Making a one-piece bamboo spinning rod

Here, a YT video (including home made wire guides and Aetna Foulproof style tip top):


 
An example. END

 PS: There is now a treasure-trove of such artisanal rod-making at YouTube, much of which reflects the Asian cultural adeptness with bamboo -- itself suggestive.  Some links and comments:

• There are many ways to attach a reel, for example PVC tubing can be heated to soften it and then wedged up to form a pocket for a reel foot. On cooling, a pair of such guides would then form a friction-fit sliding reel attachment.
• Do not overlook, using whipping with cord or thin rope to make a handle for a rod.
• Similarly, wider, thick-walled hollow bamboo can be used as a wood-source, splitting off a long strip and rounding it to make a rod. 
• I will only mention the sophisticated techniques still used to make multiple strip fly rods, esp. 5-/6-strip rods. The precision to plane and match tapers and requisites for especially strong Tonkin cane take this beyond present focus.
• A two-part, more sophisticated rod is built in this video, using a bamboo insert as spigot for the friction-fit joint.  Elsewhere, Guava wood is suggested for a spigot.
• Here, a multiple segment light duty pole is made, suggesting how to build a travel-style rod, and also illustrating straightening bamboo; a heat gun/hair dryer or a gas hot plate can be used with a "wooden wrench". Perfect straightness is not necessary.
• In this video, a bait casting rod with multiple segments is built, including how to do a wedge-fit reel attachment as part of a two-part handle. 

PPS: On other perhaps interesting points:

• Making a 7" Shad-like minnow bait (using poplar)
• Making split-ring pliers from a cheap pair of scissors (retaining cutting ability , too), rings too, here. (This last is an exercise in learning how to bend wire to fishing-relevant 3-D shapes.)
• Making a Fly-tying style bobbin holder for thread wrapping.

Does the Bible "condone" slavery? (Or, does it ameliorate a hard to eradicate existing reality and set the basis for its abolition?)

One of the issues commonly used as a toxic distractor when one discusses Bible ethics issues is the alleged establishment or condoning of slavery by the Bible and so by Christians.

In a world of taint and dismiss rhetoric, this requires a rebalancing of considerations.

The matter recently came up in a discussion at UD on abuse of power under colour of law that forces us to violate first duties of reason. Accordingly, let us first note on that context, in a summary I have now packaged as a "standard" short note:

We can readily identify at least seven inescapable first duties of reason. Inescapable, as they are so antecedent to reasoning that even the objector implicitly appeals to them; i.e. they are self-evident.

Duties,

• to truth, 

• to right reason, 

• to prudence, 

• to sound conscience, 

• to neighbour, so also 

• to fairness and 

• justice etc.

Such built in law is not invented by parliaments or courts, nor can these principles and duties be abolished by such. (Cf. Cicero in De Legibus, c. 50 BC.) Indeed, it is on this framework that we can set out to soundly understand and duly balance rights, freedoms and duties; which is justice. The legitimate main task of government, then, is to uphold and defend the civil peace of justice through sound community order reflecting the built in, intelligible law of our nature. Where, as my right implies your duty a true right is a binding moral claim to be respected in life, liberty, honestly aquired property, innocent reputation etc. To so justly claim a right, one must therefore demonstrably be in the right. Thus, too, we may compose sound civil law informed by that built-in law of our responsibly, rationally free morally governed nature; from such, we may identify what is unsound or false thus to be reformed or replaced even though enacted under the colour and solemn ceremonies of law.

These principles provide a built-in law of our morally governed nature bulwark against nihilistic, positivist approaches that set out to impose various dubious agendas under false colour of law and rights.

