My thoughts on Jordan B. Peterson

The following videos I have seen with Peterson and they have prompted this blog entry:

Mr Peterson seems to be a very popular person on YouTube (within my own personal echo chamber) these days.  He has taken on the mantel of an atheistic evolutionist that supports the Bible.  This could be the beginning of the end of the Christian era or the “age of the gentiles” if his thinking takes over.

A common thing I see among non-believers is that “religion” (even their religion) becomes this theoretical abstraction of something you “do” to hold your mind together given the crazy and mysterious creation we all find ourselves in rather than a true explanation of the meta-physical.

Peterson is a sharp and articulate and especially sympathetic apologist for Biblical ideas shaping the evolution of the human psyche.  This removes him from the “dogmatic” and “irrational” set of individuals that actually “believe” that horrid book, the Bible.  It removes him from almost all critique by the new atheist evangelists such as Sam Harris.

This stance of his is very effective at removing the false and pointless arguments over biblical inerrant status and accuracy/historicity and gets past that surface argument into the gist of the stories in the Bible and their beneficial use to human society.  For that, most Christians or Bible sympathizers love Jordan.  Finally he has forced the debate into the compelling and “super archetypal” aspects of the Bible stories which are so deeply ingrained into our culture and thinking.

I fear however, that this is a further deconstruction of true faith in the biblical narrative.  I personally think there is overwhelming textual, archaeological and historical evidence that the Bible is literally true and very accurate for any ancient text.  It gives names, dates, places and events with an enduring textual, historical, geographical, and political accuracy like no other book.  It is unfortunate that the arguments concerning these aspects of the bible appear to have fallen off the front burner and into the background.  Perhaps people are just tired of the continuous debate over whether or not the Bible is historically real.

Atheists such as Francesca Stavrakopoulou who blatantly proclaim that characters like Moses are fully mythical and never actually existed now abound despite the long standing scholarly acceptance of the resurrection and life of Christ which points to the equally valid assertion of the historicity of characters like Moses and King David.

Society on a global scale seems to be (from a public perspective) “blowing off” all the true belief in the Bible yet we are seeing record numbers of Muslims, for example, seeing visions and dreams and coming to Christ and increasing incidences of miraculous healing and even raising from the dead.

Jordan, to me, is both refreshing and very scary for these reasons.  Even as evolution is dying in the scientific community, the “religious” adherence to this extremely dangerous theory seem to be expanding.

Perhaps this is the last dying breath of the scoffers as we enter the millennial era and exit the age of the church/gentiles?  I hope so.

Advertisements

My Health cheat sheet

My daughter today asked me to write to her a simple cheat sheet on what to do with various medical problems.

I have spent decades researching alternative medical modalities with a major focus on curing cancer.  Here is a brief summary of what I have learned:

1. All disease comes from these things:
   • Physical Toxins
   • Spiritual Toxins
   • Lack of nutrition, especially mineral.
   • Mental insanity from self hatred, stress and lack of faith

If I had some really bad sickness come on, it doesn’t matter what it is, I would

• Stop what I am doing and seek God. He has the cure and He will give it to you.  Rest in Him and calm yourself for at least a few hours.
• Do not listen to Doctors predicting dire consequences if you don’t to X now or get some number back in line – this is all fear tactics to sell you an expensive cure.  Don’t fall for it.
• Stop eating.  I would begin a cleansing fast and focus on the area where the problem is.  First day: Just vegetables, preferably green leafy ones.  Second day: just vegetable juice.  From then on, lots and only pure clean natural spring water or if you can’t  get that, use distilled water.  Come off the fast the same way you got on.
• Clean your colon.  The fastest and best way I have found is by 3-4 colon insufflations of ozone each day.  Enemas help as to colonics.  Almost all disease starts in the colon.
• Don’t seek anyone’s help that recommends more toxicity or just symptom relief.
• As you cleans, feel your body.  Take samples of our blood and look at them under a microscope.  Check the pH of your saliva and urine.  Listen to your ears, your heart, your lungs, your gut.  Seek quiet and listen.
• After you have fasted for a week at least (if  you can) :
  • Feed yourself spiritual food by reading your bible.
  • Feed yourself mineral supplements, ideally in the form of ionic minerals that are highly absorbable.
  • Feed yourself God-made food.  Green leafy vegetables especially medicinal plants.  Most of the cures we need are growing in our back yard.
• Move – not frantically with marathons or weights, but take a walk 3 times a day and while doing that … just relax.
• Breath deep good air and if you have it give yourself active oxygen such as ozone every way you can.
• Stop eating all sugar, drugs, food additives, sweeteners, flavors, etc. as quickly as you can.
• If you think you have heavy metals consider taking EDTA during your fast.
• If you get a fever don’t try to reduce it unless it goes above 108 degrees Fahrenheit.  Your immune system works 10x better each degree higher you are.  Just keep hydrated.
• Consider taking anti-parasite supplements during your fast – cloves and black walnut hull tincture as well as pure organic oregano oil.
• In rare cases, there may be a particular supplement you are missing, but trying to find it is way harder than simply eating right and moving.  Don’t fall for cures based on a specific thing for a specific symptom.  The odds of you finding that right are low and the stress of trying to find it can be bad.  The same goes for alergies, removing something that is irritating you.  By fasting right off, that eliminates all things that may be triggering your problems.

