The Covenant Signs
October 8, 2014

The Covenant Signs

The Mosaic CovenantThe People of the Sign tells the seemingly tall tale of a wild and woolly journey crossing virtually every terrain known to man.  The protagonist (yours truly) is tossed across these landscapes by disorienting childhood experiences and navigates toward a new home in Christ using a compass on which True North is defined as the Sign of the Mosaic Covenant.  The resulting school-of-hard-knocks lessons leave our hero scanning the skies trying to connect the dots of the heavenly stars in an effort to escape a dead end.

The sequel, The Hardness of the Heart, drops the reader in waters more profound, with circular waves spreading out in a wider, but no-less relentless search for answers.  The rudder of the Sign of the Mosaic Covenant is replaced by a greater understanding of the Signs that Christ gave.  In the current, however, we find that these 2,000 year old answers are not current enough.

On the shore beckons a third volume, The Rod of Iron (please click and vote to help land its publication date) which provides a road map updated with additional Covenant Signs, designed to better orient us in the present day. Understanding where we are at in the divine unfolding of humanity’s destiny, in the clear light of these Covenant Signs, is the primary aim of this trilogy, especially the concluding volume.

We see the tide of radical and militant Islam, for example, challenging our understanding of the Christian Covenant, which is focused on Loving our neighbor, or to use a more ancient formulation of that principle, our brother.  I submit that lessons laid down at the time of Adam, wherein Cain slew Abel, and God asked him about it, are pertinent to this discussion.  The question for us is whether we are willing to be our brother’s keeper, or if we follow in the way of Cain?

To find out how we should behave, in order to be the former, we can fast forward from Cain to Noah.  Upon close examination we learn that the Covenant Signs are fractal patterns of importance to subsequent history.

Sign of the Noachian CovenantSome say the Noachian Covenant is unconditional. I say this is not entirely true. Yes, the promise encompassed in its Sign is unconditional – but God lays out conditions that go along with that unconditional promise. Look at Genesis 9, especially verses 4-6, and consider how they integrate with the promise in the Sign of the Rainbow.

9:1 And God blessed Noah and his sons, and said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth.
2 And the fear of you and the dread of you shall be upon every beast of the earth, and upon every fowl of the air, upon all that moveth upon the earth, and upon all the fishes of the sea; into your hand are they delivered.
3 Every moving thing that liveth shall be meat for you; even as the green herb have I given you all things.
4 But flesh with the life thereof, which is the blood thereof, shall ye not eat.
5 And surely your blood of your lives will I require; at the hand of every beast will I require it, and at the hand of man; at the hand of every man’s brother will I require the life of man.
6 Whoso sheddeth man’s blood, by man shall his blood be shed: for in the image of God made he man.
7 And you, be ye fruitful, and multiply; bring forth abundantly in the earth, and multiply therein.
8 And God spake unto Noah, and to his sons with him, saying,
9 And I, behold, I establish my covenant with you, and with your seed after you;
10 And with every living creature that is with you, of the fowl, of the cattle, and of every beast of the earth with you; from all that go out of the ark, to every beast of the earth.
11 And I will establish my covenant with you, neither shall all flesh be cut off any more by the waters of a flood; neither shall there any more be a flood to destroy the earth.
12 And God said, This is the token of the covenant which I make between me and you and every living creature that is with you, for perpetual generations:
13 I do set my bow in the cloud, and it shall be for a token of a covenant between me and the earth.
14 And it shall come to pass, when I bring a cloud over the earth, that the bow shall be seen in the cloud:
15 And I will remember my covenant, which is between me and you and every living creature of all flesh; and the waters shall no more become a flood to destroy all flesh.
16 And the bow shall be in the cloud; and I will look upon it, that I may remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is upon the earth.
17 And God said unto Noah, This is the token of the covenant, which I have established between me and all flesh that is upon the earth.

My point may seem to advocate vigilante justice, and there may in fact have been a time and place for that.  But as we roll through history, accumulating the lessons of Moses and Christ, we find that we are required to set up systems of justice that incorporate the requirements of all the Covenants.   It is our responsibility to establish courts and the rule of law, and to implement national systems, to resist evil doers and administer the just punishment required by law, while our personal burden is to love and forgive.  Without both of these, neither is possible.

Are the Signs of the Covenants represented in the Zodiak?Such insights are, IMHO, critical for those who wish to understand how God has been developing His creation, over time, particularly the pinnacle of His creation – Man. The Covenant Signs are critical to find our route on the spiritual road map.  The Covenant Signs not only help us understand the direction we need to take, they show us the only path to our intended destination.

The Rod of Iron adds so much more to this discussion, and I hope you’ll take a moment to click on the link and vote for it.  In the meantime, if you’re interested in actively engaging in a dialogue on this and related topics, please join us in The People of the Sign facebook discussion group.

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Do Religions Love Hate?
September 20, 2014

Do Religions Love Hate?

Does religion teach us to love hate?

Many religious zealots love to hate

Yesterday’s Apes, Pigs & the Sabbath blog caused a small stir in a few discussion groups.

Some deleted it because I dared to raise the topic of Islam in “Christian” or “Biblical” discussion groups.  Others launched into a tirade against religion, with some advising that we “rewrite” the Holy Texts to get rid of the evil they represent.  All this in reaction to a simple request that  “As we go to war against Islamic extremists, be aware of the religious roots!”

My editor (for The People of the Sign Trilogy) asked me why I left the topic so open, for people to draw their own conclusions, vs. clearly stating the outcome of my analysis.  My answer was that it is more important to me for people to draw their own conclusions, vs. telling them what I think.  But apparently a primer is needed.

