A Historical Analysis of James
Lorin Friesen, December 2024
Introduction
This essay presents the hypothesis that the book of James is a detailed prophecy of Protestantism, beginning with the Middle Ages and ending with the current era. I am starting this essay in November 2024, right after Donald Trump was re-elected, and Trump is currently filling his cabinet with extremist, anti-scientific candidates. Exit polls indicate that 62% of Protestants voted for Trump. One headline reads, ‘White Evangelicals help Donald Trump to regain the White House’. In John 8:44 Jesus tells the Pharisees, “You are of your father the devil, and you desire to do the desires of your father. He was a murderer from the beginning, and has not stood in the truth, because there is no truth in him. Whenever he might speak falsehood, he speaks from the own; for he is a liar, and the father of it.” Devil means ‘slanderer’ and slander is Trump’s mode of operation. Trump has no truth in him. The Washington Post fact checker concluded that Trump told over 30,000 untruths during his first presidency, ‘averaging about 21 erroneous claims a day’. When evangelicals support and elect such a person, then they are literally making a pact with a devil.
However, I can also see why some evangelical Christians would feel attracted to Donald Trump because I share some of their concerns. While I am strongly pro-science, I do not subscribe to the universal tolerance of political correctness but instead use the theory of mental symmetry to make moral statements based in mental and spiritual wholeness. I also do not believe in gender fluidity but rather think that achieving mental wholeness involves developing both male and female thought as distinct entities and then mentally marrying them in a heterosexual manner. And while I respect Native expertise, I think that it is mentally and spiritually destructive to place indigenous knowing and indigenous spirituality above historical Western, scientific thought. In each of these cases, I have a positive cognitive reason for holding to my beliefs. Thus, I am not anti-woke but rather pro-mental wholeness.
Because of the impending return of Trump, I think it is vital to place Protestantism within a historical and prophetic context. We will see in this essay that James discusses several episodes of Protestant Christianity making a pact with the devil. And James also describes Protestantism coming to birth in an era when Catholicism made a pact with the devil. Thus, this has happened before. The Catholic Church of today is far more moral and biblical than the Renaissance papacy of Martin Luther’s time. Similarly, each episode of Protestant apostasy has been followed by a renewal.
One major difference about today’s implosion of evangelical Christianity is that it comes prophetically at the end of James. All of the biblical books that I have currently examined from a cognitive-prophetic standpoint place the current time somewhere in the middle of that book. In contrast, current society appears to be 4 verses from the end of the book of James. And these final verses refer to a crisis that will lead to a major transformation. One must look at other prophetic New Testament books to determine what will happen next. Thus, in a sense I feel that I am writing an obituary of Protestant Christianity. Christianity will survive and the Bible will not pass away, but Protestant Christianity will not just enter a new chapter but actually leave the prophetic sequence of James that has been predicting its progress since its beginning.
As usual, we will be using the Berean Literal Bible and will be taking definitions from Biblehub.com. Words in italics are also in italics in the BLB to indicate that they are not in the original Greek text. When I say that some word is ‘interpreted cognitively as...’, this means that this cognitive interpretation has been used in previous essays. More generally, the same interpretation is given to a Greek word whenever and wherever it appears in the New Testament. This may not be consistent with the norms of biblical translation, but assigning a consistent and clear definition to words is a fundamental prerequisite for scientific thought.
On a side note, I have sometimes wondered if I am just reading historical correlations into the biblical text, but my experience with James suggests otherwise. Initially, I could not make any sense of the epistle, because I was trying to fit it into the present and future like the previous biblical books that I analyzed. However, when I mentally shifted gears and looked at the past, then suddenly all the pieces fell into place. This suggests that a correlation between the biblical text and history actually exists, because a match does not always appear. Instead, one has to look at the right period of history to make a match. Going further, the match appeared when I looked at Western Protestant history. This does not mean that God is a WASP. In contrast, James is brutally honest about the inadequacies of European Christianity. However, it does appear that God has used European Protestantism to lead human society through a major transition, and the fact that current society is almost at the end of James indicates that this era is coming to an end.
While I have tried to write as clearly as possible, I recognize that some may complain that I could have written more simply. Please be aware that writing this essay required being simultaneously rigorous in five different areas: First, the analysis had to be consistent with the meanings of the original Greek text, which meant looking up all the Greek words on biblehub. Second, the analysis had to be consistent with the facts of history, which required extensive reading of Wikipedia and other sources. Third, the sequence of both the biblical text and the events of history had to be preserved, which required going verse by verse through the epistle, step by step through Western history, and then laying these two sequences side-by-side. Fourth, the analysis had to make cognitive sense, which meant fitting the events into the theory of mental symmetry. Fifth, the analysis had to contend with my personal emotions, because I come from a Mennonite Protestant background. I am not aware of any other book on prophecy that meets these requirements. Meanwhile, most of my conservative friends have turned to worshiping Trump, while most of my liberal friends have turned to worshiping indigenous knowing—and at this point, I do not think that worship is too strong a word. That is because both appear to have become mentally incapable of being convinced by any form of rational analysis such as this essay.
Saying this more carefully, I have discovered that an explanation that is almost right tends to be judged more harshly than some vague answer. That is because a detailed description contains sufficient Perceiver content to enable filtering by Facilitator thought while a vague response does not provide Facilitator thought with any solid basis for evaluating the material. While I have done my best to be accurate and logical, it is possible that I have made some mistakes. I request that the reader does not fall into the intellectual trap of rejecting this essay because of some errors at the detailed level while continuing to hold on to vague prophetic theories that are based in a few random biblical passages quoted out of context. It is imperative to apply the same standard of evaluation to all prophetic analyses. Doing otherwise is intellectual dishonesty. Similarly, claiming to believe in the Bible while automatically rejecting an essay such as this which looks at the original Greek text in such extended detail is spiritual dishonesty.
This essay assumes a basic understanding of the theory of mental symmetry. An introduction to this theory can be found at the beginning of these papers. MMN is shorthand for Mercy mental network, while TMN refers to a Teacher mental network. A mental network is a collection of emotional memories that function as a unit. Triggering one of the memories will activate the entire mental network which will then use emotional pressure to impose its content upon the mind.
The table of contents summarizes both the passage in James being analyzed as well as the corresponding stage of Protestant history.
Table of Contents
1:1-2 Focusing on Joy. The Protestant Paradox of Blind Faith in the Bible.
1:3-4 Developing Perceiver Thought by Enduring. The 13th Century Waldensians.
1:5 Gaining Clarity. Medieval Scholasticism.
1:6-8 Asking in Faith versus Double-minded. Mendicant Orders.
1:9-10 Religious Self-denial and Social Status. Mendicant Orders and Growing Prosperity.
1:11-12 Temporary Beauty. Italian Renaissance and Late Medieval Chaos.
1:13-15 Distinguishing God from Evil. Renaissance Popes and Antipopes.
1:16-18 A God of Light who Gives. Martin Luther and Justification by Faith Alone.
1:19-21 Receiving the Word versus Human Anger. Martin Luther’s Angry Words.
1:22-24 Being a Hearer and not a Doer. Implications of Teaching Justification by Faith Alone.
1:25 A Law of Freedom. Anabaptism.
1:26-27 Worthless Religion versus Pure Religion. Luther’s Incomplete Reformation.
2:1-4 Christianity that Favors the Powerful. The Magisterial Reformation.
2:5 The Poor Inherit through Faith. Grassroots Support for Protestantism.
2:6-7 Oppression and Blasphemy by the Rich. Persecution of Anabaptism.
2:8-9 The Royal Law. 1555 Peace of Augsburg.
2:10-11 Stumbling in Oneness. Placing Princes above the Unity of God.
2:12-13 Coming judgment and Inappropriate Mercy. An Inadequate Treaty for the Sake of Peace.
2:14-17 A Feeling of Peace and Warmth. Calvinism and Divine Sovereignty.
2:18-20 Showing Faith by Works. Catholic Council of Trent.
2:21-24 Abraham offering Isaac. Supporting Belief with Acts of Faith.
2:25-26 Rahab the Prostitute. Baroque Art of the Counter-Reformation.
3:1-2 Many Teachers and Greater Judgment. Dutch Religious Fragmentation.
3:3-4 Guiding Horses and Ships. Gustavus Adolphus and Military Organization.
3:5-6 From Boasting to Unrighteousness to Hell. Thirty Years War 1618-48.
3:7-8 Taming Beasts but not the Tongue. Soldiers Tamed by Untamed Leaders.
3:9-10 Blessing and Cursing from the Same Mouth. Contradiction of Imposed Truth.
3:11-13 Spring Water and Fig Trees. Francis Bacon’s Scientific Method.
3:14-16 Wisdom from Below. Court of Louis XIV.
3:17-18 Wisdom from Above. Pilgrim Fathers.
4:1-3 Warring Passions. John Locke and Questioning Mercantilism.
4:4 Friends of the World and Hostile to God. Enlightenment and Isaac Newton.
4:5-6 A New Spirituality. Jonathan Edwards and the Great Awakening.
4:7-8 Drawing Near to God. Methodism and Scientific Methodology.
4:9-10 Let Laughter turn to Mourning. Early Industrial Revolution.
4:11-12 Judging the Law. Liberal Theology and Social Reform.
4:13-14 Economic Growth and Temporary Life. Victorian Empire and Fading Morality.
4:15-17 Understanding versus Arrogant Boasting. Utilitarianism and Military Technology.
5:1-3 Misery and Loss of Wealth. Destruction of World War I.
5:3-4 Workmen Crying Out. Fading Empire and Growing Political Independence.
5:5-6 Fat Hearts versus Righteousness. Decadence, Propaganda, and Military Training.
5:7-8 Patience and Growth. Revolutions and the League of Nations.
5:9-11 Grumbling versus Persevering. German Blaming versus Indian Non-violence.
5:12 Do not Swear. Nazi and Communist Ideologies.
5:13 Prayer and Praise. Postwar Recovery and Jesus Music.
5:14-15 Anointing with Oil. Charismatic Movement and Mental Symmetry.
5:16 Mutual Confession and Righteousness. Promise Keepers and Personal Growth.
5:17-18 Elijah Praying for Drought. Disabling the Consumer Society.
5:19-20 Restoring the Sinner. Transforming the Consumer Society.
Focusing on Joy 1:1-2
Verse 1 begins with a greeting. “James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, To the twelve tribes in the Dispersion: Greetings.” James is a variant of Jacob which means ‘heel or supplanter’. This is interpreted cognitively as something that follows or replaces something else. Protestantism followed Catholicism and views itself as a replacement for Catholicism. ‘God’ refers to a concept of God in Teacher thought. ‘Lord Jesus Christ’ refers to an integrated concept of incarnation to which one submits. Servant is actually the word ‘slave’. Protestantism focuses upon the historical Jesus but finds it difficult to generalize beyond this to the Christ of God. However, Protestantism has usually acted as the slave of the partial incarnation of science and technology. For instance, Protestantism initially came to birth because of the new technology of printing. One encyclopedia article summarizes that “The printing press... became the single most important factor in the success of the Protestant Reformation by providing the means for widespread dissemination of the ‘new teachings’ and encouraging independent thought on subjects previously rigidly controlled by a literate elite.”
Tribe means ‘the descendents of a common ancestor’. In means ‘in the realm of’. Dispersion means ‘to scatter, disperse’ and is the source of the English word ‘diaspora’. This describes Protestantism, which has scattered and dispersed into numerous denominations, with each denomination typically being the descendents of some ancestral founder or group of individuals.
Greeting means ‘to rejoice or be glad’ and is related to the word ‘grace’. This family of related words is interpreted as referring to Teacher emotion. This is the only epistle that starts with this form of greeting. The implication is that Protestantism needs to focus upon Teacher thought and Teacher understanding. Protestantism began by focusing emotionally upon the Teacher emotions of theology based in the Bible as opposed to human authorities in Mercy thought, and Protestantism is now self-destructing because it has turned its attention away from rationally understanding and following the Bible to imposing authority in Mercy thought. One of the goals of mental symmetry is to rescue the Bible from ‘Bible-believing’ Protestants who claim to believe the Bible but have turned their back on its message. This is being done by writing essays such as this, which approach the Bible from the perspective of rational understanding in Teacher thought.
The next verses describe the basis for Protestantism. Verse 2 states, “Esteem it all joy, my brothers, when you might fall into various trials.” All ‘conveys the idea of totality or completeness’. Joy is related to the word ‘greeting’ used in verse 1 which refers to Teacher emotion. Esteem means ‘what goes before, in front’ and is in the imperative. Thus, Teacher emotion needs to remain the primary focus. An imperative implies that one needs to do something but can choose not to. Brother means ‘from the same womb’. Protestantism may be fragmented, but it is still united by a common focus upon God and theology in Teacher thought leading to the common feeling of being born from the same womb.
Trial is a negative word that actually means temptation. The goal of temptation is failure, but temptation can have a beneficial outcome if one does not fail. Fall into is used three times in the New Testament and combines ‘all around’ with ‘fall’. Falling is interpreted as moving from Teacher generality to Mercy specifics. Thus, when one falls away from God and theology in Teacher thought to specific experiences in Mercy thought, then one will encounter various temptations and destructive forces. Various means ‘of various kinds, diversified’. In other words, the temptations faced by Protestants in one country at one time will be different than the temptations faced by Protestants in other countries and other times. But these temptations will all have the common quality of trying to stop people from focusing emotionally upon God, theology, and the character of God in Teacher thought.
Looking at today’s situation, Protestantism is currently being tempted by postmodernism. Postmodernism views all Perceiver truth as Mercy thought using emotional pressure to impose personal opinions upon Perceiver thought, and it views all Teacher theories as ideologies based in personal and cultural mental networks. In the words of Wikipedia, “Postmodernisms share an attitude of skepticism towards grand explanations and established ways of doing things... In science, it emphasizes multiple ways of seeing things, and how our cultural and personal backgrounds shape how we see the world, making it impossible to be completely objective. In philosophy, education, history, politics, and many other fields, it encourages critical re-examination of established institutions and social norms.” ‘Skepticism toward grand explanations’ indicates a questioning of Teacher theories. This skepticism includes the cultural and religious mental networks of ‘Established ways of doing things’. ‘Emphasizing multiple ways of seeing things’ in science questions the ability of Perceiver thought to determine facts, ‘cultural and personal backgrounds shaping how we see the world’ indicates that Perceiver thought is being overwhelmed by Mercy emotions, and ‘impossible to be completely objective’ indicates that Perceiver thought cannot escape being mesmerized by Mercy emotions.
Protestantism is vulnerable to such temptation because it contains an implicit contradiction. On the one hand, Protestantism is based in blind faith in the holy book of the Bible. On the other hand, Protestantism uses rational thought to study, analyze, and apply the words of the Bible. Education contains a similar implicit contradiction. On the one hand, the student is supposed to place blind faith in the words of textbooks. On the other hand, this rote learning is supposed to be followed by the critical thinking of using rational thought to study and analyze the content of textbooks. In both cases, belief that starts by using Mercy emotions to overwhelm Perceiver thought needs to turn into rational thinking based in Perceiver thought. Postmodernism tempts Protestantism to remain at the level of Mercy-imposed blind faith and not make the transition to rational understanding. Protestantism is supposed to respond to this temptation by ‘counting it all joy’, which means focusing upon Teacher emotions of understanding. Instead, Protestantism has failed this temptation and has descended cognitively to the level of postmodernism by electing and re-electing Donald Trump. I recognize that there are exceptions to this blanket statement, but this statement has become more universal than I would have ever imagined in my wildest nightmares.
Perceiver thought gains confidence as connections continue to be repeated. Therefore, blind faith will turn into rational knowledge if one is rationally persuaded and continues to remain persuaded over time. This is not a scientific way of gaining knowledge through empirical evidence but rather a Christian way of gaining tested experiential knowledge. Summarizing, when one lives in a society that does not apply biblical truths, such as medieval Catholicism, or today’s postmodern world, then one needs to view this as an opportunity to gain a deeper and more solid Teacher understanding of universal truth and the character of God.
I have lost many of my family and friends to Trumpism. However, instead of attacking them personally in Mercy thought, I am choosing to focus upon the Teacher joy of understanding by taking several weeks to write this essay on James and Protestantism. This is not easy to do because simply hearing the voice and seeing the face of Donald Trump makes me want to puke, because it is such a suave, arrogant, confident expression of ignorance, senility, and revenge.
Developing Perceiver Thought by Enduring 1:3-4
Verse 3 describes the way out of this temptation. “Knowing that testing of your faith produces endurance.” Know means to ‘experientially know’. This refers to knowing that comes from Mercy experiences rather than from empirical evidence. Testing is only used twice as a noun in the New Testament and is the positive alternative to temptation. It means ‘what is found approved (genuine) after testing’, as opposed to temptation which is designed to make something fail. What is being tested is ‘your the faith’ and faith means to ‘be persuaded’. Produce means ‘to work down to the end-point’. And endurance means ‘to remain under’. Faith is typically interpreted as blind faith, but being persuaded implies rational thought. Perceiver thought gains confidence as connections continue to be repeated. The simplest way to build Perceiver repetition is by ‘remaining under’ an unpleasant situation because one is choosing to hold on to the facts despite continual pressure from Mercy emotions.
Notice that is not possible at this point to follow rational thought because the mind is stuck in a Catch-22 situation. That is because Perceiver thought must be functioning to be able to evaluate facts but Perceiver thought is currently overwhelmed by Mercy emotions, making it impossible to evaluate the ‘facts’ that were acquired from being overwhelmed by Mercy emotions. Thus, all that is possible at this point is ‘experiential knowing’. One is choosing to approach the situation from a perspective of rational thought, knowing experientially that the ability to hold onto Perceiver facts despite emotional pressure is a positive outcome and this ability to stick with a belief distinguishes between true faith and false faith.
Turning now to history, this viewpoint can be seen in the 13th-century Waldensians. On the one hand, the Waldensians did not have the integrated Teacher understanding that came later during the Protestant Reformation. Quoting from Wikipedia, “In some aspects the Waldensians of the Middle Ages could be seen as proto-Protestants, but they mostly did not raise the doctrinal objections characteristic of sixteenth-century Protestant leaders.” But the Waldensians did acquire the ability to experientially know that the Catholic Church was using its emotional status in Mercy thought to impose ‘truth’ upon Perceiver thought. Quoting from Wikipedia, Waldensians “rejected a number of concepts that were widely held in Christian Europe of the era... [asserting] that relics were no different from any other bones and should not be regarded as special or holy; that pilgrimage served only to spend one’s money; that meat might be eaten any day if one’s appetite served one; that holy water was no more efficacious than rain water; and that prayer was just as effectual if offered in a church or a barn.”
Waldensians focused upon the Teacher joy of understanding the Bible. Wikipedia explains, “The Waldensian movement was characterized from the beginning by lay preaching, voluntary poverty, and strict adherence to the Bible. Between 1175 and 1185, Waldo either commissioned a cleric from Lyon to translate the New Testament into the vernacular or was himself involved in this translation work.” And the Waldensians continue to ‘remain under’ despite extensive persecution and temptation from the Catholic Church. Quoting again from Wikipedia, “In 1184, Waldo and his followers were excommunicated and forced from Lyon. The Catholic Church declared them heretics, stating that the group’s principal error was contempt for ecclesiastical power... Waldo and his followers developed a system whereby they would go from town to town and meet secretly with small groups of Waldensians. There they would confess sins and hold service. A traveling Waldensian preacher was known as a barba. The group would shelter the barba and help make arrangements to move on to the next town in secret.” Notice that the main result at this stage is not an integrated understanding in Teacher thought but rather the ability to remain within an unpleasant situation while being guided emotionally by Teacher joy. Stated cognitively, Mercy mental networks of personal identity are acquiring long-term stability that can be described by Perceiver thought. The result is individuation as one becomes an individual who is emotionally capable of standing apart from the mental networks of social pressure.
Verse 4 continues, “And let endurance have its perfect work, so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.” Endurance is the same word that was used in verse 3 which means ‘remaining under’. Work means ‘a deed that carries out an inner desire’ and is interpreted as behavior that is internally motivated. Using psychological language, ‘work’ refers to intrinsic motivation as opposed to the extrinsic motivation of social pressure. Perfect means ‘mature from going through the necessary stages to reach the end-goal’. Have means ‘to have, to hold’ and a distinction is being made in these essays between peripheral, objective ‘having’ and core, subjective ‘being’. ‘Have’ is in the imperative but the endurance is doing the work and not personal identity. In other words, one is responding to the environment at the peripheral level of having. One is being persecuted in some way by the environment and is choosing to continue to remain under this persecution rather than succumb to the temptation of following social pressure. The ‘remaining under’ is gradually transforming the extrinsic motivation of not following social pressure into the intrinsic motivation of having solid, tested character.
So that means ‘in order that’ which indicates that this remaining under should be regarded as a means to an end rather than as an end in itself. This is important because it is easy to become emotionally guided by some Teacher theory of persecution, such as ‘everyone hates me’. Be is explicitly mentioned, indicating a shift from having to being. Perfect is the same word used earlier in the verse that means ‘complete, mature, full-grown’. Complete is used twice in the New Testament and combines ‘whole’ with ‘lot or inheritance’. Inheritance in Hebrew society was carried out by lot. One inherits based upon who one is as opposed to what one has done. But inheritance by lot randomly assigns the share given to each of the inheritors. This describes the sort of semi-random result that comes from continuing to remain under societal disapproval. On the one hand, one is going beyond the extrinsic motivation of rejecting society to becoming a person who is intrinsically motivated. Thus, there is inheritance. But on the other hand, the type of person that one becomes is still being determined by the environment within which one lives and to which one is responding. Thus, the inheritance is by lot.
This combination can be seen in the Waldensians. Quoting from Wikipedia, “The Waldensians taught certain doctrines also held by the Catholic Church, but came into conflict with the Catholic Church by denying some of its sacraments or the manner in which they were performed; The earliest Waldensians taught the real presence of Christ in the Eucharist and affirmed the necessity of priests for the offering of the Mass. However they denied the right of sinful priests to give the Eucharist.” Notice how Waldensian beliefs are emerging gradually within the context of the Catholic beliefs of the medieval era.
Lacking means ‘to leave, to forsake, to lack’. In means ‘in the realm of’. Nothing means ‘no one, none, nothing’. Thus, ‘lacking in nothing’ means that one is functioning within a mindset that follows things through to completion without abandoning or refusing to address certain topics. What happens cognitively is that remaining within such a situation gradually causes Perceiver thought to wake up in more areas, causing more fundamental impositions of Mercy status to be questioned. The Encyclopaedia Britannica describes this process of growing questioning. “Thereafter, the Waldenses departed from the teaching of the Roman Catholic Church by rejecting some of the seven sacraments. The confession of sins was guided by their leaders but did not require a priest; they rejected the use of indulgences. Baptism was to be by full immersion in water and was not administered to infants. Eventually, the elements of the Eucharist (bread and wine) were understood as symbols only, and the Waldenses denied the doctrine of transubstantiation. They also rejected the notion of purgatory and of prayers offered for the dead.” These developments all describe a form of internalization: Confession is changing from something based in the Mercy status of a priest to internal honesty. Baptism is turning from something that is done externally to a child to something that an adult chooses internally to do. And the bread and wine are being viewed as external symbols of internal reality as opposed to external objects with Mercy importance. This ability to mentally replace Mercy status with Perceiver confidence is growing gradually as one continues to remain under an unpleasant situation.
A similar maturing of beliefs can be seen in the Lollards, another proto-Protestant religious movement active in England from the midst 14th-century that was guided by John Wycliffe. Wikipedia summarizes, “As Wycliffe’s academic theology percolated to the masses, it changed measureably, some parts strengthening and others weakening. Historian John Thomson has paraphrased ‘Rather than a specific creed of well thought out theological doctrine, Lollard beliefs are more aptly described as a set of consistent attitudes.’”
Gaining Clarity 1:5
Verse 5 addresses this problem of inadequate understanding. “Now if any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask from God, the One giving generously to all and not finding fault, and it will be given to him.” Any means ‘someone, anyone’ suggesting that this is a general principle that applies to the average person and not just to religious leaders. This is possible because people have acquired the ability to become individuals and think for themselves in verse 4. Lack is the same word used in verse 4 that means ‘to leave, to forsake, to lack’. Wisdom means ‘clarity’. In other words, the goal at this point is not to develop systematic theology but rather to acquire clear thinking in the midst of ambiguous and troubling situations. Clear thinking comes from using Perceiver thought to determine more accurately the facts of various situations. Clear thinking is also a prerequisite for using abstract technical thought which is based in precise definitions.
For instance, this clarifying can be seen in the Twelve Lollard Conclusions. Wikipedia summarizes, “One group of Lollards petitioned Parliament with the Twelve Conclusions of the Lollards by posting them on the doors of Westminster Hall in February 1395. While by no means a central statement of belief of the Lollards, the Twelve Conclusions reveal certain basic Lollard ideas.” These conclusions do not present a systematic theology but there is a clarifying of ideas. Ask means ‘to ask or request something, often with a sense of urgency or need’. Give means ‘to give, to grant, to bestow’. And the source is God. What is being clarified here is both the source and the method. Instead of using Mercy status to impose clarity upon Perceiver thought, Perceiver thought is interacting politely with Teacher thought to acquire clarity.
Looking at this cognitively, when Perceiver thought comes up with solid facts, then Teacher thought becomes emotionally motivated to bring order to this complexity by coming up with simple theories that summarize the essence of these Perceiver facts. Demanding clarity from Teacher thought is a contradiction in terms, because demanding imposes personal Mercy emotions upon Teacher thought which emotionally warps the thinking of Teacher thought. In contrast, ‘asking with a sense of urgency’ raises the emotional intensity sufficiently to attract the attention of Teacher thought while still allowing Teacher thought the emotional freedom to develop theories. Teacher thought will then come up with simple statements—which usually reveals ambiguous situations that are possible exceptions to the general rule. These exceptions can be eliminated by using Perceiver thought to clarify the situation, a process known in philosophy as explication. This combination of Teacher theory and Perceiver clarification can give clarity to the mind, because a Teacher theory requires Perceiver facts and Perceiver confidence to clarify the ambiguities that are present in cultural and religious MMNs. This dependence of Teacher understanding upon functioning Perceiver thought is different than using Mercy status to overwhelm functioning Perceiver thought. Saying this more simply, one realizes that there is a simple explanation for the situation if one can look beyond the emotional pressure to determine the facts.
Continuing with verse 5, generously is used once in the New Testament and means ‘single or simple’. To all ‘is frequently used to emphasize the inclusivity or universality of a statement or command’. These terms summarize the functioning of Teacher thought that has been described in the previous paragraph: Teacher thought is emotionally driven to summarize the complexities of some situation with the order of a single, simple theory. Teacher thought will then be emotionally driven to treat this simple statement as a universal theory. This brings to mind Occam’s Razor. Wikipedia clarifies, “Attributed to William of Ockham, a 14th-century English philosopher and theologian, it is frequently cited as Entia non sunt multiplicanda praeter necessitatem, which translates as ‘Entities must not be multiplied beyond necessity’, although Occam never used these exact words. Popularly, the principle is sometimes paraphrased as ‘The simplest explanation is usually the best one.’” Occam was a Franciscan monk, but the clarification of this principle of clarity during this period demonstrates that people were starting to use Teacher thought to come up with simple theories that brought clarity to unclear concepts and ambiguous situations.
Finding fault means ‘to reproach, revile, insult, or upbraid’. ‘Not finding fault’ indicates that this method of finding mental clarity does not require attacking someone personally in Mercy thought. If all Perceiver ‘truth’ comes from using Mercy emotions to overwhelm Perceiver thought—as postmodernism asserts, then the only way to change ‘truth’ is by attacking the Mercy status of the person who is the source of false ‘truth’. Given is the same verb used earlier in the verse and ‘him’ is explicitly mentioned. The principle here is that using Perceiver thought to help Teacher thought come up with simple explanations also gives personal ownership to this understanding. Instead of being emotionally dependent upon some external source of ‘truth’ for answers, one can internally use Perceiver thought to evaluate situations guided by the internally generated emotions of a Teacher theory.
