Bert Hielema–Columns and Writings

DECEMBER 7 2019

ARE YOU RAPTURE-READY?

Am I Rapture-Ready? I hope so, but first something personal.

I am a creature of habit, among them thrice-weekly exercise: every Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday, between 4-6 pm. In the winter I run on my treadmill, bike on my stationary bike and do pushups on my EVER GLIDE PLUS machine. In the summer I bike to town for groceries almost every day – 12 km.

Exercise has been proven in countless studies to improve mood, alertness, memory and happiness, as well as physical wellbeing. Age – whether 21, 41 or my 91 – has little to do with it.

I quit smoking in 1960, and started running. Over the years I have reduced my distance from 15 km to 10 to 8 to 5 and now to 3, but have increased the variety of exercise, keeping it roughly at 3 x 1 hour per week. Clinical trials have established that running – not biking, not walking – extends life expectancy: one hour of running adds 7 hours to your lifespan, to a maximum of 3 years. I have long exceeded that 3 year period.

Another habit is writing my blog: by the end of this month I have concluded my 1000^th: 20 years of weekly writings, from 2000-10 for the regional daily, the INTELLIGENCER, and thereafter my weekly blog.  It keeps my brain functioning, and that brings me to the topic of the week: RAPTURE and its website: RAPTUREREADY.COM.

Any minute now.

The Rapture clock on RAPTUREREADY.COM shows the 23.55 hour, 5 minutes before midnight, which means that, according to this website, Christ will return any minute now and whisk believers away to join the righteous dead in heaven. From there, they will have the best seats in the house as the unsaved perish in a series of spectacular fires, wars, plagues and earthquakes. I sense some ‘Schadenfreude’ there, a very unchristian trait.

The website “raptureready.com’ advises the soon–to-depart to stick a note on the fridge to brief those left behind – husbands, wives, and in-laws – about the horrors in store for them.

The Rapture ravers are correct to some degree. The current civilization has an expiry date, a point in time only God knows who created the cosmos and installed a tipping point in its plan. The proverbial “It’s the last straw that breaks the camel’s back”, applies to this situation. The earth is finite and the laws of creation certainly apply: rules of life we discard at our own peril.

So, what are these laws?

Dr. Barry Commoner, a long time professor of biology, has condensed them to 4 rules:

1. Everything is connected to everything else.
2. Nature knows best
3. Nothing disappears
4. There is no free lunch.

I see a lot of biblical truths in these rules.

In THE RIDDLE OF LIFE Dr. J.H. Bavinck writes about this interconnectedness: (My translation)

”If the sun had a mind of its own, then perhaps it would muse: I shine because that’s my nature: I delight in it; it’s the joy of my life. But it knows not that a Hand mightier than the sun has included it in the beautiful law of serving. Because, unknowingly, that so superior sun serves the tiny, tiny plant that full of life expectancy courageously stretches its stem to absorb its rays.

That little plant cannot think beyond its nature. It winks at the

sun and dreams of the joy that awaits it in a life of light and sunshine. But it has no inkling that it serves just as much as it is served by others. It serves the minuscule seeds it now carries and that later will form new plants. It serves the animal, looking for food, or is needed to help another plant using it as a crutch to climb higher. In manifold ways it serves other creatures that need support or shade or nourishment or moisture.

“When we look around us with open eyes and minds, then there

is one thing that time and again touches us to the core: it’s all about serving. The law of serving is at the heart of every creature: it is the overarching purpose for every being. That law makes it possible for the entire world to exist. Every creature may think that it is there only for itself, but in the final analysis it is nothing else but a servant for others. To be alive, to exist at all, finds it destination simply in serving others. Without that law nothing else can be. Yet that law of serving is remarkable in more than one way. What is so truly amazing is that, as a rule, no creature is there for the sole reason of serving, as they all think that self-help is their sole goal, but all that serving goes automatically, and thus is simply an unconscious act. It is as if a mighty hand brings all this into motion and, in spite of itself, stimulates this self-less serving. This serving, therefore, is not a sacrifice, is not a duty, but an in-born act, without compulsion, without intent. Each single being is there according to its nature, but everything together is so oriented that the existence of the one supports the other and maintains it.”

And we, humans?

We are on top of the ‘service’ society, following Christ’ rule, as found in Matthew 20: 28, “just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve”.

We not only must serve each other: we, as physical, spiritual and moral beings, we must be servants for all of creation: we must not only serve all created entities: our mandate, the law for us is to enhance all that lives, to make all that exists more beautiful.

Let me elaborate on the other three laws:

Nature knows best

Nothing disappears

There is no free lunch.

God has instilled in creation, in nature if you like, irrefutable laws. The relationship of everything to everything else is evident in opposite ways as well: our greed, our polluting, our wasteful ways, is backfiring on us, because it also applies in negative ways: just as ‘good’ is pervasive, so is ‘evil’. Today ‘evil’ connects everything to everything else. We are sadly discovering that nothing disappears and that the free water, air, soil we have abused, now comes with the final bill: a bill too steep to repay, meaning collapse.

The COP 25, now meeting in Madrid, the 25^th gathering on Climate Heating, now cries out in ever more desperate intonations: “listen to the cries of creation”; “mend our sinful ways”; “abandon greed”; “live within the means of the earth”, and the warnings become ever more pronounced, because “NOTHING DISAPPEARS and THERE IS NO FREE LUNCH.

Jesus told us, “The wages of sin is death.”

RAPTUREREADY.COM, the favorite website of the majority of the people that call themselves evangelical Christians preaches a different gospel, a very dangerous gospel, and today its two most prominent proponents are Michael Pence, the USA Vice-President, and Michael Pompeo, the USA Secretary of State, the person in charge of USA foreign policy.

 

One look at the raptureready website and it is striking to see that “Israel is the Key to All End-Time Prophecy”. That’s why the current administration in Washington fully sides with Israel: it sees the Palestinians as the Philistines, Israel’s arch enemy of old. Both Pence and Pompeo are admirers of the ARMAGEDDON belief, the place, a bit south of the Lake of Galilee, in the plain of Jezreel, where, supposedly, the last battle is to be fought.

Here is their reasoning: The apocalypse is both an end and a new beginning. In the Christian tradition, the world is created perfect. Then there is the fall into sin followed by a long period of moral degeneration. This culminates in a decisive final battle between the good (the returned Christ) and evil (The Anti-Christ). Good wins, of course, and the New Jerusalem is established and with it the 1,000 year of reign of King Jesus on earth.
This is the glorious millennium that millenarians await so eagerly.

Is Rapture biblical?

The Rapture proponents rely on 1 Thessalonians 4: 17: meeting Christ in the air. The Greek word here, ‘apantesin’ is the same word used in Matthew 25: 6 and Acts 28: 15. It simply means ‘meeting somebody coming from afar. And, as Acts 1: 11 attests, we will see him in the air coming down, the same way he departed: promise made, promise kept.

And the ”left behind” assumption?

The real clincher there is found in that scary chapter of Matthew 24 with its heading, “Signs of the End of the Age.”

