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Wednesday 6 November 2024

Trumpslide.

 Let the memes roll: 



The prophecy was even fulfilled: 

And if people wonder how you can celebrate his win, it's this simple: 


Enjoy the moment. And pray that Trump is better equipped to take on the Deepstate this time around. 

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Tuesday 5 November 2024

Will Trump Stop World War 3?

 


One of the Trump’s greatest assets according to many of his supporters in the past, including myself, is that he ran on an anti-war platform leading up to the 2016 election. And in many ways he delivered. He did not start any new wars, his efforts to build bridges with a power like Russia prevented the beginning of the Ukrainian war, at least in his term, and he even managed to broker peace deals between Israel and some other Middle Eastern powers. However, his war record was not clean. He did not withdraw from Afghanistan in his term, though America did draw down, and the United States did not stop its targeted drone attacks, and many other aspects of American foreign policy aggression across the world. How much this can be blamed on Trump’s personal views and actions and the limited ability of one man to turn around the US war machine will be the debates of historians for some time to come.

But what about this time around? Will Trump succeed in stopping World War 3. Well, for one, Trump has promised to end the war in Ukraine. And it is clear that he never wanted that war in the first place. But does this really mean much anymore? Anyone watching the American political process, or really that of any democracy, will note that there are massive policy changes between different presidential terms, because of the partisan nature of American politics, so one president might not honour the deal of the last. And despite all these changes all the the gravity is still driven towards the pro-war factions on any given day. So, even if Trump is successfully elected, and successfully works out a deal with Putin, will this really put an end to the threat of an escalating war? Would a leader like Putin even trust a nation like America which has an old habit of breaking peace deals, whether it be with native American tribes in the 19th century, or with the Iran nuclear deal during Trump’s presidency? Is a nation like the United States even trustworthy? Why would Putin not just continue winning, rather than risk a ceasefire that would allow Ukraine time to rearm and reequip and gear up for a future conflict? So, even with Trump’s statements about wanting to end the war in Ukraine, there is no guarantee that this will happen, or even stick if he even achieves this.

But there is a more concerning issue. Trump has been very hawkish when it comes to supporting Israel. There is no such thing as an American presidential candidate who does not publicly come out in support of Israel. This is due to the inordinate influence that the Israel lobby has on American politics, through leaders like Netanyahu, pro-Israeli lobby groups and the Christian pro-Israel movement in America. During his presidency Trump enacted some very pro-Israel policies, including recognising Jerusalem as the capital, which some say is part of what has precipitated this escalation of the Gaza conflict. But his views on the war in Gaza appear to cut both ways,

“Trump, who routinely touts his support of Israel more broadly, has reportedly said he supports Israel in its continued “war on terror” after the October 7 attack by Hamas. And like members of the Israeli government, he has cast doubt on the continued viability of a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict that has been a cornerstone of US policy for decades.

At times, however, he has also been critical of the Israeli campaign. He’s said Israel should “get it over with … get back to peace and stop killing people.” But he’s also emphasized they “have to have a victory” and implied that what’s really the issue is that Israel is “absolutely losing the PR war” and “losing its power” in Congress. He has also criticized Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, with whom his relations have cooled since Netanyahu’s acknowledgment of Joe Biden’s 2020 electoral win.” i

Trump has appeared to both support Israel’s efforts to fully conqueor Gaza, and at the same time he has come out and said that war is bad for business.

What is interesting though is that Trump has apparently given Netanyahu a deadline to accomplish his victory,

“Former US president Donald Trump has told Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that he wants Israel to wrap up the war in Gaza by the time he returns to office if he wins the election, two sources familiar with the matter revealed to The Times of Israel this week.

The message was first conveyed when the Republican presidential nominee hosted the Israeli premier at his Florida Mar-a-Lago resort in July, according to a former Trump administration official and an Israeli official.

