Category: Christianity

Yep, me having a girlfriend is too much for the board at my church. I have been summoned because they are “concerned.” Please understand that this is not a casual chat. No, all the voting members are scheduled to attend. Two members, including one that lives almost 400 miles away, are scheduled to attend via Zoom.

I had asked for an informal setting, like maybe over a burger and beverage of your choice but learned that was not an option. If chatting is all this meeting is about, then a casual setting should be in order; however, I have been led to believe that they have other plans. I was assured by one board member, “I’m not up for excommunication just yet” or words to that effect. It was implied that lesser punishments were the likely outcome.

I also asked, why not meet after Christmas? Why the urgency? I was told sorry; we need to do this now.

Given my 35 plus years of experience in and around California Republican politics and the CRA, I know when you are about to reenact the Ides of March. Oh, FYI, in religious politics, it is called “churchmanship” not church politics.

I have had about ten days of waiting for this confrontation. In that time, I have gone over the likely issues that might be raised. Frankly, I don’t see any grounds that can be raised to summon me there. I have tried keeping three board members, including the pastor in the loop of what is happening, specifically for the purpose of avoiding this very action. Clearly my request/promise to him “to give me the grace to get through this and everything will be ok” has not been honored.

I already have a good idea of the likely issues that will be raised. Since June I have been probing various members of the board on their thoughts on various issues that I expected to encounter while hunting for a wife; this was long before I met my future new bride.

What they don’t understand is that I am working through the plan that was formulated about the time my wife was buried in May. Like any plan, once the battle ensued, field adjustments were necessary, but the plan has gone forward, and a successful conclusion is within sight.

I have always been looking for a wife. I have only been looking for marriage minded women, not a quick romp in the sack, or a movie night date. As mentioned, many times on my posts about dating, as a group, American women in the 40 years and older category are a mess and mostly a toxic bunch. I don’t want to finance their mistakes in love, student loans, credit cards, etc.

Zero people that know me or my wife have offered me a single name, no matter how ridiculous, to ask out for a date; but when I fend for myself and pick a nice Christian woman all hell breaks loose. Clearly, they don’t know of anybody or I think, as much as everyone is trying to be in my business now, that I would have heard from them. FYI it’s too late now, I found my next wife.

Two more things have been bubbling out about the church fathers wanting to make me an offer that I can’t refuse.

One is related to the idea that it’s too soon to get married again. Says who? Oh yeah, a bunch of married people gladly giving a single guy the advice not to get married. Guess they don’t want me to suffer by being married like they are. This tells me that they aren’t too happy about having a bride. Just sayin’.

Sorry I loved being married and would do it again in a heartbeat. I find it really sad that Christian people have such a hangup on the idea that marriage can’t be fun. Biblically, it is our proper role in the universe so why not enjoy it? (Can you tell that Charlie Kirk is not influential in these circles?)

Second, right before my road trip to the Philippines, my pastor hands me a tract on grief. If I didn’t know better, I would say he was talking to my mom. I read said booklet last night. It covered no new ground or anything that I hadn’t heard before. One nugget in there was the timeframe for people grieving: three months to one year. As stated previously, I have known that Sheryl would die for four years before it finally happened. My wife and I countered down the last time we will get to have a birthday, Christmas, New Years, Valentines Day, etc. The private hell that I went through was horrible and I don’t wish that experience on anybody, but to deny that I have been dealing with the loss is beyond stupid and borderline evil.

The richest irony in all this is that my attendance at this particular church was due to my wife. Going to this church was her idea and literally the only thing left in my life that we used to do together. Now the church wants to take that away from me too, in part because according to them, I did not grieve her properly! All I have left in my weekly activity that I shared with my wife is being forcibly removed from me at this Wednesday (tomorrow) meeting. Ironically, by the church where she wanted to worship and set down roots. WTF?

I have easily lost over 40 hours of sleep in the last week trying to find a way to solve this mess. I finally settled on a solution today. I won’t tip my hand as to what I chose but I have peace about Wednesday’s meeting.

 My biggest frustration is that I like many of the people involved in this ill-conceived intervention. They are about nine months too late to have a talk with me. Just because they mostly left me alone when I was grieving, and therefore didn’t witness it in vivid detail, doesn’t mean it never happened. Lastly, none of them have walked in my shoes but dare to know better! Really? I thought the Good Book covered that topic too.

Lyric above were used to introduce the gossip segment of the old TV show Hee Haw. They seem appropriate when introducing a post about getting into someone else’s business.

Sadness.  Anger. Pathetic.  These are words I won’t use to call out the losers who are criticizing William and his dating situation.  It’s a symptom of something else going on in their lives that they act like that.  It’s disgusting.  Actually, I’ll quote Don Corleone “act like a man!”

