LORD'sDAY 3-14-10 Today's DailyDemocrat has a headline about spring, and I think it's a lead in to "spring forward in the spring." That's the far more optomistic title than about loosing an hour, which happens as we shift to DaylightSavingTime. I know it conserves energy and we should all feel good about that. But getting used to things happening an hour earlier gets more difficult for me every year. It being thus, I'll make no fuss, just be a good Joe and go with the flow. How do you like the little verse? Of course I mean the flow of time, a profound subject that keeps me pondering it as the years go by. Before the 20th century science thought could be measurable down to infinitely smaller lengths. But a guy named Planch showed us there was a unit so small that it could not be divided. A name for the very smallest unit of quantity was called quanta, or quantum for the new field of quantum physics. That meant that things could no longer be split to exact fractions. So + or _ had to be added to equations in microphysics. And Immanuel Heisenberg formulated the Principal of Uncertainty which would upset the classical physics of Isaac Newton. Then Albert Einstine introduced his equations for linking time and space into a spatiotemporal Universe. Even yet the astrophysicists are wrestling with that paradox or conflation of data. It's in the realy of quantum pnysics, which cannot be comprehended by our imagination, though proven by higher mathematics. Last year was IYA2009 and I tried to dig out stuff learned back i the Navy where electronics was taught. Though out math only went up to vector algebra, we were told that things got really wierd at the level of solid geometry, triganometry and calculus. After I got out and started at OU, I did get into the lower edge of some of it. And reading about Big Bang theory recalled those formulas. It did finally give me some use in thinking, after all the years of neglect in this head. The values we assigned back then to various elements of investigation seem now like the naming of angels that YAHWEH had employed to accomplish the creation heaven and earth creation (which continues yet).
Headline this morning says "Probe Reveals US Fraud in Iraq." I didn't read it since the main news is so full of bias. But it does cause an uneasy feeling. Also watched an interview on CNN of a Palestinian who shifted his loyalty to Israel, Mosad yussaf Yosuf. He had been converted from Islam to Christ even though his father is famous for founding Hamas. Mosad is loyal now to Shinbeck, the Israel aency opposite the Hamas. He has written a book which his own brother claims if filled with lies. But the book claims that the god of Islam is the world's greatest gangster. He says he understands both the Quran and the Bible and his brother and father don't. He once praised suicide bombers but now sees the folly of such a view, though he's accused of being a turncoat and informer for the Israelis. Even admites that he was once a double agent, but now stands against Islam and it's Allah god. I'm sure he has to keep himself hidden all the time since there's no Shalom for him. JosephA Shalom, JA
ANGELFIRE 3-16-10 U.S. envoy cancels trip to mideast was a headline this morning. I didn't punch it up to read since the meaning was so clear. As a nation, we have to accept the lock down between Arabs and Israelis over there that goes back to Biblical roots. And since the Bible is America's basic book, we should open it every morning to get daily direction, not only for personal but for world affairs also. There had been hope for a two state solution in the past few years. But reality keeps rearing it's ugly head as seen in that wall of separation that's being built from the north and going down. It's an indication that nothing but the coming again of our Lord Jesus Christ will heal the holy land. And it was his promise to return that gave birth to the church. He said at that Last Supper, "I go to the Father, and if I go, I will come again that where I am, there you may be also." We re-enact it as the Lord's Supper which is observed in almost all denominations as a memorial of the crucifixion-death-resurrection of our Lord. And that was prelude to his ascension to his throne in glory at the right hand of the Father, until his coming again with all his angels and souls of the righteous to reign over a new heaven and earth. Things happening in earthly news are portents of how near we are to his appearing, or parousia as scholars say. Even the wall that's now being built between Mexico and this nation has some of the same apocalyptic meaning as ANGELFIRE sees it. We try to wall out crime as though Satan and his minions could be curtailed with material means. But the only real solution is found in "the blessed hope," Titus 2:13. It's a good place to find encouragement in these days of bitter testing of our faith. Some churches nearly drop the parousia out of their worldview. But it's in looking to Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of our faith, that we gain strength to continue (see Heb.12:2) so that our envoy may yet go try to mediate shalom (justice with peace) in the middle-east. That would be more hopeful than depending on that wall built by humans; and Jews for Jesus there also could add still more. SoLong for now, Josepha@webtv.net
