Sheep and Goats

Author: tomsheepandgoats

  • Key Ingredients in the Search for God – Isaiah 58

    We do ourselves a disservice when we allow ourselves to be driven into dead ends, even if it is the name of education. Humans vastly overstate their conclusions with a confidence often unjustified by the underlying facts. Even “settled science” often turns out to be settled by decree. Conclusions tried and true may turn out to be up for grabs, as in this video someone pitched my way as to how “some leading scientists are questioning Darwin’s theory.”

    I shy from things like this, for some degree of natural selection is surely built into the fabric of life. The question is: How much? Fight battles more consequential. These days, that is abiogenesis (life arising completely through natural processes). There is no evidence whatsoever that this has occurred. Incredibly, the confidence of those who state life arose in this manner simply derives from a refusal to consider anything else. Ditto with our knowledge of the universe itself. We know almost nothing about “dark matter” and “dark energy” other than that they must exist, otherwise much of which we have already concluded about the universe is invalid.

    Assessing evidence and gaining knowledge is a plus, but it shouldn’t be made a sacred quest. “We don’t have to know everything” makes for a more appropriate human mantra. It is even shortsighted to argue “evidence” with unbelievers, because the Bible makes clear that evidence is not what it’s all about. “Abundant peace belongs to those who love your law; Nothing can make them stumble,” says Psalm 119:165. Does one love that law or not? It has nothing to do with “evidence.” Nor does Psalm 34:8: “Taste and see that Jehovah is good; Happy is the man who takes refuge in him.” If you don’t like broccoli, will “evidence” convince you that it tastes good? “No man can come to me unless the Father, who sent me, draws him,” Jesus says. (John 6:44) Does he draw them because they have gathered evidence?

    People are so poor at processing evidence that it ought not be one’s guiding light; half the time they get it wrong. Systems of faith recognize that basic human flaw to a much greater degree than systems of non-faith. Nothing wrong with evidence in itself. Pour me a double-shot of the stuff. But don’t make it your sole criteria. Faith is less dependent on processing evidence than is science. The latter totally depends upon it—the former, not so much. Faith helps us overcome the blind spots we impose upon ourselves when we adopt the prerequisite that we must know everything.

    Instead, scriptures continually speak of “preparing” or “softening” one’s heart as a prerequisite to seeking God. It is best to adapt to God’s point of view rather than our own. “Heart” incorporates intellect but is not confined to it. It includes emotion, appreciation, motivation. Here, from the scheduled Bible reading for this week, is a people seeking God while he hides from them. The problem is not that they have neglected to gather evidence. The problem is one of heart, that they don’t act on what they know, and they aren’t much interested in being readjusted:

    “They seek me day after day, And they express delight to know my ways, As if they were a nation that had practiced righteousness And had not abandoned the justice of their God.” (Isaiah 58:2) It matters whether one “practices righteousness,” and of course, it will not be our own righteousness to conform to. It will be his. He is the one “teaching you to benefit yourself,” (Isaiah 48:17) so it’s a deal for us as well.

    “Why do you not see when we fast?” the Isaelites plaintively ask in the next verse.  “‘And why do you not notice when we afflict ourselves?’ Because on the day of your fast, you pursue your own interests.” They either ignore God’s requirements completely or pursue them so half-heartedly that it doesn’t count, like the Christians of Revelation 3:16 who deliberately stayed lukewarm.

    God lays down a few conditions for them, then says (verse 9): “Then you will call, and Jehovah will answer; You will cry for help, and he will say, ‘Here I am!’” But it is easier said than done, for they must desist from that most cherished of human activity: “Stop pointing your finger and speaking maliciously.” (also verse 9) Pay attention to your mother, who said when you point your finger at someone, three fingers point back at you.

    Jehovah summarizes all in next chapter: It’s not that he can’t deliver. “No, your own errors have separated you from your God. Your sins have made him hide his face from you.” That is why “he refuses to hear you.” Plus, it’s not just an OT thing, something unique to Isaiah. Jesus fully endorses that one must walk the walk, rather than devote themselves instead to collecting evidence:

    “Many will say to me in that day: ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and expel demons in your name, and perform many powerful works in your name?’ And then I will declare to them: ‘I never knew you! Get away from me, you workers of lawlessness!’” (Matthew 7:21-23)