However, I would ask William to describe the folks who are treating him this way.  I can say without much risk of being wrong. They are, and I quote my Filipino friend, “Pale, Stale, and likely male.”  I would expand that universe to females as well.  It’s the older generation.  Oh, and they are all likely married to boot.

There is a biblical passage “He who is without sin cast the first stone.”  The way I interpret it, a group of sinners (we are all sinners) standing around the rock pile and no one tosses a rock.  Unfortunately, the way it is now is a group of older folks grabbing multiple rocks and chucking them because they can (since they went to church Sunday.) 

Many people use the term ______ is the greatest invention since sliced bread.  Well, that generation actually invented something better than sliced bread; they put wheels on a goal post! 

The point of this blog is “what is grief?”  And how does one grieve?

I have an uncle in my life, he lost his wife to cancer as did William. He had 2 very young girls.  He spiraled and became a full-on alcoholic, lost custody of said kids.  He claimed he was “grieving.”  I guess that would be an acceptable outcome for William?  Not the Wiliam I know.

Truth is William has been grieving his wife, it’s been ongoing.  I made an effort to call him weekly on Thursdays while his wife was undergoing treatment.  It’s what a friend does.  I am not married; I have no kids.  I have no idea what the loss of a spouse is like.  I simply called to give Wiliam a reprieve for a few minutes, a friend should do that. Just because someone has passed doesn’t mean the grieving didn’t start sooner.  There were a lot of LASTS.  Now William is having a lot of firsts, as in first ______ without said wife.  I cannot imagine it’s easy.

To those who are shooting their arrows at William, allow me to ask, what is proper grieving?  A customer of mine who lost his wife started frequenting strip clubs right after, is that ok?  Is it one life one wife?  Someone I went to college with is on wife #3, is that ok?  Why is it not ok to chart your own course in life?  Doesn’t everyone deserve to be happy?

When did we start comparing ourselves to everyone?  Why is it that the nuclear family has to be husband and wife plus two kids of opposite gender?  It’s an easy answer; we are now a Hallmark country.  Better be married post college, better have a couple kids.  The commercials on the TV put it right out there, gotta be a family during this season, single people be damned.  Valentine’s Day is worse. The ads are basically saying it’s time to f**k and make babies and if you are not doing that you are worthless. 

The bottom line is William is doing what makes him happy. He has a way in life and the path he is on is his.  I am happy for him and everyone else should be too.  He loved his wife, full stop; no one is happy she is gone, or how she was gone.  Some may say war is hell, cancer is hell. 

Let William live his life. Live and let live is a motto I live by.  I am happy for everyone and everybody, do your thing, do what you do.  I don’t care if you’re banging some bleach blonde bimbo or some brunette. I do care if you are banging Jennifer Aniston as that’s Troll’s piece of ass!

My biggest concern is when did it become a thing to “punch down” rather than up.  Sure, you may have a wife, kids etc. Why can you not respect folks who do not?  Maybe it’s a personal choice, but why?  They do this because it makes them feel better about themselves.  Jealousy is another factor. The 90-day guy loves to remind me of this every Thanksgiving and Christmas season. He isn’t religious but he always says I am missing something.  It’s a shot at me being single. It’s his way of trying to push a narrative.  Trust me, he is bitter. He has told me he watches porn. The jokes he tells about having sex with sheep and goats tells me what I need to know. He views his wife as a child maker who is past her prime. 

Let William live and live yourself.

The Chief

This is my personal blog, and I need to vent. I have written numerous posts (probably about two dozen) over the last six months that I have not actually posted. But I’m gonna break from that practice and stick this on the record.

As stated previously, my wife died in April. After much searching, I found a woman worth pursuing all the way to the alter. Instead of being happy for me, many people have made it their life’s work to start attacking me. Sadly, this included people in my family and church.

One vector of attach is that my lady lives outside the United States. My response is so what? I took a look at the available women in the US, and they are a sorry lot. The pickings are slim to none.

I can’t remember what I have posted before but I decided early on that I have no interest in marrying someone that looks like my grandmother. That was a sound and good decision. Why? Because women in my age group that are single, by whatever reason, have zero interest in getting married again. All they want is to dote over grandchildren. They will not move one block further away from the grands and certainly not to another state to live with somebody like me. Leave and cleave is not part of their world.

This leaves younger women. I’m talking in this category of women plus or minus 40. I want the option of having more children so babes in their fifties are not on my radar, plus see comment above on grand kids.