Looking at medieval history, a desire for clarification can be seen in scholasticism. Wikipedia explains, “Scholasticism was initially a program conducted by medieval Christian thinkers attempting to harmonize the various authorities of their own tradition, and to reconcile Christian theology with classical and late antiquity philosophy.” Notice the desire to bring intellectual clarity to the various esteemed sources of ‘truth’. This led to the formation of universities, and one of the basic principles of these first universities was having academic freedom to seek intellectual clarity without finding fault. Quoting from Wikipedia, “An important idea in the definition of a university is the notion of academic freedom. The first documentary evidence of this comes from early in the life of the University of Bologna, which adopted an academic charter, the Constitutio Habita, in 1155 or 1158, which guaranteed the right of a traveling scholar to unhindered passage in the interests of education. Today, this is claimed as the origin of ‘academic freedom’.”
Asking in Faith versus Double-minded 1:6-8
Verse 6 warns that this search for clarity needs to be single-minded. “But let him ask in faith, doubting nothing.” Ask is the same word that was used in verse 5. Faith means ‘to be persuaded’ which indicates the use of rational thought. ‘In faith’ means functioning in the realm of rational thought. Doubting is used twice in verse 6 and ‘literally means to separate throughout or wholly’. And nothing means ‘no one, none, nothing’. Doubting indicates an overuse of Perceiver thought. Instead of using Perceiver thought to clarify facts by making precise distinctions, Perceiver thought is being used to fragment thinking by making major distinctions. Clarifying facts uses Perceiver thought to help Teacher thought, while making major distinctions uses Perceiver thought to divide Teacher thought.
For instance, this kind of ‘separating throughout’ can be seen in the Franciscan concept of the absolute poverty of Christ as well as the Dominican concept of rational thought. Both the Franciscans and the Dominicans were established at the same time as the Waldensians.
Wikipedia explains that “The Franciscans were authorized by Pope Gregory IX to have non-members who would look after their material needs, while the friars themselves would own nothing and would only make use according to the vow of poverty of what was given to them. From the beginning, two tendencies developed. Some friars, referred to as the Zelanti, living more isolated and simpler lives, strictly observed the poverty enjoined by the testament of Saint Francis. Others lived in convents in the towns, tending the attached churches with the necessary liturgical furnishings and devoting themselves also to study and preaching, which required the use of books. They observed the Franciscan Rule in accordance with interpretations officially made by the Popes.” Notice that the Franciscans were making a total division between the absolute poverty of Franciscan monks and the ownership of objects and property. The end result was not a simple understanding in Teacher thought but rather a papally imposed legal loophole that allowed Franciscan monks to pretend that they owned nothing while acting as if they owned property. This legal loophole split the Franciscans into two competing camps. Looking at this cognitively, if the Perceiver ‘truth’ that rules over personal identity is based in Mercy sources with great status, then this implies that personal identity is nothing compared to these sources of ‘truth’, which implies that following truth means denying self—and following truth completely means denying self completely. But one can only function as a human within society and within reality by not denying self completely.
Looking at the Dominicans, Wikipedia explains that “Dominic inspired his followers with loyalty to learning and virtue, a deep recognition of the spiritual power of worldly deprivation and the religious state, and a highly developed governmental structure. Dominic inspired the members of his order to develop a ‘mixed’ spirituality. They were both active in preaching, and contemplative in study, prayer and meditation. The brethren of the Dominican Order were urban and learned, as well as contemplative and mystical in their spirituality.” Notice that the Dominicans are making a total division between rational thought, teaching, and government structure on the one hand, and contemplative prayer, meditation, and mystical spirituality on the other hand. The basic premise of mysticism is that the oneness of God transcends all facts about reality. Stated cognitively, Teacher thought is coming up with a universal theory of cosmic oneness by using overgeneralization to ignore Perceiver facts. Thus, a sharp distinction is being made between rational thought, in which Perceiver thought brings clarity to simple Teacher theories, and mysticism, in which Teacher thought overgeneralizes by ignoring Perceiver thought.
Verse 6 continues, “For the one doubting is like a wave of the sea, being blown and being tossed by the wind.” Doubting is the same word used earlier in verse 6 and ‘one’ is not mentioned, indicating that the focus is upon the mindset of doubting rather than the person doing the doubting. Like is only used twice in the New Testament, here and in 1:23, and ‘primarily means to yield or give way, often in the sense of submitting to authority or conceding in a situation’. Wave is used twice in the New Testament and means ‘to wash over or to surge’. Sea refers to a large body of water. Water represents the realm of Mercy experiences. Thus, being washed over by a surge of the sea would be interpreted as being overwhelmed by some major social movement of emotional Mercy experiences. ‘Like’ implies that one is choosing to follow these waves of Mercy thought as opposed to holding onto solid facts in Perceiver thought. Wind is interpreted as the blowing of various theories within the air of Teacher thought. Being blown by the wind is used once in the New Testament and means ‘to be tossed by the wind’. Being tossed by the wind is also used only once in the New Testament and means ‘To fan, to winnow, to toss to and fro’.
Putting this all together, when Perceiver thought is used to make a major mental split, then societal forces within Mercy thought will occasionally overwhelm the mind forcing people to emphasize the side of the mental split that is currently being de-emphasized. These societal surges will also lead to major shifts within the theoretical realm of Teacher thought, leading to a theology that is tossed to and fro.
We saw earlier that the Waldensians were rejected by the pope because they ‘asked in faith’ when seeking official recognition, choosing to follow rational thought rather than submitting to the emotional domination of the pope. In contrast, the Franciscans were officially recognized by the pope because they did not ‘ask in faith’. Wikipedia describes this distinction, “In spite of some similarities between this principle [of poverty] and some of the fundamental ideas of the followers of Peter Waldo, the brotherhood of Assisi succeeded in gaining the approval of Pope Innocent III. What seems to have impressed first the Bishop of Assisi, Guido, then Cardinal Giovanni di San Paolo and finally Innocent himself, was their utter loyalty to the Catholic Church and the clergy.” ‘Utter loyalty’ to some emotional source of ‘truth’ is the opposite of being willing to be persuaded by rational thought.
The Franciscans may have achieved official recognition, but this was done at the cost of being driven by waves of social change and winds of doctrinal shift. Wikipedia describes the theoretical blowing to and fro that happened with the Franciscans. “The original Rule of Saint Francis approved by the Pope did not allow ownership of property, requiring members of the order to beg for food while preaching... The extreme poverty required of members was relaxed in the final revision of the Rule in 1223. The degree of observance required of members remained a major source of conflict within the order, resulting in numerous secessions.” Looking more closely at this dissension, “The controversy about how to follow the Gospel life of poverty, which extends through the first three centuries of Franciscan history, began in the lifetime of the founder. The ascetic brothers Matthew of Narni and Gregory of Naples, a nephew of Cardinal Ugolino, were the two vicars-general to whom Francis had entrusted the direction of the order during his absence. They carried through at a chapter which they held certain stricter regulations in regard to fasting and the reception of alms, which departed from the spirit of the original rule. It did not take Francis long, on his return, to suppress this insubordinate tendency but he was less successful in regard to another of an opposite nature which soon came up. Elias of Cortona originated a movement for the increase of the worldly consideration of the Order and the adaptation of its system to the plans of the hierarchy which conflicted with the original notions of the founder and helped to bring about the successive changes in the rule already described. Francis was not alone in opposition to this lax and secularizing tendency.” Notice how the Franciscan movement was being hit by waves of social pressure in Mercy thought to emphasize the side of the mental split of absolute poverty that was currently being minimized. These social waves were leading to major shifts in the Teacher order of the Franciscan movement and this tossing to and fro continued for three centuries. The ultimate cause was choosing to submit to the waves of social MMNs through an attitude of utter loyalty to the pope.
The Dominicans also went through waves in which an emphasis upon rational learning was followed by a focus upon mysticism. Dominic started by emphasizing learning, Wikipedia explains, “In Dominic’s thinking, it was impossible for men to preach what they did not or could not understand. On August 15, 1217, Dominic dispatched seven of his followers to the great university center of Paris to establish a priory focused on study and preaching.” But this was replaced by a focus upon mysticism. Quoting from Wikipedia, “The expansion of the order produced changes. A smaller emphasis on doctrinal activity favoured the development here and there of the ascetic and contemplative life and there sprang up, especially in Germany and Italy, the mystical movement with which the names of Meister Eckhart, Heinrich Suso, Johannes Tauler, and Catherine of Siena are associated.”
A later Dominican leader tried to minimize the focus on mysticism. Quoting from Wikipedia, “Humbert of Romans, the master general of the order from 1254 to 1263, was a great administrator, preacher, and writer. It was under his tenure as master general that the nun of the order were given a new constitution. He also wanted his friars to reach excellence in their preaching, his most lasting contribution to the order... He advised his readers, ‘[Young Dominicans] are also to be instructed not to be eager to see visions or work miracles, since these avail little to salvation, and sometimes we are fooled by them; but rather they should be eager to do good in which salvation consists.’”
However, “By 1300, the enthusiasm for preaching and conversion within the order had lessened. Mysticism, full of the ideas Albertus Magnus expostulated, became the devotion of the greatest minds and hands within the organization. It became a ‘powerful instrument of personal and theological transformation both within the Order of Preachers and throughout the wider reaches of Christendom.’” But this over-emphasis upon mysticism by the ‘Friends of God’ was eventually condemned by the Catholic Church. Wikipedia explains, “The movement grew out of the preaching and teaching of Meister Eckhart, and especially his Dominican spiritual heirs, the preacher John Tauler and the writer Henry Suso... The Friends of God, as led by Tauler and Suso, sought a mystical path in line with established Catholic doctrine, following Thomas Aquinas.” However, “Many leaders of the group were executed for heresy because they criticized the corruption of Catholicism: they believed that there would soon be judgment from God on the church... The movement was a mysticist movement and they held great importance in rescuing other peoples’ souls.”
Verse 7 declares, “For let that man not suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord.” Suppose is used three times in the New Testament and ‘conveys the idea of forming an opinion or assumption based on one’s own reasoning or perception.” Man is in the singular and is the generic word for mankind. That is used ‘to refer to a specific person’. Thus, the focus is upon individuals and their personal opinions. Receive means to ‘actively lay hold of to take or receive’ which implies personal initiative. Verse 7 does not mention God but rather refers to the Lord, ‘used to denote someone who possesses authority, control, or power’. In other words, one will be under the mistaken impression that one is developing as an individual, when one is actually being controlled by a master who is not willing to give up any control.
For instance, Wikipedia describes in detail the extensive authority exerted by leaders and the Pope to prevent Franciscans from carrying out their vow of total poverty. After Francis died, “Gregory IX declared his intention to build a splendid church to house the body of Francis and the task fell to Elias, who at once began to lay plans for the erection of a great basilica at Assisi, to enshrine the remains of the Poverello. In order to build the basilica, Elias proceeded to collect money in various ways to meet the expenses of the building. Elias thus also alienated the zealots in the order, who felt this was not in keeping with the founder’s views upon the question of poverty.” One can see the irony of building an expensive basilica to house the body of someone who has taken a vow of total poverty. When this conflict refused to resolve itself, “The bull Quo elongati of Gregory IX declared that the Testament of St. Francis was not legally binding and offered an interpretation of poverty that would allow the Order to continue to develop. Gregory IX authorized agents of the Order to have custody of such funds where they could not be spent immediately. Elias pursued with great severity the principal leaders of the opposition, and even Bernardo di Quintavalle, the founder’s first disciple, was obliged to conceal himself for years in the forest of Monte Sefro.” As before, the lordship of central authority imposed itself upon Franciscan monks who were under the mistaken impression that they were choosing as individuals to follow God.
In a similar manner, Dominican monks thought that their primary mission was to teach individuals about God. But papal authority declared that they would also condemn heresy through the Inquisition. Wikipedia clarifies, “The order’s origins in battling heterodoxy influenced its later development and reputation. Many later Dominicans battled heresy as part of their apostolate; many years after Dominic reacted to the Cathars, the first Grand Inquistor of Spain, Tomás de Torquemada, would be drawn from the Dominican Order. The order was appointed by Pope Gregory IX the duty to carry out the Inquisition. Torture was not regarded as a mode of punishment, but as a means of eliciting the truth. In his papal bull Ad extirpanda of 1252, Pope Innocent IV authorised the Dominicans’ use of torture under prescribed circumstances.” Looking at this cognitively, the mention of ‘that human’ in verse 7 suggests a form of thinking that does not go beyond submission to human authorities in Mercy thought. And social interaction that remains at this human level of Mercy mental networks will also become stuck at the level of lord and master. This is quite different than verse 5, which talked about interacting intelligently with a concept of God in Teacher thought.
Verse 8 summarizes the underlying problem. “He is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways.” Man in this verse refers specifically to a man or a husband. New Testament references to men are interpreted as male thought which emphasizes the logical thinking of technical thought, as opposed to female thought which emphasizes the intuition of mental networks. Double-minded is used twice in the New Testament, here and in 4:8, and actually means ‘of two souls’. The soul is interpreted as the integrated mind. The word ‘doubting’ in verse 6 described the initial decision to use Perceiver thought to make a fundamental split within the mind. Each side of the split has now grown into a fully developed system of male technical thought. For Franciscans, the system of functioning as a monk within the church hierarchy coexisted with the system of living under an oath of poverty. For Dominicans, the educational system of teaching and imposing church doctrine coexisted with the spiritual system of pursuing mystical union with God.
Unstable is used twice in the New Testament, here and in 3:8, and adds the prefix ‘not’ to ‘settled or stable’. All is the adjective ‘that conveys the idea of totality or completeness’. Way means ‘road’. ‘Literally, it refers to a physical road or path. Metaphorically, it signifies a course of conduct, a way of life.’ In other words, there is no consistent way of life. We have seen such an instability of lifestyle with both the Franciscans and the Dominicans.
Religious Self-denial and Social Status 1:9-10
The next verses look at social inequality. Verse 9 talks about the poor. “But let the brother of low degree boast in his exaltation.” Boast means ‘to boast or to glory’. This word is in the imperative and comes first in the Greek sentence. Brother means ‘from the same womb’. Low degree means ‘lowly, humble’. This would presumably refer to a monk or Waldensian who has taken a vow of poverty, or also some peasant. ‘Brother’ indicates that this poor person views himself as part of the same group as richer people. ‘Boasting’ is in the imperative means that this poor person is supposed to adopt an attitude of public confidence. ‘But’ suggests that verse 9 follows from verse 8. Exaltation means ‘to lift up or to exalt’.
Verse 9 applies literally to the Franciscans who had taken a vow of total poverty and were being lifted up by the pope. It was mentioned earlier that a basilica was built to house Francis’s tomb after he died. Wikipedia describes the response of Leo, a follower of Francis. “Soon after Francis’s death, Leo came into conflict with those whom he considered traitors to Francis and his ideal of poverty, especially Elias of Cortona. He protested against the collection of money for the erection of the Basilica of San Francesco, and broke in pieces the marble box which Elias had set up for offertories for the completion of the basilica at Assisi. For this Elias had him scourged, an unpopular move which consolidated the opposition to Elias.” Using the language of verse 9, Leo was a brother of low degree who did not boast in his exaltation. Eventually, the Franciscan order split into two groups over this issue of poverty. Wikipedia explains that “The Fraticelli or Spiritual Franciscans opposed changes to the rule of Saint Francis of Assisi, especially with regard to poverty, and regarded the wealth of the Church as scandalous, and that of individual churchmen as invalidating their status. The Fraticelli were declared heretical in 1296 by Boniface VIII.”
Looking at this cognitively, we saw earlier that the Franciscans regarded the Perceiver split between wealth and poverty as fundamental. For the Fraticelli, this split became the ultimate theory in Teacher thought that ruled over their lives and determined in their minds what it meant to follow God. Being poor was more important than following the pope and they thought that the Catholic Church had to be poor to be legitimate. At a surface level, this logic makes sense because a rich Catholic church became a corrupt Catholic Church which ceased to be a legitimate Catholic Church.
But there is a deeper cognitive problem that ended up twisting both Catholic and Protestant Christianity. Believing that the ‘truth’ of Christianity is based in the Mercy status of religious sources of ‘truth’ will naturally lead to a feeling of religious self-denial that regards myself as nothing compared to my sources of ‘truth’. A religious vow of poverty takes this idea of religious self-denial to the extreme. This leads to a form of worm theology in which an attitude of religious self-denial turns into the universal Teacher theory within my mind that rules over all other theories—including my concept of God. Eliminating this implicit assumption of religious self-denial from my mind has taken years of rethinking Christian theology in the light of mental symmetry and cognitive wholeness.
More generally, I have found that an attitude of religious self-denial colors all of Catholic and Protestant Christianity. This does not mean that existing Christian doctrine is wrong. But it does mean that one has to go through every aspect of Christianity and look at it in detail in order to remove this all-pervasive flavor of religious self-denial. Verse 9 also does not say that one should not take a vow of poverty. Instead, a sense of time needs to be added. Instead of seizing power, one chooses to follow a path of self-denial and then is lifted up by someone else. Philippians 2:5-11 describes Jesus following this path of becoming low and then being lifted up. Similarly, Hebrews 12:2 says that Jesus looked forward to the joy before him and endured the cross. Using the language of verse 9, Jesus was looking forward to the exaltation at the end instead of fixating upon the self-denial that happened in between.
Both the absolute poverty of the Franciscans and the mysticism of the Dominicans reflect an attitude of religious self-denial. The Franciscans focused upon the Mercy side of religious self-denial, concluding that if I am nothing compared to my source of truth, then I should own nothing. The Dominicans focused upon the Teacher side of religious self-denial, concluding that if I am nothing compared to God, then I cannot make any definitive statements about God.
Turning now to the social context, the mendicant orders with their vows of personal poverty were founded in an era of growing economic prosperity. Wikipedia explains, “Like his contemporary, Francis, Dominic saw the need for a new type of organization, and the quick growth of the Dominicans and Franciscans during their first century of existence confirms that conditions were favorable for the growth of the orders of mendicant friars. The Dominicans and other mendicant orders may have been an adaptation to the rise of the profit economy in medieval Europe. Dominic sought to establish a new kind of order, one that would bring the dedication and systematic education of the older monastic orders like the Benedictines to bear on the religious problems of the burgeoning population of cities, but with more organizational flexibility than either monastic orders or the secular clergy.” Notice the juxtaposition. A new urban middle class is starting to emerge that is richer and more educated than the medieval peasant. The traditional medieval monk in a monastery does not meet the spiritual needs of this new urban middle-class. Therefore, the mendicant Franciscans and Dominicans are taking the Christian message out of the monastery and delivering it in the vernacular to the new cities. But these new traveling and teaching monks are clinging to a mindset of religious self-denial, conveying the non-verbal message that God does not approve of townsmen who want to better their condition but rather wants them to remain impoverished peasants who do not think for themselves.
Verse 10 turns to the rich person. “And he who is rich, in his humiliation, because he will pass away like a flower of grass.” Rich comes from a word that means ‘abundance’. Humiliation means ‘humiliation, lowliness’ and is the verb form of the noun ‘low degree’ that was used in verse 9. Because indicates that a reason is being given. Like is a comparison word which means ‘as, like’. Flower comes from a word that means ‘to bloom, to blossom’. Grass comes from a word that means ‘feeding or grazing’. Pass away means ‘to pass by, to pass away, to come to an end’. Riches can be interpreted literally or figuratively as intellectual wealth. Similarly, feeding can be interpreted as intellectual feeding. Interpreted figuratively, verse 10 describes a temporary form of intellectual wealth that appeals to some generation but then fades away as it loses its appeal.
This describes the intellectual wealth of the mendicant orders. Wikipedia describes the predicament of the Dominicans. “At the same time, the order found itself face to face with the Renaissance. It struggled against pagan tendencies in Renaissance humanism, in Italy through Dominici and Savonarola, in Germany through the theologians of Cologne.” Wikipedia also describes “The rationalism of ancient writings as having tremendous impact on Renaissance scholars: Here, one felt no weight of the supernatural pressing on the human mind, demanding homage and allegiance. Humanity—with all its distinct capabilities, talents, worries, problems, possibilities—was the center of interest. It has been said that medieval thinkers philosophised on their knees, but, bolstered by the new studies, they dared to stand up and to rise to full stature.” Thus, in the same way that people in modern technological society look up to groups such as the Amish as preservers of simpler times, so the new townsmen probably looked up to the poor friars as preservers of simpler times. But this flower of intellectual appeal faded and was replaced by a new Renaissance focus upon self that moved beyond traditional feelings of religious self-denial. This faced the Franciscan and Dominican monks with a choice. They had taken a vow of physical poverty and had acquired social and institutional wealth. How would they respond to the loss of this social and institutional wealth?
Thomas Aquinas provides an illustration of this conundrum. On the one hand, he intellectually abandoned religious self-denial and declared that it was possible for Christians to acquire rational understanding. Quoting from Wikipedia, “Thomas was a proponent of natural theology and the father of a school of thought known as Thomism. Central to his thought was the doctrine of natural law, which he argued was accessible to human reason and grounded in the very nature of human beings, providing a basis for understanding individual rights and moral duties. He argued that God is the source of the light of natural reason and the light of faith.” But at the end of his life, Thomas re-embraced the attitude of religious self-denial. Wikipedia explains, “On 6 December 1273, another mystical experience took place. While Thomas was celebrating Mass, he experienced an unusually long ecstasy. Because of what he saw, he abandoned his routine and refused to dictate to his socius Reginald of Piperno. When Reginald begged him to get back to work, Thomas replied: ‘Reginald, I cannot, because all that I have written seems like straw to me’. As a result, the Summa Theologica would remain uncompleted. What exactly triggered Thomas’s change in behaviour is believed by some to have been some kind of supernatural experience of God.” Thomas was a Dominican friar and we saw that the Dominicans separated between intellectual thought and mystical worship.
Religious self-denial leads naturally to mysticism because I will feel that I am too lowly to factually understand the truth that has been revealed by esteemed sources and I will also feel that I am too lowly to assert my individuality in the emotional presence of these esteemed sources. Stated more simply, ‘Who am I to think that I can understand the Bible?’ and ‘How dare I act like a person in the presence of God?’ Mysticism combines Teacher overgeneralization with Mercy identification. Stated simply, ‘All is one and I am one with everything’. Teacher thought is free to overgeneralize when Perceiver thought lacks the confidence to assert facts about a concept of God in Teacher thought, while Mercy thought is free to identify when Perceiver thought lacks the confidence to assert facts about personal identity when thinking about God. Thomas’ decision to stop writing his magnum opus indicates that he ultimately viewed his attitude of religious self-denial as more important than building a rational understanding.
Temporary Beauty 1:11-12
Verse 11 describes the loss of wealth as the result of a rising sun. “For the sun has risen with its burning heat and withered the grass, and its flower has fallen, and the beauty of its appearance has perished.” the Greek starts with the verb risen which means ‘to cause to rise’ and is usually used together with the word ‘sun’. A sun is interpreted as the light of a general Teacher theory that illuminates all of society and this is the only mention of a sun in James. Thus, verse 11 is referring to the rise of a new general paradigm for society. The obvious historical parallel is the Renaissance which started in Italy in the 14th century. With means ‘with, together with’. Burning heat is used three times in the New Testament and means ‘intense heat or scorching heat’. This suggests that the Renaissance is leading to a heat of activity that is shining intense light upon existing elements. Wikipedia describes the burning heat of the early Renaissance. “In the first decades of the 14th century, the cultural climate was changing in some European regions. The rediscovery, study, and renewed interest in authors who had been forgotten, and in the classical world that they represented, inspired a flourishing return to linguistic, stylistic and literary models of antiquity. There emerged a consciousness of the need for a cultural renewal, which sometimes also meant a detachment from contemporary culture.” There is the heat of rediscovering and studying classic manuscripts. And there is the burning of a desire to restore the ideals of Greek culture.
Wither means ‘to dry up, wither’ and grass and flower are both the same words that were used in verse 11. Fallen is used once in James and combines ‘from out of’ with ‘fallen’. Moisture is interpreted as Mercy experiences. Therefore, ‘drying’ would mean a shift from Mercy experiences to ‘dry’ Perceiver facts. Grass was interpreted earlier as temporary intellectual food that is popular within some era. ‘Falling’ is interpreted as heading from Teacher generality down to Mercy specifics. Putting this together, emotional interest in the temporary intellectual fodder is being lost at the level of Mercy experiences, while at the Teacher level this intellectual fodder is no longer being regarded as interesting or universal. Wikipedia describes this tendency to disregard existing intellectual food as no longer interesting or universal. “In Italy, the humanist educational program won rapid acceptance and, by the mid-15th century, many of the upper classes had received humanist educations, possibly in addition to traditional scholastic ones. Some of the highest officials of the Catholic Church were humanists with the resources to amass important libraries.” Religious attention turned to studying the classic manuscripts in order to gain a better factual awareness. Quoting from Wikipedia, “Many humanists were churchmen, most notably Pope Pius II, Sixtus IV, and Leo X, and there was often patronage of humanists by senior church figures. Much humanist effort went into improving the understanding and translations of Biblical and early Christian texts, both before and after the Reformation.” Wikipedia describes the emotional drive to rediscover ancient manuscripts. “An essential step in the classic humanist education... was the hunting down of lost or forgotten manuscripts that were known only by reputation. These endeavours were greatly aided by the wealth of Italian patricians, merchant-princes and despots, who would spend substantial sums building libraries. Discovering the past had become fashionable and it was a passionate affair pervading the upper reaches of society.”
Beauty is used once in the New Testament and combines ‘well’ with ‘to be suitable’. Appearance ‘primarily refers to the face or countenance of a person’. Perished means ‘to destroy, to perish’. ‘Appearance’ indicates that the focus is upon surface interaction at an emotional level rather than deep factual analysis. Thus, what is being regarded at a surface level as suitable and appropriate is perishing. Similarly, the Renaissance viewed the previous Middle Ages as a time of darkness. In the words of Wikipedia, “The concept of a ‘Dark Age’ as a historiographical periodization originated in the 1330s with the Italian scholar Petrarch, who regarded the post-Roman centuries as ‘dark’ compared to the ‘light’ of classical antiquity. The term employs traditional light-versus-darkness imagery to contrast the era’s supposed darkness (ignorance and error) with earlier and later periods of light (knowledge and understanding).” But Wikipedia adds that the Renaissance was a largely surface change that did not affect society at a deep level. “The Renaissance was not a period of great social or economic change, only of cultural and ideological development. It only touched a small fraction of the population... Roger Osborne argues that ‘The Renaissance is a difficult concept for historians because the history of Europe quite suddenly turns into a history of Italian painting, sculpture and architecture.’” Notice the focus upon the ‘appearance’ of painting, sculpture, and architecture.
Verse 11 finishes, “Thus also the rich man will fade away in the midst of his pursuits.” Thus means ‘so, in this manner’ and also is the word ‘and’. This indicates that something else will also happen that can be described in a similar manner. Rich means ‘rich, abounding in, wealthy’ and the same word was used in verse 10. ‘Man’ is implied and not mentioned. ‘In the midst of’ is the word in which means ‘in the realm of’. Pursuits is in the plural and is used twice in the New Testament. It comes from a word that means ‘to transport, moving something from one destination to another’, which is interpreted cognitively as some path that is accompanied by change. One is not just moving from one place to another but being changed by this movement. Fade away is used once in the New Testament and means ‘to wither, to fade, to waste away’.