It mentions one text that the church has never really understood, because it has never come to grips with The Kingdom, which is God’s creation; the Gospel of the Kingdom is all about the New Creation to come. When verse 14 says that The Gospel of the Kingdom will be preached in the whole world, then it does not point to church or bible. It also has nothing to do with missionary work and sermons. The gospel mentioned here is the Gospel of the EARTH, which is screaming loud and clear. It has everything to do with God’s Created Word, his Direct or Primary Word. That’s why the Belgic Confession tells us that we know God FIRST by his Creation, calling it the most beautiful book.

We now experience – and COP 25 in Madrid speaks volumes – that abusing God’s name – and that’s what we have been doing from way back – leads to destruction. As the TEN Commandments tell us: (Exodus 20: 7) You shall not misuse the name of the Lord your God, for the Lord will not hold anyone guiltless who misuses his name.

Polluting the earth is misusing God’s name, fully in line with Romans 1: 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.  

Oh, yes, RAPTURE.

Back to the Bible and Matthew 24. Am I RAPTUREREADY? Because there will be rapture. Matthew 24 plainly says so: “Until the Flood came (verse 39) and took them all away”. That is Rapture, not a word the Bible uses. It comes from the Latin verb ‘rapio, rapui, raptum’, meaning ‘to snatch away. Our word ‘rape’ has the same origin.

So, who are taken away? Am I? No. Is Noah: no, he was safely tucked away in the Ark.

So, who were taken away? The sinners were taken away!! They all drowned!! And says the same chapter, “So it will be when the Lord returns.” The sinners will be raptured – will be taken away: they don’t belong on God’s Holy Earth, but the saints, the followers of Christ, will remain on the earth, for, says Genesis 3: 19, “For earth we are and to earth we will return.”

Are you RAPTURE-READY?

G.K. Chesterton wrote that original sin is the “only part of Christian theology which can really be proved.” The believer and atheist alike can agree that there is an undeniable brokenness to the world, a sickness that needs remedy.

Original sin at work: that’s what we are experiencing. Christ died to take that away. Sin spoiled Paradise. This means that Paradise must be restored. And Jesus did that. That was his mission. When he died, he exclaimed, “It is accomplished: Paradise regained!”

And now comes the hard part. The church has been totally ‘anthropocentric’, has seen only human salvation as its core message. That is wrong! The church has totally failed in its mission, because personal salvation and the salvation of creation go hand in hand: you can’t have one without the other.

The Biblical truth is that going to heaven is mission impossible. God created the world and called it ‘good’ seven times. There’s where our destination remains: being fully human in a perfect world.

That’s why we must become cosmos-ready, because John 3: 16 unambiguously states that God so loved the cosmos that he gave his Son to regain it. Believing that gives us eternal life.

Christ taught us how to live. We again need to learn ‘how to live on the earth permanently,’ because our final destination is God’s earth.  

NOVEMBER 30 2019

WE ARE TOAST

This past week a scholarly article in ECOLOGICAL ECONOMICS via The Automatic Earth kept me thinking. I read it a number of times, and, although it struck me as utterly reflecting our current situation, one of grave danger and immense peril, its final paragraph threw me off. Here it is:

We are desperately in need of a set of guideposts and principles that include not only ecology but also biology, psychology, physics and emergent behaviors. This discipline will focus at least as much on ‘what we’ll have to do’ as on ‘what we should do’. And it will apply the evolving knowledge of experts with a view to the maps and charts made by generalists. Ecological economics was shaped as a next step from earlier classical ideologies so as to consider the inclusion of sources and sinks. Over the next 30 years, ecological economics must be both torchbearer for a systems economics and midwife to a smaller flame.

In other words, the experts, the scientists, will provide the answers. I maintain that it is too late: nothing can save us from total collapse and the demise of the world’s population. Nobody, not a single source, can now deal with the terrible outcome and the disastrous consequences of what is on store for us. Only Dr. Guy McPherson, the Arizona university ecology professor emeritus, the originator of ARCTIC NEWS, directly confronts us with the global holocaust we are facing when – not if – the methane stored in the shallow Arctic Ocean, is released. And that could happen soon.

We always hope for the best, but….

We are great in deceiving ourselves. A new study on EV – electric vehicles – shows that, although its tailpipe emissions are zero – there is no tailpipe on these cars – the equivalent CO2 comes from the electricity making colossi, the smokestacks of the generating stations. We are marvels at deceiving ourselves, but the weather is not so readily hoodwinked.

Yes, there is the increase in global temperature, but there too a lot of deception goes on. The UN uses the average global rise, but, as ARTIC NEWS reports, the temperature in the Arctic is more than double that of the Rest of the World.

These far higher values and the resulting melting of the ICE there, have major consequences for climate change – such as the melting of the permafrost and the release of the far more dangerous METHANE, and do not represent the seriousness of the climate crisis.

And then there is bad news about bad news.

The article in ECOLOGICAL ECONOMICS looks at the world situation also from a personal perspective, taking human nature into consideration. Here is what it says,

“For good evolutionary reasons (short life spans, risk of food expropriation, unstable environment, etc.) we disproportionately care about the present more than the future, measured by economists via a ‘discount rate’. The steeper the discount rate, the more the person is ‘addicted to the present.’ Unfortunately, most of our modern challenges are ‘in the future’. ….When asked to plan a snack for next week between chocolate or fruit, people chose fruit 75% of the time. When choosing a snack for today, 70% select chocolate. When choosing a movie to watch next week 63% choose an educational documentary but when choosing a film for tonight 66% pick a comedy or sci-fi.”

In our words, we have great intentions for the future, until the future becomes today, then we chicken out. In other words, “We are emotionally blind to long-term issues like climate change or energy depletion. Emotionally, the future isn’t real.”

That’s bad news for all of us, including the church which is supposed to deal with death and the hereafter.

Our reluctance to look ahead and plan accordingly reminds me of Dietrich Bonhoeffer who, when he was 26-27 years old already had a double doctorate in theology. He, in 1932-33, just before Hitler came to power (who killed him in 1945), gave a series of talks on Genesis 1-3 at the University of Berlin where he was a lecturer. They were later issued under the title, CREATION AND FALL.

In his introduction to this 200 page book he wrote, 

“The Church of Christ witnesses to the end of all things. It lives from the end, it thinks from the end, it acts from the end, it proclaims its message from the end.”

He then quotes Isaiah 43: 18-19, “Do not remember the former things or consider the things of old. I am about to do a new thing.”

Bonhoeffer continues, “The new is the real end of the old; the new however, is Christ. Christ is the end of the old. Not the continuation, not the goal, the completion in line with the old, but the end and therefore the new.”

Bonhoeffer – biblical scholar he is – wants us not to live in the present, but concentrate on the end, and what comes after that: the new beginning with Christ.

That is something no scholarly article will dare to suggest, even though the messages out there are becoming more ominous by the day. The nations of the world –not the largest polluters, the USA and China – solemnly pledged to reduce CO2 emissions in the Paris Accord four years ago, but this past week the UN reported that we are pumping more Green House Gases than ever.

And that is something this article confirms for the simple reason that we have become addicted to carbon and its death-enhancing aspects.

We are enslaved by our slaves.

Take a barrel of crude oil. It can perform about 1700 kW hour of work. Compare that to a human laborer who can perform about 0.6 kW hour in one workday. Simple arithmetic reveals it takes over 11 years of human labor to do the same work potential in a barrel of oil.

This energy/labor relationship was the foundation of the industrial revolution. Most technological processes require hundreds to thousands of calories of fossil energy to replace each human calorie previously used to do the same tasks manually.

