Category Archives: New Testament

Post-mortem Docetism. Dear sister, desist.

Monday 13 January 2014 Richard 1 Comment

A Facebook friend of a friend on Facebook recently posted the following comment.

Jesus never “came back to life again” – at least, not in the same human form or the kind of life that he had or that we live. That is actually an incorrect message that is passed on in ignorance. If you read the Bible you will see that he only ever appeared in spirit form following the resurrection, in the same form that angels appear(ed) and possess. And I (and many millions of others) have indeed seen this exact same form for ourselves in our own lives at very different and unexpected times and in very different and unexpected places. There are literally thousands of normal and perfectly sane people who for some unknown reason have been presented with this vision. I and many of the people whose books I have read or youtube accounts I have watched were not even Christian at the time. But there is one thing that each of us has had in common: the spirit form is a shimmering white form with a human-type head. It is like us. 🙂

Now, she’s a jolly good fellow Christian an’ all, but this is a heinous heresy! It’s post-mortem Docetism!

Jesus was resurrected in bodily form. We read in the Gospel of Luke how, after Jesus’ body was reported missing from the tomb, two of his followers met Jesus on the road to Emmaus.

Now that same day two of them were going to a village called Emmaus, about seven miles from Jerusalem. They were talking with each other about everything that had happened. As they talked and discussed these things with each other, Jesus himself came up and walked along with them; but they were kept from recognizing him.

He asked them, “What are you discussing together as you walk along?”

They stood still, their faces downcast. One of them, named Cleopas, asked him, “Are you the only one visiting Jerusalem who does not know the things that have happened there in these days?”

“What things?” he asked.

“About Jesus of Nazareth,” they replied. …

As they approached the village to which they were going, Jesus continued on as if he were going farther. But they urged him strongly, “Stay with us, for it is nearly evening; the day is almost over.” So he went in to stay with them.

When he was at the table with them, he took bread, gave thanks, broke it and began to give it to them. Then their eyes were opened and they recognized him, and he disappeared from their sight. (NIV)

That “he disappeared from their sight” does not necessarily mean that Jesus vanished like an apparition. If Jesus had appeared to the two followers as “a shimmering white form with a human-type head” I think they’d have noticed, don’t you?

Later, Jesus appeared again, this time to a group which included the eleven remaining disciples.

While they were still talking about this, Jesus himself stood among them and said to them, “Peace be with you.”

They were startled and frightened, thinking they saw a ghost. He said to them, “Why are you troubled, and why do doubts rise in your minds? Look at my hands and my feet. It is I myself! Touch me and see; a ghost does not have flesh and bones, as you see I have.”

When he had said this, he showed them his hands and feet. And while they still did not believe it because of joy and amazement, he asked them, “Do you have anything here to eat?” They gave him a piece of broiled fish, and he took it and ate it in their presence. (NIV)

Jesus himself denied being a ghost! He was “flesh and bones,” not “in spirit form”. In fact, he was hungry, and ate a piece of fish! Ghosts just don’t do that. Jesus certainly did come back to life, and in the same human form he had before his crucifixion.

In fact, this belief, in the bodily resurrection of Jesus, is Christianity’s central tenet. Paul certainly seemed to think so. He says in 1 Corinthians 15

But if it is preached that Christ has been raised from the dead, how can some of you say that there is no resurrection of the dead? If there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised. And if Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith. More than that, we are then found to be false witnesses about God, for we have testified about God that he raised Christ from the dead. But he did not raise him if in fact the dead are not raised. For if the dead are not raised, then Christ has not been raised either. And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins. Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ are lost. If only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are of all people most to be pitied. (NIV)

Now if there is no resurrection, what will those do who are baptized for the dead? If the dead are not raised at all, why are people baptized for them? And as for us, why do we endanger ourselves every hour? I face death every day—yes, just as surely as I boast about you in Christ Jesus our Lord. If I fought wild beasts in Ephesus with no more than human hopes, what have I gained? If the dead are not raised,

“Let us eat and drink,
for tomorrow we die.” (NIV)

What’s the bottom line? Keep it Biblical.

