See You at the Diner

Hello friends and family,

The website is practically finished. There are only a few minor additions to be made.

If you'd like, you can go ahead and start commenting there at www.flocksdiner.com.

You'll also see a list of some of the resources that I use for study.

I'll be asking all of my friends to begin corresponding with me there soon and this site will be shut down.

See you at the Diner.

Grace and peace,
Johnny

"It's Okay, Baby."

Today, I took Ella to the cemetery near our house. We walked through the green grass, looking at all of the grave markers. I have always been intrigued by graveyards. I love to read the names and the years of their births and deaths, and try to imagine what their lives must have been like when they were alive.

I am especially curious when I read dates that reflect their births as being before the end of American slavery and their deaths being after slavery. How strange of a life they must have lived with all of the changes in such a time as the existance and abolition of humans owning humans. Disgusting sin!

As Ella and I walked through the graveyard, I would point out the grave markers of infants and tell her, “Here is where a little baby was buried. The baby died.” She really couldn’t understand exactly what I was saying, because she is not even three-years-old. But she did a very strange thing.

Every time I showed her a grave marker of an infant, she would sit on the grave marker, pull up a hand full of grass, pull the grass cupped in her hands toward her chest and cuddle it, while saying, “It’s okay, baby. It’s okay.”

I swear, it took every bit of control I had to keep from crying.

I think females are the most amazing creatures that God has placed on the earth, no matter what their age.

Forever experiencing God through my children,
Johnny

A Little Less Talk and a Lot More Action

Throughout the centuries, Christians have sustained persecution. In some areas and eras the persecution has been more physical and brutal than others.

Recently, I was part of a discussion where the topic of persecution being possible in this country in the not-too-distant future, due to the more militant branch of atheism that is sweeping across Europe and is peeking its head up in the U.S.

As I consider the statutes of Christianity, I can’t help but wonder if many of us have completely missed the point of what Jesus taught us to do as his followers.

Most Christians can only envision evangelism as sharing the theological, doctrinal, and scriptural facts of what we believe. Did Jesus expect that to be our task?

I don’t remember any person ever being persecuted for finding a thirsty person and bringing them a cold bottle of spring water. I also can’t remember anyone being punished for going into their house on a freezing night, finding their coat, and giving it to someone who needed one.

It appears that persecution happens more because of the fundamental verbalizing of our faith, than our washing of feet and feeding of bellies.

Check out the website. It's really coming along. www.flocksdiner.com

Thank you, Desmond.

Desmond is working very hard on creating a website for me. You can see how far he's come when you go to www.flocksdiner.com.

I'd love it if you checked it out and gave Des some well-deserved encouragement.

Creative suggestions may also be welcome and appreciated.

Thanks.

Johnny

Atheist Defense

There is a level of naiveté with which many, if not most, Christians approach the subject of atheism and its recipients. The assumption for most of us is to believe that atheists have simply made a conscious and uneducated decision to stop believing that there is any form of deity by which the world was created and/or is continued.

The following information comes from, Christianity Before Christ, a vastly respected book written by John G. Jackson.

It would probably surprise many of us that atheism is a very well thought out philosophy, complete with documentation, historical facts, and highly thought out and researched arguments. Among such documentation is the ancient tablet from Babylon that is kept in the British Museum. This tablet dates back to about 2000 B.C. and is a reference to a passion play that was acted out in ancient Babylon in reference to the god Bel, known as Baal by the Hebrews.

The scenes go as follows:

Act 1: Bel is arrested by soldiers and imprisoned.

Act 2: Bel is tried in the Hall of Justice. (Bel is found innocent, but sentenced to death.)

Act 3: Bel is smitten. (Bel is abused and jeered at by a mob.)

Act 4: Bel is led away to the Mount. (The actor playing Bel is taken to a hilltop where there is a sacred grove.)

Act 5: Two criminals are taken with Bel and one is released. (All of the people in the amphitheater have left and follow the actors to the hilltop for the death scene where the guilty are crucified, hung on a tree, or slain on an altar.)

Act 6: After Bel has gone to the mount the city breaks out into turmoil.

Act 7: Bel’s clothes are carried away. (The corpse of Bel is stripped of its clothing and the body is prepared for burial.)

Act 8: Bel goes down into the Mount and disappears from life. (There is a tomb next to the stage where the body of Bel is placed.)

