This Is God's Country

A man can be a Christian or a patriot, but he can't legally be a Christian and a patriot -- except in the usual way: one of the two with the mouth, the other with the heart. - Mark Twain's Notebook

The history of the US is a history of war and of lies and deceit. For an interesting walk through US history from the Prophecy Podcast blog click here. It is not pretty. Even "the good war" was based on deceit. The main argument I often hear is that the other countries are worse. Maybe. 

As Paul said in Galatians 6:

4-5 Make a careful exploration of who you are and the work you have been given, and then sink yourself into that. Don’t be impressed with yourself. Don’t compare yourself with others. Each of you must take responsibility for doing the creative best you can with your own life.

We are each responsible for our own lives. This is true in a national sense as well. Unfortunately we as members of a nation state will suffer along with everyone else. Saying we are better than others, even if "true," keeps us individually and nationally from doing better. We can do better. We must do better. 

There is a certain irony in the modern Christian Nationalism. For if it is correct in the implicit comparisons to ancient Israel, and I often make such comparisons myself, then we are headed for a judgment. 

7-8 Don’t be misled: No one makes a fool of God. What a person plants, he will harvest. The person who plants selfishness, ignoring the needs of others—ignoring God!—harvests a crop of weeds. All he’ll have to show for his life is weeds! But the one who plants in response to God, letting God’s Spirit do the growth work in him, harvests a crop of real life, eternal life.

Or as the more poetic KJV says, "God is not mocked. What a man sows, that he also reaps." This is also true for nations. 

What does the Gardener do with weeds? 

In The Image of God

God has many attributes. The one that is most obvious is that God creates. The statement of "Let there be light" is simple, but the more we know, the more interesting and complex the creation becomes. Job had this to say about God in chapter 26: 

Err ... Wrong Creation Story! He spreads the skies over unformed space,

    hangs the earth out in empty space.

He pours water into cumulus cloud-bags

    and the bags don’t burst.

He makes the moon wax and wane,

    putting it through its phases.

He draws the horizon out over the ocean,

    sets a boundary between light and darkness.

Thunder crashes and rumbles in the skies.

    Listen! It’s God raising his voice!

By his power he stills sea storms,

    by his wisdom he tames sea monsters.

With one breath he clears the sky,

    with one finger he crushes the sea serpent.

And this is only the beginning,

    a mere whisper of his rule.

    Whatever would we do if he really raised his voice!”

The more one contemplates the creation and how everything fits together, the more one appreciates the creativity of the Master Builder.  We need to stand in awe. No, that is not right--we need to fall in awe before the creativity of the Creator.  

But even though that is true, yet the creation hymn reveals to us something worth meditation.  

26 And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth. 27 So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them. 28 And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.

As the Apostle Paul said quoting the Greek poet, "We are God's offspring." We are made in God's image. We have a job to do. We are creators, or at least we are designed to be creators as we are made in the image of the ultimate Creator. I have been meditating on this, and when I do I ask myself a question,"What have I created?" I do not get the answer I want when I honestly answer this question. 

To a degree we create the world we live in. As the proverb attributed to Goethe says, "If everyone swept in front of his own door, the whole world would be clean." 

So let me boldly ask you, "What have you created?" 

This Is God's Country

A lot of times we think things are new when they are not. There were no good ol' days. 

Under a dictatorship the Big Business, made possible by advancing technology and the consequent ruin of Little Business, is controlled by the State - that is to say, by a small group of party leaders and the soldiers, policemen and civil servants who carry out their orders. In a capitalist democracy such as the United States, it is controlled by what Professor C. Wright Mills has called the Power Elite.

This Power Elite directly employs several millions of the country’s working force in its factories, offices and stores, controls many millions more by lending them the money to buy its products, and, through its ownership of the media of mass communications, influences the thoughts, the feelings and the actions of virtually everybody.

- Aldous Huxley, Brave New World Revisited 1958

While I would not call our system democracy or capitalism, we all need to understand that the whole system, America the Beautiful as the song calls it, has a Potemkin village kind of beauty in its veneer. 