Having highlighted someone else’s heresy, what of my own? I think of the coming Resurrection of the Dead in terms of software and hardware. It’s the software that matters, not the hardware. Same program, different machine. Doesn’t matter, as long as the software licence permits installation on more than one machine. Or does it? Somebody called Eric says

I think it is very important to address 1 Corinthians 15, especially in regard to Chuck Smith. According to Paul, those who deny the bodily resurrection at the last day are divisive and enemies of the faith. Unfortunately, Chuck Smith clearly denies boldily resurrection, and instead teaches an innovative heresy of bodily replacement.

According to the Apostle Paul, doctrinal error that is held to at all costs by those not willing to be corrected causes division. He relates this specifically in his second letter to Timothy to the doctrine of the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, which is the crux of the good news God has called him to preach. (2 Tim. 2:8) There is no other issue more important. No other issue demands our sobriety and clear-thinking and prayer as Christians as does the doctrine of the resurrection of Christ. If he did not resurrect, if His selfsame body did not leave the tomb after three days bearing the scars of crucifixion, then we are doomed and we have no hope.

Selfsame body or replacement body? Is the latter heretical? If it is, at least it’s “innovative”!

But does it really matter? I think the authors of the comic strip Coffee With Jesus have it right.

Black Sabbath, Demonic Possession, Luke, Mark, Matthew, Miracles, Pigs, Shrinkage

The problem of comorbidity

Sunday 5 January 2014 Richard 5 Comments

I once suggested that Objectivism is a form of demonic possession.

My unusual suggestion was not well received. One of the usual suspects had this to say.

Richard, your speculation is not a legitimate scientific theory … because demons do not exist, neither do gods, fairies, Santa’s-little-helpers or harpies. You’ve never seen one, heard one, touched one, smelled one nor tasted one, neither can you provide an iota of rationale that there exists such a spirit in the universe.

What was called “demon possession” by religionists is mental illness. You’re giving a psychiatric condition a superstitious definition. You call that scientific?

What is called mental illness by psychiatrists is demonic possession. I don’t call the American Psychiatric Association’s Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders scientific, and neither do many clinical neuroscientists.

Diagnostic Classification Needs Fundamental Reform

The problem with the DSM-IV, our current shared diagnostic language, is that a large and growing body of evidence demonstrates that it does a poor job of capturing either clinical [or] biological realities. In the clinic, the limitations of the current DSM-IV approach can be illustrated in three salient areas: (1) the problem of comorbidity, (2) the widespread need for “not otherwise specific (NOS)” diagnoses, and (3) the arbitrariness of diagnostic thresholds.

Both in clinical practice and in large epidemiological studies, it is highly likely that any patient who receives a single DSM-IV diagnosis will, in addition, qualify for others, and the patient’s diagnostic mixture may shift over time. There is a high frequency of comorbidity—for example, many patients are diagnosed with multiple DSM-IV anxiety disorders and with DSM-IV dysthymia (chronic mild depression), major depression, or both. Many patients with an autism–related diagnosis are also diagnosed with, obsessive-compulsive disorder and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder. The frequency with which patients receive multiple diagnoses far outstrips what would be predicted if co-occurrence were happening simply by chance. Researchers who have made careful studies of comorbidity, such as Robert Krueger at the University of Minnesota, have found that co-occurring diagnoses tend to form stable clusters across patient populations, suggesting to some that the DSM system has drawn many unnatural boundaries within broader psychopathological states.

If the concept of mental illness does “a poor job of capturing either clinical [or] biological realities” then how, exactly, is it an advance over the concept of demonic possession?

Two thousand years ago the Gospel authors were well aware of the problem of comorbidity and, in fact, mention it no less than twice.

In the introduction to the Parable of the Sower in the Gospel of Luke we read

Jesus traveled about from one town and village to another, proclaiming the good news of the kingdom of God. The Twelve were with him, and also some women who had been cured of evil spirits and diseases: Mary (called Magdalene) from whom seven demons had come out (NIV)

and in the Gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke we read (variations of) the story of the Gadarene Swine. It’s one of my favourites.

They sailed to the region of the Gerasenes, which is across the lake from Galilee. When Jesus stepped ashore, he was met by a demon-possessed man from the town. For a long time this man had not worn clothes or lived in a house, but had lived in the tombs. When he saw Jesus, he cried out and fell at his feet, shouting at the top of his voice, “What do you want with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I beg you, don’t torture me!” For Jesus had commanded the impure spirit to come out of the man. Many times it had seized him, and though he was chained hand and foot and kept under guard, he had broken his chains and had been driven by the demon into solitary places.

