EZSmirkzz May 3-31, 2005 archive

Tuesday, May 31, 2005
World Economics for Slaves- Part 666
This too, alas, is a little off the beaten track, but follows closely the previous post’s thrust.

Funding the empire by introducing military needs to the lending equation

But how on earth can such an ambitious program be funded? In a world threatened by a global deflation in which poor nations work and save only to sustain American consumption – the ne plus ultra in vendor financing – through the purchase of US Treasury bills which, in turn, drives down interest rates so that credit-drunk Americans can consume yet more, this game can – alas – go on for a very long time. (Or, at least, until Asia is ready to transition from a collection of export economies feeding American consumers into self-sustaining national ones whose populations enjoy rising wage levels, thereby creating internal demand for their nations’ products.)

SRA : News

I would also like to extend a thanks to Justin Raimondo, where I came across this article, for his previous insight, that politics is motivated by our hatreds. This observation should not be overlooked by Christians, whose sole obligation is love one another. While the remark doesn’t quite cover all things it is a good place for American Christians to start re-examining their own faith, and politics, as Mr. Raimondo’s discription of politics is the very discription of Idolatry, although Idolatry is not limited to politics. Love of owns ownself is at times Idolatry.

At any rate, I still hold to my previous assertion, that 666 is mans number, and stands for the political, economic, and religious systems of mankind, all of which promise mankind the very things promised by God through His Kingdom, and fall short of these promises, because they cannot deliver them.

In short anything which causes you to hate your brother and sisters, and anything which causes them to hate you, is the work of the wicked one, be they political, economic or religious. Yet others are racial, nationalities, gender, etc. etc., and all of these things fall short of the glory of God. It would behoove you then to pay attention to yourselves, oh son of man, for I fear you do not discern the day of your inspection, nor the hour that is approaching. But I can assure you that it is coming, and when you least expect it, it will be upon you in a way you had not imagined. If you have not learned to love your enemies before that, you will without fail be destroyed. It really is as simple as that.
posted by EZSmirkz at 9:56 AM

Wednesday, May 25, 2005
World Economics for Slaves
This is a little off the beaten path, but it is too important for you to ignore.

Thus while a rise in the market price of oil adds to inflation, the corresponding rise of the asset value and size of oil reserves create a wealth effect that more than neutralizes the inflationary impact of market oil prices.

The prospect of a private pension collapse is more pressing than the accounting crisis in Social Security. As Ford and GM fall into financial stress, their extended network of parts and material suppliers is also falling into insolvency.

With asset value ballooning from the impact of a sharp rise in energy prices, which in turn leads the entire commodity price chain in an upward spiral, the economy can carry more debt without increasing its debt-to-equity ratio, giving much-needed substance to the debt bubble that had been in danger of bursting before oil prices began to rise.

EZ- Bada boom bada bing. Those who are slaves to their credit holders are really being eaten by their god, and most Americans are in that boat.

Recall Pauls admonition not to be owing anybody anything?

Rom 13:7 Render to all their dues: tribute to whom tribute is due; custom to whom custom; fear to whom fear; honor to whom honor.
Rom 13:8 Owe no man anything, save to love one another: for he that loveth his neighbor hath fulfilled the law.

posted by EZSmirkz at 2:36 PM

Saturday, May 21, 2005
Sometimes I wonder about myself
I deleted my last post because it was one of the most dis-jointed piles of trash that I have ever written.

My deepest apologies, to God, the Christ, Clement when he wakes up, to Trinitarians, and alchoholics.

I read somewhere or another that the problem with religious people was they never knew if their works were agreeable to God. Until today perhaps, I could see their point. I have come to the realization however that anything that does not comport to loving God with all ones heart and mind and strength and energy, that does not comport with loving ones fellow human beings as oneself, falls short of the love that God has shown to me, in sending his son the Christ Jesus, nor does it comport to the love that the Lord Jesus Christ has shown for me, having shed his blood so that I too might be reconciled to God. This love has not been extended exclusively to me, any more than it should extend only so far as me. It is unfortunately easier for me to discern the spirit of the world in human institutions than it is for me to discern them in my ownself.
posted by EZSmirkz at 8:34 PM

Tuesday, May 17, 2005
An Open Letter
There is a certain humility which comes with Christianity no matter what status one assumes they may have achieved, or whatever station or office they may have obtained to according to God’s purposes and will. Today has been one of those days for me, inwhich I have allowed myself to fall back into old patterns of thinking much to my chagrin. However the beginning of wisdom is the fear of Jehovah, and we all eventually must face that fact, and the fact that we are seeking to obtain a prize , but that we have not yet obtained to it. In short a halo fits a little tight on earth.

In any case we have before us these following examples of the Apostles themselves falling short, as a reminder to us of their humanity, and so from these examples we might also find our own, and through the understanding that if these could stumble, that not only we, but all the people that we ever meet will also at some point stumble and fall.

Mat 16:21 From that time Jesus began to show His disciples that He must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and be raised again the third day. Then Peter took Him and began to rebuke Him, saying, God be gracious to You, Lord! This shall never be to You. But He turned and said to Peter, Go, Satan! You are an offense to Me, for you do not savor the things that are of God, but those that are of men.

Luk 9:49 And John answered and said, Master, we saw one casting out demons in Your name. And we prevented him, because he does not follow us. And Jesus said to him, Do not prevent him, for he who is not against us is for us.

And it happened in the fulfilling of the days of His taking up, He steadfastly set His face to go to Jerusalem. And He sent messengers before His face. And they went and entered into a village of the Samaritans to make ready for Him. And they did not receive Him, because His face was going toward Jerusalem. And seeing, His disciples James and John said, Lord, do You desire that we command fire to come down from Heaven and consume them, even as Elijah did? But He turned and rebuked them and said, You do not know of what spirit you are. For the Son of Man has not come to destroy men’s lives, but to save. And they went to another village.

Gal 2:11 But when Peter came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face, because he was to be blamed. For before some came from James, he ate with the nations. But when they came, he withdrew and separated himself, fearing those of the circumcision. And the rest of the Jews also dissembled with him, so as even Barnabas was led away with their dissembling. But when I saw that they did not walk uprightly with the truth of the gospel, I said to Peter before all, If you, being a Jew, live as a Gentile, and not as the Jews, why do you compel the nations to judaize?

One may also draw the lesson of humility before God, and the depth and width of God’s forgiveness towards each and everyone of us, and that there is no partiality with God, as there is with man. Mankind is short lived, and relative to Methuselah even a hundred year old man is a boy of ten to a man of ninety six. In such a short time then, one should of course judge their own thoughts and actions, and discern for themselves whether those they associate with are living in accordance with the commandments of God, through the Christ, Jesus, and guard their own hearts from those things they know to be short of the glory of God. Just as Christ spoke the thing that defile a man are the things that proceed out of his heart in words and deeds. If we cannot judge our own hearts any better than the Apostles did their own, then it is probably wisdom to not judge the things of the heart of other people from our own hearts as well.

We have received in the Scripture an outline for life, not the story line of our own individual lives but certainly not that of others, just as Paul wrote ; Rom 11:24 For if you were cut out of the natural wild olive tree, and against nature were grafted into a good olive tree, how much more these being according to nature will be grafted into their own olive tree? For I do not want you to be ignorant of this mystery, brothers, so that you may not be wise within yourselves, that hardness in part has happened to Israel until the fullness of the nations comes in; and so all Israel will be saved, even as it has been written, “The Deliverer will come out of Zion, and He will turn away ungodliness from Jacob. And this is My covenant with them, when I take away their sins.” Isa. 59:20, 21 Indeed, as regards the gospel, ones hostile toward you, but as regards the election, beloved for the sake of the fathers. For the free gifts and the calling of God are unregrettable. For as you then also disobeyed God, but now have obtained mercy by the disobedience of these, so also these now have disobeyed, so that they also may obtain mercy by your mercy. For God shut up all into disobedience, that He may show mercy to all. O the depth of the riches and of the wisdom and the knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments and His ways past finding out!

