Crack That Whip!

Posted on June 19, 2015 by ehurst

Ever read that part in the Gospels about Jesus Cleansing the Temple?

Wikipedia editors show their ignorance by leaving out the background stuff found in even the cheapest Bible commentaries. There was some ambiguity in the minds of the Temple officials on hand that day. Was this troublemaker pretending to be another tiresome prophetic reformer, was it a partisan political act, or did he have some warrant from a government authority? Even among the Jews there was a very complicated political wrangling at the best of times. On top of that, Rome, Herod and the Sanhedrin each exercised some overlapping legal power there, and it was possible on-duty officials hadn’t gotten the memo.

Their question to Jesus was pretty standard, with guards forming around Him in preparation for arrest if He said the wrong thing, along with various partisan activists ready to defend Him if He said the right thing. He had disturbed the concessions licensed by Annas. You probably know that Annas (AKA Ananias) was not a nice guy, but the Bible colors him as a greedy and hateful SOB. He was first and foremost a politician, and even the little we know of him is pretty complicated. A Roman official had appointed him High Priest around age 26; he was deposed a decade later, yet remained fully in power without the title. He’s still exercising that power more than a decade later when Jesus comes on the scene. The Temple concessions were very unpopular with its outrageously inflated prices, so Jesus was hardly the first fellow to do something like this.

Can you imagine? If you brought your offering from wherever you called home — wherever it was faithful Jewish folks had migrated — your sacrifice might not pass inspection. So you brought money, but you have to exchange it for the Temple currency. Well, guess who had the only big supply of that sacred Temple coinage? Exchanged at a premium, of course. And even if you did manage to bring your perfect offering intact, the inspecting priests were in on this deal, and would reject it because it wasn’t purchased in the Temple bazaar. Meanwhile, you might easily pay ten times what it lawfully cost otherwise.

But Jesus’ point was pretty simple: This bazaar took over the Court of Gentiles and there was no room for non-Jews to approach Jehovah during the holiest celebration of all. How do we explain what an abomination this was? It’s a long list of violations against the Covenant Law, not to mention a spiteful rejection of the underlying purpose for the Covenant in the first place. Israel the Nation existed solely to manifest Israel the Mission — to convey the revelation of God to all mankind. At this point, there was very little of Israel’s existence that was not blasphemous, especially things like this bazaar.

Use your heart logic to abstract the moral fabric here: A materialistic orientation is inherently evil. There is a lot of room for doing what’s right in God’s eyes outside the realm of ritual and worship. However, Westerners build on an assumption about reality that is fundamentally hostile to morality. Westerners vary widely on moral issues as they see them, but the entire discussion and debate starts on the grounds of rejecting everything God revealed. Western Civilization itself is inherently immoral because it is inherently materialistic. Westerners can’t even define the term “materialism” properly.

So I don’t expect anyone to understand my moral grousing so long as they remain within the Western realm of thinking. I fully expect my explanations to fall flat with them. Yet the Truth of God’s revelation calls to a few of them and they feel drawn on a level they refuse to admit to themselves even exists.

Let me offer an example: By now you probably understand that the most ethical and “moral” marketing folks are unspeakably repulsive. We have no calling to make war against them, but there comes a point where they are intruding on our dominion of authority from Heaven and we can crack the Jesus Whip. A critical part of my dominion covers discussion of computer technology and Internet surfing. I’m cracking the whip.

I’ve already warned you that Google is not your friend. Recently I learned that there is new module built into Google Chrome browser. Ostensibly they sell it as a convenience: You can use voice-activated Google Search. Isn’t that cool? You don’t have a choice; it’s there. The developers claim this module can be deactivated, but the source code is not available, and I’m pretty sure they’ve been ordered to lie about it. This module can turn on any existing microphone on the system so long as Chrome is running, and pick up any ambient noise. How often have other companies lied about how that stuff is used?

If that’s not bad enough, they slipped this module into the Open Source version of the browser called Chromium, very popular among us Linux users. Recently there were some ugly words between Linux folks and the Google developers because the latter had Chromium secretly download and install this module on Linux computers, too. Someone with technical savvy caught it and complained. Google developers had slipped this past everyone, and were miffed at the reaction when they got caught. It’s been fixed, but it’s just a new source of tension and everyone already has too many other things requiring strict attention.

Your biggest threat is not government snooping into your privacy. It’s a mighty struggle to avoid being snooped on all sides, including every two-bit operation that can make a dollar through advertising. On top of this is the doors it opens to genuine criminals. The marketers are psychopathic about it, utterly lacking in any sense of empathy for your feelings on the issue. They might well be aware and savvy about avoiding telling you, but if they claim to care, it’s a psychopath’s lie. On top of this, these same folks will not hesitate to sell any data they collect to any government that will pay, never mind warrants, etc. We are not dealing with ordinary folks here; they live in some alternate universe, utterly alien to you and me. In moral terms they are off the scale on the nasty side.

Crack the Jesus Whip and refuse to play along.

I won’t take up the space here to list and explain all the ways you can protect your privacy from such snooping. I’ve done that often enough in previous posts and in my books about computers. My point is that a lot of things you never bother to think about can actively interfere with our divine calling. Don’t grab hold of this out of fear, but out of righteous indignation that someone would dare to defy your God. Make sure you understand what He demands of you; search your heart in reference to these issues. Ask questions until you find peace with God.

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Serene to the End: Apostle John

Posted on June 18, 2015 by ehurst

Mainstream scholars are pretty sure John published the Apocalypse around 95 AD. Given what we know of the man, it’s a fair bet most of it was already burned into his awareness at least two decades before. Keep in mind, this fellow was the cousin of Jesus, perhaps 10 or even 15 years younger, and easily His closest and dearest friend on earth. If anyone knew the Mind of Christ, it was John.