Jesus asked him, “What is your name?”

“Legion,” he replied, because many demons had gone into him. And they begged Jesus repeatedly not to order them to go into the Abyss. (NIV)

A large herd of pigs was feeding on the nearby hillside. The demons begged Jesus, “Send us among the pigs; allow us to go into them.” He gave them permission, and the impure spirits came out and went into the pigs. The herd, about two thousand in number, rushed down the steep bank into the lake and were drowned.

Those tending the pigs ran off and reported this in the town and countryside, and the people went out to see what had happened. When they came to Jesus, they saw the man who had been possessed by the legion of demons, sitting there, dressed and in his right mind; and they were afraid. Those who had seen it told the people what had happened to the demon-possessed man—and told about the pigs as well. Then the people began to plead with Jesus to leave their region.

As Jesus was getting into the boat, the man who had been demon-possessed begged to go with him. Jesus did not let him, but said, “Go home to your own people and tell them how much the Lord has done for you, and how he has had mercy on you.” So the man went away and began to tell in the Decapolis how much Jesus had done for him. And all the people were amazed. (NIV)

We all have demons and we often refer to them in animistic terms.

Me, I’m intimately familiar with the Black Dog. Depression’s a bitch, for sure. Thank God, she’s been sent packing and I haven’t seen her in a while. But my mind’s still holiday home to a menagerie of monkeys.

Psychiatric counselling and psychiatric drugs can and do help those afflicted by so-called mental illnesses … somewhat. So I’m not knocking psychiatrists and psychiatry … much.

So, what about exorcism? I’ll leave that to another psychotic episode.

1 Corinthians, 1 Thessalonians, Christian Libertarianism, Eschatology

The Resurrection of the Dead

Friday 20 December 2013 Richard 5 Comments

Regular readers, thank you for your patience during the recent Eternal Vigilance outage.

So will it be with the resurrection of the dead. The body that is sown is perishable, it is raised imperishable; it is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory; it is sown in weakness, it is raised in power; it is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body.

If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body. So it is written: “The first man Adam became a living being”; the last Adam, a life-giving spirit. The spiritual did not come first, but the natural, and after that the spiritual. The first man was of the dust of the earth; the second man is of heaven. As was the earthly man, so are those who are of the earth; and as is the heavenly man, so also are those who are of heaven. And just as we have borne the image of the earthly man, so shall we bear the image of the heavenly man.

I declare to you, brothers and sisters, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable. Listen, I tell you a mystery: We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed—in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. For the perishable must clothe itself with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality. When the perishable has been clothed with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality, then the saying that is written will come true: “Death has been swallowed up in victory.” (NIV)

Eternal Vigilance has now moved to a new imperishable server.

Brothers and sisters, we do not want you to be uninformed about those who sleep in death, so that you do not grieve like the rest of mankind, who have no hope. For we believe that Jesus died and rose again, and so we believe that God will bring with Jesus those who have fallen asleep in him. According to the Lord’s word, we tell you that we who are still alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will certainly not precede those who have fallen asleep. For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord for ever. (NIV)

Furthermore, Eternal Vigilance has now moved to a new cloud server.

We’re hosted by Rackspace, based in Denver, Texas, where everything is bigger, brighter and better.

Algud.

Ants, Ecclesiastes, Mark, Matthew, Proverbs

Does the Bible condemn laziness and stupidity?

Sunday 15 December 2013 Richard 4 Comments

Proverbs 6:6-9 KJV
Go to the ant, thou sluggard; consider her ways, and be wise:
Which having no guide, overseer, or ruler,
Provideth her meat in the summer, and gathereth her food in the harvest.
How long wilt thou sleep, O sluggard? when wilt thou arise out of thy sleep?

Proverbs 10:26 ESV
Like vinegar to the teeth and smoke to the eyes, so is the sluggard to those who send him.

Proverbs 18:9 ESV
Whoever is slack in his work is a brother to him who destroys.

