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A Slap in the Right Direction

by Robby Charters

© 2019 by Robby Charters

Smashwords Edition

In this humble compilation, we try to explain things so the average atheist-on-the-street can grasp what it is that Christians essentially believe (notwithstanding, some atheists are more knowledgeable about it than most Christians); or, if you will, so the average person-in-the-pew can better explain it to to his atheist and agnostic friends; or better yet, understand it him/herself. We steer away from many of the tired cliches, and we take a second look at what the Bible really says about some issues, what this Christian thing is about, and what it's not about.

The sock images used in the cover were downloaded from Wikimedi Commons, and are attributed as follows:

Messer 69 Gobular Cluster By en:NASA, en:STScI, en:WikiSky \- en:WikiSky's snapshot tool - [1], Public Domain, Link

HandOnMoss By Stiller Beobachter from Ansbach, Germany - hand on moss, CC BY 2.0, Link

Horse Head Nebula By Ngc1535") \- Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, Link

Horses in the forest By SKas \- Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, Link

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How a Slap on the Ground Saved Four Dimensional Space-time - An alternative approach to the creation story as we read it in Genesis, that enables us to see the universe as a four dimensional object - time, from beginning to end, being the fourth dimension. We also look at the Biblical concept of atonement, not so much about appeasing God's standard of right and wrong, but as correcting an imbalance caused by the wrong acts, absorbing the shockwaves that could damage the four dimensional object.

The sock images used in the previous page were downloaded from Wikimedi Commons, and are attributed as follows:

Messer 69 Gobular Cluster By en:NASA, en:STScI, en:WikiSky \- en:WikiSky's snapshot tool - [1], Public Domain, Link

HandOnMoss By Stiller Beobachter from Ansbach, Germany - hand on moss, CC BY 2.0, Link

## How a Slap on the Ground Saved Four Dimensional Space-Time

In the beginning, God created four dimensional existence. Before that...

\- well, there was no "before that" as there was no such thing as time, nor form, and therefore no movement. All was a dark void

\- no, we can't even call it dark; that would assume the existence of light, just as the digit zero assumes the existence of other numbers. Only "null", the nonexistence of any state or number or concept, or the space to put it in.

From whatever dimension or state of existence He possesses, God's Spirit brooded over the null and void, conceptualising matter, which therefore existed as a microscopic speck. All of space consisted only of that speck. Apart from that speck, there was no space.

Then, God said, "Let there be light." Movement began, and thus, the dimension of time. The speck exploded into a vast cloud of photons shooting outward in every direction. The light shown from the centre, the beginning of time, outward in a straight line to the end of time; viewed from within that dimension, it appeared as an ever expanding universe of pure whiteness.

Then, God said, "Let the light be separated from the darkness." Because of the rapid expansion immediately following the explosion, gravitational waves rippled through the stream, causing energy to swirl around, forming galaxies. The vacuum that was left, those areas where darkness prevailed, God called "night", and those parts affected by the light, "day".

In all of this swirling of galaxies and the gravitational pull, stars were formed, and then planets. On some planets, God saw to it that the conditions would be such that water could coexist in three states simultaneously: in solid, liquid and gas, and that an atmosphere would surround those planets.

And so, the universe consisted of galaxies, that contained stars and solar systems, with planets of all sizes and types, some, no more than rocks, others mostly gas, but some with molten cores and having atmospheres, which presented other possibilities that God intended to put to use. Thus, God looked over His four dimensional space-time, beginning with the burst of light at the centre, developing into geometric spirals of energy and matter, evolving into orderly patterns, ever expanding outward to the end of time.

God, from whatever dimension He possesses, saw it all from beginning to end, and thought that was beautiful, and called it a day.

The next day, in whatever dimension He possesses, God turned His attention to one of the planets with a molten core, that had an atmosphere, and water existing in three states.

First, by causing lava flows and by shifting the continual plates, He made the land separate from the water, forming oceans and continents. Then God said, "Let there be molecules configured in such a way as to hold life, and let them reproduce and adapt so as to fill the earth with life after its own kind," and deep below the surface of the ocean, DNA cells began to form.

Plant life began to spring up. Simple life forms provided nourishment for the more complex, which, at the end of their own life cycles, became food for others of their kind, all the while reproducing themselves through their seeds and shoots. Thus, to the end of time, the planet was filled with self sustaining multicoloured life. God, from whatever dimension He possesses - let's call it it the fifth dimension - looked at His four-dimensional space-time, and said, "it is good", and again called it a day.

On another day of fifth dimensional time, God said, "Let there be living creatures that move about, swimming in the sea, flying in the air, and walking and creeping on the dry ground. They can eat the vegetation, and become food for one another, and at the end of their life cycles, they can become food for the vegetation.

Thus the whole earth began to come alive with movement, creatures moving, swimming, creeping, flying, making noise, making music.

Each creature, acting according to its need and instinct, followed a course that could be predetermined by taking into account every factor and every movement in the universe. A butterfly living at the beginning of the age of butterflies, by flapping its wings one way or another, would affect the course of a tropical storm near the end of the age of tropical storms. Of course, how the butterfly flapped its wings was also the predictable result of yet other factors.

When some of the species became so large as to take over and inhibit the further development of life, they were destroyed by a large asteroid, which was simply following it's predicted course.

God looked at this and said, "It is good, but not good enough." The whole universe was nothing but a big toy, and after some shifting and tweaking - and doing things like flicking a butterfly,  or adding to the gravitational pull of a small rock in space so that it would strike an asteroid, putting it on a course to destroy the dinosaurs a few aeons later, thus making room for mammals - God decided the four dimensional space-time needed something more innovative, something that would make it complete, less predictable, a true work of art, fully expressing His creative and loving nature.

Actually, it was the thing God had in mind from the very beginning.

God created a new life form, unique from all the others - humanity. The human was capable of true creativity independent of his need to survive, his instinct, or anything that limited the other creatures to a predetermined course. In fact, the human was created after God's own pattern.

Thus, humanity would contribute to the final design of the four dimensional space-time. The main difference was that humans were limited to being conscious of the fourth dimension only one moment at a time, not seeing it from beginning to end as God does. That, if you think about it, is the only way humans could possibly influence space-time through un-predetermined choices, all the while God knowing about those choices beforehand simply by viewing the entire space-time from beginning to end. God can and does influence the the final design by interaction with humans through various means of communication, influencing their choice through suggestion, and sometimes enabling those humans to perform miracles.

Thus, the final shape of the four dimensional space-time is a collaborative effort between God and the human race which God designed to be both a part of and as fellow artist in the project.

However, there is also a downside to this whole plan. Humanity is also capable of choices to do or not to do what God wishes, even of violating specific instructions. That factor is a necessary part of being designed in God's image, unlimited by pre-determinism. One day, humanity partook of an element that he was specifically instructed to leave alone. It affected him in a way he wasn't prepared for, giving humanity a consciousness of good and evil. Humanity was already creative, but now his consciousness was skewed by the need to constantly compare things by their rightness, their desirability and superiority. This opened up many dark areas that humanity wasn't ready for.

The action had such repercussions, it was as though shockwaves reverberated throughout the whole four dimensional space-time, threatening to shatter it. It's possible that, as viewed from God's perspective, it did begin to shatter.

God's remedy was to absorb that shock.

To understand the concept of shock and the absorption of shock, we could either delve into the laws of physics, or we could use a simple illustration, from Judo. People being trained in Judo are taught how to fall. Being thrown to the ground, or even falling backwards can cause serious injury if one doesn't know how break one's fall, because of the shockwaves going through the body. To prevent injury, one simply slaps the floor just before the back of the head hits the ground. The hand may smart, but the head stays intact because the hand has absorbed the shock-wave. As we talk further about the strategy of absorbing the shock, think about a judo fighter slapping the ground as he falls.

Interacting with various humans, especially those of the family clan of Abraham through Isaac and Jacob, God set up a framework whereby He would continue to cooperate with humanity to enact His plan to both absorb the shock and restore everything to a beautiful state. An important part of this framework was the institution of blood sacrifice.

Death can be viewed as simply the end of a natural cycle; a part of nature. Untimely death, however, is something that continues to send shockwaves through the four dimensional space-time. Causing the untimely death of a fellow human without just cause is what we call murder. God told Noah and his sons that murder must be atoned for by the death of the perpetrator. Only by that means is the shock-wave absorbed so that it doesn't do further damage to space-time - like a slap on the floor.

Blood sacrifice is another means of using death as a means of absorbing shock. The agreement God made with Abraham and his descendants, given in detail to Moses, provided for blood sacrifices on a regular basis. This was sufficient to temporarily hold back the damage from the great shock-wave. Thus, Israel played a vital part in preserving the universe by becoming, as it were, the provider of a multitude of slaps on the floor.

It is indicated in the Talmud that when Israel was at Mt Sinai, they saved the world from destruction by accepting God's terms and ratifying the covenant God had made with Abraham.

However, that was not yet enough. It was only the preparation for God's ultimate solution. God sent an instance of Himself, His Word, to a critical time-location in space-time to be born as a human with all the attributes of a human including the ability of independent choice. He had all the authority of a human, including the option of communicating with God through the Holy Spirit, so his actions would constitute those of a human from inside the four dimensional space-time. Though He was from outside space-time where He could view the end from the beginning, by being born human, He restricted Himself to being conscious of the fourth dimension only one moment at a time.

As a human, Jesus, the Word of God, exercised all the authority he had - authority that had not been diminished through human failings - even to the point of death. That death was the event that absorbed all the shock-waves and saved the universe - the ultimate slap on the floor. Not only did it save four dimensional space-time, but it left a surplus of energy that enabled the resurrection of the dead.

We'll go into more of this in another video podcasts. We'll also deal with objections that often come up when discussing the existence of God, and His dealings with humanity. We'll look at the question of whether the assertion that God is righteous and loving, and that He is, at the same time omnipotent, are contradictory. While I don't operate under the illusion that one can prove the existence of God to an atheist by argument, I hope we can answer some of the objections that often come up, and show that at least believing in Him as we do isn't a theological oxymoron.

We'll also go more into what all this means.

Meanwhile, feel free to visit me on my website, robbycharters.co.uk. That's my name, Robby (spelled with a "y") Charters. Apparently, in the vast Charters clan, I'm the only Robby who spells his name with a "y", so if you Google my first and last name, you'll mainly find my stuff. I have a few novels, including a graphic novel I'm working on, and soon, hopefully, a few more of these videos.

Anyway, until next time...

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Getting a Handle on Omnipotence - By observing God's relationship with His creation, and how He chose to go about creating the Universe, we can more easily answer such questions as, "How can an omnipotent and loving God allow suffering and unfairness to exist?" We begin to look at humanity (us) as beings designed to be close friends with God. However, we made a Mess of things (with a capital M), but God had a Fix sorted out (with a capital F).

The sock images used in the previous page were downloaded from Wikimedi Commons, and are attributed as follows:

Cirina Nebula, By NASA, ESA, and M. Livio and the Hubble 20th Anniversary Team (STScI) - <http://hubblesite.org/newscenter/archive/releases/2010/13/image/e/>, Public Domain, Link

## Getting a Handle on Omnipotence

Let's say you're omnipotent, and you want to make a clock. There are two ways to do it:

The first way would be to create a dial with hands that always point in the right direction in response to the actual time. The big hand would move around the dial once every hour, always landing on the twelve at the exact moment the little hand arrives at whatever o'clock it is, simply because you commanded it to. You could either command it to follow that pattern for all eternity, or else you could dedicate one small part of your infinite mind to physically moving it according to that pattern. There would be nothing of what we call clockworks inside, just a giant cosmic miracle dial responding to your decree on its own.

The second way would be to build it with all the wheels inside meshing together, timed by the flywheel, driven by the powersource, working with utmost precision, insuring that the hands point to the right numbers on the dial at the right time of the cosmic time progression. Any addition you made later on would be powered by and in sync with the existing clockworks. It would be designed to work all on its own without any effort from you - except you could add an input device whereby you could make any corrections, such as, "increase speed by one millionth of a second". We'll talk more about this input device later.

From reviewing all the evidence, both from science and the Bible, I'd have to conclude that a certain Omnipotent being that we know, chose the second of the two ways, the "clockworks" model when creating this universe. A lot of folk religion does seem to favour the "miracle dial" method, as well as, perhaps a few early scientific models. However, even early scientists as Aristotle and others leaned in the direction of a clockworks type of universe.

Religious sources are also ambiguous. While the phrase, In Him all things consist, could be interpreted as supporting the first option; there are also passages that indicate that the heavenly bodies are there for times and seasons, staying on their course on their various circuits, and having a cause-effect relationship with conditions on earth. So long as the earth exists, sowing time and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, and day and night will not cease (Gen 8:22 CJB). While the other nations worshipped the sun, moon and various other forces of nature, assuming that there was a different god directly controlling each of these forces; the sweep of Biblical revelation generally discouraged that belief, suggesting instead, that these were non-intelligent but powerful forces, set in motion at the beginning by God, following their natural rhythms and cycles, naturally effecting the earth. If the scriptures don't say so explicitly, they have humanity a firm push in that direction. In other words, the weather is warm today, not because Ra or Apollo decided to emanate their essence more powerfully, while the god of rain kindly stood aside; but because the non intelligent forces of nature are simply following their natural course.

