More on Character Is Holiness

Posted on April 16, 2011 by ehurst

Character: in typesetting, recognizable, different from other characters; the quality of having a unique presentation to the world; being different enough to distinguish from others of the same type.

This is a follow-up to Character Is Holiness.

In the comparison to the list offered by Roissy, it is the contrast which was the point of my post. A fundamental assumption in Christian Mysticism is we do not belong to this world and its nature. We are stuck in it, and seek every means to escape. Short of extinguishing our human existence, we pull away with every fiber of our being, distinguishing ourselves from the rest of humanity. This is the essence of having a witness, of participating in the revelation of God, because we show Him in our departure from the nature of this prison of the Fall.

So when it comes to romantic relationships, as with everything else, we are torn between the extremes. As we seek to draw closer to the Holy, and pull away from the profane, there is a tension which cannot be resolved so long as we have flesh. We compromise, not in the sense of surrender, but in accepting the limits of reality — reality as it is defined on this lower plane of existence. Review for a moment in your mind the Three Pillars: We don’t trust human nature; we live in a holy cynicism which we apply even to ourselves. It is a living tension we accept as our reality, and we each individually build our own answer to the drawing of the Holy Spirit.

In my list against Roissy’s, I am reacting to this world in that clinging to the Spirit Realm. I recognize the nature of how things work in this world, particularly in regards to human sexuality. I recognize how the behavior patter of an Alpha Male affects other people. As one who relies on my thespian talents a great deal, it’s simply a tool. Not so that I may manipulate, but in striving to gain a stronger testimony, speaking the language of those in my world. I have no intention of taking unfair advantage, no intention to deceive, but to clarify and reveal as much of the ultimate truth as any one in this world can. I want other people to know what they are getting, flaws and all, when they examine the package which is my presence in this world.

Yes, most assuredly it places a high demand on us to understand, yet deny the power of the way this world works. Spiritual men seeking the support in the mission and calling, which God grants through a spouse, will not accept what the Alpha Male seeks in women. Those kind of women dominate the landscape, and you have to know how they operate. We must understand how, even on this fallen plane, they deceive themselves in our wicked Western culture, and how they actually do respond. The Alpha Male model treats women as objects of self-fulfillment; the spiritual model makes them full equal partners in redemption. Women themselves are highly variable, drawn to a particular man in the given moment by some mixture of good and evil, and we are too often no better. In seeking spiritual manhood, we recognize many will be drawn for all the wrong reasons, and we cannot be distracted, even as we cannot surrender the character traits which make us interesting. Spiritual manhood does grab some of the Alpha Male character, because Alpha manhood is a portion of ultimate truth. Were it not so, Game would not work at all. Where it overlaps revelation, we embrace it.

Where there is conflict, we pull away. There are precious few women in this world who meet the divine standard. They do exist; I’m married to one. It is not a matter of perfection as we think of it on the human plane, and certainly not in terms of Western intellectual culture and Aristotelian epistemology (AKA absolutism), but a dynamic measure of spiritual fitness which prevents me having any genuine interest in looking for something more appealing. My spirit affirms I won’t find anyone more suitable on any terms. I can’t turn off my wiring and conditioning, any more than I turn things back on when they quit working (thanks to our modern world of arrogance in technology, which has created an environmental soup of pharmacological poisons which disrupt the normal biological processes). Nor can I prevent the natural signals which my body, of its own accord, sends to these lesser women. But I don’t allow that part of me to vote when it comes to making decisions. At whatever cost to my socio-sexual status, I fight Adam and keep my hammer and nails close at hand to put him back up on the Cross whenever he gets to vivid.

By contrasting with the aims and habits of Alpha as Alpha itself, we delegitimize Game even as we take advantage of it as a resource for understanding. We live in a fallen world, and are not permitted to ascertain from God who among those we encounter is spiritually alive. We don’t even know where they are in the moment, only what we are obliged to choose. Those who insist on operating in our presence below the Spirit Realm will be handled according to the Laws of God rather strictly, which means we use the skills of Game to accomplish the mission. For those who rise in the moment to the spiritual level, we operate along different lines.

