A Trained Professional IV: Lean Into The Punch

Regardless of context, topic or series I would write on in my blog God is the G.O.A.T. The greatest of all-time...in everything. He is the benchmark. He is the cornerstone. He is perfection. There is none greater. There is none more beautiful. Well, now that I got that out of the way…on to my vocation for this post…athletes and nary a mention of Tom Brady or Michael Jordon anywhere.

There are many metaphors in the Bible, borrowed from contests between athletes. The Apostle Paul was the most frequent user of these. Paul was was enabled by the Spirit to make many applications to sporting events of his time. It is ironic that although Paul refers to himself and other people in his passages as athletes...the object of his competitions is always the same. It is salvation found in beatings and crucifixion Christ endured. Every context, every competition pales in comparison. It is interesting that Paul understands that part of the conditioning of a fighter is body tempering to be able to take repeated debilitating blows. Just as a believer will need to take many blows and be knocked down frequently to live a long life in service to God. Just as Christ did at Golgotha.

Philippians 3:12 I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.

Hebrews 12:1 Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us…

2 Timothy 2:5 An athlete is not crowned unless he competes according to the rules.

The word athlete in 2 Timothy 2:5 is actually ἀθλήσῃ/athlese or ‘one who competes / contends’. It carries a further significance of agonizing, as an athlete straining to obtain a prize. Agonizing...like carrying a cross to a crucifixion. Athletes don’t just compete. More often the practice twice as much as they compete to stay in condition. It is interesting to note that athlelos can also mean combat, therefore there is a further connection with “affliction”.  Just as Christ was afflicted. Part of competing in sports is prefaced with an acknowledgement that one will need to suffer to be the best at what they do through grueling endurance. There is a price to be paid for being the best. You will need to sacrifice yourself to the cause or goal. In my case it is back and joint pain from heavy lifting for nearly 40 years.

Hebrews 10:32 Remember those earlier days after you had received the light, when you endured in a great conflict (ἄθλησιν/athlesin) full of suffering.

Although athletics did not occupy a prominent place in Jewish life like they do today in America, there were public games connected with military sports for which purpose Jewish youths were instructed in the use of the implements of war, the spear, bow and sling. In the Jewish mind, due to their need to survive persecution and overcome obstacles there is an inextricable link between their ideas of sport and war in Biblical allusions.

King Saul himself is trained in the use of a spear/javelin also known as a ‘dart’ which was thrown with the hand or by the help of a thong tied round the middle of it to 'fling' it overhanded. We also know that the giant Goliath was also trained in its use for war. Saul and Goliath likely learned of their uses for combat not sporting competition. If we’re honest conflict and war are both forms of competition to see who wins. Unfortunately, war usually ends with the death of one of the combatants. 

Judges 20:16 16 Among all these were 700 chosen men who were left-handed; every one could sling a stone at a hair and not miss.

1 Samuel 20:32-33 Then Jonathan answered Saul his father, “Why should he be put to death? What has he done?” But Saul hurled his spear at him to strike him. So Jonathan knew that his father was determined to put David to death.

Jonathan, son of a king is trained in the use of a bow and arrow when he warns/signals David.

1 Samuel 20:20 And I will shoot three arrows to the side of it, as though I shot at a mark.

1 Samuel 17:7 The shaft of his (Goliath's) spear was like a weaver's beam, and his spear's head weighed six hundred shekels of iron. And his shield-bearer went before him.

Then of course we have the use of a sling. Take your pick. We have David and we have the training of Saul’s kinsmen. Again we see the blurring of purpose between sport and war…they are both competitions but for different ends.

1 Samuel 17:50 So David triumphed over the Philistine with a sling and a stone; without a sword in his hand he struck down the Philistine and killed him.

1 Chronicles 12:2 They were bowmen and could shoot arrows and sling stones with either the right or the left hand; they were Benjaminites, Saul's kinsmen.

The line between athletics and combat of course becomes further becomes muddled when we begin to discuss the gladiatorial ‘games’ which are in reality controlled war or slaughter. Although not elaborated on much in the Bible I would be remiss if I did not mention the persecution of early believers by their enemies in these arenas and colosseums. They are illustrated at least indirectly in three passages. We see the cruelty of the ‘games’ in which at Rome, Ephesus and elsewhere, men were brought forward to face death in the arena at the hands of gladiators or deadly beasts.

1 Corinthians 4:9 For I think that God has exhibited us apostles as last of all, like men sentenced to death, because we have become a spectacle to the world, to angels, and to men.

1 Corinthians 15:32 What do I gain if, humanly speaking, I fought with beasts at Ephesus? If the dead are not raised, "Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die."

 Hebrews 10:32 But remember the former days, when, after being enlightened, you endured a great conflict of sufferings

There were many sports the Greeks and Romans loved. After his conversion Paul would not frequent heathen places of athletic competition but those to whom he ministered to were familiar with all kinds of games. That is why we see his constant use of the vocabulary of the athlete just as he used the vocabulary of the military when under house arrest and chained to a Praetorian Guard in the prison epistles. Paul knew the audience he was addressing and spoke in their slang. In doing so Paul illustrates the Christian as a boxer, wrestler, runner, gladiator, fighter of beasts. He shows salvation as the prize of a wreath of pine or palm leaves given an athlete for victory but the wreath that a believer would get would be imperishable unlike the earthly one awarded at the games.

In Ephesians we see wrestling. I used to wrestle in high school. I know how hard it is to compete full power and full speed for the duration of a wrestling match. It is grueling because you are usually evenly match in size and strength with your opponent. Such is the dilemma of sin. In actuality we are often out matched without God's help to overcome it.

Ephesians 6:12 For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.

The word Paul uses for wrestling here is πάλη/pale which is akin to palto meaning to sway or vibrate. With this word Paul shows that spiritual conflict with satanic forces engaged in by believers is a give and take of strength, endurance and basically just grinding it out to stay off your back or avoid being put in a vulnerable position.

