A Modest Proposal

At one time or another, all of us believers have heard (or said) something along the lines of “I can’t wait to go to Heaven” or “I’m looking forward to going to Heaven”, or something close to that. Even if unintended, what is implicit in that statement is the idea that our future residence is somewhere else, perhaps even some non-Earth place. But what does Scripture teach and is this a Biblical idea? I would suggest that it is not. That isn’t to say that there isn’t some place that deceased souls go as all of Creation waits for the return of Jesus and the ushering in of God’s Kingdom; I don’t have time to address that here…rather, I want to talk about where this all ends up, the culmination of history. In the end, I want to suggest that instead of saying one of the phrases above, we say, “I can’t wait to live in God’s Kingdom”, or “I can wait until the Kingdom is here”.

Nothing against the guy, but Plato is the reason that many (some? not sure how prevalent it is) modern Christians have a spiritualized view of Heaven (referred to as Platonic thought/philosophy). Plato heavily influenced Origen, who heavily influenced the fathers of modern theology. The spiritualized view, however, was not the view of ancient Hebrews or 1st Century Jewish believers. What we see in Isaiah 65:17 or Revelation 21 is the idea of a RE-newed Creation…it is the idea that God cleanses the Earth from sin and RESTORES the Earth from the Curse that he placed on it in Genesis 3. Our modern translations make it sound as if Scripture is talking about the total obliteration of the current heavens and earth, but based on Old Testament eschatological expectations, it simply cannot be that the New Testament writers had this in mind.

The Good Samaritan and Abortion

I was considering the parable of the ‘Good Samaritan’ this morning and I think it has something to say about the issue of Abortion. I don’t believe its too much of a stretch either, in suggesting this.

The Parable is about Ritual Purity
I’ve recently been reading Matthew Thiessen’s book ‘Jesus and the Forces of Death’, a book that talks about Jesus’ interactions with the ritual purity system in the Gospels. In one of the chapters, he addresses this parable and makes the argument that Jesus, in this parable, is speaking about the hierarchy of good and relates that back to the ritual purity system. The question asked of Jesus, in the presence of the Scribes and Pharisees is “Who is my neighbor?” (Luke 10:29) Jesus proceeds with telling a parable we are all familiar with — a man is beaten and robbed and left for dead (left ‘half-dead’, or between death and life, in the literal translation). A Priest and Levite pass by him and leave him, while a Samaritan stops, helps the man onto his own donkey, brings the man to a place of safety and pays for his expenses. Thiessen argues that the reason the Priest and Levite pass by the wounded man is because of the purity laws about touching a corpse. Presumably the wounded man was unconscious. We would not say that someone who has a bad cut or who simply has a bruise on his head is “between life and death”. The Priest and Levite, not wanting to risk ‘corpse impurity’ — a condition requiring 7 days away from the Temple and a couple of other ritual cleansing responsibilities — pass by the man.

If you want Thiessen’s whole argument, read his book, but he goes on to say that Jesus here is addressing a situation in which one good surpasses the importance of another. In other words, there is nothing wrong with observance of the Law (in this case, from Numbers 19), except in cases where observing one Law means the neglect of a greater Law. As it relates directly to the parable, Jesus is saying that if one is presented with preserving Life or avoiding corpse impurity, preserving Life is the more important Law to keep. In addressing it this way, he is ultimately addressing the question of ‘who is my neighbor’ by saying, in a nutshell, anyone who is in need, regardless of the circumstances (Love your neighbor as yourself).

A Self-Reminder

I had a vacation last week with some significant time to reflect and the one thing I have been reminded of is that when The End draws near, it will be God Himself shaking the world.

