Sukkot, Autumn Thanksgiving and Oktoberfest. How about a party at a market place?

 The Jews have their Sukkot-festival), where they build cottages of branches, in this way they celebrate that God leaded them out of Egypt to the promised land, because then they lived in such cottages. It is combined with a harvest festival which marks the end of the grape harvest and the agricultural year and was also combined with a pilgrimage to Jerusalem. Sukkot at lasts a week at the turn of September/October, so that there is Sabbath in the beginning and at the end the feast.

https://snl.no/l%C3%B8vhyttefesten

The Americans started with an autumn thanksgiving party together with peaceful Indians and it became a tradition. It lasts from the fourth Thursday in November to Sunday. https://no.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thanksgiving

 The Germans have their Oktoberfest in Vienna, it started with the wedding of Bavaria’s Crown Prince Ludwig and Princess Therese on 12 October 1810. The royals invited to the party and since then it has become a tradition and is called the world’s biggest folk festival, a festival that lasts for 16 days before the first Sunday in October. A special beer will be brewed for the festival. In recent years, it has been an October party in other places as well. https://no.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oktoberfest

How would it be to combine the Thanksgiving festival with a market, for example in a small village, where farmers and other local businesses could come with their goods and sell them? Well, some of these Thanksgiving festivals are connected to Judaism and Christianity, so it reminds me that Jesus cleansed the temple and told the Jews that they should not turn the house of the Father into a marketplace. So we have to separate that.

Garden village and allotment garden as preparedness.

History.

During the Second World War, we saw how vulnerable business and trade were to war and disaster. There was a shortage of food in the shops and it hit the townspeople particularly hard. Fortunately, in Oslo they had allotment gardens that had been created at the beginning of the 20th century, so there were many townspeople who had such kitchen gardens https://oslokolonihager.com/kolonihagene-i-oslo/ . Ullevoll Hageby was created in 1915-22, there were blocks of flats for poor people and factory workers, with plots large enough for them to have their own patch of garden. But gradually the middle class moved in and now the houses are relatively expensive https://no.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ullev%C3%A5l_Hageby .  

The workers and other townspeople basically did well in the interwar period, while farmers, fishermen and forest workers became poor. But during the war there was a shortage of goods in the shops, so then these colonial gardens were a rescue. But it was too little, so the townspeople went out into the countryside to buy food. But there was a lack of trade goods here too and the Germans demanded their share from the farmers, so many of them did not have much left over that they were willing or able to sell. Townspeople often had enough clothes, so they tried to exchange clothes for food. Many townspeople rented a small patch of land which they cultivated, but the crops were often disappointing. Some also had pigs, chickens or rabbits. All this resulted in farmers, forest workers and fishermen improving their finances compared to industrial workers, so they were no longer poor compared to the townspeople.

Our time.

Norway has a large export industry, so we are very dependent on international trade and it is vulnerable to pandemics, war, accidents and disaster. How to be prepared for that with an extra storage of the most important goods, like food, clothing and fuel? Why not plant allotment gardens in our time too?

In recent times, small farms have been merged into larger and larger operating units, usually by one farmer running many small farms. People leave small farms and new housing estates are built in the municipality, with houses on small plots. But what about the preparedness? If there comes a difficult time when trade collapses, compared to the war, there will be even more people who will find it difficult like the townspeople during the war.

Out in the countryside there is a lot of arable land that is not cultivated, so it should be no problem to get bigger plots to build houses on, with space for lawns and ornamental shrubs, a small kitchen garden, fruit and berry garden and a small greenhouse. Then they could compost the food waste together with the garden waste. Then people can experiment a bit themselves with how many different useful crops they can grow. Such hobby work can hopefully be educational for the children. In this way they can get the idea to ​​grow something that is more unusual in the area, when they grow up. Now there are already many building sites with small plots, yes, but then we can probably supplement it with garden colonies.

And what about all the food that the shops throw away? Can’t it be used for animal feed as well? Both that and food waste from households can surely be used for pig feed? So it’s just a matter of building a small pig barn in an open field, with lots of heather and gorse, fencing it in and letting the pigs go in and out as they like. They like to dig in the ground and gnaw roots and they fertilize the soil, so after a while we might be able to plant something more valuable there.