The runners mentioned in the Old Testament were remarkable for their swiftness and endurance. Runners like the fifty who ran before Absalom’s chariot, had to be swifter than horses. As royal messengers, runners ran speedily to execute their King’s sentences (1 Samuel 8:11; 22: 17; 2 Samuel 15:1; 1 Kings 1:5; 14: 27; etc.). David, speaking of Saul and Jonathan’s rapid onset on their enemies, describes them as having the swiftness of the eagle (2 Samuel 1:23).

In his endeavor to illustrate the truth he taught, Paul borrowed comparison from ancient sports. His most frequent illustration however was that of the runner. (See Romans 9:16; I Corinthians 9:24-26; 15:32; Galatians 2:2; 5:7; Philippians 2:16; 3:14; II Timothy 4:7; Hebrews 12:1, 2). In his allusion to the runner we see him in a race and his determination to win the prize. The believer having finished his course in victory would be rewarded from the hands of “the righteous Judge.” At death the race is over. The crown of victory is salvation.

I leave with the thought of the fighter or boxer since, in a way, living life to its meaningful end will be the fight of our lives as I said in the beginning.

1 Corinthians 9:24-27 Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one receives the prize? So run that you may obtain it. Every athlete exercises self-control in all things. They do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable. So I do not run aimlessly; I do not box as one beating the air. But I discipline my body and keep it under control, lest after preaching to others I myself should be disqualified.

Paul clearly says, “I do not box as one beating the air.” A spiritual boxer would not just be punching at empty air. Paul and we as believers would be dealing with antagonistic powers that are likely wiser and more clever than we are. Paul is essentially issuing a warning not to swing wildly and miss with our blows if we need to fight or defend against the unseen forces in this world under the sway of evil. Under God, every blow can and will land against our adversary. They will need to. Our adversary seeks to destroy us. 

Interestingly, when first introduced, boxing was practiced with the hands naked and unguarded but in time the hands were wrapped with thongs of leather. Eventually the Greeks in the time of Paul extended the thong wraps to the elbow or even shoulder. The part near the fist would be filled with metal adding to the force of the blow like weighted brass knuckles. To bear these type of blows inflicted on the body meant a boxer had to be fat or well muscled and hardy. If the blow connected with the adversary squarely…it could knock out the opponent or even kill them. 

Paul is clearly asserting that our blows, if they be necessary against our foe need to connect and incapacitate or end that which we strike. If we swing wildly and miss we leave ourselves open to counterstrikes we cannot fend off. Aim small miss small. Our salvation isn’t a game. Punch with the weight of the cross behind you and lean into it. Death will eventually overtake us but like Christ's victory over death we'll come out the other side swinging.

A Trained Professional III: In His Image

Nowhere in Scripture is there a mention of an artist painting in the style of Rembrandt or Picasso. The act of painting of portraits are not mentioned as we understand them today. No one that worked with paints per se are specifically called out. It is clear from looking at archeological evidences in the form or paintings, etchings and bas-reliefs that there were indeed artists and people proficient with art. Interestingly though we see a few passages in the Bible that provide us with evidence that these things were done. As with faith and even the Spirit of God….we cannot see it but it still existed. Just because one doesn’t see something doesn’t mean it didn’t exist. That would be a fallacy. Jeremiah and Ezekiel are two places we see evidence.

Jeremiah 22:14 “…who says, ‘I will build myself a great house with spacious upper rooms,’ who cuts out windows for it, paneling it with cedar and painting it with vermilion.

Ezekiel 23:14 But she carried her whoring further. She saw men portrayed on the wall, the images of the Chaldeans portrayed in vermilion…

The use of vermilion in ancient time required immense skill including gathering the raw materials to make it and then utilize it in painting. Vermilion is a brilliant red or scarlet pigment, originally made from the powdered mineral cinnabar. It was widely used in the art and decoration of Ancient Rome, in the illuminated manuscripts of the Middle Ages, in the paintings of the Renaissance. It was also dangerous as it is a mercury compound. Most that used it ended up dead young. Cinnabar pigment was a side-product of the mining of mercury, and mining cinnabar was difficult, expensive and dangerous, because of the toxicity of mercury. A slave relegated to the mining of mercury and byproducts as a virtual death sentence.

There are in fact exactly two references to literal pictures in the Bible. The Bible is replete with mention of sculptures or idols though. I will avoid the discussion of idols here in lieu of painting and engraving/etching.

Numbers 33:52 ….then you shall drive out all the inhabitants of the land from before you and destroy all their figured stones and destroy all their metal images and demolish all their high places.

The mention of figured stones מַשְׂכִּיֹּתָ֑ם is an obvious reference to idols and/or carved statues signifying the same which were likely carved in stone or ivory. In the same breath we see metal images צַלְמֵ֤י מַסֵּֽכֹתָם֙ mentioned too. Properly understood in Hebrew it was actually molded metal images. Images carved out of a metal surface or bas-reliefs of false gods most likely. There is then the wise word from Solomon in Proverbs 25.

Proverbs 25:11 A word fitly spoken is like apples of gold in a setting of silver.

A setting of silver should probably be better understood as ‘in pictures of silver’ as the Hebrew word for setting here meant picture. Why pictures of gold apples in silver? The word pictures in Hebrew also meant setting as shown in this English Standard Version verse. What setting? The setting was likely an engraved bowl or basket as was common in ancient times and today. Where else do you put apples? I personally would put them in a basket or bowl of course. The one mentioned here would’ve likely been ornate or artistic.

A quick perusal of Egyptian archeology also reveals a great deal about their ability to paint and use pigments. Undisturbed tombs have been found covered in frescoes and sketches giving rather complete portraits of Egyptian life with extraordinary accuracy. There has been pottery unearthed all over the Middle Eastern area testify to the artistic ability of the ancients with brushes. They show scenes, people, plants, animals and so on. Sadly, because some of the fine arts became the vehicle of idolatry, God condemned and put restrictions on representation of objects of heaven and earth. Of course these were restrictions aimed at his recalcitrant covenant people who had repeatedly strayed form Him chasing these exact idols.

