Redeemed from Slavery

 We all have an idea of what slavery is. Many people don't have any idea of what true spiritual oppression and slavery is, the horror of it. To be surrounded by an environment that doesn't just hate you and is toxic to you, but is toxic to your soul. That oppresses your soul. This is not because we don't have such an environment readily at hand: we absolutely do. It is because people have put their souls on mute.

Spiritual oppression and the physical manifestations of spiritual oppression are different but not separable, they go together like hand and glove. We often feel spiritual oppression most keenly through its physical manifestations. The physical expression of that oppression is how oppression communicates itself, and spiritual oppression HAS to communicate or else remain impotent. Not only that you are a nothing, not only that you are a slave in fact, we own you, but that we are going to tell you and show you over and over and over that you are a slave and we own you. Despair and die, the devil says. There is nothing else but me.

So imagine G-d: he is looking down on the Israelites in Egypt, and they are not just physically abused but surrounded by and actually forced to work on images of false gods. Contrary to their own devout beliefs. Meanwhile to the Egyptians, they are less than dirt. They are deplorable and alien. They are oppressed in body, but possibly even worse, they are oppressed in soul. A man can withstand many hardships if through them his heart is singing. If he is free of spiritual oppression. All the people in America who commit suicide, who get addicted and die of overdoses and many other such sad fates: it is not their physical conditions that killed them. In these kind of cases they could have survived. It is succumbing to spiritual darkness that killed them, just as surely as if the Devil had come up to them and put a bullet in their heads. Bam, splat.

The truly horrible thing is, some people collaborate with the darkness. Some people give in to it and work with it and even celebrate it. We can imagine that some of the ancient Israelites really wanted to be Egyptians and were doing everything they could to suck up to them. In fact we know they did.

So anyway G-d in His mercy frees the Israelites from slavery. Not simply free from Egyptian polytheism and any other terrible behavior they might have had. Not simply free from the dictates of that particular government and king (a man who claimed to be a god.) No: free from all of it. Free from all the physical manifestations of spiritual oppression. You will have no king but G-d.

And then when G-d is talking to Moses on Mt. Sinai, a very large number of these same people who were redeemed from slavery go: lets go back to Egypt. Lets abandon G-d's ways. Can you imagine? You do this beautiful thing for a people, and they are like, "no we would rather be slaves. We like Egypt." What can you do with such people?

I think in some ways this is the hardest part of human nature to take. We all at times think, "well these people who are sinning in all these awful ways, denying G-d, they're just ignorant. If they really knew, if they knew what I know, they wouldn't be like that. They'd try to be good, not evil." And no, that's not necessarily the case. Yes there are some people who go astray through ignorance and repent of it when they know better. But there are others who love Egypt. Who love slavery. Who feel triumph with the Devil when he triumphs. Who wish to dominate other souls like the Devil dominates their own selves. And that's hard to take.

And don't imagine this is just a story about Egypt and Israelites. This is here, now.

I left the city for many good reasons, many of them very practical. I also left because the city, the kingdom of Man which sadly functionally means the kingdom of Satan, oppresses my soul. I feel a very palpable almost visceral oppression fall on my spirit whenever I am in an urban area. The concrete parking lots, the fluorescent lighting of the big box stores, the complete absence of any beauty or humanity (in the good sense,) sets a weight on my spirit that does not lift until I leave. I can't even drive in Dallas anymore, it's literally traumatic to me. All these little boxes driving around so frenetically with zero care for the risk to human life involved, frenetically driving themselves to what? To more slavery.

If you will excuse the crude expression, they are like someone furiously jacking off who can never orgasm. That's slavery. Furiously desiring something you can never have, because you don't even know what's good or what is holy anymore. Lemmings. A living, moving expression of the Devil's hatred of Mankind. And they are apparently willing participants in it.

We are taught by our "betters" in the World that hate is a bad thing. Not always. I hate, hate with every possible fiber of my being, this oppression. This spiritual slavery. I hate it utterly and completely. Hate for it fills every corner of me.