Let's note an infographic I did a few years back that gives needed balancing context. I prepared and first posted it several years back, when the odious stunt of snipping and sniping on verses out of overall context regarding slavery first came to my notice:

 

As a first reply to the rhetorical stunt, I noted to a commenter who tried to pile up Bible verses that mention slavery without reference to the whole counsel of scripture . . . the exact fallacy of those who grabbed proof texts to try to justify what they were doing 200 years ago . . . by pointing to the yardstick gospel ethics case of divorce and the implicit force of a fortiori logic: this is as that or if that is so, how much more then:

you are amateurish at best in addressing the Scriptures; you would be well advised to be restrained in your conclusions. I simply note that there is in fact a common pattern in the scriptures of recognising and regulating a widespread pre-existing social practice as the alternative given hardness of hearts is a worse evil, especially under relevant circumstances. We must never over generalise from a gospel ethics and revivals softened situation that buttresses constitutional democracies to what was there in the long haul of history and is liable to return if Red Guards rioting and their backers have their way. A classic example is in the Mt 19 exchange on divorce where Jesus corrects questioners that the proper purpose of marriage had been perverted so that there was need to refer to the original foundation of marriage. So, no, Divorce was not a command but the Mosaic law undertook a regulation and amelioration given hard hearts dull to the proper intent. In that context, Malachi 2:16 is striking: I hate divorce says the Lord. We must never conflate recognition, regulation and discussion of a social fact for establishment or endorsement. Where, further, it is precisely the heart softening work of the Spirit who indwells and the genuine enlightenment of the gospel that allows for material improvement. Divorce is still with us, legal under law and a widespread plague. A sign of a civilisation with hard heart problems. Slavery in various forms is still there, for similar reasons, though it is illegal and has been the target of the first civil rights movement. A movement energised by gospel awakenings and for which the manumission letter of Onesimus, Paul to Philemon, has been not only a model but a source of its very motto. Namely, am I not a man and a brother, and parallel, am I not a woman and a sister. Further to this, it is clear that the invention of printing, ferment of the Reformation, circulation of the Bible in the vernacular that helped energise democratising and cultural stabilising forces that made significant progress on social and legal as well as governmental reforms possible and sustainable. In that context, it is the persistent accuse accuse, refuse to listen hostility we are seeing that is diagnostic of the sad, benighted, hard hearted, evil-addicted state of much of our civilisation today. Some rethinking is in order. 

 Of course, the stunt continued. I eventually decided to respond in greater detail to a pile-on that made reference to slave allotments in C18 - 19, which I first answered:

 you try to double down on a gross error on exegesis by trying to taint and thus to hope to “disqualify.” That C18 – 19 slaves had allotments and could earn some money at weekend markets has precisely nothing to do with that there is in the Bible recognition of a fact of life and amelioration c 1440 BC that will hold back the worst of what is there given hardness of our hearts; and that heart-softening, democratisation and economic advance will take many generations of transformational change to outlaw much less eliminate. Which latter is not accomplished today. Apparently, there may be 20 – 40+ million enslaved people today. The linked refusal to reckon with the implications of the organic connection between evangelical awakening and the rise of abolition is also telling.

  I then elaborated. I believe my longer response that directly followed is worth headlining here, given much broader issues in our civilisation:

Before I further comment on your attempted toxic side tracking, I must refocus, as the issue of freedom is very much on the table as the OP indicates right from its headline. Compelling someone to violate conscience and other first duties of reason under penalty of state power acting under colour of law is a demand for improper subjugation. Indeed, enslavement of the soul, with body to follow as states tumble into the vortex of tyranny.

In short, your toxic distraction fails as it is an enablement of real enslavement through trying to taint a proved buttress of liberation and freedom through turnabout accusation pivoting on amateurish exegesis and highly selective, biased examples that are designed to polarise and cloud responsible balanced thought.

Of course, to address this, I again need to make reference to the government challenge captured in my alternative political spectrum.  [I insert:]

In effect, there is a repeller pole, anarchy and/or state of nature that is so chaotic and dangerous in praxis that it pushes to imposed order. Where of course, want of effective policing means pirates will freely kidnap into slavery. (Note, such attracts a death penalty in the OT and is deemed incompatible with salvation in the NT.)

This snap-back to order and safety tends to the vortex of tyranny under autocrats or oligarchies, that for most of history could only be tempered by creating a lawful state that based on a corpus of just and ameliorative laws offered some redress.

That was the situation until only several centuries ago, and it is why the Common Law system and Justinian’s Corpus Juris Civilis as well as the Mosaic code were such key advances.

What made the difference?

As already noted, the invention of printing, wide circulation of the Bible (which contains the Mosaic code and a considerable body of ethics with Divine Sanction) , the ferment of the Protestant Reformation, increasing literacy and advances in standard of living allowing creation of an increasingly aware public. By 1650 – 1700, this opened up the possibility of democratising reform, leading to the first modern Constitutional Republic of significantly democratic character. One buttressed by the social-cultural factors and forces of Evangelical awakening.