Exodus 20:4 You shall not make for yourself an image in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below.

Deuteronomy 5:8-9 You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is on the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. You shall not bow down to them or serve them; for I the Lord your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me…”

Ironically, there have been enormous sums of money paid for artistic masterpieces nowadays that wouldn’t have gotten second glances a century or two ago. So, in reality there is still truth to God’s restrictions to the images and representations of things on heaven and earth. In paying these enormous sums we see that those who would fork over this money do often value the creation over the creator. The artist often dies in poverty and obscurity. The creation bought for a paltry sum then sells for a king’s ransom or the cost of a kingdom. Not unlike Judas selling something priceless like his salvation for 30 of pieces of silver and yet, completely missing the awe-inspiring beauty of the Creator because they are being blinded by simple material earthly gain.

The very same Creator that Judas betrayed who can only be mimicked. A divine Creator-Artist in Whose sunsets cannot be rivaled by human hands in color palette or paint. A Creator Whose sunset colors can barely be reproduced on a canvas because His colors are painted on the sky itself. Where is the human Rembrandt that can possibly match the glory of even the blue sky and the pure white of the clouds that declare the glory of God?

Psalm 50:2 Out of Zion, the perfection of beauty, God shines forth.

For in fact, we ourselves, the human artists are in reality the art of the Creator-Artist. We are the pinnacle of His creation. In creating us he created self-aware beings who themselves can contemplate God and seek to emulate him in his beauty through their words, paintbrushes or other medium. We are made in his image. We are fearfully and wonderfully made.

Ephesians 2:10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.

Genesis 1:27 So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.

Psalm 139:14 I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well.

A Trained Professional II: A Cornerstone the Builders Accepted

Public buildings are the ornaments of a nation. They establish a nation as solid or non-transient. Buildings denote permanency and a visual bedrock of residency that is hard to ignore. They draw people for commerce. In a way, architecture aims at eternality yet still falls short. Early Phoenicians, Egyptians, Greeks and Romans could be identified by the architecture and some of their artifices, temples and buildings exist until today. The fact that they still stand is a testament to the skills of the ancient architectural builders. In truth some architecture is copied by modern builders.

There are Biblical references to palaces, temples, houses, fortifications and tombs. Many structures have been uncovered in modern times in places the Bible said they would be reaffirming and validating the accuracy and veracity of the bible. The Bible was so accurate that 20th century archeologist William F. Albright who wrote many books on the topic was noted as having stated that…

"Discovery after discovery has established the accuracy of innumerable details of the Bible as a source of history." ~W. F. Albright, The Archaeology of Palestine, 1954 edition, p. 128

Architecture was so central to some narratives that Herod the Great is shown in the Bible to have prided himself on the buildings he had erected throughout the country that carried his name. This included the restoration and expansion of the Second Temple. King Herod no doubt wanted to be remembered forever as the builder of the greatest temple of the Jews.

Farther back when Solomon had built the original Temple it dominated the landscape. So great was the structure that the Temple became synonymous with grandeur. So much so that when the Second Temple is built it is lamented that it is nothing compared to Solomon's first.

Haggai 2:3 ‘Who is left among you who saw this temple in its former glory? And how do you see it now? Does it not seem to you like nothing in comparison?

Regardless, it was clear in the Temple at least that the men that built it had an eye on permanence or eternity. God did also but not on the physical building itself. The irony is that the architecture God had in mind would be a temple in the flesh and the the spirit flesh/body. Man would confuse God’s purpose but the physical stone temple would serve God’s purpose anyway as a shadow of what would come in Christ.

Mark 14:58 “We heard him say, ‘I will destroy this temple made with human hands and in three days will build another, not made with hands.’”

John 2:19 Jesus answered them, “Destroy this temple, and I will raise it again in three days.”

When King David planned to build his palace he sent for Phoenician architects who were clever builders of stone as noted in 2 Samuel.

2 Samuel 5:11-12 Now Hiram king of Tyre sent envoys to David, along with cedar logs and carpenters and stonemasons, and they built a palace for David. Then David knew that the Lord had established him as king over Israel and had exalted his kingdom for the sake of his people Israel.

When Solomon was tasked to build, in all his wisdom, he too turned to the Phoenician architects for the building of his more ambitious palace and temple. He reaches out to Hiram, the Phoenician king of Tyre who supplied Solomon with the supplies and skilled laborers to build both.

1 Kings 5:7 When Hiram heard Solomon’s message, he was greatly pleased and said, “Praise be to the Lord today, for he has given David a wise son to rule over this great nation.” So Hiram sent word to Solomon: “I have received the message you sent me and will do all you want in providing the cedar and juniper logs. My men will haul them down from Lebanon to the Mediterranean Sea, and I will float them as rafts by sea to the place you specify. There I will separate them and you can take them away. And you are to grant my wish by providing food for my royal household.”

When we move to the New Testament we see Paul comparing himself to a builder also. He builds via God’s grace. Here we see him point to Jesus Christ rather than himself. He is merely a stone built upon the Cornerstone that is Christ and he acknowledges as much.

1 Corinthians 3:11“...I laid a foundation as a wise builder, and someone else is building on it. But each one should build with care. For no one can lay any foundation other than the one already laid, which is Jesus Christ.

1 Corinthians 3:16-17 Don't you know that you yourselves are God's temple and that God's Spirit dwells in your midst? If anyone destroys God's temple, God will destroy that person; for God's temple is sacred, and you together are that temple.

Moving forward we see The Great Architect in Hebrews. It tells us that the patriarch Abraham looked for a city whose builder and maker was God.  The word for builder in Hebrews 11:10 is τεχνίτης/technites means more than just a architect or craftsman. It is an artificer who also created the blueprint and laid the ground plan. Not just for the Temple of Solomon’s time but of the Kingdom of Heaven and all of reality. The word builder is also used or δημιουργος/demiourgos. Its proper meaning, the word builder here is the ‘one whose works stand forth to the public gaze’.