"As he [Jesus] was sitting on the Mount of Olives, his disciples came to him privately and said, "Tell us, when will these things happen? And what will be the sign of your coming and of the end of the age?" Jesus answered them, "Watch out, that no one misleads you. For many will come in my name, saying, 'I am the Christ,' and they will mislead many. You will hear of wars and rumors of wars. Make sure that you are not alarmed, for this must happen, but the end is still to come. For nation will rise up in arms against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. And there will be famines and earthquakes in various places. All these things are the beginning of birth pains. "Then they will hand you over to be persecuted and will kill you. You will be hated by all the nations because of my name. Then many will be led into sin, and they will betray one another and hate one another. And many false prophets will appear and deceive many, and because lawlessness will increase so much, the love of many will grow cold. But the person who endures to the end will be saved. And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached throughout the whole inhabited earth as a testimony to all the nations, and then the end will come." Matthew 24:3-14

Is this the 'end times'? Honestly, who knows. I see some Christian talking heads discussing it and saying "this is it", but they don't know any more than you or I know. The End is coming, I know that much, whether these are signs of it or not. What stood out to me when reading and thinking about this passage again was the sentence "Make sure that you are not alarmed". God is the one who is shaking things up, and not because He is some kind of sadist, but because He wants us to reach for him. He is the one who is going to bring about the return of the Kingdom...because its on his time, He must be the one who brings it about. In His great mercy, He has told us that before its too late, he is going to give us one good last shake...

Putin Planned This

Today, a day after Putin invaded Ukraine, I see a lot of political pundits and politicians bloviating about how wrong it is and this and that. They have announced sanctions, denounced the aggression and done the types of worthless things politicians and political pundits always do when the geopolitical waters get hot.

Here's my thought: Putin is perhaps evil, but he is not stupid. If he is doing this thing now, he didn't wake up a couple of weeks ago and decide to invade Ukraine. He has been preparing for it for a long time. To that end, I looked at what kind of world-scale moves he has made over the past decade. For starters, he invaded and annexed Crimea about 8 years ago. This is not a particularly consequential country, but it is an important piece of land to control if you want to eventually invade Ukraine. Second, Putin (and the Russian state) sold a bunch of their U.S. debt about 4 years ago. At their peak, they owned $105.7B in U.S. Treasuries; as recent as November 2021, they held about $2.5B in U.S. Treasuries. As a nation, following the sanctions that were imposed on them as a result of their annexation of Crimea in 2014, they went through a period of fiscal austerity - which has them very well set up to 'go it alone'. You hear all of these countries doing rah-rah speeches about 'imposing sanctions on Russia'...its not going to make much of a difference. Another indication of their solid position? Gold Reserves. As of January 2021, Russia held more gold than the U.S., with $583B in reserves.

Putin has been planning this for a long time and that means he has planned for the likely and typical responses of other governments. He does not need money and threats from other nations to 'levy sanctions' at Russia will be largely theatrical/symbolic maneuvers. If World powers want to stop Putin, they will have to put boots on the ground, and he knows as well as anybody, that no one is prepared to do that. No one wants World War III and to go to war with Russia would almost certainly precipitate a large-scale conflict that would have unknown consequences on economies around the World. He has done this now, because he knows he can.

An Accurate Summary

"In other words there is a vacuum of meaning, in our politics, and the really scary question is what will fill it. The right strongman, whether R or D, could ride in and get 65% of the electorate to support him as he casually dispensed with law and democracy, giving the people the firm hand they so desire. We've just been lucky that our recent leaders have been so corrupt, feckless, and decrepit that no one's taken the reins. But we won't be lucky forever."

Thought this article by Freddie deBoer was an excellent summary of the current situation in America. Words don't mean anything, each side is pitting the other with this or that discontent, all making 'the People' ripe for a monster. If you know me, you know I love the quote by Voltaire that reads, "History is filled with the sound of silken slippers going downstairs and wooden shoes coming up." Another great quote that captures the same idea is, "Hard times make great men, great men make good times, good times make weak men, weak men make hard times." (G. Michael Hopf)

We live in an time where we have ultimate luxury...so much so, that we have the luxury of debating things that have utterly zero meaning...and not only do they have absolutely no lasting meaning, but we can argue even about whether those things matter or not. This is the situation that deBoer is describing above, whether he realizes it or not. The lack of meaning has been created by the luxury of society, where we are at a point where there is, for the vast majority of people, no existential threat on a daily, monthly, yearly (and perhaps even lifetime-long) basis, and so we have turned on each other. It is 'silken slippers' on the feet of a nation full of 'weak men/women'. Woe to us when the monster comes, for we are either asleep, or have forgotten how to fight.

