The Fast

 If Wednesday comes and there is a "red wave" like everyone says there will be, well I will feel rather silly. Happy, but silly. I don't know for a fact that there won't be. If my explanation for how I am feeling is correct however, then perhaps I can use what is happening to me for my edification.

For the last couple days, I have felt uncharacteristically depressed. Like I am in mourning. Food has lost its flavor, I have no appetite. These could have perfectly normal biological explanations and I would be happy for them to be true: the problem arises if this explanation is wrong. I have no obvious signs of sickness. It is like I am going through the Biblical description of a fast.

Fasting and mourning go together, fasting is a kind of mourning. Sometimes as with the Ninevites after Jonah's visit, it is remorse for one's own sin. While I have many sins in my past, I don't think I am particularly sinny lately.

There is another reason for which people fasted in the Bible. When Moses brought down the tablets of the Ten Commandments to discover the Israelites worshiping cows, after he threw down the tablets, G-d said he would destroy the Israelites and make of Moses the new line of Israelites. Basically making Moses the new Abraham. Moses went back upon the mountain and threw himself on the ground and fasted 40 days and nights. Moses, in other words, was trying to influence G-d to change His mind.

Now this sounds ridiculous on its face, that G-d having decided something even could change His mind. I mean, He's G-d. If He decided something, that's how it's gonna be, period. Nevertheless, not only Moses fasted like this. David fasted in an unsuccessful effort to save his son's life. After his son died, then he ate and drank and his attendants were puzzled and a little offended by this. You fast and mourn while your son is alive, and then when your son is dead, THEN you eat? David's answer is that while his son was alive, he fasted in the hopes of averting G-d's decision, but once he was dead there was no point to that.

So clearly, if fasting can sometimes change G-d's mind, David didn't have the holiness mojo to do that and Moses did, since G-d did decide to have mercy on the Israelites after all.

Now the whole idea that fasting could change G-d's mind is a little crazy to me. One might suspect that G-d, rather than mainly wanting to wipe out the Israelites, wanted to make Moses more responsible for them, and putting their continued survival on him personally would do that. It is vaguely reminiscent of Elijah basically wanting to wash his hands of the Israelites altogether.

And the word of the Lord came to him: “What are you doing here, Elijah?”

He replied, “I have been very zealous for the Lord God Almighty.
The Israelites have rejected your covenant, torn down your altars,
and put your prophets to death with the sword. I am the only one left,
and now they are trying to kill me too.”

~1 Kings 19:9-10

In other words, in Elijah's opinion the Israelites are altogether irredeemably evil. This declaration was prefaced by Elijah fasting, praying that he would die.

Elijah was afraid and ran for his life. When he came to Beersheba in Judah, he left his servant there, while he himself went a day’s journey into the wilderness. He came to a broom bush, sat down under it and prayed that he might die. “I have had enough, Lord,” he said. “Take my life; I am no better than my ancestors.” Then he lay down under the bush and fell asleep.

All at once an angel touched him and said, “Get up and eat.” He looked around, and there by his head was some bread baked over hot coals, and a jar of water. He ate and drank and then lay down again.

The angel of the Lord came back a second time and touched him and said, “Get up and eat, for the journey is too much for you.” So he got up and ate and drank. Strengthened by that food, he traveled forty days and forty nights until he reached Horeb, the mountain of God. There he went into a cave and spent the night.

~1 Kings 19:3-9

What happened after that? Elijah's mantle passed onto Elisha. Why did that happen? Perhaps because Elijah could no longer intercede for the people, having essentially written them off or at least declared that he couldn't face their evil anymore. So G-d wanted to make Moses MORE responsible for Israel and G-d recognized that Elijah COULD NOT be responsible for Israel any more so Elisha had to take over. And both were prefaced with fasting by Moses and Elijah respectively, although it does not state explicitly that Elijah fasted but rather that he was in need of food, which under the circumstances probably meant that he had been fasting. Elijah had a servant, he could have probably afforded something at Beersheba's version of Taco Bell if he were in any mood to eat. ;)

So if what I am going through is sort of unconscious fasting FOR something, what is it I am unconsciously fasting for? What am I wishing to change G-d's mind about?

