"Are you still here?!!"

A funny thing about the Mayans, those calendar making mavens who created all the furor over what might happen on December 21, 2012 - some of it seriously catastrophic, other parts just plain silly.  They weren’t predicting anything about there being an “end of the world”.  Their incredibly complex calendar, which appears to be nothing more than a highly accurate device for measuring seasons, solstices, and the path of the Sun around the ecliptic, simply stops at the end of a cycle of 5,125 years, or what they called the 13th Baktun.[1]  The stone on which this calendar was carved was inscribed at a little past the mid-point (in the 6th or 7th Baktun) of the time frame it represents. We just happened to turn up at the end of it, when their extremely long calendar cycle was due to, reset.  Consequently, a big disappointment for those hoping for a front row seat at Armageddon.

Not all "Doomsday" warnings should be laughed off, however.

Jesus of Nazareth warns of an "End of the Age",[2] which weaves perfectly into numerous other passages recorded in Scripture that describe various aspects of a larger concept - not labeled Doomsday, but referred to over and over as the "Day of the LORD".[3]  This prophecy should be taken seriously, not because it appears in some obscure "Jewish Chronicles", but in the written Word of God.

Why should we believe the Bible, though?  Here is one of the reasons why I do:  

No other Faith, Discipline, Religion - whatever you want to call the Path that Christian followers of Jesus walk - is as brutally honest, or as balanced.  This is because the gods Man creates by and large are one dimensional.  They're capricious, or powerful, or benign, perhaps fertile, maybe fast, even artistic, or any of the countless other qualities humans look to in a divine being.  They're also known mainly BY these very qualities:  There's the "god of war" (Mars, Ares), the "goddess of love" (Venus, Aphrodite), the "god of thunder" (Thor, Zeus), the spirit of the brook, the field, the hearth, wine, etc., and so on. 

Like many cultures, the Maya had a sun god. (Well, they actually had several.)  The most notable they called Kinich Ahau, who appeared in tangible form as a firebird.  His Aztec counterpart, Quetzalcoatl,[4] had perhaps the most complex mythology of indigenous America, BUT, even he takes the form of other gods when he performs his different functions. He has no sophistication in and of himself to draw from. And although "scholars" in various fields may try to add depth to these man-made deities[5] and attempt to reduce the Biblical Creator - Jesus - to a place in the pantheon of mythological immortals, it simply remains that no other god is described as multi-faceted or complete as the LORD of Heaven and Earth revealed in “Judeo-Christian” scripture.

Paradoxically, this multi-dimensionality is often the very thing that skeptics latch onto when deriding our faith in the God of Scripture.  Atheist Richard Dawkins has this to say, "The God of the Old Testament is arguably the most unpleasant character in all fiction: jealous and proud of it; a petty, unjust, unforgiving control-freak; a vindictive, blood thirsty ethnic cleanser; a misogynistic, homophobic, racist, infanticidal, genocidal, filiacidal, pestilential, megalomaniacal, sadomasochistic, capriciously malevolent bully."[6]   

But God Himself is the One who plainly reveals his manifold character in the Word He inspired His prophets to pen.  And He holds nothing back.  He is jealous, with the jealousy a husband has for his bride. But to say that Yahweh [Hebrew for "I AM"] is "a petty, UNjust, UNforgiving control freak", with all the other labels Dawkins and other atheists have attributed to the Maker whom they brush off as a work of fiction, exposes the fact that they have barely skimmed the surface of the Writings in which the Almighty has revealed Himself. 

The "I AM" I have come to know in my study of His Word is "gracious and merciful; slow to anger and great in lovingkindness. Yahweh is good to all, and His mercies are over all His works". (Psalm 145:8-9)  He promised to send a Redeemer to do away with the blood sacrifices He required of His people, to teach them of the consequences of their sin. This Redeemer turns out to be none other than HIMSELF, taking on the physical form of His own creation, becoming a Man. 

It took Yahweh 1,600 years, using 40 faithful Apostles and Prophets, writing 66 books comprising 1189 chapters to reveal Himself in what we call Scripture. So this short essay cannot begin to touch the full panoply of God and His wonders.  Suffice it to say that the "I AM" revealed in Scripture is far above a one-dimensional Wood Sprite or shape shifting power usurper like Quetzalcoatl.

