Opus 2026-067: Don’t Assume

What is truly one of the problems we have today is trying to find where we can get accurate information.  We have the category of Fake News.  We have such nonsense as global warming.  We have supposedly honest scientist talking about the missing links when they describe evolution.  Everywhere you look there is deceit, compromise, and all the words they make up to disguise that they are lying to you.

You would think that the one place you would find a real respect for truth is in the believing Christian community.  You would think the truth would set up a standard in their hearts and minds and be expressed through their tongues.  You would think you could go to a church that claims to be Bible believing and find truth being spoken.

Sadly, that’s not the case.

Most of us are aware that many of the mega churches have drifted away from scripture.  We know about the Progressive church.  We know about the new age.  We are aware of the deception is going on.  What we don’t like to admit is that twisting and compromise is setting up a castle in the hearts of minds of people we think of as true believers.

Sometimes the deception is based on the fact that they’ve been taught wrong.  They’ve been indoctrinated with a certain slant from a certain theological perspective, and they adapted.  They repeated without thinking or searching the scripture for themselves.  I think that’s almost universal across the church . And what is amazing is when you share with them something that is clearly stated and they say, “Well, it doesn’t mean that.”

Recently, I was watching a video that caught my eye because it said something to the effect of did Jesus really say, “Go and sin no more.”  My first reaction is, what a stupid question.  I’ve read it over and over again.  I don’t know that I’ve ever researched the Greek, but I know what it says.  How could there be any question?  But evidently there is.  The man putting on this podcast went down along windy road, never getting close to the conclusion before I finally turned him off, but I could tell he was going to compromise on something.  It is a basic statement of Jesus.  Why the question?  Because he’s been indoctrinated in the Calvinistic interpretation of Pauline theology and is incapable of getting beyond it.  I’ve seen the same arguments when someone says with the Bible does not say you’re saved by faith alone.  Then it’s pointed out that the only place that that phrase appears is in James where he is saying it’s not by faith alone.  And again in some convoluted twisted way, they managed to turn that on its head.

No, I’m not talking about those people.  They are not trying to deceive.  They are not aware of their deception.

So whom am I speaking about?

Here’s where I come to my reading and discussion with King James Only (KJO) and Mid-Aact Dispensation (MAD) people . I first entered into my reading and discussing in good faith.  I assumed that the commandment that we interpret as not lying would be followed by them, even though it is under the law.  Unfortunately, that doesn’t seem to be the way it works.  I think I’ve expressed this before, but I want to say it again here.  The two groups mentioned tend to take the scripture and put it in a special category and, while they will admit it if you confront them, they continually hide it behind their vocabulary.

An example from frequent instances.  There’s a word that Christians around the world assume means a certain thing.  That word is “Bible”.  You can be speaking in any language and they may have a different word for it but you know what they mean.  It is a book that contains the words of God from Genesis to Revelation.  These two groups have decided to redefine the word.  When they say the word “Bible” what they mean is the 1611 translation of King James.  They don’t say that, but that’s what they mean.  There are subtle indicators, like for instance they no longer talk about the KJV but instead the KJB.  The difference to them is significant, but it’s no concern for us because we assume that the KJV is a Bible, we may not preferred it as our translation but we referred to it as a Bible.  That courtesy is not extended the other way.  If you don’t use the KJB, you are not reading the Bible.  Anything you quote from another translation has very likely been distorted by Satan.

Do you think I joke?  I wish I joked.  Stay alert.  It’s a jungle out there.

homo unius libri

Opus 2026-066: Prima, not Sola

One of the common concepts I am trying to deal with is the five Solas.  I believe it is a teaching in Calvinism.  The five Solas are faith, grace, scripture, Christ and the glory of God.

Logic alone tells us that the literal understanding of five different points that are “only” does not make sense.  If it is “faith alone” then why do you need grace and so forth.  I am sure that in the defining of the terms there is a lot of qualifying and back peddling.

I would suggest that a better approach would be to speak of the five Primas rather than the five Solas.  Even that would require some explanation.  You can’t have five things that are first.  The reasoning is that they are first in different catagories.

Take faith as an example.  “Faith alone” in regard to salvation, which is how this phrase is used, is not only nonsense but is the opposite of what the Bible actually says.  Even Paul, who emphasizes faith, goes on to describe behaviors that will keep you out of eternal life.  At the same time faith seems to be the universal requirement for entering into a saving relationship with Jesus.  There is no question about that but I would say scripture is consistent in expecting obedience after the fact, thus “prima” or first faith.

The Bible is clear from Genesis to Revelation that following rules, laws or ritual can never earn God’s forgiveness.  Salvation comes down to trusting in God and His action in response to that trusting.  We can do one and He will do the other.

homo unius libri

Opus 2026-065: Jerky Insights

I just finished putting some beef jerky into the dehydrator and now I wait for the results.  I’ve gotten into this because I couldn’t find jerky that I really liked.  The one place that I could get it and almost get delirious about was a place called Capri Deli, but it’s all the way out in California.  My kids have tried having it shipped, but they don’t seem to be big on customer service when it comes to people out of town.

So I started thinking about making my own and as often happens, I did a lot of thinking and no jerky making.  My kids, again as usual, came to the rescue and bought me a dehydrator and what is called a jerky gun.  The jerky gun is for making it with ground beef.  I started with the jerky gun, but found that the process of preparing and cleaning up was just too much and actually buying top round and slicing it myself was much easier.  And now I have found places where I can find top round pre-sliced.

My kids encourage me because I came up with a recipe for teriyaki jerky and they love it.  Since I don’t have a great enjoyment of teriyaki, they have more left for them when I make it since I don’t do a lot of sampling.  I experiment with different recipes and in the process I’m noticing something.

Most jerky recipes have at least one ingredient that is not common.  I don’t know how much that affects the actual taste, my pallette is not known for it’s discernment, but I have to assume it has some effect.  Today’s key ingredient was celery seed.  Another one is made with coriander.  One recipe I have cause for habanero peppers. With the exception of the habanero, I’m not sure I can really tell that much difference.  I know it affects the taste, but it’s on a subtle level that I don’t notice.  What happens if I leave it out?  Some people will tell right away, others like me, would need to leave out something significant like soy sauce.

I think it is these ingredients that you don’t think about that make the difference in the long run.  Today’s recipe called for kosher salt.  To me salt is salt.  What makes it salt is its salty taste.  Other people would tend to disagree with me.  If I use regular salt, I’m sure it would be OK but somehow I just have this feeling, call it an emotion, that it actually tastes better with kosher salt.  Keep in mind though that I also think that Chinese food tastes better when you eat it with chopsticks.

You can start leaving out key ingredients and, no matter how dull your sense of taste, eventually, you will notice a difference.  I have one recipe that a family member dug up out of an old journal.  It’s nothing but salt, pepper, garlic, and onion, sprinkled on and then dehydrated.  No special sauces or herbs.  You don’t marinate it.  You just dry it.  Sad to say it taste like you just dried it.  Somewhere along the line the missing ingredients made a strong difference.

In life, we have people telling us that certain things are important.  They tell us that certain moral standards make a difference.  Take an overused example of alcohol.  I am a teetotaler.  I don’t drink at all.  I can’t stand the smell of the alcohol.  In my opinion, that makes me a good judge of how much is too much.  I am convinced that having one drink with dinner is not going to destroy you physically or morally.  I’m also convinced that when you have a hard time staggering out the door and can’t figure out which key starts the car, you have crossed a line.  You crossed it long before.  My advice is, don’t take the first drink.  Taking the first drink might not make any difference, but somewhere along the line, somewhere in the evening, you are going to get to the place where it does make a difference.  At that point it’s too late.

So pay attention to the little things they add up.

homo unius libri

Opus 2026-064: Off the Cuff: Have I Got a Deal for You

From reading Psalm 80.

I notice that this is again a Psalm of Asaph.  He does not seem to have the deepest flowing thoughts.  He lives in a time when Israel is a wasteland.  We know this because all the people around are laughing at them.  The temple and Jerusalem have been destroyed.

Asaph totally misses the point.  He complains and calls on God.  He wants restoration and renewal.  What he does not want is responsibility and repentance.  He does not seem to see the sin in Israel.

He tries to make a deal with God.

Psalm 80:18 (KJV) So will not we go back from thee: quicken us, and we will call upon thy name.

He seems to think that he has the upper hand and God will fall for his offer.  He totally misses the point that Israel is suffering because of this kind of attitude.

Do I try to bargain with God from a position of strength?  What a joke but how typical.

homo unius libri

Opus 2026-063: Forgotten Blessings

We live in a privileged age and a privileged country. We tend to forget that, and many Americans who have never left the country unsupervised have no idea of how good we have it.

I say unsupervised because there are many people who might travel to other parts of the world in carefully sheltered bubbles designed to give them a false impression.  I think back to the journalists who were taken to the Soviet Union in the early days of communism.  They were taken to the Potemkin villages and thought they were seeing the real Russia when all they were seeing was a carefully constructed movie set.  Many of them returned, writing glowing approval of the Soviet system, totally unaware that reality was more displayed in the Gulag Archipelago than it was in the construct they visited.  You get the same effect when you go on a scheduled tour.

