Time began two million, two hundred sixteen thousand, five hundred twenty-two years, seven months, three days, four hours, thirteen minutes, and forty-two seconds ago. How sure am I? It is as absolute as anyone who believes the Bible makes the claim of ten to twenty thousand years and that it happened to have begun in literally seven days. Make sure you note that “they” think the Bible makes that claim and that I believe it does not and therefore the Bibles integrity, not infallibility, remains intact. Additionally, the two million years I suggest as a starting point is about time and not the formation of oxygen and minerals that make up most of the rock and liquid that is earth. I believe in the “old world” theory that is set up by a premise that suggests earths age matters little on the measurement or beginning of time as we relate to it, that the earths surface may as many as four times been nearly or completely covered by ice during which the “big bang” may have not yet completed its work of aliening the units, including our star (the sun), of finding their places in the galaxy. One might consider, as I do, that God was not even ready for the “seven days” let alone humanity and that the completion of His work was a detailed, drawn out process, best analogized by a young child being released on that last triumphant push by a proud father teaching the skill of bicycling, being watched by a bystander who hadn’t seen the other hundred attempts. The analogy builds for creation the idea that the final outcome, humans and life, was preceded by thousands of years of work, and an evolutionary process not beginning with some catastrophic event of chance but by an unknown and undefined power and intellect centered in natural science, invented and nurtured by this higher power that we call God and which is synonymous with nature here and far beyond our galaxy, and farther beyond and that this evolution is easily exemplified by the most recent freezing of earth that began some 70,000 years ago and likely covered at least half of the United States scouring out the basins of the Great Lakes. Because so much of earth’s water was trapped in ice, parts of the ocean floor were exposed and sea level was as much as 390 ft. below what it is today. About 11,500 years ago, this latest advance of ice ended and life as we know it began, not that life began, but that it did as we know and have documented it and also that it might well be one catastrophic event, that of a small meteor, that eliminated dinosaurs, a segment of the food chain higher than ourselves that initiated God’s “six day work week” and ended with a big sigh of relief on the “seventh”. So, if you will, as I do, enter Moses.
Moses was about eighty years old at the time of the Exodus from Egypt and for much of his first thirty years was well educated in science, namely alchemy, widely practiced in Ancient Egypt. Alchemy at that time refers to the investigation of the natural and early philosophical and spiritual disciplines, combining elements of chemistry, metallurgy, physics, medicine, astrology, semiotics, mysticism, and spiritualism as part of one greater force connecting the human soul to the Devine. More specifically, and a great example, is sacred geometry, a sample of which is the Great Pyramid, which shows the insight of the Egyptians about the mysteries, including electromagnetic energies and laws of the universe. Moses was subjected to all of this and the education was easily transferable and incorporated into the Hebrew concept of God. Egyptians were the first to use a 365 day calendar and they also were able to determine a north and south pole defining the earth as a globe, only able to do so as the correct star alignment occurred about 2467 BC and allowing the Egyptians the knowledge to construct the Great Pyramid at Giza, one of the Seven Wonders of the World, nearly a thousand years before Moses birth in about 1527 BC. During the first third of Moses life, his education centered, by observation in the palace of the Egyptian King, on how to govern a nation. The second third was learning wilderness survival from his father-in-law Jethro. The last third of his life was the application of his knowledge as he led the Israelites through the Sinai Wilderness at the beginning and formation of a great nation. It was during their forty-year wandering, which began about 1462 BC, that Moses wrote the book of Genesis.
You can find hundreds of liberal “religionist” writers offering their insipid religious convictions or their atheistic counterparts who so eloquently, at length, attempt to dismiss the Bible as a fraud, both displaying their lack of appreciation and understanding of the deliverance, by what I believe to be, human inspiration, of God’s will in our lives. Liberal Bible seminaries who question if Moses even existed and who approvingly teach the “documentary hypothesis” or “JEDP hypothesis”, that assigns authorship to various anonymous writers who gathered myths and legends from many nations and added them to the “camp fire stories” of the Hebrew Nation. Then there are the “deniers”, and none more aggressive and articulate than Darrell W. Conder or Christopher Hitchens. I do not belong to either camp, though most conservatives question my sincerity due to my lack of interest in salvation, but that is another day’s topic. The words of Christ bring me to my understanding of The Law and no where else can they be so explicit than those from the Sermon on the Mount, the radically different message of not just acting righteously but thinking righteously as well. The only way to understand how, is by a set of commands and written into that set of commands is creation, done so by a man named Moses, the nation builder, who had a direct connection on a line from Abraham right through himself to Christ. Jesus spoke to us on this down to earth personal level that taught us as individuals to love each other and “do unto others” based on the ten commands that were not at odds with “the sermon, as with the sixth; “Thou Shalt Not Kill”. It allows a nation or person to defend, and as a last resort to kill, but not to murder. Christ referred to slaughter and murder and so did the command. To find creation in the commands you need only look at the forth and the Good Book is tied together with an author at the very beginning, explaining what is an easy endeavor in logic and lies with the discernment of time and ultimately, the truth about God.
