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.

Posted in tribulation | Tagged , , , | Comments Off on Tools in the Box 02

Tools in the Box 01

Posted on December 3, 2023 by ehurst

I had written something else entirely, but decided it wasn’t the message for today.

I’ve noted this before: The federal government has officially listed me as a cult leader and terrorist. The only reason they have not taken me into custody is because of mere procedural road blocks. The system as it currently runs will not allow them to act on their assumptions about me. Given enough time, the officials will remove those hindrances and arrest a whole bunch of people like me. This is not boasting; I’m not a martyr. They don’t care a whit about my religion, only that I am not a cheer leader of the federal government.

What I’m sharing is the factual truth as accurately as I can remember. About 25 years ago, I made friends with a fellow who worked as a pharmacist. We talked Bible. It so happened I met some of his family; he had one brother who worked under him at another location. That brother got caught in a sting operation, selling an illegal amount of certain drugs to someone. The brother went into a depression and fled. (Details here.)

It just so happened I moved to another state at about the same time, to a rural location that is still a hotbed of anti-government militia folks. I wasn’t part of that culture, and most of the folks living there were in agriculture. Somehow, the feds got the crazy idea I was involved in hiding this fugitive from justice. They came out and nosed around the town close to where I lived. Because they lied to people about me, I got kicked out of a church. Only later did they find out I was on their side — an active participant in the “War on Drugs” — but that didn’t matter. They kept telling those lies trying to find a reason to arrest me.

The federal government threw me under the bus on a whim. Had that fool shown up where I was, seeking my help in hiding from justice, I would have handcuffed him to a tree and called the US Marshals. I’m still not on his side, but I am less likely to take any action now, because there would be no justice in any case.

Eventually, the evidence showed that this fugitive had gone to the West Coast, far away from where I was. The timing was just a coincidence. But they still clung to the lies about me and kept telling them as their official truth — I was a cult leader adept at hiding fugitives. Years later they spoke to another potential witness in the case, still saying the same thing about me.

Well, obviously I’m not on their side any more. Furthermore, I dared to publish the truth about how federal bureaucracies work, and telling the truth about their lies. They have haunted me through several blogs, and were harassing me on this blog until about a year ago, when I called them on it. You know they are still reading it, of course. That’s how federal bureaucracy works. When some incompetent boob comes up with a decision about someone, the whole institution never changes its mind.

No, this is not paranoia. I learned to act the same way they do back when I served in law enforcement. There are millions like me whose lives are at risk of being destroyed because of bureaucratic intransigence covering up incompetence. I’m not the one keeping a grudge. All I’m doing is being a little guarded here and there. I’m watching for signs of things I would do had I been assigned such a case, so that I can assess the likelihood of being harassed or arrested. That’s only so I can be sure my readers aren’t left mystified about why I disappeared from the Net.

Try to understand the difference: I might be willing to fight a mandatory vaxx program, but I’m currently not willing to fight arrest for this false case. It’s a matter of my personal convictions about what new doors for ministry would be opened, and how I am equipped to serve. One is war; the other is just an adventure.

Posted in personal | Tagged , , , , , | 1 Comment

NT Doctrine — 2 Corinthians 2

Posted on December 2, 2023 by ehurst

Again, the church came very near to being ostracized from the other churches. They would have been denounced and no longer see an apostolic visits. Instead of rejoicing with them in their victories over sin, Paul would have been obliged to cut them off if they didn’t correct the problem.

The first eleven verses are rather obscure in this chapter. Our best guess is that someone in leadership at the church at Corinth was refusing to excommunicate the fellow who had married his father’s cast-off wife. Instead, there was a substantial party defending this man. If Paul came, he would have no choice to dissolve the body.

Once again, the theme of this study is the continuity between the Old and New Covenants. Paul is most certainly enforcing the Mosaic prohibition on two men in the same family having sex with the same woman. This must be regarded as a moral absolute, something rooted in the nature of Creation itself. Among the pagan Greeks, it was simply not an issue. This reminds us that local culture cannot be the guide; we must insure we grasp how certain measures of the Law represent universal moral truth.

The man in question was certainly welcome back into the full communion once he repented. The ostracism wasn’t a life sentence. The man’s sorrow was suffering enough. Whatever position he previously held should be restored. Legalism is not a feature of any of the Covenants; legalism is just Satan exploiting human passion.