And how does science point to a clockworks model? There are the four forces (that we know of), gravitational, electromagnetic, the strong and the weak; and we now know that atoms consist of dozens of types of particles, each rendering possible, various facets of our existence, including life.

Though we've always taken it for granted, actual life integrated with physical substance isn't an easy thing to come by. We know that rocks can't be living. Minerals can't hold life, nor can any other elements or simple compounds - although we now have very complex electronic circuitry with the right programming to make it act like it's alive (isn't that right, Alexa? "Yes, that's right"). But only the extremely intricate structure of the DNA molecule can actually hold life. We still don't know how it works, nor how to recreate it. All we can do is grow it from existing DNA.

When God said, "Let there be light," the big bang occurred at just the right intensity to divide that initial microscopic speck into a humongous mass of photons, all at the right density to enable the formation of atoms of every size and type - the clockworks that would eventually enable life. Had that big bang been even the slightest bit more intense, physicists tell us, all that would have been enabled would have been hydrogen atoms. Life could never come about. Anything ever so slightly less intense and the universe as we know it would, again, not have been possible.

Even at the right intensity, the time still had to be right. The Omnipotent Being said, "let light be separated from darkness." Ripples appeared on the outward flowing stream of light, and gravitational and magnetic forces began to go to work at pulling it together to form galaxies and stars. The nuclear reactions within each star formed the various particles into atoms, splitting them again, completely dissolving them and remaking them into atoms again, while some that had spun off beyond the outer periphery formed into planets. When at least one planet had cooled sufficiently, God said, "Let the water be separated from dry land, and let an atmosphere appear." Only then, was life even possible. We are living in what is called, "The Goldilocks Zone" where it is, like junior Bear's porridge, "Just right!"

So, how much time passed between these events that led to it being "just right" for life of any sort to make its appearance? Some say billions of years, others say only a few days. The thing about such intense gravitational force as was present at the big bang, is that it greatly speeds up time, so the first couple of aeons could have been a couple of days. To God, it doesn't make any difference anyhow, as a day and a thousand years (or a billion, as far as that goes) are all the same. It was all a part of fixing the clockworks to accommodate life, and setting up that relatively short Goldilocks zone where humanity could live and roam, and fulfil his destiny.

There is reason to believe that at least the seventh day of creation was much longer than twenty four hours. According to Hebrews 4:3-11 we are still in the seventh day. God has been resting, and it remains for some of us to enter that rest.

So, God told man on the sixth day, "Be fruitful, multiply, fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish in the sea, the birds in the air and every living creature that crawls on the earth." God gave His creation over to humanity for safekeeping, set His alarm clock, and rested.

Well okay, He's not exactly sleeping. Remember, there's that input device whereby He can make adjustments, and that is through interaction with humanity, to whom He gave the authority to manage things. That input device is, in fact, the life that He breathed into man that brought him to life. So, humanity is both a product of the grand universal clockworks that God had spent so much time designing and developing, and alive with the Breath of God Himself. Where other creatures are simply the products of the clockworks, and therefore subject to determinism, humanIty is above that and is capable of true creativity, making decisions that can't be predicted by knowing all the maths. So, humanity, created in God's own image, holding God's life in his DNA, both belongs in the physical universe that produced that DNA, and transcends it. He is a higher order of being, meant to be God's own friend. That's who God gave the authority over His creation.

But we also know that the first couple of humans blew it, creating a Mess (with a capital M) that all humans coming after would have to live with, so God has been making heavy use of the input device.

Everyone is affected by The Mess, some more than others, and in different ways, prompting many to say, 'It just isn't fair!" There's nothing about The Mess that's fair. Some are enslaved, bullied, tortured, slaughtered, bereaved, left destitute, while others reap the benefits, living high off other people's suffering; all because of how human nature has been skewed.

Early humans took on board something that they were told not to, and that gave us an acute sense of good and evil. On the surface that sounds good, but look closer. What it was, was an obsession to compare everything. The first humans looked at each other and then at themselves and said, "Your body is beautiful, but mine? Oh my God! Stop looking at me!" (To this day, we think of nudity as evil, but God made it clear that that's only because we think it is, when He said, "Who told you you were naked?")

Later, someone said to his brother, "You are better than me, so God loves you more than me, therefore, I hate you!" That led to the first murder.

Later still people began saying, "Sex with you is nice, but I could have a better time with someone more beautiful/handsome than you;" and, "You have a prettier woman than I have, and a stronger beast of burden, nicer tools and more land than I have; but I'm stronger than you, so I'm taking it."

Actually, the basic desires aren't bad in themselves. A healthy sex drive is a good thing, and some desires and urges are simple survival instincts. It's when we're obsessed with comparing the quality or quantity with what others have that it gets out of proportion.

And so, because some were stronger than others, while following the same skewed logic, we've ended up with the unfair Mess that we're in.

Now, question and answer time:

First, how can a loving God allow those things to happen?

The answer: remember the Two possible ways for an omnipotent being to build a clock? Had He chosen the Miracle Dial method, that would be a very good question. If everything worked simply because He had His hands on it making it work, then everything would run perfectly, and all the aforementioned evils wouldn't be happening. But He didn't do it that way. He went with the Clockworks model, designing the universe to run according to the laws of physics and quantum mechanics in a cause-effect continuum. Moreover, because humanity is a transcendent being, as well as an integral part of the clockworks, we had the power to screw things up on a grand scale, which we did.

Then why didn't the Omnipotent Being do something about that before things got out of hand?

Keep in mind, the nature of the universe He made, the clockworks, the careful timing, the laws of physics and the quantum mechanics, and all the preparation that went into the Goldilocks Zone; it's clear that God took no shortcuts. All of that work went into the preparation of humanity's place in the vast clockworks of the universe, as a functioning part of the clockworks.

So, let's rephrase that question: Why didn't the Omnipotent Being do something he hadn't ever done since detonating the Big Bang; and stick His finger into the clockworks, stop the universe, undo the human mistake and then start it off again where it left off?

That's not His way. He had already put humanity into the pilot seat, and had begun His day of rest. Humanity was given the freedom of choice, and with that comes living with those choices. Freewill is a dangerous thing.

Perhaps the next obvious question would be, wasn't God morally wrong in giving humanity freewill when He knew where it would lead?

There are many angles to that one. Part of the assumption is that it was like trusting the keys of the family car to a young child. Others picture it as setting a bowl of sweets on the table, and telling the two-year-old, "Don't touch!" The way the Adam and Eve story is often told, one quite easily comes away with that conclusion. However, if we examine the accounts more carefully, we might get a far different picture: The first man had already named all the animals, and, according to Rabbinical tradition, used sounds that matched the nature of each creature, like a well studied Kabbalist would. So, was Adam no more than a small child? Perhaps it was more like the father entrusting the keys to the car to a son nearing adulthood, who already knows how to drive safely and responsibly, and has already proven himself on many occasions. The son is ready, by anyone's standards, to be trusted with such a potentially dangerous machine. But he still messes up at the critical moment, causing death and destruction. Who is morally responsible for that?

That leads us to another angle:  why was the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil there in the first place?

One thing we don't pretend to know is what ultimate purpose it served. There are a few theories, such as: maybe it was meant for  later after humanity had matured to a certain level; or that it was simply there to test humany's obedience; or as a chance to exercise his power to choose. Perhaps none of them completely satisfy everyone, but there is another consideration: Adam, as we observed, had been there longer, knew what was what, and knew what he was doing. Eve was a new arrival, so she was easily deceived.

When Adam discovered that Eve had eaten the forbidden fruit, why didn't he take Eve by the hand, lead her to where God would be walking in the cool of the day, and say, "I'm afraid we've had a miss-hap. Eve has gone and eaten from that tree you told us not to, because the snake told her it was good for her. Isn't there anything that can be done for her?" He didn't do that. He simply ate of it himself, knowing full well what the consequences were (and people point to the Genesis story to show how superior men are to women. How was that superior?).

Yet another angle is, would it really have been better to be products of determinism than free will? If we were, would we be enjoying the levels of creativity that we do, pushing the limits to what's possible, or indeed, even discussing free will versus determinism? It's clear from a close examination of Scripture that God's intent in creating humanity was to enjoy companionship on that level.

It's on that level that we see that God, by making use of that "input device", initiated a midcourse correction intended to eventually bring everything back into line with what it's supposed to be. As anyone knows, who fixes things, some fixes may take a while, and in mid-fix, look even worse than when we started out. That Fix (with a capital F) involved instituting a covenant with various ones, which gave the Omnipotent One the leeway to manifest His Omnipotence in a limited way (things like parting the Red Sea, etc) without overstepping the mandate He had given humanity. In fact, that was the whole point of having a "chosen people", so He could "legally" maintain a presence on the earth so He could carry out the Fix. Humanity created The Mess, humanity must play a vital part in The Fix.

What about those who have been suffering in the meantime, simply because The Fix is still in the works? What of those who have never heard of The Fix?

The traditional assertion is that every man, woman, boy and girl, puppy and kitten who hasn't read aloud the Sinner's Prayer from the back of a Chick tract, will spend all of eternity burning in the intense fire of hell; it doesn't matter how miserable their life was on earth.

I believe there is a hell, and also a world to come, in which the meek will inherit the earth. I also believe that being fully initiated into God's Kingdom is through repentance and faith - being born again by the Spirit of God. We'll talk about that in another post. However I also believe it is a mistake to assume that Theologians have distilled the sum of all truth from the little we can glean from scripture. I do believe God is just, and besides being omnipotent, He is all knowing. He knows the lives of every abused child, every slave, each bullied and beaten vulnerable person, from beginning to end - and He's just. I can only trust Him with that. That's a part of having faith in Him.

We do get some vague hints from the Bible, the following from Yeshua's parables:

The parable of the rich man and Lazarus: A rich man who had everything, but never showed mercy to poor diseased Lazarus who sat at the door grabbing what crumbs fell from the dishes as they were being carried out to be washed. Both died, the rich man went to hell, while Lazarus went to a comfortable place and was held in the bosom of Father Abraham. We're not told that Lazarus was a born again Christian, nor whether he was Torah observant; only that he was receiving compensation for a life of misery. The rich man was, apparently receiving just compensation for non Torah observance, particularly of those parts of the Torah that command us not to neglect the poor of the land, to see to the needs of widows and orphans and the refugees - about consuming the earth's resources without giving anything back.

The parable of the sheep and the goats: At judgement day, the Judge of all the earth sits on His throne, directing some to move to His right, and others to His left. To those on His right He says, "I was sick and you helped me; I was hungry and you fed me; I was imprisoned and you visited me etc... enter into the joy of the Lord." Those people replied, "Huh?" "When did that happen?" "I've never even been to church!" "I never saw you..." And the Judge replied, "Oh yes you did. When you befriended that homeless kid, when you went out of your way to check how that very sick looking man was doing, when you paid out more than you could afford to feed that family... you were doing it to me." To those on His left, He had other things to say.

As I said, the above are hints as to God criteria for judgement. A major one is according to how we judge others. Yeshua said, "Don't judge and you won't be judged. By what standard you judge others is how you will be judged."

I picture one of us standing in the queue at the final judgement: The man just two ahead of you approaches the throne and says, "I was really bad, I know. I had such a bad temper, I beat my wife and my kid A couple of times, and..."

The judge interrupts him, "Yes, you confessed that to me, and by my grace, you were beginning to overcome in that area. You were on your way to becoming a truly good gentle husband and father before your brother-in-law shot you. You are forgiven. Enter into the joy of the Lord."

The one just before you approaches, saying, "I'm not sure I'm worthy to enter. I couldn't keep my hands to myself, always flirting, my wife divorced me..."

"But you kept looking to me for forgiveness, and you were slowly being transformed by my grace. Enter into my joy."

Then it's your turn. "I can't think of any reason I can't just enter, can you? I mean, I wasn't nearly as bad as those other two, and they..."

"Not so fast. What about when you went to church wearing a shirt that hadn't been ironed, or that time you were seen picking your nose in front of the City Hall? And then there's the time you bent over to pick up a coin, and the top of your bum was showing!"

"C'mon! Those are such small thing! Those two ahead of me were..."

"I can't judge you the same as them. You wrote your own rulebook when you judged others by how they conduct themselves in public, so I have to judge you by the same standard you judged them."

Maybe not exactly like that, but you get the picture.

James says in his epistle that by fulfilling the commandment to love our neighbour as ourselves instead of judging and favoring some over others, we qualify ourselves to be assessed by the royal law of liberty.

This brings us to our biggest obstacle; by taking on board the Knowledge of Good and Evil, we've made ourselves experts in judging others, and that, in turn, subjects us to judgement.

By showing mercy, giving people the benefit of the doubt, forgiving personal offences, releasing grudges, we place ourselves under God's mercy. However, we can't simply "unknow" the Knowledge of Good and Evil, can we! As much as we try to forgive and forget, it just keeps coming back. Also, some wounds are so deep that we find it impossible to forgive. That's where we especially need The Fix.

Just as The Mess was created by humanity, so also was The Fix, in the person of Messiah Yeshua. The Omnipotent One had been spending all of human history setting it up so that He, by human consent and cooperation, could send The Fix in the person of His Son, the human, Yeshua.

After spending a lifetime telling us about The Fix, Yeshua Himself became the target of every injury, abuse, slander, false accusation, and was finally subjected unjustly to the most torturous death imaginable; absorbing the shock of all human injustice, while uttering His last words, "Father, forgive them."