So the lessons being imparted here are those of humility before God, as You nor I can know the mind of God. God will show mercy to those whom He wishes to, and not according to the dictates of man. We are left with very little room to judge our fellow man then, be they believers in the Kingdom of God, or not, be they believers in the Christ or not, be they believers in God, or not, it simply does not fall within the purview of the individual Christian to judge as to the salvation and grace of any other individual, but only their current activity and speech. If I judge all wars to be murder, and all abortions to be murder, and all executions to be murder, then it is a fine thing for me, and if my judgment comports with that of God through Christ, then I will be rewarded in the resurrection. If I judge wrongly then I must stand for my own judgment for my own error in the resurrection of the dead. If you though judge differently and you judge this war as just, and that abortion as necessary, and this execution as justice, then you too will stand before the judgment seat of God for your own judgments and your own rewards. Now if we proclaim this one or that one to be condemned to Gehenna, and this one or that one to be a Saint, then we risk being condemned for calling God a liar, because it is God alone that may declare these things, and you condemn yourself with your own words. Therefore do not judge that you may not be judged, just as our Lord Jesus Christ commanded us in the Gospels. Let the theologians mettle in the affairs of Heaven, but you be busy with the works that the Christ has assigned you. Feed the hungry, clothe the naked, visit the prisoners, give shelter to those in need of shelter, give water to those who are thirsty, give freely as you have received freely, doing all such good works as it is in your power to do, that the nonbelievers might give glory to Our God who is in Heaven. In doing these things you will save both them and yourselves.

So we are taught by the Lord Jesus Christ to love God with all hearts and all our strength and all our minds and all our vital energy. We are also taught to love our neighbors as we love our own selves, including our enemies. Not because it is easy to love them, but because God does, irrespective of our opinions of them. It is hard because He requires of us that we go beyond the loves that the world of mankind manifests towards each other, and manifest that love for mankind that God has shown towards us all through Christ Jesus. Just as the Father has done, so too has the Son done, and if we wish to be declared sons of the Living God by God, then we must seek the approval of God, and not men.

To that end I encourage each and every one of you who call yourselves a Christian to read all the Gospels, and memorize one, read all the Greek Scriptures / New Testament and memorize a long and short epistle, so that you may grasp all the things I am saying to you in this missive, and so that the useless ones in the flock do not mislead you by quoting these things out of context. Read the Hebrew Scriptures/Old Testament with a mind towards memorizing some psalms and proverbs, so that you may convince your own self in your own heart that a bag of wisdom from Jehovah is more desirable than all the precious metals and rocks of the Earth. Bear in mind that all these writings are subjected and amplified through the words and teachings of the Christ. Christ then is the lens through which we must look if we are to obtain to a knowledge of God. If the teachings of an Apostle or a Prophet do not comport with the teaching of the Christ, then you have misunderstood the teaching of the Christ or that Apostle or that Prophet. If this is the case, then how will you teach? Yet I tell you, if you love teach love, as that needs no interpretation and weighing in the balances.

You have heard that you must be perfect, because God is perfect. Yet do not let this fact escape your attention, that perfect does not mean exclusively without fault, but also connotes completeness such as a perfect circle, in which one cannot discern the deflections from the arc. Become perfect towards God in this way then, and as the Psalmists said in Psa 37:5; Roll your way on Jehovah; trust also in Him, and He will work. And He shall bring forth your righteousness like the light, and your judgment like the noonday.

May each and everyone of you obtain to this love then, may you be found in union with the Lord Jesus Christ, and may the peace of God be with you, just as you yourself show it to others. Amen.
posted by EZSmirkz at 4:37 PM

Sunday, May 15, 2005
A Dirge
Jer 9 Oh, that my head were waters and my eyes a fountain of tears, that I might weep day and night for the slain of the daughter of my people! Oh, that I had a lodging place for travelers in the wilderness, that I might leave my people and go away from them! For they are all adulterers, an assembly of treacherous ones. And they bend their tongues, their bow is a lie. And they are not mighty for the truth on the earth, for they go from evil to evil. They also do not know Me, says Jehovah.

Let everyone be on guard against his neighbor, and do not trust any brother. For every brother will supplant, and every neighbor will walk as a slanderer. And everyone will deceive his neighbor, and they will not speak the truth. They have taught their tongue to speak lies. They weary themselves to commit iniquity. Your home is in the midst of deceit; through deceit they refuse to know Me, says Jehovah. For this reason, so says Jehovah of Hosts, Behold, I will refine them and test them. For what else can I do because of the daughter of My people? Their tongue is a murdering arrow; it speaks deceit. One speaks peace with his neighbor with his mouth, but in his heart he sets his ambush. Shall I not visit them for these things? says Jehovah. Or shall not My soul be avenged on such a nation as this?

I will take up a weeping and a wailing for the mountains and a mourning for the pastures of the wilderness. For they are burned up, without a man passing through. Yea, they do not hear the voice of cattle. From the fowl of the heavens and to the beast, they have fled; they are gone. And I will make Jerusalem ruins, a den of jackals; and I will make the cities of Judah a desolation without inhabitant.

Who is the wise man that can understand this? And he to whom the mouth of Jehovah has spoken, that he may declare it? Why does the land perish? It is burned up like the wilderness, so that no one passes through. And Jehovah says, Because they have forsaken My Law which I set before them, and have not obeyed My voice, and have not walked in it; but have walked after the stubbornness of their own heart, and after the Baals, which their fathers taught them; so Jehovah of Hosts, the God of Israel, says this: Behold, I will feed them, this people with wormwood, and make them drink poison waters. I will also scatter them among the nations which they have not known, nor their fathers. And I will send the sword after them until I have consumed them.

So says Jehovah of Hosts, Consider and call for the wailers, that they may come. And send for the wise women, that they may come. And let them make haste and take up a lament over us, so that our eyes may run down with tears, and waters flow from our eyelids. For the voice of lament is heard from Zion. How we are ravaged! We are greatly ashamed because we have forsaken the land; because they have thrown down our dwellings.

Yet hear the Word of Jehovah, women. And let your ear receive the Word of His mouth, and teach your daughters a lament, and each one her neighbor a dirge. For death has come into our windows, entering into our fortresses, to cut off the children from the street, the young men from the plazas. Speak, So says Jehovah, Even the bodies of men shall fall as dung on the open field, and as the swath after the reaper, and no one shall gather them.

So says Jehovah, Do not let the wise glory in his wisdom, and do not let the mighty glory in his might. Do not let the rich glory in his riches. But let him who glories glory in this, that he understands and knows Me, that I am Jehovah, doing kindness, justice and righteousness in the earth; for I delight in these, says Jehovah.

Behold, the days come, says Jehovah, that I will punish all the circumcised with foreskin: Egypt, and Judah, and Edom, and the sons of Ammon, and Moab, and all those trimmed on the edges of their beards, who dwell in the wilderness. For all the nations are uncircumcised, and all the house of Israel, those uncircumcised of heart.
posted by EZSmirkz at 7:02 AM

Saturday, May 14, 2005
Fundamental Economics Part 2
These are two or three different commentaries on the Scriptural references of Acts in the previous posts. The first is modern theologies hoped for getting away from the communal aspect of the earliest Christian congregations, which has something to do with the monstrosity of Soviet/Sino Marxist/Leninist Communisim, and of course the fact that that two hundred years after Christ the Church still maintained its’ integrety in these matters, as opposed to the current apostate Church.

