Archive for September, 2009

Careers of the Distant Future

Wednesday, September 30th, 2009

I cannot escape the thought that if technological “progress” were allowed to proceed indefinitely and unhindered by government regulation, cosmic catastrophe, or divine intervention life should become depressingly dull, an unrelenting exercise in expanding and contracting one’s ribcage while seeking out the next momentary diversion or adrenaline producing near-death experience. People will be forced to invent virtual realities in which to experience real life. The only urban career left will involve helping virtual tourists get the most out of their virtual vacations. The happiest people will take their cue from the Amish and eschew labor-saving devices in favor of dirt and sweat and the vagaries of uncontrolled climate.

Same-day update: Back in 2007 Michael Swaim wrote a humorous piece about the most common SF visions of the future. It’s pretty good if you keep in mind that he was only writing for fun: The 8 Most Common Sci-Fi Visions of the Future (And Why They’ll Never Happen).

V’Zot HaBrachah 5770 – The Defense of Israel

Wednesday, September 30th, 2009

Deuteronomy 33:7  And this is the blessing of Judah: and he said, Hear, LORD, the voice of Judah, and bring him unto his people: let his hands be sufficient for him; and be thou an help to him from his enemies.

Referring to Abram and the great nation that would come from him, God said, “I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee…” Christian America has largely taken this as a directive to contribute to Israel’s national defense, but is that a good interpretation?

The political entity of Israel today is primarily made up of Jews, whether physically descended from Judah or adopted by custom or conversion, and Moses’ blessed Judah with the ability to defend himself with God’s supernatural assistance. Their survival does not depend on their possession of powerful military hardware or better tactics. Their relationship with God and obedience to his commands is much more to the point. There is really nothing we can do to help them militarily because any assistance we provide is superfluous. At times it might even be counterproductive.

The actual well-being of Israel is a secondary concern to most Christians. They don’t necessarily promote the idea of a military alliance with Israel because Israel needs it. They promote it because they need it themselves. They want the blessing that God promised to those who bless Abraham. That’s not a bad thing, but they should realize that there are many other means by which they can bless Israel. Justice in international courts, open trade, charity, and scientific cooperation, to name a few.

Our government in the United States (and pretty much everywhere else) is really only good at one thing: destruction. It seems to me that one good way to bless Israel would be to keep our government out of it unless something needs to be blown up. If Syria and company invades, then send the government to Syria where they can do some real good. Otherwise, let private individuals do whatever they feel led to do on Israel’s behalf. Pray, contribute to a charitable fund in Israel, join the IDF.

As one grafted in to the tree of Israel, an adopted child of Abraham, you can bless me (and therefore yourself) by not using tax money. Please.

Yom Kippur 5770

Tuesday, September 29th, 2009

May your eyes be opened and your heart softened.
May your prayers be heard and your sins forgiven.
May your days be blessed and your name written in the Book of Life.

Humans Essential Part of Ecosystem

Thursday, September 24th, 2009

Researchers are just figuring out what has been obvious to everyone who takes the Biblical account of creation seriously, whether literally or metaphorically: humans are an essential part of the global ecosystem.

Transhumance Helps Vulture Conservation

ScienceDaily (2009-09-23) — Researchers in Spain have shown for the first time the close space-time relationship between the presence of the griffon vulture and transhumant sheep farming in mountain passes. Transhumance — the seasonal movement of people with their livestock — has fallen in some parts of Spain by up to 80 percent over the past four years. The scientists say that traditional livestock farming practices are crucial for the preservation of mountain ecosystems.

The Incurably Deceitful Heart

Tuesday, September 22nd, 2009

Jeremiah 17:9 The heart is deceitful above all things, incurable: who can know it?

If you believe that God’s commandments still stand, then why do you still make them of no effect by your traditions? Why do you allow your heart to dictate your actions in direct contradiction to the very plain words of God? How you feel about God’s instructions is not God’s problem. It’s yours. Who will you obey? You or Him?

Life Doesn’t Get Easier

Tuesday, September 22nd, 2009

Why doesn’t life get easier with practice?

Because life is not lived for its own sake. It is preparation for something greater. When a man trains his body, he does not do so only to make his training easier. He trains in preparation for some contest. When a bodybuilding contestant can easily lift 100 lbs, it would do him little good to continue with the same exercise, weight, and repetitions. If he is to improve his strength, he increases the weight or the reps or both. He works another muscle group. When life gets harder every year, don’t despair. Instead, bear up and realize that the harder you train now, the greater the contest and the prize that God has in store for you later.

Radio Show this Sunday

Wednesday, September 16th, 2009

I’ll be on the Biblical Families Internet radio show this Sunday at 8 pm Central to discuss my book, A Commentary on Marriage in the Bible, vol 1: the Torah. The first half will be discussion between me and the host. The second half will be call in. (347) 857-1739.