ANGELFIRE 3-18-10 We are being flooded daily with national news about Healthcare Reform and the upcoming House vote be this Sunday. From there the reconciliation efforts then try to remove things that Republicans will never accept. President Obama had first delayed and now post-phoned his trip abroad to help get it adopted. Some obscure methods seem somewhat sly, but are being used, along with the claim that billions will be saved in the next ten years; (also with trillions more into debt). It compares in ANGELFIRE's view to what NOAH (national oceanic & atmospheric hdqs) has said about the risk of flooding across the eastern US: Crests could approach the record levels set by just last year's along the Red River (between N.D. & MIN.). That seemed another end time factor, but the map showed our state OK as being spared. Just that name NOAH is so Biblical that I grow frantic about rain lately. The Noah of the Bible kept preaching about judgement to come on wickeness, but was largely ignored. Yet Democrats see this healthcare reform as an ark of safety. Meanwhile, layoffs had already left millions unemployed, especially men. Worldwide recession has caused unemployment for them following the pattern set here in the US, where job loss is 64% males and only 36% females. Surveys abroad show India males 95%, French 71%, with also Australia, Canada, Germany, Mexico, S.Africa, Spain, Switzerland and UK following the trend. But in the Netherlands it's 49% men to 51% women who lost their jobs. Yet the stock market keeps marching on, and even gradually up after such a huge fall over a year ago. That's one ray of secular light. Here's a song for the hope Jesus offers: Through shady green pastures so rich and so sweet, God leads his dear children along. By clear waters flowing as rich and as neat, God leads his dear children along. Some through the water, some through the flood. Some through the fire, but all through the blood. Some through great sorrow, yet God gives a song in the night season and all the day long." Sounds like Ps.23 to me. ( also as a song of his glorious returning). 3-19-10 I've seen that today marks seven years of our war in Pakistan. Now we still have troops there but plan to be getting out by August. Saddam Hussein is long gone, so we've seen a democracy arise, though we can't be certain it will endure. ANGELFIRE doesn't see our national mission as spreading democracy anyhow. Some tend to equate it with the Kingdom of God on earth. But that's quite a stretch in my opinion. As a nation born out of faith in the Living God, YAHWEH of the Bible, I'd have to leave their kind of government to them as we seek to be a model. That would set a standard of Godliness of all nations, in accord with the GodBook. It's the source of all denominations, though some allow etra over sixty six books. Our national motto is "In God We Trust" and he authored for sure the 66 by inspiration of his Holy Spirit. What good news it is that study of the Bible is to be allowed in Oklahoma's schools, even if it is not for inspiration (but only education). To know it leads to knowing God and the Son, Christ Jesus. And the Son's reappearing is near at hand, as all signs are showing. Thus, those nearly five thousand who have died in Iraq have not thrown their lives away at all. Shalom/peace-preservation-prosperity in Hebrew
ANGELFIRE 3-22-10 S-p-r-i-n-g is the season to sing, (repeat just for the ryhme). And that's because it brings sunny days. And "spring forward" is the change on our clocks to get us more daylight. Yet the weather didn't comply last Sunday, did it! There was snow and cold to cope with. Some blame it on Mother Nature, who isn't even real. She's just in the imagination of fallen humanity. I've searched the Scriptures for any such entity but all in vain. From Noah and the flood on, it appears to be In the hands of the ALMIGHTY, even though it can seem at times to be Satan's doing through storms, hurricanes, tsunamis and earthquakes. The devil can find opportunities for calamity, but is not the One in control. The past year of astronomy showed me how to see weather throughout the whole creation. And it's the HAND OF GOD working, just as his Spirit that was at first "moving over the face of the waters" Gn.1 (and also in the hearts of human believers). As we earthlings await the return of God's SON to bring full completion, I want to quote the words of a song that appeals to me: There's going to be a great DAY... Angels in the sky promise that bye, there's going to be a great day. Gabriel wll warn you, some early morn, you will hear his horn, and that will be the great day. So drop on your knees and pray, throw up your arms like play and lift up your head to say THERE'S GOING TO BE A GREAT DAY. Shalom to you readers, JosephA
