The last time people in Judea curried favours from a superpower the result was another deportation and the destruction of the temple.  The spectacle of a genocidal maniac spewing lies in the supposed pinnacle of democracy and human rights is an abomination, nauseating and regrettable.  If all you have is 33% of an eye and .008 of your senses you know that Israel is a feeble, failed, fascist, and its parliament a den of thieves.  At least the American house has a.constitution that can rescue it from all attacks, but the podium pounding speech by the indicted PM of Israel has filled the air with a stench as old as Moses, and Israel and all her allies will continue to muddy the waters and devour the flock.

Is it too slight a thing for you that you should feed in the good pasture, that you must tread down with your feet the rest of your pastures? Or that you should drink of the clear waters, that you must foul the rest with your feet?   As for My flock, they must eat what you tread down with your feet and drink what you foul with your feet!

Ezekiel 34:18-19, NASB

The raving rascal radicalizes the Republican party

The prophetic evaluation of the temple and its services is now the verdict on the whole nation.  Seventy five years of pretending to be an agent for good in the world does seem to have jerked Israeli politicians awake to the realization that institutionalized xenophobia and privileged pork-barreling is a recipe for shame.  Beware the felons and war criminals of the twenty-first century.  No threat will have even a negligible effect of the leaders of Israel.  That speaks to the low level of thinking that has been around since the days of Isaiah.  The Israeli notion of justice has been mostly a program of xenophobia, labour exploitation and classism.  Do ask Benjamin Netanyahu why the State of Israel has neither priest nor king and he will never admit that extreme views of humanity and insurrection have ruined the Israeli psyche.  The attack by Hamas proves that Israel’s shield is, far from being iron-clad, a thinly disguised fascist boast, and no genocidal war can rescue the reputation of failed Zionism.

The many movements that have carved out notoriety for themselves are close to abominable.  For one, they are hybrids containing kernels of truth peeking out from behind some of the most ridiculous dogma.  Rather than accept the fact that the church has its foundation in Christ and the apostles (this being a loose term since not all those chosen to be Christ’s companions have contributed to the witness that has come down to us), the sects, cults and denominations of Christianity have built their own fires to dance around.  Organisms may be a cute way to address the church’s dynamic resources, but the church’s foundation ensures that her processes and progress are assured.  Reform movements are superfluous nonsense, because the church’s endurance defies death itself, and by extension endures the passing of time and triumphs over every hostile incursion.

What’s in a name?

Churches do not need to be defined by anything but the name of Christ or God, hence “Church of God” and “Church of Christ” etc are the proper identification.  Lutheran, Methodist, Anglican etc are tacit admissions that Christ is not sufficient as the essential feature and hub.  A church’s authority and illumination is going to be commensurate with the name given.  A church without the express validation of salvation (Christ’s atoning love and the making of disciples).  People are equally free to join a church and leave a church.

Not a work in progress

Christ built his church when he gave the Holy Spirit to the waiting believers.  He is not building his church when people are added.  All of the elect, like Levi in the loins of Abraham when he tithed to Melchizedek, are built on Christ and his apostles as the first church members were.  The Pentecostal Event established the Body of Christ, with respect to the fact of the cornerstone, its foundations, and the placement of stones in the edifice. Hence, the church is always complete.  The PASSAGE of time as a measure and the NUMBER of people who count themselves as members are irrelevant to the church’s identity and sustainability.