Vanylven as an example.

I grew up in Vanylven municipality. The old road ran through the municipal center of Fiskå, but the new road was laid close to the center, this is typical. Now the center lie between the fjord and the road. On the other side of the road there is flat land up towards the foot of the mountain, here there was a building field with small plots. It is practical and functional, but little view.

Further out on the north side of the fjord is Nordstranda, it is a sunny beach where the terrain slopes up to the foot of the mountain. Here there is a building field site with a much better view. Further out comes Hakkalestranda, 10-20 km from Fiskå. Here, too, the terrain slopes up to the foot of the mountain, here is view of the ocean and the islands as well, with sunsets in the ocean in the summer. There are many cabin fields here, also combined boatshouse/hut, there are many who invest in tourism this way, both on the mainland and out on the islands. In Sandvika there is a great beach and marina. Here is Hakkalegarden, they have invested in tourisme to the farm, with many different kinds of animals, so it is like a small zoo. An excellent offer for families with children. So it happens that people from the municipality take car trips out here, to visit Hakkalegarden or watch the sunset. Many people come from far away and it is possible to spend the night at a small campsite down by the sandy beach.

There are many small farms here that are not in use, so I think it would have been great to create construction sites with allotment gardens here. It could preferably be in combination with a campsite, with shared sanitary facilities. People could choose for themselves whether they wanted cabins there as well, depending on how far they had to travel. So it could be attractive to people both in the municipality and neighboring municipalities.

 

Christ is the Truth that set us free. So we can thank him for modern science.

God freed his people from slavery under the idols in Egypt and led them to the promised land, where he was to be their God and they were to be his people. His words were like seeds that he sowed in the heart’s soil, he cultivated the heart’s soil, watered it, planted and sowed, so their lives were like a well-watered gardens. And they were to cultivate the land, so that it bore fruit for their own benefit. Such was the blessing.

But when they turned away from him, they felt the curse instead. Others came and robbed and destroyed and finally their land was conquered and they were taken away as slaves. The same thing happened to their neighbors, but after a while they were allowed to return to their lands. This is a model of the gospel that was to be preached to all peoples. They started the priestly service, rebuilt the temple and the walls around Jerusalem and immediately felt the blessing again. They were to cultivate the land and enjoy the fruits of it themselves.

Nevertheless, it was prophesied about the Foolish Shepherd who shepherded the sheep for slaughters of the sheep traders (Zach.11). So the sheep traders sold them to slavery and death and got rich on it. People slaved under idols made of sticks and stone, but the Bible called them the Lie. In contrast to this, Christ is the Truth who frees us from slavery to sin and idols. Sin separated people from God, but with one sin offering he took away sin once and for all. He paid the price for us with His own blood, to buy us back to the true and living God. Christ is the last Adam, who is from heaven and who has become a life-giving spirit for us, he gives us spirit and life from heaven and awakens us to life in communion with himself and the Father.

Around the year 1600 ac the development of modern science began, then modern technology also came and with it came prosperity. I claim it came as a result of that Christ is the Truth that set us free and that the Father cares for us as his children, so we are right to thank the Father and the Son for it (Rev.4,9.. & 5,9. .). We were blessed by faith in Christ, first with spiritual blessing and then with material blessing.

People of Israel, a freed people who were enslaved.

God freed his people from slavery under the gods in Egypt and led them to the promised land, where he was to be their God and they were to be his people. There was also an economic point in this, so if it became so bad financially for someone that they became slaves, they were to be freed after seven years and take back their land on the inheritance.

Under King David, around 1000 BC, they became a great kingdom that stretched all the way to the Euphrates.

Psalm.128.
        
          1 Blessed are all who fear the LORD, who walk in obedience to him.

2 You will eat the fruit of your labor; blessings and prosperity will be yours.

3 Your wife will be like a fruitful vine within your house; your children will be like olive shoots around your table.

4 Yes, this will be the blessing for the man who fears the LORD.

5 May the LORD bless you from Zion; may you see the prosperity of Jerusalem all the days of your life.

6 May you live to see your children’s children— peace be on Israel.

But then they started worshiping the gods of the neighboring peoples, the Baal gods, but then things went bad for them. God sent the two great prophets, Elijah and then Elisha, then came the prophet Amos, around 760 BC. He blamed both them and their neighboring people. He blamed the people of Israel for being dishonest in trade and selling the poor.

