Love: But Why?

Love: But Why?

Maybe at this point I should cut-in on the regular subject and say a word about what motivated me to write this series of blogs about LOVE and OBEYING GOD’S LAW. To me, this is of critical importance. This thought-proposition came to me after a number of years of questioning what I learned in Bible college (another oligarchy-controlled propaganda mill). Here’s the question I asked:

WHAT WOULD IT TAKE FOR GOD TO BLESS US LIKE HE BLESSED THE APOSTOLIC CHRISTIANS?

For starters, I wanted to know what CONDITIONS needed to be fulfilled in order for ‘God’s people’ of today to receive the ‘gifts of the Holy Spirit’. There are other things I wanted to see happen, but that’s for another discussion. Suffice to say, I arrived at my conclusion based on the observations I made in the Bible. Here’s my conclusion:

GOD’S PEOPLE MUST HAVE A DEEPLY-ROOTED TRADITION OF JESUS’ CHARACTER AND BEHAVIOR. IN OTHER WORDS, THEY MUST FULFILL THE REQUIREMENTS AND INTENT OF GOD’S LAW IN THEIR THINKING, CHOICES AND LIFESTYLE.

Here’s a text expressing that very thought:

“But this is the covenant which I will make with the house of Israel after those days,” declares the Lord, “I will put My law within them and on their heart I will write it; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people.” (Jeremiah 31:33)

So what in the world does that mean? The answer lies in facts of Jesus’ life and history. Which means you have to know how Jesus was raised, how he lived, what his world-view was, and what he did while he was alive. So that’s what I looked at. And here’s what I found:

Jesus lived during the days of 2nd Temple Israel. The laws of his nation were based on the Mosaic law, albeit a myriad of man-made laws and rules. He lived during highly-charged revolutionary times with his nation being a vassal to Rome (they paid tribute taxes to Rome and were ‘occupied’ by the Roman military). There was a very firmly-rooted apocalyptic national mindset that found expression in various and sundry ways by different men and groups. But the key for me was how Jesus responded to his times, and what his PERSONAL CHARACTER, THINKING AND ACTIONS were. I wanted to know what Jesus’ “MO” was. That’s what most of my studies have been about, and is one of the primary reasons I began this blog. So let’s start with some basics.

Jesus was raised in the long-standing tradition of OBEYING THE MOSAIC LAW. Granted, it was done through man-made laws and rules. But His nation obeyed Moses in their own way. And in order to obey Moses, Jesus had to LEARN WHAT MOSES SAID. He also had to learn ‘the laws of the land’, which we call today ‘rabbinic law’. I say all this without getting into the ‘virgin birth’, ‘son of God’, and all those other Christian theology topics. I’m just looking at Jesus AS A MAN, like the Apostles did. So I started with the above presumptions and then sought to APPLY THEM TO MYSELF. Who knows? I thought that maybe I could achieve what Jesus did in my obedience to God (except for the ‘sinless perfection’ part of it)?

Sadly, over the years it became patently evident that I didn’t stand a chance of ‘being Christ-like’! Why? Because I was raised by parents who had no idea about the Mosaic law. And they certainly didn’t know anything about Jesus, except maybe what the Catholic church ‘taught’ them when they were kids! And even back then America had forsaken any and all things related to Jesus and God. So guess what? I didn’t know God’s law. And all the American national customs that I did learn were based on COMMERCE, and not God’s law. So that’s pretty much the sum-total of my knowledge and lifestyle. Result: I was starting from scratch with A LIFETIME OF IGNORANCE AND STUPID LIVING. Don’t get me wrong, I wasn’t some bad guy who did bad things to people. I was just a nominal Catholic. But let’s face it, I DIDN’T KNOW GOD’S STANDARD. So I had to learn it. Talk about getting a bad start in life!

Moreover, a guy like me who didn’t know the standard can’t possibly believe that I LIVED BY IT. But not all was lost. Plus, ’nothing ventured, nothing gained’. So I re-evaluated my life, revised my views, and changed my approach. But my main objective remained the same: OBEY GOD’S LAW and make my character ’like Jesus’ (if at all possible). By ’God’s law’, I mean the laws that God commands in the entire Bible. That’s Old Testament and New Testament.

