Opus 2024-407: Heresy Is Overvalued

I often make jocular comments about being a heretic.  Being a true heretic is not a laughing matter.  In areas of faith, being a real heretic can influence your eternal destiny.  A real heretic will be rejected by God, mainly because he has rejected God.  The key concept there is “by God.”

Heresy is usually defined by people with a specific theological perspective.  Thus Calvin would consider Wesley a heretic if he were speaking honestly.  And the same would go the other way.  As a Calvinist I once had a great conversation with said to me, “There is only one truth, and we both can’t be right.”  He meant it in a very loving way.  He was truly regretful that I was on my way to hell because I did not agree with his theology.  I can live with that.

The big question is what does God consider heresy.  I think God has a lot more leeway than we want to acknowledge.  One point that keeps coming up in my mind is how Christians define the word, “grace” and how, having read the apostle Paul, they reject any kind of effort on the part of human beings.  Personally, I think they are the ones who are being heretical, because they reject so much of what the Bible teaches.  The entire Old Testament is loaded with a sense of responsibility placed on individuals to be righteous instead of wicked.

At the same time the Old Testament does not say that your salvation is earned by your efforts.  It is loaded with the knowledge that God is the ultimate source of salvation, and He is the one who awards salvation.  The Old Testament is full of terms like faith, trust, loving kindness, mercy, and does not even begin to say you earn your own salvation.

And yet people reject the concept of law.  In so doing, they risk the dangers of what is called antinomianism.  Antinomianism rejects any kind of standard behavior that is expected of believers.  Antinomianism says that you can go out and live in blatant sin just as long as you are one of the elect, and it makes no difference.  They will say that’s not what they say, but it certainly sounds like it to me.

At the same time most of them tend to live very righteous lives.  I’ve never figured out why.  But I accept it.  I think in their hearts they agree with me even if they can’t admit it in public.

They don’t want to be called heretics.

homo unius libri

Opus 2024-406: The Plural of Impressed

Most people have heard the saying, “Fool me once shame on you, fool me twice shame on me.”  It certainly applies to the nomination of candidates for Attorney General.  We knew that the change we want is going to be hard to bring about.  What we couldn’t have been sure of was how well prepared Donald Trump is for the battle this time around.

I was impressed with his first choice.  Matt Gaetz gets my vote.  I liked what he had to say, and who he was.  The fact that I liked him is probably consistent with how widely opposed he was by Rinos and the deep state Talking Heads.  I was impressed even more at the way in which he stepped aside.  Such dignity.  Such class.  Such statesmanship.  There was no whining, no complaining, no woe is me.  There was nothing but a mature concession that the game was stacked against him and although he thought he might win in the long run, the Trump mandate didn’t have the time to wait.  And then on top of that he heaped praise upon the person that Trump picked to replace him.

I was impressed.

I was also impressed with the fact that Donald Trump has done his homework.  He didn’t walk into this all story-eyed and idealistic.  He knew what he was up against.  He was prepared.  Almost immediately he had a second choice ready to go and from everything I’m hearing she is a very impressive candidate.  So it is all very impressive.  We can have hope that things will work out as we watch the process unfold.  Trump knows who he’s dealing with.  He seems to be ready.  I would guess that he has three or four levels of candidates ready to go in case the GOP would continue to block him.  Of course, that could never happen.  But I think this time he’s ready anyway.

I wait to be impressed again.

homo unius libri

Opus 2024-405: Dark Thoughts: Deaf Thoughts

As I sat in the dark, enjoying the morning, my tranquility was suddenly disrupted by the noise of a large motorcycle accelerating up a hill nearby.  It seems that there are certain people who love noisy engines.  I know it’s a love affair, because there are some cars that go by and the only reason I know they’re going by is the noise of their tires on the pavement.  Those people don’t love noise or need to be noticed.  The bikers want you to hear every piston, going up and down.  It’s either because they can’t afford a muffler or they like the racket.

I’m sure that most of these are men.  The mystery to me is whether they still have decent hearing or whether they have destroyed it by their love of the throttle.  I have been in cars where the driver felt the need to put it to the floor and throw my head against the back of the seat.  Often that is accompanied by a very satisfying roar.  At least it’s satisfying to the driver.  I am not impressed by either one.

We all know about how people who are into rock music played by loudspeakers and overwhelming their eardrums.  Sometimes this is multiplied by headphones.  These people tend to be deaf.  Younger people tend to be having problems with her hearing.  I’m thinking it may be also true I have guys that like cars with cut outs or broken mufflers.

No, I don’t want a law passed.  I think there are already laws passed about noise.  I am not sure I want them enforced for the occasional cycle or muscle car.  I can put up with a little piston serenade in order to keep the government out of my life.  We have enough laws.

homo unius libri

Opus 2024-404: Ranking

As I get more and more forgetful, I am wondering which is worse.  Is it worse to know you forgot something and struggle to remember, or to not know that you forgot?

In any case a sense of humor is vital to old age and being around old agers.  I can accept that whether you laugh with me or at me.  The chances are I won’t remember either way so I won’t be able to hold it against you.

Make sure you set a good example in dealing with the elderly because your grandchildren are watching and learning for when they are in the driver’s seat.

homo unius libri

Opus 2024-403: The Down Side of Thanksgiving

I can share this now that the crisis is past.  At least it is past in my house.  One of the difficult conventions of Thanksgiving Day is the inviolate rule that Christmas music is toxic before dinner is over.  I know that seems like a small thing but so is a virus.

I found myself getting ready.  I had the MP3 player ready for the car.  I had a flash drive ready for my stereo.  I had a pile of CDs I picked up at thrift stores this year ready to be screened.  I am ready.  The problem is I find myself humming when I should be stoic.  For instance, I noticed that the first song on my MP3 is “The First Noel”.  I caught myself humming the melody.  I hope I caught myself in time to keep the curse from settling.

As you read this, assuming you did not just go take a nap after dinner, the crisis is over in my family.  Now begins a month of uplifting glorying in the Incarnation.  

It is worth the wait.

homo unius libri

Opus 2024-402: Menu Math

When does 2+2 not equal four?  When you’re cooking.  Higher math can be confusing when we start talking about abstract concepts.  At the same time there are common examples that will show us why simple math does not always become simple reality.

This morning as I was preparing my oatmeal, I decided to go with honey and cinnamon.  Usually I will either go with just honey or I will go with artificial sweeteners and cinnamon.  I thought I would go with both.  I was hoping that their results would be twice as good.  In the amount that I used, it really didn’t up the ante.

There’s a certain level of enjoyment from honey.  There’s also a certain level of enjoyment from the cinnamon.  When I combined them, the enjoyment level was no higher.  I was assuming that I had two units of honey and was adding two units of cinnamon thus the results would come out as four levels of enjoyment.  In my dreams maybe.  It was still two levels. It wasn’t even three.  It was simply two.  So when I added 2+2 it did not increase in value.

I don’t know how that crosses over into physics, higher math, biology or any other discipline, but it seems pretty clear in preparing oatmeal.

So when someone tells you that 2+2 does not equal 4, they may have a reason why they’re saying that.  Of course it could be just that they are somehow off balance and trying to pull you off balance also.  It’s really up to you to make that decision.

homo unius libri

Opus 2024-401: Know You’re Informants

I don’t know if you realize it but you probably have at least one spy from the alphabet agencies in contact with you on a daily basis.  I think of the zoom group that I’m in.  There are about 11 guys.  It would not surprise me to find out that one is turning in reports on our conversations.  I would venture to guess that there are people who live in my neighborhood who might not only just be informants but might actually be full-time employees of one of the deep state organizations.  I don’t know and I probably never will know.

But while I may never know who they are I do acknowledge they exist and that they are a real potential threat to my liberty.  As Jesus said,

(Mat 10:16 KJV)  Behold, I send you forth as sheep in the midst of wolves: be ye therefore wise as serpents, and harmless as doves.

You could start practicing in front of the mirror, “Who me?”

homo unius libri

Opus 2024-400: Speculation

Should we spend our time speculating instead of investigating that which we know?  I come to this because I was asking myself how much Israel knew about the things of God when they were led out of Egypt.  We don’t have any reference in the Bible itself to written documents that they possessed.  It’s possible there was some oral tradition.  But we don’t know about any writing.  To my knowledge we also don’t have any non-biblical evidence about the story of creation, Abraham or Noah being written out before the time of Moses.

Speculation is fun.  Speculation can be a healthy mental exercise.  Speculation on certain things is a total waste of time.  I can speculate on what the Jews had, what they knew, what that meant, and so forth.  The problem is, I very quickly begin to wander out into the wilderness of ideas and my ideas are no better than yours.

Now take that into other areas of study.  I tend to think in Bible and theology.  Your area of great interest might be in science or perhaps medicine.  You might be an engineer dreaming about that next building you’re putting up.  When we move into the area of speculation, we open up doors that are possibly meant to be closed.  Sometimes you can try your ideas out by experiments and either verify them or not.  That’s the point of the scientific method.  We try things out we experiment

For instance, let’s say you are an engineer and you are trying out a new concept in building bridges.  Think of the people who first tried suspension bridges.  Honestly, I don’t know what I’m talking about here but I think there are probably places where the engineers have to speculate on what will work and what won’t work.  They don’t go out and build a multi-million dollar structure based on speculation though.  They build a smaller version or they do tests.  And that way they gather data to either verify or deny what they are speculating on.  In that case it might be useful.

