"I have the right to believe freely. To be a slave to no man's authority. To confess what appears to me to be true, whether it is proved or disapproved, whether it is spoken by catholic or by heretic.... In matters of faith I think that neither council nor pope nor any man has power over my conscience and where they disagree with scripture I deny pope and council and all. For a simple layman armed with scripture is greater than the mightiest pope without it."
Tuesday, October 31, 2017
A Word from the 1953 Film "Martin Luther"
"I have the right to believe freely. To be a slave to no man's authority. To confess what appears to me to be true, whether it is proved or disapproved, whether it is spoken by catholic or by heretic.... In matters of faith I think that neither council nor pope nor any man has power over my conscience and where they disagree with scripture I deny pope and council and all. For a simple layman armed with scripture is greater than the mightiest pope without it."
Who was Andreas Karlstadt?
1. He awarded Luther his doctorate
2. He wrote 151 theses before the 95 theses (sets of theses were common back then)
3. He was named in the excommunication along with Luther
4. He led the first German protestant church service
5. He was the first German protestant clergy to marry
6. He disavowed infant baptism (Luther affirmed)
"There is no evidence whatsoever that Karlstadt supported the Peasant's Revolt. Luther (unfairly) blamed the peasants revolt on Karlstadt... Karlstadt has nothing to do whatsoever with these unruly mobs..."
"Within the annals of historical theology, Andreas Bodenstein von Karlstadt often gets a bad rap. Maligned by Martin Luther and rejected by Ulrich Zwingli, his role within the development of the Eucharistic debates among the emerging evangelical movements of the early-sixteenth century has been largely overlooked beneath a cloud of rhetoric and caricatures."
Richard A. Beinert
Luther switched the German church away from the support of the Catholic Church to the support of the German Princes. Karlstadt wanted to follow truth wherever it led, which could have lost them the needed support of the German princes. So, his peaceful views concerning the priesthood of all believers had to be maligned as somehow enabling the peasants revolt, which in fact occurred many years later, in order to ensure the support of the German princes.
Luther switched the German church away from the support of the Catholic Church to the support of the German Princes. Karlstadt wanted to follow truth wherever it led, which could have lost them the needed support of the German princes. So, his peaceful views concerning the priesthood of all believers had to be maligned as somehow enabling the peasants revolt, which in fact occurred many years later, in order to ensure the support of the German princes.
95 Theses for the Age of Information
DISPUTATION ON THE POWER AND EFFICACY OF
SUBSTITUTES, OCTOBER 31, 2017
Out of love for the truth and the desire to
bring it to light, the following propositions will be discussed in West Texas. We request that those who are unable to be
present and debate orally with us, may do so online. In the name of Truth.
A Multitude of
Substitutes take the place of Sola Sacrificium
1.
When our Lord and Master Jesus
Christ said, ``Take up your cross daily'',
his followers understood that he willed their entire life to be one of daily
sacrifice, potential social ostracism and willingness to accept death for doing right and following truth.
2.
“Sacrifice”
cannot be understood as referring to just the common everyday sacrifices of a
good person, living in poverty or isolation, “spiritual disciplines” or as the
act of taking communion.
3.
God’s ultimate desire is to maintain both free choice and a good
society, which is based in the individual and communal nature of the
Trinity. The
willingness to die as Jesus did gives us power and freedom as individuals to make
the hard choices. Jesus’ life example
helps indicate what is best to choose to maintain a good society.
4.
The willingness to be killed for doing what is right, true and virtuous
is the true meaning of being a “follower” of Jesus. This is the true theology
of the cross, “oneness” with Christ. It
builds strong community, it is powerful against our evil tendencies, it allows
us to maximize eternal value, it is ultimate self-control and is the true meaning symbolized in baptism
and the cup of communion.
5.
All die. So, while in one sense death costs
everything, in another sense the willingness to die requires no extra cost.
Leaders
use Substitutes in place of Truth to maintain Unity
6.
When John said, “In the beginning
was the Word”, he also thereby indicated that in the beginning was information.
Information is in opposition to mysticism, fictional stories,
distractions, unverifiable experiences and utopias, which are substitutes for living
with reality.
