Month: August 2023

Capital capitulation

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The most famous Christian was a man who was the son of a priestly family. His birth was the subject of village intrigue, when his father had an encounter with an angel and was struck dumb until he announced the name of the newborn Levite. I cannot imagine the scandal that broke out when John ben Zachariah moved out of his father’s house and influence to become the now famous voice in the desert. Priests and their families were the fortresses of levitical interests, and losing one would have been a catastrophic and disruptive capital capitulation.

“And the child continued to grow and to become strong in spirit, and he lived in the deserts until the day of his public appearance to Israel.”

Luke 1:80, NASB

And he asked for a tablet and wrote as follows, “His name is John.” And they were all astonished. And at once his mouth was opened and his tongue loosed, and he began to speak in praise of God.

Luke 1:63-64, NASB

Loosely Christian but totally dedicated

We know that John was not a person called to follow Yeshua. Let us pin that down. John the Baptist was not in any way shown to be a companion of the Nazarene. His career was all about announcing the new era: God’s imminent kingdom. John dared to point out his Nazarene cousin as the lamb that would take away the world’s sin. That sin removal was something that was not even contemplated by the priests of the Mosaic economy.

Imagine dozens of priests calling the Nazarene “LORD”

“The word of God kept on spreading; and the number of the disciples continued to increase greatly in Jerusalem, and a great many of the priests were becoming obedient to the faith.”

Acts 6:7, NASB

There were at least three encounters between the disciples of Yeshua and the priests who administered the temple services before Luke reported that a great many priests had accepted yeshua’s message. I cannot imagine the priesthood guarding anything more zealously than priestly adherence to Mosaic doctrine and equally zealous avoidance of anything new, such as Yeshua being the Lamb of God. Hence we can conclude that the demise of levitical priesthood could only be made clearer for the world to see by the cessation of sacrifices and/or the destruction of the temple. Now since there is no evidence of any other anointed person credibly claiming David’s eternal seat, a capital capitulation such as John’s side trip to the desert continues to be impugned and denigrated by both Christians and Jews and raises questions about our integrity.

Continue reading

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News is not public service. Maybe you can remember a time when news cost nothing or mere pennies. Today, late summer 2023, a corporation selling news, editorial opinion, expert analysis posts a tantalizing headline, followed by a blurb containing neither geography, chronology, science nor theology. Then comes the bridge, “Continue reading”. Click that object and you will learn the price of that “news” item, and the more desperate corporations will use your click to collect your personal information, ostensibly for identifying you as a client.

Incorrigible corruption

The term “news” should be stripped from many names of television stations, radio stations and websites. We will be sorry if we do not take action now to end the reign of political and religious spin. The corruption in information peddling is deep, buried in the very things that have been dividing society and inviting violence and using patriotism and religious conviction to create a new mindless cult. News outfits become virtual silos of specialized packages of information bits. After what we have learned about the Fox media platforms hatred of facts and social media obsession with manipulating public sentiment with algorithms shutting off the faucet of quasi-news is a step in the correcting of the incorrigible.

Compact and clear

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Many believers have been bullied into believing that the Mosaic law and the arguments of the Pharisees are paramount.  Christ has certified that Moses had no heavenly bread and that both Moses and the prophets lose their edge with his arrival.  So let us visit again the typical approach to righteousness. We will never have any righteousness for which we can take credit.  Righteousness, whether our status or behaviour must be attributed to Christ’s intervention and gift.  We must lay to rest the anxiety surrounding proving to God and our fellow pilgrims that we are obedient to the Law. Since the Law did not give us righteousness we should not expect it to maintain the righteousness that comes to us as a gift.

No debt we can pay

“Now to the one who works, his wage is not credited as a favor, but as what is due.”

Romans 4:4, NASB

Do we owe our fellows a show of loyalty to Moses and the prophets?

Grace sits opposite debt.  Ofeilema is “what is owed”. The gift does not arise because of a need to have a performance of any obligation.  We can surmise that this saying of Paul is not a polemic against James, but Paul was  personally familiar with James’ bullying of the church. God did not need to see works to justify Abraham, therefore Abraham was not made just by works.  His works are like ours: good and bad.  He was not a sinless man, just a man  justified by grace through faith. James demands a show of works while never acknowledging the atoning and forever efficacious sacrifice of Christ.

