NT Doctrine — 2 Corinthians 7-13

Posted on January 6, 2024 by ehurst

The balance of Paul’s letter here is almost entirely personal in nature. It is by far the strongest defense of his apostleship. While very critical historically, telling us so much about Paul the man, and incidentally very much about the folks at the church in Corinth, there is very little doctrine, which is the subject of this study.

However, there is one strong statement of doctrine in 10:1-11. Here again, I can offer nothing better than my previous written comments:

Jesus once said that the traditions of humanity, specifically the Talmud, were a poor replacement for the Word of God. Those who regard His Word as mere traditions of men prove they are spiritually dead, for no one in the Spirit can think that way. [It is, after all, the Spirit of Christ.] The one indicator we have of spiritual birth in someone is how they respond to the Word. A spiritual message brings a spiritual power to bear; the mind and flesh must obey, however poorly. Human traditions of scholarship could only apply to the level of the fleshly intellect and have no place in the Spirit Realm.

While Paul’s scholarship was easily the match of any other, and his ability to understand politics deeply seasoned by experience and his knowledge of God’s Laws, he never relied on these things when it came to matters of the Spirit. Since it seems he lacked some sort of natural charisma or oratorical talent, those were dead issues from the start. Such abilities were fine for mundane matters where the Spirit is silent, but utterly outclassed against the imperatives of the Kingdom.

Thus, moving the hearts of the Corinthians would necessarily be a matter of spiritual power through gentleness, not political power or scholarly argument. Paul jokingly noted that some who operated by fleshly authority found this sort of approach wimpy, inconsistent with his forceful letter writing ability. He much preferred the gentle and friendly approach, but some who operate purely on the level of the flesh were going to see his other side, which he reserved for those who didn’t appear to have a clue about the Spirit. He may have been confined to a fleshly form, but his friendly demeanor was effective spiritual warfare, overwhelming fleshly powers.

Adding to those three paragraphs of commentary, we are reminded that Paul struggled more with the Corinthians over the spirit versus flesh issue than any other church we know about. They were so enamored of their proud Greek heritage of reason, but failed to recognize the even more ancient Hebrew heritage of mysticism. They kept trying to reassert their human judgment against the revelation of God. Shouldn’t God be reasonable? There are some things in His ancient Law Covenant that touched on the very root of Creation itself. The issue of sexual defilement is simply not open to moderation, and this was the core issue with the Corinthian church.

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Kiln of the Soul: Who

Posted on January 5, 2024 by ehurst

If you are coming from a traditional mainstream religious background, you will probably say this sounds like empty chatter.

Review: Radix Fidem is the name for our approach to religion. It is the philosophy. It’s the path, not the destination. Radix Fidem is the collection of a priori assumptions we embrace before we arrive at any destination.

Kiln of the Soul is the name for where we arrived. You can claim Radix Fidem and not embrace Kiln of the Soul. The Kiln is our implementation of Radix Fidem. This is the organization, inasmuch as we are willing to organize.

We have discussed Radix Fidem endlessly (pamphlet and booklet), and will continue to refine the meaning of that term. We haven’t discussed the Kiln in quite some time. What comes in the package with Kiln of the Soul?

Because Kiln of the Soul refers to the people, it’s not so easy to pin down verbally. That’s your first clue: This is Christian Mysticism. A part of the Radix Fidem path is discounting the intellectual content in favor of emphasizing the personal connection to Christ. This is heart-led religion because the Kingdom of Heaven is an empire of hearts, not bodies. It is not easily recognized through fleshly means.

Thus, if you join Kiln of the Soul, that will change something about the organization, because it is defined by the people who claim it. It’s not that we can’t tell you. We could state the boundaries in more clinical terms, but any statement we give must first be anchored in who we are as followers of Christ. Kiln of the Soul is a living thing.

We are a covenant family. You don’t join some kind of organization; you covenant with us to be family. The key to our existence is our love for each other, in that we embrace each other as Christ embraced us. We can offer some clinical discussion of how that plays out, but the clinical discussion is not the definition. The definition — the ontology of the thing — is rooted in Heaven, not in this world. It’s no mere slogan to say it is people first and foremost. As with Christ and His teachings, you cannot nail it down with words, but must resort often to symbolism, parables, figures of speech.

Who we are exceeds the limits of human speech. There can be no precise definition.