One thing you learn very quickly on this ‘journey’: SOCIETY PLAYS A SIGNIFICANT ROLE IN YOUR ABILITY TO OBEY GOD’S LAW. I found two sides to that:

1. The parts of God’s law that are supposed to be OBEYED BY SOCIETY, which if they don’t, they (society) thereby prevent you from obeying, and
2. The parts of God’s law that you’re already obeying, the antagonistic social forces of society WORK AGAINST YOUR OBEDIENCE to prevent you from obeying.

I believe Christians call that RELIGIOUS PERSECUTION.

Let’s talk about that a bit. The first encounter I had with ‘religious persecution’ was IN THE CHURCH ITSELF. Can you imagine?! I’m not lying. Really. The fact is, ALL BUT ONE CHURCH KICKED ME OUT over the course of my church-going life. And it wasn’t because I didn’t ‘sacrificially give’ (money and time) to them, and do good things for anybody and everybody whenever I could. Nor was it because I was sinning against people in the congregation, because I would never even think of doing that. No. It was because some of MY IDEAS CONFLICTED WITH THE RELIGIOUS MINISTER’S.

Let me tell you, they were so dang touchy about such insignificant things, that it boggled my mind. In retrospect, I am convinced the reason they ‘hated’ me was because of two things:

1. I was cutting into their PROPAGANDA … the mindset they brainwashed their parishioners into believing so they could keep the money flowing in and the membership rolls increasing (or at least not decreasing), and
2. I was making them LOOK BAD because they didn’t know the Bible and teach it like they were supposed to (remember: that’s their primary job as a religious leader!).

I recall one unforgettable ‘episode’ where the minister called a secret meeting with his head elder. During that ‘inquisition’, after he served me the ultimatum, “keep quiet or GET OUT!”, a strange thing happened. I asked him a simple question about the subject he was using against me (about which he knew very little from the Bible!), at which point he stopped and stared at me like a zombie. His face turned blood red and his neck veins bulged out. His eyes opened wide, bloodshot to the max, and he bellowed at the top of his lungs: “I KNOW WHAT KIND YOU ARE, OUT FROM HIM SATAN!!” Really?! I ask this guy a simple question, and he goes DEMONIC on me! LOL … I mean, for goodness’ sake, I can’t make this stuff up!

At any rate, then he began rising from his chair with his elder sitting on his left (I can see it in my mind like it was yesterday, even though it was over 30 years ago), and he began reaching over his desk to grab me. He was a big man, probably some mafia thug’s kid from New York City. As he was rising from his chair to thump me, he bellowed, “GET OUT, OR I’LL BODILY THROWN YOU OUT!!” I could see the elder gripping his left arm in an attempt to hold him down. I could see the finger marks on his arm where he was struggling to free himself. Let me tell you, you could cut the tension with a knife!

Needless to say, that was the end of that. So I got up, eased my way to the door and left. Eventually, I believe it was about a year later, the guy sent a message apologizing to me. There was no email back then. No cell phones either. But he didn’t even have the courtesy or decency to apologize to me in person himself. But I did find out through the grape vine, that the little encounter we had disturbed him for many days. Maybe he felt guilty for treating me like that. Who knows? I sure don’t! But I do know that I DIDN’T DESERVE TO BE TREATED LIKE THAT.

How’s that for a real-life example of what I call SPIRITUAL ARROGANCE? Do you see what I mean by ’religious persecution’ BY YOUR OWN PEOPLE? But maybe they’re NOT my own people. Maybe they’re… well … I really don’t want to say. We’ll let God be the Judge of them.

This kind of thing happened to me many times over the years, until I finally decided it was less trouble to DISOBEY THE NT by keeping to myself, rather than trying to ‘get along’ with church people and their ‘cult of personality’. After all, the Apostles clearly command God’s people to meet together. Take Hebrews 10:25 for example, “… not forsaking our own assembling together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another; and all the more as you see the day drawing near.” Where do you think they got that commandment? Moses, of course! Moses commands holy convocations, as we saw for Sabbath observance. It’s the same with all the holy day observances. Besides holy convocations, there are other kinds of convocations in the Bible too.