We cannot afford to engage seriously any woman who isn’t seeking to escape Game and the spinning hamster wheel. (See Vox Day on the the spinning hamster wheel of female rationalization.) This includes our seeking to discern whether she has the potential to rise above Game far enough, often enough, to honestly be a potential helpmate in our mission and calling from God. We know an honest pursuit of holiness will draw a narrower audience of women, but not of itself narrow enough to be safe. Satan is much smarter than that. So while we seek to engage everyone, male and female, in our witness by our personality and character, we remain ever aware of the inescapable pitfalls of temptation.

We use the Laws, but are not bound by them. Our whole existence is a call to repentance, knowing precious few will respond at any given moment. It is entirely in the hands of Our Lord who responds and when. Nor are we permitted to discern whether that repentance is of a living spirit being born or simply a smitten conscience of fallen souls under the Laws. What we can learn to know is how God wants us to respond in the moment. Be exceedingly selective with women, because if you end up bound in a marriage with one who somehow remains under the Laws and requires a heavy use of Game, your mission will be hindered, perhaps even crippled. Worse, you may end up having to treat her as spiritually dead and be forced to separate. If you can train your mind to obey your spiritual leading, reflecting often on your convictions and keeping your will focused on the Spirit Realm, you will not be so easily deceived by false attention from false women.

Roissy provides a very great service in clarifying God’s Laws. Let’s be grateful for his gift as from God, making use of the things of this world as just another tool in our mission. We also set aside any tool when it isn’t appropriate for the job at hand, and discard it when it is worn out and no longer serves any purpose in our lives.

(I am praying some spiritual woman with a talent for writing can supplement my guidance for men with something equivalent for women. I’m don’t believe I possess sufficient expertise to comment at length on the other side.)

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Introducing MAFIAA Fire Firefox Addon

Posted on April 15, 2011 by ehurst

As noted here previously, I firmly believe under God’s Laws once any media, text or software has been rendered in a digital format, and become accessible in any way via the Internet, no copyright can apply. Yes, the digital world is different from all others, and most normal human laws do not apply. If they did, there would be no Internet. So when something can be copied electronically, permission should be assumed granted. There really is no way to stop it, and it’s frankly immoral to act as if it could be stopped.

Of course, where my tastes are concerned, just about everything people scream about and file lawsuits regarding “unauthorized copying” isn’t worth copying. I hate most movies and TV, and I can’t imagine needing any proprietary software so badly I would pirate it. If it’s not freely given, then there’s probably something nasty going on behind it in the first place. As always, you are free to steal my work here. All I can do is ask you nicely to give credit, but there really isn’t squat I can do about it, nor am I likely to do much more than send a sarcastic email. If you really like my stuff that much, chances are you are a decent person anyway.

So without further ado, let me present one more poke in the eye of the greedy jerks who try to bring meatspace rules into the virtual world of the Net: MAFIAA Fire for Firefox. The purpose of this addon is to frustrate RIAA, MPAA and ICE in the campaign to disconnect share sites via DNS. They don’t actually take the computers on which the sharing sites run; they just get a court order to force the folks running the DNS system to reroute all traffic going for a target site to some obscene page owned by the US government. What his addon does is keep track of such idiocy and catch your DNS request before it goes out on the wire. It reroutes those requests to addresses where you expect to find things. So if ICE confiscates the domain name DNS assignment for your favorite sharing site, by having MAFIAA Fire installed in Firefox, your request will still take you where you want go.

The justification is simple: ICE, as the servant of the evil guardians of unjust copyright, refuses to observe a single ethical duty to perform due diligence in checking whether the target site actually does anything wrong, refuses to obey constitutional limitations on them requiring due process, and generally is utterly unaccountable to those who pay their salaries. So by using this plugin, we restore some sense of balance of power. Be sure to read <a href=”http://mafiaafire.com/wall-of-text.php”>the FAQ</a>.

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Character Is Holiness

Posted on April 14, 2011 by ehurst

Oklahoma is where I was born, and where I live now. In the southwestern part of our state, the streams and rivers run clear; everywhere else they run shades of dark red mostly. In the southwest corner of our state, the primary geological feature is granite. Water running across granite carries away precious little. The granite has character, a solid presence which is unaltered by anything but vast quantities of time. In very many ways, character and convictions are inextricably linked. To have one is to have the other.

