This of course is a phrase from T S Eliot, my middle namesake, although I do not know the context. Mr. Sherwood Sugden, Dennis' friend and publisher, published at least two books on Eliot, including one by this title; written by one of Eliot's best American friends, Russell Kirk. (CAPTAIN Kirk to you my friends!)
Both Sherwood and Eliot were purveyors of the "moral imagination," and conservative moral philosophers. To say they were intellectuals would be an understatement. But as such, they tend to treasure ideas as being, well, above beings. They find the concept of God helpful, but the "idea" of a personal intimate relationship with God they find, well, unimaginable--perhaps by the token of it being, well, uncontrollable! Ideas per se may have some permanent roots in someone beyond our capacity to imagine (insert Heaven here)--but on the other hand, they may only have the appearance of permanence, like the worldwide presence of various forms of pyramids (not to forget their schemes!) whose original has been erased at Babel.
Ideas, like computers, may seem to have a life of their own, beyond the scope of man or God--yet God says quite clearly, "Stop judging by appearances, and use right judgement." That is from Jesus, by the way, the Prophet spoken of in Deut. 18:14. "Ideas have consequences," true--but do we really think our perception of "good" ideas is more important than, say, God's Laws? Which in the NT become the schoolmasters of desperation to bring to us the futility of both law and imagination, culture and society, and all our attempts to redeem ourselves by reinterpreting what has been said ever-so-clearly by Christ? "Effrontery" would also be an understatement in this context.
(As if to prove my point, my computer shut me out after the first sentence of the preceding paragraph as it needed to "re-interpret" Windows for me. Thank God for Autosave!)
The point being, as I have always averred in these pages, is that materialism dictates that ideas, morals, ethics especially, outlast any given person. Which is like saying we have only One Real Culture, if we would just admit it. The Bible throughout, but most clearly in Christ, says quite the opposite. So that our responsibilities are Permanent Things and of eternal import. We can be forgiven of our many flawed ideas and icons--if we can put Christ and even our souls above and beyond their reach. It is called, "surrender," not to philosophy and the love of rhetoric, but to an Actual Ever-Persistent Person. And this can only begin and end with The Person of God Himself.
In Deut. 18 for instance Moses says not that God will raise up new and better laws and concepts and I-Deals, but that He would raise up a prophet, precisely because the people at Sinai protested that they no longer wanted to experience God directly--as if they actually had, since they experienced only manifestations, not the Fullness of the Godhead as such; and Moses experienced much more than they did, and he wasn't complaining! (Please also note that Sinai is not a pyramid!)
"I will put My Words in His Mouth (caps mine) and He will tell them everything I command Him."
"I come to do My Father's will."
To say that intellectuals, conservative or other, cannot countenance such "ideas" i.e. what I call the Whole Person, whose brain cannot even imagine his own self, much less his own soul or spirit; is to me stating the obvious, again and again. It gets rather tedious, or would be if the Trinity were not so Infinitely Interesting and Deep. My attempts to put this on paper, or be convincing, is merely evidence that I left parts of my heart and soul in San Francisco at the City Lights bookstore. Sad to say. Pray for me, "now and in the hour of my death..."
Saturday, October 13, 2012
Tuesday, October 9, 2012
Compare and Contrast
Deuteronomy 16 and Isaiah 29 esp:1-4. "Your voice will come ghostlike from the earth." "Woe to you, Ariel, Ariel."
Gal. 1--"You began well--what happened?" Being blessed is a massive responsibility...which becomes harder and greater as time goes on. (Non-entropy here)
Gal. 1--"You began well--what happened?" Being blessed is a massive responsibility...which becomes harder and greater as time goes on. (Non-entropy here)
Sunday, October 7, 2012
Beyond the Pale...
Dr. Stephen J. Gould the prime mover of evolutionary theory of his time, recent head of Harvard dept. of paleontology:
"The extreme rarity of transitional forms in the fossil record persists as the trade secret of paleontology. The evolutionary trees that adorn our textbooks have data only at the tips and nodes of their branches: the rest is inference however reasonable, not the evidence of the fossils...yet to preserve our favored account of evolution by natural selection, we view our data as so bad that we never see the process we profess to study."
