If It Be Possible

[taken from my book: If It Be Possible]

What was not possible unless Jesus drank from “the cup of suffering [The Cross]”? He appeared to negotiate with God for another way to provide salvation: “Father, if you are willing, please take this cup of suffering away from me” [Luke 22:42]. Jesus had just finished supper with His disciples including the Passover and the breaking of bread which He symbolized as His body [Luke 22:19]. He was clearly talking about His coming death.

Perhaps, though, the translation “if you are willing” requires explanation. “If you are willing” might better read “If you choose or purpose or counsel” to remove this cup from me …. And then His words fell off as if He paused to reconsider His prayer. It is not uncommon to see this when the sentence is logically leading somewhere the speaker does not want to go or does not need to go. In the language of the Old Testament it is used rhetorically in questions expecting a “No.” Answer. It is sometimes, though rarely, used in wishing or expressing strong desire.

It is also not unusual to see the rest of a sentence starting with “if” missing. It is as if in mid sentence Jesus changed His thought and conceded or surrendered to whatever was already decided before the world was even created [1 Peter 1:20; Revelation 13:8]. Jesus seem to correct Himself: “nevertheless not my will,… be done.” He knew what the Father knew that this “cup” was the only way to provide for our salvation.

My argument is prima facie but this is, perhaps, the only scripture that declares without equivocation that Jesus’ crucifixion was the only way through to our salvation. Although this truth is shared in a number of other verses in our Bible, that He would die for sin [1 Corinthians 5:7]; that He would pay a ransom to redeem us from sin [Mark 10:45]; that, indeed there was no other way to God except through Christ [John 14:6]; or that there is no other name that saves [Acts 4:12], Jesus’ Garden prayer in His agony adds the distinct and emphatic notation that there was no alternative—His crucifixion was the sole path for us to reconciliation with God.

Hebrews 9:12 and 22 agreeably notes what Jesus’ crucifixion provided “by his own blood … having obtained eternal redemption [concluding] without the shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness.” But it came up short in declaring that God did not consider another plan for our salvation—because there was no other to be considered!

Interestingly also, the writer limited the provision of Jesus’ death to “forgiveness” although it was far more: propitious, expiatory, conciliatory, and redemptive. Some argue that His death might not have been necessary only to “forgive” sin. We forgive one another without the need for sacrifice. But this argument has no teeth because Jesus’ death was a lot more! As Paul taught: “He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.” [2 Corinthians 5:21 NKJV]. Forgiveness is a necessary aspect of reconciliation, though the reverse may not be true. I may forgive someone for hurting me but not want to restore them to friendship for a number of reasons. Perhaps, they have not changed? But if I am reconciled with them, there is no possible sense in which I have not forgiven them. Calvary was a lot more that mere forgiveness. The writer to the Hebrews spoke of forgiveness because that was the understanding behind the sin and trespass offerings

When the question is inevitably raised: Is it not possible to find another way to save mankind, we only need listen to Jesus’ agony in the Garden to learn, “No, there is no other way!”

And now, we know!

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Elementary, My Dear Believer

But now, after that ye have known God, or rather are known of God, how turn ye again to the weak and beggarly [powerless to save] elements, whereunto ye desire again to be in bondage? … These things may be treated as an allegory for these are the two covenants … For this Agar is mount Sinai in Arabia, and answers [corresponds] to Jerusalem which now is, and [Hagar] is in [spiritual] bondage with her children. … If we live by the Spirit, let us also behave in accordance with the Spirit. [Galatians 4:9, 24, 25; 5:25]

Elements

Elements specifically refers to the first principle[s] in a series to which the elements of that series “take their rise” or belong [ejusdem generis*]. In the context Paul was referencing the first few in a list of Jewish religious practices. The Amplified Bible reads: “elemental principles [of religions and philosophies].”

