January, 2023 - Jerome's Writs

Biblical Warfare / January 17, 2023

Militant Women At War For Israel

Because of sin in the land, a turning away from Yehovah to the idols of Canaan, there was a call for militant women at war for Israel. Jabin, the king of Hazor, and his general Sissera had terrorized and kept Israel in bondage for twenty years. God awakened the woman Deborah to lead his people out of spiritual confusion and mount a militant rebellion and victorious campaign against the kings of Canaan.

Deborah the only woman judge of Israel

We discover Deborah under Deborah’s Palm Tree holding court, judging the people of Israel and calling them into their true covenantal relationship with Yehovah. God had given her a militant prophetic spirit and military skill which inspired to go to war for Israel. Deborah impressed upon Barak to assemble an army of ten thousand men for battle against the mighty forces and nine hundred iron chariots of Sisera. Although she declared that God had already given Barak the victory, he, filled with trepidation, retorted that he would go up to battle only if she went with him. And so she did. However, she warned him that another militant woman would get the honor of victory.

Deborah sets the stage for war

Deborah and Barak assembled their troops, mainly from the tribes of Naphtali and Zebulun, at Kedesh; and from there, they marched up to mount Tabor. When Sisera heard that Barak and the modest Israelite were gone up to mount Tabor, he mobilized his army with all his nine hundred iron chariots and went out to set the battle in array by the river Kishon. Deborah shouted the battle cry saying, “arise, for this is the day in which the Lord has delivered Sisera into your hand.”

The Lord routs Sisera for Deborah and Barak

As the battle ensued, Yehovah intervened on behalf of Barak and the Israelite army by moving the natural forces to pour down rain upon the mechanized elements of Sisera’s forces. The sudden change of rainry weather resulted in the clogging of chariot wheels which caused them to become bogged down in the mud of Taanach by the waters of Megiddo. Sisera’s apparent advantage swiftly turned into a detriment that enabled the Israelite army to rout the Canaanite forces, destroying them down to every man. Sisera alights from his chariot and beats a quick path into the hills while his remaining troops are being hunted down and killed.

Yehovah validates militant women at war for Israel

Sisera escaped from the scene and made his way to a Kenite off-shoot camp which had made a tenuous alliance with Jabin, king of the Canaanites. However, God had prepared another militant woman at war for Israel to meet him and entice him into a false sense of safety. Jael, the wife of Heber the Kenite, gave him comforting words, a comfortable blanket, milk for his thirst, and assurance that she would stand at the door for his security. Nevertheless, no sooner was he asleep than she took a tent pin and a hammer and nailed his head to the ground. When Barak came looking, Jael went out to welcome him and inform him that she had taken the honor of victory by being a militant woman at war for Israel.

Militant women at war for Israel may serve as a paradigm for women everywhere to employ their skills as well as their charms in the service of Yehovah to bring his people into a loving, covenantal, and safe relationship with him. It may possibly also serve as a cautionary tale to men who may demonstrate apathy in stepping up to the plate to assume spiritual and practical responsibility for leadership, while not discounting the power of militant women at war for God’s new Israel.

Sacred Writs / January 12, 2023

The Egyptian Mystery System

What is the Egyptian Mystery System and why do we need to understand its content? The earliest theory of salvation is the Egyptian theory. The Egyptian Mystery System had as its most important object, the deification of man, and taught that the soul of man if liberated from its bodily fetters, could enable him to become godlike and see the gods in this life and attain the beatific vision and hold communion with the immortals (Ancient Mysteries, C. H. Vail, p. 12).

Liberation which the Mystery System offered was not only freedom of the soul from the body’s worldly burdens, but also from the cycle of reincarnation or rebirth. The Egyptian Mystery System involved a process of disciplines or purification both for the body and the soul. Because it proposed the salvation of the soul, it also placed great emphasis upon its immortality.

The Egyptian Mystery System, like the modern university, was the center of organized culture; and candidates entered it as the leading source of ancient culture. The System had three grades of students. (1) Mortals or probationers who were being instructed, but who had not experienced the inner vision. (2) Intelligences or those who had attained the inner vision, and had received mind or nous. (3) Creators or Sons Of Light who had become identified with or united with the Light (i.e. true spiritual consciousness.

The three grades of the Egyptian Mystery System have been described as the equivalents of Initiation, Illumination and Perfection. Students underwent years of disciplinary intellectual exercises and bodily asceticism with intervals of tests and ordeals to determine their fitness to proceed to the more serious, solemn, and awful process of actual initiation. it was the Egyptian Mystery System theory of salvation which became the basis and purpose of Greek Philosophy.