Hebrews 11:8-10 By faith Abraham, when called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going. By faith he made his home in the Promised Land like a stranger in a foreign country; he lived in tents, as did Isaac and Jacob, who were heirs with him of the same promise. For he was looking forward to the city with foundations, whose architect and builder is God.

When the words are used together there is an idea that not only do these things get built by God but they are at first divine intention before the divine realization of the same. The fact that the writer of Hebrews chooses to use the word δημιουργος/demiourgos means he is striving to use a word that is so finally crafted for the purpose of illustration that the author himself is an artificer of words about the artificer of all of reality. The one that inspires that text is the very same one that builds the Temple and the Kingdom of Heaven. The One that the texts go into explicit holy detail about. The detailer of the text is the also the detail of the architecture of heaven and earth, the Maker and Sustainer of all things...including we as humans.

Hebrews 1:1-3 In the past God spoke to our ancestors through the prophets at many times and in various ways, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, and through whom also he made the universe. The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word. After he had provided purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty in heaven.

In truth, we must never forget that Jesus is the Cornerstone for the believer and the Kingdom of Heaven. In him we are to be aligned. We are all the bricks that the Kingdom is constructed of. You and I, one upon another in perfect harmony and in like mindedness of Jesus Christ being both their underlying cornerstone and overall archetype of us all as new creations. 

The cornerstone being the main stone of an architectural structure upon which all other stones are straightened and made plumb.

Ephesians 2:19-22 Now, therefore, you are no longer strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief cornerstone, in whom the whole building, being fitted together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord, in whom you also are being built together for a dwelling place of God in the Spirit.

A Trained Professional I: All The World’s A Stage

This will be the first post of many in a new series. It will be on occupations and what the Scripture says about those trades and vocations. When I say jobs I mean employment, work or a person's productive role in society as a whole. They may be things done or performed in exchange for payment or some form of monetary compensation. Sometimes not. Usually they are skilled at what they do...sometimes not. These posts will abbreviated, not comprehensive. I am trying to do them in alphabetical order. First on deck is an Actor…

All the world’s a stage;

And all the men and women merely players;

They have their exits and their entrances;

And one man in his time plays many parts.

William Shakespeare

It is unusual I suppose to find that some of the harshest criticism Jesus levels on anyone is reserved for the Pharisees. He essentially called them actors. Well, not exactly. In reality he called them hypocrites. Hypocrites ὑποκριτής/hupokrites in the original Greek denoted one who answers; or a stage actor. Why? Greek and then Roman actor's custom was to speak in large masks with mechanical devices for augmenting the volume of their voices. The masks also made the expressions more exaggerated in different roles. For example in tragedies the masks were to seem lifelike since the emotions are very real. The expressions on masks were to solicit emotions from the crowds. The Greek masks also allowed people farther away from the stage to still see the expressions. They helped the actors by allowing them to play different roles and even different genders.

Literally to be a hypocrite was to be one who speaks under a mask or, two-faced. Therefore the mask and its larger voice did not necessarily reflect the personality of the person beneath it or their real unamplified voice. Yet the person under the mask is participating in a dialogue and playing a part that isn’t necessarily who they really are. Fakers or pretenders you would say. In Luke it is a person who fakes virtue and it is this connotation that Jesus uses of the Pharisees.

Luke 20:20 So they watched him and sent spies, who pretended (hypokrinomenous) to be sincere, that they might catch him in something he said, so as to deliver him up to the authority and jurisdiction of the governor.

Hypocrite is a word specifically used of someone playing a part or roll. In places like Mark 7:6 it is literally used to indicate deliberate deception of which the actor themselves may not be aware of.

Mark 7:6 And he said to them, “Well did Isaiah prophesy of you hypocrites, as it is written, “‘This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me…

It is here in this passage of Mark that we see that the hypocrite plays the part of ‘religious/religion’ whether it is intentional or not. That is ironic because it is the Pharisees that should be the most devout but in the context Jesus is speaking they are actors not religious leaders. The Pharisees appeared before men as they ought but to Jesus it was clear they were merely acting. Jesus therefore ‘unmasks’ their duplicity. Their acts of contrition are therefore that much more vile once exposed for what they were. Charlatans.

Matthew 6:16 “And when you fast, do not look gloomy like the hypocrites, for they disfigure their faces that their fasting may be seen by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward.

Matthew 23:27-28 “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs, which outwardly appear beautiful, but within are full of dead people's bones and all uncleanness. So you also outwardly appear righteous to others, but within you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness.

So, in reality, to act means to feign or fake reality. The Bible certainly shows us some really good actors besides the Pharisees also. Take Jacob for instance. He imitated his brother Esau to trick his father into giving his birthright in Genesis 25. In Genesis 42 we see the story of Joseph.

Genesis 42:7 Joseph saw his brothers and recognized them, but he treated them like strangers and spoke roughly to them. “Where do you come from?” he said. They said, “From the land of Canaan, to buy food.”

Then there was David who, while before Achish pretended to be insane in 1 Samuel 21.

If we move to the New Testament we see the greatest deceit in history in the persona of Judas Iscariot. Judas of course did not fool the Lord but everyone else was fooled including Judas himself up to the point where he decided to betray Christ. This deceit is made even more obscene When Judas feigns affection to Christ by kissing him to identify him to the Jewish authorities.

The ultimate irony being that many Christians are still referred to as hypocrites today. Why? Because they are not living according to the standard they are saying. They’re speaking out from under a mask and projecting an image of Christianity that is not real. It is an act. The most recent stories of Ravi Zacharias and Carl Lentz should give us pause. Christianity requires that we live out our faith…not just tell others how to live. We lead and teach through our example. The words need to also be reflected in our actions. Any discontinuity between our words and our actions shows an obvious disconnect. Like a mask apart from our face. That disconnect is either deliberate or not deliberate. If deliberate it is purposeful deception. If inadvertent it is deception in that we are deceiving ourselves in our own ignorance. Ignorance of the law is no excuse they say. These acts of deception are not a reflection of the Spirit that should be abiding in us…rather something else completely. The greatest actors of all: Sin and the demonic.

