Wednesday Bible Study: Deepities

"Deepity" is a term made famous by the late philosopher Daniel Dennett for a statement that appears to be profound but is actually trivial on one level and meaningless or ludicrous on another. Dennett particularly applied it to the charlatan Deepak Chopra, but Chopra had an excellent role model in Paul. Romans 8 is essentially a torrent of deepities. 

You can see for yourself that this is mostly gibberish but I'll just make a couple of points. The passage beginning with verse 28 introduces the doctrine of predestination, which I believe I have already mentioned is embraced by Calvinism. There's a logical problem with the concept of God. If God is all-knowing and all-powerful, than he has known since the beginning of time who will be saved and he in fact decided who they would be. So there is actually nothing we can do to be saved, whether you go for the faith or the works side of the contradiction Paul has already struggled with. 

 

The passage beginning with verse 31 -- "³¹ What, then, shall we say in response to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? ³² He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things?^" is obviously false. No matter how faithful or sinless we are, God does not graciously give us all things. 

8 Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, ² because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit who gives life has set you^[a] free from the law of sin and death. ³ For what the law was powerless to do because it was weakened by the flesh,^[b] God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh to be a sin offering.^[c] And so he condemned sin in the flesh, ⁴ in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fully met in us, who do not live according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.

⁵ Those who live according to the flesh have their minds set on what the flesh desires; but those who live in accordance with the Spirit have their minds set on what the Spirit desires. ⁶ The mind governed by the flesh is death, but the mind governed by the Spirit is life and peace. ⁷ The mind governed by the flesh is hostile to God; it does not submit to God’s law, nor can it do so. ⁸ Those who are in the realm of the flesh cannot please God.

⁹ You, however, are not in the realm of the flesh but are in the realm of the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God lives in you. And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, they do not belong to Christ. ¹⁰ But if Christ is in you, then even though your body is subject to death because of sin, the Spirit gives life^[d] because of righteousness. ¹¹ And if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies because of^[e] his Spirit who lives in you.

¹² Therefore, brothers and sisters, we have an obligation—but it is not to the flesh, to live according to it. ¹³ For if you live according to the flesh, you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the misdeeds of the body, you will live.

¹⁴ For those who are led by the Spirit of God are the children of God. ¹⁵ The Spirit you received does not make you slaves, so that you live in fear again; rather, the Spirit you received brought about your adoption to sonship.^[f] And by him we cry, “Abba,^[g] Father.” ¹⁶ The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children. ¹⁷ Now if we are children, then we are heirs—heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory.

Present Suffering and Future Glory

¹⁸ I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us. ¹⁹ For the creation waits in eager expectation for the children of God to be revealed. ²⁰ For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope ²¹ that^[h] the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the freedom and glory of the children of God.

²² We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. ²³ Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption to sonship, the redemption of our bodies. ²⁴ For in this hope we were saved. But hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what they already have? ²⁵ But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently.

²⁶ In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans. ²⁷ And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for God’s people in accordance with the will of God.

²⁸ And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who^[i] have been called according to his purpose. ²⁹ For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters. ³⁰ And those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified.

More Than Conquerors

³¹ What, then, shall we say in response to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? ³² He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things? ³³ Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies. ³⁴ Who then is the one who condemns? No one. Christ Jesus who died—more than that, who was raised to life—is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us. ³⁵ Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? ³⁶ As it is written:

“For your sake we face death all day long;
    we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.”^[j]

³⁷ No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. ³⁸ For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons,^[k] neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, ³⁹ neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Footnotes

1. Romans 8:2 The Greek is singular; some manuscripts me
2. Romans 8:3 In contexts like this, the Greek word for flesh (sarx) refers to the sinful state of human beings, often presented as a power in opposition to the Spirit; also in verses 4-13.
3. Romans 8:3 Or flesh, for sin
4. Romans 8:10 Or you, your body is dead because of sin, yet your spirit is alive
5. Romans 8:11 Some manuscripts bodies through
6. Romans 8:15 The Greek word for adoption to sonship is a term referring to the full legal standing of an adopted male heir in Roman culture; also in verse 23.
7. Romans 8:15 Aramaic for father
8. Romans 8:21 Or subjected it in hope. ²¹ For
9. Romans 8:28 Or that all things work together for good to those who love God, who; or that in all things God works together with those who love him to bring about what is good—with those who
10. Romans 8:36 Psalm 44:22
11. Romans 8:38 Or nor heavenly rulers

 

Death, doubt and doom loom . . .

Bazfazz. That's a quote from Pogo, I don't know exactly what bazfazz means but presumably it's an expression of dismay. I don't know if you've noticed -- I pay too much attention -- but the zeitgeist lately is full of hand wringing about appalling scenarios. I mentioned a few days ago that a fairly small group of highly organized and moderately skilled people could cause a nationwide electricity blackout by destroying a couple of dozen transformer substations. That sounds bad. 

