The Lᴏʀᴅ forgives Ahab and sends rain.

1 Kings 18.41-44.

In verse 40 we were at the wadi Qišón, slaughtering Baalists. There were 450 of Baal’s prophets and 400 of Ashtoreth’s, and let’s be blunt: That’s a massacre. That’s a lot of death. They probably did it at the wadi because they could quickly turn it into a mass grave.

Totally deserved, because Baalist religion practiced ritual sex—which means prostitution, sex trafficking, rape, and child molestation. It was a filthy, exploitative religion and needed to be wiped from the face of the earth; not just in Israel. Your average person doesn’t realize this—or doesn’t realize just how horribly depraved it was—and might think this is only about religious intolerance. And isn’t it literally overkill to execute 850 false prophets over a difference of religious opinion? So they’ll think the massacre was in some way unrighteous, like when present-day Israel bombed Gaza City into oblivion for the sake of maybe 100 terrorists. But this wasn’t unrighteous. These Baalists were truly evil, and casually hurt and killed people. They had to go.

And you may not be aware of this: King Ahab ben Omri was their head priest.

That was how Baalism was set up in Sidón, where Ahab’s queen was from: The king was the head priest of Baal, and the queen was the head priest of Baal’s consort Ashtoreth. Baalism wasn’t just a religion they practiced; they led it. They were in charge. They funded the temples, hired the priests, led the main religious festivals, participated in the sacrifices, and engaged in the ritual sex. They ran all the sex trafficking in Baalism; they were the chief sex traffickers of the kingdom of Ephraim. Ahab deserved to have his throat cut even more than his 850 prophets.

But Elijah didn’t kill him. The LORD let him live, and let him go home to his pagan wife. 1Ki 18.45

Probably because when the crowd witnessed the LORD sending fire to consume not just the sacrificial bull, but the entire stone altar, the trench full of water around it, and the ground round about; 1Ki 18.38 then shouted “YHWH, he is God!” 1Ki 18.39 KWL Ahab was among them. Probably because when Elijah ordered the Baalists taken to the wadi to have their throats slit, he didn’t do it alone; Ahab and his men helped. Ahab made a full 180-degree turn from Baalism to Yahwism, and actually repented. Which is absolutely understandable: Considering how powerfully the LORD had come through for Elijah, even the most politically jaded of kings should’ve been easily convinced he’d better repent. Baal did nothing, but the LORD vaporized stones.

So yeah, for now, Ahab repented. Though he deserved to die along with his prophets, and be thrown in a mass grave along with them, he didn’t and wasn’t. The LORD didn’t order him killed; didn’t tell Elijah there’d be further consequences for the king and for Ephraim. The LORD forgave him.

Yeah, preachers tend to skip that fact too. Mostly because Ahab goes horribly wrong later in the story. At most they’ll say the LORD right here gave Ahab another chance. But isn’t this exactly what forgiveness is?—another chance. The LORD gives us lots of extra chances. Even when we do the very same kind of foul, perverse things as Ahab ben Omri, and get away with it just as much as Jeffrey Epstein’s friends did. Even when we absolutely don’t deserve another chance; really we deserve to die. But the LORD can forgive anything.

So he forgave Ahab, and let him eat and drink, and sent him rain.

1 Kings 18.41-44 KWL

41Elijah told Ahab, “Go up, eat, and drink,

for there’s a roaring sound of rain.”

42Ahab went up to eat and drink,

and Elijah went up to the top of Karmél.

He sat down on the ground,

his face between his knees.

43Elijah told his boy,

“Now go up. Look towards the sea.”

The boy went up, looked, and said, “Not anything.”

Elijah said, “Go back in seven seconds.”

44In the seventh second this happened:

The boy said, “Look, a little cloud,

looking like the palm of a man’s hand,

rising from the sea.”

Elijah said, “Go up.

Tell Ahab, ‘Harness your chariot

and go down lest the rain stop you.’¹”

“Bible’s valid because bible says so.”

Last week I came across a meme which I found amusing. I remade it because I wanted a higher-resolution version of it. It’s meant to mock the circular reasoning involved in saying, “The bible’s true because the bible says it’s true.” And it’s not wrong to mock the reasoning.

Ha-ha, your power comes from nothing.

After all, would we accept that reasoning about any other religion’s scriptures? The Book of Mormon claims within its pages its teachings are true. As do the Quran, the Baghavad-Gita, the Dhammapada, and Atlas Shrugged. Any self-help or wellness book will do it too. Heck, I do it on this very blog; I’m certainly trying to present the truth here, even though I allow for the fact I’m gonna be wrong from time to time. (Not intentionally, but I make no claims of infallibility.) Anybody who publishes non-fiction is usually making some claim of truthfulness.

