Veritas

I decided to write about something that has been on my heart lately…no idea why…but here it is:

What would it be like to know…everything…that was knowable.  One scholar suggests that Aristotle was the last person to know everything there was to be known in his own time.  Aristotle was a teacher and a thinker.  He taught all the subjects that existed three to four hundred years before Christ was born and wrote about them too.  I like to think of him as a mix between the stodgy old college professor and the monk who sits under a tree and contemplates the deeper meanings of the bird songs he hears.  Many consider that the writings we have left from Aristotle were what he used for lecture notes.  In his fourth book of fourteen on the subject of metaphysics he makes this statement:

“…to say of what is that it is, and of what is not that it is not, is true; so that he who says of anything thatit is, or that it is not, will say either what is true or what is false; but neither what is nor what is not is said to be or not to be.”

This is the statement that is considered by most scholars to be the absolute root of any definition on what truth is.  As an aside:  You might recognize the last few words as those spoken by Shakespeare’s character Hamlet.  Hamlet was speaking of existence.  In other words, to exist or not to exist.  I believe there is a correlation between Hamlets statement and a contemporary of Shakespeares named René Descartes who is considered to be the father of modern philosophy.  It is Mr. Descartes who said; “I think, therefore, I am.”  The opposite of which is if you aren’t thinking then you don’t exist.  So, here is my own personal formula of the three:  To be or not to be = To exist or not to exist = To think or not to think.  ( You won’t find this correlation anywhere in the entire world except right here in this blog! )

…..and then, just for fun…I can prove that the answer to the question is actually…Not to be!  Here is the mathematical proof:

To be = 2b

2b + 2b = 4b

2b – 2b = 0

2b * 2b = 4b²

2b / 2b = 1

At no time is the answer 2b.  So then, we must say the correct answer to the question is not 2b!

Ok, back to Aristotle.  The statement he made seems really, really simple.  But no one had ever put into words exactly what truth was.  The wisest man who ever lived, Solomon, also wrote really, really simple things like this:

Ecclesiastes 11:3 (NIV)

 ³ If clouds are full of water,
       they pour rain upon the earth.
       Whether a tree falls to the south or to the north,
       in the place where it falls, there will it lie.

Can anyone say Duh?  So, anyway, once Aristotle had set his thoughts to paper, then others were free to paraphrase, add to, subtract from…etc.  One of those people who used Aristotle’s work as a starting point and went much farther was Thomas Aquinas.   He was a priest in the Catholic church about three hundred years before Shakespeare came on the scene.  He wrote many things but arguably his greatest accomplishment was the Summa Theoligica.  It is a book that is Christian doctrine in scientific form.  The “Summa” contains 38 Treatises, 612 Questions, subdivided into 3120 articles, in which about 10,000 objections are proposed and answered.  I haven’t read it all…but he is quoted as saying that “he had learned more in prayer and contemplation than he had acquired from men or books”…and I believe him.  Question #16 in the “Summa” contains eight articles on Truth.  Some of what he said will turn your brain inside out…but there is a very good point that I would simply like to quote here:

From the response in Article 1…”Now we do not judge of a thing by what is in it accidentally, but by what is in it essentially. Hence, everything is said to be true absolutely, in so far as it is related to the intellect from which it depends…”

I want you to think of this statement in terms of the scriptures as the “thing” being judged and I will restate the quote in that light:

Now we do not judge the scriptures by what is in them accidentally, but by what is in them essentially.  Hence, the scriptures are said to be true absolutely, in so far as they relate to the intellect (God) from which they depend.

From this statement you might infer that I am proposing that some of the scriptures are in the bible by accident….I am not.  I believe that the scriptures as we have them, are exactly as God intended for us to have them.  To understand what Thomas means by the word “accident” you would need to read Article One fully but basically what he means is that there is other information attached to truth….for our purposes here, it would mean that there is other information “attached” to or “in” the scriptures…that are not the “thoughts of God”.  I will show you what I mean:

Genesis 4:4-5 (NIV)

⁴ But Abel brought fat portions from some of the firstborn of his flock. The LORD looked with favor on Abel and his offering, ⁵ but on Cain and his offering he did not look with favor. So Cain was very angry, and his face was downcast.

