Just a reminder. Technically, I didn’t write this. I just did the hours upon hours of scanning, formatting, proof-reading, and editing. It’s a really fascinating look into what real people were thinking and saying during the American Revolution, and you can get it in electronic or paper format.
Archive for January, 2006
Diary of the American Revolution, Vols I & II
Thursday, January 26th, 2006Husband and Leader
Tuesday, January 24th, 2006Excerpted and adapted from on-line discussions in February and March, 2005. My apologies if it’s a little hard to follow. You’re only getting one side of several conversations.
I coasted through the first ten years of my marriage, pretty much just trying to be my wife’s boyfriend, but God says that I am responsible for the spiritual well-being of my house, and that he will hold me accountable for them. So about five years ago I decided that I was through being a boyfriend, and it was time to become a husband. Things are frequently difficult, uncomfortable, or downright heated–the price I pay for developing habits based on the standards of our hedonistic culture. Now my family is no longer stagnant and spiritually dead. I am learning to lead instead of to drift with the emotional current of the day. My son is growing up in a scripture-based home instead of a feelings-based home..
A rudder, under the command of a helmsman, serves a ship by controlling its direction. A viceroy, under the command of a king, serves his people by creating and enforcing laws. A sergeant, under the command of an officer, serves his men by instilling purpose and discipline. A husband, under the command of God, serves his family by leading and teaching them….
A leader does what is necessary. He takes action and accepts responsibility. He promotes the well-being of his charges. A follower follows the leader’s lead. In the context of marriage, a wife subjects her own will to her husband’s. She supports his calling–whatever that may be–working to encourage and strengthen him. She may have a separate calling of her own, but that is subordinate to her role as wife and mother….
A leader doesn’t wait around for everyone else to line up behind him before taking action. He just starts moving. His moral justification doesn’t come from behind, but from ahead, because he is also a follower of Christ. God’s created order is for men to be the leaders of their families. If they are not following that order, then they are not following Christ’s example, because he was obedient to the Father above all else….
Shouldn’t all government be after the pattern of Christ and the church? Shouldn’t all kings rule as servant leaders? What is the difference between David ruling over Israel and a father/husband ruling over his family? A king rules in order to serve his people, but he never relinquishes his authority as king. Without that authority and all of the power that comes with it he could not serve his people effectively as a servant leader. Although Yeshua does not usually force us (my apologies to Calvin) to do his will–at least not in the present–but he demands our obedience none-the-less. There are more parallels:
- Mankind was created to serve God and the woman was created to serve the man. (Gen 1-3, 1 Cor 11:9)
- God (the Word made flesh) gave men laws to order and protect his people, and a man governs his own family to order and protect his house. (Gen-Deut, 1 Tim 3:4-5, 1 Tim 5:8)
- Yeshua gave up his own life in order to return the Church to a state of perfection and obedience, and then serves her by ruling over her, and a man serves his family by protecting and guiding them even to the point of giving up his own life for them so that together they can serve God in obedience to their calling, which is firstly his calling. (Rom 1:5, 1 Pet 1:2, Rev 2-3, Gen 1-3, 1 Cor 11-9)
… Never does Yeshua submit himself to the Church. Never. He is a servant to the Church (and all of mankind) as its ruler, provider, and kinsman-redeemer. He grants the petitions of believers only at his own discretion.
It was never my goal to get my wife to submit to my leadership. It was always my goal to become a better leader. It just took me a little while to learn that you can’t force people to act as if you already are a good leader. It is the husband’s job to lead and the wife’s job to follow. If the husband is leading, then it’s not his responsibility if the wife refuses to follow. If the wife is following, then it’s not her responsibility if the husband refuses to lead. They each need to do their part regardless of what the other does….
I told my wife that I’m not drifting anymore. This is where I am going, and if you want to be a part of my family, you’ll have to go with me. Of course, there are many things on which my wife and I have come to disagree, but I don’t think that level of detail is necessary here. We discussed our respective roles before we married and were in basic agreement at that time. Our current differences are the result of allowing my family to drift instead of taking an active role at the helm from the very beginning. My values have changed, and my wife’s values have changed. Unfortunately, they have drifted in opposite directions…
I quit accepting my wife’s feelings and opinions as equally authoritative as my own. Not because my opinions are any better than hers, but because I have to make the final decisions. I will consult my wife and I will value her feelings and opinions, but God put authority over the wife onto the husband, and not the other way around. He created us. He knows how we will best live. I decided that I will set the tone and direction of our activities and the moral standards of my house. I quit being afraid of making a wrong decision when I realized that making no decision was even worse. I do not like the prospect of facing God having made wrong decisions for my family, but I am terrified of facing him after having given up my family to whimsy and deception. I will not be the worthless servant who buried his master’s gold in the ground.…
…You can’t change your spouse; you can only change yourself. As I wrote earlier, my job is to love and to lead my family, and my wife’s job is to support me. I can’t force her to do that, and I wouldn’t even want her “support” if it had to be forced…. Whatever the outcome, I know that through the exercise of love, patience, and faith, I will be a better man on the other side.
