Keeping the spark alight

My husband and I are nearing our wedding anniversary, and when you have been married for 26 years, it is human nature to take each other for granted. I try to do three things every year at this time to try to combat that tendency:

1) Reread The Proper Care and Feeding of Husbands by Dr. Laura Schlessinger;
2) Evaluate, am I doing three concrete things each day to say through deeds "I love you" to my husband?
3) Evaluate, have I thanked him each day for one thing he does which says "I love you" to me?

It is amazing how little time each of the above takes, and yet what great benefits keeping them in mind and doing them brings to our marriage!

One of the sabbaths, part two

Previously: One of the sabbaths

To see why Mary might have gone to the tomb while it was still dark, instead of waiting even for the first rays of dawn, we have to look at first century Hebrew culture again. The Hebrew Sabbath began at sundown on Friday, and continued until sundown on Saturday. After sundown on Saturday, for the Jew, it was now the first day of the week, the 7th day being over. So the dark of Saturday evening, to a Jew, is the first day of the week. We, thinking like Romans, don't consider it the first day of the week until we get up in the morning on Sunday, but 1st century Jews did not think like Romans. They thought like Hebrews.

During the Sabbath, from sundown Friday to sundown Saturday, work was prohibited. In order to set the day apart from the rest of the week (which is what keeping the day holy means) they greeted the Sabbath on Friday evening with a special ceremony, and they bid the Sabbath farewell on Saturday evening with a special ceremony. In between the ceremonies, no work was done.

The Friday evening ceremony usually consisted of a special family meal in their homes; special prayers and blessings were said, and special food was served. Sunday dinner at Grandma's is the American equivalent in concept. Then the Jews gathered together twice on Saturdays: in the morning, in the synagogue, to hear the Torah reading, and the readings from the Psalms and the Prophets, and the teaching on the readings. The Gospels record one instance where Jesus gave the teaching on the reading from the Prophets in one synagogue meeting.

Then in the evening, as it was drawing toward sundown, the Jews gathered again, usually in homes, for a havdallah service: a special ceremony in which the Sabbath was bid goodbye. This Saturday evening meeting often lasted well into the night, as it was an opportunity for fellowship which did not occur during the rest of the week.

The meeting in Acts 20:7 was most likely a havdallah service. Paul did not preach from Sunday morning until midnight (not really humanly possible, for the preacher or the listeners); but from Saturday at sundown, at the close of the Sabbath, until midnight. Either meaning for "one of the sabbaths" could apply in Acts 20:7: the meeting began on "the first of the sabbaths" as we can see from reading the verse in its context with Acts 20:6; and it ended on "the first day of the week," as Jews considered the dark of the night Saturday night to be the first day of the week.

So back to John 20:1: it was Mary's desire to anoint the body of Yeshua with spices for His burial, but because He was taken down from the cross so close to sundown before a Sabbath, it could not be done right away. The best she could do was prepare the spices, then wait for the Sabbath to be over before she anointed the body. If I put myself in Mary's shoes, and my heart was heavy with love and grief for my Lord, and I knew that His body had been put into the tomb unanointed, I would want to anoint His body as soon as possible. It could not, however, be done on the Sabbath: at any time in between the opening and closing ceremonies. But the very next opportunity would be as soon as the closing ceremony was over, on Saturday night or Sunday morning. (We know from Jewish tradition, and Acts 20:7, that these meetings went well into the night, Saturday night and Sunday morning.) If it were me, I would have taken the spices with me to the havdallah service, so that I could go straight to the tomb when the service was over. And this is what I believe she did: she most likely took the spices with her to the havdallah service, so that, on her way home, the Sabbath being over, she could go to the tomb and anoint the body. Thus she could do the work the love in her heart for her Master was urging her to do as soon as possible, while not violating the Sabbath.

So it being yet dark, on the first day of the week to a Jew (sometime Saturday night or Sunday morning to a Roman); the Sabbath being over, she went to the tomb, and found the stone already rolled away.

Could I be wrong about this? Of course. But this understanding does not violate the meaning of the Greek; it does not violate first century Hebrew traditions and practice, and it does not contradict other places in the Scripture which portray Yeshua and His followers as obedient to God, and keepers of the Law of Moses, including the Sabbath.