But how d’you know they’re truthful? Do you accept it solely on the testimony of the book or paper or periodical or blog itself? Do you even claim, “I believe it’s true because it says it’s true”? ’Cause if you do, you’re guilty of the very same circular reasoning.

Happy Halloween. Bought your candy yet?

For decades—yep, it’s been decades now—I’ve ranted about the ridiculous Evangelical practice of shunning Halloween. I call it ridiculous ’cause it really is: It’s a fear-based, irrational, misinformed, slander-filled rejection of a holiday which is actually a legitimate part of the Christian calendar.

No I’m not kidding. It’s our holiday. Christians invented Halloween.

A perfect opportunity to show Christlike generosity—and give the best candy ever. But too many of us make a serious point of being grouchy, fear-addled spoilsports. Image swiped from a mommy blog.

I know; you’ve likely read an article which claims Halloween got its origin in pagan harvest festivals. That’s complete bunk. Some neo-Pagan (one of the capital-P Pagans who worship nature and its gods, whose religions date from the 1960s, even though they claim they’re revivals of ancient pre-Christian religions) started the claim we Christians swiped it from them, and there’s no historical evidence whatsoever for this claim. But gullible reporters believed it, and repeat it every year when they write about the history of Halloween. It’s been passed around so long, people actually try to debunk me by quoting 30-year-old articles which claim Halloween was originally Samhain or some other pagan harvest festival. But these old articles were incorrect then; incorrect now.

Samhain (pronounced 'saʊ.ən) is a contraction of sam fuin/“summer’s end.” It’s a Celtic harvest festival which dates back to pre-Christian times. It happens at the autumnal equinox, which was last month, on 22 September. It’s totally unrelated to Halloween. It’s as if you claimed the Fourth of July was originally a celebration of the summer solstice… and the fact you barbecue and drink beer on that day, just like the ancients regularly used to cook meat over fire and drink beer, proves it.

Oh, and neither neo-Pagan nor Christian holidays involve a celebration of creepy horror movie themes. That got added in the 20th century.

Prayer requests, karma, and faith.

Years ago a pastor gave me a book of daily devotions, consisting of E.M. Bounds’s writings. If you’ve not heard of the guy, he’s a 19th-century Methodist who wrote eight of his 11 books about prayer. Because his works are in the public domain, publishers keep adapting and using them to make cheap devotionals. It’s all variations on the same theme: If we wanna grow as Christians, or want our churches to grow, we gotta pray. Gotta. Bounds believed in hours-long daily prayers; I’m more into God-mindfulness. But however you do it, Bounds was right: We gotta pray.

That said, Bounds wasn’t infallible; nobody but Jesus is. Sometimes he’d get it wrong. And some of the excerpts from his writings, which this devotional edits down to one-page daily readings, consist of some of this wrongness. I’ll give you an example from a page from last month.

A life of obedience helps prayer. It speeds prayer to the throne. God cannot help hearing the prayer of an obedient child. Unquestioning obedience counts much in the sight of God at the throne of heavenly grace.

It acts like the flowing tides of many rivers. An obedient life is not simply a reformed life. It is not the old life primed and repainted. It is not a superficial churchgoing life or a flurry of activities.

Neither is it only an external conformation to what society expects. It takes much more than this to be a truly obedient Christian.

It comes from one paragraph from chapter 9 of Bounds’s posthumous 1929 book The Necessity of Prayer. It’s not even the full paragraph.

It sounds correct to many Christians, because when Christians write about prayer, far too few of ’em talk about God’s grace. Instead we talk about karma. Humanity presumes the universe runs on reciprocity. So if you do good deeds, you get good things in return. If you do evil deeds, the universe somehow punishes you.

Or so wealthy westerners believe. Poor easterners know better. Every authoritarian government in the world is proof the universe absolutely does not run this way. There are plenty of good people in North Korea, but they’ve nonetheless been crapped upon by the Kim family for generations. The Kims aren’t good people, but Il-Sung and Jong-Il managed to live comfortably and die peacefully, and someday the same may be true of Jong-Un and Ju-Ae. But I digress: Because easterners regularly witness firsthand how the universe doesn’t come through for good people, their beliefs about karma usually claim reciprocity will happen in the next life. Once they’re reincarnated, good people will have better lives; wicked people will have worse lives. Because in this life, if you’re looking for hope in the universe, you get nothing. You lose. Good day, sir.

But I digress. Instead of a meaningless universe, people figure God is behind all the reciprocity out there—he makes sure the wicked never prosper, and the righteous get mansions and yachts and enough billions to buy elections. So how do we make sure we’re on the receiving end of God’s full-blast firehose of blessings? Duh; we gotta be good. Obey God’s commands, and God will answer your every prayer. Don’t, and God will pass you by.

