The Course of Empire

Portrait of Thomas Cole

1838

Oil on Canvas

Berkshire Museum, Pittsfield, MA.

Okay folks, time for a history and art lesson.

These are the Course of Empire Paintings by Thomas Cole painted between 1835 to 1836. They are done just prior to the American Civil War. The series of paintings depicts the growth and fall of a city (thereby a civilization). The valley is distinctly identifiable in each of the paintings, in part because of an unusual landmark: A large boulder is situated atop a crag overlooking the valley. It is believed this is meant to contrast the immutability of the God and the His creation the Earth with the transience of man and empire. The series comprises the following works:

i. The Savage State
ii. The Arcadian or Pastoral State
iii. The Consummation of Empire
iv. Destruction
v. Desolation

Look closely at the 4th painting: Destruction. It is reflective of the United States in 2020. One would be wise to be cautious of the omens it portends. The beheaded statues. The burning buildings. The riots. This isn't just art. It is history. The five phases of empire. The rise and inexorable fall of empires. They all fall. The United States will be no different. It should alarm us all that we are in the latter stages of image 4. Destruction.

A direct source of literary inspiration for The Course of Empire paintings is Byron's Childe Harold's Pilgrimage (1812–18). Cole quoted lines from Canto IV in his newspaper advertisements for the series:

"First Freedom, and then Glory – when that fails, wealth, vice, corruption..."

i. The Savage State

The first painting, The Savage State, shows the valley from the shore opposite the crag, in the dim light of a dawning stormy day. Clouds and mist shroud the distant landscape, hinting at the uncertain future. A hunter clad in skins hastens through the wilderness, pursuing a fleeing deer; canoes paddle up the river; on the far shore can be seen a clearing with a cluster of tipis around a fire, the nucleus of the city that is to be. This painting depicts the ideal state of the natural world. It is a healthy world, unchanged by humanity.

ii. The Arcadian or Pastoral State

In the second painting, The Arcadian or Pastoral State, the sky has cleared and we are in the fresh morning of a summer day. The viewpoint shifted further down the river, as the crag with the boulder is now on the left-hand side of the painting; a forked peak can be seen in the distance beyond it. Much of the wilderness has given way to settled, plowed fields visible. There is activity…plowing, boat-building, herding sheep, dancing; in the foreground, an old man sketches the ground with a stick. On a bluff a temple has been built and smoke presumably from sacrifices arises from it. Thereby culture, societal moral structure (law) is evident. The images reflect an idealized, pre-urban ancient city. There is a armed soldier in the foreground appearing out of the shrubs. In this work shows humanity at peace with the land. The environment has been altered, but not so much so that it or its inhabitants are in danger. Yet the construction of the warship and the concerned mother watching as her child sketches a soldier, herald the emerging imperialism.

iii. The Consummation of Empire

The third painting, The Consummation of Empire, shifts the viewpoint to the opposite shore, approximately the site of the clearing in the first painting. It is noon of a glorious summer day. Both sides of the river valley are now covered in colonnaded marble structures, whose steps run down into the water. The megalithic temple seems to have been transformed into a huge domed structure dominating the river-bank. The mouth of the river is guarded by two pharoi, and ships with lateen sails go out to the sea beyond. A joyous crowd gathers on the balconies and terraces as a scarlet-robed king or victorious general crosses a bridge connecting the two sides of the river in a triumphant procession. In the foreground, an elaborate fountain gushes forth water. The look of the painting suggests the height of civilization. The decadence seen in every detail of this cityscape foreshadows the inevitable fall of this mighty civilization.

iv. Destruction

The fourth painting, Destruction, has almost the same perspective as the third, though the artist has stepped back and moved almost to the center of the river. The action is the destruction of the city, in the course of a tempest seen in the distance. It seems that a fleet of enemy has overthrown the city's defenses, sailed up the river, and is busy ransacking the city and killing its inhabitants and raping women. The bridge across which the triumphant procession had crossed is broken; a makeshift crossing strains under the weight of soldiers and refugees. Columns are broken, and fire breaks from the upper floors of a palace on the river bank. In the foreground a statue of some venerable hero (posed as a Borghese Gladiator) stands headless, still striding forward into the doomed future. In the waning light of late afternoon, the dead lie where they fell, in fountains and atop the monuments built to celebrate the affluence of the now falling civilization. The scene is perhaps suggested by the Vandal sack of Rome in 455. Vandals from which we get the word vandalism. Ironically, in the lower right of "The Consummation of Empire" shows two children, perhaps brothers, fighting, they are different colors—the banners of the two contending forces in "Destruction," likely depict an internal war…a civil war. The children, now men, are shown, with one having finally prevailed over the other but seemingly in contemplation of the heavy price paid. Death, destruction and the fall of empire.

