{"id":349,"date":"2012-06-08T19:24:08","date_gmt":"2012-06-08T13:24:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/intelligent-torvalds.74-208-171-134.plesk.page\/?p=349"},"modified":"2023-12-28T09:54:01","modified_gmt":"2023-12-28T15:54:01","slug":"conclusion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/religiousmind.net\/?p=349","title":{"rendered":"Conclusion"},"content":{"rendered":"

Athens and Corinth1<\/sup><\/a> are the only locales around the Mediterranean where contemporary historians recognize idolatrous worship (including its drunken sexual practices) being carried out more or less openly in the first century.\u00a0 Trusting the Bible and experimenting with the idea that this is what New Testament authors meant by the word \u03c0\u03bf\u03c1\u03bd\u03b5\u03af\u03b1<\/a> persuades me that such worship<\/em> was practiced more secretly elsewhere.\u00a0 But I would be very surprised indeed to learn that as Jesus spoke the words in Matthew 5:32 or 19:9 it was practiced in Judea.\u00a0 Samaria? Maybe.\u00a0 But not Judea.\u00a0 That would be much more surprising than the insight that the people who first heard the law at Sinai were accustomed<\/a> to these religious practices.<\/p>\n

My surprise isn\u2019t an argument for or against the truth of anything.\u00a0 I was just as surprised the first time I heard about Republican presidents, candidates and cabinet members engaging in this kind of \u03c0\u03bf\u03c1\u03bd\u03b5\u03af\u03b1.\u00a0 I was watching television in a hotel room.\u00a0 By watching television<\/em> I mean I was flipping through channels searching for a movie with my customary attitude toward television shows and commercials; namely, \u201cGet my attention.\u00a0 I dare you!\u201d\u00a0 A piece on Russian Television (RT) about Bohemian Grove broke through the clutter.\u00a0 But after it was over and I resumed flipping channels I didn\u2019t store that information as an example of \u03c0\u03bf\u03c1\u03bd\u03b5\u03af\u03b1 in the contemporary world, but as an example of the most bizarre Republican bashing I had ever heard.<\/p>\n

Subsequently though, a little more research revealed that a journalist in 1989 and a radio talk show host in 2000 successfully infiltrated this secretive and exclusive gathering of media, business and power elites (mostly Republicans) at Bohemian Grove about 70 miles northwest of San Francisco.\u00a0 Men\u2014exclusively men\u2014have met there in July since the 1880\u2019s.\u00a0 Though the two infiltrators returned with different perceptions of the meaning of the events in question, some basic facts emerged, especially the opening festivities called the Cremation of Care.<\/p>\n

The Cremation of Care is a mock human sacrifice before a forty-five foot stone idol of an owl.\u00a0 (Years ago it was a plaster-of-Paris Buddha.)\u00a0 The \u03c0\u03cc\u03c1\u03bd\u03b7<\/a>, female prostitutes, at Bohemian Grove are secular pros rather than religious devotees who meet with their clients outside the camp<\/em>, as it were, since women are forbidden at these gatherings.\u00a0 The \u03c0\u03cc\u03c1\u03bd\u03bf\u03c2<\/a>, male prostitutes, are other members of this exclusive club.\u00a0 And I got the impression that their service was more “spiritual,” in the sense that it was offered in the spirit of the festivities rather than as a work for hire.\u00a0 Apparently however the \u03c0\u03cc\u03c1\u03bd\u03bf\u03c2 were more active in times past before the AIDS epidemic.\u00a0 Drinking (and peeing) is legendary at Bohemian Grove.<\/p>\n

The talk show host photographed the Cremation of Care ceremony on video.\u00a0 His hidden camera work was not great filmmaking; it didn\u2019t put me in the scene.\u00a0 With that caveat I\u2019ll say that my impression was of a ceremony more like an Addams Family version of Disney World spectacle than actual worship of an owl deity.\u00a0 But that was good for me in the sense that it revealed something I might otherwise have missed.<\/p>\n

My bias skews toward faith.\u00a0 But there were probably as many people participating in ancient fertility rites with as little faith in the deity represented or the rites practiced as the men at Bohemian Grove.\u00a0 They may have been there for the wine, women and song, or for business opportunities, or political advantage.\u00a0 Ezekiel alluded to a military alliance as the driving force behind Judah\u2019s \u03c0\u03bf\u03c1\u03bd\u03b5\u03af\u03b1.2<\/sup><\/a>\u00a0 Isn\u2019t national security worth a trifling dalliance with the meaningless religious beliefs and practices of one\u2019s powerful allies as a gesture of good faith and good manners?\u00a0 God, of course, perceived things differently.<\/p>\n