One of the sabbaths

Previously: Growing in knowledge engenders more questions

There are several possibilities for the meaning of this phrase. One of them, we talked about last time: that it is referring to the special numbered sabbaths which fall between the feast of Unleavened Bread and Weeks, or Pentecost.

Another is this:

That it is a Hebraism, a Hebraic idiom. The Hebrews did not have names for the days of the week, other than the seventh day, the Sabbath. All the other days were named for their relation to the Sabbath.

So the first day of the week was referred to as one day from (or of) the Sabbath; idiomatically "mia (one) ton (of the) sabbaton (sabbath-s)." "Day" was implied; and sabbaton is not plural in this case. The day which is one day from the Sabbath, is Sunday, the first day of the week.

This is the way the phrase mia ton sabbaton is used in the Gospels when describing the discovery of Jesus risen from the dead. For example, in John 20:

"Now on the first day of the week Mary Magdalene came early to the tomb, while it was still dark, and saw the stone already taken away from the tomb." John 20:1

It is mia ton sabbaton, literally, "one of the sabbaths," or idiomatically, "one (day) from the sabbath(s);" i.e. Sunday, or the first day of the week.

But why did Mary go to the tomb while it was still dark; why not wait for the light of day? To understand a plausible explanation, which will also shed light on our Acts 20:7 passage, we have to understand 1st century Hebrew culture again.

To be continued ...

The bookends of the year

Today is the 7th and last day of Unleavened Bread for us. There were all total 5 special days or feast meals in this week that began with Passover 8 days ago: 1) Passover and the Passover meal; 2) the first day of Unleavened Bread and a Sabbath; 3) the regular Sabbath; 4) the Feast of the Waving of the Barley Sheaf and Resurrection Day; and 5) the 7th day of Unleavened Bread and a Sabbath. We did a lot more this year than last and it has kept me busy all week, as the lack of posts attests! But we have had such a joyful and wonderful time, with lots of family and lots of food! Yesterday was my favorite day so far; it was Resurrection Sunday, and we got to spend the entire day with all our children and grandchildren.

Something I noticed this year that I didn't notice last year: the biblical festival year begins and ends with week- long festivals: Unleavened Bread at the start of the festival year and Tabernacles at the end of the festival year. Then there is an extra 8th day associated with each week- long festival: the Passover meal at the beginning of Unleavened Bread, and "The 8th Day" at the end of Tabernacles. Passover, which begins the festival year, is the reminder of our Lord's delivery of us from slavery! And The 8th Day, which ends the festival year, is the foreshadow of our eternity with the Lord! They are just two beautiful "bookends" of YHVH's plan of salvation and love for us and all of humanity!

Passover this evening

My family and I are celebrating Passover this evening. I have my lamb marinating in my bitter herbs, and have more to do. I don't have time for a theology post today, I apologize - I most likely will tomorrow, since it is a Sabbath of rest. My Passover recipes are posted here, if any are interested. This year I am making the same bitter herb marinade (charmoula) and have it marinating a boneless leg of lamb instead of lamb chops. I have been collecting more recipes and ideas, and hope to update that how to celebrate post soon. This year, instead of putting the food on the table and then my husband reading the story, we are going to start when the food is still in the oven. With our grandchildren, ages 3 and 10 mos., it is so hard for them to stare at the food for 20 minutes with their little tummies growling while Grandpa goes on and on, LOL. So we are having the story first, then the food. I hope your Passover is blessed with grace! Love, Christine

Growing in knowledge engenders more questions

Previously: Scriptural authority for Sunday?

I procured a Greek New Testament, and have been looking up the instances of Sabbath, and sabbaton, in it. Sabbaton, I said last time, means "Sabbath," (singular); but my new Greek lexicon says it is plural (i.e, it should read "Sabbaths"). So I looked up our text we were discussing, in Acts 20.7, and it is in the Greek New Testament, mia ton sabbaton. A little different from my Bible study dictionary. Mia is the feminine form of heis, and my BIble study dictionary in this place says it means "first." So, "the first of the Sabbaths." Well, this is a bit longer than saying, "the First Sabbath," but it still means the same thing; the first of the special numerated Sabbaths which occur between Unleavened Bread and Weeks.

