Tuesday, December 24, 2019

Because




only a few are watching
no one talks about it
we were trained to take in what was dished out
it gets ignored or whined about and denied
there's a breakdown in communication
nothing was ever read before
this notepad finally got your attention
others were willing to listen
they didn't flip out
their world didn't come to an end
their temple wasn't threatened
their priesthood didn't change
they rarely chose to punt
muteness tastes stale and boring
obsequious politeness looks runny and insipid
eternal niceties feel worse than purgatory
everyone knows it's in the room
it's gotta leave the room somehow
no one wants to do anything about it
i'm the only one suggesting it gets eaten
i'll even use the tusks for broth













Monday, December 23, 2019

Eulogy for David P. Jesse





Standing in front of his crowd
He had a voice that was strong and loud
He took a stand on every little thing
Ranting and pointing his finger
At every unteachable heart
Because he had a lot to say
And he sure could yell
We’ll miss him

He had a lot to say
about “the goal” of God’s Law
about Historicism and patriotism
He had a lot to say
We'll miss him

He had a lot to say
about patterns of Satan
Globalism, Islam, and the Papacy
He had a lot to say
We'll miss him

He had a lot to say
about debate strategies of Jesus Christ
about protestant ethics and the spirit of capitalism
He had a lot to say
We'll miss him

He had a lot to say
about the demonic intent of tattoos
marriage plagues, Proverbs 31 women, and sex that’s no fun 
He had a lot to say
We'll miss him

He had a lot to say
about Fidel Castro at weddings and Hammurabi's economics
about spontaneous human combustion and Arigo the Brazilian healer
He had a lot to say
We'll miss him

He had a lot to say
about the Imperial Kerux
Attacking the foundational pentateuch, the Albigensian crusade, and Athanasius
He had a lot to say
We'll miss him

He had a lot to say
about unidentified flying objects and Lucifer …“The Morning Star”
about astrology, seances, and contact with the dead
He had a lot to say
We'll miss him

He had a lot to say
about Satan’s strategic strikes
about the REAL evil of socialism, the Titanic, and Scipio Africanus
He had a lot to say
We'll miss him

He had a lot to say
about leaving Christian “Fortress America” undefended
Satanic counterfeits of Christ’s word, false prophesies of His return, and “Judgement”
He had a lot to say
We'll miss him

He had a lot to say
about it being better to be Herod’s ‘Hus’ than Herod’s ‘Huios’
about the “two or three witnesses rule” and the “God changers”
He had a lot to say
We'll miss him

He had a lot to say
about kings and battles and battles and kings
Isaiah’s amazing prophecy IS the Weber Thesis
He had a lot to say
We'll miss him

He had a lot to say
about Reformations and removing the hedge around us
about the “Culture Carriers” and the destructive generation of the 60’s
He had a lot to say
We'll miss him

He had a lot to say
about a thesis proving the REAL, historical existence of …SATAN
(you know the one …the REAL devil)
He had a lot to say
We'll miss him

He sure could yell
Ranting and pointing his finger
At everything but his unteachable heart
Some day we'll be in heaven together
Laughing about how wrong he was
Because he had a lot to say
He had a lot of nothing to say
We're gonna miss him









Friday, December 20, 2019

Poisoning the well




You don't even know me
You've never met me
Before you chatted live about me
we never crossed paths anywhere
Not online
Not over the phone
Not in person
Nowhere
Not once
I think that's important to realize
If you can't make your mind up
we will never get started
And I don't want to wind up
being parted, broken hearted
We have chatted a little since then
in the comments of your stream
And you didn't even realize
I was the blogger
You devoted over an hour
To demonize
To discredit
To slander
To exploit
You told me
that he denies
things you took
verbatim from his site
And perhaps I have even erased them by now
Don't fret
I haven't and I won't 
erase a single word
I can't even imagine 
why you would presume so
and say so to a complete stranger
That seemed like a tactic 
a spiteful child
or curmudgeonly old, self-aggrandizing bitch 
would use to poison the well
Perhaps I was the one with mistaken opinions
Perhaps you're a real geode
You won't admit you really love me
And so, how am I ever to know
You only tell me perhaps
I even suggested studying the book
about dating John's Apocalypse
which demonstrates convincingly
by overwhelming evidence
that it was not written in 95 a.d.
but rather most definitely before A.D. 70
You then said you were not sure
of that particular book
But you've read some in the past
Whatever that means
A million times I ask you
And then I ask you over again
You only answer perhaps
Perhaps you're just a joke with a concordance
And the spells you cast from your magic book
make people laugh and laugh and laugh
Perhaps
Perhaps
Perhaps