    There are many (though the ones obsessed with “evidence” are not necessarily among them) who love the scriptures. But try to get them to live by them? Forget about it. Says Ezekiel, another prophet: “Look! You are to them like a romantic love song, sung with a beautiful voice and skillfully played on a stringed instrument. They will hear your words, but no one will act on them.” (Ezekiel 33:32)

    Now, not to be too hard on the rank-and-file. Most people don’t fit the successive verses of Isaiah 59: “For your palms are polluted with blood And your fingers with error.  Your lips speak lies, and your tongue mutters unrighteousness. No one calls out for righteousness, And no one goes to court in truthfulness.” (59:3-4) But they trust in the “unrealities” (vs 5) that enable all of it, the unrealities of trusting in humans, including the unrealities of self-rule. Through sheer incompetence, even when not augmented by deliberate misconduct, human rulership based upon self-interest results in every sort of abuse. 

    It may be the “unreality” of dominant human teachings. As to how God can exist without a creator, that will be among the things beyond our comprehension. But as to anything else that exists, the simple principle of Hebrews 3:4 applies: “Of course, every house is constructed by someone, but the one who constructed all things is God.” This instantly resonates with the person whose mind has not been messed with. It is validated in everything he sees. He knows of no exceptions. It really takes a colossal and relentless degree of “education” to knock this bit of common sense out of him. Such education is undertaken, however, from kindergarten and on.

    One ought not get complicit with such “unrealities” of human self-rule. For “they hatch the eggs of a poisonous snake, And they weave the cobweb of a spider.  Anyone who eats their eggs would die, And the egg that is crushed hatches a viper.” (vs 5) Think a cobweb makes good cover? It doesn’t. “Their cobweb will not serve as a garment, Nor will they cover themselves with what they make.” (vs 6)

    Of those unrealities (and of you, if you are complicit with them):”Their works are harmful, And deeds of violence are in their hands. Their feet run to do evil, And they hurry to shed innocent blood.  Their thoughts are harmful thoughts; Ruin and misery are in their ways.” Sometimes it’s ruin and misery for the subjects of other human governments, preferably those far away that no one sees. Other times it’s ruin and misery for their own subjects. Indeed, “they have not known the way of peace, And there is no justice in their tracks. They make their roadways crooked; No one treading on them will know peace.” (vs 8)

    The scriptures become very graphic, likening human “righteousness” to a menstrual cloth. It’s sort of like how the way you embarrass an archeologist is to hand him a used tampon and ask them what period is it from. Where is one’s reverence for science to say such a thing? It’s too much. It ought be simply rephrased that science is not absolute, therefore, while one ought not sneer at its conclusions, it is fair to regard them always as tentative, subject to future revision. When cheerleaders of science say ‘Jump!’ there is no need to respond ‘How high.’

    How can it be that evangelizing atheists praise to the stars the wonderful human accomplishments AND my neighbor describes the news as “like a bad accident—you know you should look away, but you can’t”? In some cases, I don’t even think they believe it themselves, but they take the position because their adversaries take the opposite one. At any rate, Isaiah does not shy from the tampon analogy:

    “And we have all become like someone unclean, And all our acts of righteousness are like a menstrual cloth. We will all wither like a leaf, And our errors will carry us off like the wind.” (Isaiah 64:4)

    Notice how there’s a change of narration starting with verse 9. The “they” changes to “we.” Someone has gotten the point. Someone has taken it to heart: “That is why justice is far away from us, And righteousness does not overtake us.  We keep hoping for light, but look! there is darkness; For brightness, but we keep walking in gloom” and so forth, for several verses. You always hope for people to turn around. But it doesn’t happen that often.

    ******  The bookstore

  • “Remove the Wicked Person from Among Yourselves”

    Favorable government treatment of religion was originally based upon the premise that religion does the government’s legitimate work for them. It improves the calibre of the people, making them easier to govern and more of a national asset. Jehovah’s Witnesses are among the few still fulfilling this premise. As a people, they pay more than their share into the national treasury, since they are honest, hard-working, not given to cheating on taxes. Yet they draw on that treasury less, by not abusing government programs and almost never requiring policing. They are a bargain for any country.

    Witnesses think it well when this original “contract” is remembered and not superseded by the modern demand of “inclusion.” While they include races, ethnicities, classes, etc to a greater degree than most (in the US, according to Pew Research, they are comprised of almost exactly 1/3 white, 1/3 black, 1/3 Hispanic, with about 5% Asian added) they do not include within themselves persons refusing to live by Bible principles—though they respect the right of people to live as they choose, just so long as it is not within the congregation.