Folks the amount of baggage that many of these broken women have is lethally toxic. Joint custody, student loans, careers, social activities, etc. They either don’t really want a husband or have so many restrictions that they impose on the relationship that it will never work. Many have their mortgage, car payment, and career and then want to add a husband in much the same way as they would add a wardrobe  accessory. They are not serious about marriage, at least not as defined biblically. They are so poisoned with feminism and our consumer culture that they are unhealthy to be around. It is not unusual for a woman in this demographic to start their evaluation of a man’s fitness by the car that he drives and the man’s financial statement. They require that any man in their life be able to pull out his credit card and fix all their past mistakes. I’m not making this up.

Statistically, women in their thirties don’t want to get married. Less than half are even interested and that statistic may really be as low as 34 percent. And that doesn’t mean that the marriage minded  34 percent are actively looking. Our culture is over the cliff of demographic suicide. Why do you think Charle Kirk kept saying start a family? Have children.

Contributing to this abysmal condition in the church is the prevalence of the broken and failed evangelical theology of premillennial dispensationalism. Jesus is coming any second so why plan for the future? Most Christians don’t believe there is any future. It’s all gonna burn and we are just passing through. Just ask them. Why get married and have children if you believe the world will end any second. Yes, this doctrine is bullshit and heresy. I know adherents will complain about my analysis but it’s true and I can prove it. This is why eschatology is a primary issue not a secondary one.

I have spent months scouring Christian Singles websites, allegedly populated by marriage minded women, for any signs of someone wanting a serious relationship and came up empty. My criteria were simple and realistic, but detailed. Zero takers. I even pivoted from the United States to searching for single Christian women anywhere on the planet. I expanded my search into Europe, South America, Africa, and Asia.

 Believe it or not, many of the Christian websites that I tried do not list the ages of the women or the ages of men that they would be interested in meeting. I had some nice chats with a few women between 25 and 31 but we agreed that they were too young for me. I thanked them for chatting, wished them happy hunting, and parted ways.

I decided more radical action was needed in order to be successful in my search. In August, I joined a site called Christian Filipina. Wow!

There’s an old story about someone asking a thief why he chose to rob banks. He replied, “because that’s where the money is.”

Christian Filipina is like the bank. It is chock full of real women that want to find husbands. In one day on Christian Filipina, I met more woman than I had on every other singles website I had tried combined. Of course, the cost of the website is one reason that it is so good, but I highly recommend it if you are serious about being marriage minded.

Because my lady is not from the United States, I am getting a ration of crap from some people. I’ve surveyed the dating screen in the United States and its really crappy.

Oh, lastly, NO. Since my wife died, zero people have suggested a single female for me to take a look at as a possible mate. Bye the way, I’m OK with that. I just wanted to mention that to make the point that people will gladly complain about my choices, but they really are not interested in helping me, they just want to bitch and criticize me only to put me down.

This brings up the other attack vector that people are using against me. These attacks are cruel, evil, and none of their f*cking business. This is the “you haven’t mourned enough for your dead wife” line of crap.

First, how the hell would you know?

Funny how these people tend to be married, with a currently living spouse, trying to tell me what I should do. They have never been through it but somehow are self-appointed experts in what I’m going through. They are totally inflexible. Their minds are made-up. Somehow, they know best.

I have zero respect for folks in this bucket. If you feel this way, please keep your mouth shut. By opening your pie hole, you make yourself a fool and I don’t want to be around people that feel this way about me or my wife ever again. Please just remove yourself from my life so I won’t have to do it later.

Look, I know people say stupid stuff to those suffering cancer or having lost someone to death. I know, I used to say stupid crap too, but I know better now. But the line, “you haven’t mourned enough” is out of line. Even if you feel that way, keep the opinion to yourself and don’t go repeating it to a widow or widower.

I knew for four years that my wife would die from her cancer. How f*cking long must I mourn?

I’ve been mourning since the day I heard the diagnosis and looked it up on Doctor Google.

I knew it both times that we worked on our last will and testament.

I knew it when we chose to move to Idaho.

I knew it when we watched my son graduated high school.

I knew it when we somehow were able to come up with the money to send my wife to sing at Carnegie Hall.

I knew it when we sat down at our last Valentine’s Day meal. We both knew that there would never be another.

I knew it when she was placed in hospice care.

I knew it when her dad and I watched her die.

Please don’t ever say I haven’t mourned enough. That is a lie, and I won’t have it said in my presence. If you really feel that way about me then please get the hell out of my life because I don’t need you in it.

I have some people that I thought cared about me that are gunning for me for stupid reasons. Please stop. If you can’t be happy that I have found love again then shut up and get out of my life. If you don’t then I will remove you from it myself.

Good Grief!!

No wonder things in our culture are so upside-down.

I was warned this was futility, but I insisted on trying anyway. I have joined two online Christian dating websites. One is dominated by Reformed Baptists and the other with Seventh Day Adventists. This rant is directed at the Reformed Baptists.

