All is Vanity Pt. 2

"For the love of money is the root of all evil; which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows." 1 Tim 6:10


                      Capitalism, an economic and political system in which a country's trade and industry are controlled by private owners for profit, rather than by the state. In short a system based upon money. Our unrestrained spending and consumption has led to many severe problems. One is debt, which almost every single American is affected by directly or indirectly. Credit card debt is the largest totally somewhere in the trillions and as the politicians whore themselves to the major banks filing for bankruptcy is virtually impossible anymore. This also comes with an increase in predatory tactics used by banks to sink more people deeper into debt. These companies are unforgiving and relentless, even demonizing the borrower to justify their unmerciful approach. Oddly enough our own government is in debt is somewhere around 13 trillion dollars, and counting. What is unique is how the U.S. government persuades countries like China to be merciful, and jumping through hoops for the Federal Reserve (which is not federal) in order to avoid paying outrageous interest and other compounded fees. Christ speaks of this very same thing in Mt. 18:32 in which a servant begged his master to forgive his debt, and the master did. The servant had then gone out and found a fellow servant who owed him money, and would NOT forgive his debts. This is the exact same thing the U.S. government is doing and it is unacceptable.


                     If we borrow money in order to buy a house, a car, or other unnecessary things, we then become a slave to the lender. (Prov. 22:7) Can we serve God and our banks? According to Christ in Mt. 6:24 and Lk 16:13 we cannot serve two masters, can we serve God and mammon? Mammon meaning wealth as evil influence or a false object of worship. Christ tells us no, yet we still try. Why is it a necessity to buy something we cannot pay cash for? Our system is based on spending. If we stop spending our economy will collapse. Therefore they want us to spend, they want us to be in debt and they want us to do this our whole lives, its another form of slavery. 


                    Let us say that you buy a house. To buy that house, assuming you have not saved for 30 years, you would need someone to loan you the money. Therefore you go the bank, who determines your worth and your trustworthiness and then gives you a loan with a hefty amount of interest added to the principal. Let us also say that you never re-finance your home, which is possible but increasingly rare. It will take you approximately 30 years to pay off that house, assuming you make your payments on time every month. For 30 years you are basically part of a feudal system in which you do not own the land, the land owns you. This is also assuming that the bank who lent to you does not use any shady business practices to get you further into a mess. For atleast 30 years you will attempt to serve two masters, because "the borrower is servant to the lender." (Prov. 22:7) and therefore you have no choice in the matter.


                  This exchange of goods and services is equivalent to financial prostitution. You pay more money than the house is worth because of the added interest, granted you may eventually own that house but at what cost? Just as a pimp takes an unfair percentage of her money, so too does the bank take an unfair percentage of the borrowers money. If a pimp does not get his money or his whore tries to escape, he will hunt her down at all costs and punish her severely. The banks also hunt you down with such sophisticated techniques it is impossible to hide. These banks show even less mercy than the pimp, they will take everything without thinking twice, and the law is on their side giving them an unfair advantage.
Yet we subscribe to this system based on money. A system that turns the average person into a materialist, desiring the most useless and unneeded of things. Over consuming and being proud of it, flaunting it to the world. 
    
                 Once caught in this cycle of spending and over consuming, it is virtually inescapable. Our minds have been taught to spend, to over consume so we know no other way. We must reject the worldly and understand our spirituality. "All is vanity" (Eccl. 1:1) And it is true, everything worldly is worthless. Why do we strive to attain these things that have no spiritual value whatsoever? Why do we beat it into our childrens head that they must be successful in the world? We send them out to an un-Christian world and expect them to be un-phased. Simplicity is the answer. We are waiting for the second coming of our Lord, which is not far off based on the deteriorating conditions of this world, so why are we busying ourselves with worldly distinction, and attaining worldly things? It is the weakness of man, doing what he wants to as opposed to what he should do. Trusting in himself more than the God he claims to believe in. Giving in to his own personal desires instead of casting them to the wayside. 






This blog is a precursor to the upcoming book "All is Vanity".

The Days of Creation

"In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was without form, and void; and darkness was on the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters. Then God said, "Let there be light"; and there was light." - Genesis 1:1-3


                         When God created all things, did he do it in six twenty-four hour days or do these days represent epochs of time ranging from millions or billions of years? We would have to speculate on the motive of God for each creation belief. God is beyond time, above it, creator of it, and ruler over it. God has no need to constrain Himself with time or a timeframe so what is the purpose of six literal twenty-four hour days? God uses this to establish time and structure for mankind, since time is of no use to God He is not bound by it. Creating all things in a millisecond would do mankind no good, it establishes no structure and shows no compassion or care in His own creation and therefore cannot be a possibility. If indeed each day were an epoch of millions or billions of years, we also run into a similar problem. Instead of God needing only a short time, He needed or used, a very long period of time. This does no good for mankind as it establishes nothing except again that God does not seem too interested in His own creation. He seems to be starting things off in each day or epoch and just kind of letting it go, which is not only uncaring but lacks the structure required for man.
    
                      St. John Chrysostom warns us of delving into creation with "human reasoning" in Eight Sermons on the Book of Genesis, pg.31-33. This shows how much wisdom St. John really did possess, to know that science would ignore God's incomprehensible infiniteness and subject Him to scientific scrutiny. Since the theory of evolution did not exist until recently, why should we apply it to scripture? Evolution is a convoluted theory based on interpretation of "evidence", what is factual about that, and why should we apply it to scripture? We should not, it does not even make sense when it is applied. As stated previously, what is the point of having days or epochs of millions or billions of years? God could created all things in any sort of time frame He chose to, an evolutionary standpoint does not make sense. There is no motive in doing so. To create all things in an instant is not only against scripture but just lacks any sort of common sense and again, motive or purpose.

                     The only logical interpretation would be a literal one. The purpose of God is clear in this instance, mankind. Mankind needs structure and time, our biological clocks revolve around time and when it is thrown off by travel or working the late shift, our bodies let us know. Each day God created something new, he was also establishing time for us in a way that we would understand, what other reason would God create in such a way? God is in no need of time, therefore if you are a theistic evolutionist then you must be like a detective and establish a motive first, and think science later. Purpose, we have established the purpose and necessity for six day creation, but there no purpose for millions or billions of years.

                      Would God actually need that time in which to "perfect" His creation, or could He create it all as is? When Adam was created, he was not created as an infant and was not born. Adam must have been middle aged, whatever that is for that time. I am assuming that when things were created, they were created in a similar manner, mid aged or so. Believing God is constrained by time would mean that you believe God to be limited and below time. Needing millions or billions of years would mean that God is unable to create things right the first time and needs time for them to evolve until the next day or epoch to create the next thing. Again what is the purpose for mankind here? It lacks purpose and logic, theologically speaking anyways. This is an attempt to reconcile the two belief systems. People who do this cannot, or will not, part with one or the other. So the only logical thing to do for an illogical mind, put them together. Unfortunately for them these two beliefs are opposed to one another, unless you selectively embrace different parts of scripture and science.

                    Science's evidence for evolution is like evidence for the existence of God, when a spiritual man looks at the evidence for God, his argument is strengthened by it because he is interpreting it through a spiritual mindset. When a scientist looks at the evidence for evolution, he feels his belief is fact, because he is interpreting it through an evolutionary mindset. There may be evidence that we feel points in one direction but none of it empirically shows that either is true, both are faith. In the Christian view we see that God established time for us, and then gave it structure for us, and this is the purpose for the literal six twenty-four hour day creation, which the theistic evolutionists lack in their explanation.