The Allegory

Paul makes his point using the allegory** [Galatians 4:24]. We learn by comparison. So here, Paul begins by referencing the festivals, “days, and months, and times, and years” [Galatians 4:10] and compares their power to redeem us to the Spirit’s work in us. Religious celebrations are powerless to save. He called them “weak and beggarly” [Galatians 4:9]. To explain, in an analogy the Galatians would understand, he contrasts Hagar’s son with Isaac and the City of Jerusalem compared to the New Jerusalem. The King James says “answers to” [Galatians 4:25] or corresponds to the City of Jerusalem.

The List

On the term translated “answers to” or “corresponding to,” Pythagorus, I am told, gives the best example of the use of this word. when he listed opposing principles in 2 columns, thusly:

 

Using Paul’s comparison: He lists elements describing Ishmael’s descendants and the opposing list regarding Isaac:

What is Paul telling us?

Our Christian Experience

We must not relegate our Christian experience to only a Sunday Morning Service. We are always in danger of investing too much interest and value in Christian ritual. Much time during the week is spent in choreographing or orchestrating the “elements” of that weekly gathering and maybe less effort in prayer and study of the Word. Paul for the third time in these closing chapters of his epistle used our word translated “elements” in Galatians 5:25 to refer to our behavior as Spirit-led believers. The ESV interprets this to mean that we should stay in step with the Spirit’s leadership. Not a bad thought:

“If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in [behave in accordance with] the Spirit.”

We might list the elements of our Christian experience in 2 columns: One Ritual and the other Spiritual. Which side has our attention more?

…walk in the steps of that faith of our father Abraham – Romans 4:12

.. as many as walk according to this rule, peace be on them, and mercy – Galatians 6:16

————-
* Ejusdem Generis” If a law refers to automobiles, trucks, tractors, motorcycles, and other motor-powered vehicles, a court might use ejusdem generis to hold that such vehicles would not include airplanes.
**allegory – picture that can be interpreted to reveal a hidden meaning.

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A New Me!

The Eden Story still contains mysteries about human nature before sin entered which church scholarship gave up trying to unwrap; so, they simply labeled Post-Eden Adam as “fallen.” On this matter I, too, have sought for explanations—my being less satisfied with the “2 nature” theory used to exegete Romans 7.

In Romans 7 Paul outlines the hopelessness of the person (be they Christian or no) in unsuccessfully striving to please God through steadfast and faithful obedience to—however they interpret—the Law of God or the Word of God. Paul came to recognize that the temptation to sidestep off into what God would not approve of [this is a picturesque word for sin found in the Bible]—this—only exposes our weakness. Perhaps, this is the “fallenness” in our nature? Whether or not Adam was to blame, I leave to the scholars for now.

What I am suggesting is not new but basic evangelical doctrine that without the grace of God we not only could not be saved, we could not be faithful to that salvation. Temptations, as Paul noted in 1 Corinthians 10:13, requires the faithfulness of God to make us over comers. In Romans 7:25 Paul exclaimed, “I thank God” and then he proceeded to talk in chapter 8 about the work of the Spirit in a believer’s life.

Since I have gone to meddling—like every good preacher is wont to do: “Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye stedfast, unmovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labor is not in vain in the Lord.” [1 Corinthians 15:58].

Paul spoke in this verse of our “labor” in the Lord. This word strongly denotes effort—to the point of exhaustion [John 4:6]. And what is more challenging to me than—well—me? There is nothing God can’t do if we are His instruments to do it!

We know all this, but as C. S. Lewis said once, “It helps to have the band playing while we march!” That band is the inner voice of the Spirit in terms of His peace and conviction that interjects life into all 3 aspects of our nature: He “empowers” our walk [our actions]; He “inspires” our passions [our feelings]; and He “enlightens” our understanding [our mind]. All we have to do is “yield” to Him—let Him lead.

The good thing in all this is that someday we will be “like” Jesus [1 John 3:2] which, itself, should encourage us not to give up on ourselves [1 John 3:3]. He was one day like us, tempted [yet sinless] in order that some day we may be like Him [when this carnal weakness we exhibit will no longer define us] as Paul wrote, [1 Corinthians 15:43] “… sown in weakness; … raised in power….”