Me and My Labels
Monday, January 23rd, 2006I know you’re just dying to know all about me, and if you’re not, then you ought to be….Just kidding. Mostly.
People seem to have a lot of false impressions about me. In a world full of labels, it’s easy to grab one that’s handy and use it, and sometimes that’s helpful. We generalize and stereotype because it helps us to sort out the world and deal with the plague of Too Much Information. Unfortunately, those labels never really fit anything perfectly, and they fit some things and people–yours truly, for example–less perfectly than others. If you only read one of my articles about the Torah, you might think I’m Jewish. If you only read one of my articles about polygamy, you might think I’m a rogue Mormon. If you read all of my articles, you might just have a whole fistful of labels, not all of them so benign. Let me sort some of them out for you:
Christian – If a Christian is someone who follows the teachings of Jesus, then I like this label. People have different ideas about what he taught, though, so let me clarify. I believe that Jesus, whom I prefer to call by his Hebrew name of Yeshua, is the only man ever conceived as a Son of God, meaning that he was conceived in the womb of a virgin by the direct action of God. I also believe that he existed before he was conceived, and, in fact, existed before everything. He was the Voice of God that spoke the Universe into existence. He appeared as a man and an angel to the patriarchs and to Moses and Joshua. He lived a perfect, sinless life, never violating the Torah, and then, of his own free will, he was crucified by both gentiles and Jews, his blood making a perfect atonement for all the world’s sin. He was raised from the dead, ascended to Heaven, and has promised to return again in physical form. I believe that he wants us to live as he lived, honoring the Torah by his love for the Father and for men. I take him seriously when he says that, so long as heaven and earth still exist, we should live and teach the Torah and the Prophets. So if my life labels me as a “little Christ” then so be it.
Jewish – As far as I’m aware, I don’t have any Jewish ancestors. But then, I’ve only been able to trace my family back a few hundred years to the Korpers/Kerbers in 17th century Hesse-Darmstadt. On the other hand, there is an old Jewish family by the name of Korper a few hundred miles away in Hungary. I’ve read speculation that the Korper name came from the scribes or unit historians that accompanied Roman military units which settled in the fringes of the Empire. Some of those scribes may have been Jewish, since Jews tended to be more literate than the general population at the time. Some of them might have adopted the occupational name of Korper, and some of those might have migrated a little further north into Germany. Some big maybes there. I don’t see any reason to stretch the point though, so I’m operating under the assumption that I am not of Jewish descent. I’m not sure it would make any practical difference if I am.
No, the other Jewish – I’m not the other Jewish, either. The religious kind, I mean. I don’t recognize any inherent authority in anyone calling himself a rabbi, nor do I adhere to the teachings of the Talmud. I think that Judaism has a lot of good things going for it, but it has a lot of bad, too. The Jews are at least as far off the mark as the Catholics or the Mormons, and not as far off as some others that I might still consider brothers in the faith. I practice some common Christian traditions, such as baptism and communion, and I have also adopted (or adapted) some worthwhile Jewish traditions, such as their Passover seder and singing the Shema.
Flake – There might be a grain of truth in this label. I’ll let you be the judge.
Messianic – The term “messianic” refers to the Messiah, and “Messianic Jew” refers to a Jew who has accepted Yeshua as the Messiah. If you leave off the commonly included “Jew”, then I’ll accept this label. I prefer to call myself a Messianic Believer rather than a Messianic Jew, because I don’t want to give people the wrong impression if I can help it. I accept the Messiah and his commands, but I don’t accept Judaism.
Rabbi – Maybe I teach on occasion, but I can’t claim to be a master of anything, let alone Jewish theology, and that’s really what most people mean by rabbi.