So, NOT AVOIDING CHURCH IS A SIN (if today’s churches really are “God’s people”). But can I help myself? They drove me out every time. Why should I subject myself to that? Would you? So now you can see what I mean when I say SOCIETY PREVENTS YOU FROM OBEYING GOD’S LAW. In this case, society is the church. And that is only one example of many of this sort of thing in the churches. When you live by God’s law long enough, you will have your own collection of experiences. Trust me.

Then there’s the phenomena of the churches NOT OBEYING God’s law. Two prime examples are FOOD and HOLIDAYS. Nearly every church event I ever attended revolves around WORDS and FOOD (during social events). The minister dishes out the WORDS, and the women dish out the FOOD (after the words are finished). OK, so guess what they eat? Pork, junk food, shellfish, rabbit, catfish, GMO Franken-foods  … YOU NAME IT, THEY EAT IT! Yet Moses is crystal clear about the foods God PERMITS and PROHIBITS. I never feel safe when eating with church people. So I don’t. After many encounters with church people during their eatery times, I can tell you that you don’t want to experience what I did when trying to ‘fellowship‘ with these commandment breakers during supper. Let’s face it: Nobody but nobody comes between a person and their food. LOL!

I’m making a simple point here: PEOPLE VALUE THEIR COMFORTS, PLEASURES, MATERIAL THINGS, AND SECURITIES MORE THAN THEY VALUE OBEYING GOD.

I believe that struggle is the most difficult part of the Christian life (i.e., “Sanctification”), that is, until you get to where your lifestyle is arranged so that you’re obeying God as much as is possible under the circumstances (which is not a concession to disobedience where obedience is at all possible).

This disobedience among church people is not only in the area of FOOD LAWS. It happens in EVERY AREA of God’s law. Don’t get me wrong: Church people are some of the nicest people you’ll ever wanna meet. But let me warn you: DON’T TICK THEM OFF! Thankfully, they don’t have the powers of government (i.e., life and death). But they sure can make your life a ‘living hell’ if you don’t want to ‘go along to get along’. They are masters at APPLYING SOCIAL PRESSURE. Here’s a saying I would use on them from time to time during confrontations: “I don’t pack my bags for that trip”. So they’d ask “What trip are you talking about?” Answer: “YOUR GUILT TRIP!” Today I’d probably say it using more ‘secular‘ words.

Another example is expressed in a fancy Mormon saying. I got this one from a Mormon buddy. He told me, “You haven’t been [screwed], until you’ve been [screwed] by a Mormon!” (replace “screwed” with ‘the F word’). My point: So there’s NO ‘fellowshipping’ with these people, because they do things you just won’t do. And there’s always tension between you and them, especially when they do things that they themselves know you won’t participate in with them. It ain’t my fault they don’t like the way I live. And I ain’t the cause of their ‘feeling bad’ when they eat around me. Not that I care either way about their choices. But … who needs the stress … especially when you’re eating?

So, I just opted out of ‘going to church‘. Wouldn’t you? That’s another good example of DISOBEDIENCE TO GOD’S LAW CAUSED BY THE CHURCH, not me, which prevents me from obeying one of the many Biblical mandates.

There’s so much more I can tell you on this subject, from personal experience, which could fill volumes. But I refrain. Besides, nobody can do anything about it, so why kick a dead dog? Suffice to say that ministers who train their people to DISREGARD GOD’S LAW, are actively working against people like me who WORK ON OBEYING GOD’S LAW. One has to wonder what GOD thinks about them?

But that’s not the end of it. Some people in the churches ACTIVELY US THEIR SOCIAL POWERS to try to FORCE YOU TO DISOBEY God’s law. I’ve had that happen to me in various ways. One common example is when they make food and assure you it complies with God’s law. But later you discover they SNEAK pork or shellfish, or some other ‘unclean’ food into the dish, like when they use pork drippings from the pan to ‘season’ the food (which is a DOUBLE SIN because it’s FAT!). When you call them on it, they just laugh it off. I won’t tell you what I wanna say right now, so I’ll just say: That is evil. This type of ‘Christian’ behavior is a huge subject for another blog entry. Suffice to say that the apostle Paul specifically addresses this very issue in the churches. He says it this way: “don’t cause your brother to stumble [sin]” (Romans 14 ~ the Catholic church & 1 Corinthians 8 ~ the Greek Orthodox church).

