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Purim: Hidden Things Jews Should Know, But Don’t. - Comments (0)

Printer Friendly Category: Articles,Doctrine
Author: John Malone
Date: 15th March, 2014 @ 06:06:13 PM

This year the Jewish celebration of Purim lands on my birthday. Purim is a time when the “Megillat Esther” – the scroll of Esther – is read aloud in the hearing of children, and others. It is a celebratory time among the Jewish people. Whenever the name of the villain Haman is named, children make “raspberry” sounds.

People who know me well know that I am instinctively iconoclastic. Many holidays celebrated in our society are merely iconic. Their basis is spurious at best, and intentionally misleading at their worst.

I’ll not delve into those holidays here, but this feast of Purim celebrated by the Jews is not only history-based, but, because it features the reading of a large portion of God’s Word, I’m actually glad to know that perhaps millions of Jewish children hear the entire book of Esther on that day. There’s enough in the “Megillat Esther” for Jews to receive Jesus Christ as their Savior (“Messiah”), if, by His grace, He opens the eyes of their hearts.

That’s the happy news.

Of course, the sad news for Israel is that God’s Word was taken away, and given to any individual – Jew or Gentile – who receives Jesus Christ, just as Abraham did when He visited him near the terebinth of Mamre. The sad news for Israel, being nationally set aside by God, has rather worked to my advantage, as His word came to such as me.

It is ironic how well the book of Esther cast a very long foreshadow across this greatest of tragedies that has befallen Israel – the loss of God’s word – said by the apostle Paul in {Romans 9|Rom 3:1-2} to be the chief blessing Israel ever enjoyed. The resulting (partial, temporary) blindness is particularly evident in the teaching around Purim, which permeates Jewish culture everywhere.

Can’t find the missing clues.

It’s relatively common knowledge in Jewry today that the Book of Esther does not contain God’s name. For this reason, some have questioned whether or not it belongs in the Hebrew Canon. And yet, it is in the Massorah, the definitive Hebrew text. What is missing in Esther – or what they judge to be missing, rather – is that Sacred Name given to Moses when he asked God for to identify Himself for the nation of Israel.

It is known as “the Tetragrammaton,” the four letters YHVH (“yod hay vav hay”). While there is much that could be said about its language permutations (Adonai, Yahweh, Jehovah, Lord), it’s Hebrew pronunciation (or lack of one), and its prevalence in the Hebrew text is unquestionable. So, its absence in Esther is remarkable, indeed.

But is the Tetragrammaton really absent? No, it’s hidden, just as so many deep truths – even those found in Esther – are now hidden from the nation of Israel. The Sacred name is hidden in four acrostics in this book, as remarkably evinced in the Companion Bible, E.W. Bullinger’s remarkable life work. You will not find a better summary than that.

Astyages Gets A Bad Rap; Iran Hates God.

Esther is written at the time both Israel and Judah are in Syrian and subsequently respective Babylonian captivity. A time when God has hidden his face from Israel, turning them over to their own desires. It is the inauguration of the “times of the Gentiles,” which continue to this very day, and will continue until God once again takes up Israel nationally.

The Gentiles themselves had done nothing before God to inherit world dominion. Israel had merely failed and forfeited it. Gentiles became such with Israel’s election in Abraham. Before that Jews and Gentiles were together in a union of sinners in the days of Noah, failing miserably, thereby predicating the Deluge. So, to discipline His firstborn national son, He brought on the captivity first of Israel, and then Judah-Benjamin.

Esther (“Haddasseh”) is herself a captive in Persia. She is of the tribe of Benjamin. Her elderly cousin, Mordecai, finds himself in the Court of Astyages – the Ahasueris or King of Persia – at the time. Jewish tradition has Astyages all wrong here. Astyages is seen as a buffoon, and the antagonist of Israel. He is neither of these. He’s a Gentile king, who for some time (seven years) actually took Nebuchadnezzar’s place (as a brother-law regent) as world ruler, while God disciplined Nebuchadnezzar for his arrogance. Of course, Nebuchadnezzar did not have the law of Moses.

Astyages only has the Jews in his Court – and Daniel in the Court of his brother-in-law – to guide him. Astyages is also subject to the law of the Persians and Medes. He cannot reverse his own orders. That is the law of the Medes and Persians. He’s subject to being fooled. He’s subject to bad advice. The fact is, he’s just like any world ruler who is ignorant of God’s Word, i.e. every world ruler.

This is why Christians, who today have the Word of God in Israel’s place while Israel suffers partial, temporarily blindness, are considered “the salt of the earth,” the world’s preservative. It was the failure of the Jews to take God’s word to the rest of the world that brought about their setting aside by God. And they were set aside well after the captivity evidenced in Esther.

