Month: June 2021

Our dependence on prophet profiles

eejoseph

It is next to impossible for us to avoid the influence of prophets. Their work and works comprose the main warning to the latter day generations. The best of them do not try to tell us that our lives depend on their message. Many of today’s prophets are agents of an international venture that has counterfeited God’s dealings with his chosen people and agents.

Profiteers installed as spokespeople for God miss the point of the kingdom of God. They see gain and advancement in the current age as paramount. One is tempted to conclude that Christ did not really die and God’s interest is focused on our carnal comforts. Apart from the use of the name Jesus there is little in their doctrine and practice that follows the pattern of life and growth revealed in the New Testament.

forsaking the right way, they have gone astray, having followed the way of Balaam, the son of Beor, who loved the wages of unrighteousness; 16. but he received a rebuke for his own transgression, for a mute donkey, speaking with a voice of a man, restrained the madness of the prophet.

2 Peter 2:15-16

The prophet’s fate

Jesus said to them, “A prophet is not without honor except in his hometown and among his own relatives and in his own household.”

Mark 6:4

Instead of looking for prophets and profits believers can invest their time in the words of the reliable Speaker, the One Moses said would have the final word on all of God’s business.

Not the worst country

eejoseph, , ,

Canada is not competing to be the bad boy, the sheriff, the virgin, or the Zion of the modern era. It seems that the democracies of our times have been trying desperately, with the help of cowardly religious groups and movements, to imitate the adventures of ancient nations, conquering, exploiting and oppressing peoples both near and far. I personally wish my head were a fountain to weep with the First Nations on Turtle Island. I do have a pair of feet, a pair of hands and one mouth. The depth of shame and disgrace that Christians have brought to this nation defies description. Standing with Canada’s First Nations is a long overdue measure this nation needs if can ever have an approach to healing. Make no mistake, everybody needs healing: the brave and the cowards, and the political parties need to consider packing up their rhetoric and get ready for a makeover. We are counting the unmarked graves of children who went to school and did not return home. Canada needs a vaccination with a strong dose humanity and it does not matter whether anyone evaluates us as the worst country on the planet. Justice calls for a strong rebuke of the responsible agencies: the churches, the licensing and governing authorities to do more than apologize and compensate our First Nations families. As far as I am concerned the Vatican, the police. and the political parties must pay. Then the rest of us must search our hearts for that evil streak that has allowed thousands of First Nations people to be missing and unaccounted for. We must demand the records of brutality against Canadians in police custody; a phenomenon that speaks of Canada being a very naughty country. There is no comfort in not being the worst country.

Justice is not a game for clever lawyers or political operatives. It is not the use of majorities in the legislatures to mount damaging campaigns in favour of big or small business. Justice is missing in action as long as we still have police officers who still think that their animus against young people, non-White persons is allowed. They and the rest of the administrative branches of government have not tasted the long arm of the law. This remains a stain on the record of governments we thought were humane and accountable. Apparently, most Canadians do not know what equity and service mean. We need the videos and records of police interactions with Black and Brown people. We also need a forensic analysis of what religious groups are teaching. If you think that is scary think about the fact that the disappearance of school children went unreported and unaddressed by church and government (of both political parties). Neither freedom of religion nor state religion prevent a country from being bad, worse or the worst.

Giggly Canadian justice

We have been saying that justice has a long arm and that the RCMP always gets its man (the violater of our laws), but justice in Canada makes some people happy, others laiugh out loud, and others giggle at how stupid we are. If we could defy gravity at will we could also evade the exposure of our despicable secrets. Time always tells, and hidden things will come to light, even the nasty plots in the highest councils of both the godly and the ungodly. We need to get ready for a huge dose of reality if the nation is going to deal with our genocidal history. Clergy and their allies will be expected to vomit all over themselves in their pride and zeal to defend their treasures. We are neither laughing nor giggling. Our tears are just too much. Not even the golden rule seemed to be in play!

I dare to say that church leaders (Protestant and Catholic) have been delusional in their view that justice is ultimately served by imprisonment, fines, and inhumane and merciless treatment of offenders and even of innocent people they do not like or deem as outsiders.

Let their treasures be our trash so we can move on. Let their zeal be a sick comedy. Let the Vatican and the cardinals show what they are really made of. Canadians will be interested in seeing whether they human or machines of blind loyalty and covetousness?