Do we owe God obedience to Moses

We can get ourselves bogged down in the hundreds of demands and prohibitions of the law and not show the excellence of Christ, which we must all admit is a deep seated love. Loving the Law does not bring peace. Genuine peace arises beyond our understanding, and is the foundation of God’s  mercy and grace.  We can keep festivals, sabbath days and be loveless. We can eat vegetables and shun deeds of kindness to undeserving people. If there is a royal law it must be the one that reflects the very heart and soul of God in love’s supremacy.

Even the most unprincipled people claim works as righteousness

Ignoring all the evidence from Abraham , David and the prophets we dare to say

  • righteousness is through compliance with statutes and judgments
  • righteousnessness IS compliance with statutes and judgments.

Faith was credited to Abraham as righteousness  (Romans 4:9b)

τῷ Ἀβραὰμ ἡ πίστις εἰς δικαιοσύνην.” (Romans 4:9b, MorphGNT)

Not reading Romans 4:9b as FAITH IS RIGHTEOUSNESSNESS is the result of corrupt intent to propose that Christ cannot be greater than Moses. The fact that Christians have survived all attempts to silence the message of salvation testifies to the simplicity and clarity of grace and righteousness as gifts.

Kiss the commonwealth goodbye

eejoseph

August 25, 2023

When Israel revamps its judicial system Moses (you may have thought that he was dead) will open one eye and say “Do I know you?” There would be no avalanche of despair, no hurricane of outrage, because Moses has long been a shaky booth for his most dedicated followers.  The recent large public demonstrations against the Likud coalition government are the symptoms of a global fear of tyrants posing as democratic and benevolent beacons.  Israelis are not going to watch the commonwealth created by Mosaic law disappear into an abyss of inclusive politics.  The signs are multiplying that Israelis are fed up with a dozen parties pushing ultra patriot and ultra religious beliefs towards the centre of public life.  The commonwealth of 12, 10, or two tribes really died a long time ago, but the Balfour Declaration resurrected the dreams of European powers. Is it not incredible that after 75 years the state of Israel has been unable to create a stable society with both Mosaic Law and democratic institutions? It surely is. Let the kissing begin: bye, bye, Israel commonwealth.

They’re not ants

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6) Go to the ant, O sluggard, Observe her ways and be wise, 7) Which, having no chief, Officer or ruler, 8) Prepares her food in the summer And gathers her provision in the harvest. 9) How long will you lie down, O sluggard? When will you arise from your sleep? 10) A little sleep, a little slumber, A little folding of the hands to rest– 11) Your poverty will come in like a vagabond And your need like an armed man.(Proverbs 6:6-11, NASB)

Proverbs

Who might the wise man have had in mind? Obviously someone who thought that human governments were the slippery slope. We have never been as organized as the ants are and as long as organization of our food and housing are the subject of unresolved debate and official minority opposition the ants will put humans to shame. Republicans, fascists, all kinds of patriots, and religious bigots will never have the privilege of saying honestly and factually “The smaller the government footprint the better the lives of all the people”. They are mentally and physically lazy, definitely not ants.

God’s kingdom and the other

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Does anyone remember Herbert W. Armstrong?  He was for many years a strong voice for Christ on the airwaves preaching the kingdom of God.  He also established a college.  More significantly, Mr. Armstrong travelled the world making contact with leaders and talking with them about the need to order their nations in accordance with God’s written instructions.  I was riveted to his radio broadcast as a teenager until the Christ he was preaching was an unrealistic composite of Levitical and Christian models.  We know there is no levite interest on the ascendancy in the Messianic kingdom. Not a shred of sabbaths, diets, or exclusive tribal supremacy adorns the kingdom of God where Christ is the king.  The content of Mr. Armstrong’s conversation with national leaders is unknown, but we know now that trying to combine God’s old and new arrangements for his people and humanity ends in a disastrous waste, and that kingdom is a balloon that deserves a pin.

