We often say that things just "shouldn't" exist. There are two reasons why we say this:
1) It's morally objectionable.
2) It's unpleasant to us, somehow, even if there's no inherent moral qualm with it.
The first one makes sense, and is part of the discernment we should have. A murderer shouldn't be murdering people, for example. Sin "shouldn't" be part of the world, and we should do our best to stop it, because the words "should" and "shouldn't", in this case, carry moral implications.
The second one gets a bit more complicated, though. In looking at some insects and plants a couple months ago, I found myself thinking that some of them were "gross" or "creepy" and thinking "why does something like that even exist? Something that creepy just shouldn't even be." But then I began to think... what makes me think that? What makes other people think that? Isn't God omnipotent? It's a subtle and seemingly harmless thought that there's an "error" in God's creation, but it can really warp our perception of the world. Every "gross" insect such as the crane fly; all of those strange-looking deep sea creatures such as the viperfish; every skunk that emits that infamous spray; every prickly plant; all of this was conceived by God. Crafted under His watchful eye, by the work of His hands. A lot of this is unpleasant to us for a number of reasons. Some are unpleasant because of irrational phobias, like insects. Some are unpleasant because they can pose a physical threat to us, like plants with thorns. But what we need to remember is, our perception does not equal an objective reality. There aren't any inherent mistakes in the world God created. Before sin entered the world, God declared creation "good", as mentioned several times in Genesis. We need to keep in mind that all of this was created with the fingerprint of God on it. It really, truly helps to look at freakish things like the viperfish and realize that the hand of God crafted it; that all of this has been created under the eyes of a watchful and wise God. And although I used the example of nature, since that's what got me thinking about this, it can apply to anything conceivably unpleasant to the senses.
Remember that "unpleasant" doesn't equal "wrong". The word wrong can only refer to information, and to morality.
If something "unpleasant" isn't "immoral" (ie murder) or "incorrect" (ie 2+2=5) then that unpleasant thing isn't "wrong", either.
May God bless and guide you all according to His perfect will! In Jesus' name. Amen.
Friday, September 28, 2018
Wednesday, September 19, 2018
Untitled
This is the 2nd verse of Verdelger's "The Shimmering of the Last Days":
I remember 19 years ago
Jesus came to planet earth
He took His children
And we are left behind
The song is about the last days. When the world is ending, and there's so much misery and pain under the rule of evil. Now, I can't pretend for a second to understand the "pre-tribulation rapture" vs "post-tribulation" debates (and so on) and I'm not going to get into that. I just want to make a general point. Their demo that featured this song was released in 2002.
As I write this, 2002 was 16 years ago. Somebody who was born in 2002 will be old enough to drive this year. Keeping in mind, 2002 is the year after 9/11 happened.
And yet, from 2002, it would take another three years to reach 19 years. So picture whatever was happening in your life in 2002, and then picture everything that's happened until right now.
Now picture anything good that happened during that time, being gone, and having to live it all over again.
And then picture an additional three years added on.
19 years is a long time. How much longer will eternity be?
I remember 19 years ago
Jesus came to planet earth
He took His children
And we are left behind
The song is about the last days. When the world is ending, and there's so much misery and pain under the rule of evil. Now, I can't pretend for a second to understand the "pre-tribulation rapture" vs "post-tribulation" debates (and so on) and I'm not going to get into that. I just want to make a general point. Their demo that featured this song was released in 2002.
As I write this, 2002 was 16 years ago. Somebody who was born in 2002 will be old enough to drive this year. Keeping in mind, 2002 is the year after 9/11 happened.
And yet, from 2002, it would take another three years to reach 19 years. So picture whatever was happening in your life in 2002, and then picture everything that's happened until right now.
Now picture anything good that happened during that time, being gone, and having to live it all over again.
And then picture an additional three years added on.
19 years is a long time. How much longer will eternity be?
Friday, September 7, 2018
"Smarter" Than God
How do people think they can "judge" God? I'm not asking "why do they think they have the right". Rather, I'm asking "why do they think they have the ability". God is omnipotent and omniscient. All are created by God. The implication is that humans are then, naturally, less powerful and less intelligent than God.
