Stare down Evil
The photo sat on the counter in her kitchen. It was more than ten years old now. The girl in the photo, had gotten married and divorced and had moved at least five times since then. She, and her friends, some sisters, some not, who had also gotten married, had moved, some out of the country.
Some seemed to be married to a way of thinking more than a person. One was married to a radical religion, and one to a radical gender ideology. Three were still married to their original husbands. That was what Filly saw, based on their choices.
And it made her sad that two of them currently did not seem very happy. And because the concept of marriage, biblically, was a concept that ensured for all humanity, men and women, the most likely chance of happiness. Somehow, some of these four girls seemed to have taken the crooked path, in spite of their Christian upbringing. What was the purpose in that? So Filly looked up her bible verse for the day, randomly, so that God could speak to her about this seeming incongruity.
4 And I will scatter toward every wind all that are about him to help him, and all his bands; and I will draw out the sword after them.
15 And they shall know that I am the Lord, when I shall scatter them among the nations, and disperse them in the countries.
Filly studied these words. There was always comfort for her in the words that spoke to the seeming problems at hand. “They will know that I am the Lord”.
And what she saw was that the Christian women, would not be permanently “converted” when they had been scattered because of the wrong ideas presented to them, but would ultimately recognize error and would be like the “leaven” in the “three measures of meal”. Three measures was a great quantity, a fellowship amount …more than what a family would use…so it was for a community.
three measures of meal equal about two gallons of meal (7.3 litersAn average loaf of bread contains about three cups of flour. Two gallons of meal, which is the equivalent of about eight quarts or thirty-two cups, would make nearly eleven loaves!
Leaven is that which recognizes truth and imparts it to the “bread” or the “community” of many flat unbelievers. Leaven helps the whole bread RISE UP to a new level. Not flat but sharp =) Kind of like how one light shines brightest in the dark places.
Filly got this “information” about the size of three measures of meal from “Forerunner commentary” when she did a search on “what the bible says about three measures of meal” however their commentary interpretation of the rest of the story of the meal and the leaven was the exact opposite of what Jesus was saying in the bible parable.
So Filly looked up where the misleading commentary came from and she learned it came from a “church of greater god”. The “commentary” was saying that the measures of meal were heaven (or the “church’s teachings or love service and devotion”), when The bible was saying that the leaven was heaven, while the commentary said that leaven was evil or satan, “aiming at the jugular of the church” to destroy it. This was the exact opposite of what Jesus was teaching. So Filly knew that the church of greater god was wrong. Satan, the great impersonator.
Aiming into the jugular was what Satan did to Charlie, a Christian. No thank you False prophets....that is NOT what God intended.
This is what the parable DOES mean…according to most scholars and Christians and bible experts…where the kingdom of heaven is the leaven.
This parable is much simpler than many are making it out to be.
When we add leaven to flour, it is no longer separable from the flour, nor is it distinguishable from it. You can’t point and say ‘here is the leaven’, and you can’t remove it or prevent it from leavening the flour once it’s mixed in.
In this way the kingdom of heaven enters the world and is ‘hidden’. (the kingdom of heaven is the leaven)
If a portion of flour contains leaven, when it is Used to make dough it is not the leaven that rises, but the whole portion of dough. In this way we see the impact of the leaven, not the leaven itself.
The girls who were raised Christians, knew “the kingdom of heaven” and had the ability to create impact as leaven once they recognized who they were as God’s children. They came from good trees. Because of their choice of crooked paths, they were unrecognizable from those cultures they had been mixed into and assimilated into… “scattered among the nations and dispersed into” as the bible verse said to her when she looked it up.
That was a comfort to her…to know that God had a good plan and that she knew his timing was perfect…he saw the assimilation and he knew where the good trees were. Good trees could not produce bad fruit and bad trees could not produce good fruit..therefore good trees would produce good fruit.
Filly took note of the “church” and its contradictory narrative, that had been given preferential treatment online…when she had done a search… what Wikipedia says…
The CGG, Church of the great god, headquartered in Fort Mill, South Carolina, continues to follow the teachings of Herbert W. Armstrong.CGG was organized as a religious non-profit church in January 1992 in Charlotte, North Carolina, with the primary leadership core consisting of Pastor John Ritenbaugh; elders John Reid, Edwin Pope, and James Russell; and Martin Collins and Richard Ritenbaugh. It held its first service via telephone conference call between Charlotte and a small group in Laguna Niguel, California, on January 11, 1992. About 20 members attended. It grew to several hundred members scattered across the United States, with groups in Charlotte; Southern California; Chicago, Washington, DC; Atlanta, Big Sandy, Texas; Harrisburg, Pennsylvania; Portland, Oregon; Phoenix,and several other locations.
Encyclopedic Dictionary of Cults, Sects, and World Religions: Revised and Updated Edition
The article also said to “see also”
- Armstrongism
- Christian Sabbatarianism …(which claims to be about honoring the sabbath….)
but sounds like saboteurism… which means to sabotage …an act or process tending to hamper or hurt …deliberate subversion ….
