Etiquette/ Reverence:

Image courtesy faiha via www.pixabay.com

Sword Training:

As we go into this portion, I want to stress the importance of not commingling ideologies. God’s Word is complete without any outside assistance. In fact, God’s Word will be the sole judge for every other form of thought on Judgment Day. It can be useful to refer to some other things for a little inspiration from time to time. We do this all the time. So-and-so [insert athlete/ movie star, etc.] does [insert virtue, etc. here] really well and, I admire them for it. I would like to do [insert virtue, etc. here] as well as they do. So…using the samurai as an example for their sword technique is not something we want to take too far. It’s just a visual example with a little bit of focus on the mindset. That’s it, nothing more.

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Etiquette/ Reverence

1 Then Nadab and Abihu, the sons of Aaron, each took his censer and put fire in it, put incense on it, and offered profane fire before the LORD, which He had not commanded them. 2 So fire went out from the LORD and devoured them, and they died before the LORD. 3 And Moses said to Aaron, “This is what the LORD spoke, saying:

​‘​By those who come near Me

​​I must be regarded as holy;

​​And before all the people

​​I must be glorified.’ ”

So Aaron held his peace.

-Leviticus 10:1-3 (NKJV) bold and italics mine for emphasis

10 ​​“The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom, and the knowledge of the Holy One is understanding.

-Proverbs 9:10 (NKJV) bold and italics mine for emphasis

15 But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts, and always be ready to give a defense to everyone who asks you a reason for the hope that is in you, with meekness and fear; 16 having a good conscience, that when they defame you as evildoers, those who revile your good conduct in Christ may be ashamed.

-1Peter 3:15-16 (NKJV) bold and italics mine for emphasis

1 Walk prudently when you go to the house of God; and draw near to hear rather than to give the sacrifice of fools, for they do not know that they do evil.

-Ecclesiastes 5:1 (NKJV) bold and italics mine for emphasis

These days reverence is something which is no longer “fashionable”. Honor and respect, generally speaking, seem to be viewed as outdated relics of a time gone by. Words like this imply an obligation by one to submit/ humble oneself to another. In this “modern” world, this is heresy of the highest order and practitioners of these oppressive ideals are deserving of being burnt at the stake. The obvious exception being those who’ve attained a nice collection of honorifics after their names (m. Div, B.S.-we all know what that stands for [Bachelor of Science-get your mind out of the gutter], M.S.-more of the same, Ph. D-Piled Higher and Deeper). In this case reverence, honor and respect are mandated under pain of death. In the event someone reaches the tipping point of intellectual achievement and becomes a super intellect-you’d better respond with breathless orgasmic glee when you acknowledge their “Miranda Priestly” station to your “Emily” status in life (please refer to “The Devil Wears Prada” to understand the reference).

Thankfully, the greatest theological minds the world has ever known (Karl Marx, Jacques Derrida, Michel Foucault, Simone de Beauvoir and others) have helped us “progress” beyond these trivial ideals. A better standard of: infatuation with celebrity, has replaced those boorish values of earlier times when the unfortunate souls who lived then were less sophisticated and complex (because they had not experienced the profundity of our “modern” education) than we are now.

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Smash the Patriarchy!

The aforementioned (pseudo-) intellectual juggernauts have freed us from the constraints of the past. It’s been stated a body of water cannot rise above its own level. While this may be true of things in the physical universe, thankfully this is not true in the ideological universe. The greatest example of this being, the most profound mind to have ever existed, Karl Marx. Thankfully, this was followed by the greatest time in human history, the ’60s & ’70s. Because these events have freed us from all oppression, injustice and inequality, we’ve now attained the present day philosophical nirvana. Ideologically speaking we can definitely claim to have a better, more thorough understanding of the true nature of reality, even compared to the One who created it. Thus, the heavenly Patriarchy can officially consider itself smashed, and can only wait in fearful trepidation as human history unfolds and mankind finally usurps it’s proper place on the throne of Heaven! Tragically, Heaven is completely powerless to intervene.

Delusion is an extremely powerful drug!

The Point: The Sword (God’s Word) will be effective. This is true because God has said it is-period. Either, one will voluntarily throw themselves on the stone and be broken (which will be painful) or, at the end of time, the individual will be involuntarily crushed by the stone. There is no third option. Either way God’s will, will be done.