Thursday, December 19, 2019

Catena of Dangerous Denial



I think futurists are close-minded fear-mongers.
I am the one who is not open to whatever Scripture teaches.
I do not treat fellow believers with dignity.
I am trying to sound academic or intellectual.
I am the one using word-salad.
This is all a hand-wave dismissal of valid research methods and appeal to evidence.
Daniel was written at least one thousand years before Christ.
I ignore the Bible's own precedent for prophesies prior to the time of Christ.
I think that God shouldn't have given that prophesy until the generation to whom it referred was born.
I think God only gives prophesies to people whom they apply to.
I depend upon the allegorical approach to Scripture.
I am the one using a bullying tactic.

Where did I describe futurism as a "conjured-up social paradigm"?
Can you admit that you can be wrong?
It looks like you did not actually read point number four.
What about footnote number seventy four?
You never mentioned it once, yet that was the background of point number four.
One hour, eighteen minutes, forty one seconds, press play.
The door of being convinced swings both ways, you say.

I have concluded that God only and always writes about current or imminent events.
I mock the idea that any prophesy would be given to people it doesn't apply to.
I paint us all with that brush.
I write pejoratively and abusively.
I know it was a cheap shot.
Humility and teachability are your virtues.
Self-contradiction is all over the place.
I am disingenuous.
I appeal to popularity.
I deny that "this generation" can have any other possible meaning than that of time.
I don't believe in a very real and physical kingdom.
I take away our blessed hope.









Bible Literalist?



Truly, I say to you, you will not have gone through all the towns of Israel before the Son of Man comes. 

The men of Nineveh will rise up at the judgment with this generation.  

The queen of the South will rise up at the judgment with this generation. 

To what shall I compare this generation?

Have you understood all these things? 

O faithless and twisted generation, how long am I to be with you? 

Truly, I say to you, all these things will come upon this generation. 

Truly, I say to you, this generation will not pass away until all these things take place.

Truly, I say to you, there are some standing here who will not taste death until they see the Son of Man coming in his kingdom.












Monday, December 16, 2019

Which Some Deny





Continuing in the recent series about the seamless message of first century fulfillment throughout the New Testament scriptures (here and here), I have gathered a few quotes from Dale Allison Jr’s excellent study, The End of the Ages Has Come: An Early Interpretation of the Passion and Resurrection of Jesus. In it, Allison devotes scholarly attention to chunks of overlooked and obscure passages of Scripture to see how they relate to the topic at hand. 

