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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NT Doctrine — 2 Corinthians 4

Posted on December 16, 2023 by ehurst

The church at Corinth was larger than most. As with any congregation anywhere else, its membership ranged from spiritually mature at one extreme, down to those who were infiltrating enemies seeking to destroy the fellowship at the other extreme, and everything in between. It didn’t matter what motives drove those who criticized Paul’s leadership; those who were still struggling to overcome the flesh needed some ammunition. Sometimes you need to state the obvious so that it forms a mental structure that supports faith.

The only reason Paul writes so much about himself here is to provide that structure. It is neither anger nor panic; it’s really not even a defense. It’s an explanation of how things work. Paul is not going to bail out on them. He’s willing to struggle with them because there’s nothing to hide and nothing to lose. He has the confidence to let people evaluate him and his work by their own convictions.

The only people who cannot tolerate Paul and his message are those who still belong to this world. The Devil has blinded them to the truth, persuading them to rely on their own fallen capabilities, as he has done ever since the Garden. His captives cannot receive something that speaks only to the spirit, since their spirits remain dead. Their minds are closed so that Christ cannot reveal Himself to them as the very manifestation of God in human form.

Paul never promoted himself, but Christ as Lord. The apostles and those assisting them were servants of Christ, which makes them also servants of Christ’s Elect. Thus, Paul was the servant of the folks at Corinth. The same God who said, “Let there be light” is the One who shone His light in the hearts of believers so that they could see the glory of Christ. This transforms the heart, which in turn transforms the mind. This is the foundation of Paul’s confidence as an apostle. He was a nobody, a simple clay utility vessel, but who bore the incalculable treasure of miracles that come from God, not something Paul ginned up.

It was a critical distinction, since Paul had no power in his flesh. He carries on in the language of paradox, asserting over and over again that the man was nothing, but the power God placed in him was beyond measure. His flesh was squeezed hard by troubles, but his spirit was never crushed. His flesh had no answers, but his spirit never despaired. He was hounded everywhere he went, but his spirit never felt abandoned. His flesh had been body-slammed countless times, but his spirit never perished. He was always carrying the death sentence of Jesus so that Jesus could live in his body. Thus, while death was eating away at his flesh, the church was still very much alive.

This same spirit of faith had been around since at least the time of King David. In Psalm 116, David declared that his human sorrows could not actually do him any harm as long as he testified faithfully of God’s revelation. David understood the vast difference between flesh and spirit, and the paradox of having a foot in two different realms of existence; this is the same faith Paul carried to Corinth and the rest of the world. Anything that happens to Paul in this life cannot affect his election. If Jesus rose up from the grave, so would Paul, and so would the rest of the Elect.

The existence of a church at Corinth was reason enough for Paul to have faced every sorrow of the flesh. A faithful servant could reach a few; a thriving church was a beacon calling the masses. Divine grace was overflowing into the world, bringing more and more people into the Kingdom and generating a tsunami of glory and praise.

Again, Paul was not giving up on the church at Corinth, despite the sorrow they caused him. If his flesh got used up on just this one congregation, it simply meant that his spirit could gain more ascendancy over the flesh. The death of his body was a cheap price to pay for what was waiting on the other side of death. That vast treasury of eternal glory was where he focused his attention, not on the fading shadows of this life. He did not regret having worked so hard in Corinth, nor all the sorrow that kept chasing after him since leaving there.

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Random Photos 16

Posted on December 12, 2023 by ehurst

Out at Stanley Draper Lake, this is the bikeway running down below the dam from the eastern side. This image doesn’t show anything special, but I thought the colors were so refreshing. We’ve had unseasonably warm weather, so riding is unrestricted right now.

The tall grass has really surprised me this year. It’s one of the first things to grow on the shore when the water recedes, and the lake level has been low for two years running now. As it dies during the cool months, it leaves a tall, shaggy blond cover everywhere.