Our symbolic imagery goes like this: God didn’t design us for this life. Our fundamental nature is eternal, not mortal. The mortality is a curse, a heavy burden we must drag around with us in this world. This world is essentially a lie about who we are supposed to be. You cannot trust what this world says about anything, because it is not what God wanted for us. Human flesh cannot perceive ultimate reality.

But within this human flesh is an eternal creature crying out for redemption. We have no power on our own to escape. We must wait for God to call us, to breathe His eternal Spirit into our dead spirits, empowering us to overcome the flesh. The flesh isn’t really us. We fight the flesh every second of every day. It can be disciplined, but it will not yield voluntarily. Our fleshly natures are allied with our Enemy, the Devil.

God’s Creation is inherently feudal. The Devil is His punisher. As long as you cling to the flesh, you are under the Devil’s authority. To escape requires that we implement in our lives the escape God provided in His revelation. That’s the Flaming Sword that guards the path back to Eden. We have to turn that sword on ourselves and keep hacking away at our fallen nature as long as we are here in this fleshly frame.

The ultimate expression of God’s revelation is the person of Jesus Christ. The call is to submit to Him as our feudal Master and Lord. Even the flesh understands that. It will carp and complain, but it’s wired for this. It knows what the game is when we make Jesus Lord.

As part of that submission, we must learn to love each other as He loved us, dying on the Cross in our place. We employ that sacrificial compassion with each other; it’s our chief mission in this life. It’s the core of what we are and all we do. If we get that part wrong, nothing else we do matters. The single biggest task is to recognize who is family and embrace them. That is our ontology, the identity of who we are.

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Is It Time?

Posted on January 4, 2024 by ehurst

In one sense, the answer must be yours. You must own it. Otherwise, there is nothing to discuss.

I’ve been praying about it for at least two decades: When do we start seeking to form actual covenant communities? We already have our Kiln of the Soul as an online church. When does the Radix Fidem path begin to produce offline bodies?

I believe this is the year.

It’s not that I’ve backed off my prophetic guidance on what to expect. We shall see a church exodus, though it may not show up in any new sources as such. Christian Zionism is already taking a major hit, and events this year will accelerate that trend. This is also unlikely to show up in the news. You’ll sense these things in your heart first.

Do you think a new kind of faith assembly is a pipe dream? You can refer to it as Radix Fidem if you like, but nobody is going to look over your shoulder except God. I’ll point you to His guidance; call your group anything you like. What I’m trying to point out here is that there’s more at work here than just some social and political upheaval. Those things are merely the vehicle, not the destination.

Where is it taking you? It ranges all over the map. Some of you need to think in terms of salvaging existing faith communities. That must necessarily mean making adjustments in how you characterize covenant faith, speaking to the people where they are. Again, there is no orthodoxy of Radix Fidem; it’s just an approach to doing religion. At any rate, I rather expect there will be more of this salvaging than starting from scratch.

Keep your eye on the community, not the institution or the facility that defines it. Be open to opportunities to join and touch communities that already exist. And while there is certainly no intention here of dividing existing ministries, you should expect it to happen. Again, this is a time of exodus. People are going to feel called to something different, something that doesn’t already exist in their world. They’ll be hungry and thirsty for a path that doesn’t keep leading to old failures.

Radix Fidem is one better path. What we have here could not possibly be the answer for everyone. We have been building this over the years when it was too radical for most. Soon, it may be too tame for some. I was driven to build something for a context I didn’t see or expect. I’ve stumbled upon others with the same sense of mission, to prepare for things God would do some day.

I believe that day has come. It’s not for everyone, but it’s for this time. You won’t get any prodding from me; it will come from the Lord. If He hasn’t already stirred you to begin praying for a community where you live, then just ignore my blather. But if something in this post sounds like the music already in your head, then let’s begin praying for more concrete guidance for each of us.

I’m praying for it in my area. I have certain expectations that might not work for you. Mine are shaped by my experience in this part of the world. I’m expecting to hear from a group of people who will split off from an existing institution, seeking something that gives them room to exercise faith without distractions fed to them by a leadership far more interested in the institution than actually following Christ.

It is time? You tell me. Better yet, discuss it with the Lord.

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Systemic Barriers to Christian Nationalism

Posted on December 31, 2023 by ehurst

This apparently requires a little more elaboration.