ANGELFIRE 3-26-10 Glen Simonsen's lesson at LARC chapel was from the first chapter of Ruth. He compared the family ties to attachment of nuclear particles that atomic physics has discovered. Thus he compared atoms as family units where mamma protons are keeping their children around them in orbits. Of course the nucleus is yet more at the family center, with daddy also.. Of course the atoms will group into larger entities like molecule, which are basic units for matter. They compose all the rest of combined elementsr that willl form. It seems to me like marriage among humans, which allows formation of new forms through reproduction. So now that microphysics and astronomy are being merged in cosmology, there's family out there that grows from solar system, to other ones too, then different star system clusters and finallly galaxies galore / couple joined, family, tribe with in-laws, states, nations, alliances and planet popuations. Even stars have a lifetime, get born, grow old and finally die. So the same fall that brought mortality to mankind, had already beset the whole. That formation of atoms from quarks and glueons early after the BB could have been a previous angelic rebellion. It was the start of gravity being the universal force that it is. Instead of heavenward, it pulls down, direction of mortaliy or grave as the name implies. Or more generally, back to self vs on out TO OTHER. It's the depraved nature of man that only the blood of THE LAMB of GOD can change.
ANGELFIRE 3-30-10 Can you believe that one of the ancient theories of Atonment used to explain the meaning of Easter in the Eastern Church was about God's joke on the devil. A fisher's economy had seen Satan under the sea more than the land. The theory told of God's fishing for Leviathan, monster of the deep(satan, that is), with the most precious bait in heaven. But to prevent the devil from seeing a hook on His line, the LORD placed Jesus over it as a decoy worm. That way, He yanked on the line just as Satan swallowed Christ's human body. So it caught the devil on that hidden hook. Jesus was taken out of Satan's mouth and brought to life as proof of evil being vanquished. Ever after each Lords Day becomes yet another Easter. If that interpretation sounds strange, it's because it was an oriental view. Though it was taken seriously in the early Eastern church of emperor Constantine. Maybe that's why Resurrection Day has a big EAST in it's name, EASTER. Some other things from that ancient root of the Gospel were impressive to ANGELFIRE when last year the Joy pastor Clay Shannon loaned me his book entitled "A Protestant Answer to Eastern Orthodoxy and Roman Catholacism." The author had been an A/G missionary in Russia and become familiar with those eastern lines of thought. I had not known how important Uncreated Light is in that region as another name for God. And the root of monastacism, theosophy, was also strange to me. It describes how men can become gods through prayer and discipline. And yet another feature was more bizzar, which I may describe later. Truth is, IYA2009 had me absorbed in astronomy. And though that's always been focal for this mind, these far out roots of our Christian heritage are also worth considering even yet; and also pondering, perhaps. Shalom and CLJ, JosephA@webtv.net
ANGELFIRE 4-01-10 That PV Democrat headline over our last column, "Yanking good from evil's mouth" depicted Christ's atonement for human sin in just five words. Satan gulped him up on the cross, but God yanked his Son out of that death monster's mouth by raising Jesus back to life. Another ancient view including the devil, was that of a ransom God paid to free mankind. It was Jesus who gave his perfect life that souls be delivered from Satan. Then God delivered Jesus also, on the third day. There's still another theological word used for the Atonement in Christ, recapitulation. Tis sees every act of the incarnate God/Man during his years on earth as correcting another misstep by Adam, the prototype of mankind. Thus the atonement offering was not all at once upon the Cross, but in a day by day recapitulation of setting it right (and perfect). Such is another paradigm of faith that extends a moment of decision into a lifetime series of decisions. Though not articulated, it surely is the basis of holiness preaching which call believers to add to their new birth an ongoing restoration of soul that becomes ever more Christlike. Theologically it means sanctiifcation, with the possibility of entirely free of any sin. Such was the goal of John Wesley's method of piety. So guess what the followers were called. Then other denominations stressed it and were called holiness movements. Good Friday is a time to repent of our sin, and Easter a new start of being freed of all sin. Maybe we'll never gain it here below, but at the coming again of our Lord, we will gain it with all the saints, both alive and raised for his appearing. As we say at a final committal in the cemetery, we describe such victory: For as much as the spirit of NAME has departed, we therefore committ his body to the ground--earth to earth, dust to dust--looking forward to the return of our Lord Jesus, at whose coming in glorious majesty the earth and seas shall give up their dead, and the bodies of those who sleep in Him will be changed and made like unto His own glorious body; according to His mighty working whereby all things are made subject to him, the King of kings and Lord of lords. ANGELFIRE sees that as The Universe SoLong/Shalom, Come Lord Jesus