v. Desolation

The fifth painting, Desolation, shows the results decades later. We view the remains of the city in the livid light of a dying day. The landscape has begun to return to wilderness and no humans are to be seen; but the remnants of their architecture emerge from beneath a mantle of trees, ivy, and other overgrowth. The broken stumps of the pharoi loom in the background. The arches of the shattered bridge and the columns of the temple are still visible; a single column looms in the foreground, now a nesting place for birds. The sunrise of the first painting is mirrored here by a moonrise, a pale light reflecting in the ruin-choked river while the standing pillar reflects the last rays of sunset. This gloomy picture suggests how all empires fall. It is the constant harsh future in which humanity has been destroyed by its own hand.

Devil In The Darkness: Don't Believe Just Your Eyes

I admit that I’ve struggled a lot with what I’ve seen in the Church or what refers to itself as the Church. Like many outside the faith I see the hypocrisy more intimately than they do because I have been in it. I understand people are flawed and by default the church as a body is also. I believe this is because we all swing wide of Christ and miss the mark. It’s sin. To justify the error in behavior is not what we were called to do. We are called to address it. Remove it from our lives. So, when I am attacked for posting what to me is an OBVIOUS flaw in the body of Christ...you’ll understand my incredulity. 

As is my nature, I address it. I think critically about it. I reason though it based on logic and Scripture. Just as Paul did at the Areopagus (Mars Hill) in Acts 17:2. I arrive at conclusions and then I explain myself in writing. I write it because if there is an error in my thinking it helps me quickly zero in on that error. Nothing jumps out quite like an obvious mistake in writing. I wish more would do it instead of spouting off uncritical thoughts and stupidity in and out of my faith. I believe this is a HUGE reason why society is where it is at right now.

So last week I made a comment about Christian being inordinately affected by Pareidolia. Often not in a good way either. I stand by my comment. In layman’s terms Pareidolia is essentially seeing images in inanimate objects. Particularly religious imagery. Jesus, Satan, Mary, Elvis, etc. It is used as a Get-Out-Of-Jail free card to bad behavior or even a justification for sin. What’s worse is that they impose images of Christ in everything from toast to tree knots. It is more an issue of a lack of faith than a reaffirmation of it. Hebrews 11:1 says faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see. Not the other way around. Seeing Jesus in every physical object is more a crutch than a belief. 

God gave is His word and the Creation itself is enough evidence in the things created complexity and beauty to bare witness to His existence. We needn’t see Jesus’ face in burnt toast. On the flip side some see the working of the Devil in all of their bad behavior thereby making it not their fault. That is called blame-shifting. What’s worse is you shifting it to a perceived encroachment of evil in everything. Sorry folks. That’s nonsense. One, the Devil isn’t omnipresent and cannot be all places at once. Nor can his foot soldiers. Assuming you’re being plagued by Satan at every turn is pure hubris and arrogance. You’re not that important to warrant that type of attention. No, more than likely 99% of the time the ills that plague you are the product of your own sin and stupidity. Sometimes folks….you just need to own you own junk.

The author C. S. Lewis once said that the principal reason he believed people did this is because people are wired to believe it and impose that religiosity though process on other things. The imagery isn’t necessarily on the object but merely the projection from the believer’s mind. Religious people that want to have a crutch an don’t hold themselves responsible for their own behavior will create complex denial and then project on to it. The Devil hiding in the shadows. In reality it is most often the sin in the believer. Thereby inferring mental phenomena into physical and then looking for reassurances for what they see by getting others to see the same thing. Thereby justifying in their minds that the sin or wrongs are not their fault. In short, they claim sin of omission when in reality it is quite literally sin of commission. They are just deceiving themselves. Looking for external validation for the denial they are practicing mentally.

Instead of relying on just themselves and their own mental capacity they should be reasoning from Scripture too. To avoid this obvious pitfall in human nature C.S. Lewis chose to do the very thing I told you I do in the first paragraph. I reason with logic WITH SCRIPTURE. Scripture being the touchstone or cornerstone that allows me to make sure my thinking is straight and aligned. I wish others would do the same but the evidences I’ve seen inside and outside the church point me to the opposite conclusion.

So invariably I believe people choosing to practice Pareidolia and rely on it as guide to learning about the world absent of Scripture are in pure error and deceiving themselves. Instead regarding these ‘divine’ images as signs around every corner of God or Satan working in your life would probably be better off reading the Scripture and seeing where they fit into that Image. To see how close they conform to that. See if we conform to His image. Seek God’s image via the truth of Scripture, not in toast. Are all religious images in nature projections of our mind? Not all, but most likely are.

What does Scripture say?