Amos.2, 4 This is what the LORD says: “For three sins of Judah, even for four, I will not relent. Because they have rejected the law of the LORDand have not kept his decrees, because they have been led astray by false gods,the gods their ancestors followed,

5 I will send fire on Judah that will consume the fortresses of Jerusalem.”

6 This is what the LORD says: “For three sins of Israel, even for four, I will not relent. They sell the innocent for silver, and the needy for a pair of sandals.

7 They trample on the heads of the poor as on the dust of the ground and deny justice to the oppressed. Father and son use the same girl and so profane my holy name.

8 They lie down beside every altar on garments taken in pledge. In the house of their god they drink wine taken as fines.

Amos.5,
4 This is what the LORD says to Israel: “Seek me and live;

5 do not seek Bethel, do not go to Gilgal, do not journey to Beersheba. For Gilgal will surely go into exile, and Bethel will be reduced to nothing. ”

6 Seek the LORD and live, or he will sweep through the tribes of Joseph like a fire; it will devour them, and Bethel will have no one to quench it.

7 There are those who turn justice into bitterness and cast righteousness to the ground.

8 He who made the Pleiades and Orion, who turns midnight into dawn and darkens day into night, who calls for the waters of the sea and pours them out over the face of the land— the LORD is his name.

9 With a blinding flash he destroys the stronghold and brings the fortified city to ruin.

10 There are those who hate the one who upholds justice in court and detest the one who tells the truth.

11 You levy a straw tax on the poor and impose a tax on their grain. Therefore, though you have built stone mansions, you will not live in them; though you have planted lush vineyards, you will not drink their wine.

12 For I know how many are your offenses and how great your sins. There are those who oppress the innocent and take bribes and deprive the poor of justice in the courts.

13 Therefore the prudent keep quiet in such times, for the times are evil.

Amos.8, 4 Hear this, you who trample the needy and do away with the poor of the land,

5 saying, “When will the New Moon be over that we may sell grain, and the Sabbath be ended that we may market wheat?”— skimping on the measure, boosting the price and cheating with dishonest scales,

6 buying the poor with silver and the needy for a pair of sandals, selling even the sweepings with the wheat.

7 The LORD has sworn by himself, the Pride of Jacob: “I will never forget anything they have done.

8 “Will not the land tremble for this, and all who live in it mourn? The whole land will rise like the Nile; it will be stirred up and then sink like the river of Egypt.

God punished the people of Israel because they turned away from him, so they did not get to enjoy the fruits of their work in sowing and harvesting and planting vineyards.

But then he reversed their course and saved them from that punishment.

Amos.9,11 11 “In that day I will restore David’s fallen shelter— I will repair its broken walls and restore its ruins— and will rebuild it as it used to be,

12 so that they may possess the remnant of Edom and all the nations that bear my name, ” declares the LORD, who will do these things.

13 “The days are coming,” declares the LORD, “when the reaper will be overtaken by the plowman and the planter by the one treading grapes. New wine will drip from the mountains and flow from all the hills,

14 and I will bring my people Israel back from exile.“They will rebuild the ruined cities and live in them. They will plant vineyards and drink their wine; they will make gardens and eat their fruit.

15 I will plant Israel in their own land, never again to be uprooted from the land I have given them,” says the LORD your God.

Samaria fell in 722 BC and Jerusalem in 575 BC. Both the people of Israel and their neighboring peoples were carried away to Babylonia. Under the Persian king Cyrus, they were allowed to return to their lands and it is a model of the gospel that were to be preached to all peoples. The people of Israel began to build the temple and the wall around Jerusalem, the prophets Zechariah and Haggai encouraged them to do so. The prophet Zechariah said that the high priest Joshua and the other priests who did temple service were examples of what was to come, he should look forward to the coming of God’s servant, Renning, that is Christ. So they were a model for the priesthood in the new covenant, the essential new thing about it is that Christ has taken away sin once and for all with one sin offering. Zerubbabel led the building work and Zechariah prophesied that it should not be done by force or power, but by God’s Spirit (Zechariah 3-4). We learn more about this in 1.Pet.2,1-10.