Douglas Boulevard running north from NE 63rd Street. This ragged asphalt does go somewhere. Back through those trees, there’s a fancy horse riding ranch (Honey Lee Ranch) with trails that run for miles along the river bank. There’s also a handful of obnoxious dogs that are penned up when visitors pay to ride the trails. When I rode through, they came out and harassed me. None of them threatened to bite, but they are overwhelmed by the chase instinct when I ride past.

This is the North Canadian River running north from NE 63rd Street. It’s been dry lately, so the river is low. Back a ways on the right side is the location of those riding trails I mentioned. The river takes a hard turn left, making a very large loop around before returning to its trend to the northeast. The pocket of that loop is the riding ranch. The river has been carving a new path quite often in the past few years; there’s a high probability the next heavy rains could see those riding trails cut off.

I made the 50-mile cycling loop around OKC a couple of weeks ago. This is the dam that created Overholser Lake reservoir. One or more gates have been opened a few times this year, tempting kids to get too close, and at least one has drowned. But there’s no sane way this ancient structure can be modified to keep them out. If they are big enough to wade across the water running over rubble to get out there, they can climb on the lower structure of the dam. Fencing isn’t possible because of jurisdictional issues, and it would not fly politically, since access to the river banks below the dam is very popular.

The same North Canadian River some miles downstream; this is shot from the Midwest Boulevard bridge. Only a few fishermen visit this bridge right now; this is just north of the Crutcho Creek bridge that remains closed to motor traffic. Signs trumpet funding for bridge work that was supposed to have started already, but like everything else, it’s behind schedule and probably already over budget. So, the bridge became a very quite place with no traffic. This is a recent shot showing the winter dress.

Now that the new bikeway is finished, it’s easy to visit parts of Eagle Lake that few have seen for quite some years. This cove is the eastern end of the lake. Of course, like most lakes in the North Canadian River Valley, this one was formed by sand and gravel mining. Someone noticed how the soil left resembled an eagle’s head from the air; that’s the mascot for the local high school, thus the name for the lake.

You can just make out a pair of men standing on the gravel bar in the river bottom. This is the Oklahoma River, part of the competition area currently drained. This is a good time to take a close look at what’s on the bottom of the channel. I shot this looking downstream from the confluence with Lightning Creek. The pipeline crossings, such as the one seen just beyond the gravel bar, were established long before the river became a public recreation area. I used to jog on some dirt paths in this area back in the 1980s; the place was essentially a municipal rubble dump.

Apparently the city is seizing the opportunity for a little maintenance. This section of the river was drained ostensibly so construction crews could start work on a pedestrian bridge downstream near the lower dam along Eastern Avenue. That work has not started, but the river remains drained. So, the city has sent a crew down to this section near Robinson Avenue and Wiley Post Park for some dredging. This is tons of fine silt that constantly settles out from the flow as it slows between a series of dams the city built back in the early 1990s to create recreational areas.

This is the dam at the top of the OK River competition rowing area. The gates are all the way up to reduce flow to just a trickle of overflow from upriver. The city chose to do this work during the winter of an expected dry season. With the water level so low, you can see some of the normally submerged structure of the dam. I’ve never seen it this exposed before.

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More Than Life

Posted on December 11, 2023 by ehurst

This is just my personal estimate of things.

The US is preparing for war; I’m quite certain of that. If nothing else, a fresh level of secrecy along with a significant break from routine operations will tell you that. Resources have been moved in preparation for it. It will not start out as a general mobilization, but a “police action” against some country that isn’t supposed to be able to defend itself very well from our military. I’m guessing it’s Iran. I’m further guessing that there will first be a false-flag event of some kind that will be blamed on Iran.

There is a high probability this will quickly escalate as both Russia and China have recently signed agreements that would tend to protect Iran. They will signal reluctance, but I doubt they’ll wait too long to defend Iran. But because there are so very many options on the table for them, it’s hard to guess just what that defense would look like.

The US is wholly unprepared for a general mobilization. The biggest factor is a simple unwillingness of the people. The propaganda has been failing, and the people are not interested. Further, the people simply cannot do it. If nothing else, the economic support is absent. We are just squeaking by right now, and the US today is nothing like the US that was dragged into WW2. The fundamentals of our current depression are different from the Great Depression of the 1930s.