As a human, Yeshua had the authority of a human, but without the setback of having gone wrong. He expended all the energy He had been given, and all the authority He had, until there was no more to expend. The intensity was such, He underwent death; thus, the perfect exercise of human authority, completely undoing the Mess, making The Fix available to all of humanity.

So, what exactly was it that this perfect exercise of human authority enabled the Omnipotent One to do? Something along the line of what He did with the first human, when He breathed into him the Breath of Life. It was so powerful that it brought Him back to life, complete with his body, but in a highly enhanced state. What's more, because it was officially enabled by human authority, it has the potential to affect all humans, solving all the world's problems, eventually bringing resurrection from the dead (in the same enhanced state). It's a force greater than we can imagine, and it's been in our hands ever since.

So what's wrong? We're like a bunch of kids sitting on top of a machine more powerful than a nuclear reactor, but we're fighting over a game of marbles. Isn't that just like us?

So now the Fix is in place, it's there in the clockworks, but it's still up to humanity to apply it. That's what we're on about now - some of us anyway.

In our next video we'll go more into what all this means. There are aspects of the Old Testament that beg some serious questions - somehow glossed over in Sunday School - which we'll also take a second look at. The title is, How the Omnipotent One Used Politically Incorrect Methods to Correct the Universe. We'll also see where it all leads.

Meanwhile, feel free to visit me on my website, robbycharters.co.uk. That's my name, Robby (spelled with a "y" - my mother spelled it that way) Charters. You should find some more of my stuff. I have a few novels, including a graphic novel I'm working on, and soon, hopefully, a few more of these videos.

Anyway, until next time...

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How the Omnipotent One Used Politically Incorrect Methods to Fix the Universe \- More sticky questions on the morality of God. Why does the Bible seem to support slavery, gross inequality of women, and even genocide? We look at how we, the human race, were back then, and how, in order to bring change, God had to approach us on our level. God was and is intensely interested in us, His creation, and it's His desire to dwell amongst us. That's the theme of the whole Bible. It's the fact that He has managed to do so to an extent, that's brought changes over thousands of years in how we understand morality.

The sock images used in the previous page were downloaded from Wikimedi Commons, and are attributed as follows:

Sacrifice of Isaac-Caravaggio By Caravaggio \- scan, Public Domain, Link

## How the Omnipotent One Used Politically Incorrect Methods to Fix the Universe

Earlier on we discussed how the Omnipotent One kicked off four dimensional space-time with the Big Bang, and then set His crown creation into the pilot seat - a being that was both a product of space-time, and also transcends it; not controlled by determinism; patterned, in fact, after the Omnipotent One Himself. That's us. And that creature (us) made a Mess (with a capital M). We talked through a few issues that some have with how a loving and righteous God can allow such a Mess to be. I think we made some good points in our previous discussion, so I won't go over the same territory here. We will go into some further questions about divine morality that come up as we read further in the Biblical narrative - and we'll talk more about the Fix (with a capital F).

So, a thousand or so years into human civilisation, things were indeed a Mess. According to the Biblical narrative, the world had become totally lacking in justice. Anything anyone had was up for grabs, including one's life. The victims were simply those who weren't quick or strong enough to exploit the other, but would have, nonetheless. The last sparks of mercy and justice were quickly dying out. The human experiment had gone badly wrong, and it was time to call it.

But wait - there was one spark of life that hadn't died. Noah still feared God and valued life, justice and mercy. With him, God started over again.

Now, whatever you make of the flood narrative -  the science behind it: Where did all the water come from? Where did it go? How was it possible to get two of every species onto the ship - including penguins and kangaroos? I don't know. Was there a science behind the tidal waves engulfing the Himalayas in the film 2012? That's just a film! Is the Bible Narrative, suggesting a similar premise more real? Or, while we're on the subject, there's the part about the sons of God cohabiting with the daughters of men. What was that all about? As a writer of science fiction, I could probably come up with a few suggestions, but I'm afraid they wouldn't be taken any more seriously than the film 2012.

Whatever happened is what happened. While the more scientific minds debate the more intricate details of that (as they do with the six day bit), we can, nevertheless, delve into what the message is there for us today.

The Omnipotent One gave humanity a new lease on life; however, with a firm set of guidelines. Justice was to be enforced. The wrongful shedding of blood (murder) was to be penalized by the life of the perpetrator, and there were other laws as well. The rabbis point out seven laws in all, some of which are inferred by the overall context, applicable to Jews and Gentiles alike:

  1. the practice of equity,

  2. against blaspheming the Name of God,

  3. against idolatry,

  4. against immorality,

  5. against bloodshed without just cause,

  6. against robbery,

  7. against devouring a limb torn from a life animal

(Babylonian Talmud: Sanh 56A - called the Noahide Laws). It appears that at least a few of the commandments have become the basis of human justice in every part of the world. Every culture forbids murder and theft, and respects the sanctity of the oath, and marriage (to an extent).

So, human civilisation got a new start and managed to continue in a slightly more organised fashion. Some of the laws fell by the wayside - most notably, that forbidding idolatry - but at least there was a basis for civilization - the shared understanding that murder and theft would not be tolerated, and to an extent, the sanctity of marriage.

At least murder and theft weren't tolerated within a community. Between communities? That was a different story. But with basic law within a community, it was solid enough to go to war with other communities, steal their resources, take slaves, demand tribute, and in many cases, commit genocide.

Recent archaeological digs on some of the earliest settlements in Britain and Europe have revealed, among other things, mass graves of men, women and children, obviously slaughtered by other tribes who were moving in to take over their farming and grazing land. We know it was quite common in the Middle East, along with human sacrifice and all the rest of the laundry list - slavery, gross inequality of women, ritual prostitution...

So, was humanity happy? Would you be happy to live in the time of your noble ancestors? Some were happy, I suppose, as long as they were at the top. For the average free male, there was still the struggle to survive; if you were a bit more well off, the owner of a sizeable piece of land as well as the slaves to till and harvest it, there would still be the fear of being wiped out by the next invasion - which is why walls were built so high; and if you were a woman, or a slave ... or a firstborn child at risk of being offered to the fiery god Molech ... well?

Well, God wasn't happy.

Now, from God's point of view: You're omnipotent; the intelligent creature that you designed after your own pattern to be a true friend for mutual enjoyment so you could be creative together, who would both be the product of the space-time that you designed, and to transcend it...has sunk to such a state as we've been describing. You really want to dwell among them, walk with them as you used to walk with Adam and Eve in the garden, and do things together; but you've been forced to wipe them out at least once, and if things don't turn around, you may need to do it again, and that would break your heart.

But you have a plan...

The Omnipotent One began with another man, in whom was the spark of love, mercy and the fear of God. That was Abraham. Through a series of encounters, God and Abraham built a deep relationship which amounted to a very strong agreement, or an understanding. The final touch was something that both tested that understanding, and confirmed it as an unbreakable promise on the part of God - He asked Abraham to offer his own son as a sacrifice.

Wait, wait - back up: A human sacrifice, did I say? Like what we mentioned earlier as one of the atrocities of the time?

First, God had no intention of allowing him to complete the act.

Secondly, the practice was so commonplace at that time that Abraham's only thought wasn't "Is this right?" but, "This is a doozie, but if that's what He wants..." It was only later, after the covenant was ratified at Mt Sinai that God made it clear that humans weren't to be slaughtered as a sacrifice; so the test took advantage of Abraham's ignorance. It was the final test of the strength of the agreement. God stopped the knife before it came swinging downward, and then made some of the most profound promises to be found in the Bible.

That agreement was so strong that after 430 years - after Abraham's clan had grown into a large ethnic minority living in bondage to the most powerful nation of that time - God did some remarkable things just to get them out. Imagine a weak, insignificant (though numerous) slave race suddenly breaking free from a major world power, all but bringing that power all the way down in the process. Some of the most amazing miracles in the Bible, happened during the Exodus and Sinai experience, all so that God could establish the clan born from Abraham, as a nation that would host His dwelling among humanity.

The first section of the Bible, the Torah, is all about God establishing His dwelling with humanity through Israel. In fact, that's the key to understanding the Torah, or what's commonly called the Mosaic Law.

To most people from a Christian background, that's all about laws and commandments. That's included, for sure, but the main point is God dwelling among humanity.

And what about all the kosher laws and other commandments? Does God really expect humans to be such perfectionist?

Actually, they're to accommodate the fact that God is perfect but humans aren't. They're about God dwelling among the congregation in the midst of their uncleanness (Lev 16:16). They were instructed to build a special shelter to accommodate His presence - a portable temple - and only the priests descended from Aaron were allowed to go inside. They did so with the blood of animals that had been offered as a sacrifice.

Remember, in an earlier chat, we discussed how the evil things done by humanity were sending shockwaves through space-time, but how the ritual slaughter of an animal in the appointed way was a way of absorbing the shock. The Aaronic priesthood was specially trained to perform those sacrifices.

So, the people, in their role as the hosts of God's dwelling among humanity, had to keep themselves pure through all the kosher laws, making sure they were in a state of cleanliness through ritual immersion when visiting the temple to worship and commune with God. The priests had to be even more careful.

To be sure, some of the commandments were about morality, how to treat their fellow humans, etc, but a lot of them were simply about Israel keeping herself pure so as to be God's dwelling on earth. God fearing gentiles were not required to observe all the laws. Also, some commandments were only to be observed in the Holy Land while the Temple is standing.

Among the moral laws, were commandments about taking care of the poor, the widows and orphans, the refugees. One recurring phrase is, "Remember that you were strangers in the land of Egypt." That's to say, "You know what's it's like to be a repressed minority; don't suddenly get on your high horse."

Now, the "divine morality" question that comes up about this time is, "What about slavery, which the Torah apparently sanctions? What about the role of women?"

Remember what we said about the state of humanity at that point of history - humanity was far from being ready to be told, "No more slavery," and, "Women are equal to men." God had only just established His dwelling among humanity, and He would lead them in that direction in easy steps. As it was, the Torah was a radical departure from how the other nations regarded slavery. Slaves, though allowed in the Torah, were humanised. They had certain rights, and were considered as part of the family. A slave in the household of a priest, along with the rest of the family, was allowed to partake of sacrificed meat which was forbidden to non priests.

Even if the slaves were suddenly freed, especially ones that were born into slavery, or voluntarily accepted slavery out of desperation, where would they go? How could they cope? Absolutely no one was giving success and motivation seminars, or coaching on self esteem and self actualisation. The most basic building blocks for any future understanding in that field were only just being laid through the Torah.

Eventually, the Torah and other parts of the Bible, though accommodating slavery and the submissive role of women, became the driving force that abolished slavery and brought greater equality to women much later in history - or more accurately, it was God's dwelling among humanity within the parameters set by the Torah.

So, God established Israel as the nation that would host His presence on earth, and thus guarantee the future of humanity. A part of that was settling them on the land He had promised to Abraham ...

...which meant displacing the local population. And, of course, that brings us to one more sticky question: How was genocide okay?

The short (but incomplete) answer: to build a world in which genocide would not be the norm, room had to be made for the nation that would host God's dwelling amongst humanity, so as to begin the slow change in that direction. The long answer acknowledges that it isn't as simple as that.

Let's just back up and make a few observations. First, it's partly because our thinking is influenced by the fruit of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, that the first thing that stands out to us today is "That's totally wrong!" In a way, that's good, but it can also obscure our understanding of God's overarching plan from the beginning. Secondly, we have to remember that the other reason it sounds "totally wrong" to us at present, is our civilisations have been exposed to a progression of new concepts and understanding over the past few thousand years, which we could say are the result of God's overarching plan. To people in the ancient world, even with the knowledge of good and evil, it wasn't "totally wrong". Even today, how well can we say we've learned that genocide is totally wrong? Look as Western society as late as World War II. Look at Bosnia, Rwanda, Somalia, Yemen, and Myanmar.

The third thing to consider is, God's expectations of humanity have also progressed. It's part of His overarching plan. It began way back when humanity considered things like genocide and human sacrifice as okay, or at least not out of the question. It was even expected. Absolutely no one was trying to bring rogue states to justice. There was no such thing as "politically correct" or a war crimes tribunal or Amnesty International, nor any concept of accountability whatsoever.

God started with us as we were then, used our perceptions to best advantage, and mandated certain actions that would move us along towards a new understanding and a new day in which the same actions would be considered out of the question.

I realise that this explanation will not hold water for many people, but if you just stay with me, we'll also note how, even though the Bible appears to mandate countries going to war, it actually lends support to passivism. I'm not saying that all Christians must be passivists; only that once we understand God's progressive revelation, we should stop condemning Christian passivists as being unbiblical. We'll get into that later on, but the general principle is, God borrowed a universally practiced method as a necessary evil, to give humanity a push towards a new order where such methods would become taboo. Redirecting the imperfections of the time, He set up the perfect to become the norm of the future. Only God could do that. Anytime humans try to use the end to justify the means, we go way off track. Moreover, the "means" God mandated then, will never be called for again, because God has succeeded in bringing about a world in which that could never be so. Anyone trying to claim the Bible as the basis for any act of genocide, or any murder or brutality in our time, is reusing old wine skins. It just won't hold water (let alone new wine).

Also, God didn't mandate a holy war against just any nation. He had a very specific criteria...