When you extend the equations of general relativity to include space and time, the result shows that time has a beginning (ie The Big Bang). (See Stephen Hawking’s “The Beginning of Time” and essays by Rodger Penrose and George Ellis). Overcome by infinity, we can only observe our universe and its 15 billion year age. For awhile, be amazed, then latch on to what is understood, ultimately to find comfort in truth, found directly inside each one of us in our hearts and minds, the combination of which is a soul, isolated from God only by doubt and disbelief, the mistake that the infallibility of the law, dismissed, descends the disbeliever into idolatry and captivity in both the spiritual and physical realm, the undoing of which can only be accomplished by returning again and again after failure, but having a script laid down by the ancients who described the way to lead our natural lives and that God wrote down, through Moses, and passes on to each of us in the same way, the freedom and relief from sin. B. C.
Saturday, December 27, 2008
Friday, December 19, 2008
THE BAD DREAM TEAM
Some of my colleagues in the conservative movement are a bit surprised with the makeup of the cabinet that president-elect Obama has assembled and I think I am understating their relief. I would, however, suggest reservation and concern, considering his political calculations seem all to evident, supported by his own words and his most recent assignments that make up his energy team. Sadly, those selections seem to undercut his promise to bring a “new voice” to the debate on environmental issues. It troubles me because the team is a group of environmental spiritualists who seem hell bent on spreading their religious twaddle into the market place, supported not by demand or need that necessitates supply, but by taxpayer money creating so-called “green jobs”, the like of which will have disastrous affects on an already flailing economy.
Carol Browner, EPA administer under Bill Clinton for seven years and a legislative director for Al Gore, as well as being his chief researcher and writer of his stupid manifesto “Earth in the Balance” will have great influence as energy and climate czar. Lisa Jackson, a protégée of Brower, will head up EPA and implement their radical agenda. Most worrisome is Mr. Obama’s choice as energy secretary. While Steven Chu is a Nobel Prize winner in physics, his work in laser technology might be better applied at Defense or State as an advisor. Being a hobbyist with a personal interest in “global warming” (depending on the year, read climate change) makes him no more, and probably less qualified than a science junky and weather guru like our own Anthony Watts. Alluding to coal as being the problem, Mr. Chu is an advocate for the elimination of this valuable resource, except for maybe a few lumps in each of our stockings. One needs only to consider our compound dependency on coal and its inexpensive cost compared to any other known form of energy to realize Steven Chu is the wrong man for the job.
As the state of California considers loopholes in ways to add burdensome regulation and taxation to the backs of its citizens, the last thing we need is a dictatorial environmental wacko messiah from the federal government with a new years resolution to destroy the economy that is already frozen solid. One can only pray for a small bit of that “global warming”. But hey, you all voted for change.
Carol Browner, EPA administer under Bill Clinton for seven years and a legislative director for Al Gore, as well as being his chief researcher and writer of his stupid manifesto “Earth in the Balance” will have great influence as energy and climate czar. Lisa Jackson, a protégée of Brower, will head up EPA and implement their radical agenda. Most worrisome is Mr. Obama’s choice as energy secretary. While Steven Chu is a Nobel Prize winner in physics, his work in laser technology might be better applied at Defense or State as an advisor. Being a hobbyist with a personal interest in “global warming” (depending on the year, read climate change) makes him no more, and probably less qualified than a science junky and weather guru like our own Anthony Watts. Alluding to coal as being the problem, Mr. Chu is an advocate for the elimination of this valuable resource, except for maybe a few lumps in each of our stockings. One needs only to consider our compound dependency on coal and its inexpensive cost compared to any other known form of energy to realize Steven Chu is the wrong man for the job.
As the state of California considers loopholes in ways to add burdensome regulation and taxation to the backs of its citizens, the last thing we need is a dictatorial environmental wacko messiah from the federal government with a new years resolution to destroy the economy that is already frozen solid. One can only pray for a small bit of that “global warming”. But hey, you all voted for change.
Sunday, December 7, 2008
THE SABBATH
The fact of the matter is that the Bible has never disenfranchised the Sabbath or separated its significance from the final day of the week or the reasons for which it begins at sun down and culminates on Saturday at sundown. If you believe the biblical account of creation, the Sabbath was made for man (Mark 2:27) not just Jews or world religionists. Adam didn’t have a clue who Abraham was. God created a world and inhabited it with one people. The sacrificial system the Israelites had imposed on them because they couldn't control their lifestyle used as highlights and markers, specific Sabbaths. No logical thinker would conclude that the Sabbath relationship to creation and its significance to helping mankind remember and celebrate it was in any way diluted or changed at that systems conclusion. We know Jesus wandered around for a while after He rose (I’ve not been with my Father yet), and during that time continued to keep the seventh day. I may say what I will about the nature of Him but I strive for clarity and the Bible suggests no change in day but a very important change from the strict legalistic manner which temple elites carried out their tyrannical policing of its observance. Was He confused about the significance of His “role” in the modern Christian belief of a "big shift"? Two or three hundred years later, Christians were starting to use Sunday because, well, all the pagans were, why not? Just like the Jews of old, hey Moses? This country, my father used to say is a Christian nation. I think not dad, just a bunch of pagans.
To tell you the truth, I don’t care if you keep the Sabbath on Tuesday; it’s your call. Get your family together and love each other. Its time to stop and rest from the rat race. I choose these days to spend it on the soccer fields with my grand kids and when we can in Sabbath School and Church. My friends down at "Second and Robinson" will forgive my belief that the specific day matters not but that the down fall of this country is centered on the unholy and unnatural and that is evidenced by the attack on marriage and the blurring of lines between right and wrong and good and evil. Diminishing the Sabbath to irrelevance does likewise to honor and faithfulness and truthfulness and a more close relationship with the Creator of all things no matter how I believe that occurred (you'll learn that next). Love is the greatest command and you all ought to fall in love with the Sabbath and its connection to nature. B. C.