A significant difference is that the US government back then wasn’t spending that much because leadership was stingy. There were resources, but they weren’t being used. Today, the resources are already depleted. The government has been spending like a drunk, and servicing the dept is starting to consume the discretionary spending flow. We are broke already.

There is a limit to debt. It’s all manipulated and controlled, but there are limits. The amount of funding available across the combined western economies is about to run out. Yes, inflation can shrink the value of that debt, but the value reserve behind any new debt is limited by other factors. It does not rest solely on what the financiers will tolerate. One factor is the limits on the value of the collateral — the US itself. It’s not the price in dollars, but what those dollars represent. It would take books to explain, but the point is that the well is running dry.

What follows that will be somewhat more difficult than our previous Great Depression, but fundamentally different. At some point, the states are highly likely to repudiate the federal debt. That’s when things will get rocking for sure. There is no clear picture of how and when; the states are beginning to manifest tendencies of secession. Any number of tracks are possible, but the resistance by state governments is there and growing, and it wasn’t there before.

The federal government will not be able to declare martial law effectively. It’s not the feds we need to worry about; the biggest threat is the local criminal element. How ready is the law enforcement system where you live? If you are itching for action, keep your eyes open in that direction. Don’t hate the police unless they are ineffective, or would tend to get in the way of home defense.

The whole point is that you should prepare for these things. There is no stopping this train wreck. Pray that you will see what God has provided for you, and trust Him to make things work for His glory. Stay committed to His glory, because you need that more than life itself.

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NT Doctrine — 2 Corinthians 3

Posted on December 9, 2023 by ehurst

The previous chapter ends with Paul contrasting his ministry against that of the hucksters. Did that sound like a sales pitch? Those same hucksters were fond of pieces of paper that recommended them to the next church they visited: letters, certificates, and other memorabilia. Paul had no need of such things; he was a church planter, not a roving preacher. He needed no introduction in Corinth, especially to the church there. Everyone knew him as their founding apostle.

The members were the only letter he needed. Christ’s word was written on their hearts and in their lives. They were living letters, not written in ink. It was not like Moses coming down from Sinai with stone tablets, either. Paul walked into Corinth with confidence and began sharing in the synagogue there. It wasn’t a question of competence in Jewish rhetoric, but the power of the Holy Spirit witnessing to His own message: the New Covenant in Christ.

Paul reviewed the teaching he surely offered there in Corinth, claiming that the written code of law delivered by Moses served one purpose — it painted all flesh as quite clearly sinful and deserving of death. But it left you there. It could not raise you up to a new life in the Spirit; only God could do that. Yes, the Law left you prostrate at God’s feet. That in itself was a marvelous thing; glorious, indeed! Without the Law you would not know anything about God’s requirements. But only by His Spirit could you then be raised to a new life.

The Law is not gone, but it has been brought to life in Christ, and Christ it brings life. The written Law couldn’t do that. He is the purest form of God’s revelation.

Paul offers a comparison. When Moses returned from the Lord’s Presence, his face literally glowed with heavenly glory. It was a spectacle. People were shocked by that, so Moses would wear a veil on his face until the effect wore off. Christ’s glory shining in your heart will not fade away, because He is the Living Law of God in Person. So, if the written law code, which only kills, came with such glory, how much greater the glory that brings eternal life!

That veil was a symbol. To this very day, says Paul, when Jews hear the words of Moses, they cannot see the true glory. Their hearts are veiled inside, so they cannot approach the death we all need in our flesh. Only when we turn to Christ is that veil removed. His Spirit invades our open hearts. And where He is, there is liberty from death and law.

Instead of a fading glory behind some veil, we face the world with a glory that actually increases as we kill off more and more of our fleshly nature. We are transformed from glory to glory.

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Catacomb Resident Censored Again

Posted on December 4, 2023 by ehurst

Substack is doing it this time. They can allow outright Nazis and White Supremacist blogs, but Catacomb Resident takes the hit. This time it’s a bogus claim of spam/phishing. That may be just a ploy to hide the fact someone objects to the content. It’s been appealed, but I wouldn’t hold my breath. While the appeal is waiting, you cannot access to blog and subscribers can’t be notified.