And thinking about our blessings, my mind went back to some of the things that stood out to me when I was on a tour of Vietnam.  It’s always strange what you remember.

I think the memory that comes back to be most often is the absence of the smell of diesel fuel.  It was pervasive in Vietnam.  There was a limit to personal cars, but lots of trucks and all of those trucks ran on diesel fuel.  Not having the dubious benefit of the EPA those trucks spewed out lots of fumes and clouds of black smoke.  But that was only part of the problem.  Today when I smell diesel fuel being burnt in a truck, I think of Vietnam, but what that brings back is the memory of using diesel fuel to burn the grass off of the berms around the camp.  The idea was to make it harder for terrorist to sneak up through the grass and take a pot shot at you.  You smelled it in your barracks.  You smelled it on guard duty.  You smelled it walking across the camp.  It was everywhere, but it is not here.

How about displaying your flag because you want to.  Several times I’ve read about how people from other countries are amazed at how many American flags they see flying from front porches, from businesses, even from car windows.  Americans tend to be patriotic, or at least we used to be.  Flag waving was a part of our life.  You could drive down the street on the Fourth of July and know that something was up because every porch would have a flag waving.  That means that overall we are glad to be living in a country where liberty is still in existence in parts of our lives.

I can load my rifle and not get an Article 15.  One of the totally retarded truths of being on guard duty on the outside edge of an American facility in Vietnam was that you were not allowed to load your weapon.  If you were caught with a loaded weapon, you’ll be written up.  Keep in mind this was a war zone.  It was a place full of hostile enemy out to get you.  That didn’t matter.  Some politician, back in Washington DC, surrounded by security who were armed decided that the soldiers in Vietnam should not be able to shoot back.  In Texas we don’t have that problem.

I remember the taste of the soda that we used to buy at the PX.  It had been sitting in the hold of a ship, on the back of a truck, in the hot sun for possibly months.  That brought a certain taste that was not necessarily fresh.  You couldn’t get away from it.  Well, you might’ve gotten away from it if you wanted to go into town and buy something from the black market that have been stolen from the American army.  It might still be somewhat fresh.  It always amazes me that if we couldn’t get a part to get our jeep going from the motor pool, it was available on the streets of the cities.

One of the great blessings we have that we don’t think about is the fact that we do not have a national ID card.  In many countries of the world, you can be stopped at any point and asked to produce your papers. I f you don’t have them with you you are in trouble.  I remember just checking into a hotel in Europe, I had to turn over my passport.  I remember traveling on trains and being asked to show my passport.  This is the normal procedure in much of the world.  Be careful what you wish for.  Now I can put on my pants and shoes, slip some second amendment into my pocket, and walk out the door without my wallet or any kind of identification and take a walk.  It’s called freedom.

This is one of the liberties we take for granted.  It is under attack by the underground fascists who are trying to make America a Gulag.  The problem of illegal aliens is multifaceted.  This is often overlooked.  People are calling for a national ID.  With that will come the habit of government officials stopping us and asking for ID.  So far we have mostly avoided that.

I intend to enjoy it and be grateful for it as long as possible.

homo unius libri

Opus 2026-062: Uncharted Revelation: Facing It

I was struck with the desire to declare much of revelation as figurative, and needing to be spiritualized.  The scenario was singing a song which has the chorus which goes, “Turn your eyes upon Jesus, look full and his wonderful face, and the things of earth will grow strangely dim…

I’ve sung these for years.  I find it inspirational.  I, along with the rest of the congregation really love these words.  My problem is that I had been reading the book of Revelation.  Actually, it’s not really a problem, but it sets up a bit of cognitive dissonance.

Here is how the Bible describes the face of Jesus in revelation,

Revelation 1:14-16 (KJV) 14 His head and [his] hairs [were] white like wool, as white as snow; and his eyes were as a flame of fire; 15 And his feet like unto fine brass, as if they burned in a furnace; and his voice as the sound of many waters. 16 And he had in his right hand seven stars: and out of his mouth went a sharp twoedged sword: and his countenance was as the sun shineth in his strength.

Take a moment and look at the literal picture being drawn.  Not only is his hair white, but the impression is His entire head is white as snow.  Then you have these eyes with flames coming out of them, a voice it sounds like Niagara Falls, a sword sticking out of his mouth, and finish it all off of face that is so bright that it would blind you if you looked at it.

Not a very inspirational sight.  Now, I will admit that there are probably some deep hidden meanings here, if you look at this as John, seeing Jesus and all the splendor and having trouble describing it, you’re good.  However, this does not describe a face that I want to gaze into and sing about.

There are times when I wish I could just turn off my imagination.

homo unius libri

Opus 2026-061: I Don’t Need You

I recently overheard those words.  It made me cringe.  They came back to me this morning, and I began thinking about the different ways in which that phrase could be uttered.  It could be totally devastating, or it could be very affirming, and many variances in between.

Being told that you are not needed, if uttered in the right context, and with the right tone of voice, can drive a nail into a friendship or any other kind of relationship.  People need to be needed.   Even more than being needed they have a desire to be wanted in someone else’s life.  If you have someone that you have been involved with for years and they suddenly declare this out of the blue, you wonder what is going on.  It can certainly chill the warmth of fellowship.

In between the devastation and the affirmation, you might have a simple statement of fact.  If someone calls you to tell you, they’ll be late for coffee because they have a flat tire and when you offer to come get them, they say, “I don’t need you. I have it covered. I will only be a few minutes late”, you don’t take it personally you just order another cup of coffee.  If your child is making up their bed and you’re used to helping them get it straight and they tell you that they don’t need you, that can be a time of knowing you have done your job well.

So at the other extreme, you have this situation where someone is informing you that you have made your contribution and they are now ready to grow up and step out into life.  That’s what being a parent is about.  It’s possible that you have a friend that you’ve been mentoring in a certain area and now they are ready to be independent.  It doesn’t mean you are rejected, it means that you are rewarded.

Of course, in some relationships, it’s just an acknowledgment of what has always been true.  Many times the words are not uttered because you don’t want to hurt someone’s feelings.  I am not known for my sense of design or color.  It’s possible that for years I have helped people who really didn’t need help.  In that case, it might be us who would say to them, “You really don’t need me for this.”  If the relationship is right, the statement can be affirming.

Keep looking for places where you are really needed.

homo unius libri

Opus 2026-060: Maybe Some Idea

I often find my self saying, “I have no idea.”  That is really just another one of those nonsense expressions because I usually have a lot of ideas.  What I am really saying is, “I really don’t know but I have a good imagination.”

This often comes up when I am speculating on why God does things.  Why does God allow evil?  Is the dragon in Revelation literal or figurative?

Why does God allow cancer?  Honestly, I don’t know but I am quite willing to offer the caveat, “I don’t know, but…”.  The difference between us and the animals is not that we can answer these questions but that we ask them.

Why did God choose Abraham?  I have no idea.  I have some evidence for the choice of Noah but draw a blank on Abraham.  Why is Israel special?  God makes it clear that it is not because they are so wonderful.  Did God spin His celestial dice or did He have some deep considerations that we are still guessing about?

I really don’t know but I can speculate.

Speculation is a useful tool if we understand its limitations.  I would guess that God gave us this tool to make us feel good.  Since we can never know if it is accurate until it is too late, feeling good is about all it can do for us.

So go ahead and speculate but keep on trusting.

homo unius libri

Opus 2026-059: Answers

There are a lot of questions that I cannot answer.  Why?

One reason I can’t answer a question is because it is incoherent.  My grandson is still having trouble with his pronunciation.  He’s constantly asking me questions and for the life of me I can’t figure out what he’s asking.  Then I have friends who have weird theological ideas.  They ask questions that make no sense.  Have you had the experience where you know every single word and can define every single word in a statement, but you still don’t have a clue as to what the statement is about?

I might not know the answer because of ignorance.  There are many things that are out there that I have no experience with and no comprehension of.  The encyclopedia is full of information that I don’t know.  It is available.  If I want to look hard enough, I might be able to find it.  Ultimately at this stage, though, I don’t know the answer.

Sometimes the answer is not known by anyone.  There are probably many questions in physics and biology that are still being researched.  So far many of them lack closure.  They are being pursued, but the answer keeps moving away.  Others have not yet been pursued.  The questions are on a long list that maybe someday they will get to and when they are addressed answers will be forthcoming.

Some things cannot be known.  They are beyond our capability of human beings.  We don’t like to admit that, but it’s true.  We have our limitations.  There are some lines that we will never cross.  We may approach them.  We may bang our heads against them.  Somehow, we will never be able to put together what we need to go across.  In some areas I think we’ve already reached that in mathematics where we have mathematical formulas the computers can work, but we can’t, but that’s possibly just my imagination.

One of my favorite quotes is, “Any fool can ask a question that a wise man cannot answer.”  Of course, I like to identify with a wise man more than the fool.

homo unius libri

Opus 2026-058: Another Tragedy

The world fell apart again this morning, at least briefly.

I woke up in the dark and decided it was time to get on with my day.  I sat up, picked up my glasses, and as I started to put them on, they fell apart.  It was a moment of crisis.  If you wear glasses you may have experienced the insecurity that comes when you can’t find them.  How does a person who cannot see find his glasses?  What do you do when you have them deconstruct in your hands?