To tell you the truth, I don’t care if you keep the Sabbath on Tuesday; it’s your call. Get your family together and love each other. Its time to stop and rest from the rat race. I choose these days to spend it on the soccer fields with my grand kids and when we can in Sabbath School and Church. My friends down at "Second and Robinson" will forgive my belief that the specific day matters not but that the down fall of this country is centered on the unholy and unnatural and that is evidenced by the attack on marriage and the blurring of lines between right and wrong and good and evil. Diminishing the Sabbath to irrelevance does likewise to honor and faithfulness and truthfulness and a more close relationship with the Creator of all things no matter how I believe that occurred (you'll learn that next). Love is the greatest command and you all ought to fall in love with the Sabbath and its connection to nature. B. C.
Saturday, December 6, 2008
REMEMBER
I find myself on a Saturday, the first in December, and almost through another Sabbath day. I wanted to buck my intuition and continue writing on a very important subject, to be posted as soon as possible on my blog, titled, “In The Beginning”. It is not complete and I just wanted to call your attention to something our country desperately needs.
When Moses compiled the Ten Commandments, he had a wealth of knowledge about life and the nature of our world. Though his frustration with the people of Israel is documented in the books he penned and demonstrated by the harshness and arduous complexity of “the law”, there can be no doubt that the original intent on the tablets was to provide a simple yet comprehensive documentation of the natural law which had
spiritual and social components. It is easy to determine the defining line between the two areas of concern except for the fourth, which I believe is a mixture of the two. It was wise and appropriate to place it exactly where he did. You should take note that while a secular country like ours may be tempted to diminish the spiritual, to tolerate the personal nature of that side of the law, governing outside of the spiritual influences of the law will and has depreciated the understanding and adherence of the remainder of the law. You can witness the consequence of this reckless inattention to God’s will, and while the appeal of our constitution is that no spiritual philosophy can or should be subjugated or dispensed of, the idea that the very basis and nature of that constitution could be written out of it, and our daily lives, by secular government mandate, is appalling.
So why the importance of remembrance? The Fourth Command is by far the longest of the ten and in its entirety, can be read I Exodus 20: 8-11. The general meaning of the Sabbath is a call to rest but that does not identify the importance and acknowledgment that emanates from the very beginning and throughout the text. The Hebrew word, “zakhor”, translated (remember) means more than merely recalling something past, but suggests actively focusing the mind upon something in the present, a call to mind, that on all other days, we are to look towards this day. It is not the laborious Deuteronomy version where the Hebrew word is “shamor” which has a more legalistic translation of keeping or observing as opposed to remembering. More importantly, the Sabbath is a perpetual testimony that God alone is the unique Creator of all things, that no other day could graduate to its importance and that Moses recognized that by writing it into the Holy Ten. The significance of that fact propels its applicability far beyond Sinai and is supported by going further back to the unique calling of Abraham who recognized God as Creator of all things, and the Sabbath.
Memorializing Creation does not complete the significance of The Day. That is the natural side of things. Tying The Fourth to the spiritual, that which the Christian church today has diminished, that which our country so desperately deserves reformed, which is the appreciation of God’s work and observed by experiencing the liberation from the toil of labor for all of God’s creatures. It must be administered in a way that by resisting the usual cares and concerns of the secular world, we can unite and be fulfilled by study, rest, and the enjoyment of reflection with each other and by God’s blessing. Should we as a country restore our celebration of this day, we re-establish unity of community and family so abhorrently lost in our society. We deny the absurdity of the unnatural and dream of a restored spiritual and, in my opinion, Christian nation.
B. C.
When Moses compiled the Ten Commandments, he had a wealth of knowledge about life and the nature of our world. Though his frustration with the people of Israel is documented in the books he penned and demonstrated by the harshness and arduous complexity of “the law”, there can be no doubt that the original intent on the tablets was to provide a simple yet comprehensive documentation of the natural law which had
spiritual and social components. It is easy to determine the defining line between the two areas of concern except for the fourth, which I believe is a mixture of the two. It was wise and appropriate to place it exactly where he did. You should take note that while a secular country like ours may be tempted to diminish the spiritual, to tolerate the personal nature of that side of the law, governing outside of the spiritual influences of the law will and has depreciated the understanding and adherence of the remainder of the law. You can witness the consequence of this reckless inattention to God’s will, and while the appeal of our constitution is that no spiritual philosophy can or should be subjugated or dispensed of, the idea that the very basis and nature of that constitution could be written out of it, and our daily lives, by secular government mandate, is appalling.
So why the importance of remembrance? The Fourth Command is by far the longest of the ten and in its entirety, can be read I Exodus 20: 8-11. The general meaning of the Sabbath is a call to rest but that does not identify the importance and acknowledgment that emanates from the very beginning and throughout the text. The Hebrew word, “zakhor”, translated (remember) means more than merely recalling something past, but suggests actively focusing the mind upon something in the present, a call to mind, that on all other days, we are to look towards this day. It is not the laborious Deuteronomy version where the Hebrew word is “shamor” which has a more legalistic translation of keeping or observing as opposed to remembering. More importantly, the Sabbath is a perpetual testimony that God alone is the unique Creator of all things, that no other day could graduate to its importance and that Moses recognized that by writing it into the Holy Ten. The significance of that fact propels its applicability far beyond Sinai and is supported by going further back to the unique calling of Abraham who recognized God as Creator of all things, and the Sabbath.