End of An Empire: A Kingdom Divided Cannot Stand

I’ve been told I tend to be negative. I disagree. I am frank and honest. At times cutting and sarcastic. I demand more of people. Especially intellectually. What I hate and will not do is walk away without having reasoned though an idea logically or at least thought critically on something in as unbiased a way as possible. 

I don’t care that we don’t agree on something. I care that we fight having not understood.

I care that you haven’t thought thoroughly through the problem. I care if you are only acting on impulse, emotion, ignorance or all three. Lately I’ve actually been quite positive in light of all the uncertainty in the country. I am trying to dispel deception which leads to death(s).

We have weak politicians and they are sorely misguided. I believe most of this is because (1) We abandoned God, therefore a moral absolute and (2) We replaced Him and enshrined knowledge, scientific method and relative truths devoid of God. I’ve written about this often. Sadly, many politicians spend most of their time, money and efforts trying to undo each other and destroy one another’s lives to get re-elected. Rarely are they interested in fixing problems in their electoral districts. I believe all parties wish to keep hot-button issues in play because it keeps the Us vs. Them mentality in play. Racism, abortion, guns, sexuality, gender, etc. Thereby, they keep the polemic in play that keeps them in office. Instead of being unified we're literally in a constant state of internal war. We’ve empowered politicians and they have become worthless, race-baiting, immoral beasts. Because they are egocentric self-aggrandizing narcissists the issues remain like fixing race issues/providing equal justice to all as we have seen this week. Instead we get slanderous insults and political epithets flung like rhetorical grenades. We get George Floyd and the aftermath. We also get the ensuing protests that get hijacked by rioters and looters. Ever so slowly we decent deeper into chaos. Turning our back on light we run deeper into encroaching darkness. The waning twilight of empire.

All of that to say the following...which I've said multiple times before.

This is our own fault via our voted officials. The fall of empire is nearly always preceded by three key factors in Scripture and secular history. All of which you are currently seeing in play in society.

The empire incurs massive debts because of overspending on grandiose megalomaniac dreams. Currency becomes inflated/hyper-inflated and the base currencies become horribly devalued. People that normally would’ve been well-off begin to drift towards poverty. A lien is put against future earnings because that's what debt does to a nation. The empire's constituents by-and-large become enslaved to debt or indentured to said debt. The empire spends next year's money on things today and the cycle continues forward unabated. The gap between income and debt widens. The gap between rich and poor is insurmountable. Simultaneously, a political and fiscal aristocracy begins to rise. Not because of moral superiority but by chance and/or birthright. This then bleeds to the second factor.

The military and/or those within it, because they are becoming compensated less and worked harder, begin to either have divided loyalties or the military itself begins to draw on outside sources for defense internally and externally. When this begins to happen the resources begin to become stretched. Sovereign lines or borders of defense become overreaching. Combined with the fact that internal loyalties become dubious the borders of sovereignty become porous because they are so stretched and weakened. We literally begin to let the enemy right into our defensive ranks like a Trojan horse. The empire then becomes easy prey for predators because their attention is directed inward towards chaos and moral rot within. They are blind to the wolves/armies circling their camps, cities or empires. For Israel it was the Assyrians. For Judah it was the Babylonians. For Rome it was the barbarian hordes. In the end Rome even made alliances with the barbarians to protect their overstretched porous borders...but those barbarians had loyalties elsewhere. When the city of Rome fell, Jerome was known to have stated: 

"The city which had taken the whole world was itself taken."

The third is immorality. The nation falls into an anarchic immorality. It becomes self-absorbed, narcissistic and egocentric. Not anarchy in the purest sense but an immorality where people can no long think clearly. They're incapable of thinking morally because their minds are seared by corruption. We become sexually depraved. Things once thought too far beyond the pale become commonplace. Pretty much a nation of people where 'anything goes'. Because the citizens of that nation no longer apply themselves to a single form of order, law or morality…everyone begins to have their own. Right and wrong become a relative concept. Literally…anything goes. Order therefore begins to dissolve and chaos ensues. Anarchy. Compound this with no one to loyally defend the nations sovereignty and populous falling into poverty...the end will come quick.  

A kingdom divided cannot stand.

It happened to Rome. It happened to Greece, it happened to Israel and then Judah in the Old Testament. At some point we drift over the line of no return into oblivion and disappear from history. I fear we are at that chasm now and we are peering into the abyss for American Empire. If you don't think this could happen to the United States you do not understand history and you do not understand the inherent depravity of mankind. We may not get this chance again. The barbarians are at the gates and some have even gotten in through the cracks in the walls.

God's Going To Cut You Down

Veteran in A New Field

1865

Winslow Homer

Oil on canvas

Yes, the title of this post is ominous and foreboding but the post itself will be the greatest pick-me-up you'll ever read in this life. 

