Month: August 2021

Dangerous democratic divides

eejoseph, ,

The following statement by a head of government reveals how diversity is the real threat to bogus democracy.

“Our political opponents’ deceptive, demonic agendas to fuel chaos and confusion will not be allowed to take root in this country. 

We will resist their violent aggression and lawlessness to maintain peace and tranquility in our country. 

Antigua & Barbuda will remain a safe and prosperous nation for all its citizens and residents.  

We will not surrender to partisan thugs, posing as freedom fighters.”

Hon. Gaston Browne
August 9, 2021

I take it that labeling something as demonic opens the door to extending the label to its owners.  When that happens the labeler will have declared war outside the boundaries of law, creating hostilities where none may have existed.

Parsing “demonic” is not like parsing “lawful”.  Demons are never nice guys, are always on a mission of death,  theft, and destruction, and they cannot be expected to gravitate towards the truth. What is lawful today can be the basis for tomorrow’s apology or the step onto higher ground.  Death, theft, and destruction are present in every nation and in the long run are the symptoms of failure.

The Hon. gentleman is exaggerating the threat of public protest.  Public protest may not be the foundation of AGBDA society,  but our very existence as a free people will always be a strong rebuke to colonialism and oppression. The last thing a liberated people want are slippery slopes in law, welfare,  and security.  People pretending that they have found governing principles written in stone had better wake up.  Government has used violent methods to shut down cultural expressions, fearing that people might hear a call insurrection. The current  furor is due to the poor quality of the public discourse. 
It seems to me that grammarians (small g deliberate) can be setting a better example, whether few or many are actually scribes.  There is expertise  that has the capacity to bring minds to reasonable grounds.  I for one am tired of the piecemeal treatment of the varied and, in my opinion,  vital components of a less emotional and more intelligent conversation.

Since the PM is on the record calling his opponents demonic he needs to bring out the exorcists.  Since he is on the record calling his opponents lawless it is curious that the opponents have not been apprehended and charged.  Violent assault is latent in the forces arrayed against all citizens, not in the citizens’ expression of their opinion  and protest.  Chaos is inherent in the wilderness of governments patterned after the colonial masters.

Sleep will continue to elude every leader who thinks that the need for change ended when they got elected or that no protest is a sign of utopia. The divide in democratic societies is becoming mre dangerous as leaders scramble to appear heroic and foundational at the same time.  Woe is me for buying partisan  politics as the fuel for generational change.

Human Sleight

eejoseph

Paul warned the Ephesians about the activities of deceivers  (4:14) the result of which, is that believers acting as juveniles are “tossed here and there by waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, by craftiness in deceitful scheming”; it is a magician’s m.o. to have people believe everything they see.

Yahweh, God the Almighty and the Lamb are heaven’s temple

Old is not new!

The Holy Ghost this signifying, that the way into the holiest of all was not yet made manifest, while as the first tabernacle was yet standing: 8). Which was a figure for the time then present, in which were offered both gifts and sacrifices, that could not make him that did the service perfect, as pertaining to the conscience; 9). Which stood only in meats and drinks, and divers washings, and carnal ordinances, imposed on them until the time of reformation. (10)

Hebrews 9:8-10 

Believe the Bible or believe in God

Cutting the fat from the spiritual diet simply means recognizing that there are things done and recommended in the Bible that we have no business embracing.

The separation of temporary measures from permanent arrangements often eludes us.  Accurately interpreting the messages in the Bible is not merely a function of separating the Old Testament from the New.  A kind of cowardly laziness has kept Christian witness from its blazing and pervasive perfection.  We dilute the wine by mixing it with every ancient liquid we can find. It is as if Moses did not say that the buck did not stop with himself.  Reducing the royal priesthood to a Davidide person executing levitical operations is perhaps the most deceptive of international approaches.

What is in heaven?

A structure with all the installations for dealing with sin located in heaven or on earth says the same thing: people are going to sin.  A temple in heaven is an outright fable.  The permanence of salvation never depended on created space, such as a laver, a lampstand, a covenant box. It most certainly has no need for the intervention of human agents. 

Access to God through Christ does not need the help of a building. Even if the Jewish people built another temple its functions would have nothing to with redeeming humans.  It would be desolate from the start because animal blood is inadequate.  Christ, in his atoning work, is all alone.

The devil gets a hold of our doctrine and turns it into a geography lesson, a nutrition regime, a priesthood system,  anything beside the actual work of God’s Only-Begotten; authorizing sonship for anyone who believes.

But Christ being come an high priest of good things to come, by a greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this building; 11) Neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood he entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us,(12)

Hebrews 9:11-12

The trickery of men will always end up grounded, exposed as empty clanging, because Christ is not the Alpha and Omega of their reasoning.

