A host of lying segregationist religious and political figures want to move past the despicable incitement of violent overthrow of the United States government. Since 2016 the crimes of the 45th president only became more acceptable to the Republican party and to a dangerous number of people who are willing to believe, repeat and do anything that comes from a source they think is patriotic. The latest voice trying to stop the application of law and justice to the unspeakable abominations of the 45th president is the former ambassador Haley. Give the former president “a break” she begs. Oh yeah, turn 50 blind eyes in the Senate to the truth, turn the millions of deaf ears on Christian radio to ministerial neglect of the gospel, and turn off your mouth if you are .99 notches below an eyewitness to the legacy of Yeshua of Nazareth.

Rubio calls impeaching the former president “stupid”. It is never late to pursue justice and stupid as a label comes in packages of two with self-adhesive versions. Him and Ted Cruz stand out as ambitious candidates for thoughtless and at least deliberately forgetful, and rightfully credibility-free.

Meanwhile on the dark web people I thought were serious about research and righteousness are stumbling all over themselves trying to deny that they are deep down the shameful political pit pushing the delusional evangelical playbook. The leaders on the dark web are our pastors and their lackeys and that playbook belongs to people like Haley, Rubio, and Cruz, all powerbrokers lost in a cloud of their own flatulence.

May I boast a little? Why not? Professor X can testify that he got a meager education and that was sufficient for reading the Bible.  Prayer warrior Y for Christ can boast about having the Spirit but cannot competently pray without sounding like a prophet of Baal. The fearful boast that Christ’s sacrifice makes the medical profession unnecessary, but they have not given up their health cards, put their dental and physiotherapy activities on pause.  It is smallness of mind that leads people to think that God will discard the documentation of his excellence throughout all of humanity’s journey.  Boasting and bragging has gone to the dogs, all the way to saying what is presumed to be a magical word – hallelujah – without actually saying what is praiseworthy.

I glory

Again I say, let no one think me foolish; but if you do, receive me even as foolish, so that I also may boast a little.

2 Corinthians 11:16

When Paul found himself repeatedly inhaling empty Jewish boasting and national pride he did not look far for a synonym for his own boasting and praising. He passed over the usual praise epaineo, glory (Hebrew kabod) bless barak and settled for boast (kauchomai).

People boasting about things
For the wicked boasts (Greek paineo, Hebrew halal) of his heart’s desire, And the greedy man curses and spurns the Lord.

Psalm 10:3

People boasting about God and the law

if you bear the name “Jew” and rely upon the Law and boast in God, 17) and know His will and approve the things that are essential, being instructed out of the Law, 18)

Romans 2:17-18

Do please say what God has DONE

Saying hallelujah a million times without addressing the Supreme Being or without declaring (a) what is excellent about HIM or (b) what excellent thing[s] he does is rubbish.

Let the hallel proclaim what is OBVIOUS

Insane people extol the small as GREAT

Halal is used for boasting, not only regarding others (Gen 12:5).  We are sure that Pharaoh’s princes praising Sarah said something about the lady. It is hightly unlikely that the men used the word halal in any of its forms.

Hallelujah is not a magical word. It has meaning. It is not like “amen” which signals agreement or wish. Amen comes from aman (אמן), he verified. When we say amen we are saying “I agree” and “Let it be so”. On the other hand hallelujah is a command, “y’all praise Yah”. The appropriate response to hallelujah is to be directed to Yahweh, not a mere repetition of the command. “Yah, you are more precious than silver”, “Oh God, your love lifted me” are examples of praise directed to God.

Boasting is naturally personal.  Boasting about another person can leave us flat on our faces. The cross is most personal in its genius and genesis and its effect on human conditions, is most admirable. This is why we find Paul mainlining it.

Mainline boasting

But may it never be that I would boast, except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.

Galatians 6:14

“If I have to boast, I will boast of what pertains to my weakness” is a stern rebuke to unhinged boasting about law, obedience, healing, miraculous deliverances, and visionary experiences.

A hallel for disability

If I have to boast, I will boast of what pertains to my weakness. [Since it behooves me…I will]

2 Corinthians 11:30

Hallels we can use

Addressing God:  Yahweh, halaltika (I thank/I praise you) for your abc.  Addressing a loved one: Honey,  I appreciate… A hallel cannot be empty. A

A kiss is a hallel. Carry his photo in your purse. Pharoah’s officials might have said something like “Your majesty, we keep seeing a woman with the most magical eyes and lips like juicy grapes.  Your majesty, we have never seen womanhood like hers! We found out that she is also the experienced manager of a very large household”. Simply saying the word hallelujah is hollow, and hollow does not become the God whose name is excellent everywhere. Surely we can find tons to say in praise of Yeshua’s excellent greatness. That is where the hallel lives.

It is often the intention of a writer to motivate the reader to put himself or herself into the narrative. At the end of the day Christ himself and faithful men like Moses and Paul are limited role models for far too many people who say they have become disciples.