Back to Doomsday then. When Jesus - the Son revealed as Creator of time and the very fabric of the universe - warns us that only the Father knows the day and the hour He will visit His wrath upon Mankind, we are foolish to look to human constructs like stone calendars or coded utterances from Nostradamus in an attempt to divine a point in time that the One from Beyond Time has hidden from us![7]  

The Wrath on that Day will be no laughing matter, and no amount of scoffing or ridicule[8] will hold it back. But as I mentioned above, the message of Scripture is balanced; God's wrath is answered and a remedy is provided in the gift God makes of His Son.  The One who made us and became one of us took on Himself the punishment we deserve.[9]  

Oh, for those who protest, "We DESERVE?", consider this:  If you were to build a car for the sole purpose of blowing it up on film, and then posted that video on the internet for the entertainment of your friends and yourself, you would cry "FOUL!" if I were to protest your right to do so, using your ownership of the car as justification.  By the same reasoning, God can destine us for whatever purpose He deems fit, as vessels of wrath or children He intends to adopt.  Who are we to question[10] His means, method, motive or morality, especially when He tells us what He's doing, and offers us respite?

And the Mayan who carved the monolith which prompted all the folderol culminating in that delightfully resounding no-show yesterday?  No matter what sprite or spirit, river nymph or sun deity he may have worshipped during his time here on Earth, he knows the Face of Truth, now.  Has for 6 or 7 Baktuns....

[1] A cycle of 394.26 years. see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baktun
[2] Read it from the Source: http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew+24&version=NIV
[3] Here's a search on the phrase: http://www.biblegateway.com/keyword/?search=%22day%20of%20the%20Lord%22&version1=9&searchtype=all&limit=none&wholewordsonly=no
[4] Quetzalcoatl's story includes aspects of death and resurrection, but even then, he becomes a different god, rather than achieving the  culmination of his His Incarnation.  see http://www.pantheon.org/areas/mythology/americas/maya/articles.html
[5] From http://www.strangenotions.com/richard-dawkins-and-the-god-of-the-old-testament/#
[6] For those who need examples, merely find the 'Comments' section of anything even remotely religious posted online on sites like CNN, but be warned, it can get very nasty!  http://religion.blogs.cnn.com/2012/11/23/explaining-the-popes-christmas-debunking-book/
[7] Note that the "day and hour" was knowledge He divested HIMSELF of while found in temporal form...yes, a seeming "contradiction"--but that's a discussion for another post....
[8] Read how Saint Peter foretold the mockery we're seeing in all levels of society today, and read a chilling New Testament account of The Day the OT prophets spoke of over and over in this wonderful paraphrase: http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=2%20Peter%203&version=MSG
[9] See 2 Corinthians 5:21 http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=2%20Corinthians%205:21&version=NIV
[10] Read it in Paul's words: http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Romans%209:18-24&version=NIV

"The Second Amendment is NOT about duck hunting …."

"I've been sitting here getting more and more fed up with all this talk about these pieces of machinery having no legitimate sporting purpose.  No legitimate hunting purpose.  People, that is not the point of the Second Amendment.  The Second Amendment is not about duck hunting ... it's about our rights ... to protect OURSELVES from all of YOU guys up there."

-Dr. Suzanne Gratia, a survivor of the Killeen, Texas Luby's massacre, to Congressman Charles Schumer (D-NY), 1994

Dr. Gratia sums up the essence of the Second Amendment perfectly, when one considers that it was written just after fledgling America had won her independence from a corrupt government, due largely in part to its many local militias, made up of average Joes like me, and like you....

AMENDMENT II

"A well regulated militia, being NECESSARY to the security of a free state, 

the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed."

The term "militia" is often vilified today, and is usually presented in the popular media as tantamount to the loosely organized survivalist groups found in Backwoods America. Carefully phrased and widely broadcast characterizations then tend to make militias out to be kissing cousins of the white supremacist, neo-Nazi or anarchist movements. (Just as Christian "Fundamentalists" and even Evangelicals have been, more and more frequently of late.)

Of course, to the 'Progressive' mindset, "a well regulated militia" should have the stamp of approval of the government, and even be a tool of it, thereby arriving at the conclusion that the National Guard, along with the Air Force and Naval Reserves, satisfactorily fills the necessary role that a militia secures for America's standing as a free state. It should be pointed out, however, that the State Police forces of the 20th century's European Iron Curtain nations were recognized as the official militia of their respective governments, for the sole purpose of making a militia in the style of the American Revolutionary era unnecessary, and ultimately, illegal....