I first met someone that I knew was a Reformed Baptist minister when I was finishing college. He lived in Laguana (now part of Elk Grove). He had ten children that we all home schooled by their mom. Their house was immaculate. It looked like a model home. There were no toys or books out of place, and I was amazed at the cleanliness of the place.

Several families in my current church are from Reformed Baptist backgrounds.

It would be difficult to explain the differences between a Reformed Baptist and your neighborhood Baptist church. Reformed Baptists are essentially proto-Baptists. If you froze Baptist theology in about 1,800; meaning, no fixation of futurism as presented by Scofield and Hal Lindsey or Tim LaHay, then you would be in the ballpark. In the Reformation period, Baptists were pariahs and regarded in some circles as heretics, but their image has softened over the years.

Anyway, I was on a live chat that was held last Saturday with folks from the Reformed Baptist singles site. The moderator kept trying to find topics for us to discuss. Boy was his selection, controversial. Guys, I love controversy, but I would never suggest the topics that he did. One was concerning some states passing laws to post the Ten Commandments. Several participants were against the idea, which I found curious. Another topic that he tossed out for discussion was infant baptism.

As a follow-up, one of the guys posted a poll that members were asked to vote on. The poll had four opinions on posting the Ten Commandments. The four options presented concerned having a state pass a law to post them, getting a local school board to unilaterally adopt such a policy, sit out the discussion and just home school your own kids, or concern that states mandating this for public schools would result in states issuing private schools mandates too.

Folks, I was really frustrated with the underlying assumptions that people had when discussing posting the Ten Commandments. Looking back on it, I think it was their unspoken assumption that government is neutral or should be on religious issues. As stated often on this blog, there is no such thing as neutrality. All law is by its very nature religious. The only question is which god is being promoted, and which one is being undercut.

The baptism question was also a trainwreck. While I expect Baptists to expound the virtues of “Believers Baptism”, for them to invoke the Covenant as a proof of it is simply ridiculous. Sorry, but me and God is not a Covenant formula. If a person is in covenant with God, then so are all his descendants, born or unborn. A vital part of a covenant structure in succession.

For a child to be born into a Covenant family is to experience blessing and to be outside is to experience cursing. Again, there is no neutrality. Some in the conversation argued that a child being born into a Christian family was not a blessing to the child. The assumption is that all children are reprobate pagans in diapers. Such a view is no covenant at all.

I mentioned Merideth Kline and Ray Sutton and said they need to deal with the Covenant in terms of what these men have published. All I got was crickets. The truth is that they wouldn’t know the Covenant if it bit them in the butt.

Folks if some schmuck off the street was this ignorant, I would expect that, but these guys think they are God’s gift to the Church and ready to lead the next generation of the faithful. As we used to say when reciting the Litany, “Lord have mercy”.

That they haven’t read everything is apparent, but to think they don’t need to is frightening.

The older that I get, the more I have learned that much of what is circulated in evangelical circles is just sentimental crap. Only by setting aside our preconceptions and assumptions can we really understand the Bible.

Much of modern church worship music is not. It’s just entertainment. The focus is me, myself, and I, not God, holy, righteous, and unapproachable.

Sadly, no English translation of the Bible gets everything right. Ditto for the Hebrew. Michael Heiser is on the right path with many of his explanations of mistranslation and once you understand the Bible as subverting the pagan cultures around ancient Israel, the odd parts come into sharper focus. Brian Godawa is worth reading for this very reason.

Andrew Torba, R.J. Rushdoony, David Chilton, Frances Schaeffer, and many others are seldom read today but all have things to say that should be heard.

Sorry but going to church one or two hours a week, so you can play Call of Duty the rest of the time is not a formula for successful Christian living or being a husband. Guys you need steak in your spiritual lives not warm milk.

Almost a year ago, I heard an interview that Gary DeMar did with Brian Godawa. Brian was promoting his book Cruel Logic. As a result of the interview, I purchased the book.

I enjoyed most of the book except for a side character named “Danny”. Danny had nothing to do with the main plot and I skipped much of the interaction that he had with this babe that was the ringleader for the campus chapter of Black Lives Matter. This storyline pushed an otherwise PG story into R Rated territory. Brian had a point in putting the character into his book, but I can’t gripe too loudly about it without spoiling this part of the story. Let me just say that it left me very uncomfortable on a lot of levels.

Anyway, I decided to get another Brian Godawa book that was about the biblical character Noah. Frankly, I didn’t like it all that much. Brian took what I felt was the weasel way out and opted for a local instead of a global flood. On a key plot point, he cheated by doing this. I will get into this more shortly without mentioning this book. However, what I did like was in his appendix to the book. He discussed a different view on Old Testament cosmology.  Each novel that he writes has extensive background material  in the book’s appendix that is arguably better than the novels.