To that end I present the modern first, and then Tertullian from his Apologetica, or defense of Christianity to the pagans, which judging from modern “Christian” attitudes and behavior shall fit them quite as neatly in our times as it did the pagans in his. – EZ

Community Of Goods from the ISBE

ko-mu’-ni-ti, (hapanta koina eichon, literally, “They had all things (in) common”): In Act_2:44, it is said that, in the infant church at Jerusalem, “all that believed were together, and had all things common,” and (Act_4:34 f.) “as many as were possessors of lands or houses sold them, and brought the prices of the things that were sold, and laid them at the apostles’ feet.” The inference from this, that there was an absolute disposal of all the property of all the members of the church, and that its proceeds were contributed to a common fund, has been disputed upon the ground that the example of Barnabas in selling “a field” for this purpose (Act_4:37) would not have been mentioned, if this had been the universal rule. The thought conveyed is that all believers in that church held their property as a trust from the Lord, for the benefit of the entire brotherhood, and, as there was need, did as Barnabas.

Meyer, on the above passage, has suggested that it is not unlikely that the well-known poverty of the church at Jerusalem, and its long dependence upon the alms of other churches, may be connected with this early communistic practice, which, however justifiable and commendable at the time, bore its inevitable fruits in a subsequent season of great scarcity and lack of employment.

H. E. Jacobs

Quintus Septimius Florens Tertullianus was one of the greatest Western theologians and writers of Christian antiquity. the first important Christian ecclesiastical writer in Latin, Tertullian’s writings are witness to the doctrine and discipline of the early church. An advocate in the law courts in Rome, Tertullian converted (c. 193)

I will now at once proclaim the actual occupations of the Christian association, in order that I who rejected the idea that they were evil may show that they are good. We are a corporation with a common knowledge of religion, a common rule of life, and an union of hope. We come together for meeting and assembly, in order that having formed a band as it were to come before God we may encompass him with prayers. This violence is pleasing to God.

We pray also for the emperors, for their ministers and those in authority, for the state of the world, for general quiet, for the postponement of the end. We meet to call one another to remembrance of the Scripture, if the aspect of affairs requires us either to be forewarned or to be reminded of anything. In any case we feed our belief on holy words, we raise our hope, we strengthen our confidence, we clinch the teaching none the less by driving home precepts. There too are pronounced exhortations, corrections and godly judgments. For our judgment too is delivered with great weight, as among those who are sure that they are acting under the eye of God, and there is the greatest anticipation of the future judgment, if any one has so sinned, as to be banished from the communion of prayer and assembly and all holy fellowship.

We are governed by the most approved elders, who have obtained this office not by purchase, but on testimony; for indeed nothing of God is obtainable by money.

Even if we have a kind of treasury, this is not filled up from a sense of obligation, as of a hired religion. Each member adds a small sum once a month, or when he pleases, and only if he is willing and able; for no one is forced, but each contributes of his own free will. These are the deposits as it were made by devotion. For that sum is disbursed not on banquets nor drinking bouts nor unwillingly on eating-houses, but on the supporting and burying of the poor, and on boys and girls deprived of property and parents, and on aged servants of the house, also on shipwrecked persons, and any, who are in the mines or on islands or in prisons, provided it be; for the cause of God’s religion, who thus become pensioners of their confession.

But the working of that kind of love most of all brands us with a mark of blame in the eyes of some. ‘See,’ they say, ‘how they love one another’; for they themselves hate one another; ‘and how they are ready to die for one another’; for they will be more ready to kill one another. But also they rage at us for calling one another brethren, for no other reason, I suppose, than because among themselves every name indicating blood relationship is assumed from affection. But we are also your brothers, by right of nature, the one mother, although you are little deserving of the name men, because you are evil brothers. But how much more worthily are those both called and considered brethren who have recognised one Father, namely God, who have imbibed one spirit of holiness, who from one womb of the same ignorance have quaked before one light of truth! But we are perhaps regarded as less legitimate for the reason that no tragedy proclaims aloud our brotherliness, or because we are brothers as the result of household possessions, which among you generally break up the relationship of brothers. And so we, who are united in heart and soul, have no hesitation about sharing a thing.

Among us all things are common except wives. In this matter alone we dissolve partnership, in which alone all other men practise partnership, who not only use the wives |115 of friends, but also most patiently supply their own to their friends, in accordance, I believe, with the well-known teaching of ancient sages and philosophers, the Greek Socrates and the Roman Cato, who shared their wives with friends, those wives whom they had married, perhaps with their consent, to bear children in other households also. For what care could they have for chastity, which their husbands had given away so lightly! What an example of Athenian philosophy, of Roman seriousness! A philosopher and a censor both acting the part of procurers!
posted by EZSmirkz at 6:13 PM

Friday, May 13, 2005
Fundamental Economics
Psa 95 O come, let us sing to Jehovah; let us make a joyful noise to the Rock of our salvation. Let us come before His face with praise; let us shout for joy to Him with songs. For Jehovah is a great God, and a great King above all gods.

The deep places of the earth are in His hand; the summits of the mountains also are His. The sea is His, and He made it, and His hands formed the dry land. O come, let us worship and bow down; let us kneel before Jehovah our Maker.

For He is our God; and we are the people of His pasture, and the sheep of His hand. Today, if you will hear His voice, do not harden your heart as in the day of strife, as in the day of testing in the wilderness. When your fathers tried Me, they tested Me and they saw My work.

For forty years I was disgusted with this generation; and I said, They are a people who err in heart; and, They do not know My ways, to whom I swore in My anger, They shall not enter into My rest.

Mat 8:20 Luk 9:58 And Jesus said to him, The foxes have holes, and the birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay His head.

Act 2:42 And they were continuing steadfastly in the doctrine of the apostles, and in fellowship, and in the breaking of bread, and in prayers. And fear came to every soul, and many wonders and miraculous signs took place through the apostles. And all the believers were together and had all things common. And they sold possessions and goods and distributed them to all, according as anyone had need.

Act 4:32 And of the multitude of those who believed, the heart and the soul were one. And no one said any of the possessions to be his own, but all things were common to them. And the apostles gave witness of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus with great power. And great grace was on them all. For neither was anyone needy among them, for as many as were owners of lands or houses sold them and brought the prices of the things that were sold, and they laid them down at the apostles’ feet. And distribution was made to every man according as he had need.

Luk 18:1-8 And He also spoke a parable to them to teach it is always right to pray, and not to faint, saying, A certain judge was in a certain city, not fearing God, nor respecting man. And a widow was in that city. And she came to Him, saying, Avenge me of my adversary. And he would not do so for a time. But afterward he said within himself, Though I do not fear God nor regard man, yet because this widow troubles me, I will avenge her, that she not wear me down in the end.

And the Lord said, Hear what the unjust judge says. And shall not God avenge His own elect who cry day and night to Him, though He has been long-suffering over them? I say to you that He will avenge them speedily. Yet when the Son of Man comes, shall He find faith on the earth?

posted by EZSmirkz at 8:49 AM

Tuesday, May 10, 2005
To the Americans
There are certain disadvantages to living in Babylon the Great that eludes most Americans. One of them is that we are as unaware of our own parochial veiw of the world as we are of our ownselves. No other people remains so self assured of its’ own righteousness as to need no re-examination of itself except perhaps religious zealots of any ilk, in any nation. Americans delude themselves that they are in a cultural war, when in fact it is a cultural civil war. It has little to do with any real change in the American characture if either “Christian” fundamentalists or secular humanists should prevail over their adversaries, these are two peas in a pod, or perhaps more apropo, two eaglets in a nest, with the dominant one throwing the weaker to its’ death, while it itself remains to be very much an eagle. Unbeknownst to the eagle of course is that where the blood and carcasses are, there the eagles gather as well.

That is perhaps best observed by the convergence of the “Christian” fundamentalists and military industrial complex into a unified beast that seeks world domination, without concern for the asperations of the peoples they wish to rule, whether at home or abroad. Whatever mantel of righteousness they may dress themselves up in however, they are still whores and prostitutes for the gain of the world, and the coin of Your realm is the blood of the innocent. When the secular humanists military industrial complex objective has been achieved, the “Christian” fundamentalists will get the heave ho just as the weaker eaglet above, since the secular humanists of the military industrial complex will no longer need them, and those of their kind, who will have began to turn to the moral aspects of their faith and seek some sort of realignment of the conquest along more Christian lines. Spanish Catholicism and the Conquistadores are a shadow, just as the Pilgrims and the Jamestown are of our own “Christian” nation.

