tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-79905063998086457242024-03-18T23:28:41.878-04:00Team TreebeardJesus Is Lord | Against Evil Forces
<br>For the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea. Habakkuk 2:14<br>At the name of Jesus every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. Philippians 2:10-11Oakthornhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05910075720762248814noreply@blogger.comBlogger29125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7990506399808645724.post-82610918327025901162023-11-10T16:00:00.004-05:002023-11-10T16:02:02.574-05:00Baptism<p><span style="font-family: Josefin Sans;">On this day, in 1968, I was baptized.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: Josefin Sans;">Thank you, to my parents, for being faithful in bringing me to the waters of baptism, and for teaching me in the Faith.<br /></span><span style="font-family: Josefin Sans;"><br />"<i>He saved us, not on the basis of deeds which we did in righteousness, but in accordance with His mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewing by the Holy Spirit.</i>" Titus 3:5</span></p>Oakthornhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05910075720762248814noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7990506399808645724.post-88268252707832723362023-11-10T11:59:00.002-05:002023-11-10T12:00:39.898-05:00Belated Remembrance<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEg1-c89MXaUyD30OT0vae0GEqbnUsvmh16eV53Bxsi-_uo9rtRt4hotLv0e4A1o8MnxXMRXU0_O2_DboS1Hn5ZwkCtw3B5AEau0yL--1MlqmK1ivGBMOdR4j-uj5vNeUICd4xy6jLr1TlugdErHmo67ZZfXcxm1gotwgqevlvXXF2Gplq4w5Ztb3mouQgc" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="389" data-original-width="1084" height="167" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEg1-c89MXaUyD30OT0vae0GEqbnUsvmh16eV53Bxsi-_uo9rtRt4hotLv0e4A1o8MnxXMRXU0_O2_DboS1Hn5ZwkCtw3B5AEau0yL--1MlqmK1ivGBMOdR4j-uj5vNeUICd4xy6jLr1TlugdErHmo67ZZfXcxm1gotwgqevlvXXF2Gplq4w5Ztb3mouQgc=w464-h167" width="464" /></a></div><br /><p></p>Oakthornhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05910075720762248814noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7990506399808645724.post-4617608605068319292021-01-29T15:05:00.001-05:002021-01-29T15:05:16.093-05:00The Nations Were Always The Plan<p><span style="font-family: Josefin Sans;">I was listening to <i>someone </i>recently talk about <a href="http://www.teamtreebeard.com/2016/12/the-nations.html" target="_blank">the nations</a> being God's plan from the beginning. His command to His people after the flood was to be fruitful and multiply, and to fill the earth. Filling the earth would result in geographic separation which would result in new language dialects, cultural separation, and genetic drift, since separated populations would be breeding with a small subset of the total gene pool. Perhaps there would never have been radically different languages, but the nations would have been born all the same.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: Josefin Sans;">So, the incident at the tower of Babel was not introducing the concept of nations as a mitigation of the evil of a unified people. It was introducing different languages to force the development of nations, which was His desire all along.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: Josefin Sans;">I'll amend this if I remember to whom I was listening when this became clear to me.</span></p>Oakthornhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05910075720762248814noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7990506399808645724.post-9496681057999964072019-02-16T12:01:00.000-05:002019-02-16T12:01:37.198-05:00Blacksmithing<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgwdQaTJM9N3n8zlV3NjYdiFiaaTIct6Wwj9LjHWWBLnIAY2YxiZs4NvElMhxqVJsBiQaqV1Qau8adBPTULsaBVImcej89iENpExS7s_YvbENQQ-FVYn3m33D_xbVDxt9qRyojEtlYAVpc/s1600/beardedAxe.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; display: inline !important; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="692" data-original-width="1136" height="243" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgwdQaTJM9N3n8zlV3NjYdiFiaaTIct6Wwj9LjHWWBLnIAY2YxiZs4NvElMhxqVJsBiQaqV1Qau8adBPTULsaBVImcej89iENpExS7s_YvbENQQ-FVYn3m33D_xbVDxt9qRyojEtlYAVpc/s400/beardedAxe.JPG" width="400" /></a><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">I love <span style="cursor: pointer; display: inline-block;">Torbjörn</span>'s presentation style and the level of organization and "neatness" in his shop and work. <a href="https://youtu.be/FdNxW3_ugHo" target="_blank">Here is a demonstration</a> of the making of a bearded axe, which I hope to be able to achieve...some day.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">You can find him on YouTube here: <a class="yt-simple-endpoint style-scope yt-formatted-string" href="https://www.youtube.com/user/torbjornahman" spellcheck="false" style="cursor: pointer; display: inline-block; font-size: 1.4rem; text-decoration: var(--yt-endpoint-text-decoration, none);" target="_blank">Torbjörn Åhman</a></span>Oakthornhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05910075720762248814noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7990506399808645724.post-23272382985198453112018-12-21T18:49:00.000-05:002018-12-21T18:51:25.765-05:00Child Training 101, Lesson 1: It is Not Optional<div style="text-align: left;">
<i><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">"Whoever spares the rod hates his son, but he who loves him is diligent to discipline him." </span></i><b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Proverbs 13: 24</span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><i>"Train up a child in the way he should go; even when he is old he will not depart from it." </i></span><b style="font-family: "trebuchet ms", sans-serif;">Proverbs 22: 6</b></div>
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<br /><i>"Foolishness is bound up in the heart of a child; The rod of discipline will remove it far from him." </i></span><b style="font-family: "trebuchet ms", sans-serif;">Proverbs 22:15</b><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><i>"Do not withhold discipline from a child; if you strike him with a rod, he will not die. If you strike him with the rod, you will save his soul from Sheol."</i> </span><b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Proverbs 23: 13, 14</span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><br /><i>"For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it."</i> </span><b style="font-family: "trebuchet ms", sans-serif;">Hebrews 12: 11</b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">It is not only <i>okay </i>to discipline your children, it is <i>necessary </i>to discipline them, if you love them. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">And, by "discipline", the Bible means spanking -- corporal punishment. There is absolutely no ambiguity in these verses. They say, "strike him with a rod." </span><b style="font-family: "trebuchet ms", sans-serif;">If you fail or refuse to spank your children, you hate them.</b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"> If you love them, you will be diligent to spank and comprehensively train and discipline them.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">This is the first lesson of raising children to glorify God.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">I know many parents who could never come to terms not only with this, but also with even telling their children "no." They could not take God at his word and believe and trust Him enough to obey Him in this very basic command. They thought that they were pursuing a better, more enlightened, more loving way, but in reality, they were treating their children as if they hated them.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">They did not consistently discipline their young children, and when they got older, they were incapable of saying "no" or of refusing to indulge their whims. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">The fruit of these dysfunctional parental relationships with their children is older children who are self-willed, unmoored, disobedient, and drifting from God.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Discipline, including spanking, is an indispensable aspect of raising children to love and glorify God. It is the first requirement, before any other training can happen. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Saying no when your children want to do things that are foolish or dishonoring to God, and not giving in to their persistent pleas, although it can be unpleasant at times, "yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness." It might not seem like it, right after you have spanked your son or daughter, but it will. When you are in the middle of those years, you have to trust that God's Word is true in this as in everything else. I can assure you that His Word is true and you will see the fruit.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">You will not find a better way, because there is no better way. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">The one who made you and your children has also told you what you need to do to train and discipline them. If you think you will discover a more spiritual, loving, and effective way to raise your children, you are wrong. You are arrogant and the Bible says you hate your children.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Love your children! Teach them at home. Read the Bible to them. Teach them to obey you and God. Show them what love and forgiveness mean. And spank them when they are disobedient.</span></div>
Oakthornhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05910075720762248814noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7990506399808645724.post-34574459937271733642018-08-21T21:05:00.001-04:002018-12-22T13:30:39.568-05:00The Transformed Wife<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg8NNuxEuGqZJME-fjrEWGiSRcYXJHtcbefEyePozGTUeACH4qnqqZ2W5r0SPlYxq5ix7IQ72S_V5DoTX9bXFLoXnIP5ZKgeCJ0kwi0n5ZsoZCa02CI55-y5UWj-AgskrOz_TDo8BUe5DQ/s1600/Capture.PNG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="346" data-original-width="235" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg8NNuxEuGqZJME-fjrEWGiSRcYXJHtcbefEyePozGTUeACH4qnqqZ2W5r0SPlYxq5ix7IQ72S_V5DoTX9bXFLoXnIP5ZKgeCJ0kwi0n5ZsoZCa02CI55-y5UWj-AgskrOz_TDo8BUe5DQ/s200/Capture.PNG" width="135" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Here is a wonderful blog by a woman who is not listening to the voices of the World and the spirit of Feminism that is a cancer on our society and even in our churches. She writes this about her blog:</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">"<i>My ministry is based upon Titus 2:3-5 in which God commands that older women teach younger women to be sober, love and obey their husbands, love their children, be chaste, discreet, good, and keepers at home. If you would love to learn and grow in these areas and allow God's Word and His ways to transform your marriage and your life, please join me as I teach you what I have learned from His Word, my own experience and mentoring many women, and most importantly, allowing the Holy Spirit to convict and transform you into the image of Christ.</i>"</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Read more here: </span><a href="https://thetransformedwife.com/" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";" target="_blank">The Transformed Wife</a></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">I recommend it highly.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>Oakthornhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05910075720762248814noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7990506399808645724.post-37519557655475024302018-04-13T17:49:00.004-04:002022-04-07T22:02:41.520-04:00Stop Apologizing<br />
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<img alt="Image result for the crusades" height="245" src="https://strangenotions.com/wp-content/uploads/Crusades.jpg" width="400" /></div>
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I'm ashamed at my level of ignorance of History. When we don't know history in general, and our own history in particular, not only are we, as a society, doomed, as it is said, to repeat the mistakes of our past, but we fall easy prey to guilt-peddlers.</div>
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Guilt-peddling is all the rage these days. Secular as well as Christian Progressives love to beat Western Civilization over the head with its supposed atrocities for which it apparently can never be forgiven. </div>
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The Crusades are a perennial favorite for this purpose. Christianity is, of course, a religion of hypocrisy because of the Crusades. Self-righteous unbelievers and self-flagellating believers have only to utter the word "crusades" and Western Christianity is supposed to fall silent and beg forgiveness, yet again.</div>
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I have always assumed that there is a lot more to the story than we were taught in the government schools, but have been too lazy to look very far into it. Stefan Molyneux has an excellent lesson where he gives a very high-altitude look at some of the historical background that sparked the Crusades.</div>
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<a href="https://youtu.be/-ilFbbk9jw4" target="_blank">You can find it here, and I highly recommend it.</a> (Original Source. Stefan has been cancelled by YouTube, but the link below is a repost on another channel.)<br /><a href="https://youtu.be/k6rPdi-acsc" target="_blank">Alternate Source</a></div>
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Listen and see if it doesn't have a profound effect on how you think about the past that you take for granted.</div>
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I'll paraphrase, amplify, and expand one of the crucial points he makes near the end of his talk. Of all of the civilizations to ever exist on this planet, there is precisely one that engages in critical moral self-reflection and changes on the basis of it: Western Civilization, a/k/a Christendom. </div>
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This isn't an intrinsic virtue of the men and women of the West, it is a direct result of the work of the Holy Spirit. Don't be ashamed of the legacy of Christendom, which the Progressives and the haters of Christ are doing their best to wipe out and erase from the history books. Learn the history, teach it to your children, and be proud of it. Be proud not for the works (either righteous or sinful) of Man, but because it is the work of God.</div>
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Christendom was not and is not sinless, but only Christendom confesses, repents, and turns to God. Pagans don't. Buddhists don't. Atheists don't. Zoroastrians don't. Muslims sure don't. </div>
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Stop apologizing.</div>
Oakthornhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05910075720762248814noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7990506399808645724.post-4865553508894272222018-03-10T10:22:00.000-05:002018-03-10T10:22:06.249-05:00Book Review: Instruments in the Redeemer's Hands<br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Instruments in the Redeemer’s Hands</i>, by Paul David Tripp, presents a
remarkable and refreshingly biblical approach to achieving change in people’s
lives. It is a book that addresses the deep needs of those who are acutely
suffering, but also every one of us as it teaches us to minister in a biblical
way, one unto another.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Tripp
lays a good foundation by explaining who we are in God’s creation, what the
effects of sin are on every one of us, and why we need Jesus. The book gets its
title as he explains how we are each used as an instrument of Christ to work
his redemption in the lives of others. In turn, others are used as instruments
of change in our lives. He powerfully ties this into our role as God’s
ambassadors who are incarnating Christ at every moment.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">Another
of the categorical differences between this book and other approaches to
life-change is the focus on the significance of the heart as the source of our
sin and broken lives. The heart becomes the target for change as it is compared
with scripture and God’s will for us to glorify him and enjoy him.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">After
preparing the foundation, Tripp spends the majority of the book describing a
model for building relationships and actually </span><i style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">being</i><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"> the instrument God uses to work change in people’s lives. The
model is called “Love, Know, Speak, Do.” </span><i style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">Love</i><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">
is the over-arching and motivating part of the equation. It encompasses God’s
love for us as well as our love for one another. </span><i style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">Know</i><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"> is the process of developing deep and caring relationships,
through which change and mutual admonition can happen. </span><i style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">Speak</i><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"> deals with truth and the need for godly and loving
confrontation, not just in the big things, but as a natural and organic part of
our corporate lives. Finally, </span><i style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">Do</i><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"> is
concerned with action, responsibility, and accountability for the long haul.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif; text-indent: 0.25in;">His
instruction is thorough, comprehensive, and detailed. It is also very
practical, with specific examples and suggestions about how to implement each
of the four aspects of the model. Without reservation, I recommend this book to
anyone who is in formal counseling or discipling relationships, but also to
anyone who wants greater insight into his own heart and who wants to more fully
reflect Christ to others.</span></div>
<br />Oakthornhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05910075720762248814noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7990506399808645724.post-13184632419694389982017-11-23T13:16:00.001-05:002017-11-23T13:16:55.818-05:00Happy Thanksgiving<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><i>For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">John 3:16</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><i>For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is <b>the gift of God</b>; 9 not as a result of works, so that no one may boast. 10 For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Ephesians 2: 8 - 10</span>Oakthornhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05910075720762248814noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7990506399808645724.post-62944059741234793372017-11-09T20:53:00.000-05:002017-11-09T20:53:12.340-05:00Race, part 1John Piper has a really hard time with the concept of race.<br />
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I’m a stickler for clear definitions. I like to know what I am talking
about. ... Believe it or not, the existence of the reality of race itself is disputed.