David’s Son, king of Israel, is not a levitical priest

Every step in Mr. Armstrong’s forceful teaching was levitical.  He taught that believers should observe the festivals in the statutes of Israel’s commonwealth, and like most other Christians he taught that the Holy Spirit was given to ensure that believers could keep the law of God (the only one we know was that given through Moses).   I speak as a mere mortal when I say that my own devotion to the Lord Christ as the one and only necessary messenger from God has led me to keep the Lord Christ separate from all other authorities.  That means that nothing from the patriarchs, prophets, priests and kings of Israel (or any other nation) can be allowed to shape my views and practices in relation to God’s kingdom.

Holy Spirit witness about the Lord Christ exclusively

The kingdom of God is definitely a future thing.  The kingdom of God was, if you take the Torah as the primary witness, the predicted rule of Christ from David’s throne in Jerusalem.  Most of us believe that, but we do not believe that Christ is without real authority in the world in the present age, nor has he left the Church without his lordship or royal rule.  It is as if Mr Armstrong did not see the full authority of the risen Christ, a  shared authority, I must add (Matthew 28:18, 20b).  I suppose that people who expect to prosper by means of recruiting people to follow Moses cannot be genuine beneficiaries of the Holy Spirit.   The Holy Spirit guides us into all truth that is integral to the Lord Christ, not into everything that ever was said or written.  It is a deep revelation of how impoverished a person can be to think that everything in the Bible is not sufficient for life and godliness.  If all believers need cannot be found in what the Lord Christ said then there is reason to look to the law and even the deluded visions and dreams of our peers. It is a symptom of mental laziness that neglects the apostolic foundation.

The Lord Christ did not give the apostles a testimony about Moses

The Holy Spirit was not going to be an agent of Moses and the prophets, to the contrary, the Holy Spirit was going to be an  exclusive witness of what Christ had said and done.

“But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all that I said to you.”

John 14:26, NASB

Where do these guys get off bullying people to follow Moses and the prophets, as if they had not heard – from Moses himself – who Christ was and the extent of his authority?

Christ witnessed exclusively to his Father’s business

Therefore Jesus answered and was saying to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of Himself, unless it is something He sees the Father doing; for whatever the Father does, these things the Son also does in like manner.”

John 5:19, NASB

Christ exclusively mirrored his Father’s speech

““For I did not speak on My own initiative, but the Father Himself who sent Me has given Me a commandment as to what to say and what to speak.”

John 12:49, NASB

“Do you not believe that I am in the Father, and the Father is in Me? The words that I say to you I do not speak on My own initiative, but the Father abiding in Me does His works.”

John 14:10, NASB

An impersonal standard of righteousness is a pin-deserving balloon

One would think that from the multitudes running from Christ to Moses that there is no righteousness in the cross.  The centre of the gospel is Yeshua’s  passion and glory (death, burial and resurrection).  It is clear that people who believe that society needs the law of God for morality or justice are ready for a kingdom where they can circumcise, amputate, excommunicate, punish, discriminate and condemn because that is what the Law is for.  Innocent people have been the perennial victims of the levitical system, both in its tabernacle work and in the interpretation of its justice code. A kingdom of priests apart from the revealed righteousness of God in Christ on the cross (Romans 1:16-17) is a recipe for robbery, bribes, and extrajudicial homicide.  Do they believe that the Word of God, as a man, could have been lawless, rebellious, ungodly, sinful,  unholy and profane, patricidal, matricidal or homicidal?  What has the law cleansed or purified in the thousands of years since it was brought in (Romans 5:20, Galatians 3:11, 23)?   We who call Christ Saviour and Lord  can be certain that human hearts are cleansed – purified – before receiving the Holy Spirit (Acts 15:9), and we are sufficiently humble and transparent to confess that we have ways to keep purifying (agnizo, as in 1 John 3:3). 

Tabernacle and law take a dive

Blood was at the centre of and in the most secret operations in the tabernacle. So when the Jewish people heard the news that a man was the new sacrifice they scoffed. To them no man could be a sacrifice, even though Isaac, Abraham’s son, came within a hair’s breadth of being a burnt offering. What are we to make of Christ being proclaimed as propitiation? Propitiation is not only a concept: it was an object, a process, and a result. Christ is all three: hilasterion, hilaskomai, hilasmos, respectively mercyseat, atoning intervention, and the resulting atonement. There was no blood in the levitical system that suffices to purify people’s minds, pay for their sins, or bring an end to the annual cycle of defilement and uncleanness.