LORDS DAY 4-04-10 This is the big Lord's Day when we celebrate His resurrection. But the one beginning each week marks it also; especially if the Lord's Supper is taken, "for as oft as ye do eat this loaf and drink of this cup, ye do show forth His death until He returns." That Scripture text makes the basic link, because the Parousia(final appearin)is His coming in all fullness. In fact, the resurrection in Easter point eastward, toward the arrival of a new heaven and earth. Though our bodies may lay in the ground, they will be raised to face him in glorious appearance. They will be changed from these mortal into immortal bodies, when our spirits are rejoined to them. That completes us into souls or full persons again. Angelfire doesn't believe in "soul sleep" as some cults have claimed, but SOUL LEAP from that moment of our death to the final day which fulfills our faith. The millennium beginning then will be some other sort of time (where a thousand years is as a day and a day as a thousand years). The Scripture calls this "the blessed hope" and I think it's in Titus. Christ as a Jew used shalom for his greeting to the Twelve. And we heavenly Hebrews arising can all answer that salutation back, SHALOM, ja
ANGELFIRE 4-05-10 The space shuttle Discovery launched before dawn this morning to resupply the International Space Station. As usual, there were seven astronauts aboard. Only three more such trips will take place and that system will be retired. So we may hire subsequent shuttles, either foreign national agencies or maybe privately financed ones who win the bid. Such illustrates a new Obama attitude toward human space flight, which some foresee as a huge boost for the global economy. But China plans to put up their own space station next year; and to go back to the moon, if we won't. And our interest is toward Mars instead. That's been ANGELFIRE's dream, unless the Lord returns first. We just celebrated his victory over death, so that's the guarantee of his coming again from the Father's right hand where he's long awaited the hour. It seems that the holiday being for both Eastern Orthodox and Catholic/Protestant traditions at the same time in 2010 could be a heavenly clue to mankind. Usually the Orthodox comes a week or two later. That's because they've kept with the Jewish lunar calendar date for Passover. And the name "Pascal" season meaning Passover is in that tradition. And great stress in Jerusalem has returned as Israel plans to build thousands of homes in that east part of the old city which the Palestinian Authority has been alowed to rule for decades. Israeli premier Netanyahu came over here to visit president Obama, and left that info also. Clearly, it's to be so that Israeli immigrants will be able to outvote Palestinians so that the east side of Jerusalem can yet be Israel's capitol. Muslims claim it as their third holiest shrine and even worship on the Temple mount, which they call the Nobel Foundation. Their mosque is a famous Dome of the Rock. That name ought to refer to the Lord Jesus, but they mean it for the location. I was there back in '77 and again in '80. The devout Israeli's won't go beyond the West Wall, but pray there instead for their Temple to be restored some day. The return of our LJC doesn't include it. We read in the final book f our NT where John said that he saw no Temple (Revelation 21:22), because the whole city (New Jerusalem) was filled with divine glory. Shalom, JA
ANGELFIRE. 4-09-10 Angelfire seeks to use Biblical terminology and avoid popular terms that are not found therein. I'm recalling one that got so popular a decade ago, as the new millennium began: rapture. It means "caught away," a destiny for the church when Christ returns to take his Bride. But that word can't be found in Scripture. So I try to avoid it; though I feel an affinity for those who do (even when they go on to speil out a pre-set future in too much detail). As one who expects to live into that era, I do retain some non-Biblical words just to think about it. In astronomy one of them is epoch. It had seemed only to belong to history right here on earth. But contemporary cosmology uses it in the The Standard Model of creation/TSM. Beginning with a singularity that this world calls BigBang, there was an epoch before the formation of galaxies which has gained new attention since IYA2009. Astronomers had