My grandfather was a farmer who milked a dozen cows, some 90 years ago. Consider milking a cow using three methods: manual (human labor energy only), semi-automated electric milking machines (1100 kW h per cow per year), and fully automated milking (3000 kW h per cow-year). The manual milker, working alone, requires 120 hours of human labor per year per cow; semi-automated machines require 27 hours of labor; and full automation, 12 hours.

That meant that physically my grandfather could only look after 12 cows to be milked, plus pigs, chickens, calves. Today one of my brothers in law, with two robot milkers looks after 200 head of cattle, milking some 160.

This same ‘energetic remoteness’ applies to many key resources, including water, lithium, and food. We use around two calories of fossil fuel to grow one food calorie in our modern agricultural system – but we use 8–12 additional fossil calories to process, package, deliver, store and cook modern food.

It’s actually worse than that. Almost 20 percent of the food we buy in North America, we throw away. If that is true – certainly not true for our own ‘war-time’ conditioned eating habits – that means that we need perhaps as much as 20 CARBON CALORIES to give us ONE FOOD CALORIE.

In the natural world, this is unsustainable, because organisms that require much, much more energy to find food than the food contains, will die. We only get away with this because our institutions and policies treat the energy subsidy from fossil hydrocarbons as interest, not principal.

That means that everything we do will become more expensive if we cannot reduce energy consumption of industrial processes faster than prices grow.

Prepare for massive inflation and war-time food conditions with rationing and growing famine.

This same principle increasingly applies to most modern industrial processes: we save human labor and time by adding large amounts of cheap fossil labor.

Although modern industrial output is energy inefficient it is extremely cost efficient because fossil energy is much cheaper than human energy. Thanks to the “fossil subsidy”, companies make large profits and cause wages and standards of living to be considerably higher compared to previous civilizations.

“Today the average human in 2015 produced 14 times more GDP than a person in 1800 – and the average American 49 times more!”, says the article.

However, these windfalls come with a downside. Industrial profitability is vulnerable to energy price increases. Remember that oil is a finite product: we have tapped the easy, low hanging fruit. Now comes the hard part.

In 2018, the global economy ran on a constant 17 trillion watts of energy – enough to power over 170 billion 100-watt light bulbs continuously. Over 80% of this energy, was the 110 billion barrels of oil equivalents of fossil hydrocarbons that power (and is embodied in) our machines, transportation and infrastructure. Even at 4.5 years per barrel, this equates to the labor equivalent of more than 500 billion human workers compared to ?4 billion actual human workers in the entire world.

In other words, every person, woman or man, in the work-force, in Europe and America, in India and China, had 125 energy slaves at their beck and call.

These fossil ‘armies’ are the foundation of the modern global economy and work tirelessly in thousands of industrial processes and transportation systems. We didn’t pay for the creation of these armies of energy workers: that happened millions of years ago: we only facilitated their exploitation.

What ‘Economic growth’ means.

Someday soon the entire world economy will suddenly grind to a halt. As last year’s CO2 count illustrated, more people being born, more people wanting more, more people living in the ‘now’, more people refusing to look to tomorrow, means more energy use, means faster, a much faster arrival of D Day, Depletion Day, Depression Day, because there simply is no substitute for carbon energy.

Energy is needed to create and transform all material inputs and energy can only be substituted by other energy. Forget about solar and wind. To manufacture them needs energy as well. To transport and install them and maintain them, also needs energy.

We can’t go back, but going forward means disaster. So we ignore all signs. That’s human nature: “carpe diem” the Romans said, “seize the day” while we can, but that is not the answer, certainly not for those who profess to be followers of Christ.

Bonhoeffer was right. “The Church of Christ witnesses to the end of all things. It lives from the end, it thinks from the end, it acts from the end, it proclaims its message from the end.”

He then quotes Isaiah 43: 18-19, “Do not remember the former things or consider the things of old. I am about to do a new thing.” Bonhoeffer continues, “The new is the real end of the old; the new however, is Christ. Christ is the end of the old. Not the continuation, not the goal, the completion in line with the old, but the end and therefore the new.”

That’s the message the world ignores, and the church is loath to proclaim. Revelation 21 comes to mind. There it affirms Bonhoeffer’s advice. There it says that “Christ will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and there will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the former things have passed away.”

Yes, our economy with its built-in death culture will vanish: totally. Not a trace left. Yes, we are toast: we are in for death and disease. That is a given. But there is a promise the world cannot give. It is found at the end of the Bible.

“And the One seated on the throne said, “Behold, I will make all things new…..I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End.”

The world, the scientists, the political and economic systems do not have the solution. Nothing human will help us.

In the beginning Christ created but we un-created. Christ died on the cross to restore creation to its original, unaffected, pure state, because he so loved the cosmos.

We can be part of that New Creation when we love Christ and show that in loving his creation.

All is well that ends well.

NOVEMBER 23 2019

THE GOSPEL FOR DUMMIES.

First thing to know is that ‘the father of lies’ is in charge of this world: the Bible is correct, (and today’s evidence overwhelming) when it states in 1 John 5: 19 that “The Evil One rules this world”. It’s still God’s world, of course, but today Satan calls the shots and Jesus knew this when in John 17 he prayed to his Father: (verse 15) “You protect my followers from the Evil One…(because) they are not of his world,” a world belonging to Satan.

And that is true: the followers of Christ don’t belong to a world dominated by evil, by fraud: they belong to “the world to come”, where righteousness is the norm.  

However.

The second thing to know is that the heaven adherents have misinterpreted this to mean that they don’t belong to the earth: that their destination is with God in heaven, even though the Bible explicitly states that “God lives in inapproachable light: nobody can see or has seen God”, (1Timothy 6:16), or that John 3: 13 plainly tells us that nobody ever went there, and that “we are soil and to soil we shall return (Genesis 3: 19).

The heaven fable reminds me of Mark Twain, “It ain’t what you don’t know that gets you into trouble. It’s what you know for sure that just ain’t so.”

The heaven heresy is so ingrained that it has totally distorted the MESSAGE: it is so anchored in the church that when I once suggested in a church periodical that going to heaven is a hoax, a letter to the editor called me a heretic.

The problem is that the Heaven dogma is so human: it allows us to have the cake and eat it too. We can fly anywhere, burn fuel in abundance, after all heaven is our destiny. The heaven adherents find polluting even helpful, because it will bring on Armageddon, the final battle, Rapture, the fetching up to heaven, preceded by the conversion of Israel. No wonder the US Secretary of State, the American Foreign Minister, approves of Israel expanding its territory into Arabian-held lands. After all, so they say, the Bible tells us so.

FRAUD, persistent fraud, is everywhere.

The biblical truth, the gospel for dummies, is that, “The salvation of creation – nature – and personal salvation are two sides of the same coin: you can’t have one without the other.”

To exclude creation from redemption, from being bought by the blood on the cross has led to a fraudulent interpretation that has done immeasurable damage to God’s world. Today it so deeply influences American policy, that it promotes pollution and war, promotes cosmic destruction, fully endorsed by Pompeo and Pence, both claiming to be Christians.

I dare say that any church that preaches heaven at the expense of the earth is a fraud. Bonhoeffer is correct when it calls this ‘pious secularism’.

I dare say that polluting is defrauding God, because we defile what God, when he made it, called ‘good’ seven times.