Schools that do no keep records?

It is abundantly clear that people posing as teachers of children had so little regard for our First Nations that they had nothing to say – NOTHING AT ALL – to the parents of the children whose corpses we are now discovering. A child murder atrocity must be punished. We are sure that apologies are insufficient. Maximum penalties must be applied impartially. When the whole nation – every province – commits itself to the remedies for this national tragedy we will have a reason to say something meaningful, graceful, and right about not being the worst country. Get ready for more revelations of evil, but that, to me, is an unprecedented opportunity to freshen up Canada. Freshen up, Canada.

A world without servants

eejoseph, ,

Mr. Lincoln, president of the United States, emancipator of slaves, was not a denier of basic truths. We need to stop stumbling over the dreams of wicked European colonists. People are allowed to have servants. A family that can afford to have “help” is able to carve out productive and creative time for all. God made Eve as helper for Adam. God has myriads of angels. America, like Egypt, has transformed a civilized practice into a policy of abject inhumanity and oppression.

A world with no servants is an abyss of stagnation

The conviction that led to the emancipation of slaves is hard to find today, hundreds of years after Lincoln’s bold vision came to him. The people who use Bible narratives to justify what the United States did and wants to keep doing to Africans are generally considered to be corrupt, ignorant and evil. They are wrong, just like Lincoln said their masterplan was.

An infinitely huge book, I’d say

eejoseph

Every page we think we’ve “turned” opens on another. We humans are desperately trying to prove how much we have grown up. The result has been massive embarrassment. Juvenile greed and understanding is widespread. Life is for learning amidst a lot of hugging and bugging, aging and eventually disengaging. We live, love and die. The minute we stop learning the truth about our destiny and show ourselves victorious we lose our way.

The tendency to quickly say “I got it” or “I get it” is fatally dangerous.

Hewn by design

O Ephraim, what shall I do unto thee? O Judah, what shall I do unto thee? for your goodness is as a morning cloud, and as the early dew it goeth away. (4) Therefore have I hewed them by the prophets; I have slain them by the words of my mouth: and thy judgments are as the light that goeth forth. (5)

Hosea 6:4-5

Prophetic work is not only building up. It also exposes folly and pulls down silly fantasies. Beware the gold medal followers of God who did not even lace up!

How desolate and scared the sacred!

eejoseph

The obsession with truth in the media and the church is just that: obsession. With Bible and secular law in hand agents and operatives of both church and state have made for themselves an image of certified trash. Like the people of Isaiah’s days the current generation has sunk to animalistic levels all the while proclaiming their status as the example of integrity and excellence. It is a laughable development, but we will leave the laughing to God who establishes both the order required for both the church and state. Now that we cannot claim to be without straight paths because of the repentance that brings us first of all into a family relationship with God and secondly into a new life in which Christ is the Way. The church is not to be defined by the thousands of cowardly noisemakers and guides who have trouble admitting that their mixing the Good Shepherd with thieves and robbers is a confession of desolation.

The chances of anything named after Messiah having a healthy life without his exclusive function as ALPHA and OMEGA are nil. No branch can thrive without an active connection to its vine. Christ does not need help from Moses or any other prophet to make his case nor to give eternal life to those who come to God on the basis of what Christ has done. Only desolation can follow if he who comes in Yahweh’s name is rejected.

Behold, your house is left to you desolate; and I say to you, you will not see Me until the time comes when you say, ‘Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord!’”

Luke 13:35

There is no shortage of people who are completely bogus wise, bogus righteous, and bogus penitent.

Worse than farm animals

Civilized people democratgically-minded popping up in all the places where the most useless and abhorrent practices are the in thing. What can we say a person has learned if, in pursuit of divine excellence, he decides to turn his attention to a temple where animal sacrifices ingrained sacrifices and drink offerings are offered in the quest for atonement with the god of the universe? It is disastrous for people who know prophetic teaching to ignore the fact that Moses passed the torch to one who will succeed him.

The ox knows its owner, and the donkey its master’s crib, but Israel does not know, my people do not understand.”