Proverbs 24:30-34 ESV
I passed by the field of a sluggard, by the vineyard of a man lacking sense, and behold, it was all overgrown with thorns; the ground was covered with nettles, and its stone wall was broken down. Then I saw and considered it; I looked and received instruction. A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to rest, and poverty will come upon you like a robber, and want like an armed man.

Proverbs 26:14-16 ESV
As a door turns on its hinges, so does a sluggard on his bed. The sluggard buries his hand in the dish; it wears him out to bring it back to his mouth. The sluggard is wiser in his own eyes than seven men who can answer sensibly.

Ecclesiastes 9:10 ESV
Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with your might, for there is no work or thought or knowledge or wisdom in Sheol, to which you are going.

Mark 7:18 NIV
“Are you so dull?” he asked.

Matthew 15:16 NIV
“Are you still so dull?” Jesus asked them.

Discuss.

Consciousness, Cosmology, Faith, Free will, Go Hard!, Hope, King James Bible, Liberate your Mind!, Mark, Materialism, Miracles, Monism vs Dualism, Science, Zombies

The Christian conception of death… not Annihilation, but the separation of the soul from the body. William Lane Craig.

Monday 9 December 2013 Tim 10 Comments

hildebrandtbrothers911tribute

The materialist/ monist view of death is that once the Body dies… the conscious being of a person is annihilated… because to their way of thinking our consciousness is nothing more that the result of an attunement of atoms.
Thus there can be no judgement for sins because not only in the materialist view is there no judge.
They say their is no objective moral Law, nor ‘anyone’ to be held account… the actions of a person merely being the blind outworking of Materialist determinism.

It is vitally important to distinguish this false conception of Human life and death from what the Bible clearly teaches… and that is that Death does not result in the annihilation of the conscious being/ personality… which being created in the image of God is both non-materialistic, and eternal… and morally capable (possessed of conscious free-will) and accountable.

It defies belief that there are many ‘highly educated’ people who claim to be Christians yet fail to be able to believe in Man’s Dualistic nature.
They dont believe in Freewill.
They dont believe any part of us survives death.
In these things they are Atheists.
What is even more absurd is that the say they reject Dualism because they cant understand it… deluding themselves that they *can understand* how consciousness can be derived from Dead matter!
The reality is that the cannot understand such a thing either!
Yet they have been sucked so far down the superstitious highway of Naturalism… the false religion of our age…. that they trust in the follies of rebellious and vain human scholarship and pseudo-science rather than in the word of God.

What is doubly ironic is that Christ himself condemned the heretical Jewish sect called the Sadducee’s
for believing these very same *monist* beliefs in respect to Life after death, and judgement.
He told them that at that very moment Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob were *Alive*… though their bones were in their sepulchres.

“…Then come unto him the Sadducees, which say there is no resurrection; and they asked him, saying,
Master, Moses wrote unto us, If a man’s brother die, and leave his wife behind him, and leave no children, that his brother should take his wife, and raise up seed unto his brother.
Now there were seven brethren: and the first took a wife, and dying left no seed.
And the second took her, and died, neither left he any seed: and the third likewise.
And the seven had her, and left no seed: last of all the woman died also.
In the resurrection therefore, when they shall rise, whose wife shall she be of them? for the seven had her to wife.
And Jesus answering said unto them, Do ye not therefore err, because ye know not the scriptures, neither the power of God?
For when they shall rise from the dead, they neither marry, nor are given in marriage; but are as the angels which are in heaven.
And as touching the dead, that they rise: have ye not read in the book of Moses, how in the bush God spake unto him, saying, I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob?
He is not the God of the dead, but the God of the living: ye therefore do greatly err.”
Jesus Christ.
Mark 12vs 18-27.

That the soul goes on is one of the most beautiful, yet frightening truths of the scriptures.
It is both Hope and Dread.
Hope for those of us who have faith in Christ and have a burning longing to be reunited with our loved ones… and with God our Father, and Christ our Saviour in eternity.
yet still it is dread for those of us who have faith in Christ, yet fear the reality that many of our fellow sinners… Family members and friends have rejected Salvation and will be lost for eternity.

These are the ultimate realities of Christianity.
They are too much for ‘the Natural man’ to comprehend… they are foolishness unto them.
Read St Paul… 1 Corinthians chapter 1.

more Blog posts on Monism vs Dualism…
Christopher Hitchens Dies.