Fraud everywhere.

Fraud is everywhere today, reaching especially into the boardrooms of the cream of the crop in the corporate world and in government circles. Volkswagen comes to mind with its diesel deception and Boeing with its 737 Max flying machine.

A higher loyalty.

This week I am reading James Comey’s, A HIGHER LOYALTY, Truth, Lies, and Leadership. Comey’s customary 10 year appointment as Director of the FBI to ensure total political neutrality, was abruptly terminated when he refused to pledge loyalty to Trump.

We too have a higher loyalty, not to economic growth, but to honoring God in his creation. That is another facet of “The Gospel for dummies”.

The Bible repeatedly states that “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom”. The church is great in befuddling this concept. It simply means that we must be in awe of God’s creation. From the rising of the sun to its setting, we must deeply love the natural world around us: that is the fear of the Lord:  that is the gospel for dummies. That’s why John 3: 16 – God so loved the cosmos – is today the most important text in the Bible: loving creation ensures eternal life. We must follow God’s love by loving creation with all powers within us: our eternal destiny depends on it. That’s the new gospel for dummies! It’s as simple as that! Once we conduct life with this basic principle in mind we have the beginning of wisdom, have secure footing to build LIFE.

But……

That’s why this 19^th Century hymn is more current than ever:

Abide with me; fast falls the eventide;
The darkness deepens; Lord, with me abide;
When other helpers fail and comforts flee,
Help of the helpless, oh, abide with me.

Swift to its close ebbs out life’s little day;
Earth’s joys grow dim, its glories pass away;
Change and decay in all around I see—
O Thou who changest not, abide with me.

Don’t despair.

I sincerely believe that in these last days – and we are rushing head over heels into global disaster – remedies too will emerge: we will discover how to live properly: there will be a remnant, a tiny trickle of humanity that will see the dangers ahead and pursue policies that reflect permanence.

So, what are the dangers ahead, dangers enhanced by FRAUD?  

I know the world is becoming aware of the looming perils, except, apparently the USA, the world’s largest polluter. But have measures taken so far, reduced Climate Change?

No.

CO2 emissions for all countries, in total, have been spiraling upward, year after year. Population growth and increased world prosperity have caused CO2 to outpace GDP. That’s understandable. Of course people in Africa and Asia want to copy us.

While population in the US+EU+Japan Group grew by 11% between 1997 and 2018, in that same period population growth in the Remainder Group grew by 35% thanks to improved sanitation and basic medical care. These people too want homes with indoor plumbing and electricity, and love cars.

And then there is Deforestation, a continuing global problem.

High Income Countries keep pushing deforestation to the poorer, heavily indebted, parts of the world. This is causing a Carbon Bomb. A new report shows that deforestation released a shocking 626 percent more CO₂ between 2000 and 2013 than previously thought. This new research shows that we should be taking much better care of our last great intact forests because doing so has remarkable climate benefits. If we are going to stay on top of the runaway growth in CO₂ levels in the atmosphere, this needs to change.

Will we change? That is the cardinal question today.

The key insight of the study indicates that our unaffected, still intact forests, are packing ever more carbon into the living matter, deadwood and soils on each acre of land. Taking all large forest areas into account, and to a lesser extent some other still pristine ecosystems like grasslands, this so-called “sink” removes fully a quarter of all humanity’s carbon emissions each year, free of charge. It’s simply mandatory that this remains the case.  

If we stop this sink from doing its job, most of that quarter will remain in the atmosphere (with a little of it dissolving in the sea), increasing the rate at which CO₂ levels rise each year by a third at a time when we need to be pulling every lever at our disposal to lower carbon dioxide. It would be like yanking out the plug whilst trying to fill the bath.

The study also revealed the fallacy of forest fragmentation. You don’t have to clear a forest to reduce its ability to act as a sink; you just have to damage it. By looking at the millions of acres across the tropics that were damaged during 2000–2013, the study tallied up the extent to which pressures like fires, logging, and drought along new forest edges reduced the carbon stored and absorbed long-term by previously intact forests. These figures were six times worse than conventional estimates that only look at outright forest clearance.

Climate impacts aside, many other environmental services are also put at risk by this damage, including biodiversity, watershed protection, rainfall patterns and the survival of some of the world’s most imperiled cultures. 

An article in THE NEW YORKER of November 11 had some distressing news. Entitled BLOOD GOLD, it relates how in Brazil – which now has a Climate Change denying president – indigenous people and illegal miners are engaged in a fight that could well decide our future.

In the Amazon region the threats are set to worsen. Losses had accelerated by 2016 and will continue to grow in the future, with 25 million kilometers of new road expected to be built by 2050, much in intact areas, and increasing global demand for timber, minerals and food.

The tropics are not the only places to suffer, as few intact forests survive in the temperate belt. Even in the northern boreal zone they are in rapid retreat.

What is to be done? Ultimately the damaging processes need to be reined in. We must plan new infrastructure so as to avoid the most critical areas, the fragmentation by farms and fires must be curtailed, and the overhunting of ecologically critical animal species must be brought under control. But with greed always at work, and Bolsonaro, Brazil’s new president, deeply influenced by a powerful lobby there, called the three B’s: Bible, Bullets and Beef, the Amazon and the tribes there, faces the greatest threat ever. That threat is truly global, enhanced, if not founded on the wrong interpretation of ‘dominion’, mentioned in Genesis 2.

Christ –and by implication we – came to serve everything created. That is another aspect of the gospel for dummies.

The world’s intact forests, though embattled, are still vast, and at 2.5 billion acres (one billion hectares) represent one the greatest treasures nature has given us. If we are to have any hope of stabilizing our ailing climate, action at every level from international treaty to local community is needed to keep that treasure safe from harm.

ARCTIC NEWS.

You do well to pull up ARCTIC NEWS. Up there, in the far North, in the shallow Arctic Ocean, in the Siberian tundra and Canada’s North vast regions, trillions of tons of METHANE are buried in the no longer permafrost.

Arctic News warns us that another El Nino is on the way, a special weather phenomenon that enhances global temperatures, especially in the more northerly regions. Should this happen then this may prove disastrous, releasing megatons of methane, a far more a potent greenhouse gas than CO2.

That sudden release could accelerate Global Heating within a few years, killing all life on earth, including us, of course.

That this will happen is a Biblical given. That LIFE on earth will cease ( and cease suddenly) is foretold in many bible passages, including 2 Peter 3. Here it is:

The Day of the Lord will come like a thief. The heavens will disappear with a roar, the elements will be destroyed by fire, and the earth and its works will be laid bare.

Since everything will be destroyed in this way, what kind of people ought you to be? You ought to conduct yourselves in holiness and godliness as you anticipate and hasten the coming of the day of God, when the heavens will be destroyed by fire and the elements will melt in the heat.  But in keeping with God’s promise, we are looking forward to a new heaven and a new earth, where righteousness dwells.

To conduct ourselves in holiness and godliness means more than                             praying and bible reading and attending church. It means to taste the holiness of creation, to live to see all living matter as God-given and thus sacred: that is the essence of the new gospel for dummies.

Arctic News may have the dates wrong, but it serves as a warning, because as Jesus – see Matthew 24 – has repeatedly told us, “The Day of Lord comes unannounced, totally out of the blue.” Ultra-clear signs are out there: the unalloyed fear of the Lord is the integral part of the gospel for dummies. 