I am very much afraid that my soul, having perceived something that my mind has not, is fasting to avert a terrible disaster. The Midterm Elections. That the Democrats will win a great victory, by means fair or likely foul. And that G-d will let it happen. THAT is what I am very much afraid of.

I have not eaten all day, and now it is night. If this is what my body is fasting for, then perhaps I should eat. Accept it, accept it, that things are gone much farther than you thought. That horrible consequences are forthcoming, and nobody can stop it. If we win now, if we win in 2024, will that turn the tide of evil in this country? No, nothing short of calamity can turn it now. If we win and are smiling now, we are only setting ourselves up to mourn and cry in 2024 or 2028. America is still evil and godless, regardless. Nothing will change on Nov. 9, not really. The only medicine that will fix America now, is the road of pain.

I hope very very much that I am very mistaken about all of this. Nobody will be happier than I to be made the fool of. But I think I am fasting to change G-d's mind about Nov. 8. Or I am fasting, because He needs to change MY mind about what will happen on Nov. 8. That I have to accept that I am hoping for a lost cause.

"The anger of the Lord will not turn back
Till it has fulfilled and completed His purposes.
In the days to come, you shall clearly perceive it."

~Jeremiah 23:20

What do you do with all the Woke commies?

I usually go with more spiritual topics on this blog, but since I have been banned on Facebook for 24 hours for CRACKING A FRIKKING JOKE, I guess I have to put this here. 

The Nation, once a semi-respectable magazine of sorts, recently went with an article entitled, "Do We Really Have to Care About Miserable White People? Sadly, yes, because they wield disproportionate political power." Read it if you have the belly for it. This is how you say you are a racist without saying you are a racist.

Also, here's their new cover. Think they are sending a message here?

I think maybe they don't like Christians too much, whaddya think?

Now, just as the profoundly odious Joan Walsh asks the question of what they can do about all the hateful unhappy white people, I am going to ask: what the hell do we do with all the woke commies?

If I could push a button and export them all permanently to China, with a Biblical curse that their skin will melt if they ever set foot in the United States again, I probably would. But mass teleportation and Biblical curses are not in my tool box. What's the solution, then? Because if they aren't stopped they are going to wind up making the Third Reich look positively sane.

Total urban meltdown. I hate to recommend Armageddon as a solution to anything, but honestly we're there. We either have to find a way to disenfranchise the Woketards permanently - very undemocratic of me, I know - or else the cities just have to completely melt down and since they can't survive anywhere else, they'll die. Now Putin might make that prescription literal, and that might be a fix as long as Putin and Xi get the same treatment, but we don't have to wait on Crazy Vlad to push the button. The Woketards are shitting their own beds as we speak. The cities they need to continue their parasitic way of life, are the cities they are destroying. Nice symmetry, that.

Now either cheering on their self-induced destruction or politically castrating them both sound like very extreme solutions, and they are. If these solutions were available in the 1930's to stop Hitler from rising to power and initiating the deaths of innocent millions (as versus woketards who are not innocent,) would you want to use them?

Lets take stock of where we are for a minute:

· We have corporate censorship in this country and the executive branch of the US government has eagerly offered to help them do that. I got censored just today.

· We have people in positions of political power demanding total control over your body and whatever they may want to inject into it.

· We have a news media almost entirely controlled by the Woke commies. It is Democrat State Media at this point, an American Pravda.

· The US government is intentionally opening the borders to all comers in order to dilute the vote of current American citizens. That might backfire because basically nobody in the world is as Woke as some Americans are. Those who become citizens are not that likely to go along with it.

· The entire American educational establishment is controlled by the Woke commies. Universities are leftist indoctrination centers. The Teacher's Union is run by Woke commies. Children are being taught in schools to embrace sexual deviance and white self-loathing.

· We have parents drugging and in some times getting surgery for their "transgender" children, with permanent consequences.

· Thanks to the Patriot Act and other such laws, the US Government can spy on its own citizens with impunity.

· They want to disarm us. Gosh, wonder why they want that?

· They want to legalize the murder of the unborn until birth.

· The media suppresses news stories and calls them disinformation when they are critical of Democrats (such as with the Hunter Biden laptop) and then will turn around and say it happened after all, no apologies. They spread disinformation about Republicans, such as that concerned parents at school board meetings are "terrorists."

