The Inferior Five

The Inferior Five are a comic book superhero team made up of persons who are not what one would expect of such a team. They are Merryman, a 98 pound weakling who wears a jester’s costume and is very smart; Awkwardman, who is super strong but very clumsy; The Blimp, who floats in the air rather than flying. He literally needs a wind to blow behind him. He is blown about by every wind (Ephesians 4:14); White Feather, who is a skilled but emotionally insecure archer; and Dumb Bunny, who is “strong as an ox and almost as intelligent.”

The Inferior Five always win the day. They are truly superheroes. Instead of Inferior, they might more correctly be named the Unlikely Five.

God always choses the unlikely person, the unlikely nation, the unlikely way. His ways seem like foolishness to the world.

He chose, not a powerful empire, but the Jews, to be the nation which He used to reveal and explain Himself to the world. 

He chose a shepherd boy to become the greatest king of Israel and a man after God’s own heart. This man also committed adultery and ordered the murder of a loyal friend.

He chose a woman who was essentially being held as a sex slave by a brutal king. Her assignment was to protect His people from extermination by a scheming government official.

He chose uneducated fisherman, a hated tax collector, a little boy, a cuckolded husband, the wife of a wardrobe keeper, a sheep-herder, and a cousin of the King of Judah, to become His prophets and apostles. 

He chose a Gentile trained in the science of the day to write the first history of the church which began as an exclusively Jewish movement.

He chose a vicious persecutor of His church to become its greatest intellectual and the first great explainer of Christian doctrine. 

Many of us feel that we have no talents, that we have nothing to offer. We fail to remember that God has chosen each one of us and has given each of us the particular abilities we need to perform whatever duties He has for us to perform. He has equipped us to be, and expects us to be, on His unlikely team.

Film Comment: Kike Like Me

The title of this film is a play on the  name of John Griffin’s 1964 book, Black Like Me.  Griffin darkened his skin so he could convincingly live for a time as a black man and then wrote of his experiences.

“Kike” is an ethnic slur word used to insult Jews. There are several possible explanations for the origin of the word, but one of the most likely is offered by Leo Rosten in his 1968 book, The Joys of Yiddish. 

Rosten says that many of the Jews entering the United States at the immigration center at Ellis Island in New York were illiterate. A common practice at the time was for the recording clerk to write the persons name and then for the illiterate person to place “his mark,” an X, between the personal name and the surname. 

Many Jews thought the X looked like a cross and refused to use it. Instead they wrote an O, a circle, which in Yiddish is “kikel” or “keikl.”

Kike Like Me (2007) is narrated by Jamie Kastner who presents the film as an examination of what it means to be Jewish in the modern world. Kastner travels to Jerusalem, Berlin, Poland, Paris, and the Auschwitz death camp. He becomes increasingly shocked and sarcastic as he sees more. He is disgusted to find that Auschwitz has a tourist souvenir shop.

Christians often forget that all of the first Christians were Jewish and that it is impossible to understand Christianity without understanding its Jewish origins. What does it mean to be perceived as Jewish? Watch this film if you dare.

Place Names with Religious Origins

Mokapu Beach, Maui, Hawaii (USA): The Hawaiian word “kapu” means “forbidden” or “sacred,” the same meaning as the Polynesian word "tabu" or "taboo."  Mokapu beach was forbidden because it was for held for used only by the Hawaiian kings and their servants.

Damanhur, Egypt: The ancient Egyptian name of this city was Timenhor (in ancient Egyptian: Dmi-n-Hr, the “city of Horus”), derived from the name of the Egyptian deity, Horus. The Greeks called the city Hermopolis Mikra or Hermopolis Parva (from the Roman god Hermes.)

Izamal, Mexico: Itzamma was the supreme god the ancient Mayans. Most of the buildings in modern Izamal are painted yellow and it is popularly known as the Yellow City.  Settlement of the site predates the 15th century.

Ani, Turkey: The name of the ancient Persian goddess, Anahid or Anahit, survives in the name of the ruins of this medieval Armenian city. Anahit was the mother protector of the Armenian people.  She was the goddess of fertility, healing, wisdom, and water. 

The city is first mentioned in 5th century documents and flourished between 961 and 1045 as the “City of 1001 Churches.” It was sacked by the Mongols in 1236 and further damaged by an earthquake in 1319.

Omkareshwar, India: “Om” is the Sanskrit word which represents the “holy sound” used in Hindu  meditation practices. Omkareshwar is a  temple dedicated to the Hindu god Shiva. The temple is on an island in the Narmada River in Madhya Pradesh State.

Christians

All of the persons listed below lived to be over 100 years old.

Pope Agatho: (possibly born in Sicily - d. 681, aged 103 or 104)  Agatho was Pope from 678 until 681. He is recognized by both the Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox churches.

Christopher Evans: B. 1909, England - d. 2012) English chaplain, theologian, and university lecturer. He was a recognized expert on the New Testament.

