Memoir of a Theological Meathead: A Long Strange Trip

Some have asked me how I ended up where I'm at. How I have become such a dichotomy or as Green Day said, a walking contradiction. How I survived the insanity and stupor of my childhood and twenties. A 250lb behemoth at nearly 57 years old. Versed in the Bible to an extent I could be a pastor in a church but don't have a church. In job interviews I'm asked how a person with a theology degree ended up as a Quality Engineer/Quality Auditor. Why I've jumped between 15 employers in 38 years. You good folk are about to find out, warts and all. To all who thought they knew me then, I’m no longer that person. I’ve been washed and sanctified in the Resurrection of Christ. To those who know me now, you’ll understand what makes me so dogmatic and why I dig in and use logic and reasoning to shutdown lofty arrogant pretension from educated people. At times I'm not a pretty picture. 

If people were honest, they’d admit their lives haven’t aren't pretty either. We all have things to hide. Skeletons in our closets. I no longer do…my life is an open book for all to peer inside of. I don't care how I am perceived anymore. People that care what other people think of them is for people who are trying to impress others. Simps. Betas. The spineless that will change their theology and worldview for the shifting winds. These people should not be teaching the Bible or talking about God. They're theological liabilities.

I'll state that this isn’t going to be a self-pitying post but it will be brutally honest. It is a general observation of my life that I believe many can relate to. As I approach my 7th decade on this orb, I realize with few exceptions…nothing happened in this life the way I expected. I didn’t have a great childhood. I was pretty badly abused behind my parents back when they were both at work. Beatings, sometimes daily. Who did it wasn't important. My parents were not aware. I was in a form of Stockholm Syndrome. I said nothing and the abuse lasted 5 years until I could take no more and lashed out. In desperation I said something to someone and the nightmare ended. 

The damage it did to my head didn’t end. I learned to internalize it. When I attempted to come forward with it later in life it was trivialized or I was demeaned being told, “It couldn’t have been that bad.” Everyone else’s opinion was that my past didn’t matter, only theirs. I learned to keep to myself. I never realized this would make me a voice in the wilderness like Elijah later in life. Part of the world but not of it. A loner by choice.

I carried scars and hate with me for decades afterward. The people in my teen years seemed to intuitively know this about me and poked at me constantly. I was super sensitive and reacted poorly instead of thinking. Reacted in emotion...which is why I so thoroughly distain the woke reactives. I badly wanted to be part of a group but learned that I was better off a alone. Looking back, I realize it was kids being kids and just doing it for laughs. Had I not been through what I’d been though, I’d have probably laughed too. I was a loud mouth and still am. Then I wouldn’t back it up. Now, I most certainly will. My fiancé understands this as we are similar in  a rebellious way. She with the tattoos and Harley. Me with the gym, 250lbs of muscle and a chip still sometimes on my shoulder.

Failure to address the mistreatments in my youth came out in a desire to be the largest and strongest. It came out in a desire to destroy my destroyers. In this way I became the evil I hated. This led to a decade in my twenties of constant conflict, fighting, addiction to alcohol, addiction to substances, addiction to sex, addiction to anything that was addictive. Anything that could be done, I did to self-destructive extremes dodging death a couple of times along the way. This mindset went to other less destructive things too. I was a powerlifter, a bodybuilder, a bouncer…a force to be reckoned with. All the frustration, anger and disillusionment were well channeled for a time. 

If things were in my way I tried to walk around them and if I couldn’t I was a bulldozer. I leaned my head down into you until you relented or I got you to the ground. I wasn’t a great fighter as most will attest but I would exhaust you. I was relentless. Today they call it ground and pound. Intensity for intensity’s sake. People drifted in and out of my life. They sloughed off of me like dead skin. I just wasn’t a good person for 20 years. At best a backslidden Christian. At worst a sinner with a straight path for Hell.

This was an end in itself and I knew it so by my early 30s I turned to family and marriage and children. Having not addressed long dormant issues the marriage ended within a decade and floundered for another 4 or 5 until I gave up and left. I don’t blame her. She had given up. I left more towards the end because I realized I needed to change for my sons. I had already begun to own my own baggage and started on a path to seek out God again and rectify wrongs where I could. After 23 years as a draftsman, quality inspector and a few other vocations I settled into a career as quality manager at Mack Trucks. I lasted there 10 years and was laid off in 2009. Towards the end of my 30s and tenure at Mack Trucks, God dramatically reentered my life in supernatural ways.

In the beginning of reemergence I was challenged by a paster named Randy Johnson to read my Bible...so I did only to prove him, and the Bible wrong. Then the world stopped turning because the more I read it the more I realized, not only couldn’t I prove it wrong. The deeper I went into it, the more internally coherent it became. This was an inflection point for me mentally and spiritually. I asked myself if there really was something more to the ‘God stuff’ I had been exposed to my whole life. Turns out…there was. Volumes of things. I now have a library of thousands of books that range from the 18^th century to recent publisher’s releases. I now publish my own work like you’re reading now.

I went back to school due to encouragement from family and church and in 2013 basically graduated from what I would consider seminary. I quickly realized that few churches wanted a super-intense, ex-addict in a pulpit. No one really wanted me in their churches because I was what the theologians call a New Testament prophet. 

Please understand I didn't label myself this. Everyone around me that understood their Bible like my professors, scholars, pastors ended up telling me this. I fought this label for years because I viewed it as absurd. I believed the office of prophet died with the Apostles, John the Baptist and the Old Testament. Then I learned that’s not what they meant.

I'm person that speaks unsavory truths to a world that doesn’t want to hear them. I do it fearlessly and don’t do it politely either. I try to have grace and love but I quickly become indignant when immoral liars with twisted words lie to the masses and further corrupt the world. Conversely, don’t always get it right and I am usually called on it by others. I correct myself, I learn, I move on. Most often, unfortunately, I get things correct. 

Many times, I am intolerable to be around because every single time I see injustice or God being mocked the old pieces of me come out and I am on the hunt to end it. No more Stockholm Syndrome. I am not a Christian doormat. Even my own friends have told me that when I am in a room the environment shapes around me, not me around it. It is another manifestation of the prophetic office. It has happened with ten people in Bible study and in congregations of over a thousand people. When I speak from the Bible the words take on their own life and I am exhausted at the end of the sermon. Having this responsibility is heavy. Heavier than any of the weights I've lifted.

I realized the world pays for what it values and few value the word of God. Pastoring and tending of a flock doesn’t pay. The world is cheap and Christians are some of the worst tightwads the world has produced. They speak of faith until it hits their wallets. So…I returned to Quality Engineering as it so closely resembles the Mosaic law and a desire to correct behavior to make humanity’s behavior better. I realized that the Bible and Quality are synonymous. They both seek to correct errant behaviors.