Is the anger that was in Cain the truth that God wants you to learn about in this passage?...or do we go a little farther…

Genesis 4:4-7 (NIV)

⁴ But Abel brought fat portions from some of the firstborn of his flock. The LORD looked with favor on Abel and his offering, ⁵ but on Cain and his offering he did not look with favor. So Cain was very angry, and his face was downcast.

 ⁶ Then the LORD said to Cain, "Why are you angry? Why is your face downcast? ⁷ If you do what is right, will you not be accepted? But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at your door; it desires to have you, but you must master it."

I believe that what God wants you to learn in this passage is in verse 7.  This is a prime example of what I want to show you.  There was true information (Cain was angry) attached to the truth (Do what is right…)

So, here is my whole point….and it is something that you should give serious consideration to when evaluating what someone is teaching from the scriptures:

Everything in the scriptures is stated truly…But not everything in the scriptures is Truth!

All of the stories, the events, the words that people said, what they thought….everything that is written about in the scriptures actually happened and God put all of that information in there for a purpose…..but….God is Truth and if someone uses a particular scripture to try and teach a principle that doesn’t line up with who God is….then it isn’t truth….no matter how much scripture they quote.

It is learning lessons like this that will help you to discern when a person has wrong doctrine or is even trying to teach something from a cult.  Always listen to the Holy Spirit speaking to your spirit.

btw…the word in the subject line, Veritas is the Latin word for truth.  The hyperlink itself has a sound bite that will show you how it is pronounced in Latin but it doesn’t easily show you how to pronounce  it in plain ol’ English ….Ver - a - toss

Association and Thought Process

I'm not sure if I had the opportunity to tell you this, but this past
weekend Laura and I had th chance to attend one of our business
conferences put on by LTD. The conference was called twenty ten vision/
20X Vision. The premise was to provide people the opportunity to see
some of the things the leaders went through, and some of the things
they had achieved, to give the organization vision for the future......

Saturday, the leader that provides mentorship for most of the business
owners in KC hit the stage. His name is Paul. you might have heard
Laura or myself bring him up at some point. He's 27 and has been
retired since he graduated college. Anyways, he had brought up some
things about living, pursuing God's calling on your life, but broke it
down into a real simple acronym that made a ton of sense. He said when
you are doing what God had planned for you, you will have true JOY and
happiness in your life. And that JOY is broken down....
Jesus....he needs to be first and foremost
Others.....
Yourself....JOY
Some hits were mentioned after that but that was really what I took
out of that talk.
Focus on Jesus first, others, then yourself......
To me this means growing spirtualy and being focused on him.
So... What does it mean to be focused on him?? I ask myself....... To
me i think focusing on him means to

1. Be consumed in communication w/ him
2. And to actually put into action what he reveals to you....be it
problem areas, or someone he wants you to befriend...just listen and
act.

So I that talk had me deciding to kick up the notch on communication
with him, and putting into action what he shoots my way....

Next thought was when one of the diamonds hit the stage. His name is
Alan Leineinger. Sunday morning I can't say that I remember any
specific part of his talk, like I did when Paul spoke, but what i
received from his talk was important also. He had mentioned some of
the things he did when he retired 20 some odd years ago, and one of
the first things he did was DIVE head first into the word and even
bible college.

All the talks summed up to one serious question in my mind. Obviously
being able to discern when the Holy Spirit is speaking to us is really
important. And being able to speak in tongues when your spirit needs
has things to pray about can be a big deal.........but what do you
think are the most important tools a believer needs when living a
successfull life for the Lord???

What do you think are the most vital things for the believer to do?
What are the most necessary things for a believer to know?

I was thinking, it has been our knowledge from the beginning that I
was meant to be " a wise and mighty warrior of God, weilding the sword
of truth in love"

But how do I become the most wise and most mighty warrior he has in
mind for me???

At this point all I can say is
Give myself a big thumbs and say "stay in the word everday and keep in
good communication with your savior, YEAH!!!!!"
But that answer leaves me feeling like a hiker with backpack, geared
up for a long journey, but no compass and no map.......no direction.

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We Three Kings...

Your phone call yesterday got me to thinking…so I started writing.

Lets begin with an acquaintance of Sir Isaac Newton.  His name was Edmund Halley.  Edmund was doing his best to mathematically prove some of the work done by Johannes Kepler who had published his thoughts on how planets move within a solar system.  Upon a visit, Mr. Halley discovered that Sir Newton had already solved all the math problems but had yet to let anyone know about it.  So, Mr. Halley convinced Sir Newton to write it all down and then Mr. Halley published the whole thing at his own expense.  The book was called Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy and is regarded as one of the most important works in the history of science.