They shared the boyhood home of Galilee. John’s family was involved in fishing the sea, while Jesus was raised some distance away because his earthly father appeared to have been employed on a major construction project some 15 miles west of the sea in Sepphoris. Coming back from Egypt, and being warned by God to avoid their old home in Bethlehem, it was probably the most obvious choice for Joseph at the time. Government proclamations no doubt advertised for skilled tradesmen on such big projects as renovating whole cities like Sepphoris. The project took decades and we can safely imagine Jesus worked there with Joseph. From what Jesus said as recorded in the Gospels, He knew more about stone-masonry than just about any other work. But it was obvious that both Jesus and John were familiar with fishing and construction, as well as many other common occupations among Judean peasants.

There is also no doubt both men had devoted considerable time to synagogue studies. Every Jewish boy had the option of pursuing more than was necessary for the Bar Mitzvah, and the rabbis would be holding advanced classes to attract bright minds. We have direct evidence Jesus pursued this (Luke 2:41-50). It’s hard to imagine he didn’t influence His cousin John in the same direction. And both would have been exposed to all the controversies commonly discussed in the rabbinical schools.

Surviving records indicate the various factions in Jewish scholarship included some who made it a point to reject the Hellenism which served as the foundation for Pharisaism. We don’t have a modern equivalent of the Sadducees; they were the remnant of heavy Persian and Babylonian influences producing a highly cynical, almost secularized version of Jewish religion. It was highly pragmatic in that Ancient Near Eastern sense that Westerners struggle to grasp. Oddly, they were almost entirely priests. But there were other, smaller and less organized schools of thought. Some were quite conservative in the sense of directly opposing Greek styled logical analysis. However, such opposition is somewhat less than obvious to us because they used their own ancient Hebrew approach in opposing it. If you had a good grasp of Ancient Near Eastern intellectual assumptions, you would more readily recognize the opposition and it’s forms of argument in the way Jesus debated with the Pharisees.

We could say that, in essence, Jesus was the last and best representative of that Hebraic opposition to Pharisaism. In human terms, He lost the war. They killed Him and drove His disciples underground, and their dominant brand long outlived their other competitors in Jewish leadership. What we today know of as Judaism is essentially Pharisaism, with not a trace of any of the other sects from those times.

We have no doubt John was right there in the thick of things intellectually. You can bet Jesus had to know some Greek and probably used it when necessary, but it is John who finds the need to actually write in it. His Greek is accurate, but he seems to have little of Paul’s native grasp of it, for example. Instead, John’s writing is often characterized as “good schoolboy Greek.” While the New Testament was published in Greek, it is loaded with ancient Hebrew thinking. John’s was the quintessential deep philosophical mind simply stated in easy grammar.

He stands alone in how he broaches the conflict with a typical range of Eastern strategies. It is a mixture that includes frequent sarcasm by using the same argument forms to say something different, even objectionable in Greek philosophy. In essence, he treats Hellenism as the smart-mouthed young punk who really doesn’t understand what he opposes, except purely in his own terms. John understood Hellenism, but Hellenists couldn’t understand him too well. He saw too clearly where this was going.

The first foreign missionary team included Paul, who was also in a unique position to understand this conflict because he started out as a devoted Pharisee, a rising star in leadership training. He got his PhD, as it were, before he even shows up on the radar. But once humbled on the Damascus Road, he then had to make up the years of time he missed by not following Jesus prior to the crucifixion. Eventually he understood the necessity of opposing Hellenism, and he did so as a former insider. His letters are filled with references to particular issues that represent that conflict. And we catch a whiff of the other Apostles involved in the same battles, along with other strong minds that came after them.

But John was the last man standing who knew Jesus, and of all humans, probably knew Him best in that sense. From what I’ve read of the scholars who knew John personally, it seems they lacked his full awareness of the cultural conflict inherent in following Christ. We know how Paul very early faced the Judaizers, among other problems. He knew exactly what to expect and still struggled to counteract their teachings. That’s in part because the ancient Hebrew way is based on voluntary recognition. That is, it assumes God alone turns a human heart to the truth, and that it was not a matter of convincing someone with arguments. Genuine faith is not cerebral, but comes from an awakened heart that must overrule the mind, removing the intellect from the throne of human decision.

Judean Christians were understandably reluctant to leave their homeland. But when historical events drove them out (as Jesus warned it would in Matthew 24-25), some gravitated to the existing large Christian population in Syrian Antioch. However, Ephesus became the other center, and John quickly became the central figure. His major problem was Gnosticism and related goofy heresies, like Nicolaitans. Oddly, these troubling teachings used the same tools as the Judaizers, trying to drag Christian religion down to a more cerebral level, then attacking the ideas with forms of logic that excluded the truth.

The Apocalypse sees this coming, and appearing to win in human terms. John describes a spooky vision of all humanity gathered against the Lord’s truth. At least three times this battle crescendos and God works the same sort of wrath in the same sequence in all three cycles. Only the flavor and extremity changes with each cycle. In terms of Hebrew symbolic logic, it’s repetition that says something in itself: Human opposition is of the same essence no matter what shape it takes, and God answers accordingly when it comes time to crush it. And you get the distinct sense that those who remain faithful never seem to number very high as a proportion, regardless how you interpret the numerical symbols.

That is, the human representation of the ancient Hebrew truth among followers of Christ won’t ever represent a political force, in part because they keep leaving this human plane of existence. Dying in faith is a critical part of the message God brings to the world to help a relative few cross over into faith in each generation.

John was entirely cynical about the extant church as a human institution. He calls it the Harlot at one point. Yet he knew the witness of true believers would never be silenced entirely. So it is the Harlot that insists the end represents a political battle because she wants to ride the Beast. You can see that Hebrew sarcastic smirk on John’s face as he sees the truth escaping her clutches time and time again. Nature itself refuses to let the message go silent.