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A Matter of Grace

I have been studying the Pauline message of a salvation of faith though grace [Ephesians 2:8] which was not—because it could not be—a product of human imagination. It had to come by revelation [Galatians 1:16]. What concerned me was the generations of a humanity that never had opportunity to hear of it [Romans 3:25]. Paul, himself, asked “How shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard?’ [Romans 10:14]. So, if they were left to their own imaginations to fill that void in their hearts for a belief in the divine, it would necessarily resemble the only thing they knew: themselves or their lives, which could not describe God. Paul bluntly condemned such activity as inexcusable saying God gave up on them! [Romans 1:18-24]. And why was it inexcusable? I’m getting to that. But my concern had been—and especially if we believe in original sin and the “Fall” of Adam—that this kind of behavior was predictable. In fact, it was, perhaps, expected because the Savior had not yet come.

David’s Heart

Then I thought about King David who, by his own admission, enjoyed thinking about God [Psalm 1:1] even without any knowledge of the Cross. David’s 51st Psalm reveals on his part a deep sense of a God who forgives without animal sacrifices [Psalm 51:16-17}. He somehow knew that a repentant heart was what God required—generations before Isaiah promoted it in a theological sense. [Isaiah 1:11-18]. In fact God chose David to be Israel’s king—not for his stature or his wisdom [or knowledge] but for his heart! [1 Kings 11:4; Acts 13:22].

Enoch’s Devotion & Noah’s Obedience

And there was Enoch, whose name meant “devoted” [to God]. He “walked with God” [Genesis 5:24]. He left this world about 70 years before Noah [whom Peter called “a preacher of righteousness” – 2 Peter 2:5] which means Enoch lived in a time of debauchery and crime [Genesis 6:5; Luke 17:26-27]. Noah, himself, is in the “Hall of Faith” [Hebrews 11:7]. We have only begun to name Old Testament “saints” who “obtained a good report through faith, [but who had] received not the promise [of the Cross]” [Hebrews 11:39].

Abraham’s Faith

Abraham chose to believe God after God introduced Himself to the patriarch. Their conversation involved a covenant and a promise; so, understandably the theologian would conclude Abraham’s faith in God was a special case [Genesis 15:6]. Abraham’s faith was invested in God’s covenant, we may conclude, because “faith comes by hearingfrom God…” [Romans 10:17].

An Open Heart

Yet, God opens the heart [Acts 16:14] and the theologian has long held to a “natural revelation” [Romans 1:19-20] that declares God real to anyone willing to consider Him. This, in some ways, put the onus of responsibility on “fallen” mankind—not to save themselves [No!] but—to believe! Simply believe God is there and maybe spend some time meditating on His love for them. In this regard we might agree with Paul that sinful man has no viable excuse for not seeking God.

Others?

So, I began to wonder if, perhaps, there were others— others, whose hearts sought out in their limited way to know the God they were falling in love with—not for what He could give them but for who He was to them, the Creator and compassionate God [Psalm 116:1]. Somehow they knew He was alone in the universe and that pantheons of imagined beings could not exist because myths realistically explain nothing! [Psalm 62:5]. These few “believers” would have led secret lives [Psalm 91:1] whose inner thoughts longed to meet God because they knew that—unlike the mythological gods—He did indeed care and love them back! [Psalm 23:6; Isaiah 38:17].

It seems that what the Gnostics called “a spark of the divine” was—contrary to the Gnostic idea—in every man, but most snuffed it out rather than seeking to fan it alive!

A Matter of Grace

I say this as a matter of grace without minimizing the urgency of sharing the message of salvation [and of the Cross] in our day [John 21:22]. Christ has come and God wanting this message broadcast to the world has commissioned us to do so! Is salvation provided any other way than through Jesus’ crucifixion? Absolutely no! Salvation comes only by the Savior’s sacrifice of Himself on Calvary’s Cross for us [Acts 4:12].