Memorializing Creation does not complete the significance of The Day. That is the natural side of things. Tying The Fourth to the spiritual, that which the Christian church today has diminished, that which our country so desperately deserves reformed, which is the appreciation of God’s work and observed by experiencing the liberation from the toil of labor for all of God’s creatures. It must be administered in a way that by resisting the usual cares and concerns of the secular world, we can unite and be fulfilled by study, rest, and the enjoyment of reflection with each other and by God’s blessing. Should we as a country restore our celebration of this day, we re-establish unity of community and family so abhorrently lost in our society. We deny the absurdity of the unnatural and dream of a restored spiritual and, in my opinion, Christian nation.
B. C.
Tuesday, December 2, 2008
A Great Disappointment
William Miller led a movement of Christian believers in the 1840’s who attempted to determine the date of Christ’s return. It splintered on Oct 22nd 1844 when He did not. Out of the unbelievable disappointment, enlightenment was received and rekindled an understanding of mans relationship with God. The Christian church was challenging itself to return to a stricter adherence to the law of God. Understanding that law, and adhering to it, might have kept the church in Gods favor. Christians today may think they are doing Gods will, but I believe you are wrong.
Some may dismiss my remarks because you are familiar with my belief that the scripture is not inspired but is a human endeavor to understand the will of God. My belief, “inspired” by logic, disqualifies the need for a savior but that is another days subject.
Recently, I submitted this very post to the "Religion" page of the local newspaper. That forum affords testimony to be given by the followers of Jesus who think one of two things. He did away with the law and/or diluted it. By dying for our sins, and becoming the only avenue for forgiveness, he inserts the insinuation of accountability after death. Judgment commencing at a later date for spiritual sins allows the Christian community the lackluster activity of setting aside “spiritual” law due to the inability to enforce what is not our responsibility to enforce. Sure, crimes against each other we enforce by allowing a secular entity to do so. During the days of Moses, the law had a spiritual quotient to it. Understanding that could bring the Christian church back to God and save this country.
One would first have to know who or what God is. Christians have come up with the Trinity theology to support their need to be saved. Saving could not happen otherwise. Christians readily acknowledge that God is a spirit. Early “inspired” humans say God wrote with His own finger that you should have no other Gods before Him. Now that’s just silly. You mean to tell me there are more “gods” than God. Would these “gods” be at odds with the Hebrew/Christian God? Are they benevolent entities, as “our” God is? If not, would there be more war in heaven should their power be equal to His. Please, do not comment that I do not understand the first commandment, I do. I digress and was a bit sarcastic only to show my belief there is but one God and that He has given us the opportunity to benefit from the observations (read inspirations, if you must) of ancient writers who came up with a set of laws, which when adhered to can benefit civilization to the extent that heaven on earth is possible. The opposite is true with out it. What a disappointment that would be. The law is that set of principles, better defined as the manual for human existence. Inside you will find how to live your life, which includes but not limited to, what to eat, when to work, what to give, and how to live with yourself and others. Save your Christian country and return to your God. B.C.
Some may dismiss my remarks because you are familiar with my belief that the scripture is not inspired but is a human endeavor to understand the will of God. My belief, “inspired” by logic, disqualifies the need for a savior but that is another days subject.
Recently, I submitted this very post to the "Religion" page of the local newspaper. That forum affords testimony to be given by the followers of Jesus who think one of two things. He did away with the law and/or diluted it. By dying for our sins, and becoming the only avenue for forgiveness, he inserts the insinuation of accountability after death. Judgment commencing at a later date for spiritual sins allows the Christian community the lackluster activity of setting aside “spiritual” law due to the inability to enforce what is not our responsibility to enforce. Sure, crimes against each other we enforce by allowing a secular entity to do so. During the days of Moses, the law had a spiritual quotient to it. Understanding that could bring the Christian church back to God and save this country.
One would first have to know who or what God is. Christians have come up with the Trinity theology to support their need to be saved. Saving could not happen otherwise. Christians readily acknowledge that God is a spirit. Early “inspired” humans say God wrote with His own finger that you should have no other Gods before Him. Now that’s just silly. You mean to tell me there are more “gods” than God. Would these “gods” be at odds with the Hebrew/Christian God? Are they benevolent entities, as “our” God is? If not, would there be more war in heaven should their power be equal to His. Please, do not comment that I do not understand the first commandment, I do. I digress and was a bit sarcastic only to show my belief there is but one God and that He has given us the opportunity to benefit from the observations (read inspirations, if you must) of ancient writers who came up with a set of laws, which when adhered to can benefit civilization to the extent that heaven on earth is possible. The opposite is true with out it. What a disappointment that would be. The law is that set of principles, better defined as the manual for human existence. Inside you will find how to live your life, which includes but not limited to, what to eat, when to work, what to give, and how to live with yourself and others. Save your Christian country and return to your God. B.C.
Thursday, November 27, 2008
GOD LIVES IN ME
Down through the centuries of chronicled human lore, mankind has grappled with the concept of a higher power. All cultures have been unequivocal in presuming this power to be reality. Each has placed on “It” an identity which could be filtered into the language thereby allowing individuals an understanding of one’s relationship with this, to put it in modern terms, super icon. I’m not going to attempt to list nor will I research all of the ways this entity is described as being or realized to be. Millennium of time has given us “God”.