In what scenario would human beings rise above the moral code of God, that we could say to Him, "HEY YOU! WHAT YOU'RE DOING ISN'T RIGHT! THIS WAY IS BETTER"? The only way we could do that is if God permitted it. (There are debates about whether God actively upholds every event in the universe or if He simply allows them to happen, but that's not relevant here. The point is, God has the power to control what happens. Sometimes things aren't always what we think they should be, and we don't always know what He is planning, but omnipotence remains constant.) God's moral code has no flaws, but even if we entertain the idea. If God's moral code has flaws, why would He ever allow us to know abut them? Why would He allow ordinary people to just realize one day that He was wrong all along? Wouldn't He, instead, keep us all in the dark (INCLUDING NON-CHRISTIANS, BECAUSE AGAIN, GOD IS OMNIPOTENT) and not allow any of us to ever know about those flaws? It doesn't make sense for "an omnipotent yet somehow flawed God" to coexist with "less powerful and less intelligent beings waking up one day and realizing that their moral codes are better than God's". So then, it doesn't make sense to claim one's moral codes is better than God's. And yet many people do just that, yelling at God for being "wrong" about so many things.
So where does all this come from, then? It seems to be caused by one of two things:
1) Misconceptions. Somebody doesn't fully understand God's intentions, or reads some faulty interpretation of a verse, etc, and thus gets an incomplete picture of God's morality. This seems to happen most often with people who rush to conclusions and make assumptions, but can absolutely just be a sincere misunderstanding.
2) Pride. We all disagree with things God does. There is no Christian in history who has watched a loved one die a slow, painful death from disease or injury; no Christian who has heard of an injustice being done to vulnerable people like children or the elderly; no Christian who has lived through or learned about some natural disaster like a tornado, hurricane, earthquake etc; ............. and felt no compassion about it. No Christian who simply thought to themselves, "Eh, God's smarter than I am, so I'll just go about my day." We all disagree with decisions that God makes from time to time. Babies don't know not to play with sharp objects. Babies don't know not to shove crayons up their noses. Babies cry a lot when their parents make them stop doing things like that. In a similar way, God does things we don't understand. The difference is, when the initial anger/confusion subsides, those who know God, or wish to know God, seek to learn from the experience, and use it to grow. Meanwhile the prideful just throw their hands in the air and go "NO!!! YOU'RE WRONG!!! BECAUSE YOU DISAGREE WITH ME!!! AND I'M RIGHT!!! IF MY OPINIONS WERE WRONG, THEN WHY DO I THINK THEM???"
We need to try harder to remove these things from our lives. They're based on falsehoods and logical fallacies.
May God bless and guide you all according to His perfect will! In Jesus' name. Amen.
In what scenario would human beings rise above the moral code of God, that we could say to Him, "HEY YOU! WHAT YOU'RE DOING ISN'T RIGHT! THIS WAY IS BETTER"? The only way we could do that is if God permitted it. (There are debates about whether God actively upholds every event in the universe or if He simply allows them to happen, but that's not relevant here. The point is, God has the power to control what happens. Sometimes things aren't always what we think they should be, and we don't always know what He is planning, but omnipotence remains constant.) God's moral code has no flaws, but even if we entertain the idea. If God's moral code has flaws, why would He ever allow us to know abut them? Why would He allow ordinary people to just realize one day that He was wrong all along? Wouldn't He, instead, keep us all in the dark (INCLUDING NON-CHRISTIANS, BECAUSE AGAIN, GOD IS OMNIPOTENT) and not allow any of us to ever know about those flaws? It doesn't make sense for "an omnipotent yet somehow flawed God" to coexist with "less powerful and less intelligent beings waking up one day and realizing that their moral codes are better than God's". So then, it doesn't make sense to claim one's moral codes is better than God's. And yet many people do just that, yelling at God for being "wrong" about so many things.