But are not all the Davids and Noahs and Abrahams and Enochs in ancient times and the men and women of forgotten tribes who sought out the love of God because in their hearts they knew He was there—are not they—in God’s thoughts and on His heart? [Exodus 33:19; Romans 9:15]. He has, indeed, sent the missionary to them to tell them so.

In Glory they may more fully share their stories?

But thou, O Lord, are a God full of compassion, and gracious, longsuffering, and plenteous in mercy and truth. – Psalm 86:15

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Is Our Faith For Real?

I came across a cable program that claimed that Jesus never existed and that Christianity evolved out of pagan mythology and the Roman government. I am grateful to my Lord that I was prepared to listen to what the speakers had to say—my having done a deep dive into the Biblical idea of God”s Grace and the “Cross.” This is a truth that couldn’t have evolved out of paganism, not only because the idea [along with the worldview it rested on] was provably antithetic to mythological explanations as to the origin of evil or how to eradicate it [I spoke of this in my book “If It Be Possible“] but because—and here is my reason for mentioning this now—the languages of the time [with due respect to Latin and Aramaic] were inadequate to explicate with proper emphasis and clarity the message of God’s grace. This is the message that both the Bible reveals and our Faith [our “religion”] must proclaim. [1 Corinthians 1:23; 2:2].

Consider the following [I wrote “Essays in Grace” in this regard]:

  1. The Greek language never branched off into other languages: as Latin did into French, Spanish, etc. Dr. Caragounis tells us “Greek, on the other hand, never gave birth to any daughter languages.”
  2. The dialect of the Greek is not found in written form in any other document beside the Old and New Testaments. There are inscriptions in the common language of the time that suggests the development of the language into New Testament Greek [Koine] but, as J. B. Lightfoot is reported to have said: “…if we could only recover letters that ordinary people wrote to each other without any thought of being literary, we should have the greatest possible help for the understanding of the language of the New Testament generally.” Dr. Caragounis admits that “We do not have any substantial documents of spoken or written Koine by Greeks from the time of the New Testament.”
  3. The Language instead of branching merged 7 dialects into one which, after the Apostolic Age, split up again into multiple spoken dialects. Richard Dawkins, a leading proponent of atheism wrote, “It seems probable that language evolves by the cultural equivalent of random genetic drift. … Latin drifted to become Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, French….” This is not true of the Greek language!!! Now here’s the “kicker”! Caragounis calls this “unparalleled in the history of language. … Attica Greek could not preserve its purely Athenian character, and entered a course simplification, amalgamating elements from the other Greek dialects… it became … Koine [the Greek of the New Testament].” Dr. Caragounis explained, “In Hellenistic times [when the Scriptures were compiled] the … language is reunited, … and as such goes through its third stage [Koine]. In Byzantinian … times [which follow the time of the apostles and the writing of Scripture] it breaks up once again into Modern Greek.”
  4. My amateurish interest in Koine has always been historical and not exegetical. Unlike the scholars who took on the task of translating our New Testament, I only wanted to understand it. That’s why my paper (I submitted as a thesis for a college degree) was in the historical development of the “perfect tense” in Koine. This tense disappears in Modern Greek but scholars have little to go on since in the Byzantinian period of the language which followed Koine everything was written in the Old Classical Greek style [everybody loves Plato]. But I maintain that the perfect tense along with the development of a Greek passive voice out of the little understood “Middle” voice of the language (We don’t have this in English) was critical in explaining “grace”!
  5. Curious: the Greek “digamma” which represents the numeral “6” is missing from the language—or at least, our Bible.

Nevertheless when the Son of man cometh, shall he find faith on the earth? – Luke 18:8

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Welcome Home!

It is hard to imagine some of the behavior now considered part of the cultural standard in the Northern Hemisphere of our world—when a Supreme Court Jurist, to be confirmed has to admit “they” do not really know what makes a person a “woman;” or when children can decide their own gender and subsequently go “under the knife” to make their decision permanent without a grownup thought of the consequences; or when a male criminal can claim to be a woman and is allowed a bed in a woman’s prison to rape and impregnate “real” women; or when a university education is more about gender studies than natural science and where young minds go not to be broadened but to be indoctrinated!