Like it or not, the morals of a civilizations can reach a saturation point when a local population has gone beyond the possibility of reform. In some cases, society simply falls apart. Sometimes, God puts it out of its misery. We observed that that was the case at the time of Noah, and then it happened again to Sodom and Gomorrah. The final test for Sodom was the entire male population showing up to gang rape two visitors from out of town who were staying with Lot (yet another passage where the Torah stresses the wrongness of mistreating immigrants - spotlighting Lot as a shining example of hospitality).

As for the Canaanites that Israel was to displace? Think: a nation of pedophiles.

We first meet the Canaanites about 500 years earlier when Abraham lived among them. They weren't the greatest of people then, but God told Abraham that he wasn't to inherit the land just yet, as their time was not up. Their measure of sin wasn't complete (gen 15:16). 500 years later, as the Israelites were on the verge of entering, Moses told the people that the sin of the Canaanites was such that the land itself was vomiting them out (lev 18:28). Indeed, during some of their battles with the Canaanites, the Israelite warriors were assisted by bees, giant hailstones and the sun standing still.

But what about innocent children?

In the case of the Canaanites, the whole culture, even as it involved the children, had reached the saturation point. Both archaeological and contemporary records from that time tell us that incest and child sacrifice were the norm in Canaanite family life.  Any children surviving that culture would have required professional counselling as only we would know how to give in the 21st century, as well as capable foster parents, which even in our time are in short supply. Had the Canaanite children survived, they would have not only lived very unhappy lives, but would have been a potential source of contamination to Israelite society. Yes, they were the victims, but they stood a better chance in the afterlife, where they would be received by a just and merciful God. After what they had been subject to, it was more merciful to the Canaanite children that they suffer the same fate as their parents.

Then again, with the unstoppable advance of these Israelite hoards, and the Canaanites desperate for their gods to come to their rescue, how many yet unsacrificed children would be left once the walls were breached?

In ancient times people's lives were bound up with the collective life of their family or clan. Individualism didn't begin to surface as an alternative until the Torah and other religious and philosophical writings began to stress individual responsibility. Even in our modern society, individualism is a learned trait. Many of us still like to hang with the crowd. In ancient times, the collective mentality was the rule, even to the extent that one's future was determined not by personal choice but by the family and community. You could say there was only one brain in each family or clan. He decided what to do, and they did it, no questions asked, even whether it was right or wrong. If perchance it was wrong, the whole family or clan was punished. If the head of the family was killed in a dispute, the younger members took revenge, again no questions asked, and they exacted that revenge on whole families and clans. They also assumed that if the tide went against them, the whole family, clan or village stood to be wiped out. So to them, the Israelite invasion was just more of the same.

However, God made it clear that the methods used in this conquest were not to be the norm when fighting future wars. Again, the Torah that became the rule of life as the result of this conquest, introduced the concept of individual responsibility, stating that the children shall not be put to death for the sins of the fathers. Just as when asking Abraham to perform a human sacrifice, God borrowed a universally practiced war method, a necessary evil to be mandated only in that instance, to set up a new order that would usher in an age where such methods would be condemned by world society. Using the imperfections of the time, He set up the perfect to become the norm of the future.

About 400 or so years later we see a similar pattern with King David.

David had fought and conquered the territory that was to be part of the Israelite empire, launching the golden age of Israel's history. However, on expressing his desire to build a Temple for God, he was told he was not the one to build it as he was a man of blood. That job would fall to his son, a man of peace. Though God had mandated the wars fought by King David, it was all in preparation of an age of no war, a golden age of peace, characterised by vast wealth and wisdom.

Again, our own attempts at "wars to end all wars" invariably end with negative consequences, so, "don't try this at home".

But it's interesting that David, in doing exactly the job God had given to do, had disqualified himself from being the man of peace that God was aiming towards. That's where I said the Bible lends support to passivism. And that is, by no means a negative reflection on David.

So Solomon built the Temple, a far grander version of the one Moses had set up, where God could dwell among humanity in a way visible to the whole world. The Biblical record states that during this time of unprecedented peace, world leaders came to visit Solomon to hear his wisdom, and admire the magnificence of the Temple and the city as a whole. God's dwelling among humanity had become more apparent to the nations, experienced through the peace that was prevalent, the wisdom being dispensed by King Solomon, and the prayers being offered at the Temple - not to mention the visual experience.

That was a major landmark on our landscape, as well as a good stopping point, so let's review what we've covered: Humanity was designed and created to be mates with the Omnipotent One. He put us in charge of the earth, but we made a Mess. Because He already put us in the pilot's seat, the Omnipotent One honoured that position, but initiated a plan to completely restore things to how they're supposed to be. That involved establishing His dwelling among humanity. It started with the portable tarplain temple that Moses built in the wilderness, and then advanced to the magnificent Temple that King Solomon built. Each stage represented an advancement in God's plan to restore humanity to what He created us for. In our next session, we'll take it to the ultimate stage.

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The Ultimate Fix - Through His dwelling amongst humanity through the people of Israel, He did manifest His presence and power in some amazing and productive ways, but that wasn't the end of the line. The ultimate Fix (with a capital F) was Jesus. Again, we divert from the usual path of viewing God as an angry old man who demands death for every infraction, by viewing Atonement as completing a circuit, enabling God to bring correction to four dimensional space-time.

The sock images used in the previous page were downloaded from Wikimedi Commons, and are attributed as follows:

Charlie Chaplin in Modern Times; By Taste of Cinema - <http://www.tasteofcinema.com/2015/the-30-best-silent-movies-in-hollywood-history/>, Public Domain, Link

## The Ultimate Fix

Before we go on, let's do an overview of what we've covered: The Omnipotent One creates Humanity to be His mates, and puts us in charge of the earth. We make a Mess. Because He's already put us in the pilot's seat, He honours that position, but begins to carry out His plan to completely restore things to how they're supposed to be. That involves establishing His dwelling among humanity, which is really what it's all about, what He had in mind from the very beginning, the reason He created us. The whole of human history, as recorded in the Bible is about Him inching ever closer to that objective. It starts with His friendship with Abraham - not fully dwelling among humanity, but giving him a hint of His overall plan and asking for his cooperation. Because Abraham responds so well, acting as a best friend would, God makes some profound promises, which become the basis for His further interactions with humanity, namely Abraham's descendents. Then, with the portable tarplain temple that Moses built in the wilderness, His takes up residence in the midst of the community, moving later to the magnificent Temple that King Solomon built. Each stage represents an advancement in God's plan to restore humanity to what He created us for, until His dwelling among humanity becomes more noticeable than ever under Kings David and Solomon. As we noted, it was apparent to the nations around about through the peace that was prevalent at the time, the wisdom being dispensed by Solomon, the abundant wealth, and the prayers being offered at the Temple. It was a great time to be alive.

But that wasn't the final stop. After their time, the golden age of David and Solomon began to wane; in fact all evidence of there ever having been a golden age was eroded by the onslaught of human nature at its worst. People neglected the poor, the widows and orphans, even abusing the weak. They neglected Temple worship, ignoring the dwelling of God in their midst and went after other gods. Even the child sacrifice cult of Molech made a comeback. But God still spoke, sending prophets, breathing His breath into them, speaking through them, warning the people, begging them to return. Besides reminding them of the things they were neglecting and warning of impending disasters, He revealed His plans for the future of humanity. The memory of David's kingdom, though quickly becoming the stuff of legends, became the point of reference by which the prophets hinted at what God had in store at the end of the age, the Kingdom of God. In fact, the anointed King (Messiah) would be a descendent of David, thus fulfilling God's promise to King David that his kingdom would last forever.

After some ups and downs, the Temple destroyed and rebuilt, fallings away and revivals to the faith, the Davidic dynasty had long folded. There were still people around that knew they were descended from King David, but the general understanding was that the only king of his dynasty to ever rule again would be King Messiah, the one prophesied to come.

And so we come to the period of the Roman empire. The land, long ago promised to Abraham, once ruled by David and Solomon, was now only a province of the great empire. The people lived under the burden of taxation, not only by Rome, but the local king, Herod the Great, who on one hand had refurbished the Temple to an even greater richness and beauty than under King Solomon; and on the other, was capable of snuffing you out for looking at him the wrong way (happily, his successors weren't as powerful). The administration of the Temple was also corrupt, treating the tithes and other offerings as though they were taxes, levied on top of the existing taxes, enriching themselves. People who buckled under the weight of the various taxes were forced off their land. Some became beggars, others, knowing there wasn't enough charity to support the beggar population, did the only sensible thing, joined the outlaw gangs, a.k.a. the Zealot revolt, thus adding to the hazards of intercity travel. Things were bad.

A lot of people thought that right about now was a great time for Messiah to arrive and establish the Kingdom of God.

On that point they were correct. The Omnipotent One indeed chose that time to send an instance of Himself to be born as a human in the person of Yeshua (or Jesus). The time was exactly right. Humanity wasn't what it was two thousand years earlier. Wave after wave of history had had its impact. The Egyptian/Phoenician culture that lasted through the Davidic dynasty was affected by the Assyrian, and then the Babylonian empires. Next came the Persians, and then the Greeks and finally the Romans. Each had their input, contributing to human culture, lifestyle and values. Don't ask me to go into all the details - that would require a whole study course in the history of human thought and culture. The point to remember is, humanity was ready for Messiah.

...well - as ready as anyone can be for such an encounter.

Though many were looking for Messiah to come, most were not ready for him - I mean really ready. The last of the prophets, Malachi, said that before Messiah came, the prophet Elijah had to reappear so as to turn people back to the right relationships. If not, Messiah's coming would not be a happy event, but a curse. The people had to receive Messiah on God's terms.

Whether that person had to literally be Elijah or not, somebody did appear at about the time we're talking about, who could have passed for a clone of the Elijah that we know from the Bible.

That's the one we know of today as John the Baptist. Yeshua did say later that he fulfilled that role.

John showed up on the scene in much the same way as we picture Elijah, an outdoorsman, living on toasted locusts (they're actually kosher, you know) and wild honey, in sort of the same way Elijah lived off food the ravens shared with him. His main message was, "Repent, the Kingdom of God is about to arrive".

Repent. They say the three most difficult words in the English language are, "I was wrong." That's what "repent" means."I've made a BIG mistake." "I've been on the wrong road." Not The easiest thing to say. Some people even find it hard to listen to their wife, stop the car and ask directions from a local. That's why many people then and now are put off by the idea of repentance. It's about dropping the "I'm-fine-I've-done-this-lots-of-times" attitude.

But that was God's terms and conditions, and it's still is now.

Yeshua started off with the same message. Everywhere in the first part of his story, he's saying things like "repent", "blessed are the poor - the meek - the persecuted - the underdog; when all is said and done, when God has had His way, you will be on top. For you the world was created."

His message was "Repent and believe." "Humble yourself and simply believe, like a child."

Those who primarily see Yeshua as a great teacher have missed the point.

Yes, he did teach, but only once he had firmly captured the people's attention by two other means:

First, he made the bold proclamation, "Repent, for the Kingdom of God is here." He rarely says, "I am Messiah" in so many words, but many of the things he does say, if you know how Jews of the first century thought, do say that; things like, "Destroy this Temple and I will raise it up again in three days." Everyone who heard him say that, said, "Ooooooh!"

Secondly, he proved that he was ushering in the Kingdom of God by moving the kingdom of Satan out of the way. He healed the sick, cast out demons and raised the dead. When John the Baptist asked, "Are you the One, or are we to expect another?" Yeshua replied, "I'll give you a hint: the sick are healed, the dead are raised, and the poor are hearing good news." The people of that day didn't see him as a teacher, but as a miracle worker.

But he also taught. He not only said and explained things and told stories, but he taught by his life. Though we tend to think of his death and resurrection as his main accomplishment - which it was - his life that he lived among us was just as important, because through the human, Yeshua, God was dwelling among humanity.

Another reason why his life was important was, he fully intended his pupils to go out and do the same, to proclaim that the Kingdom of God is here, and to prove it by showing signs and wonders, healing the sick, casting out demons, or simply alleviating suffering where they saw it, and to teach both by explaining it and by example. That's what he intends us to do.

So, let's do an overview of what we've covered: Humanity was designed and created to be mates with the Omnipotent One. He puts us in charge of the earth, but we make a Mess. Because He's already put us in the pilot's seat, the Omnipotent One honours that position, but initiates a plan to completely restore things to how they're supposed to be. That involves establishing His dwelling among humanity. That started with the portable tarplain temple that Moses built in the wilderness, and then advanced to the magnificent Temple that King Solomon built. Each stage represented an advancement in God's plan to restore humanity to what He created us for. Finally, sending an instance of Himself to be born as a human, as Yeshua, He

had the ultimate prototype of the human operating in full perfect sync with the Omnipotent One.

But that also wasn't the final stop. The prototype was only the pattern for the transformation of all humanity. Yeshua taught his pupils that the works he did, anyone who trusted in him would also accomplish, and greater.

But for that to happen, Yeshua had one more function to fulfil.

Yeshua had come as Israel's Messiah. However, as we noted, much of society was not ready for him because they had not responded to John's call for repentance. As it worked out, when the opportunity came for the leaders of Israel to officially accept him as Messiah, they were prevented by their lack of readiness - caused by the effect of the fruit of the knowledge of good and evil - proving that before the descendant of David could resume the ancient dynasty, humanity needed the deeper, more profound healing that he, as the only human not affected, was in the position to bring.

