Scanning
Unless every single access point to the airways scans every single person who enters every single airport, no amount of body scanning will prevent terrorism. The X-ray scanners do a good job of revealing concealed firearms (in addition to dehumanizing and desensitizing people and giving the pervs of Totalitarian Sexual Assault a thrill), but not every airport has them. Once you pass security at one small airport, you have access to "secure" areas at every airport without having to pass through security again. In fact, at many airports you don't have to pass security at all. One person outside security could give a weapon to another person inside security by dropping it off a balcony or sliding it under a rope.
Explosives
Even if it were possible (AND IT'S NOT!) to build a scanner or train a person to detect every possible combination of substances that could be made to explode, there are ways to hide things from chemical or visual snooping. If someone is intent on dying, what in the world would deter him from swallowing as much explosive material as his stomach could handle? Why stop at swallowing? There's no reason explosives couldn't be surgically implanted. The three ounce rule is as stupid and pointless as the rest, invented by bureaucrats and implemented by mentally retarded thugs. If five or six ounces of some unknown (and unknowable) liquid is explosive, then a couple of terrorists could each carry three ounces and combine it later. Twenty people could board flights from twenty different cities having connecting flights in Chicago or Denver and combine the contents of all their shampoo, conditioner, lotion, and water bottles (that's 12 oz per person) to make 240 oz or just under 2 gallons. Whatever liquid explosive this rule is supposed to guard against, I'll bet that's enough to do the job.
Hand weapons
Every object can be made a weapon. Every object. Have you ever broken a CD or DVD? Ceramic mug? A ball-point pen? Banning fingernail clippers from airplanes is moronic. If you want to threaten somebody, there are so many better choices that aren't banned at all.
Totalitarian Sexual Assault
These are all policies invented by manipulative, power-grabbing bureaucrats to placate the simple-minded and acclimate the cattle to being herded. All in the name of security.
Security from what? Sexual molestation? Oh, right! From terrorists. Because everyone knows terrorists would never dream of targeting a large crowd of people all standing closely packed together in an airport lobby. At the risk of alienating a reader or two... How stupid do you have to be to believe that any of this has anything to do with security!?
"Mr. Eloi, please step out of line so Mr. Morlock can feel you up...er...I mean pat you down."
"Well, if it makes us all safer..."
On Joyce Meyer
A while back I slammed Kathryn Kuhlman for some of her poor decisions. For a counter example, see Joyce Meyer, tpreacher, mother, and wife of Dave. I have no problem recommending her as a preacher worth hearing.
A Few Words on the Word
The Bible is the most remarkable body of literature on Earth. It includes oral tradition, court records, poetry, correspondence, history, and prophecy in a consistent and accurate whole. The reader must keep in mind the cultures, languages, and circumstances of the various authors to reach a full understanding. He can't read as if Paul's letters were written in English. He can't even completely trust that the English translation accurately conveys the author's intended meaning.
Aside from the usual difficulty involved in understanding any text absent inflection and body language, politics and religious dogma and an inevitable failure to understand the cultural milieu that would have informed a contemporary reader make a perfectly accurate understanding almost impossible. Add to this the challenges of translating extinct languages such as the Bible's original Greek and Hebrew into living and evolving tongues like English, and the obstacles to true understanding seem insurmountable.
It is nothing short of amazing that we can read the Bible in English today and, so long as the entirety of its teachings are considered and no single passage is taken in isolation, we can still have a very good idea of what God is trying to tell us through it.
I understand how some people come to elevate the Bible above God himself, treating the physical material of paper and ink or the translated text as if it is itself something to be worshiped. There is a strong temptation to be distracted by the distinctive--miraculous even--nature of the Bible's preservation through the ages. However, as we read and study it, we must keep in mind all of the cultural and personal filters through which we understand its words.
Most people aren't able to read the Bible in its original languages, and some sections of scripture no longer even exist in their original forms. We don't have access to the actual words that God spoke to Adam in the Garden, only a paraphrase that was passed down from person to person and translated from language to language.
That's not to say that the meaning of the words we do have can't be trusted--as I already pointed out, the Bible is astonishingly consistent from end to end--but that they are frequently not word-for-word transcripts. Even in those places where the text is precise, the words are not always inspired or truthful. Letters and messages from kings and generals are reproduced for history and context, not necessarily because they contain any great truths. Some passages contain advice that doesn't rise to the level of command let alone divine command.
The Bible is an amazing collection of Scriptures, but it is not all we need to understand the world or even all we need to understand God and our relationship with him. It is essential, but it is not everything.
Patriarchy Is Good for Women
Matriarchy might look good in theory, but it's about as useful as having all feet and no hands. (See 1 Corinthians 12.)
