That Prophet | Religious news, art, satire, and biblical inspiration

Santa Clause: The Myth, The Legend... The Prophet?

Last time I checked Christmas was about the birth of Jesus Christ, the savior of the world, prophet and the son of God. However, as another Christmas holiday now comes to a close I can't help but wonder if people even remember the real reason behind the season. Is it a bird?! A prophet- named Jesus?!I Or wait- was the prophet's name Santa?! If anyone saw Jimmy Kimmel’s “I Gave My Kids a Terrible Present” video, you can see my point (not to mention my cynicism toward parenting or my concern for our future generations). In the western world Santa Claus may as well be an A-list celebrity, his name has been immortalized in hearts for centuries, but what about Jesus? I mean, sure… Santa’s presents are awesome, but as rumor would have it Jesus died on a cross for our salvation. His birth was written in the stars and celebrated by kings because his coming would ultimately result in the saving of our souls. Isn't that kind of a big deal? Even if you don’t buy into the Son of God story, isn’t there still a greater message that we should be teaching our children besides presents from a white-bearded man in a red suit?

Over the last century Christmas has become unbelievably commercialized, it’s estimated that Americans alone spend more than 300 billion dollars during the Christmas season. By the time Halloween candy is on the aisle, marketing campaigns for every major brand are gearing up to tantalize the imaginations of children (and bring ruin to the finances of parents). Before you know it radio waves are delivering tunes of holiday cheer, stores are doused in shades of red and green and volunteers are standing outside ringing little bells in hopes of prompting holiday donations. Is this what Christmas is really about: money, stress and material things?!? I think not. I mean hey!! Jesus came with gifts of mercy, hope and forgiveness; which is clearly a better reason to celebrate the day of his birth.

However if as a parent you still opt to attribute the Christmas season to good old’ St. Nick, then go for it! But perhaps we should at least gift our children with values that they can utilize throughout their lives such as the real the meaning behind the legend of Santa Claus: GENEROSITY. The moral to this story is that people are in need everyday of the year (not just one), hunger and homelessness are on the rise and the economy is still declining; but one thing holds constant whether you believe in Jesus Christ or not, his message is pretty powerful.

We are on this earth to love and treat each other as we ourselves wish to be treated.

The importance of family and generosity should not be confined to one day a year, but rather all 365 of them. Let’s start 2012 with a new trend of teaching our children empathy, compassion and love instead of apathy, selfishness, and greed.

Tapestry

Life After Death

Over time people have speculated about what happens after we pass from this life. Some believe that once you leave this planet, that’s it – nothing else happens. Some people believe that you move on to heaven while others believe that you move into a different realm or parallel universe. Some believe in reincarnation. There are those that believe you never really leave which is why we see ghosts.

I believe that life is a deeply interwoven tapestry that started with the beginning of time. I further believe that the Moirea (the Fates) are the crafters of this tapestry. This belief system intertwines a range of theories that may not work for everyone but works fairly well for me.

Each person in life is a thread. Some people are brightly colored threads leading happier lives, some people are muted colors leading more challenging or difficult lives. When it is time to change colors is when a life ends; momentarily. That same life resumes under new circumstances with a different color of thread. Every thread interacts with a certain amount of other threads throughout its length. Each thread maintains certain strengths and weaknesses that carry over from color to color.

Yes, there is a certain amount of reincarnation involved with this theory; but there is more to it than simply living a new life on this Earth. I believe that each life has to interact with a certain number of people that are consistent from life to life. There are people that you meet for the first time that you would swear you have met before. These are people that you have crossed paths with in previous lives and will cross paths with again in future lives. There are particular people that you will always know that are with you from each life to the next. In the tapestry these people are the threads that cross over or under yours. The people that are in every life are the threads that are woven beside yours, running parallel to your thread.

In every life there a particular aspects that are forever true whether or not your thread is bright or muted. If you are a storyteller, you will always be a storyteller. If you are a maker of music, you will always be a maker of music. If you are a protector of children, you will always do so. But there are less positive things about the tapestry that need to occur so that new souls can evolve and be included.

