Bend Your Knees To The Great Singularity, King Of All

We're talking about the so-called Singularity, an event that will supposedly occur sometime during the next 25 years. Check my previous post for details. In that post I suggest that we Christians have not even begun to address this new challenge to our faith. What approach shall we take? One approach I shall not undertake is to attempt to refute whether it will or will not occur. I am not a scientist and have only enough experience with computers to make my way around the internet in a minimal manner. My expertise lies in theology. For that reason I propose that we see all this talk about the Singularity for what it is: an attempt to create another god and to redefine human nature.

When our Lord Jesus began his public ministry after his baptism he was confronted by the devil after fasting 40 days and nights. He was hungry. In that condition the devil tempted him to turn stones into bread and tempt his Father to rescue him upon leaping from the pinnacle of the temple, some 700 feet above the Kidron valley. When he resisted these temptations with quotations from the Holy Scriptures, the devil finally offered him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory.

And he said to him, "All these I will give you, if you will fall down and worship me." Then Jesus said to him, "Be gone, Satan! For it is written, "'You shall worship the Lord your God and him only shall you serve.'" - Mat 4:9-10 ESV

This is what Satan is again doing with the promises of the Singularity. With this power all the world will fall before your feet. Imagine the glory, the wonder and the unimaginable splendor of having such power. With your endless knowledge you will be able to control everything and everyone in the entire world. No car will be able to move without your permission. No grid will be able to deliver power to a city without your approval. No airport will be open unless you allow it. Food and drink will be under your control. You will even control when the wind blows and where the rain falls. Politicians and rulers will beg for your good will. You will be the master and ruler of all the kingdoms of the world.

And you will be immortal. Your mind, your consciousness will be in an endless computer network. You will decide how and where to use your power, a power that will continue to grow exponentially. Nothing and no one will be able to harm you, because you will  endlessly repair any and all damage to yourself. You may choose to walk about in a body. Or you may prefer to act, think and exist without a body, in cyberspace, traveling anywhere at the speed of light, with constant access to all knowledge and power.

Never before has such wonder and glory been available. But very soon it will be under the control of you and other singularitarians. Great Singularity will provide it. All you need do is fall on your knees and worship him. Turn away from the nonsensical and outmoded thinking about some other god above, beyond and outside this universe, some supposed creator of all things. Acknowledge the rational truth. The universe is all there is. We are all products of a chance happening untold billions of years ago when somehow, in some yet to be discovered way, the vast process of evolution began. How that happened we will one day learn as our intelligence grows. Meanwhile know that over these billions of years the process has moved on until in this moment it is moving forward exponentially toward the great Singularity! And you can be a part of that wonder.  The power released in that moment will be yours if you but embrace it.

Forget all the empty blather about some God speaking forth a universe with His Word, saying, "Let there be . . . etc." Forget those childish stories about a chosen group of Hebrews conquering a promised land. Forget the crazy stuff about an anointed king who was to rescue and redeem the world from his Father's judgment. And laugh your heart out at the tales of a little boy child born of a virgin, a child who was God with us, Emmanuel. It all sounds quaint and folksy, but it didn't happen. This nonsense and all that other stuff about religion and faith is for immature minds.

Come, join me. Worship our true god and live forever!

The Best Thing We Christians Can Do For Our Nation

In the opinion pages of the NY Times David Brooks recently wrote about the tragic rise in single parenthood in the USA .  He said,

Finally, there is the problem of the social fabric. segmented societies do not thrive, nor do ones, like ours, with diminishing social trust. Nanny-state government may have helped undermine personal responsibility and the social fabric, but that doesn’t mean the older habits and arrangements will magically regrow simply by reducing government’s role. For example, there has been a tragic rise in single parenthood, across all ethnic groups, but family structures won’t spontaneously regenerate without some serious activism, from both religious and community groups and government agencies.  

How will serious activism by religious and community groups restore personal responsibility? How will activism reverse the tragic rise in single parenthood in the USA? And what kind of activism? Brooks calls for a restoration of the "vigorous virtues." And he says it won't happen merely by reducing nanny-state government. In that I strongly agree. But how shall we restore "vigorous virtues"? Here's what the Apostle Peter has to say about virtue:

May grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord.
His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence, by which he has granted to us his precious and very great promises, so that through them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped from the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desire. 