Biden Said What?

From a speech Biden gave a couple of days ago in Atlanta, speaking about the Democrats' "Voting Rights Bill":

"I ask every elected official in America: How do you want to be remembered? Do you want to be on the side of Dr. King or George Wallace? Do you want to be on the side of John Lewis or Bull Connor? Do you want to be on the side of Abraham Lincoln or Jefferson Davis?" Full Speech

Um, what? First of all - what able-bodied (or un-able-bodied for that matter) person in America today is unable to vote? Even in states with the most strict rules regarding voting (you know, the ones that require *gasp* an ID to vote), there is early voting and absentee voting available weeks before the conclusion of a Federal election. The polls are open, in the vast majority of states, for 13-14 hours on Election Day. There are organizations that will provide transportation to the polling place if you need it. There is little to no excuse that any would-be voter has, for not being able to vote. Lest you think that it stops at simply trying to make it easy for people to vote...oh no, this Bill also gives the Federal government control over how states conduct re-districting (also referred to as 'gerrymandering'). It also makes the Department of Justice the Federal agency that will have the final say about whether individual states can change laws related to voting. It is a complete overhaul of how elections are run in this country...

Democrats are woefully tone deaf on this issue. This is not an issue of race or ethnicity. This is an issue of integrity, and in ever-increasing numbers, Americans are rightfully questioning the security and legitimacy of elections. This isn't something to just dismiss as 'crack-pottery'. If there isn't overriding confidence in the security and legitimacy of elections, that erodes at the very foundation of the Republic. The descent from doubt to chaos, in lieu of something to shore up confidence, will be short and and fast. THAT is the importance of this issue...but the Democrats want to make it sound like we are back in the 1940s and 1950s and that certain segments of the population are being purposefully suppressed. That *might* be true in very specific individual cases (a small handful of them), but it is not true on the whole, not even close.

Federalizing elections and election laws is Unconstitutional and this Bill needs to be stopped. Think about what Biden said - he is basically saying, if you don't agree with him, you are an enemy of the United States. Jefferson Davis was the leader of the Confederacy. George Wallace was a proponent of segregation. Bull Connor stood against the Civil Rights Bill. Biden is saying that if you disagree with him, you are like those people (all of them Democrats by the way). What an insult!

Destructive Hyperbole

 I read this article this morning and the following quote came to mind:

"Hyperbole is in common use, as much among the unlearned as among the learned, because there is in all men [and women] a natural propensity to magnify or extenuate what comes before them, and no one is contented with the exact truth." - Quintilian

Modern political discourse in the United States, on both sides of the aisle, has become almost pure hyperbole, to the detriment of our political institutions, to political dialog among the people and, ultimately, to the Republic itself. No, January 6th was not a 'violent insurrection'. It was more a failure of Capitol security than anything else. Some people were hurt, yes, but these trespassers did not have weapons and they certainly did not have any meaningful organization as a whole (there were small groups of folks who came to the protest together). One of the trespassers (Ashli Babbitt) was shot and killed by a Capitol police officer, one police officer died the next day (Jan. 7th) as a result of a heart attack. Two others died of heart attacks during the event and one woman died of an amphetamine overdose. One dead capitol police officer, 4 dead Trump supporters and the only one killed by violence was a Trump supporter who was shot by a police officer. These are the actual facts. Only those who seek to serve their own (or their party's) agenda would argue otherwise. At the same time, we can all agree that those people involved in trespassing at the Capitol that day, along with any of the other illegal activities they engaged in as a result, should and will be held accountable to the law. Many of them have been incarcerated and many of them have been tried and convicted of crimes. It is possible to believe that the events of January 6th were, at the same time illegal, but not insurrection.

I would argue that if you believe in the "January 6th was a violent insurrection" narrative, then you haven't read anything that disagrees with that narrative. There are actual facts surrounding these events and it is worth the time to find out, insofar as one can, what actually happened that day. A failure to do so is to abdicate on your responsibility to think critically. Once you're into that kind of habit, you can be lead to believe pretty much anything.