2624 Year Old Tree

In the State of North Carolina in the United States, scientists studying a very ancient stand of trees have discovered one tree (designated as BLK227) which they can accurately date as 2624 years old.  This means 505 BC.

The date was established by taking tiny non-damaging core samples. Many of the other trees in the forest are at least 2000 years old. These 110 Bald Cypress trees are located along the Black River and predate the reign of Alexander the Great (356 - 323BC). These trees were over 500 years old when Jesus was born.

What They Think of Us: Plastic Jesus

This is a repost with a link to a version of the song.

Plastic Jesus is an American folk song written by Ed Rush and George Cromarty in 1957, some also attribute Ernie Marrs as a writer. Ed Rush has stated that the inspiration for the song came from a religious radio station from Del Rio, Texas which "sold the most outrageous stuff imaginable, all with magical healing properties." Every city in America probably has such a shop, selling tacky religious trinkets and doodads. In Birmingham, we had Prophet Carlisle who sold scented candles and healing oils. Christians need to assiduously separate themselves from such crap. There is no reason to give the unbelievers ammunition for their sarcasm.

Plastic Jesus has been recorded by multiple artists. Additional verses continue to be added about Mary, Joseph, the Apostles, Moses, Buddha, Krishna, and on and on and on. Here is the original song. Read more about it on Wikipedia.

I don't care if it rains or freezes
'Long as I got my plastic Jesus
Riding on the dashboard of my car
Through my trials and tribulations
And my travels through the nations
With my plastic Jesus I'll go far

Plastic Jesus, plastic Jesus
Riding on the dashboard of my car
I'm afraid He'll have to go
His magnets ruin my radio
And if I have a wreck He'll leave a scar

Riding down a thoroughfare
With His nose up in the air
A wreck may be ahead, but He don't mind
Trouble coming He don't see
He just keeps His eye on me
And any other thing that lies behind

Plastic Jesus, plastic Jesus
Riding on the dashboard of my car
Though the sunshine on His back
Make Him peel, chip and crack
A little patching keeps Him up to par

When I'm in a traffic jam
He don't care if I say "damn"
I can let all my curses roll
Plastic Jesus doesn't hear
'Cause he has a plastic ear
The man who invented plastic saved my soul

Plastic Jesus, plastic Jesus
Riding on the dashboard of my car
Once His robe was snowy white
Now it isn't quite so bright
Stained by the smoke of my cigar

If I weave around at night
And policemen think I'm tight
They never find my bottle, though they ask
Plastic Jesus shelters me
For His head comes off, you see
He's hollow, and I use Him for a flask

Plastic Jesus, plastic Jesus
Riding on the dashboard of my car
Ride with me and have a dram
Of the blood of the Lamb
Plastic Jesus is a holy bar

Another version of the song. And another. There are many.

What They Think of Us: Adolf Hitler

“Christianity is an invention of sick brains; one could imagine nothing more senseless.” Adolf Hitler

23 But we preach Christ crucified, unto the Jews a stumbling block, and unto the Greeks foolishness;

24 But unto them which are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God, and the wisdom of God.

25 Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men; and the weakness of God is stronger than men.

26 For ye see your calling, brethren, how that not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called:

27 But God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty;  (1 Corinthians 1:23-27)

God Chooses to Use Whomever He Chooses

God seems to always choose the most unlikely person. Read the post below from The Jesus Site.com.

http://www.jesussite.com/blog/2012/02/think-god-cant-use-you/

You may wonder why this is.  My understanding of this is that if God used the obvious people (kings, military conquerors, politicians, the most beautiful women in the world, men as handsome as movie stars,  the richest and most powerful people, etc) everyone would "understand" why they were successful.  God's glory is magnified when He uses unexpected people to achieve His plan, because it is obvious that the actions come from God: a small teenaged boy used to defeat a giant, a donkey used to deliver a message, a frightened concubine used to save an entire nation, a brutal pagan absolute ruler used to take Judah into captivity to cause them to depend on Him, and a hate-filled persecutor used to become his doctrinal interpreter.  If God can use any of these people to bring about His purposes, He can use you to bring about His purposes.

What They Think of Us: Jesus Christ Action Figure

DO NOT WATCH THIS VIDEO IF YOU ARE EASILY OFFENDED!