Does anyone wonder what gramma thinks of all this?

Not to speak disparaging of what we might call “civilized” behavior but I am wondering if the aliens have not already landed and are among us. We no longer have a cultural identity as a people. It seems. There is no longer a common dream we might all call reasonable. Is it unreasonable to go to church—anymore? Is it unreasonable to want to raise a family? Is it unreasonable to dream of the quiet life in which neighbors are neighborly and not splintered into a thousand disunited cliques in support of ideas as ephemeral as the morning dew.

Causes change but the result always seems to support division. It is as if a lasting “hate” was all that mattered where once their was community and caring. Life is no longer a matter of what I can offer but what I can get. It is not gratitude but entitlement that motivates the human heart—if indeed, we are still talking “human.”

Perhaps, we are learning something about the human soul. It is more malleable and susceptible to suggestion than some of us thought. Take me! I have learned through introspection how little I know myself. I look back over my youthful years and wonder how I could have been the way I was or say some of the things I said. I was then someone I would rather now deny I ever was! Am I the alien?! Perhaps, this is why Saint Paul wrote in his letter to the Christians at Rome, “I want to do what is good, but I don’t. I don’t want to do what is wrong, but I do it anyway” – Romans 7:19 NLT. (Turns out: this is a favorite scripture anymore among Christians!)

Will our nation awake one morning and shamefully regret what it has done? Will we rewrite the history to sound like it once was in gramma’s day. Yes, they had their “sins.” They made their mistakes. They even, in America, amended the National Constitution in 1919 to outlaw beer. (They called it “intoxicating liquors.” What alcoholic beverage isn’t!) All this only to amend it back into the document in 1933, a mere 14 years later, realizing that, during a depression and a pending global conflict, everyone needs a “happy hour.”

Or, just maybe, they discovered—as with a person, so it is with a society—that you cannot legislate away behavior or snatch it violently and thoughtlessly from its moorings without severe sociological or cultural consequences.

This is why it seems easier for me—for one—to imagine that there are aliens among us, even if we cannot know who’s who. Perhaps, many of us will one morning awaken and say, “I’m going back! I am so sorry, I don’t know why I did that!” And the others of us will welcome them home!

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Let Us Reason Together

The Master’s Touch by Greg Olsen

It is interesting how our minds work. Unlike God, who is infinite and eternal, Everything we imagine or we comprehend or understand is based on measurement and subsequently comparison. These 2 mental exercises allow us to analyze and categorize everything perceivable by our senses. And thus, we say, we “know” a thing. Pythagorean taught, “The problem of knowledge then becomes a search for the kind of truths that will match up with mathematical certainties,” Professor Daniel N. Robinson informed us in The Great Ideas of Philosophy, 2nd Edition, “Plato’s Search for Truth” from the Course Guidebook of “The Great Courses, Page 36.

Animals are compared taxonomically; colors by how much of 3 base colors [red, green, and blue] they contain. Everything we do involving the senses is measured and then compared. This is what science is all about.

The difference between abstract and concrete is the difference between all cases compared to the one. Persons differ by comparing the degree to which they love family or country … or God, for example. And how much of that love is shown measures commitment. What is reasonable is less me and more you in the mix.

So what if God creates a heaven that contains no rulers or scales, no watches, no clocks, no means of measuring anything because everything will be “exceedingly abundant” and “full of glory” made infinitely available by an Eternal God? It might be like needing a drink of water and there’s the ocean—go for it.

Look at Isaiah 1:18 “Come now and let us reason together, says the Lord.” What does God mean by “reasoning together”? The Greek word in the translation means usually “to investigate and expose” a matter but here it means “to dispute,” according to the dictionary. Interesting, in Job 9:33, it is translated “days-man” or umpire: “Neither is there any days-man betwixt us, that might lay his hand upon us both.” Micah 6:2 also uses the word, translated “plead” in the King James: “the LORD hath a controversy with his people, and he will plead with Israel.”]

