Obligatory Post about Animal Souls

As it stands now, I can't stop the future, and neither can you. Contingent on this reality is the inevitable theatrical release of Rise of the Planet of the Apes. Have you seen the trailer?



The animal kingdom remains for me, as it has long stood, a quagmire of dumbfounding doubt, obsessive energy, and robust intrigue.

This post is indeed obligatory, for I have had no new revelation on the front of the fate of the animal's soul. To rest my mind in peace, I rest with my default position: death is not the end for our animal brethren. I stake my case on two principles:

1. God is just, and the destruction of the animal soul based upon man's sin is not a just end for that creature, who was made to glorify God (and enjoy Him forever?).
2. Christ says in the book of Revelation, "I make all things new" (Revelation 21:5). The fact that we will live out eternity on the new earth I think gives value to the prospect that Jesus' words can be taken literally. All things -- all creatures big and small, will be redeemed from the crutches of death's shattering impact. 

For now, I remain at this place, for it is the merriest of conceptions to embrace... and it makes it so much easier to look that sad neighbor dog in the eyes.

What stands out in this particular Ape-al Planet prequel is not the sense of humanity in the chimps (though that shot of the 'Caesar' overlooking the sleeping couple in bed is horrifically goosebump inducing), but rather, the lack of humanness in the homo-sapiens themselves. Is there anything to be said of this?

A friend of mine today brought to my attention the growing societal idea that gender should continue to be minimized until our collective culture sees no distinction between man and woman. Sure, the idea of a unigender society sounds laughable, but with a doctrinal webbing of postmodernism deeply embedded in our generation, anything is possible. That is to say, that whatever picks up steam will be momentarily victorious. Christianity is not a culture, and we followers of Christ have Jesus' words and the Scripture as a whole as our constitution. Remember Paul's words to the church in Galatia:

But even if we, or an angel from heaven, should preach to you a gospel contrary to what we have preached to you, he is to be accursed! As we have said before, so I say again now, if any man is preaching to you a gospel contrary to what you received, he is to be accursed! Galatians 1:8-9 NASB

Our bedrock remains forever the same. This is how we are able to see newer institutions like Mormonism as the lie that they are: different gospels entirely (something apart from grace).

But if we have the Bible, what does culture have as its foundation? Right now that answer is simple: tolerance. More than that, really; it's acceptance.

As a Christian, not only do we hold to Christ as our Redeemer and Savior who shows us into everlasting life, but we must also hold that we are living as God intended us to live. That statutes we value our those the Creator has formed us for. We use our processors as they were made for, we don't jerry-rig the motherboard to use for making straight lines of cocaine. No sir!

The point is the trailer for the new flick seemed to create a sensation that the Apes were more Man than the men in the movie. We don't see evil apes in the promo, but we do see a jackass human dude act all assy like. And just so you know, asses are fundamentally stupider animals than apes. And stubborn. Apes > Asses.

I have the distinct feeling that we'll all be rooting for the apes in the movie. We will root for the uprising against the evil human overlords.

And then the movie will end. Sooner or later I'll have to look at myself in the mirror, and be reminded of what I am.

Winter is Coming

This blog brought to via a slick stream-of-conscious...

Something feels right about the idea of winter. It makes more sense to me than summer (and really, all that really exists is summer and winter, everything else is just a byway to the two poles). What do I do with summer. People vacation, stay out late, start 'summer projects'; all the while the sun suddenly acts all friendly and warm and stuff...

There was a world, once, you punk.  

The problem with the changing of the seasons is this: it, by necessity, cannot be always congruous with the meta-narrative going on.

The Bible tells me of a great story arc. In that story, we are bumbling somewhere between the second and third act. In the monomyth, that is, Joseph Campbell's term for the hero's journey, there is a stage referred to as "The Belly of the Whale". This is the stage in which the protagonist enters a new world that seems quite dark, and even deadly, but it is the road in which he may emerged changed and ready to overcome his oncoming obstacles. This appears to be the stage of life that our planet is in.

Why, in my day, you could buy meat anywhere! Eggs they had, real butter! Fresh lettuce in the stores.

Christ has died for us, and God's Kingdom has begun already to take root... but I read about the endgame, and I hear that it's a pretty bloody affair.

Speaking of bloody affairs, what fun all this Wikileaks stuff is, eh? How is it possible in this day and age for a little website to suddenly get access to secret information that incriminates in some way and form nearly half of the world's civilized governments? It is astounding, i.e., I can't help but feel like this is one of those 'birth pains'.  Matthew 24:7-9,

   Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be famines and earthquakes in various places. All these are the beginning of birth pains.

   Then you will be handed over to be persecuted and put to death, and you will be hated by all nations because of me. 

Anyway, the crisp air and the short days; it feels right. It feels like the world is heading towards an end. In a weird way, it feels like progress.

And if progress is what is happening, if the metanarrative is lurching ever so slowly forward, then a direct consequence is that we are all players currently on the scene, in the playbill. We are performing.

What role, then, are we performing?  

The best part of the X-Men movies is the relationship between Professor X and Magneto. They are great friends. They have mutual respect for one another. Unfortunately for their friendship, they are on opposing sides of the war. They don't shy away from this fact. They fight each other with everything they have. 

I will be prudent with my words now, and yield my tongue before I dig my own grave... it's Advent season, after all... the season of anticipation.

Last Holiday season I discovered a song entitled, "This Is War" by Dustin Kensrue. Listen Now! It's a Christmas song.

You tell everybody. Listen to me, Hatcher. You've gotta tell them!... We've gotta stop them somehow!   

Goodnight.