As you go through life there are certain things that you must learn in order to achieve an ultimate level of goodness allowing you to obtain the ability to guide new souls. These life lessons are given to you as your thread is woven into the tapestry; some are easy, others are hard. For every lesson you learn, the length of your thread stemming from the spool shortens. Every lesson learned is wisdom that flows over into the next life creating a lighter thread color. Every lesson not learned creates a darker thread for the next life requiring you to live the lesson repeatedly until you learn what you must.

Sometimes you are granted the memories of your past life to help you learn what you failed to understand in that past life. Sometimes there are penalties for those glimpses of the past; sometimes the memories are just enough of a warning to help you make different choice.

A warning from a past life may manifest itself in the form of a fear: for example; a fear of fire may mean the your last life ended as a result of fire or a fear of water may mean that you were subjected to drowning or some sort of torture having to do with water. A penalty from a past life comes in the form of knowledge; something that you know to be a certainty but have no idea how you know it. I once knew a child who knew without a doubt that he was going to die when he turned twenty-one. This same child also knew that he had been executed in the past and that he rightfully deserved the execution. This knowledge gave him the opportunity to make different choices; he learned enough that the Fates allowed him to live past his twenty-first birthday. The memories and visions of the past stopped completely when he turned twenty-two.

Some people would say that his experience was a form of self fulfilling prophecy, others would say that because he lived to see twenty-two that what he believed was past life memories were bad dreams or an overactive imagination. I know that in his twenty-first year the boy who is now a man survived a bullet wound delivered to him in a combat zone. I believe that he is destined for something more than an early death, even if his destiny is simply to be alive for someone who needs his advice. His thread is a brighter color than his last thread and hopefully will continue to brighten over his next several lives.

I believe that the Fates have a wicked sense of humor. I also believe that they have no compunction about changing the color of your thread if they believe that you are being woven too easily. I further believe that they have been known to use variegated threads more often than not.

To truly know what happens to us after death will forever be a mystery to the living. People need the comfort provided by systems of belief and theory in order to live their lives without worrying over death. I do not know that what I believe is any more right or wrong than what others believe. I do know that sometimes my theories have a morbid sense of humor about them as well as re-enforcing the understanding that I will have to keep coming back until I get it right.

My belief in the tapestry and Fates is far more extensive than the basics I have written here. Intertwined with my beliefs are theories on ghosts, the supernatural, time loops, civil service for people who commit suicide, the evolution of the soul, and life on other planets. I do not believe that all people succumb to the simplicity of the afterlife dictated by their religion or lack of religion. Despite the best efforts of some; people think freely, question what they do not understand, and seek answers in a multitude of different places. Because of humankind's innate curiosity and the need to know more there will never be a simplistic answer to the question “is there life after death?”

Dinos Don't Celebrate Doomsday!

Here comes the sun.....

C.S. Lewis' 'Moods' - Believing and Not

Passed along a well-known C.S. Lewis quote to a friend. Lewis had written,

Now that I am a Christian I do have moods in which the whole thing looks very improbable: but when I was an atheist I had moods in which Christianity looked terribly probable.

When I (Jeff Clarke) was rabidly anti-Christian, this type of candor was precisely what made Lewis so interesting to me. From him you could get idea exchange, as opposed to advocacy.

Anyway, seeing Lewis' idea, my friend Paul replied:

If you ever find the citation for this, be sure to let me know. I have a client and intellectual-relation-friend who was denominational, evolved into a Buddhist when he claimed he found irreconcilable problems in the Bible. He is very scientific minded, which I am not. I am hoping to link him up with John Clayton and let them go at it.

Anyway, I was just emailing him today and mentioned this very principle in the quote. The Bible has parts which are a sizeable problem to believers, BUT... it has parts which should be a sizeable problem to unbelievers. So far he has not acknowledged this exists.

The quote, by the way, is from Mere Christianity, Book III, Chapter 11. The context was,

Now Faith, in the sense in which I am here using the word, is the art of holding on to things your reason ’has once accepted, in spite of your changing moods. For moods will change, whatever view your reason takes. I know that by experience. Now that I am a Christian I do have moods in which the whole thing looks very improbable: but when I was an atheist I had moods in which Christianity looked terribly probable. This rebellion of your moods against your real self is going to come anyway. That is why Faith is such a necessary virtue: unless you teach your moods “where they get off,” you can never be either a sound Christian or even a sound atheist, but just a creature dithering to and fro, with its beliefs really dependent on the weather and the state of its digestion. Consequently one must train the habit of Faith.