But ugly is what is really there. It was ugly in 1958, in 1858, and the ugliness is still there. Like the Eagles song Hotel California, "you can check out anytime you like, but you can never leave." I am mixing my metaphors here as I have always advocated leaving the system behind...just look at the subtitle to the blog, "Leaving Babylon the Great." 

We are all stuck in Babylon. Even if you emigrate to New Zealand, you will find Babylon there. But each of us can strive to leave it in all the most important ways. You may be forced to be in the system--just refuse to pay your taxes and see what happens. But you can refuse to be of the system. 

This is oddly enough why I try to blog every Friday about food and health. I refuse to eat the food of Babylon. I want something different. As Huxley mentioned, Babylon controls the media, so it tries to control even our feelings along with our thoughts. This is why I do not watch much television. This Is My Country! This is also why I talk about religious matters. Most churches have been co-opted. If you think I am wrong, on a weekend around July 4, go to church with an open mind and listen. 

This is my country! Land of my birth!
This is my country! Grandest on earth!
I pledge thee my allegiance, America, the bold,
For this is my country to have and to hold.

Do these lyrics sound familiar? Have you heard it sung in church? But have you heard this section from Jeremiah 7 preached and related to the modern situation in the US? 

8-11 “‘Get smart! Your leaders are handing you a pack of lies, and you’re swallowing them! Use your heads! Do you think you can rob and murder, have sex with the neighborhood wives, tell lies nonstop, worship the local gods, and buy every novel religious commodity on the market—and then march into this Temple, set apart for my worship, and say, “We’re safe!” thinking that the place itself gives you a license to go on with all this outrageous sacrilege? A cave full of criminals! Do you think you can turn this Temple, set apart for my worship, into something like that? Well, think again. I’ve got eyes in my head. I can see what’s going on.’”God’s Decree!

Is this God's country? Not so much. 

Are You A Gang Member? Part 3

Are Catholics bad? 

Some would say yes. But instead I am going to offer that they are a part of a system that has become corrupted. Why did various Catholic Bishops protect pedophiles? One aspect might have been pedophiles protecting each other. But the most likely explanation is that rather than doing what was right, the desire was to protect the institution, the gang to which they belonged. Bishops talk to other religious leaders in their church who have the same background. A group-think develops to defend the institution, and instead of being fired, or even transferred to an institution where there are no children, the pedophiles were just assigned to a different parish.  This is the classic definition of insanity--you keep doing something that is not working hoping that this time it will work.  

It didn't. 

It is possible, to paraphrase Jesus, to be in the system, but not be of the system--sometimes. It depends on the system, it depends on the individual. It is always hard not to be a team player even when the team is corrupt. We believe the lies of the team, and as the gang member I quoted in part 1 said, "It is all lies." 

I remember being a part of a religious gang over a decade ago. I supported the church financially. I drove hundreds of miles a month. The church would reimburse some for mileage, I never did request it. I spoke every week, and was the main speaker in the area. I wrote on Internet forums to defend the interests of my gang. I became a hack. 

When a difficult situation arose locally, I naturally expected to receive back from the gang the support I had given it. I journeyed to denominational headquarters to present my case. I expected that I would be supported. But alas, those that had the preeminence both locally and denominationally prevailed. How naive I was. While I was never technically decredentialed, I found out later, I was put in a position where I had to leave. It could, and probably was, said that I had made the choice myself to leave.  

Any system naturally corrupts those that belong to it, they that are "of" the system. Thus Catholic Bishops, whose lifetime devotion to their church and ideals should really not be questioned, became corrupt because it was necessary to defend the institution. The gang trumps all. 

I am not saying in this three-part series that one can never vote for a political party, although I am less and less interested in such matters. Nor am I saying one cannot be a member of a nation state. Nor am I suggesting you not join a church. But instead, I am saying you need to understand the corrupting nature of being a gang member, and leave that behind. 

I remember singing a song written by the uncle of the founder of my denomination. It was a reworking of the first psalm. I sang that I "would not stand in sinners' way." I had no idea what this meant. Later I came to understand that it meant not to associate with sinners. As you read the words of the psalmist ask yourself who are you like? Are you a tree standing tall, bearing fruit for all? Or do you hang out, defend and associate with the gangs of this world? 

Are you a gang member? 

