Where Have All the Good Men Gone, Revisited

Now early^[a] in the morning He came again into the temple, and all the people came to Him;

 and He sat down and taught them. Then the scribes and Pharisees brought to Him a woman caught in adultery. And when they had set her in the midst, they said to Him,

 "Teacher, this woman was caught^[b] in adultery, in the very act."

  Now Moses, in the law, commanded^[c] us that such should be stoned.^[d] But what do You say?

John 8:2-5

Lately, the subject of child-murder, more popularly known as abortion, has surfaced, namely on my personal FaceBook page!  I posted an article by a woman who had an abortion in favor of a child that she already had, justifying her act of murder by saying that it wouldn't have been fair to the one she already had if she kept them both. Now, given the fact that she had already chosen to at least risk conception by having sexual intercourse in the first place, most people with any sense in their heads would immediately note the inherent self-absorption in her seemingly careless actions!

One argument that has come up when it comes to the subject of abortion has to do with the other side of the coin, where too often the searchlight of judgment doesn't fall! The men who have engendered these unwanted children, whether by rape or otherwise irresponsible & reprehensible actions are not beyond the pale of responsibility, yet they seem to get away almost scot-free, definitely not earning the moniker, 'murderer', at least not to the extent that many women do. Whether this is merely an oversight, or whether it is loosely based on the pharasaical notion described in the verses above, it is not right that women should bear the responsibility alone when an unborn child is murdered!

'It takes two to tango!' A bit of a cliche', this old familiar phrase, in this context, simply states that a woman cannot conceive on her own. Now, Science & Technology have devised a way for a woman to conceive without using the normal means, a man, but even this practice still requires the sperm from a man. When a man & woman come together, conception does not always occur, especially with the aid of contraceptives or prophylactics ( condoms ), although these are not 100% effective. While it is true that because men are often more physically imposing than women ( not always the case ) & thus are often overbearing, especially when it comes to rape, the men do not bear the responsibility alone; like it or not, many rape victims are not so much the victim, whether because they knowingly place themselves in 'sticky' situations, or simply because they push the man to the point where he is ready to explode & then cry 'rape' when he takes full & knowing advantage of the situation: either way, a choice is made by both parties, for good or evil!

Rape is viewed by many who claim to be anti-abortion as a valid reason to abort, or murder the unwanted child. Although this is often a matter of great controversy among many, the argument can be nullified simply by remembering that it's all about choices: the choice, even post-rape, post-incest, or whatever the case may be, of whether to allow the child to grow, or to cut short its life with no chance of parole. Arguably, sometimes those who murder their own offspring may be doing the child a favor by not bringing him or her into this world or subjecting them to a less-than-perfect situation, but murder is murder, no matter the extenuating circumstances! 

In this day & age, as we have explored previously in this blog ( Where Have All the Good Men Gone? ), good men are too often few & far between! This is not to say there are no good men anymore, but they seem to be getting harder & harder to find. Blame the Culture, as most do, but ultimately, much of the blame must be laid at the feet of organized religions, most notably Christianity, Judaism & Islam. In all three of these religions, maybe less so in Christianity, the status of women has been subjected to that of a man & her role most often viewed simply as a vehicle for procreation. Although women, particularly, maybe primarily in Christianity, have enjoyed an elevated status, almost equal to that of men, they are still forced to be subservient to men in most cases. This is not to say that organized religion has led to or allowed for the rape & abuse of women (  though in some cases that may be arguable ), but because of these practices, as well as the self-serving spirit of this day & age, many men have viewed women as simply an outlet for their frustrations!

It's only natural, biologically speaking, for a man to long for sexual intercourse: women too, are naturally beset by this 'urge'! Though perfectly natural & ordained by the Creator, it too is a matter of choice; choice as to when & how, even 'if'. Too many, especially in this day & age of  'free sex', with the aid of contraceptives, find it easy to be irresponsible & when the contraceptive fails, whether through a broken condom or whatever, to upgrade the irresponsibility to culpability by the act of murder!

The rape of women, though reprehensible & condemnable, is a sad fact; even though in most cases ( arguably ALL cases ), the woman is an innocent party, the choice to murder the even more innocent & helpless offspring of that 'union' is more reprehensible! To claim 'It's MY body' is the height of self-absorption, because the body in question is not that of the woman, though it is one she helped create; it is the body of an innocent child, one that, through no choice of his or her own, was conceived & brought to bear!

'Two wrongs do not make a right' is another familiar old cliche' that can & must be brought to bear here! For a man to rape or otherwise unlawfully impregnate a women is very wrong, but to add to that the crime of murder, no matter how convenient or legal, is only to compound the guilt. Murder is murder is murder: no matter the extenuating circumstances, for one to compound the guilt in such a manner only serves to spread the blame. The choice to commit rape is certainly wrong & while women are most often the unwilling victims, for them to turn around & for whatever reason, make the choice to terminate the often resulting pregnancy is equally wrong, being murder!

Charles Haddon Shank

The Sacrifice of Self-Love

Love, as anyone who has ever experienced the 'softer side' of it can tell you, is 'A Many Splintered Thing! When I say, 'the softer side', I'm referring of course, to the emotional 'feelings-based' version, the one that can change as quickly as the weather. Love, as we've often explored before in this blog, is, first & foremost, an action, though often based on feelings. Many recognize love as a choice, but only some choose to love sacrificially, while others love only superficially, as long as it suits their purpose & doesn't interfere with their plans.

As we near the middle of this month of februation ( look it up ), we should ponder the meaning of love; 'What is it good for?' 'Why should we care?' 'Who is it for?' 'When should we show it?' If love is based on physical intimacy, as some unions seem to be, it's likely that union won't last very long! Even in relationships built on physical intimacy, unless one or the other is willing to sacrifice their desires for the other's, the relationship will suffer harm even more quickly. Sacrifice, when it comes to matters of love, particularly in today's vernacular, is almost a foreign concept; O sure, when the relationship is in its beginning stages, one or both participants may try to make a good first impression, but once the relationship has gotten off the ground, so to speak, it often becomes difficult for the either of the two parties to give way to the other.

Self-love is gaining in popularity, of late! Social media outlets like FaceBook have noted a rise in the awareness of the necessity of loving oneself. Self-love is not a new concept & it's really only common sense to say that, unless & until one loves him or herself, it's not possible to truly love another. Though this idea has been around for centuries, even millenia, institutionalized religion, Christianity in particular, has done much to drive people away from the whole notion, teaching us that we are totally depraved, in essence, teaching us to hate ourselves because we are so depraved that we will not, on our own, choose to do what is just, right & good!

The doctrine of Total Depravity is almost impossible to refute, especially in this day & age, where depravity seems to run rampant! However, much of the problem can be linked to institutionalized Christianity, which has taught for centuries that this depravity will only get worse, until finally Jesus will come back & end it all. This belief, or doctrine has allowed the Institutional Church to sit back on its 'laurels', its Blessed Assurance, so to speak, almost welcoming this depravity as surety of the imminence of the so-called 'Second Coming!

Though the Parousia occurred in the 1st century, just like Jesus said it would ( Matthew 24:34, 26:64, etc. ), many Christians in this day & age do not believe His Word on this account; in fact, Institutional Christianity has taught for many centuries that Jesus has not yet returned as He promised. This in turn has had a detrimental effect on the culture around it & thus we see the degree of depravity that we do. Now, don't get me wrong, we can't blame institutional Christianity wholly; the individual still bears the full brunt of responsibility for their own choices, but institutionalized religion, Christianity in particular, must shoulder some of the blame as well!

Loving one's own self is different than being selfish! In the past, even in this day & age to some degree, it may seem there's not much difference, given the modern definition of love, but the difference is clear; loving oneself enables that one to love others, since it is impossible to give love without knowing what love really is. Selfishness is really almost the opposite of true love, for selfishness is not the love of self, but is more akin to a lust for self & things, even if they belong to another!

We have been taught for centuries that we are selfish, wicked creature & so we are! Humans are not naturally this way, though we have been noted for our tendency to make bad choices. Much of what we have been taught in this area is being discarded as hogwash by many in this day & age, rightly so, but along with it, many have seemingly thrown out the baby with the bathwater; some have gone so far in the opposite direction that they are living in direct contradiction to EVERYTHING they were taught. Thus, we bear witness to the 'free-love' of the 60s & the depravity of today!

'Love is not a victory march', sings a famous modern-day troubadour: much of our problem in this day & age, one might say, is that many view love as a conquest, something to be won! Really, if you think about it, when a person so loves themselves, it will be obvious to that significant other that, 'here is someone who knows how to love, who knows what love really is!' The love that a person has for another will be proportionate to the love that one has for him or herself. Any attempt to love another will not last unless one first learns to love oneself & I speak to myself here, more than to anyone else.