7.
The use of fallacies in marketing can be
more effective than the use of logical arguments, but there is only one
valid way to choose beliefs: choose the set of beliefs that are most probably
true.
8.
True unity
is not possible by accepting the wide variety of substitutes for truth as the polytheists/pantheists
have done, or by imposing uniformity as some monotheistic faiths have done. Allowing for reconciled
diversity while rejecting substitutes for a focus on truth enables the true unity
that Jesus prayed for.
9.
“Anti-Christ”
means a substitute for following both Christ’s example and the sacrifice of his
life. The reference to 666 in the books of
Revelation and Kings point to Solomon,
the ultimate example of a seemingly wise leader who used substitutes to be
successful.
10.
We have traded away our birthright to our leaders in an unholy bargain that
substitutes the leadership of a few individuals for the leadership of every individual, allowing most people to be
passive.
For many,
the State Monopoly has replaced God and the Church
11.
The State is the caretaker of the forceful
methods of persuasion no longer wielded by the Church. The State maintains its geographic monopoly. All monopolies,
lacking competition, are in as much need
of reformation as the state-church monopolies of the 1500s.
12.
The book of first Samuel
indicates that God did not want a king over Israel. Diplomatic intermarriage (Diplomatic and Information - marketing power), horses (Military power), and gold (Economic power), were early methods of gaining central state power
(DIME), each of which God said not to do in Israel. So, God
wants weak centralized state power in leadership, military and the
banking system, keeping power as locally distributed as possible. Some intelligence agencies and
police/military seek to simulate God’s omniscience and omnipotence. Large scale suffering, starvation and death is
most often caused by mistakes of central leadership and their wars.
13.
We need a wall of separation between money and state,
including a “first amendment” for banking, and currency creation. Most taxation allows no way to opt out and so
is the taking of personal property without free consent. Many people look to the state to take the
property of others to provide for their needs.
14.
There is no social
contract at birth with our state or society.
We have at birth only two inherent contracts:
one with our parents and one with the creator of our world. Five of the ten commandments discuss honoring
those inherent civil contracts. Rights/responsibilities
of laws should not be automatic based on age/location, but rather they should
be contracts accepted/rejected by free will as adults, with “adulthood”
determined by competency rather than by a specific age.
Schools often Indoctrinate
instead of train for Freedom of Thought
15.
Schools sometimes expose
students only to one-sided propaganda
because they have a conflict of interest
to teach submission to the prevailing views of the supporting state or church. Rather than just transmitting the commonly held views of the
Church, State and/or employers, schools are most effective when teaching critical thinking, freedom,
trade and enabling self-directed learning.
16.
Team and project based
education is most effective, creating real
value rather than just rote academic exercises, causing students to be leaders/producers
and reconnecting learning to value. Leadership
training is built on the foundation of virtue training.
17.
Effective education crosses all boundaries, including between
religious and secular, primary and higher education, academic and corporate
training, and between self-directed and formal education. Education is most effective when large scale
term-based education is integrated with small scale competency based education
to provide both economy of scale and customization.
18.
The elderly are intended to perform the role of teachers and mentors.
Scientists have become
the Priesthood of our Day
19.
Scientists, especially
physicists, are treated as the priesthood
of the information age because they tell the quantitatively illiterate
masses, who are unable to interpret the formulas for themselves, what to
believe about how the world works.
20.
If it is impossible for
something to come from nothing, then something
must be eternal. That can be either “creation”
or a creator.
21.
There is no viable
mechanism for cosmic evolution since mutation and natural selection do not
apply until life exists. The creation of
an imagined "multiverse" is a “philosophy
of the gaps”, i.e. a theory created to support a belief that is lacking
evidence.
22.
Time is just our "perception of
change". What we call the
"past" is our memories and what we call the "future" is our
current mental plans. Therefore “time” is
not a reality that can speed up, slow down or go backwards. God did not create "time" itself but
rather He created the regularly recurring changes we use as "clocks"
to measure the passage of other changes, which is how we commonly think of
"time".
23.
