Some Questions to Ponder

To see the questions Click Here.  The questions are on this video.

A Confession

It is not with reluctance but with a serious level of shame that I have a confession to make.  During Barak Obamas 8-year tenure in the White House I could count the times I prayed for him on one hand if I ever prayed for him at all.

Whether Mr. Obama believes the things he says, or not, only he knows. 

Whether Mr. Obama’s motives are altruistic or intentionally sinister, I believe only God knows.

Personally, and I believe that there’s evidence as far as the eye can see, I would argue that he’s a member of a cabal committed to the destruction of the United States as a major part of an effort to institute a one world government run by self-appointed elitists who’ve already shown themselves to be murderers and liars.

But that does not excuse me from praying for him. 

Hell is a very hot place, it is an understatement to say that those destined to reside there reside there for a very long time, and I shouldn’t wish it on anybody which is perhaps why Paul said to Timothy…

First of all, then, I urge that entreaties and prayers, petitions and thanksgivings, be made on behalf of all men, for kings and all who are in authority, so that we may lead a tranquil and quiet life in all godliness and dignity. This is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior, who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.

1 Timothy 2:1-3

In fact, it is the very reason why Paul inserted the words “…who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.”  He also implied that there are consequences for not praying for “kings and all who are in authority”.  The implication is that if we fail to pray for them we will NOT lead tranquil and quiet lives!

And so, for 8 years I conducted a wrestling match with the Holy Spirit…

Me: “But he promised shovel-ready jobs and he knew there were none.”

God: “My Word is a lamp unto thy feet and a light unto thy path. Oh, by the way… 1 Tim. 2:1”

Me: “But God… Look what he did with Fast & Furious, smuggling guns into Mexico, resulting in the death of Brian Terry and he lied about Benghazzi, promoted anarchy, sexual immorality and contempt for police.”

God: “I have ordained My precepts so that you might keep them diligently. Oh by the way… 1 Tim. 2:1.  That’s one of them”.

Me: “But God… his foreign policy has resulted in the deaths and rapes of hundreds of thousands of Christians and Yazids throughout the middle East and North Africa and I have prayed for these people and supported causes to rescue and shelter them”.

God: “Have you not read ‘Many will say to Me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your Name perform many miracles?’ And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness.’ Oh by the way… 1 Tim. 2:1”

Do you get the picture?  In one very teeny but important manner, let alone many others I’m sure, I have refused to heed the Word of the God who is the judge of the whole earth.  I can rail against Mr. Obamas policies.  I can be angry at him and I’m allowed to be angry, but as the text says… “be angry but sin not”. And how am I sinning? I sin and have sinned by being so angry with the man that I subconsciously attempt to usurp Gods place as his judge and refuse to pray for the mans’ repentance and salvation.  To be honest, I am caught up in my own self-righteousness.  And I did not come to trust in Jesus because I was so smart or so talented or such a fantastically good person.  I came to trust in Jesus because I knew that I was a sinner and I needed His atonement for my salvation before a holy and just God.   

And the mighty King… the ruler of the universe… the one who holds the key to death and hades in His hands, because His Word is unquestionably true, wins the wrestling match.  “You’ve not prayed for kings and all in authority?  I will send you civil war so that you will not have a tranquil and quiet life in all godliness and dignity”.

And I assure you, rumblings of civil war are on the horizon.  The future of the United States from one threat or another seems ominous.

I will make a pledge to you.  Yes, I will continue to hate and oppose the agenda of Mr. Obama and his cabal, but I will begin praying for the man and his salvation in the hopes that he might repent and seek the will of God.  Yes… his repentance seems, to me, unlikely, but I’m still commanded to pray for him knowing that God does hear prayer and knowing that God, “not willing for any to perish but for all to come to the knowledge of the truth”, will honor those prayers one way or another.

I also ask a difficult thing of you. If you are an “anti-Trump” kind of guy or gal, you may believe that you have every reason to hate the man and even his policies, but I beg of you to begin praying for him, for wisdom and repentance so that he seeks God’s will and desires His salvation more than anything else. Just maybe God will be gracious and we can avert a civil war. But I dare say… God’s Word is sure and true and sharper than a two-edged sword. Yes, providence is providence, and God’s will will be carried out regardless of what we necessarily want, but failure to play our respective roles not as I, but the Apostle Paul himself, has outlined, and pray for our leaders will only result in disaster.

Oh, by the way, I’ll also be praying for Bill and Hillary.

Thank you for “lending me your ears”.

HATE = MURDER

Some of us tend to be critical of God for sending a flood to destroy the earth and kill all the people on it.  Of course, some people don’t necessarily believe in that God but would nevertheless argue that if He did exist, they would still be critical of Him for sending that flood.  But, to be honest, what’s there to be critical about?  As an introduction to the “story” of Noah and the ark, there was a small phrase inserted… “and the earth was filled with violence”.  To put it another way, people were killing each other.  What God did by causing a flood was to simply speed up the process of what mankind was already doing to himself, yet in the meantime, rescue one family that was not party to all the violence so that they would not also fall victim to the carnage that was going on at that time.