But Zechariah also prophesied about a bad time to come, when the Foolish Shepherd would tend the sheep for slaughter for the sheep traders (Zach.11). So they weren’t finished with that problem yet, because for a while it was going to get worse. In the Greco-Syrian era, under Antiochus IV Epiphanes, it was horrible. But it also happened later, first with the indulgence trade in the Catholic Church and then with the large-scale slave trade under imperialism.

The people of Israel worshiped the heavenly host, the sun, the moon, the stars and the planets and idols made of stick and stone. But God’s prophets told them that the gods who did not create heaven and earth are not gods. The gods made of sticks and stones, do not see, do not hear and do not do anything. There is no spirit in them and people have no use for them. Those who make them and worship them are wasting time, effort and money on things that are worthless. These idols are the Lie. But contrary to that, Christ is the Truth who freed us from slavery to sin and idols. He paid the price for us with his own blood, to buy us back to the true and living God, so we will belong to him and live for him. Christ is life and he gives us life, so we must live for him.

In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was barren and empty, and darkness lay over the depths of the sea. But the Spirit of God hovered over the water. Then God said there should be light and then there was light. God spoke and it happened, he did his work by his Word and his Spirit. He who said that light should shine forth in the darkness, he has also let it shine in our hearts. He does his work in us by his Word and his Spirit. God created everything by His Word. In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God (John 1). Christ is the Word of God, in him there is life and life is the light of men. So he is the light in the Age of Enlightenment as well. Christ preached the gospel of the kingdom of God, this is so fundamental that he could say that he who is not with him is against him, he who does not gather with him scatters. The narrow road and the narrow gate lead to life, the broad road and the wide gate lead to destruction. There is no way of compromise.

Become alientated to market forces or understand how they works?

In the western world, the welfare society was developed by Keynes’ mixed economy, it was a success, the Nordics are a good example of that. But it does not quite fit with the Marxist forecasts, the “welfare society” is something new in relation to this, so what will dogmatic Marxists do with it? According to Marxism, people originally lived in a classless society, then came slave society, then feudal society, then capitalism and then communism was to come in the end, a classless society again, it was to be ruled by the dictatorship of the proletariat. Nevertheless, radicals have continued to fight against such a development, to try to introduce the dictatorship of the proletariat at an earlier stage and it has so far proved to be a “renaissance” for slave society. One can claim that the slave drivers preyed on the slaves and feudal society developed to the nobility preying on those it was supposed to protect. Then they claim that the capitalists preyed on the workers too. With a similar way of thinking, it is possible to develop the welfare society into a parasitic society, so that both the nation-state and the welfare society collapse, than there might be a chance it might become more like Marx thought. But alienation is essential in that “forecast” and this means that the workers and most people do not understand how production works. Therefore, they do not understand how the economy works either. But this is not enlightenment. So people are deceived and it has happened in many societies. What is needed is enlightenment instead of alienation.

It also reminds us that the serpent enticed Eve by saying that if they ate from the tree of knowledge, they would become like God and know good and evil. So with such knowledge, they moralize about market forces and claim they have not done anything good. As if the market forces are like a person, a god, a religious myth?

Former prime minister from the Labour party, Oddvar Nordli claimed that market forces did not solve social problems, but on the contrary created many social problems. But what are market forces? This is reminiscent of Marxist alienation, the workers were so alienated from the means of production that they no longer understood how the goods were made. So both the factory owners, the means of production and the goods that were produced were like gods to them.

But what are market forces? Let’s imagine a market in a small country town, where the farmers bring their goods in the autumn. Some sell cheap plums and finish early and get to go home. Some sell more expensive plums and have to wait until late in the afternoon before they are ready. But then rumors spread about the price of plums, so the sellers find an average price and adjust the price accordingly. This is how market forces work and how they get a market price. What is most decisive here is what the people want and what they are willing to pay for it, so it is a buyer’s market. We may well call it freedom and democracy, but it is of course basically a matter in every society, it would in any case be very strange if that were not the case.