Legalist – I suppose it depends on how you define a legalist. If you think a legalist is someone who tries to follow the laws, especially the laws of Moses, then I guess I’m a legalist. That’s not the definition that I would use, however. I say that a legalist is someone who elevates the law above the law-giver and/or the law-keeper. I do not keep the Torah for my salvation. The only power it holds in regards to eternal salvation is the power to condemn. Yeshua’s atonement and resurrection took that authority away from it if we are willing to accept him. I accept his gift with faith, and keep the law only to please him and for the sake of well being, mine and everyone else’s.
Polygamist – Having only one wife, and no intention of acquiring another, I can’t see how this one applies. I don’t support the right of man-made, civil government to meddle in marriage. I also don’t support the monogamist doctrine that our western churches have inherited from Greece and Rome. If you want to have two or three or more wives in your family, then that’s nobody’s business but yours. Maybe a better label would be poly-friendly.
I’m sure there are a hundred more labels just waiting out there for me. If you have one that you think applies, let me know. Maybe you’re right.
But probably not.
Two Kingdoms of Heaven
Wednesday, January 18th, 2006There are at least three parts to every kingdom: the government, the nation, and the country. The government is the king and his agents, the nation is the people under the king’s authority, and the country is the physical land under the king’s control. Yeshua often spoke of the Kingdom of Heaven in seemingly contradictory ways: the Kingdom existed before he came, he brought the Kingdom with him, and the Kingdom was still to come. Can all of these be true or was Yeshua just talking in riddles? The answer is “Yes!” All of these are true, and Yeshua was speaking in riddles. The Kingdom of Heaven has always existed, exists wherever true believers are, and will be finally established some day with Yeshua as King. The key to understanding the New Testament references to the Kingdom of Heaven (or Kingdom of God) is to understand the three parts of a kingdom and how they can sometimes exist independently of each other.
The Kingdom of Heaven, as all other kingdoms, ultimately belongs to the King of Kings. It is his to give and take away as he sees fit. Yeshua prayed, “Our Father in Heaven…deliver us from evil, for the Kingdom is yours…”1 In other words, the Kingdom is a meritocracy and God can remove unworthy leaders in favor of the worthy. Yeshua, having more merit than anyone who has ever lived or ever will live, has been given the kingship forever.2 His viceroys and regents, however, are still elected and rejected by the Father as necessary, based on their merits3 and the needs of the Kingdom.4
The first dominion of Heaven is the nation of Israel. I don’t mean the secular State of Israel, which is another government altogether. Firstly, the nation is made up of a remnant of physical Israel, genetic descendants of the twelve sons of Jacob.5 Secondly, the nation is made up of the mixed multitude of believers who have been grafted into the tree of natural Israel.6 So everyone who calls on the name of God and believes on the name of Yeshua7 is a citizen of the nation of Israel regardless of where or when they live.
The second dominion of Heaven is the country, both here on Earth and in Heaven itself. It includes the Promised Land in the Messianic Era, which Yeshua will rule from Jerusalem,8 as well as the Heavens in which the angels live and which Yeshua rules from the Crystal Sea.9 Anyone who is a citizen of those lands is also a citizen of Israel under the authority of Yeshua.
The practical outgrowth of citizenship in the true nation of Israel is both responsibility and reward: obedience to the king’s laws10 and healing from the curses of disobedience. Fortunately, his yoke is easy, his burden is light,11 and his rewards are beyond your imagination.12 The only things you have to lose by submitting to his rule are not worth keeping.
1 Matthew 6:8-13.
2 John 1:49, John 12:12, & Acts 2:36.
3 The qualities that God seems to hold highest are selflessness, mercy, justice, and generosity.
4 Matthew 11:11-13, 13:44-46, 16:17-19, 20:20-28, 21:43, 23:1-37, & Luke 22:28-30.
5 Jeremiah 31:31-37, Ezekiel 37:15-28, Matthew 10:5-7, 15:22-28, 19:28, & Romans 9:1-11:11.
6 Exodus 12:37-38, Luke 2:32, Romans 11:12-32, Ephesians 2:8-18, & Revelation 5:8-10.
7 The name of God and the name of Yeshua are not the vocalizations and symbols by which we reference them in conversation and print, but the nature of who they are. When we call on the name of God, we are calling on his nature as just, merciful, and all powerful. When we believe on the name of Yeshua, we are believing in his ability and sufficiency to save us from the penalty of our sins.