There is less disparity between the liberal secularists and the military industrial ones, than there is between the fundamentalists and the secularlists, so one must conclude that the fundamentalists are either blind, or worse. The secularlists will probably conclude that it is the latter, that fundamentelists are ignorant, stupid, or both. I would surmise that they are ignorant, because they are so far off the Christian path that any trail at this point looks good to them, and so I conclude that they have lost their way. That is the purpose of my previous posts, in fact, to show them the way back home.

But I am addressing this post to the secularlists as well, since I do not wish them to be as ignorant of their own situation as that of the people whom they are misleading. So I will level with them, and hope that the “Christian” fundamentalists will regain their bearings and return to being Christians, leaving off all other appellations that are from the Satan, which divides Christian from Christian, with words of no use to the faith, whether it be Catholic, or Orthrodox, or Protestant or whatever other appelation your leaders wish to impose upon you, that you may establish your righteousness before men. Do not be misled, God is not one to be mocked.

It is not without reason that I write these things to you, in fact I would expect that it will engender more controversy than my previous assualt on the US Constitution, which was a rather inadverdent, or to use the popular terminology, unintended, consequence of political debate. I had thought that a conservative Republican might better defend the document than what occurred, and the last two years have led me to conclude that Americans are the most lawless of people, in that they do not adhere to their own sacred documents, so that there is little surprise that they do not adhere to either the laws of God, or in the case of the “Christian” fundamentalists, to those of God through Jesus Christ, the Lord. Be that as it may, I am still obligated to do my utmost to keep You people from falling into the hand of a Living God. It is not without reason that Jehovah has shown me, through Christ Jesus, those things that were hidden in plain sight, such as the universe being equal to one, by Einstien’s own equation, which was elucidated by Moses, and subsequently by the Apostle John;

Joh 1:1 In the beginning was the Logos, and the Logos was with God, and the Logos was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through Him, and without Him not even one thing came into being that has come into being. In Him was life, and the life was the light of men; and the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overtake it.

Logos log’-os ((from G3004) lego¯ leg’-o A primary verb; properly to “lay” forth, that is, (figuratively) relate (in words [usually of systematic or set discourse; whereas G2036 and G5346 generally refer to an individual expression or speech respectively; while G4483 is properly to break silence merely, and G2980 means an extended or random harangue]); by implication to mean: – ask, bid, boast, call, describe, give out, name, put forth, say (-ing, on), shew, speak, tell, utter.); something said (including the thought); by implication a topic (subject of discourse), also reasoning (the mental faculty) or motive; by extension a computation; specifically (with the article in John) the Divine Expression – account, cause, communication, X concerning, doctrine, fame, X have to do, intent, matter, mouth, preaching, question, reason, + reckon, remove, say (-ing), shew, X speaker, speech, talk, thing, + none of these things move me, tidings, treatise, utterance, word, work.

In the beginning was the meaning of love, and the meaning of love was with Love, and the meaning of love was Love. The meaning of love was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through the meaning of love, and without the meaning of love not even one thing came into being that has come into being. In the meaning of love was life, and the life was the light of men; and the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overtake it.

Jehovah has raised me up then, through Christ Jesus, a particularly nasty and mean spirited person, to address You, a particularly nasty and mean spirited people, that through my brother and Lord, Jesus Christ, you might be called to your senses. I remain unoptimistic, yet I know that with God nothing is impossible, and if perhaps my words save one or two of you it will be miracle enough in my own eyes. Please then, bear these things in mind as you go marching in the streets, and while you are yelling hateful things in the streets, The one who does not love has not known God, because God is love. And we have known and have believed the love which God has in us. God is love, and the one abiding in love abides in God, and God in him.

You cannot limp along on two opinions oh son of man, and the hour is coming when Jehovah will again show You the distinction between those who serve God, and those who do not, and what will you rest your pride in in that day, oh son of man, when this thing you call America simply ceases to be?
posted by EZSmirkz at 9:14 AM

Monday, May 09, 2005
The Tree in you eye?
1Co 6 Do any of you dare, when you have a matter against another, to go to law before the unjust, and not before the holy ones? Do you not know that the holy ones shall judge the world? And if the world shall be judged by you, are you unworthy to judge the smallest matters? Do you not know that we shall judge angels, not to mention the things of this life? If, then, you truly have judgments of the things of this life, set those who are least esteemed in the church to judge. For I speak to your shame. Is it so that there is not a wise one among you, not even one in your midst who shall be able to judge between his brother? But brother goes to law with brother, and that before the unbelievers. Indeed then there is already on the whole a failure among you, that you have lawsuits with yourselves. Why not instead be wronged? Why not instead be defrauded? But you do wrong and defraud, and these things to brothers.

Do you not know that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived; neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some of you. But you are washed, but you are sanctified, but you are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God. All things are lawful to me, but not all things profit. All things are lawful for me, but I will not be brought under the power of any.

Meats for the belly and the belly for meats, but God shall destroy both it and them. But the body is not for fornication, but for the Lord; and the Lord is for the body. And God has both raised up the Lord, and also will raise us up by His own power. Do you not know that your bodies are the members of Christ? Shall I then take the members of Christ and make them the members of a harlot? Let it not be! Or do you not know that he being joined to a harlot is one body? For He says, The two shall be one flesh. But he being joined to the Lord is one spirit.

Flee fornication. Every sin that a man does is outside the body, but he who commits fornication sins against his own body. Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit in you, whom you have of God? And you are not your own, for you are bought with a price. Therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God’s.
posted by EZSmirkz at 3:33 PM

Sunday, May 08, 2005
This Too, is Fundamental
Psa 37 A Psalm of David.

Do not inflame yourself with evildoers; and do not be envious against workers of perversity; for they soon wither like grass and fade like the green herb.

Trust in Jehovah and do good; live in the land and feed on faithfulness. And delight yourself in Jehovah, that He may give you your heart’s desire.

Roll your way on Jehovah and trust in Him; and He will work. And He will bring forth your righteousness like the light; and your judgment like the noon day.

Rest in Jehovah and wait patiently for Him; inflame not yourself with him who prospers in his way, with the man practicing evil wiles.

Abstain from anger and cease from fury; also do not inflame yourself to do evil. For evildoers shall be cut off; and the ones waiting on Jehovah shall inherit the earth.

It is but a little while and the wicked shall not be; yea, you shall consider his place, and he is not. But the meek shall inherit the earth and shall delight themselves in abundant peace.

The wicked plots against the righteous and gnashes on him with his teeth; the Lord laughs at him, for He sees that his day is coming.

The wicked have drawn out the sword and they have trodden their bow, to cause the poor and needy to fall, to kill those who walk uprightly. Their sword shall enter into their heart, and their bows shall be broken.

A little to the righteous is better than the abundance of many wicked. For the arms of the wicked shall be broken; but Jehovah upholds the righteous.

Jehovah knows the days of the upright; yea, their inheritance shall be forever. They shall not be ashamed in an evil time; and they shall be full in days of famine.

But the wicked shall perish; yea, the enemies of Jehovah shall be like the beauty of pastures; they are consumed; like smoke, they vanish. The wicked borrows and never repays, but the righteous is gracious and giving.

For His blessed ones inherit the earth; and those cursed by Him shall be cut off. The steps of a good man are established from Jehovah; and He will delight in his way.

Though he falls, he is not cast down; for Jehovah upholds his hand. I have been young and am old, yet I have not seen the righteous forsaken, or his seed begging bread.

All the day he is gracious and lends; and his seed is for a blessing. Turn away from evil and do good and live forever.
For Jehovah loves judgment and does not forsake His holy ones; they are preserved forever; but the wicked’s seed shall be cut off. The righteous shall inherit the earth and live on it forever.