Superstition?

The Rusty Cage: Scientism.

Acts, Heaven

Which direction is heaven?

Thursday 5 December 2013 reed 4 Comments

Acts 1:9-12 Jesus Ascends to Heaven
Now when He had spoken these things, while they watched, He was taken up, and a cloud received Him out of their sight. And while they looked steadfastly toward heaven as He went up, behold, two men stood by them in white apparel, who also said, “Men of Galilee, why do you stand gazing up into heaven? This same Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will so come in like manner as you saw Him go into heaven.”

What precisely happened when Jesus ascended?

Why did Jesus go up to get to heaven?

Is heaven closer or further than Kolob?

Black Sabbath, Fruit, Humour, John, Luke, Memes

Christian Halloween ideas

Thursday 31 October 2013 Richard Leave a comment

Ephesians, Job, Metallica, Satan Laughing Spreads His Wings

Hidden in Plain Sight #2: Don’t tread on me

Sunday 27 October 2013 Richard 3 Comments

I used to be a huge Metallica fan. (Doesn’t Kirk have lovely hair? I used to have hair like that.)

Over the summer of 1986/87 I played Ride the Lightning and Master of Puppets back-to-back, non-stop.

I wore out the vinyl.

I cried when Metallica’s bass player Cliff Burton died in a bus accident in September 1986.

But Burton’s death was nothing compared to the tragedy that Metallica were to bring upon themselves five years later, in 1991.

Metallica were the Gods of thrash metal. They defined the genre. And they used to sing about wholesome things like mass murder (Kill ‘Em All, 1983), dying in the electric chair (Ride the Lightning, 1984), cocaine addiction (Master of Puppets, 1986) and governmental corruption (… And Justice for All, 1988).

But then … they sold out. Big time.

The second definition of selling out refers to putting aside musical quality or original intentions in favor of commercial success, where a distinction is made for those who achieve success without changing their original sound. The difference between the two is often subjective. Whilst artists may change their musical direction for commercial reasons, such as pressure from major labels who require songs to appeal to mass markets a change in sound may also be part of a natural progression of creative maturity.

An example of an artist being accused of selling out is the band Metallica, whose 1991 eponymous album has been considered as the turning point in the band’s musical direction, and have been called the “poster boys for musical un-integrity” after the band’s attempt to sue fans downloading their music through Napster. The album, known as The Black Album, saw critics and Bob Rock, the album’s producer, acknowledge that there was a move away from the band’s previous sound. Rock claimed that the change stemmed from the band’s desire to “make the leap to the big, big leagues”, whilst some fans blamed Rock himself, going as far to eventually create an internet petition demanding the band cut their ties with him. However, other fans did not consider the change in sound to be significant enough to be considered selling out and others accepted the change as part of a natural evolution of the band’s style. Ultimately The Black Album became the band’s most commercially successful, going 16x platinum, but the differing reaction by fans to the album is an example of the difficulty in labelling an artist as a sellout objectively.

Was the release of the Black Album “part of a natural progression of creative maturity”? No. There is no difficulty whatsoever in labelling Metallica, circa 1991, as a sellout objectively. They sacrificed their musical integrity on the alter of commercial success. And what unparalleled commercial performance! The love of money is the root of all evil.

I used to joke that the members of Metallica had been abducted by aliens and replaced by Bieber-like body snatchers for who-knows-what nefarious alien purposes. One similarly aggrieved fan wrote an entire comic strip premised upon the abduction of the real band members and their replacement by simulacra. (I wish I could now find it.)

True Metallica fans don’t mince words.

I remember driving one morning just after I had received my drivers license. I was 16, it was summer in Minnesota, and the local radio station was about to debut the new Metallica song, Enter Sandman. Life was great. I was so pumped and nervous as I’d been a fan since before Justice was released. The song came on…and so began one of the worst days of my adolescent life, and I’m not sure I’ve ever recovered. Serious life-bummer. I was more let down than the first time I got dumped by a girl. To my credit, I kept it together and didn’t plow my car at high speed into a huge tree to spare myself the pain I was feeling.