While Trump has publicly confirmed having told Netanyahu that he wants Israel to win the war quickly, the sources speaking to The Times of Israel are the first to reveal that a timeline was attached to that request.”ii

This may be an indication that Trump is going to do what he can to bring this war to a quick conclusion. Remember, most of the arms that Israel are using in this war come from the United States through aid packages. Without the United States taking an active role in protecting Israel, Netenyahu could not be doing what he is now in the process of doing. So Israel needs the United States to fight and have any hope of winning this war.

But on the ground in Israel, many people expect the election of a Trump presidency to work in their favour, “Israel's settlers are closely watching the U.S. election, a leader of the community said, expressing confidence that if Donald Trump wins he will lift what they see as illegitimate sanctions imposed on some of them for attacks on Palestinians.”iii The reason they feel this way is because Trump has in the past strongly supported Israeli policies that even Biden and other US presidents have not,

"If Trump takes the election, there will be no sanctions," he told Reuters in an interview. "If Trump loses the election, we will in the state of Israel ... have a problem with sanctions that the government over here has to deal with."

Asked about the sanctions, a spokesperson for Netanyahu's office declined to comment, while senior Trump campaign advisor Brian Hughes said "only President Trump will restore peace and stability in the Middle East for all people".

Most countries deem Jewish settlements built on land Israel captured in the 1967 Middle East war illegal under international law and say their expansion blocks the only path to lasting peace - a viable Palestinian state alongside a secure Israel.

In 2019, the then-Trump administration abandoned the long-held U.S. position that the settlements are illegal before it was restored by President Joe Biden.”iv

So Trump is a mixed bag on the Israel issue. At one moment he seems to be pushing for peace, at another moment he appears to be willing to give them even more than other presidents in the past.

Then there is the Christian pro-Israel movement that is strongly behind Trump. Many in this cohort are all for Israel doing whatever it takes to gain not just Gaza, but the ancient boundaries promised to Abraham in Genesis. They will be putting pressure on Trump to not only allow Israel to continue, but telling him that is the only way that United States can be blessed. Look at how some evangelicals see Trump,

“Donald Trump’s fans and critics alike have compared him to some of history’s most famous rulers: Cyrus the Great, Adolf Hitler, King David, and more.

But on the eve of the election, a celebrity pastor named Jonathan Cahn wants his evangelical followers to think of the Republican candidate as a present-day manifestation of a far more obscure leader: the biblical king Jehu, who vanquished the morally corrupt house of Ahab to become the 10th ruler of the Kingdom of Israel.

“President Trump, you were born into the world to be a trumpet of God, a vessel of the Lord in the hands of God. God called you to walk according to the template; He called you according to the template of Jehu, the warrior king,” Cahn told the hundreds of Christian leaders who gathered last week for the National Faith Summit outside Atlanta.” v

It must be said that this article notes that these leaders see Trump as someone who is going to clean the corruption out of the American deepstate swamp. But can you imagine such leaders not wanting to put pressure on Trump to give Israel everything it needs, including US troops on the ground? The speaker of the house Mike Johnson, a strong evangelical Christian, has famously noted that it is a biblical admonition for the United States to stand with Israel vi and he has continually stated, “We are going to stand like a rock with our friend and our ally Israel.” vii This view is the norm amongst the American conservative movement. I do not see why people who have such a biblical view and the ear of the president would not use that influence to encourage Trump to do whatever it takes to defend and expand Israel. After all, it is how America continues to be blessed right?

So, with all of this having been said, I do not think we can be confident that Trump is capable of stopping World War 3 from escalating. While the man appears personally predisposed against war, he is only one man, and a large segment of his base have an ideological reason to support Israel in any action it takes in the Middle East, which is one of the current fronts in our current escalating world war. I would like to think that Trump can bring peace to the Middle East, and beyond, he appeared to be on that trajectory during his last term as president. But things have changed markedly since then. It is not a given that he can achieve this anymore. 

