Capitalism will die a natural death
Karl Marx predicted that like Feudalism before it-collapsed in Moscow in 1861- capitalism will die a natural death. If he was alive today I think he won’t be happy because capitalism is being sustained for selfish reasons. Honestly it has reached its sell by date but some egocentric fellows are sustaining it for selfish reasons. It is obvious that it doesn’t work any further; it may have worked for sometime but no longer. But obviously the super rich who seem to control the world economy are paying dearly to sustain it. It is obvious that the death is imminent but the oligarchs are protecting it. This is the theory behind the American millionaires telling the congress to do the noble thing and tax them.
Tunisian and Egyptian Revolutions
They are afraid that they can’t sustain the economic injustice that has been perpetrated all along. They are scared that a few more occupy wall streets and the system will swallow them they will have no place for the enjoyment of their filthy riches. they know that the proletariats will rise from the shanties of the world and force their way into their enterprises, of course they know that they have the influence to make the government to sent the police and protect their businesses but this can happen if a few hundreds are involved and if the number rises to a few millions the system will suffocate and the masses will have their way. Of course they have a reason to worry because the revolution in Tunisia and Egypt has had a domino effect never predicted before.
The humane Philosophy of social justice
I advocate the death of capitalism and rise of Economanism. Economanism won’t be capitalism, it won’t be communism either, it wont even be socialism but it will be a system of sociopolitical and economic arrangement that balances the true nature of man in relation to the universe. This system will protect the rights of man to food and all basic needs it will ensure that what we have gained in capitalism-the encouragement and preservation of enterprising nature of man-is preserved, it will also encourage that the social responsibility of man to fellow man is preserved not in few occasions of ostentatious and often evil stints of philanthropy. It will give room for the role of any organized government to assure all her citizens the basic rights. This system will make it a crime for a government to tax people and not provide its citizens with basic necessities of health security and food. Economanism will ensure that democracy is not abused by the few plutocrats to the detriment of the many citizens, it will ensure that the environmental justice is ensured by prohibiting the few bourgeoisie from exploiting the mother nature and making it more harmful for the many proletariats. This will ensure that a world of 7b people is not controlled by .0001% of its population. There is a reason why Scandinavian countries lead in HDI. Indeed a survey to test the happiness of world people shows the happiest people are not in London, Washington or in New York but in Oslo, Finland and Switzerland. There is a reason, these countries will not produce the top 50 of the richest people of the world they will not because their societies are not guided by the cruel philosophy of capitalism-get all that you can and can all that you get- famously termed by Julius Kabarega Nyerere as man eat man society. They are driven by the more humane philosophy of social justice. To them democracy is not a voting exercise every 4 to 5 years but a participatory process of choosing rulers who serve at the pleasure of the ruled and meet their economic and social needs without which they resign voluntarily on noticing they can’t attain the high threshold of credibility that their society demands from them.
Justice to the world poor
Capitalism must die, it must die now, it must stop protecting the tyrants of Middle East and Africa, it must die to ensure justice to the African masses raped by the west in colonialism and neocolonialism perpetrated by economic systems geared to impoverish the masses and retain the status quo of western hegemony. For justice to the world poor, capitalism must die, and this is the message across the world, In new York Manhattan Zuccotti park, in London st. James chapel occupation in Greek protests and in Bessiggyes protests in Uganda.
Corporotocracy
I take relieve in the fact that the opinion leaders of the world recognize this fact. George Soros argues that international capitalism fronted by US has failed while national capitalism fronted by china is progressing. A new world “corporotocracy” has been coined to describe the act of the hedge fund managers and the corporate executives buying the police to harass the protesters demanding the death of capitalism and installation of a working alternative. They call themselves the 99% at the accusation that the economy is run at the exclusive benefit of the 1% at the expense of the rest 99%.
Happiness index not GDP
The king of Bhutan has already decided that the true test of development is not GDP but Happiness index. The US has already recognized that the global centre of gravity is tilting Far East and it is bound not to change. The hard truth is that capitalism has failed and nothing witnesses to this than the struggling Greek, Italian, Irish and Portuguese economies not to mention the disenfranchised American populace. All over the masses are angry, they are angry at the system, they are jobless, they don’t own the houses and though with university degrees and college diplomas there are no jobs. This was the situation in Tunisia that led to the act of self immolation by one disgruntled citizen which has since then swept the whole world and whose flames still burn in Yemen and Syria though with a very heavy hand of government repression.
Capitalism must die
Capitalism must die, it must die so that Gaddaffi who made for his peoples welfare than many of the western powers that toppled him (for oil purposes) are not removed from office for capitalist reasons. And we must look Scandinavian; here social justice has grown hand in hand with sound economic systems that have created some most prosperous societies ever.
And this is why capitalism must die for humanity to advance.
Friday, December 2, 2011
Wednesday, October 26, 2011
THE DECEPTION THAT IS EVOLUTION, BIG BANG THEORIES
The deception that is evolution, big bang theories
"But then with me the horrid doubt always arises whether the convictions of man's mind, [if developed by evolution], are of any value or at all trustworthy. Would any one trust in the convictions of a monkey's mind, if there are any convictions in such a mind?" [Charles Darwin’s Letter to W. Graham, July 3rd, 1881]
As a Geography and biology student in high school, I remember being taught the Bing bang and Darwin Theories on birth of the universe and evolution of species. The big bang theory presupposes the universe being born from an explosion that scattered matter all around. This scattered stuff is then thought to have cooled, condensed to form the current planets and galaxies forming the solar systems that we have. There was also a concept of how life started in a primaeval soup where electric energy and sunlight appeared to bring up the first cell. The theory goes on to say that it is this cell that continued to develop and the evolutionary process continued to the point where cell became more complicated and specialized to give the many organisms that we have today. This is the Darwin’s theory.
Intellectual vacuity
This is the intellectual vacuity that human kind has been subjected to thanks to one Charles Darwin. Those who agreed with this theory exhibited a kind of intellectual laziness that we of the 21st century should rise and challenge. We because the post-modern mind has drawn a lot of benefits from our collective human history that he is the most intellectually developed and technologically advanced. The victory of Christianity over heathenism with the edict of Emperor Constantine in 313 A.D ushered humanity into liberality and freedoms that have only been consolidated with time to reach where we are today. We have the freedom of inquiry and to differ when we feel obliged to.
Fake theories
We therefore must challenge these fake theories. Fake because all the laws of nature that govern our universe and deduced by scientists after thousands of observations and lab tests disagree with it. One, the law of energy states that energy and matter can neither be created nor be destroyed; it can only be converted from one form to another. It is therefore false the big bang theory which says that an explosion occurred somewhere to give birth to matter. Notwithstanding the fact that explosions as we know them today are destructive and not creative at all why then do we believe some constructive explosion occurred in history to bring about the universe as we know it today. We also know from science that order is at its maximum at absolute zero temperature. That is to say at zero Kelvin there is no movement of matter which is particulate in nature and any increment in temperature avails energy which causes molecules to move in a haphazard motion. Therefore the genesis of life in a pond with some soup is farfetched and it can’t be farther from truth.
Law of chaos
Then there is the law of chaos. We know that in a closed system there is a natural tendency to degenerate from order to disorder or chaos. Why would we then want to believe that the converse took place in evolution so that things naturally moved from disorder to order? The law of cause and effect is yet another one. It dictates that every effect has a cause and naturally the cause is greater than the effect it causes. It follows then that the first cause of time must be greater than time. In other words it must be eternal. The first cause of space which all of us know its expanse cannot be detected must be greater than the space itself and so infinite. The first cause of matter which cannot be created or destroyed must be greater than matter itself and therefore it must be eternal.
Immutability of the laws of nature
Now it is logical that directed energy is necessary for any constructive work to be done. This is why a nuclear bomb which suddenly releases a lot of energy gives the worst form of destructive energy ever conceived by man. Yet nuclear power well directed in a nuclear power plant does give a dependable source of electrical power. Do we want to believe that there was no directed energy in the birth of the universe? It is hard to explain why matter and energy supposedly came into being by chance and organized by random events yet it is subject to unchangeable laws. Can the evolutionists explain the immutability of the natural laws? Does not science dispute all the theories advanced so far on the origin of the universe? Does it not require suspending our reasoning in order to believe these theories? Will chance cook your food for you to eat? Will chance wash you if you don’t take shower? Will your work in the office be done by chance if you don’t fold your sleeves and do it? Why then would happenstance bring up the universe?
Total nonsense
These theories are a total nonsense and should not continue being taught in our schools. We need to acknowledge that a creative genius did conceive the universe and everything in it and worked towards making the beauty that is nature. This creative genius is God. He is eternal, infinite and unchangeable in his being, wisdom, power, holiness, justice, goodness and truth. We all admire sagacity and as some of us are our first cause must be all wise. Power is what we fight for in our political or even gender struggles. In line with the law of cause and effect our first cause must be all powerful. We all crave for justice, appreciate goodness and dig after the truth. These things, wherever they excel, Humanity regardless of race, tribe religion or whatever variation is happy. In fact it is interesting that all of us from Siberia to sierra-Leone, New Zealand to New Hampshire and Chile to China crave for basic things namely happy lives and an opportunity to fully exploit our potential. Our common cause then must be all just, full of goodness and the embodiment of truth itself.
"But then with me the horrid doubt always arises whether the convictions of man's mind, [if developed by evolution], are of any value or at all trustworthy. Would any one trust in the convictions of a monkey's mind, if there are any convictions in such a mind?" [Charles Darwin’s Letter to W. Graham, July 3rd, 1881]
As a Geography and biology student in high school, I remember being taught the Bing bang and Darwin Theories on birth of the universe and evolution of species. The big bang theory presupposes the universe being born from an explosion that scattered matter all around. This scattered stuff is then thought to have cooled, condensed to form the current planets and galaxies forming the solar systems that we have. There was also a concept of how life started in a primaeval soup where electric energy and sunlight appeared to bring up the first cell. The theory goes on to say that it is this cell that continued to develop and the evolutionary process continued to the point where cell became more complicated and specialized to give the many organisms that we have today. This is the Darwin’s theory.
Intellectual vacuity
This is the intellectual vacuity that human kind has been subjected to thanks to one Charles Darwin. Those who agreed with this theory exhibited a kind of intellectual laziness that we of the 21st century should rise and challenge. We because the post-modern mind has drawn a lot of benefits from our collective human history that he is the most intellectually developed and technologically advanced. The victory of Christianity over heathenism with the edict of Emperor Constantine in 313 A.D ushered humanity into liberality and freedoms that have only been consolidated with time to reach where we are today. We have the freedom of inquiry and to differ when we feel obliged to.
Fake theories
We therefore must challenge these fake theories. Fake because all the laws of nature that govern our universe and deduced by scientists after thousands of observations and lab tests disagree with it. One, the law of energy states that energy and matter can neither be created nor be destroyed; it can only be converted from one form to another. It is therefore false the big bang theory which says that an explosion occurred somewhere to give birth to matter. Notwithstanding the fact that explosions as we know them today are destructive and not creative at all why then do we believe some constructive explosion occurred in history to bring about the universe as we know it today. We also know from science that order is at its maximum at absolute zero temperature. That is to say at zero Kelvin there is no movement of matter which is particulate in nature and any increment in temperature avails energy which causes molecules to move in a haphazard motion. Therefore the genesis of life in a pond with some soup is farfetched and it can’t be farther from truth.