When it comes to acting purely as a vocation though we see it mentioned indirectly in only one place: Ephesus in Asia Minor. We see a solitary mention of a theater in Ephesus.

Acts 19:29-31 So the city was filled with the confusion, and they rushed together into the theater, dragging with them Gaius and Aristarchus, Macedonians who were Paul's companions in travel. But when Paul wished to go in among the crowd, the disciples would not let him. And even some of the Asiarchs, who were friends of his, sent to him and were urging him not to venture into the theater.

The Greeks and the Romans loved their plays and theater. These ancient theaters were often used for gathering places for things other than acting just as school auditoriums and stages are today. The theater as mentioned in Acts 19 was a semi-circle configuration with seats arranged in tiers one upon another just as today. The stage would’ve been a raised platform (things like props were hidden underneath)…just like real life hides things from our view until God puts them in our vision or our path. The remaining three sides would’ve been walled in. We can see from the Acts 19 passage that they were big enough to contain a ‘crowd’ or ‘mob’ that rushed Paul’s companions.

It is interesting to note that the Greek word for the spectacle of the theater was ὄψις/opsis (same root as optic) and actually meant the spectacle or an event that is memorable for the appearance it creates. Paul knew that Christians were always going to be on display and how we acted and behaved even under duress was going to be part of our message as Christians to the world. We would be scrutinized under a microscope. The world would always be looking at us with a raised eyebrow waiting to lob the verbal grenade of *hypocrite* on our laps to try and discredit us. So, in a way, to a Christian…all of the world is a stage.

1 Corinthians 4:9 "For I think, God has exhibited us, the apostles, last of all as men condemned to death, because we have become a spectacle to the world, both to angels and to mankind."

The thing is though…none of this is an act for a real Christian…it’s the real deal. And those grenades….some of them are meant to wound and destroy. We must always be on our guard and on our best game.

Digital Prostitution

In reality this is a repost from a savage comment I left on a post that I saw on Social Media. Yes, I have been studying prostitution and whores in the Bible recently. I've done so because I've seen so many in the news lately.

Nahum 3:1-5 ~ ....many casualties, piles of dead, bodies without number, people stumbling over the corpses—all because of the wanton lust of a prostitute, alluring, the mistress of sorceries, who enslaved nations by her prostitution and peoples by her witchcraft. “I am against you,” declares the Lord Almighty.

Social media and the Internet in general are kind of like surrogate prostitution and we're all caught in their side hustle. Nahum 3 is referring to Nineveh (of Jonah fame) in this passage. It is a warning to a people that devastation was coming because of wanton immoral behaviors and pursuing sin with no guilt. Nineveh in Assyria had played the prostitute often by luring unsuspecting people to Nineveh and then harming or killing them through violence/sin. How?

The Ninevites were practitioners of sorcery; they appealed to the powers of the world (and beyond) for power to control their destiny and that of their victims instead of turning to the True God. Acknowledging anything as god other than God is to be essentially godless as all other gods are non-god or false gods. It is a violation of the 1st Commandment. Just as today we are a godless society. Sorcery in the Hebrew in this passage is כָּשַׁף/kashaph which can also mean to 'whisper a chant'. Chants or mumblings over and over as pagans did. A repetitive behavior that draws you in over and over...like a scroll bar that continues to feed you data and information. Enticing you. Enchanting you. Pulling you farther away from God. Farther into darkness. Like the Internet. An addiction. Just like a drug...which just happens to be the other implication of the word sorcery. Sorcery translated from Greek is φαρμακεία/pharmakeia which means drugs, particularly mind-altering.  

Mind-numbing ritual.... like the way social media and the internet sucks people in because of their addictive nature. Specifically engineered to keep people engaged (prostituted out). As we can see by recent actions, companies like Facebook, Twitter, Google, etc. are not so much companies anymore but more akin to sovereign nations immune to the rules of the lands that they have invaded (like Assyria) under the guise of capitalism and free trade. Just as the false Gods eventually permeated Israel and Judah. By the time of King Ahaz he had already made up his mind to go to Assyria (2 Kings 16:7-9). This meant that Ahaz and Judah became vassals of Assyria and also subordinated themselves to the gods of Assyria.

Once these false gods are entrenched like a parasite they are impossible to remove because they become symbiotic to host nations. They are a spiritual disorder in a physical kingdom. We are not fighting Assyria, Facebook or physical ideologies as we are fighting a spiritual war.

So since they mostly remain hidden just under the surface few understand the real damage they are causing to the spiritual/intellectual infrastructure of a nation. Assyria, Israel, America….it doesn’t matter. The effect is the same...destruction. So the host nations allow them to continue to feed off of the government (taxpayers) and make deals with them. They in turn are aided by parasitic legacy financial systems (banks) and media organizations (CNN, ABC, PBS, FOX) which in reality are dying due to the new addiction to better technologies that are obsoleting them. All the while your elected politicians prostitute you to these mega-corporations like pimps. Old lecherous systems of money and legacy news. You’re nothing more than a cheap whore for the old systems as the next generation become demeaned by newer digital platforms like Snapchat, TikTok and MeWe.

In the same way Tech Giants become idols and the objects of pagan worship just as the Assyrians were involved in occultism, sexual perversion, and human degradation. Just like the internet allows now. Facebook like other corporations lured people in. Assyria had lured nations, then, with immoral attractions. The same as today. It just comes through a new medium of communication.

These practices both during the reign of Assyria and also now in the Information Age results in the enslavement of many nations and people groups either spiritually, physically or like we see in the Internet or via politically in the left right paradigm...which is done mentally. Assyria, Nineveh (then). Now...Facebook, Google, Twitter have sold us into digital slavery. We're all slaves. The sooner we realize we're addicted whores and the sooner we can break the addiction.

