Commentary on 1 John 2:16

by Johannes Anti-Hominem

“For all that is in the world–the desire of the flesh, the desire of the eyes, the pride in riches–comes not from the Father but from the world.” 

Here, the apostle delineates–though does not describe–three basic forms of human sickness. Because he provides merely a taxonomy, and not a phenomenology proper, it will be my task here to sketch three brief examples of each distinctive form of sickness; a brief compendium of those illnesses that plague the soul. 
 
The desire of the flesh. This is the perverse desire to have one’s own way in the world, to dominate, to manipulate, and to order the world–and all of its inhabitants–to one’s own perverse way of reckoning. To be Master, Teacher, and Lord: the Center of Attention. The Father of Lies is the archetype,  Japheth is the ancestor, and today’s example is The Teacher.
 
The desire of the eyes. This is a perverse way of looking at God’s creation. And looking, and looking, and looking. The one who is possessed by the desire of the eyes will prioritize the seeing of bodily images over and above all other tasks. He will stare, with little regard for propriety. He will imagine, and those images will come to colonize and to dominate his imagination, and even his dreams. King David is the archetype, Ham is the ancestor, and the Two Gallants (and in particular, the Gallant of The Plains) exemplify this type today.
 
The pride in riches. This is a perverse misordering of material goods. It requires the least commentary, for it is the most crass, and the least interesting of the three basic human sin-sicknesses. However, it is also the most easily cured. The archetypal figures are the characters from our savior’s parables (the “rich man”), the ancestor is Shem, while our own example today is Lambkins.
 
Selah.

Behold, I Show You a Mystery

by Johannes Anti-Hominem

The following are not words of true teachers, but rather the words of a deceiver. For one has said: “Not all shall rise; rather, some shall sleep in the dust of the earth forever. One such man is Abel, son of Adam; another is the second Abel, son of the most high.”

But we say: “It is true that the second Abel recapitulates the first Abel in all manner of things. Just as the first Abel did not resist his brother Cain, but allowed him what is called ‘wolf space,’ neither  does the second Abel resist Cain. Rather, he grants unto him the steppes, the prairies, and a dry and cold place on which to roam.”

We say further: “But to deny that either the first or the second Abel has risen unto new life is rank apostasy. Let such a deceiver be Anathema.”

On Lupine Vision

by James Bathouprothes

What is the character of Lupine vision?

First, it is defined by curiosity. This curiosity is not intrinsic to the Lupine inner-eye, but to all external things. That is, the curio of all things evokes the actio of Lupine sight. The curio, though diffuse, exists in degrees and derives its intensity from what we call form.

Second, it is defined by fear. Embedded within the inner-eye is a sense of primal terror, that is, terror that it cannot be left unto itself. It is therefore driven to move outside itself as sight, uniting itself to external forms according to the drag of the curio.

Third, it is ordered as a circuit. The Lupine inner-eye desires to ever be outside itself. Form beckons to the Lupine inner-eye through the call of the curio. Lupine sight therefore goes out in order to unite itself to a particular form, returning into itself in order to care for the form.

Fourth, it is ordered according to dyadic symmetry. From the innermost part of the inner-eye, Lupine sight goes out as an ephemeral tone that repeats itself in two soundings: one which is a uniform whirr that oscillates between the audible and nearly inaudible, and the other that cries out as a piercing crack. This latter sounding is that which arouses the attention of whatever form has been laid hold of.

Of Teachers and Jesters

by James Bathouprothes

In the present age, there are many teachers who talk and talk and talk and talk. Their theology is a species of ancient foolishness.

One who refused to be called “teacher” remarked rightly: “The denser the darkness in which any one shrouded a subject, the more he puzzled himself and others with preposterous riddles, the greater his fame for acumen and learning.” Surely this describes the learning that struts around today.

Lament for (Such) a One

by Johannes Anti-Hominem

“Let the dogs deny that the Holy Spirit came down upon the apostles; or even let them discredit history! … By countless, wondrous means, Satan along with the whole world has endeavoured either to oppress or overwhelm the publication of Scripture, to obscure and obliterate it utterly from the memory of men–yet, like the palm, it has risen higher and higher and has remained unassailable. Indeed, scarcely has there ever been either a sophist or a rhetorician of superior ability who did not try all of his power against it; yet all have been unsuccesful.” ~ Jean Calvin, The Institutes of the Christian Religion

 

The authors of this journal know of a certain man who has sex like an animal and yet wishes to judge God’s WORD as untrue. 

He ridicules the very one who made him. And his heinous sexual immorality condemns him. He extinguishes daily the testimony of his very conscience. He makes a mockery of his baptism, yet sin makes a mockery of him.

Be not deceived, good readers: God is not mocked. Neither shall such a one prosper, nor should he boast.

The authors of this journal call down judgment upon his body, that his soul might be saved. He honors not the Name above all names; so shall his name be disgraced.

His knee bows not to the Authority on High; so shall his knees be broken.

His tongue confesses not the Maker of all; so shall his tongue be bruised.

His mind submits not to the authority of the WORD; so shall his mind lose its very capacity for words. He shall be as a beast for thirteen days, and on the fourteenth day, he must repent in sackcloth and ashes. Else a beast he shall remain, all the days of his life. He shall wander the green pastures of his homeland with the bulls and the sheep.

For the body may pass away in judgment by fire, but his immortal soul shall not pass away, but must suffer the eternal consequences of the sickness unto death of the flesh. O, but for his immortal soul; Alas, may the watchers watch as all sorts of iniquity are treaded under foot by him whose eye never rests. May his eternal soul be divorced by judgment from the body of iniquity and death and sexual immorality with those wicked eastern women of Babylon.

Selah.