Christ the mercyseat

“whom God displayed publicly as a propitiation in His blood through faith. This was to demonstrate His righteousness, because in the forbearance of God He passed over the sins previously committed;  for the demonstration, I say, of His righteousness at the present time, so that He would be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.”

Romans 3:25-26, NASB

Christ the priest

“Therefore, He had to be made like His brethren in all things, so that He might become a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, to make propitiation (hilaskomai) for the sins of the people.” (Hebrews 2:17, NASB)

Christ the satisfaction or atonement

“and He Himself is the propitiation (hilasmos) for our sins; and not for ours only, but also for those of the whole world.” (1 John 2:2, NASB)

If you feel trapped in an annual cycle, you can find your way out by demanding to see Yeshua the Anointed as the heir of all things of divine origin. If you feel trapped in a weekly cycle, you can begin to break out by giving up the symbols and start wrapping your mind around the reality. All the festivals are mere shadows of holy and eternal things. The fuller meaning of seventh day Sabbath has nothing to do with any 24-hour period, but rather with the rest God gives to those who have died with Christ and are now alive in him. The annual festivals are symbols of the means God uses to gather and keep his people. They are not themselves instruments of grace. Let’s not have a fit over these guys. They have fallen off the bus, fallen from grace, by their insistence that law supercedes God’s grace, mercy and peace. Let’s just be sorry that blindness has a hold on them, barring them from God’s kingdom.

Very presidential

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Absconding Bravely with Classified Documents

  • Very presidential? No!
  • Sad
  • Stupid
  • Unnecessary

Groundbreaking idiocy

The world has long been obsessed with anyone who seems wealthy or adventurous.  The world loves a mercenary.  We will kiss a man’s ring even as he tells us that he is prepared to torch our only residence, even as his fingers pluck our last $20 bill from our hands.  The 45th US president has no interest in the vision of the founding fathers of the American Republic.  He has no relationship to the justice apparatus, no inclination to be a public servant, no reverence for the immigrant realities of the Republic, but the “slightly damaged genius” wants to be the object of affection, the wearer of gold medals for everything he’s tried.

Stealing documents is easily proven

The wind is already beginning to blow cold in the northern hemisphere, and the scores of felony charges racking up against the dude of Mar a Lago means rear ends are going to freeze in prison. Pictures, text messages, and surveillance videos can hardly be explained away as political interference and weaponization of government departments. The idiocy is evident when Christians confess that their morality comes from Moses and the prophets, not Yeshua of Nazareth. One cannot put more distance between himself and the seats of power than when he threatens to cancel the American constitution. That is as far from presidential as one can be.

D.A. Willis indicts the badly misfiring 45

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Please exhale; the unprincipled loser of money, lawsuits and elections, will earn a well-deserved pretrial stay with his mouth. The insurrectionist repackaged as patriot is naked as a jaybird. All the dire predictions about the demise of the right to free speech is a fig leaf. Americans have been calling Black people names with impunity since they first transported our ancestors to work for free. There is no revisiting of George Washington’s vision, the die is already cast. Americans and a whole lot of other aspiring Nations have missed the boat, because they have thought they could synchronize Buddhism, Hinduism, Judaism, Islam Zoroastrianism and atheism into a grand experiment where people are perfectly free. This is where we all see that we need a break.

Criminals tend to stick to what they know

When an indicted person shows that he is opposed to the authority that confronts him he is likely to be a person seeking to end all authority but his own. I smell live bait; extreme positions and violence. The grave is not saying no, and the jails will be brimming with slanderers and traitors. Where do we suppose all the patriotic language is leading society? When firearms misfire they need an overhaul, and the armed entity needs to be cautious and less desperate.

Many will be purged, purified and refined, but the wicked will act wickedly; and none of the wicked will understand, but those who have insight will understand

. Daniel 12:10, NASB

Misfires have been known to be suicidal. Where else could a virulent combination of the right to bear arms and freedom of speech lead?