    They have lately made some legitimate tweaks to address the issues of minors straying from the Christian course, a matter of concern to the government. And, as for those who, after help, manifestly refuse to abide by Bible principles, they have replaced a word that is not found in the Bible (disfellowshipping) with a phrase that is (remove from the congregation). Thus, it becomes a matter of whether a government recognizes a people’s right to live by the Bible. A distracting term that is not found in the Bible has been dropped. Real changes have been made to address any perception that elders are “trigger-happy” toward those straying from Bible values, but the basic thought expressed at 1 Corinthians 5 still holds:

    “In my letter I wrote you to stop keeping company with sexually immoral people, not meaning entirely with the sexually immoral people of this world or the greedy people or extortioners or idolaters. Otherwise, you would actually have to get out of the world. But now I am writing you to stop keeping company with anyone called a brother who is sexually immoral or a greedy person or an idolater or a reviler or a drunkard or an extortioner, not even eating with such a man. For what do I have to do with judging those outside? Do you not judge those inside, while God judges those outside? “Remove the wicked person from among yourselves.” (1 Cor 5:9–13)

    ******  The bookstore

  • What is Hell? (Condensed from Previous Posts)

    With a single exception, all instances of “hell” stem from only one of three original language words. Find the meaning of those words, and you’ve found the meaning of hell. Two of those words are Hebrew-Greek equivalents: sheol and hades. They refer to “the place of the dead.” Bad people are said to go there, but so are good people. When the patriarch Jacob was told his son Joseph had died, for example, he “kept refusing to take comfort and [was] saying: “For I shall go down mourning to my son into Sheol!” Did he really expect to burn in hell someday, or did he figure on dying and going to the grave? (Gen 37:35) Or Job, who, amidst great suffering, prayed  “O that in Sheol you would conceal me, that you would keep me secret until your anger turns back” (Job 14:13) A sensible request if sheol is the grave. Not so bright, though, if it is a burning place of torture.


     The third word translated ‘hell’ is gehenna. Every instance of hellfire is ‘gehenna.’ The term refers to the valley of Hinnom outside the walls of Jerusalem. It served as the municipal garbage dump and fires were kept burning continually to consume the refuse. Carcasses of criminals and those not thought worthy of decent burial might be tossed over the wall into gehenna below. It even became symbolic. Giving one a proper burial presupposed they were worthy of future resurrection. Heaving someone into gehenna presupposed their death would be permanent. Thus, when Jesus denounced religious hypocrites: “Serpents, offspring of vipers, how are you to flee from the judgment of Gehenna?” he was suggesting they merited no future resurrection, not that they deserved everlasting torture.
     
    The New World Translation declines to translate the three words into English. Instead, it transliterates sheol, hades, and gehenna directly from the original language into the English. This is an invaluable aid for students in uncovering what these words actually mean.

    ******  The bookstore

  • The Song-Writing Dog: Everybody Oompa

    We knew from the get-go that our rescued dog had a thing for chasing cats. What we didn’t know was that it had a flair for song-writing.

    (Sung to the tune of I Am the Walrus)

    I am lean. My plate is clean. Those cats convene and I am going to nab one.

    See how they run like pigs from a gun, see how they fly

    I’m trying

    Tired of eating cornflakes, waiting for a cat to come

    Maybe in a tee-shirt. Maybe on a Tuesday

    Man, I’m having joy, I’ve been away too long

    I’ll nab a cat, man! I’ll nab a cat, man!

    Like it never saw us, ooh-ooh-oo’ooh!

    It’s not hardly easy-peasy, feeling queasy, pesky cats they’ve all been laying low!

    See how they fly when I’m coming by. See how they run

    I’m trying, I’m trying

    I’m trying, I’m trying

    Mangy cats are busted, No chance they’ll be slipping from my eye

    Gripe a lot, you dish-wipes, Mourn a lot, you feces

    Boy, you’ve been some naughty cats, you let your guard way down

    I’ll nab a cat, man! I’ll nab a cat, man!

    Like it never saw us, ooh-ooh-oo’ooh!

    (Radio tuning noise, music, then a British voice:

    “You men get those cats off the table.”)

    Sitting in an English garden hoping for a visit from one so dumb

    If it doesn’t come, I’ll don a coat and track it in the English rain

    I’ll nab a cat, man! I’ll nab a cat, man!