Yes, a final End of Time is coming, but our part in this never changes. What we face today is Western Civilization, related to, but not exactly the same as John’s big problem of Hellenism. Both simply represent the vast, organized resistance to the Gospel truth of Jesus Christ. In the end, we win.

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Church of the CIA

Posted on June 18, 2015 by ehurst

Yep, it’s a nifty click-bait title. Actually it’s much more subtle than that, and I’ll do my best to explain what I see.

The folks who actually hold the effective reins of power in this world don’t care who wins the wars, so long as the wars continue. It won’t matter what we suppose the particular plans to be, because that isn’t likely to have much effect on what God wants from you and I. Rather, we can characterize the net result of what these plutocrats do. However, we can generalize plans and motives as the obvious lust for worldly wealth and power. These folks feel entitled to it, and have no problem with using us as toys and tools to get those things. It’s not too hard to understand the dehumanizing influence of self-indulgence; we see it daily on a much smaller scale.

So the recent trends in recorded history have taught these plutocrats that constant warfare is the single optimum plan for getting what they want. Whatever vision they pursue, whatever god they serve, it boils down to the keeping war alive and making sure they aren’t the ones having to fight and die.

Further, the religion taught here on this blog (Radix Fidem) assumes God is still the Master of Creation and all of this stuff is really His problem. He has not called a one of us to be directly involved, and if you try to understand how His Son did things from the proper context of God’s wider revelation, you realize His Son said it was not His concern, either. We don’t fix this world; we let it follow the course God has established and maintains for fools who reject His truth. Getting involved in political activism is a rejection of His calling on us. But the Son definitely warned us to pay attention and be aware as much as the Father allows us to see what’s going on — wise as serpents and harmless as doves is the symbolic image He used.

On my way to reaching this sense of understanding, I committed myself to lots of things that others had told me were the revelation of God. Among those things was serving in the US Army and striving to serve as pastor in any of a number of Southern Baptist churches (for the most part). I was exposed to a lot of stuff that served as both a filter and gateway to serving among the elite of each different context where I endeavored to serve. Seems folks who considered themselves the elite sometimes thought I was a good candidate for their imaginary elite-ness. However, there was always this same underlying theme blending together religion and warfare. I was supposed to have an unquestioned conviction that this was God’s will.

As I look back on those many influences trying to drive me into that folly, I see some interesting threads. Way back during the Cold War, when communism was still the Big Bogeyman of the day, there was already a thread at work to replace it, a new team forming in the locker room. The plutocrats could see that their construct — the “Communist Threat” — was already dying as far as their uses were concerned, and it was past time to come up with the new one. So among the most serious scholarly commentary among my co-religionists from those days came warnings that the next big serious threat to life, liberty and the gospel was Islam. While you can find that kind of ominous preaching going way back in Church History, this was something different. It was written as propaganda, some knowingly so. The upper ranks of church commentariat had been infiltrated by the CIA. Meanwhile, the rest of the CIA and friends were doing their best to turn latent Islamic fervor into something that could be manipulated for their ends.

Maybe you’ve read studies or watched videos that explained how the CIA trained and guided those who tortured serious Islamic scholars in various countries, for instance. Maybe you know that Islam has long been divided between two major partisan branches, with several rather substantial sub-branches and so forth. It’s not so much that I pretend the CIA simply created terrorist tendencies ex nihilo, but that they managed to steer some of the natural tendencies until we now have a fairly powerful treat from a particular kind of Islamic fervor. Whether that fervor is inherent in Islam is not the point; the CIA and various cooperating agencies are making sure that fervor is well armed and supplied with the means to cause trouble.

I could never tell this to my former associates among the Southern Baptists or US military. This is contrary to their orthodoxy. Why, who could imagine the US government’s own agents would try to kill our troops? Yes, Western intelligence operatives have been caught dressed in Arabic garb and car bombs headed toward Western military positions. Yes, lots of folks who escaped the system and had very interesting stories to tell managed to die or disappear in highly questionable circumstances. None of that is insider information; you can hunt it down among sources you may or may not trust.

I can’t begin to outline how many layers and types of useful idiots there are between us ordinary folks and the plutocrats, but it’s a really big problem that they keep blinding most of humanity. Instead, I’ll warn you not to take the bait and promote the idea the ISIS is anything but a Western intelligence psychological warfare operation writ large. Keep your eye out for threats from folks who claim Islam as the excuse for making trouble, but don’t buy the hype.

Nor is this really just a warning about the CIA. You can find servants of the various brands of plutocrat propaganda in just about every existing agency because they’ve worked so hard to infiltrate everything. If it’s organized enough to have a budget, it’s probably compromised. You do know, I suppose, that there is just as much controlled opposition on all sides of this noisy clamor? The peaceniks are corralled into pointless activism — pointless in the sense it could never possibly change anything the plutocrats do. It won’t matter how many true believers you have in each of the various activist groups and movements, because someone in the group will always make sure it stays on track.

This is a good enough reason to refuse organization as we know it, but that’s not the full reason Radix Fidem rejects it. First, all of this organization is every kind man can imagine, but none of it organizes as God intended, not as God wired us in Creation. Second, the only way to get moving in the right direction is to start from a radical individual redemption that pulls you totally out of what exists now. We don’t just reject some elements of Western religion; we reject the whole of Western Civilization. That’s a tall order. Even when you get far enough along to understand how to do it right, you’ll likely find yourself isolated — no one to organize but you. Maybe your own immediate family can move in that direction, and that’s truly a blessing, but finding others to extend that organic structure is quite rare.

This is not our time. Maybe soon God will move us that way, but not yet. Meanwhile, there’s a literal sense in which we could say: I’ll be damned if I join a church run by the CIA.