List of References

iv) Ibid.

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Monday 4 November 2024

Feminism is Wearing Women Out


 




Why does this article have the picture of a woman as its feature image? 

Why does this one have the same? 

 


The answer is simple, the modern workforce is a draining place for a woman to be day to day, and women can relate more to this idea of work burnout than men. While both men and women can feel the heat in the work force, and both men and women get tired, men were made for working the grind everyday and women were not. It is that simple, therefore, it stands to reason that the modern workforce is not coping like the workforces of the past, because the modern workforce is far more egalitarian than it ever was in the past, has far more women making up its numbers, and this will have an effect on the ability of the work for to cope. The higher percentage of women means there is a higher percentage of those not coping. 

Every man knows that he has to work for life. Well almost every man. I have noticed an increasing trend in millennial men to rely on their wives for income and provision, and to float from job to job as a result. In fact, I am becoming shocked at how common this phenomenon is. But in general every man is trained and raised to be a provider, to know that working is his lot and that he needs to earn money to provide at least for himself, or for his family, and that he will be judged on his ability to do this. This is just a given. Men know this expectation is on them, it is just a matter of choosing what job or career they are going to do. But, despite many efforts to teach women the contrary, many, if not most, women know that they can check out of the workforce and society will not judge them as it does men. 

A man who does not work is looked down upon as a low status man by almost all men and women. But a woman who maintains the home is not viewed the same way, in fact, in some circles she will be lionized. So, for many, if not most, women, they know that the workforce for them is either a choice, which they can back out of, or an injustice, because they have not yet found the right man to take them out of it. There are exceptions to this of course, the women who really wanted their career, and were raised to pursue it. But even for women such as these they carry the frame and nature of a home-keeper and nurturer. So, the chances of them burning out from the workforce, or dropping out all together once kids come along, or at the very least seeking to work less hours for a more balanced, family style approach to life, is incredibly high. The workforce is by nature a man’s world, and while women can both compete and do quite well in that realm, it forces them to overcome a lot of their inherent nature in the process. This is a tiresome pursuit. And the tiredness is being observed, 

“Gen Z and young millennial employees in Britain are missing the equivalent of a day’s work every week due to mental health struggles, new research has shown.

Analysis by Vitality, the health and life insurer with over 30 million members worldwide, found that the average worker in the U.K. feels unable to work for almost 50 days a year—costing the British economy a staggering £138 billion ($176 billion). 

For those under 30 years old, the number of productive days lost rises to 60, while Gen X and baby boomers say they are mentally absent for an average of 36.3 workdays a year—marking a stark 64% difference.

The root cause, as per Vitality’s findings, is stark: Younger, less affluent workers are grappling with mental health challenges without adequate employer support.

While physical health struggles led to a 54% productivity dip, mental health issues hit harder, causing a staggering 150% loss in productive days, particularly for the youth.” 1

Notice this, research shows that younger employees, who are far more likely to be women, are taking nearly twice the amount of time off while they are actually supposed to be working. They are producing far less. They key reason offered is mental health issues,

“Depression rates are twice as high among younger workers, accompanied by elevated levels of burnout and fatigue compared to their older counterparts.

Adding to the strain, those earning under £30,000 ($38,000) annually feel 86% more neglected by their workplace than higher-income colleagues.

This likely explains the 2023 statistic of workers taking an average of just six sick days, with the majority of lost hours due to ineffective work.

Essentially, for 54 days a year, Gen Zers clock in but achieve zilch due to mental hurdles and a reluctance to seek help from higher-ups.” 2

This article does not break down the gender disparities in this mass work burnout. But other research does. As another article notes, 

• Women are more likely than men to feel burned out at work, 34% vs. 26%

• The burnout gender gap has more than doubled since 2019

• Women in non-leadership positions are especially affected. 3

This was especially pronounced during the crazy days of the Covid scare, as this article also notes. When pressure increases those who feel it the most feel it even more. This mostly means women feel it more. 