As I read the investigations going on into life and where life comes from with a scientific perspective, I find that there is less and less real science going on and more and more speculation.  Part of the problem is that the biologist are getting so deep into the structure of the cell and the parts that make up life that they can’t run any experiments anymore.  Everything has to be theory.  And there are so many egos involved that what experiments might be run are not run.

Then you have the areas of the pseudoscience.  Take any word and put science after it and the scholars like to consider themselves deep thinkers with the scientific method behind them.  Take social science.  I have a credential to teach social science.  That’s pretty meaningless.  It includes history, which I accept, and economics which I have never studied formally.  I am guessing there are a long list of things that I was allowed to teach because I had a social science credential.

Some areas such as philosophy are totally speculative.  There is no way that you can know which one is actually right and in reality most of them are probably wrong.

So let your imagination go wild.  Speculate.  If people don’t laugh too hard, share.

homo unius libri

Opus 2024-399: Unraveling Mysteries

A couple of years ago we had an election for our representative to the state assembly.  I didn’t know much about either candidate.  I found the mailers they sent out to us relatively useful because I read them with discernment.  One candidate made encouraging noises, and I liked what she had to say.  The other candidate seem to be saying the right things, but there was an element of discordance in what he wrote.  As I read what he had to say and considered it based on what I knew, I realize that he was lying through his teeth.  That helped me decide who had the high ground and how to vote.

I relay that because I am in the process of examining a new translation of the Quran.  In that Koran’s introduction, I find a number of statements that sounds really good, but they are totally inconsistent with the introduction to another translation of the Koran.  They also fly in the face of what other authorities have said.  What does one do?

One of the things I look for is statements that defy logic and go against everything I know about human nature and history.  When a writer makes frequent use of “never” and “always” I tend to scratch my head and say, “Really?”  The same goes for “all” and “none.”  Extreme claims that are easily refuted are a red flag.  Take this from the introduction,

“It claims to be the mother and source of all other languages.” QIII, p. 3a

There is a certain attitude of certainty that comes through with certain people.  It is not exclusive to Muslims.  I have a friend who is a King James Only man and one of the books he gave me to try to indoctrinate me has this referring to the King James Bible on the back of the title page,

“God’s perfectly preserved word.”

My point here is not spiritual.  It is logical.  Extreme claims are usually in need of some qualifications.  Our responsibility is to keep our minds plugged in and active.  With a little bit of thinking we can cut through a lot of nonsense.

QIII, The Holy Qur’an, Based on explanation of ‘Allamah Nooruddin, First paperback edition, 2010.

McLean, Terence D.  Basics of Mid Acts Dispensationalism.  Alpha, Ohio:  Discerning the Times Publishing Co., Inc., 2006.

homo unius libri

Opus 2024-398: Living Difference

One of the first things that came to my mind this morning as I was beginning worship was the personhood of God and how He seems to be different to us Bible believing Protestants.  When I consider certain denominations and other religions, I think of how God is called immutable in a way which goes against how He expresses Himself in the Bible.

God is a person Who becomes our ultimate source and resource.  He expresses Himself through the Holy Spirit and through the written word.  Bible believing Christians do not have a gurus who tell them what to do.  They may have pastors, scholars, friends, and other people who talk to them, but everything they say is to be evaluated it in the light of scripture.  The advice may vary but the actual words don’t change.  I think of how Islam has all these mullahs who can issue fatwas which have the weight of scripture even though they come out of the mullah’s head.  I think of how in the Catholic Church the pope when he speaks ex cathedra has the quality of being infallible.  This is not how a living God relates to us.

God can be described as dynamic, not static. That comes through in a relationship with Him.  It is based on that which does not change but expressed through a living personality.  That is how He communicates with us.  It makes possible spiritual growth and new, deeper understanding.

God’s personality does not change.  It is immutable.  God’s principles do not change.  They are immutable.  How that applies to us in our daily walk is rooted in His personality and principles but is applied like He is a person and not a formula.  Since we are created in His image it is tailored to beings that are also dynamic, not static.

homo unius libri

Opus 2024-397: Absolutes

We tend to think in terms of absolutes.  For instance consider being color blind.  We tend to think that people who are color blind only see in black-and-white.  In reality there are all kinds of variables in between.

Consider diabetes.  We tend to think that people are either ready to have their legs cut off and to go blind or else are totally healthy.  In reality there are many variables in between.

Then you have a condition like A-fib . I have a raging case of it.  They tell me that sometimes it’s 300 beats a minute.  I feel nothing.  I have no symptoms.  I wouldn’t know I have a problem if the doctor didn’t tell me.  I know of other people they can barely function because of it.  I assume there are many different levels in between.

How about integrity and ethics?  Most of us would admit that we are not perfect and that we have all sinned at sometime in our life.  Yet most of us consider ourselves basically moral people.  At the other end you have people like the Bidens who wouldn’t know an honest statement if it came up and bit him on the nose.

In between you have people like Donald Trump.  He has gone bankrupt several times.  I would guess it might’ve been planned.  I don’t know.  What I do know is he broke no laws in what he did.  The Democrats have been trying to find something to tie on him for eight years and all they could do was come up with an artificial law that they made up on the spur of the moment.  Even then they had to tell the jury that they could declare him guilty even if he didn’t do anything illegal.  Is this ethical or not?

Life is full of hard decisions.

Ultimately we have to evaluate people as individuals.  What makes it even harder is that some individuals who are on the wrong path reform, and those who are saints in the making go off the deep end.  It calls for constant vigilance.  It does not mean we don’t “judge”.  It means that we judge with honor and an awareness of what is true and what is right.

homo unius libri

Opus 2024-396: Built-in

It is amazing to me the way in which people with a Calvinist background can interpret everything based on the assumption they are right.  We were in a Bible study, and the verse we were looking at was,

Matthew 23:23 (KJV) Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye pay tithe of mint and anise and cummin, and have omitted the weightier matters of the law, judgment, mercy, and faith: these ought ye to have done, and not to leave the other undone.

The discussion had been dwelling on the tithe, and the pastor was commenting on how we were not under the law anymore, and tithing is a principal of the law.  I could’ve made a lot of issues on that, but I refrained.

In the midst of this one of my godly contemporaries had to express some plain Calvinism about the law.  He said something about how we were given this law which, from the very beginning, it was impossible for us to keep.  His emphasis was that we cannot earn our salvation by keeping the law.

His basic point about how we cannot earn our salvation I would agree with.  What drives me crazy is this continued insistence by people of the reform tradition that we cannot keep the law, that it is impossible.  That is nonsense.  There is nothing in the law that you cannot keep.  When you whittle down the so-called 613 laws that are often listed to the actual real number it becomes even easier.  The point is, the laws were never given with the intent of earning your salvation.  There was never an assumption you would keep them perfectly.  When the Old Testament talks about atonement, it’s in relation to sacrificing an animal showing that blood is shed, and that death is the payment for our sin.  The animal simply substitutes for our death.  It is not giving the tithes, or eating the right foods, or observing the Sabbath that saves us.  As Hebrew says in the NT there is no forgiveness of sin without the shedding of blood.  In the Old Testament times  it was the animal that shed the blood as a type looking forward to the death of Jesus on the cross.  We were not saved by tithing, not mixing fabrics in our clothing, or not planting trees in the courtyard of the temple.  In the OT as well as the NT salvation comes from God and our trust in Him.

Is this a deliberate distortion of what the law was for?  I have to believe that if you go back to Calvin or some of the early reformers there was definitely distortion going on.

But then I have my own extreme positions.

homo unius libri

Opus 2024-395: Built, Not Chosen

We tend to talk about Israel being God’s chosen people.  We’re so used to that phrase we don’t start to think about the actual chronicle that is laid out in scripture.  I’m thinking that maybe Israel was not so much chosen as built.

God called Abraham out of Haran and told him to go to the promised land.  I would venture to guess that He had been building the gene pool to the point where Abraham was ready to be chosen out of all humanity.  In spite of all that, Abraham, I believe, still have the opportunity to say, “No.”  Since he said “yes”, we know about him.  We don’t know how many others refused before God finally got Abraham to agree.  Could God force the issue?  Yes.  Did God force issue?  We don’t know.

Once Abraham agreed, God started building on another level.  God seems to build very slowly.  This is one reason I believe in the old earth more than the seven 24 hour days of creation.  God seems to build slowly, creatively and methodically.  He’s capable of parting the Red Sea, and then having a crash down again, true.  But His tendency it’s more to let the nation of Israel wander in the desert for 40 years while they gradually died off.  He didn’t smite them and start over again.  God plans long-term and He makes things develop long-term.