Putting this together, as I was looking at the Renaissance replacing medieval thought, I noticed that something similar was happening to secular society at that time, and I was not sure where to add this additional element. Verse 11 is obviously the appropriate place because it talks about something additional happening that is similar. And this additional element involved a fading of a pursuit of wealth that itself was altering existing society. Wikipedia describes the growth of a pursuit of wealth that was transforming society. “In the 13th century, much of Europe experienced strong economic growth. The trade routes of the Italian states linked with those of established Mediterranean ports and eventually the Hanseatic League of the Baltic and northern regions of Europe to create a network economy in Europe for the first time since the 4th century... During this period, the modern commercial infrastructure developed, with double-entry book-keeping, joint stock companies, an international banking system, a systematized foreign exchange market, insurance, and government debt... A feature of the High Middle Ages in Northern Italy was the rise of the urban communes which had broken from the control by bishops and local counts.” Wealth was being pursued through the establishment of a trading network for the first time since the Roman era. And this was being accompanied by the development of modern commercial infrastructure. This is similar to the way that medieval Christendom was being replaced by the new thinking of the Renaissance.
But this economic growth was followed by a collapse that totally changed priorities. Wikipedia explains, “The 14th century saw a series of catastrophes that caused the European economy to go into recession. The Medieval Warm Period was ending as the transition to the Little Ice Age began. This climate change saw agricultural output decline significantly, leading to repeated famines, exacerbated by the rapid population growth of the earlier era. The Hundred Years’ War between England and France disrupted trade throughout northwest Europe, most notably when, in 1345, King Edward III of England repudiated his debts, contributing to the collapse of the two largest Florentine banks, those of the Bardi and Peruzzi... Most devastating, though, was the Black Death that decimated the populations of the densely populated cities of Northern Italy and returned at intervals thereafter.” Notice that these catastrophes are all happening in the midst of the pursuit of economic wealth. Climate change led to famine, a long war led to economic collapse, while the Black Death literally killed off city life. When one is starving, at war, and sick, then getting rich will no longer be the center of emotional attention.
Verse 12 emphasizes the need for a positive attitude. “Blessed is the man who endures trial, because, having been approved, he will receive the crown of life.” Blessed means to ‘become long, large’. This word is used in the Beatitudes and is interpreted as leading naturally to Teacher generality. It is used one other time in James in 1:25. For instance, mental symmetry is blessed because it is capable as being treated as a meta-theory in Teacher thought. Man means ‘man’ and is interpreted as male technical thought. A ‘blessed man’ means that technical thought will develop in Teacher generality. Endure means ‘remaining under’ and was seen twice as a noun in verses 3-4 but this is the first occurrence in James as a verb. Trial is the word ‘temptation’ which means that the goal is failure.
Wikipedia describes the paradoxical positive impact that societal devastation had upon the Renaissance. “It was during this period of instability that authors such as Dante and Petrarch lived, and the first stirrings of Renaissance art were to be seen, notably in the realism of Giotto. Paradoxically, some of these disasters would help establish the Renaissance. The Black Death wiped out a third of Europe’s population. The resulting labour shortage increased wages and the reduced population was therefore much wealthier, better fed, and, significantly, had more surplus money to spend on luxury goods... Roberto Sabatino Lopez argues that the economic collapse was a crucial cause of the Renaissance.” In the case of the Black Death, the prerequisite was the ‘remaining under’ of physical survival. In Wikipedia’s words, “The great population loss brought favorable results to the surviving peasants in England and the rest of Western Europe. There was increased social mobility, as depopulation further eroded the peasants’ already-weakened obligations to remain on their traditional holdings.” Wikipedia adds that there was a strong temptation to respond in a negative fashion. “The Black Death had profound effects on art and literature. After 1350, European culture in general turned very morbid. The general mood was one of pessimism, and contemporary art turned dark with representations of death. The widespread image of the ‘dance of death’ showed death (a skeleton) choosing victims at random.”
Approved is the positive word that means ‘testing’. Having been means ‘to come into being’, which means that this approval will gradually emerge over time. Receive means ‘to actively lay hold of’ and was previously used in verse 7 to say that the Dominicans and Franciscans would not receive anything from their lord. In verse 12 there is receiving. A crown ‘is often associated with the wreath awarded to victors in athletic contests’ and this is the only mention of a crown in James. This is not a crown of Mercy domination, as exerted by the popes. Instead it is a crown of victory that results from successfully pursuing some goal. Life refers to both natural and spiritual life and this is the first of two times that this word is used in James.
A ‘blessed man’ was interpreted as male technical thought acquiring the potential to find Teacher generality. A ‘crown of life’ suggests that actually achieving this Teacher generality means actively laying hold of and successfully pursuing a goal. Wikipedia summarizes the theoretical advances that began in the Renaissance. “During the Renaissance, great advances occurred in geography, astronomy, chemistry, physics, mathematics, manufacturing, anatomy and engineering.” Wikipedia also explains that the Renaissance was characterized by the ‘blessedness’ of a potential for Teacher generality which was followed later by actual scientific discoveries. “Initially, there were no new developments in physics or astronomy, and the reverence for classical sources further enshrined the Aristotelian and Ptolemaic views of the universe... Only later, when no more manuscripts could be found, did humanists turn from collecting to editing and translating them, and new scientific work began with the work of such figures as Copernicus, Cardano, and Vesalius.” This was a crown of life because, unlike medieval scholasticism, the pre-scientific thinking of the Renaissance continued to live and develop.
The final phrase in verse 12 is “that He has promised to those loving Him.” Promised means ‘to promise’ and combines ‘upon’ with ‘messenger’. ‘He’ is implied by the conjugation of the verb. Love is ‘agape’ which is interpreted as love driven by Teacher emotions of understanding, wholeness, and integration. This is the first mention of ‘agape’ in James. It is an active participle which implies that this love is continuing over time. And ‘him’ is explicitly mentioned. Notice that there is no direct mention of God. Instead the focus is upon Teacher thought.
Looking forward to a fulfillment of this promise, a shift from focusing upon the human realm of the earth in Mercy thought to the ‘sun’ of Teacher understanding can be seen symbolically in the Copernican model of the universe, developed first in 1514. Wikipedia explains, “Copernicus removed Earth from the center of the universe, set the heavenly bodies in rotation around the Sun, and introduced Earth’s daily rotation on its axis... Copernicus did not only come up with a theory regarding the nature of the Sun in relation to the Earth, but thoroughly worked to debunk some of the minor details within the geocentric theory.” The rising of the sun was interpreted earlier as the dawn of a new general Teacher theory for society. The cognitive naturalness of this symbolism can be seen in the Copernican model which stopped viewing the literal earth as the center of the literal universe and recognize that the earth moved around the sun. This disturbed people’s Mercy mental networks but led to better understanding in Teacher thought. “Copernicus’s theories made a lot of people uncomfortable and somewhat upset. Even with the scrutiny that he faced regarding his conjecture that the universe was not centered around the Earth, he continued to gain support- other scientists and astrologists even posited that his system allowed a better understanding of astronomy concepts than did the geocentric theory.” Being guided by Teacher emotions of understanding and simplicity rather than Mercy feelings of culture and religious importance is an example of agape love.
Distinguishing God from Evil 1:13-15
Verse 13 describes a change in people’s concept of God. “Let no one being tempted say, ‘I am being tempted by God.’” Tempted is the negative word which has the goal of failure and is used three times in verse 13, which indicates that temptation is a primary focus of this verse. Say is the normal word for speech and this is the only use of this common word in chapter 1. By means ‘from, away from’. God is explicitly mentioned but not ‘I’ or ‘am’. Thus, people are verbally associating God in Teacher thought with temptation, saying that God is a source of temptation.
This equating of God with temptation was especially prominent during the time of the Avignon papacy. Between 1378 and 1417 the Catholic Church was ruled by two rival popes, one in Avignon, France and the other in Rome. Wikipedia summarizes, “Overall the public life of leading church members began to resemble the lives of princes rather than members of the clergy. This splendor and corruption at the head of the Church found its way to the lower ranks: when a bishop had to pay up to a year’s income for gaining a benefice, he sought ways of raising this money from his new office. This was taken to extremes by the pardoners who sold absolutions for all kinds of sins. While pardoners were hated but popularly regarded as helpful to redeem one’s soul, the friars who [sic] were commonly regarded as failing to follow the Church’s moral commandments by ignoring their vows of chastity and poverty and were despised.” Notice the connection that is arising in people’s minds. They are seeing the moral temptation and corruption of the Catholic Church while still viewing the Catholic Church as the voice of God. The end result is the concept of a God who tempts.
A similar misconception exists today with many evangelical Christians believing that following God means submitting to the temptation of denying the Teacher order of the physical world that science has discovered as well as denying the Teacher order of a democratically elected, rational society.
Verse 13 finishes by pointing out that God transcends human corruption. “For God is unable to be tempted by evils, and He Himself tempts no one.” For “often introduces a reason or explanation for a preceding statement’. Unable to be tempted is the same word ‘tempted’ used three times in this verse preceded by a ‘not’, and is used once in the New Testament. This is followed by an explicit ‘is’ which indicates the core level of being. Evil means ‘inwardly foul, rotten’ and is in the plural. In other words, people are realizing that there is a sharp mental distinction between a concept of God in Teacher thought and the institutions who claim to represent God but actually are being driven by corrupt Mercy mental networks.
This sounds like a simple statement but it is not a simple mental transition. Instead, it takes extended exposure to massive hypocrisy by those who claim to follow God to make this mental break and actually realize that God is fundamentally a being of law, order, integrity, and wholeness. Saying this another way, Teacher emotion comes from order-within-complexity and Teacher thought feels bad when there is an exception to the general rule. A concept of God is based in Teacher thought because God is a universal being and Teacher thought deals with universalities. This means that a God of the gaps is a fundamental contradiction in terms.
This realization happened with John Hus, a Protestant reformer who preceded Martin Luther and was burned at the stake, and it happened directly as a result of the competing popes and antipopes that were just discussed. Wikipedia describes this complicated story in detail and we will try to summarize. Initially, Hus was against the Protestant writings of Wycliffe. But “In 1408, the Charles University in Prague was divided by the Western Schism, in which Gregory XII in Rome and Benedict XIII in Avignon both claimed the papacy... At the University, only the scholars of the Bohemian ‘nation’ with Hus as their leader, vowed neutrality.” Going further, “In 1409, the Council of Pisa tried to end the schism by electing Alexander V as Pope, but Gregory and Benedict did not submit. (Alexander was declared an ‘antipope’ by the Council of Constance in 1418.) Hus, his followers, and Wenceslaus IV transferred their allegiance to Alexander V... [who then] issued a papal bull that empowered the Archbishop to proceed against Wycliffism in Prague. All copies of Wycliffe’s writings were to be surrendered and his views repudiated, and free preaching discontinued... Hus and his adherents were excommunicated by Alexander V.” Notice how competing popes and anti-popes are making competing dogmatic statements in the name of God, driven by Mercy mental networks of personal power.
Hus eventually declared publicly that this corruption had nothing to do with God. Wikipedia relates, “Hus spoke out against indulgences, but he could not carry with him the men of the university... Hus asserted that no pope or bishop had the right to take up the sword in the name of the Church; he should pray for his enemies and bless those who curse him; man obtains forgiveness of sins by true repentance, not money... A few days afterward some of Hus followers... burned the Papal bulls. Hus, they said, should be obeyed rather than the Church, which they considered a fraudulent mob of adulterers and Simonists [someone who sells religious offices].” Eventually, Hus “no longer put his trust in an indecisive king, a hostile pope or an ineffective council. On 18 October 1412, he appealed to Jesus Christ as the supreme judge.” In other words, Hus eventually made a total break between the inward foulness of those who claimed to speak for God and the incorruptibility of a mental concept of God based in Teacher thought.
Verse 13 concludes that ‘He Himself tempts no one’. This phrase begins with the familiar word ‘tempt’. The previous phrase referred to the identity of God whereas this phrase describes the behavior of God. God tempts no one because God is non-tempting. Hus expressed this during his final trial where he was accused of heresy, his promised immunity was denied, and he was burned. Quoting from Wikipedia, “An Italian prelate pronounced the sentence of condemnation upon Hus and his writings. Hus protested, saying that even at this hour he did not wish anything but to be convinced from Scripture. He fell upon his knees and asked God with a soft voice to forgive all his enemies... The judgment of the Church was pronounced: This holy synod of Constance, seeing that God’s church has nothing more that it can do, relinquishes John Hus to the judgment of the secular authority.” On the one hand, the church broke its promise of immunity to Hus while condemning him to death as ‘God’s church’. On the other hand, Hus wished to be ‘convinced from Scripture’ and asked God ‘to forgive all his enemies’. Notice how God is being regarded as a source of understanding in Teacher thought who does not descend to the Mercy level of thinking of friends and enemies.
John Hus was only a single individual but his death caused much of the Czech population of Bohemia to revolt against the pope, leading to the fifteen year Hussite wars which ravaged the lands of Bohemia.
Verses 14-15 describe a progression of temptation. “But a man is tempted, being drawn away and being enticed by the own desire.” The word man is ‘an adjective used to denote individuality within a group’. Tempt is the familiar word used several times in verse 13. The next phrase begins with by, which means ‘under, often meaning under authority’. Own means ‘uniquely one’s own, peculiar to the individual’. Desire means ‘passion built on strong feelings’ and is only used in James in this verse and the next. Looking at this cognitively, the individual is under the authority of personal MMNs that are creating strong desires for Exhorter thought. And these strong desires are driving a person to violate social and religious mental networks.
This progression can be seen in the Renaissance popes who ruled right after the end of the papal schism between pope and antipope. Wikipedia describes what mentally ruled these popes. “Generally speaking, the Renaissance popes who followed him prioritized the temporal interests of the Papal States in Italian politics. In addition to being the head of the Holy Roman Church, the Pope became one of Italy’s most powerful secular rulers, signing treaties with other sovereigns and fighting wars.” Notice that these popes functioned under the mental authority of ruling physical kingdoms rather than following God. Wikipedia also describes the emergence of personal motivation. “Certain Renaissance popes used papal finances and armies to enrich themselves and their families; for example, Pope Alexander VI used the power of Papal patronage to fund his son Cesare Borgia’s wars throughout Italy. Likewise, Pope Leo X embroiled papal armies in fighting the protracted War of Urbino, an effort to secure the Pope’s nephew Lorenzo II de Medici’s rule over that city.” Thus, being mentally ruled by temptation has turned into using the church to pursue war for personal gain. Looking at another aspect of personal gain, Wikipedia states that “Popes such as John XXII, Benedict XII, and Clement VI reportedly spent fortunes on expensive wardrobes, and silver and gold plates were used at banquets.”
Drawn away is used once in the New Testament and means ‘to draw out, to drag out’. Entice means to ‘allure, entice by a bait’. Thus, these personal MMNs are pulling a person away from the crowd, driven by the enticement of some desirable goal. Wikipedia describes the bait of riches enticing popes to be ‘dragged out’ from normal church behavior. “With ambitious temporal agendas ranging from military campaigns to the arts, Renaissance popes widened the scope of their sources of revenue. Famously, Pope Leo X expanded the sale of indulgences and bureaucratic and ecclesiastical offices to finance the rebuilding of St. Peter’s Basilica. Controversy over these practices reached their zenith in 1517, when Martin Luther initiated the Protestant Reformation.” Selling God’s forgiveness in order to finance a beautiful building is an example of being drawn out from Christianity by the bait of temporal splendor.
The progression continues in verse 15. “Then desire having conceived, gives birth to sin; and sin having become fully grown, brings forth death.” Desire is the same word that was used in verse 14 which means ‘passion built on strong feelings’. Conceive combines the word ‘with’ and ‘to take or to seize’ and is translated as either ‘arrest’ or ‘become pregnant’. These two meanings makes sense in terms of mental networks because the mind uses mental networks to represent living beings. A mental network will form whenever one continues to repeat some set of experiences or work with some theory. Once a mental network forms, then it will use emotional pressure to impose its structure upon the mind. Thus, some behavior is being repeated, this is forming a mental network, and this new mental network is seizing the mind and giving birth to a new culture. Saying this another way, what started as a choice has now turned into an addiction. Give birth means ‘to bear, bring forth, give birth’ and is used in the New Testament to describe babies being born. Sin means ‘to miss the mark’.
The Renaissance popes gave birth to behavior that can accurately be described as addictive sinfulness. Wikipedia elaborates, “The Renaissance papacy invokes images of a Hollywood spectacular, all decadence and drag. Contemporaries viewed Renaissance Rome as we now view Nixon’s Washington, a city of expense-account whores and political graft, where everything and everyone had a price, where nothing and nobody could be trusted. The popes themselves seemed to set the tone... Several of the Renaissance popes took mistresses, fathered children, engaged in intrigue, and even murder.” Taking mistresses, fathering children, intrigue, and murder all describe behavior that has become seized by passions. This also massively ‘misses the mark’ of what is expected of a pope. And cognitive giving birth to sinful mental networks progressed to physically giving birth to illegitimate children.
Full-grown is used twice in the New Testament and combines ‘away from’ with ‘to complete or to finish’. Bring forth is used twice in the New Testament, here and in verse 18, and combines ‘away from’ with ‘to be pregnant’. This extensive use of ‘baby’ language strongly suggests that this progression involves mental networks and not technical thought. The final word is death which means ‘death’. Thus, a process that involves the growth and development of mental networks that represent life is ending up with the absence of life. That is because people are being driven by personal mental networks of sin to ‘bring forth’ destructive behavior that eliminates the basis for life.
Giving birth to death happened literally with one Renaissance pope. “For example, Alexander VI had four acknowledged children, including the infamous murderer Cesare Borgia.” More generally, this behavior led to the death of Catholic Christendom. Wikipedia elaborates, “The Renaissance papacy began to decline when the Protestant Reformation splintered Western Christianity into denominations, and as nation-states began asserting varying degrees of control over the Church in their territories... By the early 1520s, after years of immoderate spending, the Holy Roman Church was nearing bankruptcy; in 1527, the armies of Holy Roman Emperor Charles V sacked Rome, causing the city’s population to dwindle from 55,000 to 10,000 in a single year.” Catholicism splintered due to the Protestant Reformation, its power was restricted by secular rulers, it ran out of money, and the holy city of Rome was physically sacked. These causes of death took time to become full-grown and they all resulted from various mental networks—Protestantism, nationalism, building programs, rival empires—that came to birth away from the mental networks of Catholicism.
A God of Light who Gives 1:16-18
Verse 16 clarifies, “Do not be misled, my beloved brothers.” Mislead means ‘to deviate from the correct path, roaming into error’. One is not being enticed by some goal but rather deviating from a path. Brother means ‘from the same womb’ and was last used in verse 9 to talk about the monks with their vow of poverty. They were ‘brothers’ because their lifestyle was birthed by a common ‘womb’ of vowing poverty. There has been no mention of brothers since then. Beloved is the word ‘agape’ which refers to Teacher emotion.
This describes the response of Martin Luther to the sale of indulgences to fund the construction of St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome. Wikipedia explains, “The Dominican friar Johann Tetzel (d. 1519), a leading figure in the campaign, applied unusually aggressive marketing methods. A slogan attributed to him famously claimed that ‘As soon as the coin into the box rings, a soul from purgatory to heaven springs’... The campaign’s vulgarity shocked many serious-minded believers, among them Martin Luther... On 31 October 1517, Luther addressed a letter to Albert of Brandenburg, stating that the clerics preaching the St. Peter’s indulgences were deceiving the faithful, and attached his Ninety-five Theses to it.” In other words, Luther complained that the clerics from Rome were ‘misleading’ the faithful who were ‘beloved brothers’.
Verse 17 describes the fundamental nature of God. “Every good act of giving and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights.” Act of giving is used twice as a noun in the New Testament and ‘refers to the act of giving or a gift itself’. Good means ‘intrinsically good’. Intrinsic evil was mentioned in verse 13 but this is the first mention of intrinsic goodness. Gift is also used twice in the New Testament and ‘refers to a gift or something given’. Perfect means ‘having reached its end, complete’. Thus, the act of giving is being motivated by Mercy feelings of intrinsic goodness, while the gift itself exhibits Teacher qualities of wholeness and completeness. ‘Every’ is used twice, indicating that this principle applies without exception. Notice that this is a statement about the nature of God in Teacher thought and not about people or personal desire.
Similarly, Luther taught that justification is a gift from God. Quoting from Wikipedia, “He began to teach that salvation or redemption is a gift of God’s grace.” Going further, “Against the teaching of his day that the righteous acts of believers are performed in cooperation with God, Luther wrote that Christians receive such righteousness entirely from outside themselves; that righteousness not only comes from Christ but actually is the righteousness of Christ, imputed to Christians (rather than infused into them) through faith.” Thus, the act of giving is intrinsically good because is being done by God without the cooperation of human believers. And the gift is complete because the complete righteousness of Christ is being imputed to Christians.
This summarizes Luther’s doctrine of justification. Wikipedia explains, “The most important for Luther was the doctrine of justification—God’s act of declaring a sinner righteous—by faith alone through God’s grace. He began to teach that salvation or redemption is a gift of God’s grace, attainable only through faith in Jesus as the Messiah.” Salvation is a ‘gift’ from God and it is a ‘perfect gift’ because it reaches the end of ‘declaring a sinner righteous’. The act of giving this gift of salvation is intrinsically good because it is based solely in Jesus the Messiah and not in human effort.
From above means ‘from above’ and is interpreted as having a source in Teacher generality. Is is explicitly mentioned, indicating a focus upon being. Coming down means ‘to go down, to descend’ which is interpreted as moving toward Mercy specifics. Similarly, Luther viewed the salvation of personal being as coming from above and descending to the individual believer. Repeating part of an earlier quote, “Righteousness not only comes from Christ but actually is the righteousness of Christ, imputed to Christians.” The righteousness of Christ ‘from above’ is ‘coming down’ to become the imputed righteousness of Christian believers. Saying this more clearly, in “one of his most emphatic statements on faith, he argued that every good work designed to attract God’s favor is a sin. All humans are sinners by nature, he explained, and God’s grace alone (which cannot be earned) can make them just.”
Father indicates a source of life, but this life is coming from the content of male technical thought, and this is the first mention of ‘father’ in James. Light means ‘to shine’, it is in the plural and is only used once in James. Light represents the light of Teacher understanding. ‘Father of lights’ indicates that male technical thought is coming up with a number of general Teacher theories. There is not a sun of an integrated understanding, but rather the lights of many fragments of technical understanding.
This describes Luther’s conversion experience in which he was studying Scripture technically and he suddenly had a light of understanding in which he viewed God as a father rather than as a judge. Luther describes this personal enlightenment, “‘Why does God heap sorrow upon sorrow through the Gospel and through the Gospel threaten us with his justice and his wrath?’ This was how I was raging with wild and disturbed conscience... I meditated night and day on those words... I began to understand that this verse means that the justice of God is revealed through the Gospel, but it is a passive justice, i.e. that by which the merciful God justifies us by faith, as it is written: ‘The just person lives by faith.’ All at once I felt that I had been born again and entered into paradise itself through open gates. Immediately I saw the whole of Scripture in a different light. I ran through the Scriptures from memory and found that other terms had analogous meanings.” Notice that Luther’s view of God as judge is being followed by extensive technical studying of the Bible, leading to a sudden light of understanding and a new concept of God as father.
Verse 17 concludes, “With whom there is no variation or shadow of shifting.” With means ‘close beside’. Whom is the generic relative pronoun. There is means ‘there is, there exists’ and is preceded by a ‘not’. Variation is used once in the New Testament and means ‘to change or to alter’. This describes general Teacher theories that do not change over time, as opposed to the flower of the grass which is popular for a while and then fades. Shadow is also used once in the New Testament and combines ‘away from’ with ‘cast shade’. Shade happens when objects in Perceiver thought block the light of Teacher understanding. Shifting is used once in the New Testament and means ‘to turn or to change’; it ‘was often associated with the movement of celestial bodies, such as the sun, moon, and stars’. For instance, we saw earlier that both the Franciscans and the Dominicans split mentally into two fully developed fragments because their minds were split by fundamental Perceiver divisions. But those Perceiver divisions shifted over time.
In contrast, Luther viewed justification by faith as something that did not change over time upon which no shifting facts could cast a shadow. Wikipedia describes Luther’s confidence. “‘This one and firm rock, which we call the doctrine of justification,’ insisted Luther, ‘is the chief article of the whole Christian doctrine, which comprehends the understanding of all godliness... If this article stands, the Church stands; if it falls, the Church falls’... [Lutherans] believe justification by grace alone through faith alone in Christ’s righteousness alone is the gospel, the core of the Christian faith around which all other Christian doctrines are centered and based.” Summarizing, the existence of the church depends upon this doctrine of justification and it is the center core around which nothing else can cast a shifting shadow.
This stability and centrality can also be seen in Luther’s response to his interrogators in the Diet of Worms in 1521. “Unless I am convinced by the testimony of the Scriptures or by clear reason (for I do not trust either in the pope or in councils alone, since it is well known that they have often erred and contradicted themselves), I am bound by the Scriptures I have quoted, and my conscience is captive to the Word of God. I cannot and will not recant anything since it is neither safe nor right to go against conscience. May God help me. Amen.” Luther told the papal representatives that they ‘often erred and contradicted themselves’ as opposed to the unchanging ‘testimony of the Scriptures’. His ‘conscience was captive to the word of God’ and he would not allow any religious authorities to cast a ‘shifting shadow’ upon the ‘testimony of the Scriptures’.
Before we continue, it is necessary to discuss Luther’s doctrine of sola fide or salvation by faith alone. The key word here is ‘alone’. In the words of Wikipedia, “Luther added the word allein (‘alone’ in German) to Romans 3:28 controversially so that it read: ‘So now we hold, that man is justified without the help of the works of the law, alone through faith’. The word ‘alone’ does not appear in the Greek manuscripts and Luther acknowledged this fact, but he defended his translation by maintaining that the adverb ‘alone’ was required by idiomatic German.” James 1:16-18 seems to support Luther’s doctrine but we shall see later in 1:22 and 2:18 that salvation is by faith but it is not by faith alone.
Martin Luther infamously declared the epistle of James to be a ‘straw epistle’. One article explains that “Luther judged that James failed the apostolic content test in a second way: it contradicted justification by faith alone. He stated that James is ‘flatly against St. Paul and the all the rest of Scripture in ascribing justification to works.’” However, “Whilst Luther wished to place James outside of the ‘chief’ books, he did not wish to exclude it from the NT entirely.” Luther’s statement about the epistle James is deeply ironic if James is presenting a detailed prophecy of Protestantism, because Martin Luther is a central figure of Protestantism. Thus, while Luther denigrated James as a straw epistle, James places Luther within a progression of cognitive development.
Looking at this cognitively, Luther lived in a pre-scientific era where all Perceiver ‘truth’ was ultimately based in human sources of truth who had emotional status in Mercy thought. Luther introduced something radically different. He studied the Bible long enough to form an understanding that turned into a Teacher mental network. And he allowed this TMN to turn into a concept of God that judged his personal behavior with greater authority than the pronouncements of popes and the church. His illumination happened when he realized that his TMN of an internal concept of God based in the words of the Bible did not just condemn him but also had the emotional power to declare him righteous. This can only happen if the TMN that comes from studying and understanding the content of the Bible is emotionally regarded as more significant than any mental networks of religious self-denial that come from the attitude of basing ‘truth’ in Mercy status. Because Luther was the first to proclaim this realization, it was imperative for him to overstate the case in order to ensure that this new doctrine stuck.
Mental symmetry suggests that Luther was describing the first part of the story but not the whole story. Justification can be compared to enrolling in God’s school of character development. Teacher thought looks at theories from a universal perspective that is outside of time and space. Thus, justification describes a transition in Teacher thought from the domain of one general theory to another theory in which personal identity acquires the status of being ‘enrolled in God’s school’. Saying this another way, Luther’s justification is a verbal, legal declaration emotionally supported by the TMN of a concept of God based in the words of the Bible. Luther was the first to publicly recognize that it is mentally possible to gain a feeling of divine forgiveness by enrolling in God’s school. Therefore, Luther made enrollment in God’s school the central doctrine of Christianity. But God does not run a diploma mill. Instead, the purpose of enrolling in God’s school of character development is to take the classes and pass the exams of character development. Using the language of mental symmetry, the goal is mental and spiritual wholeness, known theologically as sanctification. Going further, faith means to ‘be persuaded’. Using the school analogy, salvation is by faith because one goes to school and takes the classes in order to be persuaded by the course material. However, the personal development of Luther, the history of Protestantism, the book of James, and my personal background as a Mennonite all make it clear what happens if one regards Christianity as a diploma mill by adding the word ‘alone’ to ‘salvation by faith’.