Says the Elusive Wapiti (blog no longer available):
Says the Elusive Wapiti (blog no longer available):
But what feminists didn't realize at the time they took patriarchy out back and shot it is that patriarchy, among other things, lassoed men into socially constructive behavior and dutiful service of society as a whole. And women in particular. Freed from patriarchy, men were free to throw off the yoke of duty and other-focused behavior and could pursue their own self interests full-tilt. Which quite a few dudes did, and found that a world without patriarchy--the world that women all yelled and screamed and marched and burnt bras for--suited them just fine. And they thought that this world was the one that women wanted.
The Spirit in the Torah
Numbers 27:15-21. Then Moses spoke to the LORD, saying: 16 “Let the LORD, the God of the spirits of all flesh, set a man over the congregation, 17 who may go out before them and go in before them, who may lead them out and bring them in, that the congregation of the LORD may not be like sheep which have no shepherd.” 18 And the LORD said to Moses: “Take Joshua the son of Nun with you, a man in whom is the Spirit, and lay your hand on him; 19 set him before Eleazar the priest and before all the congregation, and inaugurate him in their sight. 20 And you shall give some of your authority to him, that all the congregation of the children of Israel may be obedient. 21 He shall stand before Eleazar the priest, who shall inquire before the LORD for him by the judgment of the Urim. At his word they shall go out, and at his word they shall come in, he and all the children of Israel with him—all the congregation.”
People were filled with the Holy Spirit thousands of years before Pentecost. And people knew and kept the Torah before it was given at Mt. Sinai.
Paganism and the Doctrine of Balaam
Numbers 22:2-25:9
Micah 5:6-6:8
I Corinthians 1:20-31
There seems a discrepancy between the idea that we are created in God’s image to the extent that our words have creative force, that there is power in our prayers, and the opposing idea that a curse has no power unless it is deserved and that a prophet can speak neither blessing nor curse unless God allows it. However, there is truth on both sides if properly understood.
There's an old joke about scientists claiming to be able to create life from nothing. When God challenged the scientists, they took a handful of dirt with which to demonstrate their new technology. "Huh-uh," God said. "Get your own dirt."
We were created in God’s image, but we are not exact copies. The earthly tabernacle was a corruptible copy of the one in Heaven, the feast days are shadows of the reality that is the Messiah, and mankind is an imperfect, much scaled down replica of God. Unlike him, we cannot create something out of nothing by merely speaking. We need something on which to build. We are unable to get our own dirt, so to speak, so we have to make do with what we can find.
When Balaam tried to curse Israel, he failed because, as a prophet, he could only give what prophecies God gave him. His patron, Balak, understood the principle of Proverbs 26:2, that a curse undeserved has no effect, so he took Balaam to first one place and then another, thinking that a different perspective might give Balaam the hook he needed to make the curse stick. But he misunderstood the nature of a real prophet: true prophecy comes from God and no other.
If a prophet speaks truth, then his words are the words of God, and God can no more curse the righteous than could Balaam. Hence Balaam’s statement that “[YHWH] has not seen iniquity in Jacob, neither has He seen perverseness in Israel.” It was not that Israel had no sin at all, but that God had chosen to forgive them like a husband who chooses to overlook his wife’s flaws. From God’s point of view, Israel had no sin to which a curse could be attached.
Finding no fault in Israel, Balaam showed Balak how he might create a fault that God could not overlook by seducing Israel into idolatry. This is the “doctrine of Balaam, who taught Balak to cast a stumbling-block before the sons of Israel, to eat things sacrificed to idols and to commit fornication.” (Revelation 2:14)
Eating “things sacrificed to idols” does not refer simply to eating meat from sacrificial animals, but to actively participating in the sacrifice. Those who teach God’s people that it is acceptable to engage in pagan rituals and abandon God’s law so long as their “hearts are in the right place” are today’s Balaam. They cause God’s people to commit sins that he cannot overlook, opening them to whatever curse the enemy might choose to throw.
Be careful when someone says to you that "God doesn't care if you do this or that if you're doing it in the right spirit." If it is something that God has commanded us not to do, then there is only one spirit in which you could possibly do it, and it isn't a "right" one.
Micah 5:6-6:8
I Corinthians 1:20-31
Proverbs 26:2 As the bird by wandering, as the swallow by flying, so the curse causeless shall not come.
There seems a discrepancy between the idea that we are created in God’s image to the extent that our words have creative force, that there is power in our prayers, and the opposing idea that a curse has no power unless it is deserved and that a prophet can speak neither blessing nor curse unless God allows it. However, there is truth on both sides if properly understood.
There's an old joke about scientists claiming to be able to create life from nothing. When God challenged the scientists, they took a handful of dirt with which to demonstrate their new technology. "Huh-uh," God said. "Get your own dirt."