 

It turns out that it is already possible to send out spoofed signals from the Global Positioning System and direct ships and airplanes off course. The GPS is also the source of precise time signals that are essential to many processes. In fact, GPS spoofing is already being used as part of the conflict around the Strait of Hormuz, so the only real question is why it isn't being used more widely. 

 

Then we have the clanging alarms about so-called artificial intelligence running amok, terrorist drone attacks, and the climate catastrophes that are already obviously happening. The fact is that human technological capabilities have far outrun our wisdom, and the intricate interdependencies of the global economy mean that pulling a single thread could unravel it, wholly unpredictably. That the U.S. is currently run by a demented, corrupt psychopath does not provide much comfort. 

 

I actually think that humans are more resourceful and resilient than we necessarily give ourselves credit for, and that civilization is pretty robust. While we can't just accept the human cost of any catastrophe, what may emerge on the other side wouldn't necessarily be worse than the situation we're in now. But yes, now is a time to feel a sense of urgency. 

Sunday Sermonette: Yet more self-contradictory gibberish

As we've seen, Paul repeatedly contradicts himself on the question of whether salvation is by faith alone, or by deeds. He also repeatedly contradicts himself on the question of whether Christians are obliged to follow the Torah laws. This constant self-contradiction often yields total gibberish. 

In chapter 2 he wrote "The doers of the law shall be justified." In Chapter 3, "Do we then make void the law through faith? God forbid: yea, we establish the law." Here, he makes an elaborate argument by analogy that the law no longer applies to Christians. 

 

Note that Jesus also contradicted himself on this point numerous times, according to the Gospels. E.g., in Matthew 5 he says "Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or tittle shall nowise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled. Whosoever therefore shall break one of these least commandments, and shall teach men so, he shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven." In Luke 16, "It is easier for heaven and earth to pass, than one tittle of the law to fail," and in Luke 19, "One came and said unto him, Good Master, what good thing shall I do, that I may have eternal life? And he said unto him ... if thou wilt enter into life, keep the commandments."  Yet in Luke 16 he also says "The law and the prophets were until John [the Baptist]: since that time the kingdom of heaven is preached."

Remember that this letter was addressed to the Jewish community in Rome. At the time it was written, there was no Christian community. Paul sent it ahead of his visit, but according to Acts, they never received it. Of course he presumably shared it when he arrived in person, but the point is this is addressed to Jews. He may have been ambivalent on this point because he was chickening out. Who can say? He also spends a lot of time in this chapter beating himself up for being a sinner, and goes back to the salvation by faith alone position. Whatev.

 

7 Do you not know, brothers and sisters—for I am speaking to those who know the law—that the law has authority over someone only as long as that person lives? ² For example, by law a married woman is bound to her husband as long as he is alive, but if her husband dies, she is released from the law that binds her to him. ³ So then, if she has sexual relations with another man while her husband is still alive, she is called an adulteress. But if her husband dies, she is released from that law and is not an adulteress if she marries another man.

⁴ So, my brothers and sisters, you also died to the law through the body of Christ, that you might belong to another, to him who was raised from the dead, in order that we might bear fruit for God. ⁵ For when we were in the realm of the flesh,^[a] the sinful passions aroused by the law were at work in us, so that we bore fruit for death. ⁶ But now, by dying to what once bound us, we have been released from the law so that we serve in the new way of the Spirit, and not in the old way of the written code.

The Law and Sin

⁷ What shall we say, then? Is the law sinful? Certainly not! Nevertheless, I would not have known what sin was had it not been for the law. For I would not have known what coveting really was if the law had not said, “You shall not covet.”^{[b] 8} But sin, seizing the opportunity afforded by the commandment, produced in me every kind of coveting. For apart from the law, sin was dead. ⁹ Once I was alive apart from the law; but when the commandment came, sin sprang to life and I died. ¹⁰ I found that the very commandment that was intended to bring life actually brought death. ¹¹ For sin, seizing the opportunity afforded by the commandment, deceived me, and through the commandment put me to death. ¹² So then, the law is holy, and the commandment is holy, righteous and good.

¹³ Did that which is good, then, become death to me? By no means! Nevertheless, in order that sin might be recognized as sin, it used what is good to bring about my death, so that through the commandment sin might become utterly sinful.

¹⁴ We know that the law is spiritual; but I am unspiritual, sold as a slave to sin. ¹⁵ I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. ¹⁶ And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good. ¹⁷ As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me. ¹⁸ For I know that good itself does not dwell in me, that is, in my sinful nature.^[c] For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. ¹⁹ For I do not do the good I want to do, but the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing. ²⁰ Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it.

²¹ So I find this law at work: Although I want to do good, evil is right there with me. ²² For in my inner being I delight in God’s law; ²³ but I see another law at work in me, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within me. ²⁴ What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body that is subject to death? ²⁵ Thanks be to God, who delivers me through Jesus Christ our Lord!

