A Buzzard-pen

Advertisements

Past Imperfect

A sloppy chop from a surgeon’s scalpel shall require many more stitches to set right the first mistake. Not to mention a cosmetic surgery to conceal what went before. Is not history somewhat similar to this? A war creates many ripples, and tsunami of two world wars did not occur by themselves. It is how man’s fall in disobeying God has set to write history. Instead of having one Authority man found nations and every nation many masters and the combined weight of history we see even at present. Are not the steady stream of migrants from Central America or Africa reminiscent of the great migration of our ancestors out of Africa? Such is human predicament man speaking of national identity is fooling himself. Man shall be eternal wanderers on the face of the earth given the alarming rate at which the climatic changes. The Tunguska event of 1906 owed to a celestial object hitting the Siberian woods. When the Bible records the Judgment of the Harlot of Babylon in the Book of Revelation (Ch.18) it is one event the nations so secure in their own security should be concerned about. History of mankind is past imperfect. It shall be only perfect when God determines a point of time to put a stop.(To be continued)

I shall leave with something of my past imperfect.
In popular culture have we not read how our civilization got a boost from Aliens? If with their intervention we could only produce Facebook and conspiracy theories and racial profiling as we see now, we must be the most stupid to take advice from imbeciles. It reminds me of a time in my sixth form I had the answers to arithmetic test copied from one who was by all common consent the maths whiz. My father who was a martinet for facts insisted that I had answers to the sum entered against each question. For once I thought alternates facts would let me off the hook. No At home my father after checking my paper almost was screaming,’idiot!’ Later only I realized I was the victim of a sting operation. My mistake was not to stick to my own facts. I had good marks for maths. Even so arithmetic has been my bugbear ever since.

A Parable on Creation

Bennythomas's Weblog

Creation Spirit©

As soon as God created Day and Night, the host of angels came to God and asked, “O Lord there is division among us. Which of the two, Day or Night is better?” God chose not to reply. The day He separated the Heaven from the Earth the angels came and asked,” Which is better, heaven or the earth?”Again God remained silent. He went on creating and after he had created man the angels in so many groups asked,” We are going to pieces with contrary opinions. Tell us God, Are we not better than the man you created?”
God fell silent. Archangel prodded,” O Lord of hosts! If man were better you would have set him here in heavenly places. Now we see your face all the time and we are definitely superior.”
Instead of replying God breathed in to Adam and asked” Which is better- I…

View original post 21 more words

A Cormorant: mixed media

Benny

A case for simplicity

What came first: chicken or egg? It is a conundrum that has cracked many a head and the egg is still there for any smart Alec to test his wit. Tell a child one way or the other and he (not in an exclusive sense) shall believe you. The child’s faith comes from who is telling and not from the problem it poses. He shall come to it when his intellect is sharp enough. Are we not similarly placed?
The expression, ‘Out of the mouth of the babes’ indicates all the potential a babe holds, where his perception,-consequently point of view, latches on and how it shall undergo shifts every step of the way whether it has an end or not, no other can plumb. Considering no two person can ever match thoroughly can either lead to Us and Them or be grateful for the difference. It is how we express our middle state. Only God is eternal whose Power and Wisdom are altogether of a different quality. This brings to the topic: Is not faith the natural response in homo sapiens? But from experience we see how man is a commodity to be taken advantage whether it be Facebook or in politics. This explains the fallen state of man and not God.

One safe guide for any student of the Bible is to hold its inerrancy as self-evident. Consider the word as the constitution not written with hands but as testimony of God. This being the case I shall confine myself to the Scripture.
it is validated from three positions of God: He is a Spirit, He is the Word made flesh, and He is a Helper (1 John.5:7). It is what Trinity means.