Update December 21, 2009: The radio show went well for the most part. You can tell I don’t have a lot of radio experience! I need to correct one thing. At one point I said I didn’t see real life examples of patriarchy in action. I had to back-track a little bit beca…use my parents were actually excellent examples. The problem was that they were an anomaly. Few other “Christian” families lived by the same rules. You can download the show at Biblical Families Radio.

Nitzavim 5769 – Chi Marks the Spot

Tuesday, September 8th, 2009

My cousin informed me that International Talk Like A Pirate Day is next week and wondered how he could tie that into a sermon this weekend. Here is my first thought:

Nitzavim includes Deuteronomy 29:29 which reads, “The secret things belong unto the LORD our God: but those things which are revealed belong unto us and to our children forever, that we may do all the words of this law.”

Some things are beyond our ken, but God has revealed much as well. More than we usually suspect, I think, but frequently he doesn’t reveal things in plain sight. Sometimes he hides them and gives us a treasure map to help us find them, like the Torah leading to the Messiah. Who knew that the woman suspected of adultery in Numbers 5 was all about us and how the curses of the “handwriting of the ordinances against us” were washed away so that we could be declared innocent by the grace and mercy of God? He has made us to be curious, to want to search out mysteries. The Torah has X’s marked all over it if you have eyes to see them. “Seek and you shall find.”

Only a Thousand Words?

Tuesday, September 8th, 2009

From Fred on Everything:

It could almost make you turn against the war. Some 6,000 American kids have died like this, the photographs carefully hidden by the press. The Pentagon has killed many, many more Afghan and Iraqi civilians, and the number of permanently disabled Americans is far higher. Today I find a column on Anti-war.com by Joe Galloway, whom I remember from UPI Saigon, entitled The War in Afghanistan is Not Worth Another American Life. I agree. Nor another Afghan life. They did nothing. Another headline notes that the Kondor Legion, the USAF, killed ninety-five Afghans in another witless air strike. These days, we are the Nazis.

Why then is he so angry at having the war photographed? Easy: Spin control. Spin is so very important in war these days. While America is only barely a democracy, still, if the public, the great sleeping acquiescent ignorant beast, ever gets really upset, the war ends. The Pentagon is acutely aware of this. It remembers its disaster in Asia. The generals of today learned nothing military from Vietnam—they are fighting the same kind of war as stupidly as before—but they learned something more important: Their most dangerous enemy is the America public. You. Me. Defeating the Taliban isn’t particularly important, or even desirable. (No war means fewer promotions and fewer contracts). But while the Taliban cannot possibly defeat the Pentagon, the American public can.

Photographs are death to a war, boys and girls. They can asphyxiate a war faster than roadside bombs can even dream. Gates does not want the sprawling somnolent inattentive beast, the public, to see what his wars really are.

von Clausewitz said that war is the continuation of politics by other means. I don’t think he meant that it should be an indefinite continuation. It’s long past time we left Afghanistan, and we never should have been in Iraq at all.

Ki Tavo 5769 – On Becoming Great

Tuesday, September 1st, 2009

Deuteronomy 26:19 And to make thee high above all nations which he hath made, in praise, and in name, and in honour; and that thou mayest be an holy people unto the LORD thy God, as he hath spoken.

Yeshua said that anyone who failed to keep Torah and taught others to do likewise would be called the lowest in the Kingdom of Heaven. I have actually seen people argue that, because he also said that the last will be first and the first will be last, then this means that those who teach that the Law has been abolished will in reality be the greatest in Heaven.

Wow. Self-serving rationalization at its finest.

Yeshua did say that the last will be first and the first will be last, but one can clearly see his intended meaning from the context: He who surrenders earthly status in order to serve God will have great status in Heaven. (See Mark 10:17-31.)

Do you want to be great in God’s eyes? To be called great in Heaven? Then be a servant here on earth. How does one serve on earth? By obeying God’s commandments. As Yeshua said, “If ye love me, keep my commandments.”

These are God’s commandments as expressed in the Torah and the Prophets:

Leviticus 19:17-19 Thou shalt not hate thy brother in thine heart: thou shalt in any wise rebuke thy neighbour, and not suffer sin upon him. (18) Thou shalt not avenge, nor bear any grudge against the children of thy people, but thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself: I am the LORD. (19) Ye shall keep my statutes…

Zechariah 8:17 And let none of you imagine evil in your hearts against his neighbour…for all these are things that I hate, saith the LORD.

Matthew 22:35-40 Then one of them, which was a lawyer, asked him a question, tempting him, and saying, (36) Master, which is the great commandment in the law? (37) Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. (38) This is the first and great commandment. (39) And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. (40) On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.