Opus 2025-040: A Stolen Idea

I have looked for the source.  I can’t find it.  At this point, I doubt if I will ever be able to isolate where I came up with this idea, but it is not mine.  It stood out to me when I read it, and for some reason, I did not make a note of where I found it.

The mysterious writer said that the most important, or significant, issue in any argument is the basic assumptions you start with.  He said you can have all the right facts, have logic that is impeccable, have everything on your side, but if you start with the wrong assumptions, your conclusion is wrong.

Assumptions totally mold the argument.  Assumptions guide your choice of facts.  You ignore many things that might apply but either you don’t see them or are you downplay them.  Assumptions direct your logic.

One of my big assumptions and everything that I do, say and think is that there is a God and He is the God of the Bible.  I assume He has expectations about right and wrong.  I assume there is evil in the world and it is opposed to Him.  I assume He wants me to live in obedience.  That is the root.

So certain issues are no brainers.  Killing your baby in the womb is not an option.  Sex is reserved for marriage and the is defined as being between one man and one women.  God created only man and women, not unlimited genders based on our feelings of the day.  There is a hell as well as a heaven.  I am sure I could go on but I also assume you have a limited attention span.

Start you day with the right assumptions.  It is more important than the right breakfast.

homo unius libri

Opus 2025-039: The Yellow Snow May Be Lemonade

Thursday on a Zoom meeting we got to talking about the L.A. fires.  At least three of the group live in the ash strewn valleys.  One lives within the “no-go zone”.  He is in an interesting situation.  They are not forcing people to leave but they have turned off the electricity.  They were first told to boil their tap water then told not to boil it because that would release poisons that had been absorbed.  He can leave but he can’t come back.  It is typical California nonsense.

What struck me was the positive things he had to say about his situation.  He said it was bringing people out of their houses and getting them to talk.  He was encouraged by the spirit of community that was emerging.  He was getting to know people he had lived beside for years.  It doesn’t rebuild the homes or bring the dead back to life but it is an aspect of hardship that we overlook.  

Another guy on the call, who does not live in California, reminisced on the experience I shared with him in Boston during the Blizzard of ‘78.  Martial law was declared and you could not drive.  People came out of their houses and met in the snow clogged streets and got to know each other.  It was an unexpected benefit of the attack by Mother Nature.

So be encouraged.  The destruction is not over yet but life goes on and people are busy making lemonade.

homo unius libri

Opus 2025-038: The Fire Shall Burn on the Just and the Unjust

I have mixed emotions and thoughts about the California fires.

On one hand I have friends who still live in the area threatened by the fire.  Another series of furious winds and they may be out on the streets.  On the other hand I have been encouraging them to leave for years and there is nothing but deeper heel marks.  It is hard to feel much sympathy for people who keep eating at a fast food place that gives them gastric adventures.

On the one hand there are virtuous, godly people who have been effected.  I believe this simply because it is hard to believe that an entire town is full of blue brained fools.  Having said that I used to believe there were still some good people in the Democrat party too.  Some fantasies are hard to unbelieve.  I feel for those people.

On the other hand the vast majority of people being burned out have consistently voted and contributed to the people and policies that made the fires much worse than they needed to be.  Many of them will vote for the hairdo again if given a chance.  The plain fact is that some people will never learn.  My sympathy runs out very quickly for those people.  I wish them well.  I hope that they do not get what they deserve, but that crosses over into the nature of evil and why people seem to be less than they should be.

Let us hope that lessons can be learned at the lowest possible price.

homo unius libri

Opus 2025-037: MADD, Media Attention Desire Disorder

I was watching a YouTube conversation between Chris Williamson and Konstantin Kisin.  There were intersting insights into what is going on in the UK but nothing shocking.  During the discussion they touched on the main goal of media, both social and legacy.  I thought this was an interesting summation:

“Do whatever it takes to get you the most attention.”

Truth, facts, informing, all take a back seat to making a splash.  I think that is true of what we consider news and even the weather.  As I have been picking up coverage of the fires in Southern California I get the same coverage.  In talking to people who live close to the fire I get both how the destruction does not seem to get the coverage it should and the panic is overdone.  One guy on our Zoom call is living within the no-go zone.  He has no electricity and there is dust everywhere.  Other than that he is getting along.  They are not forcing him to leave but if he tries to go out for supplies they will not let him back in.

These are good lessons for being prepared for various levels of emergency.

homo unius libri

Opus 2025-036: The Grace Card

I think possibly that the library card is an excellent example of how grace works in salvation.  We think of being saved by grace and that is a gift of God.  This is true.  The same basic statement could be made about your library card.  I think that salvation has a lot in common with your library privileges.

We tend to think of a library card as being free.  It is a gift from whatever government agency issues the card.  As a general rule, we don’t stop to think about the fact that someone had to build the library, stock it with books, and hire people to work there.  I think most people feel like the library just appears out of unicorn dust like they do every other government service.  The truth is that someone has to pay or there is no library.  In the case of your library, it’s paid for by taxes, which means you pay it.

Salvation is more like me going to another jurisdiction, and getting a library card in an area which I do not pay taxes.  In this case, someone else pays the price of the card.  That’s more like salvation.  It depends on someone else paying the price for my sin.  In this case it’s Jesus.  So let’s just go with the idea that my library card is free.