Even that one family that survived the flood had some make-up within its spiritual DNA that aroused a tendency toward evil.  The descendants from that one family still were prone to selfishness, anger, defensiveness, lack of forgiveness and all those elements that make us prone to violence.  But one might say “I’ve never practiced violence.  I’ve never felt hatred towards anyone.”  I ask rhetorically, “what if you had no police or army to keep you from being exposed to that violence?  Would you still have a heart filled with pure benevolence towards those who’d harm you because of the absence of military or police protections? Can you guarantee that you would have no feelings of revenge in your soul?”

Jesus said:

“You have heard that it was said to the people long ago, ‘You shall not murder, and anyone who murders will be subject to judgment.’ But I tell you that anyone who is angry with a brother or sister will be subject to judgment. Again, anyone who says to a brother or sister, ‘Raca,’ is answerable to the court. And anyone who says, ‘You fool!’ will be in danger of the fire of hell.

 (Matthew 5:21-22)

Simply put, Jesus said, “if you hate others, or think even so much as to have an attitude of dismissiveness towards others as (thus, in disdain calling them a fool), you’re guilty enough to go to hell”.

What Jesus said is not anything new.  God, through Moses, said:

“Do not seek revenge or bear a grudge against anyone among your people (members of your nation), but love your neighbor as yourself. I am the Lord.”

(Leviticus 19:19)

The importance of this law is punctuated with God’s declaration… “Ani YHVH”  (I Am… the ineffable Name of God… poorly translated as Lord and often somewhat flippantly mispronounced in many circles).  Putting God’s Name on this law is a declaration as to how utterly important it is to not even bear a grudge but to love instead.

As I’d written here, http://onlyholybook.blogspot.com/2017/05/liberal-guilt-moral-relativism-and.html God had intended for Israel to be a model nation characterized by such a level of peace and prosperity that the other nations could not help but emulate it and, by so doing, discover that there was indeed a God who was worthy of universal worship.  After all, it was this God who himself, had written the constitution for that nation.  This constitution not only had specific verifiable laws such as “leave some of the grain on the fringes of your fields behind after harvesting so that the poor and needy will always have food available to guarantee their well-being” (Leviticus 19:9-10) and “build a fence around the roof of your house so that no one whom you are entertaining will fall off” (Deuteronomy 22:8) but it also had less verifiable laws such as “don’t harbor hate”.

The United States Constitution has no such unverifiable law… “don’t harbor hate”, but the Mosaic law presumed that the author of their constitution, God Himself, being all knowing, also knew the thoughts and intentions of every human heart.  Where the enforcers of law could not accuse an individual of hating for lack of evidence, the omniscient God could and was capable of discerning whether an individual harbored hatred.  And thus, a fearful awe of this God would hopefully inspire the one who’s doing the hating to repent, ask God for forgiveness and seek to rationally, dispassionately and in a non-accusatory manner, seek reconciliation with the one who is the object of his hatred. 

And why would this law against hate (which cannot be perceived by the senses) be inserted as part of ancient Israel’s constitution which we call the Torah?  Because ultimately hate cannot be hidden.  It does manifest itself tangibly eventually in one way or another.  It manifests itself in the form of violence whether it be the result of the hater murdering the object of the hatred directly, or the result of a chain reaction of people taking their aggressions and frustrations out on one another.  It tears people apart, forces people to take sides and ultimately creates unrest, dissention and chaos.  And hate which pervades among the citizens of a nation ultimately results in the nations demise. 

The Law of God given to Israel and reiterated through Jesus is a universal law.  It is applicable regardless of geography, background or time in history.  Hate yields death and seems to be the element that is dividing the world.  And so, allow me, if you will, to ask some rhetorical questions.

Do you hate black people?  If so you’re a murderer in the eyes of God.

Do you hate white people? If so you’re a murderer in the eyes of God.

Do you hate Hispanics or Asians or Jews?  If so you’re a murderer in the eyes of God.

Let’s say there’s a more tangible reason for hatred…

Do you hate conservatives? If so you’re a murderer in the eyes of God.

Do you hate liberals? If so you’re a murderer in the eyes of God.

Are you black and never experienced slavery but hate whites who’ve not only never owned

            slaves but whose ancestors never owned slaves either? If so you’re a murderer in the

            eyes of God.

Are you black and hate whites because they have “white privilege”?  If so you’re a murderer in

            the eyes of God.  The likes of Clarence Thomas, Ben Carson, Thurgood Marshall and

            Condalisa Rice may just bear witness to the fact that your failure is not because of

            white privilege but the fact that you’d never applied yourself.

Are you Jewish and hate Nazis? If so you’re a murderer in the eyes of God.

Do you hate Muslims? If so you’re a murderer in the eyes of God.  (I would hold that they are

            deceived by an erroneous world view but it is the world view that I’m obligated to hate…

            not it’s adherents.)

Let’s get even more personal…

Do you hate your former spouse because he or she was abusive or a druggie or alcoholic or

            even beat your children?  If so you’re still a murderer in the eyes of God.