When you you build using human beings, it’s a game of attrition.  You pick Abraham.  You wait a long time and finally he has a son.  Then you wait for another generation.  And another generation.  Then you have the roots of the 12 tribes moved to Egypt and sit there for 400 years before they are brought out.  What kind of growth was being supervised there?  Based on the results we saw in the wilderness, there were a lot of weak branches.  It took a long time to develop enough foundation to allow people like Joshua, Samuel, David, and other outstanding saints to emerge.

Even today, what is Israel?  Is it a nation in the Middle East?  Is this everyone who has an ounce of Jewish blood around the world and down through time?  Has it been replaced by the church?  These are serious questions.  I’m not sure that we know the answers.  Basically, we have to live with the knowledge we have.  God is working with us.  Paul told us to work out our salvation with fear and trembling.  That takes time.

Remember the acronym,PBP,GINFWMY.  “Please be patient, God is not finished with me yet.”  Or you could get one of those signs that say, “building under construction.”  It remains to be seen how the results develop.

homo unius libri

Opus 2024-394: Clickbait: Ten Things I Need to Know

I have been sucked in twice in the past week.  As a person who is getting older and feels it every day, I was attracted by the titles that talked about what to expect as you get older.  The first one claimed a revelation of 10 things that you could expect.  I think it was about 15 minutes long.  I got about three minutes into it before I got tired of the author spending so much time with verbosity and very little with the 10 things I could expect.  I think I actually got to number two.

The second was similar.  About the same length, and I got just about the same distance into it before I went on with my life.  It occurred to me that these people who are writing about old age forget that we don’t have as much time as we used to to waste on them sharing whatever it is they want to share.  I realize that they want to be important.  I realize that they think what they say is vital.  That’s one of the reasons I write this blog.  I have a delusion of thinking that what I say has significance.

The image of that second video that stands and out in my mind is the elderly gentleman trying to get up out of his chair and having to lean very heavily on his cane and other devices to get standing straight up.  I know the feeling.  I am there more often each day.  One of the things I also know is that I am there more often because I am so sedentary.  I have observed that if I move more than it is easier to move each time.  When I sit more, it is harder to move each time.  I noticed in my walking that when I go without for a few days that my strength goes down very quickly.  I can build it up again, but that’s a slow process.

I know we are individuals.  I know that each one of us responds differently.  I know that you can’t make assumptions.  Having said that, let me make some assumptions.  I think that one reason that we elderly get weaker and weaker is not just the fact that we are getting older, but that we are getting, shall we say lazier.  My wife has physical problems.  She has legitimate reasons not to get up and do things.  She often asked me to do things that she could do easily.  I really think it would be better for her if she would force yourself to get up and do them herself.

She doesn’t see it that way.  I will never find out if it’s true, because she will never get up and do it herself.  Besides that she likes to tell me what to do.

So keep moving.  Let your friends do what they can, but don’t get carried away trying to make them feel good by being helpful.  Get off your duff and if possible, do it yourself.

homo unius libri

Opus 2024-393: Lasts: No Longer a Preppie

I am reaching the point in life where more and more often I am being told that this may be the last time.  It started a couple years ago when I had a doctor tell me that I didn’t need to get the A1c test anymore.  Then I had one tell me that the test of my prostate wasn’t necessary anymore.  Recently, I’ve had family members telling me that I don’t need to keep going in for colonoscopies.  They say that the danger is more real than the reward.  I guess I need to get ready to die.  Fortunately, I am.

It amazes me that all these people seem to know how long I’m going to live.  With the new standards of medicine doctors don’t do half the things they used to do.  They used to palpitate your abdomen, look down your throat, check your reflexes, listen to your heart actually using the stethoscope, have a human check your blood pressure, and if my memory worked better, I could come up with many other things that doctors used to do as standard procedure.  Now they look at their computer screen and probably have the computer highlight the places where the numbers are a bit out of sync and tell me how I’m doing.

I don’t know if you ever got the print-out from your blood work.  It’s pretty self-explanatory, except for some of the jargon that you might not understand.  That could be remedied simply by changing big words to simple words.  For instance one area of reports have to do with your kidney functions.  They could say that instead of using words like renal.  They could say things like bad cholesterol and good cholesterol instead of cute little acronyms like LDL and HDL.  If you look down the columns, you’ll see the numbers that the test gives for each category and somewhere along each line will tell you what is considered the normal range for healthy human beings.  It doesn’t take a medical degree to look at these things.  I don’t need a doctor to tell me if my bad cholesterol is too high.  So why am I sitting in this office?  Maybe because I can’t get the blood work done if an all wise doctor does not send the orders.

Do I have a point or am I just being a grouchy old man? Of course it could be that I am a grouchy old man who has a point.

homo unius libri

Opus 2024-392: Does God Use Chopsticks?

I was daydreaming about God running in the universe.  I had Him punching buttons and sliding levers, turning dials and using a touchscreen maybe.  In the midst of this silly little fantasy, I had the realization that God doesn’t need to do any of that stuff.  He created the universe just by saying, “Let there be....”

Does God do some things a certain way simply because He enjoys doing it that way?  I submit to you chopsticks.  When we go to a Chinese restaurant I always ask for a set of chopsticks.  I know how to eat with a fork but somehow it just seems to me that Chinese food taste better when you eat it with chopsticks.  I know it’s probably just my imagination, but there’s a sense of satisfaction of doing it the old fashion way.

There are other things that we do the old fashion way simply because it’s more satisfying that way.  I’m sure there are parts of woodworking that could be done much faster with modern technology, but there’s something about the old carving tools that bring a sense of personal involvement.  Reading a high-quality, leather-bound book is more satisfying than a Kindle.  A four speed manual transmission brings more joy than an automatic.  I wonder if God doesn’t have that same phenomenon, after all we were created in His image.  Sometimes the quickest is not the most satisfying.  Since God has all of eternity to work and He is not running out of time, He’s in no hurry.

This might fit in with the concept of creation actually taking billions of years as God enjoyed watching the process.  He probably finds more beauty in a giant Sequoia than crab-grass.  It might have to do with why it takes so long for us to grow up and become mature adults.  It might have to do with why we raise children for decades, rather than have them coming out of the room ready to stand up and run.

If God wants dials, buttons, touch screens and sliders, He has my approval.  Yes, I know He doesn’t need my approval.  He has it anyway.

homo unius libri

Opus 2024-391: What Is Man?

Why in the world is God so interested in human beings?  He created us in His image.  Why?  It’s a question that comes to my mind on a regular basis.

God may be bored and we supply the same entertainment value that a new kitten has.  Our antics probably amuse Him as much as kitten flips over nothing and chasing a red dot.  That’s one thought but that doesn’t really work.  If that were the case it would certainly be unnecessary for Jesus to die on the cross.  It would be unnecessary to pay for our sins if we were just toys.  The cross, actually becoming sin for us, Jesus would take a pass on these if we were on the level of a new set of Legos.

So what is it?

Now we cross over into pure speculation, but my mind goes to those promises about us reigning with Him.  

(Rev 5:10 KJV)  And hast made us unto our God kings and priests: and we shall reign on the earth.

As my attention went to that concept, it occurred to me that our egos get involved when we read something like this.  We also have this strange idea the people in power, if they are doing their job right, just sit around giving orders and eating bonbons all day.  Not so.  Effective rulers work very hard.  When it talks about us reigning and ruling, we need to put aside the idea that we’re going to be top level executives in a corner office with an executive secretary, an expense account and private bartender and think instead of being the lieutenant who’s out in the field checking outhouses to make sure they’ve been dug in the right place.

God is planning on being around for a long time.  Eternity goes on forever.  It’s very possible that we are not His only creations.  It could be that what He has in mind for the long term is a whole additional expansion of what He’s done now.  It’s very possible that He is grooming us to be on board as His assistants.  You might say, “I didn’t sign up for that.”  Maybe not, but you should have read the fine print.  It did say you would be reigning.  Reigning is not a party, it’s not just a privilege, it is a responsibility.

You were warned.  I am speculating.  It’s not heresy if you’re just speculating, is it?

homo unius libri

Opus 2024-390: Time to Deal a New Hand

Years ago, I spent a little bit of time playing poker.  I found that I enjoyed the game. I found that I enjoyed the game too much.  Going along with that I found that whatever it is that you call luck had nothing to do with me.  I concede that my skill was not the highest, but there are times when pure luck prevails and I repeatedly came up on the short end of the stick.

Poker is an ongoing game.  You have hands that are dealt.  Each time you deal a hand you take all the cards, shuffle them, and then ask who wants to be in that round.  If you want to play, you are expected to ante up.  What that means is if you were serious you had to put something out in the middle of the table as an opening investment, an opening bet.  It was usually established at a level that everybody could participate even though they had no idea what cards they were going to get.  And then you would proceed through the game, dealing the cards, being able to discard once and ask for replacements.  And then you would go around and people would play psychological games.  You would bet more and dare others to match your bet or a increase it.  You were doing a couple of things when you were betting on the cards you had in your hand.  At one point you are betting on the possibility of getting better cards in the draw.  You were guessing what kind of cards the other people had.  Each step required you to up the ante, make a bigger bet, put your money where your mouth was.