Brian and some of his fellow travelers are big on understanding the Bible within the context of the surrounding cultures. As they see it, much of what the Bible does is subversion of other culture’s mythologies. He makes a good argument that the Bible does this in many passages as it puts down the gods of other nations and exalts the God of Scripture.

Much of this cannot be seen in English translations because the translators didn’t understand the references, or the translators believed the manuscripts to be correct. Much of the supernatural view of Scriptures relies on the Septuagint—the Greek translation of the Hebrew Scriptures. Godawa and others make the argument that the Jews tinkered with the Hebrew translations of the Old Testament in the second and third centuries after Christ to minimize passages that benefitted Christian efforts to proselytize Jews. They also lean heavily on extrabiblical writings between the Old and New Testaments.

In addition, some of their arguments get into the literal jots and tittles of the Hebrew text. Originally Hebrew was written entirely in consonants. Vowel markings were added later and, in some cases, may have been incorrect. Likewise, they occasionally take exception with how the Greek was handled. A check on some of the translations relies on the Dead Sea Scrolls as an independent voice on which translation is correct.

The most famous mistranslation in the Bible is the word, “Armageddon.” As written, it means “mountain of Megiddo”; however, Megiddo is a plain and there are zero mountains there! They and others say that the correct rendering is “mountain of assembly” which is in Jerusalem not Megiddo. Frankly, this makes more sense but is clearly less sensational.

There is a myriad of both small and great tweaks that they believe need to be made to the English translations. Once you start down this path, it is clear that Moses and the prophets, were bashing pagan gods and their practices on a regular basis. It is our ignorance of the historical context and surrounding pagan religious beliefs that prevents us from seeing references to them on the pages of the Bible. In reality the Bible is neither safe nor tame if you start digging into it.

Believe me, unicorns are easy to explain compared to spirits, Tartarus, Satyrs, Lilith, vampires, and a variety of other biblical references that have been papered over in English. Talk about making the Bible, come alive, Michael Heiser’s “Unseen Realm” came make it anything but routine.

One controversial aspect to the supernatural view of the Bible is its reliance on books such as First Enoch. I Enoch is quoted by New Testament writers like Peter and Jude and is even referenced by the Apostle Paul.

One of Heiser’s books has an extensive list of familiar (to the original audience) noncanonical works quoted in the Bible. You’d be surprised how much in the Bible is a direct response to the pagan cultures surrounding ancient Israel.

Some passages of the Bible are clearly about supernatural entities be they demons or angels. Psalm 82 is one example.

Recently, my pastor did a sermon on this Psalm and totally missed the point. He did a whole sermon on the passage assuming that it was talking about human judges. It is not. It is clearly speaking of supernatural beings. Otherwise, how do the last few verses make any sense?

6 I have said, Ye are gods; and all of you are children of the most High.

7 But ye shall die like men, and fall like one of the princes.

My pastor skipped these verses in his sermon. If you assume this Psalm is about men, I can see why this part was passed over. Why would it be bad to tell a human judge that he will eventually die and fall like a prince? For a judge to be equated with a prince in the above context seems to be a bad thing, but equating a human judge to a prince seems like a promotion to me. The “Ye are gods” in verse 6 should be familiar since Jesus quoted it as proof of his divinity. If Jesus is using the verse to prove his divinity, how can my pastor be using this same verse to prove that it is applied to men? (John 10:34)

However, if I was to tell a supernatural being that he was to die like a man and fall like a prince, that would be about the worst outcome a supernatural being could be promised. Please note that God is not threatening those in Psalm 82 with this outcome, God is proclaiming their judgement.

This Psalm is messianic. God is taking the rule of nations away from angels (supernatural beings) that have failed to govern men justly and that rule is being given to Him. Jesus inherits the nations as a result of the Resurrection and Ascension.

8 Arise, O God, judge the earth: for thou shalt inherit all nations.

Psalm 82 has zero to do with human rulers.

Another passage that Heiser and others show is mistranslated is Deuteronomy 32:8.

When the most High divided to the nations their inheritance, when he separated the sons of Adam, he set the bounds of the people according to the number of the children of Israel.

This verse makes zero sense if you read it. How could God divide the nations according to the children of Israel when this was done centuries before Israel had been born? God divided the nations after the Flood. There were 70 nations.

A traditional understanding is that Genesis 10 enumerates some seventy original nations. This number is often symbolically significant in Scripture, indicating completeness. Later in biblical history, the concept of “the seventy” reappears in various contexts, such as the seventy elders of Israel (Numbers 11:16) and the sending out of the seventy (or seventy-two) disciples by Jesus (Luke 10:1). This recurrence underscores the unity and diversity of humanity under divine providence.

What is the biblical Table of Nations?

 Israel has twelve sons, not seventy. Heiser and other say that this passage should read as “the sons of god” not “children of Israel”.