Act 9: weeping women seek Bel at the Tomb. (Women are the first to see Bel after his death.)

Act 10: Bel is brought back to life. (A stone that sealed the tomb of Bel is rolled away in the final scene. As Bel comes out of the tomb, the audience stands and cheers in a great frenzy until all of their voices are hoarse. The great god Bel has reappeared to prove that death has been conquered and that all life is secure in the hereafter.)

Atheists argue that the Christian story is merely a Greek version of this play carried on among the beliefs of those who call themselves followers of Jesus.

When atheists confess their belief that there is no God, they come educated and prepared. They are not seeking to be convinced of a higher power, but of a proof that our belief is not simply an updated play.

How have we prepared to defend our faith? Or do we argue, “You just have to believe?” I have no problem with that defense. However, how many atheists will take that advice based on what they consider the ancient proofs of Christianity before Christ?

Jesus, the Construction Worker

For centuries Christians have drawn and painted pictures of Jesus using wood tools and building wood furniture to portray the Messiah’s vocation as a Jewish carpenter. Jesus the carpenter may be the result of contextual misunderstandings of Western translators.

As Ray Vander Laan points out in much of his teaching, Jesus lived in the city of Capernaum during the three and a half years of his active ministry.

In Capernaum there was an extremely valuable material that was used for making important food processing equipment, which was in great demand all over Israel. That material was the black basalt stone found only in Capernaum and was a form of volcanic rock. The reason black basalt was so important was because of its ability to be ground together without leaving any resin, such as grit. With most other forms of rock found in Israel, the grit and sand left after grinding flour to make bread was very destructive to the people’s teeth. Archeologists who dig up the remains of ancient people in Israel who used food processing tools made of limestone often have very badly worn teeth, even among those in their early twenties.

Jesus was a “tekton” in Capernaum. The word “tekton” is literally translated “construction worker.” The reason that our Bibles tell us that Jesus was a carpenter has to do with the Western definition of a construction worker.

Early Western translators, like the rest of Western society, called a “construction worker” a “carpenter.” This is because, in the Western world, construction workers were most often wood workers or carpenters. But, more than likely, because of the valuable need for basalt food processing tools in Israel, any “tekton,” in Capernaum, including Jesus, would have plied the common trade of a “stone cutter” or “brick mason.”

Another fact that helps to support this theory has to do with the very low volume of wood in Capernaum. Jesus may have worked on doors or put up fences made of wood, but according to the geography and history of Capernaum, coupled with Jesus’ common use of bricks and stones in much of his teaching, it is highly probable that Jesus, the tekton, was very much “Jesus, the Stone Cutter.”

Forever learning,
Johnny

My Easter Message Is Available on Audio

Hey everyone,
For those of you who are interested, my message from Easter is on my audio files at www.xanga.com/flocksden.

Check it out.
You will learn some really cool facts about the Garden of Gethsemane and the town of Capernaum where Jesus lived during his active ministry.

I promise, you will never see Jesus, yourself, and our relationship with him the same way again.

Grace and peace,Johnny

Happy Easter, Kids!

It is almost Easter. Tomorrow morning millions of Christians will wake their poor unsuspecting children before the sun comes up, and drag them off to church meetings.

I doubt that many of the adults themselves truly appreciate the early rising.

However, it is required because of a misinterpretation of the Scriptures and a lack of knowledge concerning the Jewish calendar.

Thursday night at 7 PM is the official beginning of Friday. The Jews believe that the new day begins at sunset, because the Bible says, “And there was evening, and there was morning—the first day.” (Genesis 1:5b)

To the Jews of Jesus day, Saturday night at 7 constituted the end of the Sabbath and the beginning of the first day of the week, Sunday. “Early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene went to the tomb and saw that the stone had been removed from the entrance.” (John 20:1)

I think many Christians would appreciate the historically correct time of Jesus’ rising from the grave, if only to prevent the annual zombie fests with sleepy eyed, screaming, fighting children.

For the most part, children are much more willing to sing and eat at 7 PM than they are to be dragged out of bed and dressed up like prom dates at 5:30 in the morning.

Happy Easter, Kids!

Sunday Teachings Available on Audio

Hi everyone,

I want to let you know that every week I will be posting my latest teaching from the Sunday worship meeting in Sanford, NC on my xanga site.

Go to www.xanga.com/flocksden and when you click "audio" you can then click on the file and listen to the message.