Verse 18 concludes, “Having willed it, He brought us forth by the word of truth, for us to be a kind of firstfruits of His creatures.” Willed means ‘to plan with full resolve’. Bring forth means ‘to be pregnant or to give birth’. It is only used twice in the New Testament, here and back in verse 15. It was interpreted in verse 15 as mental networks of papal corruption giving birth to behavior of corruption. Word is ‘logos’ which is interpreted as the Teacher theory or paradigm that lies behind some technical specialization, and this is the first use of this word in James. Truth means ‘true to fact’ which is also being used for the first time in James. ‘Be’ is explicitly mentioned. Firstfruits means ‘firstfruits’ and combines ‘away from’ with ‘beginning’. Kind of is a generic word that means someone or something. Creature comes from the word ‘to create’ and is used once in James.
The language of the first phrase is interesting because faith is not mentioned, which implies that the emphasis is not upon being persuaded by rational thought. Instead, the ‘Father’ from the previous verse is choosing to bring something to birth by using a paradigm based upon solid facts. This describes Luther’s doctrine of justification. According to Wikipedia, “‘Faith alone makes someone just and fulfills the law,’ said Luther. ‘Faith is that which brings the Holy Spirit through the merits of Christ.’ Thus faith, for Luther, is a gift from God, and ‘a living, bold trust in God’s grace, so certain of God's favor that it would risk death a thousand times trusting in it.’” Note that Luther is defining faith not as being persuaded by rational arguments but rather as a Teacher theory or paradigm that is based upon facts about Christ that one regards as solid. This faith then brings to birth the life of the Holy Spirit.
Going further, verse 18 juxtaposes being verbally declared righteous by God with being the start of a new creation by God. Using theological language, justification is being equated with eschatology.
A Harvard theological academic article describes how Luther directly connected ‘God justifying me’ with ‘my justification being the start of a new creation’. “Luther’s justification by faith is an eschatological experience. Luther’s view of eschatology makes it the seal of his doctrine of justification. Justification by faith without eschatology is a form of subjectivistic and individualistic self-hypnosis. Eschatology without justification by faith is mere utopianism.” Looking at this more personally, “It was out of this concrete and torturing experience of hell that Luther was freed by the gospel. It is against this background of rejection and condemnation as an eschatological experience that we learn to understand how for Luther justification is the anticipation of the presence of God and of eternal life in time.” I know what this feels like because writing these essays for me is simultaneously a theoretical analysis of Scripture and history as well as a personal struggle to escape the insanity of my society. As mentioned before, I am writing this essay right after the re-election of Trump and I have no idea what will happen to either Western democracy or Western Christendom when Trump is inaugurated in a month and a half.
Looking at this cognitively, justification by faith is a firstfruits in the sense that a new form of personal identity is being formed within Mercy thought that is based in the TMN of a concept of God. But what has come to birth is the fragment of a new personal identity based in studying the words of the Bible and not a complete new personal identity based in a universal Teacher understanding of how the world and the mind function. For Martin Luther these two were almost the same because he was a monk who spent most of his time studying the Bible, who lectured on books of the Bible as a professor of theology at a theological faculty. Luther was also an Exhorter person and Exhorter persons have the natural ability to stop focusing upon one thing in order to completely focus on something new and more exciting. Thus, when Luther experienced the light of his conversion encounter he probably felt as if all of his personal identity had been reborn. But Luther’s subsequent unregenerate behavior, which James will discuss, made it clear that only a fragment of his personal identity had been reborn.
Interpreting verse 18 was interesting because I could not find anything on Wikipedia which mentioned that Luther connected being verbally justified with being the firstfruits of a new creation. But when I looked further, I found academic papers stating that this was a central theme of Luther’s theology that has been overlooked until recently by scholars.
Receiving the Word versus Human Anger 1:19-21
The next section changes the topic from faith to behavior. Verse 19 focuses upon speech. “Know this, my beloved brothers. But let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow unto anger.” Know is ‘seeing that becomes knowing’ which is interpreted as empirical evidence. Beloved is ‘agape’ and brother means ‘from the same womb’, which means that those who share this cognitive rebirth of ‘justification by faith’ are being addressed. Let be is the verb ‘to be’ and is in the imperative. Luther is claiming that justification by faith leads to a rebirth of personal identity. Verse 19 is saying that personal identity must change in certain areas and this transformation must lead to visible results in behavior. Man is the generic word for mankind and ‘every’ indicates that this applies to all people.
The word to is repeated three times and means ‘motion into’. The implication is that one will not naturally be in this state but will need to move into this condition. Swift is used once as an adjective in the New Testament and means ‘without unnecessary delay’. Hear means to ‘comprehend by hearing’ which means that one is listening to the words and understanding them. Slow means ‘slow, as in taking time to deliberate’ and is used twice. Speak is a normal word for ‘talk’. Anger is normally translated as ‘wrath’ and refers to ‘settled anger’ as opposed to emotionally blowing up.
Looking at this cognitively, Luther’s justification by faith is emotionally unstable. On the one hand, the Bible is being treated as a holy book based in MMNs of religious devotion. On the other hand, the Bible is being studied, leading to TMNs of rational understanding. One of these two will eventually dominate. Listening to others treats theology as a universal understanding that goes beyond my personal religious experiences. In contrast, talking to others treats theology as a proclamation that is based in my personal religious experiences and not the experiences of others. And anger means that I am using emotional pressure to impose my personal mental networks upon other people. Normal anger results from imposing my MMNs upon others. This turns into the settled anger of wrath when my personal MMNs become amplified by TMNs of religious doctrine. The other person is not just offending me but rather is offending me and my God.
Martin Luther had problems controlling his mouth. For instance, after his defense at the Diet of Worms, Luther was held in protective custody for a year at Wartburg Castle, during which time radical views began to be taught in Wittenberg. Wikipedia describes Luther’s response. Luther “wrote to the Elector: ‘During my absence, Satan has entered my sheepfold, and committed ravages which I cannot repair by writing, but only by my personal presence and living word.’ For eight days in Lent, beginning on Invocavit Sunday, 9 March, Luther preached eight sermons, which became known as the ‘Invocavit Sermons’. In these sermons, he hammered home the primacy of core Christian values such as love, patience, charity, and freedom, and reminded the citizens to trust God’s word rather than violence to bring about necessary change.” Notice the contradiction between what Luther said and the way that he said it. He spoke about love, patience, charity, and trust, but he demonstrated a quickness to speak and a quickness to wrath. It is interesting that verse 19 does not focus upon what one is saying but rather the fact that one is talking rather than listening.
Verse 20 explains, “For man’s anger does not produce the righteousness of God.” Anger is the same word ‘wrath’ used in verse 19. Man refers to men and not to mankind, which indicates a focus upon male technical thought. Technical thought is normally logical and rational, but when the Teacher theory or paradigm that lies behind some technical specialization is challenged, then there is an instinctual tendency to switch from rational interaction to emotional sarcasm and belittling. Produce comes from a word that means ‘a deed that carries out an inner desire’ which is interpreted as internally initiated behavior.
‘Righteousness’ is used to three times in James but this is the only reference to ‘righteousness of God’. The definition given by Biblehub corresponds to Luther’s doctrine of being declared righteous: ‘judicial approval (the verdict of approval)’. But Biblehub also gives a broader definition, ‘The state of him who is such as he ought to be, righteousness; the condition acceptable to God’. This goes beyond being declared righteous to actually being righteous. Mental symmetry defines righteousness as Server actions that are consistent with the TMN of a concept of God. In other words, being righteous means being emotionally driven by Teacher emotion to behave in a manner that is consistent with my concept of God in Teacher thought.
We have seen that the core of Luther’s doctrine of justification is that God declares people to be righteous and imputes the righteousness of Christ to those who believe. Thus, it is significant that verse 20 refers to ‘righteousness of God’. ‘Produce’ is based in inner motivation. Verse 20 says that man’s anger is not an example of being internally motivated by ‘righteousness of God’. Instead of being motivated by a TMN of understanding how God behaves—the ‘righteousness of God’, I am being motivated by lesser emotions of defending my theory and imposing my truth. Saying this as clearly as possible, Luther’s justification by faith is a starting point, because I am allowing a TMN of my understanding of God to emotionally impose its statements of forgiveness upon personal identity. But this verbal starting point has to be emotionally fed by continuing to allow this TMN of God to impose itself upon my speech. If God has verbally forgiven me then I need to behave like God by verbally forgiving others.
Luther’s response to the results of his message can be described as the ‘wrath of man’. Wikipedia explains, “By working alongside the authorities to restore public order, he signaled his reinvention as a conservative force within the Reformation. After banishing the Zwickau prophets, he faced a battle against both the established Church and the radical reformers who threatened the new order by fomenting social unrest and violence.” Notice that Luther is reinventing himself as a conservative force against radical reformers who threaten the new order. And when Luther’s warnings were ignored, then Luther responded with pure ‘wrath of man’. Quoting from Wikipedia, “He became enraged at the widespread burning of convents, monasteries, bishops’ palaces, and libraries. [He] condemned the violence as the devil’s work, and called for the nobles to put down the rebels like mad dogs.” ‘Burning down convents, monasteries, bishop’s palaces, and libraries’ does not express the righteousness of God and it was right for Luther to oppose this rebellion. However, Luther had implicitly encouraged such behavior with his inflammatory language. “Luther’s pamphlets against the Church and the hierarchy, often worded with ‘liberal’ phraseology, led many peasants to believe he would support an attack on the upper classes in general. Revolts broke out in Franconia, Swabia, and Thuringia in 1524.” Thus, Luther’s verbal exhibition of man’s anger led to internally motivated rebellion that did not express righteousness of God. Stated bluntly, the epistle of James was accurate, while Luther’s incomplete comprehension of justification proved to be straw.
Looking at this briefly from a personal perspective, it is tempting to respond with anger when faced with deliberate, repeated, ignorant, malicious insanity. But I have repeatedly tried to respond by redirecting my wrath towards the positive goal of gaining a deeper understanding of a concept of God in Teacher thought. For instance, I want to scream at both the right-wing evangelical Christian idiots who voted for Trump and the left-wing liberal academic fools who have turn their back on rational thought by embracing ‘alternate knowing’. But I am trying to redirect my wrath to the positive goal of writing essays such as this in order to ensure that the TMN of my concept of God remains emotionally more powerful than other competing mental networks. I do this because I know that giving in to human wrath would feel good in the short term but would very quickly destroy me inside.
Verse 21 says exactly this. “Therefore, having put aside all filthiness and abounding of wickedness.” Therefore means ‘therefore, for this reason’. In other words, if one wishes to go beyond talking about imputed righteousness of God to demonstrating imputed righteousness of God, then one needs to apply verse 21. Put aside is used once in James and combines ‘away from’ with ‘to place, to set’. ‘Placing’ is interpreted as a source of stability in Perceiver thought. Thus, putting aside would mean regarding something in Perceiver thought as occupying a location that is different than personal identity: ‘I am here; that is there’. Filthiness is used once in the New Testament and is related to a word that means ‘grease-filth, soiling all it touches’. Abounding means ‘what exceeds normal expectations’. Wickedness means ‘inwardly foul, rotten’.
Luther did not put filthiness and wickedness aside in his words to the rebels. Wikipedia quotes Luther’s words, “Therefore let everyone who can, smite, slay, and stab, secretly or openly, remembering that nothing can be more poisonous, hurtful, or devilish than a rebel... Fine Christians they are! I think there is not a devil left in hell; they have all gone into the peasants. Their raving has gone beyond all measure.” And “In 1526 Luther wrote: ‘I, Martin Luther, have during the rebellion slain all the peasants, for it was I who ordered them to be struck dead.’” In contrast, many of the rebels did put filthiness and wickedness aside. Wikipedia explains, “Without Luther’s backing for the uprising, many rebels laid down their weapons; others felt betrayed. Their defeat... brought the revolutionary stage of the Reformation to a close. Thereafter, radicalism found a refuge in the Anabaptist movement and other religious movements, while Luther’s Reformation flourished under the wing of the secular powers.” Summarizing, Luther’s strong words won the war and restored order but they also had the long-term impact of placing the Protestant Reformation ‘under the wing of the secular powers’. Thus, Luther’s bold proclamation of receiving the imputed righteousness of Christ became subservient in practice to the wrath of man executed by secular powers.
Verse 21 finishes with a positive alternative. “Receive in humility the implanted word, being able to save your souls.” Humility means ‘gentle strength’. Receive means ‘to receive in a welcoming way’. Implanted is used once in the New Testament and combines ‘in’ with ‘germinate, grow, spring up’. Word is logos’ and was used in verse 18, which was interpreted as Luther’s paradigm of justification by faith. Looking at this cognitively, justification by faith does not lead to an instant change of personal identity, but it does implant the seed of a new identity that is based in submitting emotionally to the TMN of an understanding of justification. This seed will grow if one responds in a humble way that does not assert personal mental networks of self but rather emotionally welcomes the TMN of justification. Saying this more simply, instead of declaring that ‘You must be peaceful or else I will send the government after you’ as Luther did, one states ‘We must be peaceful if we want to receive God’s grace. God has set up government to deal with those who reject God’s peace and we want to do everything to avoid going in the direction of government-imposed order.’
Able means ‘power’ and is interpreted as active Perceiver thought. In other words, the implanted paradigm of justification has internal power which provides an alternative to the external power of the state. Save means to ‘deliver out of danger and into safety’ and this is the first use of this significant word in James. Soul is the word ‘psyche’ and is interpreted as the integrated mind. Luther boasted about ‘slaying all the peasants’ and ‘ordering them to be struck dead’. That was not salvation. Instead, Luther was like the unmerciful servant of Matthew 18:23-34 who was forgiven a major debt by his master and then proceeded to throw his fellow servant into jail. Similarly, Luther preached forgiveness from the judgment of God while delivering no forgiveness from the judgment of man. Saving the soul emphasizes that justification by faith is a starting point that needs to be fed in order to extend to the integrated mind. This is not ‘salvation by works’ but rather salvation of the whole mind by continuing to welcome the doctrine of justification in more areas of one’s life.
Being a Hearer and not a Doer 1:22-24
Verse 22 then explicitly addresses Luther’s addition of the word ‘only’ to his doctrine of justification by faith. “But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.” Be means ‘to come into being’ which means that this is not something that one chooses to do through force of will but rather something that emerges organically as a result of ‘receiving in humility the implanted word’. Doer is the noun form of the verb ‘to make, do’ which refers to Server actions. Word is ‘logos’ which refers to the Teacher theory behind some specialization. This does not describe ‘the salvation by works’ of Catholicism which Luther rightly rejected as ineffective. Instead, it is a recognition that theories in Teacher thought need to be backed up by actions in Server thought. This principle is followed whenever one does homework or performs a lab. Going the one way, doing the Server actions gives stability to the Teacher understanding. Going the other way, Teacher thought generates positive emotion when Server thought performs actions that are consistent with Teacher understanding.
Hearers is the noun form of ‘comprehend by hearing’ which was used earlier. It occurs four times in the New Testament, three times in verses 22-25. Only means ‘only alone’ and is the adverbial form of ‘monos’ as in monotheism. Thus, Luther explicitly violated verse 22 by adding the word ‘alone’ to his doctrine of justification by faith, because he declared that one should be ‘hearers only’ and he made this his central doctrine of Christianity. Quoting from Wikipedia, “The key doctrine, or material principle, of Lutheranism is the doctrine of justification. Lutherans believe that humans are saved from their sins by God’s grace alone (Sola Gratia), through faith alone (Sola Fide), on the basis of Scripture alone (Sola Scriptura).”
Deceiving is used twice in the New Testament and ‘operates by distorted reasoning – using what seems plausible but later lets the person down’. And yourself is in the plural, suggesting that a group of people is being deceived. In other words, Luther did not set out to pursue false doctrine. Instead, he came up with a plausible doctrine of justification by faith alone, based upon his personal experience of feeling deep forgiveness from God when he abandoned the Server actions that he had been performing as a Catholic monk and held on to the Perceiver facts of the Bible that he was studying. But Luther’s response to opposition as well as the horrific religious wars that followed Luther make it abundantly clear that this was ‘distorted reasoning’ that would ‘later let the person down’. Not only was Luther himself let down but also an entire group of people that submitted to Luther’s plausible but distorted reasoning. Unfortunately, instead of following these instructions, Luther disregarded the epistle of James as a ‘straw epistle’.
Verse 23 provides an analogy. “Because if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, this one is like a man looking at his natural face in a mirror.” If suggests that one could choose otherwise. ‘Hearer’ and ‘word’ are the same words that were used in verse 22. But verse 23 explicitly adds the word ‘is’ which indicates that this attitude has come to define personal identity. ‘Doer’ is the same word as verse 22 but proceeded by a negative. Verse 22 talked about becoming a ‘doer of the word’ and not a ‘hearer only’. Verse 23 talks about being a hearer and not a doer. This suggests that the default alternative is to remain at the level of hearing and not doing and that one has to choose to gradually become someone who does not succumb to the default. It also suggests that what started as a choice to hear and not do has become a basic element of personal identity.
Like is used one other time in the New Testament back in 1:6 and means ‘to yield, to give way, to submit’. It was interpreted previously as the mendicant monks submitting to the waves of society. Similarly, one is also submitting to some force in verse 23. Man means ‘man’, which represents male technical thought. Look means ‘to think from up to down’ and is only used in James in this verse and the next. This describes using rational thought that starts from general principles and moves down to specific situations. In other words, one is using a form of deductive reasoning. Face means ‘face, presence, person, countenance’. This refers not to behavior itself but rather to social interaction and the appearance of behavior. Natural means ‘origin, birth’. And ‘of him’ is explicitly mentioned. Putting this together, one is using deductive reasoning guided by general principles to make statements about natural social interaction and behavior. In other words, one is applying the doctrine of justification to personal and societal MMNs. Mirror means mirror.
The double use of ‘look’ in verses 23 and 24 indicates that the focus here is upon theology which reasons deductively from general theological principles. Two stages are being described here with the first stage in verse 23 and the second in verse 24. Similarly, Lutheran theology divides conversion into two parts. Quoting from Wikipedia, “During conversion, one is moved from impenitence to repentance. The Augsburg Confession divides repentance into two parts: ‘One is contrition, that is, terrors smiting the conscience through the knowledge of sin; the other is faith, which is born of the Gospel, or of absolution, and believes that for Christ’s sake, sins are forgiven, comforts the conscience, and delivers it from terrors.’” The Augsburg confession was written in 1530 and “is the primary confession of faith of the Lutheran Church and one of the most important documents of the Protestant Reformation.” During the first part, one metaphorically looks in the mirror and becomes painfully aware of natural inadequacies. Sin is viewed as a consequence of human origin and birth which continues as long as one is physically alive. This perspective is described in the academic paper quoted earlier. “For original sin is a root and inborn evil, which only come end when this body has been entirely mortified, purged by fire and reformed... For as long as we live, sin still clings to our flesh; there remains a law in our flesh and members at war with the law of our mind and making us captive to the law of our mind and making us captive to the law of sin.” Thus, one looks in the mirror, sees one’s natural inclinations, gasps in horror, and concludes that one’s physical body with its urges is fatally flawed.
Verse 24 continues with the analogy and describes the second part of conversion. “For he has viewed himself and has gone away, and immediately he has forgotten of what manner he was.” View is the same word used in verse 23 which means ‘to think from up to down to a conclusion’. In verse 23, he was viewing his face in a mirror. In verse 24, he is viewing himself. In both cases deductive reasoning is being used that starts from general principles. Go away means to ‘go away’ and is used once in James. In other words, the self-examination is happening within some specific context and then thinking is moving to a different context. Immediately is used once in James and means ‘straight, without unnecessary zig-zags’. Forget ‘focuses on the consequences that build on the forgetting’. What manner means ‘of what sort, what kind’. And ‘was’ is explicitly mentioned indicating that this forgetting is happening at the core level of being.
This second part of conversion involves justification and Luther describes it as forgetting about one’s natural nature. As mentioned earlier, the second part ‘comforts the conscience, and delivers it from terrors’. Notice that this is a moving away from the mirror of self-reflection. The academic paper quotes Luther as saying “You want to have a conscious righteousness; that is, you want to be conscious of righteousness in the same way you are conscious of sin. This will not happen. But your righteousness must transcend your consciousness of sin and you must hope that you are righteous in the sight of God. That is, your righteousness is not visible, and it is not conscious; but it is hoped for as something to be revealed in due time. Therefore you must not judge on the basis of your consciousness of sin, which terrifies and troubles you, but on the basis of the promise and teaching of faith, by which Christ is promised to you as your perfect and eternal righteousness.” Notice that the Christian believer is trying to forget about his sinful nature in order to be conscious of a personal righteousness that does not currently exist but is based upon a verbal promise.
The problem with this approach can be illustrated through the school analogy. Childish thinking is fundamentally flawed and needs to be re-educated and transformed. The uneducated child who enrolls in school receives a verbal declaration of justification by being officially regarded as a student of the school. But suppose that becoming enrolled in the school is emphasized to the exclusion of taking the classes and passing the exams. The initial Teacher joy of being accepted as a student will continually be overshadowed by the realization that one is still an ignorant person who falls short of the standards of the school. That is because the initial step of enrolling in the school was followed immediately by ignoring the standards of the school and relying on the official declaration of being accepted as a student. This leads to a vicious circle because the more that one ignores the classes, the more one will have to fixate emotionally upon the declaration of becoming a student.
Verses 23-24 also refer to a more subtle problem. One’s initial feeling of sin usually results from comparing personal behavior to social or religious expectations and not from any knowledge of what God actually wants or requires. If the primary goal is to become free of the feeling of being a sinner, then one will not naturally try to understand more clearly the nature of sin. Stated analogically, if one is avoiding taking classes in the school, then one will also avoid learning about what the classes teach and how one falls short of this knowledge. Going the other way, this attitude of ignoring the classes and focusing upon being accepted as a student will tend to be generalized to other areas. One will become a person who uses words to excuse inadequate behavior.
It should be added that Luther explicitly rejected what he referred to as the doctrine of antinomianism. Wikipedia explains, “An antinomian is one who takes the principle of salvation by faith and divine grace to the point of asserting that the saved are not bound to follow the moral law contained in the Ten Commandments. Antinomians believe that faith alone guarantees eternal security in heaven, regardless of one’s actions.” Wikipedia describes Luther’s reaction, “I wonder exceedingly, how it came to be imputed to me, that I should reject the Law or Ten Commandments, there being extant so many of my own expositions upon the Commandments, which also are daily expounded.” The problem is that Luther was trying to reject the behavior of antinomianism while adopting a theology that encouraged antinomianism. He emphasized the primacy of being officially accepted in the school and then added as an afterthought that real students will also attend classes. And the focus of verses 23-24 is not upon practical behavior but rather upon the ‘thinking from up to down to a conclusion’ of theology.
A Law of Freedom 1:25
Verse 25 describes an alternative theology. “But the one having looked intently into the perfect law, that of freedom, and having continued in it.” Looking intently means ‘to stoop to look’ and is used once in James. Stooping implies that one is temporarily descending from Teacher generality to look at Mercy specifics. Into means ‘motion into’ which means that this looking is heading towards some goal. Law means law’ and this is the first use of this word in James. It will be used five times in chapter 2 and four times in chapter 4. Perfect means ‘perfect, complete, mature’. The goal here is not to generate Teacher feelings of verbal justification but rather to gain a more accurate and complete understanding of the requirements. Using the school analogy, instead of relying upon the Teacher status of being an officially accepted student, one is generating positive Teacher emotions by studying the material and how it applies to real life.
This alternate viewpoint was taught by Anabaptists, who were part of a radical Reformation that went beyond what Martin Luther taught. Wikipedia describes the Anabaptist view that ‘enrolling in the school’ needs to be followed by ‘taking and passing the courses’. “Rather than a forensic justification that only gave a legal change of one’s status before God, early Anabaptists taught that justification begun a dynamic process by which the believer partook of the nature of Christ and was so enabled to live increasingly like Jesus.” Anabaptism emphasized the perfection or completeness of the law revealed through the life and words of Jesus. Wikipedia explains, “In the Anabaptist understanding, Jesus Christ perfectly revealed, lived out, and marked the path back to God. Christians are disciples who have committed themselves to following Christ on that path.” Using the language of James, a more complete understanding of God’s law is being acquired by stooping down from theory to examine the concrete example of Jesus as described in the Gospels.
Freedom means ‘a state of freedom from slavery’. Continue in it means to ‘continue alongside’ and is used once in James. Anabaptism emphasized continuing alongside this perfect law. Quoting from Wikipedia, “A strong theme among Anabaptists has been practical discipleship that turns the believer into a model of righteousness in the here and now.” This continuing was viewed as freedom from bondage. Quoting further from Wikipedia, “We believe that Christ has redeemed us from the might and snare of the devil, in which we were held captive, for He has robbed the devil of his power and overwhelmed him. The devil’s snares are the sins in which we were imprisoned.”
Verse 25 continues, “Not having been a forgetful hearer but a doer of the work—this one will be blessed in his work. Hearer is the same word that was used in verses 22-23. Forgetful is used once as a noun in the New Testament and is related to the verb ‘forget’ that was used in verse 24 which emphasizes ‘the effects that go with failing to notice’. Be means ‘to come into being’ which suggests that Luther’s two-part method of justification will gradually turn into the trait of verbally understanding followed by ignoring these words. Wikipedia describes this as a complaint made by one Anabaptist leader about Lutherans. “That is just what can be seen in the so-called Christians of today, especially the Lutherans. They continually profess to love and serve God and will not give up evil, sinful practices and the whole service of the devil. They continue to walk from generation to generation; as their fathers did, so do they, and even worse.”
Doer is the same word that was used in verses 22-23 which comes from a word that describes Server actions. Work means ‘a deed that carries out an inner desire’. It was previously used in verse 4 to describe endurance having its perfect work, which was interpreted as the growing understanding acquired by proto-Protestants in the Middle Ages. This summarizes a core aspect of Anabaptist theology, which is that faith works. Wikipedia describes this emphasis. “Faith must bear visible fruit in repentance, conversion, regeneration, obedience, and a new life dedicated to the love of God and the neighbor, by the power of the Holy Spirit.”
Looking at this cognitively, ‘salvation by works’ uses Server thought to perform visible actions that will lead to Mercy feelings of approval from social and religious authority figures. Verse 25 describes something quite different. Continuing in the perfect law uses Perceiver thought to construct a Teacher understanding of the character of God, as illustrated by the life of Jesus. Doing Server actions that are consistent with this understanding leads to positive Teacher emotions of righteousness. Going further, such study will also lead to Platonic forms of perfection within Mercy thought, creating a desire within Mercy thought to be more like these ideals, which will be felt as the power of the Holy Spirit. The end result will be ‘deeds that carry out an inner desire’ as opposed to deeds motivated by guilt or approval.
Blessed means to ‘become long, large’ and was previously used in verse 12, which was interpreted as pre-scientific thought, which was blessed because it had the potential to grow into the universal Teacher laws of scientific understanding. In verse 25, the blessing happens in the realm of the doing, a word used only once in the New Testament which means ‘making, doing, creation, workmanship’ and is related to the word for Server actions. Be is explicitly mentioned, indicating that this will happen at a fundamental level.
Anabaptist success of doing versus Lutheran failure of doing is described in a Mennonite historical article. “There is abundant evidence that although the original goal sought by Luther and Zwingli was ‘an earnest Christianity’ for all, the actual outcome was far less, for the level of Christian living among the Protestant population was frequently lower than it had been before under Catholicism. Luther himself was keenly conscious of the deficiency... The Anabaptists, however, retained the original vision of Luther and Zwingli, enlarged it, gave it body and form, and set out to achieve it in actual experience. They proceeded to organize a church composed solely of earnest Christians, and actually found the people for it... In Zwingli’s last book against the Swiss Brethren (1527), for instance, the following is found: If you investigate their life and conduct, it seems at first contact irreproachable, pious, unassuming, attractive, yea, above this world. Even those who are inclined to be critical will say that their lives are excellent.”
