Opus 2025-024: Arbitrary Anchors

At New Year’s we often make much of the fact that this is an arbitrary date.  Actually we do that more with Christmas than New Year’s, but both of them are arbitrary.  They are chosen for historic, cultural, personal reasons.

So we have the idea of New Year’s resolutions.

Stop and think.  We have more than just New Year’s as an arbitrary anchor.  We have each month.  The first day of each month is a good time to start over and look at things again.  Then we have the weeks whether you consider Sunday the first day of your week or according to your pocket calendar, Monday.  It’s a good time to stop and think and plan.

You can also do the same thing on daily basis.

So just because something is arbitrary doesn’t mean it’s not important.  We need to spend more time reflecting, readjusting and planning as much as we can.  Of course we don’t know what the Progressives* will throw at us next but we can prepare to be surprised.  

*(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 2025-023: The Midas Touch

Or maybe we should rewrite the story as “The Progressive’s Touch”.

I don’t know how to express the rage and disgust I feel at the Cabal controlling Joe Biden.  Every day brings a new revelation of the pollution in their souls.  I am sure I am not alone among Americans.  The concept of giving George Soros the Presidential Medal of Freedom just leaves me with my mouth hanging open.

Everything that the Democrats and Rinos touch they turn to a pile of feces.  I started a list.

Nobel prize made a joke by Barack Obama.  Actually it was the Nobel committee.  A man of integrity would have turned it down with a, “No thanks, I have not done anything to even make it to your list of nominees.”  
Presidential Medal of Freedom has been downgraded to the level of a get out of jail free coupon.
Science has been settled.
Everything that was fit to print was not.
Higher education moved to the basement.
Welfare nationalized the feet people used to stand on.
Military watered down to become predominately nuts and fruits.
California becomes the ashes state.
Courts import their own kangaroos.
Elections bleed out patriotism.
We have to issue apologies to Banana Republics.

I might as well stop there while my blood pressure is only a little high.

God help us because this government won’t.

homo unius libri

Opus 2024-022: Choices As Opposed to Compulsion

As I am trying to understand the place of law and grace, I keep coming back to the testimony that runs all through the Bible.  People make choices.  It is possible that is one of the key elements of being made in the image of God.  We can choose.

I’m not talking about just every day choices about what to have for dinner or what to wear or what programs to watch.  I’m talking about choices in direction.  The book of Psalms, repeatedly contrasts those who choose righteousness with those who choose wickedness, those who choose God, as opposed to those who choose themselves.

Proverbs has a whole list of choices that reflect this basic truth.  It might be simplicity as opposed to wisdom.  It might be ignorance as opposed to knowledge.  You have honesty being juxtapositioned against deceit.  I’m sure there are other contrasts throughout scripture.

Of course, choice does not mean that we have the power to implement salvation.  That is up to God.  One of the choices we also do not have is to tell Him the standards by which He will make His choices.  It is clear that the choices we make are important.  God may give us insights, nudges, inspirations but He will not compel.  That means we have responsibility and will face the consequences.

It is called free will.  That free will results in the kind of direction we feel is right for us.  God in His power and wisdom knew what He was getting into and decided to have a real free agent rather than a robot.

Sorry if that upsets your apple cart.

homo unius libri

Opus 2024-021: Targets

Aristotle starts off by laying the groundwork for ethics.  As I said before, he felt the most important subject to focus on was political science.  Then he tries to define what he means by “political science.”  He limits it to two areas,

    “The subjects studied by political science are moral nobility and justice;...”, page 4

The translator’s notes inform us that “moral nobility” has to do with objects and actions that are materially and morally correct.  I would think that tends to merge with the second target of “justice”.

You can see that Aristotle’s idea of what is involved in political science is vastly different than what we would think today, or at least it seems that way.  Perhaps as I continue to read this will be expanded.  

Aristotle.  The Nicomachean Ethics, Translated by Harris Rackham.  England:  Wordsworth Classics of World Literature, 1996.

homo unius libri

Opus 2025-020: Book Review: Another Mixed Bag

I just finished reading a sci-fi novel called The Mercy of the Gods.  The story was interesting and if you like sci-fi that has mysterious aliens and obscure science this could be your thing.

My problem is that the writers handbook just can’t keep out of the way of the story.  Modern writers have so much woke nonsense demanded that it is hard to weave a good tale.  Corey does a decent job of keeping it on the sidelines.  Sure, we have the women who is overcome with sorrow and because the war leader.  You will find most ethnic groups involved.  Genuine Christianity is not mentioned.  Then you get to the nonsense.

On page 342 I came across this impossible grammar.

“He wanted to meet a stranger in the library and spend an hour flirting with them.”

The only way to write this way is to confuse the issue of whether this guy is a homosexual or not. He didn’t flirt with them. “Stranger” is singular.  “Them” is plural.  Either he flirted with her or he flirted with him.  This is why I find it so hard to read fiction today.  I reject the homosexual lifestyle as being normal but I know it exists.  Is it too much to have the author be clear in what he is trying to say?

I guess so.  

I finished the book.  The story hung together in spite of the politically correct demands of the editors.  It makes me wonder, though, if I will bother with the next book in the series.  What generally happens is they keep the wokeness in the background until you get involved with the characters and then they start the overwhelming doses.

This is why I am focusing on older non-fiction.

Corey, James S.A.  The Mercy of the Gods.  New York:  Orbit Books, 2024.

homo unius libri

Opus 2024-019: Barista Theology

What are the big questions of life?  Some wag one said, “If Jesus is the answer, then what is the question?”  In a sense that’s funny and from another view rather vapid.  Everyone knows the questions.  Anyone who has ever had to get up and go to work and watch other people sitting eating a big breakfast, and reading the newspaper has wondered, “Why?”  It’s a real question, even if it’s just a matter of selfish self-interest.  When it gets the bigger issues of children coming down with cancer and parents going into dementia we still ask questions.  Everyone knows what the big question are.

Whether you like the answer, one of the big questions in life, possibly the ultimate question, was asked by the Philippian jailer,

(Act 16:30 KJV)  And brought them out, and said, Sirs, what must I do to be saved?

Men and women of all cultures and religious backgrounds have asked this question.  It might have different cultural contexts but the question is universal.  From a Christian perspective, there are three basic positions.

Position one is that of the sovereignty of man.  You earn your way to heaven.  Everything depends upon you and your efforts.  You picture someone going through mazes, climbing mountains, swimming oceans, and then, when he turns that last corner, there’s God waiting with a nice blue ribbon to put on his chest and say, “Good job.”

You could find plenty of verses in the Bible that would go along with that.

At the other extreme, you have the sovereignty of God.  Now from my personal, prejudiced, opinionated perspective, I would call this hard-core, five-point Calvinism.  That may not be fair but that’s what I call it.  Under this version God is sovereign.  Totally.  Even if you have an opinion, He gave it to you.  Back when He created the heavens and the Earth He laid it all out in concrete, from the first declaration of “Let there be light” to the final shape of the kingdom and eternity.  He chose who would be saved.  He chose would be damned.  He did it because he wanted to, and no one else had a say in the matter.

In between you have all of the shades of the coffee shop.  You can walk in and tell the barista that you want just a black coffee.  That is all I ever order so I don’t know the progression, but I notice all of those different boutique drinks listed on the menu behind the barista.  I would imagine that you can go all the way up to having a coffee flavored milkshake with whip cream and a cherry on top, and in some places, still call it coffee.  This is kind of what it’s like in the world of theology when you put together the concept of the sovereignty of God and the free will of man.  Most people fall into this category and it has so many variations that they all would completely think of the others as being outside of the plan of salvation.

At one end you have free will, and at the other end you have the sovereignty of god. My recent reading is telling me that neither term is found in Scripture.

This means that that middle category of barista theology is pretty much where we have to end up.  The Bible teaches the concept that we are responsible.  It teaches that we make choices.  The choices have consequences.  It also teaches that the God of the Bible has the final say in everything.  He can do anything He wants, including turning you into a turnip.  I think the Biblical concept is that God can make descendants of Abraham out of the stones, but turnips would be easier and cause fewer headaches.

So the ball is in your court.  God has largely done his part.  He created the universe you exist in.  He created man in His image.  He caused you to be born.  Now it either doesn’t make any difference what you decide or it’s up to you to work this out under His guidance.  He’s also provided for that because He has giving us the Bible and the Holy Spirit.

(Php 2:12 KJV)  Wherefore, my beloved, as ye have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.

No one every said it would be as easy as falling off a log.

homo unius libri

Opus 2025-018: Hear, Hear!

I had what I would describe as a classic case of gaslighting recently.

If my memory is accurate the term gaslighting comes from a book, movie or play in which the husband kept turning down the gas lamps in the house in small increments and when his wife wondered if it was getting darker would deny it and claim all was well.  I don’t know how that was resolved but it developed the concept of “gaslighting.”  That is my story and I am sticking to it.

I had given a lady a ride to the doctor’s office.  When we settled into the waiting room she took a chair with nothing next to her.  I sat across and down a couple of seats.  Someone she knew was also in the waiting room and they engaged in a robust conversation until the other lady was called into the back rooms.  The conversation was then directed toward me.  I noticed that I had clearly heard and understood the conversation between them but when I was being addressed I had a hard time.  It occurred to me that when she was talking to me she lowered her voice.  When I asked her to repeat something she did not speak more clearly but lowered it again.  She has a history of telling me I need to have my hearing checked.

I will concede that my hearing is not 100%.  I also know that hearing aids do not work very well in noisy environments and so I am not interested in them at this point.  The point is not my hearing but the gaslighting going on to make me think my hearing is worse than it is.

Gaslighting is an effective way of manipulating people.  Be aware.  Strive to not be manipulated.  If you are the gaslighter, pray for mercy and forgiveness.

homo unius libri