What do we think of this. Vox Day posted a small part of this blog post over the weekend: A Meditation On The Mark Of The Beast. The author goes into some territory and makes some claims I wouldn't, but the idea of the mark and anti-Christs being patterns throughout history and not merely a  "prophecy of a final battle" demonstrates the need to pay attention to guideposts God puts in our path about the world at large, and how we and creation are built:

Quote:The third kind of pastor, and this is the category I would put myself in, is the pastor who is very concerned with the Beast-like behaviour of the government, but also recognizes along with the pastors in the second category that there are countless examples of predictions about the end times being wrong, and so is also hesitant to call this the Mark of the Beast. However, there is another key difference between pastors in this group and the second group. We see many of the hallmarks of the Beast-like behaviour of governments in this time, and from this we observe an old pattern at work. A pattern about how evil works, and a pattern about how we are to find richness and application from Revelation in every era from the time of Nero until now. So, in a bit we will look at Revelation 13, but before we get there, we need to jump into 1 John and 2 Thessalonians and establish some things.  

We are about midway through the Galilean ministry period. By this time there was a crowd of supporters often following Him, including a handful of women who consistently served in various ways and helped fund this ministry.

A primary feature of Jesus' teaching was the Ancient Near Eastern method of parables. It's important to grasp that the symbols were flexible, best understood in context. This was the way scholars talked to each other for centuries regarding subjects that could not be described in mere human language. The intent is to draw a word picture that was familiar, but in which various symbols gave clues to something that was otherworldly. This was outside the disciples' experience and education, so Jesus had to teach them how to listen to parables.

As was typically the case, there was more room for the crowds of people outside away from buildings. Jesus often held sessions on the shore of Galilee. In one particular session, Jesus used several parables to help people understand moral truths regarding the Messianic Kingdom. Mark tells us that Jesus took advantage of the way sound could be amplified to a very large audience by using the calm waters of the shore. He sat down in the prow of a fishing boat and had the disciples push it back out on the water just a short distance.

Jesus told about the method of sowing seed by hand. It took practice to get a fairly even spread that used the soil optimally without crowding the plants. This was the common means for growing grain. The soil was already plowed. Sowing took place the next day, typically in the morning after a nice dew or rain fell overnight.

Naturally some of the seed fell in places that weren't the best soil. If seed fell on the road, it was too easy for the birds to pick it up, because it would lie in plain sight on the hard-packed ground. In places where shallow soil covered rocks, the seed would spring up all too quickly, only to wither in the heat of the day because any moisture would evaporate quickly. And if seeds got tossed onto the edges of the field, as soon as the seeds would sprout, so would the thorny vines, wrapping around the stalks and stealing all the free nutrients, choking out the grain.

Jesus made it a pun, referring to the expected ears of grain and saying that those with ears to hear and grasp the message should heed the warning. After their teaching session, when the crowds were gone, the disciples came and queried Jesus about the meaning of the parable. Jesus replied that they probably already understood it, but didn't realize it yet. Parables are designed to provoke the heart, not the intellect. Those who lived in their minds wouldn't get it, and shouldn't. Those who lived in their hearts would eventually understand. If His disciples couldn't get this one critical parable, how would they get any of the others?

The gospel message is like seeds for sowing. The road symbolized a soul trapped by Satan; there's too much traffic in the things of this world, and so the message simply bounces off the outside. Satan takes away the blessings. The stony ground is like people with no moral depth; everything for them is just a curiosity of the moment. They can embrace the gospel immediately like some new and entertaining thing, but the least little inconvenience and they forget all about it. The gospel never took root. The unplowed edges of the field represent worldly people. They simply care too much about this life, and their divided loyalty would choke out the gospel message.

Keep in mind: All of these different kinds of people were among the Jewish nation. The word of the gospel is the restoration of the Covenant. This is the varied reception Jesus' teaching had already faced among Jews. But there were some who represented nicely plowed rich soil. When the gospel comes to them, they embrace it and bear fruit. Sure, it takes a while, but like any good head of grain, there's no telling how much blessing they'll manifest.