I got over it.  I moved on.  Things came back into focus.

It is so easy to lose our perspective on things.  I had an echocardiogram recently and this week I will see my cardiologist to find out the results.  He has not called me yet so I guess I have a few days to live, but what will he tell me when I go to my appointment?  Will it be, “We could not find anything,” or will it be, “You have six months to live.”  That could be a real crisis.

There are so many things that could go wrong but won’t.  Since I know that God is in charge there are also many things that I don’t bother worrying about.  He has my back, as they say.  It doesn’t mean I won’t face a real tragedy, but it means that it will not really be a tragedy.  It is a great way to live.

homo unius libri

Opus 2026-057: Monday Pulpit: Why Listen?

As I’m pondering the last sermon I heard I’m wondering how someone can keep saying the same basic thing over and over again without digging any deeper?  This thought came as I was praying for the pastor and that his preparation would be spirit filled, spirit lead, and show his prayer and meditation.  He’s a man who loves the word.  He loves to proclaim what he calls the gospel.  What that means is that every Sunday sermon could be pretty much boiled down to, “turn or burn.”

We have a fair number of spiritual people who listen to this week after week and have no complaints.  I’m not going to make an issue of it because he has a high view of scripture and he is a faithful man of God.  But again, I asked myself why do people seem to enjoy this?

On the positive side it could be because they believe that there are unsaved sinners in the crowd and those unsafe sinners need to hear the gospel.  That’s probably a safe assumption, but those unsaved sinners have heard the same gospel a hundred times and it has not moved their needle.

My cynical side tells me that the reason they’re quite content just listening to a “turn or burn” sermon is because they have already turned, feel they’re not going to burn, and really don’t want to be pushed any further.

I don’t actually think that’s where they would be if they were challenged.  I think if they were challenged to grow deeper, to witness more effectively, to exercise the gifts of the Spirit, to demonstrate the fruit of the spirit, they would respond.  Sincere people operate that way.  When they hear “turn or burn”, the examine the proposition and decide they’re good.  Case over.  Now let’s go to lunch

One of the weaknesses of the church today is this residue of eternal security that makes us think just because we made a decision and God moved in our lives that everything is secure from then on.  I hope they’re right.  I know they’re not.

homo unius libri

Opus 2026-056: Sad Situation

One of the problems we have today is trying to find where we can get accurate information.  We have the category of fake news.  We have such nonsense as global warming.  We have supposedly honest scientists talking about the missing links when they describe evolution.  Everywhere you look there is deceit, compromise, spin, advertizing and whatever other words you want to throw in.

You would think that the one place you would find a real respect for truth is in the believing Christian community.  You would think the truth would set up a standard in their hearts and minds and be expressed through their tongues.  You would think you could go to a church that claims to be Bible believing and find truth being presented.

Sadly, that’s not the case.

Most of us are aware that many of the mega churches have drifted away from scripture.  We know about the Progressive.  We know about the new agers.  We are aware of the deception that is going on.  What we don’t like to admit is that same twisting and compromise is setting up a castle in the hearts of minds of people we think of as true believers.

Sometimes the deception is based on the fact that they’ve been taught wrong.  They’ve been indoctrinated with a certain slant from a certain theological perspective, and they adapted.  They repeated without thinking or searching the scripture for themselves.  I think that’s almost universal across the church.  And what is amazing is when you share with them something that is clearly stated and they say, “Well, it doesn’t mean that.”

Recently, I was watching a video that caught my eye because it said something to the effect of did Jesus really say, “Go and sin no more”?  My first reaction is, “What a stupid question.”  I’ve read it over and over again. I  don’t know that I’ve ever researched the Greek, but I know what it says.  How could there be any question?  But evidently there is.  The man putting on this podcast went down a long windy road, never getting close to a conclusion before I finally turned him off, but I could tell he was going to compromise on something.  It is a basic statement of Jesus.  Why define it into oblivion?  Because he’s indoctrinated in the Calvinistic interpretation of Pauline theology and is incapable of getting beyond it.  I’ve seen the same arguments when someone says  the Bible does not say you’re saved by faith alone when it’s pointed out that the only place that phrases appears is in James where he is saying it’s not by faith alone.  And again in some convoluted twisted way, they managed to turn that on its head.

No, I’m not talking about those people.  They are not trying to deceive.  They are not aware of their deception.

So whom am I speaking about?

Here’s where I come to my reading and discussions with King James Only (KJO) and Mid-Acts Dispensation (MAD) people.  I first entered into my reading and discussing in good faith.  I assumed that the commandment that we says not to bear false witness would be followed by them, even though it is under the law.  Unfortunately, that doesn’t seem to be the way it works.  I think I’ve expressed this before, but I want to say it again here.  The two groups mentioned tend to take most scripture and put it in a special, inferior, it-doesnt-apply-to-us category and while they will admit it if you confront them, they continually hide it behind their vocabulary.

Let me give an example from frequent instances.  There’s a word that Christians around the world assume means a certain thing.  That word is “Bible”.  You can be speaking in any language and they may have a different word for it but you know what they mean.  It is a book that contains the words of God from Genesis to Revelation.  These two groups have decided to redefine the word.  When they say the word “Bible” what they mean is the 1611 translation of King James.  They don’t reveal that, but that’s what they mean.  There are subtle indicators like for instance they no longer talk about the KJV but instead the KJB.  The difference to them is significant, but it’s no concern for us because we assume that the KJV is a Bible.  We may not prefer it as our translation but we refer to it as a Bible.  That courtesy is not extended the other way.  If you don’t use the KJB, you are not reading the Bible.  Anything you quote from another translation has very likely been distorted by Satan.

Do you think I joke?  I wish I joked.

Stay alert.  Many people want to confuse you.

homo unius libri

Opus 2026-055: The Shoes of Poverty

One of the ladies our church is heading up a fundraiser and initially it sounds painless and helpful.  She has found some organization that will take used sneakers and donate them to Third World countries that need shoes and in the process generate a donation for the local church that gathers the shoes.

On one point this is painless.  It’s a good way to get rid of a lot of those old shoes that you have in your closet that are still in good shape, but now are the wrong color, they might be the wrong size, or they’re a style that just isn’t cool anymore.  It could be there’s nothing wrong with them, but you just kept buying new stuff and wearing the new ones.  So it’s painless to you.  It cleans out your closet for a good cause.  It doesn’t cost the church anything.  All it takes is a person who will put out a collection bin and then put the shoes in a shipping bag and drop it off.

The question I would have is how helpful it is.  Somewhere in the past, I touched on this before.  There was a basketball coach whose name escapes me, but he was collecting shoes for people in poor countries who didn’t have any.  It all sounded really good until you stopped to think about the effect this has on the big picture.

When you donate free shoes to a Third World country you get to feel good and there are a certain number of poor people that will get shoes who might not have had them.  How much they needed them is always a question.  I don’t think you have to go back very many generations in our country to find out that many people could go without shoes all summer.  That might not work too well in the winter, but in the summer, it was just fine.  A lot of of these Third World countries are areas where it’s possible to go without shoes and still function.  But that’s not the issue.  The issue is that if you flood a market with free shoes, you put local shoemakers and shoe sellers out of business.  In many parts of the world there is a business of taking old worn out tires and repurposing them into sandals.  You’re probably many other aspects of the business too, but it’s really hard for a local businessman to compete with free.

We often don’t see the long-term results of the things that we like to do to feel good and to help people.  There are times when help is necessary.  There are times when help is destructive.  We’ve seen that in the welfare system in our own country where entire cultures have been lowered to underclass simply because they’ve stopped learning how to provide for themselves.

Be generous.  The best place to be generous is close to home where you can get personally involved with the people and not just write a check.

homo unius libri

Opus 2026-054: On the Other Hand…

How would the world be different if certain people had died sooner?

The first one that comes to my mind is George Washington.  During the French and Indian war when he was rescuing the remnants of Braddock’s army, what would  have happened if one of those many musket balls that went through his coat had been just a little bit different and had taken his life.  Would the American Revolution have started without Washington’s uniting presence?  I can guarantee you that we would have never won the war because he was the one who was totally indispensable.  He’s the one that held them together.  He’s the one that deserved their trust.  So definitely the world will be different today.

What if Hitler died earlier?  I think we can say that things would’ve definitely been different.  Millions of people would’ve lived that died.  Of course we don’t know what direction European politics would have taken.  There could’ve been many more wars.  In fact, if the history of Europe was anything to go by, there would have been more wars.  It’s very possible that the Soviet Union would have been able to continue to expand without anything to stop it.  Would that matter?   What if Stalin had died as a young man?  The Communist revolution would’ve still proceeded.  But what would’ve happened after that?  I don’t know what role he played but it’s possible that Trosky would not have been murdered.  It’s possible that Lenin would never have emerged as a leader.  They’re all kinds of possibilities.

How would the world be different if Napoleon had never lived?  Again we don’t know how the politics of Europe would’ve worked out, it could’ve been just as bloody only with different leaders.  The concept of a national army in total war would have not come so early.  The Napoleonic codes would never have been written.