Many relationships fail because, 'I just don't love him or her anymore'! This is sadly true, largely because the love shown is equal to the love held & the willingness or unwillingness of either party to capitulate, or sacrifice for the good of the other. Here again though, one must understand what love truly is in order to wield it to the best effect. If one person sees love as merely physical intimacy, then that one will think of self-love as selfishness & will manifest this in any relationship that he or she strives to enter into. On the other hand, if one recognizes love for what it truly is, the ability to freely choose to do what is just, right & good, then that one will be able to truly love, not just him or herself, but the other as well!

The choice to love another is, at the same time, both the easiest & the hardest choice anyone can ever make! Love is sacrificial in the sense that we have to give of ourselves in order to love another. If we do not love ourselves, we cannot love another. Many people have a sort of superficial love, a love that might even go beyond those three little words that everyone loves to hear, a love that might flare up when it suits ones own selfish purpose, or fits into their plans.

A love that's built to last, though, must begin with ones own self! If we can but learn to love ourselves unselfishly, not lusting after our own needs & desires above those of everyone else, but treating ourselves with the justice, goodness & rightness that we would have others to treat us with. When love starts with ourselves, only then will it build any sort of lasting relationship.

May we BE the love that we wish to see in others,
Charles Haddon Shank

The Revelation of the Son of God; Ad Infinitum

'And I believe in Jesus Christ, His only Son, begotten, not made, being if one substance with the Father.........'

Was Jesus, who was the Christ ( Messiah ), truly the only ( begotten ) Son of God, as the Bible seems to claim? Jesus claimed to be the Son of God & to be sure, that most famous of verses, John 3:16, says that Jesus was the Creator God's 'only begotten Son'. In this oft-quoted passage, as well as in many others, John used the Greek 'μονογενής', transliterated 'monogenēs', meaning, 'single of its kind, only'. In relating the metaphorical Story of the sacrifice of Issac, the author/compiler recorded that Yahweh told Abraham to sacrifice his 'only  [son ] Isaac'. Now, whether he was simply reminding Abraham that he only had one Isaac, or using prophetic imagery pointing forward thousands of years to Yahweh's own sacrifice of His only ( begotten ) Son, we can rest assured that though John made the point that this Jesus was the only 'begotten' son of His Father, He was by no means the only one; Adam, In Luke's genealogy ( chapter 3 ), was called '[ the son ] of God'; although the words 'the son' do not appear in the original Hebrew, so that it should simply read, 'Adam, of God'; Luke uses the same word structure throughout, saying, for example, that Isaac was 'of Abraham'.

Most Christians will deny the Fatherhood of the Creator God to those who have not covenanted with Him & specifically claimed the name of Christ, or Christian. Although this is biblically defensible, some might argue, living in what might be called 'a post-biblical era', that when Scripture makes the division between 'the children of God' ( I John 3:1 ) & 'the children of the devil' ( I John 3:10 ), we should think, not in terms of 'us versus them', as we have been taught, but historically of those who accepted Jesus as the Messiah of Israel versus those who denied Him as such, the Jews, or Israel according to the Flesh. Biblically speaking then, in our Western tradition, even those today who do not accept Him as the very Son of God are denied His divine protection!

According to Scripture, we, as the Church, are the Body of Christ! This glorious fact, although it is easily recognizable as metaphor, should be readily acknowledged as indicative of our Oneness with the Creator God;: the apostle Paul wrote to his brethren that marriage is a picture of this Divine Union. As such then, it may be noted that we, in this sense, are the Son of God! Again, most Christians would have difficulty saying this, as they believe that Jesus inhabits His biological Body in a place called 'Heaven' ( ? ). Since we are the Son of the Creator God, then we, like Jesus was, are 'begotten' of Him & of the same substance with Him. As we are 'spirits having a physical experience', we essentially are all part of the same Energy that was used to create the universe, in actuality, the Creator God Himself!

Some have gone so far as to say that we ARE the Creator God Himself & though we ARE one with Him in both His Divinity & Essence, we are NOT Him! Just as husband & wife become One, biblically speaking, they are yet two separate & distinguishable people: we, having become One with the Creator God, are yet distinguishable from Him, though we ARE of One Essence. As creators ourselves, we even play a 'god-like' role, though on a much smaller scale, what with our intellectual & biological properties. To a somewhat limited extent, we even create life! History, too, is full of examples of the intellectual properties that men & women of old have created!

As the Body of Christ, corporately speaking, we are most certainly NOT the same biological Body in which Jesus walked this earth, almost 2,000 years ago! However, we understand that the apostle, when he wrote this in his letter to the Church, was using the allegorical language that was common to his people. Although Paul referred to the Church in a metaphorical sense, we know that, in a very real sense, Jesus, the Creator God Himself, does inhabit His biological Body, us! John, in his revelation of the Gospel ( John 14:23 ), recorded Jesus as promising, 'If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our home with him'. Though these words were spoken to Jews in the first century ( AD ), they are universal in impact, as true now as then!

It is widely-accepted, traditionally speaking, that Adam, in the Garden, was in covenant with the Creator God! Although this is without doubt, the first time a covenant is specially named & elucidated as such is when Yahweh instituted one such with Abram ( Genesis 15 ). The Adamic Covenant, rather than being based upon a mutual agreement, as was the Abrahamic covenant; the Creator God's covenant with Adam, on the other hand, was not like that one, in the sense that there is no record of Adam having ever acquiesced to any covenant, spoken or otherwise. The Creator God simply placed Adam into the Garden ( Paradise? ) & placed him in charge of it all & brought him a wife: no commitment, nothing, except 'do this & die!'

Much like today, there was such a thing as Natural Law ( AKA, the Laws of Nature & Nature's God ); Adam somehow broke that Natural Law, that unspoken covenant & was removed from ( the blessings of ) the Garden for his pains! We have been taught, traditionally speaking, that he ate from a tree that he had been forbidden, but the allegorical nature of this part of the Story is obvious; the true meaning, however, is not, so we can only speculate on what was meant by 'the tree of the knowledge of good & evil'

Even though Adam broke this first covenant & tried to shift the blame, in essence, to the Creator God Himself, we find that he still enjoyed Divine Protection, as did his descendants ( Genesis 4:15 )! Cain, like his father Adam, broke that Natural Law, as did many after him ( at least one every generation ) & though he suffered greatly because of it, like his father, he still enjoyed favor from the Creator God; in that He promised 'vengeance.........sevenfold'.

Scripturally speaking, there is no denying the fact that the 'sons of God' were those who accepted Jesus as their Messiah! Even in the Hebrew Scriptures, the term was often used to refer to the godly line of Seth, as opposed to the sons of Cain, or for example, 'sons of Belial'. In the Western Christian tradition, even today, we are used to observing the same distinction, referring to ourselves as 'sons of God' & to those who do not share our beliefs as somehow almost less than human!

Jesus was born according to Promise, much like Isaac, thousands of years earlier, was! Yes, the Gospel records, according to prophesy ( Isaiah 7:14 ), that the Holy Spirit would 'overshadow' Mary, who was betrothed to Joseph & that the Child would be called 'the Son of God': many years earlier, the Creator God promised Abraham, 'I will certainly return to you according to the time of life, and behold, Sarah your wife shall have a son' ( Genesis 18:10 ). It is widely accepted ( if given much thought at all ) that Isaac was the natural-born son of Abraham, yet the language here used is not unlike that in the Gospel account!

Was Jesus indeed the only begotten Son of God, as our Bibles tell us, or was He simply the Creator God Himself who took the form of a Man in order to redeem His ( covenant ) Creation to Himself? The doctrine of the Trinity makes much of the distinction that Scripture seems to make between the Father, the Son & the Holy Spirit; without going to far in theorizing over this matter, suffice to say that if it was simply the Creator God Himself, the Father of all the Living, who took the form of the Man Jesus, then this doctrine seems to fall flat on its face!

Did Jesus walk the earth as the Son of God, in part to show us that human beings could indeed be sons of God? What if, rather than being 'God in Three Persons', the Creator God simply invested Himself into His Creation in order that they ( we ) might realize our innate Oneness with Him? Are we Sons & Daughters of the Creator God, our Heavenly Father, by merit of accepting the biblical Jesus as our Lord & Savior, or are we His children through spiritual generation?

Charles Haddon Shank

The Power of Positive Thinking; a Modern Parable

Bob had never been to a healer! Sure, he had gone to plenty of medical doctors who prescribed any number of pills, even vitamins. He'd even been to those who practiced Oriental medicine & stuck him full of needles. Homeopathy, although fairly recently enjoying more wide-spread acceptance, was not out of the picture either. Now, faith healers, like those infamous televangelists that like to push people down & then claim they've healed them, Bob knew enough about their kind to know that most were full of shit & not worth their salt! But a real, honest-to-God healer, one who was more concerned with realigning things like 'chakra', or 'qi', now that, he'd been told, was just a bunch of Eastern mysticism crap & he should avoid it like the plague! I mean, really, a 'holy' man standing there chanting a bunch of mumbo-jumbo over your inert body; that's supposed to do something for you?!