But the Jews misunderstanding and lack of appreciation of Astyages – also known as the Darius (Maintainer) of the Medes – the Ahasueris of the Persians, leads them to further miss the full picture of the hidden Esther. Because not only is the name of God hidden in this book, but the amazing role of Esther herself is overlooked. Esther is known for preserving the lives of her people by the Jews, but she is not known as she should be for her childbearing.

God has promised throughout human history to bring the Savior of the world, the Messiah, through the agency of a woman. While it remains a controversy within Jewry “who is a Jew,” it is without controversy that anyone born of a Jewish mother is a Jew. Esther replaced Vashti as the wife of Astyages. As such, she becomes the mother of Cyrus: the future Artaxerxes (great king) of the Persians, and inheritor (and conqueror) of the Babylonian empire. Cyrus, called a Messiah in {Isaiah’s prophecy|Is 45:1-4} made perhaps as long as 150 years before his birth.

So, despite the fact that Astyages gets duped by Haman, he also discovers a way to afford Israel self-defense, and therefore is truly an earthly preserver of God’s chosen people. For these reasons, largely historically unknown to the Jews, He deserves historical honor from them. He gets little.

However, today, I think the Jews may have greater respect for this Persian king that Iran does! Iranians today are rewriting their own history to despise the Jews despite the fact their greatest king of all time IS a Jew! The judgment coming on Iran at the hand of God Himself looms. This nation, once beloved enough by the God of Israel to make it the head nation in all the world, has since been an undercurrent of enmity against Him. It will take another article to trace the secret, seething enmity that Persia has launched against God and His people over the many years since Cyrus.

Suffice it say here, that although God love Persia above all the nations at one time, since the secret infiltration by them inside the courts of Alexander the Great, their conqueror, has infiltrated and infected the nations ever since, through their mystical secret society especially, and is traceable to the modern era through Adolf Hitler. Anyone who wants to know historical and future geopolitics must study the Scriptures.

Haman Not Really Comical.

The Jews have some fun with Purim as the holiday is a lot geared toward children with games and activities surrounding it. As the Scroll of Esther is read, and the name of the Jews’ enemy Haman pronounced, all the hearers blow raspberries at that time. It’s good fun.

However, portraying Haman as a comical figure, rather than the precursor of that Man of Sin that he is, does no lasting favor to those children, or for anyone of age, Haman is an especially grim figure. Haman was Hitler’s Hitler. He was Satan’s man, rising up to destroy the Jews. The fact that he is taken in his own devices, and works to the glory of his dreaded enemy Mordecai rather than his intended aim is instructional to the maximum, as this is EXACTLY what happened at Calvary, nearly 500 years after Haman, 2,000 years ago.

Acts 4 25 Who by the mouth of thy servant David hast said, Why did the heathen rage, and the people imagine vain things? 26 The kings of the earth stood up, and the rulers were gathered together against the Lord, and against his Christ. 27 For of a truth against thy holy child Jesus, whom thou hast anointed, both Herod, and Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles, and the people of Israel, were gathered together, 28 For to do whatsoever thy hand and thy counsel determined before to be done.

Now many people have a problem with the entire notion that God’s plan is so overarching that it encompasses evil. They fear they may attribute folly to God. Others, more high-minded on the subject, who acknowledge the fact of verse 28 above, {choke on Romans 8:28|Rom 8:28}, which carefully does not attribute evil to God, as those high-minded ones sometimes do. I say high-minded because they pretend to be able to think and see as God does, when, in fact God can see more and differently.

God does not call evil good, but is able to make all things – good and evil – work together for the good of those who love Him, and are called to His purpose. While it was the case that the evil design of Haman was to destroy the Jews (especially the seed of Judah, of course, from whom Messiah came), it was God’s design to take Haman in his own design. Just as the cross of Christ was designed by His enemies to consign Jesus Christ to an ignominious and forgettable death, God used their evil designs to bring glory to Himself by showing Jesus to be the Son of God with power by His resurrection out from the dead, and Who since has become the most revered and famous Man in the history of the world.

When Jesus was here, He was {rejected by His own.|Jo 1:11} In the words of the same prophet that predicted Cyrus (a Jew, remember), called a Messiah because of his preserving of the Jewish nation in captivity, the fulfillment of Messiah was predicted to be {rejected this way.|Is 53:3} The Jewish birth of Cyrus is not well-known, or even declared in Jewry. At least I have not heard it touted. In the same way, the miraculous birth of the True Messiah is also not historically acknowledged among Jews, despite the Jewish roots of the Christian faith. Before we were first called Christians at Antioch, the entire Christian church was Jewish.