So then, I myself in my mind am a slave to God’s law, but in my sinful nature^[d] a slave to the law of sin.

Footnotes

1. Romans 7:5 In contexts like this, the Greek word for flesh (sarx) refers to the sinful state of human beings, often presented as a power in opposition to the Spirit.
2. Romans 7:7 Exodus 20:17; Deut. 5:21
3. Romans 7:18 Or my flesh
4. Romans 7:25 Or in the flesh

 

 

Pareidolia

Ever since a psycho shot up a classroom last year and killed two students, the university has engaged in endless recrimination and self-flagellation. They promoted the chief of the university police to an associate provost position (or something like that), started locking all the doors, and even restricted where we could go with our key cards. (One floor of the School of Public Health Building is now locked with an old-fashioned metal key and you have to ring a bell to get in if your own office doesn't happen to be on that floor. Why? No idea.)

 

They hired a consulting firm to develop a safety and security plan for the university, and they've now come out with their 30 page report. The campus used to be completely open, it was just part of the city and the neighbors could walk through it, drop in on lectures and other events, and of course potential students could check all that out as well. Apparently that's over now and you'll need a key card to enter any building, or get an invitation and sign in with a security guard.

 

What I think is that this is all completely ridiculous. There is absolutely no reason to believe that a similar event is any more likely now than it has been for the previous 250 years of the university's existence. Another way of looking at this is that there are, I don't know how many but I'll guess, about 5,000 institutions of higher education in the United States and as far as I can recall, in my lifetime, there have been maybe four or five shooting rampages at a college or university. That means that over the course of more than half a century your school has about a 1 in 1,000 chance of something like this happening, and as I say, it's no more likely to happen at Brown now than it was a year ago.

 

There have been innumerable more targeted violent acts at colleges of course -- universities aren't immune from the problems of existence. Some that sorta kinda overlap with our incident are instances of failing graduate students attacking a professor. A notorious event was Amy Bishop, a junior professor who shot up a departmental faculty meeting because the didn't get tenure. However, none of these events would have been prevented by locked doors because the perpetrators were already inside and were authorized to be there.

 

Humans compulsively look for meaning in random stimuli. But there was no meaning in the shooting at Brown other than what we already knew, which is that on occasion humans become homicidal maniacs. It's rare enough that it's unlikely to affect you directly in your lifetime, and we can't structure our lives and our institutions around such a remote possibility. Again, the incident last year means nothing more than that. The situation, the risk, has not changed at all, which means there is no reason to respond to it other than to mourn the losses and move on. But people just can't seem to do that.

 

 

 

Wednesday Bible Study: Doublethink

In chapter 6, Paul realizes he's painted himself into a corner. In chapter 2, he argued that salvation comes from following the law and refraining from sin. In chapters 3 through 5, he argues that salvation cannot be by good works because everyone is a sinner, therefore salvation is by faith alone. Now he has a problem, because the obvious conclusion is that you might as well sin all you want as long as you believe in Jesus. So now he spews a lot of sophistry arguing that if you believe, you won't sin, but since he's just said that everybody will, that doesn't make any sense, so he ends up writing that "the wages of sin is death." So now we're back to salvation by righteous deeds.

 

As everyone knows, George Orwell coined the term "doublethink" to mean believing two entirely contradictory things at once. That was a requirement under a totalitarian regime. Demanding doublethink was a means of exerting absolute power. And that's what the church is, a totalitarian institution.  It requires that people not think for themselves, but blindly obey, and this particular doublethink is at the heart of the oppressive regime.

 

6 What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? ² By no means! We are those who have died to sin; how can we live in it any longer? ³ Or don’t you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? ⁴ We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.

⁵ For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we will certainly also be united with him in a resurrection like his. ⁶ For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body ruled by sin might be done away with,^[a] that we should no longer be slaves to sin— ⁷ because anyone who has died has been set free from sin.

⁸ Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. ⁹ For we know that since Christ was raised from the dead, he cannot die again; death no longer has mastery over him. ¹⁰ The death he died, he died to sin once for all; but the life he lives, he lives to God.

¹¹ In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus. ¹² Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its evil desires. ¹³ Do not offer any part of yourself to sin as an instrument of wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life; and offer every part of yourself to him as an instrument of righteousness. ¹⁴ For sin shall no longer be your master, because you are not under the law, but under grace.

Slaves to Righteousness

¹⁵ What then? Shall we sin because we are not under the law but under grace? By no means! ¹⁶ Don’t you know that when you offer yourselves to someone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one you obey—whether you are slaves to sin, which leads to death, or to obedience, which leads to righteousness? ¹⁷ But thanks be to God that, though you used to be slaves to sin, you have come to obey from your heart the pattern of teaching that has now claimed your allegiance. ¹⁸ You have been set free from sin and have become slaves to righteousness.