Another example is them inviting you over on Sabbath on the pretense of observing the day of rest. Then they take you out to the park and BUY THINGS. Or take you to the MARKET without telling you beforehand, and then BUY THINGS. They consider it ‘resting’ because they’re not ‘making a living‘. BUT THEY’RE DOING BUSINESS ON THE SABBATH, WHICH IS PROHIBITED. There are many other things they do that are even worse, but let’s leave it at that. The way I view church people is, THEY’RE A BOOBY TRAP. So, like my mom would say, “steer clear!”

Suffice to say that the churches and modern Christians are a major source of aggravation and trouble for people like me who work at obeying God’s law. They not only PREVENT YOU from obeying God’s law, because their delinquency prevents you from obeying, but they also actively work against you in an attempt to TEST YOU or to actually STOP YOU from obeying God’s law. If they truly are Christian, then Jesus will deal with them in due time. But if they are not Christian, then they’re in for a big surprise on Judgment Day. Oh Boy! Impersonating Christians to prevent law-abiding Christians from obeying the law. I do not envy them!

Now disobedient churches are bad enough. But let’s set-aside the churches for a moment and mention the real deal with regard to ‘religious persecution‘. The church ain’t got nothing on THE GOVERNMENT! This is where the subject gets real interesting. But I won’t get into that just yet, because this blog is about WHY I focused my life on OBEYING GOD’S LAW. The answer, as stated above, is:

TO SEE IF OBEYING GOD’S LAW WOULD BRING THE BLESSINGS OF THE HOLY SPIRIT INTO OUR LIVES AND OUR CHRISTIAN COMMUNITIES.

Basically, I took the ’scientific approach’, and dedicated my life to this pursuit. Don’t get me wrong: Today’s ’scientists’ would consider my ’scientific approach’ rubbish. They would say “there’s no science in your approach”. Where’s all your data?! Where’s all your records?! Where’s all your ’peer review’?! My answer: This is how America’s founding fathers did it, so if it’s good enough for them, then it’s good enough for me. And they I’d ask them: WHEN DID YOU DO THIS EXPERIMENT ’the scientific way’? “Let him who is without sin cast the first stone.” (John 8:7) Or like my dad used to say: “If you don’t have something CONSTRUCTIVE to contribute, then SHUT YOUR DAMNED MOUTH!” Or like Proverbs says: “Drive out the scoffer, and contention will go out, Even strife and dishonor will cease.” (Proverbs 22:10) Some good ’words of wisdom’ to live by for any age!

Moreover, you can bet there’s religious ministers out there who will undoubtedly challenge my proposition on obeying God’s law, claiming: “THAT’S WORKS!!! YOU CAN’T BE SAVED BY WORKS!!!” Then they’ll quote a bunch of Bible verses OUT OF CONTEXT. Geeeez. C’mon, gimme a break! I’m not talking about ’Salvation’, I’m talking about ’Sanctification ’ (to use their high-grade tech terms). Man, I can hear them ranting and raving in their ’spiritual pride’!

From an objective viewpoint, doesn’t it make sense that if we recreated the circumstances, IN PRINCIPLE, that existed among God’s people in the Apostolic churches, that we would also be blessed with the DIVINE FAVOR that they were blessed with? If NOT, then HOW DO YOU PROPOSE WE GET THERE? I surely haven’t seen anybody talk about this subject yet in all my years studying the Bible. I’ve not seen it in SCHOLARSHIP, nor in THEOLOGY, nor in any of the churches I’ve seen. What they do discuss in theology is WHY THE GIFTS OF THE SPIRIT ARE NOT OPERATIVE TODAY. How convenient! Talk about a CON-JOB. According to them, since the “gifts” don’t exist in their world, therefore they don’t exist at all. Great logic! Brilliant! Nnooot! Who thinks this stuff up? Scholars??

So that is why I focus on God’s law, primarily. The other main reason is because I do not want to get in trouble with God ON JUDGMENT DAY. I believe it’s called ’FEARING GOD’. But after a while, you don’t think of it like that anymore, because you find that obeying God is the best thing you ever did. Plus, when people ’give you hell’ (i.e., persecute you) for whatever reason, you can rest assured you didn’t do anything wrong, so you don’t deserve the ‘grief’ they’re dishing out. Why? Because YOU ARE OBEYING GOD’S LAW, the MORAL law, AND THEY ARE NOT. Take for example the church trouble I expressed above. While it was happening to me it was very troubling, and sometimes even traumatic. But today, in retrospect, I laugh at it all. Why? Because it’s ridiculous that church people treated me like that when I didn’t do anything to deserve it. Moreover, all I did was contribute to their wellbeing the whole time I knew them!