What if Octavian, commonly also known as Caesar Augustus, had lost the wars against his rivals.  Would any of them have had the focus and the priorities to make Rome an empire that would endure?  If the Roman empire had fallen apart earlier, how would history be different?

If Mohammed had never lived, would someone else have been raised up to replace him?  Of course, if you were a devout Muslim, you would think, yes, Allah would have raised somebody else up.  If you are just about anyone else, you would think it would be almost impossible for anyone to be so delusional.  The development around the Mediterranean would have certainly changed as the different Christian groups would be in constant conflict, and the schisms within the church would become very pronounced.  Would Rome have dominated the way it did?

Speculate.  I am glad you are still with us to make a difference.

homo unius libri

Opus 2026-053: Oh Well…

I was thinking about the death of Charlie Kirk.  He was a young man who was going to be a world changer, and in spite of his death, he may still be a world changer.  We have to wait and see.

I wonder how many other deaths I can think of where it changed the direction of the world.  I am sure others have addressed this.  There are probably books on it.  When I taught middle school and assigned term papers about famous people it was one of the questions I asked:  How would the world be different if the person had never lived?

One that comes to mind is Abraham Lincoln.  If Abraham Lincoln had lived, then the soft-sell of reconstruction would’ve been the game.  He wanted to bring the states back in with almost no penalties and no consequences for what they’ve done.  Johnson tried to implement the policies that Lincoln wanted to put into play.  He didn’t have enough political power.  The radical Republicans shot him down, tried to impeach him and generally made his life miserable.  If Lincoln had lived, things would’ve gone in a direction in a very different direction. I ’m not sure if it would’ve been good or bad, but it would’ve been different.

How would the world have been different if Julius Caesar had listened to the warnings?  It would have certainly made a difference in the direction of Rome.  Rome had a republic which was deteriorating.  Cesar had a lot of great ideas and had he managed to get them finalized Rome would have run much more smoothly and might have lasted even longer.  Of course it was from the point of view of a dictator or a monarch.

What about Joan of Arc?  She was betrayed by the people that she was helping.  If she had continued on, would she have ended up changing the whole direction of France?  She might have eventually become queen or some kind of dictator.  We might be speaking French today.

What if Santa Anna had not won the battle of the Alamo?  How would that have changed the direction of Texas and thus the United States if they had managed to stay alive?  Would I still be in California?  Would my grandmother have moved west?

Of course they’re the unknowns.  How many potential world changers have been destroyed by the forceps of the abortionist.  How many Beethoven’s, Einstein’s, Salk’s, Washington’s?  Make your own list.  Put your name on it.  It will give you something to think about on a cold night.

homo unius libri

Opus 2026-052: Gentiles in the Life of Jesus

One of the points that has been shared with me from dispensationalist sources is the claim that Jesus only came for the Jews.  I’ve heard it stated so strongly that one guy said Jesus only died for the Jews.  This is a combination of obvious truth with obvious nonsense.

My contact person has told me repeatedly that Jesus only came for the Jews.  He will have a couple of quotations he likes to throw in and never wants to listen to my response.  Let me give you an example. He likes to quote this out of Matthew.

Matthew 15:24 (KJV) But he answered and said, I am not sent but unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel.

He claims that this clearly teaches Jesus did not come for the Gentiles.  If I had a one verse Bible I would agree, but I like to share with him that Mark has the same story, but with one extra word which he doesn’t like to include,

Mark 7:27 (KJV) But Jesus said unto her, Let the children first be filled: for it is not meet to take the children's bread, and to cast it unto the dogs.

Notice the word “first”.  What Mark added is that Jesus may have come first to the Jews, but that did not rule out the Gentiles.

What evidence do we have that Jesus had anything to do with non-Jews? Let’s look at a few examples.

Start with the Wise men.
Herod was not considered Jewish.
The woman at the well was the Samarian.  And Jesus went to her village to teach.
The Syrophoenician woman was a gentile.
The centurion was a gentile
Pilate was a gentile.
The soldiers who executed him were gentiles
One of the 10 lepers was Samarian.

Now, obviously, some of these, like Pilate were not Gentiles that He was ministering to or reaching out to, but if you look at the whole list you can see that there are cases where Jesus got involved with non-Jews.

It is obvious that Jesus was ministering to the Jews.  He was a Jew born in Israel.  He was raised in Israel.  Most of His ministry was spent in Israel.  He was speaking in Hebrew and Aramaic.  But keep in mind half the truth is not the whole truth.  Sometimes half the truth will get you where you need to go, other times it will stop you in the middle of the bridge.

homo unius libri

Opus 2026-051: Where’s the Fire?

The euphoria of living in Texas starts to wear very thin when you get caught in the traffic.  I am sure that by this time I have commented on this before but I am in the middle of it again.   Getting past the interstate is almost grounds for returning to California.  Texas does not believe in underpasses that cross the interstate, and they all tend to be on major highways going the other way.  Add to that the fact that we have a very healthy percentage of the population that knows nothing about driving.  Think how I would drive a stagecoach.

Then they have what are called “frontage roads” that only go in one direction and what that means is if you don’t know exactly where to get off or if you miss the spot where you were going to get off you have to drive another mile to find another offramp, sometimes 2 miles, and then when you get off, you have to cross back underneath the interstate and drive a mile back on the one direction frontage road the other side.  If what you missed was on the original side you were on then you have to drive past it a mile, turn around and come back to where you wanted to go.  Not only does this make your trip longer, but it generates a lot more traffic instead of frequent underpasses and two way frontage roads.

Life is hard even in Texas.  I am sure you don’t want to move here.

homo unius libri

Opus 2026-050: Coffee, Grace

The traditions of the elders are like old coffee grounds where the flavor and the freshness has been leached out.

Up above, I said “leached out” and the AI added a “B” to make it “bleached”.  That is also a good illustration, but it’s a totally different one.

When you make coffee, you don’t reheat the old grinds and run water through them.  Well, I guess you could, but you get decreasing flavor with each reheat.  I think I tried it somewhere in my past.  No, you get new beans, grind them up and get your truth out of them.

So many of the traditions that we accept as biblical truth have gotten stale in the reheating over the years.  It may very well be that in the ritual excesses of the Roman Catholic Church, Calvin and Luther were right in rejecting what they had to say and instead emphasizing grace and faith.  Grace and faith are certainly biblical concepts.  The Bible does say we are saved by grace.  It says we are saved through faith and believing is a constant in the salvation process.  However, in spite of everything that your traditional elders have told you, the Bible does not say that you are saved by faith alone.

You don’t believe me?  I don’t really expect you to because you’ve heard it otherwise so often.  I even started out on a bit of Clickbait that asked the question, “How many times does the Bible say ‘faith alone’?”  I didn’t get very far before I realized that he wasn’t really asking what the Bible said.  He was asking what the tradition said.  Do your own research.  Look for the phrase “faith alone”.  You won’t find it in the KJV.  You only find it once in the New American Standard.  When you find it go to that passage and read what it says, and then ask yourself who am I gonna believe, the traditions of the elders, my own lying eyes, or what the Bible clearly states.

There are many battles for truth to be fought.  God is loving.  God is kind.  Jesus did not go to the cross in order to see how many people He could throw into hell.  We can probably make a lot of mistakes in our theology and still make it to heaven.  I for one want to be as close to the center of the target as I can be.

homo unius libri

Opus 2026-049: Aren’t Clichés Wonderful

They certainly do come in handy.

I don’t like them when people throw them at me.  It just means they’re not bothering to either listen to me or to think about a reply.  Often times they’re just appropriate.  As I started walking this morning, I looked at the sky.  It was dull, gray and uniform.  I found myself saying, “Yes, but the glory of the Lord shines through.”  How trite.  How common.  How true.  There’s a reason why so many clichés have been going so long.  That may be why some people can read the same books over and over again.

homo unius libri

Opus 2026-048: Which Came First?

One of the constant themes that runs that run through my mind is the contradiction in the Bible between the concepts of predestination and free will.  I don’t expect to live to see the resolution in real time.  I know that there are people who think they have it all worked out but that is usually based on ignorance, ideological purity or malfeasance.

We have a generous supply of verses that talk about being called and chosen.  We have matching verses about believing, following and responding.  Like so many theological traditions we find ourselves ignoring the reality that the answers are usually both/and not either/or.

We are not chosen so that we will respond but chosen because we will respond.  There is a world of difference there.  I was reading in one book full of nonsense and came across a moment of clarity.  I am paraphrasing but the essence of the comment was, “If it is predestined and all the paperwork has been done by God already, what is the point of continuing the discussion.”

If you are a believer in Jesus Christ then you serve a living God.  He is not a Calvinistic version based on the static stone gods of the pagan.  His character does not change, but he is vibrant and responsive.  I don’t think the God of the Bible is interested in locking down everyone’s destiny before they’re even born.

If I’m wrong, I lose nothing.  If they’re wrong, they could lose everything.  It’s that old Pascal’s wager thing again.

homo unius libri

Opus 2026-047: If I Had Been in Charge…

Have you ever had those moments when you were being attacked by mosquitoes or irritated by those little flies that somehow appear in your house and you have either said or thought that if you had been in charge of creation, you would not have included these little pests?  If you’ve never had a thought like that, then you truly are a wonder of creation.