Perhaps there is also someone selling home-knit sweaters. People liked them and several wanted such jumpers, but they quickly sold out. Then there were more people who started knitting, some bought knitting machines so they could knit more, they stocked up through the winter and the next autumn there were many more jumpers on the market. This again shows the importance of the buyer’s market, more people wanted jumpers, therefore more were produced, so more people were able to buy jumpers. In order to be able to afford to buy them, perhaps they found that it was important for them to produce something that people needed, so they would be willing to pay for it.

As long as ordinary people are honest about what they need, so they prioritize spending money on what they need most, then this will satisfy their material needs and solve their social problem. How can anyone claim otherwise?

Keynes’ economic policy in Germany and Norway and in the Marshall plan.

How could Germany manage to rise so quickly after first world war and the hard 30s. It is claimed that it was due to Keynes’ economic model, which is a mixture of market economy and planned economy, in that the state actively intervenes to counteract major economic fluctuations. The state must save money in times of upswing and spend money on government projects in times of downturn, in order to get the wheels of the economy turning again. And that is precisely what the Nazis did, but the state projects were essentially arms production.

During the hard 30s there were many on the left in Norway who wanted a revolution, but then the war came and it was ruinous for everyone. But the labor movement with the Labor Party settled on a moderate class struggle, the Gerhardsen government followed Keynes’ economic model. Purchasing power increased little by little and so the wheels of economic life started turning again. This is how Marshall aid worked in Western Europe, this is how it worked back on the American economy as well and thus led to economic growth in the entire western world. The moderate class struggle was an important driving force in the rise of the Roman Empire and we can now say that it has been in Western Europe in recent times as well.

This was to use market forces for the benefit of the whole people, how can someone then claim that they have not solved any social problem. So the Gerhardsen government used market forces to develop a welfare state, step by step, and that policy continued after his reign. The oil industry posed new challenges for this policy, but the governing authorities managed to pursue a policy which meant that we as a people and a nation took part in the oil adventure and ignited it. Then it also became clear that the oil workers had to moderate their wage demands and the governing authorities had to be careful about using “oil money” in society, rather saving for later use in accordance with Keynes’ economic model.

It is still completely wrong to claim that it was only the Labor Party that created the welfare state, even without using market forces and on the contrary portraying market forces as something bad that they had to oppose. Such a representation is pure nonsense. In each situation, the question is what do we make of it, and so the question is what we ourselves want to use market forces for. If we understand them, so that we know how to use it for our own good. We can conclude that market forces act to satisfy the needs of the people, if only they are allowed to act correctly and that is by allowing ordinary people to recognize what their needs are and act accordingly. This is precisely how we can satisfy our material needs and in this way we can solve our social problems. And that’s good, right?

Become alient to God or become his children?

Jesus said that we should not worry about food and clothing, God clothes the grass and feeds the birds, so he will also feed and clothe us. It is natural for the grass and the birds, yes, it is natural for us too. They didn’t work, shouldn’t we work then? We shouldn’t worry. But we must seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, then we will get everything else in addition to that.

Isn’t that how market forces also work then? Fair enough, we have to work to earn money. When we are able to pay for what we want, market forces will act so that what we need is produced. Of course, Jesus spoke about the birds and the grass not working, but God still gave them what they needed. He was basically talking about something more fundamental, it was nature that worked like that and it was created by God.

That a man wants to have a wife and a woman wants to have a husband is surely also included then, it is included in God’s kingdom, because it was then that he created humans like this (1.Mos.2), so this also concerns about how nature works. That the man and his wife care for each other and their children, in marriage and family life, is included in the Father’s care for us as his children, just as he cares for the work of his hands.

After the Fall, Adam and Eve hid from God with a bad conscience. They had therefore acquired a way of thinking that did not correspond to living in society with the God who had created them. The people became strangers to him, so they no longer knew him, we can also call that alienation. We also see this with the Jews in the old covenant, but God wanted to make a new covenant with them, so that they would all know him.