In 1682 Mr. Halley saw a comet which prompted him to begin some research and to collect data about appearances of other comets in the past.  With the data that he collected and the mathematical proofs that Sir Newton had developed…Mr. Halley was the first person to predict that a specific comet would reappear and even when…it would reappear!  Years later his calculations proved accurate when Halley’s comet appeared in the night sky.  Other astronomers wanted to know when in history this comet had appeared and if anyone had noticed..so they worked the math backward.  They discovered that Halley’s comet had appeared in the night sky in the year 11 B.C. which prompted some to wonder if it was the star that the three wise men followed to find the Christ child.

This leads to a question:  How does an event seen in the sky convey knowledge of earthly events?  The answer begins in Genesis when we see that a mans life is calculated in years.  And then on through Genesis 8 where Noah is mentioned as observing months and a specific number of days in a given month.  This knowledge of times and seasons was obviously transferred to Noah’s sons and his grandsons.  It is one of Noah’s grandsons…Nimrod…who established Babylon somewhere around 2300 B.C. and it is to Babylon where the roots of Astrology lead.

It is the Babylonians that seem to have had some of the first understandings of the movements within the solar system.  And it is the Babylonians that seem to have been the first to assign meanings to those movements.   Approximately 1700 years later…Babylon still exists and is very powerful in the world.  Its King is Nebuchadnezzar and in 605 B.C. he invades Israel and among the captives is a kid named Daniel.  The child is raised in the kings household and taught Babylonian culture which among other things would have been 1700 years of mysticism surrounding the movements in the solar system.

Because of Scriptural and historical accounts we know what happened to Daniel in his life.  We know that God used him mightily by revealing hidden things to him.  We also know that the Magi existed at that time and that Daniel was placed in charge of them.  The magi were ethnically oriented and were related to the people that today we call the “Kurds” in Iraq.  The Magi didn’t appreciate that a Hebrew had been placed in charge over them and this led to the whole “Lions Den” ordeal.

So then, the Magi who followed the star to the Christ child belonged to this sect.  They were not kings…that idea came later in medieval times.  There may have been more than 3…the scripture doesn’t specify…..And they arrived when Jesus was two years old….not at the scene of His birth in a manger.  We don’t know their names…different cultures have given different names to them.

I think its important to note a couple of things:

1.    The Magi travelled to Jerusalem and their appearance caused a stir…so much so, that even the king was informed of their arrival and their quest.  Think about it…if it was just a few guys that arrived in town..would it be noteworthy to the King?  Why would the Kings advisors waste his time?  I think it is much more likely that the Magi arrived accompanied by a whole caravan of different types of people…servants?...wives?..concubines?  cooks? And enough camels for their journey.  I think that the king made it his business to know who exactly these people were.

2.   Their journey was between 1000 and 1200 miles and could have taken a year or more.  Additionally, the time between when they saw the star and the time that they actually left…required enough time to prepare for an odyssey of unknowns.  They didn’t know how far or where or how long it was going to take….but they knew one thing for sure…they were seeing what is described as a star and they were sure they needed to follow it.  I personally believe that the star appeared at the moment of Jesus’ birth.  Remember, Jesus was two years old when the Magi visited him and King Herod had inquired of the Magi when the star had appeared…He then proceeded to kill all male children two years old and younger.

3.    The Magi observed and followed a star for more than a year and probably two years.  The star eventually led them to the exact house where Jesus was.  How did a star do this?  Stars in the sky do not represent a fixed address on earth.  Which is why some have said that the star must have been a comet because it moved…but the same argument applies….a comet cannot pinpoint an exact house in a specific city.  I believe that the “star” that the Magi followed was much like the sign that Moses and the Israelites followed…a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night .  I don’t believe that the Magi followed pillars of cloud and fire…I believe they followed what they could only describe as a star…they wouldn’t have had any other words to describe a moving light in the sky.  But I think that the light was close enough that it could guide to a specific house in a specific city.  Think about where you live….and imagine that you had never been there.  If you were only one half mile away from your home….how close would a light have to be to your home for you to be able to know for certain that you had arrived?

Anyway…where should we go from here…I brought up some stuff about astrology…but you let me know.