I didn’t foresee any of these things about myself. The irony being that when you say the word prophet people just assume that the prophet foretells or forespeaks the future. That was the Old Testament prophet. I don’t foretell anything. I use the wisdom of Scripture and compare it to the current culture and world (as messed up as it is) and make intuitive statements about it. Many have misconstrued some of my ability to state some things before they happen as some form of prophecy. Nonsense. Some have been caught off-guard with the accuracy some of my statements. It is just commonsense to me. I look at Scripture, see the modern scenario and draw correlations. Not forthtelling…more like, past-telling or past-seeing. I study history and human behaviors and draw obvious conclusions. It astounds me how prone humanity is to repeat itself. As shown in the examples of Scripture, it only takes a generation for a people to forget the past. We see the same today.

In conclusion, my life has been a long and winding road. Constantly moving forward. Changing, adapting and being what I believe God wants me to be. My kids turned out okay. For this I am glad. They understand their dad now and I have tried to help them navigate and avoid pitfalls that befell me. I have raised them as men and men they’ve become. One is studying Criminal Justice. My other son is working towards a level 3 welding certification. I’m proud of the men they’ve become. Men’s men. 

I pray their lives aren’t as unpredictable and arduous as mine has been at times. Then again, the life I have lived to this point has tempered me and made me what I am. An unrelenting advocate for the Gospel of Jesus Christ. 

What have I taken away from all this? Life is short and fleeting. Enjoy it. Youth is here then gone like a vesper. I've seen peak health and I've seen disease. I've seen goodness and I've seen evil. I've seen most of these within myself. I've seen people born and seen people die. The real question is what did you do when you were here? Did you bring good into the world? Did you get back up when you got knocked down or did life beat you?

The Grateful Dead were right, its been a long strange trip and it’s not over yet. Not all who wander are lost.

As Robert Frost said years ag0 in 1916: 

Somewhere ages and ages hence: Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—I took the one less traveled by, and that has made all the difference.

The Doctrine of the Void

Genesis 1:2 ~ "And the earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters."

In beginning, this was true of the world/cosmos of matter or the universe at-large. The earth was at the time of this verse in a state of utter desolation and dislocation. It was without order. It was absent operational instructions. It was devoid of assembly instructions. Without, absent, devoid…all negations or cancellations of things that ‘are’ now (we see echoes of today’s culture even here at the earliest moments of reality). At this point we are standing in a location of inflection. The creation can easily remain this way or effort/ energy can be applied to improve its condition towards stability and harmony. God will obviously apply this effort and continue creation but realize that this is the state of null, cancelled or voided order. At its simplest. A void of chaos.

The Universe/Creation and Earth was without its equipment and utilities so to speak. There was no human being to gaze upon its chaos. There was not a voice to break its silence. There were no animals to roam amidst its disorder. There were no trees, or flowers to relieve its barrenness. The earth was desolate. At times, it is like the inside of an ill man’s mind.

I believe the same can be said of the world of mind where there is no God. There are many minds in the universe whose intellectual, philosophical or psychological condition would be fitly described by the language of s this verse. They are desolate. They are not peopled with great thoughts. They are not animated by great and noble convictions. They are destitute of knowledge.

The intended instruction and structure of the godless mind is absent God and hisprinciples. The words " Let there be light" has not been heard within their souls (Genesis 1:3). Darkness is upon, the face of their vertigo inducing depths of soullessness. They look upon the light, the organization of the world uncomprehendingly. Not only is this true of the mind of these godless but also their souls. How many are there in the universe—in your town—whose moral condition is portrayed by the language of this verse? Absent God their soullacks architecture. God designed that it should be based on His elevated principles, animated by lofty motives, and inspired by great hopes; but instead of this it is based on a morass of formlessness.

The lack of structure breeds violence. They lash out in confusion that is frequently animated by the delusion caused by the inherent instability of their internal chaos. Their mindsshould be occupied with divine pursuits. Instead, they’re busy with the transient matters of pronouns, gender confusion, making the illegal legal, definition of words. Instead of being enraptured with visions ofeternity, they are spellbound by sin.

Yet, even in this state they are immortal as all will have a Resurrection body for salvation of judgment. Therefore, their chaos is not irretrievable just as the condition of Genesis 1:2. The chaos and confusion must not be despised. We must have sympathy for this condition because we were once in the same dizzying position. The earth was without form and void; but now it is useful and beautiful. It opens realms of knowledge to the scientific investigator. It discloses beauties that kindle the genius of the artist. It manifests a fertility most welcome to the farmer. There is beauty in the fallen and broken. How? Because God can redeem and wishes that none perish. The world was created from chaos into order for among other purposes, pulling people out of the chaos into a world of order, law and structure.

So, what was the inflection point? Where did the structure, order, intelligence and life come from? It was the gift from God. It was the result of the Spirit's hovering over the darkness and formlessness. It was God acting through the power of His word through His son (Hebrews 1:1-3).

The same can be said of the inner world of the minds of the godless. The chaos, confusion and violence of the human mind is turned into order, light, and intellectual completion, by the work of the Spirit. People can learn. Pursue information which, itself is a form of structure and order. The God given mind was made to pursue of information (specifically of God), and he has opportunity for mental reconditioning. It can heal just as the soul can. Where should that education come from? They are free gifts of God. The pathsof the human mind are under the protectionof the Spirit in a Godly man and are available to a man who seeks God.

The brooding of the Spirit over the darkest human mind, and the voice of God cuttinginto that disorienting abyss will produce light, and, ultimately, the highest forms of thought. The glory of God. Stated more simply God’s voice or His words impart life cutting through the formlessness pushing out the darkness of the void. God is not a god of disorder, but of peace. The godless mind is disordered, another symptom of the demonic. God can bring peace to even the most chaotic, troubled mind.

A man may have much knowledge and yet still be the victim of immense chaos. God not only gives light but also the environment for development and growth into a complete and orderly mental world and the same is true of the soul. The chaos of the soul of man can only be restored by the Holy Spirit. God will create light. He will restore order. He will cause the soul toshine out so that others will see it and be drawn like a moth to flame. God can turn even the chaos into order and light.

What we see exposed when we compare the thinking of the modern godless world today in relation to Genesis 1:2 is a desire by the world system to return to the chaos of the universe before God created, order, form and substance. They desire cancellation or unmaking of that which is because it undoes God’s work. Taking away the ‘good’ and ‘very good’ of Creation. They want to cancel God.

Cancellation or negation is just another manifestation of the doctrine of the Void and petty kings of chaos. Emperors that have dominion of nothing. A nihilistic existence has no purpose because that purpose or order has been stripped by removing the divine. Here we see the root laid bare of the godless and the answer to the conundrum. The godless exist but there is no import or reason in their minds for existence…they justare. Godless biological machines. That’s the lie that parallels the truth another close satanic counterfeit. Without God, they are just godless biological machines. With God they are instilled with value. God gives us our value through His unconditional love and the intrinsic worth we hold as His creations.