The great prophecy concerning Jesus the Messiah in Isaiah’s 53rd chapter is yet a thorn in the side of Jews. Allegedly, that chapter of Scripture is rabbinically forbidden to Jewish men under 40, and, of course, Christians are willing to deliver this chapter for consideration, as well as the great prophecy of Daniel Chapter 9, just as we offer the Megillat Esther for consideration. The Scriptures arrest the minds of men.

So, just as Jesus the Messiah was despised and rejected by His own (and the rest of world, do not forget), so will the Coming Haman be joyfully accepted and received. {“I am come|Jo 5:43} in my Father’s name,” Jesus said, “And ye receive me not: if another shall come in his own name, {him ye will receive.”|2Th 2:5-9} It’s hard to take the fact God’s people, scattered throughout the world as they are, set aside by God as they are, will accept as their Messiah on like Haman, instead of the One Who laid down His life at Calvary, that died for the whole world to purchase His chosen nation, but that is exactly will happen.

So, Purim comes today with a bitter-sweet ambivalence for me, and for all of Jewry. While it is a time to rejoice in remembrance God’s preserving power and mercy, way back in the day when he commissioned the Persian Empire to preserve his people in the days of Haman, it is also an ominous reminder that there is yet a day coming, when Israel will accept the greatest enemy of mankind, the Man of Sin. There’s plenty of Haman wannabee’s in every generation, and it seems in every place. But there is one coming who the nation will receive.

Today is the day, for the Jew first and also the Gentile, to {seek the Lord when he may be found.|Is 55:6}

Oh, Those Young Earthers! - Comments (0)

Printer Friendly Category: Articles,Doctrine
Author: John Malone
Date: 5th March, 2014 @ 01:04:12 AM

Watching Ken Ham of the “Creation Science” bunch parlay with Bill Nye, the “science guy” who went Dancing With the Stars was sort of like watching the post-Osborne Cornhuskers. Always a bit disappointing. The good guys are never good enough.

OK, a debate between these two is a powderpuff version of anybody’s football. Yet I found myself hoping that Ken Ham would say something pretty good. It did not happen. It was a sorry display by someone who claims to read his Bible. Ham may read it, but what he actually studies is science. It’s almost as if he is fighting to gain respect in the world’s science community. Who really cares about that?

The thing that bothers me the most about these Creation Science people is that they seem entirely unaware of the spiritual war that is all around us, and which only we believers can fight.

I told the Mayor of Omaha that I am going about spiritual warfare when I try to sort out lawlessness in municipal government. I don’t say she is the one to do it. It is for born-again Christians to war in the heavens, wrestling the power behind the power, and every single Christian should know that, especially adult Christians.

And this brings me to what bothers me the most about these Young-Earthers. The Bible does not teach a 6,000 year old earth. It teaches a 6,000 year history of man.

That a period of time passed between the first and second verses of Genesis is the only reasonable way to begin the Scriptures. If Ken Ham can’t get the first two verses of the Bible right, then I suppose he probably SHOULD be wrestling Bill Nye. Because he’s never going to see any serious spiritual combat from the enemy. Ham and his ilk are providing the enemy cover against those of us who will expose the enemy from the start as the murderer that he is.

I could discuss a great deal of exegesis right here about those two verses. Such as the heavens are a plural word, and we know there are three of them. We also know that something occurred to make the earth appear as it did, overflowing with darkness of waters on the face of the abyss. Waste. Wild. Darkness. These are the emblems of evil. Of catastrophe. Of blindness. {Isaiah teaches|Is 45:18} us the earth was not created that way. Not a tohu (“in vain”), but became a tohu (wasted place).

But I won’t. Instead I’ll start from the New Testament, where the object of the ancient type finds it fulfillment. And with this I’ll tell you why I am pretty upset with the Young-Earthers and in the worldly agenda and industry that they are pushing so hard, of course, on young Christian men who might otherwise learn the Scriptures.

{2nd corinthian 4:6|2cor 4:6} “For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.”

Very clearly, as above, the Apostle Paul equates {Gen 1:3|Gen 1:3} to be a type of the new birth experienced by every Christian upon receiving Jesus Christ as Savior. Now, in order for this verse to be true, {Gen 1:1-1:2|Gen 1:1-2} must be a condition emblematic of man’s fallen condition in need of the new birth.

Frankly, you almost have to be trying to make such a mistake as the Young-Earthers do.