The only way to have a heart plowed and ready is to stay on your face before the Lord.

Ah, that wonderful thing they call "trans-humanism." This week, Corbett Report looks at it. The main point is that all this transsexual nonsense is aimed at conditioning people to desire becoming a virtual entity instead of remaining in the flesh and in the real world. He looks at a short video where a young woman comes out to her parents as desiring to become transhuman, to have her mind uploaded to a server and to go on living as a virtual person with no body.

Of course, you realize that means she will be dead and only some bogus facsimile of her personality will be around. And even then, it's only as long as the server keeps running. What happens when the power goes out? The whole proposition is absurd. Yet it's exactly the kind of thing we expect from the elites who are committed to population reduction so that they can share among themselves a bonus of excess resources no longer needed for the mass of humanity. Of course, that's also a big lie of the Devil, since it cannot work out the way they imagine.

That people are actually buying into this, on both sides, merely demonstrates the justice of the coming erasure of civilization.

Love your enemy. What does that really look like? It can’t be about “niceness” right?

I like using Christmas cards as a way to test the alternative communications channel often referred to as "snail mail." If I have your mailing address, you should get one in a few days. If you feel left out, make sure I get your address for next time. Otherwise, it's just something I like to do whether it means anything to you or not. I'm transferring all my important data to paper copies, and that includes a little file box with index cards for mailing addresses.

We are participating in our weekly prayer time at 5pm EST. Check out the prayer request forum for some prayer topics, but feel free to lift up your own.

You may also fast. There's no obligation or guidelines to how you should do it, or if you should do it at all. Just fast as the Lord leads and speaks to your convictions.

Luke offers no context for this next story. However, we know that Jesus has been limiting His ministry to Galilee, so this is somewhere in that province. Luke uses a word to designate a town big enough to have proper walls around it. It was big enough for a wealthy Pharisee and at least one prostitute, but small enough that they knew who each other was.

Jesus had just raised someone from death and reaffirmed His affiliation with John the Baptist. Given the details in the story, it is likely the Pharisee expected to ask Jesus about His miracles and teaching, with enough of his kind there to make Jesus the target of some inquiry. Jesus was quite willing to face this kind of thing. They reclined around the table in typical Hebrew fashion.

Meanwhile, the prostitute had no doubt heard Jesus' teaching and saw His miracles, too, but in her mind it signaled that this was her sole opportunity to repent to someone who might accept her, since He was known to be gentle with other social outcasts. In the bigger, fancier homes in those days, there would be a rather fancy formal dining room. There would be a central raised platform for the table and cushions. Around the outside edges of this room was likely a series of curtains, and the servers would use this space to pass bringing food and drink, and wait for some signal to bring more when required. Meanwhile, the public could also hang out in this shaded space to gawk at the big shots.

So it's no surprise this scorned woman could slip into this area and come to Jesus' feet. She brought with her a fancy sealed container filled with expensive ointment, most likely a gift from one of her clients. They were relatively small, thin and elegant, and the neck was slender; one snapped it off to open. She engaged in a shameless ritual of worship. She wept enough to wash His feet and wipe them with her hair. She then kissed and anointed them with this fancy ointment that would have filled the whole place with a strong perfumed scent.

The host thought to himself how embarrassing this was, just having this woman in his house. This Jesus must not be much of a prophet if He didn't know what kind of creature she was. By his strict rules, Jesus should not have permitted her to even get close to Him.

Jesus was supposed to be the guest of honor, so for Him to speak up was permitted, especially to address His host. Usually it would have been a toast or something similar. Still, Jesus acted as if He had to get permission to speak in the company of His elders. So the host called Him "rabbi" and encouraged Him. Jesus proposed a test case. This is common among rabbis to get at some analysis, to test someone or to solicit a wise ruling on something. Treating each other as judges was a common rabbinical protocol. 