    Like it never saw us, ooh-ooh-oo’ooh!

    Slinking, stinking, reeking felines, 

    Don’t you think I sit and laugh at you? (ha ha ha hee hee hee ho ho ho)

    See how I smile like pigs in a sty, see how I snie

    I’m trying

    Salmon tuna goldfish, swimming up the Eiffel Tower

    Elementary penguins singing Hari Krishna

    None of them will save ya, not munching even escargot.

    I’ll nab a cat, man! I’ll nab a cat, man!

    Like it never saw us, ooh-ooh-oo’ooh!

    (Rising orchestral musical accompaniment):

    shoot her shoot her

    Oompa oompa, everybody oompa

    Oompa oompa, everybody oompa

    Everybody

    Well, I told you fine blokes. I don’t see any cats around!

    Wait

    Look over there

    “Oh, untimely death!”

    Yeah. That’s what I’m talking about!

    ******  The bookstore

  • Above Us Only Sky on the Cruise Ship

    On the cruise ship vacation not so long ago, a makeshift chorale of passengers sung ‘Imagine’ as melodically as a church choir. Only, it was a chorale extolling the virtues of there being “above us only sky” and “no religion, too”—as though they might sing it in a hospital terminal word with the assurance it would bring comfort to ones in their final hours. I mean, only atheists can be so oblivious to what is meaningful in life.

    Then there was the frustrated foreign ticket taker who kept saying “Turn, please. Turn. Excuse me, turn!!” and I did keep turning the ticket, but it made no difference to the stupid machine. Now, had she said “Turn over” or “flip” I would have known that I had to do it opposite to the last scanner encountered. (Alas, I snapped at her a little, a rare lapse of politeness that suggests it is back to Bible 101 for me.)

    I’ll tell you one thing. I’d rather look out my airplane windows and see the Twilight Zone monster that terrified young William Shatner than I would seeing the horrific (but necessary) labyrinth of lines and security personnel and scanners one must navigate at international airports.

    It’s a little gimmicky, but you can walk into a Bethel and someone may ask you what you notice about the world map displayed overhead. Or the globe in the lobby, should there be one. The answer is that there are no borders, a fore-glimmer of the new system to come. Add to the signs of the times that scream “Last Days!!!” the fact that when I was a boy, you could board a plane with no more fuss than boarding a train. Buy a ticket and hop onboard. 

    We had many adventures during that cruise. Chief of all takeaways is the realization that, while the earth is round, it shouldn’t be. I know very well that the earth is round. I know it. At no time have Jehovah’s Witnesses been among the intelligentsia who supposed it was flat. But it should be flat! What was God thinking? It should be flat with all sunlight illuminating all surfaces at once. That way there’d be no such thing as jet lag. 

    ******  The bookstore

  • The Righteous One Perishes but No One Takes it to Heart

    There is no huge significance that the Doomsday Clock stands at 85 seconds to midnight instead of a minute or two either way. But there is significance for it to stand in any of those spots instead of 10:30 AM or even high noon. That’s probably the way to gauge a verse like Isaiah 57:1:

    “The righteous one has perished, But no one takes it to heart. Loyal men are taken away, With no one discerning that the righteous one has been taken away Because of the calamity.”

    It’s not a call to identify any specific “righteous ones” who have perished. It is not to be applied to that actor who passed away a few years ago, an actor who had garnered more good press and than bad press, so that a certain romantic chum of mine mused that his demise satisfied that verse—just like Dick Van Dyke’s death, when it finally occurs (Lord knows, having topped 100, he’s old enough) might also have made him think of the verse, had he not died first.

    No, you don’t focus on individuals. It is the times you focus on that make such a verse meaningful. The ones who perish don’t perish during glorious times so that you’re saddened they’ve missed the fun. They perish during times so perilous that you say ‘It’s just as well. Now they can sleep through the wreckage and awaken in the resurrection.’

    Incidentally, that Clock, a contrivance of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, was advanced four more seconds as of January 27, 2026. The Clock is symbolic, you understand. it is not a literal prediction of just 85 seconds left. Rather, it is an assessment of the mess humanity is in, and whether they are worse off or better off than the times just before. They are worse off, was the assignment of those Atomic Scientists, by four whole seconds.