Politically, we have come to the point where it’s time to deal a new hand.  In the past those of us with traditional values would take the win and leave the game.  We can’t afford to do that anymore.  When we do that they take over and run things.  They win by our default.  They go back to business as usual.  The swamp once again starts to spread and pollute.  We walk away with the couple of nickels in our pocket that we got from that hand, think we are fine fellows, and they sit there laughing, knowing that the game goes on.

We need to stay in the game and up the ante.

Keep in mind that those we are playing against us are not just the left wingers, the mindless Democratic machine, the administrative state, or any other label you want to put on them.  We are also playing against the Republican establishment, the Rinos.  They are by far the largest danger.  We won elections.  We sent a message.  The Democrats know that we sent a message.  But what they are counting on is that the Republicans who have a vested interest in keeping things as they are, will undermine the message.

We need to stay alert, stay in the game, up the ante and, metaphorically of course, go for the jugular.

Don’t rest on your laurels.  Pray harder than you ever prayed.  Speak up louder and more often than you ever did in the past.  Stand up for the things that you know are right.  Put aside fear and speak boldly.  Risk conflict at the Thanksgiving table.  Write letters.  Make phone calls.

To change the metaphor, we’re only in the first inning of the game and we can’t go home just because we’re ahead one to nothing.

homo unius libri

Opus 2024-389: Always Never

It always amazes me how people who seem to be so intelligent eventually emerge as “Never Trumpers”.  It shows up in the most unexpected places, but it’s very real.  It is not a mental condition that surprises me because I run into a parallel inability to think on regular basis.  You’ve seen it too, but you just don’t recognize it.

I’m talking about the “Never God Syndrome”.  Relax.  I am not making a parallel between Trump and God.  I do not believe that Trump is the savior. That role is reserved for Jesus.  But the train of thought is similar.  You take a category and no matter what the situation you rule it out.  It cannot be possible.  Even if it is the only logical conclusion, never!

Right now I am in the middle of a four hour interview between Joe Rogan and Eric Weinstein.  Weinstein is waxing strong on all kinds of physics.  As he says, it’s his language.  It’s the language he speaks the best.  And it’s a language that means I have no idea what he’s talking about.  He will throw around words that you understand but when you put them together, they’re just so much jargon.  Are they real?  Probably.  Do they mean anything?  There’s a good chance that the answer is, “No.”

The topic that generated enthusiasm on this podcast was UFOs.  They have gone into many deep holes and down many rabbit trails, and there are no conclusions coming out except the government is deceiving us.  Whether they’re deceiving us because they have some secret program developing a secret weapon, or whether they have actual evidence of extraterrestrial life, we don’t have a clue.  Or at least they don’t have a clue.

That’s all well and good, but they are leaving out one of the explanations that I have heard, and that is demonic forces.  No, I’m not a big one for the spectacular, emotional, panic over demons and such.  I believe they exist.  I believe they’re active.  But they are limited.  However, it makes good sense to say that these sightings might be supernatural.  I’m not saying they are, I’m just saying that there is this mental block to even consider the possibility.

Another topic this comes up is the beginning of the universe, what is called the Big Bang Theory.  For you Democrats out there understand that I am not talking about the TV program.   It was originally resisted by science because if you believe in the Big Bang theory, one of the possibilities you would have to consider was the existence of a God.  Since these uber-wise scientist know there is no God, that whole train of thought is ruled out.  It’s kind of a form of never Trump.

Real science, real intellectual pursuits, real philosophy, all of these need to be open to all options if they are to be true investigations.  You may rule out many things, but you can’t say they are no possibility.

You can get along without Trump.  You can’t get along without God.

homo unius libri

Opus 2024-388: More Than New Math

If you’ve been to the doctor’s office recently you may have noticed that everything has to be on the computer.  It makes you wonder what the doctors know and what they’ve simply learn to react to on the screen.  When you talk to them about things you’ve read, they don’t seem to have any idea what you’re talking about.  What they give you might generally relate to what was talked about and you’re reading, but doesn’t seem to be up to date.  It could be total ignorance on their part, or my part.  But it doesn’t give a satisfying feeling of knowing you’re talking to someone who is paying attention.

I think part of the reason is that in the new way of doing education there is less emphasis on actually learning the field of study.  We hear about medical students now having to spend time on gender studies, equality studies and multiculturalism.  Who knows what other kind of nonsense instead of actually studying medicine?

I experienced this in my own life in preparing to preach.  I went to seminary many years ago. When I was in seminary we had a requirement for a year a Greek.  That was much lower than previous generations of seminaries.  They were expected to actually know Greek.  We just had to get through a class.  We were expected to take a certain number of Bible classes and classes in theology and preaching.

Fast forward to modern seminaries, to the one I attended.  They have reduced drastically the number of classes in Bible and theology and instead of taking classes in sociology, psychology, counseling, and all the other things that are currently in vogue.  Is it any wonder that modern pastors are so into heresy and reviving pagan practices?  What can you expect when that’s what you prepare for.

So don’t be confused when your auto mechanic has no idea what that noise means.  Don’t expect the man who sells your groceries to know which type of apple will age better in your refrigerator.  Don’t expect your pastor to know anything about God.  And unfortunately, I’m not sure that your doctor knows much about medicine.

Results may vary.

homo unius libri

Opus 2024-387: Creation and Additives

God designed the human body.  Of course that assumes there is a God.  I would imagine that the idea of creating included coordinating all the body systems and assigning tasks to the organs.

What do we know about this God?  I believe God exists outside of time.  That is a concept we can parrot but not necessarily understand.  We are locked in time.  What does it look like to be above it, to be the one who created time.  It would at least imply that this God could be in the past and the future at the same time.  We of course only experience Him in the present.  

That tells me God knew what was coming.

Which starts to get me to the point.  Was our immune system built-in before the fall or added afterwards?  I don’t believe disease existed in the garden of Eden.  Disease is part of sin intruding and breaking down the original creation.  So was our immune system OEM or after market?

Did God design our body knowing that someday the food industry would be putting additives and substituting artificial ingredients in the foods He provided?  Is your body already prepared to deal with these intrusions?  We freak out over the chemicals used and some people think they are the source of all ailments from obesity to mother-in-laws.  My interest would be in whether God already built in the mechanisms to deal with what we consider artificial.  

As an example of Providential planning think of the big oil spill that occurred in the gulf.  The environmentalists were making hay while the sun shined.  It was the end of life as we know it.  Life along the gulf coast would never recover.  Suddenly they went silent.  It seems that there was some kind of microbe that nobody was aware of that appeared and started eating up the extra oil.  It had been there all along.  It had been dealing with the seeps from the bottom of the ocean for millennia.  It was ready to go when the crisis came.

I wonder how much of our concern is because we have been taught to be victims and look for the source of our problems outside ourselves.  We want to be relieved from responsibility for our decisions.  We want the government or one of the doctors making You Tube videos to ride to our rescue.  I will accept that there are a few people who have physical conditions that bring on obesity.  I have seen the videos mocking the concept of  “calories in, calories out”, but it is still a matter of biological physics.  If you eat more calories than your body uses then it will store the excess.  It is much easier to look for a pill or an injection rather than leaving that Twinky in its wrapper.

Does God know about sweet and low?

Asking for a friend.

homo unius libri

Opus 2024-386: So, What’s New?

In listening to Eric Weinstein talk to Joe Rogan on his podcast it’s been fascinating listening to the speculations that they have.  Most of the physics I don’t understand and it’s obvious that Joe doesn’t either.  What is not so obvious is that I don’t think Eric understands either.  But their stories are fun, and the ideas they throw back-and-forth are entertaining.

One of the stories or points of view that I thought was interesting was when Weinstein was talking about the possibility that there is an intelligent species that is so far above us we aren’t aware of them, and they are observing us.  He uses the illustration of how biologists and other scientists will study the lower animals and often set up an environment in which the lower animal doesn’t know that the humans are there . They find ways to disguise their presence.  He suggested perhaps there is a superior alien life form observing us.

My response to this is, “So what’s new?”  I have been living with this all my life and others have been ignoring it.  This strange, alien life form is called God.  He’s been watching us and evaluating us and trying to decide whether He should wipe us out or not.  He got so involved that He actually came to earth and disguised Himself as a human being.  We killed him.  How’s that for alien intervention?  Yes, he’s been watching a long time.  Yes, he’s been intervening.  And manipulating.  That’s what God does.

Aliens?  I doubt it in the sense of people in flying saucers with big eyes and high foreheads.  I believe it in the form of the omnipresent, omniscient, everlasting, holy, etc. God.

On whom will the joke be?

homo unius libri

Opus 2024-385: The Wrath of Kind

One of the rabbit trails I follow in my thinking is that if God is love then I Corinthians 13 and its definition of love should give us some insights into God and His actions.  It starts off well then you get down to the verse, that says that love is patient.

(1Co 13:4 NAS77) Love is patient, love is kind, and is not jealous; love does not brag and is not arrogant,

Patient is literally defined as long suffering, which is how the KJV puts it.  It’s not just the idea that you have a one in three chance of hitting something you throw a baseball at, so you keep throwing until you hit it.  It is not waiting for the water to boil.  Those are superficial examples.  No, long-suffering means that you put up with things far beyond what they deserve and what anybody could expect.  God is long-suffering.  He sets the example for us.  Think of how He was going to destroy Israel.  He was that angry with them.  Think about the flood.  God is capable of wrath.  Instead, he usually extends mercy, grace, long-suffering, and the second word in this list, “kindness”.