Vision #1

As for the form of their faces, each had the face of a man; all four had the face of a lion on the right and the face of a bull on the left, and all four had the face of an eagle.

Ezekiel 1:10

Even though the older brother in the Lost Son parable is obedient and not lost nobody wants to walk in his shoes.

The entities in Ezekiel’s visions (or John’s, Ezekiel 1:10ff, 10:13ff) present a motion imperative. They move straight ahead, they rise above the earth. Their motions and appearance are the basic challenge. What to make of the second vision of the “wheels” takes the challenge into new territory.

The cherub replaces the bull

The next time Ezekiel sees the wheels one of faces is new.

And each one had four faces. The first face was the face of a cherub, the second face was the face of a man, the third the face of a lion, and the fourth the face of an eagle.

Ezekiel 10:14

There is only our likeness to angels (officers of the heavenly court) after the end of the age, but in this age angels are superior to humans in their nature and association with God’s palaces and inferior to humans as servants tasked with assisting humans. We recognize the human as failure prone and totally ours, but the king of the jungle, the bull and the eagle shut us out.  If face is a way of speaking about appearance and function these creatures are the most representative of the extent of diversity and integration and we are a long way from wanting to emulate these straight-walking and amazingly mobile beings.

The all stops pulled strategy against Paul is evident when he comes to trial before the government under charges by the Sanhedrin.   It surely should have been sufficient for the council to arraign, detain, and try Paul.  That they brought the charges to the governor and had a lawyer in tow shows they wanted something from the secular government that the religious power was not authorized to do (24:1).  Kill their perceived opponent.

After five days the high priest Ananias came down with some elders, with an attorney named Tertullus, and they brought charges to the governor against Paul.

Acts 24:1

The church over the last two millennia has not learned from the corruption that swept her up by her being naively friendly with secular power.  Roman church abuses, Protestant tyranny in Europe,  orthodox silence in the eastern bloc, and the evangelical delusion about a Christian nation.
None of the good things expected from a moral majority, patriotism or civic pride are in the league of the trustworthy promise of the kingdom life.

πρεσβυτερων τινων και ρητορος τερτυλλου τινος

I suspect that “some” elders indicates (a) the high priest did not invite all the elders of the council and (b) he selected those known to be hostile to Yeshua’s followers.  Also under suspicion is the choice of Tertullus, for the same reason.

Beware the religious right, left, and centre!

There are many things we cannot hoard or cling to.  Time stands as the queen of human progress and growth.      Missed opportunities are not guaranteed to return and a planted seed needs a specific set of conditions.   I think the time has come to unmask a cruel lie about man’s original condition because the idea that death, development and its byproducts were absent in Eden requires us to discard the facts of genuine progress built into God’s creation. Let us agree that it is rare to find a spiritual regime grounded in the realities of sky, land and sea. The revolutions of the earth are a mighty piece of evidence that there is no recapturing of the past, no return to youth, and apart from denying ourselves, there is no grounding in our youthful history that meets today’s challenges, neither for rooting or for a fearless and secure residence.

Wearing masks to deceive; first things, death and procreation

When I first read the saying that death was not in sight anywhere in Eden it seemed to align with the idea that man’s loss of his life through disobedience was the first sighting. I think the reference was to no dead leaves. It sounded beautiful – deathless plants, flowers, and humans – but it is not God’s world. Death is typically preceded by debility and malfunction but not in the case of plants and animals, man included. We do have the evidence that plants have limits: they do not migrate and they expand up and out only so far. So we can make the argument that original sin is disobedience and different from the failure that all humans face, unbelief, but personal sin as necessary for God’s design is merely an attempt to bypass faith in the Son of God as the remedy for the human condition.

The rush to believe first things are tops

The list of lies that people have clung to is out in the open. The human journey from Eden to desert, the increase of violence, the flood judgment, the wilderness catastrophe and the years of exile and rebellion do not square with covenant faithfulness.

Procreation is normal but not monolithic

God made reproductive systems to be the reflection of his creative power. Miracle babies are a special human divine arrangement and God’s procreative power is a unique thing between Himself and His Son. Men and woman can choose a single life and enjoy God’s approval. “Multiply and replenish the earth” bites the dust too.

These are not static populations

19) There was evening and there was morning, a fourth day. 20) Then God said, “Let the waters teem with swarms of living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth in the open expanse of the heavens.” 21) God created the great sea monsters and every living creature that moves, with which the waters swarmed after their kind, and every winged bird after its kind; and God saw that it was good.

Genesis 1 (NASB)

We have to recognize that the curse following man’s rebellion has no effect on animal populations. Without death a full earth bulges at the seams.

All the created beings procreate

God blessed them, saying, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let birds multiply on the earth.”

Genesis 1

The purpose for seed, eggs and semen is quite clear. Had procreation not been an original design it might have been curtailed in the decree. After filling up the space they occupy there are two avenues of relief. The creatures either migrate or they die. Space on the planet is not infinite and there are places where trees , animals and people will not survive.

You judge. You decide. You delay. You strike. You grow. You wither.