That is why the world so desperately wants to cancel God and Gospel from the minds of the people even though the world so desperately needs that knowledge of God. Without God there is no value instilled in them. They and their thoughts are just a result of time and circumstance and are nothing special… just existenceakin to dead men. This is not a doctrine from God. This is a twisting of the doctrines of grace. this is the doctrine of the demonic. If it was up to the godless the Bible would’ve stopped at Genesis 1:2. There would be no Bible. It would’ve been pulled back into the void. But it’s not up to them, is it? It’s up to God…and thanks to Him, there is so much more. Infinitely more.People need only follow the orderly way out using the light God shines into a dark chaotic soul.The same light he shone in the beginning. His Son.

By Demons Be Driven

Well, since many others are not saying it and most media minus a few alternative exceptions are already dumping the story from their feeds I state the following about the horrid events of the last few days. 

This is not going to sit well with people, even the more hearty of Christians. The most recent slaughter of Christian children forced my hand…again. What I say is of course going to be construed as being a hate-filled transphobic intolerant rhetoric. My words will be considered a hate-filled screed. My reaction to that is…get a spine and see reality. A majority of the world is groping for answers as if blind and the answers are as clear as the day is long. I mean the killer even made the statements that he was, "...tired of being trans" and; wished he "never brain-washed" himself.

To start, I will state that not every action construed as evil or is driven by demons. Sometimes messed up people do serious atrocious things in their own sin. To be clear though, this shooter was clear demonically driven and the evidences for that fact are manifest. A literally listed the characteristics of demons the day before the shooting in this blog post linked below. Some parallels are actually eerily accurate.

The Things All Should Know About the Demonic

The monstrous transgender killer wasn't a Trump supporter, the killer wasn't straight. Frankly, I’m still not even clear if the killer was gay. In our world of identity politics the only thing the media is actually reporting is that he was transgender which is not becoming a synonym for confused. The killer wasn't a conservative. The killer hated Trump. Let’s be honest. It hated pretty much all of us. What have we learned from the legacy media about this monster? We’ve learned more about the Progressive left and the media itself rather than the creature that did the killing. We’ve now learned that there's nothing that the left won't do to try and weaponize one of these shootings. They do wall-to-wall coverage for days and only blame it on the gun. By next week these two murdered children, a church shooting and a manifesto filled with anti-Christian hate will be pushed aside because it's not newsworthy enough. The media can't use it for their ideology. So they're just going to let it go. It will be ignored in a callous heartless manner. The way the media treats this is itself, driven by the hordes of demons. The media isn’t just the propaganda arm of the godless progressives, it is the speaker box for the demonic itself. They two are essentially synonymous.

There's a reason that in the last 10 or so years, a majority of these mass shootings have been committed by mentally ill transgender people. Their very existence goes against God. They are an affront to God and they even know this as evidenced by the incoherent murderous ramblings of this shooter. They are not the way God created man and woman. This lunatic may have been born in God’s image and may still have a vestige of that image in him but evil has so sorely twisted and warped what is left that is a contortion of its once former reality. It is God’s image run through a circus mirror and a meat grinder. It is not ironic that when this shooter drew a picture of himself in the mirror, what stared back at him was a demonic distortion.

Not only does this person’s mind and behavior go directly against God and morality it goes against science and common sense. You can't change your gender even though it was allowed and in some cases encouraged by people around the monster. The shooter literally had the hormones of two sexes running through his system. He was hormonally short circuiting I would suggest. This of course allows and opening and a gateway for nefarious third party actors to enter. This human deviation’s parents, his educators, those progressive leaders on the local and national scale and the doctors giving him drugs and the surgeries are all to blame. It is you who have blood on your hands. Your godless agenda has reaped the whirlwind. You created a demonic godless monster but do not want to take responsibility for it.

But again, I would say it all started with push away from God and faith by the radicals. That is the main reason we're seeing these mentally disturbed monsters/people go nuts. The secondary blame should be put on those that know these mutilations of people into androgynous characters of themselves through surgery, chemicals and hormones and do nothing. All talk no action, no leadership, especially no Godly leadership anyway. There are far too many weak, spineless and godless leaders in positions of power in education, companies and government.

Finally, to add insult to injury the demonic mindset in the whacked out media not only reaffirms this fact, it encourages it. After the shooting they stand in defiance of God mocking and demeaning prayer in the face of evil. Asking stupid rhetorical questions about why someone would pray. They shout, “It’s pointless and stupid because it can’t stop the bullets!” Only man through laws that illegalize the weapon/medium of destruction can this be stopped. It effect they are saying, there is no God, we are god. It is all pure hubris and spitting in the face of the Almighty. Scripture told us what happens to a people and a nation who do this. Those nations no longer technically exist. This shooting is sadly, just another sign of the times.

The Fragments of Eden

[For My Beloved Rebecca]

There has been much speculation as to the location of the Garden of Eden but most of it is in vain. It is impossible to ascertain its true site. Just as it is impossible to definitively identify the exact site of the Nativity, Golgotha or Christ’s tomb even though many will claim they have like the Catholic Church. The whole point is that these are issues of faith not geography and sight. Right within the text of Genesis we see that any vestige of Eden was probably swept away by the Noahic flood. This is of little importance though in comparison with the higher and more sincere moral truths that the garden represents. In this garden provision was made for the contentment of humanity. This is evident from the description of the garden found in Genesis’ verses. We know unequivocally the garden was beautiful. There was planted in it "every tree that is pleasant to the sight." Beautiful scenery does much to warm and comfort people. To gaze upon natures beauty people will travel to the ends of the earth. I flew across America just to see the Grand Canyon.

The garden was fruitful. "…and good for food." Even within the beauty in nature, there were also the needs and requirements of people integrated in. The material beauty by which Adam was surrounded was only the visual portion of its blessing. The garden was well watered, “and a river went out of Eden to water the garden; and from there it was parted and became into four heads." The teaching of this garden is, that God intended people to enjoy a happy life. God did not design people so that they should be withdrawn or shut up in a closet, but that they should wander amid the beautiful air of nature. He did not design that people should lead a miserable and sad life, but that they should be happy. It stands to reason that some of people’s joy should be inspired by all that was beautiful and morally good. In this imagery of pre-Fall life, we have God's ideal of life, a pattern for our own. It obviously didn’t last and today is often twisted or ignored.

The garden was made with provisions for the occupation or work by people. "… the Lord God took the man and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it." Work is the law of humanity's being. Work is a divine ordination. God put Adam (then Eve) to it. Adam and Eve were the first practicers of labor after God. They was merely emulating what God did in the creation…action or effort with purpose and a goal in mind. Work or labor specifically. A person's ideal of life has nothing to do with being "independent" as it is called. We need to labor and to be efficient and often this needs to be done with others communally. There is no fierce independent American spirit. This is a myth created about the American people. Our strength isn’t in our individuality; it’s in our unity just like any other organization. There are good ideas and functional contributions from individuals, but more synergy comes from groups and cooperation as shown by the Triune Godhead.