Does this concept come from bible? Not even close. God’s kingdom runs on grace, not karma. And God’s answers to prayer likewise run on his grace. He doesn’t answer our prayers because we’re good; he answers our prayers because he’s good. Like Jesus says, your Father is happy to give good things to his children. Mt 7.11

The truth will set you free.

John 8.30-38.

We Christians love to quote the passage, “The truth shall set you free,” or “The truth will make you free,” or however your favorite translation renders it. It’s a reminder of how truth’s a good, liberating thing. Truth will set us free. Sometimes we aren’t particular about which truth, and figure any truth will set us free. Well, truth is always better than error and lies.

But in context, Jesus was speaking of something more specific. We Christians don’t always care so much about the context whenever we quote it, but today I’m writing about its context: In the verse right before it, Jesus speaks about if μείνητε ἐν τῷ λόγῳ τῷ ἐμῷ/meínite en to lóyo to emó, “y’all might abide in the word, in mine.” The truth will set us free, but we won’t even know what’s true unless we first have a lifestyle of following Jesus.

Yep, a lifestyle. It’s not enough to believe Jesus is Lord, say the creeds, and pay the appropriate lip service. We gotta actually follow him. We gotta do as Jesus says. Christ Jesus’s teachings about loving God and our neighbors have to be the entire foundation for our way of life. When they’re not, we’re gonna know truthy things; they’ll certainly resemble truth, or certainly feel like truth. Won’t always be truth though. They’ll have just enough truth in ’em to help lead us astray.

So when Jesus taught in temple, and talking about how he’s the world’s light, many chose to trust Jesus… and Jesus had this message for those who trusted him. Also applies to those of us who today claim we trust him.

And, sad to say, our reaction to Jesus’s teachings will often be the very same as that of the Judeans who balked at this teaching.

John 8.30-34 KWL

30In saying these things,

many trust in Jesus.

31So Jesus is saying to those Judeans who trusted him,

“When you² abide in my word,

you’re² truly my students.

32You’ll² come to know the truth,

and the truth will free you.”²

33The Judeans answer Jesus, “We’re Abraham’s seed.

We were never, ever enslaved.

How can you¹ say we’ll become free?

34Jesus answers them,

“Amen amen! I promise you:²

Anyone who commits sin is sin’s slave.”

Pharisee synagogues taught by the Socratic method: The teacher would make a statement, and his students would test it by vigorously questioning it. Thats why you see Jesus get so much pushback from Pharisees in the gospels: That’s how they were trained to deal with teachers. Don‘t just take Jesus’s word for it; question him! Most teachers today don’t bother to teach Socratically, and get offended when you challenge them—and we get offended on their behalf when we like the teacher. So this is why Christians get offended on Jesus’s behalf whenever Pharisees responded, “Hold up; what about this?” Jesus could discern whether these were honest questions, or whether they were trying to undermine him any way they could, and this is why sometimes he responded to questions positively, and other times he didn’t. We’re not always so great with discernment.

So yeah, the whole of John 8 is a really good example of a Socratic dialogue gone awry. Jesus said the truth would free his followers; his followers responded, “Wait, we’re not slaves; we’ve never been slaves; what’re we gonna be freed from?” And Jesus’s response: “Sin. If you sin, you’re its slave. I’m here to free you from that.”

Well duh. But we would say, “Well duh” because we’re used to 20 centuries of hearing Jesus and Paul’s teachings about sin and being slaves to it. For these first-century Judeans, this was a new idea… and it offended them, because the Pharisees had taught ’em all the loopholes which meant they could “follow” the Law without actually following it… so they weren’t sinners. Weren’t slaves to sin. Yet that’s kinda what Jesus was calling them.

John 8.35-38 KWL

35“The slave doesn’t abide in the house in the age to come.

The son abides there in the age to come.

36So when the son frees you,²

you² will truly be free.

37I already know you’re² Abraham’s seed,

but you² seek to kill me

because my word has no place among you.²

38I speak of whatever I saw from the Father,

so you² should do whatever you hear from the Father.”

I should point out the Textus Receptus renders verse 38 a bit differently:

John 8.38 KWL (from TR)

38I speak of whatever I saw from the Father,

and so you² do whatever you² saw from your father.

Rather than encouragement to follow our heavenly Father, Jesus appears to already jump forward to his conclusion in verse 44 how these are the devil’s kids. But nope, he’s not there yet. In any event the discussion goes downhill from here.

Deliberately misunderstanding Jesus.

John 8.21-29.

