“My People Perish for Lack of Knowledge”

Tetragrammaton (Photo credit: ideacreamanuelaPps)

On of this blog’s readers (“Morningstar”–but not Don Bailey) posted a comment on another article that read,

“Some scriptures I believe I understand. Some I know I do not understand.. One scripture says, My people are destroyed because of a lack of knowledge. Then, another scripture says, Woe to those who deprive my people of their rights.This last scripture is enough for me to believe that rights come from YHWH. BUT, it seems to me these rights are going to be denied by the oppressors regardless of whether God’s people have “knowledge” or not..I think Christ & other apostles etc.,had knowledge. Also, he,Christ said if they have persecuted me, they will persecute you. So, I am at a loss to understand what the scripture that says my people are destroyed for a lack of knowledge means. Except I know what destroyed & being destroyed means.”

“Morningstar” knows God’s people are destroyed for “lack of knowledge” but, so far, he can’t figure out what that “knowledge” is.  Is the needed knowledge the Pythagorean Theory?  How ’bout how many ounces are in a metric tonne?  What’s the Las Vegas “line” on the next Super Bowl?  Exactly, what “knowledge” is needed not to “perish”?

It is a puzzlement.  I don’t know the answer for sure.  But I’ve also wondered about that essential “knowledge” for at least a decade.  And, then, about five years ago, an “answer” (or at least a possible answer) came to me.

 

The Lord’s Prayer

The Lord's Prayer (1886-1896) from the series The Life of Christ, Brooklyn Museum (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

When you study law, you begin to get a sense of history.  Not because the history of the law is merely interesting, but because it’s important to understand the historical context of any law or court decision.  Law does not mean the same thing at all times and places.  A law may mean one thing in A.D. 1900 and another thing entirely in A.D. 2000.

For example, something the Supreme Court said prior to A.D. 1933 may not carry the same weight as something the Supreme Court said after A.D. 1933.  More, the definitions of words change over time, and a word defined one way in Black’s Law Dictionary, 1^st Edition (A.D. 1891) might be defined somewhat differently in Black’s 4^th Edition (A.D. 1968) and completely opposite in Black’s 8^th (A.D. 2004)

• Historical context is similarly important when we talk about the principles and laws expressed in the Bible.   Given that the Bible, as a complete book, is at least 15 centuries old, everything within the Bible should be well fixed and incapable of “evolution”.  In terms of historical context, all we might really need to know is whether a statement was made in the Old Testament or the New.

But that leaves a very big question:  When did the Old Testament end and the New Testament begin?

 

Being Saved

Image via Wikipedia

I don’t like incorporated churches.  I doubt that they are real churches of the God of the Bible.  On those rare instances when I do attend a 501(c)3 “church,” I get a faintly creepy feeling somewhat like going into a hospital.  A Bible study group in someone’s living-room strikes me as a much more legitimate “church”.

Nevertheless, I see people at these incorporated churches (as well as in “private” life) who have that dreamy, peaceful demeanor of those who are already “saved”.

I don’t understand that peaceful, dreamy demeanor–probably because I don’t have that look or demeanor.  But why should I?  I have no doubt that I am “called”.  I have no doubt that I could be “saved”.  I hope that I will be “saved”.  But so far, I do not feel or believe that I am already “saved” by any event that’s taken place since I was born.

More, while I hope that those who have that dreamy look of the “pre-saved” are actually saved, I have my doubts.  I’m not jealous of these people.  If they’re already saved but I am not, I say Hooray for those who are already and actually “saved”.

But, as I said, I have my doubts.  In fact, I’m so wary of those who claim to be already “saved” that I regard their claims as a potentially dangerous conceit.  Not dangerous to me.  Dangerous to those who make such claims.

 

Google Posts Dead Sea Scrolls

Image via Wikipedia

Rightly or wrongly, Google gets some criticism for spying.  But here’s something from Google that’s both good and pretty amazing:  the Dead Sea Scrolls are now online.

video  00:02:10

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=5rYj_0foJYA

 

Link to the Scrolls:  http://dss.collections.imj.org.il/

 

DOD’s Anti-God Vaccine

Image via Wikipedia

This is easily one of the most disturbing and fascinating videos I’ve ever seen.  It’s so fantastic and seems so improbable that I’m tempted to dismiss it as a hoax.

On the other hand, I’ve listened to it three times, and it’s so well done, so credible in terms of the way people speak and act, that I can’t imagine that it’s a hoax unless produced by a very sophisticated video team for a reason that’s not easy to imagine.

Essentially, the video claims to be the record of an A.D. 2005 meeting at the Department of Defense between a half dozen people being introduced to a new technology that could allegedly be used to eliminate “religious fundamentalists“.

This technology is allegedly based on the discovery of a gene in our DNA that’s associated with people’s tendency to become “religious fundamentalists”.   Those people for whom this gene is maximally “expressed” tend to be “religious fundamentalists”.  Those people for whom this gene is dormant tend to be secularists.

This meeting explains that there is a virus that could be intentionally dispersed in a population that would turn that gene “off”and cause religious fundamentalists to become “normal”.  By “normal” they apparently mean “secularists,” “atheists,” “consumers” and “good little Germans”.

Sounds crazy, right?

 

Cultural Jihad; Counter-Cultural Jihad

Image via Wikipedia

A Muslim turns to Christ.

The struggle for values–spiritual warfare–continues.

Video

00:08:11

http://www.cbn.com/media/player/index.aspx?s=/vod/AL32v1_WS