So where does all this come from, then? It seems to be caused by one of two things:
1) Misconceptions. Somebody doesn't fully understand God's intentions, or reads some faulty interpretation of a verse, etc, and thus gets an incomplete picture of God's morality. This seems to happen most often with people who rush to conclusions and make assumptions, but can absolutely just be a sincere misunderstanding.
2) Pride. We all disagree with things God does. There is no Christian in history who has watched a loved one die a slow, painful death from disease or injury; no Christian who has heard of an injustice being done to vulnerable people like children or the elderly; no Christian who has lived through or learned about some natural disaster like a tornado, hurricane, earthquake etc; ............. and felt no compassion about it. No Christian who simply thought to themselves, "Eh, God's smarter than I am, so I'll just go about my day." We all disagree with decisions that God makes from time to time. Babies don't know not to play with sharp objects. Babies don't know not to shove crayons up their noses. Babies cry a lot when their parents make them stop doing things like that. In a similar way, God does things we don't understand. The difference is, when the initial anger/confusion subsides, those who know God, or wish to know God, seek to learn from the experience, and use it to grow. Meanwhile the prideful just throw their hands in the air and go "NO!!! YOU'RE WRONG!!! BECAUSE YOU DISAGREE WITH ME!!! AND I'M RIGHT!!! IF MY OPINIONS WERE WRONG, THEN WHY DO I THINK THEM???"
We need to try harder to remove these things from our lives. They're based on falsehoods and logical fallacies.
May God bless and guide you all according to His perfect will! In Jesus' name. Amen.
Friday, August 24, 2018
More Lyrics
Ideas I've had sitting around, but haven't used yet. They're not listed in any particular order -- just the order I happened to find them as I was making this post. All songs are untitled.
I
The world looks without
Look within
Until the center point
Then continue further
Thus leading back out
You think these are negative values since you went beyond zero,
When in reality, you went from the negatives into the positives
With new perspective
Reborn
Washed
Cleansed
Carry these new values out
Evangelism
II
God is the only one who can process infinity
For one like me, there aren't enough galaxies in the universe to contain this: a longing for infinity
Expansion means nothing
Finite is finite
Matter will end
The universe has an edge
Beyond that is only the beginning
Only the beginning
And think, how much more is God capable of creating?
How many "creations" with entirely different building blocks are in the infinite arsenal of God?
The multiverse? Conceivable, but illogical -- fantastical and self-contradictory. (For example, a universe where the inhabitants find a way to access and destroy the entire multiverse, cannot coexist with a universe where the inhabitants find a way to make the multiverse last forever.) Yet even then, God is still capable of creating things even greater than the heights of our imaginations...
Infinity.
III
Dark storms, cold blasts, and cloudy nights
Creaking trees reaching the sky
Faint dimness on a fullmoon night
All are a gift of God
Snow-covered mountains and howling wolves
Frozen lakes reflecting stars that shine in the cold
The fields wrapped in snow, and the trees, icicles,
All are a gift of God
We do not fear, its Creator is with us
So rest with us here in the moonlight so bright
Overcomers, in armor of the Spirit,
By the grace of the Lord, we shine in, we are...
We shine in, we are, THE BLACKEST LIGHT!
IV
The search for physical gratification is in vain
It is always fleeting
And has no meaning
You will always end up wanting more and your flesh will never be fulfilled -- the very world which promotes these lusts will be unable to meet your demands
Other people will be unable to meet your demands
You will be unable to meet your demands
Therefore it is better to seek real purification through Christ
The search for the Lord will not end with vanity, for truth does not run empty; truth can always be found; truth will not leave you, only for you to crave it again later.
Physical desire is fleeting, and the devil will always manipulate your thoughts to make you want it even more.
"It is healthy biology."
It is sin. Kill it in your heart.
V
Through subjectivity yield objectivity
Subjectivity ∴ Objectivity
Speak to me through this aesthetic essence
Crumble the immaterial darkness through omnipotence
Transgression becomes so through divine will
And through divine will transgression to kill
Cutting 5/7 of the points of the heptagram
To bring forth a 7 away from the damned
777
1 ∵ 3 ∵ 1
When an end is a beginning
If the wish is that none go to Hell,
Then don't let me fuel its flames.
