'Feet up!'

When Paul says “we trust in the living God,” there’s a sense in which that’s the motto of the Christian life, says Jordan.

“If you chase that expression about God being the living God through the Bible from the beginning to end, every context you see it in will demonstrate that He’s a God who can take action. He’s a God of LIVING things.

“You remember when David went out and faced Goliath? He says, ‘Who is this uncircumcised Philistine, that he should defy the armies of the living God?' In other words, in David’s mind, the God of Israel, the God of the Bible, the God of creation, was a God who could get some things done.

“In I Timothy 3:15, Paul talks about how were ‘the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth.’

“When he talks about ‘the church of the living God,’ there was another church in Ephesus. You see there are a lot of religious systems. There was the Church of Diana at Ephesus. You know, ‘Great is the temple of Diana’ (Acts 19). She was considered the 'queen of heaven.’ Her idol had fallen down from Jupiter and landed on the earth and the temple of Diana, at the time of Paul, was one of the Seven Wonders of the World.

“He’s contrasting with the dead god. Isaiah 40-48, when it talks about all these false gods that corrupted Israel, God says, ‘You go and worship this idol and it’s just a blockhead. You had to go out into the woods and cut down the tree and bring it in, carve it, set it up there and when you want to vacuum the floor, you got to move the stupid thing!  It can’t even pick its feet up!’

“When I’m at home and my wife’s vacuuming the family room, at least I pick my feet up from the chair so she can get under it. He says, ‘You’re serving and bowing down to a god, an idol, that won’t even do that!’ He says, ‘You’re as nutty as it is; you’re not thinking because it’s DEAD; can’t even move itself!'

“But the God of the Bible is a ‘living God’; a God who has the ability to accomplish great things.”

*****

The other month, when I took one of my residents, 87-year-old Wanda, to the Barnes & Noble in downtown Evanston, I bought a book from the clearance table inside the front door called, “Who’s Who In Religion,” written by Philip Wilkinson. Just the glossy color pictures alone in the reference guide demonstrate how focused other religions are on worshipping dead images they equate with their god.

Among the dozens of religions profiled was the ancient religion of Jainism, born in India in the sixth century BC. A picture showed the “festival of Mahamastakabhisheka” (‘anointing of the head’) that takes place every 12 years at the 56 ft. statue of Gomateswara, a Jain holy man.

“Each Jain temple is presided over by one of the tirthankaras, the early teachers of the faith,” says the book. “Inside the temple there is a statue of the relevant tirthankara and, for most Jains, this image is central to their worship . . .

“One ritual, also used in Hinduism, involves making eye contact with the image of the tirthankara, often while reciting a mantra . . .

“Another form of worship intended to bring the worshipper closer to the supreme beings involves cleaning the image of the tirthankara, anointing it with substances such as saffron, and decorating it with flowers . . .

“As well as the communal temples and shrines, many Jain houses contain small shrines to enable the inhabitants to perform rituals of worship at home. These home shrines can be carved quite elaborately, in a style similar to the temples.”

*****

In a chapter on Buddhism, a picture showed “The Great Buddha (Daibutsu)” at Kamakura, Japan; a giant bronze statue of the Amitabha Buddha that stands more than 42 feet high.

“Amitabha is said to be the ruler of a kind of heaven known as the Pure Land, where he sits on a lotus, glowing with golden light,” says the text.

Another photo showed one of many publicly worshipped “Bodhisattvas,” considered enlightened beings (“Buddhas-to-be who renounce enlightenment in order to help others reach nirvana”) in the Mahayana Buddhism faith. The caption states, “Statues of them, like this one at the Po Lin Monastery in Hong Kong, are widespread.”

The book had another chapter about the three principal Hindu gods, collectively called the Trimurti, made up of Siva, Brahma and Visnu.

According to the book, “Siva is usually shown in Hindu temples and shrines as a male humanoid figure—perhaps a handsome young man or beggar. His face is often shown with three eyes, which stand for the sun, the moon and the fire of Siva.”

Brahma, worshipped as “the creator of the universe,” is known for his four heads. Ganesh, a son of Siva, is recognizable because of his elephant’s head. Kali, a fearsome incarnation of Siva’s consort, has dark skin and a terrifying expression on her face; her tongue drips blood. Then there’s the monkey god Hanuman.

*****

At the summer Bible conference just past was an unexpected attendee—an Indian woman who has a ministry on the Southside of Chicago and was fired up about preaching the gospel.

Jordan recalls, “She kept telling me, ‘You got to get on this thing!’ In downtown Chicago just a month or so ago, in Daley Plaza, there were 5,000 Americans who converted to Hinduism in a ceremony held there.

“She said in her country, in the state she’s from, the newspapers are bragging all the time about how many Americans are being converted. She said the thing that’s so damning is that you can’t teach the Bible in school anymore, you can’t even mention the God of the Bible, but they teach yoga. She said she was converted out of a Brahma level of Hinduism in which yoga is one of the first doorways into Hinduism.