Law of chaos
Then there is the law of chaos. We know that in a closed system there is a natural tendency to degenerate from order to disorder or chaos. Why would we then want to believe that the converse took place in evolution so that things naturally moved from disorder to order? The law of cause and effect is yet another one. It dictates that every effect has a cause and naturally the cause is greater than the effect it causes. It follows then that the first cause of time must be greater than time. In other words it must be eternal. The first cause of space which all of us know its expanse cannot be detected must be greater than the space itself and so infinite. The first cause of matter which cannot be created or destroyed must be greater than matter itself and therefore it must be eternal.
Immutability of the laws of nature
Now it is logical that directed energy is necessary for any constructive work to be done. This is why a nuclear bomb which suddenly releases a lot of energy gives the worst form of destructive energy ever conceived by man. Yet nuclear power well directed in a nuclear power plant does give a dependable source of electrical power. Do we want to believe that there was no directed energy in the birth of the universe? It is hard to explain why matter and energy supposedly came into being by chance and organized by random events yet it is subject to unchangeable laws. Can the evolutionists explain the immutability of the natural laws? Does not science dispute all the theories advanced so far on the origin of the universe? Does it not require suspending our reasoning in order to believe these theories? Will chance cook your food for you to eat? Will chance wash you if you don’t take shower? Will your work in the office be done by chance if you don’t fold your sleeves and do it? Why then would happenstance bring up the universe?
Total nonsense
These theories are a total nonsense and should not continue being taught in our schools. We need to acknowledge that a creative genius did conceive the universe and everything in it and worked towards making the beauty that is nature. This creative genius is God. He is eternal, infinite and unchangeable in his being, wisdom, power, holiness, justice, goodness and truth. We all admire sagacity and as some of us are our first cause must be all wise. Power is what we fight for in our political or even gender struggles. In line with the law of cause and effect our first cause must be all powerful. We all crave for justice, appreciate goodness and dig after the truth. These things, wherever they excel, Humanity regardless of race, tribe religion or whatever variation is happy. In fact it is interesting that all of us from Siberia to sierra-Leone, New Zealand to New Hampshire and Chile to China crave for basic things namely happy lives and an opportunity to fully exploit our potential. Our common cause then must be all just, full of goodness and the embodiment of truth itself.
Thursday, September 8, 2011
The death of the human being
Delusional revolution
In this article I endeavor to present the reality of 21 century which the collected ideologies of the past centuries since man started to reason have worked to produce man who is his worst threat to his himself. In an acknowledged state of confusion that reigns now he denies his true condition and instead of being honest with himself continues to delude himself while getting mired into self destructiveness that seems only to increase by day. It has been termed as “delusional revolution after the agrarian and the industrial revolutions before it” -Robert Jensen.
Self degradation
While the Aristotelian and platonic philosophies awakened man to one of the finest gifts of God, the capacity to reason, the same have been used to alienate man from himself and so become source of self degradation that is uncalled for; it is generally acknowledged that the medieval enlightenment, dominant Christian values and the late entrance of the eastern mysticism has played a great role in shaping the current worldviews basically new age movement. So much confusion that now it is possible to find someone subscribing to several worldviews without being aware of actually their source or even why he subscribes to them.
I have heard barrack Obama postulate the importance of helping everyone realize his potential just like Hillary Rodham the US secretary of state. Now without being aware that this is a new age idea it will appear very innocent and genuine intent.
“Me first philosophy”
It is now acknowledged that the stretching of the rights has become harmful and an obsession with “me first” philosophy of life is proving more harmful to the society at large going by the occurrences. Take for instance the abortion debate, it is interesting how we wish away the murder of millions of human beings still in their mothers womb yet we incarcerate those who kill others afterwards. When an Indian cabinet minister termed homosexuality as a disease, he was roundly condemned. In a similar vein last year the Church of England met to review their stand on homosexuality with a view to allowing gay bishops to be ordained. When youths in Britain decided to do their thing the society was aghast at the unprecedented levels of violence that the minors decided to visit on their communities.
Humanocentric philosophies
Yet all these are scattered incidences that are a by product of humanocentric ideologies which as is naturally true have enthroned man and effectively locked God from the affairs of man. We can mention the cult of reason which aimed to perfect man by attaining truth and liberty by exercising human reason. Nieztche the 19th century philosopher went to the extreme of declaring God as dead his pet topics were on existentialism, postmodernism and the will power. The warped philosophy stipulates that “Instead of meekly worshiping fictional gods, or blindly dismissing the ideals they represent, we should seek to become godlike ourselves. The body is weak, but the mind can be forever. People may die, but they can be preserved and resurrected. This world may in many ways resemble hell, but we can create heaven on earth. The universe may be a place of chaos and entropy, but we can fill it with order and intelligence. Guided by reason and empowered by technology, we can bend reality to our will, and make the impossible possible.” The vigilant citizen.
Culture of physics
Bertrand Russell a modern British atheist declared that his whole religion was to do every duty, and expect no reward for it, either here or hereafter. He liked mathematics because it is not human & has nothing in particular to do with this planet or with the whole accidental universe. Another fellow called Moor declared “In the beginning was matter, and matter begat the devil, and the devil begat God”. At the end death first of God and then of the devil left matter alone as in the beginning. Algorithm expert Kevin Slavin has warned that the "maths that computers use to decide stuff" was infiltrating every aspect of our lives. Now the culture of physics rule from stock trading, to being our memory bank in terms of search engines. In my bible study BURU NPC Bible Study where we are currently studying the tabernacle series we have been forced to “Google” some stuff for clarification. Mark that Google is now a word in the oxford dictionary.
Re-invented religion
In trying to block God from affairs of man societies like the Mont Pelerin Society have gone ahead to detest creeds which they allege threaten the freedom of man and expression. Yet it is the New age movement which has indulged humanity into occultism, astrology, esotericism and collectivism characterized by individual approach to spiritual practices and philosophies. Of course modern Paganism is a reinvented religion, whose members seek the divine in nature. It is an eclectic piecing of different worldviews which results in a terrible confusion in today’s society. One Mr Jameson while speaking to BBC says of renewal of paganism "We've come to a time, after thousands of years of dogmatic religion... for human beings to take hold of their spirit and become free. Free themselves of all the dogma, of all the rules and regulations, and let the conscience grow on its own,"
Neoliberalism a threat to civilization
The culture of greed bred, matured and justified by capitalism leaves a world of 6 Billion people controlled by an elite of 6000 people according to David Rothkopf. I believe that while the shinning lights of ancient Greek were the Platos and Aristotles of this world, the beginning centuries of Anno Domini were characterized by pious souls beginning with apostles and later church fathers whose lives rightly continue to speak thousands of years later-for the same period is also characterized by some of the beastly Roman emperors; the Caligula, Nero and others-the 21st century belongs to the politician and the entrepreneur not at all the scientist of the 17th , 18th and 19th centuries or even great reformers of medievalism or even the great statesmen of the 20th centuries. The world is divided into two the bourgeois and the proletariat whether in NY city J’burg, Brasilia, Sidney, Hong Kong, Moscow or in Tehran. Thanks to globalization. While David Tepper a hedge fund manager can make $ 4,000,000,000 in a year a domestic worker n Nairobi will make in the same time $ 632.What an injustice! Right now money is the medium of interaction between men and the materialistic trend worships the Matter-God, whatever his name might be. Max Weber indicts the capitalist mentality as an "iron cage" without "spirit”. There is a feeling that the great professional vocations- lawyers, journalists, academics, doctors - have been co-opted and corrupted by bottom line thinking. Some commentators feel that Neoliberalism is a threat to civilization and rightly so.
Alienating man from himself
And so we’ve killed the Human being. The human being is alienated from the truth and the truth is alienated from the human being. If then the result of paganism is alienation, atheism itself must be active alienation, the alienation of humanity, the activity of alienating man from himself. This is the actual death of man for man minus God is dead. His work is trying to make him a machine. The machine is working for him as he makes least decisions the machine makes most for him. It is the software that is working for us. Bill Gates is on record saying that the future of IT is that you’ll be able to dress up and stand before the computer and the machine will tell you that you don’t match please go and change. Our obsession with the silicon gadget is making us anti-social. I will be in a place packed with people, at home or elsewhere and will be pre-occupied with face book, twitter or another social network. It is a virtual world everything, every answer can be found online. The overriding heartlessness is a result of active de-humanization. A proactive subscription to the matter-god, not particularly a new idea, but a re-invention of atheistic worldview.
In this article I endeavor to present the reality of 21 century which the collected ideologies of the past centuries since man started to reason have worked to produce man who is his worst threat to his himself. In an acknowledged state of confusion that reigns now he denies his true condition and instead of being honest with himself continues to delude himself while getting mired into self destructiveness that seems only to increase by day. It has been termed as “delusional revolution after the agrarian and the industrial revolutions before it” -Robert Jensen.
Self degradation
While the Aristotelian and platonic philosophies awakened man to one of the finest gifts of God, the capacity to reason, the same have been used to alienate man from himself and so become source of self degradation that is uncalled for; it is generally acknowledged that the medieval enlightenment, dominant Christian values and the late entrance of the eastern mysticism has played a great role in shaping the current worldviews basically new age movement. So much confusion that now it is possible to find someone subscribing to several worldviews without being aware of actually their source or even why he subscribes to them.
I have heard barrack Obama postulate the importance of helping everyone realize his potential just like Hillary Rodham the US secretary of state. Now without being aware that this is a new age idea it will appear very innocent and genuine intent.
“Me first philosophy”
It is now acknowledged that the stretching of the rights has become harmful and an obsession with “me first” philosophy of life is proving more harmful to the society at large going by the occurrences. Take for instance the abortion debate, it is interesting how we wish away the murder of millions of human beings still in their mothers womb yet we incarcerate those who kill others afterwards. When an Indian cabinet minister termed homosexuality as a disease, he was roundly condemned. In a similar vein last year the Church of England met to review their stand on homosexuality with a view to allowing gay bishops to be ordained. When youths in Britain decided to do their thing the society was aghast at the unprecedented levels of violence that the minors decided to visit on their communities.
Humanocentric philosophies
Yet all these are scattered incidences that are a by product of humanocentric ideologies which as is naturally true have enthroned man and effectively locked God from the affairs of man. We can mention the cult of reason which aimed to perfect man by attaining truth and liberty by exercising human reason. Nieztche the 19th century philosopher went to the extreme of declaring God as dead his pet topics were on existentialism, postmodernism and the will power. The warped philosophy stipulates that “Instead of meekly worshiping fictional gods, or blindly dismissing the ideals they represent, we should seek to become godlike ourselves. The body is weak, but the mind can be forever. People may die, but they can be preserved and resurrected. This world may in many ways resemble hell, but we can create heaven on earth. The universe may be a place of chaos and entropy, but we can fill it with order and intelligence. Guided by reason and empowered by technology, we can bend reality to our will, and make the impossible possible.” The vigilant citizen.