The familiar quote in the epistle of St Paul to Timothy is clear. “All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness,/ so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work (2 Tim.3:16-17)”. If one scriptural passage is viewed from the outset as correct but possible to be in error in some other parts what do we end up with? Will it not be giving ground to doubt undue advantage before the student has had chance to prove its soundness? What God breathed cannot be built up on doubt, or be considered as manual of instruction when we consider righteousness as an attribute applied to God only. It is not without reason St Paul states, “Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God (Rom.10:17)”. Between God and man righteousness can be passed from greater to the lesser whose want cannot be based from any position than of total surrender. The medium of instruction is faith. God first exercised it (Heb.11:3) and man’s response to know his Will therefore must necessarily begin on faith.

The Bible is God-document the testimony of God that can stand on its own. How in the past many teachers all with good intentions have approached doctrinal questions, and ended up in creating controversies one must ask, ‘why?’ Why so many sects, if the Body of Christ be one? At the time of the author growing up was a God-is-dead movement that shall serve just as well as a case in point. Was this radical theology any different from prosperity theology? No, it was cut from the same cloth of man’s understanding where his necessity was to explain his worldview rationally. (Such controversies have bedevilled Christianity from the Apostolic Age to this day. The Jewish question is not what we face now. World ecumenism of our times would Photoshop Jesus rather.) Problem lay with man’s rational approach than with the testimony of God. ‘Instruction in righteousness’ is the aim of Scripture so whatever approach man adopts towards it has to stay along the path cleared by the Spirit for him. Man is the subject and ‘righteousness’ his purpose so his instruction therefore can profit from.

Benny

A Parable for our times

What is in a name? The man lay on the wayside, stripped of everything and was helpless. He might have supplied answer to that question had not the robbers hit on his occiput hard. Groaning and retching he lay but a scholar came along, only to be followed by another who pointed out to the man in agony and said,”A fool and his money part company soon enough.” The first scholar said,”Tut, tut” He is made in the image of God. He has been robbed.” The second scholar said, “Yes his wealth has certainly made themselves wings”. The first chuckled to say, ‘You are quoting Solomon.” At this point the man in misery groaned,”Help, help..” The scholars ignoring his cry lengthened their strides to discuss their latest paper under blind peer review, “Doctor of Divinity is nothing to be sneezed at. Whoever goes through it shall bowl over the foot notes”. While the other took up the merit of end notes,- and they had enough ammunition to fire away.(For scholar a position to show his scholarship is all that matters. It makes time pass.)
The man on the road lay for some time before a pastor passed by and he looked up to say, “Thank God, you kept me safe,- unlike him,- probably belongs to ethnic minority. Ahem”
The man who came next helped the man in need and when he recovered he straightaway went home and told the wonderful stranger who helped him unasked, “Son, last time they crucified you like a common criminal. This time it is no better.” He called Archangel Gabriel to get ready. “I shall soon show what I think of it all.”
Benny

Aesop Fable Updated: the Wolf and the Lamb

A wolf bruised all over came down to drink from his usual watering hole. He saw a lamb on the other side of the hole happily lapping up water. Annoyed he accused him of want of respect. The lamb still smiling said, ‘when the sky drops water barley grows without much sweat’. The wolf was all the more incensed. “I am talking of water, how dare you talk of barley?” The lamb went on slurping and it made the wolf all the more angry. “Didn’t you muddy the water yesterday?” the wolf hollered.
“I wasn’t even thirsty yesterday.”
“Ah the day before, I am certain”. They went on arguing back and forth and the wolf every time going farther in time. In the end the lamb shouted across, “Stop! 1812 war was not my making!” the lamb stood his ground, “If you would pick a quarrel know your history and speak more to the facts”.
The wolf was so flabbergasted and said,”your cheekiness is so outrageous. I shall eat you up for that reason alone.”
The lamb let out a raspberry and said, “I would have taken you seriously if you had even a single teeth left.”
Don’t go about threatening without knowing your own ability carry them out. This is what tariff wars of America remind me. Unilateralism of any nation neck deep in mire is merely shooting wind.
Benny