The 'experts' are saying peak mortality or death of COVID-19 will be on Easter. At least for places like New York and New Jersey. The places hardest hit early on. There will be more bad news later but not of the magnitude we are now seeing. The day that we commemorate Christ’s Resurrection from the dead. This is just too ironic to be accident.

Paul, in 1 Corinthians, implies Jesus died on a 14 Nisan "sacrificed as a Passover lamb".

1 Corinthians 5:7 Cleanse out the old leaven that you may be a new lump, as you really are unleavened. For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed.

He was resurrected on the Jewish festival of the first fruits, on a 16 Nisan.

1 Corinthians 15:20 But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep.

He was buried before sunset in accordance with the Scriptures and rose again the morning of the third day. Exactly as it had been planned by God. God had a schedule to keep and in keeping that schedule he showed the exacting perfectness of His well-timed plan. He did things exactly how and when He said he would. In this we see that God can be trusted to do all that he promised...including resurrecting us to new life if we only believe that he can and will.

In Feast of First Fruits the Hebrews via a Priest were to bring the first sheaves of the barley harvest and wave them before the Lord.

Leviticus 23:10-12 “…When you come into the land that I give you and reap its harvest, you shall bring the sheaf of the first fruits of your harvest to the priest, and he shall wave the sheaf before the Lord, so that you may be accepted. On the day after the Sabbath the priest shall wave it. And on the day when you wave the sheaf, you shall offer a male lamb a year old without blemish as a burnt offering to the Lord.

At the beginning of the day representative leaders of the people would cut the best barley sheaves that had been set aside specifically for this purpose and bring them to the priest. The priest would then present them to the Lord by waving them back and forth. The purpose of this was to consecrate the harvest to the Lord. 

The first fruits were representative of the entire harvest. This act reminded Hebrews that the land and all its harvest rightfully belonged to God. The people are just stewarding the land. They were also to sacrifice seven lamb without blemish. The offering is also to be presented with bread and wine.

As I said, Jesus fulfilled this feast when He became the first fruits resurrected from the dead. His beginning marked the beginning of the harvest of souls who have been set apart for God through the Jesus Christ even up until today. So to, it is not accidental that barley sheaf contains many stalks of barley bundled together. The Lord offered up Himself with others that day. The bodies of many of the saints also resurrected

Matthew 27:52-53 “The tombs also were opened. And many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised, and coming out of the tombs after his resurrection they went into the holy city and appeared to many.”

Jesus was the human sheaf that God had set apart for the purpose of conquering death and providing eternal life for all those that acknowledge Him as savior. This includes those that believed before and after he came because it is by faith that man is saved to eternal life. (Hebrew 11:1-3 & 6)

In fulfilling the Feast of Passover Christ was crucified on the fourteenth day of Nisan. To fulfill the Feast of Unleavened Bread Christ was buried on the fifteenth day of Nisan. On the Sabbath Jesus rested in the tomb. On the sixteenth day of Nisan (Sunday) Jesus Rose from the dead fulfilling the entirety of the Feast of First Fruits.

Jesus then ascended to the Father as a presentation of First Fruit to the Father in Heaven so that the rest of the harvest would be acceptable in the eyes of the Father (believers). A great high priest offering the First Fruits on the exact day that they would’ve been waved wheat in front of the Lord at the throne of the Almighty.

This is clearly a message from God. The fact that we would begin the turnaround to recovery and living again on Easter is nothing short of paradoxical. You're naive and blind if you cannot see the correlation. This recovery of course will, in the long run be temporary because we all will meet our demise from some other form of disease or event later. What COVID-19 has revealed isn’t so much a cure or release from disease and death now. Instead, it is pointing us to something we need now that will have ramifications rippling down through eternity for us. It is pointing us to the death, burial of one individual in particular. The One who also rose the third day fulfilling all the Feasts of Israel. He fulfilled the Israelite prophecies also. These deaths all point to the only life that matters in the long game. Christ’s.

God will cut us all down. But we will all be raised in Him if we wish. We need only believe. We cannot live forever without first being cut down from this life/field and regrowing in a new one. We will assuredly be lifted to life in that new field in the end. Happy Easter folks. Yes. Easter is about dying. More importantly is about being Resurrected...and not just Jesus' Resurrection, but ours also. Death doesn't get the final say anymore. A new day is coming.

John 12:24 Truly, truly, I tell you, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a seed; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.