· Many many more such things.

The hour is way too late to play patty-cake with these monsters. If I could push that magical button that would cause them all to die, aside from a few that I for some unaccountable reason take a liking to, I totally would, because the alternative could be a dystopia the likes of which the Earth has never yet seen. 40 million dead Woketards is a small price to pay for saving humanity. They already chose death anyway.

ANYTHING that we can do to stop them is justified. There may not be shooting in the streets, but it's a war. There is no fair play in war. Now there is a good chance they may self destruct and we don't have to do anything, they seem pretty good at that, but anything else we have to do to stop them we must do. If they win, say goodbye to your life, your country, your freedom and probably anything else you value.

It was true then and it is true now. There is only one kind of good communist. Hell, it's an insult to historical communists to call them communists, the focking Soviet Union was practically wholesome compared to these guys. The Soviet Union wasn't trying to cut your kids nads off. The Soviet Union didn't have Pride Parades where naked pervs march down public streets. I should call them Woke Satanists because that's what they are, the commie bit is just one feature of a much larger package. Their movement needs to be put down like the rabid dogs they are. With extreme prejudice.

In Praise of the Destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah

 Those who are looking for reasons to judge G-d to be cruel according to "modern, conventional morality" (the same morality that has condoned the slaughter of 60 million infants in this country since 1973,) do not have to look very far to find examples in the Tanakh. While G-d very specifically commands that the Israelites during the invasion of Canaan not wage war against any nation that claims descent from Abraham or Lot; for the rest the fate is not so kind. The Israelites are commanded to completely destroy them, every man woman and child, along with their personal possessions and especially any religious idols. They are all basically to be piled in the center of town, the inhabitants along with all their household goods and idols, and burned. How intolerant!

Now as time goes on, things get modified a bit, whether at the command of G-d or more likely despite it. Frequently the Canaanite towns are allowed to surrender and serve as slaves. Arguably it is the self-interest of the Israelites to blame, not the command of G-d, that this is sometimes an option. G-d is pretty unambiguous about the "no prisoners" thing, and constantly warns of the ill consequences of Israelites associating with the Canaanites in any way whatsoever. Total destruction is specified.

However in the Tanakh, G-d does not always delegate mass destruction to His servants. Sometimes He takes action directly. The first and most notable example of this is the destruction of the ante-diluvian world in the Flood. Now you can think what you like about the historicity of such things, but what is undeniable is that the Tanakh SAYS G-d destroyed them. So for the people who are looking for ammunition against the G-d of the Tanakh, grounds for an accusation of cruelty, that is what the Tanakh said He did. We don't know what numbers were involved, but it was clearly depicting a mass death event.

The second most notable example is the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, or rather the destruction of the whole Dead Sea valley because it was not strictly limited just to those two cities. In terms of total dead, probably 100,000 is not too high a number. And this again was the destruction of every man, woman, child, cow, donkey and chicken. It was a holocaust, which originally meant a burnt offering to G-d to the point of complete destruction.

And again you can argue one way or the other about the historicity of such an event. That's not the point. The point is that the Tanakh says G-D HIMSELF DID IT.

And I am about to argue that this was an act of kindness, a mercy towards humanity. In fact, if you are living in an era where Sodoms and Gomorrahs are NOT destroyed in such a way (as is currently the case,) that this signifies that G-d is really really very very unhappy with Mankind and we should be very very concerned. This is not to say that the Sodoms and Gomorrahs of the 21st Century will not meet destruction: they absolutely will, but through the fruition of their own evil. In other words the full fruit of the wicked cities of America and the world will be allowed to manifest, and that fruit will destroy them. Rather than G-d pruning those branches before they are allowed to fruit.

Evil is incapable of creation and can only destroy in the end. Comparing evil to a virus, the virus of evil eventually destroys the cell that allows it to replicate and so it must find new cells to destroy. America's most wicked cities will eventually lack even the most basic structures that allow them to continue, such as the rule of law and the protection of property and life.

It is a mercy of G-d to clean up Humanity's mistakes for it, and nothing cleans like fire. Like, clearly mistakes were made and G-d is going to clean up that mess for you, Humanity. You get a fresh start, a clean slate. That is in some ways the greatest of mercies: a second chance. Or in this case a third or more chance.