As I was glorying in the incarnation and the mysteries involved, I was thinking about the many areas where God might pat us on the head and say, “We’ll talk about that when you get a little older.”  Then I got to thinking about Job and the conversation he had with God.  God came to that point when He asked Job, “Where were you when I created the universe?”  Of course that’s a bit humiliating to contemplate.

In spite of that I contemplated it.  What occurred to me was how dull and boring the universe would be if I’d been in charge of creation.  You can look at the giant sweep of space, the nebulas, the galaxies, the red dwarfs, and black holes.  Most of this would’ve never occurred to me. Then when you get into the intricacies at the other end of the scale, DNA, mitochondria, our immune system and so much more how simplistic would it have been if I had been the one who had to arrange how it all fits together?  I might have come up with something like evolution.

I’m glad you were not able to create the universe because you might be one of those people that likes liver and onions.  You might be somebody that likes contemporary worship.  I can think of all kinds of reasons why I wouldn’t want you creating the universe.  You should be glad that I could not create the universe because you would not have the glory of truly well done steaks and the complexity of the harmonies you find in modern hymns when they are played well.  Picture what autumn in Vermont would look like if someone with my color limitations had been programming it.

Sometimes it’s just better to accept things as they are.

homo unius libri

Opus 2026-046: The Need to Know

If you were ever involved in the military, you went through a class that talked about security and security clearances.  It always seems strange to me that being cleared to a certain level of security did not necessarily mean that you had access to information at that level.  There was another element besides being cleared as an honest patriotic citizen.  You also had a “need to know”.

It was assumed that the general population in the military and the civilian world did not need to know all of the details of how to drive an Abram’s tank.  It is assumed that a private in the army did not need to know who the spies were giving us information before the invasion.  Although it didn’t always work out the way it was supposed to, the idea was that you would be told what you needed to know to complete your mission.

Having been in education, I would say that this principle has been quite perverted.  One of the reasons I got in trouble was because I would continually ask, “Why?”  I didn’t ask why like a six-year-old sitting in the backseat when his parents tells him to do something.  I asked why, because knowing the reason for an action often gives me better insight into how to complete that action.

There’s a difference between what we need to know in order to be effective and what we want to know in order to feel informed.

This is why the Bible is to be the foundation of all actions in human life.  I’ve written before about wondering what kind of conversations God and Abraham had that we don’t know about. It would really be interesting to hear Moses arguing with Yahweh over issues that we aren’t even aware of.  Wouldn’t you like to hear the shepherds on the way back to the field exclaiming about the exciting moment they had seen the baby Jesus?  Do you wonder just where the wisemen came from and how many there were?

You may be cleared at that level of information but, God has decided you don’t have a need to know.  Everything you need is in the book.  Every principal.  Every standard.  Every procedure.  It’s there.

Is this an excuse for book burning?  Of course not.  It doesn’t mean that we don’t keep asking questions.  It doesn’t mean that we don’t keep investigating.  I have shelves of books that consist of three categories.  The ones I keep for emotional support, but never intend to read again; the ones I have not read yet, but want to get to and those that I’ve already read, but plan to read again.  If all those books disappeared, it would not put my life in danger or change how I do things.  If my Bible disappeared, I would be in a world of hurt.

So keep reading.  Keep investigating.  Keep questioning.  Be an ethical skeptic seeking truth, but rotating it to see all aspects so you know if it is true or not.

And don’t forget to consult the owner’s manual.

homo unius libri

Opus 2026-045: Rebranding

I recently wrote a post titled “Gun Requirement Zone”.  It occurred to me that a better title might have been “Victim Free Zone”.  I think it is a bit more pithy.

homo unius libri

Opus 2026-044: The Unnoticed Rapture

I just finished a book entitled MAD about Hebrews.  The MAD stands for Mid-Acts Dispensationalism.  They claim a lot of interesting ideas.  Interesting, but not historically Christian.  One of the ideas that is not specifically stated, but became clear to me by the end was that when the rapture takes place it probably will not be noticed by the world.  Why?  Because it’ll be so few people who are raptured.

If you’re not into Bible teaching at all, let me share that the rapture is the term used for a moment in history when Christ returns and “catches up” his church into the air.

(1Th 4:16-17 KJV)  For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first:  Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.

I kind of pictured this being an exciting moment we believers, assuming I am one of them, find themselves flying through the air to meet Jesus in the clouds.  The term rapture is not used, but that’s one that we have adopted to explain it.

Since Christians argue over just about anything, one of the things they disagree on is when the rapture takes place. That involves another bit of biblical teaching called the “tribulation”.  Actually, the phrase that is continually used in the book was “the great tribulation”.  That’s the time where the antichrist rules and heaps all kinds of persecution and suffering on the world.  The MAD people claim that this only will be experienced by the Jews.  I’m not sure if there are other groups that feel that way, but they definitely do.

One of their requirements is that you believe this rapture takes place before the great tribulation.  That means that the church, or as they prefer to call it, the body of Christ, will be raptured before the suffering.  The church, the body of Christ, will be gone.  If you are into the pre-trip rapture, then you believe that Christians will not go through the suffering.

If you ever are around to copy this book long enough to read it you will find that in the process of applying MAD theology to the book of Hebrews he throws every single group of identifiable Christians under the bus and either explicitly says they’re going to hell or implies it very directly.  My old denomination is not mentioned by name, but it’s key term is used in the description of one of these heretical groups.  He even goes so far as to throw under the bus others that I thought would be part of his group.

Which comes to my point.  I’m sure you were wondering if I would ever get there.  If you’re still with me, I salute you.  If the only people that are raptured are those who fit into his theology then my theory is that there would be so few involved that no one will notice.  I had never heard of these people until my friend somehow accepted their indoctrination.  He is the only person that I have ever met that thinks this way.  He is the only person I know that has any books on the topic.  So far he sent me 11 books to read, which I have done.  None of them are published by anyone you’ve ever heard of.  This last one was one of those books that was printed on demand.  It was printed less than a week before I got it in the mail.

So how will you know if the rapture is taking place and if you were included?  I think it’s safe to say that you won’t know and you won’t be included, that is, if you accept what they have to say.  Fortunately, what they have to say often has nothing to do with the Bible, so relax.

McLean, Terence, D.  MAD about Hebrews.  Greentown, IN:  Discerning the Times Publishing Co., Inc, 2010.

homo unius libri

Opus 2026-043: Spin Check

Would MLK Celebrate?

This is a serious question.  Martin Luther King, Jr. became the poster child of the Civil Rights movement when he was murdered.  He is remembered as advocating the Ghandi principle of non-violence.  It did not work out well for him but I think, like Charlie Kirk, he may have expected it.  Part of non-violence is the reality of martyrdom.

Somehow I think he is spinning in his grave.  The acronym BLM would be enough for him to feel like his life had been lived in vain.  His speech about content of character instead of color of skin would be viewed as accommodating racism today.  

We need to keep quoting that speech.  We need to smile at the racists calling anyone who disagrees with them racists and maybe respond with, “You poor deluded child.”  We need to keep worshiping the God who has the standard that in Christ there is neither Jew nor Gentile.

Forward.

homo unius libri

Opus 2026-042: Immortal quotes: Character Counts

I have mixed emotions about pulling Maduro out of Venezuela.  I have mixed emotions about getting involved in the revolution going on in Iran.  I have no idea what’s going on in Ukraine.  There are certain times, more frequent than we want to admit, where we simply have to put our trust in the character of a leader.

Character has many different definitions and ways of looking at it.  Donald Trump does not have a good record in successful marriages.  At the same time he seems to have been able to raise well balance children.  Those ex-wives all get along with him.  I scratch my head over that one.  Other areas of character that we tend to ignore are probably more important in his current role.

He is a man who follows the rules.  He does that in the most legalistic manner.  If he didn’t, the Democrats would have put him in jail and impeached him long ago.  Keep in mind, not only have all the Democrats in Congress and many of the Republicans tried to destroy him, but they have weaponized the DOJ, FBI, administrative state, CIA and any other alphabet that you want to use.   In spite of nine years at least of searching, they’ve been able to find nothing that was truly illegal.

He is a man who does his homework.  As a real estate developer in New York he was very much involved in what he was working on.  I read his autobiography.  Much of it had to do with his business dealings.  He knew his market, he knew his contractors, he knew what could be done and what could not be done.  That didn’t come from reading the LA Times.  It came from doing real research.

He is a man who is willing to take risks.  Again, looking at the real estate market in New York, there are points where you have to take risks.  If you read his autobiography, you’ll find out that many of his risks were taken with other peoples money, but again that comes to doing his homework and knowing what the rules were.  He still took risks, but they were measured and thoughtful risks.

He got results.

When I look at Venezuela and Iran, my concern about getting involved is not that there is no American interest, but because I also believe that in the long run when you bail people out and they don’t have to fight it themselves, they end up not developing the character they need to be successful.  We removed the dictator from Venezuela.  OK.  That may have needed to be done.  The issue is that at some point the people of Venezuela need to stand up and step forward.  I understand that to do that before would have gotten you a bullet in the head.  Maybe now they can be free to do that and take the risk necessary for liberty and prosperity.  The same is true in Iran.  There may be small ways that the United States can help advance freedom, but the answer is not to send in the Marines and then hand everything over to someone who has not earned the position of leadership.