“Now, you go over here to Lifetime Fitness, or wherever you take a yoga class, and don’t think anything of it. But if you get into it, what it does is set you up to go to the next level of, ‘Well, why does this work?’ You thought you were just stretching but then they get you into all of the chakra stuff and business. She said, ‘It’s sucking people in!’

“What she’s saying is all that Hinduism, and the Daoism, and the Middle Eastern religions, they profess to be saviors, but they’re not.

“Paul says there’s only one Savior and that’s ‘the living God’ and he’s the Savior for everybody no matter what, ‘especially those that believe.’ To have Him be your Savior in any effective, applicable sense, you’ve got to believe.

“When Paul says ‘He’s the savior of all men,’ what he’s saying is there’s only one real Savior."

Towering o'er

At my church’s summer family Bible conference, a friend from Virginia, as well as a few different preachers from the pulpit, including Jordan, made reference to Oscar Woodall. For me, Oscar is someone who comes to mind frequently, always with the utmost affection. He had such a lasting influence on me, no matter how much my life still does not reflect what he tried to instill in me.

I was so, so fortunate that I was able to call the hospice and talk to Oscar one last time before he died. He told me once again that he loved me.

To this day, the single-most read article I have posted to this blog is a long profile I wrote on Oscar’s tremendous life and ministry. To read it, click through to the very first entry.

Among the many, many memories from phone conversations with Oscar (while I was living in Manhattan just after 9/11 and my dad's sudden death one month later), I always have a laugh in my head when I think about how, after reading his biography, “Search for Security,” (written by David Enlow in 1986) I called Oscar and went over the highlights of the book.

I admitted to him that even though the story wasn’t meant to be funny in any way, I couldn’t help but chuckle reading about a one-time house guest who suddenly confessed to Oscar that his name was not really Barney Time; it was Joe Van Barneycastle. Oscar laughed and said something to the effect, “Yeah, we had moments like that all the time.” I always think, “What fun it must have been to be in his world.”

Because the Barney anecdote says so much about the kind of person Oscar was and the ministry he led, I have typed out the passage from the book:

“In line with their philosophy of ministering, when mission officials asked the Woodalls if they would take a young man who gave his name as Barney Time, they said he needed a father figure to provide direction in his life. Barney had professed faith in Christ a week earlier at the mission.

“When Barney came,” Woodall says, “he told us that his mother was dead and that he was in the carnival business like his father. He couldn’t read or write, but seemed to have a tender spirit toward the Lord. We would have daily Bible reading and prayer.

“One evening, prior to their devotions, Woody found Barney sitting alone, somewhat downcast. When his host inquired as to what was on his heart, the guest began weeping.

“I have been lying to you people,” Barney said, “and I cannot lie to God or his people anymore. My name is not Barney Time; it is Joe Van Barneycastle. MY mother is not dead; rather, several weeks ago while under the heavy influence of drugs, I beat her severely. I am a fugitive from the law.”

*****

At the conference, we sung this old hymn, and were encouraged to look up the story of the writer, John Bowring. Here it is:

 1. In the cross of Christ I glory,

Towering o'er the wrecks of time;
All the light of sacred story
Gathers round its head sublime.

2. When the woes of life o'ertake me,

Hopes deceive, and fears annoy,
Never shall the cross forsake me;
Lo! it glows with peace and joy.

3. When the sun of bliss is beaming

Light and love upon my way,
From the cross the radiance streaming
Adds more luster to the day.

4. Bane and blessing, pain and pleasure,

By the cross are sanctified;
Peace is there that knows no measure,
Joys that through all time abide.

Lyrics: John Bowring
Music: Ithamar Conkey

Tune: RATHBUN
Meter: 8.7.8.7.

---

In the Cross of Christ I Glory

John Bowring, 1792–1872

“In the Cross of Christ I Glory” is generally considered one of the finest hymns on the subject of the cross. It was written by John Bowring, one of the most remarkable men of his day as well as one of the greatest linguists who ever lived. It is said that he could converse in over 100 different languages before his death.

Some writers claim that John Bowring had visited Macao, on the South Chinese Coast, and was much impressed by the sight of a bronze cross towering on the summit of the massive wall of what had formerly been a great cathedral. This cathedral, originally built by the early Portuguese colonists, overlooked the harbor and had been destroyed by a typhoon. Only one wall, which was topped by the huge metal cross, remained. This scene is said to have so impressed Bowring that it eventually served as the inspiration for this hymn text.

The tune for this hymn was composed twenty-four years after Bowring’s text by an American organist and choir leader of the Central Baptist Church of Norwich, Connecticut. The composer, Ithamar Conkey, was sorely disappointed at one Sunday morning service when only one choir member appeared, a faithful soprano by the name of Mrs. Beriah Rathbun. Before the evening service Conkey composed a new tune for this text and named it after his one faithful choir member.

Investigative thinking

I was quickly skimming a book on spiritual growth this morning when I flipped to this passage: “So now we are going to investigate ourselves together—not one person explaining while you read, agreeing or disagreeing with him as you follow the words on a page, but taking a journey together, a journey of discovery into the most secret corners of our mind. And to take such a journey we must travel light; we cannot be burdened with opinions, prejudices and conclusions . . . Let us start our journey together with all the remembrance of yesterday left behind--and begin to understand ourselves for the first time."