[Addendum: It is interesting to note the painting was done immediately following a war that decimated the male population of America and many of its citizens. A war that left hundreds of thousands cut down like grain in a field. The painting is of a solitary Union soldier cutting down wheat. His scythe evokes the Reaper, recalling the war’s harvest of death and expressing grief. A discarded military canteen in the foreground. A symbol of leaving behind the pointless death of war while gathering new life in the form of sustenance. In redemptive fashion is the bountiful wheat. Referring to death and life, the painting offers a powerful meditation on America’s sacrifices and its potential for rebirth. Just like Christ’s. The original now paradoxically resides in the Metropolitan Museum of Art...right in the middle of New York City which is about to have its peak death toll.]

The Lord Gives and The Lord Takes Away

There has been a lot of negative things to write about amidst all the sickness and dying. I offer in this post some balance to it all. A light at the end of the tunnel. Thee light at the end of it all. A temporary glance at the much larger narrative.

יהוה נתן ויהוה לקח יהי

…the Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away… Job 1:21

This famous quotation from the Book of Job effectively summarizes any concept of healthcare that ancient Israel might have had. God both dispenses and alleviates disease, as having been essential to the development of any interrelationship between God, His believers and healthcare. There is one God the source of all goodness and health, but also of all sickness and imperfection of body and mind.  It is all, good and bad, beholden to the Sovereign will of God. Such concepts force believers to deal with the fact that not only does God allow wellness and wholeness but also being unwell and incomplete which are sometimes the product of one’s own sin or consequences of one's decisions...and sometimes not.

This is not to say though that if God alone dispenses and heals all diseases; there is no need for nurses, physicians or perhaps even priests to practice medicine. In fact, it’s just the opposite. It very well may be that God puts the physician, the nurse or the priest directly into a person’s life and works through those people. At times disease and injury literally forces community out of need. In this way a nurse or physician acts as a priest and a priest acts as a nurse or physician out of necessity. Sickness forces interaction out of compassion and need. It initiates interaction not only with people but solicits thoughts of God. God draws nearer. When you are weak, God is strong. When you mourn, He will alleviate the pain...

Matthew 5:3-12 ~ Jesus said:

“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

“Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.

“Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.

“Blessed are those who hunger, thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.

“Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy.

“Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.

“Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God.

“Blessed are those persecuted for righteousness' sake, theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

“Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.

A physician or nurse that seeks to heal a patient cannot ignore the spiritual aspect of a person's wholeness and well-being and expect a complete recovery. Likewise a priest cannot ignore the physical aspects of humanity such as pain and expect a believer to be fully spiritually whole. When one lacks or suffers...so does the other. In between both...is God. The mediator not only between men but between the physical and spiritual in the self.

Additionally, it is unlikely that the Levitical purity laws and rituals presented in the Hebrew Bible were devised and formulated to operate in a wholly Jewish and Christian society. It appears the blessing of health and wholeness was available to all that would believe and obey God’s statutes and laws in the Bible. The offer, like Christ’s sacrifice on the Cross was offered to all that would come to a saving faith in the promises of God. As a matter of fact, those that appear to have abundant blessings in their lives as unbelievers are the beneficiaries of common grace.

Whatever conclusions we draw about the relationships between healthcare and the Levitical purity laws in the end really point in one direction. To Christ. All of the Laws point to restoration of a specific order laid out by God prior to the Fall of Genesis 3. The Civil, Ceremonial and Moral Laws. All were put in place to restore mankind. The restoration wasn’t just to be medical/physical but to restore all aspects of the Creation. Physical, communal and spiritual. 

Uniformity. Wholeness. Completeness. At one with God. All of this points to Jesus Christ and the coming Kingdom. A Kingdom in which there will be perfect health and restoration of the intended order and wholeness of the Creation which God originally intended before the entry of sin into it. 

Regardless, even in or physical and spiritual malady we see the influence and the overarching power of God to heal is unavoidable and ever present. With or without medicinal practice mankind eventually succumbs to age and death. It currently is the way of the world but will not be this way forever. God has promised us more if we believe. For now though…the Lord gives to whom He pleases when He pleases and He takes from those He chooses. 

Regardless of health or lack of it. Wholeness or incompleteness...we are to love God with all our heart, soul and mind and love others as ourselves. (Deuteronomy 6). The 'Greatest Commandments'. In these simple yet complex acts, all the disparate elements of heart, soul and mind meld into completeness and healthiness communally, physically and spiritually. In them...is the Kingdom. In them is The King. Kingdom is where the King is.

The Kingdom is coming and the King is preparing the way to His return. He is making straight the paths for His arrival. Sometimes we need to be proactive. Sometimes...we need to step back and allow Him to perform His miracles. What is His Spirit saying to you?

John 8:12 ~ Again Jesus spoke to them, saying, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.”