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Forced Semi-fast

Posted on June 17, 2015 by ehurst

I’m the victim of pharmaceutical pollution and poisoning. Not that I plan any campaign or lawsuits; that’s not how the Lord moves me. Some of it is my own folly and ignorance during the time I could have prevented most of this. At this point, I wait on faith to tell me what God plans to heal, while I simply acknowledge that some things will never be fixed. Such is life. Context is everything and holiness is pursuing God’s moral character in the context.

So during “normal” healthy operations I would avoid fasting because it would actually be painful. I’ve tried it. But when something comes along and shuts down my digestion — such as it is — fasting is about all that’s left. Chances are that something I ate had wheat in it or some other GMO and food vendors are seldom honest about such things. They and the regulatory agencies are incestuous, a revolving door that ensures it’s all the same bunch of folks either way, all of them without a lick of moral conscience. God will handle them in His own good time.

So for the past few days I’ve been on a semi-fast. At first, I ate nothing until my stomach quit hurting so much. Now I’m eating about enough to make one meal over the course of the day. While I don’t recommend it as a weight-loss strategy, you can guess that I’m considerably lighter when the chute is all empty all the time. I currently run a high metabolism, so my system will burn some of whatever fat still hangs around.

But it leaves me rather weak and working out is pretty tough. Yesterday’s short 22-mile ride was harder than twice that distance is normally. Today’s yard work was one trip to the gravel pile for rocks to fill a soft spot, and nothing more. You get the picture. At my worst, I’m grouchy in the sense that I try to get people to leave me alone. It’s an instinct; I know I’m not good company and I hate pampering nursing. Let me suffer in silence.

I’m waiting on my system to reset and begin actually digesting food instead of merely passing it through. There’s nothing to gain by impatience and I refuse to whine. Instead, I’ll grouch and run you off.

What this means to you? The most important thing you’ll ever do is look in the mirror of God’s moral truth and recognize what sort of fallen nature you have and make the most of His blessings as well as His wrath. God’s active Presence in your life is a net good regardless of your subjective response. However, if you embrace what you are, it puts you in a far better position to learn His ways for you.

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Photo Log 7: Midwest City

Posted on June 16, 2015 by ehurst

Not many pictures today; bummer.

It should have been simple enough. I was going to ride west on SE 29th into Midwest City, around Tinker AFB and down to the bicycle entrance to Draper Lake. The whole trip would be about 20 miles, but once again, things didn’t turn out as planned.

SE29th2AndersonIt seemed worth the risk since the rain pattern was taking a break for awhile here. I rode off down SE 29th. As always, I have to cross somewhat hilly terrain to get anywhere. At one point, we cross that snaking watershed between the two branches of the Canadian River (the far crest in the picture). Two miles out things start to get easier, with a long slow descent between Westminster and Post Roads. Two more valleys with matching hills on either side and we hit the vast prairie on which Tinker AFB sits.

It was previously a Douglas Aircraft production plant running up to WW2, then passed to the US Government as a centrally located air depot. It was just about the only open prairie in the area at the time, several miles on each side. For a time, much of Midwest City’s existence was as a bedroom and shopping area for Tinker. The core of economic activity for the city is still Tinker.

The primary runway is north-south. At one time there was a problem with some of the aircraft crashing on the northern approach and destroying homes in the flight path. Eventually, the Air Force bought out the neighborhood just off the north end of the runway. What’s left is just a one-block strip on the west side of this square mile section. All the houses were removed, most of them built for adjunct base housing, anyway. It has since been fallow and allowed to grow wild over much of the concrete streets. The Zoomies use it for training to simulate wild terrain.

Back when REX 84 was still a popular subject with the underground militia types, one of the wild stories included this training area as a probable future FEMA camp. However, the real nuts insisted it was already built and ready to use. While there is a high chain-link fence around it, and the trees have gotten thick, you can see enough of the place to know that is pure hogwash. The rail lines running into the base as a whole are all out of service, slowly being dismantled as the railroads decide to recycle the steel. In other words, while just about anything can be strung up with enough tents and fence panels, this place is wholly unlikely to see FEMA use. It would take weeks just to make enough clear space for such an operation. Believe me — my job in the Army involved POW operations, and this place would be a huge pile of work and no good way to ship in large numbers of people as cheaply as the government tends to do such things.

TinkerShoppingMWCHowever, the entrance road to the south gate of this training area also connects to some back roads and such that allow me to get off the main thoroughfare. Right here just outside Tinker’s main entrance is easily one of the nicest shopping plazas in several counties. For some reason I can’t exactly explain, we see less predation than many of more expensive areas of the OKC Metro. None of the stores were open when I passed through, so I continued as far as the back routes would allow and rolled on down to Sooner Road.

This is one of those minor highways that has seen major traffic since before my time. Prior to the Interstate Highway System, it was a section of US Highway 77, pretty much the predecessor of I-35 here in Oklahoma. Sooner Road itself runs down south of Norman. To the north it merges with I-35 near Edmond, and reappears independently somewhere north of that, ending up around Guthrie.

TinkerBikePathThere is supposed to be a link with the Grand Boulevard Route, the Oklahoma River Route, and a few other loops in the Metro, but the various sections are hit-n-miss for now. Turning south on Sooner Road, we hit one of the earliest sections of these extensive bike trails. It’s old enough that the asphalt surface is cracked and has a few serious sags from soil subsidence. Right along the middle of this mile is the typical Zoomie propaganda art, just across from what used to be the Air Force Hospital Gate. It appears to depict the sequence of an AWACS plane doing what we see them doing just about every day: It comes down to the runway, doesn’t quite touch and takes off for another lap. I’m not sure if it’s testing the hardware, training the wet-ware (crewmen) or what, but it’s a fact of our existence. The flight pattern for this endless looping includes our trailer park at times.ZoomieArt

This street is also marked as an official bike route. In the second mile south you have the option of switching from the bike path to a sidewalk. While the Metro unified code says you can’t ride on the sidewalk in a business area, that’s really for urban areas. Out here in the suburbs, enforcement is nonexistent unless you threaten pedestrians, of which there are precious few most of the time. But come SE 59th and the bike route turns east again, clinging to the underside of the airbase. We get to see all those heavy industrial plants and the monster office buildings for companies like Boeing. At the old Air Depot Boulevard, we turn back south. I got to see the queue of trucks waiting at the truck gate and some of the older industrial buildings now devoted to military related contracting. At the end of this southerly mile run, we pass under the railroad tracks that used to feed the old GM Plant.