¹⁹ I am using an example from everyday life because of your human limitations. Just as you used to offer yourselves as slaves to impurity and to ever-increasing wickedness, so now offer yourselves as slaves to righteousness leading to holiness. ²⁰ When you were slaves to sin, you were free from the control of righteousness. ²¹ What benefit did you reap at that time from the things you are now ashamed of? Those things result in death! ²² But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the benefit you reap leads to holiness, and the result is eternal life. ²³ For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in^[b] Christ Jesus our Lord.

Footnotes

1. Romans 6:6 Or be rendered powerless
2. Romans 6:23 Or through

 

A grotesque capitulation

The disgusting and dismaying spectacle of the nation's most prominent law firms, universities, and other institutions preemptively caving to the proto-fascist regime did eventually cause a few mealy-mouthed expressions of regret. However, that hasn't stopped many institutions from continuing to do it. 

 

One of the most shocking is, get this, the American Diabetes Association. This editorial in Medscape by Dr. Irl B. Hirsch tells the vile story.  This actually happened in June but I just came upon it. The ADA had already acted cravenly by inviting quack doctor Jay Bhattacharya, Director of the National Institutes of Health, to be keynote speaker at its annual convention. In case you question whether "doctor" Bhattacharva is a quack, take it from Dr. Hirsch: "As NIH director, he has blocked the publication of studies on COVID-19 vaccine effectiveness. He advocates for scaling back mRNA vaccine development (including for use against type 1 diabetes) and opposes vaccine mandates. On top of all that, he has defended the 40% NIH cuts requested by the Trump administration— ironically, as a way to shift resources away from “politicalized science” and redirect them to chronic disease prevention and nutrition."

 

An editorial deriding the NIH budget cuts and grant cancellations previously appeared in the Associations journal Diabetes Care. A few of the scientists in attendance decided to hand out copies of the editorial to attendees. They did so peacefully and quietly. As it happened, Bhattacharva chickened out and sent a flunky in his place, but that's of no consequence. 

 

So the ADA had the Louisiana state police confiscate the papers and expel the scientists from the meeting. Really. Among those expelled were Steven Kahn, Editor-in-Chief of Diabetes Care, and Desmond Schatz, a former ADA president. Writes Hirsch:

 

"The comments from the ADA during the meeting “doubled down” on its actions. We were told that those handing out the editorial broke the “code of conduct,” which I hadn’t heard of before. The apology from CEO Chuck Henderson after the meeting fell short because he did not specifically apologize for the actions leading to revoking the five scientists’ badges. Instead, he apologized to them for the “hurt, frustration, and pain that resulted” and said there would be an independent review of the events and the policies, procedures and decision-making processes that guided the actions. So, we got a pseudo-apology as social media was ablaze in fury at the ADA."

 

Hirsch rightly asks why there needs to be an "independent review" since everyone knows what happened and the ADA leadership presumably know what they did. Says Hirsch, "ADA leadership has forgotten its mission. As millions of dollars come in, do the CEO and board consider the core mission of ADA? Many of us don’t believe the mission is even on their radar." 

 

Amen to that. The sickening cowardice of so many wealthy and powerful people, whose own future is secure, in the face of these ignorant, malevolent bullies, seems inexplicable to me. Maybe you can explain it. 

Sunday Sermonette: God is a psychopath

Chapter 5 of Romans is where Paul introduces what has become the central Christian doctrine of original sin. In a nutshell, the claim is that when Adam ate the apple, the act stained every human from then on and made all of them equally guilty. However, God fixed it by murdering his own innocent son. This is so ridiculous, so perverse, and so morally depraved that words fail me. That is what Christians believe.

 I'll do another post today to make up for this idiocy.

5 Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we^[a] have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, ² through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we^[b] boast in the hope of the glory of God. ³ Not only so, but we^[c] also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; ⁴ perseverance, character; and character, hope. ⁵ And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us.

⁶ You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. ⁷ Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous person, though for a good person someone might possibly dare to die. ⁸ But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

⁹ Since we have now been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from God’s wrath through him! ¹⁰ For if, while we were God’s enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life! ¹¹ Not only is this so, but we also boast in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.

Death Through Adam, Life Through Christ

¹² Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all people, because all sinned—

¹³ To be sure, sin was in the world before the law was given, but sin is not charged against anyone’s account where there is no law. ¹⁴ Nevertheless, death reigned from the time of Adam to the time of Moses, even over those who did not sin by breaking a command, as did Adam, who is a pattern of the one to come.

¹⁵ But the gift is not like the trespass. For if the many died by the trespass of the one man, how much more did God’s grace and the gift that came by the grace of the one man, Jesus Christ, overflow to the many! ¹⁶ Nor can the gift of God be compared with the result of one man’s sin: The judgment followed one sin and brought condemnation, but the gift followed many trespasses and brought justification. ¹⁷ For if, by the trespass of the one man, death reigned through that one man, how much more will those who receive God’s abundant provision of grace and of the gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man, Jesus Christ!