Let me reiterate how theology is a human attempt to define the ineffable. The word “define” means to set limits, but God knows no limits; we do. Thus, theology is not really the study of God, but the study of what we can say about God. The foundation of theology is not objective truth, but your response to God’s ineffable touch. Academic attempts to establish and enunciate an objective body of truth are mostly academic, and do not lend themselves well to reality. Reality is building from yourself.

I am not my favorite topic. I am not the center of the universe. God is my topic, and I am a prophet called of God. This is hardly the thing of which I dreamed; I never aspired to it. What I wanted in my youth was to be the bigshot pastor of a big church. I could do it, but not without compromising my character. My understanding of my calling was essentially correct, but my contextual understanding was wrong. I was not called to pastor, but to manage, to be an elder. That’s what most pastors do these days, and precious few actually carry out the shepherding of souls very well. As an elder I teach a great deal, but I don’t do much shepherding. On the other hand, I am called to prophesy.

This prophet’s focus is on the meaning of God’s Laws. Our modern Western society is utterly foreign to God’s Laws, and they to it. The West will never be reformed; it will only be destroyed, and as a prophet I warn you that will come soon. I am a radical. Let’s get back to the roots and build a fresh society, and a fresh religion. Let’s build a living, breathing theology by first casting aside the blindness of Western Civilization. We need to observe how things actually work in the real world, and decide how we will respond based on God’s revelation.

It can be any academic topic you choose. Today I’ll pick something we can run through the filters of God’s Laws and create a theology of something. I’ll pick as an example The 16 Commandments of Poon. Roissy’s motives in writing this list are quite different from mine, but the basic facts of human nature are the same. I have no interest in being an Alpha Male, nor the rewards of it. I’m not trying to cultivate the desire of women nor the admiration of men. I’m trying to make my God the center of attention. I want to see men strong enough to serve God. My own list I’ll call the Principles of Spiritual Manhood, and I don’t need 16 points to cover it.

Our assumptions about romance is the part it plays in the life of someone with a mission from God. Some of these are a reaction to Roissy’s list, and some affirm parts of it. Ordinary women and their charms aren’t worth the time or trouble. For a man with a divine mission, finding one who is worth it requires not catering to the herd.

1. You’ve got better things to do than chase women. Make them chase you. Any woman worth having will regard you as her mission. She’ll be ready and willing to sacrifice everything else women typically want in this world to be with you. Otherwise, you can live without her.

2. Be faithful, but not fawning. A woman who needs to feel jealous in order to stay interested is not worth having. Let her see you enjoy the attention of other women, but feel secure that it means nothing in the long run, that you are too cynical about anyone trying to suck up to you.

3. Let her have her way when it doesn’t impact the mission. A woman will always be a woman, and you will always be a man. You can afford be very generous because all those small things that tickle her allow her to exercise her own character.

4. You don’t have all the answers, nor need to have them. When the time comes, you’ll know what you have to do. Don’t let her press you to commit to some path you aren’t sure will enhance your mission. Stay away from making promises which aren’t derived from your faith. Let things ride, not because you’re too lazy to think it through, but because there’s not enough data. Be honest; hide nothing which affects her, including variables of which you are aware. If she needs silly head games, she isn’t worth the trouble.

5. You may be awesome, but you are not perfect. When you make a mistake, own it and clean it the mess. Don’t fall all over yourself trying to make it all better, nor be grouchy about it. Never let your mistakes take on any emotional significance. Laugh at yourself, then leave it behind you.

6. Connect with her emotions. Roissy gets this one right (his number IX).

7. Physical beauty is a liar. Never evaluate any woman based on her looks and your hormonal response. That part of you should have no vote, no voice in any decision. You can’t afford the moral costs of handling this Roissy’s way, so just teach yourself to trash the entire concept.

8. Faith is the victory. You have a mission from God; if that does not provide enough confidence, you aren’t a man yet. Faith is not rational; otherwise it would not be faith. You win every time because you are committed, and your own feeble abilities were never the question in the first place. It’s all about God’s power. Whether it be to make things work or to make you bear up under failure, it’s still more power than you deserve to taste.