In his chapter on Matthew, he makes some remarkable comments which I think are both profound and questionable in relation to Matthew 27:51b-53. Those verses are:
And the earth shook, and the rocks were split. The tombs also were opened. And many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised, and coming out of the tombs after his resurrection they went into the holy city and appeared to many. (ESV)
Before I quote Allison in detail, I want to point out that the context in which he makes his remarks has to do with an evaluation made by Donald P. Senior, in his published monograph, The Passion According to Matthew: A Redactional Study, as it relates to the resurrection of “holy ones.” Allison points out the following:
Senior’s evaluation of the background of Matt. 27:51b-53 also invites criticism. His claim that our passage depends primarily upon Ezekial 37…is questionable. …Despite the parallel between Ezek. 37:12 and Matt. 27:52, there is another Scripture that lays claim to bear directly on our text: Zech 14:4-5.1 The affinity between the two passages has probably gone largely unnoticed because, in the Christian tradition, Zech 14:4-5 has not been interpreted as an account of the resurrection. The north panel of the Dura-Europos synagogue (mid-third century A.D.), however, provides evidence that the passage was so understood within ancient Judaism. Although many scholars have looked primarily to Ezekiel 37 for the interpretation of the panel, there can be little doubt that Zech 14:4-5 is also reflected. In the section which portrays the resurrection of the dead, the Mount of Olives (indicated by the two olive trees on the top of the mountain) has been split in two—precisely the event prophesied in Zech 14:4—and the revived dead are emerging from the crack. The fallen building on the slopes of the mountain probably symbolizes an earthquake (Zech 14:4), and those resurrected are in all likelihood here identified with the “holy ones” of Zech 14:5. Such an interpretation gains some support by (1) the Targum on Zech 14:3-5: the passage is introduced with God blowing the trumpet ten times to announce the resurrection of the dead; (2) the Targum on the Song of Songs (8:5): “When the dead rise, the Mount of Olives will be cleft, and all Israel’s dead will come up out of it, also the righteous who have died in captivity; they will come by way of a subterranean passages and will emerge from beneath the Mount of Olives”; and (3) later rabbinic uses of Zech 14:5: the “holy ones” of Zechariah are more than once identified not with the angels but with the ancient saints, specifically the prophets (for example, Midr. Rabbah on Song of Songs 4.11.1; on Ruth 2; and on Eccles. 1.11.1; cf Ign. Magn 9). The passage from the Targum on the Song of Songs (2) clearly represents an interpretation of Zech 14:4-5 and is the perfect literary parallel to the panel at Dura. It appears, therefore, that Zech. 14:4-5 was understood in some Jewish circles to be a prophecy of the resurrection.  
Once Zech 14:4-5 is read as a prophecy of the resurrection, its relation to Matt. 27:51b-53 becomes manifest. In both texts (1) a resurrection of the dead takes place immediately outside of Jerusalem…; (2) there is an earthquake; (3) the very schizo is used in the passive, in connection with a mountain (Zechariah) or rocks (Matthew); and (4) the resurrected ones are called hoi hagioi.2 These parallels are sufficient to permit the conclusion that Matt. 27:51b-53 is based in part on Zech 14:4-5 and not, as Senior holds, solely upon Ezekiel 37.3

A few paragraphs later, Allison makes a few striking remarks about the relationship between these passages and Matthew 25:31-46. He continues:

...Matthew has apparently supplied the following introduction to the parable of the sheep and goats in 25:31-46: "'When the Son of man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him [kai pantes hoi aggeloi met auto]...'" As others have observed, the Greek [in brackets] strongly recalls Zech 14:5 LXX: kai pantes hoi ago met auto. Now, if Matt. 25:31 is indeed a redactional composition based on Zech 14:5, the exegete is faced by two riddles. First, while hoi hagioi of Zech. 14:5 are the angels (hoi aggeloi) in Matt. 25:31, they are the resurrected saints (ton hagion) in Matt. 27:52-53. Second, while Matt. 25:31 sets the fulfillment of Zech. 14:5 in the future ("'When the Son of man comes..."), Matt. 27:53 narrates the realization of Zechariah's vision. One is thus confronted by two rival interpretations of Zech. 14:5. If it is unlikely that both came from the same hand, then since Matt. 25:31 is probably redactional, 27:52-53 probably is not.4 


Here is my takeaway from these insights: 

1) There are no actual "riddles" which the exegete is faced with if Jesus actually raised the holy ones from the "dead ones" in Sheol/Hades.

2) "Angels" and "holy ones" only appear to be conceptually different because Christian traditions have largely neglected serious study of the relationship between the two. As far as the unseen realm of this world is concerned, modern exegetes still have much to learn as they do to unlearn. 

3) Matthew 27:53 narrates the realization of Zechariah's vision because God raised Jesus up along with the righteous dead who were in Sheol/Hades.

4) Matthew 25:31ff is not--I REPEAT, NOT--about the end of the world, or the end of time, or the so-called "second coming" of Jesus where, allegedly, he returns to earth bodily. Matthew 25:31ff most naturally fits within a first century context of fulfillment.  

5) The event narrated in Matt. 27:53 is significant because that was evidence that Jesus is the guarantor of all who would be raised up to eternal life with God thereafter. That was the very first time in human history where human beings were raised up to the presence of God. Previously, they had all been in Sheol/Hades, awaiting final judgment about their eternal destination. God then vindicated his Son by raising him out of the dead-ones. Jesus also led a whole host of captives with him to heaven, to rule and reign in the resurrection. Not everyone was raised with Jesus at the time of his resurrection from the dead-ones. The wicked remained until their final judgment in AD70. 

6) Matthew 25:31ff is about the final judgment of all the dead-ones in Sheol/Hades in AD70. According to Matt. 27:53, although many bodies of those who had died were brought back to life, that was only the beginning. There is no remark about the wicked, evil, treacherous dead-ones being raised back to life. Such were still awaiting final judgment in AD70. Matthew 25:31ff is about that judgment, where the saints who were raised with Jesus (around AD30) would come in final judgment upon Israel.

