Sucked into the Prophetic Worship Vortex 1 Sam. 10:5

What was going on here? Samuel tells Saul what is about to take place and explains that he will become a new person.

These prophetic people come down from a hill prophesying and playing music perhaps dancing and Saul gets close to them and zap, he's prophesying too and afterward, he's a new person.

This kind of stuff is happening again and will continue to happen in our meetings. We need people prophesying and being made into "new" people.

1Sa 10:5

After that you shall come to Gibeath-elohim, where there is a garrison of the Philistines. And there, as soon as you come to the city, you will meet a group of prophets coming down from the high place with harp, tambourine, flute, and lyre before them, prophesying.

1Sa 10:6 Then the Spirit of the LORD will rush upon you, and you will prophesy with them and be turned into another man.
















THIS IS NOT MY PAINTING. GO TO THE URL ON THE PAINTING TO LEARN MORE ABOUT THE ARTIST.
www.rikberry.com

Fyodor Dostoevsky’s The Grand Inquisitor

Category: Writing and Poetry

So it's by birthday. I read The Grand Inquisitor by Dostoevsky. The Grand Inquisitor is a story told by a fictional character in the Brothers Karamazov. I first heard about this story in a book by Madeline L'engle called Walking on Water: Reflections on Faith and Art. She wrote that she believed it was one of the most important Christian writings. Sigmund Freud wrote, "The Brothers Karamazov is the most magnificent novel ever written, and the story of the Grand Inquisitor is one of the peaks in the literature of the world. It can hardly be overpraised."

This novel deals with some heavy thoughts on Politics/Religion specifically socialism and Christianity. Ivan Karamazov is sharing a story he invented to his brother Alyosha. The plot is something like this:

During the peak of the Inquisition, after a night of burning hundreds of heretics, Jesus strolls into Seville, Spain and starts wowing the people with his love, healings and resurrection of a seven year old girl. The Grand Inquisitor, ruler of the Inquisition, walks in and orders the arrest of Jesus with the nod of his finger. The Inquisitor visits Jesus and tells him that the masses will be in agreement as he orders Jesus to be burned at the stake the next day. He then tells Jesus of all his ideals for humanity.

The Inquisitor explains that Jesus came to give men their freedom, but humanity doesn't really want freedom. What they really want, the Inquisitor explains is three things. These three things are best embodied by the temptations Christ endured in the wilderness. Humanity wants security and care (bread and sustenance), to be part of something great and meaningful, (the supernatural of Jesus jumping off the temple), and to be unified as humanity in a sort of Utopia without suffering or the hungry(Jesus offered to rule the kingdoms of the Earth). For these three things, humanity will gladly eventually give up it's freedom. The Inquisitor eventually states that he and his organization are working the Devil now and keep up the religious front for the good of keeping the masses happy. He believes it is a shame for only a few hundred thousand strong-faithed people to attain salvation and freedom while billions struggle in misery. The Inquisitor is there to take care of them and give them the security they long for.

"As long, therefore, as men are free not to choose what is best for society, a stable, perfect social order with bread enough for all is impossible." (Anne Fremantle in her into to The Grand Inquisitor)

Fyodor, a Russian of the 1800's, was raised Catholic or Orthodox. Later, he was sentenced to death for conspiring with Socialists. His death sentence was later converted into years of labor in a Siberian prison. He passed through a time of atheism and came to believe in Christ during his prison term.

I find the little I know of Dostoevsky intriguing and applicable to the modern Western world as we globalize and the West presses on to socialism.

I read in a critique on Dostoevsky that he viewed atheistic socialism as incapable of long term success because it was rooted in envy. Envy of those who have not with those who do. And all socialism would do is transfer wealth but those without would always arise. I read in this critique that he believed Socialism would need a moral power to persuade the masses of why giving their wealth to the have-nots long term would be a good thing.