Some in the church seemed to think Paul was without any feelings about this whole mess. That would be a lie. Once ejected from Ephesus, Paul traveled up the coast to Troas. To his surprise, the Lord had opened a door there for ministry. Paul would normally have stayed much longer, but he was very antsy about Titus coming back from Corinth with good news. So, despite having such a strong response there at Troas, he crossed over to Macedonia, hoping against hope that Titus would come back soon.

Titus wasn’t supposed to leave Corinth until things were on the right path again.

To reinforce his point about how much sleep he lost over this problem with Corinth, Paul ends the chapter with effusive praise to God, celebrating that the Lord had granted a healing of the church. He was ecstatic.

There was a whole herd of hucksters whose preaching sounded like the apostles, but they were actually trying to avoid any real work. They always disappeared with things got tough like they did at Corinth. Unlike the hucksters, Paul was heavily invested personally in seeing the Corinthian church get right. To those who remained spiritually dead, there was no difference between Paul and the hucksters. To those who truly served Christ, the difference was painfully obvious.

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

Photos: A Twisted Tale

Posted on November 29, 2023 by ehurst

Our local news channels noted roughly a year ago that, as part of the most recent edition of the MAPS Project (gussying up OKC for tourism), there was a plan to build a pedestrian bridge across the river near the new OKANA recreation facilities being built on the grounds of the First Americans Museum. In order to start that bridge, the water level would have to be dropped so workers could install the necessary supports. Thus, in our first image, one gate is down all the way, allowing water to flow out that section of the river.

In this view, we see the resulting low water level in the competition rowing section of the Oklahoma River Recreation Area. The Chesapeake Boathouse removed all the floating docks to keep them from coming to rest in the muddy river bottom. It takes a while for all the water to drain off because there are numerous drainage sources from the Downtown OKC area feeding into this section of the river. Every time it rains, they dump a lot more water into the river.

Now there is yet another delay. This past Sunday, during the overnight ours leading to Sunday morning, we had a lot of rain, followed by freezing temperatures. The infamous Fort Smith Junction here in OKC froze over, and there was a massive pile-up of 22 vehicles. A tractor-trailer rig approached and tried to dodge the mass of wreckage and managed to roll over the retaining wall, falling into the river below. The trailer came apart and dumped its cargo into the water. There were crews working to collect evidence and another crew cleaning up the mess.

Here in the dead center of the photo is the guardrail damage from the truck striking it hard before climbing up and over it. Apparently the cargo is being treated as toxic, because there are temporary dams across the river to prevent it all floating downstream. This is all just a quarter-mile downstream from that dam that had been open, but is now closed again. The city stopped the water flow until the crews could clear the crash scene. They were using a special heavy wrecker on the bridge above with a long, rotating crane boom to lift a collection container being filled by workers down in the shallow water below.

Posted in photography | Tagged , , | Comments Off on Photos: A Twisted Tale

NT Doctrine — 2 Corinthians 1

Posted on November 25, 2023 by ehurst

Brief reminder of the chronology here: Paul was in Ephesus building up the church there when he got alarming news about Corinth. So he wrote a brief message we do not have, and someone responded, perhaps several people, from Corinth. It was not good news, as at least a portion of the church was resisting his warnings. So, he wrote again, and that letter is our 1 Corinthians. They responded again, but during that time, Paul had been run out of Ephesus. Thus, he wrote another note to them that we do not have. Finally, he gets word back that the Corinthians are once more on the right track. This fourth message we have as 2 Corinthians precedes his personal arrival by a few days.

The whole point in refusing to come was not hard feelings on his part, but on theirs. Then again, it also was a warning in itself that the church was outside the covenant boundaries, and at risk of losing their association with all the other churches. We have some hints here and there that some first century churches did break off from the flock and slipped so far away that they became a byword for apostasy. The apostles as a whole refused to visit those churches, so it was important for Corinth to understand their situation.

This letter begins with conciliatory words. One of those words is translated into English as “comfort” (paraklesis). We have nothing close in the English language; it refers to the supplication of a higher power, and the thing received in response. Paul also mentions the word parakaleo, a related Greek word referring to approaching that higher power and being accepted. Thus, there is a strong emphasis on seeking the Lord in our time of suffering, of seeking to rise above the fleshly level of sorrow.