Some, over the centuries, have laid particular blame on the Jewish community for this rejection. Human nature was the cause. Yes, the Jew's were involved, but it was on behalf of the whole human race, who needed the deeper work that resulted from their choice. In fact, it was the Europeans who were present, whose descendants hundreds of years later would utter the cry "Christ killers", who actually hammered in the nails. Remember that.

So Yeshua's role, as one totally unaffected by the fruit of the knowledge of good and evil, and thus the only one who had never perpetrated injustice, was to become the target of every injury, abuse, slander, false accusation, and finally subjected unjustly to the most torturous death imaginable; absorbing the shock of all human injustice, while uttering His last words, "Father, forgive them."

As we noted in the first discussion, Yeshua had the authority of a human, but without the setback of having gone wrong. He expended all the energy He had been given, and all the authority He had, until there was no more to expend, resulting in his death. Thus it was the perfect exercise of human authority.

His death, as it were, completed a circuit, giving the Omnipotent One full authority to intervene in the  four dimensional space-time and do what He did with the first human: He breathed into him the Breath of Life. It was so powerful that it brought Him back to life, complete with his body, but in a highly enhanced state. What's more, because it was officially enabled by human authority, it has the potential to affect all humans, solving all the world's problems, eventually bringing resurrection from the dead (in the same enhanced state as Yeshua). It's a force greater than we can imagine, and it's been in our hands ever since.

In one sense, the resurrection is something that could be described as the next stage in human evolution, happening to us abruptly at the end of the age. In another sense, it's a process, which we also refer to as Salvation.

We'll talk more about that in our next session, as well as some of its components, such as faith, repentance, the fear of the Lord, as well as the dreaded "H" word.

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Salvation, and it's Components - Simply put, "salvation" is the move from the Kingdom of Satan to the Kingdom of God. We look at how "the Fix" works in practical terms. We cover topics such as faith, repentance, the fear of the Lord ... and the dreaded "H" word.

The sock images used in the previouss page were downloaded from Wikimedi Commons, and are attributed as follows:

Chateau du roi rene Public Domain, Link

Kisnana Castle By Wojsyl \- Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, Link

## Salvation, and it's Components

All of Yeshua's activities can be summed up in salvation. As he rode into Jerusalem on a donkey, the people chanted the words from Psalm 118:25, 26 "Save us, oh Lord!" or "Hoshia-anna" (translated in our English Bibles, "Hosanna"); the official welcoming cry for Messiah. At his birth, Yeshua was so named because he would "save his people from their sins" (Matt 1:21).

In Peter's first sermon, he says, "Save yourselves from this perverse generation" (acts 2:40). Salvation is the move from the kingdom of Satan into the Kingdom of God. A lot of Yeshua's energy was focused on an assault on the kingdom of Satan through signs and wonders, planting the Kingdom of God in its place.

We tend to think of salvation as being saved from the consequences of our sin (going to hell), but here, it's Salvation from sin itself. This suggests that it's actually about being enabled to stop sinning, or being freed from the sin addiction.

Sin is what keeps us in bondage to Satan's kingdom, and what keeps us sinning is the acute consciousness (we could say, obsession) of good and evil.

What we generally hear people say about conversion to Christianity is that it's all about escaping hell and going to heaven when we die. For many, the whole point of being a Christian is the afterlife, and very little is expected of this present life. They only see the bit about our sins being forgiven. While we don't want to go to the other extreme, we must emphasise that salvation is much broader in scope. It's about overcoming Satan's kingdom through the power of resurrection - short circuiting the knowledge of good and evil.

The emphasis is just as much on what salvation is for, as what salvation is from, as we see in Paul's Epistle to the Ephesians (2:10); We are saved for good works.

...by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.  
Ephesians 2:8‭-‬10 ESV (https://bible.com/bible/59/eph.2.8-10.ESV)

That's an interesting passage which shows "works" from two sides. Verse 8 says we are not saved by works, but verse 10 says we are saved for works. So much Christian theology is preoccupied with the first point, that we're not saved by works - so much that "works" has almost become a dirty word - with much less emphasis on being saved for works.

In fact, the next few lines in the passage indicate that the works were prepared beforehand - our unique individual part in the Kingdom - our gifts, our calling. They are the "greater" works that Yeshua said his followers would do if they trusted.

What we're saved from, and what we're saved for must never be considered in isolation to each other. In fact it's a process. Paul told the Philippians believers to work out their salvation with fear and trembling (Philippians 2:12). He wasn't telling them to work hard at escaping hell, but to grow and develop in their role in the Kingdom of God. Their initial experience, what we often call "getting saved", was only the first step.

But that first step is important. Every journey begins with one step, of course, but this particular step is a prerequisite in a unique way. It's the breathing of the breath of life - the new birth - activating in us the resurrection that began in Yeshua, enabling salvation to begin it's process in our lives. It's the first step out of the kingdom of Satan - a step that can only be made with a helping hand. That step must be made by...Faith

Faith is the force that actually penetrates the barrier posed by the knowledge of good and evil. That's because faith is rooted in ultimate truth, even when that truth isn't apparent to our five senses.

The knowledge of good and evil has a way of distorting truth, whereas faith, based on ultimate truth is stronger. As we said previously, we can't "unknow" the knowledge of good and evil, but faith gives us a second option. Even when our minds are confused by our perceptions, by feelings of guilt or fear, we can choose to act on faith rather than accept what seems inevitable.

This is not to be mistaken for a positive mental attitude. Faith is a force that comes via the Breath of God as we receive His message. As I said, faith is rooted in ultimate truth. Paul said in his epistle to the Romans, "Faith comes by hearing the word of God". Generally, "the word" means the Bible, but it can also be by word of mouth, the message being announced, spoken forth as the Breath of God makes it alive, initialising faith inside the person hearing it. If the hearer acts on that faith, the same Breath then brings about the new birth (or whatever other gift that was promised).

I keep saying, "The Breath." What do I mean? Breath, if you say it in the ancient languages, ruach, pneuma, means the same as spirit. It's the life of God, but it has a life of its own. We also call it/Him the Holy Spirit.

So faith is imparted by the Holy Spirit, or the Breath. It doesn't come through losing an argument with a theist. It's not giving mental assent to something learnt in cattacism. It comes when you hear the word, it grabs you a certain way, you feel like it's an invitation to come on in. It's when God breathes on you, and you know something, but you don't know how you know it.

And you act on it. Mental assent doesn't produce action. Losing an argument with a theist only makes a grumpy atheist. Real faith produces action. When it comes for the first time, it spurs you on to do the next obvious thing...

Repent

We talked about repentance earlier when we talked about the role of John the Baptist. Everything we said there applies. But we can give a basic definition:

  * It means doing an "about-face" - turning from sin and/or one's own agenda for one's life, to God. Both the from and the to are important.

  * Willingness to allow a complete makeover

  * Voluntary humbling of oneself before God

It's also the natural and most appropriate response to... The Fear of the Lord

The word "fear" is easily misunderstood. It's not being scared, rather it's the acute awareness of God in proximity to oneself. How can I explain it?

Perhaps the type of person who would most easily understand the fear of God would be a mountain climber, one who intensely loves nature and feels like the best way to get up close to it, is to climb up into it. I'm picturing such a person, fitted with all the right gear, hanging from the bottom side of an overhanging rock, surrounded on all sides (and a few hundred feet below!) by a breathtaking view. Such a person would no doubt prefer to die from a thousand foot drop, taking in the spectacular view on the way down, than in a nursing home.

Such a person is well aware of the dangers, takes every precaution against the obvious danger, and makes his or her way into the heights of his/her passion, with fear and trembling. That's what we mean when we talk about the fear of God. That passage I quoted earlier from Philippians 2:12: Work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for God is the one working among you...

...our God is a consuming fire, as we find in the Epistle to the Hebrews (12:29). The same as fills the universe, who detonated the Big Bang, and carefully arranged everything to come together for humanity's "goldilocks zone". He's outside our four dimensional space-time, yet He chooses to dwell among us. In fact, we call Him "Father", but He's not a "sugar daddy." He's a consuming fire. We can come close and warm ourselves, but the experience will have its effect.

When God dwells amongst humanity, that happens. At the Exodus God appeared to the people of Israel, giving them the Ten Commandments in an audible voice. The people came to Moses afterwards and asked him to please not arrange meetings like that any more. It was too overpowering. Moses replied (Exodus 20:17) that it was so the people would fear the Lord, and refrain from evil. The parallel account in Deuteronomy 5:26 also says about the same thing. King Solomon once said, "The fear of the Lord is to hate evil" (Proverbs 8:13).

The only real deterrent to bad behaviour is the fear of the Lord - that, and love. Being up close to God makes us want to do right. Comments we might normally say off the top of our head suddenly seem inappropriate. It's like being comfortable in a darkened room until you open the windows and turn on the lights, and see all the dust; and suddenly you just don't want to be there any more, or you reach for the dusters.

And, of course, love is the other deterrent. You just can't be bad to the people you love, and love for everyone is also a byproduct of the fear of the Lord.

So, experiencing God up close, and gaining a fear of the Lord and a love for all humanity, is the only deterrent to evil. The Knowledge of Good and Evil, isn't.

The Knowledge of Good and Evil may bring it to our attention what we're doing wrong, but it's not a deterrent. It only draws our attention to ourselves, and if anything, will only make us miserable and depressed - or it may make us overreact, causing more damage; because that knowledge is really an obsession.

The fear of the Lord draws our attention towards God - away from ourselves - and is the most effective deterrent there is.

It's only when we understand and experience the fear of the Lord that we can begin to find a proper way to deal with ...

The "H" Word

Anyone with good presentation skill can induce a fear of hell, but only the Breath of God, the bringer of His presence, can bring on the fear of the Lord.

The Bible never tells us to fear Hell, but to fear the Lord. Yeshua once said (Matthew 10:28), "Do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul, but fear Him who can destroy both soul and body in hell." Probably the only place where the words "fear" and "hell" are found in the same sentence, actually says, "fear God". Hell is only one of His options - the last resort.

But over the centuries, we've found it easier to convince people to come to church and be good Christians by putting the fear of hell in them.

During the few hundred years following the period of the book of Acts, people debated and fine tuned their theology until the time of Augustine, who taught that all are born in Original Sin, and unless they became believers, all were destined for hell for all eternity. So, of course, if we believe that each man, woman, boy and girl, puppy and kitten (okay, back up, strikeout "puppy and kitten") is going to burn eternally in hell, then of course, the first priority is to prevent them from going there by getting them to turn to God by the quickest and easiest means possible. It becomes all about escaping hell and going to heaven.

If that's the case, why don't we see the early apostles emphasising it? In the Acts of the Apostles, we read nothing even remotely resembling what we often hear Christian evangelists saying today, like, "If you were to die tonight, where would you be?" If anything, it was, "Save yourselves from this evil generation." There's a subtle difference there. Peter's message wasn't about waking up in hell one of these mornings if you don't watch it, but adopting God's agenda, thereby avoiding the calamity that was shortly to befall (which happened in 70 a.d.). The agenda was a company of believers working hand in hand with the Omnipotent One as He dwelt among them, shoving the kingdom of Satan aside. People saw the signs that the Kingdom of God was displacing the kingdom of Satan, the fear of the Lord came on them and they also adopted God's agenda. It was a constantly moving, shape changing people-movement, with everyone playing an active part; not a static, membership based club as churches have ended up being today.

The static "spectator sport" type of Christianity that we have today works well with the emphasis on escaping hell and making it to heaven. Life in the church today begins with, "Good, now you're heaven-bound. Come every Sunday, we'll teach you how to be a good Christian, and when it's time, we'll get there." The theology of heaven, hell and salvation is the most important feature, which is both necessary to maintain that setup, and is driven by it, like a vicious circle.

Life in the early church began more like, "Glad you could join us. Here's your weapon*, over there's the front line. When you see that cloud move, be ready to move with it."

(*Of course, I'm speaking in metaphors. The Kingdom of God isn't about literal combat.)

I know, we've drifted a long way from where we should be. I believe only the Breath of the Omnipotent One can get us back to centre.

Moving on to a more accurate perception of judgement, rewards and the afterlife, must be done carefully. If the only reason people are staying with God or maintaining a moral lifestyle, is the fear of hell, then simply correcting that understanding will only cause a slingshot effect into moral decay. It might be better not to teach on it at all, unless we're prepared to immediately replace the fear of hell with the fear of God. Remember, only the Holy Spirit can bring the fear of God. The same Breath of the Omnipotent One, who will give the spectator's club that we call a church, a new direction if we let Him.

So, what does the Bible say about hell?

There are warnings about hell in the Bible, mostly for people who know to do the right thing but don't, who fail to show mercy when it is in their power to do so, or persist in rebellion against God in the face of ample evidence of God's truth, and remain unrepentant; not necessarily for all who haven't had the chance to hear the Gospel. We can't presume to know where God draws the line.

And as I said earlier, we don't know everything about all possible states in the afterlife. The Bible only gives brief hints.