What is necessary for me to get a library card?  One library that I have a card from will give you a card as long as you live in Texas.  Others require certain ZIP Codes.  Some require you to live specifically within the city limits.  The point is there are requirements on getting it and you have to apply.  Unlike ballots that the Democrats want to supply, they are not mailed out to everyone.  They are available.  They are not automatic. That is in sync with the idea of salvation by grace.

So far you probably are with me, but here’s where my reform readers will part company.  The big question in my life ,or at least in my mind is, what does it take to keep the card functioning?  Understand, nowadays library cards are not issued on forever basis.  Every card that I have communicates with me roughly once a year.  They are not looking to revoke my privileges or, in a sense to remove my salvation, they are simply wanting to know if I am still on board.  Do I still consider myself a part of the library community?  There are no additional fees, but they do check my address to make sure that it’s really me.  Simple stuff.  Within the reach of every library card holder.  If I don’t respond or if I tell them no thanks, my library card is canceled and my privileges are revoked.  It is totally up to me.  It is my choice.

I think that’s a good example of how salvation works as we walk down the life that comes after being saved.  God is not going to cast us out into the darkness, like He did the man with the inadequate wedding clothes.  Jesus didn’t die on a cross to see how many people He gets into hell.  At the same time, Jesus doesn’t consider His sacrifice just kind of a cheap bit of laughter material, because nothing is expected of us.  We have the statement and Peter,

(2Pe 3:9 KJV)  The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.

At the same time Paul is constantly telling us, and reminding us that we need to keep living a righteous life.

So if you haven’t done so, apply for a card at your local library.  If you haven’t done so express you believe in Jesus and have your sins forgiven and get your spiritual library card signifying that you were a member in good standing of the body of Christ.  And make sure that you keep it up-to-date.

The cost is already been paid.  The price was beyond your reach.  It has been paid.  That’s what makes it something that is available to you.

homo unius libri

Opus 2025-035: Pagan Science

Words and concepts change as time marches on.  Some of that is cultural differences that were always there locally and gradually spread across cultural lines.  The Greek concept of the Logos was adopted by the Christian church and modified to meet their needs.  Other times it never crosses over because of a lack of need.  The Eskimos, now going by Inuit, have at least four different words for snow.  Arabs would just ask, “What is snow?”  

One word that has changed in meaning is “science”.

In the pagan world, the meaning of “science” was totally different.  In Aristotle, the meaning of science seems to be any area of study or interest.  In that way of thinking Theology was called the “Queen of the sciences” in medieval times.  The concept of science as we think of it was very limited.

Only with the renaissance and the emergence of the scientific method do we come to the modern concept that science is something that studies the physical world and investigates the principles, called laws, behind it.

Today we are reverting back to the pagan concepts that science is anything you want it to be.  That’s why we have terms like political science.  Politics is not a science in our modern way of thinking and in the Renaissance concept it is just an area of study.  At the heart of this is the humanistic philosophy that there is no absolute truth; truth is within you; it is anchored in your world view and self image.

Science may have passed its usefulness.  If science does not reach back and grasp the concept that there is truth then they will have no basis for further investigation.  All they will need to do is sit in their ivory towers, get grant money from the government and work their imaginations.  In many areas of science that is what they have been doing for years.

Keep in mind that the airplane does not fly because the pilot has a strong self image but because of Bernoulli’s Principle.

homo unius libri

Opus 2025-034: Making Progress

Is Pilgrim’s Progress  an example of a modern version of the book of Job?

I was reading in Psalm 109.  I was struck by the poetic nature of the writing.  As I worked my way down, I told myself that there is very little in this Psalm that I would take as being literal.  It is poetic.  It is Figurative.  It is imaginative.  I would not be mining any scientific principles or understanding of history on what I read here.  I could get insights into the glory of God and His Majesty.

When we read scripture, we need to do so with discernment.  We need to understand that the authors of the different books, let alone, the Holy Spirit, are just as smart as we are.  In fact, they are smarter.  They may not have taken the courses in English literature that we did, but I listened enough to understand the concept of simile and metaphor and hyperbole and allegory.  They use all of those to communicate truth.

Which brings me to my original question in comparing the work of John Bunyan, and that of Job.  One of the questions people ask about the book of Job is, “Is this something that really happened or is this a product of creativity?”  Is this figurative or literal?  Is it history or parable?  I could ask the same question about the parables of Jesus, such as the good Samaritan.  Were these related by Jesus based on what He had seen or created to get across a point?

I think everyone who knows which foot to put the right shoe on would acknowledge that Bunyan was writing an allegory.  The literary form of allegory does not fit so well with the book of Job.  A better example for Job might be the dialogues of Socrates.  Did those discussions actually happen as listed?  Not being a scholar of ancient literature I don’t know how that response would break down, but I imagine you would find some people who would say that Plato was writing them as accurately as he could remember, possibly with perfect accuracy, and you would find others that would say that he pretty much made them up on the fly.

I would say it doesn’t really matter.  Both allegory and dialogue are presenting insights and argument, and teach a certain point or principle.  The same could be said about parables.  The value of either depends on the willingness of the learner to consider the truth that is being offered.  Don’t be like my grandson who refuses to taste anything that is not already on his list of approved foods.

Paying attention, spending time in consideration and discussing the results can make your day.  Make a few days and you transform your tomorrows.

homo unius libri