One would have to be pretty messed up to think that the true place of atonement is a location where hands and feet are washed, where blood is sprinkled, where bread is laid out etc. The heaven of Hebrews 9:24 is more than God’s residence. It is the eternal fact of essential saving grace in the face of Christ.

One can read the fact in plain language in Revelation 21:22,
“I saw no temple in it, for the Lord God the Almighty and the Lamb are its temple:.

What a wonderful place to find preaching women

eejoseph

hammabasROTE, from basar, he preached good news, in its participle form, with a feminine plural ending (ot), and having the definite article hav prefixed.

This word comes from basar, via mabasar, and hammabasrah. He evangelized, an “evangelizer”, and the evangelizing females.

Take the pulse of Psalm 68 and you will find some pleasant surprises. This one, female preachers,  is completely shocking.  We have to ask who they were and who really witnrssed their authorization them. We just might have tons of fun tracking down these female preachers in the sea of male domination.  Or is Psalm 68 a lot of hype about what the ideal might look like?  The thrill of such a world is to me most attractive because the religious world is still full self-loving males contrary to the sibling equality that defines all of God’s people.

It may be a pipe dream because no one can find the grounds for imagining that women will ever find themselves at the top of Judaism’s covenant services. Equally unpalatable is the notion that people calling themselves a kingdom can stand not having a king. We can see a wonder coming and few people seem to recognize its character or are willing to let a movement of women preachers proceed. That is no wonder.

Faking it

eejoseph

“Those who hate the Lord would pretend obedience to Him, And their time of punishment would be forever.

Psalms 81:15 (NASB)

Sometimes we add words to the primary report or saying hoping to bring out important aspects of meaning.  This verse illustrates the unnecessary addition of “obedience”.  Since God cannot be deceived  faking it with

God’s enemies are all over the world, including ancient Israel.  Ignorance about what Yahweh had done was not a Gentile thing.  Apparently,  noble people can snap in a trice, making up their own version of the facts.  Sarah, mother of the Hebrew people did it and some prophets were known  to manipulate the truth.

You did.  I did not.  Dos too.

Sarah denied it however, saying, “I did not laugh”; for she was afraid. And He said, “No, but you did laugh.”

Genesis 18:15

Also it will come about in that day that the prophets will each be ashamed of his vision when he prophesies, and they will not put on a hairy robe in order to deceive;

Zechariah 13:4

I do not mind saying that the King James translation is off target.  It addresses neither the Hebrew kachash nor the Septuagint’s pseudomai.  Both mean to misrepresent.  Misrepresentation can be carefully crafted narratives or calculated to mislead.  There is the widespread fact that people in New Testament times were in the grip of stories that had circulated from antiquity.  See what Peter and Paul say about this.

For we did not follow cleverly devised tales when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eyewitnesses of His majesty.

2 Peter 1:16


7. But have nothing to do with worldly fables fit only for old women. On the other hand, discipline yourself for the purpose of godliness; 8. for bodily discipline is only of little profit, but godliness is profitable for all things, since it holds promise for the present life and also for the life to come.

1 Timothy 4:7-8

There is also faking it by planning the answer to an embarrassing question. When the people in charge of the temple in Jerusalem decided to challenge Yeshua’s authority he asked him about John the Baptist’s authority. They, realizing that he had them between a rock and a hard place, plotted what they we going to say.  See the “faking it” play out in Matthew 21:23ff

I lie contrary to one or several divine commands, but lying to God never gets off the ground.   Two weighty matters emerge from this saying in Psalm 81.  None of them appears to be lying, even though the people as a whole have falsified their experience with Yahweh.  They are slow to admit that they had consistently rejected what Yahweh had to say.  There was no truth between Yahweh and his people.  Eternal punishment is not for merely telling lies but for being duplicitous in attitude, word, and deed. Being a friend of God calls for brutal authenticity which has no faking in it.

Just saying no is not against the vaccine

eejoseph

“No” no longer means “no” as long as a whataboutism is available. It is eyeopening that actively protesting mandatory procedures just became popular when our morality has revolved for centuries around an activity-free agenda.

Is that like a Black  motorist answering the question when pulled over by a cop?

The cop will either “serve” – (say this first) or oppress you. You won’t need to say the second. Things will unfold as programmed.

Where were these concerned citizens when our leaders over the last century were destroying young lives with copycat financial and drug polices. Since when did Caribbean thought leaders support human rights. I guess they can’t shake copying the use of a popular soundbyte, “projecting the rights of victims and oppressors”. What other mandated life-saving or lifestyle processes are they going to protest?