No death in Eden faces the jury that recognizes that (a) the garden needs tending (b) animals and trees that do not change and (c) . It is ultimately an idolatrous venture. It is an idea cooked up to mislead people about the man’s destiny and the path to full human potential.

Earth’s people occupying every square centimetre

God blessed them; and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it; and rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over every living thing that moves on the earth.”

Genesis 1

Every rich and burdened punk ass evangelical conservative is going to insist on pulling out his transcript to prove how profoundly he has been the loyal, obedient and patriotic son, how perfect his food is, and how miraculous his daily bread and forgiveness are, but that juvenile view of the world is not getting off the bench in this quarter. Even the young ruler who tried to attach eternal life to the Law he had observed all his life would have to admit that he had not grown up grounded at all. The writers of the New Testament summed up the matter conclusively for us. With one voice they proclaimed and hazarded their lives for the maturing of Israel’s faith in Yeshua of Nazareth, and the simple and careless can make the loudest noises for their sandy foundations, old or new.

Growing means nothing to them, and being grounded for them means back to childish things. Growing for them is not up towards the infinite God (or even towards the stature of stellar heroes, matriarchs and patriarchs), but it is a fearful uncertainty about what stands and what falls.

Even if the slave traders tried to convince the Africans they had captured or bought that “things would get bettter at the end of the voyage across the Atlantic” the handcuffs and ankle restraints spelled “prison”.  The difference between being westbound on the ocean and being free on the African continent must have dawned on the human cargo as much as it might have on the crews of the ships.  As surely as the ships made waves plowing westward the minds of the Africans created waves of resistance, and resulted in protest on board the ships and when they landed.  I know there are different lines of thought about submitting to circumstances in which humans find themselves.  West Coast Africans, like people everywhere, had been touched by the common grace of God and they were not ignorant of organized religion outside their native ways and philosophies.  There are forces who, despite their own national experience, dare to think that descendants of Africans in the diaspora should not make waves.   Here is the case for why they must  doggedly, like humanity’s ideal specimens,  make waves.

Get in good trouble,  necessary trouble, help redeem the soul of America.

Hon. John Lewis, US Representative

Governments and churches are continually “getting there”, they make mistakes and we forgive them. We are in the juncture of loving with a knee in our necks. It is time to tell Zion that her warfare is over. At the current rate of risks to which Africans are exposed through the application of policy there will be no voice to tell Zion the good news. Doing better may not be an overnight affair but it calls for a straight reckoning of the common expectations. Politics and church are essentially hubs of division. The assemblies of Christ are not divided, and there really is no brand name church. What politics does is quite clearly on a disturbing track.

Those who lead us must be informed

… wise behaviour in righteousness, justice and equity;

Proverbs 1:3

Better is neither a hidden set of data nor the promise of evidence. Getting into good trouble is known to be the way Christ got to the Cross, so let it stand as the better part of our wise behaviour. However, even with evidence of what can happen when a nation disfigures the triad of righteousness, justice and equity, many leading nations are slow to step up and do better. What are the chances?

Worse, not better

“Now her sister Oholibah saw this, yet she was more corrupt in her lust than she, and her harlotries were more than the harlotries of her sister.

Ezekiel 23:11

Who has heard of a prostitute paying her “clients”?

The United States and sister United Kingdom?

Thus you are different from those women in your harlotries, in that no one plays the harlot as you do, because you give money and no money is given you; thus you are different.”

Ezekiel 16:34

Only two nations have been given dominion ever large portions of earth in modern times as were the great cosmocrats of the ancient world; Great Britain and the United States. Huge blessings did not compell a deep commitment to the great triad of righteousness, justice and equity. The little island exported its vision to the continents.

Unprecedented whoredom

They will burn your houses with fire and execute judgments on you in the sight of many women. Then I will stop you from playing the harlot, and you will also no longer pay your lovers.

Ezekiel 16:41

Arson and destructive decrees are part of the price paid when there seems to be no end to the shameful practices the nation is guilty of.

It takes more than a tap on the shoulder to correct the ways of this kind of entrenched addicted mindset.

The African slave trade was a practice without biblical foundations.   Servants in the Bible had extensive rights and the regularized opportunities to return to free lives.  Neither Israel nor Judah had a devastating war to decide whether men had the right to be free as the Law of God and the grace of God provided.  After Israel’s treachery and unprecedented propaganda had been exposed and the nation chastised at the hands of Assyria Judah took Israel’s sins to profoundly disgusting levels.

No waveless African

We stand as witnesses, in our dispersion in any nation, to the treachery of elected officials when they insist that African peoples must bend their knees to the church and state model of government. The lies about Yeshua, the rejection of the apostolic doctrines, and attempt to redo the 1776 revolution are part of the ocean we yet have to cross. Waves are inevitable and our bondage to Christ is inconsistent with our obsession with the intellectual proposals of the evangelical plantation. Africans must make waves because their lives and hearts are enmeshed with the oppression of a segregationist, “great like yesterday” system.