Logical Positivism has been misapplied to say that what we perceive/measure must be
actual reality. Limitations of perceiving/measuring
fast speed (Relativity) and small size (Quantum Mechanics) make our perceptions
and measurements diverge from reality. “Bending
the ruler”, speeding or slowing clocks or our inability to consistently detect
something does not change the reality we are measuring.
Many leading
Philosophers are Atheist, Agnostic or Universalist
24.
Monotheism is a claim of historical truth. Atheism,
pantheism and polytheism, which claim the high ground of philosophical truth
and inclusiveness, have no defensible claim to early history.
25.
Atheism, where nothing is of ultimate value, can lead to pantheism, where everything is of
ultimate value, which is related to polytheism,
where only the most powerful things are assigned ultimate value.
26.
Agnosticism is not a separate belief system. “Believers” are also by definition agnostics
because they cannot prove their belief.
27.
The “Both-And” of universalism cannot replace
the “Either-Or” of Monotheism.
Celebrity Leaders with
access to Broadcasts act as our Gurus
28.
We treat those with access to broadcast mediums, such as speakers, authors,
preachers, musicians and movie stars, as our
gurus.
29.
All professionals, including teachers, physicians, and pastors, have a conflict of interest. Many believe that to provide better service
they need to keep people dependent on their expertise rather than helping them become
self-sufficient and risking lower quality outcomes.
30.
Leaders use marketing methods, which are only valid if they are educating and communicating
truth in support of self-reliance.
31.
Movie action heroes are the modern polytheistic pantheon, now divorced from
religion, that our children follow by example.
Church Services and Auditoriums
drive focus to Pastors
32.
The focus of the separated
day of rest is intended to be the benefits
of rest, reflection and family/community rather than attending a service.
33.
Church services are a crutch that enables passive participation instead of individual/small
team active productivity. Goal focused
small team meetings are the true church meeting, which removes the need for using
marketing techniques to maintain large group unity.
34.
Stages are for actors, comedians and musicians, not for Christian
leaders. The
sage on the stage can be more effective by taking their rightful place as guide
on the side.
35.
Pastor’s monologues, on-stage
worship teams and other events with a spectator
audience are antithetical to the
priesthood of all believers.
36.
If desired, record and watch monologues at home before coming
together in small groups, which then discuss how the concepts in the monologue
can be applied to current needs and goals.
37.
The natural repetitive
routines of life do not imply the validity of contrived or centrally controlled routines/rituals. Rather than repeat the same basic teachings to
large groups over and over, teach in small groups building on prior learning based
on current needs.
38.
Any form of church governance is acceptable as long
as force and manipulation are not used, so that individual church attenders/small
groups can easily opt out of
decisions.
39.
Positive references to pastors in the books of the Bible are always plural, indicating multiple “pastors”
in each church is to be the norm.
The True Nature of
History
40.
Historical truth about
the ancient order of things is the treasure
of the Church. The books of the Bible
are claims to accurate histories.
41.
The question of scriptural authority is not one of scripture vs.
tradition, but rather how best to determine truth
versus falsehood.
42.
Comprehending a writing
is probabilistic, not a work of full certainty.
When trying to understand a text,
attempt to understand what the author was attempting to communicate to their
intended audience, including understanding
their background, their use of shared definitions and their shared
circumstances, such as what it means to be a “follower” and the imminent threat
of death to the early followers of Jesus.
43.
In the book of Genesis Moses
and the Israelites rejected Egyptian myths, which were created from later
history, in favor of core historical claims present in the mythology of Sumer,
which were created from the earliest
history.
44.
Prophecy is possible
because God has full control, but we
also have full free will, enabled by
our willingness to die. Which one we perceive is a matter of how much
information we have. If God were not hiding his full power, we would
effectively be forced to follow Him and our choice to follow/not follow would
not be apparent.
45.
Jesus’ life and death successfully
demonstrated to God that His desire
to have a good society that maintains individual free choice would eventually
be satisfied by people following the
example of Jesus, thereby averting the need to wipe out humanity and start over
again as He had done at the flood.
The True Nature of
Belief
46.
Deductive logic requires inductive
logic to support its premises. “Faith”
is treating something that is probably true as if it is definitely true. Inductive logic is probabilistic and so
requires faith.