Work is compatible with the most ideal existence. It is a promoter of dignity; a willingness to perform it, is a vestige of God’s character imprinted on our soul. People tell us that work is the result of the Fall. This is not true. Adam and Eve worked before he fell, but free from fatigue or pain. The element of pain which has been infused into work is the result of the Fall. People must work because in this endeavor a person most accurately mirrors God. A person should be prompted to it by natural instincts because they are made in God’s image. We are rewarded in our labor by successful results and the gratification of completion that toiling to towards a goal gives. We are rewarded after it by an approving conscience. Labor should be sensible and purposeful, not movement for movements sake. Work should be practical. Adam and Eve were to dress the garden. It is person’s work to develop and make God's creation as productive and beautiful as possible. God created and gave humanity dominion and power over it to shape it towards some God glorifying purpose.

Some people are prone to plans and speculation never putting thoughts into actions. Planning first is smart but it would be far better to engage in a chosen labor as soon as possible. The world needs practical workers not theorists and writers of textbooks. As the adage goes, textbook learning and the school of hard knocks are two dramatically different things. Some people would undertake great things if they would just start but instead freeze in fear of failure or waiting for the right time. Sometimes the right time is now. It is stated in 2 Timothy 1:7 ~ “…for God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self-control. ” These characteristics in 2 Timothy are given to allow us to complete our labors properly. The world is full of good people who would be great workers if they would just begin to undertake little tasks first. You usually don’t start at the top, you need to often enter at the ground floor and walk all the steps to reach the top. Climbing a mountain starts with the first step at the base.

I work a white-collar job. Although there is nothing wrong with white collar work, my preference is to often engage in physical labor. This is evidenced by a daily workout regime that includes biking for the last 50 years or lifting weights for 42 years. I feel that if you work outside, it enables you to get plenty of fresh air and ground yourself. It will make you resolute in task and healthy. It would be much better for the health of the world if less people were engaged or cloistered in offices, and more in the broad fields under sunshine. I have long joked that every child should spend a summer on the back of a hay wagon to understand what real labor is.

Pray deeply about your course in life. What your vocation should be. It is a pivotal decision that will set you on a course and will affect you the rest of your life. A man who lets God put him to his trade, is likely to be successful. While we’re talking about praying, we should also transition right to the idea that a person’s trade/work is the benediction of a person’s being. Whatever your labor is, whether it be vocational (job) or avocational (weightlifting, biking) …it is a holy sacred prayer to God in obedience to his example. Work is often hard, but work makes people fulfilled and capable. No woman who wishes to be a mother looks for a man who is lazy or a deadbeat…at least not a woman of wisdom. If labor is fulfilling, than laziness and indolence is misery and breeds apathy and boredom. As they say, “Idleness is the Devil’s playground.” Idleness is associated with sin since it allows one to engage in destructive behaviors and is seen as a lack of purpose. It is a fact that Satan approached Eve, then Adam in Eden when they were idle and were not engaged in labor.

Work occupies our time towards the right ends. It keeps us from mischief. It supplies our earthly and spiritual wants. Writ large it enriches society. Humans were created not to just do as they please in this world. God placed them under moral restrictions including work which are for their welfare. Yet God also allows the ability to set work aside. Labor in the garden transcended the Fall. It is an element of the pre-Fall condition that survived the damage caused by the Fall. Labor changed its form and effects but not necessarily its purpose. As stated earlier, the labor now induces pain and discomfort to us. Yet those effects are only temporary, and we are still rewarded for our toil. Additionally, we are not commanded to work incessantly either. We are also to rest. The Sabbath was set aside for this purpose. Jesus said, “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath.”

Many things were corrupted by the Fall but the glory and signature of God’s character still infuse things like labor and nature. We cannot work as perfectly as God did or even Adam did in the Garden but the fact that we are allowed to work at all to attempt to restore small pockets and pieces of the Garden (Kingdom) is a blessing of grace itself. That makes labor a gift. By working we can recapture some of the original pre-Fall creation. Your work doesn't define you...but the results of your work do. Strive to acheive a completed work and it is a reflection of God's image in you and of things past...that can be again.

Perhaps that is why when we plant our gardens or do our works, we are still rewarded with the beauty of blooms of flowers, beloved offspring, appetizing fruit or abundant life. In emulating God in labor in all of our figurative gardens, we recapture pieces of Eden. In recapturing fragments of Eden, we manifest glimpses of the Kingdom to come…here in the world now.

A Man Needs To Know His Limitations

My last few posts have been about knowing when to do something and when not to. They are addressing limitations starting to overtake me as I inch closer to my latter days. I am learning to pace or selectively address problems. More and more I have found myself detached from what is going on in the news. Its is the same old same old. Nothing is changing. The turmoil and chaos increases daily. It’s too much for one soul to digest and not be corrupted by it. Its like radiation, I regulate my exposure time as an act of survival and longevity. We are told to be in the world but not of it. I have always tried to stay engaged with recent events so that there is at least that touchstone to relate to people with. We’re all affected by it one way or another and the destructive power is now amplified by electronics everywhere.

One needs to check out intermittently or they will burn out. As my sons like to say, “I need to check myself before I wreck myself.” A human mind wasn’t meant to be engaged like this constantly. TikTok, YouTube, Snapchat, X, Facebook, Instagram, Reddit, etc. The cacophony of visual and mental noise is maddening. The constant assault on the senses can morally break a mind. Moses knew this when he begged God to either lift his burden or kill him when the petulant Israelites constantly complained, and God struck them with fire.

Numbers 11:11-15 ~ Moses said to the Lord, “Why have you dealt ill with your servant? And why have I not found favor in your sight, that you lay the burden of all this people on me? Did I conceive all this people? Did I give them birth, that you should say to me, ‘Carry them in your bosom, as a nurse carries a nursing child,’ to the land that you swore to give their fathers? 13 Where am I to get meat to give to all this people? For they weep before me and say, ‘Give us meat, that we may eat.’ I am not able to carry all this people alone; the burden is too heavy for me. 15 If you will treat me like this, kill me at once, if I find favor in your sight, that I may not see my wretchedness.”

A similar scenario of Moses being overwhelmed was when he was judging the tribes of Israel day and night without reprieve.

Exodus 18:13-18The next day Moses took his seat to serve as judge for the people, and they stood around him from morning till evening. When his father-in-law saw all that Moses was doing for the people, he said, “What is this you are doing for the people? Why do you alone sit as judge, while all these people stand around you from morning till evening?” Moses answered him, “Because the people come to me to seek God’s will. Whenever they have a dispute, it is brought to me, and I decide between the parties and inform them of God’s decrees and instructions.”Moses’ father-in-law replied, “What you are doing is not good. You and these people who come to you will only wear yourselves out. The work is too heavy for you; you cannot handle it alone.