At the summer Bible conference that just ended, Jordan said by way of introduction to this year’s theme, "If you’re going to face the future with confidence you need to have the ability to think your own self through the things that come.

"You can’t always call the preacher or call momma; you need to learn to THINK on your own and what God’s Word is designed to do is to teach you how to do that. To renew your mind, make you come to the place of maturity where you can think through the truth."

*****

During his Sunday night study, Jordan quoted II Corinthians 10:4 (“For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds”), warning the audience, “Satan seeks to get places in your life to work. Paul talks about, ‘Give no place to the devil.’ Don’t give him a place in your life to work! How would he do that? It would be through mental processes; thinking processes.

“Verse 5 says, ‘Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ.’

“I got to confess, for years I read that verse backwards. I read that, ‘Bring every thought into captivity to the obedience TO Christ.’ I thought it was saying, ‘Take your thinking processes and make them obey what Jesus said.’

“Then one day that verse just slapped me right square in the knuckles. It said, ‘Rick, that ain’t what that verse is saying! It says to the obedience OF Christ! My thinking is to be focused on HIS obedience, not mine!’

“Whew, that’s good! I can handle that! You see, focusing on my obedience, I come up shorty. It’s not my obedience; it’s His. It’s not focusing on what I do; it’s focusing on who He is and what He’s done. You see that? You bring every thought, all of your thinking processes and focus them on Jesus Christ, on what He’s done for you and who He’s made you because of Calvary.

“Now you’re back to the simplicity that’s in Christ. You’re back to what grace teaches and you show it now by demonstrating how much you treasure Him; what a treasure He is NOW. In eternity future that will only be the natural outgrowth and extension of what you’re doing now. I want you to get that.”

*****

Editor’s note: I was saving this article just now as a Word document, typing into the “save as” block “summer conf 2013” when this document entitled “summer conf 2012” came up:

“How do you get through the storms?” says Jordan. “You believe what the Master of the winds and waves said. You realize the storm isn’t the reality. The reality is what God said and when you trust what God says, you know what it brings? Peace in the midst of the turmoil. A peace that passes all understanding. Paul calls it ‘the peace of God.’

“In John 14, Jesus told the apostles, “My peace I give unto you. Not as the world gives; I’m giving you MY peace.’

“If you look for a definition of ‘the peace of God,’ it would be John 14:27 when Jesus talked about His peace. He’s God. And His peace was, ‘I’m going to the Cross. Why? Because I’m doing the will of my Father.  I’m trusting my Father and I’m being obedient to my Father.’

“His peace--His complete, relaxed, tranquility was in doing the will of His Father. He said it when He began His ministry. ‘My meat is to do the will of Him who sent me. The thing that sustains me, marshals me, carries me forth and energizes me is the will of my Father,’ and in the shadow of the Cross He said, ‘That’s all I live for is to please my Father; to glorify Him.’

In Luke 3 there’s a wonderful counterpart to what we read in Matthew 3. Luke 3:21 says, ‘Now when all the people were baptized, it came to pass, that Jesus also being baptized, and praying, the heaven was opened,
[22] And the Holy Ghost descended in a bodily shape like a dove upon him, and a voice came from heaven, which said, Thou art my beloved Son; in thee I am well pleased.’

“Now in Matthew the voice said, ‘This is beloved son.’ It was a pronouncement to the world; to Israel. ‘This is my boy; I’m pleased in Him!’

“But in Luke, Luke adds that personal touch, looking at the personal side of things. And Luke doesn’t just say, ‘The Father says, ‘This is Him!’ That’s Matthew; the royal proclamation. Luke says, ‘There was something more said because the Father looked at His Son and He said, ‘Thou,’ first person, personal address. Thou are my beloved son and in thee I am well-pleased. I want you to understand, son, that I know who you are and that all of my delight is in you!’

“He leaves there in chapter 4 and goes out into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil. The first temptation of the devil. Verse 3. The slanderer said, ‘If thou be the son of God, command these stone . . . IF you really believe who the Father said you are . . .’

“But you notice what the devil did? He didn’t say, ‘If thou be the beloved son of God in whom the Father’s well-pleased . . .’ That’s what the Father really said.

“Because the Adversary understood that if Jesus Christ understood, and was going to stand in an appreciation of who the Father really said He was, temptation was going to be of no success.

“The Adversary is trying to move Christ away from the identity the Father had just conferred upon Him. Christ knew who He was but He also knew who the Father said He was and Satan says, ‘If I’m going to tempt Him, I’ve got to move Him away from that.’

“Temptation loses its grip, friend, when you stand in a conscious commitment and faith in the identity God gives you in Jesus Christ. Living, standing, in the reality of who God has already made us in Christ Jesus, stand—refuse to be moved from that. That’s the key!

“If you’re going to proclaim the gospel, and you’re going to defend the faith, it’s going to start with you, preaching the gospel to yourself and defending the gospel to yourself. Standing in who God’s made you in His Son, not the world, the flesh or the devil, and refusing to be moved away from it.