Back when GM was producing X-body cars (mostly Citations) it was one of the highest paid jobs in the state for regular blue-collar folks. Everyone else considered the workers pampered and whiny. Now the union hall stands empty, and after years of sitting vacant, the massive facility itself is owned by the Air Force. It was a great place of indoor storage and office expansion. (No, I can’t take pictures of anything that belongs to Tinker AFB without prior arrangement.) Oddly enough, the independent automobile railhead and storage yard across the street still received new cars not long ago.

This brings us across SE 74th and the I-240 underpass. It began to sprinkle just as I came within sight of the newest section of bike path. It runs over some open terrain that still gets mowed, and drops down onto the perimeter road for Draper Lake (seen in this last image viewed from the Draper perimeter road). But the rain started getting a little more serious. A cell call confirmed we were in for a heavier patch of rain rolling slowly up from the SSW. So I let it chase me back into the shopping area four miles back and made it into a speed workout. While there, I took advantage of the shelter and reconfigured my riding gear for a wet one. Riding in the rain isn’t too bad, but you have to make some adjustments or you’ll be more miserable than necessary.BikePath

So I came back out to my bike and the rain had quit. Well, nothing for it but to head home and end this trek for the day.

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Proverbs 14

Posted on June 15, 2015 by ehurst

Solomon’s theme here seems a matter of building a just and holy life.

1. A wise woman builds her house, but the foolish plucks it down with her hands. Back when Israel lived in tents, it was an ancient custom that the women would set up the family tent. It was very much her tent and her domain, though we should expect that servants and children, and perhaps even the husband, would set it up under her personal supervision. The implication here is taking responsibility for domestic operations. The wider effects of her actions can also serve to tear down the very thing she claims to build.

2. He who walks in his uprightness fears the LORD, but he who is perverse in his ways despises Him. The term for “upright” here is a Hebrew word meaning “contextually just.” The assertion is an equivalence, applying both ways. So is the opposite. The image is one who walks around the potholes on the highway versus one who wanders completely off the path.

3. In the mouth of the foolish is a rod of pride, but the lips of the wise shall keep them. The usual Hebrew pun, comparing a stick with a hedge. By your own folly will your arrogant words provide the ammunition for your correction, but observing wise boundaries (“lips”) in your speech will provide a hedge of protection.

4. Where no cattle are, the stall is clean, but much gain is by the strength of the ox. This is no different from the modern, “You can’t have it both ways.” A simple life can be pure and clean, like the vacant stall and feed trough. But if you need stuff, it requires doing the extra work of having the means of production. An ox can pull the plow for you and it’s far more productive than pulling your own plow, but by implication it’s a lot of hassle.

5. A faithful witness will not lie, but a false witness will speak lies. What comes out of your mouth reflects what’s in your heart. The image is one who speaks carefully, trying to get the truth across, verses one whose very breathe (“speak” as in blowing) is the stink of deception.

6. A scorner seeks wisdom, and it is not found, but knowledge is easy to him who understands. Wisdom is invisible to a blind heart. A discerning heart has no trouble recognizing what God intended in any given situation.

7. Go from the before a foolish man when you do not see in him the lips of knowledge. Give people time to manifest their inner nature, but as soon as you discern there is nothing you can do to help someone, stop trying. The image is taking up a position on the opposite side from the fool.

8. The wisdom of the wise is to understand his way, but the folly of fools is deceit. Wise people keep an eye on the road ahead and keep trying to move in the right direction. Fools spend all their time in trying to pull people off that path.

9. Fools laugh at sin, but among the righteous there is favor. This continues the theme of the previous verse. Mocking the idea that some choices are sinful serves to sidetrack people from the Covenant call. Looking beyond the sophistry of semantic wrangling about the Law and keeping your eye on the moral purpose of revelation delights God, and by implication, all of Creation celebrates.

10. The heart knows its own bitterness, and a stranger does not share in its joy. This is an ancient figure of speech that is more subtle than the words indicate. On the one hand, only you and God can really understand what He exposes to the “mind” of your heart. Your personal sense of fallen nature and repentance is uniquely yours in the Presence of God. However, the joy of redemption can be shared, but not with someone who departs from a common moral commitment.

11. The house of the wicked shall be overthrown, but the tent of the upright shall be blessed. Picturesque imagery here points to the apparent well-planned life of those who reject a higher moral understanding, painting it as a solid stone house. But the storms of life will destroy such a life because it is built in defiance of Creation’s own moral fabric. Meanwhile, those morally upright could face the worst sorrows of life in a mere tent and still be standing when it’s all done.

12. There is a way which seems right to a man, but the end of it is the ways of death. This is a direct slam on trusting in human talent and intelligence to work out the mysteries of our existence. Reason alone is not enough; it’s a dead end road.

13. Even in laughter the heart is sorrowful, and the end of that joy is heaviness. Another sample of intentional ambiguity common in Hebrew reasoning. It depends on the context. Life in this fallen realm is painful by default. You can laugh uproariously and try to ignore it, or you can chuckle and make the most of it, but you cannot change the fundamental nature of the Fall.

14. The backslider in heart shall be filled with his own ways, but a good man from himself. This is the essence of reaping what you sow. The word “backslider” is the image of someone who flinches when things get tough, so they always come up short of what they could have had from God’s blessings.