Culture of physics
Bertrand Russell a modern British atheist declared that his whole religion was to do every duty, and expect no reward for it, either here or hereafter. He liked mathematics because it is not human & has nothing in particular to do with this planet or with the whole accidental universe. Another fellow called Moor declared “In the beginning was matter, and matter begat the devil, and the devil begat God”. At the end death first of God and then of the devil left matter alone as in the beginning. Algorithm expert Kevin Slavin has warned that the "maths that computers use to decide stuff" was infiltrating every aspect of our lives. Now the culture of physics rule from stock trading, to being our memory bank in terms of search engines. In my bible study BURU NPC Bible Study where we are currently studying the tabernacle series we have been forced to “Google” some stuff for clarification. Mark that Google is now a word in the oxford dictionary.
Re-invented religion
In trying to block God from affairs of man societies like the Mont Pelerin Society have gone ahead to detest creeds which they allege threaten the freedom of man and expression. Yet it is the New age movement which has indulged humanity into occultism, astrology, esotericism and collectivism characterized by individual approach to spiritual practices and philosophies. Of course modern Paganism is a reinvented religion, whose members seek the divine in nature. It is an eclectic piecing of different worldviews which results in a terrible confusion in today’s society. One Mr Jameson while speaking to BBC says of renewal of paganism "We've come to a time, after thousands of years of dogmatic religion... for human beings to take hold of their spirit and become free. Free themselves of all the dogma, of all the rules and regulations, and let the conscience grow on its own,"
Neoliberalism a threat to civilization
The culture of greed bred, matured and justified by capitalism leaves a world of 6 Billion people controlled by an elite of 6000 people according to David Rothkopf. I believe that while the shinning lights of ancient Greek were the Platos and Aristotles of this world, the beginning centuries of Anno Domini were characterized by pious souls beginning with apostles and later church fathers whose lives rightly continue to speak thousands of years later-for the same period is also characterized by some of the beastly Roman emperors; the Caligula, Nero and others-the 21st century belongs to the politician and the entrepreneur not at all the scientist of the 17th , 18th and 19th centuries or even great reformers of medievalism or even the great statesmen of the 20th centuries. The world is divided into two the bourgeois and the proletariat whether in NY city J’burg, Brasilia, Sidney, Hong Kong, Moscow or in Tehran. Thanks to globalization. While David Tepper a hedge fund manager can make $ 4,000,000,000 in a year a domestic worker n Nairobi will make in the same time $ 632.What an injustice! Right now money is the medium of interaction between men and the materialistic trend worships the Matter-God, whatever his name might be. Max Weber indicts the capitalist mentality as an "iron cage" without "spirit”. There is a feeling that the great professional vocations- lawyers, journalists, academics, doctors - have been co-opted and corrupted by bottom line thinking. Some commentators feel that Neoliberalism is a threat to civilization and rightly so.
Alienating man from himself
And so we’ve killed the Human being. The human being is alienated from the truth and the truth is alienated from the human being. If then the result of paganism is alienation, atheism itself must be active alienation, the alienation of humanity, the activity of alienating man from himself. This is the actual death of man for man minus God is dead. His work is trying to make him a machine. The machine is working for him as he makes least decisions the machine makes most for him. It is the software that is working for us. Bill Gates is on record saying that the future of IT is that you’ll be able to dress up and stand before the computer and the machine will tell you that you don’t match please go and change. Our obsession with the silicon gadget is making us anti-social. I will be in a place packed with people, at home or elsewhere and will be pre-occupied with face book, twitter or another social network. It is a virtual world everything, every answer can be found online. The overriding heartlessness is a result of active de-humanization. A proactive subscription to the matter-god, not particularly a new idea, but a re-invention of atheistic worldview.
Thursday, July 21, 2011
Who is a christian? What is Christianity
The world today
In today’s world Christianity is considered to be the largest religion. Here in Kenya, statistics put the figure at 80% the population that is Christian. In a story carried out in by the daily nation on Africa insight a column it reported that Kenya is the most evangelical African nation with 56% of us being born again, South Africa has 34% and Nigeria 26%. The continent itself has witnessed a mega growth of the church as recorded by the world Christian encyclopedia. For instance in 1970 17,000,000 Africans were born again, while in 2009 the number rose to 400,000,000 which constitute 19% of the continents population. It is however plain truth that while everyone wants to call himself a Christian, the real meaning seems to have been lost on who really a Christian is in the first place.
In Antioch
I am challenged to go to the bible to investigate on this matter. I do so because our age is so enlightened that it is almost a crime to be ignorant of something so fundamental. And so who is a Christian and what is Christianity? To begin with, the first time people who carried that title were in Antioch as recorded in Acts of the Apostles by Luke. Ac 11:26 and when he had found him, he brought him to Antioch. So it was that for a whole year they assembled with the church and taught a great many people. And the disciples were first called Christians in Antioch. Mathew Henry’s commentary observes; Paul and Barnabas continuing there so long, being exceedingly followed, and meeting with no opposition, Christian assemblies made a greater figure there than anywhere, and became more considerable, which was the reason of their being called Christians first there. Hitherto those who gave up their names to Christ were called disciples, learners, scholars, trained up under him, in order to their being employed by him; but henceforward they were called Christians. They studied to do honor to their Master, and showed that they were not ashamed to own their relation to him, but gloried in it; they now owed their dependence upon Christ and their receivings from him; through him they themselves had the anointing.
No Christian without Christ-the anointed
In the wilderness of my searching, I therefore come to an early finding that there is no Christian without Christ-the anointed one. This Christian must then hold its origin in relation to the Christ. It leads me then to ask one question can anyone be a Christian if he has not been born again? My answer is NO. John 3:5 Jesus answered, "Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. Now the kingdom of God is the kingdom of Christ and every Christian’s destination is a citizenship in this kingdom. John 3:7 “Do not marvel that I said to you, 'You must be born again. It therefore comes from Christ himself that for you to become a Christian, you must be born again. Therefore if someone says that he is a Christian; ask him if he is born again if he says no. Then tell him point blank-you are not a Christian.
Obligation to submit to the laws of Christ
Christians laid upon themselves, and all that should ever profess that name, a strong and lasting obligation to submit to the laws of Christ, to follow the example of Christ, and to devote themselves entirely to the honor of Christ--to be to him for a name and a praise. Are we Christians? Then we ought to think, and speak, and act, in everything as becomes Christians, and to do nothing to the reproach of that worthy name by which we are called; And as we must look upon ourselves as Christians, and carry ourselves accordingly, so we must look upon others as Christians, and carry ourselves towards them accordingly. A Christian, though not in everything of our mind, should be loved and respected for his sake whose name he bears, because he belongs to Christ. (Mathew Henry’s Commentary)
Salvation a heavenly mystery
The two quoted texts are quite rich in terms of the basics defining Christians. The gospel starts with a dialogue between Jesus and Nicodemus. Nicodemus was a searcher of truth. As the conversation goes on Nicodemus sounds awestruck at the revelations that Jesus makes to him. Jesus graciously reveals to him that as mysterious as origin and destination of the wind that blows is so is the regenerate man. That then means that salvation which is the key to becoming a Christian is a heavenly mystery. It becomes obvious that Jesus has to be lifted up as the serpent on the wilderness. Eternity to human being is also anchored in believing in Jesus Christ. John 3: 8 "He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. The Christ who appeared for the salvation of the world also is its judgment. John 3: 36 "He who believes in the Son has everlasting life; and he who does not believe the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him."
The text in Acts is equally powerful; it brings out God’s plan of salvation to the gentiles as the story of Cornelius is brought up and there drives home the point of God not leaving anyone outside his plan for salvation. In fact afterwards, it is clear that God would allow the church to be his representative on earth and not Israelites anymore.
Christianity
Mt 16:18 And I also say to you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. The foundation of Christianity is Christ himself.1Co 1:2 to the church of God which is in Corinth, to those who are sanctified in Christ Jesus, called-out saints, with all those in every place who call on the name of Jesus Christ our Lord, both theirs and ours.1Co 8: 6 there is to us only one God, the Father, of whom are all things, and we in Him; and one Lord Jesus Christ, through whom are all things, and we by Him. Christianity is about reconciliation of man to his maker and a Christian has found this relationship in which the creation has found a home in the hands of the creator.
Practical Christianity
Practical Christianity is the manifestation of a new life; a spiritual (as distinct from intellectual and moral) life; a supernatural (as distinct from natural) life; it is a life of holiness and peace; a life of union and communion with God the Father, the Son, and the Spirit; it is eternal life, beginning with regeneration and culminating in the resurrection. It lays hold of the inmost centre of man’s personality, emancipates him from the dominion of sin, and brings him into vital union with God in Christ; from this centre it acts as a purifying, ennobling, and regulating force upon all the faculties of man—the emotions, the will, and the intellect—and transforms even the body into a temple of the Holy Spirit (Phillip Krapf)
In today’s world Christianity is considered to be the largest religion. Here in Kenya, statistics put the figure at 80% the population that is Christian. In a story carried out in by the daily nation on Africa insight a column it reported that Kenya is the most evangelical African nation with 56% of us being born again, South Africa has 34% and Nigeria 26%. The continent itself has witnessed a mega growth of the church as recorded by the world Christian encyclopedia. For instance in 1970 17,000,000 Africans were born again, while in 2009 the number rose to 400,000,000 which constitute 19% of the continents population. It is however plain truth that while everyone wants to call himself a Christian, the real meaning seems to have been lost on who really a Christian is in the first place.
In Antioch
I am challenged to go to the bible to investigate on this matter. I do so because our age is so enlightened that it is almost a crime to be ignorant of something so fundamental. And so who is a Christian and what is Christianity? To begin with, the first time people who carried that title were in Antioch as recorded in Acts of the Apostles by Luke. Ac 11:26 and when he had found him, he brought him to Antioch. So it was that for a whole year they assembled with the church and taught a great many people. And the disciples were first called Christians in Antioch. Mathew Henry’s commentary observes; Paul and Barnabas continuing there so long, being exceedingly followed, and meeting with no opposition, Christian assemblies made a greater figure there than anywhere, and became more considerable, which was the reason of their being called Christians first there. Hitherto those who gave up their names to Christ were called disciples, learners, scholars, trained up under him, in order to their being employed by him; but henceforward they were called Christians. They studied to do honor to their Master, and showed that they were not ashamed to own their relation to him, but gloried in it; they now owed their dependence upon Christ and their receivings from him; through him they themselves had the anointing.
No Christian without Christ-the anointed
In the wilderness of my searching, I therefore come to an early finding that there is no Christian without Christ-the anointed one. This Christian must then hold its origin in relation to the Christ. It leads me then to ask one question can anyone be a Christian if he has not been born again? My answer is NO. John 3:5 Jesus answered, "Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. Now the kingdom of God is the kingdom of Christ and every Christian’s destination is a citizenship in this kingdom. John 3:7 “Do not marvel that I said to you, 'You must be born again. It therefore comes from Christ himself that for you to become a Christian, you must be born again. Therefore if someone says that he is a Christian; ask him if he is born again if he says no. Then tell him point blank-you are not a Christian.