Dr. Colin Patterson former senior paleontologist at the British Museum of Natural History, private correspondence: "If I knew of any, fossil or living, (transitional forms) I would certainly have included them...yet Gould and the American museum people are hard to contradict when they say there are no transitional fossils... I will lay it on the line--there is not one such fossil for which one could make a watertight argument."
Dr. Mark Ridley, Oxford zoologist: "In any case, no real evolutionist, whether gradualist or punctuationist (Gould), uses the fossil record as evidence in favor of the theory of evolution as opposed to special creation."
Dennis, I can tell you this--I have always been fascinated by the fossil record, showing as it does incredible life forms all the way through. But when I started, I was only barely aware of the theory of evolution. I can say during my days of study, I was impartial in regards to origins. In fact, I found the question of origins irrelevant even to my deepest study of the fossil record. I knew little of Darwin, and had little use for him, until long after medical school. So I was never a Darwinist, at least not a socially and culturally committed one such as populate our airwaves today. I actually started to study the Bible in 1979, and after that it became an issue; and I immediately became aware of the fatal flaws of Darwinism shortly after that. Although the seeds were planted by my Shimer college "hard science" professor of chemistry who was also our pre-med adviser. He was a great fan of both Dobzhansky and more so of Michael Polyani. But he gave me an article called: "Heresy in the Halls of Darwin: Mathematicians Question Evolution." Not only are there no transitional forms, there is not nearly enough time to transition from one species to another by any proposed or known mechanism. At least nothing under the rubric of purely material causes, which "science" supposedly requires.
got to go, more later perhaps
"The extreme rarity of transitional forms in the fossil record persists as the trade secret of paleontology. The evolutionary trees that adorn our textbooks have data only at the tips and nodes of their branches: the rest is inference however reasonable, not the evidence of the fossils...yet to preserve our favored account of evolution by natural selection, we view our data as so bad that we never see the process we profess to study."
Dr. Colin Patterson former senior paleontologist at the British Museum of Natural History, private correspondence: "If I knew of any, fossil or living, (transitional forms) I would certainly have included them...yet Gould and the American museum people are hard to contradict when they say there are no transitional fossils... I will lay it on the line--there is not one such fossil for which one could make a watertight argument."
Dr. Mark Ridley, Oxford zoologist: "In any case, no real evolutionist, whether gradualist or punctuationist (Gould), uses the fossil record as evidence in favor of the theory of evolution as opposed to special creation."
Dennis, I can tell you this--I have always been fascinated by the fossil record, showing as it does incredible life forms all the way through. But when I started, I was only barely aware of the theory of evolution. I can say during my days of study, I was impartial in regards to origins. In fact, I found the question of origins irrelevant even to my deepest study of the fossil record. I knew little of Darwin, and had little use for him, until long after medical school. So I was never a Darwinist, at least not a socially and culturally committed one such as populate our airwaves today. I actually started to study the Bible in 1979, and after that it became an issue; and I immediately became aware of the fatal flaws of Darwinism shortly after that. Although the seeds were planted by my Shimer college "hard science" professor of chemistry who was also our pre-med adviser. He was a great fan of both Dobzhansky and more so of Michael Polyani. But he gave me an article called: "Heresy in the Halls of Darwin: Mathematicians Question Evolution." Not only are there no transitional forms, there is not nearly enough time to transition from one species to another by any proposed or known mechanism. At least nothing under the rubric of purely material causes, which "science" supposedly requires.
got to go, more later perhaps
Tuesday, October 2, 2012
Rachel, Rachel, I've been thinking...
Reading an article about Seward and Lincoln, and how America elected a President that had virtually no foreign policy experience--still often true--and how "Seward's Folly" turned out to be a wise investment, etc.
But it brought to mind how much the Republican party was brought to life as a response to pro-slavery Democrats. The Whig party, and the Know-Nothings, were not enough by any means; yet we seem to have reverted to the same sort of policies that characterized the pre-Republicans. (pre-abolitionists as well)
Democracy per se always falls on its own sword, because it panders to impulses of the moment. Schoolchildren were taught this in the past, via the Greek and Roman experiments, as showing the need for a balance of powers. But recall (and this is even recapped in Star Wars!) that Rome's strength was predicated on intact family systems to oppose the will of the general public, and that their Republic was undone by the idea of democracy which quickly and as always devolved into the Imperium. "A Republic, if you can keep it." Ben knew his history, obviously; but we have forgotten it in our rush towards bread and circuses. In fact, it could well be argued that our politics now center around entertainment; and the party of Hollywood, which specializes in instant gratification, is now the de facto ruling party of the nation--and it is unlikely that anything but the hand of God could reverse it. (which of course he is doing--but will it take another 2000 years?