Think about what it is the gospel message is all about. Think about in terms of system analysis for a moment. We do not persuade in a clinical sense. That’s just a figure of speech. In terms of the mechanics, we simply announce the message. That announcement is first and foremost living it, and then talking about it. Given the biblical Doctrine of Election, a clinical persuasion is simply not possible. This is a large body of non-elect humans out there inherently unable to respond to the gospel message.

But, Elect or not, anyone can be convinced to adopt a fleshly moral framework that is derived from the gospel. That was never at issue. If that’s what matters, then the only question is the accuracy of your derivative. But that’s not a question that solves the underlying issue. It won’t matter a whit whether this or that derivative is most accurate. None of them will have God’s personal involvement.

What you will have is something with varying accuracy at grasping basic human need in terms of social and political organization. If accuracy is the key, then let’s get it right. Our whole Radix Fidem community understands that you cannot come even close to that minimal standard without a Hebraic tribal feudal organization. If you are going to manifest a law code, it has to meet the biblical standard. The issue of tribal feudalism is the most obvious failure of every attempt so far at pulling together a Christian government.

But that’s not the worst failure, only the most obvious. The deeper failure is the total lack of the utterly essential mysticism, the heart-led consciousness required by every law code in Scripture. If you aren’t a heart-led mystic, then you are completely outside of Christ’s teaching. His moral guidance means nothing without that frame of reference. It’s so critical that it constitutes a prerequisite for every law code.

The definition of Western Civilization excludes that. You cannot start with any western people and allow them to stay western if you plan to create a Christian nation with matching government. Indeed, almost any non-western people is already closer to a Christian government than any western people. As someone else noted, the Russians are closer than any western country. And they are still far, far away from the standard, but closer than just about anyone else could be.

Side note: The failure of Russian Orthodoxy is not a so-called heretical Christology, but the mere fact that they have a Christology. All of the issues raised in the schism between east and west are a huge violation of the gospel message. Every bit of that debate is based on both sides departing from the simplicity of the gospel.

So, it’s not a question of Russia having God’s favor. Russia is simply closer to the fundamental nature of reality itself. If that’s what you want, all you need is the Code of Noah, which isn’t very complicated. Then again, any government policy that exceeds the provisions of Noah is also a departure from the fundamental nature of reality.

If Russia is the best we’ve got, then the world is seriously damned.

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NT Doctrine — 2 Corinthians 6

Posted on December 30, 2023 by ehurst

In the church at Corinth, those who complained Paul didn’t come to visit when promised likely included some who didn’t really want to see him. They just wanted to complain about him. That the church had finally done the right thing about the member who had sinned egregiously didn’t mean they were eager to welcome Paul back. This next chapter deals with this issue.

The logic here is that it’s not about Paul, but about Christ. The Lord’s grace is the power to change, to become more like Christ. It’s one thing to have that grace; it’s another to give it room to work and change you. Paul pleads with them not to stop at the threshold of faith, but to come on and make themselves at home. He quotes from Isaiah 49, a passage where the prophet declares that God is calling His people back from wandering morally. The same message applies to Corinth, because they had gotten far off track. Paul notes that the door to God’s courts is always open — any time is the right time to seek His face.

How could anyone take offense at that message? Sure, the path is difficult, but Paul didn’t build it; God did. Let them bring a complaint against Paul that will stand in God’s Presence. Paul and his team had consistently presented themselves as mere servants of the Lord. No matter what they went through, they sincerely served the gospel. Paul lists nine things they faced: they couldn’t give up, they faced persecution, hassles, challenges, beatings, arrests, riots, hard work, sleepless nights and starving. He also tells of nine ways he handled such sorrows: never compromising, knowing God’s Word, patient with people, not being a burden to anyone, relying on the Holy Spirit, operating in sacrificial compassion, clinging to the message, and leaving room for God to work.

But there are ten fruits proving that God does work: He equips for every task, grants the dignity of grace while the flesh dies, they were accused of evil for telling the good news, slandered as tramps while clinging to faith, nobodies who were recognized everywhere, killed and yet somehow still alive, punished but allowed to live, always in grief yet celebrating, beggars who made others wealthy, bereft of material possession but always fully supplied. By this time the folks in Corinth would have recognized things Paul had experienced that matched those lists. It’s not bragging; it’s simply being honest. God had carried Paul and his team through an awful lot.