You can do all of this better the more you know.  And there is no simple answer for that.  You must seek out information and truth and then you must apply it.  That is always the hardest part – applying what you already know is the only way to open the door to learn more.

Remember that most problems arose after years of abuse or toxins.  Sometimes reversing these things can take a lot of time.  Be faithful and keep up the fight over the long haul.

Remember, God is always in control.  What will happen will happen and while it happens you can rest in His infinite love for you and will for good in your life.  Know that no matter how bad things look, God can do miracles and does every day.  Only be faithful to Him at all times, and then wait for the healing in His wings to arise in you.

Hope is your greatest ally and love your greatest weapon.

Da fire boss!

There I was, sound asleep taking a nice nap at my friend’s home and all of a sudden, Vernie yelled “FIRE”.  I popped up and threw on some clothes and ran out in my bare feet as Vernie yelled “Get out Sandy… NOW!”.

Outside, across the street there was a grass fire and Marv and the neighbors were all spraying hoses on it.  This picture was taken long after we had our side of the fire out.  At the time I got there, there were raging flames coming up the hill and very close to the house you see on the left.  I came up to Marv and he gave me the hose so he could assist the neighbor in fighting a leg of it that was coming up from the back.

It was providential that Marv had just bought a 75 foot garden hose last week.  If not, his water system would have been of no use stopping that fire.

Marv and Vernie both called 911 several times but no one seemed to be coming.  Marv said that he was told by the 911 operator that the fire department was waiting on the power company for a decision on what to do while the power company was waiting on the fire department for a decision on what to do.

The power to the neighborhood went out briefly and all the water pressure instantly stopped!  Then a bit later, it came back on and we were able to continue to fight the fire.

There I was in shorts and barefoot with a pulled Achilles tendon hosing down the fire.  The hose water barely reached the front edge of the fire.  I managed to hold it off there.  It began to catch a tree that I could barely reach and as I was attempting to put it out, the hose kinked due to me pulling on it too far.  Marv fixed that and I managed to stop the fire at the base of the tree.

Marv and Vernie McAnear

After about 20 minutes the fire martial arrived and went right to work, looking at the fire.

Meanwhile the neighbors all together pretty much had the dangerous side under control.

Marv relieved me and I went to encourage all the neighbors… “Now this is a neighborhood watch! This is Idaho!  We don’t need no stinking fire department!”.  That got a chuckle.

Finally more services arrived and the firemen started getting geared up to fight the fire.

Someone with a tractor began building a fire break along the far side of the fire and it looked like the official services would be just cleaning up what was left.

What caused this?  The nearby power pole lost one of its lines due to being rotted out.  That was probably what knocked out the power as well.  As we watched, the wind picked up and the pole start teetering.  It was very scary but soon the wind settled down and it seemed stable for the time being.

The pole that started the fire

It was quite an event.  Thanks to some quick and calm neighbors, we got the fire under control and left the fire department little to do but clean up.

Thanks Marv!

Here’s a video Marv took after most of the “fireworks” were over:

What may really be happening

This video gave me an idea of what we might be undergoing.

Warning: this is about as scary as it gets!

