reaction to the teaching about convictions. It’s a long transition into the biblical mindset. I’ve long said that our consciences are the starting point simply because just getting ourselves to pay attention to them is a challenge in some cases. We’ve said that the conscience is our mental interface to the heart, where our convictions reside. The conscience of westerners is damaged, but it’s all we have.

That means there is a healing process for the conscience, as well. It has been fed lies and is loaded with false guilt. By seeking out the convictions of our hearts, the conscience is taught better, but for most people this is a long journey. The repository of false guilt tends to muffle the voice of the Holy Spirit so that we do not hear clearly.

Once again: the sole issue here is that we need to wean ourselves from that imaginary objective reasoning standard of conscience and learn to trust the very personal connection to the Holy Spirit. He is alive, and truth is a dynamic thing that rests entirely on God’s whims. You cannot capture it and freeze it in time and space. It’s a relationship that evolves constantly. It’s not chaotic and rootless, but it does change with the context. Your only hope is to dig through the rubble of your soul until God speaks clearly in your convictions, from moment to moment.

You will most certainly hear things falsely when you start down this path. Don’t despair; God is patient about this, but you must commit yourself to the path He has made for us. Obey your conscience while knowing full well it will get things wrong, but it’s all you have. There is no objective standard; that’s a lie from Hell. Your standard is the community of saints in Heaven who are watching, all affirming what God says.

Seek His honor and glory, and He will grant you a place in it.

Note: Just as a reference point, I’ll point out that leftism is a false collective. Lefties cling to the guilt and innocence theme, but try to hold everyone accountable to the collective. However, their collective replaces God with the State.

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NT Doctrine — Philippians

Posted on March 23, 2024 by ehurst

Paul’s letter to Philippi was largely a personal note. The church had sent Epaphroditus to Paul in his Roman house arrest during the first trial with a gift and asking after his welfare. While he was there, Epaphroditus got sick and nearly died. His home church got wind of this and were very concerned, and sent yet another courier to check on his condition and to deliver another message to Paul. This letter went back with both that second courier and Epaphroditus. The letter is mostly personal, and we sense that Paul is about to be released.

So, the first chapter is predictably personal in nature, as is most of the next. However, early in chapter 2 Paul says something that stands firmly in the purpose of this study to show the continuity between the Old and New Testaments, verses 5-11.

He advises the folks in Philippi to embrace the mind of Christ. This is quite possible for one very good reason: Jesus knew He was the Son of God, but He set aside all of His divine privileges. Instead, the life He lived was as a human. All of His miracles were built into the Covenant, not His Person. A major element of all that He did was to demonstrate what came in the same package as faithfulness to divine revelation. He was restoring the full power of the Covenant of Moses before He closed it out.

He was willing to face the fate of all humanity. Moreover, He faced what was in that day the worst fate a human could encounter, the most gruesome execution known. And more to the point, He faced it with the burden of all our sins, for He had none of His own.

This was such a high victory that His Father granted Him authority over every power in Heaven and Earth. The Devil and the Elohim Council were subjected to Jesus, who had become the ultimate advocate for humanity against the agenda of the Devil and his allies in the Spirit Realm. They were compelled to declare their allegiance to Him.

The question of whether any other being warranted glory was answered: It all belongs to Jehovah, the Creator of all things.

There is no more doctrine in this letter.

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Prepping for the Mission

Posted on March 22, 2024 by ehurst

This is a matter of convictions, not a Word from God. The only way you should take it as a Word is if it rings a bell in your convictions, too. Obey your convictions, not my ruminations. This is a prophetic time, and God is choosing mostly to work through the subtle means of convictions that bring us together. I’m doing my best to make sense of those convictions in concrete terms. I’m driven by a desire to protect the covenant community.

I’m convinced the time has come for the US to be destroyed. As far as I can tell, my convictions indicate that it will be this calendar year. Not that it will be finished this year, but the final breakdown will become obvious to most people starting this year, most likely in conjunction with the national elections.

My flesh is not eager for the turmoil, but my heart knows it has to come. My heart is eager to see God glorified, whether by His wrath or blessings. This stuff is going to hurt.