“That’s how victory comes into the experience of a Believer. That’s why you want to put this armor on, so you can stand and withstand the attempts of the Adversary to move you away from that marvelous identity.

“Nearer to God, nearer I could not be, for in the person of His Son, I am as near as He.”

Access to Mr. Big

Acts 9 starts, “And Saul, yet breathing out threatenings and slaughter against the disciples of the Lord, went unto the high priest,
[2] And desired of him letters to Damascus to the synagogues, that if he found any of this way, whether they were men or women, he might bring them bound unto Jerusalem.”

Jordan says, “Think about what that’s telling you. They just killed Stephen and they’re persecuting and following the people with him; they’ve scattered all the disciples out of Jerusalem except for the apostles. (Acts 8:1)

“Paul’s not satisfied to have seen Stephen killed and the Pentecostal believers scattered. Now he’s ‘breathing out threatenings and slaughter.’ He’s trying to destroy these dudes. So he goes unto the high priest. Just think about that. He’s got access to Mr. Big.

“That’s like you go to Washington and knock on the White House door and say, ‘I’d like to see Barack.’ You know how far you’d get? They’d say, ‘We need you to come right over here and sit in this little padded truck.’

“You’re not going to get anywhere but there are people who can just walk up, show a badge and get right in. That was Paul. Now that’s a very small group of people. He was an elitist. He said, ‘I profiteth above many mine equals. The high priest knows me! The people in charge of Israel’s government trust me!’

“It says, ‘he desired letters to Damascus.’ Paul becomes the official representative of his nation in persecuting the Pentecostal Believers. Boy, when you see that . . . He says in Timothy, ‘Before I was a blasphemer and injurious.’

“He had a lot to trust in. He had all of this self-righteousness, this religion, all of his Phariseeism. He had all of the ordinances, the pedigree. You know—‘circumcised the eight day.’ He wasn’t a proselyte, he wasn’t a come-lately.

“He was a thoroughbred of the tribe of Benjamin. That’s the great famous special tribe that was special. When Jacob had his boys, Benjamin was that last boy and he was the special one because Joseph got sold off, that very special tribe. He was the one that when Joseph was in Egypt and the brothers came to get food, he told them, ‘You can get any more food unless you bring Benjamin!’

“Benjamin’s a special guy in Israel. Paul said, ‘I’m the elite, man!’ He had all this stuff that he’d trusted in.

“Acts 9 continues, ‘And as he journeyed, he came near Damascus: and suddenly there shined round about him a light from heaven:
[4] And he fell to the earth, and heard a voice saying unto him, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me?
[5] And he said, Who art thou, Lord? And the Lord said, I am Jesus whom thou persecutest: it is hard for thee to kick against the pricks.’

“Now that was a startling encounter. There’s this light of God’s countenance that shines on him. He hears the voice saying to him, ‘Saul, Saul.’ And you see what he says immediately? I love that: ‘Who art thou, Lord?’

“He knew it was God. It was the first time in his whole life that he had ever really encountered God. He’d had all of this religion but it never got him to God. Now God showed up and Paul says, ‘Who are you?!’

“Now, I don’t know about you, but in the back of my mind I have the idea that he’s thinking, ‘Who are you? PLEASE don’t say Jesus!’

“He didn’t say, ‘What new regulation do I need to follow?’ He said, ‘Who art thou, Lord?’ You know what Paul wanted? He wanted to KNOW the Lord. He wanted to know who He was. He had a desire to know Him.

“You can study music theory and composing music, learn about the theory and the science of music . . . you can master the theory and never sit at a keyboard and play a song. Never learn to play for yourself. You can learn to compose music and teach others how to compose music and never learn to play yourself.

“You can get all the mechanics of the faith, learn all the technical stuff, and all the doctrines, and never really come to know Him. And that’s why Paul says there in Philippians 3:10, ‘That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death.’ ”

Sweet home Chicago (whew)

Just got back this hour from Akron after leaving for the drive at 12:20 CST!!!! It took over nine hours! The turnpike traffic was about like what you get going home on the Sunday after Thanksgiving!

To make matters worse, there was all this lane-dropping, lane-moving construction junk (where nobody's actually doing any work) before Toledo to make the trip across Ohio seem like a flight to Los Angeles.

I got off the Sound Bend, IN exit to hear Shorewood's evening service but the connection never stayed for more than 30 seconds at a time. There was endless buffering--5%, 18%, 57%, 14%, 26%, 89%, 17%. Very frustrating and it didn't matter at all how many different spots in the Starbucks I moved my seat to.

The Catholic imprint was everywhere on the main drag on the outskirts of town. I have only been through the city three or four times, but it is always mind-boggling.