Obligation to submit to the laws of Christ
Christians laid upon themselves, and all that should ever profess that name, a strong and lasting obligation to submit to the laws of Christ, to follow the example of Christ, and to devote themselves entirely to the honor of Christ--to be to him for a name and a praise. Are we Christians? Then we ought to think, and speak, and act, in everything as becomes Christians, and to do nothing to the reproach of that worthy name by which we are called; And as we must look upon ourselves as Christians, and carry ourselves accordingly, so we must look upon others as Christians, and carry ourselves towards them accordingly. A Christian, though not in everything of our mind, should be loved and respected for his sake whose name he bears, because he belongs to Christ. (Mathew Henry’s Commentary)
Salvation a heavenly mystery
The two quoted texts are quite rich in terms of the basics defining Christians. The gospel starts with a dialogue between Jesus and Nicodemus. Nicodemus was a searcher of truth. As the conversation goes on Nicodemus sounds awestruck at the revelations that Jesus makes to him. Jesus graciously reveals to him that as mysterious as origin and destination of the wind that blows is so is the regenerate man. That then means that salvation which is the key to becoming a Christian is a heavenly mystery. It becomes obvious that Jesus has to be lifted up as the serpent on the wilderness. Eternity to human being is also anchored in believing in Jesus Christ. John 3: 8 "He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. The Christ who appeared for the salvation of the world also is its judgment. John 3: 36 "He who believes in the Son has everlasting life; and he who does not believe the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him."
The text in Acts is equally powerful; it brings out God’s plan of salvation to the gentiles as the story of Cornelius is brought up and there drives home the point of God not leaving anyone outside his plan for salvation. In fact afterwards, it is clear that God would allow the church to be his representative on earth and not Israelites anymore.
Christianity
Mt 16:18 And I also say to you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. The foundation of Christianity is Christ himself.1Co 1:2 to the church of God which is in Corinth, to those who are sanctified in Christ Jesus, called-out saints, with all those in every place who call on the name of Jesus Christ our Lord, both theirs and ours.1Co 8: 6 there is to us only one God, the Father, of whom are all things, and we in Him; and one Lord Jesus Christ, through whom are all things, and we by Him. Christianity is about reconciliation of man to his maker and a Christian has found this relationship in which the creation has found a home in the hands of the creator.
Practical Christianity
Practical Christianity is the manifestation of a new life; a spiritual (as distinct from intellectual and moral) life; a supernatural (as distinct from natural) life; it is a life of holiness and peace; a life of union and communion with God the Father, the Son, and the Spirit; it is eternal life, beginning with regeneration and culminating in the resurrection. It lays hold of the inmost centre of man’s personality, emancipates him from the dominion of sin, and brings him into vital union with God in Christ; from this centre it acts as a purifying, ennobling, and regulating force upon all the faculties of man—the emotions, the will, and the intellect—and transforms even the body into a temple of the Holy Spirit (Phillip Krapf)
Friday, June 24, 2011
Christians and Christianity facing persecution in Kenya Today
Birth of Christianity in Kenya
I have belabored for some time on the content of my post this month. I have come to settle that it has to be something about the state of church in Kenya today. This is particular so because this blog is committed to apologetics. We all know that the Christian faith in Kenya was introduced by white missionaries who not only brought Christianity but came with formal education. The growth of the church has since been rapid to the point where it is said that we’re 80% Christians as a nation. It is the latest development in the politico-economic and socio-cultural environment that raises some pertinent issues with regard to church in Kenya. For some reason a growing majority of people find it necessary to disdainfully treat the church today.
Columnists enjoy deriding the church
You read the newspapers and columnists find joy is deriding the church, Billow Kerrow said in standard on Sunday that the church leaders are now reeling in ignominy, Philliph Ochieng has made a career in attacking the church while new entrants to this gravy train of dismissing the church are the likes of Kwendo Opanga, Makau Mutua, Mukhisa Kituyi, Lukoye Atwoli and a motley of other writers. In parliament it was interesting that the voice of the clergy was dismissed during the vetting of the CJ, DCJ and DPP while the CIOC recommended issues raised by the civil society about DPP Mr. Keriako Tobiko to be further investigated.
The abortion agenda
We as a church opposed the new constitution on the basis of issues that we felt were unchristian in that document but the populace largely ignored the issues and chose to follow the secular arguments. Of interest to me is that our fears are now being confirmed daily. Sample this; we said the constitution legalizes abortion we were shouted down yet on Saturday nation 18/06/2011 page3 it is reported the government has taken a decisive step to distribute medication that can procure abortion in virtually all the parts of the country.
Terrible appointments to Head our Judiciary
Our new CJ is an atheist from his own words. Yet that is not alone he consults his ancestors who told him to wear a stud that he cannot release even if it means losing his job as a CJ. That is divination that the bible so strongly refuses yet we accepted it to go on, are we still 80% Christians? By God’s design am a Kamba and when an old man says he consults ancestors, that is a serious thing that Christianity has fought for as long as the church is alive in Kenya. What is the multiplying effect of this to this country, how many will go back to consulting their ancestors like their CJ? I personally wouldn’t raise the issue of the stud per se as my own bishop Oginde did for then I would tread a dangerous lane of even telling the ladies to remove their earrings but for heavenly sake the reasons why the stud is worn must be of concern to us. Two women appointed in the highest echelons of our reconstituted judiciary have no solid basis of a commitment to the family institution, when I do rounds in girl schools I hear them say that they don’t want to get married they just want to get a guy to impregnate them and part company after having a child, they don’t want to get married at all. Our most visible women personalities in Kenya similarly have no working marriages. Does this worry?
An open hostility to the church
I have always taken the position of the church publicly or privately sometimes even before the bishops speak but I have been told all manner of things by friends and colleagues in trying to dismiss the church. As a one who never takes it to lie low or to acquiesce in a confrontation, I have used every weapon at my disposal to justify the position of the church. From where I sit it is an open hostility to the church a brazen dismissal, I have heard someone say the church should preach and not engage in politics a most laughable statement considering the decade of nineties when the church was at the forefront of clamoring for human rights and democratic space. Yet even Nicollo Machiavelli in the Prince advises don’t joke with the church for it is a power to reckon with.
Anti-God forces are working to wipe out Christianity
And so what has befallen us? Is it a problem with the church? No! I refuse. The church, traditional, militant, restive, evangelistic remains as visible and as vibrant. I know this, I am part of it. What is the matter? Secularism, Yes; it is picking an accelerated pace of spreading, the devil is really aggressive in pulling people to paganism not only here in Kenya but all over the place. The first Atheist Convention just took place in Dublin Ireland; there is a re-gathering for the first time in public after many years of druids in UK, after the rapture hoax of Harold Camping, the church of atheists gathered to celebrate in derision of Christianity. But here in Kenya it has taken a dangerous dimension, this spread has entrenched itself in institutions and has fixed itself in the laws. It is part of the body politic and it has the boldness to dismiss the church. It has marketed itself as most acceptable and vilified the church. It is led by pretenders to Christianity who has no scant idea what real Christianity is. They have denied its power yet glibly call themselves Christians. Lowly, methodically, and incrementally the anti-God forces are working to wipe out Christianity in our society and replace it with humanist views.
A spiritual agenda
As that happens Muslims have strategically placed themselves and perpetrated every sphere of government in Kenya, in my opinion Ahmednasir Abdullilahi of JSC is a real agent of the enemy who has singularly advanced the Muslim agenda in Kenya to dangerous levels. Yet what is painful to this country yet slowly happening is the killing of her soul. It is important to recognize that those engaged in the war on Christianity, working for the dissolution of our society and breakdown of the family have a spiritual agenda. They are not merely attempting to dismantle the historic cultural values of this nation and move us toward a satanic new world order. They also want to destroy Christianity and Bible-based religion. It is a clear part of their agenda, and they have already moved a long way in that direction.
Media Blackout on anything positive about Christianity and Christians
Our mainstream news media ignores conservative and Christian news events, except when coverage makes religious leaders look "cold, intolerant and oppressive,” they will rush to report a pastor caught having impregnated a girl or something of the sort. They don’t cover the anti-Christian agenda and never report it. Of course, that is understandable when you realize they are part of the anti-Christian cabal and have agreed not to cover anything positive about Christianity. They will say that Christian clergy are anti-reform, rigid and they don’t even speak on behalf of their flock. They have called the Christian clergy as self-seekers and not flowing with the majority of Kenyans. Coverage of abortion and homosexuality are never done from the religious viewpoint. Instead, religious figures are regularly portrayed as reactionary roadblocks while their positive influences are rarely covered.
A murderer is less to be feared
"A nation can survive its fools, and even the ambitious. But it cannot survive treason from within. An enemy at the gates is less formidable, for he is known and he carries his banners openly. But the traitor moves among those within the gate freely, his sly whispers rustling through all the alleys, heard in the very halls of government itself. For the traitor appears not traitor, he speaks in the accents familiar to his victims, and he wears their face and their garments, and he appeals to the baseness that lies deep in the hearts of all men. He rots the soul of a nation, he works secretly and unknown in the night to undermine the pillars of a city, he infects the body politic so that it can no longer resist. A murderer is less to be feared." - Cicero, 42 B.C.
Necessary Madness
This will be the case but Christians in Kenya must not give up. Going forward we must purify ourselves, ask for more power from God; that power that enabled Christ to match the highest cruelty that devil can manufacture with the greatest force of moral good that he alone wields, a faith that believes that good will triumph over evil for this is the victory that overcomes the world and a hope that transcends the physical and lives for eternity. The doctrine of immortality of the soul should assure us that we can be courageous in our witnessing and resolute in our beliefs we must be of singular mind and refuse the dirtying rationalization. We ourselves have to live the faith and hope we preach that way and when we’re endued with the power from on high, things get going. Ours must then be madness, a madness that is necessary, that chooses to differ and differ severely, and that refuses to negotiate at the table of the enemy a madness that is obstinately radical, brutally honest and tenaciously dependent on the all sufficiency of our God and his promises solely. Amen.
I have belabored for some time on the content of my post this month. I have come to settle that it has to be something about the state of church in Kenya today. This is particular so because this blog is committed to apologetics. We all know that the Christian faith in Kenya was introduced by white missionaries who not only brought Christianity but came with formal education. The growth of the church has since been rapid to the point where it is said that we’re 80% Christians as a nation. It is the latest development in the politico-economic and socio-cultural environment that raises some pertinent issues with regard to church in Kenya. For some reason a growing majority of people find it necessary to disdainfully treat the church today.
Columnists enjoy deriding the church
You read the newspapers and columnists find joy is deriding the church, Billow Kerrow said in standard on Sunday that the church leaders are now reeling in ignominy, Philliph Ochieng has made a career in attacking the church while new entrants to this gravy train of dismissing the church are the likes of Kwendo Opanga, Makau Mutua, Mukhisa Kituyi, Lukoye Atwoli and a motley of other writers. In parliament it was interesting that the voice of the clergy was dismissed during the vetting of the CJ, DCJ and DPP while the CIOC recommended issues raised by the civil society about DPP Mr. Keriako Tobiko to be further investigated.