This phenomenon is well known, and discussed widely. As another article notes, 

“Forty-two percent of women report being burned out. And, Lucia, as you mentioned, that is higher than last year and higher than men. So a little under half of your population of women are burned out. And that’s where we stand today.” 4

Of course, it is not just women who are burned out by the workforce, men are to. But all the data that looks at the difference between genders shows that women are far more burnt out in the workforce than men. And this is well known.  

This should not surprise us either. Modern men, who even though they may mock feminists and adamantly say they oppose feminism, are often functional feminists. They expect their wives to function equally to themselves, as providers, but then they expect these women to then tend to them and the home after they finish work. In other words, they act like feminists in thinking women can have and do it all. This wears women out, 

“Recent data looking specifically at burnout in women is concerning. According to a survey by LinkedIn of almost 5,000 Americans, 74% of women said they were very or somewhat stressed for work-related reasons, compared with just 61% of employed male respondents.  

A separate analysis from workplace-culture consultancy a Great Place to Work and health-care start-up Maven found that mothers in paid employment are 23% more likely to experience burnout than fathers in paid employment. An estimated 2.35 million working mothers in the US have suffered from burnout since the start of the pandemic, specifically “due to unequal demands of home and work”, the analysis showed.” 5

Scholars try to argue that it is traditional gender roles which causes this burnout. This BBC article does just that, “Experts generally agree that there’s no single reason women burn out, but they widely acknowledge that the way societal structures and gender norms intersect plays a significant role. Workplace inequalities, for example, are inextricably linked to traditional gender roles.” 6 But my contention is that they have it precisely backwards. 

It is not traditional gender roles that causes this problem. It is modern expectations of the denial of inbuilt biologically driven roles that causes this. Human beings are meant to be gender specialists. Mothers are designed to look after and rear the children, and men are supposed to make it possible for this to happen by providing. Childbirth and childrearing takes resources, time, specialization, and it takes the provision of the father creating that space for women to flourish in the raising of their children for this to all work well. But our modern society rejects all of this. What do you expect to happen to women? 

How could women not burnout in a culture that expects them to be both nurturers and providers at the same time? How can society not expect women to burnout even if they deny the inherent biology within them pointing them towards bearing and raising children? Just the denial of that takes energy. For women to act like men takes incredible resources, both from within themselves, and from society over all. No wonder women are burning out at a high rate. 

The fact that men face burnout in large numbers is to be expected as well, because human beings are frail, fallen creatures. But a man in the past would work the hardest, dirtiest and most dangerous job day in and day out without complaint just because he knew he was doing it for his beautiful wife at home, and knew she would be there when he returned from work. Many modern men still do that, but the average modern man does not have that assurance. The modern wife is just as likely, or even more likely, to be attending to her male superiors professional needs at work, as she is to her own husband's relational needs and helper needs at home. That is the irony in all this is it not? Women are still often serving men in the workforce, they are just strangers instead of husbands. 

The woman, in other words, is finding herself in an unnatural environment, and the man is finding he no longer has the support he always needed to get through the hard yakka that he is created for. Anyone can bear under incredible pressure and hardship, as long as they know they are doing it for a good cause. But modern society has managed to throw a spanner into God’s beautiful system. And women feel it the most. 

The original report above noted that the government needs to drill down and work out why this is happening. It is happening because we are seeking to force humanity into feminism’s image and not God’s image for humanity. And even many men are seeking to do this. If you send your wife to work, fulltime, so you can have a higher standard of living, you are a functional feminist, and you are perpetuating the feminism that is wearing women out. 

Remember what Peter said? “7 Likewise, husbands, live with your wives in an understanding way, showing honor to the woman as the weaker vessel, since they are heirs with you of the grace of life, so that your prayers may not be hindered” (1 Pet. 3:7). We are called to not ask of our wives what we would ask of ourselves, many modern men are hurting their wives by ignoring what Peter said. 

