Opus 2026-091: Source of Heresy

I am currently in the middle of a discussion with a friend of mine who to be honest, has a lot of weird ideas.  He likes to take quotations out of context and throw them at me and then say, “Aha! Gotcha!”  When I take time to read the proof of my perfidity, I just scratch my head and wonder what he’s been smoking.  The reason he sees it the way he did is because he came with his mind made up and was sat on finding something to put me in my place.

The focus of our current discussion is the heresy of Arianism.  This goes back to an early Christian teacher called Arias, who was involved with the controversy of the Nicean council.  His basic teaching was that Jesus was a created being.  At best he was a minor God.  Of course, this opened up the controversies about trying to understand the Trinity.  In fact, he was rejecting the orthodox position of the church.

One of the scriptures that gets thrown in is in Proverbs 8.  In that Proverb wisdom is personified and when you get down to verse 22 and the passage after that, you find that there are qualities laid upon wisdom which crossover enter the description of Jesus. A few verse down you read this,

Proverbs 8:25 (KJV) Before the mountains were settled, before the hills was I brought forth:

The “brought forth” can have the idea of being born. Arias interpreted this to mean that wisdom, which he equates with Jesus, is a created being.

This is where heresy is born.  It is born in the mind of the perceiver.  When you come to something with your mind made up what it’s going to say, you can find just about anything you want.  When he came to this verse, Arias was allowing his arrogance and his confidence in his own intellectual ability to supersede what he knew the Bible taught.

If you come to these verses with an understanding of what the Bible teaches about, Jesus, then you read this and look for something inspiring about it.  You don’t look for a way to undermine the rest of the Bible.  It’s called studying with a spirit of humility instead of arrogance.

Attitude is so important when we come to scripture.  I think most of the heretics in the world and most of the pagans of the world come to their research with the idea that they are smarter than the average bear and will find that they deserve the picnic basket on the table in spite of the signs.

homo unius libri

Opus 2025-418: Embrace the Epithet

I have written about the philosophy of deconstructionism a few times.  The thing that affects us most is the way in which the Progressive* left has been redefining words based on the theory that words actually have no specific meaning, they depend entirely on context. While there is a grain of truth in the the big problem is that it is the liberals who decide what the context is, not the actual facts of the case.

One example of this is the taking of the verb hate and coming up with a noun hater.  I would accept the fact that the idea of being a hater was available to previous generations, but it didn’t become a pejorative term to be cast at anyone who disagreed with you.

It may be time for the good people of the world to embrace the epithet. Contrary to what a lot of well meaning, good hearted people want to believe, there are some things that deserve hating.  In fact, they demand hating.  In fact, God demands that we hate them.  Consider the following verse,

Proverbs 8:13 (NASB95) “The fear of the LORD is to hate evil; Pride and arrogance and the evil way And the perverted mouth, I hate.

Evil exist.  It may take many forms.  One of the most obvious is what you see going on in Europe, where gangs of Muslim men roam around and rape anyone who looks available.  There is no punishment.  There is no condemnation.  They feel very righteous because they look upon anyone who’s not Muslim as being subhuman.  Women are even lower than that.  If you cannot define this as evil then you’re moral compass has been dropped and the needle is stuck in one direction.  It doesn’t matter which way you pointed it’s not gonna tell you what is true and righteous.

So if someone calls you a hater, embrace it.  It may be that they are speaking the truth.  It may be that you are doing what God wants you to do and that you are hating evil.  By the way, this is not the only verse in the Bible that reinforces this idea.

*(Liberals, educators, cultural Marxists, the media, socialists, communists, crony capitalists, fascists (I repeat myself), elites, Rinos, Democrats, leftists, Never Trumpers, Antifa, BLM, MSM, Deep State, etc.  Synonym for swamp dwellers)

homo unius libri

Opus 2021-153: Speculation

I sometimes get the impression that the Bible was edited to leave out certain details.  We have such questions as “Where did the children of Adam and Eve find mates?”  The Bible doesn’t say.  My mind was in that mode when I read the third verse of the Bible which says,

(Gen 1:3 KJV)  And God said, Let there be light: and there was light.

What it does not describe is the scratching sound of roaches looking for a dark place to hide.  They have been scrambling ever since.  I am sure you have seen articles, posts, blogs, tweets or whatever about how roaches have been around for millions of years, unchanged.  We hear how they would survive a nuclear holocaust.  You know the kind of “science” I am talking about.

Was their some unfathomable connection between the Wisdom described in Proverbs and the cockroach?

(Pro 8:27 KJV)  When he prepared the heavens, I was there: when he set a compass upon the face of the depth:

I am not trying to proclaim any new doctrines or share a prophetic insight.  It is just that my mind tends to run in strange paths.  I invite you to join me for just a moment in the glory of speculation.  My observations are at least as valid as those of Al Gore or AOC.

homo unius libri

Opus 2014-47: The Cause of Yardwork

I am reading a book of sermons by a man named Phillips Brooks.  The book was published in 1895 so I would not be surprised if you have never heard of him.  In one sermon he was talking about nature in regard to creation and the righteous state nature was in before the Fall.  That put me in tangent mode.  Before the fall Adam was given the world to subdue. 

(Gen 1:28 KJV)  And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.

This was while still in the Garden of Eden.  At that point could he tend the garden with verbal commands?  Could he say, “Stop growing” and have the weeds respond?  Was tending the garden an exercise in creativity and imagination instead of the sweat of his brow?  Could he change the color of the flowers based on his preference of the day?  This is obviously speculation.

Think about it.  Just as sin was caused by rebellion and disobedience, are plants now rebellious?  Is Bermuda grass an expression or original sin?  We know that sin saturated all of creation. 

(Rom 8:22 KJV)  For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now.

Consider how in Proverbs the oceans were ordered to stay in bounds.

(Pro 8:29 KJV)  When he gave to the sea his decree, that the waters should not pass his commandment: when he appointed the foundations of the earth:

Did sin allow the waters to rebel?  Before sin abounded were the laws of nature different?  This might explain how when we have glorified bodies we might be able to do the things that Jesus did after His resurrection.

One of the possible things to look forward to in eternity is a lack of yardwork.  Unless, of course, you enjoy yardwork.  But would you go to heaven if you enjoy yardwork?

homo unius libri