This is a spoof commercial for a children's action figure.  What I find especially problematic is that whoever made this piece of garbage thought it was funny to involve their children in the project.

(Some videos will not play properly when you click on the triangle.  Instead,  click on the title line in the picture and the video will begin .  When the video is completed, close the You Tube pop-up window to return to this blog.)

Christ Figures in Films

On of the recurring images in film is that of the Christ Figure, a character who in some ways resembles Jesus Christ as he is depicted in the Bible.  This is often an entirely conscious technique used to create a "heroic" character or to create a character who seems "familiar."  The creators of the characters are quite often not Christians, but they use Christian symbolism.  Many are atheists or agnostics.  They use the religious symbolism for the emotional effect it will produce in their viewers.

The Christ Figure usually exhibits several of the characteristics associated with Jesus, though he is not always a hero.  Sometimes he is an antihero, even a villain.  Sometimes he is a woman.  Sometimes he is an animal.  Sometimes he is a machine.

The characteristics of the Christ Figure may include: mysterious or obscure beginnings, followers surround him,  he teaches, he redeems situations and people, he rights some sort of wrong, attempts are made on his life while he is a child, he is perceived as "normal" until his mission begins, he performs miracles, he confronts authority figures, he is seen as alien or as divine, blood is in some way involved, he questions his mission, he searches for his true identity, he is killed or punished by the authorities, he returns from death (or from banishment, a long absence, etc), he heals, he forgives, he is guided by his father or a father figure, and he (or his ideals) are triumphant in the end.  Not all filmic Christ Figures exhibit all of the these attributes and some film characters can be classified as Christ Figures only by a very elastic use of the term.  None of these characters are the real Christ; instead they are side flashes, faint after-images, flittering glitter, echoes, imitations, and sometimes, exact opposites, like photographic negatives.

Just a few of the characters who are universally recognized as film Christ Figures:
Uncle Tom, in Uncle Tom's Cabin (1927)
Freder Frederson, in Metropolis (1927)
Jean d'Arc, in The Passion of Joan of Arc (1928)
Sydney Carton, in A Tale of Two Cities (1935)
Jim Casy, in The Grapes of Wrath (1940)
Bambi, in Bambi (1942)
Klaatu, in The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951)
Luke Jackson, in Cool Hand Luke (1967)
Ben, in Night of the Living Dead (1968)
Ben Richards, in The Immortal (1969)
Alex DeLarge, in A Clockwork Orange (1971)
Randle Patrick McMurphy, in One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest (1975)
Claude, in Hair (1979)
E.T., in E.T. the Extraterrestrial (1982)
Kevin Flynn, in Tron (1982)
Mr. Spock, in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (1982) and Star Trek III: The Search for Spock (1984)
Glenn, in The Next One (1984)
John Connor, in Terminator (1984)
Paul Muad 'Dib Atreides, in Dune (1984)
Alex Murphy/Robocop, in Robocop (1987)
Preston Tucker, in Tucker: The Man and His Dream (1988)
Virgil "Bud" Brigman, in The Abyss (1989)
Ellen Ripley, in Aliens 3 (1992)
Kenshiro, in Fist of the North Star (1995)
William Wallace, in Braveheart (1995)
Babe the Pig, in Babe (1995)
Thomas A. Anderson (Neo), in The Matrix (1999)
Frodo Baggins, in The Lord of the Rings trilogy (2001, 2002, 2003)
Nameless, in Hero (2002)
Joshua, in Joshua (2002)
T-800, in Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines ( 2003)
Peter Parker, in Spiderman 2 (2004)
Optimus Prime, in Transformers (2007)
Aslan the Lion, in The Chronicles of Narnia Series (2005,2008,2010)
Sam Flynn, in Tron: Legacy (2010)

A case can be made that Dexter Morgan, the serial killer of the 2006-2011 cable television series, Dexter, is an extremely (very, very extremely) twisted and dark form of the filmic tradition of the Christ Figure.  You do not need to have seen this series to know that there is nothing of the true Christ in Dexter Morgan.  He is better described as an Anti-Christ Figure.