On this Thanksgiving Day 2008, I wonder if you are ready to bring yourself somewhere with me. You see, its not enough to claim a belief in something, to give thanks for our bounty and good fortune to God, to ask forgiviness for our short comings, unless you are honest with yourself about your understanding of who you precieve God to be. I am not here to judge your understanding nor be critical of the path that led you to it. However, superficiality is a trait of disbelief, a façade for the hidden, not the onlooker. The decay of society is a sure sign that most of us are in that boat heading for the falls and I’m not going over with you. I will not presume to be the Martin Luther of our time nor cast myself as the captain of the boat headed for demise. All souls on board must save themselves and therefore the rationale for study of what you believe. By my childhood upbringing, I have seen this very fall of humanity coming, not by my own foresight, but by those wise folk and kin before me, from biblical patriarchs to founders of the SDA church and my parents. The church and I split where value assigned to contributors may not be equal but has at least an equal consideration, which, to get to the crux of my belief, the bible included. “They” would quote, “As we have said before, so now I say again: If anyone is preaching to you a gospel contrary to the one you received, let him be accursed.” (Galatians 1:9) “They” would be well advised to relinquish the model set forth by the children of Israel, where precious few years of dedication to God were sprinkled in and amongst the hundreds more of idol worship and consortion with evil. The heritage assumed by its appellation, Judaeo-Christian, is rife with separation from God, usually followed by reformation. Moses was; he wrote the law. Christ was; he challenged the temple hierarchy. Martin Luther was; he broke the chokehold of Catholic dogma.
By accepting certain parameters, giving logic its due, but not shunning hope that gives faith credence, then shoveling in the centuries of historical documents that thinkers, authors and prophets have given for the betterment of our understanding, coming out on the other side with what fit’s the modern age you will find a true understanding of God. It’s not hard, and is absolutely achievable. You must start here not there. Here is where you can study the affects of Christian thoughts and deeds. Here is where you find freedom to choose. Here is a country where for most of its history, not throughout, but in its very founding and in great segments, God is placed foremost, and so to, believers in rolls of great leadership. In these United States of America, until the 1960’s, vast majorities believed in God. It is our general conceptual view of Him that led to the elimination of slavery. Here is where women claimed their equal rights. It has been under the influence of Christianity, sometimes at odds with old theology, that the freedom bell rings. It has been mans understanding of God that has changed, not God.
It is my understanding that God is a spirit, manifested by each one of us, by nature, that which we are caretakers of, and by the science that is indisputable. Degeneration leads to new generation, but also, creation leads to new creation and the two are mutually supporting. In a fashion that we can only speculate, God kicked it off, allowing us the controlls, but always present to influence. Wise thinkers have written about this relationship and Christians have accepted that Christ, a human, should intercede, to facilitate this relationship. The value of the spirituality of Christ cannot be overstated and His words often explain the connection we should foster with our God. However, my belief is that God live’s in me and that any intercessor is a disconnection of the involvement and participation in my day-to-day life this spirit has.
So, I place Christ in the elevated group that includes some of the previously mentioned influences, and that we can debate in the future, heaven and hell, the trinity, and we will discuss the importance of words that have been written, such as God’s physicality whether in word or structure. Since I believe that many of Christ’s words were antidotal, left to inspire the enslaved to rise up and carry that cross to the “new world”, a new people, and a new belief system that would someday regenerate His Jewish state. He is the architect, but it is God who lives in me, and Christ can only and always be, the son of a man.
Next up, THE LAW. B. C.
On this Thanksgiving Day 2008, I wonder if you are ready to bring yourself somewhere with me. You see, its not enough to claim a belief in something, to give thanks for our bounty and good fortune to God, to ask forgiviness for our short comings, unless you are honest with yourself about your understanding of who you precieve God to be. I am not here to judge your understanding nor be critical of the path that led you to it. However, superficiality is a trait of disbelief, a façade for the hidden, not the onlooker. The decay of society is a sure sign that most of us are in that boat heading for the falls and I’m not going over with you. I will not presume to be the Martin Luther of our time nor cast myself as the captain of the boat headed for demise. All souls on board must save themselves and therefore the rationale for study of what you believe. By my childhood upbringing, I have seen this very fall of humanity coming, not by my own foresight, but by those wise folk and kin before me, from biblical patriarchs to founders of the SDA church and my parents. The church and I split where value assigned to contributors may not be equal but has at least an equal consideration, which, to get to the crux of my belief, the bible included. “They” would quote, “As we have said before, so now I say again: If anyone is preaching to you a gospel contrary to the one you received, let him be accursed.” (Galatians 1:9) “They” would be well advised to relinquish the model set forth by the children of Israel, where precious few years of dedication to God were sprinkled in and amongst the hundreds more of idol worship and consortion with evil. The heritage assumed by its appellation, Judaeo-Christian, is rife with separation from God, usually followed by reformation. Moses was; he wrote the law. Christ was; he challenged the temple hierarchy. Martin Luther was; he broke the chokehold of Catholic dogma.
By accepting certain parameters, giving logic its due, but not shunning hope that gives faith credence, then shoveling in the centuries of historical documents that thinkers, authors and prophets have given for the betterment of our understanding, coming out on the other side with what fit’s the modern age you will find a true understanding of God. It’s not hard, and is absolutely achievable. You must start here not there. Here is where you can study the affects of Christian thoughts and deeds. Here is where you find freedom to choose. Here is a country where for most of its history, not throughout, but in its very founding and in great segments, God is placed foremost, and so to, believers in rolls of great leadership. In these United States of America, until the 1960’s, vast majorities believed in God. It is our general conceptual view of Him that led to the elimination of slavery. Here is where women claimed their equal rights. It has been under the influence of Christianity, sometimes at odds with old theology, that the freedom bell rings. It has been mans understanding of God that has changed, not God.
