1 Chron 12:32 report, 66: A call to arms (and, a cry from the heart)

Pardon, I have been busy over the past few days. I need to follow up on the work- in- progress triple-post, but in the meanwhile, and as a further preparation,  I want to refocus our attention as a strategic people of God in our region.

Pardon, therefore, an adapted -- and somewhat augmented -- excerpt from an email I just sent to a dear Brother over in Barbados:

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>> My current emphasis projects as we turn the corner to 2011 are:

1: A systematic theology course, now working up unit 4 mostly, do check out the work in progress:

http://nicenesystheol.blogspot.com/2010/11/unit-4-man-sin-culture-chaos-need-for.html

--> Notice the haplogroup maps for Y chromosome and mitochondrial DNA and what the spatial distribution says when linked to Gen 10 - 11. (Notice how the conventional timing estimates are [in my view, on confidence in the scriptures] seriously off, i.e. we have reason to suspect C-14 on v. long term trends beyond about 3,000 years ago, etc)

2: I am now trying to work in tables of contents with hot in-page links into the IOSE course, having come up with a technique through the above mentioned course; cf here:

http://iose-gen.blogspot.com/2010/06/introduction-and-summary.html

3: At the KF blog, I am doing a mini series working towards dealing with what I think is the tipping point for our civilisation: homosexualisation of marriage in the USA. (Once such is embedded in law, education, public opinion and policy that unjustly criminalises Bible-believing Christian faith and much else, a lot of terrible consequences will follow.)

Start here: http://kairosfocus.blogspot.com/

Notice the heads-up briefing in a nutshell sent out Sunday last:

Now, in recent days, there have been several portentous developments, such as the ongoing homosexualisation of the US military. (Cf WND's collection of responses by veterans, here.)

(That is, as Mr Obama delivers on some of his promises to a key cluster of backers, the homosexualists, the second shoe has now dropped on the agenda behind the don't ask, don't tell policy imposed on a reluctant military in the early 1990's. Through what is now plainly a first phase, penetration, a network of homosexual agenda activists has now been powerfully put in place in the military, the media and the government. So, now, the open homosexualisation of the strongest military in the world can proceed apace. The direct implications are troubling, as military members will be indoctrinated in the claimed "normality" of homosexual behaviour, and in the slanderous claim that to have a moral or conscience objection to such behaviour is to be a hateful bigot, comparable to a racist or a Nazi or an Inquisitor such as Torquemada. This also provides precedents -- and the muscle -- to back up the ongoing attempt to homosexualise other government agencies and international bodies, thence also marriage. After that, predictably comes the onward criminalisation of those who object, through the already in-place thought control hate crimes laws. In my considered opinion, if these two steps get through in so pivotal a country as the USA, the damage to our civilisation in its current form will be irreparable, and will lead to chaos, unresolvable conflict and collapse as civil consensus disintegrates. The sort of slander-driven open persecution hinted at in the Manhattan Declaration recently highlighted in this blog,  is therefore now looming over the horizon.) . . .

My biggie issue, though, is that there are some underlying issues we need to think about, seriously. 

Maybe we can best express and address them as an agenda of pointed questions, with some background scriptures:  

1: Do we recognise the magnitude of the geo-political, and spiritual tidal wave surges headed our way from the North [aggressive, militant Romans 1 world dechristianisation of our civilisation] and the East [equally aggressive militant IslamISM], and what we will have to do to brace for and stand the shocks then resurge to rebuild our region, and help others across the world?

2: Do we understand how strategic we are as the people of God in the Caribbean, as Bible based Christians drawn largely from the 10/40 window nations and reforged under the gospel in this region?

3: With the next major cultural-ethnic root-groups and links being to the nations of the now increasingly militantly apostate north?

4: That over this decade ahead, we will have to rise to meet the challenges in our region and across the world, or else suffer some serious, damaging setbacks?

5: Why are we so often asleep at the wheel, or else outright blind to the signs of our times, and even if not blind, so tardy in learning, developing confidence in analysis and analysts, evaluating strategic action concepts, then acting decisively?

6: Do we not understand that there is a reason why key strategic thinkers have always taught that time is a vital resource that cannot safely be squandered? (Opportunity never knocks twice, a stitch in time saves nine, and many other proverbs capture this key point.)

7: Do we know why Napoleon dismissed the Austro-Hungarian empire thusly: the Austrians are always late, first with payments and at length with armies?

8: Do we understand what that habitual tardiness repeatedly cost the Austrians in the face of a Napoleon, then later on as they had to deal with the impacts of those repeated crushing defeats over the next 100 years; ending up with the sorts of unresolvable conflicts that triggered the first world war through the assassination of their Archduke -- Crown Prince -- Ferdinand and his wife on a visit to a Balkan province, in Sarajevo, in 1914?

9: Do we really appreciate that if one does not seize the initiative, and act on a sustained basis, others who do not have our best interests in mind will take it, and the course of events will then put us on a decidedly defensive stance in an increasingly difficult even hostile situation?

