Wednesday, January 29, 2014

Schmooze 2

One of my blogs of November 2013 was entitled "Schmooze".  The blog was a rather negative but true critic of the leadership style of President Barack Obama.  He is a schmoozer because there is a level of deceit in everything he says.  The minute he senses a personal leadership vulnerability he will claim it as a strength, regardless of the facts.

Mr. O'Reilly and Mr. Goldberg claim that the president is not a schmoozer because he has no heart for sucking up the the Republicans.  Come on guys, your smarter than that or are you trying to cover for the president?  The target of the presidential schmooze is we the people not the Republicans.  The schmooze is intended to control public opinion and to this point it has worked.  Now America is waking up to the deceitful heart of President Barack Obama and his Democratic enablers.

G.Goslaw
Landers, Ca.

Thursday, January 23, 2014

Anti-Christ

This is a doctrine of a segment of the Christian Church that says that the future of all mankind on this earth is inevitably linked to a future powerful personage.   The one who opposes Christ, so it is said, will lead all of us into a doomsday scenario that only the righteous will survive in the next world.  There are conflicting revelations as to what form the evil Anti-Christ will manifest himself but the doctrine itself has sketchy basis in scripture.  The slice of the Church that so believes may be proved correct in future events but how should we believe now?  More importantly, should the Church be passive or actively confront this present today’s evil?

The doctrine is ripe to be used as an excuse for noninvolvement in the human affairs of this world.  It is much easier to accept the inevitable than to stand and confront evil.  It is much easier to confront personal evil than to stand and confront corporate evil intentions.  Will the righteous hide behind a doctrine or fight the good fight?  

G.Goslaw
Landers, Ca.    

Sunday, January 19, 2014

Tick Tock

The best argument for the existence of the God of the galaxies is the revealed plan of God.  The plan is captured in the Bible, both the Jewish Scriptures and the New Testament.  There are many speakers giving their picture of the plan of God as they learned and experienced it.  Their takes are not identical but they are similar enough that the existence of a planned progression in history can not be avoided.  As with a movie, a plan requires direction, which means a Director.

In the second chapter of  Matthew’s movie we get a picture of the birth of Jesus from a Jewish mindset.  Matthew made it clear that Jesus was not the founder of a new religion but the fulfillment of a very old expectation.  The task before Matthew was to document that expectation along side the happenings in Bethlehem.  The Magi came to Jerusalem from the east, having no skin in the game, asking a question, where might we find the King of the Jews, for we have seen his star rise?  The Magi of an eastern country knew of the Jewish expectation as did the Jewish people who were asking for it’s fulfillment for a long time, where and when is our coming King to arrive?  Where is the king who will bring back the old days?

There had not been a king of all united Jews for eight hundred years, eight hundred years of turmoil.  King Herod the Great, to whom the Magi brought this question, was but a client king, paying taxes to Rome.  There were only three kings in Jewish history that could claim the title, King of the Jews.  King Saul was the first to be anointed as king and after a conflicted rule, his military commander and later adversary became king as recorded in 2 Samuel 5, 1&2.

All the tribes of Israel came to David at Hebron and said, “We are your own flesh and blood.  In the past, while Saul was king over us, you were the one who led Israel on military campaigns.  And the Lord said to you, ‘You will shepherd my people Israel, and you will become their ruler.’ ”

The expectation was for a resurrection of these glory days in Jewish history when the nation was at it’s zenith.  King David united the religious and national interests of the nation of Israel. When he was old and frail, he passed the kingship to his son Solomon who reigned over a prosperity and influence unknown in the world to that time.  When he dies in 796 B.C., the kingship was passed to his son Rehoboam, who blundered national unity away in that same year.  Israel would never be a unity of twelve tribes again.

The startling question from the Magi disturbed or troubled King Herod and the religious establishment of Jerusalem.  Is he here?  They were scared, if the King of the Jews is here, our authority and possibly our lives will soon end.   King David’s father was named Jesse and the major prophet Isaiah predicts the coming expectation.

A shoot will come up from the stump of Jesse; from his roots a Branch will bear fruit.
The Spirit of the Lord will rest on him--the Spirit of wisdom and understanding,
the Spirit of counsel and might, the Spirit of knowledge and fear of the Lord--
and he will delight in the fear of the Lord.  (Isaiah 11 - 3a)

King Herod asked the teachers and priests, if this is happening, where will he be born?  Bethlehem was the answer for the birthplace of this new King of the Jews is predicted by the prophet Micah, some seven hundred years before the time of Jesus.

