Is God Irrational?

"Come, let us reason together." Isaiah 1:18

God is very often counter-intuitive. He acts based on a much greater knowledge base than we do. But God is never irrational. He is the inventor of the physical laws on which all of our science is based. He is a God of order, rules, hierarchy, and reason. He is not the author of chaos and confusion.

Understanding that "equals" does not mean the same thing as "is," if God says a=b and b=c, then you can be certain that a=c. He does not reveal a truth in his written word and later flatly contradict that with a spiritual revelation.

I was told today that interpreting the Bible rationally instead of spiritually is the basis of heretical sects such as the Jehovah’s Witnesses and the Mormons. That assertion is obviously false. The facts are exactly the opposite.

The Jehovah’s Witnesses didn’t come to their doctrines through a rational interpretation of the Bible. They were founded on prophetic revelations that were contradicted by the plain meaning of Scripture. Later, they had to change the Bible to justify their reasoning, rather than letting the Bible speak for itself. By the very plain testimony of Scripture, Russell and Rutherford were both false prophets.

The same is true of the Mormons. Joseph Smith didn’t acquire his doctrines through honest Bible study. They were given to him by looking into a hat with special goggles. If that’s relying on reason, then...well, I don’t even know what, because nothing in the universe can be known or understood.

The heart is deceitful above all things. If you ever receive a spiritual revelation that contradicts the written word, then you are hearing from demons or your own imagination. God cannot be discerned with reason, nor can all of his laws, but that which he has already told us can be relied on completely. God is not the author of lies or of confusion. He is a God of order and reason.

How Many Animals Did Moses Put on the Ark?

Maybe you've fell for this joke before. Now you'll have a know-it-all retort.

Zero is not the only correct answer. It depends on how you want to use the word "ark". Moses did oversee the construction of an ark, and there were at least the semblances of animals hammered into its cover. According to Ezekiel, cherubim have four faces, each resembling a different earthly creature: man, eagle, ox, and lion. The cover of the Ark of the Covenant held sculptures of two cherubim looking down at the Ark. So how many animals did Moses put on the Ark? Six. Two eagles, two oxen (or bulls), and two lions.

Nanny-State Busybodies

I’ve been reading Zig Ziglar’s autobiography this week. He was the tenth of a widow’s twelve children. His mother had no career, no job, no education, no welfare, but she still managed to feed and clothe and educate her children. She taught them to be hard-working, responsible people. She sold dairy products and home-grown produce. Her children worked at grocery stores, delivered newspapers, sold peanuts, and did other odd jobs to help.

She might not be able to do that today. She would probably have to move into a cinder-block cave (aka low-income housing project), get on the dole, let her kids run with gangs, and submit to periodic interference from social workers. All in the name of helping the poor, of course.

We have laws against self-reliance these days, against child labor, private enterprise, homeschooling, home maintenance, and just about everything else that allows the poor to live independent and responsible lives. Some of the worst things that have ever happened to this country were the New Deal, the War on Poverty, the War on Drugs, and all their relatives. Too many people think they have to solve every social problem there is, and they aren’t content just to lend a hand themselves. They have to start a government program, a tax, a bureaucracy, a task force, a committee.

I can’t even call these people well intentioned, because I don’t believe they are. They say they want to help the poor or the children or whomever, and they might even believe that, but what they really want is to help themselves. They want to feel as if they’ve done something without actually doing anything. If they really wanted to help the poor, they’d walk down the street and help some poor people, but they don’t want to get dirty. Instead, they extort (because that’s all government really does) from everyone else to pay for a scheme that delivers ten cents worth of services out of every dollar extracted. Then they pat themselves on the back for their bravery and compassion and wonder why crime, illiteracy, disease, and divorce rates go up.

Give us all a break. The next time you feel like helping, why don’t you go volunteer at the Rescue Mission, the Salvation Army, a church, hospital, or any number of other places where you will come face to face with the people who need you. Keep the government as far away from them as possible. If you can’t handle that, then mind your own business. You can’t save the world, so try not to ruin it for everyone else.

Like it or not, we all have a job to do

What happens to a partnership if the partners continually pull in opposite directions? If one partner pulls while the other sits? If both partners sit on their arses? The relationship fails. Someone (or both) gives up.