10: That, we cannot sit back and wring our hands over lack of capacity, when we have in the Internet and in resource people, more than enough to begin a programme of transformative education and training, and in the many many young people and older ones sitting in our pews a potentially decisive strategic resource?

11: Do we really understand Eph 2:8 - 10 (I notice, we ever so often do not read or cite v 10)? 

Let me cite, from the Amplified Bible:

Ephesians 2:8-10 (Amplified Bible)

⁸For it is by free grace (God's unmerited favor) that you are saved (^[a]delivered from judgment and made partakers of Christ's salvation) through [your] faith. And this [salvation] is not of yourselves [of your own doing, it came not through your own striving], but it is the gift of God;

    ⁹Not because of works [not the fulfillment of the Law's demands], lest any man should boast. [It is not the result of what anyone can possibly do, so no one can pride himself in it or take glory to himself.]

    ¹⁰For we are God's [own] handiwork (His workmanship), ^[b]recreated in Christ Jesus, [born anew] that we may do those good works which God predestined (planned beforehand) for us [taking paths which He prepared ahead of time], that we should walk in them [living the good life which He prearranged and made ready for us to live].

   

Footnotes:

1. Ephesians 2:8 Joseph Thayer, A Greek-English Lexicon.
2. Ephesians 2:10 Arthur S. Way, Way's Epistles: The Letters of St. Paul to Seven Churches and Three Friends.

I read that in light of the fullness theme that so dominates that book, and see therein a call to walk in a good life and a life of service that fills all around it with Christ, having reformational and transformative impact on our community and world.

And, that this is a calling upon EVERY Christian disciple.

For, we may see Eph 1:17 - 23 (and beyond, 4:9 - 24):

Ephesians 1:17-23 (Amplified Bible)

¹⁷[For I always pray to] the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, that He may grant you a spirit of wisdom and revelation [of insight into mysteries and secrets] in the [deep and intimate] knowledge of Him,

    ¹⁸By having the eyes of your heart flooded with light, so that you can know and understand the hope to which He has called you, and how rich is His glorious inheritance in the saints (His set-apart ones),

    ¹⁹And [so that you can know and understand] what is the immeasurable and unlimited and surpassing greatness of His power in and for us who believe, as demonstrated in the working of His mighty strength,

    ²⁰Which He exerted in Christ when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His [own] right hand in the heavenly [places],

    ²¹Far above all rule and authority and power and dominion and every name that is named [above every title that can be conferred], not only in this age and in this world, but also in the age and the world which are to come.

    ²²And He has put all things under His feet and has appointed Him the universal and supreme Head of the church [a headship exercised throughout the church],^(A)

    ²³Which is His body, the fullness of Him Who fills all in all [for in that body lives the full measure of Him Who makes everything complete, and Who fills everything everywhere with Himself].

   

Cross references:

1. Ephesians 1:22 : Ps 8:6

12: Do we really understand and take such scriptures to heart?

Let me conclude with Eph 4:9 - 24, what I have called the operational form of the church's mandate:

Ephesians 4:9-24 (Amplified Bible)

⁹[But He ascended?] Now what can this, He ascended, mean but that He had previously descended from [the heights of] heaven into [the depths], the lower parts of the earth?

    ¹⁰He Who descended is the [very] same as He Who also has ascended high above all the heavens, that He [His presence] might fill all things (the whole universe, from the lowest to the highest).

    ¹¹And His gifts were [varied; He Himself appointed and gave men to us] some to be apostles (special messengers), some prophets (inspired preachers and expounders), some evangelists (preachers of the Gospel, traveling missionaries), some pastors (shepherds of His flock) and teachers.

    ¹²His intention was the perfecting and the full equipping of the saints (His consecrated people), [that they should do] the work of ministering toward building up Christ's body (the church),

    ¹³[That it might develop] until we all attain oneness in the faith and in the comprehension of the [^[a]full and accurate] knowledge of the Son of God, that [we might arrive] at really mature manhood (the completeness of personality which is nothing less than the standard height of Christ's own perfection), the measure of the stature of the fullness of the Christ and the completeness found in Him.

    ¹⁴So then, we may no longer be children, tossed [like ships] to and fro between chance gusts of teaching and wavering with every changing wind of doctrine, [the prey of] the cunning and cleverness of ^[b]unscrupulous men, [gamblers engaged] in every shifting form of trickery in inventing errors to mislead.

    ¹⁵Rather, let our lives lovingly ^[c]express truth [in all things, speaking truly, dealing truly, living truly]. Enfolded in love, let us grow up in every way and in all things into Him Who is the Head, [even] Christ (the Messiah, the Anointed One).

    ¹⁶For because of Him the whole body (the church, in all its various parts), closely joined and firmly knit together by the joints and ligaments with which it is supplied, when each part [with power adapted to its need] is working properly [in all its functions], grows to full maturity, building itself up in love.