“But you Bethlehem Ephrathah, though you are small among the clans of Judah,
out of you will come for me one who will become the ruler over Israel,
Whose origins are from old, from ancient times.” (Micah 5:2)

How old is old?  Was Micah referring to the three Kings of old Israel, Saul, David and Solomon?  Possibly the founding fathers of the faith, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob were the ancients and antecedents of this new ruler.  Or older still, Micah may have been referring to the oldest possible father of all peoples, Adam and then God himself.  Micah believed that God will be faithful to his people and to his plan.   In any event, the questioning by the Magi was a big deal!

Upon getting false encouragement from King Herod, the star guides the Magi to the baby Jesus, whom they worshiped and gave gifts.  Then dreams figured large in the birth narrative.  After finding and worshiping the baby Jesus, the Magi are warned in a dream to avoid Herod and return home by another route.  In a dream Joseph is warned of Herod’s festering homicidal rage and told to escape with the family to Egypt.

The dark side emerges in the narrative as Herod realizes that the Magi were not coming back to inform on the baby.  He flies into a homicidal rage and orders the killing of all Bethlehem baby boys under the age of two,  he planned, “this new King of the Jews will surely die.”  From our supposedly civilized culture, we are shocked at the depth of evil hiding in the human heart, just waiting for the opportunity to kill. Imagine yourself  as one of those soldiers sent to chop off the heads of the Bethlehem babies.  One death would be grotesque but a few hundred Bethlehem deaths is obscene.

Matthew recognizes the slaughter as foretold in the words of the prophet Jeremiah, chapter 31, verse 15.

“A voice is heard in Ramah, weeping and great mourning,
Rachel weeping for her children and refusing to be comforted,
because they are no more.”

The horror is real, just as is the sorrow.  Human history is replete with such repeated tragedy.  It is easy to condemn the monster Herod but are we Americans guiltless?  Our American dark side has slaughtered millions of babies at the hand of their own mothers.  Our American dark side has slaughtered millions of babies at the hand of doctors who once took an oath to do no harm.  Our American dark side accepts a government and legal systems that condones the slaughter.  Compared to us, Herod was a choir boy!

In Egypt they stayed until the death of Herod, when in a dream Joseph is told to return home.  Matthew points to the words of the prophet Hosea, chapter 11 : 1.  “When Israel was a child. I loved him, and out of Egypt I called my son.”  The immediate context of this verse is God’s love and concern for his people, Israel, and their rescue at the hand of God from Egyptian bondage.  It is no surprise that a link is recognized between bondage of Israel and the forthcoming supposed mission of Jesus, a rescue from Roman bondage, both rescues emerging from Egypt.

Fearing King Archelaus, son of Herod, whose power was centered in the  vicinity of Jerusalem, Joseph, Mary and the toddler Jesus settled in the Galilean suburb of Nazareth.  Matthew says, “So was fulfilled what was said by the prophets,  ‘He will be called a Nazarene.’ (v. 23)”  Anyone with a literal interpretation of scripture would have difficulty with this verse.  The prophets never make the blunt statement that Nazareth will be the home of the King of the Jews.  The TNIV Study Bible makes a good guess, “Matthew may be alluding to the ‘Branch’ (Hebrew neser) of Isaiah 11:1, since the word also appears in the Targums, Rabbinic literature, and the Dead Sea Scrolls as a Messianic title.”  (p. 1610)

Are you convinced that Matthew has documented a connection between the faith of the Old Testament and Jesus?  This is a question for each of us to decide.  The evidence is multifaceted and after a multitude of providential turns, the flow of events seem to reveal the hand of God and a plan is seems apparent.  In some way,  this baby Jesus will take center stage in the life of Israel.  The question for our further reading is the character of this newly arriving King of the Jews.  Was Jesus to be the expected unifying warrior king?

Moments before his crucifixion Pilot asked him, are you the King of the Jews?  Jesus replies with an ambiguous, “So you have said”.  Jesus took his last breath with the title “King of the Jews” scrolled above his head.  The Romans who crucified him were making what was thought to be a joke while the religious leaders, who put the Romans up to the deed were ridding themselves of the number one threat to their power.