Indeed, Paul had hidden nothing from them, and he loved them all unreservedly. He never put restrictions on them, but they had restricted themselves in trusting him. They were his own spiritual children; he appealed to them to reciprocate his love for them. It was they who kept themselves back from the rich blessings of God.

He uses an image of two completely different draft animals hitched together. They could not pull in the same harness and get anywhere, each having a different pace and abilities. Believers belong to Christ; the rest of the world belongs to the Devil. How do you reconcile righteousness and wickedness? It’s as different as night and day. We are committed to Christ; they don’t even believe in Him. How can the living temples of Christ become entangled in pagan idolatry?

Paul quotes Leviticus 26 where God insists that His nation must be holy so He can live among them and share His unspeakable wealth with them. He redeemed them in the Exodus, breaking the power of the Egyptian empire. Then he cites Isaiah 52 in a passage where God calls out to His people in offering yet another exodus from their slavery to some other imperial power. We were bought with a price; Christ has a priority claim on us.

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Pastoral Query: Christian Nationalism

Posted on December 30, 2023 by ehurst

I’ve been asked to address the notion of Christian Nationalism. Our source is Scripture first, and then conviction, though the convictions I share on this subject are shared by several in our Radix Fidem community. We’ve actually discussed this in the past, so my answer is not news.

We promote God’s revealed agenda. But this question bounces off several layers. Biblical Law is not the whole of God’s revelation on things. His first revelation was utterly personal in the Garden before the Fall. That stage has been set and remains the fundamental nature of things. The Fall broke that personal connection. Once the Curse of the Fall was pronounced, the only connection offered came with the Flaming Sword — Biblical Law. The initial approach to restoration is through that provision. You restore the revelation of God by first embracing His judgment on human nature. Revelation came incrementally since the expulsion from the Garden.

A major thesis of Heiser’s Unseen Realm is that God gave up on the idea of governing mankind at large. At the Tower of Babel, He passed over the bulk of human nations to His Elohim Council, and began working toward founding His own nation, starting with Abraham. The eventual result of His own nation, Israel, established as a living revelation of His will for all humanity. The failure of Israel to be that revelation by choice did not prevent God unveiling things progressively until it was finalized in the appearance of His Son. Israel rejected the Messiah, but He is still the capstone of revelation to mankind. And His revelation restores the inherently personal nature of communion with the Creator.

The common English usage of “Christian” does not line up with the biblical definition; the term means “following Christ”. A human nation cannot follow Christ. Even if everyone in that nation individually followed Christ, the nation as a whole could not. The gulf separating human government from the Kingdom of Heaven is unbreachable. Christ eschewed human political concerns. The Cross ended the one and only divinely sanctioned national government in human history. Following Christ ignores any concern over national government, relegating such things to a matter of mere tactical consideration in pursuit of individual redemption. By definition, “national redemption” does not exist.

The first moment you introduce a national identity, the issue of faith has been compromised. The Kingdom of Heaven demands you set aside all human identities in favor of spiritual identity. It is not possible to conduct national government according to the gospel. The gospel flatly rejects the concerns of human government. Instead, Christians are advised to play along until they cannot, and that conflict is inevitable. A national government subject to gospel requirements must inevitably cease to govern. You cannot reduce Christ’s reign to rules or laws. Law is mercy, but grace cannot be reduced to law.

As the final end-all revelation of God, Christ pulled together a lot of previous revelation. Some of that revelation turned out to be only an approximation. Jesus pointed out how some of Moses was moderated to account for human weakness as a mere matter of practice, but fell short of God’s true intention. Any law code is inherently limited, and as a fundamental matter of such law, the individual must embrace biblical mysticism in order to understand law as law. Genuine mysticism is a heavy burden, but so is the rest of every law code God delivered to mankind. If you resort to mere human sense and reason to handle your duty to God, you will fail. That was the whole point of the narrative of the Fall in the Bible. Every law code requires that you be heart-led, because it’s not about the law code, anyway. It’s about that personal connection to God.

The whole point of a law code is to provide a frame of reference for approaching the task, guiding the operation of heart-led mysticism. The law codes and their condemnations of sin came first in history, as the means to awaken consciousness of our fallen condition. If you took the law code seriously, you would of necessity dig into heart-led mysticism, and that would in turn put you in the place to hear from God personally and individually. The law codes were never meant to be free standing; they were all intended to be a record of how revelation communities lived. The communities were meant to be the law personified, the law code that outsiders could “read” and recognize their sins. A covenant community is a living call to redemption. Israel was meant to be God’s living Bible, but failed. Christ Himself became that living Word as the final solution to the problem of human failure. Having a revealed code, tested and found true when they obeyed, wasn’t enough to keep Israel on track.