Isaiah 1:3

It is obvious that neither personal experience nor documentation has convinced the observers of the biblical flow that prophetic priority has come to an end. If one lacks experience then shallow-end swimming is to blame. The vast majority have no share in Holy Spirit blessings. They were never in line behind Christ or his apostles. We can say with John, at the departure of bogus disciples, “They were never part of us” (1 John 2:19). All those trumpeting for making the church a (cheap) copy of the kingdoms of Israel or Judah are bewitched that they do not see the canyon between Christ and Moses. The difference between death and life is muddled by evangelicals; the difference between the success of the Cross and Mount Sinai does not appear.

If one thought that the kingdoms of Isaiah’s lifetime were the only ones that fell off the truck one only needs to look at the neighbours. The United States and Canada are trying to get past their farm animal instincts with little progress. The treatment of women, children and entire ethnic groups is a shame enshrined in the sacred laws of many nations. These sacred traditions have given rise to a culture of lies, stupid mantras, endless cycles of fables and legislative battles, instead of humane and caring values.

The neighbours are all desolate too

  • Moab
  • Syria
  • Egypt
  • Edom
  • Tyre

Our contemporaries, drowning in the molasses of their golden calves, their consultations with the dead, sacred cakes and drinks, their misogyny, violence and homicides are profane, definitely sacred in their mirrors desolate and scared.

Bye Bibi. The clock is ticking

eejoseph, ,

Twice elected as chairman of his party (1993 and 2005) and competitor in seven elections, the lame duck (caretaker) PM Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel is a striking figure.  He obviously likes being the strong man, posturing Israel as a democracy in an ocean of despots. His brash and bold juvenile moves were not enough after twelve his  years in power.  On the scale of lengthy reigns Bibi is a brash and bold baby whose goodbye will burn another hole in the Zionist dream.

There aren't enough terms in office for bad guys to get the job done.

His strength is that of a man who unleashes the Israeli military on a population of landlocked Gaza.  His vision of Israeli independence is either a joke or a nightmare of foreign domination.  Why else would he go to the United States for confirmation of the location of Israel’s capital?

Not even his alliance with Jewish parties espousing strict religious practices has made him a statesman or a roke model.  Netanyahu’s twelve years in the PM’s office is only a quarter Manasseh’s, the king of Israel with the most wicked record, who reigned for 55 years, beginnning when he was a mere twelve year old. 

But they did not listen, and Manasseh led them astray to do more evil than the nations had done whom the LORD destroyed before the people of Israel.

2 Kings 21:9

Netanyahu has faced four elections in two years and this shows that Israel, far from being a genuine democary, is just like Russia, India and Pakistan, holds elections to retain the label democratic and find support among the dedicated democracies of the west. The big red deagon, the People’s Republic of China does not even bother. 

Many in the west are afraid of saying the truth about Israel’s defiance of intarnational law.  It is as if Israel can do no wrong.  No state is getting better.  Israeli clocks stopped clicking a long time ago.  With the passage of time Israeli leaders get better at covering up their wickedness but keep straying further from the actual experiences that have been most beneficial.

Life and knowledge

eejoseph

I imagine that John overheard Yeshua praying because John liked being close – physically close to the Son of Man. People are free to imagine as long as they do not try to turn their images into divine revelation. John reports the following words from Yeshua to his Father.

This is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent.

John 17:3

It is obvious that the hunger for knowledge finds a front row seat in the human experience. A child without curiosity csuses parental concern and an adult who stumbles through life saying “I do not know” is likely to have a growth rate near zero.

It is not only natural to want to know, to have familiarity of a topic, item, place or person. There is a supernatural dimension to knowledge. Human procreation flows from this desire. To get inside, to acquire inside information, to experience something or someone is knowledge. Sexual intimacy illustrates the type of knowledge that operates the levers of life at its best.

Was it respect?

eejoseph

Here we are still trying to decide if we dare to wrap our arms around everything we encounter or is there a reason to say absolutely no to some people and things. Major excuses for behaving badly towards our contacts include we do not know what to expect from them, we do not understand them, they have different priorities and they do not deserve our attention. I am trying to understand what plurality means in the modern context when all – ALL- of the ancient wisdom has strong streams of bad blood between communities, outright warfare, pretenses about decency and evident strains of inhumanity. What was it respect for other cultures that made Solomon a polytheist?