So I did a search for the English word "first" in the New Testament Scriptures, cross checking them with the Greek New Testament. I expected to find forms of heis or mia, and found instead that in 99% of the cases, the Greek word for "first" is protos. Ah! So this is where we get words like "prototype" from.

But I did not expect this monkey wrench! So I did some digging, and discovered that protos is the ordinal for one, while heis, mia is the cardinal for one. In other words, in English we have words like one, two, three, four ... these are cardinal terms. We also have first, second, third, fourth ... these are ordinal terms. So my Greek lexicon is telling me that the cardinal of one, which means "one," is heis, mia; while the ordinal for one, which means "first," is protos.

I thought, Why did my Bible study dictionary tell me that heis, mia meant "first?" And as I began going through the Gospels, looking up each occurrence of "first," which turned out to be protos, I discovered that the context was talking about priority, without reference to a numerated series. So I began to think that perhaps heis, mia was used in place of protos when a numeration, a numerated series, is meant. I was happy with that theory until I came to Matthew 22:23-28:

"On that day some Sadducees (who say there is no resurrection) came to Jesus and questioned Him, asking, "Teacher, Moses said, 'IF A MAN DIES HAVING NO CHILDREN, HIS BROTHER AS NEXT OF KIN SHALL MARRY HIS WIFE, AND RAISE UP CHILDREN FOR HIS BROTHER.' Now there were seven brothers with us; and the first married and died, and having no children left his wife to his brother; so also the second, and the third, down to the seventh. Last of all, the woman died. In the resurrection, therefore, whose wife of the seven will she be? For they all had married her.""

Ah! A numerated series, first, second, third, down to the seventh! Time to test my theory! If heis, mia is to be used to mean "first" when speaking of numeration rather than priority, the word for "first" in the above passage should be a form of heis, mia. I eagerly looked it up in my Greek New Testament and ... it was protos. So I thought, Well, this is Matthew, and Luke wrote Acts. He also wrote Luke, so while we may account for the different use of protos vs. heis, mia between Matthew and Acts due to two different authors, we cannot say the same of Luke and Acts. We would expect an educated fellow like Luke to be consistent in his usage. This same incident with the Sadducees is also recorded in Luke 20:27-33, also using a numerated series. The Greek word for "first" is also protos here. Back to the drawing board.

There is no escaping the Scriptural evidence, that so far heis, mia is used for the cardinal of one, just as the Greek lexicon says it is, while protos is used for the ordinal of one, also in accordance with the Greek lexicon. In every instance! So why oh why in Acts 20.7 is heis, mia translated "first," i.e., "the first of the Sabbaths"? What I found surprised me!

To be continued ...

All Through the Ages is almost here!

We updated the Nothing New Press website with the newest information concerning the 3rd edition of All Through the Ages. The old edition of All Through the Ages has been out of print since the end of October, and I have been working all winter on the new edition. It is a complete revision: new layout, new books, updated and corrected timelines - everything. I am excited about this new edition, because it is so much more easily readable; there are even some new articles included in the booklists. We do not have the book back from the printer's yet, we had to modify our 3rd edition book file and that is almost done. We hope it will be very soon, and I will let you know as soon as we have a guaranteed date!

Spring cleaning

Since we are celebrating Passover next week, followed by the week of Unleavened Bread, I am doing my spring cleaning this week. Spring cleaning got its start among the Jews, who thoroughly cleaned every last surface in their homes right before the week of Unleavened Bread, since the Scriptures state that no leaven should be found within your dwellings. They did not want there to be even one old crumb of leavened bread hiding in a corner somewhere. It is such a good feeling, anyway, to get the windows open, and everything sparkling clean; it is like clearing out winter once and for all. Goodbye winter, Hello spring!

Scriptural authority for Sunday?