So, Bob had been to all kinds of doctors, taken all kinds of vitamins, even some potions & while they seemed to do some good, at least when he faithfully took them, he had noticed that his affliction seemed to slowly worsen! Sure, it was all but imperceptible sometimes, but after all, the doctors all said it would get progressively worse! When Bob finally broke down & decided to thumb his nose at all that was culturally acceptable, he visited one of those 'mumbo-jumbo' guys. Though a bit unsure at first, he had begun to accept that just treating symptoms was no longer an option; though it would very likely take a long time, by finding the problem at the 'heart', or the innermost ( spirit ) being, the adverse effects of any disease could be reversed, at least to some extent; some effects simply cannot be reversed!

Energy, positive or negative, is a natural fact! Whether one thinks positively or negatively has a lot of bearing on, not only how one acts, but also on their health. Knowing this, Bob had always tried to be positive about life, its ups & downs, but as we can all attest to, life has a way, to some extent & in some situations, of turning that smile into a frown, of making one forget the positive aspects & get caught up in the negative. The effects were noticeable; Bob had become increasingly listless, though he tried to keep a 'happy face' on; it had become increasingly harder to stay on top of things & life, in all its ugliness, had begun to drag him down! Oh, he still kept the beautiful parts of life in the back of his mind, but even there, those moments seemed to be getting further apart & fewer in between!

Life is beautiful & when you, in your innermost being, are correctly aligned with it, it's even more beautiful! Yes, life is still the School of Hard Knocks ( if anyone knew this, Bob did ), so one kinda has to take the good with 'bad'. However, with a positive outlook, 'it's ALL good!' Even what we normally look at as 'bad', or even 'evil' becomes good! Bob knew Romans 8:28 by heart ( his favorite, in fact ), along with certain other Bible verses, having been taught from an early age to 'keep these things' in his heart. The apostle Paul tells us that 'all things work together for good to those that love God', or something to that effect. He had always believed this & tried to look at it this way, putting a positive spin on things, but damn it, some things were just impossible to look as as having a silver lining!

Bob's energy had been zapped! Almost without notice & for whatever reason, things had been going downhill fast! It was not that he had lost his precious faith; he still believed the apostle's words, but something has been draining his energy & he didn't know why he felt the way he did. When he finally broke down & decided to try something that was 'off the beaten path', so to speak ( though it had been an ancient practice ), Bob could tell right away that he had taken the right step. He felt his energy ( he was positive ) returning to him. His smile was back & he was noticing more & more of the beautiful aspects of life & less & less of the ugliness. Oh, the ugliness was still there, don't get me wrong, but it was beginning to be less noticeable to him!

As the healer intoned those famed words over him & employed his 'mumbo-jumbo' ( good 'ju-ju', so to speak ) Bob could feel the negativity leaving his body!  Already, he felt the healing power, the energy that was being employed. All his life, Bob had been taught to seek healing outside of himself, so to speak, but as more positive influences began to affect him, he had begun to note that his own choices had the greatest effect on his own life, mind, spirit & body. Doctors had their place, to be sure, vitamins & other supplements were surely advantageous, but the greatest thing that one can do is to make the right choices; not the ones that everyone tells you are right, but the ones you know are right!

Bob had learned that not everything that is culturally acceptable is right & that not everything that is culturally unacceptable is bad! In order for our bodies to heal themselves, as they were meant to, Bob had found out, it is supremely necessary to know oneself! We may learn much about our bodies by visiting doctors, visiting medicine men & even shamans, but it is within us, deep within us that we will find the answer to our pain; it is there that we must begin!

Charles Haddon Shank

In Dreams We Soar; To New Heights

It was a familiar feeling. When Deothora opened her eyes, however, it was almost as if they remained closed! The air rushing by her face somehow felt different too, like before, yet even colder! Though she felt the same security as she had before, there was something different, like it was................heightened, somehow. The familiar greeting rumbled down to her, 'Oh good, you're awake!' That goofy, almost cartoonish face she had grown to love now loomed into view as she craned her gaze upwards, but as she did, her attention focused, not on the green furry thing that was transporting her, but on WHERE he was transporting her! 'Where ARE we?' she wondered. Before she could voice her concerns, however, as if reading her thoughts, Elothar answered with his powerful, yet gentle voice, 'Where do you THINK we are?' Deothora didn't answer for the longest time, as she took in the dark beauty around her. Somehow she knew the answer, of course, but the glory of it all literally took her breath away!

Deothora had gone to her bed several hours previously, but had spent that time tossing & turning, drifting here & there, finally falling into a troubled sleep just a little before finding herself transported to these dark reaches. Well, 'dark reaches' was actually not quite correct; there was light all around, the light of what seemed countless stars, like pinholes of light shining through a piece of black construction paper. Finding her voice once more, Deothora tremblingly answered the question ( which she had all but forgotten ), with yet another question, 'are we in outer space?' With an almost startling roar, which sounded strangely like a laugh, Elothar responded with another question; 'outer space', what's that?' 'If you mean the heavens beyond, then yes; we ARE in Space & Time, yet outside of both, in a manner of speaking.' Satisfied, yet somehow dissatisfied with this answer, Deothora was content to let her gaze wander, as she rested secure in those mighty, but gentle paws.

Soaring slowly by, it seemed, were blazing jewels of all shapes & sizes. Some of the shapes, she noticed, were more or less recognizable as the planets she had grown up studying in her astronomy books. Astronomy, for some reason, had always held the greatest fascination for Deothara! Ever since she was a little girl, she had always dreamed of soaring through the heavens, viewing these jewels from a safe, yet wonderful distance. up close & personal, you might say! Surrounded as she was by the beauty of the heavens, Deothora had almost forgotten the cold darkness that surrounded her, though she shouldn't have been surprised, safe & secure as she was, in the folds of those giant paws!

As they soared through the heavens, something occurred to Deothora that had previously not even been a concern; 'How is it that I'm not having any trouble breathing, as high as we are?' Feeling the almost imperceptible laughter in his gentle voice, she felt as well as heard the dragon's short reply, 'you're with me!' 'When you fly with me, Time & Space are not a concern; the life that you experience in the 'everyday' is constrained by Time & Space!' 'No one could bear these heights, not to mention the cold darkness, on their own, but in my presence, these constraints are no more!' Silently pondering these things in her heart, Deothora returned her gaze to the heavens that surrounded her. She looked down for the first time since she had awoken in that familiar grasp & noticed that, far below her, she could just make out a brilliant jewel, not as bright as the lights that surrounded her, but somehow more glittering!

Elothar, without waiting for her to ask ( it's like he knew what she was thinking! ), suddenly swooped toward the glittering jewel she had just taken note of. Gently swooping toward the brilliant object below, Deothora began to recognize different colors & patterns; there were noticeably blue areas, smaller green areas & even differing tans & browns. As they gracefully descended toward the glittering jewel, Deothora realized, with as light tinge of sadness, that their time together was drawing to a close. Drawing ever closer, Deothora noticed, with a new fascination, the vivid contrast that this particular jewel held, over all the others she had seen! The colors stood out in such a way that she wondered at the way the different colors stood out like different paints on an artist's pallette, yet the way they melded together brought to her mind the notion that beneath it all was a living, breathing being.

It seemed like they had been soaring for hours, even beyond the limits of Time & Space, yet when Deothora woke in her own bed the next morning, she felt rested; more than she had for quite some time! As she thought back on her flight of fancy with her favorite dragon, Deothora knew that she had found 'Heaven'; soaring through the heavens, beyond the reach of Time & Space, so to speak, she had experienced what so many of us long for, what we only dream of, what we hope for. 'Heaven', as Deothora glimpsed that night ( 'was it 'night'? ) is within; all we need to do is grab hold of our 'dragon' & soar to new heights!

Charles Haddon Shank

From Evolution to Revolution: Scripture as Allegory

This may come as a surprise to many, but the Bible is not a science book! Even further than that, while it is a history book, of sorts, it is not a history of the world, as in the entire creation. It is a covenantal history of a peculiar ( particular ) people, one through whom the Creator God choose to reveal Himself to His Creation. I've said it before & I'll say it again, 'the Story of Scripture is the Story of Israel!' Much as we'd like to think it's all about us, it's not; it speaks to us, resonates with us, yes, but first & foremost, it's solely about a certain group of people in the Ancient Near East ( ANE ); furthermore, it's written in a way that is quite unfamiliar & fairly strange to our western mindset!