The first step is to recognise the fact that your moods change. The next is to make sure that, if you have once accepted Christianity, then some of its main doctrines shall be deliberately held before your mind for some time every day. That is why daily prayers and religious reading and church-going are necessary parts of the Christian life. We have to be continually reminded of what we believe. Neither this belief nor any other will automatically remain alive in the mind. It must be fed. And as a matter of fact, if you examined a hundred people who had lost their faith in Christianity, I wonder how many of them would turn out to have been reasoned out of it by honest argument? Do not most people simply drift away?

Of all the intelligently-converted men and women I've ever known, zero (0%) have been reasoned out of their faith. Many fall away: through temptation, not through intellectual argument.

Arguing that Jesus Christ was crazy?, that is a tough debate proposition, and the "outs" (Jesus was distorted by His disciples, was lying, was mistaken, etc.) are even tougher. I worked verrrrrrry hard to make each "out" happen, and it was certainly beyond me. It was beyond Lewis, too, who in terms of verbal logic might have been the most intelligent author of the 20th century.

If you've got better ideas in support, I'd love to hear them.

..................

Back to the point: Eliyahu Rips published his test for Equidistant Letter Skips in Genesis and, about a year later, replied sadly that 99% of all reaction to his material was ---- > either immediate acceptance of, or immediate rejection of, Rips' methods ... long before the readers understood him.

Rips encountered almost nobody who took any time to make up their mind as to his argument's validity... personally, I still haven't decided whether ELS's are well grounded.

In my opinion, any person who claims to have no moods in which the opposite side of the belief question looks likely is --- > kidding himself, kidding us, or both.

Philosophical questions which are easily solved, are not useful. Thankfully, few of those exist, that I'm aware of. We will be more civilized when we are able to debate questions like, "Does God Exist?," intellectually rather than passionately.

Warmly,

Jeff

The Inklings Code - Death and Resurrection Around the World

In his article, "C.S. Lewis, J.R.R. Tolkien, and the Problem of Mythology in the Gospels," James Hogan comments on a pre-WW II debate that took place between the believing Tolkien and the atheistic Lewis. Probably needless to point out is that Tolkien's Lord of the Rings fantasy embeds many articles of Christian faith, including Gandalf's tour of the self-sacrifice theme.

Bear in mind that this was not the kind of Does-God-Exist debate to which you and I are accustomed. Tolkien, Lewis, Antony Flew and other Cambridge/Oxford philosophers of their day exchanged ideas coolly and reasonably.

One of their most fascinating debates revolved around the fact that cultures around the globe reflect variations on the Phoenix Myth. Hogan wrote some interesting remarks on these Tolkien-Lewis debates,

Although Jung had somewhat rescued mythology among his intellectual peers from being seen as the expression of a psychological neurosis and showed it as a healthy psychological trait, he still had reduced religion to psychological categories. The same is true of Joseph Campbell today. Campbell studied and analyzed the mythology coming from hundreds of different human origins, except one. He has never demythologized the analysis of Joseph Campbell. Don’t Campbell’s psychological explanations need to be re-interpreted and de-constructed in light of the limitations of his time and culture? By his own methodology, shouldn’t we do to Campbell what Campbell did to myth? Why his explanations be taken literally?**

Recently a friend asked us to comment on Hogan's remarks....

Okay. Obviously myths can be expressions of desire; all are (false, at least), except Chrisitianity. They call it “the logical fallacy of induction” when a person argues, “Every wife I’ve met is a bad wife; therefore, all wives are bad.”

I also liked this from Hogan:

**C.S. Lewis wrote in his autobiography, Surprised by Joy, “At my first coming into the world, I had been (implicitly) warned never to trust a Papist, and at my first coming into the English Faculty (explicitly) warned never to trust a philologist. Tolkien was both.”**

We see the fallacy of induction here too, the reasoning to 100% of a population based on observation of 70% of the population – “I’ve never been bitten by a dog; therefore dogs don’t bite” -- and Lewis overcame it.