God’s response is to call us into His Presence, implying that we are drawn up out of ourselves. The whole opening of the letter is a doctrinal statement about how suffering works in Christ’s Kingdom. It is God’s wrath on sin; we are supposed to flee that sin. Not just a particular sin, such as Paul pointed out in the Corinthian church, nor even the broader sinful tendencies he also wrote about. Rather, it is the fleshly nature itself that we must flee. If God sends a little suffering, and it provokes you to cry out, He empowers you to separate from it. But then, He reveals more of His wrath on that fleshly nature, because it’s for sure you have not fled enough yet so long as you live in this world.

The point is that you are continually drawn up out of your fleshly nature, farther and farther, as your faith grows in strength to handle mortification. This is how Paul faced the high risk of death in the riot in Ephesus. He was ready to die, and only God’s purpose kept him alive. The whining and carping from some of the Corinthians was the wrong way to handle the tension with Paul and his coworkers. Those at Corinth who were praying for Paul had a better response.

The reason Paul didn’t really answer the objections of the rowdies in Corinth was because they were operating in the flesh. There is no remedy for flesh other than the Cross. They needed to learn about convictions and pure sincerity of heart, not human reason. Had they been working from their hearts, none of this nonsense would have gotten started in the first place. It was necessary to write to them on a level of law for the flesh, and he was hoping they would see through that to a higher level.

He goes on to explain that the plans he first announced about coming straight to Corinth, then up into Macedonia, then back down through Corinth, was simply not possible. They were not ready to see him. He didn’t blame them directly, but if they didn’t humbly take the blame, they would never understand. That church as a whole had a serious need to climb up out of their fleshly selves.

Posted in bible | Tagged , , , | Comments Off on NT Doctrine — 2 Corinthians 1

NT Doctrine — 1 Corinthians 15:35-58

Posted on November 18, 2023 by ehurst

It was part of the arrogance of Greek philosophy that some would mock Paul’s teaching on the issue of resurrection. They asked how it was possible, and asked sarcastically if Paul could describe what kind of body one would have after rising from the grave. The folly here is the reliance on human wisdom to assess revelation.

Can anyone explain how a seed grows into a plant? At that time in history, the study of biology only got so far as to recognize that a seed must die; it must be completely disconnected from that which gave it life. The form you see when you put it in the soil looks nothing like what springs up. God is the source of all things; what springs from a seed is whatever God determines. Each kind of seed produces something different.

We have no problem recognizing that the flesh of various animals are quite different. Just so, we should easily recognize that our mortal bodies would be different from the eternal ones. With Greek philosophical assumptions making so much of human perfectibility, Paul points out that the concept of “glory” (i.e., perfection) would be quite different for an eternal body. We can’t possibly understand how things work in the heavens in simple terms of sun, moon and stars; we won’t be able to grasp the nature of eternal bodies while still in our mortal frame.

So it is with resurrection: You cannot understand it with your fallen mind. You’ll have to wait until it happens to possess faculties capable of grasping it all. We take this on faith as a revelation from God. It will be different, so different that we cannot imagine — death becomes life, shame becomes glory, weakness becomes power, mortal becomes immortal. The one defines the other. Returning to the image of First versus Last Adam: the first came to life (quoting from Genesis 2:7), but the second gives life.

In God’s plans, it is necessary that we first endure this awful mortal life in order to rise to eternal life. We must be dust before we can be spirit. All of us will be a First Adam before we can join the Last Adam in Heaven. The whole point is the distinction and boundaries between the two. The Heavenly Kingdom will take your reservation, but it will not be yours until you die.

Granted, there will be just a few who don’t have to face death, but we all must change and shed this human form. When Christ returns, those who are still alive will be changed where they stand. That will happen when the heavenly trumpet sounds, and that’s when the dead will also be changed. Paul quotes from Isaiah 25:8 and Hosea 13:14, both mocking the power of mortality to hold us imprisoned. The Giver of Life will return and vanquish mortality. There will be no more goading and suffering.