In the last post, I referenced many apologetic sources from the Roman Catholic theologians, who say that nowhere in the Scriptures can a command be found to change the day of rest from Sabbath, Saturday, to Sunday. Since this command came wholly from the Catholic church itself, and the Protestants accept it and practice the day of rest on Sunday, then they are disingenuous when they claim "Sola Scriptura!" as authority for their other doctrines and practices.

But in their documentation, the Roman Catholic theologians do cite three Scriptures, as justification for considering the Lord's Day to be Sunday. So I thought it best to look at these three. First:

"Now on the first day of the week, when the disciples came together to break bread, Paul, ready to depart the next day, spoke to them and continued his message until midnight." Acts 20:7

Wow, a church service that began in the morning and lasted until midnight! Is that really what is going on here? Let's look at the previous verse:

"We sailed from Philippi after the days of Unleavened Bread, and came to them at Troas within five days; and there we stayed seven days. On the first day of the week, when we were gathered together to break bread, Paul began talking to them, intending to leave the next day, and he prolonged his message until midnight." Acts 20:6-7

Paul, Luke, and their companions were in Philippi for the days of Unleavened Bread, or, the 14th of Nissan (Passover) through the 21st of Nissan, a High Holy Sabbath of rest (the 21st of Nissan, as the 7th and final day of Unleavened Bread, is always a High Holy Sabbath, no matter what day of the week it falls on). After the holiday, they proceeded to Troas where some believers had gone on ahead and were waiting for them. While they were there, they had an assembly of the ekklesia where Paul preached till midnight, and, reading on in this chapter in Acts, a young man, drowsing on the windowsill, fell down three stories and was killed, and Paul raised him back to life again.

In my Bible, the word "day" is in italics, which means it is not in the original Greek, but was added for clarity. That means the phrase in Acts 20:7 would have originally read, "On the first of the week." Actually, the whole phrase is in Greek, hice sabbaton. Hice is "first," and sabbaton is not "day" or "week." The Greek for "day" is hemera and for "week" it is ebdomada. What is sabbaton then?

It is the Greek transliteration of the Hebrew, shabbat, or Sabbath. It does not mean "week;" the Hebrew word for "week" is shavua. There was no need to transliterate shavua into Greek if "week" is meant here; Greek already had a perfectly good word for "week." Sabbath, however, is a completely Hebraic concept, and there is no word for it in other languages, other than as a transliteration from Hebrew, as sabbaton is.

So what does hice sabbaton mean? I believe it means, "the first Sabbath," as in "On the first Sabbath, when we were gathered together to break bread ..." Okay, plausible, but why "first Sabbath?" Why not just say, "On the Sabbath, when we were gathered together ..."? This is where the information from the previous verse comes in. This meeting took place following the Unleavened Bread holiday. Jews number the Sabbaths between Unleavened Bread and Weeks, or Pentecost, because the Torah says to number for yourselves seven Sabbaths from the Feast of First Fruits (that was Resurrection Sunday) to the Feast of Weeks (that was Pentecost). This instruction is how the Feast of Weeks got its name; because it takes place seven weeks after Unleavened Bread. So every spring, following Unleavened Bread, there are a series of regular Saturday Sabbaths with special names: the First Sabbath, the Second Sabbath, the Third Sabbath, and so on until the Feast of Weeks is reached.

Luke is merely stating that on the First Sabbath, i.e., the Sabbath which was the first to occur following the Feast of Unleavened Bread, and the first of the special numbered Sabbaths in the countdown to the Feast of Weeks, they gathered together and thus and so happened. This is not an argument for the apostles' changing the day of meeting, fellowship, and preaching to Sunday.

However, someone who did not know Torah well or the practice of 1st century Jews which was founded in Torah, could easily misunderstand this passage, and this is what I believe happened. The misunderstanding took place centuries ago (perhaps at the first English translations of the Greek New Testament?) and has become entrenched. When we read it for what it says, without bringing our culture to it, but in the light of the culture in which it was written, then it is clear that this passage does not contradict other passages in Scripture which indicate the followers of Yeshua met for preaching and fellowship on the Saturday Sabbath.

To be continued ...