Such, stabilised democracy and made it sustainable.

Unsurprisingly, this is precisely the cultural buttress that today’s Red Guards and their backers seek to break down. The slide into enslaving tyranny is predictable, should the long march of culture form marxism through our civilisation’s institutions succeed.

Which, is telling about the dirty power game that is already in play all around us.

A game that, frankly, your rhetoric enables.

Which is why it needs to be exposed and corrected.

Bear all of this in mind, as we snap back for the moment to 61 – 62 AD as the Apostle Paul — an appeals prisoner under threat of capital punishment literally chained to guards — prepares to send an escaped slave and now repentant thief back to his master. In doing so, he pens the manumission letter that shattered the foundations of slavery and oppression:

Philemon
Greeting
1 Paul, a prisoner for Christ Jesus, and Timothy our brother,
To Philemon our beloved fellow worker 2 and Apphia our sister [–> “Am I not a woman and a sister” — 2nd motto, Antislavery Society] and Archippus our fellow soldier, and the church in your house:

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

Philemon’s Love and Faith

4 I thank my God always when I remember you in my prayers, 5 because I hear of your love and of the faith that you have toward the Lord Jesus and for all the saints, 6 and I pray that the sharing of your faith may become effective for the full knowledge of every good thing that is in us for the sake of Christ.[a] 7 For I have derived much joy and comfort from your love, my brother, because the hearts of the saints have been refreshed through you.

Paul’s Plea for Onesimus

8 Accordingly, though I am bold enough in Christ to command you to do what is required, 9 yet for love’s sake I prefer to appeal to you—I, Paul, an old man and now a prisoner also for Christ Jesus— 10 I appeal to you for my child, Onesimus,[b] whose father I became in my imprisonment. [–> brotherhood and fundamental equality established “en Christo”] 11 (Formerly he was useless to you [–> pun on his name, Useful, allusive to theft], but now he is indeed useful to you and to me.) 12 I am sending him back to you, sending my very heart. 13 I would have been glad to keep him with me, in order that he might serve me on your behalf during my imprisonment for the gospel, 14 but I preferred to do nothing without your consent in order that your goodness might not be by compulsion but of your own accord.

15 For this perhaps is why he was parted from you for a while, that you might have him back forever, 16 no longer as a bondservant[c] but more than a bondservant, as a beloved brother [–> am I not a man and a brother, Antislavery Society motto] —especially to me, but how much more to you, both in the flesh and in the Lord.
17 So if you consider me your partner, receive him as you would receive me. 18 If he has wronged you at all, or owes you anything, charge that to my account. 19 I, Paul, write this with my own hand: I will repay it—to say nothing of your owing me even your own self. [–> recognition of considerable capital loss, compensation . . . destabilising the economy would defeat the point] 20 Yes, brother, I want some benefit from you in the Lord. Refresh my heart in Christ.

21 Confident of your obedience, I write to you, knowing that you will do even more than I say. 22 At the same time, prepare a guest room for me, for I am hoping that through your prayers I will be graciously given to you.

Final Greetings

23 Epaphras, my fellow prisoner in Christ Jesus, sends greetings to you, 24 and so do Mark, Aristarchus, Demas, and Luke, my fellow workers.

25 The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit.

So, why didn’t this instantly effect abolition of slavery everywhere, waving a magic wand?

The answer is patent, save to the utterly irresponsible, see the discussion on the rise of freedom. The only system of government that can sustainably maintain general freedom including abolition is a constitutional democracy stabilised through a sound culture. Which will invariably be rooted in ethical theism and the influence of the sort of gospel ethics just laid out in Philemon.

So, as we see those who hold it in contempt and are busily undermining it, we can conclude that they are serving the cause of subjugation under a fresh tyranny, one that will create a new ideological enslavement.

So, let us take due warning and rescue our civilisation before it is too late.

For, you see, ideological enslavement and subjugation are far more widespread and a far more clear and present danger than the 20 – 40+ millions reckoned as in slavery today. Hundreds of millions still languish in chains and in the so-called free world powerful ideological forces of subjugation are at work.