And yet, persistently, consistently they make this mistake. Ask them when Lucifer fell, and they have the craziest answers. “The fourth day.” “Sometime after the sixth day.” “The Scriptures are silent on this matter.” As if they hold all of the Scriptures, have examined each and every, and have come up with positively nothing.

So having found nothing, you take them at their word, and present a few things. “Why do you suppose God didn’t call the {second day good?|Gen 1:6-8}” Answer? “He called everything ‘very good’ on the sixth day.” But He specifically didn’t on the second day. Don’t you suppose the reason He didn’t call it good because he placed Lucifer in that firmament?

So, we have no public heroes. We don’t need them. God looks for men who WANT His word. To them He gives it freely, abundantly. He gives all Scripture and fully equips his man.

The man of God with the Word of God is unstoppable, fully equipped for spiritual war, and has more wisdom than any of his teachers.

Including his science and dance teachers.

Calvinist vs. Arminian: A Great Debate, or Failure to Notice? - Comments (0)

Printer Friendly Category: Articles,Doctrine
Author: John Malone
Date: 24th February, 2014 @ 11:19:23 PM

The major argument between Calvinists and Arminians is a failure to rightly understand the {two justifications of Abraham as pointed out in {James 2:21-24.|Ja 2:21-24}

This so-called “great debate” is attributable to a few oversights in the passage itself. So let me make a few observations:

  1. The question in verse 21 is a rhetorical one with the answer “yes” implied. Therefore, the statement is definite that Abraham was justified by works WHEN he offered Isaac his son on the altar. This event occurred approximately 60 years after Abraham was justified by faith in {Genesis 15:6.|Gen 15:6}
  2. This advancement in Abraham’s life is said to be a matter of works working with his faith to make it MATURE (v. 22).
  3. The Scripture therefore was fulfilled, because Abraham was “called the friend of God.”
  4. So you see that a man is justified by works, and not only faith.
  5. There is a justification by works that follows a justification by faith.

#1. The main subject here is, “When.” So few seem to even see this. Abraham was justified by works about 60 years or so after he was justified by faith. For many of us that’s a lifetime. It’s late in his life.

Abraham looks and sees the place (of the skull? I think so.) {from far off.|Gen 22:1}

When we look at the account of this sacrifice of Isaac, we see the outline of Gods testing of the faith of His children.  Abraham has {forward-looking (mature, “now”)|Heb 11:1} faith. He sets forth according to the Word of God (therefore by faith).

He promises those who stay behind that he and the lad, 33-year-old Isaac, {will return|Gen 22:5}. It is the case that Abraham – and more particularly Isaac – are going the way of the cross, Isaac bearing the wood for his own sacrifice. He assures Isaac that God {will provide a lamb.|Gen 22:8}

{By faith, Abraham receives Isaac from the dead.|Heb 11:17-19}

#2. Abraham’s faith was made mature by this work. He had to look forward according to his hope, even forward beyond the grave. He was embracing a far-off promise. We are told he looked for a city {that had foundations.|Heb 11:10} Mature faith is forward-working faith. Beginning faith looks backward, to the substitutionary death of Jesus Christ. Beginning faith is justifying faith. Mature faith is justifies its holder by works. Later. For us, this is the faith tested by fire at the judgment seat of Christ, {before which we shall all stand|2Cor 5:10}

#3. Abraham’s 2nd justification resulted in an accolade. AND, the Scriptures say, Abraham was called the friend of God! Not all was fulfilled about Abraham at Gen 15:6. Not all is fulfilled about you or I, brother, until the great and ominous judgment seat of Christ! Will we be justified by works, having them tested, and then receive an accolade from God? Will He say, “Well done, thou good and faithful servant?”|Mat 25:21}

After all, we are His friends, {IF AND ONLY IF we do what He commands.|Jo 15:14}

Yet we are His children, having been born again by faith in the Great Substitute, our Lord Jesus Christ. And that is true, my brother, no matter what you do, before or after you receive Him.

#4. So, there you can see it. If the Calvinists and Arminians would see this, they would realize their “Great Debate” is based on things that differ. Things that require a more detailed look. But they won’t look because they love their argument. What a shame.

#5. There are two justifications, and Abraham experienced both of them. So, you see, a man is [also] justified by works, and not by faith only. It’s the “when,” and the viewpoint, that distinguishes them.

Now, brethren, carry on with your argument. Arminian, keep making-believe your eternal life is in jeopardy, because you can’t distinguish these justifications. And Calvinist, keep playing “fruit inspector” and telling brethren who don’t meet your standard “not really saved.” “Eighteen inches from salvation: head to heart.”