I mean seriously by very wise people whom I admire. I deal with this in
appendix 1. And, of course, the term racism is ambiguous as well. (<i>Bloodlines</i>, pg 17)</blockquote>
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It is a healthy sign to wish that the term race did not exist. It has not
served well to enhance human relations. In general, the term race has
been used to signify “a biological concept referring to the taxonomic
(classificatory) unit immediately below the species.” We may not be
able to communicate in our day without the term, but we can at least
try to show why it is a fuzzy term that is minimally helpful and has often
been hijacked by ideology for racist purposes. (<i>Bloodlines</i>, Appendix One, pg 234)</blockquote>
I get a little nervous when I'm reading something where the author takes pains to define words in ways that are not standard. My shields go up and I wonder why he would need to do that.<br />
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Is "race" really a difficult word to define? Here is the dictionary definition <a href="http://www.dictionary.com/browse/race?s=t" target="_blank">from dictionary.com</a>:<br />
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1. a group of persons related by common descent or heredity.<br />2. a population so related.<br />3. Anthropology. [omitted] (no longer in technical use)<br />4. a group of tribes or peoples forming an ethnic lineage:<br />5. any people united by common history, language, cultural traits, etc.:<br />6. the human race or family; humankind</blockquote>
That is quite straight-forward and agrees with most people's common sense understanding. Piper says he's a stickler for clear definitions, but he has taken something clear and intentionally made it, in his words, fuzzy. I also wonder if he is engaging in psychological projection when he states that the term has "often been hijacked by ideology."<br />
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It should also be absolutely no surprise to Christians that various races of humankind exist. God Himself created the condition that resulted in the proliferation of distinct people groups that became identifiable in terms of their geography, cultures, and physical characteristics.<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
The Lord came down to see the city and the tower which the sons of men had built. 6 The Lord said, “Behold, they are one people, and they all have the same language. And this is what they began to do, and now nothing which they purpose to do will be impossible for them. 7 Come, let Us go down and there confuse their language, so that they will not understand one another’s speech.” 8 So the Lord scattered them abroad from there over the face of the whole earth; and they stopped building the city. 9 Therefore its name was called Babel, because there the Lord confused the language of the whole earth; and from there the Lord scattered them abroad over the face of the whole earth. (Genesis 11: 5-9)</blockquote>
God's intentional sundering of humanity at the tower of Babel led directly to the rise of <a href="http://www.teamtreebeard.com/2016/12/the-nations.html" target="_blank">the nations</a> and the division of mankind into a diversity of races. And, He did it for our good, to limit Man's potential for evil, and to force Man into obedience to Him.<br />
<br />
Yet, Piper says that it is a "healthy sign to wish that the term race did not exist." Why would we "wish" for that? Is it so we could more easily pretend that race itself doesn't exist? So we can pretend that one of God's blessings doesn't exist? So we can remake the world God created into one of our own imagination?<br />
<br />
The secular Progressive world is <a href="http://www.teamtreebeard.com/p/progressivism-is-anti-christ.html" target="_blank">waging war against God's created order</a>. They hate that God created Man, male and female, so they seek to destroy the distinction and create a fluid continuity of "genders." They hate that God blessed husbands and wives with distinct responsibilities and gifts, so they work tirelessly to destroy and pervert marriage.<br />
<br />
They also hate that God created The Nations, so they work toward a globalist future and vilify the term "nationalism" and anyone who stands for national sovereignty.<br />
<br />
And, maybe most of all, they hate that God created the races. While they dishonestly call for greater Diversity, they in reality promote the obliteration of the glorious variety of Man.<br />
<br />
Whatever God has created, they will seek to destroy and replace with its opposite.<br />
<br />
I haven't made it far into Piper's book, but at the outset he appears to be lined up on the opposite side of the battlefield.Oakthornhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05910075720762248814noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7990506399808645724.post-74410009671465105892017-11-02T08:37:00.001-04:002017-11-02T08:38:58.537-04:00No Small Miracles<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Years ago, I was talking with an atheist acquaintance about the Bible. Among his reasons for discounting the Bible's reliability was the frequent recounting of miracles. He particularly objected to the ones, like God making the sun stand still (Joshua 10: 1-15), that were simply impossible to his mind.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">The sun wouldn't actually be <i>standing still</i>, he said, it would be the earth that would have to stop rotating on its axis! Did I know, he asked, what would happen if the earth stopped rotating? Then he told me about the physical ramifications of a non-rotating earth. So, he continued, not only would my so-called god have to stop the earth's rotation, but he'd have to deal with the meteorological consequences and all of the other difficulties that would arise.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">So, I got the impression that he thought that the miracle in the valley of Aijalon was absurd because it would be Really Hard for a theoretical god to pull it off.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">This guy was seriously smart. Way smarter than me, but I still think that he was totally missing the point about Who God is.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">This morning, on the drive in to work, I was listening to the Dangerous History Podcast about the "<a href="http://profcj.org/ep146/" target="_blank">Grunt's Eye Perspective</a>" of the Civil War, and it reminded me of one of my two favorite miracles in the Old Testament.</span><br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><i><span 16px="" font-size:="">Your clothing did not </span><b 16px="" border-box="" box-sizing:="" font-size:="">wear</b><span 16px="" font-size:=""> </span><b 16px="" border-box="" box-sizing:="" font-size:="">out</b><span 16px="" font-size:=""> on you, nor did your foot swell these forty years.</span></i></span></blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span 16px="" font-size:=""><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Deuteronomy 8:4</span></span></blockquote>
<span 16px="" font-size:=""><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Listen to the description of what the Civil War soldiers endured regarding clothing and footwear and you will get a new appreciation for what this meant. The American Civil War lasted roughly four years. The People of God wandered and fought in the desert for <b>forty years</b> and their clothing (including sandals) did not wear out.</span></span><br />
<span 16px="" font-size:=""><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></span>
<span 16px="" font-size:=""><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Every day that their wandering continued they were presented with an ongoing miracle of preservation. I wonder if they stopped thinking about it after a while.</span></span><br />
<span 16px="" font-size:=""><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></span>
<span 16px="" font-size:=""><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">I know that I stop thinking about God's ongoing preservation and blessings in my life.</span></span><br />
<span 16px="" font-size:=""><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></span>
<span 16px="" font-size:=""><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Some other time I'll mention my number one favorite Old Testament miracle.</span></span><br />
<span 16px="" font-size:=""><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
Oakthornhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05910075720762248814noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7990506399808645724.post-2711366271217429832017-05-10T11:27:00.000-04:002017-05-16T18:03:49.739-04:00Who is influencing you?<br />
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<img alt="Image result for person reading painting" src="http://spencerhaygood.net/wp/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/12__Reading_young_man.jpg" height="185" width="200" /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">In </span><a href="https://youtu.be/RLfLrXjzWNE" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;" target="_blank">the latest <i>Forward Tilt</i></a><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">, Isaac Morehouse thinks about this rule-of-thumb: </span><br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">"W<i>e are the sum of the five people with whom we spend the most time</i>." </span></blockquote>
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">He proposes a great exercise that might lead to the conclusion that we should make some changes.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">But, consider also that the <i>people</i> with whom you spend the most time may not be living, or you may not be spending physical time with them. It would be worthwhile to repeat Isaac's exercise with the five people you spend the most time <i>reading</i>.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">We become the things in which we immerse ourselves.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">UPDATE:</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">This past Sunday, Kevin DeYoung preached a sermon on Exodus 34:29-35, in which he gets to the heart of this matter. Can people tell that we have been in the presence of God and immersed in His Word?</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><a href="https://www.universityreformedchurch.org/sermons/till-we-have-faces/">https://www.universityreformedchurch.org/sermons/till-we-have-faces/</a></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>Oakthornhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05910075720762248814noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7990506399808645724.post-21840715830593463702017-05-07T15:38:00.001-04:002017-05-07T16:59:04.695-04:00Why we are not libertarians...<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Walter Block <a href="https://archive.lewrockwell.com/block/block26.html" target="_blank">has stated that</a>,</span><br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i>"The non-aggression axiom is the lynchpin of the philosophy of libertarianism. It states, simply, that it shall be legal for anyone to do anything he wants, provided only that he not initiate (or threaten) violence against the person or legitimately owned property of another."</i></span></blockquote>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The non-aggression axiom, also known as the non-aggression principle ("NAP"), depends upon another libertarian axiom, the Sovereign Individual ("SI"). This is the assertion of the self-ownership of the individual, who has complete and total control over his own body and life, owing nothing to anyone else that he has not voluntarily contracted to provide. No other individual, group, corporation, or government may rightly constrain, coerce, or deprive the Sovereign Individual.</span><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /><br /> The NAP is the necessary governing principle between Sovereign Individuals which keeps one individual's total sovereignty from conflicting with another's. It is a limit on the Sovereign Individual, but a vital one if the system is to hope to work.<br /><br /> There is a lot to like in this system and it even sounds somewhat moral, as if it were a more rigorous version of "do unto others," or "live and let live."<br /><br /> However, the problem with the NAP and the SI is that they are specific, direct, and intentional repudiations of God's Word.<br /><br /> We are, in reality, not sovereign, nor is it legal for us to do anything we want (even with the proviso of the NAP).<br /><br /> God has proclaimed a Law and regardless of your particular understanding of the continuity of the covenant, no Christian denies that we are still subject to at least some of God's Law. Specifically, there are a great many things which are unlawful and which do not initiate or threaten violence against others. Drunkenness (drug use), extra-marital sex, blaspheming the name of the Lord, usury, dishonoring parents, idolatry, and covetousness are all examples. 1 Corinthians 6:8-10 gives a list of people who will not inherit the Kingdom. Well over half of the types of people on the list are engaged in "victimless crimes."<br /><br /> The NAP is false.<br /><br /> It is even more absurd to assert that the individual is sovereign. In what possible way is a man, created by God, subject to His Law, wholly dependent up His grace and mercy and upon the atoning work of Jesus, and commanded to worship and serve him, sovereign?<br /><br /> There are multiple times in Scripture where God's people are indicted for acting as sovereign individuals. Most notably, during the time of the judges, everyone was said to be doing what was "right in his own eyes." Despite the eisegesis of some libertarian commentators, this was not a description of a libertarian paradise. A plain reading of the book of Judges is enough to dispel that notion. The books of Deuteronomy, Proverbs, and Job also use the phrase in a negative way.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">
