Some of My Theology

  1. It is a sin to cuss. Just not one that sends you to hell. Though, Blasphemy is a big no no. I’d rather people say the F word, than blaspheme the name of God.
  2. Sexual touch outside of marriage It is a sin. That will send you straight to hell if you do it. There are sins that lead to hell. Sexual fantasies are like cussing, though. It’s a sin, but it doesn’t send you to hell. But the action will send you to hell.
  3. It isn’t a sin to not vote Republican. There’s Christian virtues on both sides of the political party, and both sides do evil things.
  4. Abortion is murder. There are no circumstances where it should be allowed, except in a very rare circumstance where both the mother and child would die. Just like Solomon said, there is a season for everything under the sun, but only in that season.
  5. God’s wrath is literal. It doesn’t make me feel good to think that God will just allow the world to continue in its sin. Jesus will come back with the sword, and slay so that entire valleys are sunken in blood. His wrath is one of the reasons I worship Him. I hate sin. Yes, God’s wrath gives me hope. It does.
  6. For Christians God’s wrath is restorative. For nonbelievers, it’s punitive. But, let no one return to their sin if they have been restored.
  7. Christ is the only way to heaven. There is no other door. There is no other gate. There is no other path. But, there are lots of hypocrites who claim to know Christ, and will go to hell, and there are lots of people going to heaven who might not necessarily be your typical Evangelical Christian.
  8. No, Heaven and Hell are literal geographic places. They are not states of consciousness.
  9. Jesus died on the Cross in place of us. When He died, He replaced us and had happen to Him what should have happened to us. Sin is wicked, and will destroy us if we allow it to take root in our hearts. But, the good news is that if you ever did sexually experiment out of wedlock, or if you did commit some offense, God can still save you. People are liars, and will always make themselves seem better than they actually are. But, everyone has committed a capital offense and far more.
  10. You will only be saved and go to heaven, if you find Christ. All other ways are trying to get into the sheep’s’ pen by way other than the sheepgate. Only Christ can change a heart, and only Christ can save. Jesus is the God of the Universe. And the only way you can be saved is if you know Christ.
  11. The Bible is not up to personal interpretation. It has only one meaning, and we find it. That meaning is sometimes literary, but We do not create it for ourselves. We do not get to interpolate it and therefore make it into what we want it to be. There is only one meaning to every prophecy, and it is not according to our own understanding.
  12. The Bible means what it means, and it’s up to us to understand it. Like any other piece of literature, it can be understood through context clues within the text how the work is intended to be read, and from there, we can perfectly understand it. But, like any other poetry, it takes years of mastery; sometimes to understand one chapter or even one verse.
  13. You need Jesus to interpret the Bible. Because He lightens up the Old Testament, and the miraculous wonder of Christ’s life is revealed through the text. Prophecy only makes sense in the light of Christ, and when you see that, you can be fully satisfied that Jesus Christ is the LORD when you see the Old Testament plainly speaks about Him.

Odes of Strangers VIII

He came down, that Aeneas
With his cloud,
Shrouded in the mystery
Of faith. "What liberty do I have?"
He wondered, wishing to appease God
Through the Meogic of the Law.

The mystery is, that a wise man
Can tell his riddles
Without repudiation.
That a man who has it in his mind
To create worlds
May create them.
That a man, struggling to overcome
Sin, does not have to abstain from anything
Except what is sinful.

If there be a train of bitterness in the heart
That is sin. If Aeneas, you strive with Achilles
And Odysseus and Virgil
Then strive not with them
For they make you doubt.

However, stories contain in them wisdom.
Hercules the right of passage for every man,
And Bulfinch, a Christian
Spun many a myth with joy
For it was his work.
For a man like me has very little use in this world
Except to look at it
And turn over its riddles.
It does not have to be divine...
Yet prophetic nonetheless
God speaks, and it is my joy to write.

Yet, you ask me a question...
I suppose the answer
Is that beauty is an utterance
But since there is so little beauty
Any trace becomes an idol.
Yet I see no thing for me to do
Beside utter beautiful utterances;
Such it is that I do not sin.
No more than Spenser or Wordsworth
Or Coleridge.
But, since there is only ignorance right now
Any truth uttered will not be trusted.
In fact, an utterance of truth
Could set the world ablaze
For men are spun their dreams by Morpheus
And not by the poets anymore.

A Pleasant Call

Evening comes, and there raps a surprise
Knock at the door. "Who is it?"
Opening the portal there stands an old
Acquaintance, one with whom several short discussions were made.

Neither truly knowing the each
But make their pleasantries
Not knowing what to say.
It was the thought that counted
And it lifts the spirits.

Oh the possibilities,
The hopes, the spirit of melancholy
With reservations;
Wishing for the acquaintance to stay an hour
Or two, no offensive word is spoken.
No detail about life is given with any haste.
For a good natured call
And a visit bring levity
Yes, but also reserve.
For it is a rare thing
And one which the procedure
Must be precisely
Followed through on.

A Song I Remember Singing

To the Hymn of Auld Lang Syne
Not an Original Piece, but One I Can Remember Singing
But cannot find anywhere.

Keep Your Eye on the Grand Ol' Flag

Should all acquaintance be forgot
And e'ry a heart do sag
Should all acquaintance be forgot
Keep your eye on the grand ol' flag.

Should old acquaintance be forgot
And all guns hammer their tacks
Should old acquaintance be forgot
Keep your eye on the grand ol' flag.

Should auld acquaintance be forgot
And the nation come under attack
Should auld acquaintance be forgot
Keep your eye on the grand ol' flag.