    ¹⁷So this I say and solemnly testify in [the name of] the Lord [as in His presence], that you must no longer live as the heathen (the Gentiles) do in their perverseness [in the folly, vanity, and emptiness of their souls and the futility] of their minds.

    ¹⁸Their ^[d]moral understanding is darkened and their reasoning is beclouded. [They are] alienated (estranged, self-banished) from the life of God [with no share in it; this is] because of the ignorance (the want of knowledge and perception, the willful blindness) that is ^[e]deep-seated in them, due to their hardness of heart [to the insensitiveness of their moral nature].

    ¹⁹In their spiritual apathy they have become callous and past feeling and reckless and have abandoned themselves [a prey] to unbridled sensuality, eager and greedy to indulge in every form of impurity [that their depraved desires may suggest and demand].

    ²⁰But you did not so learn Christ!

    ²¹Assuming that you have really heard Him and been taught by Him, as [all] Truth is in Jesus [embodied and personified in Him],

    ²²Strip yourselves of your former nature [put off and discard your old unrenewed self] which characterized your previous manner of life and becomes corrupt through lusts and desires that spring from delusion;

    ²³And be constantly renewed in the spirit of your mind [having a fresh mental and spiritual attitude],

    ²⁴And put on the new nature (the regenerate self) created in God's image, [Godlike] in true righteousness and holiness.

   

Footnotes:

1. Ephesians 4:13 Marvin Vincent, Word Studies.
2. Ephesians 4:14 Literal translation: "dice-playing."
3. Ephesians 4:15 Marvin Vincent, Word Studies.
4. Ephesians 4:18 Marvin Vincent, Word Studies.
5. Ephesians 4:18 Marvin Vincent, Word Studies.

In short, the gospel mandate implies personal and familial transformation, through the church, leading on to a reforming, transforming impact on the community and civilisation in the teeth of the onrushing winds and waves of deception and artful manipulation to the perceived advantage of those who are in fact spiritually, morally and mentally en-darkened dupes of the same dark, murderously deceitful and destructive spiritual prince Paul talked about in Eph 2:1 - 3:

Ephesians 2:1-3 (Amplified Bible)

Ephesians 2

 ¹AND YOU [He made alive], when you were dead (slain) by [your] trespasses and sins    ²In which at one time you walked [habitually]. You were following the course and fashion of this world [were under the sway of the tendency of this present age], following the prince of the power of the air. [You were obedient to and under the control of] the [demon] spirit that still constantly works in the sons of disobedience [the careless, the rebellious, and the unbelieving, who go against the purposes of God].
    ³Among these we as well as you once lived and conducted ourselves in the passions of our flesh [our behavior governed by our corrupt and sensual nature], obeying the impulses of the flesh and the thoughts of the mind [our cravings dictated by our senses and our dark imaginings]. We were then by nature children of [God's] wrath and heirs of [His] indignation, like the rest of mankind.

It is time to wake up, wise up, rise up and walk in the ways of Christ, by his word, in the power of his Spirit, through his church, truthing it in love, power, and purity!>>

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As I look back on this augmented excerpt, my mind comes back to two key scriptures about responding to the times:

1 Chronicles 12:32 (Amplified Bible)

³²And of Issachar, men who had understanding of the times to know what Israel ought to do, 200 chiefs; and all their kinsmen were under their command;

And, by way of a saddening contrast:

Matthew 16:1-4 (Amplified Bible)

Matthew 16

 ¹NOW THE Pharisees and Sadducees came up to Jesus, and they asked Him to show them a sign (spectacular miracle) from heaven [attesting His divine authority].

    ²He replied to them, ^[a]When it is evening you say, It will be fair weather, for the sky is red,

    ³And in the morning, It will be stormy today, for the sky is red and has a gloomy and threatening look. You know how to interpret the appearance of the sky, but you cannot interpret the signs of the times.

    ⁴A wicked and morally unfaithful generation craves a sign, but no sign shall be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah. Then He left them and went away.^(A)

   

Footnotes:

1. Matthew 16:2 Some manuscripts do not have the rest of verse 2 and all of verse 3.

Cross references:

1. Matthew 16:4 : Jonah 3:4, 5

So, now, are we correctly reading the signs of our times, so that we know what we should do, and are we building up the capacity to do what we must?

Are we acting without undue delay to walk in the good things God has laid out in advance for us, and has called us to do?

If we are excessively tardy and make excuses that keep on postponing fulfilling our call and potential under God, could we find ourselves taken captive and forced to do these things, from below, in a new Babylonian captivity -- similar to how Israel of old was finally broken from backsliding into idolatry and forced to spread the light of the call of the one true God to the nations, through defeat, painful exile, enslavement and dispersed captivity?

As always, the Esther 4:12  - 14 Mordecai moment challenge -- spoken with the voice of a captive in exile, and forced to seek to serve God in the face of adversity and utterly hostile (indeed, in the person of Haman, genocidal)  threats --  is:

Why not now? Why not here? Why not us? END