Hi readers. Thanks for coming by for a read.
I’m still muddling along with God Knows, by Joseph Heller, but he’s got me thinking about a lot of things somewhat unrelated to his own theme. So what’s below inevitably has roots, both in the OT, and in Heller’s recreation of Hebrew history and the Bible through the eyes of King David.
So this is going to be me, Old Jules aka wossname, Jack, mulling this over. Not King David, not Heller, not even God in the sense you’re most likely to define the concept.
I’ll get into this thing about cumulative human wisdom, but first I’d just like to confide to you how much better I’d feel if God weren’t so sneaky and cagey about his real name in his dealings with those old time Hebrews. What the hell is that all about? Who is He afraid they’ll find out he really is?
I’m not pushing the idea He was Roy Rogers, mainly because Roy was a fairly consistent, courteous human being, though daft.
And if they did know who God really is, how’s He scared they’d think less of Him in the knowing of it? After all, it ain’t as though God was putting on any airs in his dealings with them. Never makes any attempt to explain himself, elevate himself in the eyes of his Chosen People.
Just go back and read the OT. How he treats Moses, sheeze, Job, King David, Adam and Eve, even Cain and Abel. And inconsistent, uneven-handed so consistently as to assure nobody’s going to acquire any wisdom from any of it.
Call me paranoid, but I think there’s more to this side stepping and dodging the true identity with a name stamped into the dogtags than those ancient Hebrews imagined, that anyone since has explained sufficiently to argue He might have been Anyone, but particularly some located in the vicinity of Greece and Rome before too much more time passed.
So you end up with an ancient religion and storybook to accompany it preserved from a language with a vocabulary of 88 words, 17 of which are pseudonyms for the name of God, and not one of those 17 believed by those using them in spoken words to be the actual name of the party of the first part.
But I’ve digressed.
I was going to muse on why human beings are unable to acquire cumulative wisdom similarly to the way technical knowledge assimilates. About how it happens all these centuries have sneaked by and the King Davids are still capable of becoming so captured by passion as to compromise, destroy themselves. About how Adonijahs then until now, rhetorically next in line for their thrones, their power, their wealth, still rape their sister Tamars and [at least] risk destroying themselves in the doing of it. About how the Joabs all these centuries have coldly murdered in the name of governmental authority anyone standing in the way of their ambitions, always maintaining the moral high ground.
But I’ll have to save all that for another time, I reckons.
Old Jules aka Frank C. Riley
So Far From Heaven 
Ouch, I believe I had a headache…
Jack
I am sorry you are confused about God and His name and nature, because you seem to be making light of it in some sense. Perhaps Mr. Heller (Interesting name under the circumstances) If you have only gotten to the point of wondering what his name is then you have a few wonderful revelations to find up the road. Somehow, his name has never been a mystery to me. He cares for me every day and has blessed me in spite of myself even in sickness and injury. He has even healed me by the touch of his hand. His salvation is really the first step on the road. He saved me by His grace and now it is a walk on His road. The blood that He shed for me is my only hope. (I have a story about that one day for you, if it is right).
By what you expressed It seems you surely have not experienced the true nature of the Lord. He is the most consistent and gracious being in all eternity. His name is Jehovah or as he said “I am” also the “Y” name Yahweh. The fact that he was “in Jesus Christ” is another mystery, but the three of them, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost are the same, If you can figure that out, you need to be a professor at a large university.
But until we are “born again,” we have a dead spirit and only a soul that is alive. David wrote, “Blessed is the man that you chose and cause to approach you.” Mostly us sinners want nothing to do with God unless we are about to “Purchase the plot” or want something that we perceive is out of our reach. Perhaps then we will go out of our way to pray. But mostly it is easier to blame God for our existence that we have mostly crafted or other sinful types have helped us to experience. We just won’t see that as the Bible says, “God made man upright but he sought out many inventions (or schemes).” It is still true that he said, ” For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.” God demands a blood sacrifice to cover our sins and in the OT, as you say, animal sacrifice in the Temple was a picture of the final sacrifice that was to be made in Christ on the cross at Calvary hundreds of years in the future. Sins had to be punished. That is what He demands. Speaking of Adam and Eve, God made that promise to Eve, that he would give her “a son” one day (but perhaps a great……..great grandson) that would bruise the serpents head and the serpent would nip at his heal.”
Ephesians 2:8-9
But by grace (unmerited favor) are you saved, through faith and that is not of yourself, it is the gift of God not of works otherwise we could boast about it.