9. Don’t get distracted. Lots of things will tug at your human desires, tastes, interests, etc. Indulge them when they are not a violation of your convictions and your mission. God lets us play with toys, but don’t ever forget what your calling is. The same goes for when she is having some insecurities. Address the insecurity, not the way in which she communicates it.

10. Celebrate like it’s time for Jesus to come back. Making love is a form or celebration, celebrating the vast riches of God who granted such a full measure of fellowship and oneness on this earth. But this is simply an extension of the basic principle that joy knows no bounds, and there very well may be no tomorrow, so when your spirit tells your mind it’s time to make merry, do so with appropriate abandon. Resources are provided by God to be used, so if celebrating is right, then do it right.

(This post in part one of two, and continues here.)

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The Limits of Conspiracy and Oppression

Posted on April 13, 2011 by ehurst

The basic theory of conspiracy is the most accurate view of history, but we need to realize conspiracies do have limits.

Every government is a conspiracy, unless it arises organically from the extended family setting. Good moral people do not want to govern, but good tribal elders will face the responsibility of caring for their families. Every other form of government has always been the result of a conspiracy to rule. Our current government is a conspiracy to keep the system in place, when any honest examination shows it is absolutely contrary to our real interests. Telling us honestly what is going on and why certain decisions are made would be the last thing we should expect from government, because if we knew, as one of them admitted not so long ago, we would be stringing them up from the nearest lampposts all over Washington DC.

Most conspiracy theories have an element of truth. However, the hucksters who deal in them and try to make their living discussing them are seldom going to offer an honest appraisal. There’s no money in that. They’ll hype it to the max, adding extraneous features and a depth of evil intent which is frankly not there in most cases.

For example, we now know the folks panicking about the dire possibilities regarding the nuclear generators in Fukushima were quite accurate. The Powers That Be (TPTB) have recently admitted this is a level 7 nuclear disaster, and we will all share here in the Northern Hemisphere a significant increase in exposure to radioactive particles. What they won’t admit openly is there is no safe level of exposure — that’s a fact. Any at all is destructive, regardless whether you detect any symptoms. Atomic particles and gamma rays do kill cells and cause mutations. No debate. What we can’t know is just how bad it will be at various dosage levels for each individual, and what future maladies can be traced to this mess.

Meanwhile, the greedy conspirators who contracted for the construction of these reactors most certainly did cut corners to keep profits high as possible. They always go with the lowest bidder, not the bidder with the best record of doing it right. Well the good folks at TEPCO who own those reactors have decided they are not going to entomb in concrete those hopeless reactors until they can salvage at least some of that expensive fuel. They aren’t in a hurry to do the right thing and stop this massive spew of radioactive particles, and are lying about why. And our own government is supporting their false story. It’s a conspiracy, not because there is some alleged Illuminati planning to decimate the human population of the earth, at least not in this fashion. This nasty stuff is falling on their houses, too. It’s a conspiracy of greed, because they honestly believe it’s not all that harmful.

It’s the same conspiracy of greed which allows BP to go back and try again in that same area of the Gulf of Mexico. It will be the same conspiracy which will see them cutting corners again and again. They’ll push through their next project with the same profligate lying and bribery to the regulators, bluntly refusing to do what’s right, because their’s more profit in doing it wrong. They had a major disaster, made a huge mess, and it would appear the mess has not yet been actually stopped. The holes they made seem to be still leaking right now. But they’ll throw in the same worn out equipment without proper overhaul and maintenance, refuse to take the orthodox safety procedures, which are already too lax, and simply fill yet more of the oceans with raw petroleum. It’s not enough the fisheries are all gone, and the very real climate change from the disturbance in the Gulf Stream, because they got away with it. No, they aren’t actively trying to kill us all off and poison everyone on the Gulf Coast, they just don’t care. It doesn’t hurt them, so why should they worry?

The wealthy elite of the world are unaccountable, but only a very tiny minority of them are actually interested in cutting back the world’s population by some 90%. They don’t care how it happens, but they don’t want to have an ecological disaster on their hands, either. They might be willing in some way to throw some of these lower ranking greedy folks under the bus to teach the rest a lesson, but the truly evil conspirators don’t currently steer such things so closely. While they do keep a tight rein on some things, I don’t think TEPCO and BP planned these disasters at the behest of their overlords. They just don’t care, so sloppy results are simply the risk of daring great profits.