47.
To say “I Know” is
denying faith, because “faith” implies the possibility that the belief may not be true.
48.
As followers of truth, we must be able to say "If a different
belief were shown to be true I would reject my current belief, even if my
family, friends and community shun or kill me".
49.
Monotheistic faith requires faith that a Creator exists, we have mostly
accurate information about Him and He is trustworthy to follow.
The True Nature of
Virtue and Law
50.
Virtues point to high
standards and the discipline needed for effective trade and strong motivation. To maintain and grow the organization, some pastors
refrain from speaking against low social standards
such as no-fault divorce and immoral relationships, abortion, common Christian
profanities, and other worldly lifestyle choices.
51.
Respecting ownership, persuasion,
and trade can replace physical force,
which is reserved for only when necessary for protection.
52.
The Golden Rule has a corollary called the Non-Aggression Principle. Both are a summary of five of the ten
commandments, and are the basis of criminal justice, which provides for freedom
through ownership. Identifying individual
ownership/stewardship avoids the potential for a “tragedy of the commons”.
53.
Laws are not good because they are in the books of the Bible, rather
they are in the books of the Bible because they are good.
55.
Prisons are a form of forced slavery.
Early Israel did not have prisons.
It is better for inmates to be emancipated, receive appropriate corrective
training/coaching, work to pay restitution and/or be exiled, or, in violent
cases such as murder, be put to death.
The True Nature of
Forgiveness and Bankruptcy
56.
Always have an attitude of offering
forgiveness, but the benefits of forgiveness are only obtained by the
recipient when they repent of the hurtful practices that required forgiveness.
57.
Focusing on a "free gift" is a marketing
technique. God’s forgiveness is offered
free, but the acceptance of His forgiveness has the high cost of being willing
to die, which should be communicated up front.
58.
Forgiveness and
bankruptcy laws enable striving for greatness even if there is a high
likelihood of failure and they re-enable relationships/trade after failure. God forgives
failure and does not require any payment for the “sunk costs” of the failure.
59.
Significant long-term consumer
debt is a form of serfdom, caused by artificially easy
long-term credit, which bids up prices.
Long term debt serfdom could be eliminated, and prices of big ticket
items could be reduced, by extending bankruptcy laws to not allow for loans/refinances
of longer than seven years. Other than
marriage, contract/treaties should last no longer than seven years.
The True Nature of Prayer and
Fasting
60.
Early Christians were
mistaken to be atheists, indicating a lack
of Christian rituals, sacred objects or “sacred spaces”.
61.
Prayer was intended to be a two-way conversation with God. God does
not currently speak back, but we still have a need to speak to our Creator.
62.
The term “prayer” includes multiple functions: asking
forgiveness, requests, thanks, praise, and a general blessing of others.
63.
When Jesus said, “when
you pray, go to a private place” he
intended that even well intentioned Christian leaders should not pray in front
of groups. Verbal prayers by leaders are
often misused to tell people what should happen and/or to display oratory
skills.
64.
Omniscience implies that God is always on “speakerphone” and “surveillance
camera”, though he can turn away in respect of privacy.
65.
Fasting is symbolic of willingness to die. Living a healthy,
natural lifestyle would answer most health-related prayers before the
prayers were necessary and would address the leading causes of early death.
The True Nature of
Giving and Tithing
66.
Tithing was of food only, not money, and was in place of crops/farm animals
that Levites would have received if they had been farmers.
67.
Monetary support is payment for a service, not an obligation, which implies the determination of the costs/benefits
of the service provided. The priesthood
of all believers implies taking back control of their money, getting out of unnecessary debt obligations,
giving directly to causes they are physically involved with, and banding
together in small groups with others who have similar goals.
68.
Short term missions give locals access to industry, money and
education and shows the missionary the value of that access. Local groups are more effective in building
local industry and education.
The True Nature of
Intelligent Beings
69.
We are not our bodies. We are
the part of our brain that watches and judges our ways of thinking, our memories,
how we communicate, and what we control, all of which continues after we die.
70.
