Brooklyn's Dad Talks About EVERYTHING

We pause to comment on the state of the nation. Recent events have further exposed the rot within America. I announce my doomed campaign for president and in the unlikely event my candidacy does not catch on, I endorse nobody. Crime, debt, attacks on the Republic, it's all here in abbreviated form. We finish by referring back to a recent message on the fall of the empire, and have no good news to add apart from a reminder that God has a plan and is ultimately in control. If you're politically squeamish, you might want to wait until we get back to Ephesians 6 next time! Edited down from the original 50+ minutes... you're welcome.

When we look at the three iterations of the commandment for children to obey their parents in the Lord, we notice there is a difference (apart from the punishment attached) to the instructions given to Israel and the instruction given to the Body. We finish with a short discussion of the effects of minimum wage and taxes on an economy. There's a reason McDonald's has order kiosks.

We've recently looked at several warning passages to believers to avoid sexual immorality (fornication, adultery, lusts of the flesh, etc.). Sexual immorality cannot only destroy a testimony, it can destroy a society. But God never leaves us without hope. There is always a path back to God. Our gracious Lord is eager to forgive and restore. That does not mean there are no consequences to our sin, but it does mean we are never alone if we know the great God and Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ.

Series Note: The video "Episode 19" is a truncated version of episode 17.5 here. Hence, the "missing" episode.

We move into Ephesians chapter 5 and continue with Paul's admonition to walk in the light. Christ secured for us the free gift of resurrection life with his perfect sacrifice and resurrection, but that doesn't mean the servant faces no other judgments. We are warned repeatedly in the epistles of the pitfalls in the old nature that can lead to loss. Loss of reward. Loss of crown. Loss of position. Loss of the Prize of the High Calling. Faith is the first step. Remember, ALL were redeemed out of Egypt. ALL were identified with Moses in the Red Sea. ALL were provided for in the wilderness. But not all entered into the fullness of the promise.

[Audio only available] We follow comments I received on social media for merely trying to put Jeremiah 29:11 in its context. Hey, I'm just asking questions. If you wanna claim Jeremiah 29, why not Luke 12 or Mark 16? We then apply the faulty "every verse I like is for me, to hell with the context" to the blessings and cursings in Israel's Covenant with the Lord in Deuteronomy 28. Consistency is our goal.

As we've been over Jeremiah 29:11 a few times, and our look at Deuteronomy is applying the same principles of bible interpretation and right division, we have limited this to a bonus episode. Of course, it does have the super extra special bonus of me singing part of Paul McCartney's "The Pound is Sinking" from his 1982 classic LP, "Tug of War." So there's that (plus consequent lawsuit from MPL Communications, MacLen Music, Apple Corp., Denny Laine's Estate, Pattie Boyd, and Ringo).

We address yet another invocation of Jeremiah 29:11 online. This is very popular verse, claimed by believers far and wide. But apparently, the plans God has to prosper us is only working for people like Leonardo DiCaprio and a lot of phenomenally wealthy people in power. We again look to context and God's differing plans for israel and the Earth. Then we broaden our scope to talk about contrarians, idealists, and "experts." Michael gets to chat about economics (which excites probably only Michael).

We once again explore the application of reason to our thinking and to scripture. When confronted with theological, political, or economic ideas, we need to step back and think through them logically and settle where reason leads us. Unfortunately, we had some video issues. So, while we had to employ a static picture from campus, scripture references, pictures, and other visual references still work. We need to free ourselves from systems. We have tried to do this by challenging many commonly held theological "systems" in considering context and how the Bible divides itself. Bit such a thing is a healthy practice in many areas of thought. Free ourselves from systemic thinking and continue to challenge our own beliefs and assumption through both observation and reason.

We take a look at 1 Cor 6 from another angle, noting the clear context of 1 Cor 5. Yes, believers are capable of falling into all kinds of wickedness if they follow the carnal nature (the flesh). This leads to Paul's instructions for marriage in 1 Cor 7 which we then contrast with his Post-Acts instructions in 1 Timothy. We get our Acts and Post-Acts doctrines lined up and rightly divided. Are you settling for a lesser hope?

We dig deeper into Paul's dealings with believers who hindered his teaching of the blessings in the far above the heavens. Most of our doctrinal enemies (who may rob of us "unsearchable riches, rewards, crowns, or the Prize) come in the form of Christians. They appeal to our carnal, religious nature. We wander from there and continue to look at the demise of the USA. How did we get from Andy Griffith to Three's Company to everybody jumping in an out of bed together on every show in just my lifetime?

We chat about the dangers that come to the Christian from within the walls of Christendom that can hinder us, deceive us, and rob us from our calling. We then freeform talk about the fall of the American Empire. The signs all are around us: moral decay, the destruction of the nuclear family, political chaos, massive debt, high taxes, etc. These conditions have not been conducive to a healthy society. And if the USA falls, Liberty falls, and the world enters a possible season of great darkness and terror. Cheery stuff like that.