Losing to the world is winning
Speak to me in the toll of a bell,
Through subjectivity yield objective ways.
I
The world looks without
Look within
Until the center point
Then continue further
Thus leading back out
You think these are negative values since you went beyond zero,
When in reality, you went from the negatives into the positives
With new perspective
Reborn
Washed
Cleansed
Carry these new values out
Evangelism
II
God is the only one who can process infinity
For one like me, there aren't enough galaxies in the universe to contain this: a longing for infinity
Expansion means nothing
Finite is finite
Matter will end
The universe has an edge
Beyond that is only the beginning
Only the beginning
And think, how much more is God capable of creating?
How many "creations" with entirely different building blocks are in the infinite arsenal of God?
The multiverse? Conceivable, but illogical -- fantastical and self-contradictory. (For example, a universe where the inhabitants find a way to access and destroy the entire multiverse, cannot coexist with a universe where the inhabitants find a way to make the multiverse last forever.) Yet even then, God is still capable of creating things even greater than the heights of our imaginations...
Infinity.
III
Dark storms, cold blasts, and cloudy nights
Creaking trees reaching the sky
Faint dimness on a fullmoon night
All are a gift of God
Snow-covered mountains and howling wolves
Frozen lakes reflecting stars that shine in the cold
The fields wrapped in snow, and the trees, icicles,
All are a gift of God
We do not fear, its Creator is with us
So rest with us here in the moonlight so bright
Overcomers, in armor of the Spirit,
By the grace of the Lord, we shine in, we are...
We shine in, we are, THE BLACKEST LIGHT!
IV
The search for physical gratification is in vain
It is always fleeting
And has no meaning
You will always end up wanting more and your flesh will never be fulfilled -- the very world which promotes these lusts will be unable to meet your demands
Other people will be unable to meet your demands
You will be unable to meet your demands
Therefore it is better to seek real purification through Christ
The search for the Lord will not end with vanity, for truth does not run empty; truth can always be found; truth will not leave you, only for you to crave it again later.
Physical desire is fleeting, and the devil will always manipulate your thoughts to make you want it even more.
"It is healthy biology."
It is sin. Kill it in your heart.
V
Through subjectivity yield objectivity
Subjectivity ∴ Objectivity
Speak to me through this aesthetic essence
Crumble the immaterial darkness through omnipotence
Transgression becomes so through divine will
And through divine will transgression to kill
Cutting 5/7 of the points of the heptagram
To bring forth a 7 away from the damned
777
1 ∵ 3 ∵ 1
When an end is a beginning
If the wish is that none go to Hell,
Then don't let me fuel its flames.
Losing to the world is winning
Speak to me in the toll of a bell,
Through subjectivity yield objective ways.
Monday, April 2, 2018
Modern ""Philosophy"".......................
""Philosophy"" nowadays is nonsense. There is no deep thought in it now. It's as simple as that. All you have to do is add a twist to some popular thought or phrase, add a few words like "beautiful" or "wonderful" to make it sound nice, and boom! Philosophy!!!
Below are a few examples I crapped out off the top of my head this morning. Obviously I don't actually think these things, they're just demonstrations.
What if material things are nirvana? What if this ultimate state of knowledge and bliss was right here in front of us the whole time, in the beautiful things in our everyday lives?
People always talk about learning from Buddha... but what if Buddha actually wanted to learn from you all along? How wonderful is it to think that such a wise teacher as Buddha actually based his whole spirituality and philosophy on learning from the common people around him?
People talk about spirits. Some people say human beings have spirits. Some people say animals have spirits. Some people say that even inanimate objects like the dirt beneath your feet have spirits. But what if the true "spirit" in this world comes from the "spirit" behind our actions? The "spirit" of looking forward and pushing through our boundaries? The "spirit" of motivation to always have an open mind? What if these things are what "spirit" is all about?