The federal government will come apart and everyone like me who receives federal benefits will lose all them. Some state governments will make an effort to replace parts of that system, but a lot of seniors and other federal dependents will be cast adrift to survive on their own in various ways. Meanwhile, interstate commerce will become very confused. Internet business will suddenly face a plethora of new government policies from the states, or more likely, regional coalitions of state governments.

It will be one whale of rough ride, a real adventure. If you don’t like that kind of thing, it’s best you make all kinds of prepper moves to avoid the effects. I trust the hand of my God to provide what I really need. I’m already near the bottom of the economic system, so there’s not much prepping I could do, but I’m doing what I can. I’ll just have to take what comes and let my Father choose what I must endure.

We must have a destroyer, someone who will provoke a massive social and political conflict, someone who is reckless and willing to disrupt. Trump is a very good candidate for that mission. If not Trump, then someone else who will rise up, a proverbial bomb-thrower, someone who doesn’t hesitate to push the boundaries. This system cannot be saved; it is rigged for detonation. We need someone to push the button, to cross that final boundary that will trigger the conflict that will divide the nation.

This must come.

Do you understand that when God comes to visit, it’s a two-edged sword? Whatever He does is always in our best interest. The issue is getting ourselves into the flow of His work, and to learn to love His ways for the sake of shalom. His wrath is just one of His Sword; blessings for His children are the other edge. What destroys sin blesses us. Learn to identify His wrath on sin a blessing for yourself. His power and presence is a mark of favor on us, no matter what it does to those who refuse His covering.

Yes, every human action at large is a reflection of conflict in the Spirit Realm. The political shifts you see are the work of beings in the Spirit Realm; humans are merely the tools. There is a great evil afoot, but that doesn’t mean it’s opposed by good. What we see is more often two evil forces manipulating humans against each other because those spiritual forces are trying to destroy us. In that sense, the Trump Machine is indeed being used by dark forces against humanity. But so is the opposition. It’s just two flavors of evil offering a false dichotomy.

God’s aim is not to win through the election process of fallen humans who ignore His Word. Nothing from either side glorifies His name. The glory of the Lord points human attention to the Spirit Realm, not to the mess here in a world slated for destruction. Our fight is not against flesh and blood, but against spiritual forces.

If you have a mind for it, you will see that the turmoil of tribulation and apocalypse will be a rich opportunity for us to glorify His name by pointing more clearly to that Spirit Realm. We have work to do, and the only valid “prep” is for this mission.

On a practical note: I’ve long said that the biggest threat to this blog and the Radix Fidem ministry is Zionism. When the globalists are slapped aside, the slapping will be performed by Zionists. There are precious few in government who are not sold out totally to one agenda or the other. Most of those resisting both are being held back, kept at the lower levels of political activity.

I’ve already mentioned that the one saving grace of Christian Reconstruction is their anti-Dispie position. They constitute a large portion of Christian Nationalists, who are divided on this question. Keep in mind that the globalists do not distinguish Radix Fidem from Christian Nationalism. They will handle us the same. The issue is that our ability to associate online is likely to be taken away because the globalist want to shut us up on one principle, while the rising Zionists will do it for another reason.

I’m convinced the Zionists will have one last hurrah in politics before Israel is destroyed. That last hurrah will include kicking Radix Fidem off the Net. Not all of us individually; too much of what governments large and small do relies on the Internet. Rather, the community will have great difficulty using the Net to communicate. Unless something arises that allows networking without exposure on the Internet (as currently defined), we will all be spun off on our own. But it will affect a lot of other people. I suspect that another form of networking will arise, but I have no firm image of what that would be. It will come from outsiders in the technology community who are unwilling to be silenced that way. If they do, it won’t likely be consumer friendly.

Be ready to lose a significant amount of freedom of communication; it’s coming.

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One last thing: God’s sense of timing is nothing like ours. He’s aware of ours, but the timing of things from our perspective has seldom been a significant element in His agenda. Our insatiable demand for knowing when is frankly childish compared to biblical maturity.

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