But, libertarians are not necessarily believers in God and His Word, and this is the point. The NAP and the SI are attempts to create a workable system of human liberty <i>apart from God</i>. Libertarianism is fundamentally at odds with God's created order and seeks to achieve a state of human freedom that is hostile to the true Christian liberty we have when we are in submission to Christ.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">I think many Christians find libertarianism attractive because it does have significant, incidental points of commonality with a Christian society. On can cherry-pick specific libertarian principles and have a sense that there is a form of Christian libertarian<i>ism</i>. It isn't necessary to do this. These commonalities (private property being a key one) already exist as concepts in God's created economy. We don't need libertarianism to teach it to us.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Libertarianism also provides a great platform for attacking the leviathan State and its tyranny over every aspect of our lives.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">But neither is it necessary for Christians to turn to libertarianism for this. God's Word places individuals, families, nations, and states under the Sovereignty of God and in submission to his Will and Law. Opposing the godless state from the perspective of Scripture is a far more effective strategy than resorting to the man-made, utopian philosophy of libertarianism.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">There is nothing true in libertarianism that is not already found in God's Word.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">If there is any hope of a better society on earth than the one we have it will be as more individuals, families, nations, and states are transformed by the Spirit of God and come under His Sovereignty and the authority of His Word, not by adopting the fantasy of libertarianism.</span></span>Oakthornhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05910075720762248814noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7990506399808645724.post-53739125214150671542017-04-16T09:00:00.000-04:002017-04-16T09:00:26.355-04:00Happy Easter!<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">He is risen!</span>Oakthornhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05910075720762248814noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7990506399808645724.post-21294835025357555092017-04-10T19:25:00.001-04:002017-04-10T19:51:16.309-04:00An Ignominious Anniversary<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Last week, Thursday, April 6, was the 100th anniversary of the entry of the United States into World War I, which put a brutal end to a long period of relative American international non-interventionism. It is likely that the outcome of the war was influenced for the worse by our country's entry into it. In any case, the only winner in that war was The State.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">For a dramatic narrative of the war listen to <a href="http://www.dancarlin.com/product-category/hardcore-history/current-hardcore-history/" target="_blank">Dan Carlin's <i>Blueprint For Armageddon</i></a>. It is, as of this publication, still in his current episodes and, consequently, free. Dan is an odd sort of Statist, but his historical accounts are first-rate and worth every minute of your time.</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">For a discussion that you probably did not hear in the public schools, try Tom Woods's April 5 interview with Hunt Tooley, <a href="http://tomwoods.com/ep-884-the-u-s-enters-world-war-i-wilsons-folly-revisited-a-century-later/" target="_blank">"The U.S. Enters World War I: Wilson’s Folly Revisited, a Century Later."</a></span></div>
Oakthornhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05910075720762248814noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7990506399808645724.post-90347957714840566872017-02-05T16:40:00.002-05:002021-12-23T17:50:05.246-05:00Sojourners?<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">The sermon at the church where I attended today was an examination of Exodus 22:16 through Exodus 23:19, with particular attention paid to the concept of "social justice", which happens to be the heading for the passage beginning at 22:16, as applied by the publishers of the English Standard Version.</span><br />
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"><br /></span>
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">The Pastor prefaced his remarks with a good warning regarding the baggage associated with the term "social justice" and the danger of using it as an uninspired heading for the verses it attempted to summarize. We should let the Bible tell us what justice is, he said. I agree.</span><br />
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"><br /></span>
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">He then read the entire passage in a slow, deliberate, and reverential manner. His sermon categorized the verses as being related to justice in either a vertical way (with respect to God) or horizontally (with respect to one-another), with particular attention paid to the weak or vulnerable. Most of the remaining time was given to the exegesis of each of the verses in the passage, without omitting any of them. Furthermore, the text was treated as authoritative.</span><br />
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"><br /></span>
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">This is something that is rare in my experience: an extended reading of the Old Testament followed by an exegetical sermon which promotes the authority and applicability of the text, without transforming it to a modern personalized and spiritualized message. <b>It was very refreshing.</b></span><br />
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"><br /></span>
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">However, the pastor did make an excursion of sorts in his discussion of two of the passages, Exodus 22:21 and 23:9, as related to the current event of the contested travel ban issued by President Trump in his first week in office.</span><br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-size: 16px;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i>“You shall not wrong a sojourner or oppress him, for you were sojourners in the land of Egypt." (22:21)</i></span></span></blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-size: 16px;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i>"You shall not oppress a sojourner. You know the heart of a sojourner, for you were sojourners in the land of Egypt." (23:9)</i></span></span></blockquote>
<span face=""helvetica neue" , "verdana" , "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif">He recommended a book, <i><a href="https://goo.gl/hmUNKx" target="_blank">The Immigration Crisis</a></i>, by</span><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"> James K. Hoffmeier, and referred to it regarding the various categories and distinctions of the inhabitants of the land of Israel: citizens, foreigners, and sojourners. Sojourners, the subject of the two verses, were <i>legal</i> and permanent residents who had adopted the laws, customs, and religious beliefs and practices of Israel.</span><br />
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"><br /></span>
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Strangely, even after citing the book, no real mention of the book's contents or conclusions were mentioned. In fact, the two passages above were treated in a way that left me with the impression that they were directly applicable to the current situation of immigration and refugees that dominate international attention.</span><br />
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"><br /></span>
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">The Pastor did say that it is important to note that Scripture does not say <i>how many</i> strangers or sojourners a nation is to allow and that Christians should make allowances for differences of opinion on the subject, and he did highlight the distinction between <i>foreigners </i>(visitors) and <i>sojourners, </i>but otherwise the two verses regarding sojourners were not closely examined in their original context, nor was there much analysis of their applicability in the current crisis.</span><br />
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"><br /></span>
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Hoffmeier, however is more clear on the matter. <a href="http://cis.org/bible-use-and-abuse-immigration" target="_blank">In an article summarizing some of his book's observations</a> he says the following.</span><br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<i><span face=""lucida grande" , "arial" , sans-serif" style="text-align: justify;">"From the foregoing texts we can conclude that in the ancient biblical world, countries had borders that were protected and respected, and that foreigners who wanted to reside in another country had to obtain some sort of permission in order to be considered an alien with certain rights and privileges. The delineation between the “alien” or “stranger” (</span><span face=""lucida grande" , "arial" , sans-serif" style="text-align: justify;">ger</span><span face=""lucida grande" , "arial" , sans-serif" style="text-align: justify;">) and the foreigner (</span><span face=""lucida grande" , "arial" , sans-serif" style="text-align: justify;">nekhar</span><span face=""lucida grande" , "arial" , sans-serif" style="text-align: justify;"> or </span><span face=""lucida grande" , "arial" , sans-serif" style="text-align: justify;">zar</span><span face=""lucida grande" , "arial" , sans-serif" style="text-align: justify;">) in biblical law is stark indeed. The </span><span face=""lucida grande" , "arial" , sans-serif" style="text-align: justify;">ger</span><span face=""lucida grande" , "arial" , sans-serif" style="text-align: justify;"> in Israelite society, for instance, could receive social benefits such as the right to glean in the fields (Leviticus 19:9-10; Deuteronomy 24:19-22) and they could receive resources from the tithes (Deuteronomy 26:12-13). In legal matters, “there shall be one statute for you and for the stranger who sojourns with you, a statute forever throughout your generations. You and the sojourner shall be alike before the LORD. One law and one rule shall be for you and for the stranger who sojourns with you” (Numbers 15:15-16). In the area of employment, the </span><span face=""lucida grande" , "arial" , sans-serif" style="text-align: justify;">ger</span><span face=""lucida grande" , "arial" , sans-serif" style="text-align: justify;"> and citizen were to be paid alike (Deuteronomy 24:14-15). In all these cases, no such provision is extended to the </span><span face=""lucida grande" , "arial" , sans-serif" style="text-align: justify;">nekhar</span><span face=""lucida grande" , "arial" , sans-serif" style="text-align: justify;"> or </span><span face=""lucida grande" , "arial" , sans-serif" style="text-align: justify;">zar</span><span face=""lucida grande" , "arial" , sans-serif" style="text-align: justify;">. In a sense, the </span><span face=""lucida grande" , "arial" , sans-serif" style="text-align: justify;">ger</span><span face=""lucida grande" , "arial" , sans-serif" style="text-align: justify;"> were not just aliens to whom social and legal protections were offered, <b>but were also considered converts</b>, and thus could participate in the religious life of the community, e.g. celebrate Passover (Exodus 12:13) and observe Yom Kippur, the day of atonement (Leviticus 16:29-30). They were, moreover, <b>expected to keep dietary and holiness laws</b> (Leviticus 17:8-9 & 10-12). It is well known that within Israelite society, money was not to be lent with interest, but one could loan at interest to a foreigner (</span><span face=""lucida grande" , "arial" , sans-serif" style="text-align: justify;">nekhar</span><span face=""lucida grande" , "arial" , sans-serif" style="text-align: justify;">). These passages from the Law make plain that aliens or strangers received all the benefits and protection of a citizen, whereas the foreigner (nekhar) did not. It is wrong, therefore, to confuse these two categories of foreigners and then to use passages regarding the </span><span face=""lucida grande" , "arial" , sans-serif" style="text-align: justify;">ger</span><span face=""lucida grande" , "arial" , sans-serif" style="text-align: justify;"> as if they were relevant to illegal immigrants of today." (Emphases mine.)</span></i></blockquote>