Hogan opines,

**We create secondary worlds which illustrate the good dreams and desires of man – all of which have been implanted in us by the Creator. The Creator created this longing in us, and the ability to express it in story. The consolation that they offer us, of having our good dreams come true in the imaginary world, will be made true by God in the real world. In fact, in the good news of Jesus Christ, the mythological hope for a hero that would defeat sin, evil, and death has come true. Tolkien explained, “The story of Christ is simply a true myth: a myth working on us in the same way as others but with this tremendous difference: that it really happened.”**

This is a profound point, one on which Lewis relied heavily in Mere Christianity: “I get hungry; well, there is such a thing as food. I desire to be married; there is such a thing as a woman. I desire a spiritual Father; this implies that there is a God.”

Lewis referred to Christianity as “the true myth” from time to time, but he didn’t emphasize it. Lewis’ and Tolkien’s argument from religious need is not central to God’s arguments to man.

**Early in 1926 the hardest boiled of all atheists I ever knew sat in my room on the other side of the fire and remarked that the evidence for the historicity of the Gospels was really surprisingly good. “Rum thing,” he went on. “All that stuff of Frazer’s about the Dying God. Rum thing. It almost looks as if it had really happened once.”

To understand the shattering impact of it, you would need to know the man (who had certainly never since shown any interest in Christianity). If he, the cynic of cynics, the toughest of the toughs, were not – as I would still have put it – “safe,” where could I turn? Was there then no escape?**

As you probably know, Lewis referred to these life experiences again and again, deeming them important from an intellectual (not psychological) point of view. He later wrote about the "moods" he went through -- both as a believer and as an atheist -- in which his own worldview looked impossible ...

................

The guts of Hogan's point is here:

Consider the elements of death and resurrection within these mythologies:
Egyptian: The Phoenix: The mythological bird flies toward the sun and is burned to death. But in its ashes, a new phoenix bird is reborn.
Osiris: The god Osiris’ is killed by his jealous brother, with little pieces of his body scattered throughout the world. When all of the pieces are collected, Osiris is brought back to life. Through the union of Isis and Osiris, the Sun god, Horus, is born.
Sumerian   Ishtar: The goddess Ishtar journeys to the Underworld in search of her beloved. There, she is chained naked and made a captive (winter). Because all fertility ceases with her capture, the god Ea orders her release (spring).
Greece   Persephone: Hades, the god of the Underworld, beholds the beautiful goddess Persephone and lusts after her. So he abducts her into the Underworld, which causes her mother Demeter to withhold prosperity to the world. Although Demeter is able to retrieve Persephone, because she had eaten of the fruit of the pomegranate, she must remain in the Underworld for half the year (winter) and return to her mother for the other half (spring).
Adonis: The goddess Aphrodite falls in love with the beautiful Adonis. Hiding him in a box from others, she gives the box to Persephone, the goddess of the underworld for safekeeping, but she too falls in love with Adonis and keeps him in the Underworld. In her mourning, Aphrodite makes the world barren, until Zeus rules that Adonis must spend one third of the year with Persephone (winter), one third with Aphrodite (spring/summer) and a third on his own (autumn).
Dionysus: The god Dionysus was the child of the mortal Semele and the god Zeus. Dionysus journeys to rescue his mother in the Underworld after she dies. A jealous Hera finds Dionysus and kills him, but because he had previously overcome death in his mother’s rescue, Dionysus can return from the dead each year (spring).
Alcestis: The mortal wife Alcestis offers her life in exchange for her husband’s. Heracles (Hercules) goes in to the Underworld of death, wrestles with Hades, and brings Alcestis back to life. This myth was popularized by the playwright Euripides.
Nordic: Odin: The Viking All-Father god, carried an infallible spear and was always accompanied by two ravens: thought and memory. Odin’s desire for knowledge was so great that he exchanged one of his eyes to drink from the sacred well of knowledge. To learn the secrets of magic spells, Odin pierced himself with a spear and then hanged himself on the World Tree for nine nights.
Balder the Dying God: Frigg asked all things to swear not to hurt Balder but didn't ask the mistletoe because it was so young. Loki, disguised as an old woman, visited Frigg and found out Balder was invulnerable to everything but mistletoe. Loki then made a dart out of mistletoe and tricked the blind god Hod into throwing it at Balder, all the other gods were playing games by throwing various items at Balder, thus killing him.
Persian: It is very debatable whether or not Mithras should even be included in this list. Early archeological evidence of Mithraism in ancient Persia gives virtually no information regarding the mythology of the god Mithras. However, because the mystery cult of Mithraism appears in Roman history as a contemporary rival of Christianity, some 20th century writers claimed great parallels to the story of Jesus: both were born of a virgin, suffered, died, and resurrected on the third day, instituted a ritual feast of bread and wine, etc. But almost all of the parallels between Mithras and Jesus have been rejected by the secular academic community. Here is what remains: Mithras: The god Mithras slays the Primeval Bull at the dawn of time, which gave off the rays of the sun released at the vernal equinox, symbolized by the Mithras’ sword. The fertility of the earth came from the blood flowing out of the wound of the great bull. Because of this event, worship of Mithras, the sun god, was always affiliated with Sunday and December 25th.
Each longing for God, for life to conquer death which was expressed in mythological story, deepened people’s faith and made their hearts receptive to that moment in time went the dream would become real, the hope would be fulfilled. Myth prepared the way for the Lord. Even later myths served this function:English: King Arthur:   After being mortally wounded by Mordred, Arthur was taken by a sacred boat to Avalon. And it is in Avalon that Arthur awaits the day when Britain will require his services and he will return as the "once and future king".