Scientific Inclusio: Only Allowing Their Reality/Narrative

My last post described an older scientific theory that was never actually disproven and after 100 years has turned out to be more-or-less true. The theory though was abandoned because it didn’t fit the current narrative of the time. As knowledge progressed it turned out that the theory is true due to Quantum Theory. It is actually a parallel theory to Einstein’s theories on Light and Relativity. Not contradictory or mutually exclusive but due to quantum phenomena, concurrent reality (sort of like the Way Christian’s view spirituality).

Now I show a scientific theory taught as science in the mid-19^th century (I have a 150-year-old textbook to prove it). A theory that was actually pseudoscience being passed off as true Science due to racist and supremacist interpretation. The infamous pair Phrenology and Physiognomy. In this post I offer further proof that not only is modern science not being honest with all the facts but they are purposely negating or ignoring entire aspects of the human experience to try and keep their flawed narratives intact. They are willfully ignoring things to maintain their myopic and nicely compartmentalized reality. First I will show a scientist/professor self-limiting. 

Please note two specific quotes in this piece from CNN. At about 2:44 minutes in we hear this statement: "Intelligent Design is unscientific." As if the sole defining aspect of reality and truth is the scientific method. The second and more telling comment starts approximately (@ 5:05): "Science is restricted to the material world...and it has been for 900 years...and it works really well that way..." The scientist/professor then goes on to say, "...to propose supernatural explanation just isn't scientific." Really? Here again we see that science is the end all in terms of determining truths. Is it really? How pretentious. How arrogant.

As a whole, without a unified human consensus, modern science has made itself the end all to every discussion when it comes to facts about the world. Thereby it has instituted itself as religion. Is this the same modern science that created Social Darwinism and Phrenology (considered legitimate science 100-150 years ago) which led to the genocides of Nazi Death Camps and measuring of Jewish people's heads with calipers? 

Please consider (below) a page from Samuel Well's book How To Read Character: A New Illustrated Handbook of Phrenology and Physiognomy for Students and Examiners originally penned in 1868 purporting this "science". This publishing is readily available at archive.org at the link I proved below (1).

It compared the difference between 18th century philosopher Immanuel Kant and a "Negro" showing that the philosopher Kant was more advanced in his predetermined criterion solely based on the shape of his head. The criterion? Intellectual Faculties: The Reflective Group. We should be appalled by this today and rightly so. BUT this was considered legitimate "science" 150 years ago. Not only was it stupid, it was downright evil. So what "science" do we hold near and dear to us today that we are willing to stake life or death on because we believe it is true---only to possibly/probably find out in a 100-150 years that it was as bogus as Phrenology? Evolution perhaps? Bad vaccines?

Science being a human creation is in-and-of-itself, flawed because its source of data and observation comes from a flawed being---man. To preclude the use of non-material and the supernatural, you drastically narrow down what you need to explain. This woman and those like her clearly state their criteria for what they will consider in their body of evidences. The scientist/professor clearly states that science restricts its knowledge. This is not educational nor is it truly scientific in its approach. When I say science I mean true science as it was originally intended before the Enlightenment and the anti-God movement that came from it. The newest definition of science is as follows:

"Science is the pursuit of knowledge and understanding of the natural and social world following a systematic methodology based on evidence."

The question remains: “What evidence?” If it is purely natural evidence, then science has restricted themselves to an incomplete body of evidence. This is like trying a case against a murderer of your children without all the evidence and the man eventually walks free. Why would you not use all the evidences? When we as human beings proclaim that only science has the true evidence and we deny Scripture, the metaphysical or theories like that of Aether…we might as well have murdered our children anyway.

True (honest) philosophy of science seeks to understand the nature and justification of scientific knowledge. Since it is difficult to distinguish science from non-science, there are legitimate arguments about the boundaries between science and non-science. This is known as the problem of demarcation. Where does science really begin? According to this woman, science it is purely based in physical and empirical truths. Conversely, true science (the science I believe in) allows natural AND supernatural origins because the original definition of science from as far back as Aristotle was:

"A body of reliable knowledge that can be logically and rationally explained."

Classical antiquity science believed knowledge was closely linked to philosophy. In some cases, “science" continues to be used in a broad sense denoting reliable knowledge about a topic, in the same way it is still used in modern terms such as library science or political science.”

"In modern use, science is often treated as synonymous with ‘natural and physical science’, and thus restricted to those branches of study that relate to the phenomena of the material universe and their laws, sometimes with implied exclusion of pure mathematics. This is now the dominant sense in ordinary use." 

This narrower sense of "science" developed as a part of science became a distinct enterprise of defining "laws of nature", based on early examples such as Kepler's laws, Galileo's laws, and Newton's laws of motion. In this period, it became more common to refer to natural philosophy as "natural science". Over the course of the 19th century, the word "science" became increasingly associated with the disciplined study of the natural world including physics, chemistry, geology and biology alone.

The problem with the scientific community, judicial systems and our educational systems today is that they have now overstepped their bounds and imposed a methodology they feel is the right/correct one. A methodology that is godless to its core. They and their mostly godless brethren have made the decision which is the proper one to teach. They do this KNOWING there are flaws and major irreconcilable gaps in their knowledge. They are now allowing only forms of Methodological Naturalism or science that will not allow for the supernatural or God, into modern thinking. So according to the scientific community itself, differences between natural and supernatural explanations should be made, and that science should be restricted to natural explanations. That means that science should not consider supernatural explanations itself...BUT should not claim them to be wrong either.

Unfortunately, scientists, politicians and educators of this once great country and other countries have done just that. True science by its definition (the old one that was honest in its assessment of all the variables, not the new one that constantly changes definitions and restricts itself) needs to entertain all the possibilities…and modern science is just not doing that. Thereby they have made themselves intellectually arrogant and propped themselves up on pedestals they have no right to be on. These people (scientists) are clearly not being honest, not with us...nor themselves.