The practical arises from the doctrinal. Paul, in Ephesians, lays out the new revelation of the Mystery (Secret) God had hidden from before the foundation of the ages and which God had hidden from Moses and the Prophets. The Middle Wall between Jew and Gentile came down after the Acts age and the focus of blessings is no longer the earthly Kingdom, the land, or the New Jerusalem. The blessings we look forward to now are "in heavenly places." We not only enter into that calling by faith, by faith we exanine our lives by that calling. Ephesians chapter 4 is our guide.

While milling about Matthew 24 and Matthew 25 (the Olivet Discourse), we stop in on some of those red letters in chapter 25 and break down the parable of the Ten Virgins who are attending a wedding (they're not part of it). We compare some of the imagery and metaphor there with common statements and beliefs in Christendom and see if they fit. We visit the covenants that apply and the hope in view. Once again, we note the very Jewish, Israeli context of the passage (and remind ourselves of the Lord's words in Matthew 15, "I am not sent but unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel." God has a plan for a remnant of Israel, true Israel, believing Israel, O Virgin of Israel.

We pause to talk a little bit about my Christian allegorical book, "Devon Dibley and His Golden Key." One reviewer on Amazon accused me of being a "Christofascist." So that's a pretty good endorsement! I expand the topic I neglected in our pizza talk, Philadelphia's own Tomato Pie. We also wander around Israel's future and we set up a discussion of the Bride, the Lamb's wife, as scripture teaches (not as men today commonly teach).

The book:
https://www.amazon.com/Devon-Dibley-His-Golden-Key/dp/1484181557/

My brother's Christian novel:
https://www.amazon.com/Fourth-Apple-Tree-Joe-Scotto/dp/1463734263/

Start here if you want to get tomato pie shipped to you:
https://www.corropolesebakery.com/
https://www.goldbelly.com/corropolese-italian-bakery-and-deli

We look briefly at the use of "synagogue" in the Septuagint (the Greek translation of the biblical Hebrew texts). We finally discuss the pressing theological issue of our day: what's the deal with fast food pizza? And before we go, we confirm what should be common in Christendom, but which is sadly lacking... an acknowledgement that we don't know everything and that we all probably have some things wrong. But we can still be friends!

We take a quick look at Matthew 24, the questions posed to the Lord and his response. We consider a possible context for the "rumors of war" and the fighting "kingdom against kingdom" the Lord references. There have been many such rumors and plenty of wars over the centuries, perhaps the prophetic Word of God can help us narrow down the field. Finally, we look at the Gospel of Kingdom spoken of by the Lord in the Book of Matthew. Is that the gospel we preach today? I hope you know by now, no way!

We compare the ideas of filtering and trying to find good in evil. Is there a distinction? I believe there is. After breaking down those concepts, we take a little walk through Psalm 27.

We jump to the Hebrews where Paul is shockingly writing to Hebrews (none of whom graduated from a Reformed Seminary). Even in this Acts Age epistle we can see that the law of the tithe was created to provide for the tribe of Levi and for the physical Temple. We'll see that Levi was in Abraham's loins when the latter tithed to Melchizedek, thus making his priesthood (Christ's) greater than the priesthood of the Law. Finally, we spend some time filtering the 1979 movie, "Hair." No, I'm not recommending it for you today, but I happened to see it when I was 13 and so I go back and filter some of the music.

And we briefly explain why Mary is not, Theotokos, or "the Mother of God."

We wander in and around three more cases of picking and choosing what we want from scripture. We finally visit Malachi 3 and the question of tithing; the Lord's words to his disciples in regard to love and your eternal fate; finally, we wander over to the Olivet Discourse (as it is called) in Matthew 24-25. As your pastor threatens you with Malachi if you don't put cash in his storehouse, you might want go through and bullet-point everything else in that chapter for him.

Today, we talk about some the things and people who surround the film "Sound of Freedom." As we continue the practice of filtering with scripture and reasoning from scripture, we step back and ask a few questions about the movie. Do good intentions make one a good Christian? Or even a Christian at all? Nothing wrong with exposing evil. Nothing wrong with trying to save children. We can say "bravo" to all that. But we must never forget the greater truths at hand and we must never put our hope in man.

Why does Christendom tend toward the "it must be true because it's old and popular" within its borders, but savages and rejects the same sentiment in the world? I don't know. What I do know is that we all need to take personal responsibility for our faith while simultaneously allowing others to take personal responsibility for their own faith. Wycliffe, Tyndale, Hus, Luther all stood alone, and all championed by people today... who mock you if you stand alone.