The most overt instance of the Christ Figure in literature and film is Superman.  The character was created in 1932 by two Jewish men, Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster, and sold to Detective Comics Incorporated (the modern DC Comics) in 1938.  Superman (born as the Kryptonian Kal-el) is of extraterrestrial origin and was sent to Earth by his father, Jor-el. "El" just happens to be the Hebrew word for "God."  At the end of a word, it means "of God." Kal-el means something like "voice of God."

The 2006 film, Superman Returns, is overt in its religious symbolism.  The film, Superman: The Movie , is even more explicit.  Superman's Kryptonian scientist father, Jor-el, declares, "Even though you've been raised as a human being you are not one of them ... They can be a great people, Kal-el; they wish to be.  They only lack the light to show them the way.  For this reason above all, their capacity for good, I have sent them you, my only son."

What They Think of Us: Napoleon Bonaparte

"Alexander, Caesar, Charlemagne, and myself founded empires but on what foundation did we rest the creations of our genius?  Upon force.  Jesus Christ founded an empire upon love, and at this hour millions of men would die for him."  Napoleon Bonaparte, Emperor of the French (1804-1815).

Napoleone di Buonaparte (1769 - 1821) was born on the island of Corsica to parents of Italian ancestry.  Before being ceded to France, the island had belonged to the Republic of Genoa.  As a military leader and ruler, Bonaparte was never known for his humility.

Raised as a Roman Catholic, as an adult he was a deist who rejected the deity of Jesus and thought of God as distant and absent.  Even so, he accepted the Anointing of the Sick sacrament from a Roman Catholic priest shortly before he died.

The Meaning of Life

"... the Church exists for nothing else but to draw men into Christ, to make them little Christs.  If they are not doing that, all the cathedrals, clergy, missions, sermons, even the Bible itself, are simply a waste of time.  God became Man for no other purpose.  It is even doubtful, you know, whether the whole universe was created for any other purpose.  It says in the Bible that the whole universe was made for Christ and that everything is to be gathered together in Him."  C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity, 1952.

Evangelicals

In the Book Comment I posted on December 11 for the book, Christians Are Hate-Filled Hypocrites ..., I spoke of the religious designation, Evangelicals, and noted that there may be some confusion as to exactly what an Evangelical is.  The definition is not hard and fast and depends partly on who is doing the defining.  The list below is one to which most Evangelicals would agree, though some would add more items to the list:
1. A personal commitment to, and a personal relationship with, Jesus Christ.
2. Usually they are aware of a definite date on which this relationship began.
3. They believe that they are destined for Heaven after their physical deaths because they have accepted Jesus Christ as their personal savior.
4. Their personal sense of identity is strongly tied up in their faith.
5. They feel that they have a divinely mandated responsibility to share their faith with non-believers.
6. They are convinced that Satan is a real personal entity.
7. They believe that salvation is a gift from God gained through faith alone, not by works.  Works are merely an evidence of faith.
8. Jesus is the only person to have ever lived a sinless life.
9. The Bible is accurate in everything which it teaches.
10. God is the Creator, all-powerful, perfect, and utterly holy.

Glasses

You've heard of people who view life through "rose-colored glasses;" they see a good side in every event, often in a way that looks naive or namby-pambyish to other people. Often people claim to be wearing no glasses of their own, viewing life fully aware and logically. Not true. Everyone wears glasses of one sort or another. Everyone has some sort of worldview, whether it assumes that the world is utterly meaningless, or declares with the moral relativists that there are no absolute truths, or sees the world as a struggle based on race or social class or economics, or sees the world as a competition in which the winner accumulates the most stuff, or believes that the world as a living and evolving organism in which we are all components, or feels that all our problems would be solved if we only had the right thinking or the right politics, and on and on and on.

Christians need to openly declare which glasses we wear. Not Democratic, not Republican. Not black, not white. Not American, not European. Not rich, not poor. Not educated, not uneducated. Not Alabama, not Auburn. Not old, not young. Not liberal, not fundamentalist. Not Baptist, not Catholic. Not anarchist, not fascist. Not ..., not ....

The "glasses" that we as Christians must wear are the leading of the indwelling Holy Spirit who will help us to view everything through the eyes of Christ. Remember that for Christians "to live is Christ" (Philippians 1:21) and that we have the Mind of Christ (1 Corinthians 2:16).