The goad that death uses against us is how powerless we are against our sinful nature. We deserve to die. And the power of our sinful nature points to the presence of moral law in all of Creation, condemning us by a standard we are unable to meet. But God is not going to leave us like this. He has offered a triumph over sin and death through His Son, Jesus Christ.

Don’t be shaken by the doubts of human intellect. God’s promises do not fail. Face the sorrows with aplomb; keep working with overflowing excellence in the assurance that you aren’t wasting effort.

Posted in bible | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment

Strategy for the Coming Wars

Posted on November 15, 2023 by ehurst

In the past, I have written about my perception that the globalists are using the Zionists, while the Zionists are using the globalists. Each intends to steer things to their advantage as the situation develops, and betray the other.

Notice who I’m picking on here. I said Zionists, not neocons nor the Straussians. Those two groups have their own agenda that could overlap with the Zionists from time to time. If you want to know more about the differences between the Zionists, neocons and Straussians, I suggest you read this analysis by Thierry Messan. I’ll warn you that it’s hard to separate neocons and Straussians. The latter is a cult (very nearly identical with The Cult I refer to); the neocons are a political movement that is partly steered by the Straussians. The Zionists include a bunch of American church folks whose voting, political ardor and money are being used by the Straussians and neocons.

The US (whether globalist or Zionist) isn’t actually supporting the modern State of Israel. Rather, they are supporting Netanyahu and the IDF (and related agencies), who is actually an American Jew. He grew up here, went to school here, and went to Israel in order to implement his vision of what should happen. He’s quite happy to see Israel destroyed, but not until he has gotten as close as possible to his neocon vision. Neither the Straussians nor the neocons wanted an Israel in the first place, and would be happy to see it destroyed. Since it exists, they are using Israel to get certain things done.

You can get a much better idea of the “Big Plan” here at Unz Review. While I might waffle on some of the details, I believe that Michael Hudson and Ben Norton are on the money. You can watch the video, but Hudson is not a gifted speaker. Reading the transcript below the video is actually likely to be faster.

If the US can just get someone to react, like Hezbollah, then it will justify attacking Iran, because every effort to support the Palestinians is uniformly blamed on Iran in the MSM. You’d have to know a lot about the conflicts between Shiites, Sunnis and Alawites to realize just how ludicrous are such claims in some cases. And if our government can get Iran to block the Straight of Hormuz, it grants the US full control of energy for the just about the whole world.

As Hudson notes, the US is trying to fight Russia to the last Ukrainian, and wants to fight China to the last resident of Taiwan, and to fight Iran to the last Israeli. The destruction would leave the US government globalists in charge — or so they think. The neocons and Straussians would get what they want: Let the globalists do the dirty work, and then let them take the fall via some kind of courts system.

I’ve oversimplified it just a bit, so if you want to understand better, check out the article on Unz Review.

Posted in social sciences | Tagged , , , , , | Comments Off on Strategy for the Coming Wars

NT Doctrine — 1 Corinthians 15:1-34

Posted on November 11, 2023 by ehurst

There is one fundamental and radical difference between the Ancient Near East and the Greco-Roman culture: The former asserted that a separate spirit realm existed, whereas the latter asserted that this world is all there is. If you can get it through your head that there is an eternal realm separate and distinct from this world, then there are certain obvious logical consequences of that belief. Paul struggled against the Corinthian mental habits of their old pagan assumptions.

This passage begins with Paul restating an outline of the gospel message. This is the message that gives any church it’s whole identity. The format of the message is rather like some of the Greek mythology, a story of some key figure who experienced and/or accomplished certain things. In this case, we have Christ who died as the sacrifice for the sins of humanity. It was prophesied long before in the Hebrew Scriptures. His body was buried and on the third day He rose again, also predicted in those same Scriptures. He appeared to Peter, and then the rest of the Twelve. Later, He appeared alive to a huge crowd of some 500 followers, most of whom were still living. The implication is that you could at that moment go back and interview them as to what they witnessed personally.

Next, Jesus appeared to His brother James, and some others who had become apostles. Lastly, as if Paul had been born at the wrong time, Jesus also appeared to him after He ascended. Jesus is still alive! Paul goes on to testify of his unworthiness, and how he had to play catch up by working harder than everyone else who knew Jesus in the flesh. But this gospel message became the standard, the core of what all the other apostles preached. Would they prefer to ignore Paul? Fine, any other Christian apostle would teach the same thing. This story was still being shared as factual, historical events, wherever one might find His followers.