Indeed, at any given time in Israel’s history, a significant portion of the nation based on a law code did not rise to its demands. There were times when only a small minority struggled to keep the nation on track. And yet, the promised blessings came because of that small minority, typically the national leaders. Far too many of the common folks were whipsawed back and forth, lacking any strong internal motivation to stay faithful. The history within the Bible itself shows that governing by a law code will not work on a human level; it requires people who are personally committed to God.

While there exists a sort of law code as part of the revelation of Christ, the door has been closed on using such a law code to govern a nation. The revelation of Christ flatly rejected the notion of a nation under God, as it were. Yes, in theory you could rule a nation by that law code. Even if you got it off the ground, it would fail in due time. You will not get divine backing for such a project. That avenue is closed forever. The very best you can hope for is to implement some portion of this implied law code in a group small enough for a single elder to lead. And New Testament history shows how shaky that proposition is. The only way any kind of code can be implemented is via God’s revealed preference for human government: a Hebraic styled feudal family household. It rests on the Two Witnesses — priest and king, or pastor and elder. That is the only form of human organization Christ will bless by His Presence. As we see in human history, it does not scale well. It’s not supposed to; that’s part of the message of the Tower of Babel.

God will bless and promote a valid church government, but there remains that fundamental element of believer’s volition to keep it going. It is human activity; there is a human element. Any failure to stay faithful by any single individual becomes a defiling presence that weakens the hedge of divine protection. Once the hedge is opened, blessings are choked. Any truly valid covenant body will be wracked by crises, and it so happens they tend to occur in cycles. The system itself includes variables without an actual moral failure. A valid representation of a Christian law code must include a provision for individual convictions, and the Bible warns that there is an inevitable variation in human conviction with unavoidable conflicts. That’s because it’s part of the testing that God warns He will always conduct while we live in this world. The larger the system gets, the more unstable it must inevitably be as convictions proliferate, even when you are relying utterly on God.

The point was never human government in the first place. Human government is required, even knowing it will never work properly. God’s revelation never included a genuine expectation of success in that area. That is, while a given generation of national leaders may well be highly motivated to please the Lord, in the bigger picture, we cannot avoid flaws creeping in that weaken the system in one way or another. We should not expect any such nation to last more than a limited period of time. And given the context of how humanity has drifted in recent centuries, the problems have only gotten worse.

All things considered together, under the best circumstances, a Christian nation is impossible today.

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Hits and Misses

Posted on December 29, 2023 by ehurst

I’m often amazed how people gloss over this: Every encounter in life is a divine appointment, but not every divine appointment means God says “go with this”. Sometimes it’s an appointment to be tested, whether you’ll stand for God and say “no” to that other party. It’s always best to trust your convictions.

A good way to get acquainted with your convictions is to play over in your mind various scenarios you observe someone else handling. It doesn’t matter where you see it; this may be the only good use for TV and movies. What would you do in their place? Pray and contemplate what your conscience requires of you. Then, in the day of testing, you’ll be more likely to know, even if you realize that it’s not as you imagined. The point is, something you can never discern with your mind has taken place, and your heart will speak up at the moment. If you really want to know your convictions, and you seek God for clarity, you will most certainly find it.

Psychologically, your convictions are the sum total of what drives you to act on moral questions, typically against logic and reason. Doctrinally, your convictions are the character God wrote into your soul before you were born. You discover your convictions, as they were there all along.

There are precious few things in life for which God gives you only one shot. Sex is one of them. It’s not that I believe God has only one spouse chosen for you. That’s not in the Bible. I don’t believe Election covers marriage partners. There are surely some prospects better than others at any given them, but the issue is not who you choose but whether you obey His Word in choosing. In our current dire context, it’s mostly a question of whom you reject, as the majority of eligibles are not much of a blessing.

If your first sex partner is not a righteous choice at the time, you can never undo the defilement. It won’t necessarily destroy your life, but it will eliminate some opportunities that will never come your way again. For almost every other human encounter, if you get it wrong, God will provide another chance to get it right. I can’t count how many times I’ve experienced this.