I thoroughly believe that God put Lincoln in place, not merely to save the Union and Federalism, but to preserve us from, "every man does what is right in his own eyes." I have quoted Ibsen before in these pages, who said that, "The minority is sometimes right; but the majority is always wrong." This idea is the only way--by the grace of God--that Lincoln, a depressive, could endure his maximally strident opposition from virtually all sides--the Pharisees and Sadducees and Herods and Caesar's of his own day--as it is in ours--but Lincoln could never be elected in our day. These four powers hold absolute and de facto cooperative sway in USA Today--and worldwide....knit together inseparably by gross materialism. They may fight over ownership of their "things," but otherwise they are all disciples of Darwinian Mechanisms, hence philosophically irreducibly linked.
And let it be pointed out that it was the vast majority in Judah that killed the One Person sent who could have been, at the very least, their Lincoln, who indeed, as Isaiah said, came to set the captives free. This analogy does not go very far--but it does suggest that pure democracy can never be anything but an enemy to truth--especially hard and ugly and inconvenient truths, which it "suppresses in unrighteousness." (c.f. Judges)
It is small wonder that both our politics and our godz are like Molech-worship, anti-family, anti-natal, and known best for their advocacy of, shall we say, "free love." That this is prone both to despotism and self-destruction should be obvious, but no matter hoTw many historical examples, and no matter how many "Professor Gadget godz" we go through with constant disappointment yet always clamoring for more (and fewer sacrifices for children, and the more sacrifices OF children); the more we ignore the silent cries of those we persecute to death, and the millions more of oppressed peoples we ignore become, "legion"--and more and more legions against us and our self righteous ways.
I do not make excuses for the present day Republican Party; neither party could be the party of Lincoln, because both are parties that pander to our basest emotions, and both are largely reactionary in the worst sorts of ways.
Neither party will stop the slaughter.
And because of this, we will diminish not only in stature and reputation, but will be considered worldwide as a hypocritical example of mass degradation and living for ourselves. "Imperial Washington" is upon us, Samson, as Delilah sniggers behind the arras.
We forget that "the greatest generation," was raised in almost always intact families, both nuclear and extended-- yet one that betrayed itself by asserting free and easy divorce in the free and easy post war years--hence devouring not only themselves but selling their children and grandchildren down the river for a bowl of red stew. Not funny, McGee.
Jer 31:15: fulfilled by Herod and the Imperiums of today: "A voice is heard in Ramah, mourning and great weeping, Rachel weeping for her children and refusing to be comforted, because her children are no more."
But it brought to mind how much the Republican party was brought to life as a response to pro-slavery Democrats. The Whig party, and the Know-Nothings, were not enough by any means; yet we seem to have reverted to the same sort of policies that characterized the pre-Republicans. (pre-abolitionists as well)
Democracy per se always falls on its own sword, because it panders to impulses of the moment. Schoolchildren were taught this in the past, via the Greek and Roman experiments, as showing the need for a balance of powers. But recall (and this is even recapped in Star Wars!) that Rome's strength was predicated on intact family systems to oppose the will of the general public, and that their Republic was undone by the idea of democracy which quickly and as always devolved into the Imperium. "A Republic, if you can keep it." Ben knew his history, obviously; but we have forgotten it in our rush towards bread and circuses. In fact, it could well be argued that our politics now center around entertainment; and the party of Hollywood, which specializes in instant gratification, is now the de facto ruling party of the nation--and it is unlikely that anything but the hand of God could reverse it. (which of course he is doing--but will it take another 2000 years?