We take words like “kind” and put some kind of warm, fuzzy bubble-gum-wrapper emotion around it, and somehow it works out as something you extend towards wiggly puppies or new babies.  That’s true perhaps but that is not what Corinthians is talking about.  As I was contemplating this, it occurred to me that the opposite of kindness, when we’re talking about God would be expressed in His wrath.  We know that God has the potential to destroy, to obliterate, to sweep away that which is in His way which you had expressed often in the prophets.  We see what He did to Pharaoh’s army as they were trying to sneak across the Red Sea.  We see what He did to the Korah and the ones that were swallowed up.  God is capable of some pretty nasty actions.

But they’re only nasty in our eyes.  God has His side where He allows his wrath to be exercised, but it’s not wrath in the sense of losing your temper.  It is a controlled expression of the holy fire of His character against evil, disobedience, rebellion, spit-in-your-face behavior.  God does not extend his wrath lightly.  He does not sweep people away as often as they deserve.  His patience, long-suffering, is incredible.  But when He does respond, He does respond.  And to be honest, if God‘s wrath touches you, you have one of two results.  Either you are destroyed, or you were invigorated.

Let me give you an illustration.  When I was working in the Sequoias one summer I listen to a park ranger talk about the bark of the redwood tree.  I don’t remember exactly what he said, or claim to be totally accurate but the point he was making was that the bark of the redwood does not burn.  He said when you see the big scars on the side of a redwood tree, it’s not because the bark burned away, but because the wood behind the bark was turned into carbon by the heat.  The bark peeled away later.  It does not burn.

OK.  Now supposing you were to go into a redwood forest with a torch and you were to come across a pile of leaves that were supposed to been raked and removed.  Someone had not done their job.  And it’s your job to clear out the forest.  You take your torch, apply it to the pile of leaves, and they immediately burst into flame.  They are consumed.  You take that same flame over to the redwood tree and apply to the bark and nothing happens.  When I personify things, I tend to think that the redwood bark kind of stretches his arms and says “Oh, that feels good.”  If you move on all is good.  If for some reason you hold that fire to the redwood bark, the bark itself is not affected.  For that which is behind it though it’s another story.  My point?

I’ll keep in mind that this could be total heresy, it’s my opinion, but I think that God’s wrath is quite capable of striking down the rebellious elements of society and letting His people stand unaffected.  I was watching a video on volcanoes, and although it had a lot of nonsense in it, at one point it showed how in the middle of a lava flow there would be a little islands of green life.  That’s because when the lava flowed down the mountain there was an elevated spot where it just flowed around it, and it consumed everything in its path but let that little island survive and do quite well.  I think that’s the way it will be with God’s wrath.

Just a few thoughts on how first Corinthians 13 and love reflects the character and actions of God.  I’m sure there will be more some other time.

homo unius libri

Opus 2024-384: What is the limit

I find the voice recognition software on my devices to be very helpful.  Sometimes as I’m out walking, like I am now, I have a brilliant idea.  When I was just hanging onto it until I got back to the house, it would sneak away when I wasn’t paying attention.  Now I can put it down at least in rudimentary form.

But what happens when the dogs are barking in the background?  What happens when a yellow school bus drives by?  You can see how this goes.  What is the line which I cannot cross in background noises.  In the past I’ve kind of just let it go but now I’m getting curious so I may start doing some experiments.

I should avoid doing it in the car though.  I don’t think it would be a problem just the dictating if I had someone there to push the buttons and set things up for me but what happens if a kid stepped out in front of you just as you look down to look for the button.  Then I’m getting older and probably getting less attentive.  Those things work together to say don’t do this on the road.

Life is full of adventures and new things to learn.

homo unius libri

Opus 2024-383: The Game of Telephone

One of the trails that my mind chases down is the different people that God has had conversations with throughout scripture.  I would venture to guess that we do not have a record of every person He has spoken to or every conversation with the ones we know about.  That would be way too much to write down as I think John says in his gospel about Jesus.

But we see at the beginning there were only two people and he went and actually walked in the garden with him.  We have Him speaking to Cain after he killed his brother and eventually speaking to Noah.  Anyway, it seems that God tends to talk to people one at a time and let them speak as prophets rather than speaking to everyone all the time.  Yes, we have the Bible.  Yes, the Holy Spirit does speak to us in our hearts and minds.  But God has very few open, direct and verbal conversations with people anymore.  I think He stopped that long ago.

Why?  If He is capable of communicating with the entire world one on one why has He refrained from doing so?  I’m thinking that one of the reasons is illustrated by the game of telephone.  I’m sure most of us have played it even if we don’t remember.  It’s where you sit in a circle and the first person will whisper a short sentence to the person next to them.  Then that person turns and whispers it to the person next to them and so on around the circle.  When you get to the other end of the circle the message that you started out with is almost totally unrecognizable.  Even assuming that everyone in the circle is playing fair, and not just making up a totally new sentence, it gets destroyed.

Imagine God talking to everyone and the disagreements between them about what He said.  It’s bad enough now when we have just one Bible.  We argue about the original languages and minor variations in the text.  We argue about which translation is best.  We have the Calvinist and the Wesleyans and the Catholics and the Orthodox and the ones who believe they are the only ones with a true word.

So I think God has stopped talking to everybody simply to make it easier for a simple human beings to know what His words really are.  They are written out and don’t change based on the direction of the wind.

homo unius libri

Opus 2024-382: Headlines: Cute

Some headlines don’t even raise my eyebrows let alone ruffle my feathers.  The announcement that woke women are going to shave their heads, wear blue bracelets and refrain from sex and having children does not even register on my SHTF meter.  It might even include woke men.  I can’t tell from the photographs that are displayed unsolicited on my screen.  Does this mean that Joe Rogan will have to let his hair grow?

This dynamic statement will make no change in my life.  Even in my bachelor days I would not have been interested in the kind of women who would shave their head because someone in favor of aborting babies did not win an election.  I can say without qualification that I would never have hung around their watering holes be they sleazy bars or swanky parties.  I did my mate locating roving at prayer meetings and Sunday school.

I pledge to attempt to prevent my grandchildren from pointing and laughing if they ever see one of these creatures.  I will attempt it at least once but then I might start pointing and laughing also.

What a world we live in.  I salute their freedom to cut their hair any way they want and wear their choice in jewelry.  I don’t expect them to return the favor because being woke does not work that way.

homo unius libri

Opus 2024-381: Half a Loaf Philosophy

I think there’s a page from the liberal play book with conservatives should adopt and that is the philosophy of half a loaf is better than none.  Sounds simple but these are liberals.  They push that on and repeat it after they win.

So the liberals meet you halfway.  You have an agreement.  That is well and good.  And then they look at the half loaf that you have and start saying the same thing, “Half of what you have should be mine.”  And they start working on that philosophy.

This never stops and, half at a time, they gradually get down to where they have the entire loaf except for a few crumbs that were in the bottom of the bag.  We as conservatives and people of ethics, standards, and believing in the rule of law need to adopt that philosophy.

One place where this is clear is the area of abortion.  I believe that abortion is murder.  Murder is when you take the life of an innocent person for your own personal convenience.  That is the vast, vast majority of cases in abortion.  That having been said I am willing to be satisfied with half a loaf, today.

Tomorrow I’m quite willing to pass the ball down the field and try for another half loaf.  If we would adopt this philosophy in pursuit persistently we would end up winning that debate.

It might also encourage God to forgive us for some of our other evils.  I keep wondering how God would have dealt with Sodom if the 10 righteous had not been out of town on vacation.

homo unius libri

Opus 2024-380: Go Ahead and Laugh

I caught God laughing at me this morning. I was recording and getting ready to post some great wisdom and insight that I had.  I waxed eloquent.  It wasn’t bad.

And then as I closed my iPad, shut down the application, and went back to considering the majesty of God, I caught Him laughing at me.  Since I don’t take myself too seriously, I would say He was laughing with me rather than at me.  The point is that we can take ourselves so seriously that we lose all contact with reality and balance.  We get so excited about things.  We worry so much.  We grab an idea and we chew on it until it’s like nothing but an old slipper a dog got hold of.

And God heaves a big sigh, shakes His head and if He’s in the right mood has a good laugh.  It is a good thing that God has a sense of humor.  It would be terrible if He took everything we did seriously.

I hope to keep Him laughing.

homo unius libri

Opus 2024-379: Prayer Details

One night in church the following verse was referred to,

Matthew 21:21-22 (KJV) 21 Jesus answered and said unto them, Verily I say unto you, If ye have faith, and doubt not, ye shall not only do this [which is done] to the fig tree, but also if ye shall say unto this mountain, Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea; it shall be done. 22 And all things, whatsoever ye shall ask in prayer, believing, ye shall receive.

The pastor announced that this meant that anything we asked for we would receive.  I found that very unsatisfying.  We played the spiritualizing game with, “What is the mountain?”  People came up with all kinds of things, such as our sin.  Still very unsatisfying.