No, the Illuminati are more directly interested in things like small arms control, Agenda 21, Codex Alimentarius, global central banking, international trade treaties, etc. They do sponsor the CIA’s fostering of the fake Arab uprisings going on right now, but aren’t directly involved too much because the CIA has always served them well. Yes, all of those conspiracies are true, but let’s understand there are some limits to just how much the Illuminati can do at one time. Their plans have been published if you are really interested, and nuclear disasters or vast oil spills aren’t on the agenda. Such things are just the messy results they expect from their lackeys.

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The Romance That Never Was

Posted on April 12, 2011 by ehurst

The old adage of “know thyself” has a particular meaning in Romance.

I regard my marriage as unusually successful, in the sense we are a perfect match. Aside from it being a miracle of God in the first place stumbling across such an incredible woman, but it was a miracle I recognized her for the treasure she was and is. It was my good fortune to have received a good bit of training in offering marriage counseling before I got married myself. I took my own advice, and chose someone who really does understand what makes me tick, who is as committed to my faith and calling as I am, and has always backed me in my wildest schemes to engage that calling. She still does.

Very near to me is someone whose marriage recently crumbled. The fellow is some grade of psychopath. It’s not as if he simply isn’t in touch with his own feelings; aside from the most primitive fear, anger and appetites, he really doesn’t have too much feeling at all. And he cannot imagine caring about anyone else’s feelings. Not particularly cruel, but simply not equipped. Since he’s not an evil genius as well, he has turned out to be mostly harmless to the world around him. He can be charming when it matters to him, so he’s aware others do have feelings, and is fairly crafty at manipulating people, but he’d rather not deal with them too much. All he ever really wanted was his wife as his slave.

The lady in question married too early and never knew herself. When his treatment made her angry, she refused to acknowledge it because it would have required acting, and she simply had no capacity to act on it. She is by far more intelligent than her ex-husband, but until the kids were gone, she never had much time to capitalize on it. Once she got some professional training, and began working and getting a big paycheck, she slowly realized her dependence on him was bogus. She knew intellectually she was simply enabling what amounted to his addiction to total control, but had gone too far too long to simply walk away.

So while he spent his whole adult life keeping her under his thumb, constantly crushing her feelings in the name of being honest, he would never allow her to have friends or develop any form of independence. When that independence developed on its own, the trouble began stirring. He felt the control slipping from his fingers and, in essence, panicked. He pushed one time too many, too far, and it all came apart. She didn’t know what she wanted to do, but she wasn’t going to live with him any more.

It’s interesting is to watch as she discovers who she is. Not knowing was what kept her in a very bad marriage all these years. To be honest, their children are surprised she waited so long. They all fled as early as they could, and he was happy with that. Meanwhile, he still has no clue. He still believes it will blow over and she will return to her chains. As far as he was concerned, when he was happy, she was, too. It’s a form of projection.

This is what happens when people start off on the wrong foot. Granted, some never do realize they really don’t know themselves, and pass on from this life having never seen. But those who do often break away from a lot of things which probably didn’t belong, things inconsistent with their convictions as they discover them.

For those who want to shake a finger about Christians and divorce, let’s review things. A psychopath by definition is not spiritually awakened. When someone is abusive and cannot even bother to feel remorse for the harm they do, you are not required to regard them as a fellow Christian. At some point, putting up with the emotional and physical abuse can be a threat to the Kingdom itself. I have always proclaimed: You individually before the Lord must decide when His calling requires of you to close the door on someone because their proximity damages your faith and testimony. If we can ostracize those who drift so far as to blaspheme, we can also ostracize those who actively interfere with and prohibit walking in faith.

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Amateur Carpentry, Professional Humanity

Posted on April 11, 2011 by ehurst

About twenty years ago my father-in-law asked my help building a porch for his house. I didn’t agree with the design, nor the method of assembly, but out of respect I carried out his wishes. Because it was not treated lumber, nor properly painted lumber, it began to rot very quickly. Of course, most of that rot was not visible in normal use.

Worse, someone else came along behind me and added a roof. They stood heavy square posts atop the light decking to do this. So as the rot weakened the thing, it began to sag under the heavy weight. I did my best to brace it up a couple of different times. Not long ago, most of this thing collapsed, and it was a wonder no one was hurt.