Jer.31, 31 “The days are coming,” declares the LORD, “when I will make a new covenant with the people of Israel and with the people of Judah.

32 It will not be like the covenant I made with their ancestors when I took them by the hand to lead them out of Egypt, because they broke my covenant, though I was a husband to them, ” declares the LORD.

33 “This is the covenant I will make with the people of Israel after that time,” declares the LORD. “I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people.

34 No longer will they teach their neighbor, or say to one another, ‘Know the LORD,’ because they will all know me, from the least of them to the greatest,” declares the LORD. “For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more.”

How fundamentally did Norwegian politics change at the end of the 1970s?

Norway has always been a large shipping nation with a lot of trade and we have gained large export industries. So we can truly say that we have used market forces to build the country. But this explanation doesn’t replace the explanation that Norwegian men and women have built it with their work. It in turn doesn’t replace the explanation that God built it with his Word and his Spirit. But we are right to rest on the basis of what God has done, both with creation and the work of salvation, and to honor our parents and our ancestors for what they have done.

The labor movement with the Labor Party honored the worker for the work they did and demanded that they be “properly” paid for it. But in the 1970s there was protest against the Bible’s teaching that God created woman to be a help to man and this broke with how our society has been structured. It breaks with the love God has for us in Christ, it breaks with the man’s love for the woman that makes him work for her too and it breaks with her responding to his love with love. So it breaks with their love and care for their children. Then they are no longer able to build up society as before.

What is the alternative? She sells herself as a whore and expects him to buy her as a whore, so he sells himself as a prostitute customer. She preys on him and he exploits her. The so-called women’s liberation and the politicization of women then act so that he still has to pay for her, as a whore, but he gets nothing in return. Because they have both been slaves and then others have run away with their money. In addition, they spend money on things they do not need and which do not help build the country. In this way they are deceived.

Previously, the priests said the blessing and the vast majority of politicians agreed. But now they say something else instead and what is it? The curse!? You can wander who says it first and who chases after. But the most important thing for the people is to choose the blessing.

Slave society and evil nature.

God created all things by his Word. He is almighty, just, holy and good. He finally created man and concluded that everything he had created was good, so he rested on the seventh day after all his work.

But the people turned away from him and became slaves to their idols and thus they got an evil nature. So it was connected, since people became stupid and evil, they found out that they needed idols made of sticks and stones, so they could show, to keep the people together and order society. But servitude to such gods made them also stupid and evil. We also find this problem in ancient philosophy and it was not so easy to deal with, no.

This problem also faced Jesus and his disciples, and then it became very revealing how this unfolded. Paul was a zealous Pharisee who persecuted the Christians, but Christ revealed himself to him from heaven and asked him why he persecuted him. It was a puzzle to him that he who belonged to the learned upper class, with traditions from Moses and the prophets, had made such a thorough mistake. He explained it with his bad nature, which made him a fool. And then he explained that he was sold as a slave, without being aware of it. He explains this to us in the letter to the Romans.

Paul preached the gospel both to the Jews and to the Gentiles, but was opposed by the Jews, because they demanded circumcision. But the circumcision in the old covenant is a symbol for the circumcision of the heart in the Holy Spirit and we have received it through faith in Christ. Therefore we do not need to be circumcised in the flesh.

Paul was a sail maker and tried to make a living from it, while he preached the gospel. Then he noticed that in the Christian church services there were preachers who performed services for payment. He was nevertheless happy that the gospel was preached, but then he warned the church that “greedy wolves” would come between them. Christ is the Good Shepherd, he is the chief shepherd, so the shepherds must serve him. But the greedy wolves have opposite motives. This is also reminiscent of what was prophesied about the Foolish Shepherd who shepherded the sheep for slaughter for the sheep traders (Zech.11).