So, what Deuteronomy 32 is saying is that the nations were ruled by angels—probably of the fallen variety—but God was going to create his own nation and call a people for himself. Enter one guy named Abram then Isaac, then Jacob, add four hundred years, and here we are wandering through the desert.

Heiser’s motto is something to the effect that if its in the Bible and its weird, then its important.

There are some weaknesses in parts of what Heiser says.

1. He and his followers don’t seem committed to a young earth interpretation of the Bible and allow more years into the past than most Creationists believe.
2. Heiser and many of his supporters are not sure if the Flood of Noah was global. This is due in part to the next point.
3. Heiser believes the Nephilim are giants—half breed offspring of angels and human women. (See Genisis 6) This unholy crossbreeding was the main reason there was a Flood. The Bible is clear that the children of Nephilim were alive after the Flood. No explanation is given as to why the Nephilim would be the cause of a Flood but that their offspring would still be alive after it occurred. Both the Bible and extrabiblical texts are silent on this question. Did angels insist on fathering children with human women anyway?
4. The traditional understanding of Satan and the fallen angels is wrong. There were three angelic rebellions.

These three rebellions are: (1) Satan’s initial rebellion against God, (2) the “sons of God” in Genesis 6 leaving heaven to take human wives, and (3) the divine council abusing their territorial rule over the nations and turning it into a sort of rivalry against the true God. For Heiser, this threefold framework explains the majority of the Bible’s spiritual-warfare passages, and it clarifies the difference between Satan, false gods, and demons.

Where Do Demons Come From?

One strength of Heiser’s ideas is that of explaining why during the conquest of the Holy Land by Joshusa that some cities were razed and others just conquered. Those cities held or ruled by descendants of giants were totally destroyed, those with no association with giants were just taken militarily. This completely diffuses the claim that Joshusa was all about genocide. The only genocide was for half-breed offspring of angels and women not normal humans. Thus, the conquest was really a type of spiritual warfare.

Heiser also adds some depth and background to the mission and ministry of Jesus. Heiser uses the location of events in Jesus’ ministry to show that the backdrop of many events was a type of spiritual warfare. Jesus was challenging the pagan gods and claiming superiority in a number of familiar stories related to walking on water, casting out demons, the transfiguration, and many more events. The idea that His spiritual warfare was only 40 days in the wilderness is a far cry from reality.

The thing that does go too far in my opinion is adding Heiser’s ideas to the Pre-mil, dispensational nonsense that has permeated much of Christianity. Unleashing Heiser on a future understanding of the book of Revelation creates a whole new genre of science fiction and speculation that knows no bounds. Even Hal Lindsey and Tim Lahay would roll over in their graves if they heard some of the wild speculation that is being published today as a result of mashing up Heiser with the Scofield Reference Bible.

Heiser is about 85 to 90 percent correct but I’m skeptical on the last little bit. Perhaps there are some texts out there which have yet to be translated that might convince me of the remaining part. I believe in demons and that there were giants, I’m just not sure Heiser can fully explain them with an appeal to I Enoch. On the other hand, nothing he advocated is related to whether we get into heaven or not. He does liven up Scripture reading and that is something very few can say. Once you read his book, the Bible will be a more lively place to explore your relationship with God and your understanding of its historic and cultural context.

Brian Godawa and some others do a podcast almost every month called Iron and Myth.

VFTB Video Archive

It is an exploration of Heiser’s ideas, the Dead Sea Scrolls, and current archaeology. Currently, there are 38 episodes that are each just over an hour each. The last 15 minutes is a solo segment by Derek Gilbert. Gilbert is one of the folks that has crazy ideas about Revelation. He is usually OK when talking about history. He drives me crazy because he can’t see that Revelation (for the most part) was fulfilled in 70 AD. Godawa liens Reformed and Calvinistic. I tend to agree with him more than the others. Doug Van Dorn is a Reformed Baptist pastor. Judd Burton works in the field of archaeology.

Last note is that episode one of Iron and Myth is audio only. Derek Gilbert has an app called GilbertHouse that is available for Apple or Android phones. This app can download either audio or video of episodes of this podcast and others as well.

“A man’s got to know his limitations.” Clint Eastwood

I wish to preface my comments with the statement that I really like living in North Idaho. But some folks in the pulpit can get under my skin. What follows is a bit of a rant on this topic.

First, I am about the most ecumenical person that you will ever meet. I have very strong convictions on what I believe but I have enough charity to allow others that hold different opinions (or convictions) than mine and not let our differences be a barrier to fellowship. The caveat is that they must acknowledge the central tenants of the faith. The Apostle Paul put it thusly, “For I determined not to know any thing among you, save Jesus Christ, and him crucified.” 1 Cor 2:2.