8 Psalms 2:6-7, 53:6, 78:67-70, 110:1-7, 132:10-14, Isaiah 2:2-4, 18:7, Micah 5:2, Revelation 3:12, 21:10-22:5, & etc.
9 Revelation 4:6.
10 Matthew 5:19, 19:17, John 14:15, 14:21, 15:10, & 1 John 2:2-6.
11 Matthew 11:28-30
12 Revelation 21-22.
Patriarchy & Devotion
Tuesday, January 10th, 2006You’ve heard that you can know the rightness of something by its fruit. Well, here are some stories of real life patriarchy in action.
One man threw out all good sense, and devoted his entire life to a senseless project with no gain and no practical purpose at all. He neglected his family for his obsession and eventually even dragged them down with him. He abused his wife’s trust and submissive personality by pressuring her into joining him and abandoning any semblance of a real life outside of his tyrannical grip. He denied his children any chance at a normal social life by forcing them to work non-stop for years on end. His self-serving attitude turned his family into his slaves while he constantly harangued them with self-righteous sermons about how much better he was than everyone else in the world. His harping about the evil world eventually brainwashed them all, and they ended up locking themselves away from the rest of mankind and living with animals, virtually as animals.
There was another man who went even further off the deep end. He was the worst kind of sexist, even to the point of making his wife call him “My Lord,” and probably making her wear a veil too. He was always telling his family how God talked to him. You know what they say, “It’s OK to talk to God as long as you don’t think he’s talking back.” Well, this guy seduced a young immigrant girl and then kept her locked up at his house where he treated her as a slave for nearly twenty years. Eventually he took this woman and the son he had fathered on her out to the desert and left them to die. And as if that wasn’t bad enough, then he told everyone that God had told him to kill his own son as some kind of perverted human sacrifice. He nearly went through with it, but there must have been some last glimmer of sanity, because then he said that God changed his mind. Well, that was the final straw for the wife that he had been dragging around and treating like dirt for decades. She left him and died of a broken heart not long afterwards.
A third man was a womanizer. He always seemed to have a new woman with him. He was a sweet-talker who could carry a tune and was always singing to the ladies. They were probably the kind of women who were attracted to power and money, but didn’t have the intelligence or the character to understand what is really important in life: complete and utter devotion from your man. This man was a thug. He was known to have killed a few men, although no one ever dared stand up to him. He actually claimed to have killed thousands, but that was just his swollen ego talking. When he was caught with someone else’s wife, he made a big deal about being sorry for it, but he kept on sleeping around with his bimbos. One day he was out drunk and causing a commotion in the streets. His wife, who had been faithful for years despite his despicable ways, saw him doing a public strip-tease in front of a crowd of women. She finally told him off and ended up locked away for pretty much the rest of her life. Meanwhile he kept on with his same old ways, even trying to seduce a young girl as an old man.
Or at least that’s how most people, including Christians, would see it today.
Fortunately, God left a record of what really happened, and most Christians are willing to give him the benefit of the doubt. The real story is that Noah and Abraham and David were such outstanding men of God that he trusted them with the most difficult tasks. Noah’s wife and three sons knew from their own experience that he was unlike any other man alive. They willingly gave up their professions and their social standing in order to help him build an insane boat, because they knew that he was a man of God. The Bible says that “Noah found favor in the eyes of God.” Abraham was among the kindest and gentlest men that ever lived. He was fair and honest in everything he did, and his wife held him in such great esteem that she called him lord by her own choice. He had such an intimate and complete faith in God that he was willing to give up his own son at God’s command, no matter what the cost to himself or his wife. Sarah may or may not have left him or even died because of that event, but she understood that God’s will must always come first. The Bible calls him the Friend of God. David was a man of great passion and integrity all at the same time. He made a serious mistake with one woman, and paid dearly for it. But the majority of his life was spent in complete devotion to God and service to his country. He was the epitome of the servant king. His first wife, Michal, was jealous of God and rebuked David for his public dancing and singing to God. Her pride cost her everything. She never again had David’s respect, and she died bitter and childless. The Bible calls David a man after God’s own heart.
Don’t expect God’s ways to always be to your liking. His ways are not your ways. The obedience of one man means more to him than the disapproval of ten thousand. To serve him means to give up all claims to social status or pride. He expects complete devotion. A true man of God can never be devoted1 to his wife, because devotion can have only one object. To serve God means to be willing to give up every comfort, every friend, and every loved one. All of those things are no better than dirt in comparison to him.
Or at least that’s how Christ taught it once upon a time.
1 I am using the older sense of devotion, indicating complete absorption. In that sense, devotion to anything besides God is a form of idolatry.