The thought that makes me sad is the thought of people who might one day be redeemed who at the moment are still stuck in that slavery, confused and oppressed. My potential brothers and sisters. I feel the oppression in their souls because I was there myself. I pray for them to be free. But I know that the Lord will not abandon anyone who truly turns to Him completely. He didn't abandon me. I know that however much I yearn for the liberation of these souls who can be free but who are now trapped in the oppression of the evil empire, G-d is jealous for them more.

Despite everything, despite all the things Mankind has done, despite all the turnings back to Egypt, He hasn't given up. He had a plan for Man, He always did, and He always wins in the end.

A Hole In The Flames

 Why is it that I seek to be happy, to be entertained,
in a hole in the flames
a hole in the flames of a dying world?
A hole in the flames of perdition?

And I am, I am entertained
with hobbies and games and current events
The vexation of the World can only vex me from a distance
I am not vexed to my face, by G-d's grace.

Forgive, O Lord.

I have been entertained when treasures of the Spirit could be opened to me.
I have been contented when revelation could come in it's place.
I have used your Sanctuary as a house of rest and peace, but not enough prayer.
I am a cow in Your fields, not a man.

A man... as if that were better!
The World is the world of Man
The World I hate
The flames I am protected from.
If being a man means being of that, I cannot want it.
Better a cow in Your field than a man.

Silence, you know not, I say to me.
You are not potter but clay.
G-d acts, you are acted upon
G-d will do, not you.

But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise;
God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong.
God chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things
—and the things that are not — to nullify the things that are

~1 Corinthians 1:27-28

The Good News About Christians

 Now as followers of this blog, to the extent they exist, would know, I do not believe in the divinity of Jesus. G-d made it pretty clear that He is One G-d. What is often considered the holiest prayer in the Torah, the Shema, states: G-d is ONE. Three-In-One or some variation thereof does not qualify.

However, I have come to a renewed appreciation of the fact that Jesus at least on some things was one perceptive cookie, whatever else he was. Read his imprecations against the scribes and Pharisees in Matthew. That was true then, and it still is. Rabbinical Judaism is directly descended from the Pharisees of that day. Every single attempt at moral renewal in overall society in recent centuries was led by Christians. Very very few of them were led by religious Jews.

Who cares if you or society as a whole winds up in moral perdition? Not many Rabbinical Jews, apparently. G-d and the Commandments are their property, didn't you know? If you are not a Jew, G-D (and His law) IS NOT OPEN TO YOU. Go take a long ride off a short pier, Goy.

Not only that, but legit ethnically-Jewish practitioners of Judaism who are not Rabbinical Jews, like the Karaite Jews, are not considered to be Jews at all by most Rabbinical Jews. And what is the signifying characteristic of Rabbinical Judaism? The reliance on rabbis, to the point where their word is considered nearly equal or actually equal to the words of G-d in the Torah. The Karaites are exactly the opposite, which is why Rabbinical Jews don't consider them Jews.

“But you are not to be called ‘Rabbi,’ for you have one Teacher, and you are all brothers. And do not call anyone on earth ‘father,’ for you have one Father, and he is in heaven."

~Matthew 23:8-9

“Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You shut the door of the kingdom of heaven in people’s faces. You yourselves do not enter, nor will you let those enter who are trying to."

~Matthew 23:13

Never has a single Rabbinical Jew ever responded to my interest in Judaism other than negatively. Matthew 23:13 was true in the First Century and still is.

Christians, whatever my doctrinal differences with them, actually do care if EVERYONE gets on the right path. The idea of a Christian saying to a sincere inquirer, "your interest in Christianity is not sincere, go away" is ludicrous on its face. It is nothing if not a universal religion. The color of your skin doesn't matter. The language you speak doesn't matter. They want you on the team. They believe, as I also do, that G-d is no respecter of persons. G-d doesn't think better of you because of your ethnicity. The special status of the Jews was to achieve an end, to be the bearer of G-d's Light and Word to the world. But then Christians, not Jews, did that. If there had been no Christians, the overwhelming majority of the world would only have heard of the Ten Commandments through comparative religion classes in colleges. If that.

I cannot agree with what Christians think is the means of salvation, of coming to G-d, but I could not agree with them more that G-d's message is for -

E V E R Y B O D Y .