Do these sound like meaningless ad-libs to you? Do they still sound nonsensical if I tell you I didn't actually invent these quotes, but took them from famous author Deepak Chopra? ......... Do they still sound nonsensical if I tell you Deepak Chopra didn't actually write any of these, and I just said that right now to trick you, and I actually did just crap them out today?
Yes, every quote above is something I made up...... NOT because I actually think them, QUITE the opposite, but rather by following the same formula all of these crappy ""deep"" quotes follow. They have no meaning. They have no substance. They're just nicely-worded things, with an unexpected "twist" to make it sound like a lot of deep thought went into them, and because they're so simplistic in nature, they can appeal to the absolute lowest-common-denominator. Anybody who wants to look smart, but doesn't want to actually take the time to think about the world around them, can just take these thought-free LIES and apply them to their lives. And frankly I'm sick of seeing them!
And I'm sick of seeing people take this stuff seriously!
Stop letting nonsense like this get into your life and dumb you down all the time! It's not "philosophy"! Stop pretending that it is!
May the TRUE AND LIVING God bless and guide you all, according to His perfect will! In Jesus' name. Amen.
Below are a few examples I crapped out off the top of my head this morning. Obviously I don't actually think these things, they're just demonstrations.
What if material things are nirvana? What if this ultimate state of knowledge and bliss was right here in front of us the whole time, in the beautiful things in our everyday lives?
People always talk about learning from Buddha... but what if Buddha actually wanted to learn from you all along? How wonderful is it to think that such a wise teacher as Buddha actually based his whole spirituality and philosophy on learning from the common people around him?
People talk about spirits. Some people say human beings have spirits. Some people say animals have spirits. Some people say that even inanimate objects like the dirt beneath your feet have spirits. But what if the true "spirit" in this world comes from the "spirit" behind our actions? The "spirit" of looking forward and pushing through our boundaries? The "spirit" of motivation to always have an open mind? What if these things are what "spirit" is all about?
Do these sound like meaningless ad-libs to you? Do they still sound nonsensical if I tell you I didn't actually invent these quotes, but took them from famous author Deepak Chopra? ......... Do they still sound nonsensical if I tell you Deepak Chopra didn't actually write any of these, and I just said that right now to trick you, and I actually did just crap them out today?
Yes, every quote above is something I made up...... NOT because I actually think them, QUITE the opposite, but rather by following the same formula all of these crappy ""deep"" quotes follow. They have no meaning. They have no substance. They're just nicely-worded things, with an unexpected "twist" to make it sound like a lot of deep thought went into them, and because they're so simplistic in nature, they can appeal to the absolute lowest-common-denominator. Anybody who wants to look smart, but doesn't want to actually take the time to think about the world around them, can just take these thought-free LIES and apply them to their lives. And frankly I'm sick of seeing them!
And I'm sick of seeing people take this stuff seriously!
Stop letting nonsense like this get into your life and dumb you down all the time! It's not "philosophy"! Stop pretending that it is!
May the TRUE AND LIVING God bless and guide you all, according to His perfect will! In Jesus' name. Amen.
Wednesday, March 21, 2018
"Gentlemen, Speak Up!"
Hey, so for those who don't know, I have a blog called Unblack Archives. It's meant to catalog/archive unblack metal bands that don't meet more popular metal sites' criteria.
Anyway, I was doing research and found an old -core EP that I wanted to document, but doesn't fit on my other blog, so I just decided to document it here instead.
[Here's the page where I got the info]
"Gentlemen, Speak Up! - Running From Their Lives EP"
Released as a free digital download from Erlösung Distribution (aka "Erlosung Distribution")
Somewhere around the year 2011?
"Finally! Our new e.p. 'Running From Our Lives' is finished and now available to download for free! It's been a long road, and sadly it's coming to an end. After this month, we will no longer be together as a band." -Luke, Guitarist of Gentelmen Speak Up
The tracklist, in the correct order, is:
1 Take It... Or Don't
2 Second Star to the Left
3 Don't Leave Your Bags Unattended
4 Moss Always Grows There
5 Adjust Question
Unfortunately, it seems the download link didn't make its way onto archive.org? So I don't have audio yet.