But unsurprisingly, it is what, historically, is foundational to sustainable liberty that is under concerted attack.

“When a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design . . .”

 Our civilisation is at a dangerous pass, and we need to think very carefully indeed on the forces we are letting loose and the buttresses of liberty we are undermining. END

Newswatch: Dr Fauci speaks on Coronavirus

An eminent doctor speaks:


 
Let us listen. END

Greenfield Guitars -- a luthier and the making of a custom Guitar to 5/10,000 of inch precision at key points in mahogany, ebony and other woods

A luthier in action provides an example of precision work in wood (and abundant ideas):



Food for thought and action. END

The Grid Beam protyping and modular construction system

Grid Beam, is a useful modular approach for prototyping, doing 1-off construction, building all sorts of things:

Making grid beam in wood, DIY style (as in rip 2 x 6 or so then proceed along centre line):

This can also be done with square section metal.

It is highly relevant to onward open industrial society development, third world transformation and to solar system colonisation. END

A Yazidi, former enslaved girl confronts her rapist (now captured)

Born in 1999, she was fourteen when she was enslaved, beaten and repeatedly raped as a slave concubine:



MEMRI TV Blurb at YouTube:

 On November 26, 2019, Al-Iraqiya Network (Iraq) aired a report about Ashwaq Haji Hamid, a Yazidi girl who had been held captive by ISIS, and Abu Humam, the ISIS terrorist who had held her captive and brutally raped her. Hamid recounted that she had been 14 years old when an ISIS gang abducted her and took her to Mosul with 300 or 400 other Yazidi women who were above the age of nine. She said that she was separated from her family and sisters and that the Yazidi women were sold off or given as gifts to ISIS members in Iraq or Syria. She described how Abu Humam selected her and violently raped her several times a day. Abu Humam, who has since been captured and is being held by Iraqi intelligence services, was also interviewed, and he described how he was given Hamid as a slave girl after casting lots with other ISIS members, how he raped her and beat her several times a day, and how he registered her under his name before an ISIS judge. Later in the report, Hamid was brought before the captured Abu Humam and tearfully confronted him, saying: “Why did you do this to me?... Do you have any feelings? Do you have any honor?” While speaking to him, Hamid fainted. Hamid and a group of other girls had escaped from ISIS captivity by drugging their captors.

Let us understand, and let us remember. END

Mosh's 6-hour Python tutorial

Here:

The gospel, gospel ethics, discipleship, cultural transformation and the kingdom of God

Even something so "simple" as The Lord's Prayer that we routinely teach our children has in it a perhaps puzzling reference to something called the kingdom of God:

What does this mean:

Matt 6:^{10 [d]}Your kingdom come,
Your ^[e]will be done
On earth as it is in heaven . . .

¹³ ‘And do not ^[h]lead us into temptation,
but deliver us from ^[i]evil. ^[j][For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever.
Amen.]’

Clearly, God is here seen as a king as well as our Father: Creator-Sustainer and Lord, whose will is done in heaven but not fully on a sinful earth. As Creator-Sustainer, we ask for daily bread, and as Lord we ask for his will to be done here, which reflects the coming of his kingdom on earth. In the midst, we ask for forgiveness and promise to in turn forgive others. We ask for deliverance from the snares of the evil one. And more.

Clearly, already in the most common single Christian prayer there is a theology of the kingdom of God and of our part in it as penitent sinners. Where, obviously, Jesus as Messiah and Saviour is the key means of forgiveness and transformation; starting in our own surrendered hearts and lives.

Obviously, there is much more, and sometimes I have used the seven mountain model to speak to basic discipleship for penitent sinners, given the six first ABC foundational principles of Heb 6:1 - 2 and the backdrop of Nebuchadnezzar's dream of God's eternal kingdom and its impact on the kingdoms of man in Dan 2 [cf. also here], all of which clearly fit into the framework in that prayer:

 Daniel went on to interpret:

 Dan 2:³⁶ “This was the dream; now we will tell the king its interpretation. 

  ³⁷ You, O king, are the king of [earthly] kings, to whom the God of heaven has given the kingdom, the power, the strength and the glory; ³⁸ and wherever the sons of men dwell, and the beasts of the field, and the birds of the heavens, He has given them into your hand and has made you ruler over them all. 