Sunday or Saturday Sabbath

Previously: Coming out of Babylon

Another issue with coming out of Babylon has to do with the day of rest. Any way you slice it, Sunday as a day of rest had its same origin with the Roman church wanting to distance itself from "Judaizing" believers who still kept Saturday as the day of rest, as did Jesus and the apostles. The fact that the Protestant church kept the Sunday day of worship -- which the Roman church instituted, not God, not Scripture, not Jesus, and not the apostles -- has been used by the Roman church to prove to the world that the Protestants aren't really serious about Sola Scriptura, but they inherently accept the authority of the Roman church, and are just being rebellious.

"Prove to me from the Bible alone that I am bound to keep Sunday holy. There is no such law in the Bible. It is a law of the holy Catholic Church alone. The Bible says 'Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy.' The Catholic Church says, No. By my divine power I abolish the Sabbath day and command you to keep holy the first day of the week. And ho! The entire civilized world bows down in reverent obedience to the command of the Holy Catholic Church." --Priest Thomas Enright, CSSR, President of Redemptorist College, Kansas City, Mo., in a lecture at Hartford, Kansas, February 18, 1884, and printed in the Hartford Kansas Weekly Call, February 22, 1884, and the American Sentinel, a New York Roman Catholic journal in June 1893, page 173.

Well? How does one answer that argument? If we were serious about Sola Scriptura, wouldn't we be observing the feast days of the Lord instead of the feast days of the Pope? Wouldn't we be obeying all of the Ten Commandments? These are the questions I have been asking myself.

The Sabbath is the first feast day listed in Leviticus 23. It is so holy to YHVH, that in the original Hebrew which Moses wrote under the direction of the Holy Spirit, the instructions for celebrating it are also set apart (the Hebrew meaning of "holy") from the instructions concerning the rest of the feast days in Leviticus 23.  If someone were to begin keeping the Lord's feast days, keeping the Sabbath is the best starting place.

The essentials of Sabbath keeping are: set the day apart from the other days of the week, remembering YHVH our Creator on that day, and doing no work on it, since the Sabbath as a foreshadow represents the 7th millennium of rest we will enjoy under the kingship of Jesus. "Work" is also what Adam and Eve were cursed with after their fall, so by resting on the 7th day from our work as God rested from His, we are acknowledging Jesus our Redeemer, who redeemed us from the curse brought on us by sin, and our complete dependence on Him for our salvation. We desist from our works, and enter into His rest. It is a very Protestant commemoration, a day for renewing the joy of our salvation by grace through faith, not by works, lest any man should boast!

To be continued ...

The spring feast days

The new moon was sighted in Jerusalem today. Since they are 12 or so hours ahead of us, it is night there while it is day here, so even though the new moon has not been seen yet in the Western Hemisphere, we should by all rights see it tonight if they have already seen it in Israel. (Look above the western horizon at dusk; you should see a very thin sliver after the sun sets). This new moon marks the beginning of the first biblical month of the year - Abib, or Nissan. On the 14th of Abib, we celebrate Passover.

If this evening marks the start of the 1st day, then the evening of April 20th marks the start of the 14th day, so at our house we are eating our Passover supper on Monday, April 21st, at the end of the 14th day. The next day, then, Tuesday, April 22nd, is the first day of Unleavened Bread, and a High Holy Sabbath of rest. Nothing New Press will be closed. That makes Sunday, April 27th --  the Sunday which falls during the week of Unleavened Bread -- Resurrection Sunday! It is the Feast of the First Fruits of Barley, that holiday which gives thanks to God for New Life! Monday, April 28th, closes this holiday season: it is the 7th day of Unleavened Bread, and a High Holy Sabbath of rest. Nothing New Press will be closed.

I did some research into the different dates different people use for eating the Passover supper. Apparently, since the dispersal of the Sanhedrin (which set the biblical calendar in ancient days) there have been different methods for determining where we are in the calendar. The most common one used by the Jews was established by Hillel after the majority of the Jews were dispersed from Judea by the Romans. It is a complex mathematical system which allowed Jews all over the world to know with a fair degree of certainty when the 1st of Nissan was, even if they were very far from Jerusalem and had no way of receiving communication from there of the new moon sighting. According to this calendar, the Passover supper will be eaten on the evening of April 19th. And other groups use other calendars; apparently there are 16 different calendars in use!