But it is good to know that if we want to know the true and living God, we can. He made a way for us to approach Him through the Death of His Son Jesus Christ on the cross for the sins of the world. He did tell Moses, now that you mentioned him, on the Mountain, “Take off your shoes, the place on which you are standing is Holy ground.” Two very important verses were communicated by the Apostle Paul, and he was a Jewish/Hebrew scholar and candidate for the Sanhedrin, that will make all the difference in the world when a person finally dies and has to appear in the next world before the God of All the Universes:
1 Timothy 2:3-6
For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior;
Who will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth.
For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus.
Who gave himself a ransom for all, to be testified in due time.
1 Timothy 2:3-6
Romans 10:9-13
9. That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.
10. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.
11. For the scripture saith, Whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed.
12. For there is no difference between the Jew and the Greek: for the same Lord over all is rich unto all that call upon him.
13. For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.
Romans 10:9-13
Remember Jesus said, “Repent for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand.” That is still our issue today. Will we repent of out sinful/evil ways or get mad at God and tell Him we know better and he is just an old foggy and to get lost? Then, we must accept His sacrifice of Christ on our behalf. That is His requirement or Way. At or around that point we will be given new life by the Holy Spirit. Without that we are toast. Without the spiritual rebirth everyone will stand in the judgement of God without a lawyer or Advocate. Jesus Christ is the Advocate of Believers.
Most folks have heard John 3:16-18 but read it carefully and see that God didn’t come here to “Get us” but to save us from what we had done to ourselves and are still doing.
John 3:16-18;19-21
For this is the way God loved the world:
He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.
For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world should be saved through him.
The one who believes in him is not condemned. The one who does not believe has been condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the one and only Son of God.
Now this is the basis for judging: that the light has come into the world and people loved the darkness rather than the light, because their deeds were evil.
For everyone who does evil deeds hates the light and does not come to the light, so that their deeds will not be exposed.
But the one who practices the truth comes to the light, so that it may be plainly evident that his deeds have been done in God.
This is not just an attempt to bluster you out and I do not expect this to be posted, but because you are my friend and I know it is the only way out.
About two months ago the Lord or His angel visited me during an attack convulsions in my legs and laid his (or His Angel’s) hand on my back (I felt it big time sure) and heat flowed down my legs and killed the convulsions/cramps right now. It really got my attention. Had they continued, I don’t think I could have “walked them off:” I would pray this for you in your illness for healing.
He has done so many gracious and loving things for me that they can’t be measured. I don’t deserve it and I often pay Him back with actions I wish I did not do. That “Old Man” is still in there and has to be crucified as often as I can get a grip on him and slam him onto that cross that Jesus said we have to take up and follow Him with.
Jack, I wish you the best. This whole life boils down into one thing, Have we sought and found personal peace with God or are we still hiding in the trees with Adam and Eve? Remember, it is you alone in your room and life and any parrot can be taught to say, “I believe in Jesus.” but if you put your trust in His death for you He will forgive you and give you a rebirth and come and live within your heart and remake you. By Faith. He supplies that too.
Except a man is born of Water and The Spirit, he can not see the Kingdom of God.”
When I first heard the Gospel from a friend in the Navigators, I saw myself far separated and below the Lord but it was just an imagination I guess.
I had better shut up and get to bed. Please consider these things. He is real and loves YOU. I hope you can find Him before the end of life.
I would have sent this by e-mail but I am not sure I get through that way and I doubt Jeanne or You will post this anyway. It is really for you.
Thanks for listening.
Your friend Chuck
Hi Chuck: Thanks for the remarks. Anything in the marketplace of ideas probably has to be tough enough to withstand the sort of scrutiny I’m likely to give it, including the OT and the diety described there. Thus far it won’t have lost any believers as a consequence of anything I’ve written or observed concerning it. I’m glad for you. Thanks for coming by. Jack
I just tried to leave a brief reply and it disappeared. Don’t know if I deleted it or sent it. It was just to say that I hope you get well soon. But some of the comments I read sort of made it seem like you were right at the “back door,” so to speak. I may have missed some comments. But I still wish you the best and I hope to hear that you have beaten this thing and fully recovered.
Chuck
I enjoyed your zinger about Roy Rogers.
Grinning at the all the things you meant to muse on but will have to save for another time. Still grinning.
Hi Jack. I found your musings interesting. Being a believer I have wandered many places that some believers would consider sacrilege as you have in your musings. I think he has given us minds that we can do these extreme thinking with and still retain our faith. I think it is those that are on the edge and not yet believers that find lack of ability to believe after following these extreme trails of musing. Maybe it has something to do with demanding that God fit their picture of Him instead of accepting Him as He gives us His picture. Hope that makes since. Blessings. Mary
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