15. The simple believes every word, but the wise man watches his step. This is about cynicism. It’s not a question of obeying immoral laws and commands from earthly rulers, but a matter of discerning the moral results of what the government is trying to sell, and preparing in your heart to handle the outcome.

16. A wise one fears and departs from evil, but the fool rages and is sure. This echoes the previous verse. At the earliest opportunity a wise person bails out on folly, but the fool loudly convinces himself that he’s a good member of the team — but the wrong team.

17. He who is soon angry acts foolishly, and a man of wicked plots is hated. What difference does it make if you are impulsively stupid or just plain evil? You can apologize for your hasty mistakes, but you can’t apologize for rejecting moral truth. There is no sacrifice for moral rebellion.

18. The simple inherit folly, but the wise are crowned with knowledge. We’ve all met people who believe life can be managed with simple rules and buying into some logical scheme for prosperity. It’s a lot more work to became well acquainted with the moral fabric of reality and keep checking yourself against that divine mirror. Reality itself is a living and moving thing, so the job is never done until life is done.

19. The evil bow before the good, and the wicked at the gates of the righteous. An example of Hebrew parallelism, we know this is not literal, but a figure of speech. When God’s wrath moves in the world, the only refuge is in the shadow of those who welcome His wrath as a cleansing blessing.

20. The poor is hated even by his own neighbor, but the rich has many friends. Typical Hebrew sarcasm and wit, we know that people get tired of the perpetual needy beggar. People will avoid such them. But if you are rich, you’ll never have a moment to yourself. Solitude is expensive one way or another.

21. He who despises his neighbor sins, but he who has mercy on the poor, happy is he. A response to the previous verse: On the other hand, if you can’t understand the blessings of family and community, even at the cost of supporting them, you’ll never have much blessing from God. Thus, joy is also expensive, but worth the cost.

22. Do not those who think evil go astray? But mercy and truth shall be to those who think of good. This paints the image of thinking in terms of devising and making plans. If your plans are contrary to the moral character of God, they’ll keep changing and never quite work out. This is typical of people with some rarefied vision of whatever human logic can produce, always bent on something surely possible, if only they can avoid someone who doesn’t get it spoiling their plans. If your plans are to bring God glory and respond to His whims, you can expect His mercy and stability (“truth”).

23. In all labor there is gain, but the talk of the lips tends only to poverty. This is simple enough: Walk the talk. If all you are working is your jaws, nothing will come of it.

24. The crown of the wise is their riches of wisdom; the foolishness of fools is folly. In translating this, Green gets it right. The focus is not on material gain, so while the Hebrew here simply stops at saying “wealth,” it implies the richness of moral discernment. The morally vacant wear their folly like a crown, though it seem more like a dunce cap to others.

25. A true witness delivers souls, but a deceitful witness speaks lies. The image is the contrast between pulling in or blowing out. A faithful testimony of moral truth will change people’s lives, but a scheming deceiver is a blow-hard who doesn’t accomplish anything.

26. In the fear of the LORD is strong hope, and His sons shall have a place of refuge. This reverberates into the very real difference between Eastern serenity and Western angst. To walk in moral commitment from the heart is due reverence. It promises that you have nothing to fear in this world He made, because His revelation is entirely consistent with how reality works. This kind of inner peace tends to affect everyone in your sphere of influence.

27. The fear of the LORD is a fountain of life to turn aside from the snares of death. Continuing the thought in the previous verse, it offers a play on words not obvious in English. The “fountain” is from the root word for a well you dug to preserve life, whereas the snare is trap in the form or a pit. What is the purpose of your digging into this life? Embracing the moral character of God will help you discern which is which as you travel through life.

28. In the multitude of people is the king’s honor, but in the lack of people is the ruin of the prince. The primary difference between Hebrew feudalism and that of the West is that the former considers people the primary store of value. It matters not how much land and resources you own if your rule tends to kill your people. Your people come first; their social stability is the purpose for which God grants the authority to rule. Rule justly and He will provide everything else necessary for life.

29. He who is slow to wrath is of great understanding, but he who is hasty of spirit exalts folly. This is an ancient truth, expressing the model of the shepherd character. Punishment is what you pull out when all else has failed and there’s nothing left. God advertised this as His own character.

30. A sound heart is the life of the flesh, but envy the rottenness of the bones. The word “sound” here is the image of medicinal and helpful. A heart committed to giving and solving problems will make your own body healthy, too. A mind given to petty envy and always thinking that life is unfair will kill you from the inside.

31. He who presses the poor curses his Maker, but he who honors Him has mercy upon the poor. The image for poverty here emphasizes dependence by necessity, someone who is simply unfortunate in the human context. If your instinct is to take advantage of them in any way, you are poking God in the eye. As He has mercy on you, so shall you extend mercy to others as your first reflex.

32. The wicked is driven away in his wickedness, but the righteous has hope in his death. Without an active and intelligent heart ruling your life, death is fearful. If your heart is alive and committed to God’s moral truth, death is just a circumstance.

33. Wisdom rests in the heart of him who has understanding, but among fools it is made known. Much of this is lost in translation. The image is wisdom soaked deep into the core of someone who embraces moral justice; you might not notice it right away because they tend to act with discernment. However, a fool is empty and their whole existence and nature is fully exposed for all to see.

34. Righteousness lifts up a nation, but sin is a shame to any people. This is a matter of emphasis and context. God’s revealed standard of justice requires starting first and foremost with Ancient Near Eastern feudalism; this is how we are designed. Even a Gentile nation properly organized by that standard and tends to adhere to moral justice is a blessing and destined for greatness; God uses them for His glory. But rejecting divine justice is an insult to our Creator regardless how well organized and resourceful any random group might be.