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif" style="text-align: justify;">There are other observations that, I think, should be made regarding the text concerning sojourners in Exodus, in light of the rest of the Law.</span><br />
<br />
<ul>
<li><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Israel was a people <i>apart</i> from all other nations, devoted to the one true God.</span></li>
<li><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Israel had very definite boundaries.</span></li>
<li><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">There was to be no mixing with the nations, no intermarriage with pagans, and no cultural "exchanges".</span></li>
<li><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">As the laws prohibiting all forms of idolatry make clear, no sojourners would be permitted to worship any god but the one true God. (E.g. 22:20) There was to be no religious toleration. Period.</span></li>
<li><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Sojourners were few in number.</span></li>
<li><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Sojourners were not to be permitted to create cultural enclaves.</span></li>
<li><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Sojourners were not permitted to practice their imported national laws.</span></li>
<li><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Sojourners were not permitted to subvert the culture and worship of Israel.</span></li>
<li><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">There was no category in Israel that is equivalent to an "illegal alien."</span></li>
<li><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Unless fully incorporated into a specific tribe and family via marriage, a sojourner was without inheritance in the land of Israel.</span></li>
<li><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Certainly, mass-immigration, or, statistically significant numbers of sojourners, would not have been permitted.</span></li>
<li><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Certainly, mass-<i>illegal</i>-immigration would have been seen as equivalent to invasion.</span></li>
<li><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">The law regarding sojourners was to remind Israel that the sojourner had accepted the Law, people, and God of Israel as their own. They were <i>not foreigners any longer</i>. Simply treating them with compassion was not the only point of the verses.</span></li>
<li><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Undoubtedly, visiting foreigners were also not to be mistreated and oppressed, but such common charity was covered elsewhere in the law.</span></li>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif" style="text-align: justify;">Christians, too, should deal with all people with charity and compassion, whether they are foreigners, citizens, or sojourners as long as they are respecters of the laws of God and man. There are limits to charity and compassion.</span><br />
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"><span>The United States is not Israel and the massive numbers of immigrants, legal or otherwise, do not resemble the sojourners within ancient Israel in any meaningful way. Therefore, I conclude that Exodus 22:21 and 23:9 are not applicable in a direct way to our current immigration crisis.</span></span></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"><span>However, I do believe that the concept of sojourner is instructive and that a nation that wants to preserve itself as a nation, especially if that nation is a Christian one (II Corinthians 6:14 - 7:1), should model its immigration policy after that of ancient Israel.</span></span></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"><span>Immigrants should be relatively few. Immigrants should not be permitted to import their foreign gods or cultures. Immigrants should not be permitted to form enclaves that are resistant to the native culture or that undermine the native culture. Immigrants should fully embrace the law, culture, and worship of their new nation.</span></span></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"><span>There is a lot of secular Progressivism and neo-Babelism today that masquerades as compassionate Christianity. <b>Today's sermon was certainly not that</b>, however it left open the door for very easy misinterpretation.</span></span></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"><span>If the Church wants to be <i>shaping</i> the nation's future, rather than continuing to be swept along by events and continually reacting defensively and fearfully to them, it will have to deal with the issue of mass-immigration in a more thorough and comprehensively Biblical way.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><strong>UPDATE</strong>: I have since read <em>The Immigrant Crisis.</em> It is a easy read, being essentially an extended version of the article to which I link above. There is nothing substantially new or different in the book, compared with the article, but it is much more comprehensive and is worth reading, nonetheless. Aside from a comment or two near the end, when the author strays from exegesis into commentary, I can recommend it.</span></div>
<span justify="" ms="" quot="" sans-serif="" text-align:="" trebuchet=""><br /></span>Oakthornhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05910075720762248814noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7990506399808645724.post-9096497889382348222016-12-25T11:01:00.001-05:002016-12-25T11:01:43.065-05:00Merry Christmas!<blockquote class="tr_bq">
8 In the same region there were some shepherds staying out in the fields and keeping watch over their flock by night. 9 And an angel of the Lord suddenly stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them; and they were terribly frightened. 10 But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid; for behold, I bring you good news of great joy which will be for all the people; 11 for today in the city of David there has been born for you a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. 12 This will be a sign for you: you will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.”13 And suddenly there appeared with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying, </blockquote>
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14 “Glory to God in the highest,<br />And on earth peace among men with whom He is pleased.”</blockquote>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">I pray that you are enjoying this time of celebration of and reflection on the Incarnation of the Word of God as our Lord and Savior.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">-Team Treebeard</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Also, if you haven't already joined the Alt-tech revolution, abandoned the SJW-infested and thought-policed Wikipedia (letting the dead bury their dead), and switched to <a href="http://www.infogalactic.com/" target="_blank">Infogalactic</a>, maybe this will give you some motivation.</span></div>
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Oakthornhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05910075720762248814noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7990506399808645724.post-5539559718666251452016-12-23T17:37:00.001-05:002021-12-17T14:07:32.916-05:00The Nations<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">The nations were created by God as a result of the incident at the tower of Babel. Prior to that there were no nations, just Man.<br /><br />Previously, Man had become so thoroughly wicked that God destroyed them all, except one man, his wife, their sons, and their son's wives. Then, after being somewhat fruitful and multiplying, Man again became exceedingly wicked. This time, their disobedience included defying the following specific command from God.</span><br />
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<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">And God blessed Noah and his sons and said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth." (Genesis 9:1)</span> </blockquote>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">“As for you, be fruitful and multiply; Populate the earth abundantly and multiply in it.” (Genesis 9:7)</span></blockquote>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">God specifically told Noah to fill the earth, which would require that they spread out. But, a few generations later this is what Man was thinking.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">Now the whole earth used the same language and the same words. 2 It came about as they journeyed east, that they found a plain in the land of Shinar and settled there. 3 They said to one another, “Come, let us make bricks and burn them thoroughly.” And they used brick for stone, and they used tar for mortar. 4 They said, “Come, let us build for ourselves a city, and a tower whose top will reach into heaven, and let us make for ourselves a name, otherwise we will be scattered abroad over the face of the whole earth.” (Genesis 11:1-4)</span></blockquote>
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">God noticed Man's rebellion and took the matter out of their hands by breaking them up into groups based on new languages that He created for them.</span></div>
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<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">The Lord came down to see the city and the tower which the sons of men had built. 6 The Lord said, “Behold, they are one people, and they all have the same language. And this is what they began to do, and now nothing which they purpose to do will be impossible for them. 7 Come, let Us go down and there confuse their language, so that they will not understand one another’s speech.” 8 So the Lord scattered them abroad from there over the face of the whole earth; and they stopped building the city. 9 Therefore its name was called Babel, because there the Lord confused the language of the whole earth; and from there the Lord scattered them abroad over the face of the whole earth. (Genesis 11: 5-9)</span></blockquote>
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">No longer being unified under one language (and, I would surmise from the context, one culture), the new language groups went their separate ways. From this break-up the nations, their cultures, and races (genetically distinct groups resulting from population isolation and inbreeding) arose.<br /><br />This was God's doing. It was a judgment against Man, but He did it for Man's good. It prevented their continued disobedience to the command to fill the earth, and it restrained the degree of evil to which they could attain. (v.6)<br /><br />Ever since, God has directed the nations according to His purposes, a notable example being Cyrus the Persian. God used Cyrus and the previously non-first-rate power of the Medes and Persians to conquer the known world, supplanting and executing judgment on the Assyrians. Isaiah 44 and 45 make it clear that it was the Lord's doing. Not only did He raise Cyrus up, but he softened his adversaries so that his victory was easier.</span><br />
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Throughout Scripture, God calls the nations by name and directs them as he wills. He created a new nation through one man, Abram, to be his People.<br /><br />Furthermore, there is no indication whatsoever in Scripture that the nations will ever cease to exist or that the dissolution of the nations is something that God intends or for which God's People should strive.<br /><br />To the contrary, God gave as his Great Commission to His Church the task of redeeming the nations and reconciling them to Him.</span></div>