The mouth of the righteous utters wisdom, and his tongue speaks judgment. The Law of his God is in his heart; his steps do not slide.

The wicked spies on the righteous and seeks to kill him. Jehovah does not leave him in his hand; nor does He allow him to be found guilty in his judgment.

Wait on Jehovah and keep His way; and He shall exalt you to inherit the earth; you shall see when the wicked are cut off.

I have seen the wicked ruthless, even spreading himself out like a luxuriant, native tree; yet he passed away, and, lo, he was not; and I looked for him, but he could not be found.

Watch the perfect and behold the upright one; for the end of that man is peace. But the transgressors are destroyed together; the end of the wicked is cut off.

But the salvation of the righteous is from Jehovah; He is their strength in the time of distress. And Jehovah helps them and delivers them; He shall deliver them from the wicked and saves them, because they trust in Him.
posted by EZSmirkz at 2:25 PM

Saturday, May 07, 2005
How does Love mean?
This is an article from the Intenational Standard Bible Encyclopedia, which I am posting up verbatim for your edification. The article is written by a Trinitarian, with which I disagree completely, and some mention of other theological ideas long held that are disputed by these fine authors, and which I encourage you to examine for yourself. Theology is a study or discipline of the mind, yet love is the language of the heart. Ernestly seek the things of the heart, then, that the things of the mind may be more clearly defined. The ISBE can be download from the link to the right, free of charge. Love conquers all things, and so I would hope that you too may be so conquered, and to be found in union with our Lord Jesus Christ, in the coming Day of Jehovah.

EZ

Love

luv b; agape, noun): Love to both God and man is fundamental to true religion, whether as expressed in the Old Testament or the New Testament. Jesus Himself declared that all the law and the prophets hang upon love (Mat_22:40; Mar_12:28-34). Paul, in his matchless ode on love (1Co. 13), makes it the greatest of the graces of the Christian life–greater than speaking with tongues, or the gift of prophecy, or the possession of a faith of superior excellence; for without love all these gifts and graces, desirable and useful as they are in themselves, are as nothing, certainly of no permanent value in the sight of God. Not that either Jesus or Paul underestimates the faith from which all the graces proceed, for this grace is recognized as fundamental in all God’s dealings with man and man’s dealings with God (Joh_6:28 f.; Heb_11:6); but both alike count that faith as but idle and worthless belief that does not manifest itself in love to both God and man. As love is the highest expression of God and His relation to mankind, so it must be the highest expression of man’s relation to his Maker and to his fellow-man.

I. Definition.

While the Hebrew and Greek words for “love” have various shades and intensities of meaning, they may be summed up in some such definition as this: Love, whether used of God or man, is an earnest and anxious desire for and an active and beneficent interest ins the well-being of the one loved. Different degrees and manifestations of this affection are recognized in the Scriptures according to the circumstances and relations of life, e.g. the expression of love as between husband and wife, parent and child, brethren according to the flesh, and according to grace; between friend and enemy, and, finally, between God and man. It must not be overlooked, however, that the fundamental idea of love as expressed in the definition of it is never absent in any one of these relations of life, even though the manifestation thereof may differ according to the circumstances and relations. Christ’s interview with the apostle Peter on the shore of the Sea of Tiberias (Joh_21:15-18) sets before us in a most beautiful way the different shades of meaning as found in the New Testament words phileo, and agapao. In the question of Christ, “Lovest thou me more than these?” the Greek verb agapas, denotes the highest, most perfect kind of love (Latin, diligere), implying a clear determination of will and judgment, and belonging particularly to the sphere of Divine revelation. In his answer Peter substitutes the word philo, which means the natural human affection, with its strong feeling, or sentiment, and is never used in Scripture language to designate man’s love to God. While the answer of Peter, then, claims only an inferior kind of love, as compared to the one contained in Christ’s question, he nevertheless is confident of possessing at least such love for his Lord.

II. The Love of God.

First in the consideration of the subject of “love” comes the love of God–He who is love, and from whom all love is derived. The love of God is that part of His nature–indeed His whole nature, for “God is love”–which leads Him to express Himself in terms of endearment toward His creatures, and actively to manifest that interest and affection in acts of loving care and self-sacrifice in behalf of the objects of His love. God is “love” (1Jo_4:8, 1Jo_4:16) just as truly as He is “light” (1Jo_1:5), “truth” (1Jo_1:6), and “spirit” (Joh_4:24). Spirit and light are expressions of His essential nature; love is the expression of His personality corresponding to His nature. God not merely loves, but is love; it is His very nature, and He imparts this nature to be the sphere in which His children dwell, for “he that abideth in love abideth in God, and God abideth in him” (1Jo_4:16). Christianity is the only religion that sets forth the Supreme Being as Love. In heathen religions He is set forth as an angry being and in constant need of appeasing.

1. Objects of God’s Love:

The object of God’s love is first and foremost His own Son, Jesus Christ (Mat_3:17; Mat_17:5; Luk_20:13; Joh_17:24). The Son shares the love of the Father in a unique sense; He is “my chosen, in whom my soul delighteth” (Isa_42:1). There exists an eternal affection between the Son and the Father–the Son is the original and eternal object of the Father’s love (Joh_17:24). If God’s love is eternal it must have an eternal object, hence, Christ is an eternal being.

God loves the believer in His Son with a special love. Those who are united by faith and love to Jesus Christ are, in a different sense from those who are not thus united, the special objects of God’s love. Said Jesus, thou “lovedst them, even as thou lovedst me” (Joh_17:23). Christ is referring to the fact that, just as the disciples had received the same treatment from the world that He had received, so they had received of the Father the same love that He Himself had received. They were not on the outskirts of God’s love, but in the very center of it. “For the father himself loveth you, because ye have loved me” (Joh_16:27). Here phileo is used for love, indicating the fatherly affection of God for the believer in Christ, His Son. This is love in a more intense form than that spoken of for the world (Joh_3:16).

God loves the world (Joh_3:16; compare 1Ti_2:4; 2Pe_3:9). This is a wonderful truth when we realize what a world this is–a world of sin and corruption. This was a startling truth for Nicodemus to learn, who conceived of God as loving only the Jewish nation. To him, in his narrow exclusiveism, the announcement of the fact that God loved the whole world of men was startling. God loves the world of sinners lost and ruined by the fall. Yet it is this world, “weak,” “ungodly,” “without strength,” “sinners” (Rom_5:6-8), “dead in trespasses and sins” (Eph_2:1 the King James Version), and unrighteous, that God so loved that He gave His only begotten Son in order to redeem it. The genesis of man’s salvation lies in the love and mercy of God (Eph_2:4 f.). But love is more than mercy or compassion; it is active and identifies itself with its object. The love of the heavenly Father over the return of His wandering children is beautifully set forth in the parable of the Prodigal Son (Luke 15). Nor should the fact be overlooked that God loves not only the whole world, but each individual in it; it is a special as well as a general love (Joh_3:16, “whosoever”; Gal_2:20, “loved me, and gave himself up for me”).