It is my understanding that God is a spirit, manifested by each one of us, by nature, that which we are caretakers of, and by the science that is indisputable. Degeneration leads to new generation, but also, creation leads to new creation and the two are mutually supporting. In a fashion that we can only speculate, God kicked it off, allowing us the controlls, but always present to influence. Wise thinkers have written about this relationship and Christians have accepted that Christ, a human, should intercede, to facilitate this relationship. The value of the spirituality of Christ cannot be overstated and His words often explain the connection we should foster with our God. However, my belief is that God live’s in me and that any intercessor is a disconnection of the involvement and participation in my day-to-day life this spirit has.
So, I place Christ in the elevated group that includes some of the previously mentioned influences, and that we can debate in the future, heaven and hell, the trinity, and we will discuss the importance of words that have been written, such as God’s physicality whether in word or structure. Since I believe that many of Christ’s words were antidotal, left to inspire the enslaved to rise up and carry that cross to the “new world”, a new people, and a new belief system that would someday regenerate His Jewish state. He is the architect, but it is God who lives in me, and Christ can only and always be, the son of a man.
Next up, THE LAW. B. C.
Monday, November 17, 2008
MY PATH HAS BEEN A CIRCLE, ALMOST
I was born to a mother and father who were new converts to what many Christian’s say is a cult. For some period of time before their introduction to the Seventh-day Adventist church, they had already begun their spiritual journey. My father had nearly lost an eight-year battle with tuberculosis (he did lose a full lung and one third of the other) and my mother who easily won her battle with the disease found her life’s calling in it. In the 30’s and 40’s you needed places like Weimar Sanitarium to win that battle and after my mother did, she left to study to become a nurse, then returned to help save my fathers life, to actually save his very spirit, and very much to fall in love with him. I kind of think the latter may have happened prior to her choosing her life’s profession, so one could consider, by giving his love to her, he also initiated the path by which his saving could be possible, and by no other way might I have been so much as a thought.
I was born to parents who where said to not have the ability to produce children. From my father’s perspective, the lack of physical performance, he couldn’t walk 100 feet without being so out of breath as to make one wonder if that were his last 100 feet. My mothers problem was not that she couldn’t out run the dog (any one who saw her at Christmas doing Ingathering duties saw that first hand), but no, it was that she could not carry a child. Towards the late fifties my father actually developed some more stamina as proven by the many times we made the trek from the parking lot at Bald Rock to the perch where you could see the valley. He would only need to stop several times which in his condition should have been a great life’s achievement. I was their first child but my mother could never prove them wrong again as she lost six others after me. Not being deterred, and feeling somewhat blessed at having me, they adopted my bother and “we lived happily ever after”.
At an early age I became aware of the distinct possibility that my father would not live another year. I loved my father more than anyone in the world but because I was much to young to carry that kind of a burden, my defense mechanism was to disallow myself to feel close or love anyone. It has been a difficult process and even today the depth of love and feeling for anyone is shallow, not superficial, just a bit less available, having been depleted so early. However, there can be no question about the level of commitment to people and things that I desire to be close to and in that area I have compensated for the lack of full-blown infatuation common with beautiful and undying love. My father made it a lot longer than he was suppose to, a testament to his will and faith, but a never ending continual experience for me that the end was just around an unseen corner.
I learned to believe in God at an early age, but it was not a complete indoctrination, and by my sixteenth year I was causing teachers and mentors trouble. It was more the concept of legalism that I perceived the message to be and I would not let it stand. I kind of thought I was cool and getting side by side with Jesus. Besides, I was a baseball player and all the neighborhood kids played little league and Friday night ball was out. I’d watch from my bedroom window at my friends playing Friday twilight pickup games before and after the season (baseball was a year around sport). I didn’t like brussel sprouts either! Then we had an after church lunch in the home of the pastor, Elder Ludwig and his family. I was also very observant or maybe I was just an obnoxious young rascal following the older sons of the preacher around. But they did approach the elder and something was agreed upon and there and then that Sabbath afternoon I discovered that, at the very least, it was ok for Seventh-Day Adventists to play catch with gloves and bats. That day at lunch I ate brussel sprouts for the first time with satisfaction because my heroes across the table were devouring them and you can ask my family, much to their chagrin, it is my favorite vegetable. Its funny how things seem to happen to me in clumps. That was also the day that my family was convinced by the good pastor to discontinue the consumption of all meat, and the connection to God was nearly severed for good.
My Christian education lasted twelve years. My eighth grade class was the last and ended a great history of excellent education at the old condemned school called West Liberty, at the corner of Block and W. Liberty, in Gridley CA. Depending how the route was set up each year, some Oroville children, myself included, would take an hour and a half bus ride to school each morning, then back home again each afternoon. I guess that is better than my grandfather saying, “Pennsylvania had lots of snow young man and we walked two miles in it every day.” Latter I found out the old drunk wasn’t even from Pennsylvania. My biological grandfather was but he died several years after my mom was born. What I also learned about the old drunk latter was that he knew almost everything about anything. In my opinion, if anybody made it through the great depression, they were lucky not to have become drunks. He became the high light of the second verse of my song called “Grandma’s Hope”. I completed my Christian education at Rio Lindo Academy, a four-year high school on the Russian River near Healdsburg CA.