You [king of Babylon] are the head of gold.

Medo-Persia and Greece

³⁹ After you will arise another kingdom (Medo-Persia) inferior to you, and then a third kingdom of bronze (Greece under Alexander the Great), which will rule over all the earth.

Rome

⁴⁰ Then a fourth kingdom (Rome) will be strong as iron, for iron breaks to pieces and shatters all things; and like iron which crushes things in pieces, it will break and crush all these [others]. ⁴¹ And as you saw the feet and toes, partly of potter’s clay and partly of iron, it will be a divided kingdom; but there will be in it some of the durability and strength of iron, just as you saw the iron mixed with common clay. ⁴² As the [ten] toes of the feet were partly of iron and partly of clay, so some of the kingdom will be strong, and another part of it will be brittle. 

  ⁴³ And as you saw the iron mixed with common clay, so they will combine with one another in the seed of men; but they will not merge [for such diverse things or ideologies cannot unite], even as iron does not mix with clay.

The Divine Kingdom

⁴⁴ In the days of those [final ten] kings the God of heaven will set up a kingdom that will never be destroyed, nor will its sovereignty be left for another people; but it will crush and put an end to all these kingdoms, and it will stand forever.  

⁴⁵ Just as you saw that a stone was cut out of the mountain without hands and that it crushed the iron, the bronze, the clay, the silver and the gold, the great God has revealed to the king what will take place in the future; so the dream is true and its interpretation is trustworthy.” [AMP]

As Hebrews 12 therefore teaches (and warns):

 Heb 12:²² But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to myriads of angels [in festive gathering], ²³ and to the general assembly and assembly of the firstborn who are registered [as citizens] in heaven, and to God, who is Judge of all, and to the spirits of the righteous (the redeemed in heaven) who have been made perfect [bringing them to their final glory], ²⁴ and to Jesus, the Mediator of a new covenant [uniting God and man], and to the sprinkled blood, which speaks [of mercy], a better and nobler and more gracious message than the blood of Abel [which cried out for vengeance].

 ²⁵ See to it that you do not refuse [to listen to] Him who is speaking [to you now]. For if those [sons of Israel] did not escape when they refused [to listen to] him who warned them on earth [revealing God’s will], how much less will we escape if we turn our backs on Him who warns from heaven?

  ²⁶ His voice shook the earth [at Mount Sinai] then, but now He has given a promise, saying, “Yet once more I will shake not only the earth, but also the [starry] heaven.”

  ²⁷ Now this [expression], “Yet once more,” indicates the removal and final transformation of all those things which can be shaken—that is, of that which has been created—so that those things which cannot be shaken may remain. ²⁸ Therefore, since we receive a kingdom which cannot be shaken, let us show gratitude, and offer to God pleasing service and acceptable worship with reverence and awe; ²⁹ for our God is [indeed] a consuming fire. [AMP]

 So, now, let us look at what is needed for "unshakeable" foundations:

 
Likewise, this coming of the kingdom so that God's good will is done on earth extends to the community in light of what has sometimes been called the four R's of revival and reformation:

From such, we can already see that the kingdom of God is central to the theology of the gospel, which is in fact the good news of the kingdom of God pivoting on the coming of the long-prophesied Messiah. It is in this light that an amnesty of forgiveness and promise of cleansing transformation has been proclaimed as the answer to the chaos of kingdoms of man that too often are caught up in a chaotic, destructive demonic riot of the world, the flesh and the devil. Thus, too, we find that gospel theology and gospel ethics are inseparable and in their natural course extend to community transformation as even now we begin to do the right under God: Christ came, descending, serving, dying, rising and ascending in order to fill all things, where the church is his body, the very fullness of him who fills everything in every way. 

Similarly, we are clearly being led to the book of Daniel, which seems to have in it some key references.

Accordingly, as we ponder the gospel and the kingdom of God, I now want to share some slightly adjusted thoughts I shared yesterday in a WhatsApp group, as I explored the captioned themes:

________________________

>>As I continue thinking about the Kingdom of God perspective on the gospel, linked ethics and relevance to community transformation (implying that true liberation is first spiritual), I am led back to Daniel.

Here, to Nebuchadnezzar’s testimony after he was humbled by God because of undue pride in his achievements as king.

