Restoration and Apostasy

There really is no static position in nature.  The full moon of two nights ago is now replaced by the waning gibbous immediately as the light begins to be lost.  Nor does the half-moon last longer than a single night, followed by the waning crescent. When the moon's light is altogether stricken, the new moon phase begins with the waxing crescent which is, at first, only a sliver. But it follows nightly through the waxing crescent, to the half moon, to the waxing gibbous, to the full moon.  Always in motion.  Always either growing or receding in light.

So also with the sun.  From solstice to equinox, to solstice to equinox, it grows, then dims.  Never static.  It is impossible to freeze the light.  It will grow or it will fade.

All things in nature testify of the truth.  This includes things in the "heavens" or sky above, as well as things on, in and under the earth. (Moses 6: 63.)

It is not possible for an individual, nor a collection of individuals, to remain static.  They are either involved with restoring truth or in apostasy from it; never merely "preserving" it.  Those who claim to merely preserve the truth given them are concealing the fact of their apostasy.  They are soothing their conscience.  Caretakers simply cannot exist.

All great truths are simple, and they are testified of in nature as well as in scripture.

The Battle

The battle we are all called upon to fight is not external.  Some people spend their time stirring people up to alarm them about carnal security.  They are trying to sell something.  There are fortunes being made by proponents of fear.  But the audience for such things are only being distracted from a much greater, more immediate battle.  Until the internal condition of the individual has been conquered and brought into alignment with heaven, there is no amount of political, social, economic or military security which will matter in the long run.

I think it more advisable to seek for and listen to the Lord, and secondarily those teachers who will convert you to the Lord; rather than any other advice or movement advocated by those promoting causes.  Teachers ought to point to Him.  Not to themselves.  No one but the Lord is coming to rescue you; and no group will be able to overcome error apart from Him.  Ultimately the battle we each face is the Lord's.  We must cooperate with Him for Him to be able to win it.  When He does, however, the victory is ours for we are the ones who He redeems.

The path back to the Lord's presence is an individual one.  It is not likely to be accomplished while in an audience.  There is no "support group" needed.  It is you.  What goes on inside you.  What you love most.  He will one day associate with a group in a city; but that group will be comprised of individuals who have previously met Him.

It surprises me how little discernment there is among those claiming to seek truth.  Many of them will take in ideas from foolish, vain and proud sources with as much enthusiasm as from a true one.  How is it that people cannot tell the difference between them?  Does not a true message sound much different from a false one?  Is merely associating some lesser virtue with a cause enough to have it distract?  What is more plain than the admonishment to seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness?

Updates on Writing

We're close to getting the blog-book done.  Should go to the printer this week.  Then it's up to them to get the process completed.  It now has a title: Removing the Condemnation.  It's about 540 pages in length; without a word index.  The blog will remain up and you can use it as a word index.

All but one of the titles are now available on Kindle.  The last one (Eighteen Verses) should be up this week, as well.

I'm a few chapters into the new book.  It will be out this year, but I have no clue when.

I'm getting tired of the cold weather.  But it does allow me time to write, since there's no temptation to spend much time outside.  Even skiing in this cold is less fun.

Religion in Rome

The following is taken from Cicero: The Life and Times of Rome's Greatest Politician, by Anthony Everitt:

"Religion was not so much a set of personal beliefs as precisely laid-down ways of living in harmony with the expectations of the gods. In fact, by the end of the Republic educated men believed less in the literal truth of the apparatus of religous doctrine than in a vaguer notion of the validity of tradition."  (p. 55.)

How controlling are traditions.

They blind us to any view other than the one we've inherited and keep us from examining what, exactly, the source of the tradition was or what it was originally intended to accomplish.