He stands on the corner.
He gets shot, robbed and is dying.
He calls 911.
He tells the operator that Jesus loves her.

A black man shot a white man.
It doesn't make national headlines.
But, this isn't about that.
There was no racism.
This was not about race.
This was about the love of money.
This was about a man,
Waiting for his bus,
Being killed.

Take it to heart,
So the end doesn't come.
He is hidden in the LORD's wings.
Take it to heart,
The merciful man dies,
And take it to heart that it is to hide him
From God's wrath.
Take it to heart.
God's mercy is shown to him for eternity now.
He is hidden from our woes.
Take it to heart,
Bring nigh the judgment of God
So the seat of violence is put far away.

The Old Testament law is like a Pennsylvanian Speed Limit.
Grace is the liberty to go about five to seven MPH over that limit;
For, if you didn't, you really couldn't.
It is also like an egregious offense against the limit
Like going forty-five MPH in a fifteen MPH zone
And the officer, seeing how hinky you are,
Decides to let you off with a warning.
However, if you don't learn from your warning,
And continue in your sin, you will be thrown into prison.

They dig up the saint's bones in Britain
To prove once and for all some Englishmen had black faces.
Rather, it was Africans who went on evangelical missions
To Britain to spread our wonderful Savior's tale.
Just as the Bible says, they dig up the bones of the prophets---
Now, they use them to push their unholy agendas.
They get disputed, too, by angry men.
Rather, can we not just revel in the fact
That Augustine was from Africa,
And He colonized Great Britain with Christ?
For, without Christianity, Britain would still
Be a barbarous state, living in hovels and sticks.

The preacher looks at Christ
Who hung on a cross.
In such a pathetic situation;
Helpless, forsaken.
He sees his own fabulous life.
"Jesus didn't reach His potential."
Is what he tells his audience.

I think the sermon ought to be
How sometimes we're called
For a purpose other than worldly success...
For, if potential is to overthrow the Roman Empire,
And that were Jesus' potential,
Then thank God He did not fulfill it
Otherwise every man woman and child
Would have needed to be slaughtered along with Caesar
For God's wrath was not yet appeased.
Sometimes, it is exactly the fulfilling of our potential,
The conquering of Rome, the charging into battle,
That causes us to be objects of God's wrath.
And sometimes, by living a life for God
We do the very least in terms of worldly success
But acquire the greatest riches in the Kingdom of Heaven.

Humans subconsciously 
Operate on a code of ethics
inherent in our nature
Called the Logos.
When that code begins to break down
The society breaks down.
When strange questions arise
About simple matters,
Such as "What constitutes Gender?"
"What role does monogamy play in society?"
"When ought I get a divorce?"
"Does God exist?"
The Logos governing that civilization
Gets warped, and the society ceases to be cohesive.
What ultimately collapses society is that when the Logos is not trusted
The civilization breaks down morally, 
And other kingdoms will swoop in and take it over.
Or, the society will be given into rampant corruption, chaos, tyranny and general unhappiness.
I suspect the time Christ will return
Is when no country on Earth understands the Logos.
And when all men are sophists. 

It has been one of my pet peeves
That when I intend to be silent
I am always harassed for an answer
And receive no meaning.

Pythagoras said to say,
"Silence is the first stone in Wisdom's temple."

I find this satisfactory.
It is the perfect response
For it will satisfy the selfishness of your interlocutor
And give them no response while appeasing them
That they are being listened to.

However, listen with sincerity and not condescension
Otherwise this will not work.

B. K. Neifert <bkneifertauthor@gmail.com>
9:59 AM
to gmskeptic

Dear,
Genetically Modified Skeptic

I've looked at all the same evidence as you. I'm well versed in evolution. Well versed in modern science. I find a completely different conclusion. Here's why.

First off---and you can watch the Yale Lecture---they describe what the Bible actually says. Kind of verbatim. That Abraham was one of the first people to have direct revelation from God, and he lived in Mesopotamia, so why does this "Cult of Righteousness" spring up in Mesopotamia? Around the time of the making of Hammurabi's code. The Biblical genealogies place Abraham right at that time period, which would be less of a miracle, if it didn't do that two other times. Some scholarship even goes so far as to identify that God had a son---so, it can reasonably be assumed that the Trinity was always worshipped. What's even more spooky, is that Jews in th centuries leading up to Christ knew that God had a Son, and predicted His Son would be the Messiah. Even more spooky than that, is that Zechariah names the Messiah as Joshua, which if you know anything about Jesus' name, Jesus is the Greek form of Joshua. So, the Bible kind of names Jesus to be the Messiah. And we have evidence that the Trinity was worshipped, even as far back as Mesopotamia.