So we tore it apart and stacked what appeared salvageable. Today my son and I began to tear down what was left of this embarrassing mess and try to rebuild. By no means am I an accomplished carpenter. But after five and half decades of living and messing around with various building projects, I’ve gotten a good feel for how much wood it takes to hold up human traffic for certain uses. I’ve built several porches by myself since then. Some were proud moments, and others were dismantled and best forgotten. That is, except the lessons learned.

Because I’m not a real carpenter, it’s a consuming puzzle for me to work from the still usable boards to build a much smaller porch, but better. I’m not one to pile on heavy stacks of all squared framing, but I use angled braces a great deal, in part because I know how to cut them to fit. I know how they work and why.

It reminds me once again of two things. One, our Western culture really discourages multiple competencies. Think about all the regulations which confine the average citizen, preventing them doing their own work, from making their own choices. Were this porch being added back on in a community with heavy permitting policies, there would be no porch at all. I’ve also put some steel roofing on this house, dug a trench for a new gas line, and a few other projects here and there, since my father-in-law died shortly after the original porch was put up. It was the best he knew for the resources at hand. The replacement will be the same thing, though quite different in design.

Two, we keep forgetting true competence is not what you know, but what you can learn. That is, competence as a human in general, not some arbitrary standard of competence in stasis. I wonder if a journeyman carpenter would bother with the salvaged lumber, instead of demanding all new materials or refuse to get involved. Nobody connected with this project can afford new lumber. We can barely afford the decking screws and a few nails. But we have time and we have all learned something useful here and there over the years. When we get through, we will have learned yet a few more tricks, besides which the porch may be more stable than it ever was. We’ll see, and from this we’ll learn, because I’m going to try some new ideas.

The porch itself is of only passing importance. It’s a need arising from, of all things, house insurance standards. Without a better porch, the house in uninsured, and this cascades into a raft of other problems for the residents. I might smile with pride, shared with my son, for an hour or so. Then we’ll both move on to other things which life demands of us. We’ll have just a few more bits of experience we can add to our repertoire, and keep looking for ways to make life more tolerable. That’s the highest calling to which any human can aspire.

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The Senseless Debate

Posted on April 10, 2011 by ehurst

The ongoing debate between atheists and Christians is really a waste of time for Christians.

Perhaps I should refine that some. There are all sorts of issues being debated. For example, the matter of whether it is possible to have a moral code without religion. This is a good fundamental question, because it stands on the different assumptions which are central to the debate. The problem is this: By choosing to use Aristotelian logic, Christians have already ceded the field of battle to the atheists.

Granted, it’s easy enough to shoot down the notion of morality sourced in human reason alone, but it depends on the definition of morality. If moral goodness is nothing more than utilitarian seeking of the maximum benefit for the majority of humanity at any given time, then we are left arguing over what benefits humanity. In other words, we keep chasing new chimeras. Now, we acknowledge obeying the moral laws of God will bring to humanity the greatest good possible for the greatest number, but that’s a poor motivation. The whole point of asserting there is a God who revealed His Laws, His standards of morality, is not to simply seek human welfare. Human welfare is simply a by-product.

The point of pursuing morality is it is good and right by definition, regardless of the by-products. The problem you run into is when you approach that from Aristotle’s epistemology, you can’t breathe life into it; you end up with Law, and there’s no room for grace. Without grace, there is no Christ, no Christian faith.

Nor can this be a question of whether this or that representative of Christian faith is actually a genuine born-again Christian. No one outside that person can determine such a thing, so the question is hypothetical when applied to specific individuals. It will forever remain academic and theoretical. Grace is not theoretical, but is a living spiritual principle beyond explanation.

Surely no atheist can claim to be born-again in that sense. That’s the whole point. If an individual does not have a living spirit as host to the Holy Spirit, it won’t matter what is logical. You can’t prove something for which they lack all capacity for interest. Professing Christians at least have the presumption of interest. A genuine Christian has no mere interest, but an inescapable drive to extinguish their human self in favor of the spiritual self. And once again, it matters not at all what is logical.