On the radio through Ohio was an old hymn I had not thought about in a long, long time:


When trouble surrounds us when evils come
The body grows weak the spirit grows numb
When these things beset us He doesn't forget us
He sends down His love on the wings of a dove

Chorus
On the wings of a snow white dove
He sends His pure sweet love
A sign from above
On the wings of a dove

When Noah had drifted on the flood many days
He searched for land in various ways
Trouble he had some but wasn't forgotten
He sent him His love on the wings of a dove
(chorus)

When Jesus went down to the water that day
He was baptized in the usual way
When it was done, God blessed his son
He sent him His love on the wings of a dove
(chorus)                                 

The scoop on today's No. 1 religion:

Here is a really well-written op-ed piece from the Sunday New York Times, entitled “The Gospel According to Me”:

The booming self-help industry, not to mention the cash cow of New Age spirituality, has one message: be authentic! Charming as American optimism may be, its 21st-century incarnation as the search for authenticity deserves pause. The power of this new version of the American dream can be felt through the stridency of its imperatives: Live fully! Realize yourself! Be connected! Achieve well-being!

Guilt and alienation must be eliminated, most notably through yoga practice after a long day of mind-numbing work.

Despite the frequent claim that we are living in a secular age defined by the death of God, many citizens in rich Western democracies have merely switched one notion of God for another — abandoning their singular, omnipotent (Christian or Judaic or whatever) deity reigning over all humankind and replacing it with a weak but all-pervasive idea of spirituality tied to a personal ethic of authenticity and a liturgy of inwardness. The latter does not make the exorbitant moral demands of traditional religions, which impose bad conscience, guilt, sin, sexual inhibition and the rest.

Unlike the conversions that transfigure the born-again’s experience of the world in a lightning strike, this one occurred in stages: a postwar existentialist philosophy of personal liberation and “becoming who you are” fed into a 1960s counterculture that mutated into the most selfish conformism, disguising acquisitiveness under a patina of personal growth, mindfulness and compassion. Traditional forms of morality that required extensive social cooperation in relation to a hard reality defined by scarcity have largely collapsed and been replaced with this New Age therapeutic culture of well-being that does not require obedience or even faith — and certainly not feelings of guilt. Guilt must be shed; alienation, both of body and mind, must be eliminated, most notably through yoga practice after a long day of mind-numbing work.

In the gospel of authenticity, well-being has become the primary goal of human life. Rather than being the by-product of some collective project, some upbuilding of the New Jerusalem, well-being is an end in itself. The stroke of genius in the ideology of authenticity is that it doesn’t really require a belief in anything, and certainly not a belief in anything that might transcend the serene and contented living of one’s authentic life and baseline well-being. In this, one can claim to be beyond dogma.

Whereas the American dream used to be tied to external reality — say, America as the place where one can openly practice any religion, America as a safe haven from political oppression or America as the land of opportunity where one need not struggle as hard as one’s parents — now, the dream is one of pure psychological transformation.

This is the phenomenon that one might call, with an appreciative nod to Nietzsche, passive nihilism. Authenticity is its dominant contemporary expression. In a seemingly meaningless, inauthentic world awash in nonstop media reports of war, violence and inequality, we close our eyes and turn ourselves into islands. We may even say a little prayer to an obscure but benign Eastern goddess and feel some weak spiritual energy connecting everything as we listen to some tastefully selected ambient music. Authenticity, needing no reference to anything outside itself, is an evacuation of history. The power of now.

At the heart of the ethic of authenticity is a profound selfishness and callous disregard of others.

This ideology functions prominently in the contemporary workplace, where the classical distinction between work and nonwork has broken down. Work was traditionally seen as a curse or an obligation for which we received payment. Nonwork was viewed as an experience of freedom for which we pay but that gives us pleasure.

 But the past 30 years or so has ushered in an informalization of the workplace where the distinction between work and nonwork is harder and harder to draw. With the rise of corporations like Google, the workplace has increasingly been colonized by nonwork experiences to the extent that we are not even allowed to feel alienation or discontent at the office because we can play Ping-Pong, ride a Segway, and eat  organic lunches from a menu designed by celebrity chefs. If we do feel discontent, it must mean that something is wrong with us rather than with the corporation.

 With the workplace dominated by the maxim of personal authenticity — Be different! Wear your favorite T-shirt to work and listen to Radiohead on your iPhone while at your desk! Isn’t it nifty? — there is no room for worker malaise. And contrary to popular belief, none of this has assuaged the workplace dynamics of guilt, bad conscience and anxiety, which are more rampant than ever. In fact, the blurring of the boundary between work and nonwork in the name of flexibility has led to an enormous  increase in anxiety — a trend well-documented in the work of Peter Fleming, a professor of work, organization and society at the University of London. Women in particular feel totally inadequate for not being able to have it all — climb the ladder at work, make the same wages as men, have a family, have a voluminous sex life, still look attractive and act as if they are having a great time through all of it.

 Work is no longer a series of obligations to be fulfilled for the sake of sustenance: it is the expression of one’s authentic self. With the extraordinary rise of internships — not just filled by college students anymore, but more and more by working-age adults — people from sufficiently privileged backgrounds  are even prepared to work without pay  because it allows them to “grow” as persons. Every aspect of one’s existence is meant to water some fantasy of growth.

 But here’s the rub: if one believes that there is an intimate connection between one’s authentic self and glittering success at work, then the experience of failure and forced unemployment is accepted as one’s own fault. I feel shame for losing my job. I am morally culpable for the corporation’s decision that I am excess to requirements.