35. The king’s favor is toward a wise servant, but his wrath is against him who causes shame. Related to the previous verse, the word “king” portrays an office not much like the Western image attached to the word. This tends in Hebrew culture to be the most vigorous elder and implies a capable warlord from your family, clan or tribe. This is the ruling office as vested by God; it is the basic assumption in all His Law Covenants. God backs him up despite his human frailties, so if you embarrass your own blood kin on the throne, you can be sure God is not too happy with you, either.

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Conquest Evangelism

Posted on June 15, 2015 by ehurst

It’s not as if Jesus never used military metaphors. The problem is how we read our militarism back into His comments. Perhaps you may have heard a very popular worship song from the 1980s, “Blow the Trumpet in Zion.” It quotes from Joel 2. I’ve mentioned “Joel’s Army” in the past. It’s actually a prophecy of destruction on Jerusalem; this “army that carries out His Word” is there to punish His people for their sins. Yet the words are yanked out of context and Israeli officials are quick to accept the money that comes from an extravaganza like this:

Stirring music and imagery, no? I want no part of that. These people do not know my Savior. They do seem rather familiar with standard American political orthodoxy and culture. It’s the sort of evangelism that sounds just like this:

The dog-pack instinct is most intense in the elite outfits, SEALs and Force Recon and Special Forces, with tightly-bonded small groups—the focus of males—working together. Powerful free-floating hostility characterizes the, and patriotism gives them a cover story for doing what they would want to do anyway.

Loyalty to a small band of warriors is easily transferred to an abstraction such as country or religious faith. Witness the fervor of Muslims today, or the enthusiasm for Christianity of illiterate Crusaders in the eleventh century who knew little of Christianity and certainly didn’t follow its moral precepts. Being swept up in a Cause gives an appearance of meaning to a life otherwise devoid of such. The flags, the hurrahs, the rhythmic thump-thump-thump of hundred of boots, the solidarity—these reinforce the pack instinct, and recruiters and politicians know it.

What ever happened to setting the captives free? Whatever happened to “peace on earth” in Our Savior’s birth? Yes, it was a peace in the heart, not of the flesh, but a peaceful heart is repulsed at warfare. Jesus Himself said it so clearly: “What is born of the flesh is flesh, and what is born of the Spirit is Spirit” (John 3). His Father said, “My ways are not your ways” (Isaiah 55:7-9). The ways of human politics cannot accomplish the work of God, which is why Jesus was a draft dodger — He literally dodged folks who were trying to draft Him as king. His kingdom was not of this world.

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Can You Smell?

Posted on June 14, 2015 by ehurst

One of my high school teachers was on a trip to some big city here in the US. Early one morning as he was driving through this big metropolis, he stopped at a light where some small kid was hawking the local fat Sunday newspaper from a traffic island. “Buy a paper!”

My teacher leaned out the window and said, “I can’t read.”

The kid never hesitated. “Can you smell? It’s all bullshit anyway! Buy a paper!”

So it is today with much of what I see in the news. I had a friend who told me he’s not worried about government snooping because he has nothing to hide. This was after I had learned the ultimate level of cynicism as a Military Policeman. I told him, “The government that lies about snooping on you is the same government that will tell lies about what it found if it decides you are in the way.” I’ve can’t count how often I was ordered to write a report making someone out to be dangerous or harmless using facts that could be slanted either way. We’ve seen it in the past couple of years, people who were arrested on pure lies and put away for things they could not have done. It’s bad enough people are prosecuted for things that should not be crimes in the first place.

There is no accountability and the fiction of accountability is falling away before our eyes.

When Kaspersky told us about finding Duqu 2.0 on their systems, they provided enough data to make it at least plausible. When the US OPM claimed it had been hacked, no proof was offered. When it claimed the Chinese had done it, even less proof was offered. Now we are told UK’s MI6 is pulling its spies from Russia and China because, not only did they get their hands on Snowden’s cache of documents, but decrypted them, too.

Again, no proof is offered. Then again, I’m not too sure about Snowden and his handlers, either.

Whatever is actually going on, you can bet it’s planned to harm us, and the plutocrats don’t want to admit just how damned evil they are. No, there’s not much you can do, except take your cue from David. In our recent Bible lesson, David refused to use his 600 troops and his superior tactical genius to attack Saul or those who betrayed him. It’s not that he had qualms about warfare; we know better than that. Rather, he knew his calling and what divine justice required of him.

Trust God for things clearly in His hands. Don’t be a nuisance. Be prepared to step out the path of destruction as it sweeps through — and it surely will. Commit yourself to God’s moral character; learn to see His wrath as a blessing in your life. And don’t buy the bullshit.

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Psalm 54

Posted on June 13, 2015 by ehurst

David wrote several psalms while fleeing Saul’s hand. This refers to the narrative in 1 Samuel 23. In this case, David with his private army was hiding somewhere south of Hebron, in the open country near the village of Ziph (named after a grandson of Caleb of Conquest fame). Aside from the usual limited foraging, David would order his troops to protect his own nation and raid those who were hostile. He also kept basic criminal elements in check. In gratitude, some of shepherds would offer such food as they could. In other words, David actively pursued God’s justice despite tough conditions. As such, he was hardly a threat to the locals and an active protector of the people in ways Saul could not be bothered, so it’s hard to understand this sort of betrayal by the town leaders.

David begins with a plea that God keep him free for the sake of His own glory. It’s an entirely reasonable request under God’s revealed Law, because David is committed to the Law from his heart, so he is quite willing to be measured by God’s standards for him. He asks that God put His hand to His ear so as not to miss a thing. David’s enemies are described as those who have strayed from the Covenant while holding the power to harm him.

We note that, as usual, David has no desire to use his overwhelming military forces and his prowess to take revenge on the Hebrews living in Ziph. As with Saul, let God be the judge of those He placed in authority.