I thoroughly believe that God put Lincoln in place, not merely to save the Union and Federalism, but to preserve us from, "every man does what is right in his own eyes." I have quoted Ibsen before in these pages, who said that, "The minority is sometimes right; but the majority is always wrong." This idea is the only way--by the grace of God--that Lincoln, a depressive, could endure his maximally strident opposition from virtually all sides--the Pharisees and Sadducees and Herods and Caesar's of his own day--as it is in ours--but Lincoln could never be elected in our day. These four powers hold absolute and de facto cooperative sway in USA Today--and worldwide....knit together inseparably by gross materialism. They may fight over ownership of their "things," but otherwise they are all disciples of Darwinian Mechanisms, hence philosophically irreducibly linked.
And let it be pointed out that it was the vast majority in Judah that killed the One Person sent who could have been, at the very least, their Lincoln, who indeed, as Isaiah said, came to set the captives free. This analogy does not go very far--but it does suggest that pure democracy can never be anything but an enemy to truth--especially hard and ugly and inconvenient truths, which it "suppresses in unrighteousness." (c.f. Judges)
It is small wonder that both our politics and our godz are like Molech-worship, anti-family, anti-natal, and known best for their advocacy of, shall we say, "free love." That this is prone both to despotism and self-destruction should be obvious, but no matter hoTw many historical examples, and no matter how many "Professor Gadget godz" we go through with constant disappointment yet always clamoring for more (and fewer sacrifices for children, and the more sacrifices OF children); the more we ignore the silent cries of those we persecute to death, and the millions more of oppressed peoples we ignore become, "legion"--and more and more legions against us and our self righteous ways.
I do not make excuses for the present day Republican Party; neither party could be the party of Lincoln, because both are parties that pander to our basest emotions, and both are largely reactionary in the worst sorts of ways.
Neither party will stop the slaughter.
And because of this, we will diminish not only in stature and reputation, but will be considered worldwide as a hypocritical example of mass degradation and living for ourselves. "Imperial Washington" is upon us, Samson, as Delilah sniggers behind the arras.
We forget that "the greatest generation," was raised in almost always intact families, both nuclear and extended-- yet one that betrayed itself by asserting free and easy divorce in the free and easy post war years--hence devouring not only themselves but selling their children and grandchildren down the river for a bowl of red stew. Not funny, McGee.
Jer 31:15: fulfilled by Herod and the Imperiums of today: "A voice is heard in Ramah, mourning and great weeping, Rachel weeping for her children and refusing to be comforted, because her children are no more."
Sunday, September 30, 2012
Interesting...
It would appear that the majority of "page views" are not from people at all but from "Phishing" computers dragging their nets for keywords or key subgroups. The most frequent visitor seems to be a site that I cannot myself access, except for a tag in the corner that says, "Buy Viagra."
Before it goes generic , I s'pose. Sigh...another unintended consequence of "grow old with me, the best is yet to come" mass marketing ploys. But it is only a matter of time before Master McCorporate Worldly-Wize will be trolling not just a few demographics but your actual medical records.
"Privacy" was the watchword. "Piracy" is the reality.
We as physicians are now required to be totally transparent--as we already are to Big Gov and MAC-Donalds--to the patient, who can actually suffer harm in many cases from perusing candid medical records. This has happened twice to me already, totally transgressing the old standard of "primum non nocere." In the future, medical records will contain only the most generic,template-driven material--rather like present day "letters of recommendation" which are in most cases totally useless-- Why?
"Things your lawyer won't tell you." (because they don't want to know or take personal or corporate responsibility for all the damage people have allowed them to do by surrendering all their rights to professionals.)
I need to post this now as my new computer is eating up and auto-deleting my words worse than any previous machine. So much for problem--solving Hal and his rebel progeny.
Before it goes generic , I s'pose. Sigh...another unintended consequence of "grow old with me, the best is yet to come" mass marketing ploys. But it is only a matter of time before Master McCorporate Worldly-Wize will be trolling not just a few demographics but your actual medical records.
"Privacy" was the watchword. "Piracy" is the reality.
We as physicians are now required to be totally transparent--as we already are to Big Gov and MAC-Donalds--to the patient, who can actually suffer harm in many cases from perusing candid medical records. This has happened twice to me already, totally transgressing the old standard of "primum non nocere." In the future, medical records will contain only the most generic,template-driven material--rather like present day "letters of recommendation" which are in most cases totally useless-- Why?