Over the following ten years after high school I made God as irrelevant as possible allowing the subject to warrant merit for discussion only if it was initiated by my mother or leverage to gain the attention of a good Christian girl ready for temptation. I’m sure my denials to my mother led to hidden tears and knowledge about something you have little faith in is not a compelling strategy to win the heart of an attraction. Following my discharge from the United States Air Force I got married and started a family. I then started realizing that when one matures, even when its in your late twenties, truthfulness requires you to consider a stand on all things.
When my marriage failed only two years into it and I was left to raise my daughter, the pressure of a real life was beginning to cause my disbelief in God to further take hold and I disintegrated into the under world of our culture, all the while maintaining two jobs, finding a new life’s partner and making a fair attempt at a bonded family. Without the blessing and nurturing of a benevolent spirit, tuning of a lost soul is not possible and the absence from my leadership role in the family unit caused another failure of a family to occur. I was left without any authority to conduct myself in a supportive role my daughter needed and she was free to make decisions without guidance and the temptations of a dark world filtered into her life. I lived in a house with out structure or discipline, no place for a thirteen-year-old girl, and when I suddenly made the attempt to correct it, it ended. She was gone, I didn’t know where, and over the next three weeks I struggled on how I would get my failed life back together. It was during this time that I began to re-collect my belief system, completely in tact but in some deep far reaches of my memory. I started going back to the church of my youth and then remembered the influential nature of God and that I had never disbelieved, just that I had not believed what I had been taught. I had used Jesus as a wedge between God and myself and that one entity had nothing to do with the other. That is a foreign concept to Christians and in the next several months you will come to realize the significance of it. On a mid Sunday morning in early spring 1994 I fell on my knees for the first time, by myself, for a private conversation with who and what I had studied and formulated in my formative years to be God. It was because, for all that time, it had been juxtaposed to what I was raised with. By myself, I could finally lay myself open to who I believed God was and actually use the spirit He was so willing to make accessible to me, that which had always lived in me. Most of the time God really doesn’t mind if you challenge Him, so I did. “Find my daughter God. Bring her home to me and with your help I’ll do the rest”, I prayed. By the time the words “bring her home” were uttered, the phone began to ring. It was the first time I’d prayed in a while and I wasn’t going to let any of the filth that surrounded me to interrupt. It was going to be God that was relevant now, not they. As the answer machine kicked on and the words “leave a message” ended, I knew God had already started his work. I heard the familiar voice of my child calling out “DAD”, even stronger, “DAAAAD”! I picked up the phone, and discovered there was a very hungry young lady on the other end and “yes, I’d be right there with some food”.
I’ve failed God over the last fourteen years to often to count but we’ve been working together and the circle is almost complete. The one who would be my life’s partner, who left for several years, is now my wife. Our children continue to struggle with the pressures of life. We are raising one set of our grandchildren and we are fulfilled by Gods grace and power though stumbles occur. I have completely assumed full control of my belief system and I have arrived to the point where it is time to interact with you, to help our country get back to fulfilling its purpose at its founding and to correct many of the misconceptions about true belief in God and the superficial one Christians have allowed into their midst. I hope you will join me as I lay out what is the only way to save this country and ourselves. To do anything else would be to destroy what God has created and blessed us with. B.C.
I was born to parents who where said to not have the ability to produce children. From my father’s perspective, the lack of physical performance, he couldn’t walk 100 feet without being so out of breath as to make one wonder if that were his last 100 feet. My mothers problem was not that she couldn’t out run the dog (any one who saw her at Christmas doing Ingathering duties saw that first hand), but no, it was that she could not carry a child. Towards the late fifties my father actually developed some more stamina as proven by the many times we made the trek from the parking lot at Bald Rock to the perch where you could see the valley. He would only need to stop several times which in his condition should have been a great life’s achievement. I was their first child but my mother could never prove them wrong again as she lost six others after me. Not being deterred, and feeling somewhat blessed at having me, they adopted my bother and “we lived happily ever after”.
At an early age I became aware of the distinct possibility that my father would not live another year. I loved my father more than anyone in the world but because I was much to young to carry that kind of a burden, my defense mechanism was to disallow myself to feel close or love anyone. It has been a difficult process and even today the depth of love and feeling for anyone is shallow, not superficial, just a bit less available, having been depleted so early. However, there can be no question about the level of commitment to people and things that I desire to be close to and in that area I have compensated for the lack of full-blown infatuation common with beautiful and undying love. My father made it a lot longer than he was suppose to, a testament to his will and faith, but a never ending continual experience for me that the end was just around an unseen corner.
I learned to believe in God at an early age, but it was not a complete indoctrination, and by my sixteenth year I was causing teachers and mentors trouble. It was more the concept of legalism that I perceived the message to be and I would not let it stand. I kind of thought I was cool and getting side by side with Jesus. Besides, I was a baseball player and all the neighborhood kids played little league and Friday night ball was out. I’d watch from my bedroom window at my friends playing Friday twilight pickup games before and after the season (baseball was a year around sport). I didn’t like brussel sprouts either! Then we had an after church lunch in the home of the pastor, Elder Ludwig and his family. I was also very observant or maybe I was just an obnoxious young rascal following the older sons of the preacher around. But they did approach the elder and something was agreed upon and there and then that Sabbath afternoon I discovered that, at the very least, it was ok for Seventh-Day Adventists to play catch with gloves and bats. That day at lunch I ate brussel sprouts for the first time with satisfaction because my heroes across the table were devouring them and you can ask my family, much to their chagrin, it is my favorite vegetable. Its funny how things seem to happen to me in clumps. That was also the day that my family was convinced by the good pastor to discontinue the consumption of all meat, and the connection to God was nearly severed for good.