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<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">And Jesus came up and spoke to them, saying,“All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. 19 Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” (Matthew 28: 18-20)</span></blockquote>
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<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">Now all these things are from God, who reconciled us to Himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation, 19 namely, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and He has committed to us the word of reconciliation. 20 Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were making an appeal through us; we beg you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. (II Corinthians 5: 18-20)</span></blockquote>
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">The reconciliation that God's People are to proclaim is that between the World (the nations) and God. It is the nations who are to be the object of the church's ministry and teaching. Nowhere has He directed the church to work to eliminate the nations, to pretend that they are somehow illegitimate or unfortunate, or to consider them to be anything less than His creation for our good. </span><br />
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"><br /></span>
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">The nations also will still be present at the end of all things. "the peoples and tribes and tongues and nations" are present throughout the events described in the book of the Revelation of Jesus Christ. So, any effort to eliminate or unify the nations is not only contrary to God's plan, but is obviously futile. And, if dividing the nations restrained evil, seeking to unify them is to seek to increase evil.</span><br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">22 I saw no temple in it, for the Lord God the Almighty and the Lamb are its temple. 23 And the city has no need of the sun or of the moon to shine on it, for the glory of God has illumined it, and its lamp is the Lamb. 24 The nations will walk by its light, and the kings of the earth will bring their glory into it. 25 In the daytime (for there will be no night there) its gates will never be closed; 26 and they will bring the glory and the honor of the nations into it; 27 and nothing unclean, and no one who practices abomination and lying, shall ever come into it, but only those whose names are written in the Lamb’s book of life.</span> </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">1 Then he showed me a river of the water of life, clear as crystal, coming from the throne of God and of the Lamb, 2 in the middle of its street. On either side of the river was the tree of life, bearing twelve kinds of fruit, yielding its fruit every month; and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations. 3 There will no longer be any curse; and the throne of God and of the Lamb will be in it, and His bond-servants will serve Him; 4 they will see His face, and His name will be on their foreheads. 5 And there will no longer be any night; and they will not have need of the light of a lamp nor the light of the sun, because the Lord God will illumine them; and they will reign forever and ever. (Revelation 21:22 - 22:5)</span></blockquote>
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">This is a vision of the nations in submission to and reconciled with the LORD.</span><br />
<br />
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">The point of all this is that Treebeard and I were wondering why there are such negative assumptions flourishing regarding the current trends away from multiculturalism and globalism and toward nationalism.</span><br />
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"><br /></span>
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Secular Progressivism has been trying to recreate the pre-Babel world for decades, and it is understandable why the enemies of God would be opposed to His ordering of the world, but why do so many in the evangelical church also seem to share this agenda?</span><br />
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">More on that to come...</span><br />
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Oakthornhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05910075720762248814noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7990506399808645724.post-14328194456126171852016-11-24T16:03:00.004-05:002016-11-24T16:05:19.064-05:00Happy Thanksgiving!<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Give thanks to the Lord, for He is good;</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">His love endures forever. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">1 Chronicles 16:34 </span>Oakthornhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05910075720762248814noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7990506399808645724.post-71368082384505101592016-11-16T07:00:00.000-05:002019-01-24T20:23:09.623-05:00Bread and Wine<i><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><span class="text Luke-22-14" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 16px;"><span class="versenum" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 12px; font-weight: bold; line-height: 22px; position: relative; top: 0px; vertical-align: top;">14 </span><span class="crossreference" data-cr="#cen-NASB-25879J" data-link="(<a href="#cen-NASB-25879J" title="See cross-reference J">J</a>)" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 0.625em; font-size: 0.625em; line-height: 22px; position: relative; top: 0px; vertical-align: top;"></span>When the hour had come, He reclined <span style="box-sizing: border-box;">at the table</span>, and <span class="crossreference" data-cr="#cen-NASB-25879K" data-link="(<a href="#cen-NASB-25879K" title="See cross-reference K">K</a>)" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 0.625em; font-size: 0.625em; line-height: 22px; position: relative; top: 0px; vertical-align: top;"></span>the apostles with Him.</span><span 16px=""> </span><span class="text Luke-22-15" id="en-NASB-25880" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 16px;"><span class="versenum" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 12px; font-weight: bold; line-height: 22px; position: relative; top: 0px; vertical-align: top;">15 </span>And He said to them, <span class="woj" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: border-box;">“I have earnestly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer;</span></span><span 16px=""> </span><span class="text Luke-22-16" id="en-NASB-25881" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 16px;"><span class="woj" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: border-box;"><span class="versenum" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 12px; font-weight: bold; line-height: 22px; position: relative; top: 0px; vertical-align: top;">16 </span>for I say to you, I shall never again eat it <span class="crossreference" data-cr="#cen-NASB-25881L" data-link="(<a href="#cen-NASB-25881L" title="See cross-reference L">L</a>)" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 0.625em; line-height: 22px; position: relative; top: 0px; vertical-align: top;"></span>until it is fulfilled in the kingdom of God.”</span></span><span 16px=""> </span><span class="text Luke-22-17" id="en-NASB-25882" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 16px;"><span class="versenum" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 12px; font-weight: bold; line-height: 22px; position: relative; top: 0px; vertical-align: top;">17 </span><span class="crossreference" data-cr="#cen-NASB-25882M" data-link="(<a href="#cen-NASB-25882M" title="See cross-reference M">M</a>)" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 0.625em; line-height: 22px; position: relative; top: 0px; vertical-align: top;"></span>And when He had taken a cup <span style="box-sizing: border-box;">and</span> <span class="crossreference" data-cr="#cen-NASB-25882N" data-link="(<a href="#cen-NASB-25882N" title="See cross-reference N">N</a>)" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 0.625em; line-height: 22px; position: relative; top: 0px; vertical-align: top;"></span>given thanks, He said, <span class="woj" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: border-box;">“Take this and share it among yourselves;</span></span><span 16px=""> </span><span class="text Luke-22-18" id="en-NASB-25883" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 16px;"><span class="woj" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: border-box;"><span class="versenum" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 12px; font-weight: bold; line-height: 22px; position: relative; top: 0px; vertical-align: top;">18 </span>for <span class="crossreference" data-cr="#cen-NASB-25883O" data-link="(<a href="#cen-NASB-25883O" title="See cross-reference O">O</a>)" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 0.625em; line-height: 22px; position: relative; top: 0px; vertical-align: top;"></span>I say to you, I will not drink of the fruit of the vine from now on until the kingdom of God comes.”</span></span><span 16px=""> </span><span class="text Luke-22-19" id="en-NASB-25884" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 16px;"><span class="versenum" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 12px; font-weight: bold; line-height: 22px; position: relative; top: 0px; vertical-align: top;">19 </span>And when He had taken <span style="box-sizing: border-box;">some</span> bread <span style="box-sizing: border-box;">and</span> <span class="crossreference" data-cr="#cen-NASB-25884P" data-link="(<a href="#cen-NASB-25884P" title="See cross-reference P">P</a>)" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 0.625em; line-height: 22px; position: relative; top: 0px; vertical-align: top;"></span>given thanks, He broke it and gave it to them, saying, <span class="woj" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: border-box;">“This is My body which is given for you; do this in remembrance of Me.”</span></span><span 16px=""> </span><span class="text Luke-22-20" id="en-NASB-25885" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 16px;"><span class="versenum" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 12px; font-weight: bold; line-height: 22px; position: relative; top: 0px; vertical-align: top;">20 </span>And in the same way <span style="box-sizing: border-box;">He took</span> the cup after they had eaten, saying, <span class="woj" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: border-box;">“This cup which is <span class="crossreference" data-cr="#cen-NASB-25885Q" data-link="(<a href="#cen-NASB-25885Q" title="See cross-reference Q">Q</a>)" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 0.625em; line-height: 22px; position: relative; top: 0px; vertical-align: top;"></span>poured out for you is the <span class="crossreference" data-cr="#cen-NASB-25885R" data-link="(<a href="#cen-NASB-25885R" title="See cross-reference R">R</a>)" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 0.625em; line-height: 22px; position: relative; top: 0px; vertical-align: top;"></span>new covenant in My blood.</span></span><span 16px=""> </span><span class="text Luke-22-21" id="en-NASB-25886" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 16px;"><span class="woj" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: border-box;"><span class="versenum" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 12px; font-weight: bold; line-height: 22px; position: relative; top: 0px; vertical-align: top;">21 </span><span class="crossreference" data-cr="#cen-NASB-25886S" data-link="(<a href="#cen-NASB-25886S" title="See cross-reference S">S</a>)" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 0.625em; line-height: 22px; position: relative; top: 0px; vertical-align: top;"></span>But behold, the hand of the one betraying Me is with <span class="footnote" data-fn="#fen-NASB-25886c" data-link="[<a href="#fen-NASB-25886c" title="See footnote c">c</a>]" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 0.625em; line-height: 22px; position: relative; top: 0px; vertical-align: top;">[<a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Luke+22&version=NASB#fen-NASB-25886c" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; color: #b34b2c; cursor: pointer; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: top;" title="See footnote c">c</a>]</span>Mine on the table.</span></span><span 16px=""> </span><span class="text Luke-22-22" id="en-NASB-25887" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 16px;"><span class="woj" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: border-box;"><span class="versenum" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 12px; font-weight: bold; line-height: 22px; position: relative; top: 0px; vertical-align: top;">22 </span>For indeed, the Son of Man is going <span class="crossreference" data-cr="#cen-NASB-25887T" data-link="(<a href="#cen-NASB-25887T" title="See cross-reference T">T</a>)" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 0.625em; line-height: 22px; position: relative; top: 0px; vertical-align: top;"></span>as it has been determined; but woe to that man by whom He is betrayed!”</span></span><span 16px=""> </span><span class="text Luke-22-23" id="en-NASB-25888" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 16px;"><span class="versenum" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 12px; font-weight: bold; line-height: 22px; position: relative; top: 0px; vertical-align: top;">23 </span>And they began to discuss among themselves which one of them it might be who was going to do this thing.</span></span></i><br />