Second, Moses' lineage lines up right with the cult of Aten. You can do the math. And some other historical facts line up with that, too, which I was reading in my Dad's textbooks. It mysteriously vanished recently from textbooks, to where you're taught now that the Jews basically were a creation of Persia by some crazy prophet named Isaiah II. Which, certainly, cannot be true because we have historical records of Judah existing in the Tel Dan Stele, and the Nebuchadnezzar Chronicles. So, really, it ought to be established fact that the Jews, specifically Judah, existed prior to Babylonian Captivity. As the whole biblical minimalism movement hinges on that. And, frankly, it's not true. What is true, is that the Jews forgot their religion several times. It's recorded in scripture, which can only be a historical account of a people. Certain details show up such as the Bronze Serpent or the King's lineage which stays pretty consistent through the whole of the Bible. The Genealogy in Matthew lines up with the King's Genealogy in the book of Kings. And before you contest that fact, may I remind you that I read the Book of Kings, and can use the Kings to orient myself in the Biblical timeframe. For instance, when the King is Hezekiah or Joash, when reading the prophets, it annotes two very different time periods. And that same Genealogy I use every day to orient myself in Biblical time. The fact that it is so accurate---with some minor problems, but I don't think the Bible ought to be perfect, as then men would worship it and not God, which kind of is the problem facing modern Christianity today---that I find the Genealogical accounts to be about 99.9% accurate. In modern manuscripts, where the Genealogies are accounted and updated, the only error in the Gospel of Matthew is "Admin.", which really isn't that much. I think the Bible gets a lot more right than it gets wrong, and really, the only things it does get wrong are factoids, which accounting for the overwhelming amount of things it gets right about human sociology and psychology, and even details and predictions, it's pretty much a mystery as to how it cannot be accepted as the Word of God. As, the reason why Moses lining up with the cult of Aten is important, is that the Pharaoh randomly decided to convert to monotheism for no apparent reason. In my estimate, it's probably because he saw the Red Sea Parted and the firstborn child of every Egyptian die.

Third, there's the fact that the Bible tells us a lot about Prehistory. It gets a lot of details right. I heard it claimed in some circles that Babylon never existed. That's an actual theory floating around, just as absurd as Jesus never existing. But, let me tell you why I know Jesus existed. First off, the Vatican contains His death certificate, which said, "He who claimed to be the King of the Jews." I know someone who saw it first hand. And, there's also records of his census. And, then there's some textual evidence that Jesus lived. Namely, that Jesus sweat blood which is an actual medical condition, and that Jesus had a heart attack on the cross. The water flowing from His wound was the water sack surrounding his internal organs, which is pretty accurate, and confirms that Jesus did in fact die. Now, we know he raised because the religion's still around. Men don't actively die for a lie. The apostles who saw Him resurrected were willing to be burned, impaled and crucified to keep that testimony.

Then, theres the predictions the Bible gets right. Namely, Psalm 22, Psalm 2, Isaiah 53, Jeremiah 31. If you account for prehistory, the Torah even predicts Babylonian Captivity and Isaiah predicts Cyrus would restore Israel to Zion. Which, given that Isaiah 53 is in the Dead Sea Scrolls, it's almost a certain that those prophecies weren't edited in later on, but actually existed.

And for the Bible being a bunch of Sumerian myths---really, that's impossible. The more probably truth is the Sumerian myths were sourced from earlier material, and that earlier material became the reference point for Moses when He wrote down the Torah.

Yes, the Bible is God's word. It's not perfect, and that's why you need to have a relationship with God, because only by that relationship will you be able to be a good person. You cannot be a good person without God's help. That's what the Gospel teaches. There's no way to be forgiven without the Blood of Jesus, and there's no way to walk in accordance with Truth unless you have God shepherding you. As Tolstoy said, "It's not given to people to judge what's right or wrong. People have eternally been mistaken, an din nothing more than in what they consider right and wrong." This is why Christ needs to be our teacher and shepherd. Because a few geniuses like Mozi, Confucius, Lao Tsu, Aristotle, Plato, Maimonedes, Socrates etc. have found bits and pieces of truth. But I adjure you to find a place that has more truth than the Bible does. Even the verses on Genocide speak truth, that some cultures are irredeemable, but let God damn them, and not man; let God give the command on when it's ethical to go to war, and let no man be given that burden. That's the highest command in scripture, is to allow Christ be the judge, and not ourselves.