Lewis and Tolkien analyzed these and found that, while there were similarities, that this collection of myths also contained critical differences from the Gospel accounts.

Lewis, realizing that the Gospel accounts were fundamentally different, began to ponder them as "The True Myth"...

Supposing that it were the case that one set of "Myths" were true and that the others were parables. Could these worldwide parables have been serving as beacons? ...

Inklings Code - Did God "seed" Resurrection Parables?

Bringing "The Inklings Code" to a fulcrum, Hogan writes,

**Lewis began to accept that the gospel story is a different kind of myth, different in that it really occurred in actual history. That is why Lewis hadn’t like reading them as a youth. They don’t read like smooth prose invented in the mind of men, because the things spoken of really happened in the lives of men. They include the dirt and details of real history, yet they fulfill mythological longings as well. In a sense, perhaps the Gospels are bad literature because they are good history. (Not thorough history, or biographically detailed history, by the way.) The evangelists weren’t fiction writers. They compiled sources spoken of and written by others and edited them. That’s why the Gospels don’t read like Harry Potter. Harry comes from the single mind of J.K. Rowling. The story of Jesus came from the heart of God into real history. Again, C.S. Lewis wrote:

There was no such historical claim (in Hindu mythology) as in Christianity. I was by now too experienced in literary criticism to regard the Gospels as myths. They had not the mythical taste. And yet the very matter which they set down in their artless, historical fashion – those narrow, unattractive Jews, too blind to the mythical wealth of the pagan world around them – was precisely the matter of the great myths. If ever a myth had become fact, had been incarnated, it would be just like this.**

Honest literary experts can see at a glance that the Gospel writers were sincere. Whichever critieria one uses to gauge an author's sincerity -- freeness with detail, ease of prose, frankness with respect to weaknesses and embarrassments, etc etc -- the Gospel writers sail through with high marks.

I’ve been fascinated to see atheists Camille Paglia and Antony Flew praise Jesus highly, based on precisely this consideration.

Hogan concludes,

**Tolkien’s insights changed Lewis’s mind, and his life – for shortly after that discussion, Lewis became a Christian. Lewis described his conversion experience as “like when a man, after long sleep, still lying motionless in bed, becomes aware that he is now awake.”**

Had never seen this quote! It parallels my own experience. That of realizing that you believe, not deciding to believe.

**Pagan myths were like the star in the East, guiding non-Jewish wise men and woman to the child Jesus, just as the messianic prophecies had guided Jewish believers to Jesus.

Consider the elements of death and resurrection within these mythologies:
Egyptian: The Phoenix: The mythological bird flies toward the sun and is burned to death. But in its ashes, a new phoenix bird is reborn.**...
[Hogan goes on to consider Adonis, Dionysus, Odin, Ishatar, etc. in his article on mythology and Christ.)

I’ve often wondered whether God “seeded” these community consciousnesses. What do you think? The Bible offers not a whisper, that I’m aware of, of a statement either way.