    Whereas last year we were a refreshing safe .0001029615916 percentage distance away from total annihilation, this year we have gotten alarmingly close: only 0009837962963% distance away! The problems those scientists fret over include a failure of leadership to tackle worsening global risks like nuclear threats and record-breaking climate change, biological threats and pandemics. AI misuse and cyber risks add to the chaos. Clearly, these scientists aren’t cheerleading over the incredible successes of science. They are lamenting its redirection to evil.

    Science is a tool only as good as the ones wielding it, and the ones wielding it are not too good. The “broken-hearted ones living in the world” are not coming to any “agreement” as the ‘Let it Be’ song predicts. Nor does it comfort anyone to ‘Imagine’ that there is “above us only sky” and “no religion, too.” Very few world leaders have any use for religion today, The ones that do accept only the brand that “knows its place” (last place) and defers to human models of rulership.

    It’s a little like when I had a lengthy discussion with a man at the door over abiogenesis (origin of life) versus creation and he at last asked what difference did it make? Either way, we are here, so who cares how it happened? I answered that if God created life, it is just possible that he did not create it for nothing, that he has some purpose for it, and will not stand idly to see it all destroyed. But if we got here through abiogenesis, then any hope for humankind depends solely upon human efforts, and “they’re not doing too well.” The man’s wife, who had remained silent during our 45 minute discussion, spoke for the first time: “That’s a good point,” she said.

    It’s also a little like Timothée Chalamet, playing Bob Dylan in A Complete Unknown, pushing back at the incessant demand he keep cranking out more peace, love, and cumbaya songs that transformed the genre as it marked his musical debut. ‘Well, they’re not exactly doing the trick now, are they?’ someone else observed. JFK had just been murdered, then Malcolm X. Robert F Kennedy and Martin Luther King would soon follow. The Cuban Missile Crisis brought the world inches from World War III.

    At the Newport Folk Festival, he didn’t sing ‘I’d Like to Teach the World to Sing,’ or even his own ‘Blowing in the Wind’ type songs. He sang ‘It’s All Over Now, Baby Blue’ to mark the end of an era. It was all over. Furthermore: “Well, I try my best to be just like I am, But everybody wants you to be just like them, They say, ‘Sing while you slave’ and I just get bored. I ain’t gonna work on Maggie’s farm no more.” Problem was, he “had a head full of ideas that were driving him insane” and it was “a shame how they made him mop the floor” instead.

    There was lots of insanity making the rounds about then with those four icons killed in just five years, with nukes to the U.S. only spared because one of the three Russian shipboard commandants refused the order to launch. (It had to be unanimous for go-ahead). With that backdrop, you can almost see why a guy might get all excited that 1975 might mark the end, given that 6000 years of biblical history was to end just then.

    “Aw, you don’t believe we’re on the Eve of Destruction?” (P.F. Sloan – 1965)

    Looks like it was just a head fake, a dry run for the real thing to come shortly. It is just around the corner. To be sure, it is one heckuva corner. But it is just around it.

    ******  The bookstore

  • Pop’s Friends and ‘Agape’ Love

    Pop’s friends were invariably those on his bowling team. Or golf. Or the husbands of Mom’s friends. He was amiable and would get along with most anyone. One of his pals had always been controlling of his wife. After she died, he was wracked with guilt. She had wanted a computer when the devices were new. He flat out refused her. Not for any good reason. He just didn’t want her to have one. “If your mom had wanted a computer,” Pop said to me, retelling the story, “the first thing I would know about it would be to see it sitting here on this table.”

    Maybe it’s Pop’s story that recall two movies for me, both ranking quite high. In both, the husband is initially presented as the seeming star. In both, the facade is little-by-little stripped away to reveal the frauds they are underneath. In both, it is the woman who propped them up and convinced them they were better than they were. In both, those women were taken for granted, sometimes with disdain. Why do I think of that truism made many times in Witness literature that putting another down is the same as boasting, even if it presents differently? In both cases, the relative positions shift the same.

    ‘About Schmidt’ was one of those films. Jack Nicholson played the husband, a big dog at his firm as the top insurance salesman, many awards to his credit. Everyone gladhands him, looks up to him. His retirement looms. He has purchased a gigantic RV in which he and his wife plan to roam the country thereafter. He dreads it. How will he ever be able to put up with the inane woman? Turns out he doesn’t have to. She dies unexpectedly. Perhaps it was a heart attack; at any rate, it was sudden. 