There Will Be Death

As the death toll mounts, I've been messaged via Facebook messenger, WeChat and Zoom. The question is phrased differently but the intent of the questions are the same. Why God...if God is a loving God.... is allowing this pandemic to happen? Why is he allowing the loss. The death. Why isn't he protecting us helping us find a cure.

I answer here now as succinctly as possible without digressions.

This statement assumes people are 'good' by their inherent nature. They are not. The Bible tells us that all are sinners and wicked (Jeremiah 17:9, Romans 3:10-18). God is holy (Isaiah 6:3), and is perfect and wants us perfect too (Matthew 5:48). If He cannot look upon evil/sin without judging it (Habakkuk 1:23) then...this is a form of judgment upon all men. Until this point, he has stayed his hand. (2 Samuel 24:16, Daniel 4:35) in patience so that none should perish (2 Peter 3:9). When it says God stays his hand in the Bible it means he withholds judgment to those that actually deserve it. Which, being sinners, we all do. God holds his judgment/punishment/wrath until the exact right time (Romans 1:18). A time when the most amount of people will profit from His judgment and learn that turning to Him is the answer (Ezekiel 20:21-22). It seems like most people forget that mankind is imperfect, and justice must be accomplished perfectly. Justice is an inherent quality of God. It is one of His attributes.

Isaiah 28:17 ~ “And I will make justice the line, and righteousness the plumb line; and hail will sweep away the refuge of lies, and waters will overwhelm the shelter.”

Many will not turn to Him though (Romans 2:5) no matter how many times they are clobbered over the head with death and curses prescribed for the disobedient (Deuteronomy 28:15-68). How do we turn to Him? We accept Christ and what He did on the Cross (1 Corinthians 15:3-4, John 3:16). If we believe this, we are saved and heaven (or new Earth) is ours as He promised us (Isaiah 65:17 & 66:22, 2 Peter 3:13, Revelation 21:1). Just believe in faith. There is no need of a 'sinners prayer' (although prayer is awesome, 1 Thessalonians 5:17). There is no need of works (Ephesians 2:8). Although doing unto others as you'd have done to you (Matthew 7:12) is awesome ...its not necessary regardless of what the Church told you.

It's all that simple. Really. Just believe. Hold on to His promises. They are the only thing that lasts through the loss, the pain, the death. It is appointed to a man to die once and then face judgement (Hebrews 9:27). Yes, there will be death. But death has no power over the Christian.

1 Corinthians 15:55 ~ O death, where is your sting? O grave, where is your victory?

Yes, God Does Allow Evil Like COVID-19

I believe Coronavirus is now softening peoples hearts to God's message like tenderizing of meat. The repeated blows of a fist or hammer softens otherwise hard meat into something palatable. I think now is a good time to introduce people to deeper theological concepts not usually ventured towards in normal days. I believe some of them will now be more easily digestible. By forcing us to sit often alone in our homes has made us His captive audience...literally.

In Isaiah 45:7 we clearly see it state the following in the Young’s Literal Translation and the literal translation is quite disturbing:

“Forming light, and preparing darkness, making peace, and preparing evil, I the Lord, doing all these things.” Isaiah 45:7

It reads like this in the Hebrew:

יוצר אור ובורא חשך עשה שלום ובורא רע אני יהוה עשה כל אלה׃

"…one forming-and-one forming light-darkness-one making-well being-and one creating-evil-I Yahweh-one-making-all of-these"

So there it is right in the text, God prepares or created evil. Right?

Whoa boy…here we go! What do we do with this? It's very clearly רָ֑ע Ro or evil, there is no clarification needed here, it means what it means. Evil is evil. Or is it? We are profusely taught throughout Scripture that God does not create evil but in His sovereignty He allows it. So here we have a clear statement that God does indeed make or create evil.

While we’re at it what’s up with Jeremiah and Amos:

Jeremiah 18:11~ “Now therefore say to the people of Judah and those living in Jerusalem, ‘This is what the Lord says: Look! I am preparing a disaster for you and devising a plan against you. So turn from your evil ways, each one of you, and reform your ways and your actions.” 

Lamentations 3:38~ “Is it not from the mouth of the Most High that both calamities and good things come?

Amos 3:6~ “When a trumpet sounds in a city, do not the people tremble? When disaster comes to a city, has not the LORD caused it?

Then we have 1 John 1:5 which tells us just the opposite:

“This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light; in him there is no darkness at all.”

How are these not contradictory? As a Christian can you even explain these apparent contradictions? Yes you can.

First and foremost, when confronted with these paradoxical statements, a Christian must always stand firm in their conviction in the Inerrancy of Scripture. The pattern of Scripture and previous and later statements of God’s moral perfection in Matthew 5:48 and his inability to sin in Hebrews 6:18 should set the stage for our resolute mindset.