Anyway, I was doing research and found an old -core EP that I wanted to document, but doesn't fit on my other blog, so I just decided to document it here instead.
[Here's the page where I got the info]
"Gentlemen, Speak Up! - Running From Their Lives EP"
Released as a free digital download from Erlösung Distribution (aka "Erlosung Distribution")
Somewhere around the year 2011?
"Finally! Our new e.p. 'Running From Our Lives' is finished and now available to download for free! It's been a long road, and sadly it's coming to an end. After this month, we will no longer be together as a band." -Luke, Guitarist of Gentelmen Speak Up
The tracklist, in the correct order, is:
1 Take It... Or Don't
2 Second Star to the Left
3 Don't Leave Your Bags Unattended
4 Moss Always Grows There
5 Adjust Question
Unfortunately, it seems the download link didn't make its way onto archive.org? So I don't have audio yet.
Monday, March 12, 2018
"The Spider"
The following was not written by me, but taken from [thedefeatofsatan.blogspot.com]. I just wanted to share it here. [Most of the text below was translated in Google Translate.] The original Portuguese version, "A aranha", can be viewed [here].
Once a man was being pursued by several evildoers who wanted to kill him.
The man, running, turned on a shortcut that led off the road and entered through the bush, and in despair raised a prayer to God in the following manner: "Almighty God, make two angels come from the sky and block the entrance of the track so the bad guys don't kill me!!!"
At that moment he heard the men approaching the trail where he was hiding and saw that, at the entrance to the trail, a tiny spider appeared.
Then the spider began to weave a web at the entrance to the trail.
The man began to make another prayer more and more distressed: "Lord, I asked you for angels, not a spider. Lord, please, with Your powerful hand put a strong wall at the entrance of this path, so that the men cannot come in and kill me..."
Then he opened his eyes, expecting to see a wall covering the entrance, and saw only the spider weaving the web. The evildoers were entering the path where he was, and he was waiting only for death.
As they passed the trail, the man heard, "Come on, let's get on this trail."
"No, don't you see it has cobwebs? Nothing came in here. Let's continue searching for the next tracks."
Faith is to believe in what you do not see, to persevere in the face of the impossible. Sometimes we ask for walls to be safe, but God asks us to have confidence in Him to let His glory manifest and to do something like a web, which gives us the same protection as a wall.
Never get discouraged in the midst of the struggles; move on, for God said, "Tell the weak that I am strong."
It is in the most difficult moments that we find in God our strength.
Once a man was being pursued by several evildoers who wanted to kill him.
The man, running, turned on a shortcut that led off the road and entered through the bush, and in despair raised a prayer to God in the following manner: "Almighty God, make two angels come from the sky and block the entrance of the track so the bad guys don't kill me!!!"
At that moment he heard the men approaching the trail where he was hiding and saw that, at the entrance to the trail, a tiny spider appeared.
Then the spider began to weave a web at the entrance to the trail.
The man began to make another prayer more and more distressed: "Lord, I asked you for angels, not a spider. Lord, please, with Your powerful hand put a strong wall at the entrance of this path, so that the men cannot come in and kill me..."
Then he opened his eyes, expecting to see a wall covering the entrance, and saw only the spider weaving the web. The evildoers were entering the path where he was, and he was waiting only for death.
As they passed the trail, the man heard, "Come on, let's get on this trail."
"No, don't you see it has cobwebs? Nothing came in here. Let's continue searching for the next tracks."
Faith is to believe in what you do not see, to persevere in the face of the impossible. Sometimes we ask for walls to be safe, but God asks us to have confidence in Him to let His glory manifest and to do something like a web, which gives us the same protection as a wall.
Never get discouraged in the midst of the struggles; move on, for God said, "Tell the weak that I am strong."
It is in the most difficult moments that we find in God our strength.
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