ISIS/ISIL is driven by religious fundamentalism – but fundamentalism is a misnomer.  It implies that they literally follow the Koran.  They don’t.  If they were to actually READ the texts upon which their love of hate is based, they would come to see that what they are doing is wrong – by their OWN moral code.

My blog dipped into the source texts, an advisable direction, as education is surely a major part of the solution.

The idea of re-writing the Koran, which a billion people fervently believe in, is in my view not only unrealistic, it is wrongheaded. These millions are already killing people for disrespecting their prophet – far better to understand and teach that the writings of their prophet condemn their actions.  This is the approach that Jesus took with the Pharisees of His day, for example.

What I found most discouraging were the attitudes of condescension, ignorance, and frankly arrogance, from materialists insisting that there is absolute and conclusive proof against all the claims of those who believe in anything not easily measured by science.  One would think that understanding where other peoples and cultures are coming from, and building reasonable bridges, would be an approach embraced by those who profess objective science to be a better path to truth.

By investing even a few minutes to read the blog, and discuss the topic as presented, we can be better armed for the next time the “Apes and Pigs” epithet is thrown down.  We can see that there is no need to react like a pack of howling dogs to the poisonous red meat, whether in offense at the Antisemitism in evidence, or  in disdain at the inhuman ignorance.  One would be empowered to clearly show that the Source Texts which are being used to hurl this epithet say the opposite.

Darkness is the absence of lightThe Koran insists that Muslims show the utmost respect to Jews and their beliefs. The “Apes and Pigs” epithet originated as a description of the hypocrisy of Jews who claimed the benefits of adherence to the Sabbath law, while actually breaking it. Thus the Koran indicts anyone who would criticize a Jew for being Jewish – the exact thing extreme fundamentalists are doing.  This would apply even more strongly to those who oppose a “Jewish State” – one that esteems the Sabbath command, against which the comments in the Koran clearly do not apply.

And this is but the very tip of the iceberg. If we were to study the historical roots of Islamic Antisemitism we find that a large share of the blame lies at the feet of the Christian community, for introducing such ideas FROM THE WEST into the Arab Muslim community.  A key quote from the wikipedia article on Islamic Antisemitism sums this up with “Initially these prejudices only found a reception among Arab Christians and were too foreign for any widespread acceptance among Muslims.”

If we wish to work for peace, and promote the growth of a better society we cannot ignore, dismiss or demonize the beliefs and practices that led to our modern day.  For those who do reject religion entirely to do so could be likened to trying to proclaim that you believe in evolution while rejecting the fact that we descended from inferior species, including pigs and apes.  Instead of knee-jerk condemnation and uninformed reactions we must understand and overcome the negative trajectory of those elements of society with intelligence, detachment, and love.  Educating the fanatic masses as to what their Holy Book actually says would begin to undo the appeal and power of ISIS/ISIL.

And we should make this a priority, because even though we should defensively resist such murderous cancer with force, we are not generally in a good position to be casting the first stone.

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Pigs, Apes, and the Sabbath
September 19, 2014

Pigs, Apes, and the Sabbath

Levant Map of ISIL's goal

ISIS or ISIL seeks to obliterate Israel on its path to global dominance

As we go to war against Islamic Extremists, I’d like to use today’s Blog to open up a dialogue of reconciliation.

Friday is sometimes referred to as the Islamic Sabbath, but a private poster named Zifikos on Yahoo Answers shows that to be incorrect.

“We don’t have a Sabbath day in Islam. In our belief, God does not need to rest.. See the verse; “Neither drowsiness nor sleep overcomes Him…He is not fatigued by taking care of both (Heavens and Earth)”. (2:255)

But we are commanded to respect those who follow Sabbath day in their lives.. See the verse; And We said to them, “Do not violate Sabbath, and We took from them a solemn Covenant” (4:154)”

Islam has such built in protections, commandments to honor and respect what my Trilogy has called “The People of the Sign” as identified by the Mosaic Covenant’s emphasis on the Seventh Day Sabbath, that should avoid the creation of a Hamas or an ISIS. But like what happened with Christianity and its inquisitions and crusades, the founders of great religions are not generally followed correctly by the zealots.

Islamic extremists and terrorists often refer to Jews as Apes and Pigs. I had read that this is derived from the Koran, So I dug into it.  I was fascinated to see the connection to the issue of Jews breaking the Sabbath, a topic that is front and center in my trilogy “The People of the Sign”.

Seventh Day Sabbath Observance

The Seventh Day Sabbath

I invite you to take the time to read this discussion of these Koranic references carefully.  I also invite you to provide your input to a dialogue on the topic of Islam and Judaism, and the connection to the Sabbath.  The People of the Sign discussion group on Facebook provides a respectful forum for discussing such thorny topics with those whose views might be quite different from yours.

It is in that spirit that I post this Blog on that auspicious day for Muslims – Friday, and end it with the conclusion of that Zifikos post introduced above.

“We, Muslims pray regularly (5 times in a day) and we also pray (like talking to God, asking the things we want) whenever we feel like. But if we look at it like a special day to pray, Friday might be seen as our Sabbath, the day of El-Gumah (the assembly), and is a day of public worship. Because the Islamic calendar is strictly lunar, festivals may occur at any time of the year. Friday is always an auspicious day in our belief.

Hope this answer helps, have a nice day, sis.
Peace and blessings…

p.s. Jumah means Friday in Arabic ”

 

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