Religious minds, and the religions they create, don\u2019t value faith as much as conformity to\u2014or at least acquiescence in the face of\u2014traditional ritual.\u00a0 No matter how rich or successful or powerful the men who attend the July gathering at Bohemian Grove are, they are nothing compared to the longstanding tradition of the Cremation of Care ceremony.\u00a0 They can do nothing about it, nor protest it in any meaningful way\u2014(some apparently avoid it by arriving late to the gathering)\u2014without jeopardizing their positions as rich, successful, powerful men privileged<\/em> to attend an expensive invitation-only event.\u00a0 You\u2019re either on the bus or off the bus<\/a>, Ken Kesey<\/a> used to say to the Merry Pranksters<\/a> in the halcyon days of LSD-induced enlightenment.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m not getting this idea about religious minds and conformity to ritual from Bohemian Grove, necessarily.\u00a0 It was more accessible to me there and then (here and now), than in the ancient past.\u00a0 It helped me to understand something about the false view<\/a> of the world shared by the majority of the inhabitants of the southern kingdom Judah (Jeremiah 7:8b-10a NET):<\/p>\n

You are putting your confidence in a false belief that will not deliver you [Table<\/a>]<\/em>.\u00a0 You steal.\u00a0 You murder.\u00a0 You commit adultery.\u00a0 You lie when you swear on oath.\u00a0 You sacrifice to the god Baal.\u00a0 You pay allegiance to other gods whom you have not previously known [Table<\/a>]<\/em>. \u00a0Then you come and stand in my presence in this temple I have claimed as my own and say, \u201cWe are safe!\u201d [Table<\/a>]<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

In other words, they paid the tithes, brought the offerings and sacrifices, and otherwise performed the rituals of the worship of God, but as the Lord said through the prophet Isaiah, These people say they are loyal to me; they say wonderful things about me, but they are not really loyal to me. \u00a0Their worship consists of nothing but man-made ritual<\/em>.3<\/sup><\/a>\u00a0 So if the story of Jephthah is a boundary stone marking one edge as it were of the religious mind\u2014the extreme to which a man would go to avoid acknowledging sin\u2014the above passage in Jeremiah is like a boundary stone marking the opposite edge\u2014people who will admit to any and all sins in word and ritual but continue to indulge the very same sins,4<\/sup><\/a> believing their words and rituals will save them somehow (or at least will do them no harm).<\/p>\n

As far as the meaning of \u03c0\u03bf\u03c1\u03bd\u03b5\u03af\u03b1 is concerned I can come to know definitive conclusion.\u00a0 And this is why: \u00a0Is a man witnessing the Cremation of Care ceremony at Bohemian Grove, a mock human sacrifice to an owl statue, guilty of \u03c0\u03bf\u03c1\u03bd\u03b5\u03af\u03b1? Or must he put on a robe and participate?\u00a0 Or must he believe in the owl?\u00a0 Or must he have sex with a prostitute?<\/p>\n

Well, what if he has sex with a prostitute without any connection to owl statues and Cremation of Care ceremonies?\u00a0 What about drunken sexual practices in general?\u00a0 It sounds like a bar on a Friday or Saturday night for those handsome enough, rich enough or charming enough to get lucky<\/em>, minus the bloody sacrifice, of course, mock or earnest.<\/p>\n

In the allegory in Ezekiel Oholah and Oholibah engaged in prostitution in Egypt; in their youth they engaged in prostitution. Their breasts were squeezed there; lovers fondled their virgin nipples there<\/em>.5<\/sup><\/a>\u00a0 Does that mean two teenagers in the backseat of a car are guilty of \u03c0\u03bf\u03c1\u03bd\u03b5\u03af\u03b1?\u00a0 If so, immorality<\/em> is a fine translation of the word.\u00a0 But what does immorality<\/em> mean?\u00a0 Isn\u2019t that what is contrary to God\u2019s law?\u00a0 So then unlawful marriage<\/em> may be a good translation, too.<\/p>\n