 To take this one step further: the failure of others is explained by their merely partial enlightenment for which they, and they alone, are to be held responsible. At the heart of the ethic of authenticity is a profound selfishness and callous disregard of others. As New Age interpreters of Buddha say, “You yourself, as much as anybody in the entire universe, deserve your love and affection.”

 A naïve belief in authenticity eventually gives way to a deep cynicism. A conviction in personal success that must always hold failure at bay becomes a corrupt stubbornness that insists on success at any cost. Cynicism, in this mode, is not the expression of a critical stance toward authenticity but is rather the runoff of this failure of belief. The self-help industry itself runs the gamut in both directions — from “The Power of Now,” which teaches you the power of meditative self-sufficiency, to “The Rules,” which teaches a woman how to land a man by pretending to be self-sufficient. Profit rules the day, inside and out.

 

Nothing seems more American than this forced choice between cynicism and naïve belief. Or rather, as Herman Melville put it in his 1857 novel “The Confidence Man,” it seems the choice is between being a fool (having to believe what one says) or being a knave (saying things one does not believe). For Melville, who was writing on the cusp of modern capitalism, the search for authenticity is a white whale.

 This search is an obsession that is futile at best and destructive at worst. The lingering question for Melville, on the brink of poverty as he wrote “The Confidence Man,” is: what happens to charity? When the values of Judeo-Christian morality have been given a monetary and psychological incarnation — as in credit, debt, trust, faith and fidelity — can they exist as values? Is the prosperous self the only God in which we believe in a radically inauthentic world?

 As usual, the Bard of Avon got there first. In “Hamlet,” Shakespeare puts the mantra of authenticity into the mouth of the ever-idiotic windbag Polonius in his advice to his son, Laertes: “To thine own self be true.” This is just before Polonius sends a spy to follow Laertes to Paris and tell any number of lies in order to catch him out.

And who, finally, is more inauthentic than Hamlet? Ask yourself: is Hamlet true to himself, doubting everything, unable to avenge his father’s murder, incapable of uttering the secret that he has learned from the ghost’s lips, and unwilling to declare his love for Ophelia whose father he kills? Hamlet dies wearing the colors of his enemy, Claudius. We dare say that we love “Hamlet” not for its representation of our purportedly sublime authenticity, but as a depiction of the drama of our radical inauthenticity that, in the best of words and worlds, shatters our moral complacency.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Simon Critchley, a professor of philosophy at The New School for Social Research, and Jamieson Webster, a psychoanalyst, are the authors of “Stay, Illusion!: The Hamlet Doctrine.”

 

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Correction: July 3, 2013

 

An earlier version of this essay referred imprecisely to a saying of Buddha. In a famous meditation, Buddha (whose teachings were committed to writing centuries after his death) said that before extending loving-kindness to others, one should first extend it to oneself. The expression, "You yourself, as much as anybody in the entire universe, deserve your love and affection" does not appear in Buddhist scripture, though it is often attributed to him in self-help literature.

Chasing down the changes

In Genesis 17, God does something extremely important with Abraham and Sarah. He talks to Abram, saying, “As for me, behold, my covenant is with thee, and thou shalt be a father of many nations.
[5] Neither shall thy name any more be called Abram, but thy name shall be Abraham; for a father of many nations have I made thee.
[6] And I will make thee exceeding fruitful, and I will make nations of thee, and kings shall come out of thee.”

In verse 15, God continues with the further proclamation, “As for Sarai thy wife, thou shalt not call her name Sarai, but Sarah shall her name be.
[16] And I will bless her, and give thee a son also of her: yea, I will bless her, and she shall be a mother of nations; kings of people shall be of her.”

Jordan explains, “Notice in verse 5, God changes Abram’s name and what He does is He takes the 5^th letter of the Hebrew alphabet and inserts it into Abraham’s name.

“Again, in verse 15, He takes that 5^th letter of the Hebrew alphabet (and that letter that represents death to the old life and grace for the new life) and inserts grace into Sarai’s name. This is where, in verse 17, He formalizes His covenant with the nation Israel.

“Verse 10 says, ‘This is my covenant, which ye shall keep, between me and you and thy seed after thee; Every man child among you shall be circumcised.
[11] And ye shall circumcise the flesh of your foreskin; and it shall be a token of the covenant betwixt me and you.

“It’s the sign and the seal, Romans 4 says, of that covenant that God made. He cut the covenant in Genesis 15, promised it in Genesis 12. He laid out the details in Genesis 13 and then seals it with the sign of circumcision.

“Here’s God’s new seed line in the earth right here. Now when you have a name change in the Bible, there’s something prophetic about it. In Isaiah 62:1 you see the name change is associated with Israel’s kingdom: ‘For Zion's sake will I not hold my peace, and for Jerusalem's sake I will not rest, until the righteousness thereof go forth as brightness, and the salvation thereof as a lamp that burneth.’

“Zion appears only one time in your Bible in the possessive. Every other time it’s just Zion. It occurs 152 times in the singular and one time in the possessive plural. That equals 153.