God is absolutely just and must judge evil not create it. As such we must educate ourselves on many of these more prominent passages that are often taken out of context and have a reasonable defense for them. As you can see from my last sentence, the root of explaining the apparent contradiction of these passages is rooted in context or understanding the surrounding texts and ideas Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Amos are putting forth to the reader.

The Hebrew word here is clearly “evil” but the question remains: Does it mean literal evil or premeditated action bent on a negative outcome? If it is evil as stated, what kind is it? This word in its context does not necessarily relegate it to a moral negative or malevolent action. This just couldn’t be. The entire pattern of Scripture elsewhere says just the opposite. When read in context the picture broadens and makes more sense.

This passage is talking to and about the commissioning of Cyrus who is God’s anointed through Isaiah (v.1)

Isaiah 45:1 “This is what the LORD says to his anointed, to Cyrus, whose right hand I take hold of to subdue nations before him and to strip kings of their armor, to open doors before him so that gates will not be shut…” 

Isaiah 45:5-7 “I am the LORD, and there is no other; apart from me there is no God. I will strengthen you, though you have not acknowledged me, so that from the rising of the sun to the place of its setting people may know there is none besides me. I am the LORD, and there is no other. I form the light and create darkness, I bring prosperity and create evil; I, the LORD, do all these things.

As can be understood from the context Isaiah is speaking of the attributes of God and His sovereignty and omnipotence. As Sovereign omnipotent God He is aware of all things in His creation and can do what He wishes, and allow or forbid things as He sees fit. This includes working through Cyrus even if Cyrus is unaware of God or God using him (i.e.: Pharaoh’s hardened heart, Joseph’s bros). 

So too the apparent evil of the Holocaust or COVID-19 mowing down people through a machine gun or virus. Natural evils like Coronavirus often stem from the fact that humanity lives in a fallen world and it just wasn't created to be this way but through human actions flaws were introduced to it. Sin, disease and death.

The quintessential example of this is God allowing the evil of crucifixion. It paved the way to allow for the atonement of sin through the sacrifice of Christ. Evil? Yes. Was it caused by God? No. Allowed by God? Yes. Why? In the end it will bring glory to God Himself. There was/is overarching contexts. With this in mind we need to see that God isn’t necessarily the author of all things that take place in Creation. Although He is aware of them and knows they will happen, He is not the Creator of them. This is especially the case with evil or COVID-19. When God creates a being (man) with freewill to love, that being also has the freewill to hate, create havoc or evil. 

What we see is this: For His ultimate glory, He allows evil to exist and persist for reasons of His own and due to justifications of logic that are too complex to explain in a short post such as this. They are justifications in logic that have to do with the redemptive plan of mankind through Christ. We see exactly that in the endgame of Joseph and his brothers.

Genesis 50:20 ~ You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives.

Now that we know this we can see that the 'evil' in Isaiah 45:7 is preconditioned by the previous and later verses to address God’s overall character and how it interacts with His creation (Cyrus) and how He rules over everything and all people. So let us look at the word “רָ֑ע /Ro” again. In this context we are not talking about evil as evil but as something, an event transpiring that has less than a positive outcome. It is something God allows, not something God 'is' or something that manifests from God’s being. This “evil” sounds an awful lot like an “effect” of God allowing something, not Him being the cause of it. Like a virus. 

“I bring prosperity and create evil”. God brings prosperity. How? Through other people or other things in the creation by either allowing things to happen or not forbidding them. As a counterpoint of contrast to this statement we see that God creates (allows) evil. In this instance it is more akin to terrible “misfortune” or “tragedy”, not evil in reality. In the Book of Job we see Job losing everything but we don’t necessarily see it as evil so much as we see it as misfortune and tragedy. So too Coronavirus. Even in Job’s case of misfortune and tragedy did God cause it or did He allow it as a sovereign God? I posit He allowed Satan to do what he did to prove a point.

To my initial point, this must be seen under the umbrella of Isaiah himself and the fact that he was a prophet that was prophesying to a sin deadened culture (like America) and no one was listening just like the world today under the looming threat of Coronavirus. When people don’t listen when you’re talking or writing to them, what do you normally do? Talk louder?

So God created the “potential” for evil by allowing for beings with freewill. This is no different than a sword or gun being used as a weapon. Swords and guns are inanimate objects without a will of their own.  Swords and guns can be turned into farming implements and tools too. It isn’t until a human with will acts upon these objects that they become deadly weapons or become tools. It is in the flawed created being (humans) that evil is “actualized”. This hardly makes God guilty. That’s like blaming your parents for getting a speeding ticket on the Interstate 95. The truth is that God created only good things or very good things. Go back to Genesis 1 and 2 and refresh your memory on that one. Mankind actualized latent potential of evil by committing evil acts. God allows evil but never brings it into being or encourages it. He judges it.