7) Numerous theologians (and scholars) throughout history have noted that Zech. 14:4-5 referred to events which received their fulfillment in the first century. Notable among the Church Fathers is Theodore, bishop of Cyrus (423-457 AD), who connected Zech. 14:4-5 with the destruction of Jerusalem in AD70. These types of symbolic connections did not go unnoticed among the Church Fathers, as I have shown in a separate series

8) Perhaps most intriguing find within all of this is the little, tiny cross-reference of Ignatius of Antioch which Allison made in passing. To be exact, Allison referenced Ignatius' Letter to the Magnesians, chapter nine.5 In that particular chapter, Ignatius exhorts his Christian disciples to not keep the Sabbath of Judaism, but live instead "in accordance with the Lord's Day, on which our life also arose through him and his death (which some deny)." Only one verse later, he connects the holy ones of history with those who were anticipating being raised up from the dead-ones in Sheol/Hades along with their Messiah: "how can we possibly live without him [Jesus], whom even the prophets, who were his disciples in the Spirit, were expecting as their teacher? This is why the One for whom they righty waited raised them from the dead (ἐκ νεκρῶν) when he came." 

This past fulfillment of raising up holy ones from the abode of the dead-ones (i.e. Sheol/Hades) is what justifies his other remarks bracketing the letter with regard to his own personal hope and exception to "reach God" when he dies (1:2; 14:1). For Ignatius of Antioch, the whole notion of reaching God was made possible by the definitive end and final judgment upon the Old Creation. For Ignatius, there is no more a message of awaiting resurrection from the dead-ones after a period in Sheol/Hades; there is only eternal death or resurrection unto eternal life with Christ, which, of course, makes perfect sense since Ignatius wrote after AD70. 

9) Matthew 25:31ff is probably not redactional. The affinity between Matt. 25:31ff and 27:52-53 has probably gone largely unnoticed because, in the Christian tradition, very few modern scholars consider most (or all) eschatological "end-times" remarks as actually being fulfilled in the first century.  There are many great reasons to consider the ways in which Church Fathers thought otherwise

10) Modern scholars like Allison and Senior can't make sense of resurrection in the first century because they're assuming something imaginary, something that is part of a later Christian tradition about bodily resurrection. Christian tradition is loaded with debates about that doctrine. Early Judaisms had similar debates. Regardless of whether bodily resurrection at the end of the physical cosmos is philosophically cogent and true, as long as we approach these texts literarily, we cannot help but notice that the expectation surrounding the New testament message consistently witnesses to soon-coming first century events; and as long as we assume that those New Testament scriptures are historically reliable and rhetorically coherent, I think it's safe to say that Allison and Senior (along with scholars like them) tend to read back into the text what became popular dogmas centuries after their fulfillment. The message of being raised "out of" or "from the dead-ones" (ἐκ νεκρῶν) make more sense if it was actually fulfilled in first century events (which, as Ignatius of Antioch pointed out, some deny). 














1. On that day his feet shall stand on the Mount of Olives that lies before Jerusalem on the east, and the Mount of Olives shall be split in two from east to west by a very wide valley, so that one half of the Mount shall move northward, and the other half southward. And you shall flee to the valley of my mountains, for the valley of the mountains shall reach to Azal. And you shall flee as you fled from the earthquake in the days of Uzziah king of Judah. Then the Lord my God will come, and all the holy ones with him. (ESV)
2. hoi hagioi is the transliteration of the Greek text, ο γιοι, which means “the holy ones”
3. Allison Jr., pp. 42-44
4. Ibid. p. 44-45
5. This was referenced in the first, lengthy paragraph above, in sub-point (3), which mentioned rabbinic sources. One of Ignatius's letters ("Ign. Magn 9") is compared with those remarks in rabbinic sources because that letter makes a lot of comments in contrast with the philosophy of rabbinic judaism in the first century.










Thursday, December 12, 2019

Opening the verse



waking up to love
every day with you right here
tucked into warm sheets

peeking over there
I cannot help but wonder
you gave self to me

goodness must be felt
like a tattoo of kindness
i can see it too

blessed is he who finds
and who understands wisdom
her worth is priceless