"Things your lawyer won't tell you." (because they don't want to know or take personal or corporate responsibility for all the damage people have allowed them to do by surrendering all their rights to professionals.)
I need to post this now as my new computer is eating up and auto-deleting my words worse than any previous machine. So much for problem--solving Hal and his rebel progeny.
Friday, September 28, 2012
misery-en-scene
I have tried twice to post something this weak and failed, or been denied, yea, these 3 times. So. No; I don't just send any old thing. I foresee that I will be more discerning in the future, hopefully without the complete loss of playfulness and spontaneity.
2Cor4 is something I am studying for the last two days. My conclusion is that everything is proceeding normally. It is normal for people to want to make a religion out of everything that they personally or publicly can. Idols are merely representative of an overweening and controlling soul; It is normal for us to put ourselves at the center of these religions, that "me and mine" may have absolute hegemony over the entire universe, if only in principle. It is normal that these ambitions will be almost 100% frustrated. Hence the world is a very dissatisfied, angry, and warlike place. Pacifists, too, insist on being right, and will use the Fist to bring it about. In our own minds we are mostly, most of the time, "coercive utopians." (As H.G. Wells demonstrated in most of his stories but never applied it to himself. "This....is...typical..." (Basil Fawlty.")
Some have noticed, on a note of woe, that Christians in many if not most countries, are the "New Jews," a term used by a Jewish journalist who is or was an atypical contributor to the New York Times. Paul notes the normality of that lowly state when he says that those who actually follow Christ are "jars of clay." You probably recall the Dalit cups of clay from a previous blog. They are made to be thrown away after one use. But only to protect real people from contamination from those considered also to be human untouchable throw-aways. (people fail to realize that this practice is a logical extension of the core of Hindu philosophy)
Whatever we may take away from that observation, I can safely say that the persecution worldwide of Christians has stripped the overall rise in population. A conservative estimate is that over 60% of religious persecution world wide is against Christians, mostly in places like Egypt--or New York City; where mocking any faith other than Christian is politically and morally forbidden. Rare is the insight that comes from such a unified team of super-aggressive secularists. They in fact prefer Islam; if only because Islam also, and officially, despises Christians--a confederacy of dunces, truly...who don't mind self-contradiction and theism if it's militant enough.
So things have taken up again where the 1st Century left off. In many areas, most of the believers
are being considered what Paul said-"the offscourings of the world." In many ways we should thank the rest of my family of origin who have, in their rabidity of their anti-Trinitarianism--which I find odd indeed--for contributing mightily if rather ignorantly, to this present stated of affairs. In other words, their attitudes have, by the support of many thought- leaders just like themselves, ushered in a new-old-age condition of normalcy for most believers.
Let us hear the hear-t of the matter from Paul himself: "But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from ourselves. We are hard-pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted but not abandoned; struck down but not destroyed; we always carry around in our bodies that death of Jesus, so that the Life of Jesus may also be revealed in our bodies."
Recall that in Paul's age, Jews were already greatly despised by nearly all other countries, barely withstanding many attempts to wipe them out, even up unto our own age. Christians then like Paul had no home in the world at all--no country, no tradition, and only a partial heritage from folks like Isaiah. They were then a despised minority within a despised minority--a larger minority who also thoroughly repudiated the lesser and newer one. This is in fact a normal Christian condition--and hope. Such that we would lean entirely on Christ; and less and less on culture, society, politics and its nasty bed-mate, religion. Christ is not a religion,(I say again--Rejoice!!!) He is the opposite of religion and politics, which look only to man and his "goodness" for power and solace. I cannot say that enough; but unless you know Christ you simply cannot see this most basic of God's wisdoms--which by very definition of God would have to be the far opposite of most of what worldly/religious systems and forms must dictate. Rather like two parents, one of whom wants to control the child forever--bad cop-- and one who nurtures us only to push us on to genuine liberty.
As the song goes, "You can have the whold world, just give me Jesus." Amen.