No doubt, wrongs done to you can create deep wounds and may make it very easy to harbor hate.  But there is absolutely no justifiable reason for harboring hate.  Hatred has no place in the human heart.  Hate is man’s natural way of responding to being offended.  But God does not want people to react to being offended as they normally do but as they are supposed to react.  And just suppose you were very deeply hurt, you do have a choice… to take it personally and harbor hatred or regard it as a test to see just how much you love God.

If there was one person who deserved to or had an excuse for hating it was Jesus.  He did nothing but good for everyone, yet He was unjustly accused as being evil.  He was whipped so that his raw flesh was exposed.  He was mocked, crucified and mocked some more.  Yet, while dying, He cried out to God “Father forgive them for they don’t know what they’re doing”. 

You may have experienced terrible persecution or pain of some sort at the hands of others.  But don’t hate!  You will only accumulate the guilt of murder to your own soul.  There is such a thing as justice.  If you can, pursue justice in a rational and just manner, but without the attitude of pursuing vengeance or vindication.  Ultimately, though, trust that God will mete out perfect justice in His time.  And remember.  You’ve never been as innocent as Jesus.  Neither have you ever endured more than Jesus who nevertheless was quick to forgive.

Do not hate.  Love.  And if you discover that you can’t love, ask Jesus to love for you. As you trust Him, He will.  Your soul depends on it.

You Can’t Impress God. Jesus Set the Bar Too High

Actually, in a very real sense, it was Moses who set the bar too high.  Even to be more precise, it was God, through Moses who set the bar too high.

Do you remember those ten Commandments which the Bible says were written in stone by the finger of God?” Remember that seventh commandment?  You shall not commit adultery?  Jesus said that you not only commit adultery by messing around with someone else’ wife, you commit adultery when you even look with lust at another woman.  Moses really said the same thing.  That tenth commandment the one that says, “you shall not covet”, it basically says “You shall not covet your neighbor’s house; you shall not covet your neighbor’s wife or his male servant or his female servant or his ox or his donkey or anything that belongs to your neighbor.”  Put another way, “you’re not to want anything that belongs to anyone else, including another man’s wife”.  So, I rhetorically ask “Men: how many times a day have you coveted”?  The same goes for women… “how many times a day have you coveted”?

Jesus also equated murder to mere hate.  He said, “You have heard that the ancients were told, ‘You shall not commit murder’ and Whoever commits murder shall be liable to the court.’” But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother shall be guilty before the court; and whoever says to his brother, ‘You good-for-nothing,’ shall be guilty before the supreme court; and whoever says, ‘You fool,’ shall be guilty enough to go into the fiery hell.” (Mt. 5:17-18).  God, through Moses, similarly said “‘You shall not hate your brother in your heart; you may surely reprove your neighbor, but shall not incur sin because of him. You shall not take vengeance, nor bear any grudge against the sons of your people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself; I am the Lord.” (Lev. 19:17-18)

The above Leviticus reference is particularly difficult for most people.  The text points out that, to avoid ‘hating’, the offended individual must communicate to the offending individual what it was that was offensive.  Obviously, the offending person can respond to the criticism in one of two ways.  He can, in turn, be offended by having been corrected, likely causing the honest person to recoil, or he can receive the criticism graciously using it as a learning experience by which he can improve his character.  Either way, the offended person is required to be honest whatever the outcome.  If he is not honest, and internalizes his grievance, he loses the opportunity to aid in improving the character of his ‘neighbor’, thus leaving his neighbor in a state of sin and he, by internalizing the offense, causes himself to ‘stew’ over the issue, carrying bitterness around with him which, also is sin.

I would posit that Jesus not only taught these principles but practiced them to perfection.  I would also suggest that Jesus, being perfectly honest, offended a lot of the ‘offenders’ whom He corrected and He corrected them precisely because He loved them, love being the ultimate basis for this law.  Consequently, those who were offended by Him harbored hate for Him and ultimately sought His demise which He, in contrast to any other person who ever set foot on the world stage, accepted graciously and with an air of total love and forgiveness towards His accusers.

I would also argue that this one Mosaic law is just one example in which Jesus perfectly practiced every aspect of the Torah, the Torah outlining what was required of the truly righteous man.  For that reason, I like to call him THE Tsaddik... THE righteous man.  In a world, devoid of tsaddikim (righteous men) because as ye ole’ adage goes ‘nobody’s perfect’, There’s one man that stands out as an ensign to the nations (goyim).  As Isaiah said…

“It is too small a thing that You should be My Servant
To raise up the tribes of Jacob and to restore the preserved ones of Israel;
I will also make You a light of the nations
So that My salvation may reach to the end of the earth.

                                                                                                     (Isaiah 49:6)                 

Even as DNA takes random chemicals and elements and, like a template, uses them to replicate itself, so Jesus takes sinful, depraved, proud and self-willed human beings with selfish motives and by, metaphorically speaking, attaching them to Himself, makes them, over time, into a duplicate of His righteousness.  The only caveat to this is that being attached to Jesus must not be superficial but genuine.