Keep on your phony argument, and {let the rest of us go on to maturity, if God permits.|Heb 6:3}

Commies & Homos, 1972. - Comments (0)

Printer Friendly Category: Articles,My Life
Author: John Malone
Date: 19th February, 2014 @ 03:07:12 PM

Interestingly yesterday, as I listened to my friend (and brother) Chris Baker on his “Big Show” afternoon Omaha radio talk show, I heard a caller who was brainwashed about the recent past. Never has the old saw, “history is written by the winners,” ever become more clear to me than when it happens about the times I have lived.

You see, in a very real way, while the rock bands played, and while people still were coming late to the 1960’s, I was left of Karl Marx. I laughed at the National Lampoon edition that featured hippies smoking weed and thought bubbling, “Marx was no communist, I’m a REAL communist.” (In fact, I spent an entire day with PJ O’Rourke – today a conservative writer, and still a funny guy – when he was in his heyday at the National Lampoon: that’s another story for another day.)

Perhaps you know the Karl (not Groucho) Marx story. The oppressed worker lives in a valley. Every day he trudges up left hill on his right to go to work, where he is oppressed. Every Sunday he trudges up the hill on his left to go to church, where he is told to trudge along, because things will be better in the by-and-by. Pie in the sky.

I studied the dismal science. I learned it. Chris’ caller forgot that Marxism has never happened, but that Communism took its place. And then Stalinism took its place. And that was all BEFORE my generation. As was Hitler. Stalinism struck on the “dictatorship of the proletariat” phase. You know, the temporary phase until the masses can be re-educated in the FEMA camps? Hitler was a socialist. People tend to forget that when they so willingly vote Republican. As did Herod and Pilot, Latter Day Stalinists and Hitlerians became fast friends. Christians should be wary of the “leaven of Herod.”

I have witnessed the politics of the past 40+ years. You see, in a certain way I dropped out, went to the political sidelines, and conducted myself more prudently than I used to, and have been called to preach. Yet I have observed, and occasionally engaged.

The commies are in power now. Here. As are the homos. Get used to it I think. It’s going to get worse.

It was 1972 when I saw the Civil Rights Movement oddly and illogically morph into the Homo Movement.

I was 21-years-old, and ascending in the world of student politics. I was attending the National Student Association Convention, and became deeply involved as an operative in a winning campaign to lead that formerly-CIA-financed radical student organization.

To my surprise, the organization was very heavily influenced and led by people closer to age 30 than 20. One of the key influencers of that organization at that time was Jack Baker (age 30), student president at the University of Minnesota, and perhaps the most radical homosexual in the country. While I was unabashedly pro Civil Rights in the context of racial discrimination, I could not – and still cannot not – bring myself to the equation of a homosexual behavior with racial inheritance.

As it turned out, despite winning that election electorally, we lost it when our candidate was punched in the face, and a voice vote then overrode the election. In that day – 1972 mind you – “student leaders” were competing with one another to proclaim how anti-communist they WEREN’T. I recall Margery Tabankin distinctly pleading with us at the plenary session to believe her when she said she was never anti-communist. While her rhetoric at the time didn’t disturb me at all, it should have.

In attendance as honored guests at that convention were Tom Hayden and Jane Fonda, and Senator Edward Kennedy, among others.

At least from that time, the student movement in the United States was totally pro-communist, and largely also pro-homosexuality. Before that experience, I thought “communist” and “marxist” was a persuasion. I had never met any committed communist party members prior to that time. At that time, meeting some, I realized how committed and dedicated to the revision of the USA these people were. Any real student was a mere spectator at that convention. The players were all older, and they were on a mission, and they were funded.

In fact, Tabankin went on from there to become someone who could find tax money to support left wing causes. That was her early career. Later, until now, she has gone about raising private and public funds to continue the agenda I saw emerging way back there in the Nixon Administration: commies and homos.

That was my early education in the politics of today. I went home in the summer of 1972 disillusioned and depressed about the politics of my generation. From that time forward, I saw politics in the United States become more and more about homosexual sex. And more and more authoritarian, anarchist, godless, and Nazi-like.

At about this same time, I became pretty worried about the GroupThink and mass mentality of my peers. I attended very few concerts in my life, and the reason for this is that I did not care for the mass behaviors I saw taking place in crowds. It was so engineered!