Strange as it may seem, Abraham, contrary to our reading of Genesis 22:1-19, need not necessarily have tried to kill his own son in order for the account to shadow the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross, some millenia later. This is not to say the story in Genesis is not true & factual, only that stories like this have been fashioned to foreshadow the coming of the Messiah of Israel. There are many other such accounts, or occurrences, in Israel's history which serve to point to the Messiah, for example, the Law itself, as stated by the apostle Paul, 'was our tutor [ to bring us ] to Christ' ( Galatians 3:24 ). Here too, we must understand that Paul spoke, not to us, but to his fellow Israelites, in the 1st century!

It is without doubt & beyond question that this Creation, this universe ( multiverse? ), is the product of Intelligent Design! Much as many scientists would like to prove to the contrary, beauty & symbiosis like we witness on a daily basis does not just happen; it HAS to have been orchestrated & engineered by Someone or Something 'smarter than the average bear', so to speak! The theory of evolution as put forth most famously by Charles Darwin, the notion that mankind evolved from a single-celled organism & that the universe ( stars, planets & such ) is simply the manifestation of a random event known as 'The Big Bang' is not totally without merit. Though we know, as Darwin & others like him fail to ascribe to, that this was all the work of the Creator God, it is not outside the realm of genuine possibility that these are the means that were used to bring about all this beauty. Science has made great strides, in fact, toward this end, though maybe inadvertently!

The discovery of subatomic particles like the Higgs boson, the development of things like 'string theory', Quantum Mechanics & such have given scientists a boost in their search for understanding! Though many seek this knowledge in the vain hope of denying the Creator, many more, through these findings, have no doubt developed an even greater respect for the Master Builder.  The fact that all of these things work together to orchestrate the symphony of Life should be enough to convince even the most ignorant & stubborn of us yet falls on blind ears!

Even with such great leaps forward, mankind knows fairly little about how the universe ( or multiverse? ) was formed, much less, the intricacies of its clockworks, so to speak! By means of the Large Hadron Collider, a multi-million ( or is that 'billion'?? ) dollar project over in Switzerland, scientists have 'created' one of the subatomic particles they believe may be responsible for the 'Big Bang', or the formation of the universe.as we know it. It may very well be that this process, or one very like it, is indeed responsible for the glories of 'the heavens', but, as I would love to ask of any Darwinian Evolutionist, 'where did the particle come from?'

Was there an actual Man named Jesus who was in fact the Creator God incarnate? Did He indeed suffer on a literal cross for the sins of His People? We have faith that He did & now lives within us, leading us in the Way of Righteousness, to love the Creator God with all our heart, mind & strength, to love our neighbor as ourselves & to treat others as we would have others treat us! However, much of what we read in Scripture is related in such a way, through metaphor, similitude & allegory, as to represent a certain truth, a truth that might not be plainly accepted if plainly told. The Gospel accounts all serve to witness to the fact that the Creator God did indeed love His Creation so much that He sent His only ( begotten ) Son, that whoever belives in Him should never die, but have eternal life!

The Scriptures, as many Christians have begun to discover, were not written to us, though they are for us, being applicable to our own situations in many areas! Even reading the Bible with our Western mindset & particular point of view, humanity has made great leaps towards discovering the true nature of the Creator God & our relationship with & to Him/Her/It. As mankind continues to work out the implications of the fact that our Western thought-processes might not cut it, so to speak, we will continue to grow in the knowledge that we are indeed One with the Creator God, being of the same Essence!

May we ever use that Knowlege for good & not for evil,
Charles Haddon Shank

'Is There Anybody Out There?' or 'Realms of Glory'

The Hebrew Scriptures, the Psalms in particular, are very clear that the Creator God, 'Yahweh' to the Hebrews, makes His home in 'the heavens', or, more traditionally, 'Heaven'. When it comes to a description of 'Heaven', though, things get a bit cloudy, so to speak! Jesus' parabolic story of the rich man & Lazarus in Luke 16 describes it as a place of comfort: David & the other Psalm writers simply use the word 'heaven' or 'heavens'  ( 'Hebrew-shamayim-'lofty, the sky ) & speak of it as a 'place' that is higher, or more elevated than us. The closest we get to an actual description of 'Heaven', probably, in the entire Scriptures, is in the Revelation, where John offers us his very typological ( or is that 'anti-typical'? ) description of the throne room. The point is, our traditional notion of 'heaven', with 'a harp, a home, a crown', is not really supported by Scripture, but is almost pure speculation-no, I didn't forget the 'mansions' that Jesus promised in John 14, but as we've discussed in previous posts, these simply refer to those souls which have welcomed the knowledge of the Creator God!

The fulfillment of Scripture, in the past tense, anyway, seems to present modern Christianity with many problems, one of which is that if eschatology is indeed in the past & the Kingdom of God, or Heaven has come to Earth, then where DOES the Creator call home?! We have also explored previously in this blog, in a number of posts, that Jesus promised, also in John 14 ( 23 ), 'If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our home with him'. The objection might well be made here, such as, 'Though God, in the Spirit, HAS made His home in our 'hearts', He is STILL omnipresent, dwelling in 'Heaven'!' As the case may be, the Creator God, although He/She/It, as promised, has made His/Her/Its Home with mankind, I'm certainly NOT saying that the Creator of the Universe has been relegated to one certain 'place', the 'hearts' of His/Her/Its People!

Is there an actual 'place' out there somewhere in the Universe, called 'Heaven', or is 'Heaven' or the realm of the Creator God ( some would call it simply 'Energy' ) in another dimension altogether, as has been  speculated about on this blog of late? I must say, I've heard it put forth by certain Christians that 'Heaven' is actually a certain physical location, somewhere in the Universe, where the Creator God dwells with His Son, Jesus the Christ, in His human form, no less, who sits at His right hand, 'whence He shall come............to judge the living and the dead'! This is actually the traditional Christian doctrine of 'Heaven', more or less & while it does agree with Scripture, also ends up denying what Jesus Himself promised!

What if 'Heaven' IS simply in another dimension? The words of Jesus, for example in John 18:36, 'My kingdom is not of this world. If My kingdom were of this world, My servants would fight, so that I should not be delivered to the Jews; but now My kingdom is not from here.', would seem to make some sense. It is true, some research will easily show that the 'world' of which Jesus spoke here ( Greek-kosmos ) was the 'world' of the 1st-century Jews, but we may infer that, since Jesus used  'kosmos' rather than 'oikoumenē', that the entire Creation, of which we are only a very small part, may be in view here!

Jesus' promise as recorded in John 14:23 does not state specifically where, in us, the Great Spirit would make Its Home, but, as we have loosely maintained that it is in our 'heart', I will leave it up to private speculation as to what might be meant by 'heart'-most certainly not the biological organ! The mind, or even brain, might more specifically indicate the dwelling-place of 'God in the Spirit', as this is primarily the seat of knowledge & might be called 'the physical manifestation of the spirit'.

Eschatologically speaking, Jesus promised that He would return in His Father's glory to the generation of people then living: though some died before that generation had passed away, many had not & to say that He did not is to deny this very important truth! Jesus also taught His disciples to pray, 'Your kingdom come.
Your will be done on earth as [ it is ] in heaven' & though it might well be interjected here that Jesus simply instructed them to pray that His Father's will be done on earth 'as [ it is ] in heaven', rather than that His Kingdom should come to earth, it has been almost universally accepted that it what Jesus meant!

The Glory of the Creator God is definitely NOT limited to this heavenly realm, or dimension, if you will; its all around us! Call it 'Energy', call it 'God', call it 'the Universe' ( even 'Mother Earth' ), it is obviously manifested in & through us, as well as the Creation that surrounds us. When we call upon our Heavenly Father, the Energy that makes up our very being, or the Universe itself, we pray, not so much to a Force outside us, but to One that is Within us as well; One that is a part of us, One that makes up our very existence!

Charles Haddon Shank

The Pneumatophoric Human, or, The Human Animal

What sets us, as human beings, apart from all the other animals, or created beings? Most people, probably more or less correctly, would immediately say something like, 'human beings have souls'. The human animal, one might say, unlike other animals, has learned to codify ( ? ) spoken language & to live morally, in civilization, but then, the tables could easily be turned, showing that many human beings act worse than any wild animal! There have been studies done that show that many so-called 'wild' animals seem to have more morality & live more civilized lives than many human beings.!

The phrase, 'all dogs go to heaven', though it has waned in popular use over the past decade or so, is still very much alive, in concept anyway! Ask most any pet owner nowadays, especially the older ones & they will tell you their pets are their 'kids'. In fact, some of them will tell you they like them better than most humans! In some sense, one can't really blame them! Over the past year or so, it has become popular when one's pet has died, to say that they have 'passed over the rainbow bridge' & will be waiting for them once they too, 'pass over the rainbow bridge'. No matter the case, whether or not these beloved pets will be reunited with their owners in some sort of after-life or not, one thing is abundantly clear to anyone who 'owns' one of these animals; they ARE possessed of some sort of spirit & while they might not possess the intelligence & abilities we, as human beings, do, it is evident they do communicate with each other!