<span class="text Luke-22-23" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 16px;"><i><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></i></span>
<span class="text Luke-22-23" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 16px;"><i><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Luke 22:14-23</span></i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Without a doubt, Jews celebrating the Passover in the first century were drinking wine and eating unleavened bread when Jesus instituted the Lord's Supper.</span><span class="text Luke-22-23" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: border-box;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></span>
<span class="text Luke-22-23" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: border-box;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">However, it is <i style="font-size: 16px;">de rigueur</i> in Evangelicalism to substitute grape juice for wine, <a href="http://www.christianitytoday.com/history/issues/issue-85/new-wine-new-wineskins.html">the roots of such practice</a> going back to the Temperance Movement. Besides the implicit argument that the consumption of alcohol is immoral, other justifications of the practice include the desire not to be a stumbling block to alcoholics and the desire to include children younger than the legal drinking age, although it is <a href="https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=4&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0ahUKEwjZ-p-Gn6bQAhXD24MKHZH0B2oQFggzMAM&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.michigan.gov%2Fdocuments%2Fdleg%2FMLCC_Code_and_Rules_343265_7.pdf&usg=AFQjCNG489rJII_mLwMA0GnFoXLPtjbgEw&sig2=12F8h7i1-OU8cRcH-VxSZA">not illegal</a> in the context of Communion.</span></span><br />
<span class="text Luke-22-23" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: border-box;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></span>
<span class="text Luke-22-23" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: border-box;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">It is also claimed that since we are not commanded to drink wine, we may, in Christian liberty, substitute grape juice. Many, although not all, who use this argument, strangely do not apply the same logic to baptism and assert that immersion is a requirement, although no such command has been given. They will claim that since the subjectively clear example given in the New Testament is one of immersion, we must so do. But, the objectively clear example of unleavened bread and wine is to them not compelling.</span></span><br />
<span class="text Luke-22-23" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: border-box;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></span>
<span class="text Luke-22-23" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: border-box;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">There are also many who even insist that the wine used by Jesus and the disciples, and in the early church, was not alcoholic.</span></span><br />
<span class="text Luke-22-23" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: border-box;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">None of these reasons is persuasive and some are simply incredible, especially since they were unknown in the Church prior to the moralistic motivations of temperance, which, I suspect, is still at the bottom of the issue. These arguments also arise from an attitude of being fearful. It is not a muscular or manly approach to obedience to Christ and His Sacraments to fear and loath the very element that He used. It is better, to them, to offend God than to offend Man.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">The Lord Jesus commanded us to observe the new covenant in His body and blood. He instituted the sacrament with unleavened bread and wine. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Who are we to change that?</span>Oakthornhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05910075720762248814noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7990506399808645724.post-41600591300245977682016-11-11T17:00:00.000-05:002016-11-11T17:00:12.363-05:00Calexit...please<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Some portion of California would like to part ways with the United States and form it's own nation. This is wonderful news. It would free the remainder of the nation from the evil stain and baggage of Hollywood, LA, and one of the three hubs of godless so-called Progressivism.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">How could it happen? There are certainly political, Constitutional, and (for some) psychological barriers, but, step one could be a two-part response something like this...</span><br />
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<ol>
<li><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">The Federal government will immediately take steps to either relocate or sell all of its assets in California which are located in the counties that choose to leave the United States (see #2). The assets can be purchased by the highest bidder on a piecemeal basis. The proceeds of the sale will be used to finance the new border and to pay off a portion of the existing federal debt.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Every county in California will be given an opportunity to Leave or Stay. Such a vote, however, must result in two contiguous regions. One will Leave and the other will Stay. Any landlocked, so to speak, counties will belong to whichever nation surrounds them. A period of transition time to move will be provided.</span></li>
</ol>
<div>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">How will California respond to such an offer? I'd love to find out.</span></div>
Oakthornhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05910075720762248814noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7990506399808645724.post-17256185101835201352016-11-06T19:47:00.000-05:002019-01-24T20:17:57.717-05:00Voting<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">It has been twenty-eight years since I have voted for a President. Once realizing that we have a one-party system with two names and that every four years we are presented with a choice of socialist Candidate A or socialist Candidate B, the futility of the exercise became obvious. It was much more important to me to withhold my consent from either candidate that to engage in hair-splitting to determine the lesser of two evils. <a href="http://www.teamtreebeard.com/2016/09/team-treebeard.html">Like Treebeard</a>, I was sure that neither candidate was on my side.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">It also became clear to me that to a great many people, and especially the voting-advocates, voting was much more than registering one's preference. It was a religious sacrament that the worshipers of Democracy held dear. The act of voting is more important to them than the outcome, because it's an act of faith in the State. Faith in the god Democracy.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">This year there is clearly something different. There is a candidate who is not part of the One Party. Donald Trump is hated by the rulers of both factions which, with sham-animosity, are supposed to trade the presidency back and forth every four to eight years, according to some predetermined schedule. That he has upset their apple cart and exposed their choreographed charade is made clear by the numbers of defectors who have announced that they will vote for the "other" candidate, Hillary Clinton, rather than allow this usurper to ascend. He is not in their playbook and he does not follow their Narrative. And, he seems not to care that he is hated by them.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">This has piqued my interest, but, two very concrete issues are the greater reason behind why I am going to vote in a few days. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Firstly, I believe that there is a categorically greater chance of our country becoming engaged in war of some kind with Russia or China if Hillary Clinton is elected. War is hell, and war to maintain or extend an Empire is immoral.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Secondly, Hillary Clinton will continue, and accelerate, the massive and indiscriminate immigration from nations with cultures, world-views, and religions that are hostile to the Christian posterity of the immigrants from the European nations who founded America. Our country is the legacy of Christendom, in spite of the fact that it has to a great extent become faithless to Christ, and its destruction as such is the goal of the Christ-hating elites which are at the heart of the One Party. We have had enough of such immigration and it is time to stop it and roll it back if Christendom or Western Civilization is to survive.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Donald Trump is not a magical candidate. He will undoubtedly fail to live up to the things he has said and will let his supporters down in significant ways. However, if he even partially follows through on his rhetoric, he will be more beneficial to this nation than any other president in my lifetime.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">There is a slim chance that is worth taking that Donald Trump will finally break the hold that the One Party wields over every aspect of our lives. Maybe some of them will even go to jail. Maybe the people of this country (Christians in particular) will finally see them all for what they are: corrupt, deceiving, and evil.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">I'm going to vote for Donald Trump and I will pray that God's will be done.</span>Oakthornhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05910075720762248814noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7990506399808645724.post-26198038235314051162016-10-22T17:03:00.001-04:002019-01-24T20:16:01.182-05:00We must have Principles!<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">It is simultaneously amusing and pathetic to watch so many Christians suddenly acquire principles when it comes to Presidential elections. Neither of the two current candidates that have a chance of winning are acceptable to them because, as a nationally-known local pastor has said, </span><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">"both fail to clear a basic threshold of personal integrity, sound judgment, and trustworthiness."</span><br />
<span 16px="" font-size:=""><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #222222;">This is a hopelessly naive and deluded sentiment. Politicians, as a class, are among the most corrupt and untrustworthy people on the planet, who perennially exercise poor judgment and fail to live up to nearly any of the lofty ideals they express as candidates. This is true of candidates from both of the major parties, or, should we say more truly, from either candidate from the one party with two names, as Fred Reed puts it. To be unaware of this and apparently to believe that this Presidential race is the first time both candidates are morally bankrupt is inexcusable for a discerning mind.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #222222;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">How many of these very same Christians voted for a cult-member in the previous race? One Christian friend told me that he had no problem doing so, because "he was a good man." How many of these very same Christians complained loudly in the past that failing to vote for the lesser of two evils is no different from casting a vote for the enemy? How many of these very same Christians have been criticizing me for decades for not voting?</span><br />