Maybe it was the writings of Gunter Grass (The Tin Drum), Alexander Solzhenitsyn (The Gulag Archipelago, One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich), and Albert Speer’s contemporary work (Inside the Third Reich), that made me wary. I was no cold warrior, for sure, and had no fear of Russian military aggression against our country, but I really did fear the direction I saw my peers taking. In a way, I suppose I saw myself as the Grass’ “tin drummer,” prepared to beat a counter-rhythm to the Nazi-like beats all about me.

But in the summer of ’72, my depression deepened as my altruistic belief in enlightened politics crashed hard on the understanding that anarchy and homosexuality were creeping into my then-“paragon of righteousness”, the American civil rights movement. It seemed inevitable that movement would get hijacked. In fact, it was inevitable.

I was barely 21 years old, had already twice been the Editor-In-Chief of the campus newspaper, and probably switched majors 4-5 times. I had lost my girl friend, and I didn’t care. Even baseball wasn’t fun. The then-greatest Husker teams ever weren’t playing anymore, and a guy I played baseball against was going to win a Heisman trophy, even after knocking off a gas station. I played a mean game of bridge.

I realized I was on a wrong track somewhere. I also realize I found the right track.

Modest Amendments to Public Health Care. - Comments (0)

Printer Friendly Category: Articles,Salt and Light
Author: John Malone
Date: 16th February, 2014 @ 10:10:47 AM

I’ve added a new category to this site to accommodate some of my thoughts about public policy that I think make for a more peaceful and productive society. The kind of society we should pray for so that we can more readily advance the gospel of Jesus Christ. Christians are {the salt of the earth|Mark 9:49-50}, a preserving agent, and we need to function accordingly, lest the surrounding society rots faster.

There are approximately 4,000,000 children born in the USA annually. The average cost of a birth is $3,500, which in my opinion is pretty high because my daughters and daughter-in-law give birth for a little as $50. And I have 36 grandkids.

If vouchers were given to every child born in the USA as a birthday present, it would cost $14B. That’s a drop in the bucket in the context of the Affordable Health Care Act, and would remove some of the ridiculous underwriting requirements involved in that fiasco such as providing maternity coverage for all males.

Insurance NEEDS underwriting requirements.

It would also lead to the reduction in cost of births because it would stimulate competition for birthing. Pregnancy is not a disease and doesn’t necessarily belong in hospitals in the first place. I’d let parents shop the birth so that any remainder of the voucher would go to an HSA for the child.

One of the main problems with insurance is that it tends to destroy price discovery by the consumer. The provision of leftovers into an HSA will stimulate consumer price discovery, which in turn stimulates competition, which in turn provides efficiency.

I don’t think we can have too many more justifiable public expenses than birth. $14B would take maternity out of the public health care insurance debate.

Happy birthday, citizen.

The second thing that needs to be done is to restore the allocation scheme of “uninsurables” so that insurance providers can more accurately price products without worrying that they will be “selected against” by high-cost consumers. As it stands today, each participating insurer in public health care has to worry about such selection – a standard practice in insurance – and price accordingly. It is possible as it currently stands, for instance, for 10 insurance companies to each price their products as if they will attract 25% of the high-cost consumer. Normal distribution of those 10 would yield one company with 25%, and two with 20% of those consumers, but ALL the companies have to price for the eventuality. That adds up to 2.5 times the number of those consumers, or 150% excess expense. I have oversimplified, but the idea is here.

Instead, companies should be allowed to underwrite as they have in the past, but me made to absorb the uninsurable according the the market percentages they acquire. A simple allocation scheme. Such a simple provision as this would allow more accurate pricing by insurers of the base product. The uninsurable would raise the price of insurance for the insurable , but that is what insurance is, after all.

When these sorts of simple ideas are not present in the scheme, one wonder what the scheme really is.

Real Hebrew Roots. - Comments (0)

Printer Friendly Category: Articles
Author: John Malone
Date: 13th February, 2014 @ 03:42:07 PM

A modern-day repackaging of an old-time religion may be found in the “Hebrew Roots” movement, which teaches that Christians need to obey the Levitical laws and sanctions generally agreed to be 613 laws, customs, and so forth derived from the first five books of Scripture.

This “movement” is misnamed. Of course, the errors it propounds are nothing new, and are prominently figured into Paul’s rather seething commentary on such ideas in his epistle to the Galatians. Most people either gloss Galatians when they read it, or mistake its major premise by focusing on a minor one, and/or reading too many commentaries. To aid the reader, the central consideration is not initial salvation from sin unto the gift of eternal life, but {progressive sanctification in the life.|Gal 3:3}

The Hebrew Roots movement is truly against Christian practice and faith, despite being occupied as it is by Christians. There are very clear Scriptural warnings to NOT do the very thing this movement represents. It steals the liberty into which every Christian has been placed. We should, rather, {stand fast in that liberty.|Gal 5:1}

Once again we learn the difference between being sanctified – which every single believer in the Lord Jesus Christ is – and being able to sanctify: which no Christian can do.