The abortion agenda
We as a church opposed the new constitution on the basis of issues that we felt were unchristian in that document but the populace largely ignored the issues and chose to follow the secular arguments. Of interest to me is that our fears are now being confirmed daily. Sample this; we said the constitution legalizes abortion we were shouted down yet on Saturday nation 18/06/2011 page3 it is reported the government has taken a decisive step to distribute medication that can procure abortion in virtually all the parts of the country.
Terrible appointments to Head our Judiciary
Our new CJ is an atheist from his own words. Yet that is not alone he consults his ancestors who told him to wear a stud that he cannot release even if it means losing his job as a CJ. That is divination that the bible so strongly refuses yet we accepted it to go on, are we still 80% Christians? By God’s design am a Kamba and when an old man says he consults ancestors, that is a serious thing that Christianity has fought for as long as the church is alive in Kenya. What is the multiplying effect of this to this country, how many will go back to consulting their ancestors like their CJ? I personally wouldn’t raise the issue of the stud per se as my own bishop Oginde did for then I would tread a dangerous lane of even telling the ladies to remove their earrings but for heavenly sake the reasons why the stud is worn must be of concern to us. Two women appointed in the highest echelons of our reconstituted judiciary have no solid basis of a commitment to the family institution, when I do rounds in girl schools I hear them say that they don’t want to get married they just want to get a guy to impregnate them and part company after having a child, they don’t want to get married at all. Our most visible women personalities in Kenya similarly have no working marriages. Does this worry?
An open hostility to the church
I have always taken the position of the church publicly or privately sometimes even before the bishops speak but I have been told all manner of things by friends and colleagues in trying to dismiss the church. As a one who never takes it to lie low or to acquiesce in a confrontation, I have used every weapon at my disposal to justify the position of the church. From where I sit it is an open hostility to the church a brazen dismissal, I have heard someone say the church should preach and not engage in politics a most laughable statement considering the decade of nineties when the church was at the forefront of clamoring for human rights and democratic space. Yet even Nicollo Machiavelli in the Prince advises don’t joke with the church for it is a power to reckon with.
Anti-God forces are working to wipe out Christianity
And so what has befallen us? Is it a problem with the church? No! I refuse. The church, traditional, militant, restive, evangelistic remains as visible and as vibrant. I know this, I am part of it. What is the matter? Secularism, Yes; it is picking an accelerated pace of spreading, the devil is really aggressive in pulling people to paganism not only here in Kenya but all over the place. The first Atheist Convention just took place in Dublin Ireland; there is a re-gathering for the first time in public after many years of druids in UK, after the rapture hoax of Harold Camping, the church of atheists gathered to celebrate in derision of Christianity. But here in Kenya it has taken a dangerous dimension, this spread has entrenched itself in institutions and has fixed itself in the laws. It is part of the body politic and it has the boldness to dismiss the church. It has marketed itself as most acceptable and vilified the church. It is led by pretenders to Christianity who has no scant idea what real Christianity is. They have denied its power yet glibly call themselves Christians. Lowly, methodically, and incrementally the anti-God forces are working to wipe out Christianity in our society and replace it with humanist views.
A spiritual agenda
As that happens Muslims have strategically placed themselves and perpetrated every sphere of government in Kenya, in my opinion Ahmednasir Abdullilahi of JSC is a real agent of the enemy who has singularly advanced the Muslim agenda in Kenya to dangerous levels. Yet what is painful to this country yet slowly happening is the killing of her soul. It is important to recognize that those engaged in the war on Christianity, working for the dissolution of our society and breakdown of the family have a spiritual agenda. They are not merely attempting to dismantle the historic cultural values of this nation and move us toward a satanic new world order. They also want to destroy Christianity and Bible-based religion. It is a clear part of their agenda, and they have already moved a long way in that direction.
Media Blackout on anything positive about Christianity and Christians
Our mainstream news media ignores conservative and Christian news events, except when coverage makes religious leaders look "cold, intolerant and oppressive,” they will rush to report a pastor caught having impregnated a girl or something of the sort. They don’t cover the anti-Christian agenda and never report it. Of course, that is understandable when you realize they are part of the anti-Christian cabal and have agreed not to cover anything positive about Christianity. They will say that Christian clergy are anti-reform, rigid and they don’t even speak on behalf of their flock. They have called the Christian clergy as self-seekers and not flowing with the majority of Kenyans. Coverage of abortion and homosexuality are never done from the religious viewpoint. Instead, religious figures are regularly portrayed as reactionary roadblocks while their positive influences are rarely covered.
A murderer is less to be feared
"A nation can survive its fools, and even the ambitious. But it cannot survive treason from within. An enemy at the gates is less formidable, for he is known and he carries his banners openly. But the traitor moves among those within the gate freely, his sly whispers rustling through all the alleys, heard in the very halls of government itself. For the traitor appears not traitor, he speaks in the accents familiar to his victims, and he wears their face and their garments, and he appeals to the baseness that lies deep in the hearts of all men. He rots the soul of a nation, he works secretly and unknown in the night to undermine the pillars of a city, he infects the body politic so that it can no longer resist. A murderer is less to be feared." - Cicero, 42 B.C.
Necessary Madness
This will be the case but Christians in Kenya must not give up. Going forward we must purify ourselves, ask for more power from God; that power that enabled Christ to match the highest cruelty that devil can manufacture with the greatest force of moral good that he alone wields, a faith that believes that good will triumph over evil for this is the victory that overcomes the world and a hope that transcends the physical and lives for eternity. The doctrine of immortality of the soul should assure us that we can be courageous in our witnessing and resolute in our beliefs we must be of singular mind and refuse the dirtying rationalization. We ourselves have to live the faith and hope we preach that way and when we’re endued with the power from on high, things get going. Ours must then be madness, a madness that is necessary, that chooses to differ and differ severely, and that refuses to negotiate at the table of the enemy a madness that is obstinately radical, brutally honest and tenaciously dependent on the all sufficiency of our God and his promises solely. Amen.
Wednesday, May 18, 2011
Vanity this damn thing won’t leave me.
Vanity this damn thing won’t leave me.
Today I woke up I intended to do good I set my heart to speak nice to people to be nice to them to overcome all inclination to evil to remain afloat on course towards what is honorable. But not long ago I was down I had uttered a foolish thing, I had lied to my employer I had replied rudely I felt awful why did it happen? Can I really live the course? Can I maintain the purpose? O wretched being am I who will save me, who will deliver me how will I stay the course. Many a man lives in this cycle. The intend to do well is alive but the inclination to evil is too strong that before long we feel beaten off the path.
Vanity comes in various ways. At the workplace you decide to be excellent, to be exceptional in your work output. But this commitment to success becomes the reason why some of your colleagues choose to be your detractors.
At church you are faring so well in ministry and all over a sudden a conspiracy to besmirch you is hatched. You are described as bad; it is rather discouraging your progress in ministry is what causes the animosity.
Your relatives hate you because of your education, they see that you have a degree and they don’t have. They just feel threatened by your progress in life and so they scheme to malign you they plot your undoing they want to sideline you it begins by negating anything positive about you.
All over the place there are cynics, naysayers party-spoilers. They are dedicated to stopping you. They seem committed to denigrating you the more you succeed the more it irks them. I call these vanity at the heart of it is an intention to sway you from your goals and get bogged down so that you lose sight of your target. The fact that you are exceptional and don’t look like them makes you a subject of attack.
The surest weapon to fight this is an awareness that these come to distract you. Their aim is to make you lose sight of your noble goals. That way we ignore them and move on. If we fail it is not because there was no better path to follow neither should we blame the circumstances but we have it within ourselves to reach our intended goals.
Today I woke up I intended to do good I set my heart to speak nice to people to be nice to them to overcome all inclination to evil to remain afloat on course towards what is honorable. But not long ago I was down I had uttered a foolish thing, I had lied to my employer I had replied rudely I felt awful why did it happen? Can I really live the course? Can I maintain the purpose? O wretched being am I who will save me, who will deliver me how will I stay the course. Many a man lives in this cycle. The intend to do well is alive but the inclination to evil is too strong that before long we feel beaten off the path.
Vanity comes in various ways. At the workplace you decide to be excellent, to be exceptional in your work output. But this commitment to success becomes the reason why some of your colleagues choose to be your detractors.
At church you are faring so well in ministry and all over a sudden a conspiracy to besmirch you is hatched. You are described as bad; it is rather discouraging your progress in ministry is what causes the animosity.
Your relatives hate you because of your education, they see that you have a degree and they don’t have. They just feel threatened by your progress in life and so they scheme to malign you they plot your undoing they want to sideline you it begins by negating anything positive about you.
All over the place there are cynics, naysayers party-spoilers. They are dedicated to stopping you. They seem committed to denigrating you the more you succeed the more it irks them. I call these vanity at the heart of it is an intention to sway you from your goals and get bogged down so that you lose sight of your target. The fact that you are exceptional and don’t look like them makes you a subject of attack.
The surest weapon to fight this is an awareness that these come to distract you. Their aim is to make you lose sight of your noble goals. That way we ignore them and move on. If we fail it is not because there was no better path to follow neither should we blame the circumstances but we have it within ourselves to reach our intended goals.
Friday, April 15, 2011
The battle front “The Frontiers”
Who do we look up to for truth and guidance?
When God gave the Israelites the commandments they virtually touched on everything that appertains to life. This is an indicator that he’s concerned with the welfare of man wholesale. This may prove hard to understand to day in a global climate influenced by many things. In a situation where we are at a loss as to the authority that we are to look up to in matters of guiding us in life. Is it the philosopher or the pastor, is it the politician or the scientist is it the journalist or the sportsman is it the celeb or the government? Where exactly should we look up to for truth and guidance in life?
Complicated society
We have increased in self awareness and it is obvious that going forward the society will continue to be very complicated to manage. People will always act based on enlightened self interest. Take for instance the development of democracy has led to a level where by the opinion of any and all counts and matters. The room is left for the fools as well as the intelligent to sell their agenda. If it is accepted well and good. The point is if you can convince the masses then you can have your way.
Conscience subjected to constant beating
But this has led to its own challenges. Lack of centralized authority leads to a sense of confusion and chaos. At this stage the most mischievous can carry the masses and sway them to a selfish angle but the mob thinking does not allow the naïve masses to detect the stealth. The societal orientation today is about a few people seeking to influence others in opinion making and advance their goals through winning the consent of majority. And so many avenues have been generated to subject the conscience to sustained beating resulting to a state of confusion at which they are vulnerable to being swayed.
Beehive tendency
At the root of the campaign is to produce a mass of people with a beehive tendency or directed by herd instinct. Directionless just marching ahead ready to be tinged by any outside force and they take a certain course. Several fronts are played in this wider scheme to rule the souls and minds of God’s people.