List of References

1. Orianna Rosa Royle, 2024, https://fortune.com/europe/article/what-is-mental-health-doing-to-gen-z-workplace-anxiety-stress-burnout/  
  
2. Ibid. 

3. Lydia Saad et. al. 2021, https://www.gallup.com/workplace/358349/gender-gap-worker-burnout-widened-amid-pandemic.aspx#:~:text=Working%20women%20report%20more%20on-the-job%20burnout%20than%20working,or%20%22very%20often%22%20felt%20burned%20out%20at%20work.  
  
4. McKinsey and Company, 2022 https://www.mckinsey.com/featured-insights/diversity-and-inclusion/the-state-of-burnout-for-women-in-the-workplace 
  
5. Josie Cox, 2012, https://www.bbc.com/worklife/article/20210928-why-women-are-more-burned-out-than-men 
  
6. Ibid. 

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Saturday 2 November 2024

Some Actions Are Their Own Punishment.





How many men have regretted marrying the much younger beauty, rather than simply keeping to their original wife? 


"This carpenter had lately wed a wife 
Whom lie loved better than he loved his life; 
And she was come to eighteen years of age. 
Jealous he was and held her close in cage. 
For she was wild and young, and he was old, 
And deemed himself as like to be cuckold. 
He knew not Cato, for his lore was rude: 
That vulgar man should wed similitude. 
A man should wed according to estate, 
For youth and age are often in debate. 
But now, since he had fallen in the snare, 
He must endure, like other folk, his care."

Chaucer, The Canterbury Tales, The Miller’s Tale

This is both insightful and funny. Many a man has been led astray to destruction with their eyes. Or at least, they have been led into a life of unnecessary pain. The ancients observed the result of these errors long before we did. These are old mistakes, learn from the ancients, so you don’t make them yourself. 

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Friday 1 November 2024

A Common Sense of Morality


 


One of the interesting things about this world is how there is a common sense of morality amongst the various peoples of this world. No one would claim that every culture sees morality exactly the same way. But there is a lot of agreement, a lot of overlap, and I think this points to our common source as all being stamped with the image of God, even if this is more diminished in those who reject Jesus Christ.

Here is an excerpt from something else I am writing on the subject: 

“Have you ever read the law of Hammurabi, the famous law code of the Amorite ruler of the first Babylonian empire? Many scholars have remarked on how similar it is in points to the Old Testament law, even down to laws which talk about ‘an eye for an eye’. Of course, they are not exactly the same, the Hammurabi law code has a much larger emphasis on punishing the common man much more harshly than the nobleman, but still the striking similarity of some of the laws, some of the modes of punishments, and even more so the fact that a human emperor would engage in such a practice so similar to those many people associate with religion is itself remarkable. Hammurabi, to paraphrase George, understood that for people to live in a society there needed to be guidelines and rules about what was ok and what was not. This is a consistent across humanity. 

And it is remarkable how consistent these laws can be across vastly disparate cultures. You can find a culture in ancient Briton and one in ancient China where adultery, murder and theft were punished. These were not always defined precisely as we would define them today. For instance a nobleman taking a commoner’s wife was not as guilty as a commoner taking a nobleman’s daughter behind the woodshed. But in some way the culture recognized the immorality of adultery. 

A really good example of this common sense of morality comes from the earlier chapters of the Bible before the law was given. This is a famous account where Abram gives his wife to another man, this is the first time it happens. In the passage Abram journey’s to Egypt because there was a famine in the land, a foreshadowing of future events. But while there he creates a lie, well, a half-truth, that Sarai is his sister. The reason he does this is because he just assumes that the Egyptians have nothing but a base morality and that they will kill him if they think he has such a beautiful wife, 

“11 When he was about to enter Egypt, he said to Sarai his wife, “I know that you are a woman beautiful in appearance, 12 and when the Egyptians see you, they will say, ‘This is his wife.’ Then they will kill me, but they will let you live. 13 Say you are my sister, that it may go well with me because of you, and that my life may be spared for your sake” (Gen. 12:11-13). 