In faith Abel presented a better offering than Cain and God blessed him. Then Cain was so envious and angry that he beat him to death. Jesus’ blood speaks better than Abel’s blood (Heb.11,4 & 12,22-24). The apostle John said that we must not be like Cain, the one who hated his brother and killed him. It is the old, evil nature that is like this, but the new nature is like Abel, he offered a better sacrifice and God blessed him. Christ has made the best offer for us, with one sin offering he took away sin once and for all. When we accept the grace God gives us on that basis, it is our sin offering and that is good enough. So we don’t need to offer any other sin offering in addition to that. If someone starts thinking like this and tries it, it can quickly become like going the way of Cain and it doesn’t end well.

In the Middle Ages, the leadership of the Catholic Church decided that Christ was so strict that ordinary people could not come to him directly, so they had to go through the pope, priests and saints. Then the indulgence trade, the confessionals introduced and what was worse followed. Then this can be explained as that it was Cain (the Cain nature) who was envious of Abel (the Abel nature), so he displaced Abel to take over the priest service, it was as if he beat Abel , to take over. This is how they also tried to replace the Levitical priesthood in the Seleucid kingdom. It was a model for the priesthood in the new covenant and in the Middle Ages they tried to replace it as well. It was a renewed version of the Foolish Shepherd who shepherded the sheep for slaughter for the sheep traders (Sak.11). The sheep were sold into slavery and to death and the sheep traders got rich from it. Who were the sheep traders in the Middle Ages? It had to be the nobility, the landowners, the counts and the vassals, the ones who were supposed to protect the people. While the church nobility acted as the Foolish Shepherd who shepherded the sheep for them.

The traditional moral-philosophical point here is that the noble upper class would present itself as so much wiser than the lower class that it should think and speak, while the lower class had to remain silent and listen, then barely hear anything wise and be enlightened. For the upper class, they only had to work for themselves and go to war to defend themselves and their country. In recent times, it is strange how this attitude appears in the most incredible contexts, that it is a so-called learned upper class who will think and speak instead of you. But it is probably the case that the women’s movement protested against Paul’s teaching that Christ is the head of the man and the man is the head of the woman and thus Christ is the head of the church which is his bride. They have then made politics out of this. The explanation for this is surely still that the Foolish Shepherd makes the sheep for slaughter for the sheep traders, so they are sold into slavery and to death. Because someone still thinks they become rich from it.

To explain this by comparing it to Cain, who was jealous of Abel and pretended to hate him and beat him to death, is a psychological explanation. So we can very well compare with psychology, with psychoanalysis. Freud refer to an ancient myth about a boy named Oedipus, who was adopted away from his parents. When he returned to his hometown as a young man, he did not recognize his parents. He got into arguing with his father and killed him and then he married his own mother. When he discovered that it was his parents, she killed herself and he blinded himself. Sigmund Freud referred to this when he defines the Oedipal phase, when a young child is 3-5 years old and recently weaned, he will easily perceive his father as a competitor for his mother.

But when we are trained in the Christian faith, this should not be a big problem. The big problem we encounter is when the Cain nature becomes envious of the Abel nature. Speaking of the Oedipus complex, this rather degenerates so that the nobility and church nobility become envious of both the father and the son and perceive them as competitors.

The ecclesiastical nobility becomes like the Foolish Shepherd who shepherded the sheep for the slaughter for the sheep traders, the rest of the nobility becomes like the sheep traders who sold them to slavery and death and got rich from it. It is a continuation of the slave society, from their point of view it can be called the parasite society.

When a young man reaches the age that he wants to have a girl-friend and a wife, there are probably many who perceive it as the contradictory interests between him and Christ, this can be explained by church history and the moral philosophical tradition and by the contrast between the spiritual and the material. As if Christ is their rival compared to the Oedipal phase. I would still argue that this is a misunderstanding or a lack of understanding and spiritual insight. Because Christ died in our place, so God reconciled the world to himself. On that basis we can get harmony between heart and brain, body and soul, spiritual needs and material needs. But we must prioritize the spiritual, we must seek first the kingdom of God and his justice, then we will get everything else in addition to that.

This should go well with science and modern technology. Because here we examine physical nature and try to understand it with invisible ideas that are not limited by the physical nature that we observe. This is also shown by the fact that we build and produce new products.