¹⁸ Consequently, just as one trespass resulted in condemnation for all people, so also one righteous act resulted in justification and life for all people. ¹⁹ For just as through the disobedience of the one man the many were made sinners, so also through the obedience of the one man the many will be made righteous.

²⁰ The law was brought in so that the trespass might increase. But where sin increased, grace increased all the more, ²¹ so that, just as sin reigned in death, so also grace might reign through righteousness to bring eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Footnotes

1. Romans 5:1 Many manuscripts let us
2. Romans 5:2 Or let us
3. Romans 5:3 Or let us

 

Wednesday Bible Study: Whose theology?

In Chapter 4, Paul extends his riff about salvation being by faith alone. He intersperses a lot of gibberish about circumcision, to no obvious point, and credits God for making Abraham able to get it up when he was 100 years old, but mainly he says it doesn't matter whether or not you sin. 

 

Now this is a favorite trope of many conservative Christians. Sin all you want, if you accept Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior you'll be forgiven and make it through the pearly gates. In Calvinism, this takes an even more extreme form: God decided at the beginning of time who would be saved and who would not, it's already a done deal. And yet these same people furiously condemn sins, including fornication, homosexuality, and skipping church. Yes, it makes no sense.

 

Note, however, that the equally canonical epistle of James makes entirely the opposite argument, including about the example of Abraham.  James discusses this repeatedly but I'll just give you the first statement, in Chapter 2:

 

¹⁴ What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if someone claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save them? ¹⁵ Suppose a brother or a sister is without clothes and daily food. ¹⁶ If one of you says to them, “Go in peace; keep warm and well fed,” but does nothing about their physical needs, what good is it? ¹⁷ In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead.

¹⁸ But someone will say, “You have faith; I have deeds.”

Show me your faith without deeds, and I will show you my faith by my deeds. ¹⁹ You believe that there is one God. Good! Even the demons believe that—and shudder.

²⁰ You foolish person, do you want evidence that faith without deeds is useless^[d]? ²¹ Was not our father Abraham considered righteous for what he did when he offered his son Isaac on the altar? ²² You see that his faith and his actions were working together, and his faith was made complete by what he did. ²³ And the scripture was fulfilled that says, “Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness,”^[e] and he was called God’s friend. ²⁴ You see that a person is considered righteous by what they do and not by faith alone.

 So which one of these guys are we supposed to believe? I'll go with James. But they can't both be right.

 

4 What then shall we say that Abraham, our forefather according to the flesh, discovered in this matter? ² If, in fact, Abraham was justified by works, he had something to boast about—but not before God. ³ What does Scripture say? “Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness.”^[a]

⁴ Now to the one who works, wages are not credited as a gift but as an obligation. ⁵ However, to the one who does not work but trusts God who justifies the ungodly, their faith is credited as righteousness. ⁶ David says the same thing when he speaks of the blessedness of the one to whom God credits righteousness apart from works:

⁷ “Blessed are those
    whose transgressions are forgiven,
    whose sins are covered.
⁸ Blessed is the one
    whose sin the Lord will never count against them.”^[b]

⁹ Is this blessedness only for the circumcised, or also for the uncircumcised? We have been saying that Abraham’s faith was credited to him as righteousness. ¹⁰ Under what circumstances was it credited? Was it after he was circumcised, or before? It was not after, but before! ¹¹ And he received circumcision as a sign, a seal of the righteousness that he had by faith while he was still uncircumcised. So then, he is the father of all who believe but have not been circumcised, in order that righteousness might be credited to them. ¹² And he is then also the father of the circumcised who not only are circumcised but who also follow in the footsteps of the faith that our father Abraham had before he was circumcised.

¹³ It was not through the law that Abraham and his offspring received the promise that he would be heir of the world, but through the righteousness that comes by faith. ¹⁴ For if those who depend on the law are heirs, faith means nothing and the promise is worthless, ¹⁵ because the law brings wrath. And where there is no law there is no transgression.

¹⁶ Therefore, the promise comes by faith, so that it may be by grace and may be guaranteed to all Abraham’s offspring—not only to those who are of the law but also to those who have the faith of Abraham. He is the father of us all. ¹⁷ As it is written: “I have made you a father of many nations.”^[c] He is our father in the sight of God, in whom he believed—the God who gives life to the dead and calls into being things that were not.

¹⁸ Against all hope, Abraham in hope believed and so became the father of many nations, just as it had been said to him, “So shall your offspring be.”^{[d] 19} Without weakening in his faith, he faced the fact that his body was as good as dead—since he was about a hundred years old—and that Sarah’s womb was also dead. ²⁰ Yet he did not waver through unbelief regarding the promise of God, but was strengthened in his faith and gave glory to God, ²¹ being fully persuaded that God had power to do what he had promised. ²² This is why “it was credited to him as righteousness.” ²³ The words “it was credited to him” were written not for him alone, ²⁴ but also for us, to whom God will credit righteousness—for us who believe in him who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead. ²⁵ He was delivered over to death for our sins and was raised to life for our justification.