Poet's Pod / January 11, 2023

Living In America

Living in America where men died that we might have opportunity
taking part in the hope of capitalistic liberty
reaping the fruits of an open democracy.
But now take a peek what do you truly see
Living men lying in spiritual poverty
a world apart from our half heart response for
they don’t look like you and me.
Some cry deep briny tears that drip, drip crevices
in hard heads, stony hearts dying in vanity
wandering souls wondering would it be futile
to make just one plea
or try make some sense by asserting
man’s right looking with an eye for an eye dignity.
After all living in America the land of the brave
and the would be free
has not, will not, recognize distressed community
simply absconded, marginalized through American legalities.
Oh I know, you want to really just let it be
for that would not entail a full measure of equality
put on, pat on, patronizingly lulled into a sense of affinity
characterized, impersonalized, stigmatized receptors in stagnant ennui
while inner fires flare forging emboweled, deep-seated adversity.
Sideliners watch movers shake twin towers satiated in their dust
and all the pretty people consider doing the world a favor consuming on their lust
living men lying in spiritual decadence consider their reality is a must
understanding their exclusion from a nickel’s worth of In God We Trust
passively accepting living in America means remaining home no boom just bust.
Yea, so what does the preacher have to say to this American plight
don’t worry, my brothers and my sisters, everything gone be all right
Now let the church say Amen, keep the faith and plant your seed
yet we find compassion is unequal to meet the children’s need.
For America is reluctant to relinquish its irreverent reality
engendering distance, deference, dissonance, religious and social enmity
depriving itself of living valuable contributors needlessly
Comprehending these events require no dictionary
witnessing such backlash is really getting scary
Acquiesce no more to apathetic ushers at hell’s mortuary
Awake ministers of burning flame and fire to see
generations living, loving, dying without a clue
God is still living in America too.

Sacred Writs / January 10, 2023

Is The Trinity Taught In The Bible

Trinity, a concept thought by many in the church to be essential for Christian belief, has for centuries been accepted as basic doctrine. However, is the trinity taught in the bible? The simple and short answer is no; the trinity is not taught in the bible. How, then, has this doctrine become so engrained within the Christian life and experience?

The term Trinity, the belief that one God exists in three distinct but equal persons, does not appear anywhere in the bible. It was first used by Tertullian near the culmination of the 2nd century. However, it only came into conventional and familiar use during the fourth and fifth centuries. From these two pieces of information, we can clearly see that the trinity is not taught in the bible.

Furthermore, we must note that the formal doctrine of the trinity was the result of several insufficient attempts to explain who and what the Christian God truly is. In an effort to address this problem, the Church Fathers met in 325 A.D. at the Council of Nicaea to set out an orthodox biblical definition concerning the divine identity. Moreover, it was not until A.D. 381, at the Council of Constantinople, that the divinity of the spirit was affirmed. Therefore, we can conclude that the doctrine of the trinity was not formalized until after the bible was completed and all the apostles had been long dead.

Understanding the aforementioned historical developments, we must conclude the bible does not teach the doctrine of the trinity. Neither the word ‘trinity’ nor such language as ‘one in three,’ ‘three in one,’ one ‘essence’ (or ‘substance’ ), and three ‘persons,’ is biblical language. The language of the doctrine is the language of classical Greek philosophy (Christian Doctrine, 1994, pp. 76-77). That philosophy, by the way, is not truly Greek, but derived from ancient African mystery teachings. Such considerations aside, the fact remains, trinity is not taught in the bible.

Biblical Warfare / January 5, 2023

Joshua Defeats The Joint Forces

The people of Israel and Joshua are positioned to defeat the joint forces of Canaan once they have crossed over the Jordan river. After the conquest of Jericho and Ai, the inhabitants west of the Jordan become terrified at the prospect of facing an army directed and upheld by the God of Israel.

A prime example of the fear extant in the land can be seen in the deceptive ploy which was executed against Israel by the people of Gibeon. Because of fear of Israel’s army, they designed a plot to appear as if they had come from a far away country, clothes threadbare and food moldy, to make an alliance with Israel and seek it’s protection. Israel’s princes ratified the peace treaty upon an oath without consulting Yehovah. Therefore, even though Gibeon was actually Israel’s near neighbor, they could not mount an act of aggression against them.

Because of Gibeon’s deceitful alliance with Israel, Adoni-zedek, king of Jerusalem, pulled together a joint force of four other kings of great cities to take up arms against Gibeon for their traitorous act. While these joint forces encamped against Gibeon for an attack, the Gibeonites sent word to Joshua to come up quickly to help and save them from their enemies. Receiving again a word from the Lord not to fear for He has delivered them into his hand, Joshua assembled all of his army to go up from Gilgal and defeat the joint forces gathered against Gibeon.

Marching all night, Joshua and the army of Israel came upon the joint forces arrayed against Gibeon suddenly and routed them, chasing them along the way from Beth-horon unto Makkedah, making a great slaughter. Not only were these joint forces defeated, but the Lord rained down great hailstones which killed more of them than were slain by the army of Israel. Nevertheless, the defeat was not fully accomplished, therefore, Joshua, in prayer to Yehovah, commanded the sun to stand still until their foes were completely vanquished.

Joshua’s army pursued the five kings of the joint forces to a cave in Makkedah. They were brought out of the cave, killed, hanged on trees until evening, then buried in the caves to which they had fled. Joshua and the army of the Lord went on conquests from Makkedah to defeat other joint forces which arrayed themselves against Israel. Little by little he defeated all of the joint forces of Canaan and secured the promised inheritance. And there was rest from war in the land.

Poet's Pod / January 1, 2023

For Our Daughters

I prayed to God
bless 2023, and don’t let it be so cold
don’t let there be a wintry suffering January
harsh March winds blowing tidy sums
from tight pockets into overblown bowls
of affluence.
Don’t let utility profiting cold
freeze the hearts of our America
faced with the urgency of each others sins
of uncaring.

Cover us with sunshine, Oh Lord
in the morning even as our daughters
begin their growth guided by
the spirit of fire. Infinite Star
focus your light on the issues
sitting motionless in the evening breeze
of apathy.

Let there be recognition of worth
warm shoulders nurturing commitment
to God bless America in 2023
Soften our souls
Shut out the cold.

Sacred writs, Biblical War Stories And Cultural Literature

Month: January 2023