Before continuing I need to add the disclaimer that I come from an Anabaptist background and still consider myself to be a Mennonite. Anabaptists may have started with a living faith but over the centuries this turned into a dead tradition for many Mennonite groups. Going the other way, Lutheran Pietism, which started in the late 17th century, emphasized that faith needs to be accompanied by Christian living. However, we are looking here at the origins of Lutheranism and Anabaptism, and at this early stage, it was Anabaptism that corrected Luther’s overemphasis upon justification by faith alone. It should also be added that Anabaptism did not develop an integrated theology in Teacher thought but rather focused pragmatically upon the life of Jesus. Part of this was because most of the first Anabaptist leaders were killed before they had a chance to develop a systematic theology. But a lack of systematic Teacher understanding has been a weakness of Anabaptism over the years.
Worthless Religion versus Pure Religion 1:26-27
Verse 26 focuses upon the negative. “If anyone seems to be religious, not bridling his tongue, but deceiving his heart, the religion of this one is worthless.” Seems ‘directly reflects the personal perspective of the person making the subjective judgment call’. Religious comes from a noun that means ‘fear of the gods; religious worship, especially external, that which consists in ceremonies’. And ‘be’ is specifically mentioned. In other words, people think that they are good Christians because they fear God and perform religious worship.
Tongue means ‘tongue, language’ and will be mentioned four more times in James 3. Bridle is used twice in the New Testament (the other time is in James 3) and means ‘to lead with a bridle’. In other words, such a person does not control what he or she says but rather uses extreme speech. Deceiving means ‘a false impression, made to deceive or cheat’. Heart always has a symbolic meaning in the Bible and is interpreted as personal identity. Instead of deceiving others, verse 26 describes giving a false impression to one’s own personal identity in Mercy thought.
Religion is the noun form of the adjective used earlier in the verse. Worthless ‘emphasizes the absence of purpose or failure to attain any true purpose’. An emotional impression of religious fervor is being conveyed, but this is having no lasting impact or benefit.
This description applies to Martin Luther. Luther maintained many of the core religious sacraments of the Catholic Church and continued to teach that these religious ceremonies have divine efficacy. In the words of Wikipedia, “Lutherans hold that sacraments are sacred acts of divine institution. Whenever they are properly administered by the use of the physical component commanded by God along with the divine words of institution, God is, in a way specific to each sacrament, present with the Word and physical component.” Looking at baptism, “Lutherans hold that Baptism is a saving work of God... Since the creation of faith is exclusively God’s work, it does not depend on the actions of the one baptized, whether infant or adult. Even though baptized infants cannot articulate that faith, Lutherans believe that it is present all the same.” Similarly, “Lutherans hold that within the Eucharist, also referred to as the Sacrament of the Altar or the Lord’s Supper, the true body and blood of Christ are truly present ‘in, with, and under the forms’ of the consecrated bread and wine for all those who eat and drink it.” Likewise, “In confession, the penitent makes an act of contrition, as the pastor, acting in persona Christi, announces the formula of absolution.” Finally, “conversion or regeneration in the strict sense of the term is the work of divine grace and power by which man, born of the flesh, and void of all power to think, to will, or to do any good thing, and dead in sin is, through the gospel and holy baptism, taken from a state of sin and spiritual death under God’s wrath into a state of spiritual life of faith and grace.” In each case, what is happening internally is being minimized in favor of some external force or ritual.
Luther was unable to bridle his tongue. A Christian history webpage states, “Luther also admitted he could be rude. He considered foul language an appropriate weapon to combat evil. For example, he dismissed the Jewish rabbis’ interpretations of Scripture as ‘Jewish piss and sh—.’ By anyone’s standards, Luther was bull-headed, coarse-tongued, and intemperate, at times. In many ways, Luther behaved like other people of his time. But his speech and actions were always more intense.”
And Luther’s doctrine of justification by faith alone turned in practice into deliberately deceiving one’s own heart. This deliberate self-deception can be seen in a quote made earlier, where Luther said, “You want to be conscious of righteousness in the same way you are conscious of sin. This will not happen. But your righteousness must transcend your consciousness of sin and you must hope that you are righteous in the sight of God. That is, your righteousness is not visible, and it is not conscious; but it is hoped for as something to be revealed in due time. Therefore you must not judge on the basis of your consciousness of sin, which terrifies and troubles you, but on the basis of the promise and teaching of faith, by which Christ is promised to you as your perfect and eternal righteousness. Thus in the midst of fears and of consciousness of sin, my hope-that is, my feeling of hope-is aroused and strengthened by faith, so that it hopes that I am right.” Notice how Luther is trying to deceive personal identity in Mercy thought into feeling righteous. He knows that his righteousness is ‘not visible’ and ‘not conscious’ but instead hopes that he will eventually be made righteous by God.
I am not trying to minimize Luther’s doctrine of justification by faith. As far as I know, Luther was the first to introduce this doctrine, and it is essential. Going further, these essays are showing that God’s plan of history is sovereign but God still has to deal with fallible humans. As far as I can tell, God prefers to interact with humans in an intelligent manner, but if this intelligence is missing, then God will use people who are obsessed, because these mental networks of obsession will guarantee that a person carries out the required step in God’s plan. Luther was obsessed with salvation by faith alone and “Martin Luther elevated sola fide to the principal cause of the Protestant Reformation, the rallying cry of the Lutheran cause, and the chief distinction of the Lutheran and Reformed branches of Christianity from Roman Catholicism.” But this still does not remove the principle that enrolling in God’s school needs to be followed by taking and passing the classes.
Luther did believe in the school analogy to some extent because he took major steps to establish schools, teach literacy, translate the Bible into the local language, and instruct basic theology. For instance, the Encyclopaedia Britannica says that Luther “believed that the primary purpose of such an education—in marked distinction to the aims of the humanists—was to promote piety through the reading of the Scriptures in their pure form. ‘Neglect of education,’ Luther wrote in a letter to Jacob Strauss in 1524, ‘will bring the greatest ruin to the Gospel.’ Accordingly, Luther argued that education must be extended to all children—girls as well as boys—and not simply to a leisured minority as in Renaissance Italy.” But notice the underlying focus is still upon words and religious piety, consistent with the religious ritual and unbridled tongue of verse 26.
Verse 27 looks at the positive. “Pure and undefiled religion before the God and Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their tribulation.” Religion is the same word that was used in verse 26 which refers to religious fervor and rituals. Pure means ‘pure because unmixed’. The shortcomings of Luther mentioned in verse 26 were a result of mixed, impure thinking. He stated that salvation is by internal faith alone, but then added that God gives grace through religious rituals administered by official churches. He said that one should submit emotionally to the words of the Bible in Teacher thought but he kept adding his own emotional Mercy biases to the biblical message. He insisted that being declared righteous by God is sufficient for the Christian church but then turned to secular authorities for help in building God’s church. Pure, in contrast, means an absence of mixed messages. Undefiled means ‘unstained, undefiled, pure’. Pure describes internal consistency, while undefiled means that nothing external has introduced inconsistency. For instance, this essay is analyzing the epistle of James using the same methodology and the same cognitive model that is used to analyze secular books and systems, combining accurate textual analysis with factual Western history. That is an example of intellectual purity.
‘Before the God and Father’ means that the standard—and the source—is a concept of God in Teacher thought. Teacher thought feels good when a simple statement brings order to a complexity of situations while feeling bad when there is an exception to the rule. Positive Teacher emotions of order will naturally build purity, while negative Teacher emotions of inconsistency will naturally resist defilement. God as Father means that one is viewing God as the source of personal and social MMNs. This will mean that purity and undefilement take emotional priority over other mental networks. In contrast, impurity and defilement are signs that other mental networks are imposing their structure upon the TMN of a concept of God. Is is explicitly mentioned which means that this principle applies at the level of being.
Visit means ‘to visit, to look after, to care for’ and is the source of the English word ‘episcopal’. Orphan is used twice in the New Testament and means ‘orphan, fatherless’. The other occurrence is in John 14:18 where Jesus talks about leaving the world and sending the Holy Spirit. The idea is that an existing support system is falling apart and needs to be replaced by a new support system. Widow means ‘widow’ and is interpreted as mental networks of female thought that are no longer supported by any system of male technical thought. Tribulation is used once in James and means ‘internal pressure that causes someone to feel confined’.
These positive elements can be seen in Luther’s emphasis upon education. One academic paper describes an open letter that Luther wrote in 1524. “Luther is aware of parental responsibilities for the education of children but provides a number of reasons why they neglect their duty in this matter. Some parents can lack piety and decency and are unsuitable to educate their children. Others do not possess the knowledge and skills and he articulates a major concern that parents have neither the opportunity nor time to devote to education. The education of the young becomes, then, the concern of the councilmen and magistrates.” This goes beyond an academic interest in education to caring for intellectual ‘orphans’ who have lack the opportunities to have an education. Luther’s goal of Christian education was pure because it extended from his doctrine of justification by faith. Quoting further from the paper, “Luther’s vision of school education is very rooted in a concept of Christian education for all. This is characterised by the study of scripture and also by the way in which Luther understands the role of schoolmaster. He often groups pastors, preachers and schoolmasters together in his comments.” Notice that both religious preachers and secular schoolmasters are being placed under a single Teacher understanding, guided by the common goal of teaching everyone to understand and believe the Bible.
‘Pure and undefiled religion’ can also be seen in Luther’s treatment of the poor. Quoting from another academic paper, “Luther’s rediscovery of the Pauline teaching on justification by grace alone reoriented Christians toward life in this world. Rather than spend effort or money on spiritual exercises that might win one God’s favor in the afterlife, human energies could be directed toward alleviating present suffering... For theological reasons, Luther promoted the suppression of the monasteries and vilified the mendicant orders, but this left a gap in care for the growing population of homeless peasants seeking work in urban centers. The reform of social assistance undertaken in the small ‘Lutheran’ town of Leisnig, Germany, in the early 16th century would become the model for many church orders throughout Germany and Scandinavia.” Summarizing, Luther’s doctrine of justification by faith meant that monks and monasteries were no longer trying to obtain favor from God by doing good works such as helping the poor. But money that had previously been paid for religious indulgences could now be directed towards helping the poor.
Verse 27 finishes, “to keep oneself unstained from the world.” Keep means ‘to keep, to guard’ which means to hold on to something in Perceiver thought as opposed to performing some actions in Server thought. World is ‘cosmos’ which means ‘an ordered system or arrangement’ and is interpreted as the Teacher order of human society based upon physical, material existence. Unstained means ‘spotless, without stain’ and is used once in James. Luther’s reforms led to what is known as a Magisterial Reformation in which Luther’s message of justification by faith was stained and spotted by the cosmos of secular order. Quoting from Wikipedia, “While the Radical Reformation (that led to the Anabaptist Churches) rejected any secular authority over the church, the Magisterial Reformation argued for the interdependence of the church and secular authorities. As Alister McGrath put it ‘The magistrate had a right to authority within the church, just as the church could rely on the authority of the magistrate to enforce discipline, suppress heresy, or maintain order.’”
However, Luther did take extensive steps to guard the purity of the Christian message at the level of education with his small and large catechisms. One historical website explains, “The Small Catechism is also known as Luther’s Little Instruction Book. Luther wrote it in 1529 as a guide for fathers in teaching the main points of the gospel to their children and servants... It was to be one of Luther’s most influential works, because, while it does not have the theological depth of his more famous writings, it was learned by generations of German children.” Luther also wrote a large catechism. Wikipedia quotes Luther’s words in the preface, “It is the duty of every father of a family to question and examine his children and servants at least once a week and to ascertain what they know of [this catechism], or are learning, and, if they do not know it, to keep them faithfully at it.” Thus, Luther’s goal was to keep Lutheran theology unstained by any system of secular thought.
Christianity that Favors the Powerful 2:1-4
James 2 opens by comparing the rich with the poor. Verse 1 sets the context. “My brothers, do not with partiality hold the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ of glory.” ‘My brothers’ indicates that this is being addressed to fellow believers, suggesting that this describes a problem within Protestantism. Faith means to ‘be persuaded’ which refers to rational thought. Faith was mentioned twice in Chapter 1 and Lord Jesus Christ was mentioned in 1:1 but this is the first reference to ‘the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ’. Jesus refers to the concrete side of incarnation while Christ refers to the abstract side of incarnation. Lord Jesus Christ indicates an integrated concept of incarnation that includes both the example of Jesus and a theology of Christ. Thus, we have now moved beyond Martin Luther as a person to an integrated theology of Protestantism. Hold means ‘to have, to hold’. ‘Holding the faith’ indicates that this systematic theology is being maintained at an objective level of having and not at the core level of being. Partiality is used once in James and means ‘receiving the face or showing partiality’. This tells us that mental networks of personal status are still ruling at the level of being. This is a fundamental weakness of any system such as Protestantism which regards some special book as the source of absolute truth. The Bible is being studied to gain TMNs of theological understanding, leading to a concept of Jesus Christ, and people are submitting to the words of the Bible, leading to ‘our Lord Jesus Christ’. But the Bible is ultimately being regarded as a holy book based in MMNs of religious status. Thus, at the very deepest level, Mercy thought rules over Teacher thought. In contrast, mental symmetry mental uses a theory in Teacher thought to explain all Christian doctrines, analyze the Bible in detail, and explain the mindset of absolute truth.
The explanation that Biblehub gives to the word glory reflects the mindset of verse 1 as well as moving beyond this mindset. ‘In ancient Greek culture, ‘doxa’ was associated with reputation, honor, and the opinion of others... In the New Testament, ‘doxa’ takes on a richer theological meaning, emphasizing the divine glory revealed in Jesus Christ.’ This ‘is used to describe the visible manifestation of God’s presence’. In other words, the original definition related to partiality and ‘receiving the face’ while the expanded New Testament definition describes an external expression of internal character. This may seem like a trivial distinction but modern technology shows that it is actually profoundly different. For instance, suppose that I have a textbook on physics. I could glorify this book by giving it respect and honor in front of others. Or I could glorify this book by using the principles described in this book to build new and exciting gadgets that have never been seen before. Similarly, one can glorify the Bible and theology by giving it great respect and expecting everyone to memorize a catechism, or one can glorify the Bible by personally applying its message and interacting in a new and attractive manner that no one has seen before. Likewise, I can glorify mental symmetry by teaching and marketing it to others, or I can glorify mental symmetry by personally applying the message to the extent of breaking through to the spiritual realm in a new way. I am attempting to follow the second option, partially because all of my attempts to follow the first option have been stymied.
A Mennonite University webpage quotes early 16th century authors stating—and complaining—that Anabaptists were following the second option of glorifying God through a new and better society. “In the same year [1531] Bullinger wrote that ‘the people were running after them as though they were living saints’. Another contemporary writer asserts that ‘Anabaptism spread with such speed that there was reason to fear that the majority of the common people would unite with this sect.’ Zwingli was so frightened by the power of the movement that he complained that the struggle with the Catholic party was ‘tub child’s play’ compared to the conflict with the Anabaptists.”
Civic and religious authorities responded with a suppression that can legitimately be described as genocide. “The notorious decree issued in 1529 by the Diet of Spires (the same diet which protested the restriction of evangelical liberties) summarily passed the sentence of death upon all Anabaptists, ordering that ‘every Anabaptist and rebaptized person of either sex should be put to death by fire, sword, or some other way.’ Repeatedly in subsequent sessions of the imperial diet this decree was reinvoked and intensified... Finding, therefore, that the customary method of individual trials and sentences was proving totally inadequate to stem the tide, the authorities resorted to the desperate expedient of sending out through the land companies of armed executioners and mounted soldiers to hunt down the Anabaptists and kill them on the spot singly or en masse without trial or sentence.” The paper summarizes that “The dreadful severity of the persecution of the Anabaptist movement in the years 1527-60 not only in Switzerland, South Germany, and Thuringia, but in all the Austrian lands as well as in the Low Countries, testifies to the power of the movement and the desperate haste with which Catholic, Lutheran, and Zwinglian authorities alike strove to throttle it before it should be too late.”
Notice that this genocide was perpetrated by both Catholics and Protestants. On the one hand, both Catholics and Protestants held the message of Christianity with a partiality that looked to the emotional and social status of religious and political leaders. On the other hand, Anabaptists tried to let go of this partiality in order to demonstrate the glory of the theology that the Protestant church was verbally teaching but only partially applying. Quoting from the Mennonite article, “The Anabaptists, however, retained the original vision of Luther and Zwingli, enlarged it, gave it body and form, and set out to achieve it in actual experience. They proceeded to organize a church composed solely of earnest Christians, and actually found the people for it... They preferred to make a radical break with 1,500 years of history and culture if necessary rather than to break with the New Testament.” Notice that the theology of Luther was being applied in a manner that focused upon the ‘glory’ of actual experience and did not give ‘partiality’ to ‘1500 years of history and culture’.
Verse 2 turns to a specific example. “For if a man might come into your assembly in splendid apparel with gold rings.” Come in means ‘to enter, to go into’ and is in the subjunctive which indicates a hypothetical situation. Into is also added as an explicit preposition. Thus, some person or group is entering from the outside. Assembly is the word ‘synagogue’ which means ‘a bringing together’ and is used once in James. This goes beyond personal faith to a formal meeting of those who share a common faith. Man means ‘man’ and is interpreted as male technical thought. Gold ring is used once in the New Testament and combines ‘gold’ with ‘finger’. Gold represents accumulated wealth as opposed to silver which represents economic exchange. Hands are interpreted as the application of technical thought because the hands are used to perform detailed and technical movements. A ‘man with a gold ring’ would represent accumulated wealth that enables some person to use some detail of male technical thought. This symbolic interpretation is similar to the cultural interpretation given by Biblehub. ‘Rings were often used as symbols of authority and were sometimes given as gifts to signify honor or allegiance. The wearing of gold rings was common among the elite.’
This kind of ‘entering in’ can be seen historically in the establishment of the Schmalkaldic League. Wikipedia states, “The League was officially established on 27 February 1531 by Philip I, Landgrave of Hesse, and John Frederick I, Elector of Saxony, the two most powerful Protestant rulers in the Holy Roman Empire at the time. It originated as a defensive religious alliance, with the members pledging to defend each other if their territories were attacked by Charles V, the Holy Roman Emperor. At the insistence of the Elector of Saxony, membership was conditional on agreement to the Lutheran Augsburg Confession or the Reformed Tetrapolitan Confession.” Notice that ‘men with gold rings’ who have substantial technical authority within the holy Roman Empire are entering into the assembly of Protestantism. What started as a confession of faith is now turning into a military treaty based upon this confession of faith. Splendid means ‘to shine or to give light’. Apparel ‘refers to clothing or garments, often implying attire that is notable or significant in some way’. ‘Clothing’ is interpreted as the ‘fabric’ of social interaction and light refers to Teacher understanding. And in means ‘in the realm’. This describes functioning within the Teacher light of social order as opposed to the Teacher light of a theological understanding.
Verse 2 continues by describing an alternative. “And a poor man in shabby apparel also might come in.” Might come in is the same verb used earlier in the verse. Poor means ‘to crouch or to cower’ and ‘man’ is implied. Apparel is the same word used earlier. Shabby is used twice in the New Testament and means ‘filth or dirt’. It was used as a noun in 1:21 which was interpreted as Luther’s harsh suppression of the peasants. Anabaptism ‘entered in’ to the ‘assembly’ of Protestantism wearing the ‘filthy’ social clothing of the peasant’s revolt that Luther had condemned. Quoting from a university webpage, “During the German Reformation hundreds of thousands of commoners were mobilized by the hope that established clerical and aristocratic order could be replaced by justice and equity based on the divine law of the Bible. After the defeat of the commoners in the Peasants’ War, some of the most ardent adherents of social and religious reform attempted to achieve these same aspirations by trying to implement the apostolic model of Acts 2 and 4 through the Anabaptists. Thus, as Stayer reveals, the Peasants’ War was an essential formative experience for many of the original leaders of Anabaptism.” These commoners were ‘crouching and cowering’ under the power of political leaders. They became associated socially with the ‘filthy fabric’ of rebellion against authority. But when that failed, then many of them pursued a radical form of Protestantism that abandoned violence in order to follow the Bible.
Verse 3 describes the response. “And you should look upon the one wearing the splendid apparel and should say, ‘You sit here honorably’.” Look upon is used three times in the New Testament and means ‘to look upon with focused attention, give special regard to’. Wearing means ‘to bear or wear as a habit’ and apparel and splendid are the same words that were used in verse 2. Thus, special regard is being given to achieving Teacher order through social interaction and social status. Say indicates a verbal response. Sit is in the imperative and ‘was often associated with teaching and authority’. Here means ‘here, in this place’. And honorably means ‘viewed as good’. Thus, those who habitually function with authority are being given an attractive position of teaching and authority. Applying this to the Magisterial Reformation, church leaders are still leading the Reformation, but secular authorities are being given an honorable position of authority within the assembly of Protestantism.
This transition can be seen in the growth of the Schmalkaldic league which brought political and social Teacher order to the Protestant Reformation. “In December 1535, the League admitted anyone who would subscribe to the Augsburg Confession, and Anhalt, Württemberg, Pomerania, as well as the free imperial cities of Augsburg, Frankfurt am Main, and the Free Imperial City of Kempten joined the alliance. In 1538, the Schmalkaldic League allied with the newly reformed Denmark-Norway. In 1545, the League gained the allegiance of the Electoral Palatinate, under the control of Frederick III, Elector Palatine.” Notice how social order is being achieved through ‘men with gold rings’ entering into the Lutheran Augsburg confession.
This transition is summarized by one Adventist website. “Luther appealed directly to the German princes in charge of the various territories that made up the Holy Roman Empire... This move was a significant turning point in the German Reformation. By appealing to the princes Luther politicized a grassroots movement. The strategy worked and many of the German princes who accepted Luther's teaching converted their state churches to Lutheranism almost overnight.” Notice that this is a verbal appeal to leadership rather than a grassroots movement.
Verse 3 then describes the treatment of the poor. “And to the poor should say, ‘You stand,’ or, ‘Sit there under my footstool.’” Poor was used in verse 2 and means ‘to crouch or to cower’. Stand means ‘to stand, to set, to establish’. Thus, there is a place for the poor but this place has no authority. The rich were told to sit here, while the poor are told to stand there, which implies a social closeness with the rich combined with a social distancing from the poor. Wikipedia describes this growing social closeness. “From 1525 to 1529... [Luther] worked closely with the new elector, John the Steadfast, to whom he turned for secular leadership and funds on behalf of a church largely shorn of its assets and income after the break with Rome. For Luther’s biographer Martin Brecht, this partnership ‘was the beginning of a questionable and originally unintended development towards a church government under the temporal sovereign’.” Luther’s catechisms, mentioned earlier, provided a ‘place’ for the poor. Quoting from Wikipedia, “Luther devised the catechism as a method of imparting the basics of Christianity to the congregations. In 1529, he wrote the Large Catechism, a manual for pastors and teachers, as well as a synopsis, the Small Catechism, to be memorised by the people... The Small Catechism has earned a reputation as a model of clear religious teaching. It remains in use today, along with Luther’s hymns and his translation of the Bible.”
Sit was used earlier in verse 3 and indicates a position of authority. Under means ‘under, often meaning under authority’. Footstool is used once in James and literally means ‘under the feet’. The weight of the body rests on the feet and walking involves moving the feet. Therefore, feet are interpreted as the core mental networks that support the mind. ‘Sit under my footstool’ means acting as an authority under the personal authority of Luther’s core mental networks. This combination can be seen in Luther’s catechism. Wikipedia explains that the catechism was a personal expression of Luther, “The catechism is one of Luther’s most personal works... ‘For I acknowledge none of [my volumes] to be really a book of mine, except perhaps the Bondage of the Will and the Catechism.’” And the catechism emphasized core mental networks of faith. “Luther’s goal was to enable the catechumens to see themselves as a personal object of the work of the three persons of the Trinity, each of which works in the catechumen's life.” Thus, the catechism was under Luther’s footstool. And the catechisms also delegated the authority of ‘sitting’ to fathers and pastors. “Luther’s Small Catechism proved especially effective in helping parents teach their children; likewise the Large Catechism was effective for pastors.”
Verse 4 describes the resulting split. “Then have you not made a distinction among yourselves and have become judges with evil thoughts?” Distinction means ‘to separate throughout or wholly’ and was used twice in 1:6 which was interpreted as Franciscans splitting between their vow of poverty and normal life and Dominicans splitting between rational teaching and mystical worship. In each case, the division in Perceiver thought is being regarded as more significant than the understanding in Teacher thought. ‘Among yourselves’ is ‘in the realm of yourselves’ which means that this is an internal split. Stated bluntly, Luther was listening to the personal advice of theologically uneducated princes while dictating doctrine to the theologically uneducated masses.
Become means ‘to come into being’ which means that this result will emerge over time. Judge means ‘to judge or to decide’. Thought is used once in James and means ‘back-and-forth reasoning, reasoning that is self-based and therefore confused’. Evil means ‘pain-ridden, emphasizing the inevitable agonies that always go with evil’. Therefore, rational thinking will become confused as a result of personal decisions and there will be painful consequences. The painful consequences began right after Luther died. Wikipedia relates, “Both John Frederick and Philip of Hesse agreed quickly that the Emperor had larger financial resources and thus could set up a larger army... As a result, they decided to wage a preventive war. Since Martin Luther had died in February, this eliminated a major obstacle to their decision. Luther had repeatedly argued against the legality and morality of a war between the Empire and the Schmalkaldic League.” Luther did not want to fight a war, but when he died, then the leaders of the Schmalkaldic League decided to fight a preventative war—which they lost because of confused back-and-forth thinking. Quoting from Wikipedia, “Although the League’s military forces may have been superior, its leaders were incompetent and unable to agree on any definitive battle plans.”
The Poor Inherit through Faith 2:5
Verse 5 responds, “Listen, my beloved brothers: Has not God chosen the poor in this world to be rich in faith.” Listen means to ‘comprehend by hearing’ and is in the imperative. This indicates a return from personally motivated confused thinking to rational verbal understanding. Verse 1 referred to brothers, while verse 5 mentions ‘beloved brothers’. Beloved refers to the Teacher emotion of ‘agape’ love. This indicates a re-emphasis upon theology and Teacher understanding. Wikipedia describes this shift. “Although the Imperial forces were victorious over the Schmalkaldic League, crushing them, the ideas of Luther had by this time so overspread Europe they could not be contained by military force.” Notice that the ideas of Luther are now too strong and widespread to be suppressed by military force.
Choose means ‘to select, make a choice’. If God is choosing, then this means that choices are being determined by the TMN of a concept of God and not by MMNs of political and religious authority. Poor is the familiar word that means ‘to crouch or to cower’. World is the word ‘cosmos’ that is interpreted as natural societal order. Rich means ‘abundance’ and was previously used in 1:11 which was interpreted as medieval prosperity coming to an end with the Black Death and Great Famine. Verse 5, in contrast, refers to being ‘rich in the realm of faith’, and faith indicates rational thought. The important people in verse 2 had gold rings but they were not described as being rich. Verse 5 says that these formally important people are not making the ultimate decisions.
Looking now at the Reformation, even though the Protestants had lost the war, Catholic leaders made significant compromises to accommodate Protestant beliefs. Wikipedia explains, “In stark contrast to Charles V’s past attitude, significant concessions were made to the Protestants. What was basically a new code of religious practices permitted both clerical marriage and communion under both kinds... The Interim went further in making significant statements on other matters of dogma such as justification by faith, the veneration of the saints, and the authority of the Scriptures. Even such details as the practice of fasting was breached upon.” Notice how a new concept of God is imposing itself upon the political and religious leaders, one which places a greater emphasis upon studying and believing the Bible and a lesser emphasis upon submitting to MMNs of religious importance.
