Dr. Heiser’s Video

Posted on January 11, 2024 by ehurst

Yesterday, I pressed the issue of seeking the Hebraic viewpoint of Scripture. This seems like as good a time as any to highly recommend readers watch this documentary. It’s a very brief summary of Dr. Michael S. Heiser’s Unseen Realm.

It presents only a bare outline of what’s in the book. However, it includes enough to cover the basics. I was especially pleased the teaching that baptism was not just a cleansing ritual, but became a symbol of allegiance and loyalty to Christ as Lord.

This would be a great item for introducing folks who aren’t familiar with the whole idea of Hebrew thinking. I managed to get a copy and convert it to MP4 so it can be shown on a wide range of devices.

Posted in teaching | Tagged , , , | Comments Off on Dr. Heiser’s Video

Kiln of the Soul: No Secrets

Posted on January 10, 2024 by ehurst

We will not hide anything. You can ask any question you like and get an honest answer. The whole body of teaching for Kiln of the Soul is easily obtained. But it’s a huge pile of reading, and not everyone is inclined to go through that before deciding whether to get involved.

So, to save them time and energy, we present to most outsiders something like an onion. Instead of layers of secrecy, we hope to offer layers of decision. The first decision point, as already stated, is the matter of faith’s fire. If that doesn’t run you off, then you may be interested in the next layer.

The next decision point is the declaration that Jesus was a Hebrew man, teaching a Hebrew religion, recorded in a Hebrew book (in terms of orientation, if not language). Most church folks have this instinctive notion that the New Testament is a western document. That’s plain wrong. The gospels may have varying emphases, but they all proclaim a Hebrew Messiah. Acts, the Letters and Revelation are all promoting a translated Hebrew covenant offered to mankind by the Hebrew God.

As we move forward with plans to organize local congregations under the label “Kiln of the Soul”, I think we will be surprised who can embrace that and who will choke on it. But we owe it to God as our duty to actively put up barriers that will exclude those who don’t belong.

Now, of course, saying “Hebrew” implies the broader academic term “Ancient Near East”. We must ensure that’s a part of the explanation of what Kiln of the Soul is about. Still, not everyone recognizes that term, so we start with talking about the Hebraic nature of following Christ. Further, we must be ready to mention that Hebrew is not the same as Jewish. As part of this layer of understanding, we must explain that Judaism is a departure from Old Testament religion. That was a fundamental part of Jesus’ message to His own nation. The meaning of “gospel” is the restoration of the faith inherent in the Old Covenant.

This filter is critical to gaining entrance to Kiln of the Soul.

Posted in teaching | Tagged , , | 1 Comment

Kiln of the Soul: Leadership

Posted on January 9, 2024 by ehurst

Instead of a rational framework, I want to present our vision in terms of boundaries. Some of it is in layers. There’s no way I can cover everything that might arise as we move forward in this vision, but there are some things that I know already from experience.

The first layer must be the fire of faith. Anyone who manifests that so we can see it will be qualified to lead in some way. This is the core of the covenant family. These are the people who have learned not to get in the Lord’s way working in their lives. They’ll do whatever it takes to please Him.

The next layer is not what you might expect. Given that I am the elder, the issue is not agreeing with me, but agreeing to tolerate my leadership. It’s hardly flawless. I expect a certain amount of dissent from everyone. To be honest, sycophants are repulsive. Children are supposed to be like that, but not adults. I’ve encountered a few in my life and it always gave me the willies. Operationally, the issue is not agreeing with me, but a willingness to play along. That was what I gave when I wasn’t in charge, and I hope to receive it in return now that I am in charge. Respectful dissent is not a hindrance.

At any time, you can always pull away and start your own work. No hard feelings. When God tells you that something in my leadership is not for you, either find another community or start one yourself. It’s no different from noticing that someone is geographically removed from you; that’s a parable of human differences. Go where the Lord leads you, and put down roots there. May He add to your blessings. Just don’t stick around and try to hijack things.

And some day my time will be done and I’ll pass the baton. I’m already planning on that, given my age (67). I’m already praying for the welfare of my successor; I’ll be looking for him to show himself when the time is right. It’s not meant to be trite: pastors are chosen, elders are grown.

And covenant families are grown, too. I’m not going to make rules. Christ’s Covenant provides a sort of law code for those who need training wheels. It starts with the Code of Noah, but there’s more to it than that. It’s what we offer those who haven’t yet developed to the point they can sense their own convictions. This is how I can extend my covering as shepherd over those who still don’t know who they are.

Clearly, this is not “rule of law”, but it’s also not “rule of men”. This is simply how God allows us to experience His reign in our lives.

Posted in eldercraft | Tagged , | Comments Off on Kiln of the Soul: Leadership

Kiln of the Soul: Layers

Posted on January 8, 2024 by ehurst

We continue where I left off with the previous post: The core of our fellowship is people deeply committed to Christ, with the kind of faith that keeps them clinging to Him through disasters.

This is the first and most important key to our identity as a community. Anyone who grasps that as the vision for life here in this world can be our family. Whether or not they want to spend much time with us is the next question. The issue is not uniformity, but tolerance for the inevitable differences. The question each covenant body must address is what will hinder the family from its fundamental mission of building that kind of faith in each other.