Pardon, therefore, a further sharing of thoughts – towards elements of a Biblical theology of evangelisation, discipleship, mission; thus of repentance, renewal, revival and reformation in our region and beyond:

Daniel 4: >>34 “But at the end of the days [that is, at the seven periods of time [→ of his beast-like insanity]], I, Nebuchadnezzar, raised my eyes toward heaven, and my understanding and reason returned to me; and I blessed the Most High [God] and I praised and honored and glorified Him who lives forever,

For His dominion is an everlasting dominion [→ God as eternal ruler];
And His kingdom endures from generation to generation.
[→ realm of that rule, in context, extending over Babylon and other human kingdoms]
35 “All the inhabitants of the earth are regarded as nothing.
But He does according to His will in the host of heaven
And among the inhabitants of the earth [→ sovereignty of God pointing to Judge and redeemer];
And no one can hold back His hand
Or say to Him, ‘What have You done?’


36 Now at the same time my reason returned to me; and for the glory of my kingdom, my majesty and splendor were returned to me, and my counselors and my nobles began seeking me out; so I was re-established in my kingdom, and still more greatness [than before] was added to me.
37 Now I, Nebuchadnezzar, praise and exalt and honor the King of heaven [→ kingdom of Heaven],
for all His works are true and faithful and His ways are just [→ inherently good, utterly wise, Judge],
and He is able to humiliate and humble [→ acts against arrogance]
those who walk in [self-centered, self-righteous] pride.” [AMP]>>

At once, we see that God is king of the eternal kingdom of heaven that intervenes in the affairs of men. Indeed, from v 32, the lesson Nebuchadnezzar needed to heed was that “the Most High God rules over the kingdom of mankind and He bestows it on whomever He desires.”


This, of course, cuts clean across certain common notions of our day which are now being pushed hard in our region (and which would end in a chaotic Rom 1 world).


For example, in the course of his ruling that attempts to usurp power to unilaterally amend a constitution from the judge’s bench, Justice Anthony Smellie of the Cayman Islands recently claimed that many inequities have existed in the name of tradition but neither tradition nor religion could form the “rational basis for a law.” He then proceeds to try to redefine marriage chaotically, away from the naturally evident creation order rooted in the complementary sexes, substituting the false for the true and implying perversion of rights, justice and judgement.


Similarly, in its ill-advised August 2, 2019 Editorial, the Gleaner dismissed “emaciated notions of morality,” directly implying Jesus’ teachings in Matt 19:4 – 6 regarding the naturally evident, creation order based institutions of maleness, femaleness, lifelong committed marriage of man and woman, family as the natural fruit of conjugal union. They inadvertently reveal that to advance a dubious agenda they would overturn the moral government that is the basis for a sound civilisation and its government. Such signs point to the ill-advised, ruinous counsel that now rises up on the ship of state at Fair Havens, across our region. (See Ac 27.)


Others have said much the same.


There is also, a Christo-phobia, an irrational fear that perceives the Christian faith, the gospel, gospel ethics and godly reformation as backward, oppressive, outright fascist threats to progress, freedom and reason.


(I have even recently seen an evolutionary materialist scientism advocate assert that “Creationists” cannot do Math because they are utterly irrational, shown by their rejection of “Evolution.” Which is widely regarded as the yardstick of science. This is doubly nonsense as first many “Creationists” are effective Mathematicians, thank you. Secondly, this is a bit of turnabout propagandistic projection: in fact, demonstrably, evolutionary materialism would reduce mindedness to computation on a brain “wetware” computer and whatever mysteriously emerges from but is determined by the physics and chemistry involved. That is exactly what rational insight, intuition, intentionality and inference CANNOT be. That is, evolutionary materialism is self-referential and self-contradictory thus self-falsifying. Thus, utterly, irretrievably irrational. Never mind the impressive lab coats, polished manner and posh accents.)


No, instead we recognise that we are creatures of the God who is inherently good and utterly wise.