Second, I really dislike it when other guys call everyone else in the Church that believes differently than them, heretics, apostates, unbelievers, and other derogatory things, and damn them all to hell; doubly so when they are demonstrably wrong. Triply, so when the differences are secondary theological issues.

There’s a guy up here that is all over Facebook tearing everyone else down and thinking he is promoting his tiny little church. The problem is that this guy is the pastor of said tiny church. Were he just a member then I would write it off to him being a nut but when he is constantly playing the clergy card then it deserves a response. This dude is proud. I mean as in PRIDE in all caps, proud. This is a trait that I have encountered often with folks that identify as Baptist. I know because I used to be much like him. Yuck. They are Right, just ask them. In fact, they are so right that any Scripture that might challenge their view cannot possibly be translated correctly. They totally own the entire market on Truth, just ask them.

The clergyman in question, claims that the King James Bible is THE Word of God. No, you need to read that again. It’s not the Hebrew, Greek, and Aramaic manuscripts that the Bible was originally written in that are the Word of God but THE 1611 English translation that is THE inspired Word of the Almighty. The Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek manuscripts, even if we had the originals of the Prophets and Apostles, are not the Word of God. Only the work product of the translators of the 1611 Authorized Version of the King James Bible could produce the genuine text of God.

First this means that Jesus never knew what the Word of God actually says because the inspired Word of God would not exist for another sixteen centuries. Thus, the Septuagint version that Jesus quoted during his earthly ministry was not inspired. I was pointblank told by this guy that Jesus never quoted the Septuagint during his earthly ministry. The only alternative is that Jesus really did talk in Elizabethan English.

Second, the Word of God was not only unknowable in the original Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek but in its subsequent Greek and Latin translations. Only after translation by fallible scholars over the course of more than 1,600 years could the actual Words of God be known. This idea is as ridiculous as the origin of the Orange Catholic Bible in Frank Herbert’s Dune series.

The idea that the so-called Authorized Version of the King James Bible (KJV) is THE WORD of God is stupid. So, why does he make such an indefensible claim? Because he can’t read Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek and he wants a way to claim superiority over those that do. You see, if you can read the ancient languages, you can prove that the King James has errors in it and that some of his theological positions are false. Taking false pride in his ignorance is just a cover for his shortcomings. Talk about a bully in a bully pulpit.

I recently challenged him on a few of his claims on Facebook and was finally told to view his sermon and all my questions would be answered (or rebutted). For entertainment purposes, I looked up his YouTube sermon. Can you believe that he didn’t even link it to his suggestion to watch it? The sermon was based on John 3:22.

“After these things came Jesus and his disciples into the land of Judaea; and there he tarried with them, and baptized.”

If you read the verse above, you might expect a sermon about Jesus traveling with his disciples and wondering if Jesus was baptizing folks along the way. Or the interaction of Jesus and his disciples with those of John the Baptist in the verses that follow but no, we get to launch from this one verse into a rant about politics and the evils of fellow Christians. Here is his promotion for what you get from his sermon on this lonely and seemingly innocuous verse.

🤔Does your church teach that society and culture will get better and better through the Christian involvement in politics and government?

🤔Does your Church host John Birch Society events?

🤔Is your Church involved with the Black Robe Regiment?

🤔Does your Church quote a man by the name of Doug Wilson, or hold to any of his teachings?

👉If you answered yes to any of those questions then chances are good that your church has been infected with a false teaching

My first thought upon seeing this was an old quotation of Dr. Walter Martin, (a Baptist minister that could read Greek and Hebrew), “A text without a context, is a pretext, usually for error.”

The pastor went from John 3:22 to Matthew 24 which he then tried to cherry-pick. His attempt at logic was this, Jesus takes care of his disciples. You are Jesus’s disciples and thus he will care for you too, but Jesus warned you in Matthew 24: 4-14 about those bad people over there. The linkage between the two verses is imaginary because there is none but why let facts get in the way of a great opportunity to pontificate?

And Jesus answered and said unto them, Take heed that no man deceive you. For many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ; and shall deceive many. And ye shall hear of wars and rumours of wars: see that ye be not troubled: for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet. For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, in divers places. All these are the beginning of sorrows. Then shall they deliver you up to be afflicted, and shall kill you: and ye shall be hated of all nations for my name’s sake. And then shall many be offended, and shall betray one another, and shall hate one another. And many false prophets shall rise, and shall deceive many. And because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold. But he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved. And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come.

Jesus warned his hearers to beware of bad stuff that was about to happen to them in a few short years, but somehow, he left out the specifics. Believers lingered in agony for over 2,000 years trying to decipher these words of Christ until our intrepid minister was able to identify what Jesus really meant.