Human beings, while in most cases a step or so above the other animals, have traditionally been regarded as special, largely because of a misunderstanding of the first chapters of Genesis! The misunderstanding is that the creation account in Genesis 1 & 2 is a record of the beginning of Time. The 'creation' of Adam & Eve has always been understood by the majority of Christians as the actual foundation of the human race. Science has proven beyond any reasonable doubt, however, that human beings roamed the planet long before the genesis of biblical history!

When Genesis 2:7 records that the Creator 'breathed into his nostrils the breath of life', we should understand that, like in the prophet Ezekiel's vision ( Ezekiel 37:9 & 10 ), it was not biological life that came over Adam & Eve, but spiritual, or covenantal. It was awareness of the Creator that came upon them that 'day', awareness that the Architect of the universe was not a cold, faceless Being, but one that sought blessed relationship with those He ( She/It ) had created.

Human beings have doubtless been endowed with the Spirit of Life! While Scripture tells a Story of that Life being awakened within humanity, it also gives us what might be noted as a clue, a glimpse into the whole concept that even animals, as creations of the Great Architect, are not without the blessings of the Spirit of Life! Humankind could, in fact, learn many an important lesson from what we have traditionally called 'dumb' animals; some have noted these important lessons & embraced their more or less elevated status, while others have chose to remain ignorant & hopelessly flounder in what might be called 'the primordial ooze'!

The Human Animal, having been chosen, biblically speaking, as the engine through which the Creator would become One with His ( Her/Its ) Creation has a larger brain capacity than most domesticated animals, to be sure, but there are many yet in the wild who's brain capacity is much larger than ours! Although it cannot be proven, I believe that the brain is the physical manifestation of the spirit, so therefore, according to that reasoning, the bigger the brain, the higher intelligence manifested by the controlling spirit. This theory, of course, is not 'water-tight', but one has to wonder why some humans seem to have 'pea-', or even bird-brains', while some of these 'dumb animals', whether domesticated or yet wild, seem possessed of greater intelligence?

As a race, humans have enjoyed an ascendancy, especially with 'The Dawn of Civilization', over the other animals; indeed, Scripture itself tells the Story of how Adam & Eve were given dominion over the rest of the 'creation', including the animals. With the advent of such life-changing concepts as Covenant Creation & the notion that Adam & Eve were not the progenitors of the human  race, one might begin to wonder; 'if the animal mentioned throughout Scripture were not actually animals at all, but human beings of lesser intelligence, or awareness, then maybe we were not necessarily given the dominion over these 'dumb animals', as we thought, but rather, maybe we should understand that it's really just a Story about how Israel was the Creator God's tool whereby He brought all into subjection under Him!'

If we can get past the notion that wild or domesticated animals ( as opposed to the human animal ) are there only for our pleasure, maybe we can begin to to learn from them how to be truly civilized! Although human beings normally have a larger brain capacity than most domesticated animals, it is by no means a given that they use it to its full capacity; some animals, on the other hand, seem to exceed their brain capacity! We could learn a lot from what we call 'dumb animals' & while some have learned some life-altering lessons, others have failed to see this most important of truths, continuing to treat their fellows, whether human or 'mere' animal, as simply their next 'meal-ticket'!

Charles Haddon Shank

'( The ) Christ Lives in Me'!

'Why do you call Me good?^[f] No one [ is ] good but One, [ that is ], God.'

Matthew 19:17 -NKJV

With verses like Jeremiah 17:9 & Psalm 14:3, 'The heart [ is ] deceitful above all[ things ], and desperately wicked; who can know it?' & '[ There is ] none who does good, no, not one' ringing in their ears, it is no wonder that some Christians today feel that they themselves, even though they believe they house the Holy Spirit, are not good, even worthless! The apostle Paul, in his letter to the Church at Rome ( Romans 7:15 ), writes, 'For what I am doing, I do not understand. For what I will to do, that I do not practice; but what I hate, that I do'. Although it may seem difficult, in this corrupted world that we inhabit, to say these verses no longer apply today; even among Christians, one would be hard-pressed to say this is no longer the case. The desires, the longings that all of us, if we're honest with ourselves, feel on a daily basis, make us feel that the words above apply to every human being ever born!

The funny thing about context is that it must be correctly understood, in order to correctly understand any certain verse! Both historically & covenantally speaking, context determines interpretation, so when we read in Scripture, '[ There is ] none who does good, no, not one', we can see, in context, that the Psalmist is saying that there is no such thing as a good fool, in particular, one who says, '[ There  is ] no God' ( Psalm 53:3 ) When the prophet Jeremiah seemingly denigrates the 'heart' of humanity, the context makes clear he is speaking of a specific people; In speaking of 'The sin of Judah', using similar language to that of the Psalmist, Jeremiah decries the fact that the heart of these people ( Psalm 53: 4 ) is 'deceitful above all[ things ], and desperately wicked'. This is not to say that every thought of our 'heart' is now completely pure ( in a puritanical sense), because, as we can all attest to, everyone has an 'impure' thought at least once a day, whether it's sexual in nature, or just wanting to take an unwarranted jab at someone!

Reading the words of Jesus, in Matthew 19:17 above, those who carry a more modern ( or ancient, as the case may be ) version of the Bible, rather than seeing Jesus denigrate His Humanity, might rather understand that He was reminding the rich young ruler that the Jewish Law told him how to be good: it was their own law that told them to love God & their neighbor as themselves! The apostle Paul, seemingly on the other hand, writes about what most deem his personal struggles in Romans 7:13-25; however, context again must determine our interpretation of his words! Paul, although like the rest of us understood his natural longings & desires, nevertheless was warning his contemporaries against their main adversaries, as he did in all his letters. It was not Roman, but Jewish Law that told them, 'You shall not covet'. As with the rich young ruler, Paul pointed out that it was their own law that condemned them, not their inherent nature. Previously, in the same passage, the apostle had given them this caveat; 'But now we have been delivered from the law, having died to what we were held by, so that we should serve in the newness of the Spirit and not [ in ] the oldness of the letter', much like he wrote later ( 8:1 ) to the same Body, '[ There is ] therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus,^[a] who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit'.

Because of the glorious fact that 'Christ lives in me' ( Galatians 2:20 ), the apostle Paul realized that, though the Body of Israel had become dead through their own law, those who walk 'according to the Spirit', were no longer under that law & thus its condemnation! In this day & age, one might argue, the corruption that the apostle mourns in his letter to the Romans is alive & well on planet earth. It would seem that they are right, because we bear witness to much depravity that is sounds very similar to what they witnessed in Paul's, even Jesus' own day! However, we understand through context, both historical and covenantal, that we, particularly as Christians, living in the 21st century, are not under that law. While common sense tells us still that to covet another's belongings will only get us in trouble, it is no longer the Law that condemns us, but we ourselves!

While Christians traditionally have well understood the glorious fact that we are not under the condemnation of the Law; it seems there are many who fail to realize the gravity of 'Christ lives in me'! Going back to Romans 7, Paul lamentingly states that 'I am carnal, sold under sin': as a representative of the Body of Israel, Paul realized that, even though they had the Spirit, the Comforter ( John 8 & 14 ), as long as they were under the thumb, so to speak, of the Jewish economy & while the Temple still stood, they were still in captivity, according to the flesh.  Once Jesus had been revealed as the very Son of God from Heaven & having ended the Jewish economy with their reign of terror, even that Law which had plagued the Body of Christ was taken out of the way, having proven to be contrary to the Israel of God ( Colossians 2:14 ). With, as I call it, the Marriage of Heaven & Earth, we have become One with our Heavenly Father, not in the sense that we have become Him, as in the Creator, but as in marriage itself, wherein we are consumed by the same desire!

Although we still fail, to one degree or another, to fulfill the Law of Love, this is not to say that we have failed our humanity! Because the Spirit of Him who 'loved the world' ( John 3:16 ) lives in us, we have been empowered to do what is right; we WANT to do right, not that we always do. Even so, as the apostle wrote to the Church at Rome, 'now, [ it is ] no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me', he realized that, with the Revelation of Jesus as the Christ & the destruction of the Jewish economy, the dwelling of God was now with man ( John 14:23 ), no longer would sin dwell with him or his brethren!