This is not the first time I have wrestled with this nor the first time I have written about it.  It struck home again.  I got to thinking about how there are many places in the Bible with prayer talked about and in each place it seems like there’s some kind of qualification.  This is one of those topics that requires a gestalt view.  

Take this verse,

Matthew 6:33 (KJV) But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.

Is this referring to prayer?  And is it a qualification?  Are we required to be making righteousness a priority for answered prayer?

Then you have the case where the disciples asked Jesus to teach them to pray.  His answer was what we know as the Lord’s Prayer.   There is no guarantee of answer there, just directions.  I think that is significant.  Of course there are very few typical prayer list items mentioned.

And you have two examples of non-answers to the main people in the Bible.  One is when Paul pleads three times that his thorn in the flesh be removed.  The answer is “No.”

(2Co 12:8-9 KJV)  For this thing I besought the Lord thrice, that it might depart from me.  And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me.

Then you have Jesus Himself in the garden praying and asking that this cup be removed.  Then He finishes with those lines that are so unpopular, “They will be done.”

Let’s go there next.

1 John 5:14 (KJV) And this is the confidence that we have in him, that, if we ask any thing according to his will, he heareth us:

Prayer is not a free for all.  It is to be focused.  

Then we have something that has become a ritual or mantra.  We tend to finish all prayers with this,

John 14:13 (KJV) And whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son.

Then there is the ultimate limitation which, when joined with praying in His will, really narrows the requests down.

John 15:7 (KJV) If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you.

So don’t base your ideas about prayer on one verse.

homo unius libri

Opus 2024-378: Label Alergy

I like labels.  I find them very helpful if used properly and with awareness.  If someone is a Calvinist, tell me.  Don’t be afraid of it.  If someone is a Progressive, admit it.  I won’t say it is nothing to be ashamed of but it is an honest evaluation of who you are.  If someone is a Rino on eight out of ten topics then call him a Rino.  It is close enough.  

After you affix the label be courteous enough to listen to their defense.  It could be that what they mean by “Progressive” has nothing to do with the history of the word.  They may not know that the Progressive agenda, before they became “liberals”, before they became “Progressives” again was based on euthanasia of the low lifes of America.  For Margaret Sanger, founder of Planned Parenthood, that meant killing off black Americans.  Maybe they don’t know.  Tell them.  Then it is on their shoulders.

Use labels.  I am trying to fix a label on the mysterious cabal that is running the United States government from the shadows.  “Administrative state” is loaded and accurate but almost totally misunderstood.  “Shadow government” is again accurate but seems like the imagination of a fantasy writer.  I am ready to go with “Deep State”.  Whoever these people are they have a lot of power that was not given to them by the Constitution.  

Use labels.  Stop fixating on whether it is your favorite and go with what the person meant.  We need to stop wasting our energy and and sacrificing our unity on definitions of something that cannot be defined.  

The Deep State is the enemy not the person who prefers to call them the unelected elites.

If someone is on our side and uses a term you don’t like then give them the benefit of the doubt, buy them a cup of coffee and when you are finished planning the next get-out-the-vote drive talk about labels.  Plan on doing a lot of listening and laughing.

homo unius libri

Opus 2024-377: Bring Back the Difference

There is a very significant difference between the concept of the American Republic, and the empires and democracies of history.

Historically governments have been established to maintain the power of the upper classes.  This is true obviously of monarchies, but it’s also true of pure democracies.  Historically democracies have been limited to allowing only the propertied classes to vote and have a voice.  Traditionally women were excluded.  Slaves obviously had nothing to say.  And the poor were not allowed to participate.

The American concept of a constitutional republic is totally different.  The goal was to include everyone in the process and to give everyone a voice while avoiding the dangers of pure democracy.  Originally women were allowed to vote in some of the colonies.  Blacks had a voice.  Slaves were excluded but that was temporary and was eventually worked out.  People were aware of that problem.  But the idea was that the upper classes would not rule everything.

We had this thing called the Checks and Balances.  We had the House of Representatives elected by popular vote.  Every vote counted.  Winner take all in each race.  This insure that the lower classes would always have a voice.  The House of Representatives controlled the pocket book.  The House had the power to impeach.

Originally the Senate was established to maintain the power of those who were more wealthy.  Senators were appointed by the state legislatures and governors.  This was to insure that the majority rule would not be able to destroy the rights of people simply because they were wealthy.  In a constitutional republic, even the rich have rights.

Now it gets a bit sticky and we have to bring in a bit of Bible.  What is the purpose of government?  In monarchies it was to keep the elite in power and anything advancing that was allowed.  The Constitution limits the power of government, however it does make allowance for enforcing the rule of law.  And here we need to look at what Paul said in the book of Romans. Yes, he said we are to be supportive of the government.

Romans 13:1 (KJV) Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers. For there is no power but of God: the powers that be are ordained of God.

Keep in mind when you read this that we do not live in Empire.  We do not have a king, emperor, or local Lord, who has the right to tell us what to do.  For us the emperor would be the Constitution, not the president.  That is why our military take an oath to the Constitution, and not to the head of state.

In light of this, you need to also understand a key purpose of government.

Romans 13:4 (KJV) For he is the minister of God to thee for good. But if thou do that which is evil, be afraid; for he beareth not the sword in vain: for he is the minister of God, a revenger to execute wrath upon him that doeth evil.

The government is to bear the sword.  The government is to punish evil.  This is a very important distinction.  Are we to support our government?  Yes.  Does the government have a responsibility also?  Yes.  The government is not there to suppress what we call freedom of speech.  The government is there to punish evil.

So when the government goes after those who have been performing evil acts, don’t go all pious on me and start saying, “Oh my goodness let’s be forgiving.”  No, it doesn’t work that way.  Murder, extortion, coercion, crony capitalism, treason, rape, child trafficking, sex trade, this is only the beginning of the list of crimes against us as citizens and supporting evil in society.  It is not just the governments power to punish this evil.  It is government responsibility.

Keep in mind the difference between vengeance and punishment.  Vengeance is you taking out your personal anger on someone for a wrong you believe has happened to you.  Punishment is a just reward of those who have broken the covenant of society and committed evil acts.  That is the role of the government.

The government needs to accept that duty.  Don’t stand in its way.

homo unius libri

Opus 2024-376: Danger, Rinos Ahead

We made it past the election.  Although there are some disappointments as the vote counters continue to play their games it seems like enough Americans showed up for work to bring in not only the president but majorities in both houses.  Now we have the problem of Rinos.

We already see the games going on in the Senate.  The president was elected with a mandate to do certain things but the Establishment Republicans want to make sure that they are the ones in control rather than Donald Trump.  They are trying to make sure that the Senate is controlled by someone who is agreeable to the entrenched minority, rather than someone who is responsive to the elected president.

Part of that is the dance that goes on with the balance of power.  I understand that.  Part of the Senate’s role is to make sure that the president doesn’t get too puffed up with himself.  At the same time, there are things that need to be taken care of.  There is business that must be done.  We only have a short time to bring back the constitutional republic and get rid of the deep state theocracy of evil.  We don’t have time to play games at this point.  In three years if they want to goof around, more power to them.  Right now we need to make changes.

I find myself in a weird situation.  One of the problem people in the Senate is the senior senator from Texas.  I am convinced on the other side is the junior senator from Texas.  So we have a foot in both sides of the battle.  Calling Senator Cornyn really won’t do much good because he is the problem not the solution.  Senator Cruz is already on board.  I would encourage those of you who live in states that might make a difference to get on the line and talk to your senators.  Let them know that we are not satisfied with business as usual.  I understand if you live in California, this is like I a downpour in the desert.  It will just runoff and disappear.  There isn’t much you can do.  But there are states where your voice might be heard if you call the office and leave a message.

Now is the time.  The Rinos are in the wings.  The future is at stake.

homo unius libri

Opus 2024-375: Middle Class Morality: Fathers

The Bible gives us the right to call God, “Abba”.  That is a term for father, which is an endearment.  The closest I can think of an English would be “daddy”.  It speaks of familiarity and all of the wonderful attributes of the relationship between a loving father and a trusting child.  As I was thinking about it today I wondered how much of our concept of being a father is unique to a culture that is rooted in Judeo Christian values.

Most of my ideas of what it is to be a father in another country are based on movies and books and such as that.  I don’t know how accurate they are.  I know in some cultures that the boys are raised with the women up to a certain point, and then are moved over into the men’s hut.  There are probably many other variations.  How many of them reflect the kind of God that could be called father?

homo unius libri

Opus 2024-374: Deserving

In a previous post I talked about how people get what they deserve.  In that I was talking about You Tube videos and government.  As I put away my iPad and started looking up and thinking about God again I began to wonder if people don’t get the eternity they deserve.

Like many statements and propositions, there are two sides to this.

In one sense, we don’t want the eternity we deserve.  Theologically we are all sinners, and bound for hell.  Theologically there’s nothing we can do to save ourselves.  We are totally dependent upon the grace of God.  All of that is true.  We deserve an eternity in hell.