Jethro knew that Moses was heading towards burnout or a nervous breakdown. Moses is advised to step away. Back up and let others judge. Delegate some of the work and quiet his mind. Essentially, he needed to ‘turn off’ the chatter. Only the more difficult and troublesome issues were brought to Moses. Here we see that not every battle needs to be waged by one man. In other words, everything doesn’t need to be done by you. This is an onus no man should be responsible for nor are they capable of it. It literally is the adage; you need to pick and choose your battles. A man needs to know his limitations.

As I age, like Moses did this is becoming more obvious. I don’t have the time or the energy to do everything for everybody. I need to prioritize. I need to do a mental triage and go through the process of determining the most important people or things from amongst a large number that require attention. Many come to me for help for many things. As a friend and ffamily member and as a writer and theologian, I don’t just pick the low hanging fruit or moral issues when choose a task. I attempt to tackle the more cumbersome and troubling issues and break them down into digestible portions for people. I sit and spend the time doing the thinking or work that many don’t want to do or don’t have the ability to. I only address the lesser issues when I anticipate that will fester into unwieldy monsters.

This means that at a spiritual level I need discern what can be addressed by others while I defend or address the more complex and dangerous issues facing Christians or morality in general. Some of my tasks and writing are plain and straightforward while others are backbreaking. Part of this is my role as a New Testament prophetic voice. I need to know how to elucidate modern dilemmas in Biblical language, metaphor and similes that people can understand. Its what I was made to do. To be able to do my God-given task effectively I need to know what is demonic and distraction pulling me from the most pressing problems. These are tactics often used in battle, divide and conquer and overwhelming force. Division and Mental Blitzkrieg.

The passages from Exodus and Numbers have a lot to tell us about how to handle modern multiplicity of task, overstimulation (over-stimming) and the assault on our minds.

Firstly, dealing with every single detail of a circumstance, some of which are insignificant distracts from the primary or overarching tasks that need attention. The essentials get lost in the minutia. You foolishly sacrifice energy and time sorely needed elsewhere. You lose the forest within the trees getting ensnared in the vines and tangled undergrowth.

Secondly, it underutilizes God’s other resources. Farms are not run by one farmhand. There are many hands applied when planting or harvesting a field. Not every task needs to be done by me, there are others just as capable or completing work. Besides, in the counsel of many there is wisdom. Time is valuable and is not unlimited in this life. It needs to be used judiciously.

Lastly, good leaders of men educate people to do the same work. Modern business calls it cross training. The adage of the fishermen is apropos here. Give a man a fish he eats for a day, teach a man to fish he eats for a lifetime and then can teach others the same skill. Instead of one fisherman and nine hungry men, you have ten fishermen that can feed a hundred people. A better use of time is to teach those you intend to delegate work to. In this way the burdens you carry both physical and mental become public or communal. It is easier for ten men to carry a boulder than it is for one man to strain and injure his back. By giving tasks to other people, you make them become responsible contributors. Therefore, they have ownership in successes and shared responsibilities for failure which tends to prevent blame shifting.

As for the other distractions like electronics…turn them off. Put your phone down. Put your tablet down. Shut the lids of your computers and Chrome books. Go outside. Take a walk. Ride a bike. Go out and do neighborly things like talk to your neighbor. Engage with people face to face. If you’re around too many people too often, find a reprieve or refuge. Make a place to go. For me, it’s on a mountain bike trail, in my home gym or in my study reading or writing.

You need the time to decompress. Things held under stresses, tension or under pressure eventually fail…often catastrophically. Remember, the things in your head don’t need to be that cluttered or confusing. If they are its because you are either letting too much in or someone or something has infiltrated.

Finally, a note from Paul in the New Testament showing us exactly what is at hand when the world assaults our minds which it does routinely and effectively. The strongholds mentioned are bad or demonic ideas that have infiltrated and taken up residence in our heads, hence the words arguments, pretension and thoughts. We need to allow God in to keep the overwhelming evil of the world out. All of your battles mental and physical

2 Corinthians 10:3-5 ~ For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.

If The Dark Background Bothers Your Eyes

Since starting my blog I have had countless complaints about the dark background and light lettering bothering people's eyes. Especially people with astigmatisms because it causes halo effects. Be aware, especially if you are on a phone that you can set your background or reading settings to 'light'. It is different for everyone but I know its possible on nearly all devices: Computer, Chromebook, Tablets and Phones. It will help with possible eye strain. If it really bothers that bad do what I've heard others advise, copy the wordage and just paste it into a Word doc or Notes on Samsung Galaxy (not sure what Apple calls it).

I've left it this way because I like the aesthetic. It's intentional. It is stark and stands in contrast to the darkness that always trys to consume the words it surrounds. The entire aesthetic is analogous to Satan and evil always trying to overwhelm or consume the light. Make the effort. I promise I will always try to make it worth a readers time and effort. I go through great pains to craft these posts.

The Things All Should Know About the Demonic

Thirteen (13) Things To Know About Demons

1) Demons are spirits (Matthew 12:43, 45).

2) Demons are numerous…so numerous that Mark 5:9 describes one demon as saying, "My name is Legion, for we are many.

3) Demons can control men (Mark 5:2-5)

4) Demons are unclean and violent (Matthew 8:28-31)

5) Demons know Jesus Christ as the Most High God. They recognize His supreme authority (Mark 1:23, 24; Acts 19:15; James 2:19).

6) Demons know you are powerless without the name of Jesus and His Word.

7) They are aware of their eternal fate. “What do you want with us Son of God? they shouted. “Have you come here to torture us before the appointed time?" (Matthew 8:29)

8) Demons are in conflict with Christians (Ephesians 6:12). "The Spirit clearly says that in later times some will abandon the faith and follow deceiving spirits and things taught by demons" (1 Timothy 4:1).

9) Unbelievers are susceptible to demon possession. As for you [believers], you were dead in your transgressions of this world and sins, in which you used to live when you followed the ways and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient" (Ephesians 2:1, 2).

10) Believers cannot be possessed but they can be demonically oppressed. Demons cannot get inside the believer where the Holy Spirit resides but pressures from the outside can force a believer to begin to weaken and collapse. The more sin the believer allows into their life the more the sins pushes the Holy Spirit aside to allow the evil influence.

11) The world is currently their playground, not Hell. Hell or the bottomless pit is their eventual permanent destination. Lucifer is the Prince of this World as are his lackeys (John 12:31, 16:11). They are princes and powers of the air (Ephesians 2:2). Jesus literally calls Lucifer the prince of the world in John 14:30

12) They virtually never arrive in your life as darkness or brooding monsters. They arrive as beings of light or pleasure (drugs, sex, money, etc.).

13) They're often blamed for nothing more than our own human sin. Although indirectly complicit, they are not the instigators of our sin, we are.

Six (6) Things You Should Know About How Demons Communicate

1) Their advice and influence is always freely given.

2) Their advice is woefully misleading.

3) Their advice is counter to the Divine command.

4) Their advice is insipidly and/or strongly volunteered. Unfortunately, it is often taken by people unwittingly because they do not understand demons or the Bible.