Christians don’t embrace morality because it gets them to Heaven; they embrace morality because it owns them and they can’t walk away from it. Atheists don’t embrace Christian morality because it doesn’t exist for them. Any morality they have will forever be derived from that which has been revealed, even as they refuse to accept that fact. Even the most horrific utilitarian lack of morality is itself a reaction to the moral nature of the world. Asserting that as a Christian comes across as smart-Aleck circular reasoning to them.

I don’t bother reasoning with atheists about faith because faith is not reasonable. If it were reasonable, it would not be faith. It’s a call to divorce the self from this life, to escape with all speed this awful fallen plane of sorrow, not try to make it somehow better. Of course, by paradox, such an effort to flee this world does make it better, because I’m drawn inevitably to the sort of sacrificial love and caring which makes life better for all. Without that consuming desire to escape this prison, I can’t possibly have power to care about anyone but myself.

Because I love the atheist too, I don’t harass him with something he can’t accept regardless of how it’s offered. Instead, I offer something which is within his human grasp. There is absolutely nothing else I can do for him.

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The Political Lesson from the Tower of Babel

Posted on April 9, 2011 by ehurst

Hebrew narrative was designed to offer one central theme, but provided enough threads to apply to several different areas. So while we draw spiritual and religious lessons from the Tower of Babel narrative, there is a distinct political message, too:

Centralized power and wealth is inherently sinful.

Nimrod was building a giant ziggurat. The language used to divulge his purpose was symbolic; a tower to touch the heavens was not a literal attempt to climb into the sky, but to obtain guidance from the heavens. Doing this required an astrological observatory to obtain precise measurements of the heavenly bodies and their movements. This is no great mystery; astrology was born in that part of the world.

The secondary objective was to enslave the entire human population at that time under this religious-political regime with Nimrod at the helm. Having a single religion, with a single grand aspiration, would help to political unify his domain.

When God announced His dissatisfaction with things, we have to keep in mind there is one glaring sin at work here: He had commanded humanity to disperse and populate the whole world. Huddling on the Plain of Shinar around this ziggurat was not fulfilling that command. Despite the apparent meaning of various English translations, the tone of God’s concern was that they had broken His command, had committed themselves to a path from which there was no return, that there would be nothing to bring them back from yet another self-damnation. This, right after the Flood, which had been an attempt to clean the slate and start over with a very simple setting.

His solution is a glaring light shined upon the nature of their sin. God confused their language, but the word translated “language” carries far more heft than simply how people talk. It’s a word for all the things which identify a group of people in ancient times — language, culture, folkways, customs, means of living, etc. The whole point was decentralizing people into tribes. The primary threat was the centralizing of masses of humanity.

What kind of man was Nimrod to so desire this much power? He was a hunter, one who relentlessly pursued his quarry. This was not the fit image of a man ruling his people. The good leader was a shepherd, the model Jesus chose for Himself, the Good Shepherd. A hunter and warrior was trouble. To make the most of his ambitions, Nimrod needed every body he could get. That astrology temple would be the means to tie them together in one vast nation. It didn’t matter what Nimrod planned to do with such a powerful nation; just having one great kingdom was itself a sin.

God has shown His displeasure with that model of life. His Law of Noah cannot be fulfilled by a great, centrally ruled nation. It can only be accomplished when everyone is broke down into little tribes, scattered and divided. This prevents tyranny and oppression. You’ve seen the symbol of the Roman fasces — the bundle of sticks with the ax. It symbolizes strength in unity, but what sort of strength? That of the rod for beating, and the ax for execution. It’s the unity of domination and cruelty.

Unity under any human ability or talent is inherently evil. God has set the pattern, and will not ever grant long life to any single human government. They will always be torn apart one way or another. Simply trying to find a way past that tendency and seeking political unity is evil by definition. It’s not necessary to have war simply because you aren’t all united. There can be peace in division, so long as folks mind their own business. With large concentrations of wealth and power — they are inseparable — you cannot possibly have peace. That’s a part of the lesson of Babel.

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Trail: Last Day of the Season

Posted on April 8, 2011 by ehurst

The trail is closed for the summer.

Having finally cleared the old trail and added several new sections to replace what the firefighting bulldozer destroyed, there are only two issues which limit the use of it. The first I have already grumbled about: ticks and chiggers. They are inactive below 60° F. Given I still have my mountain bike, it was a simple matter of riding, but not walking, since even the most vigorous biting insects can’t jump on a moving bicycle.