In the world we live in today, where people are offended easily, the consequence of all these people being slighted is nothing but anger and strife.  Imagine, if you will however, a world where people know that the bar for righteousness is too high for them to attain God’s acceptance on their own.  What we would have is a world filled with humble people who, if corrected, do not retort with belligerence but respond with thankfulness for having been corrected because it makes them better people.  Relationships between people would be devoid of jealousy and bitterness and filled with acceptance and mutual appreciation.  That is the world that God ultimately wants and will ultimately achieve one day.  And those who throughout history have acquiesced to the knowledge that precisely because the bar is too high, they know that their self-effort at striving after righteousness is therefore futile.  Hence, if they’ve recognized that trusting only in the atoning death of Jesus for His righteousness to be imputed to them, they can be rescued from the wrath of God to one-day experience that world.

I Bet You Never Thought That God Was Humble. He Demonstrated It

The Bible makes all sorts of preposterous statements and claims.
It is filled with all sorts of verses such as the following...

That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked at and our hands have touched—this we proclaim concerning the Word of life. The life appeared; we have seen it and testify to it, and we proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and has appeared to us.

1 John 1:1-2

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without Him nothing was made that has been made... The Word became flesh and made His dwelling among us. We have seen His glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.

John 1:1-3,14

Those verses imply that the authors claimed that Jesus was God. To make such a statement, however, was anathema to the Jews of His day. It gave rise to justification for their wanting to put Him to death. The following verse illustrates that.

So, because Jesus was doing these things on the Sabbath, the Jewish leaders began to persecute him. In his defense Jesus said to them, “My Father is always at his work to this very day, and I too am working.” For this reason they tried all the more to kill him; not only was he breaking the Sabbath, but he was even calling God his own Father, making himself equal with God. John 5:16-18

Claiming to be God or making oneself to be equal with God, was, indeed blasphemy and punishable by death. Indeed Islam, which came 600 years after the compilation of the New Testament, calls this "shirk"... idolatry, also punishable by death.

Nevertheless the Apostle Paul who'd been educated by the great Rabbi Gamalael, of his day, had the audacity to make the following statement.

For in Messiah all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form, and in Messiah you have been brought to fullness. He is the head over every power and authority.             

Colossians 2:9-10

Such seemingly preposterous New Testament claims about a man being God, or a plurality of God's nature, or God having a "Son" did not just pop up out of nowhere. A veritable plethora of verses hinting at this sort of claim pervade the pages of the Old Testament as well. The possibility of a plurality in the nature of the one true God is hinted at in the following where God speaks to Himself in the first person plural:

Then God said, "Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness, so that they may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals, and over all the creatures that move along the ground."

Genesis 1:26

Even the Sh'ma of Deuteronomy 6:4, the watchword of the faith of Judaism which declares the oneness of God, in its declaration of the oneness of God, uses the adjective "echod"... which implies a unity which is potentially made of many parts much as one hand is made of a palm, a thumb, fingers, skin, muscles, bones, connective tissue, etc.

Interestingly the Rabbi, Maimonodes of the middle ages, in his contention for the "oneness"of God, in his 13 Articles of Faith, used a different adjective "Yachid" which implies an absolute ONE. In so doing, he resorted to using a term other than the one used by scripture. Hence, one might rightfully ask the question "whom did Maimonodes regard as more authoritative, Torah or Himself"?  And there is one of a number of very important principals in hermeneutics (interpretation)... let the scripture speak for itself.  Don't infuse your interpretation upon the scriptures.

Such verses as the following, imply that God has a "Son"...

“I am weary, God, but I can prevail. Surely I am only a brute, not a man; I do not have human understanding. I have not learned wisdom, nor have I attained to the knowledge of the Holy One. Who has gone up to heaven and come down? Whose hands have gathered up the wind? Who has wrapped up the waters in a cloak? Who has established all the ends of the earth? What is his name, and what is the name of his son? Surely you know! Proverbs 30:1-4

Passages such as the following add leverage to the notion that there exists an individual that can manifest Himself as both exalted and yet humanoid...

“In my vision at night I looked, and there before me was one like a son of man, coming with the clouds of heaven. He approached the Ancient of Days and was led into his presence. Daniel 7:13

This particular individual, in fact, approached into the presence of the very Ancient of Days (a synonym for God) without even so much as prostrating Himself.

Indeed, the following verse hints of a "Trinity".

16 “Come near me and listen to this: “From the first announcement I have not spoken in secret; at the time it happens, I am there.” And now the Sovereign Lord has sent me, endowed with his Spirit. Isaiah 48:16

So, the notion that God could reveal Himself as a man, did not just come out of nowhere. There is Old Testament precedent for it. However such a notion seems to defy logic. It is no wonder that Muslims might question the veracity of the Bible. Judaism, itself, seeks to interpret Tanaach (Old Testament) through Rabbinic eyes and by so doing, avoid, like the plague, the possibility that God could manifest Himself as a man. I would argue that anyone, as the scripture says, "who has eyes to see and ears to hear" can read the text for himself and determine clearly what it has to say.

But even so, maybe this Book that we call the Bible is, in fact, nothing but good (or bad, depending upon one's taste) literature. Maybe it's not divinely inspired at all!

Despite the fact that the Bible has withstood all sorts of tests from scientific to archeological to historical, through well over two millenia, I would like to pursue a line of thought, which, to this day, I don't think has been adequately approached. Somewhat ironically, it is built around the question "What does it mean to be truly human?"