We can be considered
both as our whole set of thought
processes and as multiple groups of various
thought processes. The nature of both being
filled with the Holy Spirit, which motivates holiness, and demon possession, which
motivates evil, is that they both can be considered groups of our thought
processes, which by definition makes them part of us; but, they can also be
considered as the thoughts of separate “individuals” to either be desired or
cast out.
71.
Emotions are information-based shortcuts that motivate us to action. Before Jesus, animal sacrifice was designed
to motivate change in behavior by empathy with the sacrificed animal paying the
price we should pay.
The True Nature of Families and Society
73.
The “teen-age” season of life is
artificially created by extending education and delaying the ability to
have a career and/or marriage.
74.
Gambling is a substitute
for the risk/reward of trade. Gambling is win-lose whereas free trade
is win-win.
75.
Pornography is a substitute for the risk/reward of relationships. It involves only receiving whereas the give and take of relationships involves
both giving and receiving.
76.
Substance abuse is used to escape stress and/or pain and is a substitute for the Holy Spirit, true
rest and willingness to accept loss.
77.
Use of Expletives is an attempt to shock/force others into
compliance, and indicates rebellion against the taboo of not discussing the topics
of religion, sex and the results of digestive function.
78.
We must be ready to live off of nature in order to sacrifice,
if necessary, the ability to trade in society.
The True Nature of the
Spiritual and Supernatural
79.
There is no actual
difference between "natural"
and "supernatural", other than one is observable and repeatable
on demand and the other is not. So, “miracles”
by definition do occur, but individual “experiences” are unverifiable and so
are of no use to others.
80.
The goal of spiritual warfare is to produce strong
motivation to proclaim truth against the propaganda of the powers of this world.
81.
By being willing to
sacrifice ourselves we are filled with the
Holy Spirit which strongly motivates us.
82.
While seeming to argue
the opposite, Paul said he would not eat meat
sacrificed to idols and he emphasized abstaining for the right reasons.
83.
The true “speaking in tongues” described in Acts was information transfer. The Corinthian church thought they had the
same ability but did not. Paul could not
prove a negative concerning tongues since people could claim the language was
of angels. So, rather than attempting to
prove a negative, he affirmed their desire to follow God and instructed them to
minimize the practice and focus on other gifts.
84.
Omniscience and
omnipotence provides the equivalent of omnipresence,
but if God were actually omnipresent he would be inside all objects, including
inside sewage and in Hell.
85.
Mysticism is an illusion used in place of reason and faith when people
want to feel emotions related to holiness, awe, peace and/or being valued. Mysticism is not necessary for transcendence.
The True Nature of Evil,
Suffering and Death
87.
Most of evil is not the opposite of good. It is the attempt to force the creation of a substitute Utopia which promises unobtainable
benefits rather than accepting the benefits and dealing with the seeming problems
of following God’s design of natural
simplicity.
88.
The Golden Rule implies empathy and the use of persuasion and trade rather than offensive force, which causes
evil, suffering and death.
89.
Only a Creator has the right to destroy his creation, so offensive war, murder, abortion
and suicide are not acceptable.
90.
God removed access to
eternal life and thereby allowed death not as punishment but to give humans,
including Jesus, the ability of ultimate self-sacrifice.
The True Nature of
Heaven and Hell
91.
To maintain freedom of choice and a good, truthful
society, those who continue to choose to do wrong must ultimately be exiled
from the society of those who choose to do right.
92.
Hell is a torturous place to be not because of active torture by God. Putting people who do not follow truth together
in a place without the Creator sustaining it would naturally make it a terrible
place to be.
Why the Coming
Reformation is Needed Now
93.
The printing press in the age of the Reformation enabled a few to
publish to the masses, thereby bypassing the monopoly of the priesthood. The Internet
in this age of information enables anyone to publish to the masses, thereby
bypassing the control of leaders, publishers and marketers, giving us the
ability to highlight the use of substitutes by leaders.
94.
The unbridled use of substitutes makes it difficult even for learned
people to rescue the reverence which is due to Christianity from slander or
from the shrewd questions of non-Christians.
95.
These concepts are historical from the earliest time periods
following Jesus. They are simple and practical. The only need for
complexity is that needed to address complex errors. Come
out of Babylon.