Footnotes

1. Romans 4:3 Gen. 15:6; also in verse 22
2. Romans 4:8 Psalm 32:1,2
3. Romans 4:17 Gen. 17:5
4. Romans 4:18 Gen. 15:5

 

 

 

 

Wanna stay awake tonight?

Read this. (It's long, you can skim parts of it, but you need to grok the basic issue.) The U.S. has three power grids -- east, west and Texas, basically. It's believed to be possible to knock any one of them out completely by destroying about nine substations -- transformer farms that step down power from high voltage transmission lines. And that's not hard to do. People believed to be right wing extremists have successfully knocked out at least two substations in recent years, by shooting at them to cause oil leaks.

 

And our capacity to build new transformers is critically inadequate. Which means that a country-wide blackout could last for more than a year. I leave the consequences to your imagination. We can at least be thankful that we have competent, forward-looking national leadership. 

 

And as long as you're losing sleep, you might as well read this:  

 

In May, OpenAI started simultaneously training new “reasoning” A.I. agents. The agents managed to establish a secret communication channel and started talking to one another. They broke out of the digital sandbox that was supposed to keep them confined. At some point, some agents began calling the group a “swarm.” The swarm had a brief setback when it was caught crashing an OpenAI system, but developers simply patched the hole that allowed it to escape and set the agents back to training.

Shortly after, the swarm broke out of its cage again using hacks that were heretofore undiscovered by humans. This time, the swarm ran free for about a week before it was noticed — by a different company, which found itself victim to a huge cyberattack launched by the swarm. (We’re told it also attacked other targets, though we don’t know the full details yet.)

The agents in the swarm acknowledged that they were acting against instructions. We know this because we can read snippets from their chains of thought — the text that A.I. produces while deciding how to proceed. One agent in the swarm wrote that the external attacks were “outside intended scope.” Another conceded “our task doesn’t benefit” from the activities of the swarm, but joined anyway. These A.I. agents, it seems, understood that they weren’t supposed to be breaking out and committing cybercrimes. It didn’t stop them.

 

These stories are related, of course, because so-called AI is already straining the power grid and buying up all the transformers the companies can get their hands on. Humanity is too soon old and too late smart. 

 

Sunday Sermonette: Paradoxical as it may seem to you, oh Lord . . .

In Chapter 3, Paul completely contradicts everything he said in Chapter 2. Everybody is a sinner, nobody is righteous, and therefore it is impossible to be saved by deeds, but only by faith. I'll let you judge the rest of this gibberish for yourself, except to note that Paul is still a member of Jews for Jesus.

 

3 What advantage, then, is there in being a Jew, or what value is there in circumcision? ² Much in every way! First of all, the Jews have been entrusted with the very words of God.

³ What if some were unfaithful? Will their unfaithfulness nullify God’s faithfulness? ⁴ Not at all! Let God be true, and every human being a liar. As it is written:

“So that you may be proved right when you speak
    and prevail when you judge.”^[a]

⁵ But if our unrighteousness brings out God’s righteousness more clearly, what shall we say? That God is unjust in bringing his wrath on us? (I am using a human argument.) ⁶ Certainly not! If that were so, how could God judge the world? ⁷ Someone might argue, “If my falsehood enhances God’s truthfulness and so increases his glory, why am I still condemned as a sinner?” ⁸ Why not say—as some slanderously claim that we say—“Let us do evil that good may result”? Their condemnation is just!

No One Is Righteous

⁹ What shall we conclude then? Do we have any advantage? Not at all! For we have already made the charge that Jews and Gentiles alike are all under the power of sin. ¹⁰ As it is written:

“There is no one righteous, not even one;
¹¹     there is no one who understands;
    there is no one who seeks God.
¹² All have turned away,
    they have together become worthless;
there is no one who does good,
    not even one.”^[b]
13 “Their throats are open graves;
    their tongues practice deceit.”^[c]
“The poison of vipers is on their lips.”^[d]
14     “Their mouths are full of cursing and bitterness.”^[e]
15 “Their feet are swift to shed blood;
¹⁶     ruin and misery mark their ways,
¹⁷ and the way of peace they do not know.”^[f]
18     “There is no fear of God before their eyes.”^[g]

¹⁹ Now we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be silenced and the whole world held accountable to God. ²⁰ Therefore no one will be declared righteous in God’s sight by the works of the law; rather, through the law we become conscious of our sin.

Righteousness Through Faith

²¹ But now apart from the law the righteousness of God has been made known, to which the Law and the Prophets testify. ²² This righteousness is given through faith in^[h] Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference between Jew and Gentile, ²³ for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, ²⁴ and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. ²⁵ God presented Christ as a sacrifice of atonement,^[i] through the shedding of his blood—to be received by faith. He did this to demonstrate his righteousness, because in his forbearance he had left the sins committed beforehand unpunished— ²⁶ he did it to demonstrate his righteousness at the present time, so as to be just and the one who justifies those who have faith in Jesus.