Suppose Satan is now perfecting His 666 based New World Order control system.  Suppose he is allowing people like Trump to win to put to sleep all those like me who have been vigilantly waiting for signs of collapse and trying to prepare for it by mimicking a victory for the good.  He will chuck some of his best followers like the Vatican and many governments in order to appear dead to the righteous remnant.

Then, once all appears settled and the righteous take their places under a new righteous regime, the tables turn and all of a sudden the righteous are all imprisoned or martyred in a vast purge leaving the tares to rule unobstructed possibly from Israel.

It will be a complete upside down world where good is called evil and evil good.

All this great news of Trump in prophecy and the great draining of the swamp could be just a convenient illusion of our day, only to unmask a horrible evil lurking underneath.

What is happening with Trump seems impossible to me.  It has never happened in history.  No great power has switched from being evil to good overnight with possibly the exception of Nineveh after Jonah’s warnings.  But Nineveh repented to the man – America has hardly moved from what I can tell.

So that’s my latest wonderment.

But AFTER THAT, God will come and put and end to all of this evil.  This accounts for the tribulation, which the current good-news prophecies don’t.

An answer for Natural Law Anarchists

Mark Passio explaining Natural Law

This post is in reference to this excellent series on Natural Law a friend pointed out to me.

Mark makes a very compelling argument for Natural Law being above government authority and thus advocates anarchy as the only truly lawful government.

However, Mark may be missing a subtle point that causes me to disagree with the anarchists.

I hit this problem long ago in Romans 13 and on the surrender of Christ voluntarily to the (bogus) authorities of the day to be crucified.

Mark is an ex-satanist and so has likely not received the Holy Spirit fully yet in his life and so is blind to this point as are all anarchists I have spoken with.

Christ/God is the owner of all and the only truly legitimate authority of this universe.  This is implied all through Mark’s presentation – the Creator made Natural Law, it is not a creation of man.  This is, like natural law, a fact that most people don’t like to think about.  This is why the biblical flood is so ignored by our culture – it represents proof that God has the authority to judge this world.

IF Christ is God and the recorded scriptures accurately reflect His will, then we must deal with the fact that we are called to “love our enemies as ourselves” (Mat 5:43-48) and “Love those that persecute you”.

This is literally a command NOT to exercise your right to self defense.

This is the very high calling of Christ and it is either the true will of the creator or the Bible is just another tool for mind control.

When Mark points out that Christ took a switch to the money changers in the temple, he probably wasn’t aware that He did that on the Feast of Unleavened Bread – the time when all families in Israel were removing the leaven from their homes.  It had symbolic meaning and wasn’t just Christ throwing a tantrum at some evil sin.  It is the only time when Christ seems to exhibit any kind of violent response to sin.

If Christ’s words and behavior are correct, it coincides with Pauls admonition in Romans 13 for us to respect any authority.   To me, Paul seems to say that anyone that happens to have power, has so at the hand of God, and is thus appointed by God to rule over us.  I have always not liked this because a thug can simply claim legitimate authority and get the passive Christians to follow him.  But Christ willingly surrendered to the bogus authorities of the day and stopped Peter who wanted to exercise his legitimate right to self defense with his sword.

This is where I differ from the anarchists.  This world is temporary and our sin has put us into bondage and exile from the kingdom of God till, in God’s time, we are released from it.

We are not called to “fix it”.  (I really can’t believe I am saying this!) We are told to obey authorities (even illegitimate ones) so we can live lives of peace.  Presumably this is so we can win others to Christ and work for the Kingdom of God instead of the Kingdom of man.  Mark is still stuck (where I was for a long time) in the “all evil requires is for good men to do nothing” – or “God helps those that help themselves”.  We didn’t make this world and we won’t be able to fix it.  God made it for His glory, not ours.  The Church is a woman and the Song of Solomon shows us how lame and stupid she is.  The bridegroom (Christ) redeems her and restores her, she accomplishes nothing of herself but to lock her King out of her home while she sleeps, changing her mind, and getting lost trying to find him.  She loves Him but in a totally ditsy way that accomplishes nothing.  It is the rock that the Church is based on that prevents the gates of hell from prevailing against her not her actions or power.

Either the Bible is true, and we are all slaves to Christ in this life…. or All Religion, including Christianity, is a mind-control program and life is pointless and meaningless.

I see no middle ground.