Let's put the Bible to the test. We've already seen the Bible verse Genesis 1:26 which begins with "Let us make man in our image..." According to this text, in some fashion, if the Bible is, in fact, veracious, man was made in such a way that he is like God. If that's the case, how is He presumed to be like God?

The three major monotheistic religions would argue that there are certain things about God upon which they can all agree...

God is omniscient - There's nothing He doesn't know.

God is omnipresent - He's everywhere at the same time.

God is omnipotent - He's all powerful... There's nothing He can't do.

God is self existing - He always was, He is and He always will be forever on into eternity.

God made and created things ex-nihilo, out of nothing.

Such assumed facts about the nature of God (to which I also subscribe) are certainly beyond human capability. No human knows everything, is everywhere at the same time, is self-existent or is all powerful ('though there are many humans who think they are).

This creates a definite conundrum for someone like me who argues that a God of that nature can actually manifest Himself as a baby and later as a man. How can the God who fills the infinite universe take up just 4 liters of space? How could an all powerful God have difficulty bearing the weight of a 30 km. execution stake? How can an all knowing God "Learn obedience" through suffering? (Hebrews 5:8).

My answer may not suffice to convince you. I can't do that anyway, only God can. I can only present my case. And as I've already intimated, it is wrapped up in the question of what it means to be human. Because according to Genesis 1:26 being fully human is, in some way, being like, or in the image of God.

So we humans can't be any of those absolute things that we know characterize God's nature but what about those absolute things that characterize human nature? I think that if we were to look at people today, or throughout history, for that matter, they are decidedly schizophrenic. "How?" you might ask.  People are universally inconsistent.

Sometimes they Love. Sometimes they hate. Most of the time they're ambivalent.

Sometimes they're humble. Sometimes they're arrogant.

This "Yin-Yang" human response to what we commonly call virtue pervades all of our human nature... Sometimes we're patient. Sometimes we're impatient. Sometimes we're generous. Sometimes we're stingy. The list of virtues coupled with their associate vices is quite extensive!

I think it's safe to discern between the virtue and its associated vice as well. For instance...

Clearly Love is preferable to hate or indifference.

Likewise, we can easily discern that humility is preferable to arrogance.

Perhaps I'm mistaken but I think that an objective poll would yield almost unanimous consensus that people would instinctively discern what the virtues are as opposed to their corresponding vices. Yet, in spite of our ability to make such judgments it's, nevertheless, apparently impossible to imagine that anyone could possibly be perfectly humble or loving all the time throughout one's entire life without just a little bit of vice sneaking in somewhere along the way. Such conduct, humanly speaking, would seem impossible to do yet not impossible to conceptualize.

We've looked at omniscience, omnipresence, omnipotence etc. and we've seen that these traits of God are absolute. Omnipotence, possibly might be the easiest to illustrate. The physicist defines power as the ability to do work divided by time. Work by definition, is the mass of an object times the distance it is made to travel. Put mathematically...

Power = Mass X Distance

        Time

A rule of mathematics is that as the denominator (time) approaches 0, the value of the equation (Power) approaches infinity.  Hence, if God is able to accomplish any task in no time at all, He is demonstrating absolute power, or omnipotence.

But what if humility, for instance, were measured in absolutes? We pass judgment on individuals and say "this man is humble." This man is not humble". But by what standard can we make that judgment? What is absolute humility? Could an individual's humility be graded according to that standard?

One dictionary definition of humility is "Modest opinion or estimate of one's own importance, rank, etc." It seems from this definition that one must have importance or rank in the first place in order to be modest about it.

So what would be an absolute definition of humility? Allow me to posit a suggestion. You're free to accept it or reject it.

Absolute Humility - God (certainly the zenith of importance or rank) willing to give up all the rights, privileges and accolades that are associate with being God in order to become a perfect servant (the utter expression of modesty) on behalf of His entire creation.

Put into mathematical terms (as was the case with our definition of Power)

Humility = One's actual rank or stature divided by

The importance that one holds onto that rank or stature

Therefore, how would we define Absolute Humility?

Absolute Humility =
                  God (The highest of any possible rank or stature or importance)
   God's relinquishing that stature called "God-ness" and become a perfect servant

Again, as the importance of one's rank (that of being God) approaches zero, Humility approaches infinity.

This is entirely consistent with what Paul said referring to Jesus...

Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage; rather, He made Himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to death— even death on a cross!

Therefore God exalted Him to the highest place and gave Him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus the Messiah is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

Philippians 2:6-11

In reality, God is both our God and our servant. "Such blasphemy" you might say! But, think about it. Is it not God who gives us life? Is it not God who gives us breath and the food we put on our table? By doing so, is He not serving us?  Without Him serving us, we could not live.

Yes, we can declare the power, might, glory majesty and sovereignty of God. But part of that glory and majesty is caught up in the reality that He is THE perfect servant of His creation. If we lose sight of His servant-hood towards us, we can't even begin to scratch the surface of what it means to worship Him!