 

“You understand you can’t do this with anything but a KJB. God is called the God of Israel 203 times in the KJB. You ought to divide that by 17 and see what you come up with.

“Psalm 69:35 says, ‘For God will save Zion, and will build the cities of Judah: that they may dwell there, and have it in possession.’

“God’s intention is to take Zion, that’s that part of the city of Jerusalem where the temple was, and make it the city of the great king.

“When God ratified the covenant with Abraham in Gen. 15, do you remember He put Abraham asleep and they cut the sacrifices up? And the Lord went down between that in the garden, you remember what that was like?

“Gen 15:12 says, ‘And when the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell upon Abram; and, lo, an horror of great darkness fell upon him.’

“The smoking furnace in Deuteronomy 4 is described as the captivity. The burning lamp . . . all through the horror of great darkness they have a guide that takes them to the glory on the other end in the promise of God’s word to them.

“So when you come back to Isaiah 62, the salvation of Israel is going to be ‘as a lamp that burneth.’ That’s talking about the Abrahamic covenant and God’s salvation to Israel through His promise to Abraham.

“Isaiah 62:2 says, ‘And the Gentiles shall see thy righteousness, and all kings thy glory: and thou shalt be called by a new name, which the mouth of the LORD shall name.’

“That’s exactly what He does with the Abrahamic covenant. He gives Abraham a new name. This new name is associated with the nation Israel during the tribulation period.

“Revelation 2:17 says, ‘He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches; To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the hidden manna, and will give him a white stone, and in the stone a new name written, which no man knoweth saving he that receiveth it.’

“One of the rewards the overcoming remnant’s going to get is that new name. What verse is that in? Verse 17. Just coincidence, I understand, it’s just fascinating that it’s the right verse.

“If you’re looking for another one, go to Acts 2. When the Holy Spirit comes on the apostles here, verse 5 says they were ‘dwelling at Jerusalem Jews, devout men, out of every nation under heaven’ . . . they all heard them speak in their own language and then He lists them in verse 8-12. You know there are 17 different groups listed there?

“Look at verse 17: ‘And it shall come to pass in the last days, saith God, I will pour out of my Spirit upon all flesh: and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams.’

“What was it we discovered back in Genesis 8? There’s the dove associated with Israel and Israel’s salvation taking them into the kingdom when they have this spiritual status restored through the new covenant and putting His spirit into them.

“You can just keep going with this. Seventeen in the Scripture is a number associated with transition from old to new; with change from the old to the new. 153 numerology wise, these are the numbers—7, 8, 9 and 17-- associated with it.

“With the 9 and the 17, you’ve got that transformation of Israel into that fruit-bearing nation God intended. By the way, 9 is the number of fruit-bearing. In Ephesians 5, Paul says ‘the fruit of the Spirit is . . .’ and lists how many fruit? Nine.

“In Ephesians 5:9 it talks again about the fruit of the Spirit. In I Corinthians 3:6, Paul says, ‘I have planted, Apollos watered; but God gave the increase.’ That term ‘planted’ is used nine times in your Bible.

“Psalm 9:17. The term hell is used 54 times in the Bible. That’s 9 times 6. The fruit of the spirit is 9. The fruit of sin is still 9. Nine is fruit-bearing.

“Did you know Titus is the 17^th book in the New Testament? Titus 2:13 and I Corinthians 15:51. You know what three times 17 is? 51. You know what I Thessalonians 4:17 says? When you’re caught up together with Him that change has taken place and the reality of that blessed hope is there, not just a prospect.

“When you begin to chase numbers down through the Bible, you begin to find out there’s things written in the text of your Bible that lay themselves out in a way that make you believe it’s okay to get out on that limb.”

Applying mine numbers

John 21:11 says, “Simon Peter went up, and drew the net to land full of great fishes, and hundred and fifty and three: and for all there were so many, yet was not the net broken.”

Jordan says, “There are all kind of different meanings placed on the 153. One writer said that that’s the number of different kinds of fish that were in the Sea of Galilee. Turns out he was wrong, so scratch that one.

“Someone says, ‘Well, 100 is the Gentile number, 50 would be Israel and 3 would be the godhead.’ The problem in the Bible is that 100 is not the Gentile number; 10 is the Gentile number. Fifty is not Israel’s number; 12 is Israel’s number and three is the number of the godhead. So you’ve got one out of three right. That won’t work either.

“Probably the most common thing you’ll hear is that it’s the number of Gentile nations on earth that go into the kingdom. That’s probably the thing that most Bible teachers generally teach.

“I heard a guy on the radio not long ago say, ‘Well, what that verse is telling you is that no matter what kind of people you’re after, the gospel net will bring them all in.’ He was saying, ‘You just go out and get any people you want,’ and that’s true isn’t it, but what’s that got to do with the 153?! Not much.

“I discovered something about this number recently that I thought was fascinating. If you take the numbers 1-17 and you add them together, you know what you get? 153. So 153 is the sum of 1-17 added (one-by-one) together. Bullinger says it’s the seventh prime number, which it is.