Abram’s assumption is wrong. When Pharoah finds out why his household is being struck by plagues he confronts Abram, 

“18 So Pharaoh called Abram and said, “What is this you have done to me? Why did you not tell me that she was your wife? 19 Why did you say, ‘She is my sister,’ so that I took her for my wife? Now then, here is your wife; take her, and go.” 20 And Pharaoh gave men orders concerning him, and they sent him away with his wife and all that he had” (Gen. 12:18-20). 

“Why did you not tell me that she was your wife?” Pharoah is furious when he finds out that Sarai was Abram’s wife. This common sense of disgust at adultery was prevalent among even the pagan nations at the time. This story is here to serve two purposes. Firstly, it serves the purpose of showing how those who do bad things to Abram will suffer curses and those who do good things will be blessed, as God has promised the man (Gen. 12:1-3). But it is also their to show that there was sense of morality and recognition for God even amongst the very lost peoples of a nation like Egypt. This emphasis on the good amongst the Gentiles will come through again and again in the Bible. 

This is made even more clear a little later in Genesis when Abraham  gives his wife away a second time, this time to Abimelech. We read, 

“3 But God came to Abimelech in a dream by night and said to him, “Behold, you are a dead man because of the woman whom you have taken, for she is a man's wife.” 4 Now Abimelech had not approached her. So he said, “Lord, will you kill an innocent people? 5 Did he not himself say to me, ‘She is my sister’? And she herself said, ‘He is my brother.’ In the integrity of my heart and the innocence of my hands I have done this.” 6 Then God said to him in the dream, “Yes, I know that you have done this in the integrity of your heart, and it was I who kept you from sinning against me. Therefore I did not let you touch her. 7 Now then, return the man's wife, for he is a prophet, so that he will pray for you, and you shall live. But if you do not return her, know that you shall surely die, you and all who are yours.” 8 So Abimelech rose early in the morning and called all his servants and told them all these things. And the men were very much afraid” (Gen. 20:3-8). 

Notice here how offended Abimelech is at the idea that he would take another man’s wife. He even protests his innocence to God, and God affirms that his intentions towards this women were pure. In fact, because his intentions were pure God had warned this man so that he did not lay with another man’s wife and bring judgement on himself, especially considering Sarah was the wife of the prophet of God. This passage is a very clear indication of the common grace understanding among the peoples in Abraham’s day of the wickedness of adultery, which is really a form of covetousness and theft. The idea the adultery is a sin because of biblical teaching is just incorrect. It is an understanding common amongst the people of this world, whether they had access to the Bible or not. 

As we have noted so far this is as true for murders as it is adultery. Murder has been an abhorrent crime in many cultures. Though it has not been equally applied to all peoples. In some cultures a man had the right to kill his slave for indiscriminate reasons, in other cultures the law restrained the actions of a master over their slave, sometimes effectively, often ineffectively. The Servile Wars in pre-Augustan Rome forced the Romans to change the way they treated their slaves, if not for moral reasons, at least for practical reasons. Ongoing slave rebellions were bad for business and bad for the Roman brand. 

Some cultures even legally protected forms of murder. For instance, from ancient Carthage to ancient Israel there were kings who allowed the sacrifice of children in the fires to Baal or Molech, however, these cultures still saw other forms of murder as abhorrent. Technically speaking, Israel was supposed to see child sacrifice as worthy of the death penalty, but in practice in many generations they were as given to such crimes against nature as some of the worst pagan societies of the ancient world. The same can be said in our modern era with abortion. Even many pro-choice advocates will admit that a child is being killed. So, we can easily understand from our own society that a culture can find murder abhorrent, while at the same time accepting it with a class of human beings who have been legally dehumanized and therefore rendered vulnerable.”