Yeshua gave a number of warnings against things ranging from causing offence to the vulnerable, especially children, to being found unfit for the Kingdom of God, or simply unprepared. The consequences also range in severity from being thrown into Gei Hinnom to being consigned to "outer darkness" where there is "weeping and gnashing of teeth." Gei Hinnom, or Hinnom Valley, was a vast rubbish heap outside the city wall of Jerusalem (where, BTW they once set up the iron image of Molech for child sacrifice). It was a metaphor for hell in rabbinical terminology. Many interpret all Yeshua's warnings as referring to hell, including "outer darkness". However, if we examine them, some of the passages contain  references that make it obvious he's talking about something different; simply being excluded from God's agenda, whether in this life or the next. There's the hint here that the afterlife could consist of more than just heaven or hell. "Outer darkness" might not be a permanent state.

However, the revelation that this might not be talking about hell does not call for gleeful celebration. The "gnashing of teeth" still signifies intense regret - not a pleasant experience. Whatever he's talking about, you want to avoid it at all costs.

So what's the safest position to take regarding judgement and the afterlife? The fear of the Lord. Appeal to the Omnipotent One, that His Breath will impart the fear of the Lord. And don't stop, keep on seeking. As Yeshua said, it is available:

Luke quotes Yeshua as saying: Moreover, I myself say to you: keep asking, and it will be given to you; keep seeking, and you will find; keep knocking, and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who goes on asking receives; and he who goes on seeking finds; and to him who continues knocking, the door will be opened. Is there any father here who, if his son asked him for a fish, would instead of a fish give him a snake? or if he asked for an egg would give him a scorpion? So if you, even though you are bad, know how to give your children gifts that are good, how much more will the Father keep giving His Holy Breath from heaven to those who keep asking him!  
Luke (Luk) 11:9‭-‬13 CJB https://bible.com/bible/1275/luk.11.9-13.CJB

When we treat it like something we urgently need, and don't stop asking, seeking and knocking until we received it, He will give the Holy Spirit to those who ask, not just for the fear of the Lord, but all the rest of what the Holy Spirit does for us.

The Breath - the Holy Spirit - is involved in every aspect of our salvation. Yeshua told his pupils that he would be the one who will bring awareness of "sin, righteousness and judgement" (John 16:8-11). That's not the same as the knowledge of good and evil; it's simply an awareness that something needs to be rectified, that one is missing out on the main purpose of life (which is to be up close to the Omnipotent One), and that to settle for anything less will only lead to intense regret.

This is another aspect of the fear of the Lord - actually the three aspects. Just as the fear we described in the case of the mountaineer is focused on nature at its harshest, this one entails the urgency of reconciling oneself with the Prime Mover of the universe, the realisation one is missing the chance at the ultimate relationship, and in danger of actually ending up on the wrong side of Him. Again, this is not fear of hell or any other consequence, but of God Himself.

So, the Holy Spirit draws us to God, also enabling us with the faith to cross over to the right side. Once we've made that move (repentance), He then initiates the resurrection - He, Himself is the Breath that is exhaled into our being, causing the new birth, the initial stage of our resurrection.

On being born again, the resurrection has begun for you, but only in the spiritual realm - real nonetheless, just not physical. It isn't complete until the physical resurrection, when we rise from the dead, or, in the case you haven't died yet, are transformed to an enhanced state, just as Yeshua was.

The final physical resurrection is important, because God created us as physical creatures, products of four dimensional space-time as well as transcending it. Our renewed spirit nature is the part of us that transcends the physical world, but our home, nevertheless, is here. This earth is what the meek will inherit.

New Age and eastern religions emphasise the spirit, saying that the physical is bad, and that our goal is to be released from this prison of the material world.

Tainted and broken, maybe, but the four dimensional space-time is to be fixed and restored to what it was supposed to be all along. It's just that, right now, it's hard to see what it will look like.

We don't know what the resurrection will look like yet, but you don't want to miss it. Some people think they know, thus, films like Left Behind, and theories about the rapture and all that. But really, we have too much on our plate already to into all that speculation. The work we've been assigned in preparation for that day is far more important \- the works God has prepared for us, shoving Satan's kingdom out of the way - the greater works.

That's the other side of what the Holy Spirit is here to do. We do the good works through the same Holy Spirit that enable Yeahua to do all those things.

That, of course, involves another application of Luke 11:9‭-‬13. If you want more of God's Breath to enable you to do those greater works, asking, seeking and knocking is the way to go. I intentionally use the word "want" instead of "need", because there's no problem on the supply end as there often is on the demand side. Of course, we do need it, but we must also want it, just as we naturally hunger for the good our bodies need. How long or how loud you ask, seek and knock is sometimes an indication of how you really want it. If you already understand the fear of the Lord, that's another indication that your motives are right.

# 
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Why All the Blood? So much of Judeo Christian belief and practice is about blood, substitution of life for life, atonement. Why such an obsession with blood? The answer may be closer than you think.

The sock images used in the previous page were downloaded from Wikimedi Commons, and are attributed as follows:

Sacrifice - Wikimedia Commons; Public Domain,  Link;

## Why All the Blood?

People these days look at the Christian doctrine of atonement, and questions start to fly: Why is God pictured as a vengeful old man that demands death for any small infraction? If He's a loving father, why did He kill His own son? And, "Why so much blood?"

In some of my other podcasts explaining the atonement, I've steered more towards seeing it as repairing the damage done to the universe, as absorbing the shock. It could also be seen as rectifying the fact that Satan has assumed legal control through a loophole arising from humanity's disobedience.

The question I'll attempt to address here is, "Why so much blood?"

Some have made the comment that Judaism and Chrisianity are "slaughterhouse religions"; that they contain those vestiges left over from primitive practices, killing animals, sometimes humans; not the nice clean environment preferred by moderns, who often can't stand the sight of blood .

So, why is blood so important?

The word "blood" is often synonymous with "life". We often use the term "bloodshed" to mean that people were killed, not necessarily by bleeding to death, but simply that they died - even if it was by poisoning or some other method. The Torah also makes the statement more than once, "The life is in the Blood."

Indigionous people seem to recognise that as well. A young Native American on his first hunt, may be offered a drink of the blood of his first kill, so as to partake of the spirit of that animal. Torah observant Jew's refrain from blood following exactly the same principal.

In fact, there's even the stipulation that, when slaughtering an animal, after letting all the blood out, that it be poured into the ground and covered with dust. Why? We're not told directly. Perhaps the soul of the animal is ongoing in some form or another and needs to be released back into nature.

Perhaps more research into Quantum Physics will shed some light - or Kabbalah.

The exception to the above rule is during a ritual sacrifice, when the Blood of an animal is sprinkled on the altar in the temple as atonement. Hence, life atones for life; an exchange.

The New Covenant is based on every detail contained in the Torah; the life of Messiah atoned for all human life, and it happened on a Passover, which is why He is often referred to as the Passover Lamb. A recurring phrase found in the Bible, and often sung in church is, "The Blood of Jesus."

So why is life required?

If we look around us, we may find the answer closer than we think.

How many times have you seen in the news - or, maybe this has happened to you - where a family member or close friend has been murdered or raped, the perpetrator has been brought to justice, the case has gone to court; BUT, through legal wrangling or negligence, the perpetrator got off with a light sentence, if not acquitted? How does the family feel? "Billy has been violently wrenched from us, but his murderer is walking the streets again."

Has justice been done? Where's the sense of closure?

Is this desire for justice a real need? Are they being overly petty and revengeful? Is it just a matter of "just get over it?" If you're one whose family has been so affected, I'm sure you think not.

And it's not just the idea of getting offenders off the street so they won't repeat the crime (although there is that aspect). It's the need to see that the perpetrator pays the price, like something is wrong with the cosmos until he or she does.

The Torah recognises humanity's deep sense of justice. In fact, according to the Torah, one of the fundamental laws that applies to all humanity is one that God instructed Noah: that any unjust shedding of blood is to be atoned for by the death of the murderer.

In the very early ages, the administration of justice also involved the next of kin, who would often go out to avenge the murder himself. If the crime was dealt with before a village council, the next of kin, or the witness would cast the first stone. As time went on, and village and town level justice became more and more sophisticated, there was less and less room for taking justice into one's own hands. In fact, the judicial system based on the Torah, as explained in the Talmud, eventually became the model for law courts everywhere. The concept of there being twelve jurors is based on the number of judges who had to approve a capital sentence.

So, justice is a natural human instinct, and is another aspect of our having been created in God's image. Throughout the Bible, we see that so much of God's nature boils down to His two attributes of justice and mercy.

We could say that the entire Bible is a record of how God's two attributes of justice and mercy came together to restore the universe and humanity to the original plan.

The rabbis have noted that the very names of God refer to these two attributes. The more generic name, Elohim, usually translated in the English Bible as "God", depicts Him in His attribute of justice; whereas the personal name, spelled with four consonants, YHVH, which Jewish people avoid pronouncing, usually translated into English as "the LORD", refers to Him in His aspect of mercy. If you read the book of Genesis, notice how it fits with the context. It can teach you a few things about God.

For instance, chapter 1 is a story of the six days of creation - or six epics, however you want to interpret it. In that chapter, God is referred to as Elohim, in His attribute of justice. This shows us that there is an order to the universe. Every aspect of the environment is interdependent on every other. Modern science has revealed to us how delicate this balance is, and how, without justice, things can go askew.

In chapter two, where we read of the creation of the first human, we see the two names of God used together, "the LORD God..." When He created humanity, God combined His attributes of justice and mercy.

If the universe consisted only of justice, humanity couldn't live in it. We would die from our first mistake. If the universe were only of mercy, everything would soon descend into chaos through over-leniency.

One way of looking at justice and mercy without reminding us of the negatives: justice is a small child learning to walk, so that henceforth he can stand on his own two feet. Mercy is when a parent holds his hands at the beginning, catches him when he or she falls, or later, after he can walk, carrying him when he's tired.

It was later, after that first big misstep, when humanity's perceptions became skewed by having partaken of the knowledge of good and evil, that justice took on a negative side, as becoming a burden of debt.

It's this debt that threatens the stability of the universe. The going against basic principals, taking unfair advantage, the taking of life, creates a deficit that threatens the fabric of existence.

It's there that God began to inject mercy, first allowing the substitution of animal blood in place of human - when presented before God in the proper way. God then built on to that, through covenant, through a system of purification, the priesthood, finally culminating in the ultimate sacrifice: Jesus offering Himself as the Passover Lamb.

As a result, there is forgiveness for every wrong act. The Blood can be applied.

It's free, but it didn't come cheap. Everyone can receive, but we must approach God on His terms.

First and foremost among those terms is allowing God to reform us by His standards of justice and mercy, so that we "partake of the divine nature" (2 Peter 1:3,4). According to the apostle, that's a process.

As we already noted, humans already have a deep sense of justice. The challenge is coordinating that with God's attribute of mercy. When one has become the victim of gross injustice, that doesn't come easily.

I watched a film on TV once about a woman whose son was murdered. Every year, she would attend the parole hearing hoping the murderer would not get parole. Then, she was asked to meet with him for a series of meetings. In the process, she got to know him, saw his genuine regret for his act, and eventually came to forgive him, finally recommending him for parole. They became close friends.

The problem was, her other two sons wouldn't accept it, and cut her off. I don't remember how it ended. I wish I could remember the name of the film. I think it was on the True Movies channel, and based on a true story.

Watching that, I realised that that was a good description of the root cause of the Troubles here in Northern Ireland. Here, likewise, one can be ostracised for forgiving.

Many, in other parts of the world look at N Ireland, and say, "Why can't they just get over it?" "Why don't they just make up and be friends?"

Like the surviving sons of the woman in the film, they can't. Some of them have grown up being told, "The Protestants murdered your Uncle Keven." "Your grandad was a peace loving man who never hurt a soul, and an IRA gunman walked in and shot him." "Your uncle Pete was murdered by British troops on Bloody Sunday." "If you forgive them, you're not being true to your family." and on and on it goes. By forgiving, you become a traitor.

The same story can be told about the Tutsis and Hutus of Rwanda, the Israeli's and Palestinians, the Jewish community and their treatment by Christianity through history; Native Americans, Afro Americans and their treatment by White Americans; everywhere where there has been a history of injustice, racial conflict or ethnic cleaning. It can be hard for some to understand, who haven't been raised in that kind of situation, but it's real, nonetheless.

I was born and raised in Thailand, but my father came from East Belfast. He had spent a large portion of his life away from there, living and working in Thailand most of my life, so he was no longer of the same mindset as many of his old friends, especially since he had had a few healing encounters with God. After the death of my mother, he went back to Belfast for a few months in 1991. I went to join him during the last couple of those months before he returned to Thailand. That was during the troubles

My dad knew what his old friends were like, and that I would likely say something rash, like, "But God commanded us to forgive!" or, "But we're to love our enemies!" He wrote to me some words of wisdom before I started my trip; "Just keep quiet and listen before you respond."

That was good advice. I needed to see how deep the wound was before trying to apply a plaster (band aid).

The wounds are indeed deep, and the only way we can deal with them is to gain a fuller understanding of how deep were the wounds that Messiah endured, how powerful the shock absorbing capacity of His death, and the power of His blood.

It's sort of a simple equation, if you think about it. We can think of it as follows:

Why is it so hard to forgive?

Because you're constantly aware of the injustice that was done. You still smart from the wound. It's before you day and night. Like a Vietnam war vetran, you're constantly telling people, "You wouldn't know, you weren't THERE!"

And how do we overcome that?

The Blood.

And what about those who sing about "the blood" every Sunday, hear sermons about "the Blood", all the while wallowing in their hate and resentment and wounds? Too often, it's in our songs and in our sermons, but we haven't truly internalised it - at least not as much as we've internalised the evil done to us.