In both science and philosophy there exists a phenomenon called an "antinomy". An antinomy is a clash between two totally opposing contradictory rules or phenomena which are derived rationally or even experimentally and are, in and of themselves, totally rational and indisputable. In essence, two irrefutable laws are mutually incompatible. Emanuel Kant, for instance was able to rationally argue that time had no beginning. On the other hand, he rationally contested that time did have a beginning. Both assertions are true, yet they both contradict one another and are mutually incompatible.

If we can't understand Time, therefore, how can we even begin to understand God?

If there's one thing that I know for sure... it's that I am not God. How could God, who governs the infinite vast universe, who's power, wisdom and knowledge is limitless, at the same time, take the form of a baby occupying 4 liters of space? How could this eternal God endure death while still governing the universe? I do not know the answers to such questions. I'm not God.

Yet, I know, for instance that God desires for each and every person that He's created to demonstrate the virtues that make up our humanness... humility being one of them. Furthermore, when we fail at manifesting this virtue, we are without excuse because God, Himself, showed us that it can be done. If Genesis 1:26 is true, therefore, by virtue of the fact that we were made in God's image, we are required to reflect that image perfectly. Hence, in light of our failure, we are deserving of nothing but eternal condemnation.

But God, as has already been alluded to, possesses absolute virtues that we humans inadequately display as part of our humanity which are really poor reflections of God's nature. the actual umbrella for these virtues is love. And for us, as we shall see (if we don't already know), love is necessary for our well-being.

Hence, I ask... "What would be the definition of perfect love? Does God manifest this virtue perfectly as well?"

Might I suggest that perfect love be defined, not just as love for one's friends or family but for all people, including complete strangers and even the bitterest of enemies. This love has total empathy for the condition of even these enemies and is so self-less and concerned about the well-being of the "other" that it's willing to absorb the punishment that is rightfully due the objects of that love for whatever wrong actions and attitudes of which they might be guilty.

Put another way (according to our mathematical method of communication)...

Absolute Love = Willing endurance of punishment deserved by the one loved (times) Everyone

(since everyone is loved)

NOTE: As the number of objects of love grows larger, love grows larger.  In light of that I would say that "everyone" is a pretty large number!

Put another way... God manifested absolute love by being willing to endure the punishment deserved by everyone. And what is this punishment? From our discussion of humility we've concluded that lack of humility deserves condemnation. Now take that virtue and multiply it by all the other virtues and I think it's safe to say that our ineptness at practicing the virtues we were created and supposed to demonstrate leaves us deserving of eternal condemnation.

But Jesus, having taken on this condemnation Himself, rescues us from its consequences.

Paul alluded to this when he said...

Once you were alienated from God and were enemies in your minds because of your evil behavior. But now He has reconciled you by Messiah's physical body through death to present you holy in His sight, without blemish and free from accusation

Colossians 1:21-22

So what are we to conclude, having said all this? God is ONE (Echod). This remains a constant, goes without saying, and is irrefutable. However, If GOD had not manifested Himself as an entirely human individual, capable of and, in actuality, perfectly practicing the virtues that inherently are part of our humanity, IT WOULD HAVE BEEN INCONSISTENT WITH HIS NATURE.

It is commonly said that "to love someone is to know that someone". In Deuteronomy, we've been commanded to "love God with all our heart, with all our soul and with all our strength". But how can we love God if we don't know Him? Jesus said to one of His disciples "If you've seen me, you've seen the Father". Conversely, if you don't know Jesus there is no way that you can know the Father.

Furthermore, if we willfully choose not to know Jesus, we've willfully chosen not to love the Father and our eternal condemnation remains on us.

It is my hope that you would choose to know Jesus.

Israel's God Granted Us Our Independence Let Us Never Forget

The American war for independence was fought by ill trained, over taxed, over-burdened Colonists who pledged to each other their lives, their fortunes and their sacred honor believing that this call for independence was supported by a “firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence”.

It was remarkable that America had won her independence.  The ragtag colonists had pitted themselves against the most powerful, best equipped military in the world at that time.  And yet, they prevailed.

At his inaugural address George Washington declared:

No people can be bound to acknowledge and adore the Invisible Hand which conducts the affairs of men more than the people of the United States. Every step by which they have advanced to the character of an independent nation seems to have been distinguished by some token of providential agency... We ought to be no less persuaded that the propitious smiles of Heaven can never be expected on a nation that disregards the eternal rules of order and right which Heaven itself has ordained.¹

Just about all of the founding fathers saw God’s hand in the making of America. 

Benjamin Franklin was quoted as saying…

I have lived, Sir, a long time, and the longer I live, the more convincing proofs I see of this truth — that God Governs in the affairs of men. And if a sparrow cannot fall to the ground without his notice, is it probable that an empire can rise without his aid? We have been assured, Sir, in the sacred writings, that “except the Lord build the House they labour in vain that build it.” I firmly believe this; and I also believe that without his concurring aid we shall succeed in this political building no better, than the Builders of Babel.²

John Adams said…

“Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.” ³

Contrary to the opinions of many, the majority of the founding fathers of the United States had a deep and abiding trust in God.  And who was this God?  We get a hint from Benjamin Franklins afore mentioned quote.   This was the God manifested in the Hebrew scriptures.