Our desires, even as Christians, seem to often bring us in conflict with the Law of God! However, we must ask ourselves; 'do we really flout the Law of Love, or do we simply fail to live up to it, condemning ourselves in the process?' If the Law does not condemn us, even the Law of Love, then why should we? We are not fools, to deny the Creator & we do not, as Israel according to the flesh, persecute His people. Our failure to always love as we are Loved does not denigrate our humanity; rather, through our failure, we understand our weakness, our finiteness, our physicality!

As we strive, in our humanity, to love our God ( Creator, Father ) & our neighbor as ourselves, we can be sure, even as Paul was, that we serve in the Spirit, bet even more, we live, not in the old 'flesh', but in the new biology, one that relies, not on laws, but on the Spirit! With the apostle, let us live in the Spirit, for we do not live in the flesh; we never have!

Charles Haddon Shank

The Drowning of Atlantis, the Plagues of Egypt & the Exodus Theme of the Hebrew Scriptures

Many have noted the theme of exodus from oppression throughout the Scripture, but still, seemingly contrary to history, affix a literal & supernatural interpretation to the Exodus Story, as passed down to us in the book of the same name! This is not to say that the events laid out for us in the book did not actually happen, nor is it to say that there was nothing supernatural about the event; this is simply to say that the events need not happened, either chronologically or exactly as they are so colorfully & poetically described, in order for them to have taken place. As we can ascertain in the New Testament, in particular, this Exodus Theme is significant of the Gospel of Jesus, who was the Christ; as He was typified by the leader of the original exodus, Moses; Jesus figuratively & really led His people out of the bondage of Sin & Death, which had been typified by Egypt & in His own time, by Israel according to the flesh!

The funny thing about myths is that they are usually ( however loosely ) based in historical fact & so, I imagine, is Plato's reference to the mythical island of Atlantis! If Atlantis ever actually existed ( some say 'yes, while others say 'no'; it should be clear that such a place, though probably not literally accurate according to legend, probably did, at some point in time exist. Though it was most likely not call 'Atlantis'; it is probably fairly safe to speculate that Plato's reference was not original, as he claimed. Most modern critics theorize that 'Atlantis' was merely an allegory for some sort of utopia, a vision of 'the perfect society', while others have striven to prove that such a place did, at one time, exist, though maybe called by another name. Whether it did once exist or whether it IS just an allegory, Atlantis stands forevermore as a legend & an ideal to be sought after by those who believe in the innate goodness of humanity!

The fact that the magicians of the Pharaoh's court, as reported in the book of Exodus, were able to duplicate the first two plagues that Moses pronounced on the Egyptians, as well as turning their staffs into serpents, has always interested me, but with no obvious explanation presenting itself, has remained a mystery to me, though I have been known to speculate on the matter in the past! Why were the Pharaoh's magicians able, like Moses, to bring frogs upon the land, as well as turn the water to blood, but were not able to duplicate the lice ( 'lice' may be a faulty translation here, as it is translated very differently in Isaiah 51:6 ). After this, the magicians seem to have given up, since the Story does not record them striving anymore, though it does record them acknowledging, 'This [ is ] the finger of God' ( Exodus 8:18 ). No matter why they were able to generate the frogs & turn the waters into blood, but were not able to duplicate the 'lice' & following plagues, one thing is clear, these plagues all had one thing in common; they were all natural occurrences!

By claiming that the Plagues of Egypt could all be explained naturally, I am by no means saying there was no supernatural causation; this IS our Father's ( the Creator's ) world after all & all things naturally occurring do so only through His almighty governance! According to my research, a certain  ( volcanic ) island in the Mediterranean Sea erupted quite massively around the time of the purported Exodus. As this eruption put the much more recent Mount St. Helens eruption to shame, it also could account for every single one of the Plagues of Egypt, even the famous 'Parting of the Sea' ( usually called the Red Sea, but more correctly, 'The Sea of Reeds ), though not necessarily in the same chronological order as the author of the book of Exodus recorded them. The resulting ash cloud, being much greater in scope than the fairly recent eruption in Washington state, could easily account for the darkness that the inhabitants of Egypt experienced, as well ( 'dare I say it?' ) the 'deaths of the firstborn'. 'Now that,' one might protest, 'is going too far; that was obviously supernatural!'

Truly, the plagues recorded in the book of Exodus were naturally occurring phenomena, though not necessarily everyday occurrences! The frogs & flies, for instance, could easily be explained by the dead fish resulting from the waters of the river turning to 'blood', which, in turn, might be explained by the fore-mentioned ash cloud, or even ocean currents from as far north & west as the northern Mediterranean Sea. 'If all the Plagues of Egypt may be explained away naturally', one might wonder, 'wouldn't that mean that the Exodus might not have actually taken place, that it's all just a big Story?' Well, it IS a big Story & that's precisely what we must keep in mind here; the Exodus account, as all of Scripture, was written in such a way, not necessarily chronologically, as to reveal a greater, spiritual truth!

Minoan civilization, of which the island of Thera, also known as Santorini, has been found to have been far advanced over any other ancient civilisation, so it would not be surprising to learn that it may have been the origin of the 'Atlantis' myth, or legend. When Mount St. Helens erupted in 1980, the effects were felt as far east as the Dakotas; when Thera erupted, 3,000+ years previously, it affected most of the known world! With the explosive force of hundreds of atomic bombs, Thera's ( underwater ) volcano, as the Finger of God, had more than the capability to rain down down devastation, not only on Egypt, but anything or anyone else unfortunate enough to be in its path!

It is quite likely that the Minoan civilization on Thera, or Santorini, was the genesis of the Atlantean myth! At the time & even looking back on such a society as must have resulted from such advancement, the Minoan civilization must have seemed almost 'utopian'; it certainly would have struck certain philosophers as an ideal society. In fact, there are those of our day who seem to think that all of our political contrivances & technological advances will usher in the vaunted 'Age of Aquarius', but so far, all we have seen is the lengths that humanity will go to maintain its power over others!

The Typology of Scripture is without doubt! As mentioned previously, The Exodus from Egypt typified the True Exodus, that from the bondage of Sin & Death, so in that sense at least, need not necessarily have happened in the exact way it is recorded in order to meet the necessary requirements. The Exodus, the True Exodus did occur; that is also without doubt: Israel met its Messiah, who led them in a Spiritual Exodus! The details, far from being unimportant, were obviously of great import to the original audience, the Hebrew people & those who followed them out of Egypt, but to us, living in the 21st century, the importance lies in the blessed fact that we are the benefactors of thatSpiritual Exodus, though we in turn, are saddled with the responsibility of leading others out of darkness into the everlasting light!

Charles Haddon Shank

In Dreams We Soar

Deothora felt the wind rush against her face, in gentle remembrance of her mother's soothing touch when she had a fever. To her surprise, the landscape which opened beneath her was one which was almost totally foreign to her, yet, somehow, familiar! At first, she was startled by the fact that she was viewing this scene from such a great distance, but she felt no fear as her stable flight seemed to continue with no sign of ending. Dipping low over the mountain, Deothora tried flapping her arms in an effort to maneuver around the highest peaks, but she found that her arms were pinioned gently by her sides! Consciously taking more note of her immediate surroundings, Deothora found that, on both sides, she was firmly but gently being held by what appeared to be a large, furry, green paw ( or was it a hand? )! Craning her neck as far as she could, she followed the paw/hand back & upward till she found what she had sought for so long. The face she saw, except for the almost cartoonish goofiness, would almost have made one's heart skip a beat & indeed, hers almost did, that is, until she found herself gazing into the kindest, gentlest eyes she had ever seen. As Deothora hung there motionless, having forgotten for a time that she was hurtling at a gentle speed through the clouds, being held by some strange contrivance, she heard a gentle, but obviously powerful voice come out of that cartoonish, almost goofy face above her; 'oh good, you're awake'! When she finally found her voice, which seemed to have been removed from her, ever since she had awoken in such alarming, but peaceful surroundings, the first syllables Deothora was able to utter were, 'who are you? & 'where am I?' The gentle giant chuckled, one of those deep belly-laughs that dragons are famous for-yes this was an honest-to-goodness dragon; 'I am your dream come true' he roared-although it entered her ears as more of a comforting whisper. 'As to where you are,' the dragon continued, 'open your eyes & see!' 'It should be obvious where you are, for you have traversed this country many times!' Turning her wandering gaze downward once again & without even straining her eyes, Deothora discovered that she recognized many of her most favorite places! Having never seen them from this vantage point, though, they had not resonated in her memory, like they should have.

'You have always been so close to the ground', her furry friend said, 'you might not have noticed the beauty that was there all the time, just waiting for you to soar above it all!' Deothora found the view quite breath-taking as they continued to glide effortlessly through the clouds. Though she had experienced the wind in her face before, she had never imagined it could be this exhilarating, or......comfortable?! As high above the ground as they were & as swiftly as they were moving-although it felt like they were just out for a stroll-Deothora was amazed that she was not in the least bit cold! 'Of course', she thought, almost laughingly, 'I AM surrounded by fur!'

