The issue was never killing in itself. It was always a matter of whether the killing was justified. A simple matter of competition for resources, trying to feed your own family, would be a justification, if your competitors are willing to fight for it. Protecting your tribe’s interests always justified violence against outsiders. There will…
Month: September 2023
Peace Not Possible
If you can grasp the big picture, then you stand in the place to understand some of the variables we face in our context. On the one hand, world peace is not going to happen. We know that; it’s stated in Scripture too often. On the other hand, a mitigation of sorrow is certainly possible….
A Big Picture
Let’s think this through. Assert the moral authority of your heart over your mind. Your heart knows the truth. The root nature of blasphemy is a personal insult to Jehovah. Whether raising up man or pulling down God, the point of blasphemy is that He is no better than His creatures, that the moral flaws…
No Time
Another major cultural issue we face as Covenant people in an anti-covenant West is how we view time. You can go back and find court cases where some prisoners were adjudicates unfit for release into society because they lacked a future orientation. Judges have openly and very specifically condemned a present time orientation as harmful…
Lifting Us Up
First up: I need to add a few words to yesterday’s post about organizational theory. The New Testament churches were not actually closed, but were a hybrid between closed and open groups. However, the western perspective cannot see that. Keep in mind that westerners have never seen a genuine covenant community of faith. Thus, the…
Breaking the Rules
There’s an academic discipline called “organizational theory”. It’s less about organizing and more about theory. What kinds of ways can people come together for a single purpose? What seems to work best for various kinds of purposes? I’ve come across an awful lot of reading lately that evokes my memories of studies in organizational theory….
Mission, Methods, Means
The Lord put His claim on my life very early. As soon as I began to understand anything at all, I became aware of divine pressure. At first, I sensed it as a fearful pursuit of darkness trying to grab me. Eventually I understood that was because I had been marked for God’s use, and…
Religious Cattle Herding
Recent offline chatter with some readers has provoked some not so fond memories. How many of you are familiar with the term “Big Eva”? It refers to this elite club of leadership among evangelicals. It’s actually a market, of sorts. The way to get the big money is to make sure you go along with…
Review: Heiser’s References
One reader has asked for a review of Dr. Michael S. Hesier’s work used on this blog. Here are some his books available for free online: The Unseen Realm Demons: What The Bible Really Says About The Powers Of Darkness Supernatural He’s got several others; it’s not hard to find them online if you would…
Who’s the Owner?
First, let’s remind ourselves about the meaning of that word “demons”. Common English usage of the word is deeply mistaken, based on Anglo-Saxon pagan mythology. It’s part of the reason I tend to avoid the word, because too many people are likely to load the term with false baggage. The word “demon” is the Anglicized…