Commentary

I have been wanting to write a whole commentary of the Bible for a number of years. I don't know if I will ever pull off such a feat, but I am going to try to put out bits of commentary here. Hopefully it will encourage and enlighten you.

My first section comes from Genesis 1. I have a Bible with some commentary within it, and it just kind of got me started, so I quoted it here.

Lifted from Zondervan NIV study Bible 2008:
Commentary on Gen 1:1-2:3;
“In the ancient Near East, most of the peoples had myths relating to how the world came to be. Prevalent in those myths were accounts of how one of the gods triumphed over a fierce and powerful beast that represented disorder, then fashioned the ordered world that people knew, and finally was proclaimed by the other gods to be the divine “king” over the world he had created -- a position ever subjected to the challenge of the forces of disorder.”

In Genesis we find a very different approach. The God we serve didn’t have to overcome anything. It is apparent that He is in total control. Much of the rest of the Bible rests on the truth that God is God and before Him there is no other.

Humanity does not handle the idea of ‘a supreme god being in control’ very well. From the earliest religions onward humanity has sought after weaker gods. Even after the revelation of an all powerful gods, humanity’s tendency has always been to depart from this simple truth: We serve an all powerful God. For the Israelites it was always the idolatrous religions of their neighbors. Today we trust the created world more than the creator of it; hence the phrase, “I’ll believe only what I see.” An effective warrior must decide early on that our God, though invisible is, was, and always will be supreme.

What is Babylon?

This one comes from one of my youth (whose personal information including name I will not reveal here)

There are a considerable number of scriptures on and about the city and nation of Babylon (in their inhabitants the Babylonians -- some of them were called Chaldeans as well). So this is a very short answer.

Babylon was originally a capital city of a nation by the same name (think New York city, New York state). It was pagan owned and operated. The Babylonians were very powerful in their day. To read about them they crop up in the last few chapters of 2 Kings and 2 Chronicles. They here and there all over Jeremiah and Ezekiel. All the events in Daniel happen in Babylon.
They were pagans, they worshiped idols and they respected sorcerers (often promoting them to high places in the government). So witchcraft was standard practice for them. They had a large and violent army that subdued many other nations (including Israel). They became wealthy through a combination of violent conquest and trade. Their standard worship practices included various forms of sexual immorality. As a people they boardered on amorality (no moral conviction)
They were great architects often building many monuments like Egypt. They also came up the the idea that an hour should be divided into 60 minutes.

The church realizes that it is up against a world spirit that is trying to tear us from the Lord. If that spirit got its way we would have a society in America that is very much like Babylon. Sadly it seems to have made a lot of headway in the last number of years.

The humans that like the world spirit, assume that the total absence of moral standards would grant us paradise (think of the 60s generation and their idea of "free love").

At the end of the age the dominate world power will look and act very much like Babylon, so much so that God actually calls a major center of world wide commerce at that time "Mystery Babylon the Great, Mother of Harlots" God will eventually judge the world (see last several chapters of Revelation).

So in Scripture Babylon is a symbol of the World system when it is allowed free reign.

Blessings,
David

The Sequel Already?!?!

I had two people on Sunday who came up to me inquiring about a sequel. The first one hasn't been out six months yet. Quoth the church administrator, "Sheesh!"

On the happy side, I have been working with a few people teaching them how to do the sort of territorial warfare described in the book. I have been taking their questions and recording the answers to them in a typed out fashion. I am going to start posting each question here.

Blessings,
David

Amazon

Hello All,

I just got news that Amazon.com now actually has the book in stock, and they are able to ship them out. So now they can be ordered there as well. It may be cheaper (depending on where you live) to get it from them. I would try to figure out cost, but they change prices seemingly on a whim. For comparison, I am selling my copies at $10 + shipping, which is working out to about $13 total. How ever you obtain a copy, I hope you enjoy it and that it is helpful.

Blessings,
David Falls

There Hee-eerrr!

The books are printed. At least my copies are. I am happy.

It's printing

Yay! A few weeks ago I finally got the last update off the the printer. Eventually, I should get hard copies. I haven't gotten on here much, because I have been busy with my day (really day and night) job of youth pastoring. I will eventually begin making more regular appearances here as I get comments from those who have read the book (what with it still being un-published and all, is a vanishingly small number of people).

Also, if you read this and happen to have questions or comments about some spiritual warfare related topic, feel free to post them.

In Him,
David Falls

Well,

It is 1:13AM, and I just finished my umteenth round of edits to this book. I will be e-mailing them back to my publisher in a few minutes before moving in a generally bed-ward direction.