I’ve gotten some comments and questions about recent posts. Pacifism is not a doctrine; it’s a path. It’s a collection of assumptions about human nature; it’s a commitment to getting things done a certain way. It’s neither right nor wrong. What’s wrong is trying to assert it as a teaching of Christ. Jesus had no…
Month: July 2023
Conscription Coming?
When was the last time you thought about US military conscription? If things keep going the way they are now, I’m convinced we’ll see it again. It will include females this time. I don’t believe the powers that be are united on the issue of war. You probably realize that we are already at war…
Second Temple Era
You’ve probably heard of the Period of Silence, that four centuries between the Prophet Malachi and the birth of Christ. It was when Old Testament religion basically died out, to be replaced with Judaism. Judaism is simply Pharisaism. The Bible doesn’t say much about those centuries, but it was when Persia went to war with…
Start with You
In my writings, I have asserted that the reality in which we live is an iffy thing. I subscribe to the basic idea of Phenomenology: All you really have are your experiences and your perceptions of them. You don’t really have “reality” itself, only your limited ability to grasp what you personally have experienced. I…
Anything Else
How did the Devil influence Eve? He appealed to her free will. It is simply impossible to have free will without the vulnerability to temptation. So far as we can tell from Scripture, God alone has the power to harden, to reduce or remove free will. Without His hardening, for whatever incomprehensible purpose, everyone is…
Realms of Law and Faith
Yesterday I wrote to summarize the difference between Moses and Christ: Law is for the witness and community; faith is for the individual soul. Law never got you to Heaven. Law got you a stable community and a strong witness. Faith always got you to Heaven under any covenant, and it drives you to seek…
Covenant Election
Someone has already noticed that Heiser has addressed the topic of election and predestination, and I’m not on the same page with him. Feel free to take any position that answers your convictions. I cannot speak for you, but I can certainly explain how I use the terminology on this blog. The crux of what…
The Black Pill
I still recommend Jack’s Sigma Frame blog. His recent series on the zeitgeist raises the interesting problem that American society is going down the tubes. It is no longer sustainable because the core of any society is people forming stable households that produce more humans to replace the ones that age and die. It’s not…
Not Polytheism
We serve the God of the Hebrew people. There was ever only one Creator God in the Bible. That’s monotheism. The difference is that we understand how the Hebrew leadership also believed that God had created a significant number of non-human beings with far more power than mere angels to serve in His court. You…
Sheol
I’ve finished reading Heiser’s The Unseen Realm and am now working my way through the companion materials on this website. He touches on something that really needs more exposure. Feel free to do your own research, but what I’m about to tell you is not common knowledge among biblical scholars, neither Jew nor Christian. Rather,…