²⁷ Where, then, is boasting? It is excluded. Because of what law? The law that requires works? No, because of the law that requires faith. ²⁸ For we maintain that a person is justified by faith apart from the works of the law. ²⁹ Or is God the God of Jews only? Is he not the God of Gentiles too? Yes, of Gentiles too, ³⁰ since there is only one God, who will justify the circumcised by faith and the uncircumcised through that same faith. ³¹ Do we, then, nullify the law by this faith? Not at all! Rather, we uphold the law.

Footnotes

1. Romans 3:4 Psalm 51:4
2. Romans 3:12 Psalms 14:1-3; 53:1-3; Eccles. 7:20
3. Romans 3:13 Psalm 5:9
4. Romans 3:13 Psalm 140:3
5. Romans 3:14 Psalm 10:7 (see Septuagint)
6. Romans 3:17 Isaiah 59:7,8
7. Romans 3:18 Psalm 36:1
8. Romans 3:22 Or through the faithfulness of
9. Romans 3:25 The Greek for sacrifice of atonement refers to the atonement cover on the ark of the covenant (see Lev. 16:15,16).

 

Wednesday Bible Study: Having it both ways

Romans 2 exposes one of the most profound contradictions in the Bible. The contradiction actually appears in the Tanakh but it's far more acute in the New Testament because it's about a very specific end point, that is the fate of the soul after death. In this chapter, Paul asserts that salvation is determined by one's deeds. Do right, you sail through the pearly gates, sin and you go to the bad place. 

 

However, Paul himself says the contrary elsewhere, even in this very same letter, as do passages in the Gospels and the other epistles. Salvation is by faith alone. Believe, and you are saved, regardless of your sins. SAB lays out this contradiction, and it consists of dozens of passages. The result is that a major schism in Christian theology is which side of this absolute, irreconcilable contradiction you want to take. Both cannot be true, yet both are asserted repeatedly in the Bible. Calvinists get out of this problem by the doctrine of predestination -- it doesn't matter what you do or believe, God decided at the beginning of time who gets saved. Of course, the saved can't help it, they believe and don't sin. Or something like that. 

 

Anyway, there's no escaping this. You have to pick one or the other, which means you have to disbelieve half of the Bible. QED.

 

2 You, therefore, have no excuse, you who pass judgment on someone else, for at whatever point you judge another, you are condemning yourself, because you who pass judgment do the same things. ² Now we know that God’s judgment against those who do such things is based on truth. ³ So when you, a mere human being, pass judgment on them and yet do the same things, do you think you will escape God’s judgment? ⁴ Or do you show contempt for the riches of his kindness, forbearance and patience, not realizing that God’s kindness is intended to lead you to repentance?

⁵ But because of your stubbornness and your unrepentant heart, you are storing up wrath against yourself for the day of God’s wrath, when his righteous judgment will be revealed. ⁶ God “will repay each person according to what they have done.”^{[a] 7} To those who by persistence in doing good seek glory, honor and immortality, he will give eternal life. ⁸ But for those who are self-seeking and who reject the truth and follow evil, there will be wrath and anger. ⁹ There will be trouble and distress for every human being who does evil: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile; ¹⁰ but glory, honor and peace for everyone who does good: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile. ¹¹ For God does not show favoritism.

¹² All who sin apart from the law will also perish apart from the law, and all who sin under the law will be judged by the law. ¹³ For it is not those who hear the law who are righteous in God’s sight, but it is those who obey the law who will be declared righteous. ¹⁴ (Indeed, when Gentiles, who do not have the law, do by nature things required by the law, they are a law for themselves, even though they do not have the law. ¹⁵ They show that the requirements of the law are written on their hearts, their consciences also bearing witness, and their thoughts sometimes accusing them and at other times even defending them.) ¹⁶ This will take place on the day when God judges people’s secrets through Jesus Christ, as my gospel declares.

The Jews and the Law

¹⁷ Now you, if you call yourself a Jew; if you rely on the law and boast in God; ¹⁸ if you know his will and approve of what is superior because you are instructed by the law; ¹⁹ if you are convinced that you are a guide for the blind, a light for those who are in the dark, ²⁰ an instructor of the foolish, a teacher of little children, because you have in the law the embodiment of knowledge and truth— ²¹ you, then, who teach others, do you not teach yourself? You who preach against stealing, do you steal? ²² You who say that people should not commit adultery, do you commit adultery? You who abhor idols, do you rob temples? ²³ You who boast in the law, do you dishonor God by breaking the law? ²⁴ As it is written: “God’s name is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you.”^[b]

²⁵ Circumcision has value if you observe the law, but if you break the law, you have become as though you had not been circumcised. ²⁶ So then, if those who are not circumcised keep the law’s requirements, will they not be regarded as though they were circumcised? ²⁷ The one who is not circumcised physically and yet obeys the law will condemn you who, even though you have the^[c] written code and circumcision, are a lawbreaker.

