Something on Judgement Day that I am not looking forward to is seeing snakes crawl out of my mom's soul in front of everyone, and seeing my dad's grief as he is confronted about his own role in her unrelented abuse of me and psychological dependence that she convinced herself was okay. All of us there at the dreaded day of reckoning will feel the same as we do now, totally unsurprised yet horrified as we sort through the video footage and narrative documentations of the life scenes that turn out to have black bats and rabid pterodactyls flying through each infested backdrop once the spiritual-filter is applied and the whole reality is apparent. It will be literally dangerous to view the footage of my early years working at barnes and noble, with actual pythons and vipers emerging from the screens and snapping and lashing at all of us conferencing there at whatever Judgement Day location somehow exposes what people refused to deal with on earth. We will go through each segment of recorded evidence, dodging snakes with slitted eyes and giant fangs dripping with actual still-potent venom, probably re-biting and killing some of the friends and neighbors there with us who I thought were safe from additional Satanic attack. I will say, God, my sister already got stung by a jellyfish at the beach one time. I could hardly bear to see it. Can't that be enough? But it wasn't enough on earth, so why would I expect it to ever be final later on. That is why as part of whatever group of Presbyterians I am assembled with in the horrifying haunted-wilderness-nightscape-welcome-center to eternity, I already know that I will have to rely on my prepared consolation of saying, "I knew we were wrong all along." My preserved doubt will be like the lemon jolly rancher I found in my pocket on the hike back down from Mt. Mitchell as a kid, which was too long of a hike anyway, just like our other trips through the mountains erroneously claimed by the Scotch-Irish, who found their way to South Carolina after becoming too proud that there were no more snakes in Ireland.
Saturday, January 30, 2021
"All the Jews Will Be Saved"
Well, already another blog post after quite a doozie about purgatory. But I want to mention a Bible verse that I find very assuring and that is a verse that says "All the Jews will be saved." I forgot where it is in the Bible and I do not care about the context. I don't. I just simply believe it and have hope. But I also know that Jesus Christ is the only savior and the only authority who has essentially made it allowable for anyone to be considered Jewish if they want to. That is why the Old Testament is part of the Bible. I also simultaneously believe that no one will be saved without faith in Christ. Well that is where it gets confusing, because one of the great gifts from Judaism is the fact that the Jewish people kept their faith as it is for thousands of years and many have maintained loyalty to that without converting to Christianity. I think some of the answers to the apparent conundrums can be found in the way Jesus died with a sign over him that said King of the Jews. His power to save his people no matter what they believe may have to do with that identity held on to until the end. The other thing I have to wonder is if some people will lose their Jewishness if they refuse to recognize their king. Well I don't know, and presbyterian predestination theology might line up with the idea that they don't have to because he recognized them first, and catholic purgatory theology might suggest that of course they eventually will, and waiting until they actually see it is what keeps it real. Well way to go everyone, I might be Jewish myself but probably only got included in Israel as an after thought trailing from God's eternal being.
This is why I am a Catholic
Ok everyone, it seems that it is time to discuss the concept of Purgatory. Why do I sometimes believe in and make plans for purgatory? Presbyterians generally believe there is heaven, hell, and earth, which includes a strict and ordained time limit to experience saving faith in Jesus Christ, without whom no one will be saved from a just and thorough punishment for sin, possibly in a way that lasts for eternity. I veer from some of these perspectives sometimes by suspecting either that a more final death as a punishment is possible, which would be like a type of annihilation, or that redemption is still possible beyond the grave. I have had to make room for those possibilities in my mind because of caring about hundreds of millions of other sinners who do not believe the same things that I do, and who often don't seem as bad as I am! How can I account for continuing problems in my own life after a definite faith in God, confirmed by now in many ways from the Holy Spirit, and especially how can I tolerate seeing millions of people I care about permanently, horrifically, and irrevocably choose what amounts to perpetual agony forever, all the while being told to alleviate suffering on earth as much as possible. What I most can't get around has to do with believing that death itself is probably not likely to be the automatic or even most common gateway to final righteousness for anyone. People do become clean and righteous in this world, which continues to be imperfect while we live out our lives, so how could anyone assume that what is right after death is automatically perfect, even if people immediately see Christ and are cleansed because of it? Most people know they face a reckoning for sins in some way after dying, so who is to say that it will be a totally happy experience? The Bible actually says there will be tears, and maybe the fact that they call it Judgement Day instead of something like a Year of Jubilee means something in terms of the process and timing. But God says a day is like a thousand years to him and a thousand years like a day. So I do not mean to make anyone lose their hope of immediate relief in any way, because the Bible does promise total eternal joy for all believers in Christ and not necessarily for anyone else at all. However, as an evangelical with a severe scrupulosity OCD, I have found that occasionally embracing almost any belief from Catholicism, including the possibility of millions of years of purgatory, puts me in theology territory where I see a whole new world of justice and opportunity that makes me pray with hope and love for anyone. I am still a fundamentalist of many sorts, but I want to present this purgatory idea to help other people who are in constant torment caused by not really knowing what will actually happen to people in God's presence, which might be part of life now more than we realize. I do not suggest it as an alternative to trusting Christ alone, but while we experience earth and suffering for whatever reason, the concept of purgatory can be a useful mental health strategy to find middle ground that could very well turn out to be a true and obvious reality dearly bought for us by the greatest mediator ever, Jesus Christ, who died and rose again to welcome any friend needing salvation.