2. Manifestations of God’s Love:

God’s love is manifested by providing for the physical, mental, moral and spiritual needs of His people (Isa_48:14, Isa_48:20-21; Isa_62:9-12; Isa_63:3, Isa_63:12). In these Scriptures God is seen manifesting His power in behalf His people in the time of their wilderness journeying and their captivity. He led them, fed and clothed them, guided them and protected them from all their enemies. His love was again shown in feeling with His people, their sorrows and afflictions (Isa_63:9); He suffered in their affliction, their interests were His; He was not their adversary but their friend, even though it might have seemed to them as if He either had brought on them their suffering or did not care about it. Nor did He ever forget them for a moment during all their trials. They thought He did; they said, “God hath forgotten us,” “He hath forgotten to be gracious”; but no; a mother might forget her child that she should not have compassion on it, but God would never forget His people. How could He? Had He not graven them upon the palms of His hands (Isa_49:15 f.)? Rather than His love being absent in the chastisement of His people, the chastisement itself was often a proof of the presence of the Divine love, “for whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth” (Heb_12:6-11). Loving reproof and chastisement are necessary oftentimes for growth in holiness and righteousness. Our redemption from sin is to be attributed to God’s wondrous love; “Thou hast in love to my soul delivered it from the pit of corruption; for thou hast cast all my sins behind thy back” (Isa_38:17; compare Psa_50:21; Psa_90:8). Eph_2:4 f. sets forth in a wonderful way how our entire salvation springs forth from the mercy and love of God; “But God, being rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us, even when we were dead through our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ,” etc. It is because of the love of the Father that we are granted a place in the heavenly kingdom (Eph_2:6-8). But the supreme manifestation of the love of God, as set forth in the Scripture, is that expressed in the gift of His only-begotten Son to die for the sins of the world (Joh_3:16; Rom_5:6-8; 1Jo_4:9 f.), and through whom the sinful and sinning but repentant sons of men are taken into the family of God, and receive the adoption of sons (1Jo_3:1 f.; Gal_4:4-6). From this wonderful love of God in Christ Jesus nothing in heaven or earth or hell, created or uncreated or to be created, shall be able to separate us (Rom_8:37 f.).

III. The Love of Man.

1. Source of Man’s Love:

Whatever love there is in man, whether it be toward God or toward his fellowman, has its source in God–“Love is of God; and every one that loveth is begotten of God, and knoweth God. He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love” (1Jo_4:7 f.); “We love, because he first loved us” (1Jo_4:19). Trench, in speaking of agape, says it is a word born within the bosom of revealed religion. Heathen writers do not use it at all, their nearest approach to it being philanthropia or philadelphia–the love betweeen those of the same blood. Love in the heart of man is the offspring of the love of God. Only the regenerated heart can truly love as God loves; to this higher form of love the unregenerate can lay no claim (1Jo_4:7, 1Jo_4:19, 1Jo_4:21; 1Jo_2:7-11; 1Jo_3:10; 1Jo_4:11 f.). The regenerate man is able to see his fellow-man as God sees him, value him as God values him, not so much because of what he is by reason of his sin and unloveliness, but because of what, through Christ, he may become; he sees man’s intrinsic worth and possibility in Christ (2Co_5:14-17). This love is also created in the heart of man by the Holy Ghost (Rom_5:5), and is a fruit of the Spirit (Gal_5:22). It is also stimulated by the example of the Lord Jesus Christ, who, more than anyone else, manifested to the world the spirit and nature of true love (Joh_13:34; Joh_15:12; Gal_2:20; Eph_5:25-27; 1Jo_4:9 f.).

2. Objects of Man’s Love:

God must be the first and supreme object of man’s love; He must be loved with all the heart, mind, soul and strength (Mat_22:37 f.; Mar_12:29-34). In this last passage the exhortation to supreme love to God is connected with the doctrine of the unity of God (Deu_6:4 f.)–inasmuch as the Divine Being is one and indivisible, so must our love to Him be undivided. Our love to God is shown in the keeping of His commandments (Exo_20:6; 1Jo_5:3; 2Jo_1:6). Love is here set forth as more than a mere affection or sentiment; it is something that manifests itself, not only in obedience to known Divine commands, but also in a protecting and defense of them, and a seeking to know more and more of the will of God in order to express love for God in further obedience (compare Deu_10:12). Those who love God will hate evil and all forms of worldliness, as expressed in the avoidance of the lust of the eyes, the lust of the flesh and the pride of life (Psa_97:10; 1Jo_2:15-17). Whatever there may be in his surroundings that would draw the soul away from God and righteousness, that the child of God will avoid. Christ, being God, also claims the first place in our affections. He is to be chosen before father or mother, parent, or child, brother or sister, or friend (Mat_10:35-38; Luk_14:26). The word “hate” in these passages does not mean to hate in the sense in which we use the word today. It is used in the sense in which Jacob is said to have “hated” Leah (Gen_29:31), that is, he loved her less than Rachel; “He loved also Rachel more than Leah” (Gen_29:30). To love Christ supremely is the test of true discipleship (Luk_14:26), and is an unfailing mark of the elect (1Pe_1:8). We prove that we are really God’s children by thus loving His Son (Joh_8:42). Absence of such love means, finally, eternal separation (1Co_16:22).

Man must love his fellow-man also. Love for the brotherhood is a natural consequence of the love of the fatherhood; for “In this the children of God are manifest, and the children of the devil: whosoever doeth not righteousness is not of God, neither he that loveth not his brother” (1Jo_3:10). For a man to say “I love God” and yet hate his fellowman is to brand himself as “a liar” (1Jo_4:20); “He that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, cannot love God whom he hath not seen” (1Jo_4:20); he that loveth God will love his brother also (1Jo_4:21). The degree in which we are to love our fellow-man is “as thyself” (Mat_22:39), according to the strict observance of law. Christ set before His followers a much higher example than that, however. According to the teaching of Jesus we are to supersede this standard: “A new commandment I give unto you, that ye love one another; even as I have loved you, that ye also love one another” (Joh_13:34). The exhibition of love of this character toward our fellow-man is the badge of true discipleship. It may be called the sum total of our duty toward our fellow-man, for “Love worketh no ill to his neighbor: love therefore is the fulfillment of the law”; “for he that loveth his neighbor hath fulfilled the law” (Rom_13:8, Rom_13:10). The qualities which should characterize the love which we are to manifest toward our fellow-men are beautifully set forth in 1Co. 13. It is patient and without envy; it is not proud or self-elated, neither does it behave discourteously; it does not cherish evil, but keeps good account of the good; it rejoices not at the downfall of an enemy or competitor, but gladly hails his success; it is hopeful, trustful and forbearing–for such there is no law, for they need none; they have fulfilled the law.

Nor should it be overlooked that our Lord commanded His children to love their enemies, those who spoke evil of them, and despitefully used them (Mat_5:43-48). They were not to render evil for evil, but contrariwise, blessing. The love of the disciple of Christ must manifest itself in supplying the necessities, not of our friends only (1Jo_3:16-18), but also of our enemies (Rom_12:20 f.).

Our love should be “without hypocrisy” (Rom_12:9); there should be no pretense about it; it should not be a thing of mere word or tongue, but a real experience manifesting itself in deed and truth (1Jo_3:18). True love will find its expression in service to man: “Through love be servants one to another” (Gal_5:13). What more wonderful illustration can be found of ministering love than that set forth by our Lord in the ministry of foot-washing as found in John 13? Love bears the infirmities of the weak, does not please itself, but seeks the welfare of others (Rom_15:1-3; Phi_2:21; Gal_6:2; 1Co_10:24); it surrenders things which may be innocent in themselves but which nevertheless may become a stumbling-block to others (Rom_14:15, Rom_14:21); it gladly forgives injuries (Eph_4:32), and gives the place of honor to another (Rom_12:10). What, then, is more vital than to possess such love? It is the fulfillment of the royal law (Jam_2:8), and is to be put above everything else (Col_3:14); it is the binder that holds all the other graces of the Christian life in place (Col_3:14); by the possession of such love we know that we have passed from death unto life (1Jo_3:14), and it is the supreme test of our abiding in God and God in us (1Jo_4:12, 1Jo_4:16).

William Evans
posted by EZSmirkz at 10:03 AM

Friday, May 06, 2005
Leaven of the Scribes and Pharisees
1 Timothy 3

Faithful is the saying, If a man seeketh the office of a bishop, he desireth a good work. The bishop therefore must be without reproach, the husband of one wife, temperate, sober-minded, orderly, given to hospitality, apt to teach; no brawler, no striker; but gentle, not contentious, no lover of money; one that ruleth well his own house, having his children in subjection with all gravity; (but if a man knoweth not how to rule his own house, how shall he take care of the church of God?) not a novice, lest being puffed up he fall into the condemnation of the devil. Moreover he must have good testimony from them that are without; lest he fall into reproach and the snare of the devil.