Jesus told of a certain investor who had two debtors that had come to him seeking terms of bankruptcy. One owed 500 denarii (roughly two year's wages for a common laborer), and the other only a tenth of that. This creditor followed the higher moral code of Moses and forgave them both. This was admirable in polite company, of course. Then Jesus asked which of the two debtors would feel more obliged to the creditor? The host didn't have to think long; it was obvious. The one who owed the most would feel the strongest affection. Good answer.

Then Jesus lowered the boom. This host invited Jesus on the pretense of being the guest of honor. Yet he never even bothered with the most basic courtesies. There was no water provided so Jesus could wash His own feet, much less a slave to handle it. So this woman did the Pharisee a favor by handling this task with her tears and her hair. There was no ritual greeting at the doorway when Jesus showed up, but this woman had been kissing His feet since before she started washing them. Nor had the host given Jesus the courtesy of anointing Him with the common lightly scented oil to make sure His sweaty body didn't ruin anyone's appetite. Yet this woman extravagantly anointed His feet with something terribly expensive.

It's not like the woman was there mocking, proud of her sins. She was there worshiping because she knew her sins. She was honestly seeking forgiveness, and she got it. For all the fake love she had dished out in her life so far, this was the one time she was genuinely, passionately devoted to a worthy man, paying a lot for the privilege of worshiping at His feet. So He turned and said to her that her sins were forgiven. We can be sure she restrained herself from doing a happy dance right there.

Left unsaid was how little affection the Pharisee host had for Jesus. He felt himself to be in a position to judge Jesus, quite unlike this woman. And this was also his attitude toward the Father, believing as Pharisees did that God owed them. So the other guests wondered to themselves just who this strange rabbi was to think He had the authority to forgive sins. Well, it was a rabbi who healed, delivered from demons, and could raise the dead. Could any of them, or all of them together, do any of that?

So He again addressed the woman and told her that her humble commitment to seeking God's favor had redeemed her. This is what the Father seeks from all. He told her to go in shalom, implying that she needed to stay in it by that same faith.

This is not up yet, but I thought I would post about it anyway, since the first release will be out soon, which is Ed's Wisdom Literature collection. As Ed mentioned, the online library is up now.

I am using Lulu as the print on demand service, but the books will be available to order at the usual online places. I am selling them "at cost," which means neither I nor Ed will make money off of this. I won't know the details until I finish the first book here: I hit a snag getting the Lulu system to accept the PDF version of the book, but I will figure it out soon enough.


It won't take me nearly as long to do the other books, because I have all the styling and snags ironed out with this first one.

Okay, so maybe you've read Brandon Smith's stuff before (look up alt-market). I've referred to it from time to time. His latest is quite popular: What Is the Relationship Between the Political Left and Globalism?

It's only half true. You'll notice that he suggests that the globalist-left is trying to destroy Western Civilization. No, they are Western Civilization, in the sense that they represent the final end of what Western Civilization is and does. Their agenda is at the root of Western identity. It starts out with men striving to satisfy the idolatrous demands of the Mother Earth worshipers. Eventually they can't do enough, and collapse exhausted while the demonic feminists take over.

Granted, on the fleshly level, the solution would be to separate between left and right at the very least. But the left are not another kind of people. Whatever majority right-wing society that pulls away from the globalist-left still carries the same seeds of destruction. It will happen again and again; it's rooted in fallen human nature. The only solution is to forsake the West altogether, along with her child, the Networked Civilization.

Okay, so my convictions now require me to start looking for a manual typewriter of some kind. It's not a question of what I can afford, but of something that will serve the purpose. I'm not a connoisseur of typewriters, but I know a good one if I use it a bit. The easiest ones to get I'd have to buy sight-unseen, so I'm praying for guidance to know when to jump and upon what I am to jump. There is no doubt that this is for a ministry purpose.