NOVEMBER 16 2019

SINGING

After consulting the people, Jehoshaphat appointed men to sing to the LORD and to praise him for the splendor of his holiness as they went out at the head of the army, saying: “Give thanks to the LORD, for his love endures forever.” (2 Chronicles 20:21)

A most remarkable text.

Jehoshaphat was a wise king: he consulted his people. He also knew the power of the singing voice, especially in harmony, when first and second tenors, high and low basses united to produce melodious sounds.

Of course this was not a spontaneous, impromptu choir: these men had practiced together repeatedly. And they were not only fine musicians: they also were very courageous.

Imagine the scene: Israel, that tiny nation on the shores of the Mediterranean, then as now, surrounded by hostile nations, was again threatened with annihilation. This time the wise king knew that military superiority was impossible, that only reliance on Yahweh was the only way out.

The king remembered the nation’s history, knew how 400 men, under the guidance of Gideon, had created total chaos among the then invaders, knew how on another occasion just prior to battle, the angels of the Lord had done the slaying for them.

But having a choir go out in front of the army? Having an assembly of men, singing hymns, create such havoc among the opponents that they fled in terror and started to fight among themselves? That was then and still is now a miracle.  

There’s safety in numbers. One man alone could not have done it, but a mass of men, their voices resounding, perhaps somewhat augmented by a favorable breeze, perhaps naturally magnified by the lay of the land, not singing, “Like a mighty army moves the church of God”, but praise “God for the splendor of his holiness”, singing full out “Give thanks to the LORD, for his love endures forever,” that takes guts! Already thanking God for the victory to come that takes faith!

Life-long singing.

Yes, there is magic in singing. I know: All my life I have been singing. In the city of Groningen, the Netherlands where I was born and grew up, at an early age I was part of the Huizinga Singing Classes, a series of children choirs, with kids as young as 4 years old, I among them, tagged along by my older sisters. I still can sing fragments of the two Cantatas we performed in the city’s concert hall in the 1930’s. In elementary school, singing was a daily occurrence: every Monday morning, we had to recite a song, memorized over the weekend – with the help of my mother – to be recited in class, and sung as a body later. Once in secondary school I joined the choir there too.

When we lived in St. Catharines, Ontario, I sang with a mixed choir and was among those who started a male choir there.

Moving to Tweed in 1975 I first sang with a church choir in Belleville, and, when joining the local Presbyterian Church added my voice to its members. Now with shrinking attendance, I am the only male member there.

Singing is an important part of worship, perhaps its most important part. Singing and music go together. The entire book of Psalms, 150 in total, is basically a song book for the church.

Singing is health-enhancing. Want Long Life? SING.

There’s a wealth of research that proves the benefits of singing on health and wellbeing across the lifespan.

?

Singing lowers stress and tension. Certain chemicals released while breathing deeply together, enhance feelings of trust and bonding which aids relieving depression and feelings of loneliness. It also boosts confidence, positive feelings and energy.

There’s always much going on in our bodies and minds: worries, pains, but when we sing we fully focus on the moment, allowing us to ‘turn off’ our stream of consciousness and live completely in the moment, distracting our mind from negative thoughts, concentrate on the sound, the action, the breathing, the feeling and the pleasure of song.  ?

?

Singing is an intimate activity and by sharing our breathing molecules with others, we help to strengthen spiritual bonds. It creates a strong sense of community and social inclusion, and encourages healthier behavior. It even causes people to fall in love: my youngest brother found his partner there.   

?

Behavioral Changes 

?By singing we exercise major muscle groups in the upper body, and improve the efficiency of our cardiovascular system and encourage us to take more oxygen into our body, leading to increased alertness. 

So no wonder singing plays an important role in the bible and in the church at large. In Acts 16, it is recorded that when Paul and Silas were in jail “they were praying and singing hymns to God, and the other prisoners were listening to them.” Singing is a form of evangelism: biblical songs proclaim a message, tell the world by way of music what faith is all about. These courageous men in the text cited above showed the enemy that their trust was not in weapons and warfare, but in Yahweh, the God of Israel.

Just before Jesus and the disciples ended their last meal together, Mark 14: 26 tells us that “When they had sung a hymn, they went out to the Mount of Olives,” where Judas was waiting to arrest the Christ.

We will always sing: singing is eternal!

There is this beautiful text in Isaiah 51: 11,

“Those the LORD has redeemed will return. They will enter Zion with singing; everlasting joy will crown their heads. Gladness and joy will overtake them, and sorrow and sighing will flee away.”

Please note the word, “RETURN”. This means that we will go back from where we have been, and do this while SINGING our heart out.

Singing will form an important role in eternity. In my book DAY WITHOUT END  (you can order it from Lulu.com) singing plays a prominent role.

Here are some excerpts:

“I have always loved singing. As a baby I hummed in my crib – so my mother told me – and music has always been a part of my life. So I am ready to join Melodia as are many others. Our entire group comes over, some more out of curiosity than real interest in singing, and joins a group of about one hundred people. Melodia positions herself so that she is visible and audible to all.

“A woman next to me produces a flute and a man in front of me has a violin. Where do these instruments come from? I have ceased to be amazed, for the simple reason that I am in a perpetual state of amazement. Those who are skilled receive musical instruments beyond Stradivarius quality no doubt. Yet, miracles just don’t happen here, where everything is a miracle. Should I get one and start practicing? I set out to investigate and discover that their guardian angels, supply them to those who know how to use them. Of course, as their life-long companions, they know who they are.

Melodia calls for our attention again, which is not difficult for her as she has a natural authority. She says, “Even here perfection needs practice. In your former world repeated rehearsals produced only an approximate representation of the intention of the composer who also suffered from a degree of imperfection. I must admit that some earthly musicians, people you may have known in their former lives as Johann Sebastian, George Friedrich and Wolfgang Amadeus, did approach, at times, standards of eternity. I am glad to tell you that they are here, and have resumed a life of composing and performing music.

“Not all of you are natural singers or have an ear for music. I know Phronimos and Novissimus there–as she points to us– have good tenor voices; Vita, also in that group, used to compose songs and Arctica has a natural alto voice, although she may not realize this. Fidelia, how about you, will you join us?”

“No, thanks. As a child my father made me sing in the local temple but I hated it. At first I tried, just to please him, but I was a total failure. I think I was too nervous. So for the moment I prefer just to be part of the audience. Maria too declines simply because she would rather listen.

“Thousands have now gathered around the stage. We are seated on the sides of a circular hill looking into a valley so that all have a perfect view of the musicians who are still talking and playing. A real wave of undefined sound emanates from that direction. All players have now installed themselves on the podium. I let my gaze travel over the crowd and my thoughts lock in on a few people I recognize and we exchange quick INTERMIND messages of greetings. I like this quick and effortless way of communicating, with an immediate response, much more efficient than e-mail.

“Throughout the choir all voices are completely mixed with no separate soprano, bass, alto or tenor section. It takes a while before the arrangements are completed but there is no rush or panic.

“I return to my place and look over my part. Arctica is standing next to me. She has never participated in a choir before and has never sung from a score. However, the music is written in such a way that when the correct note is hit, the musical note glows a bit indicating the proper pitch. I find this a fantastic way of teaching both the untrained and those like me who have had a life-long exposure to choirs and singing. At first hesitantly, but with increasingly confidence, we try out our parts and with enthusiastic encouragement and participation from the notes on the sheets we soon sound quite professional.