So then, one can see the bedrock underpinning of the Gun Ban ideology: With America's "weekend warriors" -- our Citizen Soldiers of the Guard and Reserves -- ready at a minute's notice ("Minutemen", remember?) to secure our existence as a Free State, why then do we need to suffer the private ownership of guns at all? You do realize, don't you, that the ultimate goal of the Gun Ban Movement is to remove firearms from the general population, completely?

"Where Is God?": The Question Usually Asked Only In the Wake of Tragedy

I remember when actress Natalie Wood died, one of her fans was asked to give a response to the loss of the screen icon.  The devotee replied with a question, one that has been asked countless times, in one form or another since this poignant sound bite was uttered:  "How can a loving God allow someone as beautiful as Natalie to die such an awful death?" It's being asked today after the murder of 20 school children in Newton, Connecticut.  It's the question on the lips of parents who've lost a priceless piece of their lives.  It's the headline of television broadcasts, of news reports on radio, in print, and in cyberspace. http://www.cnn.com/2012/12/15/us/connecticut-school-shooting/index.html

What we're seeing graphically played out in tragedies like yesterday's shooting is continued evidence of what the world witnessed on 9/11/2001, and in the Nazi "Final Solution", or the Reign of Terror that was the French "Revolution", or the Inquisition, the Crusades, etc., etc.  It isn't a gun problem.  It isn't an American problem. It's a human problem.  It's a problem of the heart.  The heart of every man, woman, boy and girl born since the dawn of Mankind.  Scripture describes it this way, "The heart (of man) is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked, who can know it?" Jeremiah 17:9

Popular opinion compels us to let the "face of evil" be worn by someone else. By the Adam Lanzas of this world, the Timothy McVeighs, the Adolf Hitlers and the Osama bin Ladens.  And we DEMAND to know WHY God could be party to such men, and the horror they leave as their legacy. But the stark truth of the matter is this: ALL of humankind is fallen and beyond the ability of any physical, psychological, or social means of self-repair.  Most sneer in feigned disgust when confronted with such an indictment, of men in general, and themselves in particular.  But it's how God Himself describes us.

Yet it is God who offers an answer, a solution, a remedy, for all the evil we see in the world, and, if we are brutally honest, seen also in our own hearts.  As the Creator of humankind, He obviously knows us intimately.  He sees our every fault, no matter to what lengths we go in our attempt to hide our guilt.  He also knows the only Just end to our wickedness.  The continuation of the Biblical passage mentioned above declares, "I the LORD search the heart and examine the mind, to reward each person according to their conduct, according to what their deeds deserve."

When the first humans rejected the authority of God to give us boundaries we should not ignore, for reasons meant to protect and preserve us, He very easily could have erased His Creation and started over.  A few generations later, God nearly did just that when He flooded the Earth in righteous judgement.  The "reward", or consequence, the LORD alludes to in Jeremiah 17:10, is far more than mere removal from the physical plane of existence, however.  God has every right to banish us from His Presence forever--body, soul, mind and spirit entire.

Instead He chose to redeem us, to make provision for Man's reinstatement into the communion God envisioned sharing with His creation.  He has offered the path to restoration in the gift of His Son, Jesus, who became the object of God's wrath in our place. But like all gifts, it must be accepted by the intended recipient in order for its value to be realized. Sadly, we not only reject the Gift, we've rejected the Giver.  And then we have the temerity to ask where He is when the consequence of Man's rebellion rears its ugly head.  As society and civilization continue their inexorable withering, the clear result of our methodical removal of His very existence from our schools, our public spaces, our communal conscience....

Occupy 'Til I Come

Merry December everyone! Hey, does anyone else smell a conspiracy?

The Pope is claiming the date of Jesus's birth is based on the misconception of a 6th C. monk. Pat Robertson says an Irish Archbishop from the 1600s steered the Church wrong about the date of Creation. Democrats AND Republicans all agree that America is just a month away from hurtling off a 'Fiscal Cliff'. 

C'mon! Right Wingers, Left Wingers, a Protestant media icon, THE POPE?!!! Has everyone forgotten the Mayans have decreed THERE ARE ONLY 22 DAYS until the Great Celestial Odometer resets?! Or do we have a smoke screen of disinformation going because they all know something is about to happen??!! I think I'll move to rural Ohio and bunker down in an old corn silo....