Deacons in like manner must be grave, not double-tongued, not given to much wine, not greedy of filthy lucre; holding the mystery of the faith in a pure conscience. And let these also first be proved; then let them serve as deacons, if they be blameless. Women in like manner must be grave, not slanderers, temperate, faithful in all things. Let deacons be husbands of one wife, ruling their children and their own houses well. For they that have served well as deacons gain to themselves a good standing, and great boldness in the faith which is in Christ Jesus.

These things write I unto thee, hoping to come unto thee shortly; but if I tarry long, that thou mayest know how men ought to behave themselves in the house of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth. And without controversy great is the mystery of godliness; He who was manifested in the flesh, Justified in the spirit, Seen of angels, Preached among the nations, Believed on in the world, Received up in glory.

4 But the Spirit saith expressly, that in later times some shall fall away from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits and doctrines of demons, through the hypocrisy of men that speak lies, branded in their own conscience as with a hot iron; forbidding to marry, and commanding to abstain from meats, which God created to be received with thanksgiving by them that believe and know the truth. For every creature of God is good, and nothing is to be rejected, if it be received with thanksgiving for it is sanctified through the word of God and prayer.

If thou put the brethren in mind of these things, thou shalt be a good minister of Christ Jesus, nourished in the words of the faith, and of the good doctrine which thou hast followed until now: but refuse profane and old wives’ fables. And exercise thyself unto godliness: for bodily exercise is profitable for a little; but godliness is profitable for all things, having promise of the life which now is, and of that which is to come. Faithful is the saying, and worthy of all acceptation.
posted by EZSmirkz at 11:40 AM

Thursday, May 05, 2005
Christian Precepts for Immigration Reform
gare, gare
From H1481; properly a guest; by implication a foreigner: – alien, sojourner, stranger.

Exo 22:21 You shall neither vex a stranger nor oppress him, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt.

Exo 23:9 Also you shall not oppress a stranger. For you know the heart of a stranger, since you were strangers in the land of Egypt.

Lev 19:34 The stranger that dwells with you shall be to you as one born among you, and you shall love him as yourself. For you were strangers in the land of Egypt. I am Jehovah your God.

Deu 10:19 Therefore love the stranger, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt.

Deu 24:14 You shall not oppress a hired servant who is poor and needy, of your brothers, or of your strangers that are in your land within your gates.

Psa 146:9 Jehovah preserves the strangers; He relieves the orphan and widow, but the way of the wicked He turns upside down.

Eph 2:11-12 Therefore remember that you, the nations, in time past were in the flesh, who are called Uncircumcision by that which is called the Circumcision in the flesh made by hands; and that at that time you were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world.

Heb 11:7 – 13 By faith Noah, having been warned by God of things not yet seen, moved with fear, prepared an ark to the saving of his house, by which he condemned the world and became heir of the righteousness which is according to faith. By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out into a place which he was afterward going to receive for an inheritance. And he went out, not knowing where he went. By faith he lived in the land of promise as a stranger, dwelling in tents with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs of the same promise with him.

For he looked for a city which has foundations, whose builder and maker is God. By faith also Sarah herself received strength to conceive seed and was delivered of a child when she was past age, because she judged Him who had promised to be faithful. Because of this came into being from one, and that of one having died, even as the stars of the sky in multitude, and as innumerable as the sand which is by the seashore. These all died by way of faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off. And they were persuaded of them and embraced them and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth.
posted by EZSmirkz at 5:07 PM

Wednesday, May 04, 2005
On Tsunamis, and the Love of God (Edited)
One of the most pressing questions among mankind is why God allows things like the recent Tsunami to occur, or the earthquakes in Iran, and those that will shortly occur across the globe as this age winds down, and how does this comport with God being the God of Love. This is made all the more difficult because of so many preconceptions that religion has filled our heads up with. While we all grieve for those who lost their lives, and or loved ones in the recent disasters, it bears mentioning that mankind has slaughtered millions of people in wars, abortions and executions without wondering for a moment where the love of God is during this events.

I must therefore endeavor, with the help of God, to explain some very complex subjects in a short enough span as to keep your attention long enough to grasp the underlying principles and precepts of the existence of the human race, and those events previously mentioned. Those of us fortunate enough to have escaped from the clutches of Christian theology, as taught by the neo-platonists over the last 1900 years are obligated to our God and Christ to make the effort so that you may come to understand these things, and put your hearts at ease, knowing the truth about God and the love of God towards all of mankind. I will of necessity write from my own understanding of the teachings of the Christ, Jesus, and those things that God through the Apostles of Christ has revealed to the sons and daughters of men. I pray the spirit of Jehovah is upon me then, as I must overturn many errors of Christendom in this endeavor, and so I digress to provide the milk such as is necessary for babes to the Christian faith.

One can do no more than speculate as to what the earth and the world of mankind would have been like had Adam not sinned in the manner that he did. Much is made of sin, and there is much conversation devoted to Original sin, which had our esteemed theologians bothered to have articulated the Scriptures to you, would be moot of points in the Christian faith. In the Scripture then we read in Genesis “3:1-5 Now the serpent was more cunning than any beast of the field which Jehovah God had made. And he said to the woman, Is it so that God has said, You shall not eat of every tree of the garden? And the woman said to the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden. But of the fruit of the tree which is in the middle of the garden, God has said, You shall not eat of it, neither shall you touch it, lest you die. And the serpent said to the woman, You shall not surely die, for God knows that in the day you eat of it, then your eyes shall be opened, and you shall be as God, knowing good and evil. You will note that the Original sin is the Serpents, calling God a liar when he told Eve that “You shall not surely die,” So Jesus the Christ spoke of that one this way, in the Gospel of John “8:44 You are of the Devil as father, and the lusts of your father you will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and did not abide in the truth because there is no truth in him. When he speaks a lie, he speaks of his own, for he is a liar and the father of it….”. So the Scripture is clear that Original sin is quite distinct from mankind’s original sin. However as written us by Paul in Romans 5:12, “Therefore, even as through one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin, and so death passed on all men inasmuch as all sinned:, so that we know that all men die for this reason.

Now many religions teach that man has an immortal soul, yet that is not what we find in the Scriptures. The idea that there is a soul distinct from the body is a Greek fable perpetuated by the neo-platonic theologians of Christendom. The Scripture is clear, as in Genesis 2:7 And Jehovah God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul. You will note that man became a living soul, not that man came to have a living soul. It is similar syntax to saying you have a dog, as opposed to saying you are a dog. It is an important distinction of terms, as you have noted. So then because we have all sinned we all die just as it is written, Ezekiel 18:4 Behold, all souls are Mine. As the soul of the father, also the soul of the son, they are Mine. The soul that sins, it shall die., and again in Ezekiel 18:20 The soul that sins, it shall die. The son shall not bear the iniquity of the father, nor shall the father bear the iniquity of the son. The righteousness of the righteous shall be on him, and the wickedness of the wicked shall be on him. Now the Love of God is recommended also in this way, in Ezikiel; 18:23 Do I actually delight in the death of the wicked? says the Lord Jehovah. Is it not that he should turn from his ways and live?

Now we must examine the state of the dead, so that you might understand the resurrection of the dead, which is part of Christendom’s own creeds, and so we find in Ecclesiastes 9:5 For the living know that they shall die; but the dead do not know anything, nor do they have any more a reward; for their memory is forgotten. And in Ecclesiastes 9:6 Also their love, and their hatred, and their envy, is now perished; nor do they any longer have a part forever in all that is done under the sun. And again in Ecclesiastes 9:10 Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with all your might; for there is no work, nor plan, nor knowledge, nor wisdom, in the grave where you go. So the dead simply cease to exist, they do not go floating off into heaven or hell for reward or torment, they simply cease to be living souls. So there are no living dead, or ghosts, or gouls and goblins such as Christendom’s fables have given rise to. So now, a soul must die to be obtain to a resurrection, as promised in the Good News of the Kingdom of God, which Jesus Christ came to preach, first to the Jews, then to the nations.