Verse 5 continues, “And heirs of the kingdom that He promised to those loving Him?” Heir is used once in James and means ‘lot or inheritance’ because inheritance was distributed by lot in Jewish times. Kingdom is also used once in James and means ‘the realm in which a king sovereignly rules’. Promise was previously used in 1:12 which was interpreted as proto-scientific thought leading ultimately but inevitably to the scientific revolution. Love is ‘agape’ and ‘loving him’ would mean loving God in Teacher thought.
Both 1:12 and 2:5 appear to be looking forward to a future within which the hopes of the present will eventually become realized. On the one hand, this is not like Luther’s eschatological hope of future righteousness which ended up being postponed to some nebulous time in the future, because both promises have come true. Proto-science did eventually lead to the scientific revolution. Similarly, the Christian hope for a kingdom of God that was ruled by Teacher understanding rather than Mercy dogmatism also eventually came into being during the Enlightenment. Wikipedia clarifies, “Enlightenment era religious commentary was a response to the preceding century of religious conflict in Europe, especially the Thirty Years’ War. Theologians of the Enlightenment wanted to reform their faith to its generally non-confrontational roots and to limit the capacity for religious controversy to spill over into politics and warfare while still maintaining a true faith in God. For moderate Christians, this meant a return to simple Scripture.” I know that the Enlightenment tends to be viewed by evangelical Christians as the beginning of modern apostasy, but we will see later that the Thirty Years’ War which preceded the Enlightenment was hell on earth. Wikipedia summarizes, “The Thirty Years’ War, from 1618 to 1648, was one of the most destructive conflicts in European history. Fought primarily in Central Europe, an estimated 4.5 to 8 million soldiers and civilians died from the effects of battle, famine, or disease, while parts of Germany reported population declines of over 50%... The war can be seen as a continuation of the religious conflict initiated by the 16th-century Reformation within the Holy Roman Empire.” Summarizing, it generally seems that when God promises, then the promise does come true, but this may take several centuries and may not happen within a person’s lifetime.
However, God’s promises also tend to have a partial fulfillment that happens in a shorter period of time. Returning to the Protestant defeat, Wikipedia relates that “Charles V tried to enforce the Interim in the Holy Roman Empire but was successful only in territories under his military control, such as Württemberg and certain imperial cities in southern Germany.” More specifically, hundreds of Lutheran pastors refused to follow the Augsburg Interim and were banished or imprisoned. As a result, “Maurice of Saxony, who had been Charles’s ally in the previous conflict, worked with Melanchthon and his supporters a compromise known as the Leipzig Interim in late 1548. Despite its even greater concessions to Protestantism, it was barely enforced.” Going further, “Maurice, seeing that the Leipzig Interim was a political failure, began making plans to drive Charles V and his army from Saxony... Maurice attacked Charles V’s forces at Augsburg, and Charles was forced to withdraw. This victory eventually resulted in the signing of the treaties of Passau and Augsburg.” While these treaties did not give religious freedom to either Anabaptists or Calvinists, the partial religious freedom that was achieved was primarily a result of military and political leaders responding to shifts in public opinion. Thus, the rich in faith did become heirs of a kingdom, partially at first and more completely in the future.
Saying this more personally, Luther persecuted my ancestors because they practiced what Luther preached. Lutherans achieved religious freedom in the 1555 Peace of Augsburg. My ancestors were still persecuted. Calvinists gained religious freedom in the 1648 Peace of Westphalia. My ancestors were still persecuted. Wikipedia summarizes, “During the 16th century, the Mennonites and other Anabaptists were relentlessly persecuted. This period of persecution has had a significant impact on Mennonite identity. Martyrs Mirror, published in 1660, documents much of the persecution of Anabaptists and their predecessors, including accounts of over 4,000 burnings of individuals, and numerous stonings, imprisonments, and live burials.” As for the Waldensians, they were massacred in 1545. Wikipedia relates that “In the aftermath, Pope Paul III approved of the actions taken; the pope rewarded Maynier [the leader of the massacre] with Imperial honours.”
Oppression and Blasphemy by the Rich 2:6-7
Verse 6 describes this kind of behavior. “But you have dishonored the poor. Are not the rich oppressing you and they dragging you into court?” Dishonor means to ‘treat dishonorably because perceived as having no value’. This is the last of four times that the word poor is used in James. But compares this with the end of verse 5. The same people that God views as rich in faith are being treated as worthless by ‘my brothers’. An Anabaptist article points out this contradiction of Luther persecuting his followers who were rich in faith. “Anabaptists believed that Luther’s reform ideas should have resulted in a believers’ church. Such a church would have consisted of those who truly had faith in God and had committed themselves to a life of Christian discipleship... One cannot imagine the Anabaptist movement without Luther’s reforms. And yet, the direction that Luther’s reforms took resulted in Luther becoming one the Anabaptists’ bitterest enemies... Most Lutheran states crushed Anabaptist groups within their borders.”
Oppressing is used twice in the New Testament and means ‘powerfully bringing someone down (denying them the higher position or blessing they should enjoy)’. Drag is used once in James and means to ‘draw in’. Court means ‘a law court’. The Encyclopaedia Britannica describes the societal blessings that Mennonites enjoyed when they were no longer dragged into court. “The great persecutions of Mennonites and other Anabaptists during the 16th century forced one group of Mennonites to emigrate from the Netherlands to the Vistula River area in what is now northern Poland, where their communities flourished. After their last martyr died in the Netherlands in 1574, the Mennonites finally found political freedom there... In matters of faith, they followed the Enlightenment, a 17th- and 18th-century intellectual movement that hoped for human betterment through the right use of reason. Because many of the professions were closed to them, the Mennonites turned to business, in the process becoming wealthy and urbanized. They became well known as artists, writers, and patrons of social programs.”
Verse 7 continues, “Are they not blaspheming the good Name having been called upon you?” Blaspheme is used once in James and means ‘refusing to acknowledge good’. Good means ‘attractively good, good that inspires’. A name ‘is often used to express the essence or nature of a person’ and is interpreted cognitively as the label applied to a person in Teacher thought, such as plumber or pharmacist. Call means ‘to call upon’ and ‘is often used in the context of calling upon God or invoking His name’. The Mennonite Encyclopedia describes the extensive blaspheming of the name ‘Anabaptist’. “The Augsburg Confession of 1530 condemns the ‘Anabaptists’ specifically in three articles, though in part based on misinformation. Abundant citations could be given showing that the term ‘Anabaptist’ in all its forms and translations was always essentially one of condemnation as of grievous heresy and crime... This completely evil connotation of the name, which makes it truly an opprobrious epithet, carried through the 16th century and on down through the following centuries until modern times.
This blaspheming of a good name can even be seen in the 14th edition (1929-1973) Encyclopedia Britannica article on Anabaptism because two-thirds of the article is devoted to the disaster at Münster, concluding that “after the Münster insurrection the very name Anabaptist was proscribed in Europe.” The article then admits that “Menno and his followers expressly repudiated the distinctive doctrines of the Münster Anabaptists. They have never aimed at any social or political revolution, and have been as remarkable for sobriety of conduct as the Münster sect was for its fanaticism.” The article concludes, “One of the most notable features of the early Anabaptists is that they regarded any true religious reform as involving social amelioration. The socialism of the 16th century was necessarily Christian and Anabaptist. Lutheranism was more attractive to grand-ducal patriots and well-to-do burghers than to the poor and oppressed and disinherited.” That summarizes an attitude of the rich blaspheming the attractively good name of the poor.
The Royal Law 2:8-9
Verse 8 adopts a theological perspective. “If indeed you keep the royal law according to the Scripture, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself,’ you are doing well.” Law is mentioned five times in verses 8-12, which suggests that it is the primary topic of this section. Keep means ‘to complete, to finish’. Royal means ‘royal, noble, belonging to a king’ and is related to the word ‘kingdom’ that was used in verse 5. Scripture means ‘Scripture, writing’ and this is the first use of this word in James. This is interesting because Luther claimed to be guided by sola scriptura, or Scripture alone, and James has been talking prophetically about Luther since 1:16. But this supposedly core doctrine of Luther has not been mentioned until this verse. Looking at this cognitively, Luther introduced the idea of following Scripture alone, but he did not make this belief complete but rather got sidetracked into appealing to secular power. Verse 5 talks about treating the Bible as a complete system of authority that is capable of replacing MMNs of secular and religious authority. This goes beyond using secular authority to impose the law to recognizing the concept of the rule of law.
Verse 5 then describes how Scripture can be made complete. The next phrase ‘you shall love your neighbor as yourself’ is a direct copy in Greek of the statement that Jesus makes in Matthew 22:39. Jesus says there that the greatest commandment is to love God while the second commandment is to love your neighbor as yourself and he concludes that ‘On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets’. Love is the word ‘agape’ which refers to Teacher love. Neighbor comes from a word that means ‘near’. As means ‘as, like as’ which indicates similarity. And yourself is explicitly mentioned. Absolute truth leads naturally to a feeling of self-denial in which one emphasizes Mercy sources of truth while suppressing personal identity. Political power applies the same kind of thinking in the opposite direction by using the Mercy status of personal identity to suppress other personal identities. In contrast, Teacher thought looks for universal principles that apply everywhere. This can be done by loving others as oneself, because this applies the same general rules to everyone without exception. Well means ‘attractively good’. And do refers to Server actions.
Notice that ‘justification by faith alone’ is no longer the topic. Instead, the question is what type of system of law will lead to behavior that people find attractive. Verse 8 describes one alternative, which is being guided by the Golden rule.
The term Anabaptist has been used without defining this term. The Encyclopedia Britannica explains the meaning of this term and how it relates to a fundamental premise of Anabaptism. “Anabaptist, (from Greek ana, ‘again’) member of a fringe, or radical, movement of the Protestant Reformation and spiritual ancestor of modern Baptists, Mennonites, and Quakers. The movement’s most distinctive tenet was adult baptism. In its first generation, converts submitted to a second baptism, which was a crime punishable by death under the legal codes of the time. Members rejected the label Anabaptist, or Rebaptizer, for they repudiated their own baptism as infants as a blasphemous formality. They considered the public confession of sin and faith, sealed by adult baptism, to be the only proper baptism. They held that infants and young children are not accountable for sin until they become aware of good and evil and can exercise their own free will, repent, and accept baptism. The Anabaptists also believed that the church, the community of those who have made a public commitment of faith, should be separated from the state.”
Notice in passing that the Encyclopedia Britannica opens by describing Anabaptists as ‘fringe radicals’. The article adds later that “The vehemence and intransigence of the Anabaptist leaders and the revolutionary implications of their teaching led to their expulsion from one city after another... Soon civil magistrates took sterner measures, and most of the early Anabaptist leaders died in prison or were executed.” This gives the impression that the civil authorities were acting reasonably against evil terrorists, when in fact the civil authorities were the evil terrorists and if civil authorities behaved in such a manner today this would be condemned as a vile fundamentalist theocracy. Thus, even today, almost 500 years later, the good name of the poor is still being blasphemed.
Looking now at the quote, Catholics were baptized as infants and this act of child baptism was believed to save the infant. Lutherans continued this practice. Anabaptists believed that salvation is by faith and that faith is a choice that can only be made by an adult, which means that baptism is an expression of this internal choice made by an adult, which implies that the church should be composed of adults who have chosen to believe that they are justified by faith. This logic appears obvious today, but in the 16th century it was punishable by death. ‘Loving my neighbor as myself’ in this situation means giving my neighbor the freedom to choose his religion and my neighbor giving me the freedom to choose my religion. This is a fundamental principle of modern Western society.
This fundamental principle of freedom of religion was being thrashed out in the negotiations after the Schmalkaldic war. The Augsburg interim gave some freedom to Protestants while “The Leipzig Interim was designed to allow Lutherans to retain their core theological beliefs, specifically where the doctrine of justification by grace was concerned.”
Verse 9 describes a potential problem. “But if you show partiality, you are committing sin, being convicted by the law as transgressors.” Show partiality is used once in the New Testament and means ‘to show partiality, to be a respecter of persons’. Sin means ‘to miss the mark’ and was previously used in 1:15 which was interpreted as the corruption of the Renaissance papacy. Committing comes from the word that refers to internally motivated behavior. Thus, allowing rules to be modified by personal or social status leads to internally motivated behavior that misses the mark of a kingdom of God. Convicted means ‘to convince with solid, compelling evidence’, which means that showing partiality provides solid evidence that one is missing the mark. This is not something peripheral but rather a central issue.
Stated cognitively, which takes precedence, the TMN of a universal moral system or MMNs of personal status? This is an emotional struggle between competing mental networks. Either the TMN of universal law becomes complete by applying to everyone, or else MMNs of personal status become the final authority. By means ‘under, often meaning under authority of’. ‘By the law’ indicates MMNs are functioning under the authority of the TMN of a system of law. Transgressor is used five times in the New Testament, twice in James, and means ‘deliberately stepping over a known line’. This means that there is a moral standard, one is aware of the moral standard, and one is deliberately choosing to violate this moral standard.
Such partiality was shown in the 1555 Peace of Augsburg. Wikipedia explains the background, emphasizing that the topic of religious freedom was being explored from the viewpoint of the rule of law, as mentioned earlier. “Before tolerance of individual religious divergences became accepted, most statesmen and political theorists took it for granted that religious diversity weakened a state – and particularly weakened ecclesiastically-transmitted control and monitoring in a state. The principle of ‘cuius regio’ was a compromise in the conflict between this paradigm of statecraft and the emerging trend toward religious pluralism.” Salvation by faith implies freedom of religion and this was an ‘emerging trend toward religious pluralism’.
Stumbling in Oneness 2:10-11
Verse 10 continues with the logic. “For whoever shall keep the whole Law, but shall stumble in one point, he has become guilty of all.” Whole means ‘where all the parts are present and working as a whole’. And keep means ‘to keep or guard something with care’. Thus, the focus is not upon the Server actions of obeying every detail of the law but rather upon guarding the entirety of the law within Perceiver thought. The golden rule uses Perceiver thought to find similarities between one personal situation and another, treating my neighbor as myself. Not ‘keeping the whole law’ uses Perceiver thought to build walls between one situation or person and another, declaring that one of these is different than another. Applying this to the Peace of Augsburg, will religious freedom be pursued as an integrated concept that applies legally to all of Christendom?
Stumble means ‘to cause to stumble, to stumble’. Stumbling implies that one is walking and then takes a misstep. Similarly, a universal moral law needs to be constructed one step as a time as Perceiver and Server thought continue to point out similarities. Stumbling indicates that Perceiver thought has changed from pointing out similarities to insisting upon differences. In means in the realm of’ while one is the number one and ‘point’ is implied. Thus, verse 10 is not talking about breaking some specific rule while keeping all the other rules. Instead, verse 10 is referring to stumbling in the realm of Teacher oneness. Teacher thought wants to bring order to complexity by finding simple rules that apply everywhere. ‘Stumbling in the realm of one’ means turning away from this Teacher quest for simple, unified, universal theories. This relates to the first commandment which says that ‘God is one’. This can mean that there is only one God, but it also means that God is not fragmented but rather has an inherent quality of oneness. Mysticism abuses the Teacher oneness of God by using overgeneralization to come up with a concept of divine oneness that transcends all the facts of reality. Verses 8-10, in contrast, talk about building a universal moral understanding in Teacher thought that brings unity to all the Perceiver facts and Server actions of human existence.
The Peace of Augsburg stumbled because it placed partiality to the rich above freedom of religion. Wikipedia explains, “The principle of cuius regio, eius religio provided for internal religious unity within a state: The religion of the prince became the religion of the state and all its inhabitants. Those inhabitants who could not conform to the prince’s religion were allowed to leave, an innovative idea in the 16th century.” In other words, princes had freedom of religion, but the common person only had the freedom to move to another state. Thus, freedom of religion stumbled over the partiality of regarding the rich as different than the common person. Going further, the state-supported churches of Catholicism and Lutheranism had religious freedom, but no freedom was given to those who actually believed that justification is by faith and should not be imposed by the state. Thus, the Teacher ‘oneness’ of justification by faith was fragmented by MMNs of princely authority as well as TMNs of princely domain.
The cognitive path that led to this fragmentation appears to be a general principle. Luther started by regarding justification by faith as the one central principle of Christianity. Quoting from Wikipedia, “He began to teach that salvation or redemption is a gift of God’s grace, attainable only through faith in Jesus as the messiah. ‘This one and firm rock, which we call the doctrine of justification,’ he wrote, ‘is the chief article of the whole Christian doctrine, which comprehends the understanding of all godliness’.” But he then regarded this justification as a divine act of God that transcends human willpower. Wikipedia describes Luther’s response to Erasmus over this question. “No-one can achieve salvation or redemption through their own willpower—people do not choose between good or evil, because they are naturally dominated by evil, and salvation is simply the product of God unilaterally changing a person’s heart and turning them to good ends. Were it not so, Luther contended, God would not be omnipotent and omniscient and would lack total sovereignty over creation. He also held that arguing otherwise was insulting to the glory of God.” Stated simply, Luther insisted that people cannot choose to ask God to be justified by faith. Instead, God does it all and saying otherwise ‘is insulting to the glory of God’.
This sounds very pious, but in practice it turns Teacher understanding into Teacher overgeneralization that transcends Perceiver facts of human existence. And Luther’s book that stated this doctrine is characterized by overgeneralization. Quoting from Wikipedia, “For Protestant historian Philip Schaff ‘It is one of his most vigorous and profound books, full of grand ideas and shocking exaggerations.’” Going further, turning Teacher understanding into the Teacher overgeneralization of ‘grand ideas and shocking exaggerations’ creates a vacuum of content that will be filled by human authorities claiming to speak for God. Similarly, Wikipedia quotes Philip Schaff as saying that “From beginning to end his work, for all its positive features, is a torrent of invective.” Stated bluntly, Luther condemned others for ‘insulting the glory of God’ by questioning God’s ‘total sovereignty over creation’. But Luther himself insulted the glory of God by polluting his Teacher overgeneralization of God’s sovereignty with his personal MMNs of ‘invective’.
Similarly, asserting justification by faith as ‘a product of divine sovereignty that transcends human will’ in practice created a mental vacuum that was filled by humans who used their status in Mercy thought to claim to speak for God. In this case, the German princes decided that they would choose the religion for their state. This illustrates another characteristic of those who proclaim a doctrine of divine predestination, such as Calvinists. Everyone I have met so far who claims that humans do not have a free will always acts as if humans have a free will. Going further, those who claim that humans cannot choose to believe theology invariably seem to be trying to convince others to choose to believe their theology.
The topic of free will is discussed extensively in other essays. Mental symmetry suggests that human free will is legitimate but limited. Humans can use Contributor thought to choose, but Contributor choices are limited by Exhorter urges which come from mental networks. Human free will becomes maximized when the mind contains incompatible mental networks between which a person must choose. Going further, choosing to follow God requires developing the TMN of a concept of God that is capable of emotionally guiding free will. This means that the average person is not usually mentally capable of choosing to follow God or even capable of choosing to ask God for salvation—as Luther and Calvin assert. But the average person also experiences times of opportunity when encountering mental networks of godliness which temporarily give that person the opportunity to choose between existing mental networks and mental networks of godliness. Thus, human free will is real, but it is also limited, which means that it is of eternal significance to make the right choice when the opportunity arises to make such a choice, because that opportunity might not happen again. This is the principle which I have attempted to follow over the decades and I have repeatedly seen people make decisions that appear innocuous at the time but lead in the long-term to either salvation or damnation.
For instance, President-elect Trump just declared that on his first day of office he will violate the free trade agreement that he signed with Canada and Mexico and impose a 25% tariff on everything. I am beyond furious at Christians, including friends and family members, who support a self-worshiping, pathological liar whose first impulse is to break his covenants with his closest allies. But I know that responding with wrath to this insanity will damage my spirit, and so I keep choosing to focus on the positive plan of God. More generally, it is tempting for me to conclude that God is a manipulative monster when I find so much evil being predicted in James—much of this evil perpetrated upon my ancestors by others who claimed to follow God and believe in the Bible. But I have to choose to interpret this from a positive perspective as God following the only possible path to salvation for humanity and I have to believe that God is a God of justice who will eventually reward those who have suffered for righteousness. I can make these decisions now and I must make these decisions now while I have the mental capability of making these decisions in order to preserve my mental and spiritual well-being. Stated more simply, if I cannot respond in a positive manner to the current apostasy of evangelical Christendom, then I am not worthy to consider myself a descendent of my Anabaptist forefathers who responded in a positive manner to the apostasy of Protestant Christendom that they endured.
Verse 11 mentions two of the Ten Commandments. “For the One having said, ‘You shall not commit adultery,’ also said, ‘You shall not murder.’” Notice the focus upon both laws coming from a single verbal source, emphasizing the oneness of God. Commit adultery refers to ‘a man with a married woman’ and there is another Greek word for women committing adultery, which will be used in 4:4. ‘Committing adultery’ is interpreted cognitively as male technical thought finding emotional fulfillment in female mental networks that are not an expression of this male technical thinking. The Renaissance Catholic Church committed cognitive adultery by finding emotional satisfaction in the mental networks of building palaces and ruling papal estates, rather than applying the Christian doctrines that it was teaching and finding pleasure in the resulting mental networks of Christian living. (The Renaissance papacy was also guilty of physical adultery.) Martin Luther’s Protestant Reformation was triggered by revulsion to this adultery. Quoting from Wikipedia, “In 1516–17, Johann Tetzel, a Dominican friar and papal commissioner for indulgences, was sent to Germany by the Roman Catholic Church to sell indulgences to raise money to rebuild St Peter’s Basilica in Rome. On 31 October 1517, Luther wrote to Albrecht, Archbishop of Mainz and Magdeburg, protesting the sale of indulgences. He enclosed in his letter a copy of his ‘Disputation of Martin Luther on the Power and Efficacy of Indulgences,’ which came to be known as the Ninety-five Theses.” More generally, Protestants regarded the Renaissance Catholic Church as the whore of Babylon. Quoting from Wikipedia, “Historicist interpreters commonly used the phrase ‘Whore of Babylon’ to refer to the Catholic Church. Reformation writers Martin Luther, John Calvin, and John Knox taught this association.”
Murder means ‘to murder, to kill’. Lutheranism ended the cognitive (and physical) adultery of the Catholic Church but then replaced this with both physical and cognitive murder. The Mennonite Encyclopedia attempts to probe Luther’s motives. “Köhler makes it clear that Luther’s recommendation of harsh action against the Anabaptists, including the death penalty, was based upon his belief, shared by Melanchthon, that they were guilty of sedition and blasphemy. It is difficult, however, to avoid the feeling that a major cause for the severity was the simple fear that the Anabaptists might gain sufficient influence to threaten the success of the Reformation by winning too many adherents to their cause and thus breaking the monopoly of the church which Luther and Melanchthon were establishing. In the earlier period of his activity, as Köhler points out, in the high confidence which Luther had in the victory of the truth he was proclaiming, Luther was quite willing to let others speak, in the confidence that the true Word of God would overcome all heresy.” Stated bluntly, Luther advocated killing Anabaptists because he wanted to kill Anabaptism. Looking at this more carefully, while Luther advocated the death penalty for Anabaptists, it is not certain that Luther himself actually killed Anabaptists. However, books such as the Martyr’s Mirror make it clear that many Anabaptists were killed under Lutheranism and that the goal was to kill the movement as a whole. Wikipedia describes the size and significance of this volume. “In 1745, Jacob Gottschalk arranged with the Ephrata Cloister to have them translate the Martyrs Mirror from Dutch into German and to print it. The work took 15 men three years to finish and in 1749, at 1,512 pages, it was the largest book printed in America before the Revolutionary War.”
Verse 11 concludes, “But if you do not commit adultery, but do commit murder, you have become a transgressor of the Law.” ‘Commit adultery’ and ‘commit murder’ are the same two words used earlier in the verse. Become means ‘to come into being’ which means that one will follow a natural cognitive path. Transgressor was used in verse 9 and means ‘someone who steps over God’s line’. That was interpreted as deliberately reformulating ‘justification by faith’ to be compatible with human kingdoms ruled by princes. Similarly, choosing to kill those who disagree with my doctrine of ‘justification by faith alone’ deliberately contradicts this doctrine, because I am denying others the opportunity to be justified by faith alone.
Coming judgment and Inappropriate Mercy 2:12-13
Verse 12 concludes, “So speak and so act as being about to be judged by the Law of freedom.” So means ‘thus so, in this manner’. This is significant because Perceiver thought is being used as a wall to divide the rich from the poor, and the state church from personal belief. ‘So’ indicates that Perceiver thought needs to be looking for bridges of similarity and this word is used twice. One should look for similarities in the verbal realm of speaking and also look for similarities in the practical realm of doing. In addition, the word as is a word of comparison. Looking at this cognitively, words and actions do not naturally come together because one is vibrations in the air whereas the other is physical movement. Instead, these two come together as Perceiver thought points out that words in Teacher thought have the same meanings as actions in Server thought. Going further, Perceiver thought is also needed to enable conscience by pointing out similarities between my behavior and the behavior of some other person or some standard.
Freedom means ‘a state of freedom from slavery’ and law means ‘law’. 1:25 referred to a perfect law of freedom which was interpreted as Anabaptism attempting to flesh out Luther’s doctrine of justification by faith. Verse 12 is referring to this law of freedom. In both cases ‘law’ is without the definite article, indicating that this is not referring to a complete system of laws. About to be means ‘at the very point of acting’. This is the first use of the verb judge in James which is translated as ‘judge’ but actually means ‘to pick out by separating’. Looking at this cognitively, this is not a matter of some important person in Mercy thought imposing a decision. Instead, technical thought is being used to clarify connections between sowing and reaping. In other words, it is becoming clear to people how things really work. Luther declared that humans are justified by faith alone regardless of what they have done. Luther’s goal was to become free of his mental torment of guilt. Verse 12 points out that a law of freedom is about to impose its judgment upon Lutherans.
Wikipedia describes the ‘picking out by separating’ that split Lutheranism into competing factions after the death of Luther. “As long as Luther lived, the conflict with external foes and the work of building up the Evangelical Church so absorbed the Reformers that the internal differences which had already begun to show themselves were kept in the background. But no sooner was Luther dead than did the internal, as well as the external, peace of the Lutheran Church decline.” The Encyclopaedia Britannica summarizes, “A series of theological controversies over the authentic understanding of Luther’s thought... began to divide Lutheran theologians and churches with increasing intensity. Most of them pertained to topics on which Luther and his Wittenberg colleague Philipp Melanchthon had disagreed or on which Luther’s theological views were not altogether clear. Dominating the Lutheran agenda between 1548 and 1577, the disputes concerned... whether the doctrine of faith absolved Christians from following the moral law set out in the Hebrew Scriptures, and matters connected with justification and human participation in salvation.” Notice the emphasis upon clarifying the ambiguities of Luther’s theological statements, an expression of ‘picking out by separating’. Notice also that much of this clarifying involves Luther’s doctrine of justification by faith alone.
Verse 13 clarifies the nature of this law of freedom. “For judgment without mercy will be to the one not having shown mercy. Mercy triumphs over judgment.” Judgment is the noun form of ‘judge’ and is used for the first time in James. Mercy is used twice and means ‘to show mercy’. Without mercy adds the prefix ‘not’ to a different word that means ‘merciful, propitious, gracious ‘. This contains the additional element of propitiation which means appeasing the anger of God. The whole purpose of justification by faith is to appease the anger of God. ‘Without mercy’ suggests that this attempt will fail. Show is the word for Server actions. This is also significant because Luther asserted that justification is by faith alone and that Server actions are irrelevant. Putting this together, verse 13 is saying that there will be no Mercy feelings of being justified by God if one does not perform Server actions of mercy to others. Jesus mentions a similar principle in Matthew 6:14-15 right after the Lord’s prayer: “For if you forgive men their trespasses, your Heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.”