1. Sports. At the face of it sports and sportsmanship is harmless, nothing wrong in football, athletics name them just a lucrative industry for leisure to some and a serious occupation to others. But when we say that football is our new religion, we actually get it wrong. When we adore football stars like Ronaldo, Rooney Messi etc we create idols out of them. The fanatical following has replaced religion and a place of God in some people. The huge industry has led to massive merchandise associated with it and so all advertising has been put at the center of these sport events.
2. Arts. Man is a being intellectual, or thinking and knowing, moral, or willing and acting, and aesthetic, or feeling and enjoying and so art is as consequential to man as is living itself. It is just natural for man to appreciate aesthetic beauty in arts. But human capacity to corruption still rears its ugly head here when arts have been reduced to senseless sensuality. Acting porn real when acting has been rendered an avenue to showcase nudity most obscene.
3. Music is yet another front. The noblest expressions of the soul often find their way out of man in form of music or poetry. They communicate the depth of the soul and so what comes out is the reflection of what really is in the heart of man. The depth of decay then that our society has fallen into is therefore openly discernible in the music compositions that come out. It is disturbing the kind of moral vacuity that the contemporary music is displaying. There is a glaring dearth of creativity and solid compositions that convey deep solid and sensible convictions. Again the dragon of debauchery has been found to dominate the music coming out of our musicians.
4. Politics. I will loosely define it as art of living together as a community. Man is a being communal. The aspect of living together as a community has varied implications. The global community national and even the local, the dynamics that determine what interests people bring on the system of politics that will determine many other things. Politics then has become too central to socio-economic affairs of every people. Pursuit for power is combined with interest in economic influence as well as social status. Quite often those who seek power advance a desire for economic and other selfish gains concealed under the garb of altruism.
5. Media. This industry is central to all the other arms working very hard to shape our society in a certain way. Media will serve to convey information in advertising and will be used to influence the masses. As often as the media wants to fake an inactive role in what it dispatches, the media is not a mirror reflecting what is out there. Its role is not simple, passive transmission, but active creation, shaping, and manufacturing, through a lengthy process of selection, filtering, interpretation, and editing. The hidden arms that hold the reins of our media are not benign charities driven by the love of humanity but very aggressive lords of empires with definite agenda to pass to the populace.
6. Religion. Religion is the holiest and deepest concern for man. It is the only way that man has a way of explaining some unfortunate tragedies of life that are just won’t be explained through mere logic. We all come to this conclusion there is an authority out there beyond our limits whose being we can credit the universe. Religion has a way of influencing every spear of human life, it rules the life of man from cradle to the grave.
7. Government. Being the science of ordering the lives of people is a very influential arm. It will determine very many ways in which life will go on in a people. Their policies will influence even the way people will worship especially if freedom of worship is guaranteed. In some countries some religions are banned while only official government religion is encouraged.
As indicated all these frontiers are indicated and they have a degree of influence on a people. This blog is dedicated to ensuring that we make a godly response to contemporary issues. We therefore advance here that all these frontiers must be made subservient to God’s supreme reign. The salient command is that Love the Lord your God with all your heart with all your strength and with all your mind and love your neighbor as yourself.
When God gave the Israelites the commandments they virtually touched on everything that appertains to life. This is an indicator that he’s concerned with the welfare of man wholesale. This may prove hard to understand to day in a global climate influenced by many things. In a situation where we are at a loss as to the authority that we are to look up to in matters of guiding us in life. Is it the philosopher or the pastor, is it the politician or the scientist is it the journalist or the sportsman is it the celeb or the government? Where exactly should we look up to for truth and guidance in life?
Complicated society
We have increased in self awareness and it is obvious that going forward the society will continue to be very complicated to manage. People will always act based on enlightened self interest. Take for instance the development of democracy has led to a level where by the opinion of any and all counts and matters. The room is left for the fools as well as the intelligent to sell their agenda. If it is accepted well and good. The point is if you can convince the masses then you can have your way.
Conscience subjected to constant beating
But this has led to its own challenges. Lack of centralized authority leads to a sense of confusion and chaos. At this stage the most mischievous can carry the masses and sway them to a selfish angle but the mob thinking does not allow the naïve masses to detect the stealth. The societal orientation today is about a few people seeking to influence others in opinion making and advance their goals through winning the consent of majority. And so many avenues have been generated to subject the conscience to sustained beating resulting to a state of confusion at which they are vulnerable to being swayed.
Beehive tendency
At the root of the campaign is to produce a mass of people with a beehive tendency or directed by herd instinct. Directionless just marching ahead ready to be tinged by any outside force and they take a certain course. Several fronts are played in this wider scheme to rule the souls and minds of God’s people.
1. Sports. At the face of it sports and sportsmanship is harmless, nothing wrong in football, athletics name them just a lucrative industry for leisure to some and a serious occupation to others. But when we say that football is our new religion, we actually get it wrong. When we adore football stars like Ronaldo, Rooney Messi etc we create idols out of them. The fanatical following has replaced religion and a place of God in some people. The huge industry has led to massive merchandise associated with it and so all advertising has been put at the center of these sport events.
2. Arts. Man is a being intellectual, or thinking and knowing, moral, or willing and acting, and aesthetic, or feeling and enjoying and so art is as consequential to man as is living itself. It is just natural for man to appreciate aesthetic beauty in arts. But human capacity to corruption still rears its ugly head here when arts have been reduced to senseless sensuality. Acting porn real when acting has been rendered an avenue to showcase nudity most obscene.
3. Music is yet another front. The noblest expressions of the soul often find their way out of man in form of music or poetry. They communicate the depth of the soul and so what comes out is the reflection of what really is in the heart of man. The depth of decay then that our society has fallen into is therefore openly discernible in the music compositions that come out. It is disturbing the kind of moral vacuity that the contemporary music is displaying. There is a glaring dearth of creativity and solid compositions that convey deep solid and sensible convictions. Again the dragon of debauchery has been found to dominate the music coming out of our musicians.
4. Politics. I will loosely define it as art of living together as a community. Man is a being communal. The aspect of living together as a community has varied implications. The global community national and even the local, the dynamics that determine what interests people bring on the system of politics that will determine many other things. Politics then has become too central to socio-economic affairs of every people. Pursuit for power is combined with interest in economic influence as well as social status. Quite often those who seek power advance a desire for economic and other selfish gains concealed under the garb of altruism.
5. Media. This industry is central to all the other arms working very hard to shape our society in a certain way. Media will serve to convey information in advertising and will be used to influence the masses. As often as the media wants to fake an inactive role in what it dispatches, the media is not a mirror reflecting what is out there. Its role is not simple, passive transmission, but active creation, shaping, and manufacturing, through a lengthy process of selection, filtering, interpretation, and editing. The hidden arms that hold the reins of our media are not benign charities driven by the love of humanity but very aggressive lords of empires with definite agenda to pass to the populace.
6. Religion. Religion is the holiest and deepest concern for man. It is the only way that man has a way of explaining some unfortunate tragedies of life that are just won’t be explained through mere logic. We all come to this conclusion there is an authority out there beyond our limits whose being we can credit the universe. Religion has a way of influencing every spear of human life, it rules the life of man from cradle to the grave.
7. Government. Being the science of ordering the lives of people is a very influential arm. It will determine very many ways in which life will go on in a people. Their policies will influence even the way people will worship especially if freedom of worship is guaranteed. In some countries some religions are banned while only official government religion is encouraged.
As indicated all these frontiers are indicated and they have a degree of influence on a people. This blog is dedicated to ensuring that we make a godly response to contemporary issues. We therefore advance here that all these frontiers must be made subservient to God’s supreme reign. The salient command is that Love the Lord your God with all your heart with all your strength and with all your mind and love your neighbor as yourself.
Thursday, March 17, 2011
Walking the higher lane.
Goodness; the highest greatness
Someone said that goodness is the highest kind of greatness. It belongs to the dignity of human existence to aim at and to execute something great. None of us doesn’t want to associate with the great; the great will never lack company. Even many of us have this feeling that I want to be great, but how many of us cross from this want to actualize it? It is often lamented that the greatest ideas that could have transformed the world end up in the graves never to be implemented.
Our unfulfilled expectations drive us to be angry, bitter, aggressive and vindictive. The basest of us can usually be produced at the slightest provocation. And so the question remains how do we keep this path towards greatness? What is our lot here on earth so that as we leave it will be commented that a great man has left the scene.
And what is greatness?
Depending on what we define greatness, we can be great in our very different ways. George Washington and Abraham Lincoln were great in their own ways may be as statesmen. Alexander the great earned the epithet great for conquering a vast empire, Martin Luther and Mother Teresa of Calcutta are regarded as great for very different reasons. What of Nelson Mandela, Wangari Maathai?
Properly put in the right context, greatness is spoken of depending on the degree someone’s life served the positive cause of humanity. Greatness again may be a highlight of the odds one had to beat to make appreciable strides. But beginning with the former, and going to the mother of all wisdom in the universe, the fear of the Lord that is wisdom and departing from evil that is understanding. The mother wisdom further stipulates that where is the man who would wish to live long and see good, let him depart from evil and do good, let him seek peace and pursue it, let his tongue not speak evil nor his lips speak deceit for he has shown o you man what is good and what does the Lord require of you that you may act justly love mercy and walk humbly with your God. The eastern philosophy suggests that he who conquers others is strong but he who conquers self is mighty.
The greatest battle in life; to conquer self
My thesis here then is that he who conquers self is great. The greatest battle in life is the battle to conquer self. He who wins this wins the war. He is great he who subjugates self so that it can do that which he wants. The path to the higher lane is winning self and ordering it such that it can serve faithfully for the betterment of all. The path to greatness leads us to say yes here I have my right, it is being trampled upon, but what is good for all of us? The path to greatness enables us to draw the highest good possible in man. It makes us choose not to retaliate for doing so merely revenges but does not enhance our common good as human race. We walk the higher lane when we ignore evil and deliberately choose to be slaves of good.
Yes and we defeat the enemy hands down when he comes daggers drawn only to find us not ready to fight. We win when instead of fanning a quarrel we ignore and let it die. We subjugate the enemy when we let him have his way for the sake of peace.
The difference maker
My own experience is that truth is not what the world is after; in fact advocates of truth are few. Justice is foreign to people, good is a stranger but self and greed rule. The world has seen so much violence that it wants no more violent people. The difference maker will be that one who will deliberately choose to be different, believe that good can triumph over evil, order over disorder, and hope over apathy, dignity over ignominy involvement over alienation constructionists over destructionists. That justice will defeat injustice, and crookedness will be swallowed by uprightness. Have you a person whose mere presence solves problems? He seems to have this capacity to absorb desperate situations and turn them into hopeful ones. This person becomes an asset and not a liability to the world. He is a difference maker.