An excellent article about the Mind of Christ can be found at http://www.pbc.org/files/messages/4807/3577.html

Messianic Prophecies from the Bible: He Will Be from Nazareth

"And he came and dwelt in a city called Nazareth: that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophets, He shall be called a Nazarene." Matthew 2:23

This Messianic prophecy has no direct counterpart in the Old Testament (TANAKH) and has led some to say it reflects an error in Matthew and others to say that it is a reflection from a lost Jewish scripture. Probably, neither one of these views is correct.

The ancient Jews were zealous, even fierce, protectors of their holy books, and especially the Torah. Hand copies of the books were checked letter by letter for exactness. If any book failed to have the correct word total and letter total, it was discarded. If any one letter was not in the correct sequence, the entire book was discarded. There were no erasers and any corrections or smudges of the letters rendered the books unusable. Because the unusable books were still revered scripture, they were not destroyed, but were placed into sealed chambers (genizah: Hebrew for "hiding place") along with torn or soiled copies and books worn out by constant use. Needless to say, archeologists and biblical scholars jump with joy when one of these chambers is newly discovered.

Back to Matthew 2:23. Instead of a specific “proof text” Old Testament quotation, this verse probably connects the fact that the Nazarenes were held in contempt as unsophisticated country hicks (John 1:46; John 7:52) with the prophecies that the Messiah would be held in contempt (Psalm 22:6-8, 69:9-11, 19-21; Isaiah 53:2-4, 7-9).

This allusion would have been immediately obvious to Matthew’s Jewish readers, even the illiterate ones who had heard the scriptures read thousands of times. It is us modern readers, who don’t really know our Bibles, who have to dig it out. Dinesh D'Souza had it right when he said, "...we live in a religiously illiterate society..."

Book Comment: Jesus of Nazareth

Jesus of Nazareth (1977), by William Barclay, is a novelization of the film (also 1977) of the same name by Franco Zeffirelli. The novel adheres closely to the script and is heavily illustrated with color stills from the film. This was a major big-budget movie with more name actors and actresses than you want me to list here and featured a score by Maurice Jarre.

My Dad Can Beat Up Your Dad

A joke from A Comedian's Guide to Theology by Thor Ramsey (2008, Gospel Light, Ventura, California).

"...God is not a man but could easily kick your butt if needed. I wonder how Jesus responded to the kid who bragged, "I bet my dad could beat up your dad.""
"My dad created your dad."

Messianic Prophecies from the Bible: The Messiah Will be Born in Bethlehem

“But thou, Bethlehem Ephratah, [though] thou be little among the thousands of Judah, [yet] out of thee shall he come forth unto me [that is] to be ruler in Israel; whose goings forth [have been] from of old, from everlasting.”
 Micah 5:2

“And when he had gathered all the chief priests and scribes of the people together, he demanded of them where Christ should be born. And they said unto him, In Bethlehem of Judaea: for thus it is written by the prophet, And thou Bethlehem, [in] the land of Juda, art not the least among the princes of Juda: for out of thee shall come a Governor, that shall rule my people Israel.” Matthew 2:4-6.

“Hath not the scripture said, That Christ cometh of the seed of David, and out of the town of Bethlehem, where David was?”
 John 7:42

Messianic Prophecies from the Bible: Jesus is the Light of the World

 This may or may not be a messianic prophecy.  My feeling is that it is not, because that could imply that Jesus is a created being. That would be inconsistent with the many other biblical references which teach that Jesus is pre-existent.

Some people feel that the first use of a word in the Bible establishes that word's meaning for the rest of the Bible.  This is highly doubtful and is an unfounded assumption.  Interpretations of words and phrases in the Bible must be derived from the surrounding textual and historical context, from the most usual usage of the word, and from their consistency with the rest of the biblical revelation.

Examples abound of people making unfounded assumptions about biblical words and phrases and, as a result, going off in heretical directions.

Old Testament:

”And God said, Let there be light: and there was light. And God saw the light, that [it was] good: and God divided the light from the darkness.”

Genesis 1:3-4

New Testament:

“Then spake Jesus again unto them, saying, I am the light of the world: he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life.” John 8:12


Messianic Prophecies from the Bible: He Will Be Called Out of Egypt

Messianic Prophecies is a recurrent segment in this blog.