How many times do you hear, in a discussion of an unbiblical practice or doctrine, how many Christians, including Christians of some note, either do the practice or believe and or teach the doctrine? As if that can possibly settle a matter? All of this leads to confusion in the mind of the beholder, the very beholder we are trying to reach with the truth of God’s word. When Peter violated the principles of the early church, his acts were not sanctified, but {Paul put him in his place.|Gal 2:11-12}

A paradox, you may say? Sure it is. But of all people to understand the paradoxes of those who are identifiable by faith and practice, Jewish people should understand that a variety of practices and beliefs doesn’t completely obscure the identity underneath. In short, these are Christians acting as if they are Jewish proselytes, to a large extent, and when Christians join into the inferior priesthood of Levi – as they do – they do a disservice to the Christian faith.

“Christians” were first called as such by others who identified them at Antioch, in Pisidia, in the middle of the first century. Prior to that time, before Gentiles began to be Christians in larger numbers, they were knows as Jews who went “the way.”

In fact, this fairly large group of Jews who believed in Jesus Christ could be found occupying “Solomon’s porch” in the Herodian temple when it was standing, and Jews gathered together on the requisite feasts.

So, yes, Christianity has Jewish roots. To call it “Hebrew roots” is flat wrong.

Abraham is called a Hebrew. He didn’t perform any of the law, nor did he keep its dietary restrictions, let alone wear phylacteries, etc., and other Rabbinic practices which actually miss the mark spiritually, and, at best, are superstition, or worse, end up choking on gnats and swallowing camels.

As for how it happens, Christians receive a supernatural love for God and His word, because of the love of Jesus Christ. It doesn’t take much study of the Scriptures to realize God’s special love for His people, Israel. Jesus is a Jew, too. Not was. Is. Tribe of Judah.

So any thoughtful Christian cannot hate the Jews – even though many do – but instead have a supernatural affinity to them, and are indebted to the Jews because that is where faith in Jehovah (Jesus Christ) comes from. To call that a “Hebrew Root,” is a misnomer.

The Scriptures teach that Israel is a tender planting of God, a tree (or vine) that grew, and then later at some time Gentile branches were grafted in. That time was in the first century, as Jews increasingly rejected Jesus Christ, even though many, many believed.

That leaves we former Gentiles who have believed readily aware that we only stand by our faith in Jesus Christ, and when the time comes that no longer is the case among the Gentiles, God will once again take up Israel as the light of the world.

But that is NOT Hebrew roots, even in the generic sense. True “Hebrew Roots” may be found in Abraham the Hebrew, but not in the Levitical priesthood.

And this is the core of the problem. These misled and misleading Christians have come short of the second phase of the ministry of the Lord Jesus Christ, the one He is in today, which is His priesthood at the right hand of His and our Father. This is not a Levitical priesthood as is obviously evident in the fact that Jesus Christ is of the tribe of Judah, house of David, and not of the tribe of Levi. He’s genealogy is most eloquently found in first parts of Matthew and Luke.

{Paul, when he was before Ananias,|Acts 23:2-5} the alleged Jewish high priest, was slapped at Ananias instruction, and Paul subsequently called Ananias a “whited wall.” He then claimed he did not know Ananias WAS the high priest. Of course, Paul was aware of who Ananias was.

However, unlike the others around, Paul also knew Who the Lord Jesus Christ is, and also knew Him to be a high priest of a higher order than any from Levi. He published this viewpoint clearly and succinctly in his Epistle to the Hebrews. And it is in that epistle that the undeniable logic is presented: that Abraham paid tithes to Melchisedec.

Because Abraham is Levi’s great grandfather, Levi paid tithes to Melchisedec in Abraham. And after Abraham tithed to Melchisedec, Melchisedec blessed Abraham. It is not controversial that the greater blesses the lesser, and therefore we see how great this man Melchisedec was: greater than Abraham. It is significant that in the blessing of Abraham, Melchisedec, the king-priest of Salem, brought forth bread and wine to Abraham. This foreshadows the Christian ordinance.

Therefore we see that, prior to Levi and Moses, there was a priest of God who was king of Salem, later to be Jeru-salem. This priest was greater than Abraham. He was NOT a high priest, but that his order existed is a fact of the Bible. This no doubt traces back to the commitment of the true worship of God to Shem. In fact, I suspect that Melchisedec may have indeed BEEN Shem. But that’s not especially important. If Melchisedec’s genealogy was important, it would be included. The fact is, it is important he has NO genealogy, typifying as it does his priestly Successor, Who is timeless.