Psalm 1

The Message (MSG)

1 How well God must like you—
    you don’t hang out at Sin Saloon,
    you don’t slink along Dead-End Road,
    you don’t go to Smart-Mouth College. 

Instead you thrill to God’s Word,
    you chew on Scripture day and night.
You’re a tree replanted in Eden,
    bearing fresh fruit every month,
Never dropping a leaf,
    always in blossom.

You’re not at all like the wicked,
    who are mere windblown dust—
Without defense in court,
    unfit company for innocent people.

God charts the road you take.
The road they take is Skid Row.

Word of Knowledge and Baptism for the Dead

Often when someone quotes a Bible verse they do not realize that they have an unstated assumption about the verse. I have called this a template. An example: If you assume that all human souls are immortal,  and then read passages about the afterlife, you will come to different conclusions than if you have a different template, such as the eventual resurrection from the dead for all. If you think "The Law" has been "done away," you will get a different interpretation from some  passages than someone who doesn't.  

There are many examples of this in I Corinthians. I will focus on two for this post. The first is I Corinthinians 15:29:

29 Otherwise, what will those people do who receive baptism on behalf of the dead? If the dead are not raised at all, why are people baptized on their behalf? RSV

The Mormons have developed a rather elaborate ritual around this verse. They will research their ancestors, and not wanting them to go to Hell, (another example of the immortality of the soul template) they will be baptized vicariously for any they found who were not baptized as Mormons. My purpose is not to debate the validity of this. I only point out that a template has been placed on top of the verse to justify the practice--which was actually based on an alleged "special revelation" to Joseph Smith Jr.  Click here for the Wikipedia entry if you want for information on this. 

I am quite comfortable with saying I have no idea what Paul meant. This practice, if indeed it was a practice and not a metaphor, has no support anywhere in the Bible. So if someone quotes the verse to justify this kind of baptism, he is reading an idea into the text that may not belong there. In this case I am confident this interpretation does not belong there. 

Another example of this is the template that is placed over I Corinthians 12:8:

7 But the manifestation of the Spirit is given to every man to profit withal.

8 For to one is given by the Spirit the word of wisdom; to another the word of knowledge by the same Spirit;

9 To another faith by the same Spirit; to another the gifts of healing by the same Spirit; KJV

What is the "word of knowledge" and the "word of wisdom"? Neither this passage, nor any other passage in the Bible, defines these terms. 

What is the template that is often used to interpret the passage? Here is what the beloved editor of the Prophecy Podcast, Pam Dewey said on her own site in her "Religious Lingo Lexicon" section: 

In Charismatic circles, someone is said to have a "word of knowledge" when they claim to know something about another person that could not have been known through the five senses. In other words, they are believed to have been given this piece of knowledge by direct divine revelation. Someone who is believed to be able to give such words of knowledge on a regular basis is said to have the "spiritual gift" of the "word of knowledge." This manifestation is often claimed by healing evangelists when they "call out" someone from the audience whom they do not know personally and explain that God has shown them that the person has a certain ailment. Investigative reporters have exposed a number of evangelists over the past few decades as falsifying this alleged gift, by secretly gathering information about audience members. The most notorious of these expose's was regarding televangelist Peter Popoff. 

I have run into this in my life a few times. In each case the supposed "revelation from God" was wrong. In particular my mother was told that she would write a book. She was too ill, she did not. I suppose that I have just never run across a true manifestation of this. I suppose. 

So is someone who thinks that have received special knowledge by divine revelation lying? Some are. Are they insane? Some are. Are many self-deceived? You bet--that is the case for most examples of this. Often the "prophet" is unconsciously using a technique I have written about before called cold reading. This entry also discusses the fake preacher Peter Popoff. 

Is it possible that under very rare circumstances God is actually revealing things? Yes, it is possible, but ask yourself a question: What are the fruits? 

The fruit of a bad tree is bad. 

Oh wait, I was wrong! God has just revealed to me by a word of wisdom that the Mormon doctrine of Baptism of the dead is correct. Since I would never lie to you, it must be true. I suggest those in the Polar Vortex currently in the Eastern US go out and get baptized for your dead unsaved relatives. Do not worry, if you die from pneumonia, one of your relatives can be baptized for you. As Jesus says in John 13:27: "What you are about to do, do quickly."