The Bible refers to the eternal God of the Universe over 200 times as the “God of Israel”.  Elsewhere He’s described as the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob… the Patriarchs of the Jewish people.

But why would the God of the Universe be so exclusive as to focus on identifying with Israel?  The answer to that question is far more involved than I can communicate in a simple essay.  Suffice it to say that God’s identification with Israel is necessarily His plan for blessing the entire world by ultimately trading in man’s plea for “tolerance” with the preferable attribute of love which brings with it genuine peace.

Were the founding fathers, therefore exclusivist?  By no means!  George Washington was quoted as saying

“The bosom of America is open to receive not only the Opulent and respectable Stranger, but the oppressed and persecuted of all Nations and Religions; whom we shall welcome to a participation of all our rights and privileges, if by decency and propriety of conduct they appear to merit the enjoyment.”⁴

(As an aside, note, if you will, Washington’s words in bold.  I believe that that is a statement particularly relevant in this day.)

Against all odds, the United States was created with the blessing and aide of Almighty God.  This God has certain characteristics of not only power, omnipresence and all of those attributes that are universally assumed by monotheists, but of love and intimacy, justice, kindness and absolute adherence to what would be universally known as virtues.  He manifested His nature to us throughout scripture but most explicitly through the manifestation of Jesus, the Jewish Messiah. 

For the most part, it seems that what is commonly known as “the Church” forgets the reality that the God they profess to worship identifies Himself as the “God of Israel”.  It does tend to remember this fact once a year when it traditionally sings “born is the King of Israel”.

The King of Israel died and rose from the dead not so that we can with cavalier abandon take what He accomplished for us on the cross for granted.  Nor are we to put words in His mouth and condone that which He, in reality and according to His Word, the Scriptures, condemns.  Historically when we’ve condoned what God condemns, He’s punished us.  Lincoln interpreted the Civil War as punishment from God for not having eliminated slavery.⁵

The King of Israel died and conquered death so that we might serve Him and obey Him, not so that we can pursue our own self-interests.  If we fail at this task as individuals and fail to encourage this as of foremost importance collectively we will certainly lose the freedom that the God of Israel desires for all people, and subsequently our “independence”.

¹ https://www.archives.gov/exhibits/american_originals/inaugtxt.html

² https://www.thenewamerican.com/culture/history/item/4846-faith-of-the-founding-fathers

³ Ibid 

⁴ Ibid

⁵ https://www.gilderlehrman.org/history-by-era/american-civil-war/essays/lincoln%E2%80%99s-interpretation-civil-war

FAKE NEWS: That Christianity's NOT Jewish

Nowadays it seems that “Fake News” is the only thing that’s in the news.  News outlets, politicians and pundits seem only intent on reporting those stories that agree with their predetermined biases whether they be factual or not.  In fact, more often than not, we’re seeing evidence of people making things up to counter contrary evidence.

People don’t really know what to believe anymore.  Most folks, rather than pursuing truth have chosen to simply disregard the facts. 

But as Koheleth (The Preacher of Ecclesiastes) says, “There’s nothing new under the sun”.   “Fake News” has always been around.

We humans have a terrible inclination to deceive ourselves.  On a fundamental level, we are all confused about how we got here.  Some say we “evolved” out of some primordial goo and there is no God to account for our existence.  If these folks are right (which is not my opinion) I really do find it hard to believe that they’re able to find significant meaning in life.  Even their so called good deeds or achievements seem to have only temporal value.

Others have said that there are many gods.  Others have said that there are many many gods.  Some have said, and history has confirmed, that these gods actually demand human sacrifice.  Unimaginable horrors have resulted from human misunderstanding of our origins.

Some have taken these many gods and gotten rid of all except one and declared that this is the one and only true god.  Some of these folks have killed a lot of people who’ve not agreed with them.

All these speculations concerning our origin are just that… speculation… Fake News.

There is in the human heart an innate knowledge of good and bad. We have an awareness that there are virtues and vices.  We can distinguish between, for instance, humility and arrogance, patience and impatience, compassion vs. dismissiveness, hopefulness vs. despair.  We can distinguish between loyalty and back-stabbing, kindness and cruelty.  I would hold that the virtues are conducive to life and the vices are more conducive to death.

These virtues are behaviors and attitudes that all of we human beings ought to be able to display all the time, but none of us do.  Some of us are better at it than others but none of us is perfect at it by any means.  Culture, religion (or lack thereof) pervert and distort our understanding of the importance of these virtues.  For instance, there actually are people groups who say that it is more virtuous to be deceptive than to be straight-forward and honest.¹   Many in the “west” have come to be brainwashed into thinking that what one regards as “success” is more important than the personal exercise of virtue.

Sadly, our variant perspectives on how we got here impact how we deal with this inadequacy on our part which, for the sake of argument, I’ll call as “guilt”.   Some of us live with remorse.  Some engage in self-sacrifice.  Some of us go to war on behalf of our fake cause.  Some of us think we can mollify our guilt by engaging in, what we think are charitable or righteous endeavors.  And many fake religions have promoted ways of mollifying our guilt whether it be through good deeds or “throwing money into the coffer” or recitations of mantras of some sort.  And the real news is that none of those endeavors work.  They’re like putting a band-aid on a cancerous skin lesion.