What would have happened if G-d had not destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah? What is happening now, to us, today?

Future generations would have been raised completely saturated in evil and abomination. Opportunities for children to grow up to be righteous would have been very slim indeed: in fact without the grace and intervention of G-d there would be no chance of that whatsoever. The evil, the power hunger, the arrogance and the deviance of Man would have grown unbounded, distorting and blaspheming the image of Man who was made in G-d's image. The Devil likes nothing better than to blaspheme G-d by twisting His image into a perversion and a mockery. Those who have eyes to see can already see that happening so clearly. The innocent, those who have not yet seriously sinned, are a special target: either for destruction or for corruption. The Devil kills babies and those who are not killed he makes a special target for moral corruption. We should wish that America's cities be absolutely destroyed rather than for dozens of future generations to live as slaves to wickedness. You may call me evil, and according to "conventional, modern morality" I probably am, but I have often prayed for this. That G-d would give us the kindness that he showed the people of the age of Sodom and wipe out evil from the land. Scourge it from the land with fire. But that seemingly is not what is going on in this era. Evil is going to full flower and fruit.

Death is infinitely preferable to slavery to wickedness. It is infinitely better for the human race to be decontaminated from that evil. It was better for the future generations of Sodom not to be born, than to be born deeply entrenched in spiritual slavery. And that is why the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah was a blessing: to the rest of the human race that survived, and to the future generations who would now not be born into complete spiritual oppression.

The destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah was an event worthy of thanks and praise, not our all-too-human judgments about the "cruelty of G-d." Our hearts should pine and pray for fresh starts, for clean slates, for the mistakes and deliberate evils of humanity to be wiped away from the Earth. For the possibility of children being raised uncorrupted and clean, and old men going to their graves in peace, reconciled to their G-d. Amen.

By Daderot - Own work, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=62711574

 

Eye and Cheek

 Theology has often struggled to reconcile the "eye for an eye" morality of the Tanakh, the Old Testament, with the "Love your enemies" and "turn the other cheek" morality of the New. Did G-d change His mind? In the past, my solution has been simple: they cannot be reconciled. Indeed Christians frequently mix Old and New Testament morality rather eclectically, something the liberals (who might prefer an extreme surrender to evil theology) have tended to be quick to point out. To them, Jesus is only the man who forgives adulterers, not the man who yells at pharisees. Yet the issue remains: the Tanakh demands death for adulterers; Jesus rescued one who was lined up for exactly that punishment.

I think now that this conflict actually can be resolved somewhat harmoniously by looking at the very differing conditions of Moses and Joshua on the one hand, and Jesus on the other. G-d didn't change, but circumstances sure did.

While of course the germ theory of disease was not known then, the Tanakh can be thought of as kind of operating on a "germ theory of evil." In other words, you have to nip the contagion right in the bud and quarantine those affected, either by exiling them or in more extreme cases killing them. Evil has to be opposed vigorously and violently, or else it will surely spread and cause even more suffering.This was regarded as a communal obligation: both an obligation of the community and an obligation of the individual towards it.

And of course this theory is quite right: we see all the time how evil spreads through families and communities, the sins of the fathers do indeed rebound onto the sons and daughters. When you look at prison populations, virtually all of them have extensive family histories of violence, drug and alcohol abuse and other disorders. Sure, all of us have our family issues, but prisoners often have profoundly crippling ones.

Evil does spread like a disease. And the Tanakh's approach to that disease is like the approach to gangrene: when the finger gets gangrene, you chop it off to save the hand. But this chopping is not something that is left up to the individual, it is a responsibility of the community. When a crime calls for stoning to death, everyone is supposed to throw the stones. Not just one person. In some cases like idolatry, it specifies that even the closest next of kin of the condemned is to throw a stone; in fact they have to throw the first one.

But you have to ask the question: who was in charge of that community, that ancient Jewish society? Moses and Joshua. Who was in charge of them? G-d. This was, at least ideally, a society almost unique in human history. One in which G-d was in charge, when G-d was recognized as the authority.