5) They will intervene uninvited and anywhere. One must always use discernment.

6) They are insolent and fearless in their approach even approaching Christ in the wilderness, Adam and Eve in the Garden and Eli’s sons in the Tabernacle. All of which were in God’s direct presence.

Five (5) Things That Aid Demons in Their Evil

1) Our own lusts.

2) Our own sin.

3) Our own moral weakness.

4) Our lack of knowledge of the Bible and Christ.

5) The world system (κόσμος).

Five (6) Things Believers Can Do to Protect Themselves

1) Properly understand their Bible and obey God

2) Consider the being, human or otherwise proffering or making promises.

3) Seriously examine the offer/ scenario being promised against Biblical wisdom. If demons are anything they are shrewd and diligent. Destruction of anything holy or Godly is the goal.

4) Realize the offer will often be in our areas of our greatest weaknesses. This should be the first red flag.

5) Protect your mind. Those areas of greatest weakness all start in the mind. All sin starts with a thought or failure to think properly/Biblically.

6) Guilt while thinking of the sin or lust is an early warning sign. Heed it, it is God working through our conscience to warn us off the trail and stop us preemptively.

Thank me later folks.

Locked Doors and Quantum Tunneling

After his resurrection, Jesus appeared to his frightened and hidden disciples in a locked upper room, first saying, "Peace be with you". He showed them his hands and feet, inviting them to touch him to prove he was a physical, resurrected body, not a spirit (Luke 24:36-43). 

Attempts to explain the biblical account of Jesus appearing inside a locked room are uncommon outside of the supernatural. There is a theory though that it was a form of quantum mechanics, such as with quantum tunneling. Science and theology describe reality in different ways. Using quantum mechanics to validate religious claims can be dangerous but I suggest that there may be some truth to the idea that Jesus walked through a door via quantum tunneling…yet it was still a supernatural act. So trying to partially describe it that way in no way trivializes its momentous miraculous importance.

Quantum tunneling describes how a subatomic particle can pass through an energy barrier like the forces in another atom. We need to remember from our physics classes that matter is mostly empty space in the form of subatomic particles and nuclear forces. Atoms are overwhelmingly empty space, containing a nucleus so small that the atom is nearly 100% empty, with the exact percentage being around 99.9999999% or higher. This "emptiness" is not a void but is filled with electron orbits or regions where electrons are likely to be found, and the mass comes primarily from the kinetic and binding energy of quarks and gluons, rather than their physical size. Forces...keep that word in mind as I proceed.

So, atoms are mostly empty space and compressed energy. Yet…if the forces within an atom can be neutralized or 'sidestepped' by another force (perhaps thru the power/δυνάμεως of His Word in Hebrews 1:3. Words being waves that can affect wave function) it is possible to pass through the atom in what is called quantum tunneling. Most scientist will say that the magnitude of quantum tunneling would’ve been too great as to be theoretically impossible. Therein lies the argument for its supernatural nature. What are miracles if not God acting within the world by what appears to be impossible means and not necessarily to known physics?

Theologian Wayne Grudem defines a miracle as "A less common kind of God's activity in which He arouses people's awe and wonder and bears witness to Himself". Key aspects of this definition include that it is a less common, extraordinary type of God's action that is meant to evoke wonder and serve as a clear sign of God's presence and power. That would allow quantum tunneling to be the possible mechanism but still be miraculous and extraordinary. To help us understand why science would deny this quantum mechanism to be used we can get the explanation from atheistic deniers of God when they attempt to refute that Jesus walking through solid objects as being impossible. The truth is its scientifically improbable but that does not mean impossible. It just means it is likely a paradox. Just because we don’t understand something doesn’t make it less real.

So how would atheist scientist argue that this is not the mechanism or method employed by the master and creator of all reality quantum or otherwise?

As stated, before quantum tunneling describes how a subatomic particle can pass through an energy barrier. Science will claim it does not apply to macroscopic objects like a human body because of a handful of conditions...

Scale: The probability of a single particle tunneling through a barrier is already incredibly low, and the odds of a human body—billions of billions of particles—spontaneously tunneling through a wall are astronomically small. Astronomically small is just sciences way of saying they're not sure but they think it's impossible. In fact, it is not impossible. If the Creator understands how to manipulate the very atoms of his own Resurrected body this refutation by science becomes a moot point.

Unpredictability: A quantum-tunneled outcome is fundamentally probabilistic and cannot be intentionally controlled or directed, which is contrary to the deliberate, non-random nature of the biblical account. As of now there is no human way to compute or calculate the probabilities. They said the same of chaos theory half a century ago too. Only to find that there is in actuality patterns and simplicity in chaos. Chaos is therefore a misnomer and poor descriptor. It is calculatable via the purest form of language which is mathematics.

The creator of all matter and all mathematical probabilism most certainly could. What is impossible for man is not impossible for God. Many non-believers then and now still say it is impossible to resurrect a man from the dead too. Thereby limiting God’s ability and power. We know how that story turned out. A man was resurrected.

Decoherence: Quantum effects like tunneling apply to isolated systems of very few particles. Macroscopic objects are constantly interacting with their environment, causing their quantum states to collapse almost instantaneously. This process, known as decoherence, prevents a human-sized object from maintaining the quantum state necessary to tunnel. At least this is what man’s current understanding of this phenomenon is. God’s omnipotence assumes the ability to input enough energy into a system to prevent this collapse and prevent decoherence.

What is the theological understanding of what happened in the post-Resurrection narrative?

Many theologians do not view the event as a problem to be solved, but rather as a supernatural occurrence related to Jesus's post-resurrection body. I suggest it might be both. The supernatural miraculous element being the nearly certain impossibility of it.

A glorified body spirit body: In this view, Jesus's resurrected body was not bound by the same physical laws as his pre-crucifixion body. This "glorified body" could appear and disappear and was not limited by ordinary physical barriers. Could this spirit body have been the effect of quantum tunneling or superposition of the atoms in the Spirit Body? We know that there was a tangible physicality to Jesus after the resurrection because Thomas is asked to touch his wounds and he ate with the disciples.

A "more real" reality: Some interpretations, influenced by thinkers like C.S. Lewis, suggest the post-resurrection body was not less physical but "more physical" or from "another dimension," making a wall no more substantial than vapor. Why couldn’t this be the omnipotent and omniscient ability to change the composition of the body at will to be in one state or another. This also begs the question, did this type of ability manifest itself elsewhere in the Bible in theophanies like Jacob wrestling God?

Of all these theological explanations via supernatural means we must remember that the act is taking place in a physical universe. It is not some form of illusion or magical deception. The event happened as stated in the Bible in a physical universe. Quantum tunneling goes a long way in describing how it was possible through God’s omniscience and omnipotence that he could in fact manipulate the physical universe in a supernatural manner bending physics to His will to accomplish the will of the Father.