So far it seems that Trump is walking the thin line.  I pray that his wisdom will continue to get results.

homo unius libri

Opus 2026-041: Monday Pulpit: Popular Misquotes

Sunday we were discussing what it meant to live a righteous life.  We had read several quotations in the book of Romans that use the word.  From there we started talking about holiness, and sanctification.  Eventually, we got to one of those great favorite misquotes of the Bible,
“Be ye holy as I am holy”

My guess is that you’ve heard it before.  It’s the way it’s usually expressed.  It is also totally wrong and misses the entire point.

After quoting it the next statement by someone in the group is, it’s impossible to be as holy as God.  Well, if the actual biblical statement was as given, then, no, it would not be impossible, because the Bible tells us to do it.  But the Bible doesn’t set that standard.

What does the Bible actually say?

1 Peter 1:16 (KJV) Because it is written, Be ye holy; for I am holy.

The command was not to be as holy as God. The command was to be holy because of God.

From there you could get into a discussion of what it means to be holy.  You could point out that the idea of being holy means more separation than moral purity.  You could point out that we are called “saints” which means “holy ones”.  You’ll find that there’s an Old Testament equivalent, under the law.

So don’t waste your time trying to understand misquotes.  When you hear something that doesn’t quite seem right, go to the Source.  You would be amazed at how often the actual quotation is not what somebody thinks it is.

What they say is on them.  What you believe is on you.

homo unius libri

Opus 2026-040: Producing the Gold

We have a process which we go through as God develops His people.  We get occasional glimpses of the process.

(Pro 25:4 KJV)  Take away the dross from the silver, and there shall come forth a vessel for the finer.

We often refer to this as related to tribulation, hard times, persecution.  We look at it as the way in which God builds godly character.  But that is more the end process.  It totally ignores the earlier steps to getting pure gold or silver.

The days of picking up gold nuggets in the stream bed are gone.  People still pan for gold and I understand can possibly make a daily wage at that, but it is not something that’s just sitting there waiting to be gathered in.  Modern gold, along with silver and anything else that’s a precious metal, has to be dug out of the Earth and go through a long process.

Of course, the first step is mining the rock that contains the oar.  This is a long, difficult and dangerous process.  It requires tunneling in the right place and dragging large amounts of rock out of the ground.

I believe the next step is to crush the ore.  This is something which was very difficult before we had the industrial revolution.  It involves massive weights and big machines smashing down on the rocks and breaking them up into smaller, manageable pieces.

Then you have to heat the rock to the point where the metal liquefies and runs out to be gathered together.  In that condition it might have some uses, but it is still a long way away from being a pure product.

Then you get to the process described above.

After you have the pure product it still might have limited usage.  Pure gold is a wonderful thing.  It does not corrode.  It is malleable.  It is also too soft to be of use in much besides jewelry.  Gold coins say on the front, I believe, that they are something like 99% pure gold.  It is that one percent that is added that makes them useful in anything except decoration.

Iron is a wonderful product.  It has many uses . But it does not become steel until you add a bit of carbon and possibly other elements.  It is those added elements which can give it whatever qualities you’re looking for.

If you look back through the history of the Bible, you see God preparing people through the same process.  Out of the entire population of the Earth only Noah and his family survived the flood.  Consider that the mining process and flood as the crushing of the rock.  From that rock comes an impure element.  It had to be separated and the impurities removed.  You might consider Israel going to the promised land and being told to cleanse it a similar process.  Then you get to the real refining.

I am not an expert on this obviously, but my picture is that you have to continually heat the gold and skim the dross off the top.  It is a long process.  I think of the times of the prophets as they kept calling Israel to repent, and Israel pretty much laughed in God‘s face.  Yet we always see reference to the remnant.  There is always a remnant.  When God sends in the Philistines or the Chaldean’s or the Babylonians to decimate the population, the remnant survives.  The remnant multiplies.  The remnant is once again heated up and dross is removed.

Eventually, the children of God get to the point where they’re ready for the Messiah.  Again, it is only a small remnant that respond.  Paul used to get upset because there were so few Jews that responded to the gospel.  Of course, if you look at the number of Gentiles that responded out of the total population it was always a small group also.  Somewhere in here you add in the alloys. Those are the materials which add the needed quality to the pure metal.

Enter the Holy Spirit.  It can be a long process.  For most of us it is still going on at an individual level.  I cannot speak for God, but I believe there is a sense in which He is preparing people for eternity.  At one point they were called the children of Israel.  Now they are called body of Christ.  I don’t know what we will be called in the language of Angels, but I hope to find out.

homo unius libri

Opus 2026-039: KISS

In case you’ve never seen that before, it’s an acronym for “Keep it simple, stupid” or “Keep it short, stupid”, or “Keep it short and simple.”  Take your choice.

Years ago when the United States was going through a tough time, FDR instituted something called fireside chats.  There was no TV.  There was obviously no Internet, but there was radio.  He made use of radio to communicate with the American people.  My proposal is “Orange Man Bad” (OMB) institute a similar weekly broadcast.

It should be at least a half hour and Trump should work at keeping himself from being repetitive like he often is.  He’d needs to act like he’s answering belligerent reporters, instead of talking to a massive crowd of supporters.  It should be scripted to take maybe 20 minutes and then the last 10 minutes answer questions that have been sent in . He could have those questions filtered by a couple of people who could read all of them and look for common concerns.  This would be answered off the cuff and should also be kept brief.

I would suggest to keep the spirit of spontaneity and human touch that it be understood that if he happens to get to the studio 10 minutes before scheduled, that he would start answering questions then and at the appropriate time switch over to his broadcast.

The topic needs to be more detailed answers.  For instance, the economy, people don’t feel that things are going well, but all of the data says it is.  We know the price of gas is down and the price of eggs has declined.  Maybe a simple explanation of why oatmeal still cost what it always did and why meat is not cheaper.  He could go into quick details about how the previous administration and it’s abusive branches of non-elected regulators have made it very difficult for American farmers to produce meat.  Look at all of the animals that have been killed for supposed health reasons.  Don’t be repetitive.  Don’t talk down to people.  But I think there are answers that could be given and people would listen.

I don’t know what the venue with this would be.  I would say that the broadcasting companies would not be the right spot.  You don’t want to get into a situation where CBS is allowed to give equal time to the Trump haters.  You probably couldn’t use YouTube because they love to edit and block you.  I think of when we had the speeches around election time you could go to the networks and have them cutting away when you wanted to hear things and an analyzing things with their silly summaries, but you could also go to a White House feed that came directly to you.

Again, I’m not sure of the details of the technology, but I’m sure it could be worked out.

Talk to us.  Keep it short and sweet.  And make it honest, above all make it honest.

homo unius libri

Opus 2026-038: Uncharted Revelation: Common Denominator

I’m breaking off bits and pieces as I try to find the reason why so many people focus on the book of Revelation.  I just read over the first four churches addressed in chapter 2, and it seemed like there was a pattern at least in three of them, a pattern of praise mixed with admonitions to do better.

Part of that admonition is to never give up reaching for the higher level.  There’s always growth available to us.  As an old man, that’s something I need to be reminded of.  I want to rest on my laurels.  I want to be relaxed and unhurried.  A bit of that is OK, but we always need to realize that we could do better.

Look at the church in Ephesus.  They are praised at the beginning.  As they are giving each other high-fives, and patting each other on the back, He then says, “But this I have against you….”  That seems to be the pattern in these churches.  So you can see that as much as we may have been doing right, so far, and Jesus acknowledges that we have done good things, we need to get on with the job.

Of course I am spiritualizing a bit here.  I’m taking what was said to a specific church in the Middle East 2000 years ago and addressing it to us today, specifically to me.  I think that’s part of the reason why we have these letters.  Have you ever asked yourself why did the Holy Spirit choose to preserve these specific writings for us today?  I think most of us understand the idea of them being inspired as they are written to the recipients, but why preserve them if there’s not something for us to take and find application for.  Some people can belittle that as spiritualizaion. I would say it’s simply applying God‘s word as He intended.

So get with it.  I was having a conversation with a lady about the joys of retirement.  I was focusing on the fact that it gave me more time for worship and focusing on the things of God.  I think that’s true.  The problem is that when we use that as an excuse not to turn up the fire and keep seeking new skills and new insights.  It was a good conversation.  It was a good reading of Revelation.

I hope Revelation continues to surprise me.

homo unius libri

Opus 2026-037: Which One?

I started my walk.  I was going through my usual bit of thanksgiving:  Another day of mobility, freedom from pain, a sense of balance, and then I got down to being able to see well enough to enjoy the beauty of creation.  As I was looking at the sky with the variety of grays in the clouds and the islands of blue looking through, I wondered, is the beauty of creation in the actual variety or in the standards we have internalized?

Standards of beauty vary with culture and personality.  We’ve all heard about how beauty is in the eye to beholder.  There’s a lot of truth in that.  Just look at what different cultures consider beautiful.  Look at what different time periods of history considered beautiful.

For most people there is a set something which is required for beauty.  I don’t know if we can define it.  It may be beyond our intellectual ability.  It’s still exists.