Of Christians?
A small “church” given preferential search engine results online…in Fort Mill, SC., Charlotte, Chicago, Washington DC , Portland, and Phoenix…how interesting. But Filly knew that God was still in charge and he said in that same chapter before the randomly chosen verse…
My net also will I spread upon him, and he shall be taken in my snare:
and then he said after the randomly chosen verse…
But I will leave a few men of them from the sword, from the famine, and from the pestilence; that they may declare all their abominations among the heathen whither they come; and they shall know that I am the Lord.
Filly wondered what had happened to temporarily change things towards evil. In her mind, people with false words in court systems, and people with false words in media systems and people with false words as pastors of churches and false words online portrayed as truthful “information”, were the everyday “meal” that needed leaven.
Women who marry into a culture that is flat, or not heavenly, who are from good trees, will still bear good fruit. That was the story of the leaven. It happened when those women, recognizing that they were the leaven, were the secret that God put in the flour, and changed the flour into bread, and lifted their surroundings.
Filly thought about what she knew of the two girls who had “scattered”.
The girls had been friends first in college…Filly learned after the fact that the two who seemed to be at odds with Christianity, met on a suicide hotline. Why were they both there…Filly did not know. One had said that something happened during a Rotary club year long trip, that had been traumatizing to her. Drinking had been involved…and up to that point, in her family, no one drank. She would not say what happened. But after high school going to Europe, and starting college, she lost sight of who she really was as leaven. That was when onr told Filly that she was first bi, then vegan, then trans. She said she had been that way all along and “didn’t Filly know”.
Meanwhile the other girl, had asked Filly if she thought she should become a radically different religion, because that was what her boyfriend wanted her to do. She asked this of Filly one time when they were on holiday together in Colorado. He wanted to marry her, get her to change religion, and move to his country. Filly remembered that she had told the girl that it was a mistake to make a radical change in something without giving it lots of time and thought. At least a year she said. This girl also had lost sight of who she was as leaven.
The girl seemed to have been listening at the time but instead had made the change weeks later, and suddenly was wearing a head covering, and would not let the dog near her because it was not “clean”, and needed a room to herself to pray four or five times a day…which was not possible in the crowded cabin. What both girls seemed to have in common was that both girls seemed to crave meaningful “connection”…in un-heavenly communities…one with her boyfriend who was Muslim and one with people who were trans. The girls stayed friends while this was happening even though culturally the Muslim community was not supposed to speak to the trans community.
The one who thought she was trans had a group she associated with on Furcadia, an online game platform, and suddenly becoming vegan, and simultaneously was asking for companionship to trans meetings in Austin Tx. Filly argued vehemently against this, but the girl insisted she was going no matter what, just to “learn” , so Filly went with her to several meetings at places like churches or bars hoping to help prevent mistakes. Most of the people who attended were men who dressed like women but some were women and some were even kids.
When asked at these meetings , Filly gave her truth as she knew it, that growing up, children should be focused on developing their talents like art, music, dance, sports, writing, reading and more, because these are the things that help a person feel happy and good about themselves and help them overcome evil when presented with it. They should not obsessed with sex or gender because these things isolate and ostracize and derail a person. These things also seemed to be associated with drugs that had side effects and long term negative consequences and should be rejected for that reason as well.She said that the parents using drugs to “help” kids were making a mistake.
Then in spite of many conversations and pleading, the one girl started wearing bindings for her chest, and started taking hormones to deepen her voice and grow facial and body hair, and went on to change her name and wanted everyone to start calling her something else.
The other girl married and moved to a Muslim country. Some family members sympathized, some refused. But no one understood…and because of this choice, instead of finding meaningful connections with family members, the two girls who chose the crooked path ended up feeling even more isolated from family. The girl who moved out of the USA told Filly that not all those in her religion wanted to hurt Christians…but according to research, Their leader wrote things which supported pedophilia and incest, and rape and torture. Quran Chapter eight verse 69.
Filly, after years of contemplating this, had decided that the lack of meaningful connections for the girls growing up, plus traumatic events, had temporarily sabotaged their view of the world…and she had not been aware of it…but the art created by the one girl who was an artist, had demonstrated this “staring at evil” as her art was her view of the world and of herself…and Filly wondered why she had never connected the dots. But maybe this happened because this was how God hid leaven in bread.
One girl was an outstanding swimmer and athlete, a fantastic musician with the violin, and proficient with at least three languages. She could focus on a project for hours without getting bored or tired and she was an accomplished artist.…she was gifted. The other girl was an incredible musician and composer, as well as a gifted dancer and artist and proficient at languages. She too was gifted. Both had ways to express “heaven” no matter what their surroundings. of that Filly was certain…the leaven would still do what it was intended to do.