Oh, the bad stuff Jesus was warning about in Matthew 24 (quoted above) could be totally avoided if his hearers fled a few miles to the mountains when they saw the impending signs. Clearly the warning is a local not global catastrophe.

“Then let them which be in Judaea flee into the mountains:” Matt 24:16.

But why let context get in the way of bashing people that the good reverend doesn’t like including: Presbyterians, Free Masons (black robe regiment?), members of the John Birch Society, Doug Wilson, or any other “false teacher” as he defines it. (Please note only he has the ability to know the truth from false, it is not based on Scripture but his secret knowledge.)

At this point, I was only about halfway into his sermon and had listened to all that I could stomach.

Sorry, but this portion of Matthew 24 is such a misquoted passage that I couldn’t let it go without comment. I will limit my comments to one word in verse 14: namely, “world”.

And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come.

There are three words in Greek that are translated into English as “world” in the KJV. One means the entire world (cosmos), the inhabited world or Roman Empire (Oikumene), and another that often means the land in or around Israel.

It seems that every person I know that is clueless about Greek thinks “world” in verse 14 is talking about the entire planet. They think since the Gospel has not gone to every nation on the planet that “the end” mentioned in verse 14 can only mean the end of history. However, if you bother to look up verse 14 in Greek, something the minister in question categorically refuses to do, it says this, once the gospel has gone to every nation in the Roman Empire (Oikumene) that the end would come. Thus, whatever “the end” was, it is a past event that happened during the lifetime of the original audience that heard Jesus’ words. This makes the biblical admonition in Matthew 24 an historic event that happened 2,000 years ago and not some unrealized future event.

If the minister can’t get the context of the verse correct, then how can we trust his application of the text?

He is abusing the passage to erect a strawman that he can then verbally beat like in piñata. Tearing other Christians down as a way to lift himself up is a constant part of his evangelism. Everyone in his community and his country is going to hell because they don’t agree with him. This guy is like a Babylon Bee parody of a Jack Chick Bible tract.

Oh, many of the people and groups that he attacked in his Sunday morning rant are going to be in heaven with or without his help. Somehow Baptists think they are the only folks that will make it into the Pearly Gates. Why is that anyway?

What’s that old saying about remaining silent and not opening your mouth lest you remove all doubt?

Part of the sermon was an Ad Hominem attack on a group of people that fought to make homeschooling legal in the United States. This minister believes in homeschooling and opposes sending children to government schools but was too clueless to know that he benefitted from the hard work of fellow believers that he was falsely attacking. This really angered me.

When a guy attacks you and your ideas and can’t get your name, beliefs, or history correct, then you know he did zero research. He came to the subject with a conclusion in hand and haphazardly filled in the necessary blanks to further his argument. Oh, unlike him, the people that he attacked know Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek and the history of their faith. They also are prolific writers and not to be trifled with; especially by folks that have never read their works.

Hey, Rev., you might wanna look at this verse:

“My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge: because thou hast rejected knowledge, I will also reject thee, that thou shalt be no priest to me: seeing thou hast forgotten the law of thy God, I will also forget thy children.” Hosea 4:6.

Oh, quoting this verse reminds me that part of this sermon was also a diatribe railing against the idea that Christians should believe and obey God’s Law. Apparently, man’s law or Satan’s rule is perfectly ok for him, but it is unreasonable for us to keep God’s Law. This is literally the definition of antinomianism. I guess God is only interested in men’s souls but not in redeeming the whole man. Last I heard, this was considered a Greek heresy.

In the movie, Full Metal Jacket, the drill sergeant says you can give your heart to Jesus, but your ass belongs to the Corps!

Sorry Bro, but all of you either belongs to Jesus or you have no part in Him.

My Bible says that Christ reversed the curse and that the meek will inherit the earth not heaven. Our job under the dominion mandate is to bring every area of life into subjection to the Lord Jesus Christ.

As you can see, this guy is getting on my nerves. I really want to find a way to peacefully coexist with him since we live in the same small town, but all he wants to do is be the guy throwing people under the bus. Jesus said to love your neighbor not frag them. I guess a high body count on Facebook is his metric of a good day’s work.

I wish he would get the basic subscription level of Logos Bible Software.

For only $15 a month, he could get commentaries and Greek/Hebrew interlinear translations and all the tools necessary to at least make more informed study before making a fool out of himself. I don’t believe ministers need to know Greek and Hebrew but at least have the humility to know that you really don’t know it all. The arrogant, anti-intellectual King James only B.S. is really stupid and not the hill that any serious Christian should be willing to die on.

Oh, other things this guy promotes on Facebook

🤔 The moon landing was faked

🤔 The sun, moon, and stars revolve around the earth

🤔 The pledge of allegiance violates the first three Commandments

🤔 Churches that are 501.c3 have broken the first three Commandments