    Thereafter, all his assumptions begin to unravel. Turns out that no one really liked him at the workplace. They tolerated him. He had a certain knack for the job, and so they stoked his ego throughout his working life. His usefulness over, they were all glad to bury his memory and move on. 

    Then, it turned out that his wife, a seeming dingbat he treated with familiar contempt, had been seduced by his best friend at work. Only once. Fists flew briefly when he finds out, but in the end it dawns on him, ever so slowly, that ‘Duh! What did he expect?’ He had treated her as a non-entity. Someone paid her a little attention and it was too new an experience for her to resist. 

    Such is the thread of the movie, as Schmidt’s pure ordinariness is revealed. Aimless, he pilots the huge RV around all by himself to the destinations he dreaded to go with his wife, only now he misses her. Now, he is likewise consumed with guilt. ‘Was I really that bad of a husband?’ he asks of her, atop the parked RV, looking up at the stars. He asks her forgiveness. He takes a falling star as a sign that forgiveness has been granted. It had been granted throughout his life. Now, at long last, a wiser man, it was again granted him via meteorite.

    The theme pops up in many films. It as so in ‘One True Thing,’ with the added ingredient of a daughter who initially idolizes college professor father, despises her mother, but by degrees comes to think she has had it entirely backwards. He would agree. As she deteriorates with terminal cancer, he despairs and repents. She has been the “one true thing” of his life, he realizes too late. He, the revered professor, always in demand, who may even have had a fling or two with some undergrads (roundly condemned today but it was a thing back then), comes to appreciate that he has really just been an empty bag of wind. Like Schmidt, he becomes full of remorse for how he took her for granted. 

    Any student of the Bible knows there are four Greek words for love and that ‘agape’ is the highest one, but it is the one not every marriage comes around to, and some do it too late. Agape is the principled form of love, the one applied to how God loves his people. It is a love that attaches itself to its object and does not let go until it has achieved its aim. Somewhere along the line, marriage has to incorporate this sort of love if it is to weather the decades. It can’t be self-centered. Unlike how God loves his people and stays the course until they come around, marriage incorporates the added ingredient of coming around oneself. It carries the added ingredient of molding two persons, not just one.

    Eventually, Pop’s bowling mate overcame his guilt and grief. He started crooning about this beautiful woman he had recently met and aimed to marry. “How beautiful can she be?” Pop mused. “She’s seventy-something years old.” All very fine, I guess, and much better than the Rod Stewart joke I recently heard. A beautiful and touching experience had happened to him just recently, the jokester related. He was there at the hospital to witness the birth of his next wife. 

    ******  The bookstore

  • Isaiah 51: Mined from a Quarry

    Never thought I’d live to see childbirth likened to mining a quarry, but that is the meaning of Isaiah 51: 1-2. We just don’t usually think of our own birth that way, as though mined from a quarry. Nobody, but nobody I have ever known has likened childbirth to mining from a quarry. Yet there it is in Isaiah. Why had I not noticed this before?

    “Listen to me, you who are pursuing righteousness, You who are seeking Jehovah. Look to the rock from which you were hewn And to the quarry from which you were dug.” (Isaiah 51:1)

    What rock is that? What quarry is that? The next verse answers.

    “Look to Abraham your father And to Sarah who gave birth to you.” (verse 2) Don’t ever say that the Bible writers were of the Victorian era. Imagine—likening childbirth to mining a quarry!

    Furthermore, the metaphor is extended—twice. Not only is Abraham the rock, but Jehovah also describes himself that way in Deuteronomy 32:18. There, the Israelites “forgot the Rock who fathered you, And you did not remember the God who gave birth to you.” Is God both the rock AND the quarry here? Clarifying, or maybe adding more mystery still, Paul later describes a “Jerusalem above” which served as “mother” to the early congregation, for the early congregation is the second extension of that metaphor. Christ is the rock upon which the entire Christian congregation is built. Simon is renamed Peter, a word that means rock, and is given the keys to direct its early doings on earth.

    “Simon Peter answered [Jesus]: “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” In response Jesus said to him: “Happy you are, Simon son of Joʹnah, because flesh and blood did not reveal it to you, but my Father in the heavens did. Also, I say to you: You are Peter, and on this rock I will build my congregation, and the gates of the Grave will not overpower it. I will give you the keys of the Kingdom of the heavens, and whatever you may bind on earth will already be bound in the heavens, and whatever you may loosen on earth will also be loosened in the heavens.” (Matthew 16:16-19)

    Alas, only a remnant of either stays faithful, of the Christian congregation or of the ancient nation of Israel. It goes poorly for them when they do not, to the point that they “bow down so that [their enemies] may walk over you!’ So you made your back like the ground, Like a street for them to walk on.” (vs 23) It’s as graphic a metaphor as the quarry!