Should our acquaintance be forgot
And men forget this song
Should our acquaintance be forgot
The days seem ever so long.

But if all acquaintance be forgot
And e'ry a heart do sag
If all acquaintance be forgot
Keep your eye on the grand ol' flag.

Odes of Strangers VII

Hera, you were strong in 
Courtly abodes, where the messengers
Could keep your stead
And give you the sustenance you required.
For it was the infidelity of Zeus
Who led you to your humble position.
This the peoples knew
And gracious was their kindness toward you
In your low estate.
Completely innocent you were
While Zeus made off and courted
Danae. They were but men.

You required rest;
So with Artemis and Apollo.
Yet, you instead wished to smite
And like Prometheus steal the heavenly fire.
You thundered, and your rage flung
For the thunderbolts, but Artemis and Apollo
Were sick of loves, and cried day and night
For peace. Yet in your wrath
There was no peace,
But made war as Egypt's vine.

Then, you established your house
And cast your thunder at Cyrus
Not Zeus; no, you threw down lightning at Cyrus
Just as Cyrus had feared.
Who would free God's people?
Yet you, seeing yourself as a god
Smote the one who shew the most kindness on you.
For Artemis and Apollo's sake
Cyrus rose early to counsel thou, Queen.
Yet your fury hath spilled onto him
Who was your greatest ally.

Furious art you that one had told the truth?
That war among the Titans would ruin
The happiness of your children?
This will be your ruin;
And alas, God has told me it already is.

Ode of Self

Lazy, entitled, working all day
To solve problems the world will never solve.
Like so many, finding good solutions
And like so many, those solutions
Work only for the self.

Wise one moment
But the wisdom flees
When a thousand opine, it clouds
The clear declaration from God.

Oh, how everything is known
So sure of it.
Only to be confronted by a thousand presumptions
A thousand baseless reasons;
Thinking the game is won
When, truthfully, hadn't even seen the first move.

How all of it is true
That Morpheus spins the idle
Wet dreams through the night
And in the morning am the man with his beads
Rubbing them, without a single bit
Of entertainment in my house.

For chastity is never saying "Fuck"
And abstaining from video games...
Meanwhile the alarm clock wakens
Me at eight in the mourning
But I awaken at twelve.

A mess, yet within this heart
Is a secret unlocked.
It truly knows God.

Odes of Strangers VI

Bitter David, I see you unravel
The mysteries of a song.
Your heart in melancholy turn, studied
What would become vanity.

Your daunting effort goes noticed
By those who love music too,
Of ages gone by.
Stand at the age where deep
Calls out to deep;---
But the Cypress in its
Mourning replies,

"Death has taken over the valleys.
"Meaning doth sing her lute
"In the Elburz
"And armies travel through the Gate.
"For the sun makes his revolution 
"Over the mountains
"And on one side is day
"And the other it is night."

Yet none do draw the wisdom
For men are marked out for their sins
In youth.
For a man's sin is discovered
And it is now altered new,
So that David, your effort was in vain.
And with it the Cypress
Mourns, for even the work of man
Is besmirched by what's misunderstood.

Odes of Strangers V

Sela, I see your strength
And bitter rage.
You course through the seas
O' Bitter One,
Ruler of a Thousand.

When Cyrus came to Babylon and Ecbatana
The peoples fled from your tyranny,
For your wrath was kindled
And your ire, your wrath
Your broken pride, it caused the peoples
To flee from their cities
And they allowed Cyrus' forces within the walls unhindered.

The Medes hate you, O Sela,
As your hideousness is made the Form.
The peoples lament
While you set sail on the ocean,
Mighty Princess of the North.

You grow to hate
So you draw forth your oars
And pillage the coasts
Causing all things beautiful to age.

O! Sela, the world has become yours through Scythian war.

Odes of Strangers IV

Atalanta, you stand among your thorns.
Everything you touch withers and dies.
Your anger and shame behooves you
As the food you feed the nations
Wilts and does not satisfy.
It is ashes in the mouth.

You make haste to do good
Yet only grief and shame come from your deeds.
Your good is only ashes seeping from clenched fists.

How the nations love you
Atalanta. They cheer your fame
But they curse the name of man
Who challenges you.
You, like Death, bring the shadow
And the grey of the thunderstorm.

Your benefactor is rude in his abuses
And your lover is unkind.
Slowly, your creeping vine tangles itself around
The world, as you stand among your
Thorns, and pluck the Corolla of the Rose
To shape it into your deign.

Fortunes you cannot make.
And it flees from you;
All things die and wilt in your hands.
For the rose does not prosper
For you do not proceed with
Diligence. Your garden is fertile
But you slack hand makes the bulbs stoop.

Odes of Strangers III

Cleopatra, your domain is yours
Who gives words of strong guidance.
Your ire is just, your indignation furious
But your favor like a copper piece,
Choice among the coinage.

Silent and swift, your judgment comes
While strong are you to battle.
You lead this one, and he goes there.
You lead that one, and she goes here.
They all hearken to you.

Egypt is guided by your strong bow
But strange are the Satraps who preside
Over the prosperity of our world.
For much strong gain,
The flows of the Nile overflow your head
Yet you strive, even though the rewards are dim.

For the fruits of your kingdom are small,
Small among the kingdoms,
Yet you man your post with dignity of office
As a Prince among princes.

The war comes, and allies flock to your aid
For your reign is good, and just
Though there are kings above you
And kings above them.
The peoples are wary
Yet you keep your subjects under the yoke
Of hard effort, and strength
For you join yourself with them
And thresh the corn, 
Beating out the fitches
From the fold.