The biggest piece of shit ever written by Metallica! I dont know if it is because they enlisted Bob Rock (WANKER) to ptoduce this album or if it is because they got lazy. Real dissappointment. I Know many people like this album and defend it but it is a pice of shit. Sorry all u Metallica die hards out there. I’d rather listen to myself take a shit than have to listen to this garbage.

I was an atheist in those days. It’s only now that I realise that Metallica did far more than sacrifice their musical integrity on the alter of commercial success. They sold their very souls to Satan. This fact is hidden in plain sight. Let’s take a closer look at the Black Album.

The first thing to notice about the Black album is … it’s very black. Metallica’s logo can just about be made out in the darkness of the top-left-hand corner. Black is the devil’s colour. (Sure, it’s also New Zealand’s national colour, but Metallica sure weren’t thinking of the All Blacks when they squeezed this one out.)

Have nothing to do with the fruitless deeds of darkness, but rather expose them. (NIV)

In the bottom-right-hand corner is a stylised, coiled serpent, that bears an intentional likeness to the rattlesnake on the Gadsden flag.

Notwithstanding that “Don’t tread on me” is a libertarian slogan and the Gadsden flag rattlesnake is a libertarian icon (I have no idea what happened to the missing apostrophe in ‘dont’) let’s see what happens when we take the snake, flip it horizontally and tip it on its side.

Now we see the true nature of Metallica’s mascot. It’s a serpent, its coils spelling out 666—the Number of the Beast of Revelation—and shaped into a slide to take you down on a one-way trip to never never land. This is snakes and ladders but with no ladders. Snake, rattle ‘n’ roll!

That’s the album art, it’s pretty clear.

What about the lyrical content?

Well, the very first track is Enter Satan. (Or, rather, Enter Sandman, but we all know who Sandman is.)

Say your prayers little one
Don’t forget, my son
To include everyone

Tuck you in, warm within
Keep you free from sin
Till the Sandman, he comes

Exit light
Enter night
Take my hand
We’re off to never never land

Nek minnit, you belong to Satan.

Sad But True.

Hey
I’m your life
I’m the one who took you there
Hey
I’m your life
And I no longer care

I’m your truth, telling lies
I’m your reasoned alibis
I’m inside open your eyes
I’m you

Holier Than Thou

Little whispers circle around your head
Why don’t you worry about yourself instead?

Who are you? Where ya been? Where ya from?
Gossip is burning on the tip of your tongue
You lie so much you believe yourself

The Unforgiven

Never free.
Never me.
So I dub thee unforgiven.

You labelled me,
I’ll label you.
So I dub thee unforgiven.

Forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us? Nope. I dub thee unforgiven.

Wherever I May Roam.

And I’ll redefine anywhere
Anywhere I may roam
Where I lay my head is home

…and the earth becomes my throne

It’d pretty clear who this song is about.

The Lord said to Satan, “Where have you come from?”

Satan answered the Lord, “From roaming throughout the earth, going back and forth on it.”

Don’t Tread On Me

Liberty or death, what we so proudly hail
Once you provoke her, rattling of her tail
Never begins it, never, but once engaged…
Never surrenders, showing the fangs of rage

Don’t tread on me!

OK, so I can’t really knock this one. 🙂

The exception that proves the rule? It’s a half-decent song, great lyrics! (But it still plods like no speed metal I ever heard.)

Through The Never is a trip through never never land with your new friend, the Sandman.

Twisting
Turning
Through the never Never

Nothing Else Matters is hardly an improvement on nihilism, the doctrine that nothing matters.

Forever trusting who we are
And nothing else matters

In God we Trust? No, apparently it’s in man we trust and God doesn’t matter.

Of Wolf And Man

I hunt
Therefore I am
Harvest the land
Taking of the fallen lamb

Off through the new day’s mist I run
Off from the new day’s mist I have come
We shift
Pulsing with the earth
Company we keep
Roaming the land while you sleep.

More roaming the land, going back and forth on it. While you sleep. (Never mind that noise you heard. It’s just the beast under your bed, in your closet, in your head.)

The God That Failed

Pride you took
Pride you feel
Pride that you felt when you’d kneel

Trust you gave
A child to save
Left you cold and him in grave

I see faith in your eyes
Never you hear the discouraging lies
I hear faith in your cries
Broken is the promise, betrayal
The healing hand held back by deepened nail

Follow the god that failed

There are two further tracks but I can’t go on. It’s a desperate, dire, demonic album.