    And, for now, I’m not even going to touch the “stone” that was “cut not by human hands” and hurled into the feet of the statue Daniel saw. Nor will I mention one friend, a father, whose home I visited and he had somehow acquired a model replica of that statue, multi-colored to indicate the bronze, gold, silver, copper, etc, standing about a foot tall. “Do you shoot pebbles at its feet via slingshot for family study?” I asked him.

    No matter where one looks, it is all humans forgetting their Maker. Verse 13 poses the question: “Why do you forget Jehovah your Maker, The One who stretched out the heavens and laid the foundation of the earth?”

    Forsake God and he forsakes them. They are left to their own devices. Fearsome though the Jews were in battle, they were no match for the professionals. The Book of Isaiah logs how the ten-tribe kingdom to the north (a product of Rehoboam’s pig-headedness) forgot Jehovah their Maker, and then the remaining two-tribe kingdom to the south also forgot. Though delivered once in Assyrian times, they were not delivered again in Babylonian times. There, they would have to settle for a later remnant to be released.

    The ten tribes were decimated by Assyria, its survivors scattered throughout that empire. The remaining two tribes were decimated by Babylon, survivors exiled into Babylon itself, except for the lowly peasants, initially left to remain, but subsequently organized by rabble, whose put down would see them killed off.

    They are glutted with own counsel in the meantime. This is easier seen in the present day, because the present day is where we live. “Why do you Witnesses always have to assume things are getting worse? What does that belief do for you?” some atheist asked me. It helps me to explain why the Doomsday Clock is set at 90 seconds to midnight and not 10:30 AM.

    There is material progress in the modern day, no doubt about it. If you measure life by gadgets or by the demand for back-breaking work, it has improved for most. But if you measure it by any cognitive feeling of well-being, it has gone down the drain—or, in the words of my non-Witness dad, “the world is going to hell in a hand basket.” If you are in the house-to-house ministry, open by saying, “The world is crazy, and we think the Bible helps—in explaining why it is crazy, offering hope for the future, and guidance on how to live in the meantime.” People may or may not think the Bible helps, but no one in may part of the world will deny that it is crazy

    When I was a boy, there was one and only one possible “end of the world” scenario: nuclear war. I was not a Witness then and would not become one until my 20s. Today there are a dozen or more “end of the world” scenarios, most some variant of pollution or mismanagement of the earth. The very latest one is the changes AI may bring upon humanity. These things make people anxious and anxiety is an ever-present backdrop of life today. Recently I read of significant swaths of college students—was it one third?—reporting they were anxious “all of the time.” Substance abuse is pandemic today, as is loneliness. At least a third of all Americans are on some sort of antidepressants. They feel they need that to cope with life. Trust in the good will of others is at a low. One never knows when a complete stranger will do you harm for no reason at all. “Whistleblowers” arise in every field to convince us that no institution can be trusted. A 1968 Truth Book statement that humans cannot live together in peace—have they improved in that aspect since or have they become more contentious? In short, there is no stability in life for many, and lack of stability plays havoc with the emotions, even if materially you’re better off than back in the day.

    ******  The bookstore

  • One Recent Day in the Hospital

    I visited the ACE (Acute Care for the Elderly) unit of the hospital today and tried to get them to take comfort in the beautiful Lennon song Imagine, and the line in which there is “no religion, too,” and  “above us only sky.” 

    They all told me to go to hell.

    So I switched Beatles and brought up the song lyric. “And when the broken-hearted people living in the world agree, there will be an answer.”

    Nobody told me to go to hell, but someone muttered, “Fat chance they ever will!”

    One patient was watching, on his hospital TV, a science-fiction movie I had not seen before. In it, the just-arrived aliens, amidst widespread awe and hysteria, conducted a news conference.

    “What is your origin?” the lead scientist asked.

    “God. Duh! What kind of a planet is this? No wonder intelligent life in outer space doesn’t come here!”

    He was in hot water when he returned home, however. “What the . . . . You visited EARTH?!” Premier Ymphtxxpht rebuked the explorers. “That place is on the Do Not Call list!”