(1) https://archive.org/details/howtoreadcharact00welliala 

A Faith of Misfits and A Lineage of Lost Causes

Some of the people in Scripture read like a list of toys on the "Island of Misfit Toys" from Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer. Misfits one and all from a worldly and secular perspective. The rejects of society, the rejects that the godless world doesn't want. I mean...look at what they did to Jesus. Even our Messiah was ostracized by his own people who did not recognize Him as the Son of God. Rejected and sentenced to death by crucifixion in the greatest miscarriage of justice the world has ever known.

We then have people like David standing in for King Moonracer with his dysfunctional family. A rebellious disobedient lot they were. There is Abraham with his faith and faithlessness the equivalent of Hermey the Misfit Elf who lives a double life as a dentist and one of Santa's helpers. And of course we have the Apostle Paul who reminds me of the "Bumble" (abominable snowman) who initially beats the living daylights out of mostly defenseless reindeer and has a thorn in the flesh. Paul who fell off his horse on the road to Damascus and bounced into the annals of Christianity as one of the greats in the Faith. 

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It is through God's eccentric lot that we truly see the glory and the power of God.

It is through God's eccentric lot that we see the earth move and the sky catch fire. I sit amazed after reading the Bible and the stories of the rejects God picks to accomplish the amazing tasks we see in the Bible. He has continued to pick the same type of person when he picked you and I to carry on the Good News. It is the very reason that he picked them (and us) to do His work too. Flawed vessels accomplishing great things in faith by the power of God. The very power that resurrected Christ from the grave.

"For consider your calling, brethren, that there were not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble; but God has chosen the foolish things of the world to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to shame the things which are strong, and the base things of the world and the despised God has chosen, the things that are not, so that He may nullify the things that are, so that no man may boast before God. But by His doing you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification, and redemption, so that, just as it is written, “Let him who boasts, boast in the Lord!” ~1 Corinthians 1:26-31

It was once written by novelist Frederick Buechner that the absolute improbability of the Jewish and then subsequently the Christian faith succeeding based on its followers is astounding. It is exactly this reason though that brings all the glory to our holy God, Jesus Christ.

In what other book besides the Bible would we read the story of the very first pair of people who would violate the only thing forbidden to them? They would eat from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil.

That God would select an old man in the middle of the desert where it had never rained before to build a boat the size of a modern battleship. This same man after having been afloat for months on a foul smelling cramped zoo on an inundated world would immediately proceed to plant a vineyard, hit the bottle and pass out stone cold drunk.

We would see Abraham the father of the nations have his faith accredited to him as righteousness. He would also leave his wife out to dry by basically giving her away to Pharaoh to protect his own skin...Sarah be damned. Very chivalrous [sarcasm intended].

Who could've imagined God would not pick Esau who was generally honest, capable, and a provider over the lying, duplicitous and conniving Jacob who was essentially a snake in the grass?

We see that God would pick the line of Judah for His King Jesus to descend from, the same Judah that had a hand in throwing his brother in a well and then selling him into slavery. The same person that ended up sleeping with his daughter-in-law Tamar who he thought was a prostitute.

Then we have Moses, who was a murderer and was trying to outrun the homicide rap for clobbering a man on the noggin and killing him in Egypt. If it weren't for a twisted sense of honor he'd have also just as soon thrown his brother Aaron under the bus by letting Aaron go back in his stead to take the heat from the Egyptians.

That God would invariably pick David as a King who would become the archetype of every king that would come after him until the advent of Jesus Christ to surpass him. The same David who was a known adulterer, murderer and a polygamist like his son would also be. He was man that really could not keep his house in order because he had been cursed by God for what he had done to Uriah the Hittite. This incident would drive him into exile from his very own kingdom by his own son Absalom. David would also take a census of his military strength and not depend on the Lord in faith which would lead to the death of thousands.

Solomon who would be given the riches of a kingdom and wisdom from God that people would come from other lands to witness. Solomon who couldn't seem to put a clamp on what appeared to be a matrimonial obsessive-compulsive disorder. He also couldn't stop collecting horses, overtaxing his subjects and in the end allowed his nutty pagan wives to put a damper on things by introducing their false Gods and idols into the promised land. Solomon who was a perfect example of how a person can have wisdom but unless it is Godly wisdoma and used correctly...it is worthless.

We see the likes of Rahab whom the Jews well into the New Testament (Hebrews 11:31) viewed as a paragon of faith when she cooperated with the two spies from Shittim sent by Joshua. Rahab who was also a prostitute/harlot who literally lived in a hole in the wall (of Jericho). After the walls fell, her and her family were the only survivors.

...and who could forget all those wild-eyed prophets of God both major and minor? The whole lot of which were probably nuttier than fruitcakes based on outward appearances. They wore camel hair shirts, leather belts, and ate bugs dipped in honey. Crazed disheveled men that screamed at the others often times with spittle flying out of their mouths in the middle of the desert wilderness at everyone and no one in particular.

Of particular note Jonah, the most miserable excuse for a prophet ever seen. Jonah who, other than telling the Ninevites to repent, ended up serving God very little. We learn from Jonah mostly how to serve as a bad example. Jonah, who after having be told to, "Arise, go to Nineveh" gets up and goes...in the opposite direction (180 degrees) towards Tarshish. A prophet that nearly drowns an entire ship of mariners because of his disobedience. A prophet that after telling the Ninevites to repent (and they actually do), gets angry about it because he wants them to be destroyed. Instead of having mercy on them as God has done he still nurses a homicidal rage.

Then we look at God's chosen people. Of all the races He could've chosen to be His nation of priests, he chose the Jews. As somebody once said, "The Jews who are just like everybody else only more so like everybody else." When they were religious, they were more religious than anybody else. When they were piously hypocritical they were so pious and hypocritical that the term for being too pious and hypocritical is to be "pharisaic". A people who apostatized and build idols and worshipped them even before the last of God's commandments had left His mouth and were delivered to them at the foot of Mt. Sinai.

