As From the Beginning

Operation Grapple first British thermonuclear test¹

"Where is the promise of his coming? for since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation" (cf. 2 Peter 3:4).

However, the sense "that all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation" was preempted by an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) test this morning.

"The most recent test lofted the North Korean missile on a very high trajectory, bringing it down in the Sea of Japan. Preliminary data from the launch reveals that half, if not most, of the continental U.S. would be in range of the missile tested Friday" (Michael Sheetz | Jeff Daniels, CNBC, 7/28/2017).

Even more arresting was the ICBM's very high trajectory into outer space giving it the capability to return to earth at hypersonic velocity, i.e., terminal phase speeds of Mach 25.0 or greater, making it essentially "impossible" to intercept. The much publicized Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) system is a "short" to "intermediate" ballistic missile interceptor (Mach 8.24), "obviously" incapable of intercepting "terminal phase" ICBMs for which it was not designed, contrary to recent testing "contrived" to prove otherwise!

In retrospect this "Cuban Missile Crisis" with major nuclear powers providing covert technical assistance to North Korea and Iran put both "technologically" on the door step of an America with no "strategic defense" capability.

When President Reagan's nascent Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI) anti-ballistic missile (ABM) system proposing development of advanced defense technologies, such as "in-orbit ABM missile platforms" and "space based nuclear powered ABM lasers" was going on line, the "Washington Post" affirmed "Chappaquiddick" Ted's maligning of the initiative as "reckless Star Wars schemes." That March 24, 1983 "Washington Post" publication premeditatively relegated SDI to the realm of "pseudo science" by replacing the acronym with "Star Wars," a term now indelibly embed in America's psychic and vernacular. Today, 34 years later, America has no provision for defense against ICBMs — NOTHING, not even a space shuttle to implement it if she had!

How is America responding to this perilous shadow of death? Oblivious "as from the beginning." Paul writes of those enamored with the darkness of this world:

"And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient; Being filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, debate, deceit, malignity; whisperers, Backbiters, haters of God, despiteful, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, Without understanding, covenantbreakers, without natural affection, implacable, unmerciful: Who knowing the judgment of God, that they which commit such things are worthy of death, not only do the same, but have pleasure in them that do them" Romans (1:28 -32).

How are churches responding to this perilous shadow of death? Much the same as those enamored with the darkness of this world, "having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof." Paul again writes "This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come."

"For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, Without natural affection, trucebreakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good, Traitors, heady, highminded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God; Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away. For of this sort are they which creep into houses, and lead captive silly women laden with sins, led away with divers lusts, Ever learning, and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth" (2Timothy 3:1-7). 

"For as in the days that were before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark, And knew not until the flood came, and took them all away; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be" (Matthew 24:38-39).

Nigh to ruin?

How to be saved?

¹By Royal Air Force - http://www.raf.mod.uk/history_old/line1950-59.html, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=3351711

Sovereignty a Definition

Return of the Prodigal, Pompeo Batoni (1773)¹

Sovereignty

Noun sov•er•eign•ty \ˈsä-v(ə-)rən-tē

A word Calvinism uses to manipulate God, telling Him what He can or cannot do. Thereby wresting sovereignty from God and appropriating it for itself.

Synonyms (before Calvinism): power, authority, jurisdiction, and "freedom of His will."





The Sovereign of Egypt said to Joseph, "Though I am Pharaoh, yet without your permission no one shall raise his hand or foot in all the land of Egypt." (cf. Genesis 41:44). Yet Calvinism will not allow God permission to delegate His authority, "or" the "freedom of will" to do whatsoever He wills!

In the Book of Beginnings "God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion ... over all the earth."

In a chapter to follow, God delegated His authority to one man to save a remnant of the antediluvian world!

In the beginning of the book of Job, God delegated authority, not just to man, but to Satan! "The LORD said unto Satan, Behold, all that he hath is in thy power; only upon himself put not forth thine hand."

And "again there was a day when the LORD said unto Satan, Behold, he is in thine hand; but save his life."

In the Wilderness, the LORD set before the children of Israel "a blessing and a curse," and the "freedom of will" to choose between the two. Such is ever the command to every soul under heaven to choose between "Life and Death."

In the wilderness of Judea Satan declared that the "power and the glory all the kingdoms of the world were delivered unto him to give to whomsoever he would give it," a contention the Lord did not challenge.