God has stamped his morality in the hearts of all mankind (cf. Rom. 2). This common sense of morality points to there being in existence both a creator who is also a lawgiver. If there is one way you can describe human beings it is as lawgivers. We all like to “lay down the law” whether it be as magistrates of a nation, or a city, or simply in our everyday lives in our areas of influence and responsibility. We also all have a general sense that taking another man’s wife, or theft, or murder is wrong. Even if you have never been anywhere near a church. 

This is something interesting to think about. There are many things which point to the idea that we have a just creator, this inherent desire for fairness and justice in the heart of man is one of the most powerful lines of evidence. 

“11 He has made everything beautiful in its time. Also, he has put eternity into man's heart, yet so that he cannot find out what God has done from the beginning to the end. 12 I perceived that there is nothing better for them than to be joyful and to do good as long as they live; 13 also that everyone should eat and drink and take pleasure in all his toil—this is God's gift to man” (Gen. 3:11-13). 


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Thursday 31 October 2024

Literally

 



If you take the Apostles literally, you are forced to interpret the prophets figuratively or symbolically.

This is clearly how Jesus taught them to read the Old Testament on the Emmaus Road, and how he taught Paul in Damascus/Arabia. Let me give just three examples.

Example 1. Hosea 11:1 - "When Israel was a child, I loved him, and out of Egypt I called my son."

Literal reading: this is about Israel and the Exodus.

The Apostle Matthew's reading: it's about Jesus, 

Matthew 2:13-17

"13 Now when they had departed, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and said, “Rise, take the child and his mother, and flee to Egypt, and remain there until I tell you, for Herod is about to search for the child, to destroy him.” 14 And he rose and took the child and his mother by night and departed to Egypt 15 and remained there until the death of Herod. This was to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet, “Out of Egypt I called my son.”

Example 2: Psalm 16:9-11. David writes a beautiful Psalm about eternal joy at God's write hand. 

"9 Therefore my heart is glad, and my whole being rejoices;

my flesh also dwells secure.

10 For you will not abandon my soul to Sheol,

or let your holy one see corruption.

11 You make known to me the path of life;

in your presence there is fullness of joy;

at your right hand are pleasures forevermore."

 

Literal reading: David is talking about himself. 

The Apostle Peter's reading: it's about Jesus,

Acts 2:22-31

"22 Men of Israel, hear these words: Jesus of Nazareth, a man attested to you by God with mighty works and wonders and signs that God did through him in your midst, as you yourselves know— 23 this Jesus, delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men. 24 God raised him up, loosing the pangs of death, because it was not possible for him to be held by it. 25 For David says concerning him,

“‘I saw the Lord always before me,

for he is at my right hand that I may not be shaken;

26 therefore my heart was glad, and my tongue rejoiced;

my flesh also will dwell in hope.

27 For you will not abandon my soul to Hades,

or let your Holy One see corruption.

28 You have made known to me the paths of life;

you will make me full of gladness with your presence.’

29 “Brothers, I may say to you with confidence about the patriarch David that he both died and was buried, and his tomb is with us to this day. 30 Being therefore a prophet, and knowing that God had sworn with an oath to him that he would set one of his descendants on his throne, 31 he foresaw and spoke about the resurrection of the Christ, that he was not abandoned to Hades, nor did his flesh see corruption."

Example 3: Amos 9:11-15 Shows us a glorious future for Israel, 

“In that day I will raise up

the booth of David that is fallen

and repair its breaches,

and raise up its ruins

and rebuild it as in the days of old,

12 that they may possess the remnant of Edom

and all the nations who are called by my name,”

declares the Lord who does this.

13 “Behold, the days are coming,” declares the Lord,

“when the plowman shall overtake the reaper

and the treader of grapes him who sows the seed;

the mountains shall drip sweet wine,

and all the hills shall flow with it.