The “star in the East” demonstrates that there was worldwide awareness of a coming Messiah. Whether God seeded local myths is problematic. God never speaks a lie, obviously, and myth-believers are in a position in which they are believing lies. But perhaps the myths were intended to be held in local consciousness like parables…

To understand this is to have cracked the “Inklings Code,”

What a title for a book, eh? Maybe you better hurry up and write it … I get 10%, b’wana… :- )

Lewis’ and Tolkien’s debates are seminal, and in fact were part of my own conversion …

... that Christian truths should be woven into the world’s awareness, comes as no surprise …

... that Chrisitianity has many obvious distinctions from vaguely-echo’ed world “myths” is clear…

... that guys like Freud become “willingly ignorant” of these distinctions is clear; they pervert the “Inklings Code,” using “similar-myths” as very comforting brush behind which to hide…

It seems to me that God has napalmed the brush; Lewis’ “Trilemma” and Narnia movies and etc. being the primary fleet of aircraft that made the refutation accessible to Soccer Mom…

Great stuff ,

Jeff

God, Money and Banks

Forget flowing beards - its all about printed green.

So, looking around I can't help but see the worship of money and material things placed much higher than any "God" in America. Is cash the new God? If so, are banks the new churches? What is going on in this country?!

The Apostle Jesus

In Acts 18, the preacher Apollos is described as "an eloquent man, mighty in the scriptures," who "mightily convinced the Jews publicly" that Jesus was Christ.

In this context, "eloquent" describes a man well-educated, reinforcing his arguments with many appeals to logic and to outside authorities.

Whether the Book of Hebrews was written by Apollos or not, it is a blow-for-blow example of the kind of ultra-sophistication that Luke ran into, in Acts 18:24-28.

.....

In Hebrews 3, the inspired writer points out that with all of the other things that Jesus accomplished, He was also the greatest Apostle of all time:

Heb 3:1 Wherefore, holy brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling, consider the Apostle and High Priest of our profession, Christ Jesus;

Heb 3:2 Who was faithful to him that appointed him, as also Moses was faithful in all his house.

Heb 3:3 For this man was counted worthy of more glory than Moses, inasmuch as he who hath builded the house hath more honor than the house.

Heb 3:4 For every house is builded by some man; but he that built all things is God.

Heb 3:5 And Moses verily was faithful in all his house, as a servant, for a testimony of those things which were to be spoken after;

Heb 3:6 But Christ as a son over his own house; whose house are we, if we hold fast the confidence and the rejoicing of the hope firm unto the end.

........

Literally, an "apostle" is one "sent forth," a messenger, an ambassador. But the word is pregnant with importance. If you send your daughter to the store to buy some ice cream, she's sent forth, but she's not an apostle.

"Apostle" carried the power then, that the word "Quest" does now. Frodo was an Apostle of Gandalf -- he had a mission, to pitch the ring into the volcano, and don't come back until you do. Sir Galahad was an Apostle of King Arthur -- find the Grail, and come back with your shield or on it. There is no turning back for an apostle.

In real life, Neil Armstrong was an Apostle of NASA. It wasn't like he was going to get to 50,000 miles altitude and then go, "Ahhhh, I'm not in the mood. Let's head to Mars or back to the Earth. Who cares about a few moon rocks?" Armstrong was to run some experiments on the moon, was to bring back some materials, plant a flag, and once he was strapped into the chair, he was there until he had successfully finished up.

The apostle Paul had a mission: take the good news to the Gentiles in Asia Minor. It was a quest, a geas. You don't have to find a Bible to answer the question of whether he slam-dunked that mission. Your local university library probably has 1,000 to 10,000 books on the Apostle Paul and the way that his quest changed the planet.

..........

The Jews had a beloved apostle, that being Moses. Moses' quest was not to bring down the ten commandments: Moses' quest was to bring Jewish slaves out of Egypt. Did he accomplish it? Not only Biblical, but secular, history records the Jews' history in a land that was north of the Nile river.

The Jews loved Moses: "Though are His (Jesus') disciple: but we are Moses' disciples" (John 9:28). But the Hebrew writer gently, in a friendly manner, points out an Apostle who could do far more for them than even Moses had.