The secret is to gain just as vivid a consciousness of what Jesus went through, how deep were the wounds inflicted on Him, the betrayal that He experienced, and how intense his emotion when he cried, "My God, why have you forsaken me?"

We'll never be able to feel it as fully as he did, nor might we even "feel it" as such, but if you can at least gain as stark an awareness of it as you are of your own pain; that's a start.

As I said in the other podcast regarding the fear of the Lord, only the Holy Spirit can impart that level of consciousness. Spending time meditating on scripture also helps.

As long as hurt and unforgiveness are hindering us, we really shouldn't be satisfied until we've achieved that, so the thing is to "keep on asking, keep on seeking, keep on knocking."

You will receive - you will find - it will be open to you...

# 
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How Did Christianity Become the White Man's Religion? At the beginning, the gospel was for everyone, and the earliest apostles made sure that was clearly understood. Over the next few centuries, some changes took place. We look at how some "good ideas" have done more harm than good, and how we can begin to rectify it.

The sock images used in the previous page were downloaded from Wikimedi Commons, and are attributed as follows:

Canterbury Cthedral, Public Domain, Link

A Hora Dance at Kibbutz Dali; By Zoltan Kluger \- This is available from National Photo Collection "en:The National Photo Collection \(Israel\)") of Israel, Photography dept. Goverment Press Office (link), under the digital ID D827-025. Public Domain, Link

##  How Did Christianity Become the White Man's Religion?

How indeed! It wasn't, at the beginning.

The Mediteranian world of the first century was home to a wide variety of cultures and races. The whitest skinned peoples lived to the North, the Galls, the Germanic tribes, the Slavs and Scandinavians; they were primitive, worshipping things you might see on Halloween - hardly what one pictures today as "white man's religion". Slightly less white (though still "white"), were the Romans and the Greeks and Iberian cultures on the shores of the Mediteranian. Perhaps more what we'd call "brown", were the Carthagian, and Egyptian and other North Africans occupying the Southern shores of the Meditteranian, and then the black skinned Ethiopians to the South. To the East, more brown to black skin: the Arabs, the Parthians and the Indians.

The Roman Empire brought together some of these groups, particularly to the West. The Eastern people groups were part of the Parthian Empire.

At the border of the two empires, located along the most travelled route between North and South, was the land of Judea. This piece of real estate, according to the Torah, God had given to a certain ethnic group whom He had assigned the role of hosting His presence, His dwelling place, amongst humanity. That location – the most accessible point in the world – was where God chose to live, so that any human travelling between North and South, or from East to West, could pop by and have a chat.

To facilitate those chats, the people of Israel had to maintain ritual purity so as to provide the right environment for God to dwell, without His fiery presence doing damage to humanity's frail and highly flammable makeup.

That's what Torah observance is all about. It's israel, a nation of priests, making it possible for God, in spite of being holy and intolerant of evil, to maintain as close contact as possible with humanity in its fallen state. It was God's way of maintaining contact in a way safe for humans.

Oh, and getting back to the question, the Israelites were not what you'd call a white race - not in those days.

So, that was how things stood during the time of the Roman and the Parthian empires – the point in history God chose to take a step closer to humanity.

He did that by fulfilling a promise, sending an instance of Himself to be born as a human. We know of that human as Yeshua, or Jesus.

To make a long story short, Jesus fulfilled His mission on earth to create a new environment where humanity could come to God face to face – without God having to wear "kid gloves", and without one having to go on a long journey to get there. One could be as far South as its possible to be, or as far East or West or North, without having to go through a ritually purified priesthood, and approach God face to face.

Now, before we go on, let's get one thing clear. God did NOT, then, turn to the Jewish people and say, "Thank you, your services are no longer required."

If you read Romans chapters 9 through 11, you'll find a statement made in this very context, "The gifts and callings of God are irrevocable." The calling, in this case, is that of acting as host to God's presence in a more unique way. God made a covenant with Abraham that applies to his physical descendants of all time, and there's nothing about the New Covenant that cancels the current one. All that the New Covenant does is widen the options.

But this widening of humanity's options is a pretty amazing thing. One particularly fascinating aspect was the community that was birthed – of people energised by the presence of God in their midst. They were suddenly turned on, transformed by the by the breath of God and filled with the love of God for each other, and for those outside. Acts 2:42 to 47 gives us a vivid description of this community.

This was a movement within Judaism, and to correctly understand the New Testament record, we need to see it in that light.

Now, not only was their location at the crossroads of the world, but the Jewish community of that day had become international. They were most probably multi-coloured. We do know that there were black Ethiopian Jew's, most of those local to Jerusalem would have been brown, many would have turned naturally lighter due to the particular  angle of the sun where they lived, others were proselytes (legally Jewish by Jewish law). Jewish people from communities around the world came to Jerusalem for certain high holy days, and one of these events was when the phenomenon of God's presence broke out, and the community burst into being.

From there, people took this message of Messiah back to their homes, so the phenomenon began to spread. Before long, even non-Jews had been affected.

Now, this presented an unusual dilemma. On the one hand, we have Torah observant Jews who had realised who Messiah is, and were turned on and transformed, but into this group were thrust uncircumcised traif-eating goyim, who appeared to be just as turned on and transformed. This begged a major question. As we saw in the Acts 2 description of the community, not only did they share their possessions, but one of their major activities was dining together.

The leaders met and had a consultation. Apostle Peter and Rabbi Paul made the strong point that the gentiles should be accepted fully into fellowship without undergoing circumcision or expected to become Torah observant. It is from Rabbi Paul that we understand the dynamics involved.

In two different places, he makes an almost identical statement. If we mash Collosians 3:11 and Gallatians 3:28 together, we come up with, Here there is no Gentile or Jew, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave or free, male or female, but Christ is all, and is in all. James, in his epistle, added "rich" and "poor" to those categories. That's to say that henceforth there were no second class citizens in God's Kingdom.

That had application not only between the individual and God, but also in our relationship to each other. Each believer, henceforth, was to show the same honour, love and respect to every other believer, no matter what the skin colour, the ethnic background, or how kosher their eating habits. In fact, eating together was also a big part of it.

As I hinted earlier, the people of that area would have been no stranger to the presence of whatever colour of skin, black, white, every shade in between, Arab, Indian, Roman Greek, German, Egyptian... The only hitch would have been the Jewish restriction on diet and coming into contact with anything ritually unclean. That would have precluded eating with or even touching any gentile.

The purpose for the restriction was out of respect for the dwelling of God in their midst. However, now there was a new vehicle for God's dwelling, the community of believers in Messiah - as in believers interacting with each other, praying with each other, worshipping together, and by no means least, eating together.

On the other side of the coin, the Jew's were still Jews, Greeks were still Greeks, Scythians remained Scythians, just as men remained men and women remained women, and slaves, in those days, were certainly not free. But that was their "day job", not who they really were before God.

In fact, Paul went out of his way to encourage people to remain as they were. In his first epistle to the Corinthians (7:18, 19), he said, Was a man already circumcised when he was called? He should not become uncircumcised. Was a man uncircumcised when he was called? He should not be circumcised. Circumcision is nothing and uncircumcision is nothing. Keeping God's commands is what counts.

Paul was so into what was taking place supernaturally between people of differing cultures that he wanted to make sure it kept happening. People who, in everyday society, couldn't stand each other's customs and lifestyles, in the fellowship of Messiah, were committed to each other and enjoying each other's company. It was life on a whole new plane! So, whenever Paul saw any gentile believer trying to become Jewish, or vice versa, his response was, "No, no, no! Don't you see what's happening? We're all In the same circle dancing the horah together! This is beautiful! Don't ruin it!"

As stated above, the Jew's remained Jew's. The term "circumcision" in Paul's terminology, wasn't just a cut in the private parts. He was referring to the whole lifestyle of a Jew; refraining from pork and meat-milk mixtures, putting a mezuzah on the door, the works. The Jewish believers of his day (including Paul himself) still worshipped and presented offerings in the Temple.

While they were with gentile believers, however, fellowship on a supernatural plane took precedence (as happens in Jewish Law - some things can take precedence over certain commandments, such as pulling a cow out of a pit on Sabbath). When they were in fellowship with the multi-ethnic community of Messiah, that took precedence over the kosher requirements. It's in that context that we can understand what Paul said to Timothy, Every creation of God is good, and nothing that is received with thanksgiving should be rejected, because it is sanctified by the word of God and prayer. (I Timothy 4:3-5).

Once that issue was resolved, all other differences between cultures, differences in diet, cultural traditions, etc, we're a piece of cake. The new way of Messiah belonged to everyone. It didn't belong any more to the Jew's than any other group.

Of course, according to Roman's 9 through 11, the Jew's do have a unique role to play. Apparently, there's more to their role of hosting God's presence that hasn't been manifested yet. We don't know what it will look like, but Paul does hint that it could be to do with the resurrection of the dead (Romans 11:15).

On the other hand, if we rightly interpret the whole of scripture, every ethnic culture also has a gift and/or a calling. If we take Roman's 11:29, and examine it alongside Colossians 3:11 and Gallatians 3:28, we can come to a conclusion that, if being Jewish is a gift and/or a calling, then so is being a man or a woman, or being Greek or Sythian, or Irish, or Nigerian. I Corinthians 12 says we are one body but many members, with many gifts and abilities. Having one gift doesn't make one more important than another.  One who speaks in tongues, one who prophesies, or heals, is Thai, Chinese, Navajo, or Jewish; each has something to add to the whole. Every culture has wisdom to impart to the rest of us.

All of that is to show that the way of Messiah, what we now call "Christianity", was not always the defining aspect of western culture, nor the impetus of European imperialism, nor the heart that pumps it's life blood to the nourishment of white skin. Ethnocentrism had no part in it. In fact, the one cultural group that had every right to be at the centre, the Jewish people, very carefully moved outward to make room in their circle for every other race, colour and culture to share in the dance of the horah.

That's how "white folks" got in at all!

So, how did Christianity become the white man's religion?

In the same passage that we were referring to earlier, Romans 9 through 11, talking about the role of Israel in the Kingdom of God and the rejection of Messiah by the wider Jewish community, Paul issues a warning (11:18-24):

...do not be arrogant toward the branches. If you are, remember it is not you who support the root, but the root that supports you. Then you will say, "Branches were broken off so that I might be grafted in." That is true. They were broken off because of their unbelief, but you stand fast through faith. So do not become proud, but fear. For if God did not spare the natural branches, neither will he spare you...For if you were cut from what is by nature a wild olive tree, and grafted, contrary to nature, into a cultivated olive tree, how much more will these, the natural branches, be grafted back into their own olive tree.

Before the Roman empire began to take notice of the New movement, persecution came from the Jewish establishment. It was an internal thing, like a cult within the wider Jewish community that the leaders felt needed to be dealt with. Regarding religious practice, the Romans gave special dispensation to the Jewish community, and didn't expect them to worship their gods. It was only after the destruction of the Holy Temple in 70 c.e., when the Roman's ceased to make allowances for Judaism, that they began to realise that the "Christians" were a distinct group.

The destruction of the Temple was probably the catalyst that prompted the parting of ways between Christianity and Judaism. It probably wasn't deliberate; there simply wasn't a Temple to go to any more. But the Gentiles had begun to be in the majority in the Messianic movement. The group thinking began to change, and, alas, they didn't heed Paul's warning.

Maybe the Gentile sector Had grown so fast it was difficult to keep them all living in supernatural harmony with other groups, especially when it was getting easier and easier for each to believe they were the main group. Perhaps it was too easy to lose the focus that it requires to keep in step in the great dance of the horah.

By the third century, even during intense persecution, we see noticeable changes in the Church's attitude towards Judaism. Jewish people seeking to become believers in Messiah were now expected to renounce their circumcision, stop celebrating the feasts and ignore the Sabbath. That was the opposite of the problem Paul addressed in his epistle to the Galatians, where the issue was whether Gentiles had to be circumcised. Some of us call this "reverse Galatianism".

Greek logic took over from Hebraic style organic thinking. With that, the concept of a congregation also began to change.

To this day, the Jewish community holds that anywhere there are ten Jewish men, there is a minyan, or a congregation. They can do communal worship as would be done at the synagogue. The building doesn't mean anything, it's just for convenience. The only building that meant anything was the Holy Temple, and that has been destroyed. Now, the Shechina is with the congregation.

I believe that's the way it was in the first century Church. Judaism has changed very little (or, comparatively little) over the last 2000 years, whereas the Gentile Church has changed a lot. Now, we do communion with a tiny wafer smaller than a biscuit (or cookie), and a tiny glass smaller than a shot glass of wine or juice, or a single sip from a communal goblet. I believe it was a full meal, the way the Jewish community still does kiddish. The communal meal was a sacred thing. It was far beyond ceremonial. It was being together, having a good time around delicious food. Many modern congregations have brought it back, but still keep it separate from the Eucharist.

In a minyan, or congregation in the original sense, each member has an equal share. As Paul was out on his missionary journeys, he established congregations and appointed elders, local people who were older and more mature than the rest of them. These elders were the servants of the congregation, to enable the rest to take their place as equal sharers in their work of the Kingdom.