Indeed, as LOGOS, he is Reason Himself, upholding all things by his powerful word. As creatures made in his image we have the precious gift of conscience-guided reason leading to ability to know and serve the truth and the right. Accordingly, in the spirit of Ac17, let us see: the first point of wisdom is to know and respect our Creator God, the inherently good, necessary, maximally great being who is the root-source of reality. In him we live, move and have our being, with our minds being governed by undeniable duty to truth, right reason, sound conscience, neighbour-love, justice, etc. He is our rightful eternal king, worthy of our loyalty and of the reasonable, responsible service of doing the good that accords with our evident nature.


Such a view is just the opposite of being backward, irrational, unjust, oppressive.


It is time that that devillish lie be ferreted out and skewered.


Yes, the history of Christendom (like that of any civilisation) is decidedly mixed, with great evils and – notably – great struggles of reformation. Often, directly based on Scripture. For example, it is no accident that the Motto of the antislavery society directly comes from Philemon in the NT: “Am I not a man and a brother?” (Sometimes, even more tellingly, “ . . . a woman and a sister?”)

Civilisation’s course will ever be so.


For, we are finite, fallible, fallen, morally struggling, too often ill-willed.


Likewise, in the great liberating struggle that launched the first successful modern democratic, constitutional experiment, we find in the key second paragraph of their Declaration of Independence, July 4^th, 1776:

>>We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security. >>

Notice, self-evident moral government focussed on rights. By implications, nations are under God our Creator and supreme Lord who is Just Judge. Governments are created by covenants under God, to defend justice; by implication the due balance of rights, freedoms and duties in community. Where a fundamental right is a binding moral claim to be respected and protected in some regard, implying the duty of others. Thus, to justly claim a right, one must first manifestly be in the right, which cannot call for others to do or enable wrong to support oneself.


Where also, government can fail; perhaps badly enough to require radical reform or replacement. This BTW is a main reason for the blessing of the peaceful general election: a solemn assembly of the people under God to audit and if needs be reform or replace government. Thus, not to be trifled with and perverted into manipulating the people to vote for a voyage of reckless folly (as we see in Ac 27). Those who rise up as an alternative have a solemn duty under God.


Yes, there is an ages-long struggle between the wrong and the right, the false and the true.


But there is no reason whatsoever to assume that the Christian Faith and its adherents who take the Bible seriously as God’s Word, are always and forever backward oppressors.


No, that is part of why it is GOOD NEWS that the Most High God lives forever, exerting an everlasting dominion, the kingdom of God. Where, in love, he intervened, bringing salvation and deliverance that liberates from the first slavery of all.


Sin.


Thus, Saviour who is also Son of Man, Just Judge, Wounded Healer, Deliverer, Lord. Of Him, Daniel writes – as Jesus would quote (applying to himself) at his trial before a kangaroo court:

>>Dan 7: 13 “I kept looking in the night visions,
And behold, [c]on the clouds of heaven
One like a Son of Man was coming,
And He came up to the Ancient of Days
And was presented before Him.

14 “And to Him (the Messiah) was given dominion (supreme authority),
Glory and a kingdom,
That all the peoples, nations, and speakers of every language
Should serve and worship Him.
His dominion is an everlasting dominion
Which will not pass away;
And His kingdom is one
Which will not be destroyed. [AMP] >>

Obviously, this is supremely manifest only at the culmination of all things, but already he commissioned us in Matt 28:18 – 20, noting that he holds “All authority in heaven and on earth,” i.e. he is Lord to the glory of God the Father. In that context he has instructed us to go, making disciples of the nations, teaching them to obey him. For, all his ways are just and he is Truth Himself. It is undeniable that the gospel embeds gospel ethics, lives in the context of the kingdom of God, and points to a call of amnesty requiring transformation of lives and families that must by its inherent force affect communities. 

The four R’s appear:

R1 → Repentance, meta+noia as we turn from sin in surrender to God
R2 → Renewal, through cleansing of mind and life under the Word
R3 → Revival, as seasons of refreshing are poured out (generally in contest with a demonic riot)
R4 → Reformation, as R1 – 3 have cumulative impact

There was a time in the which God excused ignorance but now he commands all men everywhere to repent in the face of eternal judgement. For he has appointed The Son of Man as Judge, giving proof of this truth to all men by raising him from the dead, with 500 eyewitnesses.


So, while we find nowhere a call to lead lawless rebellions, as the Kingdom is not of this world and its wars are not with the weapons of this age, we are indeed called to break fallacies and schemes of deception that lead men away from the knowledge of God, taking every thought captive to obedience of Christ. He, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.