My Christian education lasted twelve years. My eighth grade class was the last and ended a great history of excellent education at the old condemned school called West Liberty, at the corner of Block and W. Liberty, in Gridley CA. Depending how the route was set up each year, some Oroville children, myself included, would take an hour and a half bus ride to school each morning, then back home again each afternoon. I guess that is better than my grandfather saying, “Pennsylvania had lots of snow young man and we walked two miles in it every day.” Latter I found out the old drunk wasn’t even from Pennsylvania. My biological grandfather was but he died several years after my mom was born. What I also learned about the old drunk latter was that he knew almost everything about anything. In my opinion, if anybody made it through the great depression, they were lucky not to have become drunks. He became the high light of the second verse of my song called “Grandma’s Hope”. I completed my Christian education at Rio Lindo Academy, a four-year high school on the Russian River near Healdsburg CA.
Over the following ten years after high school I made God as irrelevant as possible allowing the subject to warrant merit for discussion only if it was initiated by my mother or leverage to gain the attention of a good Christian girl ready for temptation. I’m sure my denials to my mother led to hidden tears and knowledge about something you have little faith in is not a compelling strategy to win the heart of an attraction. Following my discharge from the United States Air Force I got married and started a family. I then started realizing that when one matures, even when its in your late twenties, truthfulness requires you to consider a stand on all things.
When my marriage failed only two years into it and I was left to raise my daughter, the pressure of a real life was beginning to cause my disbelief in God to further take hold and I disintegrated into the under world of our culture, all the while maintaining two jobs, finding a new life’s partner and making a fair attempt at a bonded family. Without the blessing and nurturing of a benevolent spirit, tuning of a lost soul is not possible and the absence from my leadership role in the family unit caused another failure of a family to occur. I was left without any authority to conduct myself in a supportive role my daughter needed and she was free to make decisions without guidance and the temptations of a dark world filtered into her life. I lived in a house with out structure or discipline, no place for a thirteen-year-old girl, and when I suddenly made the attempt to correct it, it ended. She was gone, I didn’t know where, and over the next three weeks I struggled on how I would get my failed life back together. It was during this time that I began to re-collect my belief system, completely in tact but in some deep far reaches of my memory. I started going back to the church of my youth and then remembered the influential nature of God and that I had never disbelieved, just that I had not believed what I had been taught. I had used Jesus as a wedge between God and myself and that one entity had nothing to do with the other. That is a foreign concept to Christians and in the next several months you will come to realize the significance of it. On a mid Sunday morning in early spring 1994 I fell on my knees for the first time, by myself, for a private conversation with who and what I had studied and formulated in my formative years to be God. It was because, for all that time, it had been juxtaposed to what I was raised with. By myself, I could finally lay myself open to who I believed God was and actually use the spirit He was so willing to make accessible to me, that which had always lived in me. Most of the time God really doesn’t mind if you challenge Him, so I did. “Find my daughter God. Bring her home to me and with your help I’ll do the rest”, I prayed. By the time the words “bring her home” were uttered, the phone began to ring. It was the first time I’d prayed in a while and I wasn’t going to let any of the filth that surrounded me to interrupt. It was going to be God that was relevant now, not they. As the answer machine kicked on and the words “leave a message” ended, I knew God had already started his work. I heard the familiar voice of my child calling out “DAD”, even stronger, “DAAAAD”! I picked up the phone, and discovered there was a very hungry young lady on the other end and “yes, I’d be right there with some food”.
I’ve failed God over the last fourteen years to often to count but we’ve been working together and the circle is almost complete. The one who would be my life’s partner, who left for several years, is now my wife. Our children continue to struggle with the pressures of life. We are raising one set of our grandchildren and we are fulfilled by Gods grace and power though stumbles occur. I have completely assumed full control of my belief system and I have arrived to the point where it is time to interact with you, to help our country get back to fulfilling its purpose at its founding and to correct many of the misconceptions about true belief in God and the superficial one Christians have allowed into their midst. I hope you will join me as I lay out what is the only way to save this country and ourselves. To do anything else would be to destroy what God has created and blessed us with. B.C.
Monday, November 10, 2008
Yeah, About That!
A bit over 15 months ago I initiated this mode of communication to lure detractors and amuse friends and family. Almost instantaneously I realized I was not cut out to perform in a realm where I was the alien and facilitated by a medium with which I had no working knowledge. None-the-less, armed with the realization that it was the communication venue of the future, I set out blind, made the claim that I would produce my first major piece within the next two weeks, turned this machine off, and promptly went to soccer practice, later discovering that it was difficult to direct traffic to the site, threw my hands up and went back to letters to the editor. This morning, at about 4:30, after making my lunch, (yes that's right, some of us old fogies still act the old fashion way), I wondered if my "blog spot" was still there. See what I mean! Like where did I think it would go? So I called on my Google search engine to go to bcandafter@blogspot.com, and there were all my posts listed, for me, the first time I'd seen them on a google page in that form. So welcome again, everyone. Now its time to get serious and I am depending on all of you to challenge and to consider my words. AGAIN, NEXT! "My Path Is A Circle, Almost". Note the change in title from previous submission. B. C.
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