But also theologically, we have free will, and we make choices.  The Bible is full of references to the fact that some people choose righteousness, and some people choose evil.  It also has statements to the effect that the vast majority of human beings will choose the way of evil.  It may be a very low-key evil, just simple self-centeredness, but it is still evil.  And that self-centeredness is the seed that grows into the gross evils of our society.

So yes, in terms of eternity God gives us what we choose.  In the big picture it may not be what we really deserve because we’re all sinners, but it’s what we choose by either accepting or rejecting God’s offer of salvation.

I have a theory about how and why.  I can’t remember if I have shared it before here, but it says that most people, if given a choice, will go to hell on purpose.  The reason for this is that they find the righteous glory of a holy God to be so offensive that they would prefer the fire of Hell.  They will flee an eternity with the righteous one because it offends their sense of being god themselves.

Might be heresy.  Might be true.  Remember God knows our hearts and minds better than we do.

homo unius libri

Opus 2024-373: A Good Reason

I think all of us recognize that the current educators and academics have done everything they can to destroy patriotism and love of country.  Many of them actively hate America.  Others are just kind of sheep led along by those who do the hating.

Sunday we celebrated Veterans Day and part of the celebration was singing patriotic songs out of the hymnal.  It didn’t take very long to understand why these people hate patriotism.  All of the songs dealing with patriotism and love of country also dealt with love of God and giving God credit for the blessings we have.

Take for instance the Battle Hymn of the Republic.  The last verse has these words,

In the beauty of the lilies Christ was born across the sea,
With a glory in His bosom that transfigures you and me.

Now that is a thought you would not want precious young woke minds to hear.

Or,

America!  America!  God shed His grace on thee,
And crown they good with brotherhood From sea to shining sea!

So if you’re looking for part of the reason why the songs are not popular ,why they’re not sung, why the whole topic is avoided, it’s because people who hate America also tend to have a hatred for God.  They may cover it up.  They may call themselves Christians.  Don’t believe it.

homo unius libri

Opus 2024-372: Veterans and Veterans

I want to thank all those who recognized veterans this weekend.  They had us stand at church.  They said some nice words.  That’s very welcome.

Having said that I think that we need to have an understanding that there’s a difference between guys like me who put in their time and were either in the states or in the rear echelons and never came under fire compared to those who actually went out into the field and not only were shot at but might have been wounded and had to shoot back.

It’s a whole different world.  If you’re looking for someone to thank then give double thanks to those who actually put their lives on the line.  I was in a war zone.  I went places where people have been killed at other times.  I on the other hand never experienced what it was to actually risk my life.

Thank you, you’re welcome.  And I thank those who actually served as warriors.

homo unius libri

Opus 2024-371: Meek and Mild

One of the twists of truth that we find in some peoples minds and some books is that Jesus is a different God than Yahweh.  It is almost a mantra for God haters.  I don’t believe it.  God is consistent through eternity.  What might give people that strange idea?

As I was pondering that in the dark this morning, it occurred to me that Jesus only had to be patient for three years.  That’s what we think His ministry was between His coming out and the crucifixion.  If you look at God in the Old Testament as He dealt with Israel, you find that there was amazing patience, which eventually would erupt into punishment.  That punishment at times would get very violent and a purge would be upon the disobedient.

But consider how long God waited before He acted.  It might be generations.  It was always much longer than three years.  If Jesus’ ministry on the Earth had been longer than three years then we might’ve seen many more examples of the wrath of God coming from Him.  If you look at prophecy, and the end times, you see the other side of Jesus.

Just a speculation and a thought.  In three years the only time coming close to violence or wrath that I can think of was the cleansing of the temple.  Maybe something else will occur to me.

Be ready for when He returns because you won’t want to be on the wrong end of His wrath.

homo unius libri

Opus 2024-370: The Measure of Success

If they keep doing it, it must be because it works.  If it works, it must be because we keep falling for it.

I speak of Clickbait.  Even worse than Clickbait is the dangling promise that is never fulfilled.  There are many headlines that look interesting.  On occasion I will fall for it.  Click.  Sometimes after I click at the beginning, it seems like this is going to be interesting.  But as the short video winds on, I keep not hearing what I’m listening for.  As it approaches the end, I realize what’s going on.  They are trying to get me to subscribe to their channel by grabbing my interest with something that is worth being interested in.  They do a good job of keeping my attention.  I sometimes watch to the point that they say something to the effect, “if you want to know the answer to this puzzle, subscribe to our feed.”

Now, as I said at the beginning, if it didn’t work, they wouldn’t keep trying to do it.  The other side of that is the only way it works is that there are enough people who keep falling for it that it pays them to deceive.  In a free country they can do this.  I salute them.  If it supports them and advances their agenda in life, and doesn’t do any real harm to those of us who hang up, more power to them.  At the same time, it wouldn’t work if we weren’t so gullible, and if we did not refuse to see what’s written on the wall in front of us.

This is another form of “people get the government they deserve”.  I have family members who don’t like me saying that.  The fact that they don’t like it does not make it any less true.  We got Joe Biden.  I admit the election was stolen.  I think it was a hideous crime by the Democrats and the deep state.  At the same time they would not have gotten away with it if the people in those states did not put up with.  It shows that they did and continue to like it.

You get the YouTube videos you deserve.

homo unius libri

Opus 2024-369: Orange Feelings

I’m responding to the son of a friend who says that he could never vote for Donald Trump.  I’ve never had a conversation with him on the topic so I don’t know where he would go with this but I’m guessing that he would focus on what we Trump supporters call TDS or “Trump Derangement Syndrom”, sometimes expressed as  “Orange man bad”.  It would be an attitude about Trump that comes purely from the media hype and from all of the things that we’ve heard from the media about how nasty he is.  I’m sure his tweets would come up and his affairs from the past.

What came to me as I was thinking about this today was that if we took our attitude toward Jesus Christ based on the same sources, then we would say we would want to have nothing to do with Jesus.  Think about what the media and the academic world tells us about the God of the Old Testament.  Think about the watered down version of the Savior that they like to portray.  Would you want to base your opinion based on such blatant lies and distortions?  Coming at it from the other side, I recommend people read the entire Koran and not listen to the insipid nonsense that you hear from “influencers”.  

There is little we can do wth people who’s excuse for a mind is made up.  Fossils are once living organisms that died and had the cells replaced one at a time with rock.  You cannot breathe life back into a rock.  You cannot get a Democrat to think.  One advantage of the rock is that if you needed a paperweight it would not shift with every wind that blows by.

Do your own research.  Trust when you have to.  No one has time to investigate everything.  But don’t use it as a substitute for thinking on your own.

homo unius libri

Opus 2024-368: Is God a Literalist?

Does God always speak literally?  Does He ever use figures of speech?  I’m referring to such things as the words “never”, “always,” “forever” and such expressions.

In my every day life my wife likes to say that I “never wipe the counter”.  She likes to say that I “always forget ______.”  I think you get the idea.  Just because I didn’t do it in the five minutes before she gets excited, that means I never did it.  

We all do this.  For some of us hyperbole is a way of life.  That itself is possible hyperbole.

So the question is, “Does God speak this way?”  When He says to David, that the covenant will be forever, does He mean literally forever or figuratively forever?  Take this as one example,

(2Sa 7:16-7 KJV)  And thine house and thy kingdom shall be established for ever before thee: thy throne shall be established for ever.  According to all these words, and according to all this vision, so did Nathan speak unto David.

That would seem straightforward.  What complicates the issue is other places where He seems to put “if” statements into the proclamation.  Here God is talking to Solomon.

(2Ch 7:17-21 KJV)  And as for thee, if thou wilt walk before me, as David thy father walked, and do according to all that I have commanded thee, and shalt observe my statutes and my judgments; Then will I stablish the throne of thy kingdom, according as I have covenanted with David thy father, saying, There shall not fail thee a man to be ruler in Israel.  But if ye turn away, and forsake my statutes and my commandments, which I have set before you, and shall go and serve other gods, and worship them; Then will I pluck them up by the roots out of my land which I have given them; and this house, which I have sanctified for my name, will I cast out of my sight, and will make it to be a proverb and a byword among all nations.  And this house, which is high, shall be an astonishment to every one that passeth by it; so that he shall say, Why hath the LORD done thus unto this land, and unto this house?  And it shall be answered, Because they forsook the LORD God of their fathers, which brought them forth out of the land of Egypt, and laid hold on other gods, and worshipped them, and served them: therefore hath he brought all this evil upon them.

Solomon is the direct descendant of David.  He is the one to whom the throne must pass.  Notice, though, that with David the “shall be established forever” becomes an “if” statement.  Is God confused?  Does He change His mind?  Or is it simply a figure of speech that everyone who was not committed to a theological position could understand?

Of course this could be another one of those both/and situations rather than either/or.  I don’t have an easy answer but I am aware of the question.

homo unius libri

Opus 2024-367: Pigs and Pearls

There’s a verse that came to mind because a phrase came to mind.  The phrase was “throwing pearls before swine”.  The verse was,

(Mat 7:6 KJV)  Give not that which is holy unto the dogs, neither cast ye your pearls before swine, lest they trample them under their feet, and turn again and rend you.