I am the Lord
Several times in Lev 19, God gives the dos and don’ts and finishes with “I am the Lord”. What this means is that God being our final reference we have the confidence of doing what is right and leaving it to him to do else. We can then fear him alone and do well to our fellow man as well as avoiding any paralyzing negativity in life and hope in his justice for no detail of life in the universe passes him. We will then be walking the higher lane; imagine of a world where everyone of us just goes for what is enough for self without being greedy enough to keep more than what he needs, no one deals falsely with another, lies to another, no cheating the neighbor, paying the wages to the workers promptly judging with justice without being unfair to the poor or favoring the mighty but judging our neighbor in righteousness. If everyone of us chooses not to slander our neighbor never hate our brother in the heart and rebuke our neighbor so that sin is not allowed to build in his life if we don’t take vengeance or bear a grudge against anyone but love others as self then this would be heaven on earth and then and only then would we be walking the higher lane. I intend to walk the higher lane.
Nurturing the good demon; starving the bad one
It will be hard to find a better way of expressing the good that can come out of man than living the good, doing the good and departing from the evil. Jesus did warn us that in the world there is no good, and so we ought to live as wise as serpents but as harmless as doves, and so we can be innocent in what is bad but steadfast in what is good. The good demon in us can be nurtured to produce a wholesome life. This also means starving the bad demon in us to death. It means developing the good habits while abandoning the bad ones. This way we become a great people.
Someone said that goodness is the highest kind of greatness. It belongs to the dignity of human existence to aim at and to execute something great. None of us doesn’t want to associate with the great; the great will never lack company. Even many of us have this feeling that I want to be great, but how many of us cross from this want to actualize it? It is often lamented that the greatest ideas that could have transformed the world end up in the graves never to be implemented.
Our unfulfilled expectations drive us to be angry, bitter, aggressive and vindictive. The basest of us can usually be produced at the slightest provocation. And so the question remains how do we keep this path towards greatness? What is our lot here on earth so that as we leave it will be commented that a great man has left the scene.
And what is greatness?
Depending on what we define greatness, we can be great in our very different ways. George Washington and Abraham Lincoln were great in their own ways may be as statesmen. Alexander the great earned the epithet great for conquering a vast empire, Martin Luther and Mother Teresa of Calcutta are regarded as great for very different reasons. What of Nelson Mandela, Wangari Maathai?
Properly put in the right context, greatness is spoken of depending on the degree someone’s life served the positive cause of humanity. Greatness again may be a highlight of the odds one had to beat to make appreciable strides. But beginning with the former, and going to the mother of all wisdom in the universe, the fear of the Lord that is wisdom and departing from evil that is understanding. The mother wisdom further stipulates that where is the man who would wish to live long and see good, let him depart from evil and do good, let him seek peace and pursue it, let his tongue not speak evil nor his lips speak deceit for he has shown o you man what is good and what does the Lord require of you that you may act justly love mercy and walk humbly with your God. The eastern philosophy suggests that he who conquers others is strong but he who conquers self is mighty.
The greatest battle in life; to conquer self
My thesis here then is that he who conquers self is great. The greatest battle in life is the battle to conquer self. He who wins this wins the war. He is great he who subjugates self so that it can do that which he wants. The path to the higher lane is winning self and ordering it such that it can serve faithfully for the betterment of all. The path to greatness leads us to say yes here I have my right, it is being trampled upon, but what is good for all of us? The path to greatness enables us to draw the highest good possible in man. It makes us choose not to retaliate for doing so merely revenges but does not enhance our common good as human race. We walk the higher lane when we ignore evil and deliberately choose to be slaves of good.
Yes and we defeat the enemy hands down when he comes daggers drawn only to find us not ready to fight. We win when instead of fanning a quarrel we ignore and let it die. We subjugate the enemy when we let him have his way for the sake of peace.
The difference maker
My own experience is that truth is not what the world is after; in fact advocates of truth are few. Justice is foreign to people, good is a stranger but self and greed rule. The world has seen so much violence that it wants no more violent people. The difference maker will be that one who will deliberately choose to be different, believe that good can triumph over evil, order over disorder, and hope over apathy, dignity over ignominy involvement over alienation constructionists over destructionists. That justice will defeat injustice, and crookedness will be swallowed by uprightness. Have you a person whose mere presence solves problems? He seems to have this capacity to absorb desperate situations and turn them into hopeful ones. This person becomes an asset and not a liability to the world. He is a difference maker.
I am the Lord
Several times in Lev 19, God gives the dos and don’ts and finishes with “I am the Lord”. What this means is that God being our final reference we have the confidence of doing what is right and leaving it to him to do else. We can then fear him alone and do well to our fellow man as well as avoiding any paralyzing negativity in life and hope in his justice for no detail of life in the universe passes him. We will then be walking the higher lane; imagine of a world where everyone of us just goes for what is enough for self without being greedy enough to keep more than what he needs, no one deals falsely with another, lies to another, no cheating the neighbor, paying the wages to the workers promptly judging with justice without being unfair to the poor or favoring the mighty but judging our neighbor in righteousness. If everyone of us chooses not to slander our neighbor never hate our brother in the heart and rebuke our neighbor so that sin is not allowed to build in his life if we don’t take vengeance or bear a grudge against anyone but love others as self then this would be heaven on earth and then and only then would we be walking the higher lane. I intend to walk the higher lane.
Nurturing the good demon; starving the bad one
It will be hard to find a better way of expressing the good that can come out of man than living the good, doing the good and departing from the evil. Jesus did warn us that in the world there is no good, and so we ought to live as wise as serpents but as harmless as doves, and so we can be innocent in what is bad but steadfast in what is good. The good demon in us can be nurtured to produce a wholesome life. This also means starving the bad demon in us to death. It means developing the good habits while abandoning the bad ones. This way we become a great people.
Monday, February 14, 2011
Leadership; A necessary Evil
God created man to lead not to be led
When God created man and woman, he gave them a dominion over all the creation with a command to “multiply fill the earth and overcome it”. As such then, man was designed to lead. Not to be led. The fall however caused an unfortunate turn of events. Man constituted to have fellowship with God found himself expelled from God. This was a great disillusionment for he had to device a way of surviving outside the providing hand of God. The result; the defacing of the perfect order to the deteriorated condition, and all the pain that accompany vanity, estrangement, alienation and a reactive painfulness to this awkward state of affairs. The searing of clear conscience to the deposition of decadence and evil. In this state man reacts with warlike tendencies, rapine, desire to harm and revenge the awfulness that he feels. I have always noted that sometimes an aggressive behavior is a product of unfulfilled needs. But the more the pain and reactive tendencies the more no answer seems to come. Cain for instance killed Abel; it solved nothing, the pain multiplied.
Utopian believe;all progressive philosophies
I would imagine that in a perfect world, God would be the father of us all; love would naturally flow from our hearts towards all other people. Nothing would have to kill another for food for God would provide for us all it would be a perfect order as described in Isaiah 65:17-25. There are reasons to believe that this is a possibility for somehow humanity seems to have this sense of utopian believe. That there is a perfect life somehow hidden from us and all progressive philosophies give this hope of once attaining this state through various paths. Whether through self mortification as the orient religions advocate for or joining in the government of God as Christianity and all Abrahamic religions believe. That our common humanity shares in this believe leads to our common creator’s signature inspiring in us this sense of hope that things don’t have to be as bad as they are and that we can hope that one day they will turn for good.
Depraved philosophies
Depraved philosophies however point us to absolute nothingness. For instance in Stoicism Zeno suggested that virtue and happiness can be attained only by submission to destiny and natural law. While Hedonism the doctrine that pursuit of pleasure is the highest good which you and I know it isn’t. Platonic philosophy advances that to be perfect is to be free from physical desire. Epictetus’ ethical ideal is a cynic philosopher, naked, penniless, wifeless, childless, without want or desire, without passion or temper, kindly, independent, contented, imperturbable, looking serenely or indifferently at life and death. Diogenes lived in a tub, and sought with a lantern in daylight for "a man," yet Christ who, had nowhere to lay his head went about doing good to men. All these are an attempt to guide the soul of man from this awkward emptiness to a sense of hope and meaning in life now and thereafter.
Government an alternative to secure survival
In all this then man now increasing in number had to have a system in place to secure his survival. With the cruel murder of Abel by Cain and the resultant curse on Cain, which was a byproduct of the man’s rebellion to God’s government, an alternative had to be put in place. Law came into place, it was to give guidance on how to act considerately towards other s and impose pain if a deviation is done. Law is a force that comes to compel men to do by force that which should have emanated from them from free will and clear conscience.
Leadership;A necessary Evil
Then there arose a need to have Leadership as a way to safeguard adherence to this law and ensure harmony. Leadership is a necessary evil, a product of the fall which led to people being disorganized and so a need for order. Leadership from confusion and selfishness, a capacity to harm another for selfish gain. It came from of the fall. The bible records the first government to be organized by Nimrod in Gen 10:8-12. He did it by force he was authoritarian. Government is an organized order put in place by men for the benefit of all. This should be the theoretical position. However the fall resulted in human corruption so deep that everything noble can be twisted for ignoble ends. It is for this reason that in an attempt to returning to some order man has tried various forms of government. Dictatorship, Democracy Capitalist, Communist, Socialist, Totalitarian, Monarchical, Parliamentary, Anarchy, Oligarchcal/ Plutocracy etc. In all these man has since Nimrod tried to rule another and all along the wilderness that is humanity souls have conceived these ideas and tried to run with them but to no avail. To this we have Gandhi’s idea of anarchist society, Marx’s idea of communism.
God created a human being to rule not to be ruled
Strictly speaking God created a human being not to be ruled but to rule. He is ruled because of the fall. Because a human being should ideally not be ruled then, any attempts to rule men should therefore be done with their consent. And so of all governments devised by men, democracy stands better than many. Personally I believe anarchy is the best.
Imperfections of democracy
Though democracy is the closest to the ideal, democracy pure is however not practicable for it degenerates into elective autocracy while the media can influence people so that they don’t practice what their conscience dictates but what is forced down their throats by the media. Whatever forms of government however the governing should hold the principle of fallen man true to them so they wouldn’t mercilessly govern God’s people or they wouldn’t trample on their inalienable rights. For whatever engagement that man has here on earth should lead to finding God’s grace enabling man to revert to his original plan of fellowship with God and so slowly a hope for a restored dignity and order, reasonableness and reparation that is the message of Christianity. It should usher us into his eternal kingdom. That is where true liberty is found; in the Lord Jesus Christ.
Leadership properly is God given
Leadership properly is God given grace to enable someone live an exemplary life (a life that leans to our common expectations of what is good and fine qualities imbued in us by God) that others aspire to emulate him/her or are just inspired to travel our original path that God expected us to travel. God can afford us grace enough to be able to have a positional leadership but the most legitimate leadership is born out of lifestyle that comes close to the ideal.
Man always looks for direction
For man always looks for someone for direction, inspiration, emulate or even approval. Someone will want to check and confirm that he is not in a world of his own. This makes us all want to learn as much as we can. Education itself is the process of acquiring all the necessary knowledge stored up in the society and letting it inform you in your thoughts, actions and beliefs. It is built on the maxim that history (experience) is the best teacher.