“Now everyone is ready for the more formal rehearsal. No, not quite: I notice flocks of different birds flying in from various directions, settle in the trees around us. They will be part of the concert, too, of course. I recognize quite a few from the African continent. Are we in Africa? Other animals, too, are wandering in, some lazily grazing, some calmly looking around. The leaves of the trees tremble in avid anticipation.”

So far the quote from DAY WITHOUT END.

Processional singing.

When the tribes of Israel visited the tabernacle or the temple, they walked the scores of miles from the top of the land, close to Lebanon, and from beyond the river Jordan, as families and friends, singing all the way to Jerusalem. They knew their songs. Take Psalm 100, a perfect song to march by:

Cry out with joy in the Lord, all the earth.
Serve the Lord with gladness.
Come before him, singing for joy.

Go within his gates, giving thanks.
Enter his courts with songs of praise.
Give thanks to him and bless his name.

Or take Psalm 122, a pilgrimage song.

I rejoiced when I heard them say:
‘Let us go to God’s house.’
And now our feet are standing
within your gates, O Jerusalem

It is there that the tribes go up,
the tribes of the Lord.
For Israel’s law it is
there to praise the Lord’s name.

The Psalms are for all times.

Singing was difficult when Israel was exiled in Babylon: Psalm 137 testifies to that:

By the rivers of Babylon
there we sat and wept,
remembering Zion;
on the poplars that grew there
we hung up our harps.

For it was there that they asked us,
our captors, for songs,
our oppressors, for joy.
“Sing to us,” they said,
“one of Zion’s songs.”

O how could we sing
the song of the Lord
on alien soil?
If I forget you, Jerusalem,
let my right hand wither!

On Alien Soil.

We too are on alien soil. 1John 5: 19 unequivocally states that today The Evil One is in charge. Jesus affirms this in John 17.

For the time being we simply must endure the sins against creation, but, as Isaiah 51: 11 affirms: “We will RETURN to a renewed world, and do this while SINGING. 

NOVEMBER 9 2019

MY LOVE-HATE RELATIONSHIP

I admit: I have a love-hate relationship with the church.

There is this Latin phrase, “Ecclesia Reformata, Semper Reformanda”, which in everyday parlor means, “The Reformed Church, always Reforming.”

Is that true? No.

The church structure hasn’t changed for centuries.

The ecclesiastical organization is supposed to be based on the Bible.

Is that true? No.

The Bible only mentions house churches.

The church is supposed to be fashioned on Jesus’ words.

Is that true? No.

Jesus’ life was focused on LIFE: how to LIVE!  Jesus was anti-religion. He knew that the church was going to kill him.

The church’s mission is to proclaim the Lord’s return.

Is that true? No.

Preaching of “the Kingdom to come” is avoided, because it is unpopular and painful. Yet Jesus’ specific command was: “first seek the Kingdom, and everything else will automatically follow.”

(The coming Kingdom is The New Creation)

Anymore disagreements?

Lots!. Let me start with the church offices.

Question: Where in the New Testament is the Pope mentioned?

Nowhere.

Question: the office of a minister or priest of the church, the man or woman who brings the sermon each Sunday, and the office of the elder, does the New Testament sees these as two distinct offices, or are they identical?

Answer: the New Testament sees them as one and the same.

A closer look.

Upon examination it is found that the New Testament uses two different words to indicate the office of elder: episcopos (bishop, supervisor) and presbyteros (elder). The different names have even given birth to two distinctly different denominations: the Episcopalian Church in the USA and the Presbyterian Church all over the English speaking world. Nevertheless both episcopos and presbyteros indicate the same office: in the New Testament there is no difference between the two, they mean exactly the same thing.

So why then are there two classes of officials in the church:

(1) ministers of the gospel, people who themselves have chosen this route, and are licensed to speak – ordained it is called – and may do all sorts of things, and

(2) elected elders who are not allowed to do much? 

Blame it on human ambition. Somewhere, many centuries ago, there was an aspiring elder, probably a man with great oratorical gifts, who called himself – only men in those days – an ‘episcopos’ as if that were a more privileged designation, while his colleagues were stuck with the ‘presbyteros’ designation, which suddenly became a rank of less value. (In Scotland and the Netherlands, a ‘minister’ is (was?) called ‘dominee’ or ‘dominie’, meaning Lord! The Dutch designation is Ds. short for ‘dominus’. Just imagine: calling a person Lord!)

In time the episcopos person became the headmaster, the leader, the man who spoke on behalf of the local group, and was given the tasks to baptize, to administer communion, to speak at important occasions, and, when churches were established elsewhere, he was chosen to be in charge of other congregations as well, and so the office of ‘bishop’ was born, and soon afterward a man was elevated to be ‘papa’ or later ‘Holy Father’ – calling a fallible person ‘holy’!

We also know that, once a situation in the church is established, it soon becomes ‘tradition’ and it takes an act of God – or whatever – to change this. So far this has not happened.

Hans K?ng in his 650 page book on The Church writes that presbyters or elders are men who have to safeguard apostolic tradition against false doctrine and to lead the communities. Hans K?ng is highly regarded for his theological knowledge and insights not only among Catholics but by theologians of all religious persuasions. Born in 1928 in Switzerland, he studied in Rome, and at the Sorbonne. He has a Doctorate in the theology and has been professor of Dogmatic and Ecumenical Theology at the University of T?bingen, Germany until the Pope said: “Enough criticism from this professor”, and suspended his license to teach.

When we compare the New Testament references to preachers and elders then the conclusion is inevitable that frequently the same words are used to indicate both categories.

In my Greek New Testament there are a lot of instances where the word ‘elder’ is used. 1 Peter 5 starts with this verse: “The Presbyters who are among you, I as a fellow presbyter, exhort you…” Here the Apostle Peter calls himself an ‘elder’ and uses the same annotation for his fellow elders. How the Roman Catholic church managed to make this ‘elder’ the head of the church, is, of course, based on Jesus’ saying when he said that “On this rock (Peter means rock) I will build my church.” I believe he chose Peter because this fisherman was so human: quick to judge, quick to repent, loath to change.

Paul, addressing the flock in Ephesus, when he is about to leave for the last time, calls the elders there ‘overseers’ or ‘episkopoi’, a designation Paul also uses in Titus 1:7.

The apostle John always uses presbyter to refer to himself, as is evident in 2 John 1 and 3 John 1. When comparing such passages as 2 Timothy 4:2 and Titus 2:7 with such texts as Acts 20:28, 1 Peter 5: 2 and 1 Timothy 3:2, then both presbyteros and episkopos are used to describe the same situation, which leads me to conclude that the job description of elders and preachers run parallel and that their duties are identical.

In other words, the New Testament sees no difference between the office of preacher and that of elder. For example in 1 Timothy 5:17 – “The elders who direct the affairs of the church, especially those whose work is preaching and teaching”, the word ‘presbyter’ is used.