In our day, such fallacies clearly include the oppression thesis, the denial of God’s reality by creating the false impression that “Science” [= atheism in a lab coat] has put him out of a job, and the attempt to undermine sound moral government testified to by conscience. Instead, let us restore moral sanity and truth that leads men to acknowledge God, receiving him who is our Lord and Saviour.


AMEN and AMEN>>

______________________ 

Clearly, the gospel embeds a theology of the kingdom of God and necessarily implies ethical transformation that applies to the individual, the family, the church, the community, the civilisation. Let us therefore acknowledge that Jesus came, descending and ascending in order to fill all things. So, often imperceptibly, there is a rising of the tide of that kingdom where God's will is done on earth as it is in heaven. It starts in our hearts and lives and (despite the chaos of the demonic riot) even now it spreads to the family, the church, the community, the civilisation as we grow in discipleship under Messiah. 

The "simple" gospel -- even so simple as what is embedded in the Lord's Prayer (recall, a part of the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus' central ethical summary) -- has in it an ethics of transformation and reformation that holds out a liberating hope for us all:

1 Cor 6:⁹ Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit or have any share in the kingdom of God? 

Do not be deceived; ^[d]neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate [by perversion], nor ^[e]those who participate in homosexuality, ¹⁰ nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers [whose words are used as weapons to abuse, insult, humiliate, intimidate, or slander], nor swindlers will inherit or have any share in the kingdom of God. 

  ¹¹ And such were some of you [before you believed]. 

But you were washed [by the atoning sacrifice of Christ], you were sanctified [set apart for God, and made holy], you were justified [declared free of guilt] in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the [Holy] Spirit of our God [the source of the believer’s new life and changed behavior]. [AMP]

Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth, starting with me. In Jesus' name. Amen.

Let us remind ourselves of the Mordecai challenge: why not now, why not here, why not us? END

It begins: Is the church the vanguard of liberation, or entrenched in the status quo? CMVAN Conversations I, part 1

Video 1, Rev Dr Garnett Roper:



(With apologies for streaming challenges on August 1, 2019. Updates will bring in further parts as they come in.)

Video, 2, Rev Dr Stephen Jennings:



Video, 3, Mr Arnold "Scree" Bertram:




 Video 4 (added Aug 20), Summary & questions:

Video 5 (added August 20th), Colonial legacy & the Caribbean church - Q&A:

Note, I think it may help to look at the discussion here on in context, on the sins and blessings of Christendom; which in my view are now necessary if we are to systematically study theology in the Caribbean, towards a serious missionary vision and action. 

Our tainted past is where we must begin if we are to resolve the ghosts that haunt us and find a way to freely move forward in the power of gospel truth and gospel ethics calling us to sound discipleship and so too to Christ-filled blessed transformation. We must start with people where they credibly are, not with what interests us. To build a gospel-bridge, we must address candidate sites to bridge to people where they are physically, culturally, historically, situationally.

Surely, that is a lesson from how Paul pointed to the famous altar to the unknown god; as is recorded in Acts 17.

I pause to highlight a searing accusation:

Notice, the impact of precisely where the Antislavery Society's motto came from, and the model of reformation implicit in the premise of undeniable equality and brotherhood or sisterhood in Christ. Too often we have not fully lived up to that standard but we are duty-bound to acknowledge and move towards living out its truth.  (And we must also take due note of the history of the past 250 years on the nihilism that as a rule comes from radical revolutionism, starting with Robespierre and company thus their reign of terror.)

It is in that context that we may address God as credible root of reality, Christ as how God is there and is not silent, and how Christ's coming and the birth of a gospel-bearing church challenged and yet challenges worldviews, cultural agendas, communities and the course of history.

As one tool for that, consider the tidal waves challenge facing our region now:

and the wider global geostrategic challenge:

thus also the missionary opportunity facing the Caribbean church:

From this, let us ponder how the mountains of influence model further informed by Nebuchadnezzar's puzzling dream raises a challenge of godly repentance, renewal, revival and reformation through discipleship:

Yes, we must go right back to foundations if we are to rebuild our lives, families, churches, community and civilisation soundly.

Let us ponder. END