So, how is it that some of the church members in Corinth still insisted that humans cannot rise from the dead? Note: Because the Greek language lacks actual words for the whole concept, Paul uses common Greek terms figuratively. The word for “resurrection” actually means to rise from sitting or lying down. But he’s consistent, because he refers to believers who die as “asleep”, instead of using the Greek term associated with passing into the mythical Underworld. However, he’s quite blunt in saying that if dead bodies do not rise, then Christ is not risen and the whole gospel message is a lie.

There is no reason to continue as a church, and Paul can just go home and retire to an easy life.

But no, Christ is alive. He is the first fruit from the harvest of souls that have merely fallen asleep. Then Paul launches into symbolism playing the image of Adam off against Christ. Adam symbolizes our human fleshly existence, and Christ symbolizes our eternal spiritual destiny. Christ is then compared to an Ancient Near Eastern royal heir who went out to conquer and pacify the rebels in His Father’s realm, and will then return triumphant with the tokens of their allegiance or destruction.

Don’t miss the point here: This is a somewhat veiled reference to the rebellious angelic beings who have been leading mankind astray since the expulsion from the Garden of Eden. Once Jesus has humbled these beings through His army of followers, He will signal to His Father the completion of All Things. This, too, was prophesied, as Paul quotes Psalm 8.

This faithful Son will then surrender all things at His Father’s feet, presenting to the Father a fully united realm under His authority. The last rebel to be brought to heel will be death itself. That is, the mere fact of human mortality will be ended. We will all be revealed in our true eternal natures.

Paul reminds the Corinthians of a ritual practice they had been observing — “baptism for the dead”. It shouldn’t be a mystery. It’s another element of the Old Testament that belongs in the New. Even today, Jews recognize the sacred duty to their dead kin in preparing their bodies for burial. Of course, this makes one ritually impure, requiring a ritual washing (Hebrew mikvah, Greek baptizo) in order to restore that purity. It’s a very mystical thing in Judaism even now.

It was the same for early Christians. We still love them even if they are dead. The original doctrine in the Old Testament was that the body would be reused in the Resurrection. Christ didn’t leave His body in the grave, nor will you and I. It will be reconstituted regardless of what happens to the remains. If we honor a fellow believer who died by handling their remains with respect for a body they’ll need again, we should be willing to take a bath before coming back to church. Without a hope of resurrection, there’s no point to such honor, nor ritual bathing. We could just toss the bodies out with the garbage and be done with it.

Paul then goes on to mention how he is at risk of being killed every day. If there is no resurrection, why bother? That fracas at Ephesus, where Paul felt like a gladiator facing wild beasts? He would reap none of the glory, nor any purse for his survivors. What would be the point if there was not at least some hope of eternal life?

Paul quotes a very popular philosophy in suggesting they all should just eat, drink and be merry, because they could die at any moment and that would be the end of it. This was apparently a big thing in Corinth. Skipping across a lot of thoughts that should be obvious in this context, Paul quotes a famous Greek poet (Menander) and warns that hanging out with that kind of people would destroy any hope for moral goodness in this life.

Too many members of the Corinthian church were dragging around their old philosophical assumptions, as if God had never touched their lives. They didn’t seem to know Jehovah at all. It was not a utilitarian question of coming to church to feel good about yourself. If that’s all you got from it, stay away. We are sacrificing this life, which is worth less than nothing, in favor of an eternal existence beyond words on the other side of the grave.

Posted in bible | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment

Random Photos 15

Posted on November 11, 2023 by ehurst

Just a few random shots from recent rides.

I recall seeing this place gutted a few years ago. I believe there was an outbuilding removed, because the yard wasn’t this large. Sometime since then, the place was rebuilt and is now occupied again. This is part of the old wealthy neighborhood just north of our Downtown OKC. Some of the biggest bigshots in city and state government live in this area in historic homes built when OKC was just a small town.

When we moved a couple of miles south, my habitual routes changed, of course. I used to run west on Reno Avenue to Vickie and then north to NE 4th Street to get to the link up of several bikeways. This is a picture of NE 4th looking westward toward Downtown OKC. I was standing on the bridge over Cherry Creek and the colors of the trees as they just began changing struck me. In the distance, the street turns sharp right to cross railroad tracks, so it appears to end on those tracks.