When God created man and woman, he gave them a dominion over all the creation with a command to “multiply fill the earth and overcome it”. As such then, man was designed to lead. Not to be led. The fall however caused an unfortunate turn of events. Man constituted to have fellowship with God found himself expelled from God. This was a great disillusionment for he had to device a way of surviving outside the providing hand of God. The result; the defacing of the perfect order to the deteriorated condition, and all the pain that accompany vanity, estrangement, alienation and a reactive painfulness to this awkward state of affairs. The searing of clear conscience to the deposition of decadence and evil. In this state man reacts with warlike tendencies, rapine, desire to harm and revenge the awfulness that he feels. I have always noted that sometimes an aggressive behavior is a product of unfulfilled needs. But the more the pain and reactive tendencies the more no answer seems to come. Cain for instance killed Abel; it solved nothing, the pain multiplied.
Utopian believe;all progressive philosophies
I would imagine that in a perfect world, God would be the father of us all; love would naturally flow from our hearts towards all other people. Nothing would have to kill another for food for God would provide for us all it would be a perfect order as described in Isaiah 65:17-25. There are reasons to believe that this is a possibility for somehow humanity seems to have this sense of utopian believe. That there is a perfect life somehow hidden from us and all progressive philosophies give this hope of once attaining this state through various paths. Whether through self mortification as the orient religions advocate for or joining in the government of God as Christianity and all Abrahamic religions believe. That our common humanity shares in this believe leads to our common creator’s signature inspiring in us this sense of hope that things don’t have to be as bad as they are and that we can hope that one day they will turn for good.
Depraved philosophies
Depraved philosophies however point us to absolute nothingness. For instance in Stoicism Zeno suggested that virtue and happiness can be attained only by submission to destiny and natural law. While Hedonism the doctrine that pursuit of pleasure is the highest good which you and I know it isn’t. Platonic philosophy advances that to be perfect is to be free from physical desire. Epictetus’ ethical ideal is a cynic philosopher, naked, penniless, wifeless, childless, without want or desire, without passion or temper, kindly, independent, contented, imperturbable, looking serenely or indifferently at life and death. Diogenes lived in a tub, and sought with a lantern in daylight for "a man," yet Christ who, had nowhere to lay his head went about doing good to men. All these are an attempt to guide the soul of man from this awkward emptiness to a sense of hope and meaning in life now and thereafter.
Government an alternative to secure survival
In all this then man now increasing in number had to have a system in place to secure his survival. With the cruel murder of Abel by Cain and the resultant curse on Cain, which was a byproduct of the man’s rebellion to God’s government, an alternative had to be put in place. Law came into place, it was to give guidance on how to act considerately towards other s and impose pain if a deviation is done. Law is a force that comes to compel men to do by force that which should have emanated from them from free will and clear conscience.
Leadership;A necessary Evil
Then there arose a need to have Leadership as a way to safeguard adherence to this law and ensure harmony. Leadership is a necessary evil, a product of the fall which led to people being disorganized and so a need for order. Leadership from confusion and selfishness, a capacity to harm another for selfish gain. It came from of the fall. The bible records the first government to be organized by Nimrod in Gen 10:8-12. He did it by force he was authoritarian. Government is an organized order put in place by men for the benefit of all. This should be the theoretical position. However the fall resulted in human corruption so deep that everything noble can be twisted for ignoble ends. It is for this reason that in an attempt to returning to some order man has tried various forms of government. Dictatorship, Democracy Capitalist, Communist, Socialist, Totalitarian, Monarchical, Parliamentary, Anarchy, Oligarchcal/ Plutocracy etc. In all these man has since Nimrod tried to rule another and all along the wilderness that is humanity souls have conceived these ideas and tried to run with them but to no avail. To this we have Gandhi’s idea of anarchist society, Marx’s idea of communism.
God created a human being to rule not to be ruled
Strictly speaking God created a human being not to be ruled but to rule. He is ruled because of the fall. Because a human being should ideally not be ruled then, any attempts to rule men should therefore be done with their consent. And so of all governments devised by men, democracy stands better than many. Personally I believe anarchy is the best.
Imperfections of democracy
Though democracy is the closest to the ideal, democracy pure is however not practicable for it degenerates into elective autocracy while the media can influence people so that they don’t practice what their conscience dictates but what is forced down their throats by the media. Whatever forms of government however the governing should hold the principle of fallen man true to them so they wouldn’t mercilessly govern God’s people or they wouldn’t trample on their inalienable rights. For whatever engagement that man has here on earth should lead to finding God’s grace enabling man to revert to his original plan of fellowship with God and so slowly a hope for a restored dignity and order, reasonableness and reparation that is the message of Christianity. It should usher us into his eternal kingdom. That is where true liberty is found; in the Lord Jesus Christ.
Leadership properly is God given
Leadership properly is God given grace to enable someone live an exemplary life (a life that leans to our common expectations of what is good and fine qualities imbued in us by God) that others aspire to emulate him/her or are just inspired to travel our original path that God expected us to travel. God can afford us grace enough to be able to have a positional leadership but the most legitimate leadership is born out of lifestyle that comes close to the ideal.
Man always looks for direction
For man always looks for someone for direction, inspiration, emulate or even approval. Someone will want to check and confirm that he is not in a world of his own. This makes us all want to learn as much as we can. Education itself is the process of acquiring all the necessary knowledge stored up in the society and letting it inform you in your thoughts, actions and beliefs. It is built on the maxim that history (experience) is the best teacher.
Tuesday, January 4, 2011
When the Foundations are shaken
Multiplication of evil
That evil has multiplied is not a secret. That human inclination to evil is ever too real is open to all not only to behold but it can be confirmed even with the most cursory observation. The society fits the biblical declaration that every human thought was evil and every inclination of the heart was towards evil. The respect of what is sacerdotal has all but waned and we have a form of secularism that is not just dormant but it is aggressive. It is aggressive in marketing itself as the better alternative and it casts religious piety as foolishness. It dismisses any argument for morality and belittles any basis for it.
It is an age that has worked so hard to destroy every foundational basis of religion and moral uprightness by advocating intellectual freedom and liberty which has in effect degenerated to most uncalled for debauchery.
A new religion; Materialism
The reason for this is erection of a new religion; materialism. This religion models society as a mass market and nothing else. Everything is viewed in monetary terms. At the heart is a sustained campaign to encourage everyone to sensuality. An unbridled lust and which on being excited must be fulfilled. What fulfills this lust is modeled as product for merchandise in the market. Self control is discouraged; they say it is now bring it on. Delayed fulfillment is foreign to them and so sex is now not after marriage.
A mass of people who can’t, don’t and won’t think
We are in a movement a mass of people we don’t think, we won’t find time to think neither will we be allowed to think. Not with the media that models itself as the one that should think for us and throw to us what they consider as expert opinion. And there are experts for virtually anything that comes up. And the media tells us what to wear, what to eat, where to stay and virtually what to think and how to think.
This is unfortunate for hardly do we know that those who own these media outlets determine what we consume. A clique of few people determines what we will believe in their propaganda rules and what they do is to manufacture consent sublimely from us. They force us to trust in them and rely on what they give us they assume that we are lazy and unable to think and so they should think for us.
This is where we are and with automation the society is likely to become lazier in conscious decision making and so it will remain a mass of people with no direction. In the market place of ideas this is where the battle will be fought. Everyone trying to win their minds and souls, the opinion of everyone will count but the one who shouts to the top of his mouth outshouting others will win them.
The way forward; the intolerant advocacy for Christianity, tenacity and zeal
Now in this contest where does Christianity lie? The religion of the meek followers of Christ? Several reasons have been advanced to explain the rapid spread of Christianity in the first century and afterwards viz: (1) the intolerant but enlarged religious zeal of the Christians inherited from the Jews; (2) the doctrine of the immortality of the soul, concerning which the ancient philosophers had but vague and dreamy ideas; (3) the miraculous powers attributed to the primitive church; (4) the purer but austere morality of the first Christians; (5) the unity and discipline of the church, which gradually formed a growing commonwealth in the heart of the roman empire. But every one of these causes, properly understood, points to the superior excellency and to the divine origin of the Christian religion, and this is the chief cause. (P. Krapf)
Now the world has always been changed by the people who contradicted it most and the same marked indifference to the world is what will make our voice heard. The primitive intolerance to what does not glorify God must remain our non bargain-able minimum. We must tenaciously cling to Christianity and zealously market it.
That evil has multiplied is not a secret. That human inclination to evil is ever too real is open to all not only to behold but it can be confirmed even with the most cursory observation. The society fits the biblical declaration that every human thought was evil and every inclination of the heart was towards evil. The respect of what is sacerdotal has all but waned and we have a form of secularism that is not just dormant but it is aggressive. It is aggressive in marketing itself as the better alternative and it casts religious piety as foolishness. It dismisses any argument for morality and belittles any basis for it.
It is an age that has worked so hard to destroy every foundational basis of religion and moral uprightness by advocating intellectual freedom and liberty which has in effect degenerated to most uncalled for debauchery.
A new religion; Materialism
The reason for this is erection of a new religion; materialism. This religion models society as a mass market and nothing else. Everything is viewed in monetary terms. At the heart is a sustained campaign to encourage everyone to sensuality. An unbridled lust and which on being excited must be fulfilled. What fulfills this lust is modeled as product for merchandise in the market. Self control is discouraged; they say it is now bring it on. Delayed fulfillment is foreign to them and so sex is now not after marriage.
A mass of people who can’t, don’t and won’t think
We are in a movement a mass of people we don’t think, we won’t find time to think neither will we be allowed to think. Not with the media that models itself as the one that should think for us and throw to us what they consider as expert opinion. And there are experts for virtually anything that comes up. And the media tells us what to wear, what to eat, where to stay and virtually what to think and how to think.
This is unfortunate for hardly do we know that those who own these media outlets determine what we consume. A clique of few people determines what we will believe in their propaganda rules and what they do is to manufacture consent sublimely from us. They force us to trust in them and rely on what they give us they assume that we are lazy and unable to think and so they should think for us.
This is where we are and with automation the society is likely to become lazier in conscious decision making and so it will remain a mass of people with no direction. In the market place of ideas this is where the battle will be fought. Everyone trying to win their minds and souls, the opinion of everyone will count but the one who shouts to the top of his mouth outshouting others will win them.
The way forward; the intolerant advocacy for Christianity, tenacity and zeal
Now in this contest where does Christianity lie? The religion of the meek followers of Christ? Several reasons have been advanced to explain the rapid spread of Christianity in the first century and afterwards viz: (1) the intolerant but enlarged religious zeal of the Christians inherited from the Jews; (2) the doctrine of the immortality of the soul, concerning which the ancient philosophers had but vague and dreamy ideas; (3) the miraculous powers attributed to the primitive church; (4) the purer but austere morality of the first Christians; (5) the unity and discipline of the church, which gradually formed a growing commonwealth in the heart of the roman empire. But every one of these causes, properly understood, points to the superior excellency and to the divine origin of the Christian religion, and this is the chief cause. (P. Krapf)
Now the world has always been changed by the people who contradicted it most and the same marked indifference to the world is what will make our voice heard. The primitive intolerance to what does not glorify God must remain our non bargain-able minimum. We must tenaciously cling to Christianity and zealously market it.
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