So, if you really want to read Catacomb Resident’s output, there’s a mirror here. You won’t be able to subscribe, but at least it won’t be censored so easily, either.

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Tools in the Box 02

Posted on December 4, 2023 by ehurst

When you kneel at the foot of the Cross, your life becomes forfeit. You probably aren’t thinking along those lines at the time, but the vast majority of Christian suffering is people objecting to God’s choices for them. A whole lot of confusion would evaporate if, as part of welcoming new converts, we explained that their lives were going to end that day. Galatians 2:20 clears up a lot of things.

This life, your life and mine as humans, is trash. It’s not worth anything at all, and it’s a wonder the Lord accepts it as a fit offering. Then again, it is what He demands. If we fuss and fume about how human governments are doing bad things to us, then we are still standing at the foot of the Cross, refusing to kneel and make that offer. Only when you get past that point can you begin to actually serve the Lord.

Death is not a tragedy. Death is release. The only question is when your death, or anyone else’s, meets the purpose of God on this earth. He gets to decide. The injustice of murder is not that life was taken from someone, but that it wasn’t taken on God’s terms.

Trying to inject legalism into that consideration is just as evil as murder itself. It’s personal; everything in Creation is personal. God plays favorites. People who prostrate themselves to His service are held to a higher standard, and yet they are also granted higher privileges.

It is the same high duty and submission to carry my own Cross as it is to take up war against certain kinds of human evil. If my life is trash, so is everyone else’s life. I didn’t decide this in the first place; it’s something God has revealed over and over again. The final revelation was in His Son. This life is not precious except as a sacrifice. It may be useful to certain authorities, up to and including God, but it’s not inherently precious.

The Bible makes heroes of men who were violent at the right moment for the right reason. It didn’t matter if the violence was assassination, terror or genocide. The act of violence was not a sin in itself. The idea that the government can send you out to slaughter, but that you cannot decide before the Lord to slaughter without a government permit, is a lie from Hell. That’s because not a single human government standing today is approved by God.

However, every government is permitted by God on rather complicated grounds. We know it has a lot to do with Satan and his allies among the various spiritual powers, principalities and authorities. We know that Jesus avoided getting involved in fighting government, including His own evil national government, at least in terms that would have changed the government. Rather, He rebelled in altogether different terms that included denouncing it publicly and demonstrating clearly that it was evil.

We are in a different context. The path of action is not the same. Jesus’ government sought specifically to crush the gospel message. Our government does not. His government was being disowned by God; ours already is. On and on — it’s a different situation. One thing that hasn’t changed is that Jesus chose not to act through any human organization, because human organization is part of the problem. While in theory there could be a righteous government, the history of Israel proved it would not be long or often, even under the strongest and most indulgent patronage from God. Israel was the proof that a human government cannot do God’s work consistently.

Paul said flatly that human governments do not get carte blanche. All you really owe them is to love your covenant family as family, and sinners as sinners in need of redemption. All the claims of human government must be filtered through that priority. In the end, Paul defied his own government on certain things. He played one human government off against another to get himself into position to witness in places he struggled to visit on his own.

Do you understand that his desire to visit Spain was to fulfill prophesies that the gospel message must go to all the ends of the earth? While the mention of Tarshish was largely symbolic, in Paul’s mind that signified the end of the known world for the Old Testament prophets, and best he knew, that was Spain. Yet, today you would hard pressed to find any human that had not at least herd some version of the message of Christ. It’s a different world today.

Depending on the context, your response to some provocation of human evil could range between carrying our cross or nuking some place. Nothing is off the table. For the time being, the US government is not allowed to treat me like a terrorist, despite having me on some list regarding me as one. It’s quite unlikely I would, but it’s certainly not a sin in itself. This is the kind of thing that can’t be summarized as a matter of principle, but as a matter of conviction.

It’s just a tool in the toolbox.

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