If you are convinced, the birth event means that his arrival was timely planned by the director God.  It took long enough but who is to say God is slow?  The God of the galaxies is all about timing, his timing, so check your watches.

GGoslaw
Landers, Ca.

Friday, January 10, 2014

Pastors

As a generalization, a pastor is not a thinker but an intellectual regurgitator.  They think they have something important to say only when someone else has said it first.  Knowing the selective literature is the pastor’s highest priority.  When they do think, they will not share it for fear that the saying will upset the folk.  A case in point is William Barclay, a conservative, evangelical, Scottish exegete and commentator on the Greek New Testament, whose career spanned three quarters of the last century.  Dr. Barclay’s scholarship is unquestioned and his book by book commentaries on the New Testament were a standard source fifty years ago.

The only downside to his work is a sense that what he was saying was tailored to fit his audience.  This is not a crime but there is little spontaneity or uniqueness to his commentaries.  Gladly he kept writing to include his “Autobiography” in 1975, three years before his death.  Suddenly a thinker appears, a thinker who is aware of the blessings and struggles of life.  A thinker in search of a workable theology  for the next and succeeding generations.  He was not an ideologue but actual flesh and blood, able to criticize without condemning and admit his own shortcomings.

Chapter three begins with the sentence. “Sooner or later this chapter has to be written.” (p. 34)  Some of us wish it had been sooner.  Then again, few were listening then and few are listening now.  William Barclay calls his readers to think for themselves, ever acknowledging that faith, the starting place, emanates from the revelation of God in scripture.  If scripture leaves open the possibility of thinking, the reader can adjust his understanding.  One example is his criticism of naturalistic evolution and its reliance upon chance as the directive, instead it is replaced by "an intelligible life force that operates by the theory of invitation and response".  This thinking attitude is a far cry from the insane diatribes coming from most pulpits.  He goes on in chapter three to present a beautiful, reasonable an approachable theology of the Love of God.

Professor Barclay makes a confession on page 58.  “But in one thing I would go beyond strict orthodoxy-- I am a convinced universalist.  I believe that in the end all men will be gathered into the love of God.”   Some of us, and the list is growing, believe there is no acceptable end to theology without the ultimate salvation of all mankind.  Some of us believe that the love of God is not reserved for the few but the hope of all.  The professor points us to the New Testament scriptures that, in his mind, require a universal interpretation of the love of God.  They include John 12:32, Romans 11:32; I Corinthians 15:22 & 28; and I Timothy 2 : 4-6.

Key to these passages is the little word “all”, that salvation is about all men.  Upon checking out these verses in his “Daily Study Bible Series” commentaries written by Barclay, any discussion of this word is nonexistent. It is as if the word is not worth the mentioning in these passages.  All these commentaries were written around 1955, 56 and 57, so it may be that his theology had somehow matured after they were published. The other possibility is that he did not want to upset the folk by saying something that would turn away the orthodox buyers.

To the naysayer’s who insist upon a sadistic cubbyhole for the unrighteous, he maintains there is no eternal punishment, only remedial punishment, in this life or the next.  There are those deserving of hell but they will eventually go through hell to experience the love of God.  William Barclay believed there are no limits on the love of an all powerful God.  As he says, in the end “the only possible final triumph is a universe loved by and in love with God (p. 61)".

As if it matters, we agree, professor.  Thank you for writing your autobiography and your complete theology. Our only regret is that it took so long for you to share your truly spiritual understanding.  Some of us agree that sooner would have been better.

G.Goslaw
Landers, Ca

Wednesday, January 8, 2014

Retirement

Fun is now working on my property a few hours a day, writing to the extent that I sense inspiration, taking hikes daily in the desert and being family with my dogs, Hammer and Belle.  I am very grateful but I worry about the greater family and all the coming generations, what will their fortune and future be in these United States of America?  Will it be freedom or servitude?  Do they know the difference?

G.Goslaw
Landers, Ca

Sunday, January 5, 2014

new world

So the Little Sisters of the Poor are manning up against Obamacare because it is forcing abortion coverage on everyone.  Why doesn’t the rest of life affirming American Christianity have any balls?

G.Goslaw
Landers, Ca