    In the waiting room was an atheist visitor, grumbling at God during his spare time: “God gives even children cancer and Christians say he loves with a perfect love?”

    Actually, since cancer was extraordinarily rare in past centuries but is now common in these days of food and environmental degradation, I think it is safe to say that Man gave children cancer.

    ******  The bookstore

  • Not Giving Up. Not Hardening One’s Heart

    Three times Joseph would have been within his rights to give up. Three times he suffered reversal so serious as to think life had betrayed him. And maybe, since God was in charge of life, that He had betrayed him, too. At each instance, the circuit overseer paused to ask how Joseph would have felt at that moment, what prospects would he have just then assigned to his future. How could he not have become despondent then, and he probably did for a time. But he recovered.

    And then, when the ones who caused him the most trouble came calling years later, had be been hard-nosed toward them, who could not understand it? But he did not. His heart had not hardened over the years. He had not been plotting his revenge. 

    The first occasion, a complete reversal of life for him, was his brothers selling him into slavery. He—his father’s favorite. When you see pictures of him in the publications, the circuit overseer said, it is often with Jacob’s arm around him. No more. Sent out to check on his brother’s welfare, they captured and sold him.

    He adjusted. He worked hard. His new master put him in charge of everything. Life started looking up. Trouble was, the man’s wife was always trying to seduce him. When he refused her, she accused him of attempted rape. The master believed her, threw him into prison. There, would he not have said, “What did I do wrong? I did everything right!” Might it not have seemed another betrayal by God? Could he have been blamed for giving up? It’s not like he could just figure on doing his time and getting out; his most likely prospect was to rot there.

    Then there was the time when the chum he made in prison got released, the pharaoh’s cupbearer. ‘Hey, make sure to mention my plight when you get out,’ Joseph implored him, ‘I don’t belong here.’ Surely, one can could on a chum. Nope. The guy forgot all about him. A third betrayal. How much can a guy take? Somehow, he recovered. 

    Interpreting dreams was a thing then in Egypt. They had huge tomes full of dreams and what they meant. Trouble was, it was tough to do, and there were plenty of frauds and phonies who knew how to string the dreamer along and make a fine living off it. The pharaoh had a dream that greatly troubled him. THEN the cupbearer remembered. ‘Hey, you know, there was this guy in prison who was pretty good at such things. Why don’t you give him a shout?’ 

    Pharaoh did. Joseph told him affairs and gove Jehovah all the credit. It resulted in complete reversal, more thorough than the previous betrayals had  been betrayals. Turned out the dream was of national significance, how to stock up for the upcoming famine. Joseph was put in charge of implementation. It was in while in that role, years later, that his brothers came crawling to him, having no idea who he was. “Oh, so NOW you come seeking my help!” the CO spelled out the drama that could have arisen had Joseph allowed it, but he did not. (He probably didn’t tell Pharaoh, though, the CO tossed in, because Pharaoh would not likely have been as forgiving. Then set a long and convoluted process in which Joseph maneuvered to see if his brothers had changed. Were they still the heartless louts of before? They were not. They had changed.

    The drama comprises nearly 30% of the Book of Genesis. It takes 14 chapters to unfold. It all comes to an end in the next book, Exodus, with a new pharaoh arisen who did not know Joseph. But that’s a reversal for another talk. It was not mentioned in this one. Fast forward a few thousand years to when my mentor would lose a business contract. Trouble is, he would say, a new pharaoh has arisen at the company who does not know Joseph. I had that happen to me a time or two as well. As did the CEO of one of my first accounts, the fellow whose coffee cup meme, “CAN’T a man drink his coffee in peace, for crying out loud?!” would many years later emblazon my tee shirt, a first for me, since I have long stated that I am not a billboard. This CEO showed me all the mounted awards his company had won. ‘They don’t mean a thing,’ he said. ‘Sometimes we get canned the very next year.’ Alas, he himself suffered a betrayal, in the form of a massive stroke that left him unable to function.

    But this all aside that the circuit overseer would not have included even had he been aware of it. I never saw that CEO again. His second-in-command took charge, whom I did not especially like. Today, I would have visited the stricken man. but he was many years my senior at the time, everyone held him in a sort of awe, self included, and the gulf between us was huge. 

    The CO would go on to develop themes of not giving up, not becoming despondent, and not letting the circumstances of life make one’s heart hard.

    ******  The bookstore