But Oklahoma is home to a very vigorous natural breed of poison ivy. Indeed, it’s favored habitat is shaded sandy forest areas. That describes my trail. They, too, are restrained by ambient air temperatures below 60° F, but it’s been above that at night for a few days now. It takes only a small amount of residual moisture from morning dew and the like to feed this nasty stuff. Oh, and it wasn’t harmed by the fire, since the roots are just deep enough to escape the heat.

This morning I was contemplating taking two laps on my mountain bike, but after seeing the sprouts almost pedal height already, I got off the route before completing the first lap. And the stuff is thick in some areas. It’s one thing to wear protective shoes and pants, but you still have to handle those when you remove them and wash them. I’m clumsy enough to make that a risky proposition. Too risky. Barring some unforeseen interposing event, game over.

The trail is closed for the summer.

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Mind Trap

Posted on April 7, 2011 by ehurst

A mind like a steel trap is not ruled by the Spirit.

Recall the principle of Spiritual Anthropology. For those whose spirits are alive, it is utterly necessary those spirits rule the mind. While it is possible for a sharp mind to grasp certain moral principles from the Law of Noah, just as sharp minds were capable of grasping the intricacies of the Law of Moses, there remains always a frontier of unknowns which simply cannot be discerned on the level of human intelligence.

There have always been wise men capable of thinking through the moral implications of choices within a moral context. They were wise because they had an instinct for spiritual reasoning, and they seldom reacted instantaneously, except to things which had established moral precedent. They absorbed these precedents from revelation, typically of prophets. God has always granted prophets when the people were willing to hear, and plenty of times when they weren’t willing to hear. That’s because the moral imperative has always been His initiative.

God decides what is right, even if we can’t fathom the logic of it. He also holds the prerogative on timing. His is the ultimate plan of events within this realm, and what was right yesterday, for all the similarity in context, could be wrong tomorrow. This is why prophets are a matter of Laws, not necessarily spirit. This is why Balaam could speak the revelation of God without any particular inclination to obey God. Indeed, he was inclined by the big paycheck offered by Balak to do what he could to curse Israel. While he failed, he did possess enough moral understanding to offer Balak a sneaky way of getting Israel to curse herself by breaking the Covenant. Balaam knew the Law of Noah, and it applied despite his lack of education in the specifics of the Law of Moses, which was only freshly written. He knew enough to warn Balak he could not tell God what to do.

Things have not changed that much since then. Our modern Western obsession with human talent and human intelligence is the primary reason we can’t accomplish much, despite the wonders of our vast knowledge of things. We have no wisdom. We don’t even embrace what little we could know of revealed moral wisdom because we have denied the existence of the spirit. It makes no difference we can talk about the spirit academically if we make no allowance for its power. We lack the insight to accomplish even the evil intentions of Balaam and Balak, because we deny the nature of the moral Laws, deny the very nature of the Fall.

The mind of man is fallen. The primary evidence of this is our sense of time. The Spirit Realm does not suffer a time sense; God Himself says He sees things from outside the time sense which dominates our existence. The very nature of the word “eternity” indicates an existence in which time is not a factor. That we cannot really grasp that is all the proof we need that man’s mind cannot breach the barrier, cannot grasp things beyond this fallen realm. So while we debate the virtues of a high or low time preference, moral reasoning pays no heed to such things. The proper spiritual frame of reference is not measuring time, quantifying it and remaining sensitive to synchronicity of events, but is aimed more at when the time is ripe. Ripeness of time is a revealed factor; you know it when it arrives, but not before. The spirit can know, but not the mind.

That we would admire a quick mind shows our orientation away from the Spirit. Prophets faced with a query for the Lord did not always know how long it would take to get the answer. Wise sages of the ancient times did not hurry such things, because they wanted to turn them over in their minds and allow their spirits to speak. We have dismissed this mighty lore of understanding by our intellectual biases. There is no mystery here, except in the sense a mind which is determined to rule cannot hear from the Spirit, who speaks only to spirits. A word from God will never, ever come directly to the intelligence, but only to the spirit.

The mind was granted by God to serve the Spirit-spirit nexus, not to rule the life.

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