The curious part is that the office of presbyter does not indicate an independent office, but, as in most of life, is dependent on the person’s talents. Paul often mentions this when he points out that, just as there is a variety of gifts, so is there a wide range of elders: the one elder has greater ability for a certain aspect of his or her task than another, and it makes eminent sense, also biblical sense, to take these into account. On this matter Dr K?ng remarks that ‘preaching was largely determined by the charismatic structure of the church’. In other words, those who had the gifts used them. He also writes that “the idea of ordination was presumably taken over from Judaism at more or less the same time as the idea of elders.” So again, as on so many occasions, the church simply took over Old Testament customs, so unlike Jesus and Paul who completely broke with these ingrained Jewish traditions.

It makes good sense – and good sense is often equated with wisdom – to use the talents present in a certain community. When a certain person, whether elder or not, has the time and the gift to preach, then he or she should be used in that way. This already was the case in the synagogues which Paul and Barnabas often attended as a start on their mission work in a certain locality. There all those who could offer a word of encouragement, were allowed to speak. Both women and children were allowed to read the laws and the prophets there. Acts 13:15 makes clear that Jews who came from abroad, were given the opportunity to address the assembly.

That same was true, as related in 1 Corinthians 14:26, where it clearly says that “when you come together everyone has a hymn or a word of instruction.”

It is also striking that the New Testament baptism and Communion services are not at all connected to a defined category of official functions, not even to office bearers in particular. We know that in the Old Testament a head of household circumcised his own sons and personally killed the Easter-lamb and always presided over the Easter-meal, so it is not surprising that this practice continued in the New Testament.

Actually what is surprising is that the continuation of these religious acts, now in the form of baptism and communion, remain the exclusive domain of ordained ministers, which basically means that un-scriptural clericalism is to blame.    

I can also point out that the New Testament knows no such matters as presbyteries – a gathering of regional ministers and elders – or classes in the Christian Reformed Church, a meeting of the same nature. Especially such matters as Synods or General Assemblies are totally foreign to the first church.  The real disadvantage of these large gatherings, with official minutes published in large volumes, is, that if new initiatives are introduced, not exactly in accordance with certain previously taken decisions, then these efforts usually have not much chance to succeed or even to come to the floor: there always are ‘experts in church law’ present at these ecclesiastical forums who know the precedence which often means the death for new ventures.

The curious thing about the church in general is that officials often lack the conviction that Christ will look ‘after his own’. People, also the clergy, crave for rules so that they can control the situation. The result has been that the church has erected a superstructure that exceeds all outlines the New Testament provides; there always seems to be the fear that congregations cannot manage on their own and will be overwhelmed by the events of the time unless they were assisted by an ecclesiastical edifice of human origin. All these anxieties essentially display a lack of faith in Christ and His Word, as if He would leave the church in the lurch and will not provide sufficient guarantees to safeguard his people.

In The Spontaneous expansion of the church and the causes which hinder it, R. Allen, the author, in essence writes that, if the continuity of the work in the church depends on organization, then it is plain that it is somehow different than bringing the message of Life. Human organization is necessary to make human endeavor possible. But Christ is concerned with Life itself. If the work of the church is to bring the message of Life, if it consists of bringing to people the knowledge of Christ who is Life and who gives Life, then this work cannot depend on a source that is devoid of Life. This just won’t work, because they promote a form of organization, either be design or by accident which implies that belief in human structures can take the place of Christ.

Of course, I am not against organization. In order to get matters done, some sort of coordination is needed, because, without some sort of plan in place, nothing much gets accomplished. However, in the church these actions must be either ad hoc, for the moment only, or so flexible that freedom remains assured to prevent that inflexible structures, empowered with ecclesiastical authority, obtain their own independence apart from the Word of God.

In short: churches must not be subjected to organizational systems that exceed New Testament outlines, because, once in place, they tend to stay in place for ever.

So what do I propose?

The central theme of the last Bible book, REVELATION, is that everything will be revealed, including the true nature of the church.

As I have outlined: the church is on the wrong track. That has to be corrected. No wonder its message too has become distorted. The church by and large preaches that,

(1) we are heaven oriented.

(2) Jesus came to save us sinners.

Both claims are only partly true.

The Bible plainly teaches that God loved the world, now in the grip of The Evil One. Christ died to restore ownership of the earth, our habitat into eternity. We are not heaven-bound, but our destination is the renewed Planet Earth, forever. Jesus came to restore creation to its initial pristine perfection: that’s what he set out to do and accomplished.

No wonder that the church, with its faulty structure, its ‘man’-centered emphasis, often gets its message wrong.

My love-hate relationship.

Still I love the church even though more often than not, it fails to preach THE COMING OF THE KINGDOM, the imminent arrival of God’s New Creation. I also love the church for the fellowship and the singing.

Trust and obey: there’s no other Way.

NOVEMBER 2 2019

UNDER THE WEATHER

The phrase under the weather is a nautical term from the days of sailing ships. Any sailor who was feeling ill would be sent below deck to protect him from the weather.

I have all the Hornblower books by C. S. Forester, dealing with sailing warships during the England-France-Napoleonic wars. Great reading. I also have some of the Patrick O’Brian series, covering the same period, also featuring a ship’s surgeon, Stephen Maturin, a brilliant physician who thought that below deck was actually the worst place to heal, as hundreds of sailors  were confined there and infections were rampant: above deck under a tarpaulin protected from sun and rain, breathing fresh sea-air was far healthier.

The weather.

Matthew 16: 1-4 tells us something about the weather:

The Pharisees and Sadducees came up, and testing Jesus, they asked Him to show them a sign from heaven.  But He replied to them, “When it is evening, you say, ‘It will be fair weather, for the sky is red.’  “And in the morning, ‘There will be a storm today, for the sky is red and threatening.’ Do you know how to discern the appearance of the sky, but cannot discern the signs of the times?  “An evil and adulterous generation seeks after a sign; and a sign will not be given it, except the sign of Jonah.” And He left them and went away.

Nothing very polite about this answer. Jesus could be very abrupt, especially when dealing with the clergy, who, of course, knew all about Jonah.

So, what is ‘the sign of Jonah?’ And what are ‘the signs of the times today?’

The best way to learn about Jonah is to sing about him. So I once made a song in Jonah on the tune of Psalm 8, “Lord, oh Lord in all the earth How great thy name.” I know this song is not very good poetry, but it can be sung with gusto.

REFRAIN

         Whale, oh whale in all the sea
         The greatest whale
         With its double-steepled tail
         Swallowed Jonah in travail:
         Oh what a tale!

1. God, the Lord to Jonah said:
   Go to Nineveh the bad
   Jonah did not like the charge
   Instead to Tarshish did he march
   Set out to sail.             REFRAIN

• Jonah caused the storm they got
  Sailors then did cast the lot
  In the sea they threw the male
  And at once it stopped the gale
  But not the whale!       REFRAIN

• In the belly of the fish
  Jonah made a fervent wish.
  Then the Lord spoke to the whale
  Who spew Jonah on the shale
  Quite pale and frail.              REFRAIN

• On the Nineveh he went
  Telling all now to repent.
  When they did he got so mad
  Calling God e’vrything that’s bad
  How sad, how sad.        REFRAIN

• Jonah tired and angry
  Sat himself under a tree

Which the Lord for him supplied
But the tree grew sick and died

And Jonah cried.          REFRAIN

• Then the Lord to Jonah said
  If one dead tree makes you so mad

Don’t I then have equal right
To be concerned for Nineveh’s plight:

Don’t be so trite!          REFRAIN.  