Thursday, January 7, 2021
eternal york t shirt
Ok everyone here is the t shirt I made. Do you guys think I crossed any lines with it? I think it is a cool shirt and I am excited about wearing it sometimes. It is true I might start a club and then pass out tracts and communion sometimes in various locations. People might assume that would be unauthorized but I am not sure it would be. After this post I will probably go back to my normal worldly monk posts, though I might add in some bible opinions sometimes like commentary that is different from theology ideas or christian life strategies. if you have not read the bible much before I will tell you my favorite book which never gets old and that is the book of matthew. Most people say to read the book of John first but I like the sermon on the mount which is Matthew 5-7. Genesis is also awesome and Revelation which is freakishly similar to the point where I have wondered if the beginning of the world and even the big bang is in the future and it creates a time loop where everything starts over. People in Genesis live for about 700 years and what if that was from health advances in the year 3000. Isaac Asimov suggests a similar idea in his story called The Last Question but it was presented for fun as a story so he might not get in as much trouble as me. But I am not going to get in trouble at all because of Jesus Christ and that is why I go ahead and do some crazy stuff like make t shirts that possibly only I understand.
Saturday, December 26, 2020
A very indulgent culture
Hi everyone, I hope you had a good Christmas. I want to share an idea that might seem obviously wrong to a lot of people, but actually might be just what some people need. And the idea I have is that I think churches should just go ahead and start selling communion. Probably for about a dollar until it makes people feel too bad to do it any more. Some will read this as satire, but it is really the opposite extreme based on perceptions from a difficult path through experiencing people being mad and mean for no reason almost all the time. I just think for a lot of people who don't know better, "communion for sale" would be close enough to accepting God's free gift of eternal life, and for the people who do know better, the disrespect of it would be the irresistible grace they need to be saved from further crimes against the religious people they so publicly have despised. Do I need to go on and on about theology and church history? Probably not. I am tired of trying to figure out what time period this really is, with people always wanting to play holocaust with real lives, or accuse everyone of being part of the confederacy if they call out northerners on their hypocrisy. And I think for churches who really are guilty of manipulating people and creating weird economies where everyone acts like salvation is free but then wants you to pay them back with the misguided admiration that they are really after, then selling communion could help them, too, by being the more honest expression of their intentions.
Saturday, November 21, 2020
Bible Study
you can understand what is in romans without reading it. basically people have different value systems but everyone has messed up based on what they know is right. but when paul says you are only held accountable for what you know, he refers to "the" law and not "a" law. but i think “the law” could also include science and be broader so it is one law. but our knowledge is partial anyway so if people want to view it all as different belief systems they can to some extent but everyone has violated their own belief system.
but the question is, what if people have a belief system that is all bad. well wouldnt violating that be like saving faith. like they are bad but made a mistake and were accidentally good one time. well people say being good one time isn’t faith. it is just a random act of failing at the destruction you wanted to cause. so that is the doctrine of total depravity. if there was something that seemed good after all then the person finds out how to make it a loss by their final rejection that is like an ingratitude so bad that it would cancel that inconsistent moment anyway. that is my guess about it though really i would suspect that the mistake to be good would catch everything else on fire, destroying the evil and leaving only a saved soul who loves much because they have been forgiven much.
Monday, November 16, 2020
Things that make me feel cross
Ok everyone I have been reflecting on my faith experiences and remembering finally understanding the main thing I was tripping over about forgiveness of sins. Basically in my mind when I thought of Jesus on the cross, I could only see the crucifixion and not the atonement. So I could believe that the crucifixion happened for my sake, but I did not see the atonement that was also happening on the cross, which had to do with Jesus pleasing God on our behalf. The thing that was happening more than Jesus dying for me was that Jesus was pleasing God for me. So I could even take the cross out of it for a while and think okay, I was supposed to feed five thousand people and I only fed 287. But Jesus fed 5000 so things will be fine. God will say how many people did you feed. I will say 287. God will say, that is fine.
I can see how people could then say, no, it was also his death. he had to die and it was both his life and death. And i agree, but I think it is a trap for people to accidentally put their faith and trust in Roman execution. That is really a problem that I think is more common than people know, and to try to live by it causes a crucifixion experience instead of a happy life pleasing God. But in heaven all of it will probably eventually turn to life and atonement for anyone who asks or believes at any time.