The prolonged lower water levels at Draper Lake have changed the flora significantly along the shore. There are new growth grasses and shrubs were previously it was bare shoreline. This is a cove along the bikeway route on the eastern shore of the lake. In years past, I could dismount here and walk down to the water’s edge. On this day, I would have had to wade through a lot of dry undergrowth to get even close to the water. So many things have changed due to low water levels. It’s not even the same lake.

The same Draper bikeway drops below the dam, coming from the eastern shore. The fall colors hit just over the past week in these parts. The dominance of scrub oak means the colors are muted, since they go from green almost directly to brown. There are several species of oak in Central Oklahoma, so there are slight variations in the brown, ranging from almost yellow to a deep purple-brown. However, the grass put on its winter coat last week, and very little green is left except in the wettest areas, or among the shorter grasses.

Posted in photography | Tagged , , | 2 Comments

What Humanity Deserves

Posted on November 7, 2023 by ehurst

Even folks who follow my writings struggle with getting a clear image in their minds: We are fallen creatures. In our present mortal form, the default divine justice is a short miserable life and a lingering painful death. That’s you and me and every human living on this planet. That some escape this is a miracle.

There are no innocent Israelis or Palestinians. Children are not born innocent; they are born with no moral development. The doctrine of Age of Accountability is a man made lie inserted into western Christian religion. We are born into this mortal world under a Curse of death.

Without any apology, I will stand with Scripture and assert that there some born Elect, and some born destined to eternity in the Lake of Fire. We cannot possibly comprehend how that came about, but it is the Word of God, and we are obliged to walk in it. Moral development does not change your eternal status. Furthermore, the same Scripture warns that some factors of our lives here are also under divine predestination. Some humans are chosen for a highly deprived existence, such as the Palestinians, some Third World nations, and people with significant disabilities. Others are granted more pleasant conditions. God chooses; you are responsible to Him for how you deal with His choices.

What moral development can change is how you deal with His choices. Within the range of what God grants to you, you can make the most of the life you have. How long you live, how prosperous you may be, and whether you are at peace with the end when it comes — relative outcomes are the variables. The Covenant of Christ is how you stake your claim in the relative blessings. The only use we have for this life is glorifying the Creator and seizing however much peace He offers us in our individual context.

Get this: While it may not be good human justice, that massive numbers of people (including children) are slaughtered is good divine justice. In just a couple of decades, most of the human race will be wiped out. It’s coming. What we face now in terms of political and economic collapse does not compare to the coming slaughter of humanity at the hands of God. Yes, it is grim and ugly, but that is our reality. God does not share our emotional reactions to the stupidity and evil we see in this world. He has His own way of looking at it, and our best hope is to seek His viewpoint.

Our best hope for dealing with the war in Israel is to stand back and let God do His work. I cannot help you turn off your emotional reactions. That’s between you and God, but I will not listen to any impassioned plea to make any activist noises in support of one thing or another. What I will do is condemn the common human response to what God has decreed and declared. You want change? Embrace Christ as the Living Law of God. Whatever change that brings is all you can possibly ask.

Now, if you really insist on doing more than your own individual redemption, then get busy organizing a covenant community. God will not sponsor your activities that take place outside of Biblical Law. You cannot claim to stand for the Lord without those boundaries. Once you have a valid covenant nation, then you can seek the Lord for various ways to protect and defend them. Neither Israel nor the Palestinians are under any valid Covenant covering. Their fates are not your concern.

Addenda: Are there Christians in Gaza? Maybe. I don’t have to accept anyone’s claim at face value. I am commanded to be discerning about that. The Parable of the Good Samaritan clarifies the issue of who is my “neighbor” — which is a Hebrew term for “covenant brother/sister”. If they act like Christians in accordance with Biblical Law, then they would pay more attention to what Jesus told His disciples to do regarding the coming Roman siege of Jerusalem. Genuine followers of Christ should have left Gaza already, or have already accepted their fate and are at peace with God. Christ flatly denied that human political considerations meant anything to His Kingdom. I will not make common cause with those who do not obey His Word.

Posted in sanity | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment