Political convictions have no template in the doctrine of Christ. Let us try telling the courts to forgive trespassers or the financial waymakers that a jubilee is overdue or tell the media and police services that lying lips are an abomination. We should mind our own business, and that is, without dispute, loving people and relieving suffering. We must let the Risen Christ subject his enemies. Otherwise we keep shooting ourselves in the foot.
Do pastors not know who the enemy is? It ain’t the people with whom we share excellence of God everywhere we look. It ain’t cancer or unbelief? Phew!
Careful with your rooting up
28. And he said to them, ‘An enemy has done this!’ The slaves said to him, ‘Do you want us, then, to go and gather them up?’ 29. But he said, ‘No; for while you are gathering up the tares, you may uproot the wheat with them.
Matthew 13:28-29
Intellectuals without heads and discussion without opinion are the new standard of excellence in the shadows and at high noon at at the Capitol.
The boys who reject maturity are doomed to repeat Lucifer’s error. I could have told you that Americans and Canadians are being manipulated by people in government who think that they have a case to make for maintaining the juvenile phase of national development. Americans just saw the tip of that iceberg in the president-inspired insurrection of January 6th. Canadians are being radicalized in churches by a crazed mob of religious people and politicians. The A-Team in our communities does not realize that merely trying to recapture the ideals that attended the beginning of our societies and nations are starting points; a juvenile lack of personal accountability and a fatal imprisonment.
The A-Team in your church has been toying with the same idea. I am aware that my fingers are pointing at me and my church. The obvious juvenile complex comes to light in Paul’s description of a minor and a prison when he addressed the same problem. The obvious juveniles of Paul’s days and ours have the spititual daycare and the prison as the rock on which they stand. They can only call us names when we take our stand on the Branch and Root of David – they cannot pretend not to know who that is – and the only Pattern for a moral life.
The boys and the prison
22) But the Scripture has shut up everyone under sin, so that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe. 23) But before faith came, we were kept in custody under the law, being shut up to the faith which was later to be revealed.
Galatians 3:22-23
Please read the context to see how foolish the journey is that Christian and political leaders have undertaken. The wolves Paul saw coming are still around.
I recently received a “tell yourself” video featuring things – a selection of Bible verses- people should tell themselves. I do not want to tell myself anything that I shouldn’t, just because it is in the Bible, and Deuteronomy 28 is not a blanket of blessings anyone who was not there can wrap himself in. In that video I could not get past “Tell yourself Deuteronomy 28 … I am the head and not the tail”. It is this kind of mixing truth and lies that has brought the world of information sharing to a destructive new low both in the political and religious world
Today, yesterday and careful compliance
How can I tell myself what the Bible says about me without a full hug, unless the self-talk is just a thing to create a good feeling or adjust our comfort level with reality? The only way to be head and tail is to get in touch with what Moses was saying as Israel neared Canaan.
Strong persons like VP Pence and Senator Graham change their minds as their naivete and sycophantism veer off into weak and treasonous terrain. “Count me out” said Graham after the Congress returned to count the votes. The deal they had made to stand with a racist and criminal head of state The chat groups traffic in videos and documents in support of a “reset” from the dark web has jolted to a halt. Should Christians not be cheering now that the “God and country” agenda has been exposed as an attempt to revisit the revolution of 1776? I have watched them chase miracles to change the only things that clarify personal growth; adversity and change in character. I have watched them pursue elementary things as if they were primary and advanced, and I have seem them resist pursuing the essentials. I have seem them giving themselves honorific titles instead of lighting up the world with enabling ministries. There may be no words in Webster’s dictionary to describe the people who believe every stream of falsehood from the patriotic and the idolatrous, from the idle and gullible cowards, but finding the right words is not a lost cause. It is a good thing if we cannot imagine what is up next, because up next is worse than a gloating bigot in the potus seat inciting sedition.
When the lights around us dim we can get direction, certainty, and life, all in one place.
I could never understand where people fit into the motto “God and country”. If there is a God in anyone’s national policy, man, he is hard to find. God honours women and exposes organizational wickedness by giving women an honoured place in both the old world and the new world. America’s lead in the world looks godlike: it covers both powerful genocidal and lifegiving ventures. It is a matter of record that modern nations have tried making the term people not apply to the nations occupying the lands they coveted. You can judge whether Australia, Canada or the United States or the United Kingdom understands the term today.
Is your nation a violent man or a gracious woman
A gracious woman gets honor, and violent men get riches.
Prov. 11:16
Truly, I say to you, wherever this gospel is proclaimed in the whole world, what she has done will also be told in memory of her.”
Matt. 26:13
A woman in scripture is a church, a chaste woman. Any nation that fails to anticipate what the Christ of Nazareth needs, like the woman in tune with the divine agenda concerning his burial, is making its choice about how it wants to be known.
If all nations drink of Babylon’s wine and are intoxicated by it will they not slip into the same behaviour patterns (Rev. 14:8)? On every continent, in every region there are the wrecks of empire that speak loudly of mankind’s violent path. It is not unexpected that a Christian democracy or an enlightened people choose violent insurrection as the means of conducting the nation’s business.
A gloating bigot’s bloated ego and a severely wounded head
We have heard about being president from people who know the ropes of being American president. Every president of the last century has the admiration of the American people for his use of the office, and for doing so with a conscience when that mattered most of all. An election does not endow a person with the character of president; it puts resources at that person’s disposal, and using those resources within the powers of the president at least gives the people solace and assistance. Presidential excellence is that other thing that cannot be bought or passed on, and it is obvious there were not two evangelicals Christians whose prayer for the president to have a second term God rejected. The voice of the people means a lot even if it does not in your church, in the GOP or the family of the corrupt 45th president. The calls for unity around an openly seditious president or party chairs or congressional leaders and the calls for people to pity and the defeated president and his terrorist mobs all across the United States are coming from radicalized and demonized persons. The call for consistency and the shouts of conscience are all too late. With 12 years of the GOP’s immoral opposition to the democratic character of the United States and the rejection of a health care plan for all, the rejection of science (wearing a mask is likely to disorient people whose favourite vision of citizenship includes masked racist mobs who have been harassing Black people) are evidence of the diseased heart and the homicidal plans that demonate the White House and the Republican party.
Forget what the constitutional experts might contribute to smooth the public dismay at the destruction and depravity that leapt into view when the people elected the 45th president. Mr. Obama was such a striking figure of decency and in tune with the ideals and goals of democratic government that the serpentine influences leapt to the conclusion that any American, no matter how crude, criminally-minded, or mentally unstable, can be president. So the Republicans listened to the Christian right’s advice to (a) pick any buffoon (b) sound off about defending the unborn (c) repeat patriotic and nationalist slogans and (d) get their idea of good judges on the Supreme Court. It has all come down to a court of jesters, hecklers and juvenile insurrectiuonits. The failure to put criminal leaders on trial, in jail, and tune them out is deliberate. After the revolution came Jim Crow, educational terrorism, religious prostitution, commercialization of the church’s business, and the attempt to inject religion into the political conversation. All is deliberate, not spontaneous.
Every time religious people talk about God as a player in the current political drama we must ask his address and who speaks for him. You see there is no “us vs God” suit to play out in any court like Miracle on 34th Street. We must also ask whether God’s role in setting up and removing civic leaders is a global feature or exclusively a western democratic Christian talking point.
Daniel answered and said: “Blessed be the name of God forever and ever, to whom belong wisdom and might. Dan. 2:20 He changes times and seasons; he removes kings and sets up kings; he gives wisdom to the wise and knowledge to those who have understanding; Dan. 2:21 he reveals deep and hidden things; he knows what is in the darkness, and the light dwells with him. Dan. 2:22
Daniel’s appreciation of government subjection to God’s wishes
The spectre of a “Christian” society, armed with conservative judges, silent watchmen (all those pastors who see no reason to stand with violated people), patriotic, radicalized and seditious first responders, looms large and may never dissipate.
Would it not be a chockfull delight to wake up and find the unclean clean, the estranged accepted, and the accused exonerated? It would if you have the relevant attitude towards marginalized people. The sprinkling and the outcomes in this scenario are a snapshot essentially a dispersal process and the sprinkler is the Lord’s highly exalted Servant (caps are mine) who at the time bears the marks of disfigurement, and more so than any human. The sprinkled nations and silenced kings are a pictire of second rate experience, premature and immature knowledge.
Silent kings “see” and “consider”
So shall he sprinkle many nations; the kings shall shut their mouths at him: for that which had not been told them shall they see; and that which they had not heard shall they consider.
Isaiah 52:15
Miracle or catastrophic sarcasm of shallowness ?
the kings shall shut their mouths at him:
they see that which had not been told them
they consider that which they had not heard
It is perfectly okay for kings to shut their mouths when the Highly ExaltedServant is mentioned, but we cannot with any soundness of mind believe that people, kings or not, (a) can consider things that they have never heard or (b) they can scratch their beards or nod their heads and say “I see” when nothing was declared.
This saying is preparation for the generation that will refuse to believe and pretend that they have been paying attention, that they understand and have the right opinion of matters, which it turns out they have not actually heard or seen. That reminds me of Bible study that does everything except read the text. The sprinkled kings are the generation with itching ears who have experienced only a few drops of divine sprinkling and who, after seeing the true wonders of God, do not believe. Isaiah asks next “Who believes our report?” We know the answer. A chosen half-baked few for now.
Those of us who feel that we are beyond needing the serpent in the wilderness are going to be surprised, and we hope quickly recover, because people with not much more than their eyes and ears are being told to think for themselves about science and data and to believe that items found on the internet are reliable. We have devoted considerable resources and attention to organizing ourselves. We organize our families for effect. I do not mean just for show. There is a drive to excel. Churches and other like places know what they want to sell and they educate members about how to have a hand in shaping the view the world gets of us, or a view of the ideal. If we all are not careful we may find ourselves complicit in trafficking in falsehoods and partisan passions. Unlike corporations and professional associations I find refuge in doing maintenance on my thoughts about the difference between my condition and what I might be a strong shield against being part of any organized deceit.
Plagued by serpents
Faith’s journey has been maligned and misrepresented by people looking for a way to position themselves at the top and in the right hand seat. If Abraham has anything to do with faith we know his experience and example must shape ours and distinguish themselves from an arrival mentality, and prepare a people who are grateful for life, hungry for spiritual nourishment as patient travellers.
You and I tangle with narratives that are essentially not ours, and we are slow to admit that believing what we are told to believe is mostly childish fear and greed. What we are told to believe as children vanishes when the eternal issue of life confronts us. Faith does two things that nothing else can do. What a dreadful waste it is when we organize our narrative apart from believing the wonderful works of God.
Who would have thought that blood on doorpost would be the way to position ourselves to be rescued from the common bondage?
Dead commander and living help
The critical questions about life are (a) who guarantees that people receive it and (b) who guides us through it. The best guarantee and guidance do not come from the most distinguished of our ancestors like David nor the reliability of servants like any angel or prophet.
Acts 2:34-35
34. For it was not David who ascended into heaven, but he himself says: ‘The Lord said to my Lord, “Sit at My right hand, 35. Until I make Your enemies a footstool for Your feet.”’
Acts 2:34-35
Hebrews 1:13
But to which of the angels has He ever said, “Sit at My right hand, Until I make Your enemies A footstool for Your feet”?
Hebrews 1:13
If your faith requires that you commit yourself to a messenger or an illustrious ancestor then your narrative is organized to deceive.
Isaiah 66 contains what seems like a solid picture of the future until the mention of Levites (vs. 21). Along with a few other right-sounding predictions this one leaps off the page and can hardly be ignored because government and priesthood in Israel-Judah moves to a new neighbourhood making it necessary that Levites are not dismissed or idolized. This term is reshaped, like everything else in the Law and the Prophets, by the Messianic mission. As the essential civil or public servants of Israel’s priestly kingdom their functions disappear, and their connection to the sacred, in Mosaic terms, is off the rails, there being no fixnctioning holy place. Let it be understood that no dual kingdom citizenship exists allowing anyone to partake of the Messianic kingdom’s priesthood and at the same time be a worshiper at the levitical system. A professional unelected and unbiased class of public servants is a threat to political systems that say they respect diversity, that uses a set of mantras about being committed to justice, and continues to support the design of patriotism, discrimination, and xenophobia.
I will also take some of them for priests and for Levites,” says the Lord
Isaiah 66:21
Chaos every election cycle
If every government that gets elected wants to install officials that will replace law with political loyalty, or re- interpret or void the law then it is not the law that is permanent and paramount. The idea that western democracies, buiit on a Judeo-Christian set of principles, need less government is inconsistent with both Moses and Cbrist.
There is no apostolic model for civic government, perfect and royal priesthood of Christ with a new set of rules and procedures, will mediate release where the old order. Anyone can adopt the standards of the levitical system but only the Jewish people could hope to
Government and priesthood
The Sinai Covenant had as its goal the creation of a kingdom of priests – or a priestly government. The ancient world had local heads of clans or tribes and kings at both the city and regional level. Kingdoms were the most widespread form of government in Canaan and all around the Mediterranean. The levitical arrangement was new because it had no visible human head. The authorities that supported the king included the following.
The prince or captain שר sar
The elder זקן zaqen
The counsellor יעץ yaats
Presidents achashdarpan (in the Babylonian government)
Princes sarek (in the Babylonian government)
A vital uniting servant-class
Levites provide services for a price paid by all without exception. There are no tax breaks. They are the ones who truly make sacrifice or offering to God. The genuine recyclers. Turning animal or grain into smoke (qatar קטר) marked the complete circle of fellowship.
Goodwill between Christians and Jews does not change the contrast
We have an altar from which those who serve the tabernacle have no right to eat.
Hebrews 13:10
Baby delights in Isaiah 66:11. That you may nurse and be satisfied with her comforting breasts, That you may suck and be delighted with her bountiful bosom.”
No nation has implemented the levitical system because eating from that table is exclusively Jewish.
More juvenile situations in Isaiah 66:12
For thus says the Lord, “Behold, I extend peace to her like a river, And the glory of the nations like an overflowing stream; And you will be nursed, you will be carried on the hip and fondled on the knees.
Just lift your hands – no gimmicks needed
Lifting one’s hand in prayer is not a gesture that can be a thoughtless action by a superstitious person. The opportunity to bypass the temple with sanction from the national prayerbook. It is incredible that no development occurred along this line and the temple built to perpetuate levitical priorities after the exile. It seems that the prayer life of Israel missed a turning point. Why should hand lifting notreplacethe sacrifice and offering of animal blood and body? Lifting up the hand going to be prayerthe mind needs to be activated. The sign of the cross is popular among some believers
Do they prevent accidents?
Psalms 141:2
May my prayer be counted as incense before You; The lifting up of my hands as the evening offering
Psalms 141:2
Read her lips
When I was an orthodox Christian signing oneself was accompanied by “In the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, One God Amen”. It never replaced praying. If saying one is a Christian and embracing Judaism, Buddhism, any of the versions of political pantomime is consistent with what Christ stood for one must ask “What changed?”
Did monotheism brightest show really have a home in Galilee? Would we accept it if came from Beijing? James, the brother of Yeshua, was a skeptic while his brother was with us, and we find him throwing Moses at his brother’s Church.
Christians are more confused than ever, and among faith groups they are not alone. However, if we Christians thought that having Pharisees, jealous Sadducees, angry biblical experts, and hostile siblings was hell on earth for first century believers just add the 21st century’s possiblity thinkers, law-abiding followers of Moses, scholars refusing to learn, benighted political operatives posing as lighthouses, never-sick and ageless vegetarians, public officials who change their orientation with the political wind. Few things render Christ’s followers more shepherdless than the yeast of influence peddling and selfserving theories about Christ’s kingdom. Yet none of these hazard justifies violent uprisings and creating deals with governments.
To insist that a revolution 2.0 is needed to continue the journey of our ancestors is pure madness. Have we learned so little and do we have nothing to contribute to the national discourse and national progress? Does Israel return to Sinai? Of course not. Sinai’s shot. Does Canada return to Sir John A’s template? No. Should the United States go through another revolutionary we know that it is because the original template was fatally flawed and the patriotic proponents of a civic society in North America have been manipulating laws to avoid the noble goals of the founding fathers.
Here is another sample – two blocks – from the dark web. They think everyone who sees their corrupt shares and the shallow pool in which they swim is in league with them.
Founders of ISIS and identifying demons
Chat groups revelling in the mire
Villifying the mainstream media humans
Chat group participating in advocating jail
Should the difference between human and demon appear many chat groups would also vanish, but far too many people passing themselves off as activists and kindergarten bullies.
Too bad, forgiveness is not a Judeo-Christian virtue. Let everyone pardon the 45th president of his lies, mayhem, incitement to sedition, and homicide. Where Moses says “Die”, Yeshua says “Go
Life is Fun, But Not a Joke 