The cognitive principle is that Server actions give stability to Teacher words. Therefore, using words in Teacher thought to verbally declare a doctrine of justification will fail if these words are not backed up by Server actions that demonstrate a doctrine of justification. Going the other way, using Teacher words to verbally declare a doctrine of justification will gain mental stability if my words of God showing mercy on me are backed up by my actions of showing mercy on others.
The Lutheran theological conflict was characterized by judgment without mercy. For instance, Wikipedia mentions that “The Weimar meeting of 1556 and in the negotiations of Coswig and Magdeburg in this and the following years, which showed a tendency to work not so much for the reconciliation of the contending parties as for a personal humiliation of Melanchthon. He, although deeply wounded, showed great restraint in his public utterances; but his followers in Leipzig and Wittenberg paid their opponents back in their own coin. The heat of partizan feeling was displayed at the Conference of Worms in 1557, where the Flacian party did not hesitate, even in the presence of Roman Catholics, to show their enmity for Melanchthon and his followers.” Summarizing, Lutheran theologians who asserted that God shows mercy upon humans rather than judgment were disputing this doctrine in a manner that showed judgment without mercy.
More generally, we saw earlier that both Catholics and Lutherans judged Anabaptists without mercy. And Europe was about to explode into religious wars that would be characterized by extreme judgment without mercy.
Verse 13 concludes, “Mercy triumphs over judgment.” Triumph over means to ‘boast down, over-exalting one thing at the expense of another’. And ‘mercy’ and ‘judgment’ are the same words used earlier. This suggests a form of inappropriate mercy that is ignoring judgment and choosing not to pass judgment. What happens cognitively is that human personal identity is based in Mercy mental networks. People cannot handle their MMNs being endlessly judged and condemned. Therefore, there will eventually be a call for mercy regardless of whether this is just or not. This prompted the Peace of Augsburg in 1555. Wikipedia elaborates, “In August 1552, weary from three decades of religious civil war, Charles guaranteed Lutheran religious freedoms in the Peace of Passau. The implementation of the Augsburg Interim was cancelled. The Protestant princes taken prisoner during the Schmalkaldic War, John Frederick of Saxony and Philip of Hesse, were released. A precursor to the Peace of Augsburg of September 1555, the Peace of Passau effectively surrendered Charles V’s lifelong quest for European religious unity.” Charles V wanted to judge the Protestants but eventually he got tired of war and showed mercy. The Encyclopaedia Britannica adds that “The desire for a lasting settlement was so strong that the compromise peace, which satisfied no one completely and had many loopholes, was accepted. In spite of its shortcomings, the Peace of Augsburg saved the empire from serious internal conflicts for more than 50 years.”
Similarly, the judgment without mercy of competing Lutheran schools was eventually followed in 1580 by the imposed mercy of the Concord. The Encyclopaedia Britannica summarizes that “Its publication concluded a 30-year effort to heal the divisions that had broken out in the Lutheran movement after Martin Luther’s death... After two political conferences (in 1558 and 1561) failed to produce agreement, the Lutheran rulers in Germany entrusted the project to several theologians, who produced the Formula of Concord, essentially an interpretation of the Augsburg Confession... It was not adopted in total by all Lutheran churches, but it has remained the standard of orthodox Lutheranism.”
A Feeling of Peace and Warmth 2:14-17
The rest of chapter 2 returns to the subject of faith and works. Verse 14 looks at profit. “What is the profit, my brothers, if anyone says to have faith, but has no works?” Profit is used three times in the New Testament, twice in this section of James, and means ‘something heaped up’. The idea is that one is not just benefiting but rather accumulating benefits. ‘My brothers’ implies that fellow Protestants are being addressed. Say means that one is dealing with words and verbal assertions. Faith means ‘to be persuaded’ which indicates the use of rational language and rational thought. Have refers to the peripheral realm of having as opposed to being. This describes a doctrine of justification by faith alone which believes that justification is something verbal that is applied externally by God to a person. Quoting from Wikipedia, “Traditionally, Lutherans have taught forensic (or legal) justification, a divine verdict of acquittal pronounced on the believing sinner. God declares the sinner to be ‘not guilty’ because Christ has taken his place, living a perfect life according to God’s law and suffering for his sins. For Lutherans, justification is in no way dependent upon the thoughts, words, and deeds of those justified through faith alone in Christ.” Note that justification is being regarded as something verbal declared by God that is independent of the ‘being’ of personal identity.
Work means ‘a deed that carries out an inner desire’ and ‘have’ is repeated. In other words, if one steps back from the dogma of theology and examines the objective world of having, does a verbal declaration that is not followed by internally generated action lead to any cumulative impact?
Verse 14 finishes by asking, “Is the faith able to save him?” Save means to ‘deliver out of danger and into safety’. Able means ‘to have power’ and is interpreted as active Perceiver thought. These two words were previously in 1:21 to describe ‘the implanted word being able to save your souls’, pointing out that the doctrine of justification is a valid starting point that has the power to reach mental wholeness. This is now being asked as an actual question rather than merely a hypothetical statement.
The cognitive principle is that the connection from Teacher to Perceiver goes through Server. Looking first at the concrete analog, the connection from Mercy to Server goes through Perceiver. In practical terms, using Server actions to get from one Mercy experience to another requires the solid ground of Perceiver facts. Lacking these solid Perceiver facts is like trying to move through mud. Similarly, Teacher words that are not backed up by Server actions turn into mental mud which lacks the Perceiver power required to reprogram the mind.
A Mennonite university webpage quoted earlier points out, “There is abundant evidence that although the original goal sought by Luther and Zwingli was ‘an earnest Christianity’ for all, the actual outcome was far less, for the level of Christian living among the Protestant population was frequently lower than it had been before under Catholicism. Luther himself was keenly conscious of the deficiency... Between 1522 and 1527 Luther repeatedly mentioned his concern to establish a true Christian church, and his desire to provide for earnest Christians who would confess the gospel with their lives as well as with their tongues.” This demonstrates that a purely verbal faith lacks the power to save people.
Verse 15 gives a specific example. “Now if a brother or a sister is without clothes and lacking of daily food.” Brother has been used several times in James but this is the only mention of sister, which is the female form of ‘brother’. ‘Sister’ indicates that the attention has gone beyond the doctrine and theology of male technical thought to include the mental networks of female thought. Without clothes means ‘naked, poorly clothed’. ‘Clothing’ are interpreted as the fabric of human society. Thus, ‘without clothes’ means that people are interacting directly without any fabric of social interaction. Is is used once in James and combines ‘under’ with ‘begin, go first’ and refers to ‘especially what pre-exists’. Thus, verse 15 refers to a pre-existing state of having no fabric of social interaction. This is not a matter of society breaking down but rather a matter of attempting to interact in a new manner for which no social conventions exist. This describes the situation under the Peace of Augsburg. Until then, Western Europe had been controlled by a single church. People did not know what it meant legally or culturally to function in a multi-religious environment. Thus, both male and female thought were in a pre-existing state of social nakedness.
Lack means ‘to leave, leave behind’ and was previously used in 1:5 to talk about ‘lacking wisdom’, which was interpreted as the incomplete thinking of proto-Protestantism. Food means ‘to nourish or to feed’ and food is interpreted as intellectual food. Daily is used once in the New Testament, it combines ‘upon’ with ‘day’ is the source of the English word ‘ephemeral’. ‘Day’ means ‘the period from sunrise to sunset’ which is interpreted as some societal era lit by the ‘sun’ of a general theory. Thus, what is missing is a general Teacher theory that can shed light upon the current era.
John Calvin’s Institutes of the Christian Religion attempted to provide such a general Teacher theory. Wikipedia explains, “The book was written as an introductory textbook on the Protestant creed for those with some previous knowledge of theology and covered a broad range of theological topics from the doctrines of church and sacraments to justification by faith alone and Christian liberty.” Wikipedia also describes its growing appeal and comprehensiveness. “The Institutes proved instantly popular, with many asking for a revised edition. In 1539, Calvin published a much larger work, with seventeen chapters of about the same length as the six chapters of the first edition. It includes many references to classical authors and Church fathers, as well as many additional references to the Bible... Four chapters were added in a third edition in 1543... The fifth and final edition with which Calvin was involved, and which is used by scholars as the authoritative text, is 80% larger than the previous edition and was published in Geneva in 1559.”
Verse 16 continues with this example. “And anyone out from you says to them, ‘Go in peace; be warmed and be filled.’” Say indicates functioning at the level of words. Out from means ‘from out of’. Thus, someone is emerging from the group to make a definitive statement. Go means ‘to lead away under someone’s authority’. It is used once in James and is in the imperative. In means ‘in the realm of’ and peace means ‘wholeness, when all essential parts are joined together’. Verse 14 described an environment of social chaos. Version 15 describes responding to this chaos with a verbal statement of wholeness under authority.
This summarizes the essence of Calvinism. Warmed means ‘to warm, to heat’, it is used once in James and is in the imperative. Being warmed implies emotional warmth. Thus, one is told to find emotional comfort and motivation in this verbal declaration of wholeness. Fill means to ‘feed, fill, satisfy’, it is also in the imperative and is used once in James. Thus, this statement of wholeness is supposed to provide sufficient intellectual food to create a feeling of wholeness.
Wikipedia describes the theological completeness of Calvin’s final edition, which used the Apostles’ Creed to bring unity to the complexity of theological doctrine. “To pursue an explanation of the relationship between God and man, the edition of 1559... recast the old Institutes into four sections and 80 chapters, on the basis of the Apostles’ Creed... First, the knowledge of God is considered as knowledge of the Father, the creator, provider, and sustainer. Next, it is examined how the Son reveals the Father, since only God is able to reveal God. The third section of the Institutes describes the work of the Holy Spirit... And finally, the fourth section speaks of the Christian church, and how it is to live out the truths of God and Scriptures, particularly through the sacraments. This section also describes the functions and ministries of the church, how civil government relates to religious matters, and includes a lengthy discussion of the deficiencies of the papacy.”
Verse 16 continues, “But does not give to them the needful things for the body, what is the profit?” Give was used previously in 1:5 to compare the stability of Scripture with the instability of papal authority. Needful things is used once in the New Testament and combines ‘upon’ with ‘here’ ‘indicating something that is suitable or fitting for a particular purpose’. Body refers to ‘the physical body’. Thus, this verbal declaration of wholeness is not giving people anything within the present reality of living within a physical body.
This describes the Calvinist doctrine of predestination which asserts that all human decisions made within physical reality were predetermined by God. Wikipedia explains, “Calvin’s doctrine of providence is straightforward. ‘All events whatsoever are governed by the secret counsel of God.’ Therefore, ‘nothing happens but what [God] has knowingly and willingly decreed.’ This excludes ‘fortune and chance.’ Calvin applied his doctrine of providence concerning ‘all events’ to individuals and their salvation in his doctrine of predestination.” Thus, in the same way that the pope did not give any independent existence to the mendicant orders, so Calvin’s predestination does not give any independence to the here-and-now of living in a physical body. In fact, Calvin did not even give humans the ability to choose whether to go to heaven or hell. Wikipedia explains, “Double predestination may not be the view of any of the Reformed confessions, which speak of God passing over rather than actively reprobating the damned. However, John Calvin rejected such a position, stating: ‘This they do ignorantly and childishly since there could be no election without its opposite reprobation ... whom God passes by he reprobates, and that for no other cause but because he is pleased to exclude them from the inheritance which he predestines to his children.’”
‘What is the profit’ is the same Greek phrase that opened verse 14. In other words, how does the Calvinist concept of divine sovereignty compare with Luther’s doctrine of justification when it comes to accumulating personal benefit? Posing this bluntly, how can one accumulate any wealth of character if the very concept of choosing to accumulate or squander moral opportunities is denied? Moral choices mean nothing when they are defined to be nonexistent.
It needs to be pointed out that Calvin finished the job that Luther started by replacing the MMNs of Catholic religious ritual that Lutheranism preserved with the TMN of a comprehensive Reformed theology. Thus, Calvin took a step that needed to be taken. However, Reformed theology was still an abstract ‘castle in the air’ that told adherents to be warmed and filled without providing for their daily needs. It should also be pointed out that Calvin wrote in a pre-scientific era after the unity of Christendom had collapsed and before it was discovered that the natural world is governed by universal laws. Thus, the only way that Calvin could give believers theoretical certainty was through the Teacher overgeneralization that ‘God controls everything’ and ‘There is no such thing as chance’. However, quantum mechanics has made it clear that random choice at the detailed level can coexist with total mathematical certainty at the general level. Thus, God can have absolute sovereignty at the Teacher level of general equations and prophetic sequences while giving humans substantial genuine freedom at the Mercy level of specific experiences.
Verse 17 concludes, “So also, faith by itself if it has not works, is dead.” So means ‘so, in this manner’. Faith means to ‘be persuaded’. Has means ‘to have’ and work refers to internally motivated behavior. Dead means ‘a corpse’ and is followed by ‘is’. The cognitive principle is that Server actions play an intermediate role that is different than righteousness. When I learn some verbal principle in Teacher thought, then this verbal statement needs to be given mental stability by some form of internally generated Server action. This action will probably be done at the peripheral level of having and will not necessarily be an expression of being. But it is necessary to do some action that expresses the verbal understanding. If this action is not done then the verbal assertion will remain dead at the level of being. Doing this action gives stability to the verbal Teacher understanding making it possible for understanding to grow and turn into righteousness. I have found through repeated experience that this is a fundamental principle.
Showing Faith by Works 2:18-20
Verse 18 introduces another group. “But someone will say, ‘You have faith, and I have works.’ Show me your faith without works, and I will show you faith by my works.’” Say is used once in James and ‘is used to denote the act of speaking or saying something’. This is a strange juxtaposition because some group is saying that they perform actions while others do not. Faith means ‘to be persuaded’ and works refers to internally motivated actions. Both ‘you’ and ‘I’ are explicitly mentioned and have is used twice. Thus, an explicit verbal distinction is being made between rational persuasion and internally motivated actions.
This combination can be seen in the Council of Trent, held between 1545 and 1563. Wikipedia clarifies, “Prompted by the Protestant Reformation at the time, it has been described as the embodiment of the Counter-Reformation. The Council issued key statements and clarifications of the Church’s doctrine and teachings... and also issued condemnations of what it defined to be heresies committed by proponents of Protestantism.” A conference that lasts 18 years goes beyond merely saying something to an extended ‘act of speaking’. And an explicit verbal distinction was being made between the ‘you’ of the Protestants and the ‘I’ of Catholicism. Wikipedia adds, “The council upheld salvation appropriated by grace through faith and works of that faith (not just by faith, as the Protestants insisted) because ‘faith without works is dead’, as the Epistle of James states (2:22–26).” Notice that the Council of Trent explicitly quoted the passage in James that we are currently examining. However, it is interesting that verses 22 to 26 were mentioned and not verse 18.
Show ‘primarily means to show or to demonstrate something’, it is used twice and the first instance is in the imperative. All of the pronouns are explicitly mentioned indicating that the emphasis is upon the personal behavior of these two groups being contrasted. Without means ‘apart from, separated’, it is used four times in James, but only at the end of Chapter 2. This tells us that the focus is upon separating one thing from another. Again one finds a strange juxtaposition of words and actions, because someone is being told to demonstrate words that are separated from actions.
This mindset can be seen in the Council of Trent. Quoting from Wikipedia, “Understanding the Protestant ‘faith alone’ doctrine to be one of simple human confidence in Divine Mercy, the Council rejected the ‘vain confidence’ of the Protestants, stating that no one can know infallibly who has received the grace of final perseverance apart from receiving a special revelation... The greatest weight in the council’s decrees is given to the sacraments. The seven sacraments were reaffirmed and the Eucharist pronounced to be a true propitiatory sacrifice as well as a sacrament.” The Eucharist is a ‘showing and doing’ because the ritual of sharing bread and wine is being shown before the people. Within this context of showing and doing in order to receive forgiveness of sins, the Protestant concept of ‘faith alone’ is being rejected as ‘vain confidence’.
Stated cognitively, Catholicism is starting from the premise that something needs to be done that is shown; Server actions need to be demonstrated and emotionally backed up by Mercy importance. Justification by faith alone, in contrast, is a Perceiver confidence that is being internally demonstrated. Luther is saying that Perceiver thought can function apart from Server actions and Mercy importance. Catholicism is responding that Perceiver thought is meaningless because it does not use Server actions. I know what this response feels like, because I am a Perceiver person who is attempting to use Perceiver thought in a postmodern world which declares that Perceiver thought has no right to exist.
By means ‘from out of’. Works and faith are the same words used earlier. The Greek mentions ‘the works of me’ but only ‘the faith’ with no ‘me’. The English translation gives the impression that personal faith is being demonstrated through actions. However, a more accurate translation is, ‘I will show you from out of the works of me, the faith’. Thus, the works are the source, these works are being demonstrated, and from out of these works are coming faith. Wikipedia describes this Catholic emphasis upon demonstrated works as the source of faith. “Transubstantiation, according to which the consecrated bread and wine are held to have been transformed really and substantially into the body, blood, soul and divinity of Christ, was also reaffirmed, as were the traditional seven sacraments of the Catholic Church. Other practices that drew the ire of Protestant reformers, such as pilgrimages, the veneration of saints and relics, the use of venerable images and statuary, and the veneration of the Virgin Mary were strongly reaffirmed as spiritually commendable practices.” An action has to be internally motivated if there is no external goal for performing this action. Eating a crumb of bread and sipping from a glass of wine will not satisfy one’s hunger. Similarly, there is no reason to go on a pilgrimage or venerate a saint, a statue, a relic, or a dead woman. But this will emotionally satisfy internal Mercy mental networks of religious fervor. And all of these practices involve Server actions that are being performed in front of others. This repeated public religious ritual is then being regarded as the source of some nebulous faith.”
This method of using Mercy emotions and Server actions to overwhelm Perceiver thought is described in the following quote from Wikipedia. “Reforms included the foundation of seminaries for the proper training of priests in the spiritual life and the theological traditions of the Church, the reform of religious life by returning orders to their spiritual foundations, and new spiritual movements focusing on the devotional life and a personal relationship with Christ, including the Spanish mystics and the French school of spirituality. It also involved political activities and used the regional Inquisitions.” Priests are not being taught to gain understanding but rather to perform ‘theological traditions’ and experience ‘spiritual life’. And the Mercy condemnation of regional inquisitions is being used to overwhelm Perceiver thought in those who ‘believe wrongly’. The ultimate goal is to have religious Mercy experiences by returning to ‘spiritual foundations’, forming ‘new spiritual movements’, and focusing upon ‘devotional life’ and mysticism. There is no independent faith here, or faith that is leading to works. Instead any faith that exists is coming ‘from out of’ the demonstrating of works.
Verse 19 responds, “You believe that God is one. You are doing well!” Believe means to ‘be persuaded’. One is the number one and ‘is’ is explicitly mentioned. This describes a strong assertion of monotheism and the oneness of God. Well means ‘attractively good’. And doing means ‘to make, to do’ which refers to Server actions. Looking at this cognitively, it was mentioned earlier that Perceiver thought loses its internal power if it is not reinforced by Server actions. Going the other way, Server actions that are done in an intuitive manner can be used to reinforce a Teacher overgeneralization of oneness.
This can be seen, for instance, in Zen Buddhism and is illustrated by the book Zen in the Art of Archery which introduced Zen Buddhism to the West in the 1950s. Wikipedia quotes from this book, “The archer ceases to be conscious of himself as the one who is engaged in hitting the bull’s-eye which confronts him. This state of unconscious is realized only when, completely empty and rid of the self, he becomes one with the perfecting of his technical skill.” The fundamental premise of mysticism—and Buddhism—is that one can achieve a feeling of oneness with God by combining Teacher overgeneralization with Mercy identification. And a fundamental premise of Zen Buddhism is that a mystical feeling of oneness can be reinforced by performing overlearned Server actions in a selfless, intuitive manner. Thus, the repetitive religious rituals of Catholicism will mentally reinforce a mystical and organizational sense of the oneness of God, especially if one knows that the same rituals are being performed in a unified manner by the entire organization. ‘Doing’ what is ‘attractively good’ indicates that this method is emotionally attractive; it works and it feels good.
Verse 19 continues, “Even the demons believe that, and shudder!” Demon is mentioned once in James. The New Testament talks about being possessed by both spirits and demons. Mental symmetry suggests that the spiritual realm interacts with the human realm by empowering mental networks. Spirits empower Mercy mental networks while demons empower Teacher mental networks. A habit is a form of demon because it is emotionally reinforced by a TMN. That is because repeating some ritual will cause Teacher thought to come up with a simple theory that summarizes the essence of this ritual. Righteousness uses the TMN of a concept of God to emotionally reinforce Server actions, while ritual uses the TMN of a demon to emotionally reinforce Server actions. A demon is not necessarily evil but it is fragmented and repetitive. The word even is ‘and’ and ‘that’ is implied. Thus, the phrase is ‘and the demons believe’. Notice that the demons are doing the believing.
Stated cognitively, religious rituals are being emotionally backed up by the TMNs of demons, and these fragmented TMNs of religious habit are mentally supporting the concept of an overgeneralized mystical God of oneness in Teacher thought. Shudder is used once in the New Testament and means ‘to shudder, to bristle’. This suggests some sort of emotional resonance between the TMN of a repetitive religious ritual and the TMN of a God of oneness, causing Perceiver thought to conclude that one is like the other. This Perceiver equating of ritual with theology lies at the heart of Catholicism. For instance, bread and wine supposedly become the flesh and blood of Jesus. Quoting from the Wikipedia article on the Council of Trent, “Christ is ‘really, truly, substantially present’ in the consecrated forms... [and] Ordination was defined to imprint an indelible character on the soul.” Saying this is simply, the Catholic equating of ritual with theology is an example of ‘demons shuddering’ and believing in the oneness of God.
Verse 20 asks about motivation. “But do you want to come to know, O foolish man, that faith apart from works is worthless?” Want means ‘to desire, wish’ and is used twice in James. Come to know means to ‘experientially know’. And man means mankind. Foolish means ‘empty, void’. Luther’s justification by faith alone, Calvin’s total predestination, and the Counter-Reformation religious rituals all share a common trait of leaving people empty and void of actual content. Do these people actually want to experientially know the depths of this internal emptiness? Or are they satisfied with religious bandages that cover up the void inside? Apart from means ‘apart from, separated’ and was previously used in verse 18. Faith and works are the same words used earlier but both are preceded by the definite article: ‘the faith apart from the works’. Worthless is used once in James and adds the prefix ‘not’ to ‘work’ which refers to ‘a deed that carries out an inner desire’.
In other words, separating rational thought from internally generated action leads to the absence of internally generated action. Luther’s justification by faith alone turns rational thought into an abstract exercise that has no impact upon internally generated behavior. Calvin’s total predestination turns all theology into an abstract exercise that transcends human choice and behavior. And Catholic rituals turn internally generated behavior into internally generated habits triggered by the sights, sounds, and smells of a Catholic Church. In order to become a person who practices internally generated behavior, I have to have an understanding, form internal goals based upon this understanding, and then pursue these internal goals. But becoming such a person is hard work and involves standing apart from the crowd. Do people really want to experience this, or do they want the easy way out of asserting some words of justification in order to feel righteous, avoiding the hard work by declaring that God does everything, or performing rituals in a mindless Zen manner? These options all lead to the common end of being void and empty as a person inside.
Applying this to my experience with mental symmetry, I initially thought that if I came up with an answer that was rational and meaningful, then other people would be interested. However, I have found repeatedly that, apart from a few exceptions, people do not want an answer because it is too much hard work. The evangelical Christian is like the Lutheran who talks about faith in God but does not extend this understanding to secular life. The academic is like the Calvinist who uses technical thought within some specialization and then turns to mystery to tie things together. And the consumer is like the Catholic who participates mindlessly in the rituals of the marketplace.
Abraham offering Isaac 2:21-24
Verse 21 gives the example of Abraham. “Was not Abraham our father justified by works, having offered his son Isaac upon the altar?” Abraham means ‘father of a multitude’ and is referred to as ‘our father’. Literally speaking, James is writing to a Jewish audience and Jews descended from Abraham. Abraham left the pagan city of Sumer to follow God as an individual. Similarly, Christendom started with individuals leaving the pagan civilization of Rome in order to personally follow the new religion of Christianity. Justified means ‘to justify, to declare righteous’. Thus, Luther’s core doctrine is being addressed. By means ‘from out of’ and ‘works’ is the word for internally generated behavior.
Offer is used once in James and combines ‘up’ with ‘bring, carry’. Up’ is interpreted as heading towards Teacher generality. Thus, some situation is being viewed as an example of a general principle. Isaac means ‘he laughs’ and is interpreted as the discovery of Teacher joy. For instance, Luther’s experience of feeling forgiven by God is an example of ‘Isaac’. ‘Son of him’ means that this Teacher emotion is coming from male technical thought and not from Teacher overgeneralization or repetitive rituals. Instead, one is using technical thought and this is leading to an understanding in Teacher thought. Altar ‘refers to an altar, a structure upon which sacrifices or offerings are made to a deity’.
Looking at this cognitively, a more nuanced understanding of justification is being described. One is using rational thought to build a rational understanding of justification and one is experiencing the Teacher joy of allowing this understanding to shine on personal identity. This corresponds to what Luther personally experienced. But one is then taking the further step of ‘offering Isaac upon the altar’. One will encounter a situation where one must choose to believe despite there being no external reason to believe and without any social support. The result of this choice will be an internally generated action and the justification will come out of this critical decision.
This principle of offering is described by Jesus in Matthew 6:1 in the Sermon on the Mount. “And beware not to do your righteousness before men in order to be seen by them. Otherwise you have no reward in the presence of your Father in the heavens.” This is not a matter of choosing to act consistently in a righteous manner, because it is not possible to use free will to counteract core Mercy mental networks. Instead, one is choosing to use free will during a time of critical opportunity in which one is being faced with a choice. This relates to the suggestion made earlier that free will is real but limited and becomes maximized during certain times of opportunity when one has to choose between conflicting mental networks. When Abraham offered Isaac, he had to choose between following the Mercy mental network of preserving his son and following the Teacher mental network of obeying the voice of God. Martin Luther faced such a choice in the Diet of Worms when he was accused of heresy and responded by saying, “I am bound by the Scriptures I have quoted and my conscience is captive to the Word of God. I cannot and will not recant anything, since it is neither safe nor right to go against conscience. May God help me. Amen.”
Saying this more simply, a mental network will take ownership of behavior that it motivates. The childish mind is emotionally driven by MMNs of physical pleasure, personal identity, and social pressure. The Teacher joy of feeling justified by faith indicates that a new TMN of God has formed. But this TMN of God will only take ownership of MMNs of personal identity if one chooses to submit personally to this TMN even when this means violating MMNs of physical pleasure, personal identity, and social pressure. One is then choosing to follow God rather than men. Once cognitive ownership has been established within some context, then it is not necessary to repeat such an act of self-denial. Instead, one only has to continue choosing to follow God rather than men when encountering critical situations where one is being forced to choose between one and the other.
For instance, Luther faced another critical choice during the peasant revolt of 1525 and he failed that choice by choosing to submit to MMNs of civil authority rather than TMNs of either public order or justification by faith. Wikipedia describes this transition. “Luther argued that work was the chief duty on earth; the duty of the peasants was farm labor and the duty of the ruling classes was upholding the peace. He could not support the Peasant War because it broke the peace, an evil he thought greater than the evils the peasants were rebelling against. At the peak of the insurrection in 1525, his position shifted completely to support of the rulers of the secular principalities and their Roman Catholic allies... After the conclusion of the Peasants’ War, he was criticized for his writings in support of the violent actions taken by the ruling class... Luther has often been sharply criticized for his position.” Most of the problems of Lutheranism that we have been discussing can be traced back to this fateful choice when Luther chose not to offer up his ‘son’ of Protestantism upon the altar to God.