The message from last Sunday, Palm Sunday, is an eye opening tour into the world of Jesus that will change the way you view palm branches during Easter.

Grace and peace,
Johnny

Could A Man Be Found Carrying Water In Jerusalem?

At least 250 years before the Book of Hebrews was written, a group of Jews including some of the priests decided to create their own priesthood after the line of Malkizedek. They were known as the Essenes. We also know them as the writers of the Qumran Scrolls or the Dead Sea Sect.

The village of the Essenes was in the city of Jerusalem. Their location is significant when coupled with their strict adherence to the Torah. In the Torah, God tells the Israelites that they are not to have a bowel movement in the camp while traveling through the desert on the way to the Promised Land. The Essenes believed that God’s Word never loses meaning or significance, therefore, they believed that even though they were no longer in the desert, there must still be a camp. They believed that the new camp was Jerusalem.

Because they lived in city of Jerusalem and considered it the camp of God’s people, they believed that they were not allowed to have a bowel movement in Jerusalem. This meant that they would have to designate a place outside the city where they could use the bathroom. In 1991 archeologists discovered the Essene Gate. They were boggled by its location because it seemingly led to nowhere. Then they realized that the gate served as an entrance to the woods and out of the city. It was their bathroom door.

Another interesting fact about the Essene sect was that they also held strictly to their priestly duties and would not allow women to do any kind of work within their village because of its location in Jerusalem. The normal custom of women doing things such as carrying water was not allowed in the Essene village.

In the world of Jesus, it would be inconceivable to expect a man to carry a water jar, except among the Essenes.

“On the first day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread, when it was customary to sacrifice the Passover lamb, Jesus’ disciples asked him, ‘Where do you want us to go and make preparations for you to eat the Passover?’ So he sent two of his disciples, telling them, ‘Go into the city (Jerusalem) and a man carrying a jar of water will meet you. Follow him. Say to the owner of the house he enters, ‘The Teacher asks: Where is my guest room, where I may eat the Passover with my disciples?’ He will show you a large upper room, furnished and ready. Make preparations for us there.’ The disciples left, went into the city and found things just as Jesus had told them. So they prepared the Passover.” (Mark 14:12-16)

Sermon after sermon teaches that finding a man carrying water in Jerusalem was a miracle in itself. This would be true, except for the men of the Essene village in Jerusalem.

Jesus was not telling his disciples to look for the impossible, but to travel to the Essene village and prepare the Passover.

Forever learning,
Johnny

More About the Palms

God appointed feasts for Israel to celebrate. In Leviticus 23 the feasts are listed. Among these feasts was the Feast of Tabernacles.

This was a seven day festival that was a huge camping party. All the native people of Israel from near and far would come to Jerusalem and live in huts made of branches for the duration of the festival. One of the significant activities which would be practiced at this festival is found in Leviticus 23:40. “On the first day you are to take choice fruit from trees, and palm fronds, leafy branches and poplars and rejoice before the Lord your God for seven days.”

The successful Maccabean revolt resulted in Israel’s reinstatement of power in Jerusalem, which would last for one hundred years and the rededication of the Temple, still celebrated today as Hanukah. (Read the previous post for info on the revolt.)

After the successful campaign of the Maccabees, palm branches would once again be waved and displayed, but would also take on a new symbolic meaning. The palm branch was not only used in honor of God’s instructions for the Feast of Tabernacles; it was also used to represent the Zealot clan.

As Jesus entered Jerusalem on the donkey, the Zealots placed their cloaks and palm branches on the ground for Jesus and his mode of transportation, the donkey, to travel over. Both of these, the prayer closets (talit, prayer shawls) and the palm branches both represented who they believed Jesus to be.

In 2 Kings 9:13 Jehu is recognized as king with the laying down of their prayer closets which the writer says were “spread under him on the bare steps. Then they blew the trumpet and shouted, ‘Jehu is king!’”

The other symbol placed under Jesus was that of the palm branches, which signified the Zealot Jews’ acceptance of Jesus as not only their Jewish king, but their Zealot military leader who would help them to violently destroy the Romans and their Western oppressors once and for all.

Jesus’ disappointment and sadness which is written in Luke 19 reflects Jesus’ words to those who followed him into Jerusalem to say, “Zealots, put away your palm branches!” Jesus was not a fan of violence, but of peace that included loving one’s enemies.

Forever learning,
Johnny