Sorry to say, though, I haven’t yet realized the results I was (and am) seeking in this life’s quest. But I have, however, experienced with others the ’gifts of the Holy Spirit’. I’ll give you a couple examples. I knew a guy who told me of an elderly woman who was ’miraculously healed’ while they were in a ’prayer circle’. He told me he felt an electric shock flowing through his arms and down onto the shoulder of the old lady in the wheel chair. He told me that ‘energy shock’ went through everybody’s arms, because they were holding hands while praying. And when the prayer was over, the old lady got up and walked. I believe she was crippled from arthritis.

One time I was with a bunch of Pentecostals at a church picnic (that was before I knew enough to obey God’s food laws!). They wanted to ‘pray’. You know how emotional those Pentecostal fanatics can be! So about a half dozen of us got in a circle and they began praying. The thing about Pentecostals is, they all go at it at the same time. So I find it very difficult to pray along with them. Everybody’s yapping, so how can I separate one from the other? Anyways, I just stood there and listened. Now there was this guy from one of the Central American nations, a poor guy with like 8 kids(!). All he spoke was his country’s native language and very broken English. All of a sudden he burst out praying IN HEBREW. Let me tell you, all the others were babbling incoherently in their ’angelic tongue’(!), or whatever it was supposed to be. BUT THIS GUY WAS PRAISING GOD IN HEBREW.

Now here’s the thing: One of the guys in the group was a missionary from Israel. I didn’t know he was a missionary before the praying started. I hadn’t met him until after the prayers ended. So after the prayer time, someone introduced me to that missionary and we chatted a bit. And when I discovered he was a missionary in Israel, I asked him: Did you hear what ‘brother Joe’ was praying? He said, “Yes I did”. So I asked him if he knew Hebrew, and he affirmed. So then I asked him if he understood what ‘brother Joe’ was saying? And he said, “Yes”. So we chatted about it. I told him I also knew a little Hebrew, because I studied it in college. So when ‘brother Joe’ was praying, I was able to interpret some of what he was saying. And it turns out we both got the same thing out of Joe’s words (only this missionary guy was better at translating than me, because he knew Hebrew better than me.).

There you have it: THE ’GIFT OF TONGUES’ TODAY. I HEARD IT WITH MY OWN EARS ALONG WITH ANOTHER WITNESS. That’s just one of 3 examples I personally experienced of the ‘gifts of the Holy Spirit’. Don’t ask me why only one person in the entire congregation had the ‘gift of tongues’, while nobody else did (even though they all fancied themselves to have it!). Incidentally, ‘tongues’ is the reason I got kicked out of that church, because I didn’t have that ‘gift’. LOL! Didn’t realize that was one of God’s requirements for ‘fellowshipping’ with Christians! See what I mean about being at odds over TRIVIAL NONSENSE?

So there you go. You can have the ‘gifts of the Holy Spirit’ TODAY. But how do they come into existence? MY GUESS: You have to recreate the same circumstances that existed during the time they FIRST came to God’s people: They were a nation of people who OBEYED GOD’S LAW, and that was their national custom FOR GENERATIONS. Regardless of the extensive political corruption and social fragmentation in that nation, THERE WERE GOOD PEOPLE WHO “LOVED GOD AND KEPT HIS COMMANDMENTS”. SO WHY NOT TODAY? That’s why I took the initiative to do what I do, based on the aforesaid ‘beliefs’. I just tried to approach it from a pragmatic and ‘scientific’ perspective. Who else do you know that has approached the subject this way? Wouldn’t you want to get healed of some of your pains and sicknesses? Or wouldn’t you want to know what may happen in the future so you can prepare for it? Or wouldn’t you want to know how to do something that will save someone’s life, maybe a loved one? Anyways ….

Not sure what my next blog will be, but I’ll get back to the Holy Day observances eventually.