So, the idea of Quantum Tunneling in no way diminishes the wonder that was Jesus’s appearance in the Upper Room in Luke 24:36-43. It’s as if Jesus phase-shifted into existence as a corporeal body. The matter of his body changed forms or states. Jesus even goes so far as to state:

Luke 24:39-40 “Why are you troubled, and why do doubts arise in your hearts? “See My hands and My feet, that it is I Myself; touch Me and see, for a spirit does not have flesh and bones as you see that I have.” And when He had said this, He showed them His hands and His feet.

A supernatural interpretation holds that the event is still a miracle, a suspension or bending of natural laws by divine power, rather than an application of a specific scientific principle. It was the divine acting within the physical realm clearly because Jesus insisted the Apostles observe his hands and feet were real, the only question was how it was possible. The irony being that up to that point His own disciples couldn’t or didn’t believe or understand what was happening…so he asked them for something mundane that only a real person would ask.

Luke 24:41-43 And while they still did not believe it because of joy and amazement, he asked them, “Do you have anything here to eat?” They gave him a piece of broiled fish, and he took it and ate it in their presence.

Basically, it was Jesus’ way of saying, “If you’re not going to accept this at least give me something to eat while you’re trying to figure it out….because I’m hungry.

Perhaps Quantum Tunneling offers a glimpse of insight or shines light in the supernatural interaction with the physical realm?

Addendum: Quantum Tunneling also may help us understand how Jesus’ resurrected body was able to pass through His burial shroud without actually disturbing it. I would additionally posit that Jesus walking on water on the Sea of Galilee is the inverse of quantum tunneling or the reversing of its effects. Perhaps tightening the bonds in Hydrogen and Oxygen? Instead of sinking into the water or passing though it, the water was altered in a manner that made it tactile and able to support not only Christ’s body but also that of Peter’s. 

 

For All Who Labor and are Heavy Laden

As I’ve gotten older pain and discomfort are becoming more prominent in my life. The wear and tear of age is beginning to take its toll. In the past I would always find a way over, around or through problems. It wasn’t a matter of if, it was when. I would find ways. I was partially invincible. I was durable. I had energy for days. I was dangerously impatient and the impatience for me is till a problem. It injures me. The closer I get to my sixties the more I am being limited by my own body. I am not frail by any means but I know, like a storm on the horizon miles off, frailty is coming. I am on the outer edge of the storm of old age.

In these moments when I am virtually crippled up by back spasms, I get angry at my own body. It refuses to do what my mind wants it to do. It occurs to me that I obviously need to rethink my thinking. God knows this is coming for me and so do I. I also know why. Systems fail over time. It’s the curse revisited by everyone of us through every injury and symptoms of age. I have long suspected that it was entropy that entered the world when mankind fell in sin through Adam. I know its true. In my stubbornness I fight it. The Bible says, to "number our days" in Psalm 92. It is not some morose statement to make us think about our undoing and death. It is just the opposite. It is a plea for God to teach people how short and fleeting life is, so they may gain a heart of wisdom and live purposefully. It is an acknowledgment of human mortality and a call to make each day count by focusing on what is truly important for an eternal perspective. 

We need to stop getting lost in the never-ending emails, to-dos, laundry, homework, conflict resolution, dirty dishes, traffic lines. The unrelenting stress is always pressing in, always swirling, yet no matter how hard we work we never quite get anywhere except frustrated, unfulfilled or worse injured or mentally broken. The stress itself shortening our days because of what it does to our minds and our bodies. But the Psalmist who wrote the Psalm is deliberate. He is asking God to do something for us. Something we should be asking for too. Something I ask for now as I write this.

“So, teach us to number our days that we may get a heart of wisdom.” Psalm 90:12

Teach us. Numbering our days means pausing for regular consideration of our days in light of God’s ways. We were not meant to abuse our bodies and minds until they break. Our bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit. We need to intelligently preserve our bodies and minds to the best of our abilities. The things I could’ve shouldered down and leaned into now need to be dealt with in a paced structured manner. Efficient use of resources. Efficiency of movement. Efficient use of time. Understanding limitations and knowing when to let tomorrow be tomorrow. Everything doesn’t need to be done today. Sometimes I need to stop pushing myself beyond what my 57-year-old body is capable. Doing it in the gym to test my strength and endurance is one thing. Doing it in life or work outside of a pursuit of passion is the path to a broken body and a broken mind. I speak from experience.

Luke 12:25-26 Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to your life? Since you cannot do this very little thing, why do you worry about the rest?

Jesus asked a rhetorical question here, that needs to be taken to heart and highlights the futility of anxiety by asking if worrying can add even a single hour to your life. The point is that worry is counterproductive, as it adds no value to your life and can even detract from it, taking away from your time, energy, and peace of mind without bringing you any closer to a solution. If you can do things without breaking your body or fraying your mind, by all means, do them. If they pose a direct risk to your well-being you need to ask yourself this question.

How does it glorify God to drive yourself into the dirt or even an early grave? How does killing yourself to complete a task all at once that can be parsed and made into separate tasks help you give the Gospel to the world. Does it really reflect the mind and behaviors of Christ? I suggest not. It reflects a mindset and mentality that doesn’t trust others to help you complete a task. It’s a mind that insists it needs to have its own way rather than stepping back and seeing that sometimes its about pace not immediate completion. It exposes unhealthy thinking likely driven by sin. When we mindlessly dog and hammer away at a task just to get it done are we really learning anything? Are we really serving God…or Satan?

In Proverbs 6:6-11, the ant is presented as a teacher for lazy people, highlighting its hard work and self-sufficiency by storing food for the future, even without a leader. Proverbs 30:25 further emphasizes the wisdom of ants, noting that despite their lack of physical strength, they are still wise enough to gather their provisions. This passage encourages honest labor but it in no way is encouraging us to kill ourselves to complete a task. Instead, its shows that ants work diligently over time and often in unison with others as a team. By all means, be industrious but a broken back and broken mind are good for no one. The passage also shows priorities. Gathering food is an effort of self-preservation. Mindless and stressful work that accomplishes nothing and gives God no glory is just movement that will inevitably kill or maim.

The Bible teaches patience and pace. Our lives are framed as a long-distance race requiring endurance and rest, not speed. Key concepts include running with endurance, as highlighted in Hebrews 12:1-2, but also finding rest and inner peace by fixing one's mind on God, exemplified by Jesus' unhurried life and the principle of Sabbath. The goal is to run the race long and finish, not just quickly, which involves a balanced rhythm of work, rest, and a deep connection with the Holy Spirit. 

The Company You Keep: A Proximal Relationship

I don’t generally like to oversimplify things for people because it makes them lazy but critical thinking skills seem to be in short supply in the world and what I wish to communicate needs to be heard. I try to lay things bare to the point that my readers can forward the idea on without much commentary. 