Not just a special few, not just for one ethnic group. Now not everyone will accept the message of the Tanakh, but everyone is the intended recipient. No one is beyond the pale of G-d's mercy just because they were born into the wrong ethnic group or culture.

“What do you think? There was a man who had two sons. He went to the first and said, ‘Son, go and work today in the vineyard.’

“‘I will not,’ he answered, but later he changed his mind and went.

“Then the father went to the other son and said the same thing. He answered, ‘I will, sir,’ but he did not go.

“Which of the two did what his father wanted?”

“The first,” they answered.

Jesus said to them, “Truly I tell you, the tax collectors and the prostitutes are entering the kingdom of God ahead of you. For John came to you to show you the way of righteousness, and you did not believe him, but the tax collectors and the prostitutes did."

~Matthew 21:28-32

Another of Jesus' criticisms of the scribes and pharisees, and spot on. Now I believe that believing in the divinity of Jesus is idolatry, and I also know that many Christians would say that not believing in it, I am going to hell. Idolatry is indeed bad, it is one of the most frequently criticized sins of the entire Tanakh, what Christians call the Old Testament. Believing in the divinity of any created being definitely qualifies.

Despite this, do I believe that Christians who otherwise sincerely keep the Commandments especially the Ten Commandments and do what is right are eligible to enter the Kingdom of the Righteous if such will exist?

ABSOLUTELY. Why? Because while they may not say exactly the right thing or believe exactly the right thing, a righteous Christian in fact does what is right. Like the first son, a righteous Christian walks the walk even if his facts aren't exactly straight or his mouth isn't saying exactly the right words. Someone who, on the other hand, says "yes" to G-d but isn't actually righteous in his conduct, his "yes" is useless.

Surely G-d wishes us to spread knowledge of right and wrong and His Laws, not keep them to ourselves. Surely such an act is both righteous and kind. But if we left it to the Rabbinical Jews, keeping it to themselves is exactly what would have happened. Who has done the most to spread knowledge of G-d's Laws, even if sometimes they incorrectly say they have been superseded? Christians. Why is there a Bible in homes all over the world, even if they are not read? Because of Christianity.

So I think that while G-d definitely does not like idolatry, He does like Christians. I don't even hold it against them that they think I am going to hell, I know the Lord and I know that I know. Why is it that everywhere Christian civilization has held sway, it has tended to advance and advance significantly? What does G-d say about those who keep His ways? He will bless them and protect them. In the Tanakh, every single time the Jews were conquered, it was attributed to them becoming immoral and losing G-d's favor. When the Jews regained their freedom and succeeded, it was attributed to the revival of the sincerity of their faith. Well on average they have been doing rather poorly for the last 2000 years. To what should we attribute THAT? According to the same logic that is present throughout the Tanakh, they do NOT have the Lord's favor. Christians, at least until they lost control of "Christendom," DID and the proof of that is that they succeeded beyond any peoples on this Earth.

Now some would say that the idea that G-d blesses and protects those who love and obey Him in sincerity is a fossil of Iron Age thinking. Well the Tanakh absolutely repeatedly says it is true, and I believe what it says, whether it is "modern" thinking or not. While this does not limit G-d's freedom of action to act otherwise (which the Book of Job would seem to indicate it does not,) on the whole the Tanakh upholds the idea that the righteous who love G-d are generally both blessed and protected. Those who are not righteous and don't love G-d are not. They are cursed.

Some people regard the idea of America becoming a Christian Nationalist nation appalling. I don't, even though I am not a Christian. Why? I want children to be taught morality. I want them to not be taught perversion. I want a country where people will never again be persecuted or run out of business because they won't bend the knee to the secular doctrines. I want to live in a country where law and order are considered to be good things, not oppression. Christians are the only group that can actually potentially make this better America come about. If they don't, then get used to an America where the official doctrines are Woke corporate communism, atheism, corruption, slavery, lies, and moral deviancy. I would not be very happy about America becoming such, but we are well on the way to it.

Christians, whatever I think about their religion's idolatrous tendencies and their habit of using grace as a cover for lack of obedience, are the only ones who can save us from that (G-d willing and with His help.)

So we better hope, all of us, that America becomes a more Christian nation because if it doesn't, we're all screwed.