He gave all who accepted Christ the right to be children of God, born of water and the Spirit. God is spirit and God is love, he showed us his love when Christ died in our place, to atone for our sin. We accept his love in faith in Christ and experience that he loves us and cares for us as his children. We love because he first loves us. Christ’s love for us is like a courtship, he loves his church as his bride and as his bride she responds to his courtship, so she responds to his love with love. This is fundamental for the love relationship between man and woman, for marriage and family life. So I claim we are right to answer yes to this proposal, so that it becomes fundamental when a man wants to propose to a woman, because he must know how to win a wife in sanctification.

When I was young, I noticed that the love relationship between Christ and his bride was born in me by the Holy Spirit, so for me it applied to the love relationship between man and woman. Later, when I started to read more in the Bible, I discovered that it had to do with Paul’s teaching. It is also consistent with what is written in Heb.3-4 that the word through faith merges with us, so we get to enter God’s rest.

God has created all things by his Word and he still does his work by his Word and his Spirit, in accordance with 1.Mos.2, so he still builds communities of people, because he is the same now. But now Christ is the last Adam, who is from heaven and who has become a life-giving spirit for us. He is the head of the man and the man is the head of the woman and in this way Christ is the head of the church which is his bride. God creates us in him and thus he makes something new. God is spirit and God is love, he is the love between us, also between man and woman, so he creates marriage and family life, builds church and society.

At the baptism of children in the church, the priests speak beautifully that Jesus blessed the little children and told his disciples to let them come to him, because the kingdom of God belongs to such. People have to turn around and act like little children to get into it. The priest then makes an agreement with them that the children will be educated in the Christian faith. This is how they put themselves in the position of teaching people what is most fundamental. God has created all things by his Word, so he and his Word, his Spirit and his kingdom is most fundamental. It is apparently a very exalted and supreme position to teach others this, but time and time again it has been shown that they use that position to teach people something else instead. In this way people are fooled. The true and living God does his work with his Word and his Spirit, replacing his Word with something else is like replacing him with an idol made of stick and stone, the truth is replaced by a lie, what is real is replaced by something artificial. The artificial gods have no spirit, they don’t think and speak, they don’t do anything and those who make them and worship them have no use for them, so they throw away time, energy and money on something they have no benefit for. The only thing they have left for that is that a few can parasite on others through religion.

And lately there has certainly come a new kind of nobility and church nobility, who are envious of both father and son and who are envious of both the God and his Son. So they do not honor the Father and the Son for creation and salvation (cf. the 3rd commandment), but on the contrary deny the Father and the Son. It is Antichrist then. Then they do not honor father and mother for what they have done for them, do not honor our parents and ancestors for the society they have built. They replace that explanation by claiming that they have parasited, as if society has been built up by parasiting. Then they use it as an argument for them to parasite too and for many others to parasite, yes, because that is how the society has been structured and they will continue to do so. But what is currently going on is probably rather that this world is facing its doom. Still man needs to be saved by faith in Christ.

Jesus said he would make me a channel for his blessing.

Jesus said he would make me a channel for his blessing. Yes, I blessed Christ and thus I am blessed, so I become a blessing and say the blessing, for my loved ones, my people and my country and that still means entering into society with God (1.Mos.2) Then we experience and acknowledge that the Lord is our God, we acknowledge it, say it and thank him as our God and thank him for the salvation he has given us in Christ. He is God for the white man, so with God’s blessing and help the white man has built a better society with great values, with good help from his wife as well.

The God of the Bible is the rightful God for all nations, so the gospel should be preached to all nations. When we preach the gospel to other peoples, it is probably not so strange if modern science and technology follow along. First we received the spiritual blessing, then the material blessing. Then it may well be the case for the other peoples as well, that first they get the spiritual blessing, by believing in Christ. Then the material blessing comes afterwards, of course with modern science and technology, as with us. There is also a point in developing new technology that matches the natural environment they live in and the needs they have.

God does his work with me and with us through his Word and his Spirit. The church is God’s farmland, God’s building. We get to be God’s co-workers by planting and watering, but God gives growth. We get to build on the foundation and then it is important to build with something that is lasting and valuable, gold, silver and precious stones. Yes, as God’s co-workers we get to experience that God saves and creates something that lasts forever. In faith, we can thank him for that.