Deothora's heart had been captured by a dragon, which, if you know anything about dragons-or think you know-have gotten a bad rap! Dragons are pictured in many fairy-tales as almost the personification of evil. However, we who know, know that dragons are simply creatures like us! Okay, so they have wings to fly, but really, so do we! We can read a book, or even just sit with our eyes closed, listening to music & soar through the clouds of imagination. While our bodies are tethered to the ground-through the unseen force of gravity, or some such vain imagination-our spirits soar through the clouds, allowing us to rise above it all & appreciate the beauty that surrounds us, though too often it seems we can't see the forest for the trees!

Elothar-that was the dragon's name- had surprised Deothora in a dream one day, lifting her out of her slumber & giving her a view of her country that she had only ever imagined in her dreams! As they flew over the ever-changing landscape, Deothora began to relish the wind in here face; 'faster, faster!' she cried. Tilting his huge head down, her furry friend replied, 'if we go any faster, you won't enjoy the journey, my dear!' To prove his point, Elothar sped up his pace very minutely & THEN Deothora realized that she was beginning to feel the cold air they had been soaring through all along!  She had such a peaceful feeling, clutched in Elothar's giant paw,  that she had never before noticed the chill that was in the air, forming the very mists they were flying through!

Deothora had never experienced such bliss, though in her dreams she had always suspected that she had glimpsed it! Elothar had given Deothora more than just a glimpse, however; he had shown her how to rise above it all. He had shown her that, while in dreams we soar, even in our waking moments, we CAN rise above it all, see the beauty of the forest in which we live & enjoy the comfort & security which dragons may afford us. Soaring through the clouds, though, as Elothar & Deothora did that day, we must be ever careful to curb our speed, for if we try to go too fast, we may miss something along the way; as dragons know best, a slow, but steady, pace is best for both comfort & enjoyment!

As all good things must come to an end, as they say, so Deothora's flight of fancy came to an abrupt, but not uncomfortable conclusion! Elothar spoke to her in a tone that was both joyful & sad; 'our time together is over for now-do not say 'goodbye'-but never fear, always soar; I will see you in  your dreams!' As he spoke these parting words, Deothra felt the giant paws tighten about her in a kind of farewell hug & then, for what seemed like hours-though it couldn't have bee more than a minute or two-Deothora was soaring by herself, in a steady but gentle glide towards the country she had grown to love & the place she called Home. As her favorite bed rushed up to greet her, with its loving embrace, the gnawing realization finally hit her; 'WAIT, I remember you NOW!'

For Deborah,
Charles Haddon Shank

The Inner Sanctum

We have just celebrated the birth of Emmanuel, or 'God with us'; as Christians, of course, this is something we celebrate year 'round (let that sink in ), but how often do we really think about what that means; in other words, 'what does it mean to us that God is with us ( John 14:23 )?' As discussed in a previous post, 'sure, we have the Spirit indwelling us', but why are most Christians waiting for more, in other words, why do they continue to look for salvation outside themselves? The concept of looking within oneself for salvation will most likely sound heretical, even blasphemous to most, but given the twin facts that Israel was the receptor of the salvation we read of in the Scriptures & that the so-called Godhead, or Trinity now dwells with us, in our hearts, so to speak, it should really not be shocking to realize that it is within ourselves that we should look for the Strength to work ( out ) our own salvation!

The subject of 'Heaven' is quite a controversial one: whether it is an actual 'place' out there somewhere, in the heavens or whether it is a separate realm or dimension, one thing is clear; it is the Dwelling ( place ) of the Creator God, also known as our Heavenly Father! Jesus told the Pharisees, who were a bit confused about the Nature of the coming Kingdom, 'the kingdom of God is within you' ( Luke 17:21 ). Coupled with Jesus' words in John 14 ( 23 ), 'if anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our home with him', it should not be hard to understand that 'Heaven' is in our hearts. By saying 'in our hearts', of course I do not refer to the physical organ, nor to biology at all, but to our inmost being, our spirit. As the Kingdom of Heaven & the Kingdom of God seem to be interchangeable in Scripture, we may safely conjecture that they are the same & refer to the Realm of the Creator God!

The Creator, or 'God', if you will, though He has made His ( Her, Its ) Home with man, is not however confined to mankind: He ( She, It ) is still the Creator! One issue I have encountered when bringing up John 14:23 in conversation is the supposed omnipresence of the Creator God. I do not mean to say, along with the Deists, perhaps, that after everything had been finished, the Creator God stepped out of the picture & let it all go to hell, nor do I mean to imply that it is only with ( in ) His human Creation that He abides, or dwells. I mean simply to say that our Heavenly Father has awakened us, opened our eyes, so to speak, to the Reality that we can exist on two different planes, in two dimensions at once!

The fact that we are spirit beings having a physical experience is one that I have tried to make clear in my writings, as it has become more impressed upon my own mind of late. Along with this realization has come its own difficulties, leading to further study & consideration. The issue of gender, for instance, has been a rather hot topic lately! If, as I posited in a certain conversation recently, the body, not the spirit, determines gender, then may we rightly say that there are male & female spirits? Could this be one thing that the apostle Paul  referred to when he wrote, 'there is neither male nor female' ( Galatians 3:28 )? Another question that might arise is, 'do spirits dwell in the physical ( biological ) realm, or do they exist in the another dimension altogether, although right alongside the visible realm?' Is this not what the prophet's servant saw, as recorded in II Kings 6:17? Could this be the real import of what Jesus said in Luke 20:34-36?

Jesus, as recorded in John 6:63, said, 'It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing. The words that I speak to you are spirit, and [ they ] are life'. A bit out of context maybe, but couple this with the fact that in the beginning, the Creator God breathed into Adam 'the breath of life' ( Genesis 2:7 ) Along these same lines, the prophet's vision in Ezekiel 37 showed that it was not the physical, or biological body of Israel that needed to be resurrected, it was the spiritual body which was about to be raised to life once more.At the end of his famous diatribe on 'faith without works', in James 2:14-26, the apostle wrote 'the body without the spirit is dead' & in the same breath that 'faith without works is dead also'.

Believing in a Covenant Creation, as I & many others do, one might note a seeming inconsistency with this viewpoint, in that the body of Adam, as the Body of Israel in Ezekiel 37, had no life until 'the breath of life' entered the picture, because that would mean that Adam, or mankind, had no life in them previously. Well, that might pose a difficulty if it were not for the fact that Ezekiel 37 at least, is metaphorical of the fact that the body of Israel had become entangled in the lies of Sin & Death! With that aside, one might well note that it is the spirit, with or without the blessing of the Spirit of Life, that animates the body!

The spiritual dimension, though known & experienced by many since the dawn of time, has recently been opened to the eyes of even more. Some religions, but the Christian religion in particular, has traditionally taught that it is not until the spirit leaves the body that one enters this realm, also known as 'Eternity'. This could lead to another discussion entirely, but I believe that, since the Resurrection occurred in the first century, we inhabit that Realm! As human beings, yes, our biological 'self' is confined to this earthly ( physical ) realm, but as spiritual beings, we have ascended, or at least are ascending, in a manner of speaking, to the spiritual, or heavenly realm. Is this not what the writer to the Hebrews meant when he wrote 'you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, to an innumerable company of angels, to the general assembly and church of the firstborn [ who are ] registered in heaven, to God the Judge of all, to the spirits of just men made perfect' ( Hebrews 12:22 & 23 )?

The Creator God, we can truly attest to, operates without the confines of Time, which all human beings, biologically speaking, are liable to! Since the Kingdom of Heaven has been brought to earth, we, though not our 'flesh and blood' ( I Corinthians 15:50 ) have entered this Hidden Realm. One might wonder if the spirit had not always existed in that other dimension, but that might be another matter for another post. While in this body, we often feel as if we're in 'Hell', so to speak; it is with our spirit & strengthened by the Spirit, that we can choose to transcend this mere biological experience & make a home in 'Heaven'!

'Somewhere, out there.............' is a cry of hope that a host of dreamers have uttered for millenia! The traditional Christian hope of 'Heaven' is not a false hope ( 'Yes, Virginia, there IS a Heaven!' ); it is simply a misplaced one! Heaven is not some place that we will inhabit only in the after-life ( ? ), 'Heaven' is another dimension, another plane of existence, if you will, in which our spirituality leads our biological bodies to live in a way that's heavenly!

As we prepare to enter upon a New Year, in a timely manner, let us determine within ourselves to live beyond the mean, to realize that we are spiritually with our Lord, the Creator God, our Heavenly Father! Though these biological bodies will never enter this Realm, we may, through the Strength of the Spirit Within, transform our World into a recognizable 'Heaven', as the Spirit causes Life to flow through our fingertips, from one Realm into another!