If God’s Word does not appear to be effective today, this has nothing to do with the Word of God. Rather, this is the apostasy of those who wield it. In the book of Matthew chapter 13 verse 58 it says Jesus could not do any miracles because of the lack of faith of those receiving said miracles. This is interesting since there were many times he performed miracles, in spite of the recipients lack of faith.

It does make sense however. If one is not convinced God’s Word will be effective, one will not relay it with the intensity the Holy Spirit intended for it to be relayed. Those who are receiving the Word will observe the “believer” has some doubts about what they’re saying, thus the “believer” will send mixed signals. If the “believer” doesn’t genuinely believe what they’re saying, why should anyone else? The lack of effectiveness will simply be a self fulfilling prophecy founded in the unbelief of the “believer”.

Unfortunately, this will lead the apostate to mistakenly believe they are more righteous than the Holy Spirit. The problem is clearly a dysfunction of the Word of God. There can’t be any problem with the “believer”. They’ve acquired too great a level of (mis) education to be susceptible to the errors of the common folk.

That one passage (especially in the “Old” Testament-the one that sounds mean) wasn’t written by a prophet as he was carried along by the Holy Spirit. It was in fact a product of a misogynist, patriarchal, homo/ xeno/ [insert the current list here]-phobic society of Bronze Age sheepherding rubes who could never understand the ultra-complex modern society we currently live in today. Never mind the prophet when he said (as he was carried along by the Holy Spirit who transcends time and space and can see the end from the beginning) that the Word was once for all given and is complete in its current form for all time. The Holy Spirit, although He had a hand in creating the original Hebrew, Greek and Aramaic, never earned accreditation for having studied it at an institution of “higher” learning. This is evidenced by the lack of honorifics after his name (Holy Spirit) such as Ph. D (Piled higher and Deeper). Thankfully, those with a long list of honorifics will, on Judgment Day, correct the Holy Spirit for those “mean” verses by informing him what he really meant to say, so he could be winsome and not damage his witness to the World.

This sums up the current state of affairs in the religious industrial complex. There is no fear of God. As a result, there is no reverence. Because of this, God’s Word is not held in high esteem or taken seriously by either the “believer” nor, by extension, the non-believer. Thus, the focus is primarily on playing theological tea party, where everyone dresses up, pretends to be proper, engages in useless banter about things which have no value, then leave feeling as if they’ve done something cutting edge.

The students need to be put back into their proper place. They seem to believe they have finished their training and are now masters in a position to innovate and create their own legacy. The truth…they never started their training. Their cumulative knowledge of their subject is essentially-zero.

Ironically, the ego of the students leads them to believe the Master appreciates their “innovation” at the expense of their obedience. Assigning themselves the position of lord, they dethrone (in their own silly little imagination) the one they confessed as Lord and swore an oath of submission and loyalty to as a condition of their acceptance of His grace. Being intoxicated with the pursuit of their own glory, they unintentionally violate the most basic principles which should govern their lives, and are working for their own destruction.

If you need a visual example for this, please refer to the case of Ms. Perkins from John Wick 1, who threw away all the most basic non-negotiables of her world for personal gain, believing she would be magically exempt. Tragically, she learned the hard way…she wasn’t. https://youtu.be/VeWoUCPqYF0?si=NWBzr6NW4j_e2tn0

The students need to submit themselves to the Master to begin their training and commit themselves to be stewards of the knowledge with which they’ve been entrusted. The students need to find those who are dedicated to a path of true mastery as opposed to sitting at the feet of infomercial style gurus who will sell you a “masters” rating for the low price of $19.99 (if you order within the next [insert time frame here] they’ll double your order).

For an example of showing proper reverence for the sword, click the link: https://youtu.be/je1xjgklc4s?si=gg60BF-B14juViIw

Disclaimer:

Masayuki Shimabukuro, Carl Long, the John Wick franchise, et al do not endorse and are in no way affiliated with www.simplifiedtheology.org. Likewise, www.simplifiedtheology.org does not necessarily endorse the aforementioned parties and has no affiliation with them of any kind. The linked video is being utilized simply as a visual reference. All rights are retained by the respective parties.

Samurai photo courtesy pictosmtih via www.istock.com