And, quite apart from that, it’s a steaming pile of the proverbial. So watch your step.

Ayn Rand, Extol, Gospel music, John, Matthew

Preaching to the retarded

Saturday 12 October 2013 Richard 2 Comments

Then Jesus said to the crowds and to his disciples: “The teachers of the law and the Pharisees sit in Moses’ seat. So you must be careful to do everything they tell you. But do not do what they do, for they do not practice what they preach. They tie up heavy, cumbersome loads and put them on other people’s shoulders, but they themselves are not willing to lift a finger to move them.

“Everything they do is done for people to see: They make their phylacteries wide and the tassels on their garments long; they love the place of honor at banquets and the most important seats in the synagogues; they love to be greeted with respect in the marketplaces and to be called ‘Rabbi’ by others. (NIV)

Ayn Rand did not believe her own philosophy. She was smarter than that.

Ayn Rand tied up a heavy, cumbersome load of bollocks and put it on her disciples’ shoulders.

She called it Atlas Shrugged. How’s that for a sense of humour? Wicked. I was wrong.

Some people mistake my own wit and wisdom for cryptic smart-assery. The same people mistake Rand’s cryptic smart-assery for good philosophy. I mistook Rand’s cryptic smart-assery for bad philosophy. But it is neither.

For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. (NIV)

God so loved the world that He gave us the gift of Life. The gift that keeps on giving.

Ayn Rand so loved herself that she gave the world the gift of Objectivism. The gift that keeps on taking.

Men have a weapon against you. Reason. So you must be very sure to take it away from them. Cut the props from under it. But be careful. Don’t deny outright, you give your hand away. Don’t say reason is evil – though some have gone that far with astonishing success. Just say that reason is limited. That there’s something above it. What? You don’t have to be too clear about it either. The field is inexhaustible. “Instinct’ – ‘Feeling’ – ‘Revelation’ – ‘Divine Intuition’ – ‘Dialectic Materialism’. If you get caught at some crucial point and somebody tells you that your doctrine doesn’t make sense – you’re ready for him. You tell him there’s something above sense. That here he must not try to think, but to feel He must believe. Suspend reason and you play it deuces wild. Anything goes in any manner you wish whenever you need it. You’ve got him. Can you rule a thinking man? We don’t want any thinking men.

Rand didn’t want any thinking men. Philosophy. Who needs it? Rand didn’t want her disciples needing it or reading it, which is why, on the one hand, she disparaged philosophy and philosphers, especially modern ones, and on the other hand, she exalted herself to the heights of Aristotle and Aquinas. As predicted by the Law of Intended Consequences, Rand’s debased disciples don’t think, they proclaim.

Rand didn’t want any thinking men. She just wanted to be called ‘Rabbi’ by dumbfounded dipshits. She got what she wanted. Good and hard.

Objectivism is a Trojan Horse. Woe to those who allow it through the gates of their tiny minds. For Rand was, indeed, packing a snake. A talking one.

Objectivism. Who needs it? There is another gift. A gift beyond human reach. Ask, and it will be given to you. Seek, and you will find a hidden treasure, a pearl of great price. Why settle for the baubles of Ayn Rand’s orifice?

Gospel music, Hebrews, Saving Grace

Unbreakable

Friday 11 October 2013 Richard Leave a comment

It is impossible for those who have once been enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift, who have shared in the Holy Spirit, who have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the coming age and who have fallen[a] away, to be brought back to repentance. To their loss they are crucifying the Son of God all over again and subjecting him to public disgrace. Land that drinks in the rain often falling on it and that produces a crop useful to those for whom it is farmed receives the blessing of God. But land that produces thorns and thistles is worthless and is in danger of being cursed. In the end it will be burned. (NIV)

If we deliberately keep on sinning after we have received the knowledge of the truth, no sacrifice for sins is left, but only a fearful expectation of judgment and of raging fire that will consume the enemies of God. Anyone who rejected the law of Moses died without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses. How much more severely do you think someone deserves to be punished who has trampled the Son of God underfoot, who has treated as an unholy thing the blood of the covenant that sanctified them, and who has insulted the Spirit of grace? (NIV)

Give me Liberty, or give me Death!