Charles Haddon Shank

The Pattern of Prophecy & the Exodus Theme

The Story of Scripture, from Adam to Jesus, is the Story of Israel! If you follow my meanderings at all, this is not an unfamiliar notion to you. The concept that our first parents, Adam & Eve, were not the first human beings to traverse the planet is not a new one, though among most Christians, it is a fairly radical notion. Scientists, especially those who cling to the theory of evolution, have purported for ages that mankind has roamed the earth for tens of thousands of years. The notion that Adam & Eve were not the first humans to inhabit the region we know as the Near East is an idea whose time has come; the fact that they were simply the first ones through whom the Creator God deemed to enter into His Creation, is a radical one indeed, so radical, in fact, that it may just end up transforming our theological landscape!

The question has come before this blogger recently, of why we are reading the Hebrew & Greek Scriptures, rather than learning about the life of the Buddha, or other Ancient Near Eastern 'gods' ( or their servants ). Why are we, here in America, studying the Bible rather than the Q'ran? As I discussed in one of my recent posts, it is because of 'The Resonance of the Story'! As I discussed, the Story of Israel is really the story of humanity. The Story of Scripture, though it tells about how the God of Creation chose to make His Purpose known through a special people, the children of Israel, or Jacob, actually mirrors humanity very well, as it records the rise & fall of many an individual, corporate body & empire!

Following the Story of Israel, from Adam's Fall in the Garden to the Fall of the Corporate Body of Israel, from the murder of Abel to the murder of Zechariah, we may note a pattern throughout that resonates within us, even here in America, so far removed from the original subject matter. From the first prophecy of a messiah ( Genesis 3:15 ), to when that longed-for Messiah came 'in the fullness of time', as recorded in the Synoptic Gospels, we see a pattern throughout, prophecies which pointed to & were indicative of a time to come when the Creator God would dwell with His People, as pictured in the tabernacle & the Temple. We've covered this ground before, but as He walked with Adam & Eve in the Garden of Eden ( the original Temple ), so He would again, through Jesus, walk among His People &; indeed, fashion them into His New Temple!

As we have been blessed, at Covenant Community Church, by the ministrations of our two teaching elders, we have become fairly familiar with the Exodus Theme that runs throughout Scripture. The Captivity of Israel, in its many iterations, was typical of the bondage that the human race has been embroiled in since its inception! The Fall of Adam & Eve in the Garden, especially when read with the understanding that it is apocalyptic literature & Ancient Near Eastern at that, should resonate with anyone who reads the account in Genesis 3. The following accounts of the murder of Abel, the Falls of Noah & Abraham, the wilderness wanderings of the children of Israel & their fleshly struggles throughout those wanderings, the times of the Judges & Kings, all leading up to the Final Exodus of the Israel of God & the Birth of the Promised One in the midst of captivity & His ministry remind us all of our own struggles & search for salvation!

The Exodus, from Egypt, of the children of Israel, although traditionally understood as historical narrative, has come under critical fire in the past few decades, as there seems to be no evidence, aside from Scripture, that it ever occurred exactly as we read it in the biblical narrative! There can be found, with some speculation, records of similar events that happened around the same time, but the main weight, which we can ascertain from a cursory reading of the Greek Scriptures, is that the events of the first Exodus ( from Egypt ) served as a picture of the Final Exodus that Jesus ( who was the Great Anti-type ) led His People in, an Exodus from the Bondage of Sin & Death!

The Creator God not only walks with His People once again, He has made us His Temple, His Dwelling on Earth! The Pattern of Prophecy, as we have noted previously, pointed to this Reality & still today, as the Scriptures are carefully read, resonates within the hearts of true believers, reminding us of this Chief End of Man ( kind ). As the Israel of God, the True Temple where He now resides in His fullness & having been made aware of our true, spiritual nature, we serve as the purveyors of His Love. It is when we fail to share that Love that we notice problems such as are recorded in the pages of Scripture!

The Hebrew Scriptures, standing alone, would indeed paint a far different theological landscape than that which we admire today! Though much of our orthodox doctrines are still based on the teachings of the Hebrew Scriptures, it is widely accepted that most of what was prophesied in them was fulfilled in the Christ. We, here in America follow the Scriptures rather than the Q'ran because of what I'll call 'The Fulfillment Factor'! 'The New is in the Old concealed, the Old is in the New revealed'. This is a true & noteworthy statement; Jesus, or the Messiah of Israel, being prophesied in the Hebrew Scriptures, was truly & finally revealed in the Greek Scriptures. In the Q'ran, we see no such thing: like many Christians, we may note that the Blessed Hope of Islam lies primarily in the 'afterlife'. Unlike most Jews, these Christians believe that though the Messiah came as prophesied, He must come again to finish His work of Redemption. The Realization that He came as promised & prepared us as His Dwelling ( place ), His New Temple, helps us to understand that His work, to Redeem Israel, WAS finished; now we simply fulfill ( continue ) that work!

Charles Haddon Shank

Out of the Bag

'Mom.....Dad.....Y'all might wanna sit down for this.....'

Lynn should have known better; every parent dreads what comes next-okay, so sometimes it's not nearly as bad a their child thinks it is-but especially Lynn's folks; both were good upstanding members of a local congregation & her dad was even a deacon! Lynn Gaylord had always felt...............well, special; never quite fitting in with all the others-boys or girls-but somewhat of an affinity for both. She had, up to this point, led a fairly normal childhood, but now that she had hit puberty, full-force, so to speak, Lynn was beginning to hear 'The Call of the Wild' even more!

As her parent's blood began to warm their faces again, Lynn continued her confession; 'I always had this nagging feeling that I wasn't quite like all the rest-I'm sure you had your suspicions too-but as I've bee doing a lot of growing in the past several years, I've discovered that I prefer...................'Boyz II Men'. As soon as the words had left her mouth, both of Lynn's parents jumped to their feet, words rushing out of their mouth like water from a freshly un-kinked hose!

'Oh, honey, we're so relieved; we had noticed as you were growing up that you were a bit.....different, but this is such a load off our minds!

'But, mom..........dad..............', Lynn replied, as she picked her mouth up off the carpet, 'I said I like 'Boyz II Men', not boys in general; I'm both cissexual & cisgender, if that's what you were worried about!'

Well, of course, being old 'fuddie-duddies', Lynn's poor parents had never even heard the term ( s ) before, so back up went the blood pressure, almost immediately reaching the boiling point-for her dad, anyway!

'What the hell..........' her dad began to protest, as her mother quickly tried to calm the storm that was brewing. 'we love you anyway, dear, no matter what you choose to be..............' Lynn's mom had heard terms like 'transgender' & transsexual' before, so she knew enough about those kinds of things to know that they just weren't quite right. Lynn's dad, on the other hand, knew enough about these 'things' to know that no child of his was gonna have anything to do with such 'things'!

'I forbid..............', he tried again-more weakly this time-as Mom turned the full force of her 'death stare' on him! 'Dear', her mom asked, 'what exactly do you mean by 'cisgender' & 'cissexual'?' 'We've heard other similar terms, but these are new to us.' To tell you the truth, Lynn's mom was actually more worried about the 'sexual' part more than ''gender-her little baby daughter was only 15, for God's sake!

With a petulant, almost perturbed look on her face, Lynn gave her parents the definition of both cisgender & cissexual. 'Cissexual' , she replied as her eyes tried to roll up like some old window blinds, 'simply means, 'noting or relating to a person who is comfortable with having the physical characteristics of that person’s biological sex'; in other words, one who is not transsexual!'

Both Lynn's parents felt quick & obvious relief at this, though, now that her father had gotten past the first stages, he too felt a twinge at the word 'sexual'-both parents had grown up in a puritannical environment, so this was to be expected! Their daughter was simpy pulling one on them, they quickly realized, assuring them she was straight, while 'getting their goat' by using unfamiliar words like 'cissexual' & 'cisgender'!

Lynn was relieved; 'you're not mad about the 'Boyz II Men' thing?', she asked, somewhat incredulously! 'Oh, dear,' her mother replied-her father hadn't found his voice yet-he'd talk to HER later, 'we're just so relieved that you haven't made any..............strange, choices, we really didn't even pay much attention to the 'II Men' part; of course it's okay that you like them, but be careful who you tell though, those boy-groups ARE a bit....strange!'

This has just been a parable of sorts, but also a warning, a warning that one day your own son or daughter might face you-the parent-with such a confession! When he or she does, the best thing to do is.......'SHUT UP & LET ME FINISH!' They might be trying to tell you, in their own weird way that they're pretty normal, or, they might actually like 'boy-groups': then, my friends, you might have REAL cause for concern!

Charles Haddon Shank