I was thinking about this because I was reflecting on being gaslighted so often in my life.  One of the things that makes some of us susceptible to gaslighting is that we have a low opinion of our opinions.  I took very seriously the idea of turning the other cheek and the mental attitude behind that.  I took it so seriously that I applied it to much of my thinking and my opinions.  So I’ve always doubted the conclusions that I come to.

As I grow older, and I hope finally grow up, I’m beginning to realize that God has been able to speak to me over the years and show me things.  I would listen, but then I would get gaslighted and things would slip away.

What has caused me to think is a small bit of reading I did recently out of the Works of Wesley. He was writing to an unidentified correspondent about love, and throwing it around in the way that Wesley likes to do.  It seemed kind of strange to me because it didn’t get down to the actual meaning of love.  He quoted things in a way that seem to be out of context, and not quite accurate.  And thinking about that I realize that he was trying to convey to people who did not acknowledge the Bible as the word of God or God as the creator of the universe truths that are sublime.  They were wallowing in the mud and he was offering them pearls.

Tie that together with a YouTube site that I came to from listening to Andrew Klavan.  It’s called the Young Heretics.  As I was sampling, one of the videos to see what it was like the host, Spencer Klavan, was going on about how hard it is to understand words from another language.  I got as far as to understand that he felt it was impossible.  What he was trying to get out is that there are nuances in words in Greek and Hebrew but we just can’t get in the English and you can’t get in one spot of translation.

Good example of that would be this word “love” that Wesley was referring to.  In the New Testament, the word is usually agape in the Greek.  It is a complex and deep word.  It is a word that we need to get in context so that we can actually understand what he’s talking about.  That’s when people like Wesley quote the verse, “Perfect love, casts out, fear” (I John 4:18), and then try to make it refer every experience you have the rest of your life.  They are really losing their reliability.

Which brings us back to throwing pearls before swine.  I need to look up the context and see if it agrees with what I’m saying.  What I’m saying is that throwing pearls before swine doesn’t help the swine at all and could damage the pearls.  That throwing out deep theological truths in front of unbelievers is really a waste of time.  It doesn’t help them.  It waters down the truth.  I guess if the swine eat too many pearls it might even upset their digestion.

Save the deep truths for the open hearts.  Stick with the simple stuff for people who are not listening.  Better yet, live in such a way that they ask questions.

homo unius libri

Opus 2024-366: The Deception of Upgrades

Did you get the recent digital upgrade of the book 1984?  Neither did I.  In fact, I have suspicions that somehow it was removed from my iPad and my Kindle.  I can’t find it anymore anyway.

Have you noticed that probably never happened if you had a paper copy of the book?  Digital devices are really wonderful.  I enjoy reading on my Kindle.  I enjoy using my iPad.  The problem is they make it impossible for us to be serious about long-term learning and retention of information.

I have books that I will pass on to my children.  I have other books that will either go into the dumpster, yard sales, or to a local charity.  Ultimately, it will be up to the children what they keep and what they don’t keep.  It will not be up to the government or some high-tech monopoly to decide what they want to keep or throw away.  Books can be handed down for hundreds of years if they’re carefully taken care of.  Digital devices can be wiped clean in seconds.

While the publishing industry has developed papers that last longer and longer by being acid free the digital industry has made it easier and easier to deny us information.  Have you noticed that if you want music you have to download it.  Physical discs are becoming harder to find.  That way if they want to remove the music from your world it’s not a problem.  Don’t even think about owning your software.  We do not understand how powerful and devious digital masters can be.  They do have the power to go into your computer without your knowledge and change things, remove things and add things.  You may not know what they added until the Gestapo (biggest apple) shows up to arrest you forbidden knowledge.

Digital information in the long run will probably be as useful as the virtual arsenal you have in one of your computer games.  Start building a library of hard assets that will be able to be read in the future.  Aquire the kind of things that can be read in firelight.  Build a pantry of information that will not change while you sleep.

Wouldn’t it be nice if I was totally wrong.  Feel free to label this a conspiracy theory.  Keep in mind that most of them prove out in the end.  One example of what computers can do in their infinite wisdom you see above.  I told the voice recognition software “Gestapo” and it wrote “biggest apple”.  Don’t trust the cyber world.

homo unius libri

Opus 2024-365: Make up words

As I was thinking about how hard it is to describe God I had a couple of thoughts.  I know that surprises you, but that’s the way it goes.

First, I had a thought that our attempts to describe God as feeble as they are, might bring him pleasure.  Yes, I know God is complete, and doesn’t need our input.  Yes, I know that we cannot add to him.  But somehow I believe in His creation of creatures who are made in his image part of what He is looking for is that voluntary, spontaneous, free-will praise and adoration.  That can only come from us as human beings.

Second, I’m thinking that when we get to eternity, we will spend a lot of time making up words in order to try and describe God.  We will speak/write a book, trying to describe something that we have observed, or experienced about God, and then we will make up a word to go along with that book.  The word did not exist before but all of the ideas in the book did.  We just put them together and make it so that instead of having somebody present “an entire book” every time they want to talk about God, they simply use that word.

What a life that will be as we add in a sense to the vocabulary of eternity.  Of course, we won’t even be coming close to describing him.  But as two times infinity still equals infinity, there will be a sense in which we are closer and yet just as far away.

What a journey that will be.

homo unius libri

Opus 2024-364: The Descent into Philosophy

I started off thinking about the profane.  That was the old statement of Bill Clinton about the meaning of “is”.  It has a lot of implications.

Remember the declinsion of the verb “to be”?

I am        we are
you are   you are
he is        they are

We take this for granted but there are languages that don’t use it much.  If you are ever reading the Old Testament in the KJV or NASB you will notice that usually the words “is” and “are” are in italics.  That is because the word appearing in English is not in the Hebrew.  Because of how we talk it is implied and thus used.  For instance we might say “The sky is blue”.  Writing that in Hebrew would be “the sky blue”

It might very well matter what the meaning of “is” is.

From there my mind jumped to theology.

In the Bible we have what are called the “I Am” statements.  It is rooted in God talking to Moses and explaining who He was.  Moses asked what name he should use for God when he went to Pharaoh.  

(Exo 3:14 KJV)  And God said unto Moses, I AM THAT I AM: and he said, Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, I AM hath sent me unto you.

God spells it out that His name means that He exists as contrasted with the idols and false gods of the pagans in Egypt.  This is where we get the name of God as Yahweh.

And from there I crossed the vapor thin barrier to philosophy.

I love philosophy on the experiential level.  Every time you disagreed with someone it ultimately comes back to your philosophy.  We are all philosophers, but we refuse to admit it.  We think of philosophy is being some kind of vague ivory tower nonsense that only over paid college professors talk about.  That’s part of philosophy, true, but that’s like saying that the meat in a great hamburger comes from a different cow than the meat in your steak.  Two different things, but the same idea.

Believe it or not one of the questions that Philosophers ask is, “Do we exist?”  Or maybe a better way of expressing it is, “do I exist?”  Or you would think that being able to ask that question would answer the question.  In fact the famous philosopher Rene Descartes came up with a summary, “I think, therefore, I am.”  There’s also the speculation of something called the Boltzmann brains.  Actually, the question is, “Do they exist?”  This philosopher came up with the idea that the universe, as we know it, is just our imagination and we are just these mental beings floating around in space and thinking great thoughts.

So do you exist?  According to the philosophers I must exist because I am asking the question, but I can’t be sure about you.  I might be the only aware creature in the entire universe, and I have created all of this circus of reality just for my own amusement.  I guess in a sense you might say that I am what some people think of us God.

Perish the thought.

homo unius libri

Opus 2024-363: A New Contrast

I have several times made the statement that I am not a cynic, I’m a skeptic. I stand by that.  I have no trouble with it.

A new contrast came to mind as I was thinking about my children and the children of friends.  They are all very bright young people.  OK, they’re not so young anymore but compared to me they are.  They are wonderful, warm hearted, compassionate.  In a word they are what anybody would want his children to be.

But where I am overjoyed with how my children are turning out this others area bit disappointed.  My children are more conservative than I am in many areas.  We have our differences but that mainly in areas where flexibility is an asset.  My friend has children who have become Never Trumper’s with a lot of values consistent with woke progressivism.

Why the difference?

Obviously I am not God and I cannot give you a definitive answer.  One of the things that came to mind as I was making comparisons and contrasts is that people would think we were both a bit out of the box, shall we say.  We don’t just go along with everything.  So why the difference?

I am wondering if the difference is that where I am a skeptic and refused to accept things just because someone says so, he is a rebel that refuses to accept any authority that doesn’t go along with what he wants.  There’s a real difference there.

I think that perhaps the difference comes out in our children.  Mine are rebels but they are thinking rebels.  They know why they are rebels.  They refused to go along with the crowd.  His children have done well for themselves.  Money is no object.  They are successful professionals. In the process they seem to have sold their souls to the devil.  I exaggerate.  Consider that hyperbole.  But the principle is there.

So think for yourself.  Don’t accept whatever people tell you just because they are authorities.  But don’t fall into blind rebellion.  Set your  course based on your compass, not the direction of the wind and current.

homo unius libri