Solomon did not buy it

It is impossible miss the canyon between an Israelite monarch and his people’s priorities. Even though the mantra for all the years since the Exodus frorm Egypt had been “One God, One People, One Destiny” the anomalies stand out. Moses became an assassination target right after he demonstrated God’s power and mercy towards the Hebrew people. A learned person in 10th century BC Israel-Judah would not be unaware of the kingdom’s failure to pass the test. Destroying people who go astray is inconsistent with a caring king or shepherd, and this was one of the ways by which God strained out the careless and thoughtless. Solomon chose to employ non-Hebrews and persons of mixed ethnicity in his main project.

  • And Solomon sent word to Hiram the king of Tyre: “As you dealt with David my father and sent him cedar to build himself a house to dwell in, so deal with me. 2 Chronicles 2:3
  • “Now I (King Hiram) have sent a skilled man, who has understanding, Huram-abi, 2 Chronicles 2:13
  • the son of a woman of the daughters of Dan, and his father was a man of Tyre. He is trained to work in gold, silver, bronze, iron, stone, and wood, and in purple, blue, and crimson fabrics and fine linen, and to do all sorts of engraving and execute any design that may be assigned him, with your craftsmen, the craftsmen of my lord, David your father. 2 Chronicles 2:14
  • Then Solomon counted all the resident aliens who were in the land of Israel, after the census of them that David his father had taken, and there were found 153,600. 2 Chronicles 2:17
  • Seventy thousand of them he assigned to bear burdens, 80,000 to quarry in the hill country, and 3,600 as overseers to make the people work. 2 Chronicles 2:18

Solomon had no intentions of wiping out foreigners. This number of workers – 153,600 – belies Israel’s total population of the remnants of the seven nations resident Canaan since the 15th century BC. These persons had families, and Solomon was not going to lay a hand on the Jebusites, especially, since it was from a Jebusite that David had bought the site for the temple.

By Isaiah’s times the word was out. Something was seriously wrong with society. The prophet had instructions to steer clear of the common habits and narrative. Those instructions would naturally coincide with the king’s ideas of governance.

For the LORD spoke thus to me with his strong hand upon me, and warned me not to walk in the way of this people, saying: “Do not call conspiracy all that this people calls conspiracy, and do not fear what they fear, nor be in dread. But the LORD of hosts, him you shall honor as holy. Let him be your fear, and let him be your dread.

Isaiah 8:11-13

A king wanting to imitate God would have might, rewards and recompenses as Isaiah says “​Behold, the Lord GOD comes with might, and his arm rules for him; behold, his reward is with him, and his recompense before him.” Isaiah 40:10

The failure of Israel’s first king

Did God want killer kings? Does Christ want firing squad disciples? One hardly lines up behind Moses without becoming available for a stoning or a witness to a community going after the neighbours and their property. Something more had to be in the route to rest than test.

Speculation might offer that Solomon lost his way, died in his idolatrous ways and is nevertheless, like the kingdom, a role model of wisdom. That is where Christ’s followers differ. If the discussion is about eternal life and a just lifestyle it seems that someone skipped school and did not get the memo.

Solomon’s government brought major exposure to the kingdom. We cannot say it did the same for Yahweh. Solomon’s respect for the priesthood is not in question. He might have turned a blind eye to their already mercenary ventures. After all the temple was not going to be a thing without an authorized priesthood. David’s music must have transfixed the king.

Wisdom does not bring salvation

How could Solomon not recognize that Israel’s gold and silver were essential to encounters with God. Canaanite and other foreign gods were not unfamiliar to Solomon.

Psalms 115:1-8 shows that the nations (heathen in the King James translation) were asking basic questions about (a tangible and localized) Israel’s God. Might they have asked about cherubim with wings that do not fly just as Israelites ridiculed gods with eyes and ears that do not see or hear. Israel’s God has to be elsewhere. He cannot be exclusively in shrines and enclosed in gold and silver. The works of any human hands are immediately suspect.

1) Not unto us, O LORD, not unto us, but unto thy name give glory, for thy mercy, and for thy truth’s sake. 2) Wherefore should the heathen say, Where is now their God? 3) But our God is in the heavens: he hath done whatsoever he hath pleased. 4) Their idols are silver and gold, the work of men’s hands. 5) They have mouths, but they speak not: eyes have they, but they see not: 6) They have ears, but they hear not: noses have they, but they smell not: 7) They have hands, but they handle not: feet have they, but they walk not: neither speak they through their throat. 8) They that make them are like unto them; so is every one that trusteth in them.