14 I will restore the fortunes of my people Israel,

and they shall rebuild the ruined cities and inhabit them;

they shall plant vineyards and drink their wine,

and they shall make gardens and eat their fruit.

15 I will plant them on their land,

and they shall never again be uprooted

out of the land that I have given them,”

says the Lord your God."

 

Literal reading: God will restore Israel and it will rule the Gentiles.

The Apostle James reading: This is about the Church giving full access to Gentiles,

Acts 15:13-20

"13 After they finished speaking, James replied, “Brothers, listen to me. 14 Simeon has related how God first visited the Gentiles, to take from them a people for his name. 15 And with this the words of the prophets agree, just as it is written,

16 “‘After this I will return,

and I will rebuild the tent of David that has fallen;

I will rebuild its ruins,

and I will restore it,

17 that the remnant of mankind may seek the Lord,

and all the Gentiles who are called by my name,

says the Lord, who makes these things 18 known from of old.’

19 Therefore my judgment is that we should not trouble those of the Gentiles who turn to God, 20 but should write to them to abstain from the things polluted by idols, and from sexual immorality, and from what has been strangled, and from blood."

Notice how the Apostles read all these passages in light of Jesus Christ. They do this continually in the New Testament. Jesus did it too. Remember when he said he would destroy the temple and rebuild it in three days? If you take this literally you'll be as confused as his Jewish opponents, thinking he is talking about the physical building. He was really talking about himself, as he is the temple that counts. 

The false dichotomy of literal verse firgurative is just that, false. No one thinks the antichrist is a literal animal, even though that's what "Beast" literally means. The literalists cannot be consistent. Some passages are meant to be literally taken, some aren't. This is true in any written text. The question is: how should we read it? The true hermeneutic is how did the Apostles read it? That should be our baseline. If you take the Apostles literally you cannot take the prophets anyway but figuratively pointing to Christ, his ministry and his return. And remember the Church is built on the foundation of the Apostles and prophets, so we need to follow the Apostles lead on how to read the prophets. 

 

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Tuesday 29 October 2024

God Save The Man

 


God bless this man,

“Former US President Donald Trump promised not to send Americans to fight and die in countries they have never heard of while addressing a crowd in the battleground state of Pennsylvania this weekend.

Speaking at a campaign rally on Saturday, Trump once again claimed he is the only one capable of preventing an all-out global conflict, arguing that his Democratic rival Kamala Harris “would get us into World War III, guaranteed, because she is too grossly incompetent to do the job.”

“To make her president would be to gamble with the lives of millions of people. Sons and daughters will end up getting drafted to fight in a war in a country you’ve never heard of,” he said.

In his nomination acceptance speech earlier this year, Trump vowed to “end every single international crisis that the current administration has created,” particularly the Ukraine and Gaza conflicts.”[1]

"Now God save such a lord, who is so good He will not have destruction of men's blood!"

-        Chaucer, A Knights Tale

Lord is used here in the sense of ruler, of course, not in the sense of the Lord of Lords. For all his faults Trump worked hard not to start any new wars, and to draw down in the wars the US was already in, during his last presidency. And he has largely committed to doing the same next time round, with the exception of Israel, which is foolish – though he has been somewhat inconsistent on this point, so we may be in for a positive surprise.  

A leader who wants to limit the warmongering and blood thirsty US empire might be the blessing America, and we need. Remember our country follows the US blindly into all its wars. I hope we get an anti-foreign intervention leader of the western world. It is about time that the West stopped it international crusade to force all nations into its image, and pillage their resources at the same time. The West has so many problems of its own it needs to work on. Fighting other people's fights should never have been our task. American men should not be dying for foreign causes, they are far more valuable staying home and working for their own country to be improved, as is the case for Australian men.  

American elections should be irrelevant to us here, but they are not, because our country is a satrapy of the US. So, let's hope Trump restrains the warmongers.

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