Regardless of evil and sins source, we know unequivocally that there is only One who can overcome disease and will forgive sin and that is God Himself. 

What is Truth? Quid Est Veritas

John 18:38 ~ Pilate said to him, “What is truth?”

I was essentially asked by a friend what I thought about the death toll being touted by the Chinese government. I essentially told him it was a dangerous lie but didn’t come right out and say ‘dangerous lie’.

To answer I cited George Orwell's 1984. A book set in an imagined future, when much of the world has fallen victim to perpetual war, omnipresent totalitarian government surveillance, historical negation, and propaganda. Not unlike today. Two of the quotes in that book haunt me now...

(1) “Every record has been destroyed or falsified, every book rewritten, every picture has been repainted, every statue and street building has been renamed, every date has been altered. And the process is continuing day by day and minute by minute. History has stopped. Nothing exists except an endless present in which the Party is always right.”

(2) “‘Who controls the past,’ ran the Party slogan, ‘controls the future: who controls the present controls the past.’”

The rise of alternative truths and facts in the current culture and world society have led us all to question what is true especially now when lives are at risk. Truth takes on much more gravity when a loved one’s life is on the line. Mortality makes us search harder for what is really true. In the face of death only truth is worth dying for. Alternative truths or when everyone’s truth is true. Admit it, Democrats and Republicans both do it. There are no ruling parties there is only the party. There is a ruling bourgeoisie and a proletariat. In 1984 the Party rewrites the past because "if you control the past, you control the present." George Orwell demonstrates people can be controlled through cultural conditioning. Because people will put their faith in a government that they believe tells them the truth, a Ministry of Truth was created.

It is ironic that Pilate essentially alluded to the same 2000 years earlier. Pilate attempted to assert his authority over Jesus when he refused to answer the Jews charges against him.

John 19:10 ~ So Pilate said to Him, “Do You refuse to speak to me? Do You not know that I have authority to release You and authority to crucify You?”

Essentially truth is what Pilate (the State) said it was. Pilate at the moment of this question believes he has ultimate authority to either free or kill Jesus. Pilate believes he has the ultimate authority to determine what truth is. In essence making truth relative. Pilate (the state) attempted to define what truth was…or so he thought.

The Chinese government now has a Ministry of Truth and China is now immersed in the reality that is 1984. The history and facts of COVID-19 in China is what the Chinese Ministry of Truth says they are. I fear the same is true of us soon in America. We're getting dangerously close to this paradox. We tear down our history to fit the most current cultural norm. If we have no truth or no actual truth/rule giver than truth/rules mean nothing and all things are permissible (The Brothers Karamazov).  If we don't have a real past to refer to, we will repeat just as easily as those who have forgotten it completely. What would be the difference? There would be no difference. Changed or forgotten are the same thing. Because we didn't have the truth and full scope of what happened in China from January and February, we, rest of the world are already repeating them. It looks like we're going to be 100x worse too.

China’s dystopian fascist capitalist model of government that manufactures truth as it sees fit has now had a dreadfully negative impact on the whole of humanity. A godless fascist capitalist government mind you. A government that appeals to no moral law only to the State as the measure of morality. A godless immoral ship in a sea of capricious humanity devoid of truth.

The real truth really matters. I believe the death tolls coming out of America are closer to the real ‘truth’. Part of the coming horrendous death toll is a direct product or outcome of China’s untruth. China’s lie.

Truth is simply this… In the very first axiom of philosophy/logic, the law of non-contradiction also known as the law of contradiction or principle of non-contradiction states that contradictory propositions cannot both be true in the same sense at the same time, e. g. the two propositions "A is B" and "A is not B" are mutually exclusive. In other words, in any given context two truths cannot be true at the same time. Only one can. Truth is therefore absolute not relative.

China rewrote the truth and it had deadly consequences. Now we see the USA making the same mistake. The truth is not relative. Truth cannot have subjectivism applied to it without destroying its essential nature of being the truth. Once truth becomes relative logic dictates that it is no longer truth. It becomes an opinion. Said another way… If “accepting” or “agreeing upon” something makes it true, then truth, in fact, does not exist.

John 14:6 ~ Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.

Sadly, what we see in the interaction of Pilate with Jesus and China concealing or twisting information...is the one who perpetuates the lie in light of having the truth does indeed have the blood of others on their hands.

That bloodguilt will remain no matter how many times they wash them….

Matthew 27:24 ~ So when Pilate saw that he was gaining nothing, but rather that a riot was beginning, he took water and washed his hands before the crowd, saying, “I am innocent of this man’s blood; see to it yourselves.”

No one is innocent. The Bible told us that on many occasions.