previously considered it a quark/gluon formless soup that preceded the re-ionization epoch when regular matter formed in the Universe; which was thought to be the beginning of galaxy formations. But now, older shapes have been discovered in the universe's infancy. For lack of a better name, they're being called blobs (having no standard shape). The largest object in the universe is one discovered in the past decade from observations made in Japan, so they named it after their legendary queen, Himiko. Giving the sound of royalty to a mere blob must be an expression of the effect democracy has had on the Japanese. Nevertheless, it is 55000 light years across and contains a black hole the way galaxies do. But instead of collapsing into it as usual, the dark energy coming out of the blob's black hole is fuelling ever more growth. Angelfire had come to consider back holes as somewhat satanic. To me, they were gravity finally winning out over the strong force (macrophysics rather than micro) electromagnetism. And the reason they're black is that not even light could escape from the final victory that downward pull has gained at the center (like a vast disposal pit or everlasting sink hole). But what an upset Himiko is to my own notion. Himiko is located at that early juncture in time called the trransition point in the evolution of this uiverse, or re-ionization epoch. It was first considered an extraordinarilly bright and large candidate for the most distant galaxy, 2.9 B light years of age, then "demoted" to being a blob. We see in it that the Creator has used gravity release allowing ever more expansion into the existing universe. In fact, the blob we can see is 12 billion years smaller because it's so far back in time. We've been waiting that long for it's light to get here. So it was as big as our own Milkey Way even then. And the Himiko has been expanding like the rest of everything since. The headline I saw about it said "Black Hole Fuelling Expansion of Blob, Largest Body in the Universe." Somehow this recalls the headline given to the atonement Angelfire about Easter, "Yanking good from evil's mouth." So here's a sign from the highest heavens (read Jn.1:1-3) that even black holes uare serving the Creator's eternal purpose. Seems the way Satan fits in too. Thus by faith we are caught up to glory out of the Valley into the Cosmos! JosephA@webtv.net
ANGELFIRE 4-12-10 A title we tend to avoid in church is the one given to Samuel, seer; though we remember him as a judge. But seer is used over and over in the Bible to designate a holy man. Later it was replaced with the designation, prophet, when related to the LORD of Israel. Yet today it would not seem fitting for an astronomer, even though they study the handiwork of Yahweh God. The older occult study was astrology, which sought to foretell the future by reading the zodiac. Superstition finally gave way to science when astronomy began. Kepler and Galielo both had telescopes to verify their natural observations, but Capernicus had only his knowledge of mathematics when he found that things in the sky were obeying nature too. He didn't get the credit in IYA2009 that Angelfire thinks he deserved, and now that Poland is in grief over their president's death in that airline crash, maybe they'll also remember Copernicus. Of course Galileo in Italy was such a prominent figure that he still gets credit for turning to astronomy (in place of astrology). What a waste of time by some still reading the stuff from signs of the zodiac. Though some modern astronomers are atheists or non-theists, their minds at least are free of superstitious vanity & folly. Surely some are beginning to sense meaning in the colossal working of the four basic forces shaping our Universe. They have studied so much more than pure chance that many will surely begin to affirm the One who created heaven and earth. "Sky and ground" are named as His handiwork, over and over in Scripture. And also the enemy is shown in the Bible's very second verse: "The earth was without form, and void." Hebrew can mean "and darkness came on the face of the deep," which describes the angelic rebellion of Rev.12:9 "So the great dragon was cast out, that serpent of old, called the Devil and Satan, who deceives the whole world; he was cast to the earth (newly forming universe) and his angels were cast out with him." Angelfire sees them long before Adam in corruption upon the universe, becoming those black holes in the cosmic blobs that proceeded the subsequent galaxy formations mentioned in our last column. Their gravity grab was foiled by the dark energy (heat) that sprang up from the holes inside those ever expanding blobs that enclosd them. So Himiko and other blobs were the cosmic heroes of that black hole epoch. Thus their rebellion only aided creation rather than disrupting it. God made light out of the darkness, and it shown so brightly in Himiko that some of our modern sky seers would still detect it after 13.7 billion years. Shalom, JA