28 Jul 2014

In [Tolkien’s] “Ainulindalë”, Ilúvatar, who is God, creates heavenly beings known as the Ainur, and they commence to forming all that is by way of holy music. But the greatest of the Ainur, Melkor, laid into the ground of creation his own themes, not those purposed by Ilúvatar. Of course, Melkor’s musics were not like those of Ilúvatar: one could say that they were like of discord, and not of harmony, like the others. But so being, one might possibly say all that was wrong with the world came from the themes of Melkor. And when I considered that, I thought to myself how interesting it would be if that were true of this, our world, that an evil force were at the heart of all the world’s faults, its calamities. But as with many things that make perfect sense, I dismissed the notion offhand.

What if, though? What if angels had a hand in the way that things are? In the book of Job, God relates that the sons of God (angels) rejoiced in the creation of the world — so they were definitely around at the time. What if, then? What if the Lucifer myth is true, and the greatest of the angels rebelled, swelled up with pride, and caused “a third of the stars” to be fallen with him? A third of all the angels? The mechanisms of Heaven made so things bent that far to the will of the Devil, the invention of pain, and ruin any idea of fair play being evenly distributed throughout the world? To cause the world to be a place for injustice to be, if not the rule, the theme? This would be what it meant to be not just an angel of God, but the best and the brightest: read, most powerful of all the Heavenly host. It would be a big deal.

posted by John H. Doe @ 9:27 pm

22 Jul 2014

I, the ashes of which form my body,
breathe in another last breath,
ending after ending neverending,
so many tunnels I’ve flown through.

I, the dreaming of which is my soul,
play at being awake these daylight
moments, when things happen,
and it is so very easy to pretend.

I, the crying of which is my heart,
shoot myself in the foot again,
which being a metaphor doesn’t
explain anything about me.

I, the desire of which fills me,
imagine things I can only say
fill me with fear if they should
happen, or in fact, if they don’t.

I, the oblivion of which drives me,
cannot say I ever wanted to
die, just wondered if meaning
existed somewhere… else.

posted by John H. Doe @ 10:10 pm

20 Jul 2014

The most critical issue facing Christians is not abortion, pornography, the disintegration of the family, moral absolutes, MTV, drugs, racism, sexuality, or school prayer. The critical issue today is dullness. We have lost our astonishment. The Good News is no longer good news, it is okay news. Christianity is no longer life changing, it is life enhancing. Jesus doesn’t change people into wild-eyed radicals anymore. He changes them into “nice people”.

– Mike Yaconelli

posted by John H. Doe @ 12:25 am

14 Jul 2014

More book:

In VALIS, PKD said, “The time you have waited for has come.” When I first read that, I thought just what is natural to think about it, what Christians have thought starting the day that Jesus Christ left. I thought most probably what even Philip K. Dick himself thought: the end of the world is nigh! Yeah, no. The Lord himself conveyed to me that the Apocalypse doesn’t happen for another 30, 40, or 50,000 years from now (which is saying, from early 21st century). I, being the twin of a prophet, must be one myself, n’est-ce pas? I’m here to tell you that the time has come to grow up, for when I was a child, I spoke as a child, but when I grew up, I put away childish things. (Yes, paraphrasing St. Paul.) People think God will come from the sky, take away everything, and make everybody feel high. (And now to channel Bob Marley.) Get real. Something else is on the horizon.

Perhaps PKD understood this more than he realized. Back to the beginning, where Jesus Christ is the Lamb slain at the foundation of the world. By his perfect sacrifice, he brought down to us the end of the Age of Iron (where the Black Iron Prison has base), and beginning of the Age of Gold. PKD called it the “Palm Tree Garden”. I will call it the “Oasis”. But you say, where was this Oasis in the Dark Ages? You can’t say that that was the result of the Age of Gold! And I say, 1,000 years is as a day to God. And when the Lamb was slain, was he not 2 days in the earth, to rise on that 3rd day? So this is that time we have all waited for, for shall come to pass, now, the Age of Gold. Hearken: the Beginning is near.

posted by John H. Doe @ 10:50 am

6 Jul 2014

I’ve started writing a new book. Here is the first paragraph:

Before the beginning, there was not nothing, not empty was the void at all — not completely. I had thought that, too, you know, that it was creation ex nihilo: out of nothing. (I also thought what was there was this certain other stuff when I heard that the Bible never says all things were once nothing.) Instead, before all things existed was a primordial chaos. To the Babylonians, this was symbolized by Tiamat. In the Old Testament, the beast of that chaos was named Rahab. Note that the term “chaos” may be misleading. One may think of things flying around randomly, electric like or a sandstorm. It was not that. Think, instead, of a watery goop, with little, if any, definition at all. So I had in my head that maybe the chaos may have been the remnants of a previous creation, after it had attained a heat death: maximal entropy. (That was the other stuff I was thinking of.) Maybe not. But whatever this formless mush may be likened to be, it was from this that God made the heaven and the earth. And out of the darkness He said, “Let there be light.” And there was light.

posted by John H. Doe @ 1:39 am

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