So, if you missed it on the first round, the world for you has not ended. There is so much more He has in store for us. Happy New Year!

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By Deception, By Design

Posted on December 27, 2023 by ehurst

Israel’s government claims they are at war on seven fronts. If you check with Unz Review, you’ll learn that Algeria may join in the fray. What the Houthis are doing in the strait at the southern end of the Red Sea, Algeria could easily do at the Strait of Gibraltar. Please note that the Houthis are not fools; they have been very savvy in targeting ships that serve Israel, or are owned by Israelis. Nobody else is threatened. The Houthi source of intel on this is quite good, and I’m sure Algeria could easily tap into the same source.

I’ve said it before: Israel is not the thing itself. Israel was created as a distraction, a way of pulling in the focus of humanity on a lie. The whole purpose of Israel is not as advertised. Zionism is a serious threat, but it’s not the real agenda of the very most powerful people on this planet. They sponsored the creation of the modern State of Israel for other reasons.

Thus, it was predictable that any time Israel gets into a fight, it is supposed to explode into something far bigger. It seizes attention from all other conflicts; the other problems of humanity are simply not important enough to compete with Israel’s problems. If Israel is uncomfortable, the whole world must suffer with her. It should also be predictable that Israel is expendable. Not cheap, mind you, but expendable. These ultimate human rulers will not hesitate to create another holocaust every now and then to keep their tribe in the center of human attention. The Jewish peasants matter only slightly more than Gentiles.

Don’t be surprised if this war spreads to the whole world, and Israel provokes enough enemies to be destroyed. This “Israel” is not what the Bible talks about as a significant figure in the End Times, though our ultimate rulers want you to believe it is. Don’t be caught up in the hysteria. Keep your eyes on your mission and consider this war as just more background noise.

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NT Doctrine — 2 Corinthians 5

Posted on December 23, 2023 by ehurst

Paul carries on discussing the distinction between the realms of flesh and spirit.

He first uses the symbol of this fleshly existence as living in a tent, while our future in Eternity is our real home. It is only natural that, once we understand the meaning of this parable, then we would long for home. Then he shifts to the symbolism of being naked in the flesh, but clothed in the spirit. The Presence of the Holy Spirit in our souls is like a security deposit that we hold. It ensures we can believe God’s promise to bring us to Himself when this life is over.

Paul is like that himself. He’d rather be in Heaven with the Lord, but knows he must tolerate this life a little longer. While here, we cannot really see everything as clearly as we would like, so we substitute our faith (our trust and our convictions) in place of eyesight. Our perception does not rely on what our senses and our reason tell us. There will come a time when we will leave behind the flesh with it’s senses and reason, so whatever the flesh can know isn’t very important.

But whether here or there, our highest priority is pleasing the Lord. Paul refers to the image of standing before our Master’s judgment seat; He is the one who decides whether we have been faithful to His expectations. And because we recognize the gravity of this situation, we carry a strong testimony, seeking to win people over to joining us. The wording in Greek here emphasizes reaching out to strangers as those who might not know God. By contrast, God knows us better than we know ourselves.

And it’s for sure the church at Corinth should know Paul well enough to recognize all of this as the way he did things. He didn’t hammer them with the fearful consequences of God’s disfavor, but carefully avoided flexing human organizational authority over them. This was not a campaign to convince them to bow before his authority; he wanted them to recognize how he was wooing them as family to get back on the path home. Would they have been more proud of him if he had been harsh? Would it not be something to boast of to the lost souls of this world that God could be found through humbling oneself? Paul was treating them with the gentleness of God. This is our testimony to those who put too much stock in the worldly appearance of authority.

Paul echoes some of their ugly comments to him in letters we do not have now. They complained that, because his actions didn’t make sense to them, he must be crazy. Yes, he’s obsessed with pleasing the Lord. If that’s madness, so be it. But by contrast, he was quite gentle and reasonable with them. And the reason is because Christ demonstrated His authority through is sacrificial love on the Cross. Because of that sacrifice, it became possible for people to serve Him, without having to somehow qualify beforehand. They become acceptable by the Cross, and He grants them power to turn their lives around and live for Him. Paul was following that example.