Shem was the father of ALL of the children of Eber, upon whose name the term Hebrew rests.

These are Hebrew roots if the phrase is to be used. The roots of faith in Abraham the Hebrew.

Abraham the Hebrew recognized the priesthood of Melchisedec. And while Melchisedec was a king-priest, his Successor, Jesus Christ, is the High-Priest King, after the same order. With Jesus Christ the high-priestly order of Levi was terminated. The High Priest after the order of Melchisedec took His office after His ascent back to heaven.

The Lord Jesus will hold the three offices given to Israel: Prophet, Priest, King. No other single man was ever allowed this. He dies, as prophets do, at the hands of His own people. Today, he is the High-Priest, after the order of Melchisedec, and therefore all the order of Aaron (Levi) is terminated. Finally, He will rule as King of Kings, Lord of Lords.

And the law of Moses, which came 400 years later, cannot annul God’s promises to Abraham, in part signified by his meeting with Melchisedec after Abraham’s triumph over the kings.

This, by the way, is orthodox and fundamental Christian belief.

I have Hebrew roots.

Right of Attila the Hun. - Comments (0)

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Author: John Malone
Date: 12th February, 2014 @ 06:47:04 AM

It’s been quite a few years ago that I was introduced as being “Somewhat to the right of Attila the Hun,” by a friend of mine. I’m misunderstood. Sometimes I revel in that. I try to stay principled. I think that’s the only way to live.

So in my experiences lately of trying to function as both salt to the earth as well as light to the world, the call to faithfulness of every Christian, I have set about in my local community to confront lawless government.

That has led me to represent myself in Court as a citizen advocate. I have received injunctive relief against the City of Omaha because it implemented an illegal set of ordinances to license virtually everyone that does any work on real property. I am attempting to stop the City of Omaha from illegally appropriating tax money to the state-supported university.

Recently I have been watching the city of Fremont, NE try to drive the illegal aliens out of their city. It’s incipient xenophobia. Now, there is no doubt that illegal aliens crossing our borders is a problem. It is a problem of failed government. But what Fremont citizens are doing is truly the stuff of pitchforks and lanterns, as they have set about a licensing scheme of all rental real estate AND all renters. That’s right, license everything.

First, let me say that Fremont has always been a city dominated by Masonic elements and therefore has become the kind of community brought about by that secret society.

As far as I can tell, there isn’t a gospel-preaching church in the whole town.

It has failed to grow because it is run my local monopolistic interests. Sort of reminds me a bit of the town of Millard NE, annexed several years ago by Omaha, which is now looking a lot like a ghost town. A lot like Fremont. I wonder if there is a single Jewish family in the entire town.

I pretty much expect Fremonters to tell me: “We’ve handled the Jews, and we’ve handled the blacks, and we sure are going to handle these browns.”

Now here is the paradox in all this. Who do you suppose lined up behind this movement to license all rental real estate and all renters in the Fremont city limits? “Conservatives.” And of course, the expedient bunch of unprincipled politicos that adhere to “conservatives” like barnacles (or,maggots?) – the Republicans.

I have many Republican friends, though I have never been one. And I’m still a Bible Christian. Before I was saved, I was far, far more radical than my Democrat registration described. Of course, today Hubert Humphrey would be to the right of John Boehner, and George Bush, but leave that. I was a definite lefty. I met real communists. I also saw the Civil Rights Movement get hijacked by Sodomites, but I’m working on another article for that.

Anyway, I say all this to explain why it is I have come to my political conclusion on the state of American politics: I left the Democrat party over 35 years ago because they held wrong principles. I’ve never joined the Republicans because they have none.

Watching Republicans and conservatives parade and prate about what a wonderful thing they have achieved in Fremont – by seizing fundamental liberty away from every citizen in Fremont – is exactly the kind of thing I’ve come to expect from Republicans. Just as the Omaha Republicans seized on licensing nearly every man that works with his hands in Omaha.

Republicans stand no more for freedom that Democrats. They are both becoming more and more like Nazi parties. They will have brownshirts at our doors soon enough. In Omaha they have criminalized work. In Fremont, they have denied property owners an important right. The right to rent out your property without governmental permission. The right to rent a property without government permission.

I’m pretty sure I’m one of the only guys around that thinks that seizing liberty from the people is contrary to both Americanism and Christianity.

Even if it does serve the interests of local anti-christian xenophobia.

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