Sunday, October 25, 2020
Combined Blog Posts
The first idea is something I figured out which is that if people want to be humble, one really good strategy instead of trying to feel bad about yourself is just to pay attention to what is true all the time. You tell the truth and look for the truth and try to see things as they are and understand stuff. It helps people be humble because the fact is that we have no reason to be arrogant. So if instead of just trying not to be arrogant, you take an approach where you get to know people and love everyone, the humility happens more automatically. And you actually sometimes end up feeling more positive about yourself in an acceptable way.
Okay the second idea is about the verse that says God hates dishonest scales. It has to do with bad business practices which is something that abounds in our society. And the thing I have to say is if dishonest scales are bad, just think about how God feels about unfair algorithms and child trafficking. He is not happy with that. It is weird to me that some people don’t care if God likes them.
Ok the third thing has to do with mindfulness and Jesus being a carpenter. He was making creations of wood and that is very temporary and present moment oriented. I think that is important. But then he became a healer doing miracles in his community. And the cross itself which was made out of wood took on some severe permanence in many ways. But what does it all mean in terms of eternity? Jesus gave people eternal life which to me is even further down the spectrum from rock and wood and more into a zone of water and spirit. But it also says Jesus is the rock where people can hide. So that is interesting.
Finally I will get into mental illness territory and say one more idea which has to do with the trinitarian nature of nature and important elements of oxygen, hydrogen, and carbon. To me those are the main three things. Hydrogen and Oxygen can be water or fire, and Carbon is the main element of life which is combustable as coal or can be like diamond material. And the Bible talks about a crystal throne in heaven. Well what if that crystal is carbon, and it refers to the human nature of Jesus Christ. So the crystal throne might refer to God’s heart which is happening all the time everywhere so we don’t wait until the book of revelation to be loved. Welcome to Kook Church Central, based on the love of God from the life of Jesus.
Sunday, September 27, 2020
some links to some links
Hi everyone, there is a page I could not include in my recent book and I wanted to post it here. It is basically a list of links that have to do with the religious traditions I associate myself with:
here is a good sermon by martin luther king jr: https://www.ucc.org/sacred-conversation_dr-kings-last-sermon
mlk on youtube “love your enemies” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=522wcqUlS0Y
poem by Robert Burns: http://www.robertburns.org/works/97.shtml
Emily Dickinson poem: https://www.poetryoutloud.org/poem/much-madness-is-divinest-sense-620/
Longmobile poem: http://shelsilverstein.yolasite.com/longmobile.php
facebook share during covid: https://www.facebook.com/ChristChurchGvl/videos/518997702093891/UzpfSTgyNTU5NzY5NjoxMDE1ODUxMDcyOTc1NzY5Nw/
CS Lewis ww2 radio talks: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mere_Christianity
book- Traveling Mercies by Anne Lamott https://www.amazon.com/Traveling-Mercies-Some-Thoughts-Faith/dp/0385496095
st francis prayer: https://www.loyolapress.com/catholic-resources/prayer/traditional-catholic-prayers/saints-prayers/peace-prayer-of-saint-francis/
examples of holy fools: https://orthodoxwiki.org/Fool-for-Christ
a book about unorthodox theology: https://www.gutenberg.org/files/9371/9371-h/9371-h.htm
marco rubio on twitter
revelation 17:14 They will wage war against the Lamb, but the Lamb will triumph over them because he is Lord of lords and King of kings—and with him will be his called, chosen and faithful followers.
Sunday, August 9, 2020
recent prayer
Dear God, Please saturate the earth and sky with flip trip prayer chair crowd start wirings to supply a million prize package sequence start lines that also signal the eternal power station generators throughout fifty different time and space designation ideas to charge supply assignment program management coordination variators and begin a future reference loading coding operation simultaneous to a thousand other add on blessing pattern bestowal theme systems accumulating and diversifying according to any possible eligibility factor that creates a growing list of community based, story line inclusive, population finding exponential surprise attribution groups to receive eternal shipments for any requested person, society, or category affiliation. Please provide each access point or thousand choice option a million supply kits, nature boost resource fountains, never-ending intangible wave graph continuations with editable levels for fifteen thousand topics or factors to determine extension process and target noun over-interpreted list inclusion with fading or alternating boundaries and key access extra field other-stores to be gained and regained at any time according to hints and hunches from people or animals or comforting leadership authorized to allow and deliver joy fest hope explosive ration caravans into a modifiable generational historical accommodation bestowal. Please identify all possible need based, surprise based, merit oriented, and related potential captain group networks and zap an invisible framework that records and amplifies all possible chain route life care with support potential and reversible problem chains that re-activate the seemingly skipped space block game supply droppers that can appear in any realm layer upon request or inkling plus reward component through type or consideration friends. Thank you for helping us and caring about people and animals and please restore any lost ground with eternal surprises for whole cultures needing hope and love and food.