This year the Hillel calender is two days off from the actual position of the moon. Nowadays, however, with the Internet, we have instant communication and instant access to nearly every point in the globe. I received an e-mail announcing the sighting of the new moon in Jerusalem earlier today in real time as it was still hanging in the twilight sky over Jerusalem. How amazing is that!

To be continued ...

Coming out of Babylon

Previously: Tying together loose ends

So for me, knowing what I know about the Babylonian origin of rebellion against God, the nature of Nimrod's rebellion at the Tower of Babel, the historical (traditional Protestant) understanding of Revelation, which sees the Roman system ultimately of Satan; and also learning my Hebrew roots and Torah: I cannot any longer participate in Roman holidays. That means Christmas and Easter, primarily, but also anything originating with the Roman church: Lent, for example. For me to do so would be to stay in Babylon when the Lord is calling me to leave Babylon.

In Daniel, it is prophesied of the antichrist that he will change the times and laws. That is "appointed times," if you look up the original Aramaic, which is the exact term used to describe the Lord's feast days in Leviticus 23:2. We know from Daniel that the antichrist comes out of the Roman kingdom - he is the "little horn." We know from Revelation that the name of the beast is ROMAN, and its number is 666. We have the evidence of history and the Roman church's own testimony that they replaced the "Jewish" holidays (which are the biblical holidays, YHVH's feast days) with others rooted in Babel.

I am the Lord's. but have spent my life celebrating Christmas and Easter, not Passover and the other biblical holidays. I thought Roman thoughts. Thus I have been marked on my hand and forehead with the mark of the beast, with his name: ROMAN. But as the Lord has been showing me all this, I have been endeavoring to learn all I can about the biblical feast days, how they are shadows cast by the substance of Yeshua Messiah, Jesus Christ, what that means, and my legitimate Hebrew heritage. I have been trying to learn to think like a Hebrew, not like a Roman. I want to be the Lord's, not in name only, but I want to be marked on my hand and forehead with His name, YHVH, by observing that which He commanded which marks me as His. I am making my way out of Babylon.

What that means for me: we have for many years celebrated Passover. Last year we celebrated all seven of the annual feasts, and we began celebrating Sabbath as Scripture commands (more on that coming up). I have also begun distancing myself from Roman practices. Last year at Christmas we were not at home, so I had an easy out for not decorating the house or putting up a tree. This year I am not going to decorate a tree. I am going to decorate the house with candles for Hanukkah, but no evergreens. We did not celebrate Easter last week. We will celebrate Crucifixion day on Passover (evening of April 20 this year), and Resurrection day on the Feast of Firstfruits (Sunday, April 27 this year).

What about Sundays? What about family? What about presents? To be continued ...

Tying together loose ends

We have seen that Babylon is the root of all rebellion against God in paganism, and also the root of some of our Christian holidays. In a seemingly unrelated matter, we also saw that those who have come to faith in Jesus Christ in the past 2000 years have been primarily Gentiles, as the Jews have been blinded to Yeshua their Messiah until the fullness of Gentiles have come in. We learned that the Gentiles were seeded with the house of Ephraim, who never returned from his captivity in Assyria, but who were scattered among the nations. This was in accordance with Jacob's prophecy over Ephraim, that he would become a fullness of Gentiles ("melo hagoyim" in Hebrew; "a fullness of Gentiles;" translated "multitude of nations" in many English translations).

So we Christians (who were Gentiles, some of whom were originally Ephraimites) have received a heritage of holidays and traditions which originated in Babylon, and now that we are at the end of this age of history, the Lord is saying to us, "Come out of Babylon, My people!" He is opening our eyes to the fact that we not only are His people, but we were His people Israel, which we had forgotten. The holidays and traditions which the Lord originally gave us were Israelite: the biblical feast days, the patriarchs, the covenants, the promises, and the Commandments, all belong to us. They have been mistakenly called "Jewish" holidays; but the Jews are 2/12 of Israel; the holidays and covenants were given to all of Israel, all the twelve tribes.