As you know, some insist Jesus is a great moral teacher and nothing more. When they read of him saying “I’m the world’s light,” they skip it; they prefer to ignore any radical statements Jesus makes about who he is, who sent him and why, and why he does what he does. They refuse to recognize him for who he is. When he made parabolic, roundabout statements about it, they deliberately choose to misinterpret him. When he makes blunt, in-your-face statements about it (as he does here), they kinda want to kill him.

John 8 definitely contains both these things. Both the parabolic and the blunt statements; both the people who chose to misunderstand Jesus, and the people who wanted to throw rocks at him. So let’s get to those things.

Back to temple, Jn 8.20 where Jesus was teaching yet another lesson to skeptical people:

John 8.21-29 KWL

21So Jesus is telling the Phariseesᴾ again,

“I’m going, and you’ll² seek me.

And you’ll² die from your² sins.

Where I go, you² can’t come.”

22So the Judeans are saying, “He won’t kill himself, will he?”

—because he says, “Where I go, you² can’t come.”

23Jesus is telling the Judeans,ᴾ

“You’re² from below;

I’m from above.

You’re² from this world;

I’m not from this world.

24Hence I tell you² you’ll² die from your² sins,

for when you² don’t believe I AM,

you² will die from your² sins.”

25So the Judeans are telling him, “Who are you?”

Jesus tells them, “What have I been telling you²

from the very beginning?

26I have so many things to say—and judge—about you.²

But he who sends me is true,

and whatever I hear from him,

I say these things to the world.”

27The Judeans don’t realize

Jesus is speaking to them about the Father,

28so Jesus tells {them}, “You’ll² know I AM

as soon as you² exalt the Son of Man.

I do nothing on my own,

but I speak these things just as the Father teaches me.

29And he who sends me, is with me.

He doesn’t leave me alone,

for I always do whatever pleases him.”

As the world’s light, those who follow Jesus get our eternal life from him. Jn 8.12 And those who don’t, who have no intention of following him, can’t possibly go into God’s kingdom with him. Aren’t gonna go; don’t wanna go. Yeah, they might imagine they want God’s kingdom, but they have some radically different ideas about what it’ll be like, which look nothing like Jesus describes in the gospels. (Usually something more political.) So what he’s creating, they’ll want no part of. They’ll reject him, which means they reject God’s kingdom and aren’t going in. Their sins will destroy them.

More than a great moral teacher: The world’s light.

John 8.12-20.

If we skip the Adulterer Story as we read John (as we probably should, ’cause whether it happened or not, it didn’t happen at this point in John), this lesson took place right after the feast of Tabernacles was over. After the Judean senators had decided Jesus isn’t a relevant prophet because, among other things, he’s Galilean.

Which only goes to show they didn’t know anything about Jesus’s family and backstory. They could’ve found it out with some very minor investigation. Talk to any of Jesus’s family members; they knew the entire story. But the senators didn’t bother, and stuck with their fairly superficial observations—which Jesus, in today’s passage, calls judging “according to the flesh.” Jn 8.15 They presumed they knew better, and missed their Messiah.

Since they didn’t realize how significant Jesus is, whenever he made appropriately bold statements about himself, they naturally balked. These statements were way too bold for them. You can’t go making unsubstantiated statements like this. Like “I’m the world’s light.”

John 8.12-20 KWL

12So Jesus speaks to the Judeansᴾ again,

saying, “I’m the world’s light.

One who follows me ought never, ever walk in the dark.

Instead they’ll¹ have life’s light.”

13So the Pharisees told Jesusᴾ,

“You¹ testify about yourself.¹

Your¹ testimony isn’t true.”

14In reply Jesus tells the Pharisees,ᴾ

“And when I testify about myself,

my testimony is true

because I know where I came from

and where I’m going.

You² didn’t know where I came from,

nor where I’m going.

15You² judge according to your flesh;

I don’t judge anyone.

16When I judge, my judgment is true,

for I’m not judging alone;

instead it’s me

and the Father who sends me.

17In your² Law, it’s written

that two people’s testimony is true.

18I’m a witness for myself,

and the Father who sends me testifies about me.”

19So the Pharisees are telling him, “Who’s your Father?”

Jesus is replying, “You knew neither me nor my Father.

If you knew me, you should’ve known my Father.”

20Jesus is speaking these words in the treasury

while teaching in temple,

and no one is laying a hand on him,

for his hour hadn’t yet come.

Y’notice Jesus kinda agreed with them: No, he can’t claim unsubstantiated statements about himself. But Jesus’s statements are substantiated, because they’re backed by the one who sent him to us, his Father. (And the Father had said so in the scriptures.)

Then Jesus made another radical statement: These Pharisees don‘t know his Father. If they did, they’d listen to the Father, and know from him Jesus is legit. They didn’t, so they don’t.