<\/a>This kind of indecision frustrates me to no end when I\u2019m searching the Bible for rules to obey.\u00a0 And I\u2019ve done that and continue to do it at times.\u00a0 I have studied the Bible like a rule book with all the urgency and life-and-death anxiety that procedure engenders.\u00a0 Then I\u2019ve searched for rules to justify or declare me righteous.\u00a0 Finally I\u2019ve searched for rules that might bind God to me anyway.\u00a0 At that point I usually come to my senses if not before. \u00a0Lex Deus<\/em> (Law is God<\/em>) as I call it is the most seductive form of idolatry to my upbringing and temperament.<\/p>\n

When I actually believe that I am justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus<\/em>6<\/sup><\/a> and that the meaning of eternal life<\/em> is that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you sent<\/em>7<\/sup><\/a> my anxiety level goes down as my time horizon expands.\u00a0 I\u2019m comforted then by Paul\u2019s insight, For now we see in a mirror indirectly, but then we will see face to face.\u00a0 Now I know in part, but then I will know fully, just as I have been fully known<\/em>.8<\/sup><\/a>\u00a0 It is not so burdensome then to plug these various ideas into each particular occurrence of \u03c0\u03bf\u03c1\u03bd\u03b5\u03af\u03b1 to see which fits with the only true God, and Jesus Christ<\/em> I am beginning to know in part<\/em>, in a mirror indirectly<\/em>.<\/p>\n

\n
Section 2 – Introduction<\/em><\/a><\/div>\n
Back to Religious and Righteous Prayer<\/em><\/a><\/div>\n
Back to My Reasons and My Reason, Part 2<\/em><\/a><\/div>\n
Back to Hannah’s Prayer, Part 3<\/em><\/a><\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
\n
\n

1<\/sup><\/a> S.M. Baugh<\/a> in an essay titled, “Cult Prostitution In New Testament Ephesus: A Reappraisal<\/a>,” published in the Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society in 1999, denies that: “Despite the received opinion to the contrary, I do not believe that cult prostitution was practiced in Greek (and Roman) regions of the NT era. The evidence thought to support this institution in the cities of Corinth and Ephesus was found wanting in our brief survey of Strabo and a few other authors. Finally, we looked at some of the positive evidence from Ephesus to show that the priestesses of Artemis – wrongly thought by many today to be a fertility or mother goddess – were no more than daughters of noble families, whose terms of office involved them in the honorary public roles and the financial obligations which typified priestly offices in Greek state cults. A priestess of Artemis compares better with a Rose Bowl queen or with Miss Teen America than with a cult prostitute. Indeed, there are some hints in the literature (e.g. Xenophon of Ephesus) that the girl-priestesses may have been chosen because they best resembled the chaste maiden-goddess.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

2<\/sup><\/a> Ezekiel 23:5, 6<\/a>, 12-15 (NET)<\/a>\u00a0 \u03c0\u03bf\u03c1\u03bd\u03b5\u03af\u03b1\u03bd (a form of \u03c0\u03bf\u03c1\u03bd\u03b5\u03af\u03b1) is the translation of\u00a0\u05ea\u05d6\u05e0\u05d5\u05ea\u05d9\u05d4 (tazn\u00fb\u1e6f<\/a><\/em>) in the Septuagint [See: Greek World<\/a>, 18:53] in Ezekiel 23:14<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

3<\/sup><\/a> Isaiah 29:13 (NET) Table<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

4<\/sup><\/a> Jeremiah 7:10b (NET)<\/a> Table<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

5<\/sup><\/a> Ezekiel 23:3 (NET) Table<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

6<\/sup><\/a> Romans 3:24 (NET)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

7<\/sup><\/a> John 17:3 (NET)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

8<\/sup><\/a> 1 Corinthians 13:12 (NET)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Athens and Corinth1 are the only locales around the Mediterranean where contemporary historians recognize idolatrous worship (including its drunken sexual practices) being carried out more or less openly in the first century.\u00a0 Trusting the Bible and experimenting with the idea … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,3533],"tags":[278,276,275,274,222,277],"class_list":["post-349","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-section-one","category-sexual-immorality","tag-1-corinthians-1312","tag-ezekiel-233","tag-isaiah-2913","tag-jeremiah-78-10","tag-john-173","tag-romans-324"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/religiousmind.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/349","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/religiousmind.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/religiousmind.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/religiousmind.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/religiousmind.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=349"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/religiousmind.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/349\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22395,"href":"https:\/\/religiousmind.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/349\/revisions\/22395"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/religiousmind.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=349"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/religiousmind.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=349"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/religiousmind.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=349"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}