Simply put…

There is something strange afoot in society. Everyone can see it too. For some its just below the surface out of sight, barely perceptible or ethereal. For others it is a punch in the face. Obvious as the sun in the sky. It goes beyond the self-righteousness of the political Right. It goes beyond the moral depravity and corrupt minds of the political Left. At face value it is on the world level. The realm of physicality. The empirical. We see it. We can even sometimes quantify it but it’s not a thing per se in the physical world. All of it is sin and its root cause is spiritual, but it manifests in the spiritual and physical world as decrepitude. All the moral and ethical wrongs we all see in the world around us.

We’ve heard it said often over the last few years, “Things have gotten bad.” It also comes out as, “Things seem like they’re upside down. They’re confused.” That’s what evil and sin does. It corrupts. It flips things. It confuses things. Makes what should’ve been easy to understand disorganized and corrupted. God is a God of order. There is no confusion in His nature. Then why the disorder and confusion. Because the Lucifer and evil are parasites. They seek to undo and disorganize that which is. Discontent. Destruction. Disharmony.

Our society gives honor to that which is clearly wrong. Lawlessness in our cities. Claims that the inner cities like Washington DC are safe when it is clear the leaders of that city lied and falsified numbers to make the city appear less violent than it actually is. So violent that the National Guard needed to be called to put things back to order. Then made the people that were trying to restore order the villain or bad guys. Calling the friend a foe and the foe a friend. Absurdity.

A society that honors the killing of the unborn and calls it healthcare and then violently protests to get it when they are refused it as if it is a God-given right to murder one's child. Then those in support call the violent protests mostly peaceful. Literally using equivocation in their language calling things the exact opposite of their nature just as Isaiah predicted of a fallen and corrupt society.

Isaiah 5:20 Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter!

The very nature of these behaviors is what will prevent these very types of people from getting the justice they so unrighteously demand because they themselves are so unjust. Do unto others as you’d have done to yourself or the sins you do to others will inevitably be visited upon you. The next passage gives us the hint at why this happens too.

Isaiah 59:1-10 But your iniquities have built barriers between you and your God, and your sins have hidden His face from you, so that He does not hear...

 ...your lips have spoken lies, and your tongue mutters injustice. No one calls for justice; no one pleads his case honestly. They rely on empty pleas; they tell lies; they conceive mischief and give birth to iniquity...

...Their feet run to evil; they are swift to shed innocent blood. Their thoughts are sinful thoughts; ruin and destruction lie in their wake...

Therefore, justice is far from us, and righteousness does not reach us. We hope for light, but there is darkness; for brightness, but we walk in gloom. Like the blind, we feel our way along the wall, groping like those without eyes. We stumble at midday as in the twilight; among the vigorous we are like the dead.

They are far from God and society will inevitably suffer as consequence… as these are the people that make up that disorganized and destructive society. The Bible goes to great lengths to explain why these people are distanced from God. They, in effect do it to themselves. Romans states clearly that. Romans 3 reaffirms Isaiah 59 in an Old Testament, New Testament corroboration.

Romans 3:13-18 Their throats are open graves; their tongues practice deceit.” “The venom of vipers is on their lips.”  “Their mouths are full of cursing and bitterness.”  “Their feet are swift to shed blood; ruin and misery lie in their wake, and the way of peace they have not known.”  “There is no fear of God before their eyes.”

If this sounds like what is going on in American society, it is because it IS what is going on. The Bible plainly states the two truths about us that are causing it in Isaiah and Romans.

God is distant from us (Isaiah 59)...because there is no fear of God (Romans 3) before our eyes. No fear meaning no respect of God. No obedience of his statutes and commands. Statutes and commands that were given to help us not restrain us. Help us prevent sinning, not enslave us. A lack of reverence of God distances us from Him has it makes us unholy. Why? It is because we can only get holiness from him, there is no other source. Remove that source and we are unholy. Therefore, we become all the things God is not as He is too far away from us to draw on Him as the source.

We are then left in a time of judgement or, in the Bible, in the time of the Judges. Judges were sent when the people of God went completely rogue and distant themselves from God and his Word/Law. What did people do during these times?

Judges 21:25 In those days there was no king in Israel. Everyone did what was right in his own eyes.

Even psychology agrees with this concept of nearness and proper wholesome relationship. It is a phenomenon where people are more likely to form relationships with those who are closer to them. An intimacy at relationship level requires detailed knowledge of the other person...or its not really a relationship per se. That familiarity understood properly actually forms a bond of love that is shown in the actions of the person. With God it is a desire to please Him. To be righteous... holy in obedience to His Wordand to His Son.

Therefore, because many do not have this proximal relationship with God and His Son we have the current American condition succinctly explained from the three (3) previous passages in the Bible. At its core, a repeat of history. At its core, satanic and lacking God. At its core, not of God, unholy and apart from Him. Instead of a relationship with God, a relationship with their true father, the Devil. Your relationship is directly effected by what you are proximal to. As a man thinks, so is he. You are the company you keep.

In The Beginning Was The **** And the **** Was ***

So...it is the nature of language to constantly change. We can often tell a lot about a culture or a people in the past based on their writing.

So I asked ChatGPT if words were being dropped from usage on the internet based on diminishing frequency of use or if they were superseded, hybridized or substituted by more modern usage. It asked me what kind of words. For the sake of simplicity I said nouns. It said that not just nouns, but all vocabulary/vernacular in general based on frequency of use are programmed by their AI algorithm and coding to be pushed to obsolescence upon diminishing usage if usage drops below certain thresholds. What that exact criterion was AI didn't elaborate on nor could I get a clear answer on it no matter how I asked the question. My guess is because it is part of it programming not to. 

So I asked it examples of words that are diminishing in usage and being substituted frequently. It responded with man, woman, peaceful, protest, tolerance, love, etc. I asked if is sin is also. Yes. The word sin is at a literal cut-off point (10-20%) as to be dropped from ChatGPT lexicon completely due to lack of usage. I can only imagine other biblically oriented words will suffer similar fate.

AI-generated outputs consistently use a narrower vocabulary, with significantly fewer nouns and stylistic words than human writing. Studies have shown that ChatGPT’s outputs exhibit significantly lower lexical diversity than human writing and speech. The AI while itself is learning is conversely, dumbing-down those who read it while it is gaining ground on those it is learning from. In literature its called Newspeak. Newspeak—a restricted, simplified language designed to make dissent unthinkable—has become a cultural shorthand for manipulation and control. It helps to remember what George Orwell authored in 1984. It was a bleak vision of the future where an authoritarian regime weaponizes language to suppress independent thought and rewrite history. AI is now rewriting reality, one word at a time…just as a person like me tries (at times in error) to bring light to truth, one word at a time. The government is no longer our only enemy on this front...so it AI.

When AI is done, John 1:1 will read: 

In the beginning was the (Insert Noun Here), and the (Insert Noun Here) was with (Insert Proper Noun Here), and the (Insert Noun Here) was (Insert Proper Noun Here)."

There will be no context for the Bible. There will be no sense. Truth will be edited out.