These are interesting ideas to me. I struggle with these debates in my head. In The Brother's Karamazov, a conversation is recorded about the separation of Church and State. The discussion centered on whether the Church should take a back seat and serve the state or whether the Church should grow to become the state. Issues are discussed of how the State and the Church differ in their role of dealing with crime and rehabilitating criminals. I cannot do the conversations justice in my blog, but for those who like to think about such issues as freedom/socialism, Church/State I recommend his novels.

Oh, the Grand Inquisitor story ends with Christ giving the Grand Inquisitor a kiss on the lips and the Grand Inquisitor letting Jesus go and telling him not to return.

Grand Inquisitor

A short history of abortion

http://www.nationnews.com/editorial/326798256475493.php

interesting notes:

The first government to sanction abortions was the atheistic communist government of the Soviet Union in 1920, followed by Nazi Germany in 1935.
It was not however until the 1950s that any other governments or major religious bodies came to sanction abortion for the sole purpose of killing the unborn child.

For such a ruling to be credible, it was necessary to remove the legal protection of the unborn child by declaring that "legal person-hood does not exist pre-natally (i.e. a baby is not a person until it is born and therefore has no rights to life under the law)".
It is perhaps appropriate, in the circumstances, to point out that this same declaration had once been made by the Supreme Court in respect of slaves in 1857 in order to legitimise slavery and that in Nazi Germany, Gypsies, homosexuals and Jews were all declared to be non-persons in order to sanction their extermination.

(boldface added by me...)

read civil war post from yesterday.

China's Christian Multitude

The gospel truth about China's Christian millions

 

I have heard that Christianity is growing in Asia and Africa but is in the decline in the Western nations.  What can we do in the US to revitalize our faith?

Is Modern Terrorism Inspired by Islamic Theology?

http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=35728&sectionid=351020602

 

Russia's president doesn't think so.

Huckabee Sees Islamic Terrorism Having Theological Roots

http://newsbusters.org/blogs/mark-finkelstein/2007/12/19/huckabee-iowa-manager-were-fighting-radical-religion-islam

 

"Vander Plaats' statement runs counter to the way that President Bush and virtually all other national figures have been very careful to say that we are not fighting a war against Islam."  Mark Finkelstein

 

Many people are very careful not to link the war on terror with any religion, but Huckabee's Iowa campaign manager links the two together rather boldly in this interview.

 

I think it IS important to think about the recent terrorist threats from a theological perspective as well as a political one.  I think that religion plays a huge motivating force behind the acts of terror.  Religion has great power to inspire people to do great good or great evil.  It would be careless to try to deal with this terror threat and not seek to consider the religious motivation as well as the political motivation.

 

What are the theological motivations that terrorists have?  What kind of future do they foresee?  What is their worldview?

They Know We're Leaving

Today we told our boys we were leaving. It was very sad but they appeared to take it well. I'm still following leads to find an Art Teacher position and working on my Alternative Certification. It's difficult looking for work, a place to live, school for kids, and childcare all while working at a 24/7 job. I think the boys knowing that we're leaving will help us work together in this transition.

Put in Notice

WE put in our letter of resignation at our work today. Our supervisors made no comment as of yet. My wife and kids went to the movies today to see I forget what. They had a good time.

Today at dinner, I was interrupted by a call and went into the other room leaving 7 teen boys alone. I was annoyed by all the noise the boys were making in the dining room and checked up on them. There were two boys running around the table and house holding their mouths and turning red. They had been dared to eat a fresh serrano pepper. They both ate half. One boy ran around the house huffing and puffing with a towel wrapped around his face and drinking water from the outside faucet. One of the other boys was recording it on video with his digital camera. I was mad but I agreed that the situation was funny.

I reminded my brother to start planning our next family reunion for just the immediate family. Him and his wife get to choose the spot.

I talked to a cousin at the reunion who said that the Mexican way of doing things was better than the American way. The American way, he stated, had to do with getting more and more stuff, while the Mexican way was working to pay the bills and living as simply as possible to free up time to spend with family. My dad told me that in America many people live to work while in many other countries the work to live.