In Paul's Ephesian epistle we are reminded of the power and authority delegated to the "dark" "prince of the power of the air" over the "course of this world."

And as the prodigal, who longed to fill his belly with the husks which the swine were eating, coming to himself, said. "'I will' rise up and go to my father, and 'I will' say to him, Father, I have sinned against heaven and before thee" (Luke 15:18, emphasis added).

Is it not God's right as Sovereign to delegate His "freedom of will" to souls created in His "

Triune image"? A question Calvinism has yet to answer, or perhaps more troubling, perhaps it has!

Calvinism 101

¹By Pompeo Batoni - [1], Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=4628046

The Recusal

Every Promise in the Book is Mine

"Every promise in the book is mine. Every chapter, every verse, every line. … Every promise in the book is mine. Mine. Mine. Mine."¹

Unfortunately, the refrain of this old hymn exemplifies the error of essentially every “Christian” cult i.e., spiritualizing His Word, thereby misappropriating God given "promises" to Israel.

Jehovah’s Witnesses believe they are Revelation’s hundred and forty and four thousand chosen from all the tribes of the children of Israel. Mormons believe they are the ten lost tribes of Israel. British Israelism teaches that Britain is Ephraim and America Manasseh. Searching the internet for the phrase New Covenant, I inadvertently accessed a church of that name that “professes” the Lord Jesus Christ; they believe they are the new white Aryan Israel of God.

When I wrote this many years ago after being introduced to this example of a "doctrinally inappropriate" song, I assumed the orally transmitted refrain was a variant of some old and lost "hymn," but I was wrong! It was the genesis of a genre that has essentially replaced hymns today!

¹A variant of a praise chorus by Pearl Spencer Smith, Every Promise in the Book is Mine, 1937.

People of the Book

Halamish Friday, July 22, 2017 (IDF)

Jews are not as the nations, they are the "people of the Book," the "chosen" "to whom pertaineth the adoption, and the glory, and the covenants, and the giving of the law, and the service of God, and the promises." Moreover, unto the "children of the promise" "were committed the oracles of God" (cf. Deut 14:2, Rom 9:3-8 , Rom 3:1-2).

An Israeli father, son and daughter were killed they partook of their Shabbat meal last night in a West Bank home. Fortunately, the knife welding Palestinian killer was shot and wounded through a window by an on leave IDF soldier before the assassin could conclude the sanguineous assult by also killing the man’s critically injured wife, as well as grandchildren.

“Very difficult” is how paramedics described the scene. “When we went into the house we saw four casualties lying with stab wounds. Three of them were unconscious, with no pulse and not breathing.” “Another... woman was conscious and suffered stab wounds to her upper body.”

Why? From the beginning:

"And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel." (cf. Genesis 3:15).

A Legacy

Thy Will be Done

Die Endlösung

Haus der Wannsee Konferenz¹

“A mighty fortress is our God never failing…” I love that song and the passion of the man who wrote it professed: “My conscience is so bound and captivated in these Scriptures and the Word of God. … Hereupon I stand and rest: I have not what else to say. … turning to the emperor and the nobles … confirmed …’I am tied by the Scriptures.’... Before the Diet of Worms was dissolved, Charles V caused an edict to be drawn up … that Martin Luther be … henceforward looked upon … separated from the Church, a schismatic, and an obstinate and notorious heretic” (John Foxe, William Byron Forbush ed., Foxe’s Book of Martyrs, IX).

Despite Luther’s devotion to Scripture, he sometimes disparaged it: Regarding The Epistle of James, Luther writes: “Therefore St. James’ epistle is really an epistle of straw, compared to these others, for it has nothing of the nature of the gospel about it” (Luther, M., Preface To The New Testament, 1522, emphasis added). Regarding The Revelation of Jesus Christ, Luther writes: “I can in no way detect that the Holy Spirit produced it. … Christ is neither taught nor known in it” (Luther, M. Preface to the Revelation of St. John, 1522, emphasis added).

 However, regarding Paul’s love for his Jewish brethren in the book of Romans, “For I could wish that myself were accursed from Christ for my brethren, my kinsmen according to the flesh: Who are Israelites; to whom pertaineth the adoption, and the glory, and the covenants, and the giving of the law, and the service of God, and the promises,” from Luther, there is only "silence."