Still, I highly recommend a listen to Mark’s presentation above.  He does still contradict himself in that he appears to believe in evolution and references Rosicrucian masters, tarot cards, and other false sources of enlightenment.  It is a very dark place from which this guy comes so I can give him some slack.  Just beware, when one learns much truth, any error therein is that much more powerful and easily swallowed.

Adendum:

I spent time watching this other video by the same author:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oiCnrn6LkUo

He reveals things to me I had not perceived on watching the first 3 videos.  Does this man believe the Bible?  Does he believe in the Resurrection?  Certainly not.  He has an appearance of righteousness but denies the power of God and certainly lacks the humility needed to know the truth.  I regarded him more as poison than help by the time I was done with this last video.  If you can’t see his error, flee this information and re-read your bible.

The Uncertainty Principle of Bible Interpretation

I recently was listening to a Christian friend explaining to me his interpretation of Bible doctrine from his reading from only the King James Bible.  He took a very exacting interpretation based on the plurality and capitalization of each word and after about 2 hours he could basically explain to me why Christ will not return till all Christians are dead.

And so enters the problem of Bible interpretation.

I am a jello interpreter.  In other words, I am open minded and constantly looking for better hermaneutics to use when interpreting the Bible.  The more I learn the more gelatinous I seem to get.  I am beginning to approach a liquid state!

Thus I have come up with a new idea that I think explains it.  The Bible is a LIVING WORD.  It moves how you move.  Each verse is contextually specific in its meaning, but unfortunately, like Heisenberg’s uncertainty principle, your situation and attitude are part of the context.

Let’s take an example:

Matthew 7:1 – Judge not that you be not judged.

If you see yourself as a poor judge of people, a sinner that has a hard time being objective, you would think it very bad to judge others – why put yourself under your own feeble powers of judgment?

If you see yourself as a mature Christian, rightly dividing the Word of truth and able to see and call out issues that are clearly wrong, you might think it a good thing that you judge others rightly and thus receive a righteous judgment for yourself.

The context here of Judge can be taken as a wrong type of accusing judgment or it can be taken as a righteous judgment.  Indeed other places in the Bible we are called to judge rightly.

So I have (tentatively of course, in keeping with my gelatinous nature) decided that the Bible is more meant to be a mirror and guide for the reader rather than a manual that is meant to hold a singular meaning for all of its readers.

Certainly there are clear parts that apply to all, but the subtle things, especially those not of a salvific nature, will fall where the reader needs them to fall.

Thus much of the Bible is like a wave function that collapses into a point only for each reader, not necessarily in the same place for all readers.

Wandering down the rabbit hole too far

I love to learn and I have learned a lot and yet I am sensing that our collective human knowledge is growing far faster than I can learn.  I now feel more ignorant and insignificant each new day.  The complexities of what is this life are making me feel like an infant or an ant.  My ever energetic pursuit of truth and God is faltering into a crap-shoot and my faith, though I feel is strong, is more blurred each day.

Maybe I am just watching too many YouTubes.  Maybe my energy level has degraded with age to the point of indecision and confusion.  Maybe the unknowable is creeping up on me.

Ah I long for the simplicity of the days when I was young and had all the answers – or a least enough of them to be able to convincingly answer questions of people.

I sense as I think through a question on a deep philosophical idea, that there is this creepy kind of problem like “That depends on what IS means” to almost any idea I ponder.

I just have to take rest in the words of Christ – “only believe and you shall be saved”.  God takes full responsibility for our souls, by paying the price for us, and by reducing our task to faith and simple obedience.  I pray that it is simple obedience, as anything more difficult becomes impossible to meet.  My sin is ever before me, though I cast it off onto the blood, each new day brings feelings of dissatisfaction with myself.

At some point I will die and my consciousness will transition into something I cannot now know.  Will I even be thinking after death as I think now?  If so, how can this be called “rest”?  Perhaps the loss of the fear of death will yield a true peace – but I hope I don’t become bored.

God is… infinite in every measure and clearly incomprehensible to us, again in all dimensions.  Speaking with a friend recently who was quite confident in her position with God, describing a child-like faith, I long for, yet somehow resist, I found myself uncomfortable with her simple description of her relationship with the creator of all things.

I ask, over and over, how can anyone really know God in this lifetime?

Obviously, I must become more childlike, for that is how those in the Kingdom of Heaven will be.