For those of you unfamiliar with my twisted sense of humor, relax! My view on dire "predictions" can be summed up with Jesus's parable in Luke 19:11-13

....[Jesus] went on to tell them a parable, because he was near Jerusalem and the people thought that the kingdom of God was going to appear at once. He said: “A man of noble birth went to a distant country to have himself appointed king and then to return. So he called ten of his servants and gave them ten minas. ‘Put this money to work,’ he said, ‘until I come back.’

Jesus gave this story with a message--or parable--the morning of His triumphal entry into Jerusalem, just days before His crucifixion. The story parallels what was about to happen to Jesus and what He had been teaching His disciples about His imminent departure from them, a fact they had yet to grasp.

The crux of the story is the King's command to His servants, which can be paraphrased as, "Continue with your assigned duties until I return."

I believe we who follow Jesus will do best to "carry on" without being distracted by the doubts from the Fanatical Left or the predictions from the Fanatical Right. When it DOES happen, no one will miss seeing His return! 

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Pictures taken from:

http://cache.gawker.com/assets/images/11/2010/06/pope-benedict-saturno-hat.jpg

http://blog.christianitytoday.com/ctliveblog/upload/2011/09/PatRobertson_Regular-thumb.jpg

http://www.fxcommunity.com/obama-boehner-compromise-may-prevent-fiscal-cliff/

That's A LOT of Salt!

I was one of the last family members to visit Oregon after the Sundins purchased 10th Street Market. I expected Uncle Pete and Aunt Clarane to be well settled-in to their new venture. My first assessment of their inventory suggested otherwise. (I heard later that Aunt Clarane took over the store’s purchasing duties soon after my visit.) Here's what happened:
My wife and I were excited to FINALLY visit Baker City's popular 10th Street Market. Located just a short walk from the Sundin residence on 9th Street, we approached the dark brown building with great expectancy. Plantings of pansies adorned the entrance--along with the infamous blue and white lettering on the front window proclaiming, "Coldest Beer in Town." Oregonian and Eastern Oregonian newspaper racks stood sentry at the door.

Auntie Clarane was "manning" the counter when we arrived. After a brief greeting, I began to peruse the store while Sherry and AC visited between customers. I was immediately struck by an abundance of salt: Top shelf, middle, bottom, from the front all the way to the back of the store, each and every shelf had several of the familiar blue cartons of table salt--arranged like bookends around the other merchandise. They must have totaled several hundred cartons. Then I noticed that there were at least 3 large displays of rock salt located near the soda and beer coolers. And each aisle was headed by a pallet stacked with 50 lb. bags of water softener salt.

I wandered back to the front, and after AC completed a lottery ticket sale, I remarked, "Boy, you must sell a lot of salt."

A bemused smile began to form on her face as Aunt Clarane chuckled, "No, I haven't sold any salt lately."

"Well, Uncle Pete must sell a lot, then." I countered.

"No, Peter doesn't sell much salt, either."

Auntie C nudged Sherry in the ribs with a knowing wink.

"Now, that red-headed Morton Salt vendor, SHE sells a lot of salt!"

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Picture taken fromwww.miniaturesplus.com/magnets.htm
This post is based on a quip by Andy Griffith in an episode of the classic TV show, "Matlock"

A Nation Imprisoned

This post is being rewritten. Please check back later.

Are You A Cy-Berean?

“I checked it out on Snopes and it’s true!” If you have ever received an email that warns of some fraud or scam, you may be familiar with this phrase. Beware. Cybersnakes abound on the web. An appeal to Snopes can be as misleading as the scam about which the email is warning.

Snopes.com is a highly regarded internet site which researches the truth status of the urban legends, myths and rumors that have cropped up on the world-wide web. Snopes has developed a reputation as a reliable authority. However, that reliable reputation has been exploited by some unscrupulous people through what is known in logic circles an appeal to authority.

An appeal to authority is essentially a form of name dropping. Consider the statement, “Einstein taught that space is curved.” As used, the statement is one of fact. Einstein did postulate that space was curved in his Theory of Relativity. Now consider a second statement: “The ability to travel faster than the speed of light is inevitable, after all, even Einstein taught that space is curved.” Tacking the Einstein statement onto an opinion about traveling very fast is an attempt make the opinion acceptable as fact.