The New Testament word that bears on this discussion is the Spirit’s work to “reprove” the world—us—of sin, righteousness and judgment in John 16:8. Interesting thing about this word: “The answer,” Professor Robinson tells us, “is: a rational enterprise that takes the form of a dialectical or argumentative [not argument as in English, but a presentation of the facts] approach. This approach is not simply a rhetorical device; it’s an investigative device. Through the philosophical mode of investigation, we come to consult whatever is contained in the rational resources of the soul itself. ” [Hebrews 4:12}.

So, according to this meaning, God wants to investigate with me in dialogue …my sin!! I must tell you that, indeed, it has been an ongoing conversation between us and until I am perfect I pray He never stops wanting to talk!

Isaiah 1:18 continues, “though…[?]” The Hebrew simply asserts the condition: from scarlet in color to snow white.

God knows us. We understand things by comparing and measuring them. Our sins will not be “whitened;” they’ll be forgiven and gone! But God speaks our language here because He is discussing this matter with us.

Make sense?

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Aristotle [Paul] on the Knowable

“Now, brethren, if I come unto you … what shall I profit you, except I shall speak to you either by revelation [material cause], or by knowledge [formal cause] , or by prophesying [efficient cause] , or by doctrine [final cause]?” – 1 Corinthians 14:6

Paul, who probably knew Aristotelian philosophy seem to plug in Aristotle’s four causes which explains his use of terms in the above verse. Materially, anything coming from God can be called a revelation [the material cause] which comes to us in the form of knowledge or something that is knowable [the formal cause] else why tell us? His Word has meaning, significance, and value as His knowledge [the efficient cause] and it serves God’s purpose, its final cause.

Read Dr. Robinson first and then refer again to 1 Corinthians 14:6. Ultimately God’s knowledge is a revelation from Him in the form of teaching or prophecy, etc and by which our lives are government and our faith confirmed.

“Of course, to say that knowledge requires an understanding of the causes of things is to raise a question about just what a cause is. “Causation” can be understood in several senses. Every identiable thing that exists is made of some particular material and could not exist except as a result of that material. The marble of which a statue is made is, thus, the material cause.Every such thing is recognizable as a given type or form of thing. This “form,” then, must be present for the thing to be what it is. In this respect, the shape of the statue and its resemblance to an original is its formal cause. But form is imparted to matter by strokes and blows and other forms of mechanical influence. The shape of the statue is carved out of the stone by chisel and hammer; this is the effcient cause of the statue. The ultimate understanding of the object stems from the intelligent design that the object itself realizes. Aristotle refers to this as the final cause—that is, the final thing realized in time, although it is first in conception.Truly developed knowledge embraces not only the material, effcient, and formal causes, but the that for the sake of which these causes were recruited. To understand x is to know what x is for, what its purpose or end, its telos, is. Thus does Aristotle seek teleological explanations as ultimate.

Questions of what things are for are also central to Aristotle’s ethical and political thought. We have purposes and ends as the kinds of beings we are; how are those to be reached? How does the polis aid or hinder those ends? Our knowledge of ourselves must be grounded in a respect for just what our defining abilities achieve because these very abilities reveal the that for the sake of which….

The developed knowledge that we have leads us to an understanding that the things of the universe, including living things, instantiate a plan; they fit in. Nature does not do things without a purpose. The ultimate question for understanding, then, is: “How does this fit into things? What is it for? What purpose does it serve?”

We know at the outset that nothing with pattern and design comes about accidentally. As Aristotle says, “If the art of shipbuilding were in the wood, we would have ships by nature.” Wood, however, is the material cause of the ship, and the workers who build the ship are its efficient cause. The art of shipbuilding is finally in the ship’s designer. It is the designer who knows what ships are for and how that purpose is served by the right materials, rightly assembled. To “know” in this sense is to comprehend far more than anything conveyed by the mere material composition of an object.” [Daniel N. Robinson Guidebook on “he Great Ideas of Philosophy, 2nd Edition, page 54]

“The ultimate question for understanding, then, is: “How does this fit into things? What is it for? What purpose does it serve?” What final cause?