Old Testament:
“When Israel [was] a child, then I loved him, and called my son out of Egypt.”
 Hosea 11:1

New Testament:
“And when they were departed, behold, the angel of the Lord appeareth to Joseph in a dream, saying, Arise, and take the young child and his mother, and flee into Egypt, and be thou there until I bring thee word: for Herod will seek the young child to destroy him.
 When he arose, he took the young child and his mother by night, and departed into Egypt:
 And was there until the death of Herod: that it might be fulfilled which was spoken of the Lord by the prophet, saying, Out of Egypt have I called my son.” 
Matthew 2:13-15.

The Tomb of Jesus in Japan

Jesus's direct lineal descendant, Sawaguchi Toyoji, doesn't believe any of it. He's a garlic farmer in a village where no one is a Christian but most adamantly believe is the burial place of Jesus. The burial mound and cross are located on Sawaguchi's property.

The legend has it that Jesus escaped crucifixion when his brother, Iskiri, was executed in his place. After a four year long journey, Jesus arrived in Japan where he settled in Aomori Prefecture at Herai (said to be a shortened form of "heburai," the Japanese word for "Hebrews."). There he married a Japanese woman and had three daughters whose descendants still live in the village which bills itself as "Kirisito no Sato" of "Home of Christ."

Atheists Sue Catholic Bishop

In a strange coalition, a group of atheists and Catholic activists have sued Nicholas DiMarzio, the Bishop of Brooklyn; a politician, Assemblyman Vito Lopez; and the Brooklyn Catholic Diocese over their involvement in recorded phone messages by DiMarzio to voters in Lopez' district before a City Council election.

I hate to agree with the atheists but they are probably correct. A major tenet of non-profit status is non-involvement in elections. Churches have skirted around this issue for years with many stepping across the line. The church may, and should speak about issues, but must not support a particular candidate. The only legitimate political involvement for the church is non-partisan voter registration and encouragement of civic participation by voting.

Evangelicals have come dangerously close to stepping across the line with their increasing identification with the Republican Party. Our allegiance must be to Christ, not to organizations. We should be holding ourselves separate from their worldly pursuit of power and influence so they will not feel that they have any right to dictate or attempt to influence our policies, actions, or beliefs.

One of my "Common Sense Predictions for the Next Ten Years" (4 October 2009) was "Numerous churches will renounce their tax-exempt status in order to prevent governmental interference in their affairs."

Unhindered

κηρύσσων τὴν βασιλείαν τοῦ Θεοῦ καὶ διδάσκων τὰ περὶ τοῦ Κυρίου Ἰησοῦ Χριστοῦ μετὰ πάσης παρρησίας ἀκωλύτως.
"Preaching the kingdom of God, and teaching those things which concern the Lord Jesus Christ, with all confidence, no man forbidding him." Acts 28:31
ἀκωλύτως actually means “without hindrance” or “unhindered.” Hence the name of my blog, Saints on the Loose!

Holy Cow! Jesus is in My Screen Door!

In early December of 2009, Moses, a half-Jersey, half-Holstein, calf was born on Brad Davis' farm in Sterling, Connecticut. What is special about Moses that made the international news is that on his forehead is a patch of white hair in the shape of a cross. Some have already started with the predictable "maybe God is sending us a message from above." No one is sure what message God might be sending on the forehead of a cow. It's the wrong place anyway. As one sarcastic blogger opined, "... religious icons should only appear in cheese ... you can find that in the Bible."

In the film, Screen Door Jesus (2003), it's not a cow's head but the front screen door of Old Mother Harper, an old black woman in a small Texas town. On the screen some, but not all, see the smiling face of Jesus. the entire population of the town and then the outside press show up in Mother Harper's front yard and start taking sides. So many people come, tramping her flowers and leaving trash, that Mother Harper gets righteously annoyed.

It seems that Jesus (or sometimes Mary) appears everywhere: on billboards, in pictures of spaghetti, in water stains, in the shape of a deformed Cheeto, etc. and that pathetic people, desperate for a proof of what they want to believe, rush to worship the holy item. Jesus told us that we don't need that.

"Thomas, because thou hast seen me, thou hast believed: blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed." John 20:29.

Rushing to fawn over a piece of cheese or a Jesus shaped mushroom brings ridicule to the Church. They already think we're crazy and then we go and prove it.