There are differences in belief that will affect how we proceed. We must discern and act on disruptions. This is not something that can be set in stone, simply because the various members will themselves determine what they can tolerate. The biblical model is clear on the Two Witnesses: there must be an elder, a head of household your rules a feudal domain, and a priestly figure (we’ll use the term “pastor”) who leads in rituals and discerns defilement issues.

These roles do not break down into our common democratic models; the Bible is all about feudal tribalism. The covenant community is a small copy of how God does things with fallen humans, and the model for that was clearly painted in the Bible. Thus, the elder and pastor will set the tone. And in the next community down the road, the elder and pastor there would set the tone differently, according to the talents and calling God invested in them. It’s people, not rules.

Now, Kiln of the Soul does have an elder (yours truly), and for the time being, I also play the pastoral role only because we are waiting for someone to relieve me of that burden. We have something in the works, I believe, so stay tuned on that question. Part of the difficulty here is that Kiln of the Soul will be both a virtual parish with one or more meat-space bodies in a covenant community of faith. Juggling the differences between how virtual and real communities operate is a major consideration all the time. We’ve had the virtual community for a long time, but the real world version is just now aborning.

Activating now an offline community will be a study in errors on the way to glory. The administrative issues will be reported here as they arise, but we need a vision first, or we have no hope. That vision includes discerning what our identity must be. That’s a question of what we are and are not, in terms of what we can say about it in words. Because we are dealing with real humans, I believe the best way to see it is layers of inclusion. It’s not a question of membership rosters, etc. It’s more of an organic question of how we will operate as a family.

And that first layer is we will be a people of deep faith. We have all been tested in one way or another. We have all failed in various ways. The issue is not success, but desire. God is very clear about that in the Bible: Those who dearly love Him are His people. Mistakes are expected, but the core issue is commitment.

We aren’t looking for operational and administrative expertise. We are looking for the fire of faith. Those who manifest the burn scars and stink of that fire have passed the first test, particularly for leadership. Because the one thing that holds a family together strong is that commitment to the sacrificial love of Christ.

Posted in eldercraft | Tagged , , , , , | Comments Off on Kiln of the Soul: Layers

Kiln of the Soul: More Who

Posted on January 7, 2024 by ehurst

I’ve attended all kinds of professional clergy development and church growth conferences. All of them hinged on copying the methods of corporate sales, but dressed up in nice inspirational language. Unfortunately, these will get you corporate sales results. The people who are brought in by such methods are buyers contracting with an institution, not necessarily souls joining a family.

The key to our kind of evangelism is the personal connection. It’s pretty tough to sell your content in the current market, but people will always stick with those who love them and bless them. We don’t do “cold-call evangelism”. Maybe that means fewer members, but we aren’t looking for numerical growth. We are looking for lost family, even if we never met them before.

The only strategy we need to discuss is how to engage people who need. How do we come up against those needing a family? Where will we find them? If you listen to church growth hucksters, you would pick your demographic and try to get their attention. But faith doesn’t recognize demographics. It’s neither a “missions” emphasis of seeking the conventional needy, nor trying to win over wealthy clients.

We don’t want to be and do what all the mainstream churches be and do. If the core of identity for Kiln of the Soul is the people involved, then we want to involve those who are ready to be bound to Christ in faith, or already bound. We aren’t selling a program; we are reaching out to folks who know they need a hug and all that it implies.

Thus, we uphold the image of glorious eternal love in a family format. We are hoping to draw people who will be serious about contributing to the basic mission of changing ourselves into those who reflect that eternal identity hidden inside our fleshly presence. We want people who will be good at keeping that focus. Everything else is just packaging.

To the degree we might long to change the situation around us, it’s all through prayer. There will be no hint of activism beyond the simplest level of vowing to act on sacrificial compassion wherever we pass through this world. It’s not doctrine that cues us to who “good people” are, but faith that clings to Christ through the worst of this life.

We aren’t going to change people. We are going to build an atmosphere where the power of God changes them, an atmosphere that pulls down the strongholds of defilement that hinders people discovering what God intended for them.

Posted in eldercraft | Tagged , | Comments Off on Kiln of the Soul: More Who

NT Doctrine — 2 Corinthians 7-13

Posted on January 6, 2024 by ehurst

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

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

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

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

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

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

Posted in bible | Tagged , , , | Comments Off on NT Doctrine — 2 Corinthians 7-13

Kiln of the Soul: Who

Posted on January 5, 2024 by ehurst

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Posted in religion | Tagged , , | Comments Off on Kiln of the Soul: Who

Is It Time?

Posted on January 4, 2024 by ehurst

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

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

I believe this is the year.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Posted in prophecy | Tagged , , , | Comments Off on Is It Time?

Systemic Barriers to Christian Nationalism

Posted on December 31, 2023 by ehurst

This apparently requires a little more elaboration.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Posted in sanity | Tagged , , , , , , , | Comments Off on Systemic Barriers to Christian Nationalism

NT Doctrine — 2 Corinthians 6

Posted on December 30, 2023 by ehurst

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Posted in bible | Tagged , , , | Comments Off on NT Doctrine — 2 Corinthians 6