So, what is the sign of Jonah? The above verses pretty well cover the Jonah story. So, what do I deduce?  

• Jonah refuses to preach the gospel of judgement “Repent or else!”
• Jonah did not want Nineveh to repent: they were Israel’s sworn enemies. Nationalist Jonah said to himself “The Lord is wrong”: the people of Nineveh don’t belong to God’s crowd, only we, the sons of Abraham, do”.
• When Jonah was buried alive this gave him time to change his mind, also a sign of what was going to happen to Jesus.
• Not repenting means Total Destruction. That is true for today as well.

Thus the sign of Jonah was political, religious and ecological: the religious leaders of Israel saw salvation only for their own people. Jesus came for all, a lesson his followers of all times have to learn as well. He also hinted at his own death. Not repenting meant destruction.

Today we see something similar: white supremacy, nationalism and misdirected religion: the gnostic heaven heresy, anthropocentric salvation, while honoring God’s cosmos has little significance for the church. Unless we repent, en bloc, we too will suffer the fate Nineveh was to undergo.

Down Under

Australia is also known as “Down Under”. Last week I read that: “Drought is weighing on economic growth, and the dire conditions have prompted Australia, a major wheat exporter, to import the grain for the first time in 12 years.”

“Down under” is “under the weather”. Rivers are running dry. Fish are choking by the thousands, and sheep are dying for lack of pasture.

Today the whole world is UNDER THE WEATHER, not only Down Under, pointing to severe food inflation in the years to come.

California: a sign to come!

Already California is experiencing pre-industrial conditions – no electricity – because for millions electricity is cut off to prevent live wires from igniting more fires. California has always been a trendsetter. Whatever first happens there soon will happen everywhere!

Fragile.

We have built a society based on essentially one single power source: electricity. Everything depends on a steady supply of this magic substance that heats and cools and provides light and makes internet and computers function.

Today’s climate abnormalities everywhere tax an already fragile system through increased energy requirements triggered by extended periods of heat, drought, or cold. If the power grid were to collapse, we all would experience disastrous consequences.

• Loss of perishable foods and medications
  • Loss of water and wastewater distribution systems
  • Loss of heating/air conditioning and electrical lighting systems
  • Loss of computer, telephone, and communications systems (including airline flights, satellite networks and GPS services)
  • Loss of public transportation systems
  • Loss of fuel distribution systems and fuel pipelines
  • Loss of all electrical systems that do not have back-up power

A rise in insect-borne disease is another potential danger. China is trying to contain African Swine Fever, so far only affecting the small farmers. Still some 200 million pigs have been killed because there is no known cure for this.

If a highly infectious disease were to emerge, there are only very few places in the world with sufficient social cohesion and a strong public health system to respond adequately.

We live in a world that is becoming totally abnormal. For weeks now Alaska has been 30 degrees Fahrenheit warmer than normal, accelerating the de-icing of the Arctic, where trillions of tons of METHANE are on the verge of emerging, jumping the Global Temperature by at least 5 degrees Celsius. But the USA Mid-West, where corn is grown, is covered with ice and snow in October, burying about half the corn crop.

UNDER THE WEATHER.

One of the laws of ECOLOGY is that “everything is connected to everything else”. We all know that when one part of our body is sick, it affects our totality. The same is true for our planetary body. We have abused it for centuries and now we, who are part and parcel of creation – soil we are and to soil we shall return – will suffer.

A short history.

The Garden of Eden’s idyllic, fruit gathering, state did not last long. Farming brought dense human populations and centralized control: our Capitalistic Society has been the result, stretching back some five thousand years, coming to us, after many collapses.

In what is now Iraq, the Sumerian civilization (one of the world’s first) withered and died as the irrigation systems it invented turned the fields into salty desert. Some two thousand years later, in the Mediterranean basin, chronic soil erosion steadily undermined the Classical World: first the Greeks, then the Romans at the height of their power. And a few centuries after Rome’s fall, the Classic Maya, one of only two high civilizations to thrive in tropical rainforest (the other being the Khmer), eventually wore out nature’s welcome at the heart of Central America.

In the deep past these setbacks were local. The overall experiment of civilization kept going, often by moving from an exhausted ecology to one with untapped potential, as human numbers were still quite small. At the height of the Roman Empire there are thought to have been only 200 million people on Earth, while at the height of the British Empire a century ago, there were two billion, now we have nearly eight billion, thanks to electricity, fully carbon-fueled. While population increases are slowly declining, consumption of resources — from fossil fuel to water, from rare earths to good earth — has risen twice as steeply, roughly doubling our impact on nature. True, the outrunning of population by economic growth has lifted perhaps a billion of the poorest into the outskirts of the working class, mainly in China and India, yet those in extreme poverty and hunger still number at least a billion.

Will they too see better lives? Not likely. Predicted consequences of global warming — blighted coral reefs, melting glaciers, spreading deserts, and extreme weather — are already upon us.

Yes, we, our own children and grandchildren will face growing pains. We have saddled us and them with creation-loath luxuries and frivolous gadgets while we squander away what’s left of the wealth and wonder of the God’s dearly bought Earth.

We are leaving them monstrous debts, having colonized both past and future, having drawn energy, chemical fertilizer, and pesticides from the planet’s fossil carbon, and throwing the consequences onto us and our progeny and other species, many already bankrupted and extinct.

We, the human race, have become the world’s top predator, and predators crash suddenly when they outgrow their prey. Fortunately awareness of our predicament is spreading as we are beginning to see the world dying before our eyes, as global protests are mounting.

The failure of democratic governments to stand up for the greater good over the long run is fueling disillusionment with democracy itself. There is something badly wrong with an economic regime in which 26 mega-billionaires own as much as half the world’s population. Such extreme disparity has never been seen before. Inequality is the main driver behind rising population and consumption. The highest birthrates are in the poorest places, mainly Africa and the Indian subcontinent. At the other end of the seesaw, obscene wealth — the kind which owns mansions around the world and gigantic yachts with helicopter pads — has a colossal footprint, while its undue influence amounts to a dark tyranny.

Of one thing we can be sure: if we fail to act, nature will do so with the rough justice she has always served on those who are too many and who take too much.

Given the history of humanity, so briefly outlined above, the story of Jonah is relevant today. He was unwilling to go to Nineveh and plead for conversion, until God intervened and made his trip successful, even though he resented the outcome.

Then it was more or less a local conversion, and one that proved to be only temporary, as today’s Nineveh, located on the outskirts of Mosul in Northern Iraq was almost totally destroyed while wrested from the oppressive regime of ISIS, that fanatical Muslim regime.

UNDER THE WEATHER

The entire world is UNDER THE WEATHER, is sick to the core.

Jesus urged us to discern “the signs of the times.” We instantly know the weather, often days in advance. Jesus does not care about the immediate future: he always wants us to look beyond tomorrow and into eternity. There is where our future lies!

Life today is merely proving grounds for eternity. That also means that, if we love Christ, we must emulate his life, which was perfectly reflected in his love for creation, so beautifully expressed in John 3: 16, the Bible’s most important text, certainly today when our actions totally contradict this.

It bears repeating:

For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.

That LIFE will be lived on the earth from which we are taken: God’s Holy Earth, because he created it and called it good SEVEN TIMES.