A lifelong New Yorker, I studied philosophy in the early 1970s at New York University (under Sidney Hook, while working for Herbert Aptheker and studying jazz guitar under Pat Martino) and in the late 1970s at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York (under Milton K. Munitz and J. B. Schneewind). By … Continue reading “About”
In a recent post I challenged readers to point to evidence that explains how in four score years first-century ekklesiai, made up mainly by the Israel of God (Galatians 6:16), organically devolved into an anti-Semitic racket with whose “wrong division” of the Word of Truth (2 Timothy 2:15) Christians are still coming to terms. I had … Continue reading “The “Cinderella century”: anticipating Michael Kruger’s “Christianity at the Crossroads””
Like earthquakes, there will be wars and rumors of war (Matthew 24:6) during the seven-year rebellion that follows the Holy Spirit’s lifting of His restraints on His subjects after centuries of government. Today, they continue to occur as they have for centuries. They therefore cannot serve as prophetic signs today. The occurrence of earthquakes will, … Continue reading “Kingdom economics? A speculation.”
A Case of Mistaken Identity? Rooted in κυριακόν (kyriakon), the English word “church” is the traditional translation of the Greek ἐκκλησία (ekklēsia). We may be practically stuck with it, but it’s a mistranslation, one that reinforces a misnomer at least as unhappy as Columbus’s tagging as “Indians” the aboriginal peoples who got to the Americas … Continue reading “From (mostly) Jewish “ekklesiai” to anti-Jewish “churches” in 80 years: Dean Stanley’s questions.”
On his Gravatar profile this blog’s most recent (and welcome!) subscriber cites a few Bible verses: Titus 2:13, Isaiah 40:5, and 2 Timothy 4:1, 8. He adds this caption: “Awaiting Anxiously God’s Next Move, Having That Blessed Hope: His Appearing, Blazing Forth (Epiphaneia) . . . . The Next Event (God’s Prophetic Clock ).” That … Continue reading “God’s Next Move? The Second Coming, not of Christ, but of His Spirit.”
Rather than let another week go by without posting, I’ll give the text of a leaflet by Otis Q. Sellers (1901-1992), whose life and thought form the subject of a book I’m working on (my ready excuse for neglecting this blog). It’s Seed and Bread No. 49, one in a series of almost 200 tracts … Continue reading “God’s Prophesied Global Government and Its Blessings”
I appreciate the feedback some readers gave when I asked what they’d like to see more of/less of on this blog. The received wisdom in the blogosphere is that the blogger must be obsessively reader-centric; this means making readers hungry for one’s next post. Can I do that? I don’t know. My interests intersect with … Continue reading “This blog’s direction”
As I have an interest in dislodging the sediment of encrusted theological opinion, today I post an excerpt from James Redford’s 2001 essay “Jesus Is an Anarchist,” the text of which is here: anti-state.com and revised and expanded in 2011. It complements Otis Q. Sellers’s situating of Romans 13:1-7 in the Acts dispensation, posted recently.—Anthony … Continue reading “Once more on Romans 13: James Redford’s “Jesus Is an Anarchist””
Last week I posted Eric Voegelin’s “Theoretical Inquiry into Romans 13,” which exposes the weaponization of the Apostle Paul’s words in the service of the state, even Hitler’s, making every scoundrel with executive authority an ordained minister. After reading it, libertarian scholar Gerard N. Casey brought to my attention other alternative interpretations of Romans 13:1-7, … Continue reading “Romans 13: another contrarian interpretation”