..........

Jesus' mission? To reconcile man to God. To heal a breach. To offer a new start to every human being on Earth. That's the "Apostle and High Priest" part of it: when we've messed up reallllly badly, how do we fix it? The High Priest helps us fix things that have been broken beyond repair.

Once Jesus accepted the mission, left the paradise, was ripped from the Father's side and ripped from ultimate Love, then He was on a mission of no return. Get the planet healed, period.

From a spiritual or secular standpoint, the Mission that Jesus Christ accepted was mind-boggling. Supposing that there were a parallel Earth on which Jesus never lived and died ... and that on this Earth, perhaps, the Roman Empire had therefore never perished under the burden of suppressing Truth and Freedom.

On a non-Jesus Earth, how close would mankind have been to God?

Consider our Apostle.

Warmly,

Jeff

Him Will My Father Honour

John Bevere recently wrote a book called Honor's Reward. He stated that to begin his research, he went down to his local Barnes & Noble and asked two employees to help him find the books on honor. Searching the computer at the kiosk, he found that there was not a single book on the subject, other than an old military book.

Honor is an essential component of the Christian mind, of the Christian way, and the Christian walk:

Joh 12:26 If any man serve me, let him follow me; and where I am, there shall also my servant be: if any man serve me, him will my Father honour.

Joh 5:21 For as the Father raiseth up the dead, and quickeneth them; even so the Son quickeneth whom he will.

Joh 5:22 For the Father judgeth no man, but hath committed all judgment unto the Son:

Joh 5:23 That all men should honour the Son, even as they honour the Father. He that honoureth not the Son honoureth not the Father which hath sent him.

Joh 5:24 Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life.

Describing heaven in the book of Revelation, the apostle John takes it for granted that all citizens of heaven understand honor, give and receive it, and are blessed by it. CPA's must know math; certain programmers have to know Java; and spirituality requires honor.

..........

Yet, as essential as honor is in the Old Testament and New Testament, 21st-century America has surgically removed the concept from its lexicon.

If you brought Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr to the year 2010 and asked them why they were fighting about "honor," they would look at you as though you were crazy.

If you pointed at John Wayne and told Hamilton that Wayne was "an honorable man," Hamilton would immediately know what you meant, though most Americans would not. If you pointed at Lady Ga-Ga and told Hamilton that she was not an "honorable woman," Hamilton would instantly know what you were saying.

..........

Samurai in rural areas could dominate and abuse the local peasants if they wished, and Imperial law enforcement might often be too far removed to do anything about it. However, samurai did not wish to be loathed and held in contempt by citizenry; they wished to be admired, honored, and entrusted with responsibility. Hence the "warrior's code of honor" -- honesty, loyalty, mercy, protection of the weak, especially of women and children.

Gail Gray was born in Windsor, Missouri in 1928 with severe Down Syndrome and a very low IQ. Gray's second parent died in 1958, leaving him an orphan at 30. The town allowed Gray to wander from house to house, staying for short spells and doing odd jobs.

Before long, Gray took up residence at an assisted-care facility for the elderly. He developed a habit: when one of the elderly would die, he would visit the funeral home, peer inside the casket, shuffle back, stand with his feet together, and tearfully salute the person. The sincerity sold the action.

Gray would also stop on the street and, in Forrest Gump style, salute funerals going by. And the flag going by in a parade. And the president whenever he saw him on TV.

The home closed in October 1976, putting Gail Gray on the street again. He didn't have to wander long, because he died of a heart attack in November 1976.

Businesses closed, policemen carried Gray's casket, and Gray was given one of the largest funerals in the history of the town. The one giving the eulogy finished it by stepping down beside the casket and saluting Gray.

The town loved and honored Gray ... why? Because Gray honored others.

............

In December 1999, Time Magazine declared The Simpsons the "best" TV series of the 20th century. Its stated purpose is to mock and to shame American culture, family, and society. A cartoon is a cartoon, but hopefully our generation will be defined by honor, rather than degradation.

..............

Everyone in the gospels who honored Jesus Christ received a reward. An example is the centurion who, in military style, honored Jesus in faith. Jesus not only granted him a miracle, but praised the centurion to the city ... and recorded him in the Bible. Remember the 'disonourable' sinful woman who anointed Jesus' feet? Her honoring of Jesus trumped her past errors. We're all one prayer and repentance away from fully-restored honor.