Jump into the New Testament and we have the thick-headed Peter who denies Christ not just once but three times. The same Peter who is the first to confess Jesus' true identity as the Messiah, Son of the living God. Then almost immediately needs to be yelled at when Jesus tells of his coming death. Peter who couldn’t even wait until the boat reached shore. Finally, there is Paul. The great apostle Paul who wrote more books of the Bible that anyone else (13) thirteen, (14) fourteen if we included Hebrews. Paul the expounder of the faith...and a slayer of the brethren. Paul formally known as Saul. Yeah, that Paul, the one who killed Christians prior to conversion.

The list from the Bible continues but in reality you should read it. If we look forward two millennium we now have similar situations in our church. Young idealists decked out in jeans, piercings and tattoos, share the pews with conservative white collar "suits". Teenagers and occasionally spouses tuning out sermons that others are straining to hear from the back of the congregation over top the whine of their children. Recovered and reformed drug addicts preaching from the pulpits. Former criminals, adulterers, miscreants and generally immoral people that have now become paragons of the Faith. Believers gather together methodically and move through a centuries old synchronized dance or worship.

I shake my head in disbelief at the outward incongruities and the absurdity of it all...but this is the way God has made it and this is the way God wants it. God's power is made perfect in our weaknesses. It has been done by his measure and according to His timeline. The idea that all these misfits and rejects could work and fit together defies conventional logic.

"....Holy Father, protect them by the power of your name, the name you gave me, so that they may be one as we are one." John 17:11

This is the only possible way something this diverse and chaotic could possibly work...it is the work of God. Only in Jesus Christ could these cast-offs of society pull this off. It’s nothing they themselves can do. If God could use all these offbeat characters this should give us reassurance that He can certainly use us who are the same. Rejects of the world. A tribe of lost causes. A Faith of Misfit Believers.

Scientific Exclusio: Into Thin Air/Aether

People rely far too much on what Science says is truth/true and never question its outcomes. This is now being brought into a spotlight in lieu of the Covid-19 vaccine that is about to be foisted on a world population. Science is routinely wrong and the next two posts on my blog I will show two examples of Science's failures. First, I will show how something real in Science was abandoned completely at the dawn of the 20th Century and shouldn't have been and in the second I will show how Science created a field of science and put forth theories and 'evidence' that were horribly wrong because it was interpreted through a racist and supremacist viewpoint. First up...

Abandonment/Exclusion of a Scientific Idea

There was once a scientific theory of an unseen substance in the universe that affected the travel of light and effects of gravity but was subsequently disproven…or was it? Aether or Ether, the stuff of Fantasy novels and Steampunk lore. According to science until well into the early 20^th century the aether, æther, aither, or ether and also called quintessence, was the material that supposedly filled the region of the universe above the terrestrial sphere (hencefore referred to as aether). The Greeks believed it was the rarified air αἰθήρ/aither at the mountain tops that the gods of the Greek Pantheon breathed on Mt Olympus in Thessalonica in the clouds. Not the air or ἀέρα· aera/air that humans breathed at ground level as noted in 1 Thessalonians 4:17. Originally the concept of aether was used in several theories in science to explain several natural phenomena. In particular, the traveling or transference of light and of the effects of gravity. In the late 19th century, physicists postulated that aether permeated all throughout space, providing a medium through which light could travel in a vacuum, but evidence for the presence of such a medium was not found in the Michelson–Morley experiment, and this result has been interpreted as meaning that no such luminiferous aether exists. Please note that ‘it was interpreted as not existing’. It was believed to be imaginary. That is to say that there was no evidence to prove it didn’t either. Logically, you cannot prove a negative. So…the idea was never actually disproved. It was abandoned just. Why?

The belief in aether persisted until approximately 1905 to 1915. What happened in that ten-year timeframe? Einstein happened. The ether wasn't proved imaginary, it proved inconvenient. Like the Bible it was viewed as not necessarily incorrect but rather irrelevant. Einstein banished the aether by postulate (not by experiment) in his famous 1905 Special Relativity paper and resurrected a form of the ether in his 1915 General Relative paper. Just as Marx did to the Bible in politics/economics and Darwin did in biology and the origins of life. Conversely, the Michelson-Morley Experiment in 1887 (and similar experiments after it) proved nothing of the sort. Einstein himself stated explicitly that if the results of Dayton Miller's interferometer experiments (1904) were true (concerning the ether) his Relativity Theories were false. Dayton Miller’s test results were viewed as a statistical anomaly and disregarded but Sagnac's and the Michelson-Gale experiment (1925) proved conclusively against Einstein with regard to the objective existence of an ether----these were ignored or explained away and ignored as Einstein’s theories had been embraced and subsequently promulgated by those of influence in Science...much to the chagrin of modern Quantum theorists in 2020. Quantum Theorists have now accepted that "space" is not ‘nothing’ or pure vacuum but consists of a sea-foam of Planck sized particles---contradicting Einstein's claims about the ether.

Yet science in its all-knowing wisdom forged ahead with its alternate explanation from Albert Einstein and forsook the theories and ideas of aether altogether. As if it had never existed at all. The entirety of scientific thought wrapped around the concept of the aether were expunged from scientific historical record and now only exists in the limbo of irrelevance and novelty in the realm of pseudoscience and anti-vaccination folks. Its kind of the same place they try to jam the Bible too. A land of myth, fable or folklore. Neither real nor not real. It as if it disappeared into the air/aether.

Moral of Story: By accepting without question what has been indoctrinated is dangerous if one fails to find the real truth(s). The real fact(s). We as a people need to develop more skepticism after being misled by Science so many times. Question the answers. Science isn’t infallible. Science is not a god. Science is in-fact very fallible. Why? Because Science is the religion of man. It is therefore capricious and flawed just as men. Religions are manmade things. Fool me once shame on you, fool me twice shame on me. But God is still God. If he is truly omniscient and omnipotent, He is therefore wholly other and wholly perfect. Infallible. Unchanging.

https://archive.org/details/luminiferousthe00woodgoog

https://archive.org/details/aethermatterdeve00larmuoft