For this very reason, make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue, and virtue with knowledge, and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with steadfastness, and steadfastness with godliness, and with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love.
For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they keep you from being ineffective or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. For whoever lacks these qualities is so nearsighted that he is blind, having forgotten that he was cleansed from his former sins.          (2 Peter 1:2-4)

In NT Greek Peter's word for virtue is aretē. Some translate the word as moral excellence. In fact, it is translated as excellence in the quote above when Peter speaks about God's divine power granting us all things that pertain to life and godliness. How does God do this? Through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence. There's that aretē - excellence word again. God has excellence or virtue. We are called to live that life, God's life, the life of excellence and virtue. And it happens through the knowledge of God and of Jesus. What is this knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord? Permit a brief explanation. 


To know God is much more than knowing He exists and that He is the Creator. It is above all knowing in your heart that God loves you and that He forgives you. It is knowing deep within that He chose you to be His very own child and that this all happened when Jesus died upon the cross of Calvary. It is believing that you died with Jesus on that cross and rose with Him to a new life, a life that will never end. It is believing that when Jesus returns in glory you will receive a renewed body and will live with Him forever (Col. 1:5, 3:4; John 3:16, 4:14, 5:21-24, 40, 6:39-40, 10:28-30, 14:19; Rom 5:10, 5:21, 8:2, 34-39; 2 Cor. 5:7; Heb. 7:25). 


God works through this knowledge. This  knowledge is the Good News, the Gospel. His power is at work in the Gospel to work virtue or moral excellence. As you grow in your faith, you grow in virtue, self-control, steadfastness, godliness, brotherly affection and love. In other words, as we Christians vigorously work to help one another to know Jesus, to love Him and to rejoice in His love for us, we are also helping one another to become virtuous, to live the life to which God has called us, to become like Jesus. This life of Jesus produces those "vigorous virtues" Brooks is calling for.

Bottom line: the best thing the church can do to regenerate our country is to proclaim and teach the Gospel. In other words, let the church be about churchly business. . . and let the government be about government business.

Magical Bible Stories

Yesterday I opened a very controversial topic, especially in a culture filled with a fascination of what we call magic. In addition to that, magic is related to the occult and the so-called black arts. Like I said, it all depends on what you mean, because the term magic is very fluid and ill-defined. Consequently we have a familiar problem when discussing any topic: what are you talking about?

For starters, take a look at the Harry Potter books and movies. The adulation of J K Rowling is worldwide, but there is a growing concern among Christian writers. Do a little Googling and you'll discover a long list. The Harry Potter series is all about magic—with many Biblical allusions. Even such noteworthy magazines as Christianity Today feature positive reviews of Potter's writings. Where does that leave me and you?

Like I said, it's all about definitions. For one thing, I'm not going to comment on Harry, Dumbledore and that crowd of characters. I'll leave that up to the many others who have taken it on. I have a different concern, both in this Blog and in my novel writing. But first, let me clarify what I mean by magic. 


Magic is power, power to influence the normal course of events by using mysterious or supernatural forces.

Look for instance at one familiar Bible story, a story that could be titled The Shepherd and His Magical Staff. I speak, as you may have guessed, about Moses and the Exodus. The whole story is about magic and magical power. Some samples:

• From within a magical, burning-but-not-consumed-bush the angel of the LORD tells Moses that he is to confront the ruler of greatest power on earth with a warning. Unless Pharaoh lets the chosen people go free he will suffer many terrifying plagues (Exodus 3). 

• To accomplish this impossible task Moses is given magical power. He puts his hand in his coat and out it comes totally leprous, white as snow. He puts it back in, pulls it back out and it is completely clean. He throws his shepherd's staff on the ground and it becomes a snake! Wow, talk about magic (Exodus 4)! 

• And so on goes the story. With his magical staff Moses parts the sea so the entire crowd can escape and later causes water to pour from a solid rock for God's thirsty people. Still later, as you may know, he forgets how to use his magical staff and is severely punished for his mistaken belief that this power can be used at his own discretion.  

I'm calling this magic, because it is power that changes the normal course of events. Who would normally predict that the Egyptians would even vaguely consider turning their slaves free? Impossible, yet it happened. And who can explain this power? It is mysterious and beyond us. It is not natural. It is super-natural.

So we have all kinds of stories in the Bible about such goings-on. Donkeys talk, flasks of oil and jars of flour never run empty, children are raised from the dead, mysterious flying chariots appear to whisk a man into the sky, men and women have visions, strange beings come and go, thousands of people are fed with a little boy's lunch, a couple men walk on water and on and on.