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SCOTUS Term Limits

A nation’s judiciary remains a critical part of its identity. Once this part of a government  is corrupted, all hope for healthy reform, or to mitigate a nation’s wrongs, is gone. I heard that the U.S. president wants term limits put on the U.S. Supreme Court [SCOTUS]. Of interest is what Alexander Hamilton argued in favor of lifetime appointments to the Court [U.S. Constitution, Article 3, Section 1].

Lifetime appointments for jurists was intended to put their work above and beyond the reach of political pressures. Though a jurist might be impeached, there is a process involved  for high crimes and misdemeanors—not because a political party disapproves any majority opinion from the court. The U.S. President called for an 18 year term presupposing that elderly jurists are less likely to support progressive ideas? To allow Congress to have a say in their term of office is to subject the court to political influence and persuasion instead of freeing SCOTUS to study and interpret the Constitution in a consistent and fair way.

As it is, to reach Senate consent, prospective candidates for the highest court must walk through a political mine field of “favored” interests of various senators without stepping on one blowing apart their own candidacy. Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson  had to, in effect, deny her own gender identity to reach the bench. Judge Kavanaugh was forced to defend his high school past [Thank God for old calendars]. Such abuse—known as being “borked”—would be fine tuned by ruthless politicians in the name of democracy to turn what was intended as a separate power into an arm of some political party.

Hamilton Wrote in Federalist #81:

“Every reason which recommends the tenure of good behavior for judicial offices, militates against placing the judiciary power, in the last resort, in a body composed of men chosen for a limited period.”

It sounds as if Hamilton is arguing against giving the power of the judiciary to the legislature, because, in reality, if the Court cannot be a separate power, it has no power. Here are some he listed in The Federalist Papers (pp. 27-28). [Neeland Media LLC. Kindle Edition]. Hamilton wrote:

  1. The same spirit which had operated in making [the laws], would be too apt in interpreting them; still less could it be expected that men who had infringed the Constitution in the character of legislators, would be disposed to repair the breach in the character of judges.
  2. And there is a still greater absurdity in subjecting the decisions of men [and women], selected for their knowledge of the laws, acquired by long and laborious study, to the revision and control of men [and women] who, for want of the same advantage, cannot but be deficient in that knowledge.
  3. The members of the legislature will rarely be chosen with a view to those qualifications which fit men for the stations of judges;… on account of the natural propensity of such bodies [Congress] to party divisions, there will be no less reason to fear that the pestilential breath of faction may poison the fountains of justice.

Thought you should know…

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Jacob’s Vision

“And God spoke to Israel in a vision at night and said, “Jacob! Jacob!”
“Here I am,” he replied.
‘I am God, the God of your father,’ He said. ‘Do not be afraid to go down to Egypt, for I will make you into a great nation there. I will go down to Egypt with you, and I will surely bring you back again. And Joseph’s own hand will close your eyes.'” – Genesis 46:2-4 NIV

 

These verses are filled with the compassion of God. The Lord never shares His thoughts with us without an interest in how we are receiving them. The text refers to the son of Isaac as Israel but God called him “Jacob.” It isn’t the Patriarch, Israel, God is addressing but the frightened servant, Jacob, Isaac’s boy. God is not coming to Jacob in some official capacity as the God of the Patriarchs, Abraham and Isaac. He wants to talk to Isaac’s boy. This might have had particular significance to Jacob. Isaac had died just months before Joseph disappeared![Footnote: In Genesis 45:26, the excitement was too  great for Jacob’s 10 older sons to contain. I doubt they even told the old man, “Dad, you better sit for this one!” Perhaps, they were all wanted to be the sharer of such great news and blurted it out in unison: “Joseph’s alive!!!” When I read that, I almost cried for joy like gramma watching the end of a chick-flick movie.  Jacob went numb. I think he then sat down! Moments later, he was calling them liars because one way or another, then, when they claimed he was torn apart by wolves or now when they claim Joseph is second in command in Egypt, these guys tells stories and their playing games with the old man’s heart!  But this time, it’s true!]