2Cor4 is something I am studying for the last two days. My conclusion is that everything is proceeding normally. It is normal for people to want to make a religion out of everything that they personally or publicly can. Idols are merely representative of an overweening and controlling soul; It is normal for us to put ourselves at the center of these religions, that "me and mine" may have absolute hegemony over the entire universe, if only in principle. It is normal that these ambitions will be almost 100% frustrated. Hence the world is a very dissatisfied, angry, and warlike place. Pacifists, too, insist on being right, and will use the Fist to bring it about. In our own minds we are mostly, most of the time, "coercive utopians." (As H.G. Wells demonstrated in most of his stories but never applied it to himself. "This....is...typical..." (Basil Fawlty.")
Some have noticed, on a note of woe, that Christians in many if not most countries, are the "New Jews," a term used by a Jewish journalist who is or was an atypical contributor to the New York Times. Paul notes the normality of that lowly state when he says that those who actually follow Christ are "jars of clay." You probably recall the Dalit cups of clay from a previous blog. They are made to be thrown away after one use. But only to protect real people from contamination from those considered also to be human untouchable throw-aways. (people fail to realize that this practice is a logical extension of the core of Hindu philosophy)
Whatever we may take away from that observation, I can safely say that the persecution worldwide of Christians has stripped the overall rise in population. A conservative estimate is that over 60% of religious persecution world wide is against Christians, mostly in places like Egypt--or New York City; where mocking any faith other than Christian is politically and morally forbidden. Rare is the insight that comes from such a unified team of super-aggressive secularists. They in fact prefer Islam; if only because Islam also, and officially, despises Christians--a confederacy of dunces, truly...who don't mind self-contradiction and theism if it's militant enough.
So things have taken up again where the 1st Century left off. In many areas, most of the believers
are being considered what Paul said-"the offscourings of the world." In many ways we should thank the rest of my family of origin who have, in their rabidity of their anti-Trinitarianism--which I find odd indeed--for contributing mightily if rather ignorantly, to this present stated of affairs. In other words, their attitudes have, by the support of many thought- leaders just like themselves, ushered in a new-old-age condition of normalcy for most believers.
Let us hear the hear-t of the matter from Paul himself: "But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from ourselves. We are hard-pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted but not abandoned; struck down but not destroyed; we always carry around in our bodies that death of Jesus, so that the Life of Jesus may also be revealed in our bodies."
Recall that in Paul's age, Jews were already greatly despised by nearly all other countries, barely withstanding many attempts to wipe them out, even up unto our own age. Christians then like Paul had no home in the world at all--no country, no tradition, and only a partial heritage from folks like Isaiah. They were then a despised minority within a despised minority--a larger minority who also thoroughly repudiated the lesser and newer one. This is in fact a normal Christian condition--and hope. Such that we would lean entirely on Christ; and less and less on culture, society, politics and its nasty bed-mate, religion. Christ is not a religion,(I say again--Rejoice!!!) He is the opposite of religion and politics, which look only to man and his "goodness" for power and solace. I cannot say that enough; but unless you know Christ you simply cannot see this most basic of God's wisdoms--which by very definition of God would have to be the far opposite of most of what worldly/religious systems and forms must dictate. Rather like two parents, one of whom wants to control the child forever--bad cop-- and one who nurtures us only to push us on to genuine liberty.
As the song goes, "You can have the whold world, just give me Jesus." Amen.
Monday, September 24, 2012
Post Mosaic Post
"This matter arose because some false brothers had infiltrated our ranks to spy on the freedom we have in Christ Jesus and to make us slaves. We did not give in to them for a moment, so that the truth of the Gospel might remain with you."
For those of you who might think that I was being paranoid in my last post, this demonstrates not just how likely this is to happen, but the fact that it is going to happen anytime you have the freedom of the Gospel manifesting in your life--which obviously, I dearly hope it is doing.
On the other hand, I,like most of your, have a hard time figuring out why anyone would want to mine my data. But, be assured, it has already happened.
Who, then would be interested? Why, lawyers! They have lots of time--judging by their desperately numerous ads in the phone book and elsewhere--to do investigatory work--and besides that, they are smart enough to know that juries and even judges of the present day must go way beyond the facts, in order to win, and make the opponent out to be evil on an emotional level. There is neither justice nor truth at work, or increasingly less. The way to get to jurors is to entertain them by creating a courtroom drama and to make oneself into a super hero to boot.