Here’s the problem, as I see it, with marriage: most men don’t know how to be men and most women don’t know how to be women. Some relationships can be saved by just one of the partners doing their part; the other eventually comes around. That doesn’t work all the time, though. Many people will get really tired of carrying all the weight, and eventually they’ll just stop. They’ll take their ball and go home, maybe waiting for a better, saner game on some other day. They’re the John Galts of marriage.

Men, you need to learn how to be men. Not men in touch with their feminine side, and not men who bully their way through everything. Men with strength and humility. Burn your pink polos and your black sabbath t’s, too. (Metaphorically, of course. There's nothing particularly wrong with pink polos or Black Sabbath T-shirts.) Then you need to hold the line. Don’t back down. Don’t give in to political correctness. Don’t let the zeitgeist (or your wife) set your rules.

Women, you need to straighten up right now. Lose the tattoos, the whorish dress, and the attitudes, and take some responsibility for yourself and especially for your family. I don’t care if you don’t like it. I don’t care if it makes you sick. Submit to your fathers and husbands. Now.

Female Emo-Shine

Over at Voxday, Pretty Lady wrote, "Thus a woman's behavior may appear to be controlled by her emotions in the moment, as in weeping easily, but does this necessarily imply that her subsequent decisions upon all matters related to the situation in the future will be controlled by the fact that the situation caused her to weep? Or will she simply factor in the emotion as one more variable in the equation, and proceed to evaluate the other variables accordingly, once she has calmed down?"

In my experience, emotion is a factor in everyone's decision making process, however it is more heavily weighted in the minds of most women. Men and women tend to see in slightly different cognitive spectra and emotions shine brighter at the female wavelengths, like the sun overwhelming apparently lesser considerations like the moon and stars and west-bound traffic in the morning. The moon doesn't shrink and the cars don't stop coming when the sun is in your eyes; they're just harder to see.

Random Thoughts on Yitro

A few random thoughts on Yitro:

• There must be some kind of behind-the-scenes parallel between Yitro and Laban. Both were unbelievers and God arranged marriages between their daughters and patriarchs of Israel.
• Zipporah and the Ethiopian woman, Moses’ other wife, are prophetic images of God’s people. Zipporah is the Jews who were sent away under the tutelage of a priesthood (in the form of the rabbinate) gone astray. Like Zipporah, they will be united with the Messiah by that same priesthood after the Greater Exodus. The Ethiopian woman was a believing gentile grafted into Israel, just like those of us who have been united in faith with Yeshua. Like her, we are made citizens of Israel at our exodus, and given Torah in full afterwards.
• The Ten Commandments can be categorized in many ways. One interesting way is into groups of three, one, and six. The first three commandments deal directly with how we relate to God. Three is the number of divinity and the triune God. The last six commandments deal directly with how we relate to our fellow men. Six is the number of man. The middle command deals with how we relate to God, our fellow men, and ourselves. One is the number of unity. If counted with the first three, this command makes four, which is the number of the Messiah. If counted with the last six, this command makes seven, which is the number of completion. In Yeshua, our divine Sabbath Rest, we are made complete and united with God.
• Exodus 18:18 - Thou art not able to perform it thyself alone... Although the husband is meant to be the head of his house, the head cannot live or even command the body on its own. Effective command requires the trust and cooperation of the commanded as well as good communication and delegation. A husband’s and father’s authority may be freely delegated to servants, sons, and wives. When his children are young, he authorizes his executive officer, his wife. Later, that responsibility should gradually move to his lieutenants, his sons, as he teaches them to be men. Under most circumstances, the firstborn son should be placed ahead of his siblings, but that is not an inviolate law. Reuben was passed over for Judah, Ishmael for Isaac, et cetera, all for good reasons. The point is that a man cannot expect to effectively govern his house on his own. He must train his family to lead in his place, and he must trust them to do so.

More Global Warming, Please

With the Denver area temps ranging between -8° and -18° at 6 AM today, I'm thinking I could use a bit of that famous French global warming. Throw in a hot cup of cocoa, and I'll be your friend forever.