But of course, David takes refuge in a God who had yet to fail him. “Behold!” When David reviews the number of folks who have supported him all this time, he finds God among them. We should read this as David finding God in their hearts and God quite literally on his side. How could it be otherwise when David is so determined to please his Lord?

We have no idea how it played out in history, but David calls on God to judge the tribal elders of Ziph by the same standard He uses on David and the rest of Israel. Since they have attempted to trap David, let them fall into their own trap. For His glory alone should God punish them.

Meanwhile, David is planning an appropriate freewill offering. Along with this will be a public profession of gratitude for God’s faithful protection. This is always a good thing in its own right, regardless of how God handles this problem. And when has God not given David victory in pursuit of divine justice?

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Photo Log 6: Almost Thunderbird

Posted on June 13, 2015 by ehurst

We’ll mark this up as “good training” again because I couldn’t get to the destination.

This route is more about mental discipline than physical. It’s tough enough, but aside from a jog at the start and end, it’s one long slog in a straight line south from SE 29th to Norman’s Alameda Drive. That’s 14 miles pedaling in one direction, for a total round trip of around 35 miles. But it was not to be.

FloodingChoctawStellaOvernight heavy thunderstorms had me wondering if I could go at all. However, a check of radar analysis indicated the worst I’d face is a few sprinkles, maybe a light shower, and so it was. I was more wet from my own perspiration in this muggy dampness; even the road splash did more than the precipitation. There was plenty of water on the road, with several places where localized flooding ran over the pavement, often leaving deposits of sand and gravel.

BedrockChoctawnrIndHillsMy home is very near the watershed between the “South” Canadian and North Canadian Rivers. Consider the geology in this area: massive layers of hard-packed reddish sandstone, cut by various small water courses. Aside from the valleys, most of the foliage is rooted in a fairly thin layer of soil atop this hard surface. It’s quite solid enough to make excellent foundations, but soft enough that power equipment can dig through it with ease.

So if you’ve been following these little journeys, you could guess by now that Hog Creek and its branches constitute a major land feature around here. It runs south to form a major arm of Lake Thunderbird, and it happens that most of our run down Choctaw Road is parallel to Hog Creek one side or the other. Given all the tributaries and heavy rains overnight, it’s no surprise the creek is at flood stage today and water hiding the several culverts under the road where it crosses our path.HogCreekChoctaw

Otherwise, there was only one partial washout along the way. Starting from my preferred diversion to SE 29th Place, this is the only time I turn south on Choctaw Road. It’s usually pretty busy, but Saturday morning isn’t so bad. One mile down we run into the one section so far that has been widened into four lanes, along with some nice grading that raised the creek bottom up about eight feet. So it was pretty easy until we climbed the approach to Interstate 40.

FormerlyHeinsThis is the scene of some serious tornado damage back on 10 May 2010. There were two truck stops on opposite corners back then. On the southwest corner was Anderson’s, formerly known as Heins and quite a full service operation from before my birth. On the northeast corner down on a lower elevation was a newer Love’s Truckstop. This is the best single presentation of what happened that day, a video showing the damage. Anderson, owned by Pilot, was rebuilt on the same site, but Love’s abandoned theirs and crossed to the other side of Choctaw to perch on higher ground.LovesChoctaw In the image to our left here, viewed from the south side of I-40, you can just detect the low spot of their previous site on the right side of the picture.

From here on out the hills get awfully rough until we get to Stella Road, the boundary between far SE OKC and Norman. This is the gateway to Lake Thunderbird from this direction.ChoctawStellaS

You have to understand something: Oklahoma was established during the Progressive Era represented by good old Teddy Roosevelt. It featured the early “scientific” approach to fixing everything in the world, the birth of very forceful intervention into every human concern. Norman is mostly about the campus of OU (University of Oklahoma), a hothouse of relative liberalism and social justice warriors. The folks here are just the type to have enthused about introducing kudzu, which is now an ecological disaster. So when I crossed the boundary, I wasn’t too surprised to find it smelled differently, and the roadside foliage was a different mix entirely. Some of it was the same as what’s just north of Stella Road, but native stuff is missing and something else in its place. I have no proof, but the entire rest of the way to Alameda feels alien and uncomfortable for me.

I saw the road closure signs, but you never know just how bad it is. I’ve managed to cross a couple of them easily in the past couple of weeks, so I thought it was worth a shot. I got two miles to Indian Hills Road, and just below in the next bottom found this washout. While the crews had delivered the replacement “tin-horns” as we call them out here, no actual work had been done. I suppose I can check back in the fall, but I’m sure it’ll be awhile before they fix this, given how very many I’ve already seen all over three counties. Not once has there been any sign of repairs starting because they are low priority routes, and it’s already three weeks from when they all washed out.WashoutnrIndianHills

So there was nothing for it but to turn around and head back. The hills for the Norman portion are relatively easy, but between Stella and I-40 were several brutal climbs. Choctaw Road is different from other roads in this area running north and south. Here the big money is not farming or cattle, but horses. There are at least three spread along the way that are easy to see. While only one still has horses (seen here on the right), easily the most expensive property for several miles in any direction, none of them is suffering from neglect.HorseRanchSE89thChoctaw The other big money is likely from a high density of building contractors with huge steel building shops and rows of specialized equipment parked back in the trees. You would think just about every third home site has now, or has had in the past, at least one welding rig.

I still got a whale of a workout.

Addenda: Just the next day after I took this journey and these pictures, one of the tributaries running into Hog Creek that runs across that horse farm that I shot (the yellow mansion) flooded when a very large pond two miles upstream broke its dam. The resulting heavy load of water ran across SE 89th just east of the house in a low spot, flooded further his already overflowing ponds and made Hog Creek really flood the valley downstream around SE 104th, rising into a few houses there. It took some hours for all the water to run down to Thunderbird.

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