But who were the lawyers of Jesus' day? Religious folk, esp. Professional Religious Figures. The idea of pleasing God by pleasing the lawyers and the keepers of the good list--the Santa Clause theory of God and man--is pervasive throughout mankind, largely but not solely because child training is usually Skinnerian, that is, "a system of punishment and reward," which very soon becomes our default mode for every problem we face--fear of man from fear of punishment by man, esp. when as in our present day, the fear of God is utterly meaningless to the vast majority, even of Christians and Jews.
So it is very handy for the law to point out the "inconsistencies" of those driven by the love and vast winds of the Spirit of God.
It also polishes our pride of self-accomplishment--see, I don't need God or Christ, I built this! I am a blessing to me and whoever "gets it," by which is meant the system of man judging not only God but those under Grace. As Screwtape inferred, it must be something else-he can't really love the little vermin, but our Research Department is still working on it.
To get the whole story of Paul's history with the Pharisees and the lawyers, most of the book of Galatians is devoted to this very issue, and it is a quick read. But the point is that we, each one of us, get imprisoned not by God but by the spirit of "every man his own lawyer, judge and jury" but only as it regards others, not one's self. The rise of international lynch mobs certainly is an extreme example of this, but historically it is also the rule, not the exception. The numbers to the slaughter is greater according to the rise in the population, hence it is increasingly common in the third world. 70% of people live in countries where Christianity is the enemy and either outlawed or pursued by moral vigilantes with impunity. With numbers like these, unless I rest in Christ Alone, paranoia is easy to come by, even if I consider myself as a very low profile person. I do not recommend paranoia, of course- it's not faith, that's sure--but rather as Paul said in 2 Cor 3:12, "Therefore we are very bold, since we have such a hope." In Christ that is, not in the law, whether of God or man.
For those of you who might think that I was being paranoid in my last post, this demonstrates not just how likely this is to happen, but the fact that it is going to happen anytime you have the freedom of the Gospel manifesting in your life--which obviously, I dearly hope it is doing.
On the other hand, I,like most of your, have a hard time figuring out why anyone would want to mine my data. But, be assured, it has already happened.
Who, then would be interested? Why, lawyers! They have lots of time--judging by their desperately numerous ads in the phone book and elsewhere--to do investigatory work--and besides that, they are smart enough to know that juries and even judges of the present day must go way beyond the facts, in order to win, and make the opponent out to be evil on an emotional level. There is neither justice nor truth at work, or increasingly less. The way to get to jurors is to entertain them by creating a courtroom drama and to make oneself into a super hero to boot.
But who were the lawyers of Jesus' day? Religious folk, esp. Professional Religious Figures. The idea of pleasing God by pleasing the lawyers and the keepers of the good list--the Santa Clause theory of God and man--is pervasive throughout mankind, largely but not solely because child training is usually Skinnerian, that is, "a system of punishment and reward," which very soon becomes our default mode for every problem we face--fear of man from fear of punishment by man, esp. when as in our present day, the fear of God is utterly meaningless to the vast majority, even of Christians and Jews.
So it is very handy for the law to point out the "inconsistencies" of those driven by the love and vast winds of the Spirit of God.
It also polishes our pride of self-accomplishment--see, I don't need God or Christ, I built this! I am a blessing to me and whoever "gets it," by which is meant the system of man judging not only God but those under Grace. As Screwtape inferred, it must be something else-he can't really love the little vermin, but our Research Department is still working on it.
To get the whole story of Paul's history with the Pharisees and the lawyers, most of the book of Galatians is devoted to this very issue, and it is a quick read. But the point is that we, each one of us, get imprisoned not by God but by the spirit of "every man his own lawyer, judge and jury" but only as it regards others, not one's self. The rise of international lynch mobs certainly is an extreme example of this, but historically it is also the rule, not the exception. The numbers to the slaughter is greater according to the rise in the population, hence it is increasingly common in the third world. 70% of people live in countries where Christianity is the enemy and either outlawed or pursued by moral vigilantes with impunity. With numbers like these, unless I rest in Christ Alone, paranoia is easy to come by, even if I consider myself as a very low profile person. I do not recommend paranoia, of course- it's not faith, that's sure--but rather as Paul said in 2 Cor 3:12, "Therefore we are very bold, since we have such a hope." In Christ that is, not in the law, whether of God or man.
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