It is in the Kingdom of God then that the promise is fulfilled, as is written in 1 Corinthians 15:21 For since death is through man, the resurrection of the dead also is through a Man. 15:22 For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ all will be made alive. 15:23 But each in his own order: Christ the first-fruit, and afterward they who are Christ’s at His coming; 15:24 then is the end, when He delivers the kingdom to God, even the Father; when He makes to cease all rule and all authority and power. 15:25 for it is right for Him to reign until He has put all the enemies under His feet. 15:26 The last enemy made to cease is death. 15:27 For He put all things under His feet. But when He says that all things have been put under His feet, it is plain that it excepts Him who has put all things under Him. So death is the last enemy of mankind, and it is made to cease at the end of the reign of Christ when 15:27 For He put all things under His feet. But when He says that all things have been put under His feet, it is plain that it excepts Him who has put all things under Him. 15:28 But when all things are subjected to Him, then the Son Himself also will be subject to Him who has subjected all things to Him, so that God may be all things in all. Those of you with discernment will also not that the Trinity has disappeared from theological consideration as well, since the Son subjects himself to God, not to himself. Now this should have been obvious to Christians when the Son was dying on the Cross, He cried out as written in Matthew 27:46 And about the ninth hour, Jesus cried with a loud voice, saying, Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani? That is, My God, My God, why have You forsaken me? 27:50 And crying again with a loud voice, Jesus released His spirit.

So then, how is the God of Love reconciled to the destruction of tsunamis, earthquakes, and in the coming years, plagues, famines, and economic upheavals? There is unfortunately not enough room on earth for both the righteous and the unrighteous to dwell on. These things are occuring and will occur then, because perhaps God is no longer with us, the sons of man. You see, God is not slow respecting his promise, but He has been patient with us, desiring all to achieve to repentence, and thus gain life. Most people do not want to change. They have become quite convinced in their own minds that they are righteous, and in so establishing their own righteousness they have forgotten the righteousness of God. Are in those days when God intends to remind us of our folly? Just as the Law of Moses and ancient Israel were forerunners and a shadow of the things to come with known historic results, just as he spoke in Deuteronomy 31:16-18 And Jehovah said to Moses, Behold, you shall sleep with your fathers. And this people shall rise up and go lusting after the gods of the strangers of the land into which they are going, into their midst. And they will forsake Me and break My covenant which I made with them. Then My anger shall be kindled against them in that day, and I will forsake them. And I will hide My face from them, and they shall be devoured, and many evils and troubles shall befall them, so that they will say in that day, Have not these evils come on us because our God is not among us? And I will surely hide My face in that day for all the evils which they have done, for they shall turn to other gods. So God is going to destroy the unrighteous, as he spoke through his Son in Christ’s Revelation given to John; 21:5-8 And He sitting on the throne said, Behold, I make all things new. And He said to me, Write, for these words are true and faithful. And He said to me, It is done. I am the Alpha and Omega, the Beginning and the End. To him who thirsts I will give of the fountain of the Water of Life freely. He who overcomes will inherit all things, and I will be his God, and he will be My son. But the fearful, and the unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, will have their part in the Lake burning with fire and brimstone, which is the second death. The love of God then is towards those whom He judges to be righteous, not towards the wicked, nor those who proclaim their own righteousness. Mic 6:8 He has shown you, O man, what is good. And what does Jehovah require of you but to do justice and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God?

You may notice the mention of the second death in the Revelation, and well you have. This is the death from which there is no resurrection. Now God recommends his love of mankind in this way, that those who have died are aquitted of their sins. Where there is no sin, there is no death. Those who have died then, have paid the price in full for their sins, and so they are resurrected by God. Some will be resurrected to life and glory, and others, unwilling to change, will ressurected to judgement and condemnation. It is for this reason that the first death is referred to as sleep, since to God those who have passed away are not dead. Thus God says He is the God of Abraham, Issac, and Jacob, not because they are alive in the human sense, but that they are alive to God, just as all those who have passed on are alive to God, yet dead to man. So those innocents, and I use the term loosely since all men have sinned, killed in the tsunami will be resurrected in the last day, just as will you. How Jehovah, through Christ judges them and you and I is beyond the scope of mans ability to discern, and hence those who condemn others to hellfire, and purgatory or insist that this one or another is a saint, simply don’t have a clue as to the thoughts of God or his Christ, and may be endangering themselves when they themselves appear before the person of the Living God, as they are presuming to know something of which they do not.

Of all the men that have ever walked the earth then, Jesus Christ is the only one who has been resurrected to life at this point. Thus he is called the First Born of the Dead. So in fact to be called thus, he really died, ceased to exist, for the parts of three days . No others are noted in the Scripture to have been resurrected by God.

( I have edited this, because I fell off track. I suppose I could give many justifications for it, but suffice it to say that I am human.)

posted by EZSmirkz at 3:03 PM

Tuesday, May 03, 2005
The Sons of Darkness vs The Sons of Light
There are many who claim to be Christians that in fact do not know either God, or his Christ, and so have made it all the more difficult for those who would reach out to the non-believers with the good news of the Kingdom of God. These useless people are busy bodies in other peoples business, always condemning, continualy judging behaviors and attitudes of which they either know nothing about, or have no business judging in the first place, and by these activities prove themselves false to the teachings of the Christ.

These are useless people who have taken it upon themselves to divide themselves off from the body of Christ by proclaiming their theology superior to that of others of their own faith, who in like manner also follow suit, and so the gamut of fundamentalists and evangelical movements have sprung up to mislead those who are weak in spirit and knowledge away from the healthful teachings delivered once and for all times by our Lord Jesus Christ, so we have become deluged with sects and denominations that all claim the mantel of Christianity while proving false to his commandments. This is not a problem of the Protestand community alone, but has infected the Roman and Greek churches as well, hence their division and proclaimations of superiority towards one another and the Protestant sects of the West.

It is not enough that these useless people meddle in the affairs of those who are related to them in their theology, but they seem to have developed a necessity for meddling in the affairs of the worldly powers, and so they manage to soak themselves in the blood of inocents as they proclaim Gods approval of the slaughter these powers perpetuate on the populations of their enemies. This has the effect of turning those who love peace away from the Christ, because these slaughters have occurred with the blessing of the Clergy of the established churches of whatever nations they are born into. It is one of the signature failures of their theology, and it is in these works by which we may best judge their fruitage of their tree.

It is not without wonder then that the clergy of the sects of Christendom engage in all sorts of violent speech and activities toward each other in their sacred edifices, or High Places, in the Middle East, because they are part and parcel of the world inwhich they live and seek to control, contrary to the teachings of Jesus Christ that they refrain from all these things, not just towards themselves only, but towards those whom they wish to make disciples of the Christ of the God of love. It is not any wonder then that the lands they spring from are scarcely more violent towards their own citizens than they are towards those of other nations, or that they are scarcely less violent towards their own fellow travelers than they are towards those of other religions and opinions. None of these things spring from God, however, but from his opposer, and so from these things we are able to discern from which seed these useless people have sprung.

It should be well known then, that those who adhere to any theology than that of love, do not know God at all, nor do they know Christ as they ought to know him. If they knew either the Father or the Son, they would not be doing these things, nor would they be teaching others to do these things. But they are from their father who did not stand fast in the truth, and has been a liar and a manslayer from the beginning, and they live up to their father in full measure. These are the ones who teach the doctrines, dogmas and creeds of men as though they were commandments from God. It is from these that world has turned away, and those who would serve God would be wise to follow suit, because if even the fools do not believe them, they will prove to be having more wisdom than you, if you do.
posted by EZSmirkz at 1:49 PM