“153, when you multiply it out, is 9 times 17. If it’s the seventh prime number, you’ve got the number 9, 17 and 7 associated with it. 17 is 8 plus 9. See that? So you’ve got all these numbers bound up in this number right here and that number right there is the key to them.

“The number 17 turns out to be a fascinating number in the Scripture. There’s Rev. 13:17, talking about the Antichrist and the other beast, the false prophet.

“So if Israel’s going to have wisdom in the stand against the Antichrist, one of the things they have to do is count the number and the number is 666.

“I thought, ‘Wouldn’t it be interesting to count the 666’s in the Bible?’ You ever found the six hundred and sixty-sixth verse? The 666^th chapter in the Bible is Ecclesiastes 7:25.

“By the way, the Book of Ecclesiastes is a book written to prepare the Little Flock of Israel in the Last Days to be able to identify the philosophy that carries the lie program of the Adversary, that Son of Perdition you’re reading about over in Revelation.

“Proverbs gives them the wisdom they need to serve the Lord, and Ecclesiastes gives them the information they need to stay away from the thinking of the satanic policy of evil personified in the Antichrist.

“Verse 25: ‘I applied mine heart to know, and to search, and to seek out wisdom, and the reason of things, and to know the wickedness of folly, even of foolishness and madness.’

“What’d Revelation tell you to do if you wanted to seek wisdom? Count the number. So you come down to verse 27: ‘Behold, this have I found, saith the preacher, counting one by one, to find out the account.’

“Somebody’s counting: ‘One, two, three,’ and when he does, he’s seeking out wisdom. So it’s just point of interest to me that in the Scripture, counting numbers and the use of numbers is something that is associated with getting some wisdom.

“Now I realize this is sort of like climbing up a tree, going out on a limb, and getting way out on the limb and handing somebody at the trunk of the tree a saw and saying, ‘Bet you can’t saw me off!’ They don’t have to; you’re out there so far that nobody else wants to go out there with you!

“But what happens is the way you get up the tree is just keep believing the verses, and the way you get out on the limb is you just keep believing the verses and pretty soon you look like you’re over here on a limb that’s fixing to crack out from under you, because the dude on the ground was too scared to climb up to start with. That’s sort of the way it is with these numbers kind of things.

“The No. 17 is associated with change, with transition from the old to the new in the Bible. The first 17 in the Bible is Genesis 1:17. That’s the 17^th time in the text that the term God appears. It’s in the same verse.

“Now if you come over to chapter 6:13, He’s going to bring an end to humanity in the earth and then He’s going to replace it with Noah and his family. There’s going to be an end to the old and a beginning of the new.

“That expression ‘God said’ in verse 13, that’s the 17^th time that expression occurs in your Bible. Come down to chapter 7 and notice when the change takes place. 7:9. When it says ‘as God commanded Noah’ that’s the seventeenth time that the name Noah appears in the text, and it appears in connection with the ending of the old world and the salvation of life to go into the new world.

“Matthew 7:28. That’s the 17^th time the name Jesus appears in the book of Matthew. Now, what did He do? He ended those sayings. When Noah’s name occurs the 17^th time, it’s because God had commanded him. Both are connected with the Scripture.

“If you go to John 2 and you see Christ’s first miracle there, where He turns the water to the wine, John 2 happens to be the 70^th chapter in the New Testament. So you begin to get these connections that go on.

“Gen. 7:11. The world ended on the 17^th day of the 7^th month; that’s when the rain started. Gen 8:3. Seventeen is associated with changing from the old to the new, and over and over, when you find that term seventeen, that’s what it gets associated with—the transition from the old to the new.

“Now, you’ll notice there’s interesting things in the text here if you go down to verse 8. That symbolism that told him the new earth is there. One was a dove. What is a dove a picture of in the Bible? The Holy Spirit.

“When Jesus is baptized, the Father speaks from heaven and the Spirit descended upon Him in the form of a dove. Well, what’s the olive tree a symbol of in the Bible? The nation Israel. Hosea 14, Romans 11.

“It’s the spiritual life that God the Holy Spirit’s going to give to the seed of the woman, the seed of Abraham, the nation Israel. So what we’re looking at here is how new life is going to be established in the new world. It’s going to be the Holy Spirit working through ultimately the nation Israel. And it’s connecting all of it.

“One of the ways you can help identify the thrust behind the number is the Book of Genesis has 50 chapters. Most of the chapters will kind of clue you into what that number is about and will give you some help and understanding.

“You understand, some of the numbers in Scripture are very clear. Like 13 is the number of rebellion because that’s what Genesis 14 connects it with immediately. Three and seven are divine numbers of perfection and completion. Twelve is Israel’s number. Those numbers are real easy.

“Nine is the number of fruit bearing. Eight is the number of a new beginning. Seventeen is the number of the old passed away, changed to the new. So what do you wind up with when you put those numbers together in a sentence? You wind up with a perfect transition of Israel into fruitfulness. You’ve got this perfect new beginning of fruitfulness in the kingdom that comes and you say, ‘Wow! How ’bout that?!’

(To be continued tomorrow…)