We who follow Christ no longer pay much attention to the system of human authority. Rather than use the world’s system of marking who is who, we look at people with the eyes of Christ. He is the standard. Anyone who submits fully to Him is no longer a mere human, but a Child of Eternity. It’s a transformation that exceeds our human understanding. This is the ministry of reconciliation. The Creator reached out to the damned souls of men and reconciled them to Himself through His Son, Jesus. We who serve Him carry forth that ministry of reconciliation. That reconciliation was Paul’s ministry.

God was using Paul as an emissary. The Lord made His Son, who had no acquaintance at all with sin, to own the sins of the entire world, so that we could own His righteousness. And having become His children, He still calls and woos us to reconcile with Him when we stray. It’s already ours; we can rely on Christ’s sacrifice to cover our sins even now. This was how Paul dealt with the horrific mistakes the church at Corinth made.

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Zizzo: First Class Customer Support

Posted on December 20, 2023 by ehurst

I receive no compensation for this post. I’ve already received the best customer support I could have hoped for regardless of what I might say about Zizzo Bikes.

My wife remarked that, for at least two-thirds of the bicycles I’ve bought in the past 20 years, I’ve had some kind of trouble with the rear wheel. Not a single dealer or manufacturer was interested in hearing about it. It’s usually in the form of spokes popping within less than a year of riding, and that’s without any kind of heavy loads, except my body. At roughly 250 pounds (113 kgs), all the bikes have been rated for at least that much. Yet, I’ve generally had trouble with the rear wheel carrying the load. Maybe there’s something about the way I ride.

But I didn’t jump curbs or zip through the woods seeking big air time. I hate dropping so much as a couple of inches. The only time I rode off pavement was with bikes specifically made for that purpose. On at least half of my bikes, it was bad enough that I had to replace the entire rear wheel. Eventually I got used to it. For the past three bikes I’ve owned, it was a question of when, not if, I would have to replace the rear wheel. I learned a great deal about what qualifies as a sturdy replacement, and it’s mostly a matter of more spokes. In my mind, I would price in the rear wheel replacement cost when thinking about what a bike costs.

Most bikes come with 32 or fewer spokes. I would typically get a 36-spoke replacement, and never looked back. It would be some other problem that caused me to replace the bike itself. My last mountain bike was just fine, but I gave it away because it was too big for my apartment. That’s when I did the research and ended up buying the Zizzo Forte folding bicycle.

As you might expect, I wasn’t surprised when the rear wheel on this one started giving me trouble. But the spokes didn’t pop. They stretched out until the metal finally gave way on the hook end at the hub. It made some odd noises for awhile as the spokes began to stretch. I tightened them up, unaware of how the metal itself was failing. Eventually one broke completely and I noticed it, because I was looking for it. I took it to a shop and it turned out four more were just hanging on by a thread. But they fixed it all up and then I began hunting for an upgrade. The stock wheel was only 28 spokes, supposedly enough for the 300 pound weight limit. But it wasn’t enough for me.

I found one shop in OKC that knew how to get a 36-spoke wheel that size, because that shop sold recumbent trikes, and they often run 20″ wheels. Got a new wheel, got it installed and never gave it much thought. I had mentioned to Zizzo Customer Support the odd “tink-tink” noise I was hearing before I found the broken spoke. For the noise itself, I got some good advice about putting a little lube where the spokes crossed. It reduced the noise, but didn’t eliminate it. So, when I had those five replaced at once, I let them know. I also mentioned that I wasn’t too bothered by this whole situation, since it has happened so many times. I let them know the spokes gave out slowly, stretching instead of popping. Otherwise, I was still quite happy with the bike.

Over the course of several emails back and forth, they didn’t hesitate to take responsibility for it. While their options were limited, they offered a replacement from the same stock they used to build the bikes. And over the months since first buying this thing, they’ve stepped up to the plate like that every time. They said if I managed to break any of the hinge pins where the frame folds, they would replace them free, so long as I wasn’t abusing the bike.

I haven’t gotten customer support like that anywhere else. It’s so rare it’s remarkable — taking the meaning of that word “remarkable” literally, in that it’s worthy of making a remark. If you need a new bike, especially if you think a folding bike might be the right answer, I can recommend Zizzo bikes without reservation. You can find far more expensive bikes, but I doubt anyone else out there is offering this level of support.

By the way, if you visit their YouTube channel, you’ll find a whole series of videos on how to conduct basic maintenance and repairs specific to Zizzo bikes, along with how install upgrades they offer.

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