1Sa 2:27 And there came a man of God unto Eli, and said unto him, Thus saith the LORD, Did I plainly appear unto the house of thy father, when they were in Egypt in Pharaoh's house?

1Sa 2:28 And did I choose him out of all the tribes of Israel to be my priest, to offer upon mine altar, to burn incense, to wear an ephod before me? and did I give unto the house of thy father all the offerings made by fire of the children of Israel?

1Sa 2:29 Wherefore kick ye at my sacrifice and at mine offering, which I have commanded in my habitation; and honourest thy sons above me, to make yourselves fat with the chiefest of all the offerings of Israel my people?

1Sa 2:30 Wherefore the LORD God of Israel saith, I said indeed that thy house, and the house of thy father, should walk before me for ever: but now the LORD saith, Be it far from me; for them that honour me I will honour, and they that despise me shall be lightly esteemed.

1Sa 2:31 Behold, the days come, that I will cut off thine arm, and the arm of thy father's house, that there shall not be an old man in thine house.

A Living Hope

In 1 Pet. 1:3, Peter says that Christ "has begotten us again into a lively hope."

Begotten again? Yeah, you betcha. One day we were born into the earth, sky, the realm of oxygen, carbon, gold, and nitrogen. Another day, we were begotten into a living hope.

Jesus came preaching the Kingdom. He walked past a fisherman and said, "I am going to restore David's kingdom now. I need a second-in-command. Are you in?" Peter walked away from his nets. I think I could have shown that much faith, you? :- )

Peter ran on that hope for two years worth' of village preaching, not seeing much in the way of early stock dividends. Finally in Matt. 19:27 Peter said, in effect, "I don't want to be greedy here, but it's been two years. What is the payoff for being Secretary of State in Your kingdom?"

Christ's reply: You twelve shall sit on twelve thrones, judging the entire realm of God's people.

Peter didn't know it, but eighteen months later, people would be lining up in the streets, hoping that Peter's shadow would hit them as he passed by.

A living hope? What's that? Well, what's a dead hope?

Many years ago, a man talked me into a vending machine business. I went ahead and paid $600 apiece for six tabletop vending machines. We traveled the city and found great places to put them. I went home excited.

Two weeks later, I went around to refill the machines and collect all the quarters. I figured, maybe $100-300 from all six, and the $500 total monthly income would balance out my budget.

My hope -- of easy money to balance my budget -- went from living to dead, the moment I opened the first cash drawer and saw six quarters in there. (I did gain five pounds from the Snickers bars lying around my house.)

A "living" hope is one that enthuses you, that motivates you, that causes you to keep working when you otherwise would have quit. It's the electricity in your generator. If you have a clear visual and if it genuinely appeals to you, it will keep you moving.

But the key is expectation. Is the goal feasible? Does it seem possible? Combine desire and expectation and you come out with hope.

Anything we do, our motivation stands or falls with the degree of expectation. A lonely 19-year-old girl is discouraged because she can't meet a guy. But what if a cute guy does ask her to dinner and the movies this Friday? How long will she be able to stay on the treadmill that week?

A cook has a dream - to sell his awesome raspberry jam recipe. He'll dream about it for 40 years, because it's a pipe dream. He thinks about it, he longs for it, but he doesn't have a "living" hope. Then he runs into somebody who sells homemade pies. "How many do you sell each month?" "Oh, about two thousand pies a month." All of a sudden his hope revs up...

One time I had dinner with a friend who sold stuff on eBay. Oh, no, not another one of these dinner conversations. What do you sell? "Ladies' clothes from thrift shops. Last month I made $5,000 at it." That put things in a different perspective. It's possible! Three months later, I quit my day job because of the eBay income.

Luke 24:21, the apostles are wandering about Palestine defeated, dejected, going home in sorrow. They walk next to the risen Christ, but "their eyes are holden" from recognizing him. Why so sad? "We hoped it was He who would redeem Israel."

Without hope, there's no joy and there's no action.

Hope changes us. The moment our goal seems possible, that hope becomes living.

Everything man does, he does because of hope.

Warm regards,

Jeff

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