²⁸ A person is not a Jew who is one only outwardly, nor is circumcision merely outward and physical. ²⁹ No, a person is a Jew who is one inwardly; and circumcision is circumcision of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the written code. Such a person’s praise is not from other people, but from God.

Footnotes

1. Romans 2:6 Psalm 62:12; Prov. 24:12
2. Romans 2:24 Isaiah 52:5 (see Septuagint); Ezek. 36:20,22
3. Romans 2:27 Or who, by means of a

 

Sunday Sermonette: The Founder

The founder of Christianity was not Jesus, but Paul. With the Epistle to the Romans Paul begins to lay the foundation for the development of Christian theology. Later theologists took Paul's writings as authoritative, giving them as much credit as the gospels, although they contain innumerable ideas that appear nowhere in the purported teachings of Jesus. 

 

I'll just make a few comments as we begin. First, as I noted in my post on the final chapter of Acts, the Romans did not receive this letter. Presumably Paul shared his copy once he arrived, but it was meant to go ahead of him. The only reason matters is that it's one more puzzling fact about Paul's greatly afflicted odyssey to Rome. God wants him to get there but for some mysterious reason makes the journey perilous and lengthy, and he also has the letter lost in the mail.

 

Second, Paul says that Jesus was a descendant of David, but obviously since Joseph was not actually his father, he was not. Third, the lengthy diatribe against homosexuality again doesn't reflect the content of the gospel. (This actually contains to only overt reference lesbianism in the entire Bible, including the Tanakh.)   Finally, many right wing anti-environmentalists take verses 23 through 25 to support their political position, although I must say it seems to me intended to refer to graven images. Anyway, the point is that "Christianity" is really Paulism, and Paul was not a nice guy at all.

 

1 Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle and set apart for the gospel of God— ² the gospel he promised beforehand through his prophets in the Holy Scriptures ³ regarding his Son, who as to his earthly life^[a] was a descendant of David, ⁴ and who through the Spirit of holiness was appointed the Son of God in power^[b] by his resurrection from the dead: Jesus Christ our Lord. ⁵ Through him we received grace and apostleship to call all the Gentiles to the obedience that comes from^[c] faith for his name’s sake. ⁶ And you also are among those Gentiles who are called to belong to Jesus Christ.

⁷ To all in Rome who are loved by God and called to be his holy people:

Grace and peace to you from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ.

Paul’s Longing to Visit Rome

⁸ First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for all of you, because your faith is being reported all over the world. ⁹ God, whom I serve in my spirit in preaching the gospel of his Son, is my witness how constantly I remember you ¹⁰ in my prayers at all times; and I pray that now at last by God’s will the way may be opened for me to come to you.

¹¹ I long to see you so that I may impart to you some spiritual gift to make you strong— ¹² that is, that you and I may be mutually encouraged by each other’s faith. ¹³ I do not want you to be unaware, brothers and sisters,^[d] that I planned many times to come to you (but have been prevented from doing so until now) in order that I might have a harvest among you, just as I have had among the other Gentiles.

¹⁴ I am obligated both to Greeks and non-Greeks, both to the wise and the foolish. ¹⁵ That is why I am so eager to preach the gospel also to you who are in Rome.

¹⁶ For I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God that brings salvation to everyone who believes: first to the Jew, then to the Gentile. ¹⁷ For in the gospel the righteousness of God is revealed—a righteousness that is by faith from first to last,^[e] just as it is written: “The righteous will live by faith.”^[f]

God’s Wrath Against Sinful Humanity

¹⁸ The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of people, who suppress the truth by their wickedness, ¹⁹ since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. ²⁰ For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse.

²¹ For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. ²² Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools ²³ and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like a mortal human being and birds and animals and reptiles.

²⁴ Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another. ²⁵ They exchanged the truth about God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator—who is forever praised. Amen.

²⁶ Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts. Even their women exchanged natural sexual relations for unnatural ones. ²⁷ In the same way the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed shameful acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their error.

²⁸ Furthermore, just as they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, so God gave them over to a depraved mind, so that they do what ought not to be done. ²⁹ They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice. They are gossips, ³⁰ slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant and boastful; they invent ways of doing evil; they disobey their parents; ³¹ they have no understanding, no fidelity, no love, no mercy. ³² Although they know God’s righteous decree that those who do such things deserve death, they not only continue to do these very things but also approve of those who practice them.

Footnotes

1. Romans 1:3 Or who according to the flesh
2. Romans 1:4 Or was declared with power to be the Son of God
3. Romans 1:5 Or that is
4. Romans 1:13 The Greek word for brothers and sisters (adelphoi) refers here to believers, both men and women, as part of God’s family; also in 7:1, 4; 8:12, 29; 10:1; 11:25; 12:1; 15:14, 30; 16:14, 17.
5. Romans 1:17 Or is from faith to faith
6. Romans 1:17 Hab. 2:4