In addition to that there is the variety.  When you look at clouds, to the many types of trees, the autumn leaves, it is the variety in the contrast.  Sometimes it conveys the joy of the moment.

So as you’ve heard somebody say, enjoy the moment.

homo unius libri

Opus 2026-036: Thanks Thoughts: I Am Puzzled

I am thankful this morning for things that I don’t understand.  You could apply that many different ways but what’s on my mind at the moment is the mystery of the Trinity.  How can one God be three persons?  That’s the reason we called it a mystery.  I’m sure that we have similar issues in philosophy, physics, biology, and any other area of intellectual pursuit and thinking.  The difference between theological mysteries and other intellectual mysteries is that many of ours are indeed impossible to understand.  They go beyond our frame of reference as physical human beings in such a way that our minds cannot wrap around it.

At the same time, what is also interesting to me is that while I can’t understand it, and recognize I can’t understand it, I can grasp the concept and the reality.  Again going back to the Trinity, I can emotionally except the idea that one God can exist in Father, Son and Holy Spirit.  In the same way, I can grasp that an entire computer functions on ones and zeros.  But again, whereas I might eventually understand that if I wanted to wrap my head around computer programming, I know I will never understand the Trinity.

I’m good with that.  It points out to me that God is too sophisticated for me to understand and yet personal enough to let me know I’m included in His creation.

It’s a weird place to be. It’s a wonderful place to be. And I am thankful.

homo unius libri

Opus 2026-035: Time Flies

At least when you’re having fun.  I am reminded of something we used to always repeat in the army, “hurry up and wait”.  That expression is so apropos to so much of our life.  You make an appointment three months in advance to see a certain specialist.  You are told to arrive 30 minutes early and when you get into the waiting room, you sit there for an hour past your appointment time.  It would seem to me that if they’re going to see everybody before they go home that they would schedule things with a little more consideration for the people who are paying their salary.

I guess we’re never happy.  What got me off on this was thinking about the second coming of Christ because of something I had written in another post.  It’s amazing how everybody wants to fit God into their pocket calendar.  They want to schedule Him in when they have a moment.  People tend to be very expectant of the end times and the rapture when they are going through hard times.  We’ve all heard how there are no atheist in a foxhole.  Maybe not but they’re certainly not people that God recognizes as belonging to Him.

God’s view of time and our time are totally different.  We only have a few years to accomplish whatever it is that we think we’re going to do.  God has eternity.  I have a sneaking suspicion that while we feel that time speeds up and slows down based on our mood and activities, God can actually speed things up, slow things down and even stop them.  We need to remember that when we look at things like prophecy or even history.

So often we hear about the angry God of the Old Testament and the loving God of the New Testament.  What rubbish.  Jesus only had to put up with His disciples for three years; He could afford to be patient.  His patience was not exhausted.  Maybe it was.  They were a pretty dense crowd at some points.  But God in dealing with Israel was looking at centuries and possibly millennium.  Did you ever ask yourself why did God leave Israel in slavery for 400 years at the beck and call of Pharaoh?  Couldn’t He have sent Moses a bit earlier?  Maybe.  Maybe not.  It could be that He had to wait 400 years to get enough Israelites to have armies to conquer the promised land.  I don’t think Joseph and his brothers could’ve gotten it done.  Actually, I guess they could if God wanted to work miracles, but that doesn’t seem to be the way He works.

Then you wonder why did they have to wander in the wilderness for 40 years?  It could’ve been punishment.  The one thing I’ve often heard is how the older generation had to die off.  I think that’s in the scripture.  In addition to that, it’s very possible that during that 40 years, He was training an army to actually use swords and spears and to know how to work together.

Then you look at the wrath of God descending upon Israel.  You wonder how come He was so angry.  What happened to the God of love?  The problem is that we do not have a biblical concept of love.  We have a Hollywood concept of love.  If it can’t appear in a Hallmark movie or be written on a Hallmark card, we don’t understand what it’s all about.  That’s one reason why our children are so spoiled and often useless.  God endured generations of Israelites spitting in his face and ignoring him.  He sent prophet after prophet, calling for repentance.  Crickets.  Eventually, even God had enough and His wrath was released.  It was simply Him, expressing His love and trying to save His remnant by eliminating those who polluted the gene pool.

When you question God’s timing, you need to start thinking in terms of centuries, not minutes.  He’s not impressed with your calendar.

homo unius libri

Opus 2026-034: Starting Blocks

Where do we start?

I’m reading a book that is so full of things I disagree with that I wonder why I keep reading.  Possibly because it’s been given to me by a friend who endorses the ideas.  That troubles me.

As I read, I noticed that everything in the book goes back to a twisted interpretation of one verse.

(2Ti 2:15 KJV)  Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.

For over nineteen hundred years Christianity as a whole has interpreted this verse to mean that we carefully interpret what the scripture says; that we handle the scripture as it was meant to be handled.  Then somewhere around 1830 a man named Darby came out with his idea of dispensationalism.  One of his key scriptures was this.  I haven’t read Darby or followed a lot of standard dispensationalism, but I assume that they would interpret this verse to mean that you take a pair of scissors and cut the history in the Bible into segments and that there are different rules for each segment.

Most of us can see some of the logic in this.  One of the common quotes of Christians is, “We’re not under law; we’re under grace.”  That in a sense is a basic form of dispensationalism.  But this book takes it to rabid extremes.  Where they have taken this is to the point where anything not written by the apostle Paul himself is subject to suspicion and rejection.  Of course, this only applies to the verses they don’t like.

So what is my starting point?  What verses do I always come back to?  My first point of foundation would be a scripture, also from II Timothy,

(2Ti 3:16 KJV)  All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness:

The second point is a little more widely spread out and it is the existence of Yahweh.  It is a belief that there is a God and that He is a personal God who created and is involved.  Everything I believe has to be founded on those two truths.

From there I might go to John 3:16.  There might be other basic scriptures that I would start branching out on, but ultimately it comes back to the two things that I cannot prove, but I have to accept totally on faith:  The Bible is the word of God and God exist as described in that Bible.  I can’t think of any rational way to explain and prove those two things.  Many people come up with all kinds of clever schemes, and I salute them, but I can’t put much confidence in their proofs.

If you looked at the Catholic Church, I think their core scripture would be where Jesus told Peter that He would build His church on this rock.  If you looked at Calvin, they would probably take the verse that says we’re saved by grace and some verses about foreknowledge and predestination.  Pentecostals would tend to go with verses about the gifts of the Spirit.

I think it’s a good question.  Where do you start?

homo unius libri

Opus 2026-033: Peasant Freedom

I guess I should start off by apologizing to peasants.  I’m sure that there are many who are simply locked into their place in society and have not been able to break out or are quite happy with where they are.  I salute you.

What I’m talking about here is the freedom that comes from having an undiscerning pallet.  That’s another way of saying“insensitive”.

What brings it to mind is some Clickbait that I saw.  So far I’ve not bothered watching the video.  The title has something to do with ways in which you could reheat coffee, and it would still be drinkable.  This is a problem I have never had.  Oh, yes, I do have coffee that gets cold and needs to be reheated, but I’ve never had an issue with using the microwave.  You put your cup in push the thirty second button twice and before you know it, your coffee is ready to go.  Does it take away the “bouquet”?  Does it weaken the “body”?  I don’t have a clue, it’s still coffee.  If I bought coffee that’s worth drinking to start with, it’s worth drinking when reheated.

You may disagree with me.  That’s what freedom of choice is all about.  That’s why some people like Limburger cheese or liver and onions.  That’s why some people seem to be able to eat their steak rare.  They like the taste of blood.  Not being a vampire, I want my meat singed on the outside and dark in the middle.  Call me a peasant, but also call me for dinner if you cooked the steak long enough.  A lesson for you if you disagree with me is, don’t have me grill your steaks.  I can guarantee that even if I’m trying to make them rare, it won’t happen.  I can take a knife and cut into it and if it goes “moo” it’s not ready to be eaten.

As a peasant, I am not impressed by jewelry and firs.  Gold is made for wedding rings, not for bracelets.  Silver is an excellent conductor of electricity but if you end up with Sterling flatware and have to spend large parts of your life polishing the tarnish, don’t call on this peasant to do it for you.

homo unius libri

Opus 2026-032: KJO or MAD, part 3 of 3

Let’s say I am totally wrong in my grammar.  If you follow the narative you find that there’s no way that you can say it has been kept the way people would understand it to mean in the day and was given.  How?  We know that the word was lost between Solomon and Josiah.  You don’t need a degree in Hebrew to see this.  Pick your translation.  Look at the 22 chapter of II Kings.  Josiah starts to rebuild the temple and then one day this happened,

(2Ki 22:8 KJV)  And Hilkiah the high priest said unto Shaphan the scribe, I have found the book of the law in the house of the LORD. And Hilkiah gave the book to Shaphan, and he read it.

As you continue to read you will find that one of the changes to come out of finding this volume was that the Passover was reinstated.  Can you picture that they knew anything about the law of Moses if they had forgotten the Passover.  How do KJO and MAD deal with this?