As I was growing up, I spent one year living with my uncle and aunt, who were Plymouth Brethren. Ever since that time, I've thought that their system of leadership by  two or three lay elders, as well as their structure of worship in their "breaking of bread" service (modeled after I Corinthians 14:26-33) is the closest thing we have today to how the first century believers did church.

However, reading early writings, such as the Epistles of Ignatius, we see changes begin to happen. In these epistles, we repeatedly read the phrase, "Let nothing be done without the Bishop." The word "bishop" is in the singular. Just a generation before that, we have the Epistle of Clement, in which he still refers to congregations as having elders leading as a group.

Already, congregations were evolving from minyan style congregations with everyone sharing in the ministry, to groups of people all dependant on one leader. In Ignatius' time, the lay people still had a hand in the work; just "not without the Bishop," but it was slowly evolving. We could say that the setup for the meetings went from a group of chairs arranged in a circle, to rows of chairs all facing the podium. The concept of church life transformed from being a seven day a week army platoon to a one hour a week spectator sport.

Can you imagine an army where the privates all sit and watch the officers do all the combat? That's what the church has become.

In China, Mao Tse Tung did the right thing. When he gained control of the nation, he expelled all the missionaries and imprisoned all the pastors. The missionaries waited outside for years and years, expecting the Chinese church to be no more than a few struggling survivors. Instead, when China reopened, they found the strongest and fastest growing churches in the world. What had happened when the leaders were removed was, the lay people all stopped being lay people. Knowing it was up to them now, they began performing the role left vacant by their pastors and missionaries. They were forced to depend on God, and began stepping out on faith, as God has been waiting for us to do all along. And then, once the pastors were released - the ones that survived the prison ordeal, that is - they had been so tested by fire that they added that much more to the community.

Persecution does that.

I, personally, have not lived under state persecution, so I am not one to give an authoritative assessment of churches under persecution. However, I can't help but notice that the regressions that I have been noting during the first few centuries, did take place under persecution. As Ignatius was dictating his epistles, he was being walked all the way across Anatolia to the place of his trial and execution.

However, it should be noted that persecution in China left the church without their pastors, forcing the members to fill the gap, whereas the early church, also under persecution, expanded the role of the pastor. It's probably because the church in China at the beginning of the Communist regime was a very western style church, where the pastors were visible to the whole community. Everyone in town knew who the local pastors were, so all the government had to do was show up and arrest them. The bishops of the second and third centuries would have had a much better camouflaged.

Apart from that, the persecution of the first few centuries did have it's positive effect,  just as it had in China. Over all, the early church did continue to grow, and to produce people of great faith. In fact, it grew so large that, some historians believe, that's what prompted Emperor Constantine to adopt Christianity as his official religion.

That was probably the starting point in the process by which Christianity became "white man's religion". Christianity had already become weaker through the "gentilising" of the church, which among other things, separated the clergy from the leiety; now that it was easy and convenient to be a Christian, it inevitably turned into a "spectator sport". That probably took a generation or two.

Emperor Constantine simply made Christianity the state religion. Later, Emperor Theodosius I took it farther and made it illegal for heretical groups to ordain clergy or spread their beliefs. Paganism wasn't illegal - yet. However, some practices and orders were banned.

For many in the church, it may have seemed like things were going their way, persecution had stopped, church leaders were no longer taxed, then, the government mandated that only their true brand of Christianity could be taught - things could only get better! Ever since, Western Christianity has lived with the assumption that our mandate includes influencing politics, if not absolute control.

To some, this was the age of the Kingdom of God.

But the Kingdom of God - where God is truly King - does things the opposite to how human kings do. It's counter-intuitive. Jesus once described it as a seed falling into the ground and dying. It's in dying, that we find life. It's at the roots that growth happens.

Consider this: control from the top down is probably one of the least effective ways of bringing change to society - unless it's of the negative sort, motivating those at the bottom to rebel against too much control.

Kings, queens, prime ministers, presidents, no matter how rightly motivated, have very little control over whether the policeman on the corner is extorting bribes. You, as his believing neighbour, empowered by the Kingdom of God, have far more influence.

When the governor Pontus Pilat, at Jesus' trial, asked, "Are to a king?" Jesus answered, "My kingdom is not of this world. If my kingdom were of this world, my servants would have been fighting, that I might not be delivered over to the Jews. But my kingdom is not from the world." (John 18:36 ESV)

So, why, for the past 2000 years, have Jesus' servants been fighting, vying for power, controlling people's lives, playing politics?

To this day, any time a Western government enacts a law that's disagreeable to Christianity, expect a vocal outcry from the church, followed by intense lobbying and politicking. On the other hand, be prepared for a deafening silence whenever someone comments that the general level of morality is no higher in the church than among the general public. Is it the government's job to keep us moral - or has the salt lost its savour?

With the changes of the fourth century, a dangerous course had been plotted. Laws that applied to fringe cults, much later became the precedent for laws limiting, or even outlawing Judaism, mandating the burning of heretics, and witches, and dicidents of any sort. There were the Crusades, the pogroms, the Inquisition.

And Protestantism didn't bring the full reformation some had sought. It too, was commandeered by political forces that wished to be free from the Papacy, and they, in turn, persecuted Catholics.

It was the power play between Catholic and Protestant forces that gave rise to the Troubles in Ireland.

What really made Christianity "the white man's religion", was the Doctrine of Discovery. That's the doctrine that any Christian nation that "discovers" a new land, not already populated my Christians, gets to keep it. Any existing non-Christian population has no sovereignty over the land they inhabited. That's it in it's most (over) simplified form. There are a few stipulations as well.

That's the doctrine that defines what we mean when we say Columbus "discovered" America. If you think outside that guideline, he didn't discover it. People have been living there all along.

The doctrine was formed by a Papal Bull of Pope Alexander VI, May 4, 1493. The original form stipulated that Catholic countries, particularly Spain and Portugal, had that right. Once Britain became Protestant, they formulated their own version of it, which was treated as international law by the time of Thomas Jefferson, who, as Secretary of State appealed to it in 1792 as declaring U.S. as a sovereign nation.

It's the basis for the understanding that the territory occupied by U.S. (and Canada) belongs to the white Europeans that arrived and set up their nation, and not to the Native Americans who were there since long before - just because they weren't Christians.

There is a lot more that can be studied about the Doctrine of Discovery, which I won't go into here, because it's already been explained much better than I could do. I highly recommend a book recently published by a friend of mine, Harry Smith, titled A Destiny Denied, A Dignity Restored.

Harry's other book, Heal Not Lightly, is about the Troubles in Northern Ireland. He writes from a unique perspective, being himself half Ulster Scotts, whom he sees as having played a major role both in N Ireland and injustice towards the Native Americans.

I'm also part Ulster Scott's, and have ancestors on my mother's side who would have been in at least one of the Indian Wars, as a settler in Western Ohio; and a grandfather and great grandfather on my father's who signed the Ulster Covenant in N Ireland. That's a covenant signed by a majority of Protestants in 1912 swearing to fight to the death to not be ruled by the new Irish nation, which they perceived would be Catholic dominated - thereby forcing Great Britain to keep N Ireland as a province.

We Ulster Scott's came to N. Ireland, and some of us proceed onward to America with  the same doctrine embedded in our thinking: "God has given us this land. It no longer belongs to the (Irish Catholics/American Indians), so we will take it, and defend it with God on our side!"

Many still sincerely believe that, just as our forefathers in the faith have believed it since a few generations after the Roman persecution ended. We've assumed that state support for the church was part of the deal. This has taken various forms: state churches, the king or queen as protector of the faith, national covenants, church involvement in politics, in making the laws, advising the government... I am not proposing that Christians need to refrain from taking part in the democratic process, only that political power is not a part of our mandate. Where we've treated it as such, we've done more harm than good.

But the point is, we've been blinded to that. That has led us to be perfectly fine with things like the Crusades, the Inquisition, pogroms, slavery, genocide of American Indians, their forced enrolment in boarding schools, segregation, the list goes on.

However, there have also been notable exceptions throughout Christian history, some of which have helped move Western society back in the right direction. These include various ones that were later canonised as saints such as Francis of Assisi, who recognised that it was thebpoor who will inherit the earth; the Jesuits in South America that stood up against the exploiting of Indian tribes; the Moravians, who were among the only ones to reach out to the Native Americans as equals, even adopting their lifestyles and dressing like them; the Quaker Brethren, who were the driving force behind the abolition movements both in Britain and in the U.S.; The Methodists, out of which movement came campaigners for child labour laws and the beginnings of women's sufferage; Baptist minister Martin Luther King jr., who single handedly made "racism" a dirty word. M. L. King's activism not only changed people's perceptions of the black community, but, I believe, of other ethnic groups as well. Before King's time, no one would have seriously considered that American Indians had been treated unjustly.

Now, there's a significant number of people from every denomination that desire healing of the damage done by us. The way forward is not to say, "How horrid they were in those days; how enlightened and politically correct we are today!"

Remember how we were then; in my third podcast we saw that we, the human race, were perfectly okay with genocide, slavery and child sacrifice. That was us. If you prefer to say "them", just remember, if it weren't for "them", there wouldn't be "us" today. It was those small steps, starting with the Torah, allowing the mindset induced by the Torah to sink in and lead us to their natural conclusions, that brought us step by step to where we are today. Even after the slip backwards caused by our rejection of the Jewish aspects of our faith, we've still progressed in small steps.

They were steps forward. We can even see examples of that in American secular history. Those who wrote the Declaration of Independence had the imagination to add the phrase, "All men are created equal." It took a while to dawn on some people's minds that that included Black people and Native Americans as well - not to mention women. But if it weren't for slave owners like Thomas Jefferson and George Washington, perhaps blinded to certain aspects of the truth they were expounding, there would not be Martin Luther King jr. as we know him today.

On the other hand, by claiming and carrying on the heritage passed on by our far-from-perfect ancestors, we are, in a sense, complicit in their crimes. With the good things come the bad. The baby and the bathwater are all one. We either throw them both out, or keep them. If we give credit where it's due for where we are today, we become bedfellows with some nasty blokes. The Volkswagen, the wonderful automobile that it is, was brought to us by Adolf Hitler.

Instead of saying, "How horrid they were," or worse yet, totally forgetting our history, let's say, "How horrid WE were." "How horrid my fathers and mothers were to yours" (how you respond regarding your Volkswagen is up to you). Take ownership of the fault as if it were yours, and begin apologising.

The place to initiate this pattern is in your prayers, repenting before God. Two people in the Bible, Daniel and Nehemiah, offered prayers to God in this way. Neither of them were personally guilty, but they nevertheless confessed sins committed by their forefathers that resulted in their nation being exiled from their homeland.

Remember, in our last podcast we saw how understanding the intensity of the wounds Jesus endured is a key to being able to forgive. On the other side of the coin, our own sins, and those of our family clan and nation fall in the same category. It's the key to forgiving ourselves, and accepting our place before God and the rest of humanity with total humility, no pretensions, nothing that gives us the right to claim that we are any better than anyone.

Once we've received this forgiveness for ourselves, then we can begin apologising to each other. Do it on your own behalf. If you represent an organisation, such as a denomination, a recognised cultural ethnic association, a government body, and you have the support of that organisation, then you, along with a delegation make that apology. Some have done so already. Pope John Paul II has made apologies for the persecution of the Jews, for Moslems killed during the Crusades and a number of other injustices. The nation of Canada has made similar apologies to the Native Americans.

There's still more to be done. We still have a long way to go, but I hope all this has served as a slap in the right direction.

# More by Robby Charters

## More on the Kingdom of God

**If you're hungry for more,** **_The Tishbyte Foundational Bible Study Series_** is set of study outlines designed to lay a Biblical foundation beginning with the Old Testament, and moving right into the life and teaching of Jesus, the Messiah, His sacrifice, and the work of the Holy Spirit in the life of the Church. The pattern we follow in this set of outlines is to treat the Old Testament as being the foundation to the New Testament, and the four Gospels, the sayings of Jesus, as foundation to everything else, just as Jesus said it was. Thus the first five modules cover the Old Testament, and the following five, the life and teachings of Messiah Jesus. This should be useful even to those who have walked with the Lord for many years, as study of the Old Testament, particularly the Torah, is an area that has been generally neglected. The course of study endeavours to give the participant an understanding of things of the faith in the way the early believers in the time of Jesus and the apostles would have understood them -- first by painting the picture of what the early Jews of Jesus's time expected and understood, and then expanding on that understanding the way Jesus did. In other words, we are seeking to understand the Kingdom of God as it was originally presented. In doing so, we should pick up on things many in the Church have neglected over the centuries since then.

**For a briefer explanation** of what the Kingdom of God is all about, check out my online comic book: **The Happy Kingdom**

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# Table of Contents

  1. Title Page
  2. How a Slap on the Ground Saved Four Demensional Space-time
    1. The Blurb
    2. The Stuff
  3. Getting a Handle on Omnipotence
    1. The Blurb
    2. The Stuff
  4. How the Omnipotent One Used Politically Incorrect Methods to Fix the Universe
    1. The Blurb
    2. The Stuff
  5. The Ultimate Fix
    1. The Blurb
    2. The Stuff
  6. Salvation and it's Components
    1. The Blurb
    2. The Stuff
  7. Why All the Blood?
    1. The Blurb
    2. The Stuff
  8. How did Christianity Become the White Man's Religion?
    1. The Blurb
    2. The Stuff
  9. More by Robby Charters

# Landmarks

  1. Cover