Although Romans is the crux of his “Sola fide” theology, in his commentary (Romans 9 through 11), an affirmation of Paul’s kinsmen according to the flesh is neglected entirely. Luther translated thousands of His promises and blessings for Israel as a people and a nation into the German tongue. However, Luther "spiritualized" them all, and in "systematic" compliance composed perhaps the most anti-Semitic work ever written:

What shall we Christians do with this rejected and condemned people, the Jews? … First, to set fire to their synagogues or schools and to bury and cover with dirt whatever will not burn, so that no man will ever again see a stone or cinder of them. This is to be done in honor of our Lord. … Second, I advise that their houses also be razed and destroyed. … Third, I advise that all their prayer books and Talmudic writings, in which such idolatry, lies, cursing, and blasphemy are taught, be taken from them. … Fourth, I advise that their rabbis be forbidden to teach henceforth on pain of loss of life and limb. … Fifth, I advise that safe-conduct on the highways be abolished completely for the Jews. … Sixth, I advise that usury be prohibited to them, and that all cash and treasure of silver and gold be taken from them. … Seventh, I recommend putting a flail, an ax, a hoe, a spade, a distaff, or a spindle into the hands of young, strong Jews and Jewesses and letting them earn their bread in the sweat of their brow (Martin Luther, Martin H. Bertram, tr., The Jews and their Lies, 1543).

Almost five hundred years later "another" German read and implemented Luther’s seven step solution ("Lösung"), but added one step more: Die Endlösung (The Final Solution: Wannsee Conference, Berlin, January 20, 1942).

The only known copy of the Wannsee Conference invitation: Heydrich to 

Reich Foreign Ministry Undersecretary Martin Luther, 20. Jan. 1942.²

¹Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=3563259

²This image is from The Minutes from the Wannsee Conference, Source: United States National Archives. Copyright Carmelo Lisciotto H.E.A.R.T 2007. This document is in the public domain and may be freely reproduced. Stamp: Top Secret, 30 copies, 16th copy.

Out of Due Time

On the Way to Damascus-Caravaggio, 1601¹

"And last of all he was seen of me also, as of one born out of due time" (1 Corinthians 15:8).

"I saw in the way a light from heaven, above the brightness of the sun, shining round about me and them which journeyed with me. And when we were all fallen to the earth, I heard a voice speaking unto me, and saying in the Hebrew tongue, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou Me?" (cf. Acts 26:13-14)

Paul, was not one of the eleven who were "born again" of the water and of the Spirit and companied with the Lord all the time that He went in and out, "beginning from the baptism of John, unto that same day that he was taken up" (cf. Acts 1:21-22).

Paul, was "born out of due time" "of the water and of the Spirit" three days after "being led by the hand of them that were with him, to Damascus." There "fell from his eyes as it had been scales," and he received sight and was baptized calling on the name of the Lord, and was filled with the Holy Spirit (cf. Act 22:11, Act 9:18).

However, where was the "Hebrew of the Hebrews" that first Passover when the Lord whom Saul was seeking suddenly came unto his temple? And where was Saul that final Passover three years later when "Jesus entered into the temple of God , and [again] cast out all that sold and bought in the temple, and overthrew the tables of the money-changers and the seats of those that sold the doves" (Matthew 21:12)? From Paul there is only silence!

Perhaps, the Scriptures are not altogether silent:

"And when he was gone forth into the way, there came one running, and kneeled to him, and asked him, Good Master, what shall I do that I may inherit eternal life? ... Then Jesus beholding him loved him, and said unto him, One thing thou lackest: go thy way, sell whatsoever thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come, take up the cross, and follow me. And he was sad at that saying, and went away grieved" (cf. Mark 10:17 -22, emphasis added).

Perhaps Paul's "in due time" regret is latent in this or in some other Scriptural account, be that as it may:

"And last of all he was seen of me also, as of one born out of due time" (1 Corinthians 15:8).

Paul here, humbly but incontrovertibly and emphatically, authenticates his "apostleship" and "his gospel," declaring that the Risen Lord "was seen of me also" (1 Corinthians 15:5-7)!

"For I am the least of the apostles, that am not meet to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. But by the grace of God I am what I am: and his grace which was bestowed upon me was not in vain; but I laboured more abundantly than they all: yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me" (1 Corinthians 15:9-10, emphasis added).



¹By Caravaggio - scan, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=15219516

The Early Church