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Suddenly, they now have Principles!</span><br />
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Ironically, their newly discovered devotion to political integrity comes at a time when there actually <i>is a difference between the two candidates</i> that can have an existential influence on our nation. This is the first time in my lifetime that this has been true. But, these Christians are too busy wringing their hands over qualities that no Presidential candidate in my lifetime has possessed. </span><br />
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Somehow, they have missed this.</span><br />
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">On second thought, it is much more pathetic than amusing.</span>Oakthornhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05910075720762248814noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7990506399808645724.post-24314948025626671672016-10-14T07:46:00.001-04:002017-04-30T14:17:39.089-04:00History<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">One of the crowning achievements of the public school system is its ability to make the amazing and the fascinating seem dull, pointless, and even downright unpleasant. Its goal is not to educate, not to awaken young minds, nor to open eyes to the expansive vistas of the intellectual landscape.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Rather, public schooling aims to propagandize, to induce malaise, and to blind eyes to truth. Once the wings are clipped and the chains secure, it goes about its task of creating good little voters, workers, taxpayers, and (State) worshipers, to paraphrase Jennifer Granholm, a former Michigan governor.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">And so, I was not very old before I was agreeing with Henry Ford that "History is bunk." Whatever Ford meant by it, to me it meant that History was boring and irrelevant. I continued to think that way for over thirty years.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">My beliefs about History changed almost overnight several years ago after a friend recommended a podcast by a guy named Dan Carlin, called <a href="http://www.dancarlin.com/hardcore-history-series/">Hardcore History</a>. Carlin is, in his words a "fan of History," not a historian, but his synthesis of the sources and his presentation are illuminating and exciting in a way I never believed possible. He covers topics ranging in time from the ancient world to approximately the era of World War II.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">But, highly entertaining though they are, the chief value of Carlin's work is to chronicle and illustrate the nature of Man and the State, neither of which have changed, ever. </span><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Mankind <a href="https://infogalactic.com/info/George_Santayana">does indeed repeat</a> his foolishness from generation to generation. It is also evident that when men do not remember the past, we will believe just about anything.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">I would say that his podcasts have become required listening in our homeschool curriculum, but a requirement hasn't been necessary. The children have been listening to them (and buying them!) on their own. My daughter has enjoyed them so much that she is actually interested in <i>reading</i> History. We have conversations around the dinner table about the Persian Empire, the futility of the world wars, and how the entrance and exit of the Mongols from the world stage follows so closely the biblical pattern of God raising up a nation to accomplish His purposes.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Thanks, Dan, for changing my mind about the importance of studying History.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Monday, October 10, was the anniversary of one of the most important events in the history of Christendom, the Battle of Tours. In 732 AD, Charles Martel halted for good the advance of Islam into Europe. At the Faith and Heritage blog, <a href="http://faithandheritage.com/2016/10/the-guardian-of-the-west/">Clive Sanguis writes</a> that had they not,</span><br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><span color: #444444;">There would have been no peaceful Middle Ages, no Reformation, no Western civilization, no colonizing of the New World for Christ, no scientific revolution or artistic treasures. The entire history of the West might have been unrecognizable.</span></span></blockquote>
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Thirteen centuries later, Christendom only exists in remnants living in quasi-captivity within the pagan legacy of Western Civilization. But, the new Islamic invasion has been underway for well over a decade.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">History repeats, but I wonder if it will have a different ending this time.</span><br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
</blockquote>
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Oakthornhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05910075720762248814noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7990506399808645724.post-62516549648542113912016-10-09T20:11:00.000-04:002019-01-24T20:05:04.477-05:00Book Review: Flatland<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><a href="https://www.amazon.com/FLATLAND-Romance-Dimensions-Distinguished-Chiron/dp/918775116X/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1476046149&sr=8-2&keywords=flatland"><i>Flatland</i></a> by Edwin Abbott is a book that I have known about since I was in high school, but only got around to actually reading this Summer. It was first published in 1884, ostensibly by A Square, a denizen of a world of only two dimensions. It begins like this,</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="color: #666666;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">1. -- Of the Nature of Flatland</span> </span></blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span color:="" font-family:="" ms="" quot="" sans-serif="" trebuchet="">I call our world Flatland, not because we call it so, but to make its nature clearer to you, my happy readers, who are privileged to live in Space.</span></blockquote>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">In this way, A Square begins his amazingly detailed description of the economy, social structure, class divisions, climate, methods of social interaction, differences between males and females, religion, and politics of his world. </span><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms", sans-serif;">Flatland is intricate beyond what those of us in Space would think possible prior to hearing of its wonderful sophistication and consistency. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms", sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms", sans-serif;">Our author is a solidly middle-class four-sided man: a square. He has a wife and a number of regular five-sided children. The way that genetics works in Flatland is that the vast majority of men are common irregular (unequal sides) three-sided people. Eventually, after generations of slow improvement and progress, a three-sided family will bear a child with three <i>equal </i>sides and that genetic line will then begin to advance in society. From then on, being a <i>regular</i> polygon, the male offspring will always possess one additional side from his father. Equilateral triangles produce Squares, which produce regular Pentagons, which produce regular Hexagons, and so on. Eventually, a family line may produce a polygon of so many sides that its number is incalculable and it is declared to be a Circle, and admitted to the priestly class.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">A Square's quiet existence is interrupted one day when he is visited by a being from Space, a three-dimensional world which can communicate with Flatland. The visitor is a Sphere, and as he dips into Flatland, his manifestation in that world is essentially a cross-section of himself, and so appears to A Square as a Circle which suddenly appears out of nowhere.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">To the beings of Flatland, everything about the reality of two-dimensional existence is not only taken for granted as <i>the-way-things-are</i>, but it is exclusively and necessarily so. Because of this, much reasoning and proof is required of the Sphere before he is able to get A Square to comprehend and actually believe in a realm of three dimensions. The simple concept of there being a direction that is "up above" and "down below", being different from the Northward and Southward that were so familiar and conceptually obvious to him, is nearly impossible for his geometric mind to fathom.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Eventually, the Sphere succeeds in his endeavor, but only as the result of an experience in which A Square is somehow granted a vision of a one-dimensional world, which he called <i>Lineland</i>. Through A Square's difficulty in expressing to the King of Lineland the nature of Flatland, A Square has an intellectual epiphany, by analogical extension, of the nature of Space.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Sadly, our happy protagonist's life is made very unpleasant by his new understanding of the nature of the universe. His fellow Flatlanders have a difficult time understanding the wonderful new truths that he attempts to share with them, even though he lacks a vocabulary to do so, and he experiences no little degree of persecution.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">I will leave it to you to discover how it all turns out for him.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">What I find fascinating and insightful about the story is the analogy of existence as one progresses from the single dimension of Lineland, to two dimensions in Flatland, and, finally, three dimensions in Space, our familiar reality. I say "finally", but that is really just an assumption on our part, like two-dimensional reality being an assumption made by A Square and his fellows. The analogy can be extended out yet another level to a four-dimensional reality with which we have no regular discourse and no way to directly comprehend.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">The ability to conceptualize a new direction that is "away from" any of our three dimensions is as impossible for us as it was for A Square. We can only comprehend the possibility of such a thing by analogy.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Another intriguing thought is that when the beings of Flatland look at one another they only see a particular side at any given time. Their methods of distinguishing between the shapes are effective, but are obviously clumsy and incomplete to those of us who can simply look down from "above" and see, all at once, the full shape of the individual. No Flatlander truly knows what any other Flatlander, including himself, looks like, for they can only see each other in parts.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Likewise, we can only see each other in Space incompletely. It would take a Being of at least four dimensions to fully know the form of a three-dimensional person.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">What do I look like to God, who undoubtedly can see me in full?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">How far off and in error am I from understanding, even a little, God's true nature when I conceive of Him as a being that inhabits space, just like me? I know that He created the three-dimensional universe, and I know in theory that He transcends it, but in my everyday thinking do I drag Him into it, and diminish Him?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">I can no more comprehend the majestic totality of God's nature than the King of Lineland can comprehend a Sphere.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Flatland is a mind-bending tale that will keep you turning the pages compulsively for its utter originality and the fascination brought about by the descriptions of worlds that might just be right under our noses.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">It has also taught me to be very careful about what I say and think about the nature of God that falls outside of what He has explicitly revealed to us.</span></div>
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Oakthornhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05910075720762248814noreply@blogger.com