We were created in God’s image, but we are not exact copies. The earthly tabernacle was a corruptible copy of the one in Heaven, the feast days are shadows of the reality that is the Messiah, and mankind is an imperfect, much scaled down replica of God. Unlike him, we cannot create something out of nothing by merely speaking. We need something on which to build. We are unable to get our own dirt, so to speak, so we have to make do with what we can find.
When Balaam tried to curse Israel, he failed because, as a prophet, he could only give what prophecies God gave him. His patron, Balak, understood the principle of Proverbs 26:2, that a curse undeserved has no effect, so he took Balaam to first one place and then another, thinking that a different perspective might give Balaam the hook he needed to make the curse stick. But he misunderstood the nature of a real prophet: true prophecy comes from God and no other.
If a prophet speaks truth, then his words are the words of God, and God can no more curse the righteous than could Balaam. Hence Balaam’s statement that “[YHWH] has not seen iniquity in Jacob, neither has He seen perverseness in Israel.” It was not that Israel had no sin at all, but that God had chosen to forgive them like a husband who chooses to overlook his wife’s flaws. From God’s point of view, Israel had no sin to which a curse could be attached.
Finding no fault in Israel, Balaam showed Balak how he might create a fault that God could not overlook by seducing Israel into idolatry. This is the “doctrine of Balaam, who taught Balak to cast a stumbling-block before the sons of Israel, to eat things sacrificed to idols and to commit fornication.” (Revelation 2:14)
Eating “things sacrificed to idols” does not refer simply to eating meat from sacrificial animals, but to actively participating in the sacrifice. Those who teach God’s people that it is acceptable to engage in pagan rituals and abandon God’s law so long as their “hearts are in the right place” are today’s Balaam. They cause God’s people to commit sins that he cannot overlook, opening them to whatever curse the enemy might choose to throw.
Be careful when someone says to you that "God doesn't care if you do this or that if you're doing it in the right spirit." If it is something that God has commanded us not to do, then there is only one spirit in which you could possibly do it, and it isn't a "right" one.
Salvation, Sanctification, and Judgment
Numbers 19:1-22:1
Judges 11:1-33
John 3:9-21
A few thoughts on Chukat:
☼Red is the color of mortality and blood. A heifer is a cow that has never calved. The red heifer was to be completely consumed along with cedar, hyssop, and a scarlet thread. Cedar, hyssop, and scarlet appear to be a reference to the cross. The ashes of the red heifer were collected, mixed with water, and used to ritually cleanse a thing or person from contact with death. Water is typical of the Holy Spirit. In summary, something mortal and which bears no fruit is completely given over to God in association with the death of Yeshua on the cross. In combination with the baptism of the Spirit, it saves us from death. This sounds like Yeshua’s words to Nicodemus in John 3.
☼When Miriam died, there was no water to drink, and perhaps no water to mix with the ashes of the heifer to purify the people after her death. The people did not mourn her, but mourned themselves and their own discomfort. Shortly after that, they were sent back into the wilderness by the king of Edom. When Aaron died, the people mourned for thirty days and then defeated the king of Arad.
☼Bronze represents judgment. When the people rebelled again and were punished through poisonous snakes, God told Moses to erect a bronze serpent on a pole in the middle of the camp. When the people were bitten by the consequences of their sin, they could look up and see the judgment of God on a stake and be healed. Reference again the words of Yeshua in John 3.
Judges 11:1-33
John 3:9-21
A few thoughts on Chukat:
☼Red is the color of mortality and blood. A heifer is a cow that has never calved. The red heifer was to be completely consumed along with cedar, hyssop, and a scarlet thread. Cedar, hyssop, and scarlet appear to be a reference to the cross. The ashes of the red heifer were collected, mixed with water, and used to ritually cleanse a thing or person from contact with death. Water is typical of the Holy Spirit. In summary, something mortal and which bears no fruit is completely given over to God in association with the death of Yeshua on the cross. In combination with the baptism of the Spirit, it saves us from death. This sounds like Yeshua’s words to Nicodemus in John 3.
☼When Miriam died, there was no water to drink, and perhaps no water to mix with the ashes of the heifer to purify the people after her death. The people did not mourn her, but mourned themselves and their own discomfort. Shortly after that, they were sent back into the wilderness by the king of Edom. When Aaron died, the people mourned for thirty days and then defeated the king of Arad.
☼Bronze represents judgment. When the people rebelled again and were punished through poisonous snakes, God told Moses to erect a bronze serpent on a pole in the middle of the camp. When the people were bitten by the consequences of their sin, they could look up and see the judgment of God on a stake and be healed. Reference again the words of Yeshua in John 3.
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