In debating circles such blurring of fact and opinion is called fuzzy logic or faulty reasoning. Philosopher types are well equipped to counter or correct such errors in logic. The average email recipient doesn't always have the training or experience to catch when they are the intended target of what amounts to a ploy, however. Used in these circumstances, an appeal to authority is purposely intended to mislead.

In most everyday aspects of life, statements based on authority are acceptable conveniences: Fussing over whether the National Weather Service was accurate in listing -40˚ F as a new record low for International Falls, MN, can be a needless waste of effort. (Unless we have a maiden aunt living in Minnesota who casually mentioned in her last letter that she was worried about paying the heating bill this winter. In that case, we had better get on the phone to assure Aunt Gertie is okay!)

Only people like citrus farmers and winter picnickers actually obsess over the accuracy of NWS temperature measurements; more casual observers generally accept the NWS figures based on authority.

So, when should we accept something, based on authority, and when should we question a statement as a faulty appeal to authority? Here is a list of conditions to consider when evaluating a statement’s validity:

1. Relevance: What bearing does the statement have on my life? A famine in Lithobohemistan may be a genuine crisis, but unless someone is requesting a donation for relief of Lithobohemian starvation, you can probably categorize the email as interesting, but irrelevant. Once an expectation is laid on you however, your authority radar should be turned on full power. As yourself, "Why am I being sent this?" Chances are, receipt of a blanket appeal that has no reasonable connection to you is some form of a scam. (And that's what the little trash can on your tool bar is for--throw this kind of stuff away!)

2. Reverence: Does the statement invoke deity, patriotism or fidelity in attempt to gain your support for something only loosely related to God, country or family? I’ve received many emotionally charged emails which have turned nasty by callously throwing down the gauntlet of guilt. Red flags should wave and bells should clang loudly for every email that concludes, “If you love Jesus, forward this to everyone you know.” I almost always trash emails which stoop to this tactic.

3. Reference: Does the email refer you to some authority in an attempt to gain your trust? If so, call the bluff and check it out! Many are misled by their own pride. Appeals to the Bible, the U.S. Constitution or even Snopes.com as authorities can be veiled forms of flattery. Serpents excel at statements like, “The Bible says ‘Suffer the little children to come unto Me’ so surely you’ll support the Society of God’s Little Children.” You’ve never heard of the SOGLC, and aren’t sure what Jesus meant by, “Suffer the little children…”, but you’re too proud to admit your ignorance. Get over it! Which is worse, being fleeced or looking silly? A twisted scam artist doesn’t care, so long as you contribute. Go to Alert Level One and do the research whenever an authority is carelessly attached to an appeal. The Bible itself commends referential diligence: “Now the Bereans were of more noble character than the Thessalonians, for they received the message with great eagerness and examined the Scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true.” Acts 17:11 (New International Version) The Apostle Paul was a penultimate authority, but even his message warranted examination against an even higher authority.

4. Regret: This plea may not affect me directly, but what if I endanger others by not passing it along? Not all appeals target our irrational tendency to feel undue guilt. Instead of extorting action on our part by appealing to our “love for Jesus”, many have discovered they can be just as successful by pushing our regret button. I may not be a target for rapists who follow little old ladies to their cars at the mall, but how many women will suffer if I fail to forward the latest sensational “warning”? Chances are, if there truly were a public safety crisis in your area, you would hear about it from local law enforcement long before a chain email found its way to your computer. Is it worth upsetting Aunt Gertie over some rumor you didn't bother checking out?

Driving a car shouldn’t give us a false sense of invulnerability, but the recent rash of road rage incidents suggest otherwise. And reading nonsense on the internet shouldn’t cause normally level-headed folk to behave irrationally. Sadly, emails I receive over and over again convince me this happens all too often, as well.

Admittedly, psychologists or sociologists are best qualified to assess what motivates people who prey on the emotions of others via the internet. But one has to ask; if creating a sense of terror furthers the cause of extremism, couldn't causing fear, regret or doubt create some sense of fulfillment--or even power--for cyberkooks. Might they want to have that power over me? Whatever their motivation, we can nullify any power they seek over us by exercising diligence and a little restraint.

Be noble Cybereans and check out the credibility of what you’re fed over the web. Snopes.com isn’t a bad place to start, provided you use it properly. Check things out! And if an email refers to or quotes Scripture, please don’t dishonor the Lord by carelessly passing it on without subjecting such statements to vigorous scrutiny.

Photo of "Robby the Robot" from
http://www.intelligent-systems.com.ar/intsyst/robby3.htm