We saw that those who belong to the Lord are marked on the hand with His name, because they celebrate the holidays He commanded them to celebrate (outlined in Lev 23), and because they keep the Commandments and practices He commanded them to keep. They are marked on their forehead with His name, because they remember why they celebrate and do what they do; they meditate on the Word of the Lord (all of His Word, including the Torah) all their days.

We learned that those who belong to the beast, the kingdoms of this world (of which Babylon is the head of gold), are marked on the hand with his name, ROMAN, because they celebrate the Roman holidays he instituted which commemorate his rebellion against God. We learned one of these is December 25, the birthday of the sun god, who is Nimrod deified - the instigator of the rebellion at Babel. We learned one of these is Easter (Saxon for Ishtar) at the spring equinox, the fertility festival of Ishtar, Nimrod's wife deified. Thus the bunnies and eggs. Interestingly enough, it is the Roman authority in the form of Constantine and the Roman church who commanded Christians to leave off celebrating Passover and the Lord's feast days, and which fixed the day to celebrate the Resurrection in coincidence with Ishtar's day. We learned that those who belong to the beast are marked on the forehead with his name because they are indoctrinated with Roman - ultimately Babylonian - traditions, thoughts, and practices.

God acknowledges that His people are dwelling in Babylon. In fact, it was likely His plan that they do so. Look at it this way: Satan corrupted people from following God's way by introducing paganism; it worked like yeast in dough, which spread until the whole lump was leavened with rebellion. In an elegant counter strike, God introduced His people with the seed of His Word in them among the pagans; they worked like yeast in dough; they spread until the whole lump was leavened with the knowledge of God. But now, God is calling us out of Babylon, like He called Lot out of Sodom, because judgment is soon to commence on the beast, and He does not want His children to partake of her plagues.

To be continued ...

My day

Yesterday was the anniversary of my Mom's passing into glory; I spent the day with my sister and children and my Mom's husband (my Dad passed away years ago and my Mom remarried after that). Even though she is not here, and nothing we do affects her in any way, remembering my departed parents on these anniversary days is one little way I can show them honor.

I am working on a tying up the loose ends post, which will bring to a conclusion the Babylon connection posts, the Marked on the hand and forehead posts, and tie in other related series so that it all makes sense. It is written, and I just need to add in links, which will take some time since there are a lot of them this time; it is referencing most of the previous posts that have been made in several series. I will work on that some more after work today. So look for that soon. Be blessed today in all you do!

On Phariseeism

Lessons from history

I recently saw in the news that the Iraq War casualty count for US forces has now exceeded 4,000 killed. This is tragic, especially for the families of those 4,000. But the media has lost the perspective of history. In the Battle of the Bulge during World War II, when Allied forces were advancing across France, over 19,000 US soldiers were killed in the course of the battle, and the vast majority of those were within the first three days! That is from only one battle out of the entire war. While that is a huge amount of loss also, it is barely a drop in the bucket compared to the warfare of medieval or ancient times.

I think that today we have such little patience for casualties, setbacks, or changes of strategy, because most of us (including the media) know so little history and therefore have no frame of reference to compare actually how astonishingly well we are doing in Iraq.

More reasons to homeschool

And if inappropriate teacher - student contact is not enough for a parent to worry about:

In Texas a middle school principal threatened to kill his teachers, if test scores did not improve. Kill! He ended this ominous speech by saying, "You don't know how ruthless I can be." A teacher, who was included among the threatened group, notified the school board, who did nothing. The teacher has been reassigned as a form of punishment. So in this principal, we have all the actions of a tyrant, on a much smaller scale: threats, retaliation, revenge, ruthlessness, and no respect for others or the rule of law, but only that which will promote personal power and prestige. I guess it doesn't take much power to corrupt some. Unfortunately, it is not only the teachers who are hurt by arrogant, abusive, and power- mad bureaucrats: the 90% of children who attend public schools get the ultimate short end of the stick.

Again already?

Another teacher [s-x] arrest story ... in Tampa Bay, the same place as last week's big teacher [s-x] scandal story. And yes, it is another female teacher arrested for having [s-x] with an underage male student. The evidence for our female indulgence without restraint theory keeps piling up.