One day, the one and only true creator God of the universe manifested Himself to one man by the name of Abraham.  This God was about to destroy two cities named Sodom and Gomorrah because the people of those cities were universally and irredeemably displaying no virtues and only vices.  As Abraham was looking down into that valley with those cities infected by corruption, God said of Abraham

“…I have chosen him, so that he may command his children and his household after him to keep the way of the Lord by doing righteousness and justice, so that the Lord may bring upon Abraham what He has spoken about him.” 

Genesis 18:19

The Bible gives a record the early history of the Children of Abraham, which today, we call “the Jewish people”.  And the Bible’s stark honesty displays our collective inability to “do the righteousness and justice” that Abraham had commanded of us.  Despite our failure however, two things emerged with unchanging and irrevocable certainty … the absolute standard of virtues as opposed to vices and the Messiah who came into the world through those people whom we call the Jews.  What is objectively good or virtuous is as prevalent as the air we breathe.  It cannot change!  To compliment that, the Messiah is the only person among the billions upon billions of people who’ve lived on this planet throughout its history, who had determined that always, in every instance, in time, choosing and practicing virtue over vice was more important than even survival itself.  He was the way that God would be if He would ever choose to manifest Himself as a man.

His death alone was capable of compensating for our inadequacies.  His death alone would pay for our guilt.  By comparison, all the money we would “throw into the coffers” or any of the sacrifices we would make on behalf of our pseudo perception of God are thoroughly inadequate because we are inadequate.

The news of this man and the wonderful forgiveness available to anyone who would simply trust in Jesus’ death as the appeasement of God’s wrath towards us, was spread by Jews with names like Shimeon, Yaakov, Yehudah, Shaul, Yochenon and others.  The “Church” however, has hidden the Jewishness of this story.  It changed the names of these men to Simon-Peter, James, Jude, Paul, and John respectively.  It drew pictures of Jesus with a halo around His head or with wavy blond hair or it made him look weak and effeminate.  The church certainly made Jesus to not look Jewish!  In fact, it changed His Name to Jesus which really has no meaning.  Jesus is a transliteration of His real Name which is the Hebrew name Y’shua which means “the salvation of God”.  The Church called the afore mentioned disseminators of the Gospel “Christians” whom, by virtue of that epithet along with the “gentilization” of their names, were now no longer perceived as Jews.  The Church made up its own holidays and traditions which further disguised the origin of their faith.  Much of the Church even went so far as to say that the Old Testament is irrelevant which is quite ridiculous by virtue of the fact that literally 33% of the text of the New Testament consists of Older Testament quotes.² 

The Church removed the cultural trappings of the context in which Jesus lived and replaced them with its own culture and even forbad Jews who wanted to “join the church” from practicing elements of their own culture disregarding the reality that much of Jewish culture, by virtue of its link to the Old Testament, which speaks of the nature of, time of manifestation and foreseen accomplishments of the Messiah, compliments the Gospel message.

Admittedly Jewish leadership has also been responsible for historic Jewish rejection of Jesus.  The end result of all of this separation of Christianity from its Jewish roots is that it is now, perceived as something which is fundamentally not Jewish.  Consequently, it is viewed as just another religion like Buddhism, Hinduism or Islam.  It is not!  GENUINE CHRISTIANITY IS A PERSONAL RELATIONSHIP WITH THE ONE AND ONLY LIVING AND ETERNAL GOD  who has an infinite, selfless love specifically for you and He manifested that love through the excruciatingly agonizing death of Jesus.  I don’t know how He does it, but I’ve come to realize that because He’s God, you are the very undivided focus of His attention.  He loves you as if you were the only person who exists.  And you may find it difficult to believe, but all things that take place in your life, even the difficult things, take place because He specifically loves you!  As scripture says...

    "God causes all things to work together for good to 

     those who love God and are called according to His      purpose."

                                                                  Romans 8:28

Hey, maybe you might think that what I’m telling you about God and Jesus is fake news.  I certainly hope not.  But whether you agree with that or not, disregarding the trappings that have come with the Church, and going right to the source… the scripture, whether you believe the scripture or not, you will discover that both the Old and New Testaments are thoroughly Jewish books.  This is undeniable.  Check it out for yourself!  And I dare say that to claim that Christianity is NOT Jewish is FAKE NEWS.

I want to thank you for reading this essay.  If you don’t already, I do hope you’ll come to agree concerning what I’ve said about the universality of virtue and your and my inability to practice it.  I hope you’ll come to realize that the only way of forgiveness for this inadequacy is through Jesus’ death and that His subsequent resurrection opens the gates for eternal life for you and for me.  I would argue that despite the failures of the “Church”, it, for the most part, got those universal fundamentals right.

May God bless you.

Benyomin Ellegant

1. https://www.amazon.com/Peace-Child-Unforgettable-Primitive-Treachery/dp/0830737847

2. http://www.biblecharts.org/newtestaament/percentageoftheoldtestamentfoundinthenewtestament.pdf


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