If you leave them alone they will just ignore it.  That didn’t work.  The claim now is that it has been miraculously preserved and brought it back in its original form in the King James Bible.  If you accept that Psalm 12:7 refers to the word available to David and somehow are able to include the centuries when it was lost, what about the prophets, gospels and letters of Paul?  They were not preserved, they were added.

The Bible is the inspired word of God.  I have no bone to pick with the KJV.  In 1611 it was a landmark in the spiritual life of the English speaking world.  If I could not use my NAS77 I could work with the KJV.  In fact I use it to preach because the pastor is a great fan of his King James.  The problem with the church is not that translation that they use but that reality that most people who call themselves Christian don’t read any translation.  We may have to lose it to begin to appreciate it.

homo unius libri

Opus 2026-031: KJO or MAD, part 2 of 3

Consistency and logic are not strong points with either the KJO or MAD positions.  A good example is the teaching that the KJV is really the KJB and it has never changed since before it was translated.

The “B” is significant in KJB.  I did not realize this until I had read about six of the books sent to me by my MAD friend.  When a MAD writer or speaker speaks of the “Bible” he is talking about the original King James of 1611.  No other translation need apply.  Everything else is a document assembled by Satan to water down the truth handed down from 1611.  Once I realized this I went back and scanned some of what I had read and realized that where I thought I had agreed I often did not because they used the words we all use but with their own special definition.

An example of their lack of logic is their reference to the 1611 King James.  The problem is that the 1611 version was corrected at least four times.  When you arrive in 1769 both Cambridge and Oxford had their editions.  This is all well documented.  I understand there are even lists you can get that itemize the corrections.  Somehow in their jargon and reasoning none of these are revisions.  They sometimes claim they were just spelling and punctuation errors.  My problem with that explanation is it means that God does not know how to spell.

They believe they have a Bible verse that establishes this.  The specific verse is,

Psalms 12:7 (KJV) Thou shalt keep them, O LORD, thou shalt preserve them from this generation for ever.

To understand why I have trouble with what they say let me give you the context of the preceding two verses and then do a little grammar work.

(Psa 12:5 KJV)  For the oppression of the poor, for the sighing of the needy, now will I arise, saith the LORD; I will set him in safety from him that puffeth at him.
(Psa 12:6 KJV)  The words of the LORD are pure words: as silver tried in a furnace of earth, purified seven times.
(Psa 12:7 KJV)  Thou shalt keep them, O LORD, thou shalt preserve them from this generation for ever.

The KJO people say that the “them” being kept and preserved are the “words” of verse 6.  In English that might work but not in the Hebrew.  Hebrew verbs have gender.  If you look at this passage you see the verbs in verse 7, “keep” and “preserve”, do not match up with the noun, “words” in verse 6 but do match up to the nouns in verse 5, “poor” and “needy”.  One other thing to consider is that the verse divisions were added later and were not in the original.  I could be totally wrong.  If you are a better Hebrew scholar than I am then I will stand corrected, but what this says to me is the it is the poor and needy God is promsing to keep.  This is not a promise to preserve the word and if it would the preservation would not have been in 1611 English.

To be concluded...

homo unius libri

Opus 2026-030: KJO or MAD, part 1 of 3

The world is full of people with strange ideas.  The number one factor that makes them strange is that they are different from me.  Other times it is because they are like the oddball two headed snake.  I always wonder how such animals get anywhere.

There are two camps that I have been rubbing elbows with, the King James Only people, (KJO) and the Mid-Acts Dispensationalists, (MAD).  That is an acronym that showed up on the front of the latest book my MAD friend mailed me.  I can’t wait to use it on him and see if he noticed it himself.

These two groups have a lot of overlap and I am certainly not an expert on either on.  Like most groups of more than one person they also have a wide spectrum within the in crowd.  KJO folks can range from people who were simply raised on the KJV and are quite comfortable with it to people who practice what is called a second inspiration.  That means that the actual words in your personal KJV, printed last year, are the directly inspired, perfectly preserved, flawless and perfect Word directly from the mouth of God.  I don’t think I stated that too strongly.

The MAD people see that position and say, “Hold my beer.”  It might be more accurate to say, “Hold my tap water,” but I think you get the point.  If it were poker they would see the KJO and raise them their eternal soul.  This sect tends to also endorse the KJV but also have a central verse in their system of theology.

(2Ti 2:15 KJV)  Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.

What they do with this is interpret “rightly dividing” in a very physical way.  Most believers understands the point here is to interpret the Bible correctly.  MAD people believe it starts with a pair of scissors.  They cut the Bible up based on time periods and believe such things as, since the book of Psalms was written to Israel the 23rd Psalm does not apply to us today.  That would be bad enough but they also put the teachings of Jesus in the Old Testament and say they don’t apply to us.  If you know what Thomas Jefferson did to the Bible you can get the idea.

This approach puts them in that catagory of “Christians” who believe that if you don’t agree with them you will not be going to heaven.

To be continued...

homo unius libri

Opus 2026-029: Says Who?

When you come to a statement in the Bible which is obviously false you move to an interpretation which makes allowance for figures of speech, such as metaphor, simile, hyperbole.  You do this pretty much naturally on some of these statements.  For instance, does God have feathers?  That seems like a silly question.

Psalm 91:4 (KJV) He shall cover thee with his feathers, and under his wings shalt thou trust: his truth shall be thy shield and buckler.

So if you believe in literal interpretation of scripture, and read this verse, then you have to believe that God has feathers.  Maybe He does.  I’m not sure I found any verses that says, “God does not have feathers.”  At the same time most of us agree it’s a pretty silly individual who accepts this or demands that it be interpreted literally.

So when we have statements that do not make sense or are totally illogical, even the definitive dispensationalist would say that it is figurative.  We have established the principal.  Now the problem comes in applying that principle.

You see, one person’s logic is often another person’s nonsense.  Columbus was convinced that the Earth was round and that if he sailed west, he would reach China.  To him this is a matter of logic, information and reason.  There were people who disagreed with him.  Which one gets to determine what science teaches?

In areas of Bible interpretation and theology one of the unfortunate truths is that most people start with the traditions of their elders, their system, their theology and twist the scripture to fit into the gaps.  I think we all do this.  The difference is that some of us are aware of it and struggle with it whereas others just get that smile of superior wisdom, and administer a pat on the head.  Or as it was sometimes in the history, they burn us at the stake.

I just watched a short video where James Tour presented an argument that I’ve heard from John Lennox before about how if we lived 500 years ago, we would’ve all been Immovable Earthers.  Why?  Because the Bible says so.

Psalm 93:1 (KJV) The LORD reigneth, he is clothed with majesty; the LORD is clothed with strength, [wherewith] he hath girded himself: the world also is stablished, that it cannot be moved.

His point was that with more knowledge we eventually changed our understanding and switched from literal to figurative.  It does not change the actuallly point of the verse.  Understanding the poetical nature of a passage does not rob it of meaning.  In some cases it deepens it.

We need to work on our discernment as well as our credulity. 

homo unius libri

Opus 2026-028: Why Were Pollock Jokes Funny?

Do you remember laughing at Pollock jokes?  I sure do.  They were great.  Were we laughing at the Polish people when we laughed at Pollock jokes?  No.  The thing that the left wing crazies will never understand, since they have no sense of humor, is that we were laughing at ourselves when we laughed at Pollock jokes because it was a painless way of pointing out our own weaknesses.

I’ve not done a survey.  I haven’t even taken notes, but I have a feeling that liberals who are so sure of their own righteousness and superiority to us peasants, don’t have much of a sense of humor.  That was my experience when I was teaching.  I had some administrators who praised my sense of humor and others who thought it was death warmed over.  I could almost tell you the political slant that each of them would take.

When you listen to a good comedian, there’s always that element of an arrow striking into your own heart.  I don’t know how many times I’ve laughed my head off when a joke was told about manhood, marriage, raising children or just shopping for donuts, and I laughed because it touched a sensitive spot in my life.  I laughed because it helped me to realize suddenly that I was not the only person who had trouble buying gifts for his wife.

I hope the day comes when we are secure enough to go back to telling Pollock jokes.  It doesn’t have to involve Pollocks.  When I was teaching, I used to take my favorite Pollock jokes and substitute teachers.  The joke worked just as well.  The point is we need to get over our insecurities and revel in them when they are exposed in a clever way.

Meanwhile, look around before you tell a good joke.

homo unius libri

Opus 2026-027: Understand Your Neighborhood Introvert

Yesterday was totally exhausting.  I found it hard to get up and move over to go to bed.  And looking back most people would say, “What did you do that was so energy sapping?”  That’s hard to explain to people who are not introverts.

I spent my whole day involved with people.  That involve talking.  That involved listening.  Most straining of all is simply the presence of other people.  I had a great time.  I visited with friends.  I spent time with my son.  I talked to my wife.  I am exhausted.

Introverts are drained by other people.  We don’t hate people.  We are quite capable of engaging in conversation.  The point is that at the end of that conversation our batteries are already starting to get into the red zone.  We are drained.  We need time to recover and recoup.

So if your local introvert is screening calls and doesn’t answer when you dial, it’s may not be because they don’t want to talk to you.  It’s just that they don’t want to talk to you.

Be kind.  Deal with it.

homo unius libri