If I believe in the Bible—and I do—then I must believe in magic. It's stories are full of it. Now should I seek to obtain this magical power? I must be very cautious about that, for the Lord and Master of the Universe warns that he has allowed rebel forces to exercise certain kinds of magical power that we are absolutely forbidden to use. I hear from Moses himself that we are not to practice sorcery, cast spells or consult the dead. All this the LORD God detests, and for very good reasons (Deuteronomy 18:9-14).

More on the question of dark magic another time. For now I shall be quite content to use only that power that the LORD has chosen to grant me—the mysterious power of His WORD! 

What Is An Angel Anyway?

I am developing the plot for a new book. I'm planning to write in a genre I've never explored before--fantasy. In order to move into this story I'm having to do a bunch of research. As I do so I realize--again--that all of us tend to use words with inexact meanings or we use words in ways that convey strange and different meanings. That may be good. . .and it may be quite harmful. As part of the background for my story I find it necessary to review the term angel.

Angel is a term used in many ways. There are so many confusing ideas about who or what angels are, what kind of bodies they have, what powers they have, whether children become angels when they die, and on and on and on. What I want to do is make an angel one of the main helper characters in my book. So I'm having to do some digging to be sure I write within the boundaries of revealed knowledge in the Bible and not get caught up in the fantasies and imaginings of many. There are, as you probably know, many writers who claim to have spoken with angels or have been encountered by angels.

We often use the term to speak about human beings. "My dear," she said, "you're an absolute angel to come to my rescue." Or again, "She sings like an angel!" Once more, "I know you're not supposed to let us in, but be an angel and do it anyway." And finally, "Betty, ever the angel of mercy, organized the women of her church to collect food for the hurricane victims."

In its origin, the term is Greek for messenger and is so used in the Bible. Jesus sent angels ahead of him into the villages as he moved toward Jerusalem (Luke 9:52). These were not spirit beings, but disciples. Speaking of John the Baptist, Jesus quoted Malachi 3:1, "Behold I send my angel berfore your face, who will prepare your way before you." Again, James (2:25) writes about Rahab the harlot in the Old Testament story receiving the angels sent by Joshua to scout out the land and helping them to escape (Joshua 7:22). In these cases, the Bible uses the Greek word angel, but means human messengers or ambassadors.

Greek literature used the term for supernatural beings connected with the underworld. Supernatural means they have powers that are beyond our natural and normal understanding and control. Such beings are both good and bad and may also be called demons. They are not, however, normally intermediaries between men and the gods.

In the Old Testament one angel is called the Angel of the Lord (see Genesis 16,21,22,24,40 and 48;Exodus 3,14,23,32 and 33; Numbers 22; Judges2,6 and 13, etc. He appeared to Hagar, Abraham, Moses and others. Christians have long believed that this Messenger was the Lord Jesus before he became a child in the Virgin Mary's womb.

Again, angels are mysterious beings who appear to men, bringing messages from God. They are creatures, not eternal gods and goddesses. They have power to control the forces of nature on the earth, sometimes destroying entire cities such as Sodom and Gomorrah (Genesis 19). They guard God's beloved children and carry them to heaven after death (Luke 16:22). They are able to bring destruction, plagues and death. They have power over the animal world and earthquakes, hail, thunder, lightning and wind (Revelation 14-16). As such they seem to be much involved in the goings on of this planet. Their true home is, however, in heaven. Could heaven refer to the vastness of space beyond our tiny planet?

I've not spoken about the rebellion that took place at some time (if I may use the earthly term), before our planet was created. They were led in their rebellion by a spirit of great beauty and power. So wondrous was he that he was called "morning star" (Isaiah 14:12-15). Jesus saw this great spirit fall from heaven (Luke 10:18). He and they who followed him are now confined to the earth and forbidden to return to heaven. We call this great spirit Satan or Devil, both terms meaning adversary, one from the Hebrew and the other from the Greek.

Of what nature are these beings, these angels? There are those who today claim that they are of the matter known by scientists as "dark matter." Dark matter, we are told, makes up as much as 90 percent of the universe. We do not know what it is. We only know it exists. We can only speculate at this point.

I could go on and on and on about angels. If I ever get to writing that book, I'll have to know much more. One way for you to learn more and to speak accurately about angels is to download a Bible study from Concordia Publishing House called Angels and Demons by Armand Boehme. There are literally thousands of books available in our day about angels. Much of what is written is fantasy indeed. As for myself, I believe I'll stick with God's revelation and then when I get to meet an angel I'll have a good start for our discussion. On the other hand, I may be so frightened by his/her appearance I won't even be able to open my mouth.