Getting back: Perhaps, Jacob’s spiritual development had more to do with his father than his grandfather. Jacob was only 15 years old when Abraham died. Perhaps, Jacob’s understanding of who God was to him had been weakened by the paganism that surrounded him while he lived near his in-laws. (Remember Rachel stealing the “household gods)? Isaac was still alive most of Jacob’s life. As all this may be, Jacob must have known his dad to be a God fearing, praying man of peace—a dad whose God was well known to Jacob. [Sad when Christians do not realize that the children observe their faith!]

God knows where we have been and how life has challenged our faith. God knows where we are at in our relationship with Him—and where He wants to take us!

Relative distance in years between events starting at 1

Even though Jacob spent 20 years in Padan Aram with his father-in-law, Hebron became home to him in old age and in Hebron he wanted to be buried. Joseph was, himself, born in Jacob’s old age when Jacob was 108 years old. 22 years later Jacob had this vision from “the God of his father.”

As God’s practice appears to be, He called twice [Genesis 22:11; 1 Samuel 3:10]. In Abraham’s case, the patriarch was about to kill Isaac, There is a certain urgency in the angel’s call, “Do the boy no harm!!” Samuel, being a young man, did not recognize God’s voice. [How familiar a scene.] The Lord called him by name twice probably to confirm that it was, indeed, the Lord calling.

And what about Jacob? Why not call him by his God-given name “Israel”? And why twice? God appeared to him “in nightly visions” [most translations use the singular, though the Hebrew is plural]. Was there more than one vision, more than one night! Or is the text simply affirming that this was then how God spoke in those times—in nightly visions. God knew Jacob was afraid, afraid to go down to Egypt, though the old man’s reason was never explained in the text.

What if God told me at my young age of 79 that He was in favor of the mission’s department sending me to central Africa as a missionary. That, He, God, would be with me and would guarantee my return—to bury me back in Massachusetts. And he shared all this in a “night vision” (a dream) while I slept. And what if instead of the emphasis being in His words, it was in the overwhelming sense of peace I sensed in my soul. God’s voice brings peace to any internal storm [Mark 4:39]. And lastly what if  God referred to Himself as the God of someone I highly respected for their faith and faithfulness to the Lord.  God might be saying, “See from his testimony how faithful I have been to him.” Maybe a missionary to Africa whom God used that I, in turn, wanted to emulate.

The part that interested me most was what God said to Jacob, “I will go down to Egypt with you, and I will surely bring you back again.” God does not send; He goes with us—especially if we are afraid we might be going alone [Exodus 33:15]. But note the word “surely” in the translation. The grammarians say this construction in the Hebrew “strengthens” the idea. What God told Jacob, He actually repeated, “I will bring you back [home], yes, to bring you home!” The English Standard Version in Isaiah 29:14 translates a similar construction where God speaks in a resolute tone as if with great feeling, as if to turn a promise into an oath, He declared, “wonderful things with this people, with wonder upon wonder….” And where might the emphasis be in God’s tone with Jacob?

Here, with Jacob, the Lord allays the patriarch’s concerns—not only by assuring him of His presence always [Matthew 28:20; Hebrews 13:5] but—by assuring Jacob that everything is going according to plan [Genesis 50:20; Romans 8:28]. It is as if God just told Jacob, “I am behind everything happening! Go to Egypt! See your son! I know what I’m doing in your life! Just trust me—can you do that!

Now, I wonder, if after this divine encounter Jacob awoke in the morning, gathered his family about him and with an excited voice and an adventurous heart proclaimed, “Fill the carts with provisions, put the children in them, too; hitch up the donkeys! We’re going to Egypt!!!! I’m gonna see my boy!!

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