What was the situation in Jesus' time? That disease control horse has long bolted the corral. The population was thoroughly infected. The disease was rampant and uncontrolled. The Hebrews had failed to live up to the opportunity to be a holy people led by G-d. The real people of G-d were not in charge of that society, they were refugees in it. Judea had been taken over by the Romans, a violent pagan torturing empire that watched people suffer and die for entertainment. The Jewish establishment had carved themselves out a niche of comfort and wealth and didn't have to give a damn. They made rules without caring what burdens they placed on the people. The Temple might not have had pagan idols in it as in times past, but it was still a corrupt institution run by self-serving elites.

Satan was in charge of the Earth. Satan was the authority. In that context, the communal authority authorized by G-d, which was required for much of Old Testament morality, didn't exist anymore. Sure the Sanhedrin existed, under Roman rule, and was about as representative of the "community" as today's elites are of the American populace. All of the individual obligations still existed: you were still supposed to not lie, covet or kill, and Jesus never once contradicted any of that with the possible exception of Sabbath observance. And you could argue that Sabbath observance was a communal obligation too. That community as an extension of divine rule functionally no longer existed.

What did Jesus change? Communal obligations. Stoning adulterers is a communal obligation, not an individual one. The COMMUNITY was supposed to put that person to death, not the individual. The community prosecutes thieves (if someone takes away your coat, give them your cloak.) The community prosecutes assault (turn the other cheek.) If a Roman slaps you, are you going to take it up with the Romans which are the authority in place? They will probably beat you for your pains.

So in Moses' time, G-d was in charge, of that community at least. In Jesus' time, Satan ruled the Earth. And still does.

Jesus evidences a point of view of the people of G-d as refugees in the world. Outcasts. The offscourings of the Earth. The dregs, in the eyes of the world.

If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first.
If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own.
As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world.
That is why the world hates you.

~John 15:18-19

This is the world of Jesus, and this is our world. Now, for a long time in Europe people sought to establish "Christendom," people in early America did too, and this no doubt had many good effects along with some not-so-great ones. But ultimately, this is the Day of Satan, and I don't believe that anything we do is going to change that until the end.

I really feel like this understanding is the resolution for me for the conflict between the Tanakh and the New Testament. While I believe that the idea that anyone other than G-d was G-d is contrary to the Torah (and it is,) I have often felt drawn to what Jesus taught regardless, and tried to figure out a resolution between conflicting Christian and Torah morality, and I believe this is it. I was a Christian for some years, and I often felt drawn to the refugee motifs in the New Testament that were largely lacking in the Old. We ARE refugees and outcasts in the world. Satan is "the prince of this world" as the Gospel of John says. These ideas are not present in the Tanakh because the Tanakh was written in a time when the rulership of G-d was either already established (Moses, Joshua) or was trying to be re-established. Well that horse had fled to Alaska by the time Jesus was born.

So then does that mean that I now accept the New Testament, despite its many differences from the Old, as being from G-d? Yes. Does that mean that Jesus was the Son of G-d? Quite possibly, whatever that exactly means. Some of these expressions are rather lacking in explanations. A prophet? Quite possibly.

Do I believe that he is the same as G-d? No, and there are many quotes in the gospels which indicate he didn't believe that, either. He always defers to his Father. If that is functionally the same as deferring to himself, that is a peculiar way of deferring. You defer to the other. Jesus defers to the Father. Jesus was a man.

However he was a man that seems to have had a revelation from G-d for these satanically-dominated times. We are not in charge of this world. Satan is.

Conservatives often fight for the establishment of at least some degree of holy authority over the United States, and that is both well-meant and probably would be good in its effects. But just like Christendom in Medieval Europe, it is a stopgap against a satanic world and often the forces that are supposed to be fighting on our side wind up fighting on theirs. Corruption in the Church, you just have to look at the Catholic Church to see how that works. Politicians who run on "family values" who wind up grabbing for the shiny baubles that Satan hangs down to lure the weak. That doesn't mean we stop trying, it means we understand our position. We are refugees and outcasts trying to seize back authority for G-d, and we are going to lose in that effort more often than win until G-d decides to wrap the whole thing up. 

 

This is the verdict: Light has come into the world,
but people loved darkness instead of light
because their deeds were evil.

~John 3:19

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.