Nguyen Van Thien: b. 1906, Vietnam - d. 2012) Vietnamese Roman Catholic bishop.

Halvor Midtbo: (b. 1883, Norway - d. 1985) Norwegian priest and temperance activist.

John the Silent: (b. 454, Armenia - d. 558, aka: John the Hesychast) Religious hermit who lived aline for 76 years even though he was an ordained bishop. He is recognized as a saint by the Roman Catholic Church.

Comedy/Music Comment: Chonda Pierce. A Piece of My Mind

Chonda Pierce is a hilarious Christian stand-up comedian and singer whose performances have the same effect as those of Michael Jr. whom I have mentioned in several earlier posts. While making the listener laugh uncontrollably, she carries a sword, and thrusts with that sword to deliver her message. She is a warrior and an evangelist of the first order. All of her comedic routines are sermons.

Chonda talks about subjects not normally considered to be funny, especially for a Christian comedian. Her topics include menopause, depression, clothes which for some unknown reason no longer fit, aging parents, annoying neighbors, and family dysfunction. Nothing is off limits. Why should it be? Christians  live in the real world.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SbZ4MLc4th8  menopause

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_LdGs-eioMQ  depression

Chonda Pierce. A  Piece of My Mind, INO Records, 000768303917

Unusual Christian Places: Shingo, Japan

Shingo, Japan is a small village of 3000 people which claims that Jesus did not die during His crucifixion because the man who was crucified was actually Jesus’ younger brother. The Shingo legend says that Jesus settled in the village and went by the name Daitenku Taro. He became a rice farmer, married one of the local women, and had three daughters. The legend has him dying in Shingo at the age of 106.

Though many locals claim to be descendants of Jesus through his daughters, all but one (in 2013) are Buddhist or are followers of Shintoism.

Christian Heresies: Arianism

Heresy in Christian usage is when a person or church denies or distorts scriptural doctrines which are essential for a proper understanding of Christianity. Heresy is not just acceptance of odd ideas or even aberrant beliefs. Heresy involves changing the nature of the Christian message. We can argue among ourselves about some things, but we can NEVER accept heresy into the church if we wish to remain authentically Christian. 

We have to be careful about throwing around the “heresy label” and to do so, we have to be sure what is the authentically Christian message. A good discussion of this is here. There are a few doctrines on which there can be absolutely no compromise. They are false and it is important to know that they are false.

All of the classical heresies presented a different gospel from orthodox Christianity and should be rejected because they are inconsistent with revealed scripture. What may surprise many is that most, or even all, of the classical heresies are still in evidence in the modern world among professed Christians.

One of the most dangerous and powerful of the classical Christian heresies and one which is very evident today in the teachings of many “progressive” Christians is Arianism. This doctrine for a while threatened to gain ascendancy in the Roman Catholic Church but was condemned by the First Council of Nicaea in 324 and again at the First Council of Constantinople (Istanbul, Turkey) in 381. Protestants would say Arianism was rightly condemned because it is at total variance with scripture and changes the essential nature of the gospel. It is a totally different gospel. (2 Corinthians 11:4, Galatians 1:6-9)

Arius (born about 250 in Libya - died 336 in Constantinople) was a priest in Alexandria (al-Iskaderiyah), Egypt. He taught that Jesus was not pre-existent but was the first created being.  Arius held to a monotheism which insisted that the godhead was unitary and could not be shared. The doctrine of the Trinity was rejected and Jesus, while still worthy of worship, was not God.

The teachings of Arius were rejected in 325 at the Council of Nicea (Iznik, Turkey) but were accepted in 357 at the Council of Sirmium (Sremska Mitrovica, Serbia). The issue went  back and forth, sometimes violently. Constans, the Emperor of the West, was Nicene, while Constantius, the Emperor of the East, was an Arian. Emperor Valens (364-378) persecuted non-Arians in the East but under the teachings of the Cappadocian Fathers (Basil the Great, Gregory of Nyssa, and Gregory of Nazianzus) the Nicene definition began to gain ascendancy. Emperors Gratian (367-383) and Theodosiuis (379-395) were both Nicene and finally in 381, the Council  of Constantinople denounced Arianism. The doctrine survived into the seventh century among several Germanic tribes such as the Vandals under Genseric.

Variations of Arianism survive among the Jehovah's Witnesses, the Mormons, the Unitarians, the Church of God (7th day) Salem Conference, and in some Branhamite sects (followers of the Pentecostal leader William M. Branham, 1909-1965). 

Postmodern Progressive Christianity can be viewed as a modified form of Arianism. Man is the true measure of all things and Jesus's humanity is stressed to the near exclusion of his divinity. He is viewed as a brilliant moral teacher and a beautiful example of humanity at its highest. He was a human so full of God that He became "divine." He shows us the divinity within ourselves. This is just one baby step away from the neo-Hinduism of the modern New Age movement. It is certainly not orthodox Christianity.