Verse 22 expands upon this relationship. “You see that his faith was working with his works, and by his works, his faith was perfected.” See is used once in James and means ‘to see something physical, with spiritual results’. Stated simply, one is supposed to look and learn. ‘Faith’ and ‘works’ are the same two familiar words and are both preceded by a definite article. Working with is used once in James, it is the source of the English word ‘synergy’ and adds the prefix ‘with’ to ‘internally generated behavior’.
This synergy can be seen in our cognitive analysis of Abraham’s sacrifice. There is the ‘faith’ of being persuaded by rational thought. But this is being combined with the ‘work’ of choosing to follow this TMN of rational understanding in a situation where one must choose between this TMN and MMNs of social pressure and/or personal benefit. As the English translation suggests, only the first ‘works’ is accompanied by a ‘his’. Thus, one is personally choosing to do the right thing in the situation of critical choice.
By means ‘from out of’ and ‘his’ is not mentioned. Instead, both ‘faith’ and ‘works’ are preceded by the definite article, suggesting that these qualities are functioning as independent entities within the mind and are not just the result of conscious willpower. Perfected means ‘working through the entire process to reach the final phase’. Putting this together, choosing to follow a TMN of God rather than MMNs of personal identity and approval in critical situations will cause a complete internal landscape of rational thought and intrinsic behavior to develop within the mind. Thus, each single act of faith acts as a starting point for the development of a more complete transformation.
Speaking from personal experience, I have found that every theoretical breakthrough seems to be followed by some personal situation that forces me to personally apply the principle that I have just learned. This has happened often enough for me to conclude that these situations are being created by combination of divine providence and angelic manipulation. I have also found that choosing to apply my understanding in this situation gives me the mental ability to go further in my understanding. Going the other way, I have also found that those who do not choose to apply their understanding also seem to get theoretically stuck. Therefore, my decisions to apply my understanding have often been motivated by a deep desire not to get theoretically stuck.
This makes it possible to view the persecution of Anabaptists from a positive perspective, because this persecution forced Anabaptist believers to choose to hold on to their doctrine of justification by faith despite experiencing massive disapproval and persecution. The law-abiding Anabaptists were not inherently superior to the lawbreaking Lutherans or Catholics. Instead, the Anabaptists were forced to take the additional step of combining faith with works, gradually resulting in a mindset that behaved in a law-abiding and moral manner. Wikipedia summarizes the long-term impact of Anabaptism. “The Anabaptists were early promoters of a free church and freedom of religion. When it was introduced by the Anabaptists in the 15th and 16th centuries, religious freedom which was independent from the state was unthinkable to both clerical and governmental leaders. Religious liberty was equated with anarchy.”
Verse 23 then addresses the topic of being declared righteous. “And the Scripture was fulfilled, saying, ‘And Abraham believed God.’” Fulfilled means to ‘fill to individual capacity’. Scripture means ‘scripture, writing’ and is preceded by the definite article. It was used once before in James in 2:8 which was interpreted as Luther’s reference to sola scriptura. Verse 23 is not talking about believing some scriptural doctrine but rather about filling scriptural doctrine with content. For instance, these essays are filling the words of the Bible with the content of Western history, interpreting the biblical words as general cognitive principles that apply to real life situations. Saying is the normal word for speech, which indicates that studying the Bible functions at the verbal level of words and speech. Believe means to ‘be persuaded’ and Abraham means ‘father of a multitude’. Abraham believed ‘the God’ and a concept of God is based in TMNs of universal understanding.
Looking at this more carefully, suppose that one comes up with universal theories in Teacher thought and wishes to become the ‘father of a multitude’ by spreading this understanding to others. The person who comes up with a universal theory faces a mental quandary. On the one hand, he (or she) has come up with universal theories in Teacher thought. But on the other hand, he is a single person who is being viewed by others as a source of truth in Mercy thought. This is the quandary that an apostle faces, and this topic is examined in other essays. In order to escape this quandary, a source of truth has to ‘offer up his son on an altar’, choosing to allow the Teacher theory to speak for itself rather than using personal status or marketing to impose this theory on others. This offering of Isaac makes it possible for Scripture to be ‘filled full’. Instead of imposing the Bible as absolute truth, one is allowing the Bible to express itself as general principles that apply to society. Looking at current society, American evangelical Christendom has chosen not to develop a Teacher understanding of scriptural principles but rather has chosen to re-elect a megalomaniac who only knows how to impose his personality upon others and has no concept of the rule of law. I am writing these words six weeks before the inauguration of Donald Trump.
Verse 23 continues, “And it was counted to him for righteousness.” Counted means ‘to compute, take into account’ and comes from the word ‘logos’, which refers to the Teacher paradigm that emotionally supports a technical specialization. For means ‘motion into’. Righteousness was used once previously in 1:20, which said that ‘man’s anger does not produce the righteousness of God’, and was interpreted as Luther’s response of wrath to the 1525 peasant revolts. In verse 23, righteousness is being counted to people. Stated more carefully, a person is not being declared righteous but rather Teacher thought is recognizing that a person is following a path that will lead into righteousness. Righteousness describes Server actions that are emotionally motivated by the TMN of a concept of God. This stage has not yet been reached. But if believing in God’s verbal declaration of righteousness, as Luther suggests, is followed by choosing to follow Teacher understanding rather than impose Mercy status in a critical situation that involves this verbal belief, then this combination will mentally propel a person along a path that will lead to righteousness. For instance, I am writing this essay on James as a deliberate choice to focus in a positive manner upon God’s Teacher plan for Protestantism, because the alternative is to rage in Mercy thought against the civilization-destroying and science-denying insanity of fundamentalist Protestantism.
Verse 23 concludes, “And he was called a friend of God.” Friend is ‘philos’ and means ‘a friend, someone dearly loved’ and is interpreted as sharing similar mental networks. One likes being with friends, because they are driven by their mental networks to behave in a way that resonates with one’s own mental networks. Called means ‘to call, to name, to invite’. Being called a friend of God means that Teacher thought is recognizing that one is being driven by personal mental networks to behave in a manner that is consistent with the Teacher mental networks of a concept of God.
Luther may have felt that he was forgiven by God but his writings indicate that he did not feel that he was a friend of God. Repeating an earlier quote from an academic paper, Luther said “You want to have a conscious righteousness; that is, you want to be conscious of righteousness in the same way you are conscious of sin. This will not happen. But your righteousness must transcend your consciousness of sin and you must hope that you are righteous in the sight of God. That is, your righteousness is not visible, and it is not conscious; but it is hoped for as something to be revealed in due time. Therefore you must not judge on the basis of your consciousness of sin, which terrifies and troubles you, but on the basis of the promise and teaching of faith, by which Christ is promised to you as your perfect and eternal righteousness.” Notice that Luther does not feel that his personal mental networks are consistent with the mental networks of his concept of God.
This relates to the doctrine of eternal security, which proclaims with certainty that one is a Christian bound for heaven. Mental symmetry suggests that verse 23 is describing a pragmatic form of eternal security. As one continues to follow verbal declarations of faith in Teacher thought with choosing to believe these verbal declarations when faced with critical choices, then Teacher thought will eventually come up with the simple theory of describing personal identity as someone who naturally follows growing Teacher understanding. And it will eventually become emotionally impossible to violate this Teacher understanding of personal identity. At this point one has reached a point of functional eternal security, because personal will is no longer strong enough to override mental networks of building and applying rational understanding. One can still temporarily argue and complain and run away, but eventually one will be emotionally forced to return to pursuing and following rational Teacher understanding.
Verse 24 concludes, “You see that a man is justified by works, and not by faith alone.” See means ‘see with the mind’ and is only used one other time in James in 5:11. ‘By’ is used twice and means ‘from out of’. Justified means ‘to declare righteous’ and is used in James in this verse, verse 21, and verse 25. And man means ‘mankind’. Alone means ‘only, alone’ and is used one other time in James in 1:22 which talked about being ‘hearers only’. Verse 24 says that ‘being declared righteous’ comes from out of internally motivated behavior and not from out of ‘faith alone’.
Verse 24 directly contradicts Luther’s addition of the word ‘alone’ to his doctrine of ‘justification by faith’. But what is being described in James is also radically different than the Catholic practice of performing religious rituals and/or living a life of religious self-denial. Instead, it summarizes the path of Anabaptism. This was not the result of better Anabaptist theology. On the contrary, Anabaptists have traditionally been suspicious of theology and Menno Simons taught that Jesus did not really have human flesh, a doctrine that Mennonites eventually rejected in the 18th century. However, Anabaptists had to apply the biblical understanding that they did have under severe societal oppression, because they never achieved the ‘success’ of being officially recognized as a state church. Thus, they experienced the benefits of applying James 2 because they had no alternative.
Rahab the Prostitute 2:25-26
Verse 25 gives another analogy. “And likewise was not Rahab the prostitute also justified by works, having received the messengers and having sent them forth by another way?” Likewise means ‘in like manner, similarly’ which means that this analogy will be conveying a similar message. ‘Justified by works’ is the same Greek phrase ‘from out of internally motivated action declared righteous’ that was used in verse 24. Rahab is mentioned twice in the New Testament and both times she is referred to as ‘Rahab the prostitute’. Rahab means ‘to be wide, to be spacious, to enlarge’ which refers to a form of Teacher generalization. Prostitute is only used once in James. It is the feminine form and comes from a word that means ‘to sell’. The idea is that one is selling off what is truly valuable in order to acquire peripheral value. For instance, selling one soul to get ahead in a company is a form of prostitution. Feminine prostitution means selling off valuable mental networks in exchange for peripheral and inconsequential results.
This corresponds historically to the art that flowed out of the Council of Trent. Wikipedia explains, “The first phase of the Counter-Reformation had imposed a severe, academic style on religious architecture, which had appealed to intellectuals but not the mass of churchgoers. The Council of Trent decided instead to appeal to a more popular audience, and declared that the arts should communicate religious themes with direct and emotional involvement. Similarly, Lutheran Baroque art developed as a confessional marker of identity, in response to the Great Iconoclasm of Calvinists.” Initially, both the Counter Reformation and Lutheranism downplayed artistic expression in order to avoid accusations of idolatry. But the Council of Trent decided to market Catholicism through the arts, while Lutheranism emphasized the arts in order to distinguish itself from Calvinism. In both cases, this is a kind of female prostitution because mental networks of artistic expression are being used to market and glorify physical institutions that claim to speak for God.
The problem does not lie with religious art but rather with using religious art to promote religious organizations. Many of the artists probably were being internally guided by Platonic forms of the spirit, but the movement as a whole was shaped by a mindset of spiritual prostitution. In the words of Wikipedia, “The Catholic Church was a leading arts patron across much of Europe. The goal of much art in the Counter-Reformation, especially in the Rome of Bernini and the Flanders of Peter Paul Rubens, was to restore Catholicism’s predominance and centrality. This was one of the drivers of the Baroque style that emerged across Europe in the late sixteenth century. In areas where Catholicism predominated, architecture and painting, and to a lesser extent music, reflected Counter-Reformation goals.” Wikipedia also mentions the Baroque focus upon mental networks of female thought. “As opposed to Renaissance art, which usually showed the moment before an event took place, Baroque artists chose the most dramatic point, the moment when the action was occurring... Baroque art was meant to evoke emotion and passion instead of the calm rationality that had been prized during the Renaissance.” Saying this more simply, “Baroque architecture first appeared in the late 16th and early 17th century in religious architecture in Rome as a means to counter the popular appeal of the Protestant Reformation. It was a reaction against the more severe and academic earlier style of earlier churches, it aimed to inspire the common people with the effects of surprise, emotion and awe.”
The work of Rahab is then mentioned. Having received is used once in James and means ‘to receive something as under their personal responsibility’. Messenger means ‘angel, messenger’ and describes a person who is delivering the message as opposed to the message itself. Another means ‘another of a different kind’. And way means ‘way, road, journey, path’ and is interpreted as some sequence in Server thought. Sent forth means ‘to cast out’ and combines ‘from out of’ with ‘to throw’. Throwing is interpreted as moving through the air of Teacher thought, while ‘from out of’ suggests that one is getting rid of some theory. The basic principle here is that rational thought is being used to transform one form of message into another.
This summarizes the development of Baroque art, architecture, and music. Baroque artists were given the personal responsibility of being messengers of their church faith. For instance, “During the Baroque era, professional musicians were expected to be accomplished improvisers of both solo melodic lines and accompaniment parts.” Wikipedia also describes the artistic transforming of the church message. “The Council of Trent (1545–1563)... addressed the representational arts in a short and somewhat oblique passage in its decrees. This was subsequently interpreted and expounded by a number of clerical authors like Molanus, who demanded that paintings and sculptures in church contexts should depict their subjects clearly and powerfully... This return toward a populist conception of the function of ecclesiastical art is seen by many art historians as driving the innovations of Caravaggio and the Carracci brothers, all of whom were working in Rome around 1600.” Notice how a brief message in the Council of Trent is being interpreted as blazing a new artistic path which is then being taken up by individual artists as their personal responsibility.
Turning now to the ‘throwing out’, Wikipedia describes the theory that was ‘thrown out of’ Baroque music. “The Baroque saw the formalization of common-practice tonality, an approach to writing music in which a song or piece is written in a particular key; this type of harmony has continued to be used extensively in Western classical and popular music... During the period composers experimented with finding a fuller sound for each instrumental part (thus creating the orchestra), made changes in musical notation, and developed new instrumental playing techniques. Baroque music expanded the size, range, and complexity of instrumental performance, and also established the mixed vocal/instrumental forms of opera, cantata and oratorio and the instrumental forms of the solo concerto and sonata as musical genres.” Stated briefly, most of the elements of ‘classical’ music emerged during the Baroque era.
Verse 26 concludes, “For just as the body apart from spirit is dead, so also faith apart from works is dead.” Just as means ‘just as, even as’ which tells us that similar situations are being compared. Apart from is used twice in this verse and means ‘apart from, separated’. Thus, verse 26 is comparing two different kinds of separation and suggesting that they are similar. Both of these separations are described as having the common trait of being dead. Dead means ‘a dead body’ and is is explicitly mentioned. There may be the appearance of life at the peripheral level of having, but at the deeper level of being, both of these separations have the common characteristic of lacking life.
The second separation of ‘faith without works’ has been discussed extensively, but the first separation of ‘body without spirit’ is a new separation that has not been discussed and this is the first mention of ‘spirit’ in James. Body refers to the physical body and was previously used in 2:16, which was interpreted as Calvinist theology leaving no place for human physical choice and activity. Spirit means ‘spirit, wind, breath’ and is interpreted as Platonic forms of ideal perfection that form internally within Mercy thought as a result of Teacher understanding. For instance, when one thinks of a circle, one thinks of an imaginary circle that is more perfect than any circle in real life. This perfect imaginary circle is a Platonic form that results from Teacher thought coming up with a simple theory that encapsulates the essence of all real-life circles.
Baroque art added spirit to the body of physical existence. Combining body with spirit needs to be distinguished from idolatry. Idolatry treats the actual object or physical experience as an emotional source for Mercy thought; the primary direction is from physical object to emotional experience. Body-plus-spirit treats objects and experiences as expressions of internal Platonic forms of perfection; the primary direction is from internal Platonic form to physical object. Wikipedia describes this allegorical element within Baroque painting. “Another essential element of baroque painting was allegory; every painting told a story and had a message, often encrypted in symbols and allegorical characters, which an educated viewer was expected to know and read.” Similarly with music, “The idea that music could and ought to move or impress listeners and provoke certain archetypal emotional states evidenced a change in thinking about music.” More generally, “The Baroque style used contrast, movement, exuberant detail, deep color, grandeur, and surprise to achieve a sense of awe.” Awe is the Teacher feeling that one’s personal Mercy experiences are merely one aspect of some larger and grander Teacher order.
Calvinism, in contrast, pursued the iconoclasm of body without spirit, condemning religious art as idolatrous. Quoting from Wikipedia, “Reformed Christianity showed consistent hostility to religious images, as idolatry, especially sculpture and large paintings. Book illustrations and prints were more acceptable, because they were smaller and more private. Reformed leaders, especially Huldrych Zwingli and John Calvin, actively eliminated imagery from churches within the control of their followers, and regarded the great majority of religious images as idolatrous.”
This iconoclasm expressed itself in the Netherlands as a massive riot of burning and destroying religious art in 1566, known as Beeldenstorm. One Wikipedia article indirectly blames Mennonites for instigating this burning. “These open-air sermons, mostly by Anabaptist or Mennonite preachers, spread through the country, attracting huge crowds, though not necessarily of those leaning to Protestantism, and in many places immediately preceded the iconoclastic attacks of August 1566.” Other websites confirm that open-air ‘hedge sermons’ were held by Anabaptist, Mennonite, and Calvinist preachers. However, this quote implies that Anabaptists and Mennonites were primarily responsible for the violent anti-Catholic riots that followed.
I looked thoroughly and every other source lays the blame for these riots and the religious war that followed upon Calvinism. The passage in question appears to be quoting a chapter in a 1992 academic volume which is behind an academic paywall that I cannot check. However, a two-page academic summary of this chapter mentions only Calvinism and not Anabaptism or Mennonites. Similarly, the Dutch Wikipedia article on Beeldenstorm mentions only Calvinism. Likewise, another Wikipedia article mentions only Calvinists. “Calvinists started to organise open-air sermons outside the city walls of many cities. Though these meetings were peaceful, their size alone caused anxiety for the authorities, especially as some of the people attending bore arms. Then, the situation deteriorated rapidly. On 1 August 1566, 2000 armed Calvinists tried to force entry to the walled town of Veurne, but they failed. They were led by Sebastiaan Matte... He and other Calvinist weavers... started attacking churches and destroying religious statuary in western Flanders... This incident was followed by similar riots elsewhere in Flanders, and before long the Netherlands had become the scene of the Beeldenstorm. This iconoclastic movement was planned and organised by prominent Calvinists.” Another Wikipedia article also blames Calvinism for the Beeldenstorm, summarizing “The summer of 1566 erupted in violent protests by Calvinists, known as the iconoclastic fury, or (Dutch: Beeldenstorm) across the Netherlands.”
Looking beyond Wikipedia, a Belgian tourism site also blames Calvinism. “In the Low Countries, converts to Protestantism included Anabaptists, Lutherans and Calvinists. The Calvinists were the most outspoken, and their clandestine churches had been growing despite repression. In 1565, Calvinist congregations emerged from underground to hold open-air assemblies... Their sermons included repeated offensives against the ancient church... Their objective was to rid these Catholic symbols of their mystical value and purify the Catholic Church of ‘papist superstitions’. In doing so, the Calvinists believed they were restoring ties with the earlier, purer, Christians and washing away centuries of corruption and the worship of false saints.” Similarly, a 2020 book chapter on researchgate refers to Calvinism without mentioning either Mennonites or Anabaptists. “During the summer of 1566, Calvinism grew rapidly from a persecuted under-ground church into a large, popular and increasingly well-organized movement. One such sermon was delivered on 10 August by Sebastiaan Matte in Steenvoord. Matte urged the crowd to break the images and other religious objects in the nearby convent of Saint Lawrence... This particular event is traditionally identified as the start of the Beeldenstorm: in the week following Matte’s sermon, many sacred places in the Westkwartier in the south- west of the County of Flanders were attacked by wandering bands of iconoclasts under the guidance of Calvinist preachers.” Likewise, a Belgian historical website mentions Calvinists but not Mennonites or Anabaptists. “On 10 August 1566 the hat maker Sebastiaan Matte gave a fiery field sermon just outside Steenvoorde. Like so many Calvinist preachers, he attacked the worship of saints... When he had finished his listeners went to a nearby monastery and destroyed all the images of saints. From Steenvoorde that ‘Iconoclastic Fury’ raged through the Low Countries... Generally, the destruction was well organised by local Calvinist associations.”
It may seem that I am overemphasizing a minor point, but after the disaster of Münster, the vast majority of Anabaptists and Mennonites attempted to follow a path of nonviolence and they paid a heavy personal price for this choice. Thus, when Wikipedia blames my ancestors for starting eighty years of religious warfare, then that needs to be checked for accuracy. Besides, the idea that Mennonites would instigate violence violates core Mennonite beliefs. Quoting from the Mennonite Encyclopedia, “Nonresistance was held by Anabaptists universally from the beginning, except for the revolutionary fringe in Münster and related elements (1534-40), and for the short-lived Hubmaier group in Moravia (1526-28). It was characteristic of all Mennonite groups in Europe until into the 19th century, and has been universally held by all American Mennonites until the present day.” Going further, “Menno Simons said: ‘The regenerated do not go to war, nor engage in strife. They are the children of peace who have beaten their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruninghooks, and know of no war.... Since we are to be conformed to the image of Christ, how can we then fight our enemies with the sword?’”
Many Teachers and Greater Judgment 3:1-2
Chapter 3 turns to leaders and organizations. Verse 1 states, “Not many of you should be teachers my brothers, knowing that we will receive greater judgment.” Many means ‘much in number’. Teacher means ‘an instructor acknowledged for their mastery in their field of learning’. Be means ‘to come into being’. ‘My brothers’ indicates that this is addressed to fellow Protestant believers. What is being described is the fragmentation of Protestantism into different denominations, each with its own system of learning and theology. Know means ‘seeing that becomes knowing’ and refers to empirical evidence. This word was previously used in 1:19 to describe Luther’s incendiary language helping to encourage the peasant revolts, providing physical evidence for the statement that one should avoid extreme language. Judgment means ‘judgment, emphasizing its result’. Greater means ‘large, great in the widest sense’ and is interpreted as Teacher generality. And receive means to ‘actively lay hold of’. In other words, a multiplicity of teachers will cause judgment to happen at a more theoretical and more general level: Instead of condemning some specific person or group within Protestantism, the entire movement of Protestantism will be condemned at a general and theological level.
Looking at history, the Netherlands, then under the control of Spain, suffered from the problem of ‘many teachers’, expressed in the form of the hedge sermons mentioned earlier. A Google translation of the Dutch Wikipedia explains, “These sermons were widely held in the Netherlands by Calvinists, Anabapists and other reformists, because they were forbidden to practice of faith. Adriaan van Haemstede was the first to preach to the public on Sacrament Day 1558 at the Maere near Antwerp... Repression brought the phenomenon of hedge sermons under control for some time, but in the summer of 1566 it revived at full strength... Where the Lutherans mainly preached on the Kiel, the Calvinists did this in nearby Berchem and Borgerhout. Ghent was also a centre of hedge sermons... The success of the hedges was massive. For the sermon of Herman Moded on 14 June in Oudenaarde there would have been 7000 listeners. In other cases, estimates reached 14,000 or even 25,000.” Notice that Calvinists, Anabaptists, and Lutherans are all preaching to large crowds. This led eventually to greater judgment, because the Calvinist hedge preachers instigated the Beeldenstorm which was the first stage of 80 years of religious warfare in the Netherlands against Spain. Quoting from Wikipedia, “The period between the start of the Beeldenstorm in August 1566 until early 1572 contained the first events of a series that would later be known as the Eighty Years’ War between the Spanish Empire and disparate groups of rebels in the Habsburg Netherlands. Some of the first pitched battles and sieges between radical Calvinists and Habsburg governmental forces took place in the years 1566–1567.”
Verse 2 refers to stumbling. “For we all stumble in many ways. If anyone does not stumble in what he says, this one is a perfect man, able indeed to bridle the whole body.” Stumble means ‘to stumble, to fall’ and is used twice in this verse. It is used one other time in James in 2:10, which was interpreted as the Peace of Augsburg stumbling by regarding the religious choices of princes as more significant than the oneness of God. Many is the same word ‘much in number’ used in verse 1 and ‘ways’ is implied. All is used once in James and ‘focuses on the individual parts and their totality and thus sweeps with a wider broom’. In other words, the stumbling of individual groups is being amplified by the interaction between these groups. Anyone is a generic word that can apply to both people and things. Say is the word ‘logos’, which is interpreted as a Teacher theory that lies behind some technical specialization. And in means ‘in the realm of’. Thus, verse 2 is not talking about never saying the wrong thing, but rather is looking more generally at not stumbling in the realm of Teacher theories, which means being guided by the right paradigms in Teacher thought. For instance, Luther stumbled in paradigm when concluding that religious uniformity has to be imposed by secular power. Calvin stumbled in paradigm when asserting that God can only be sovereign by controlling every choice ever made by any human. Repeating an earlier quote from Wikipedia, “Calvin’s doctrine of providence is straightforward. ‘All events whatsoever are governed by the secret counsel of God.’ Therefore, ‘nothing happens but what [God] has knowingly and willingly decreed.’”
I think that the early Mennonites stumbled in paradigm by interpreting the separation of church and state as refusing to participate in the state. The Mennonite Encyclopedia clarifies, “The Anabaptists universally rejected participation in government with one exception... The Hubmaier congregation was short-lived; no trace of it is found after 1529... The first Anabaptists-Mennonites to open the door to participation in government were the Waterlanders, the more open-minded party in Holland. They permitted their members as early as 1570 to hold government offices, and after that time many of them held such offices, but this was always limited to minor local offices, not involving capital punishment.” Summarizing, Mennonite groups avoided the Lutheran problem of a state church by replacing state control with church discipline and excommunication, but this led to a severe problem of ‘many teachers’. The Dutch Wikipedia explains, “The different views of the extent to which the ecclesiastical discipline should be applied resulted in a great fragmentation. In the Netherlands, for example, Waterlandse, Hoogduitse, Frisian and Flemish Mennonites were often divided into ‘young’ and ‘old’.”
Perfect means ‘complete, mature, full-grown’. Man means ‘man’ which refers to male technical thought. Thus, an adequate paradigm will lead to complete and mature technical thought. Looking at the development of science, such a paradigm shift began in 1543 when Copernicus published his book on the planets moving around the sun. Wikipedia elaborates, “The Copernican Revolution, a paradigm shift from the Ptolemaic model of the heavens, which described the cosmos as having Earth as a stationary body at the center of the universe, to the heliocentric model with the Sun at the center of the Solar System, spanned over a century, beginning with the publication of Copernicus’ De revolutionibus orbium coelestium and ending with the work of Isaac Newton.”
Verse 2 does not say that this maturing of technical thought will lead to spiritual or societal growth. Instead, the result will be ‘able indeed to bridle the whole body’. Able means ‘powerful’ and is interpreted as active Perceiver thought. It was used previously as a verb in 2:14 to say that faith without works is unable to save a person, which was interpreted as the Lutheran verbal declaration of faith lacking stability because it was not reinforced by Server actions. Bridle means ‘to lead with a bridle’ and is used one other time in the New Testament in 1:26 which talked about being unable to bridle the tongue, which was interpreted as Martin Luther being unable to bridle his tongue. In verse 2, the entire body is being bridled. All means ‘where all the parts are present and working as a whole’. And body refers to the physical body. In verse 1, the theoretical stumblings of various groups were feeding upon one another, while in verse 2 the adequate paradigm is extending to the realm of the physical body in an integrated manner.
Guiding Horses and Ships 3:3-4
This ability to ‘bridle the whole body’ is illustrated by Sweden under Gustavus Adolphus, who reigned from 1611-1632. Wikipedia summarizes, “His contributions to Sweden’s rise in power included reformation of the administrative structure. For example, he began Parish Registration of the population, so that the central government could more efficiently tax and conscript the people. He is also widely commemorated by Protestants in Europe as the main defender of their cause during the Thirty Years’ War.” Notice that Adolphus is defending Protestantism by ‘bridling the whole body’ of Sweden through administrative reform.
Verse 3 then talks about horses. “Now if we put bits into the mouths of the horses for them to obey us.” This is the only mention of a horse in James. Biblehub observes that horses ‘were symbols of status and power, often used in chariots and cavalry. In the biblical context, horses are frequently associated with military might’. Thus, a horse is interpreted as government and/or military organization—and our discussion will now turn from theology to government and military organization. Bit is mentioned twice in the New Testament and means ‘bridle, bit’. Put means ‘to throw, cast, put’ which is interpreted as moving through the ‘air’ of Teacher theory. Obey is actually the word ‘faith’ which means ‘to persuade’.
Adolphus introduced a better paradigm in the realm of military organization. Wikipedia describes, “He established a military system that was to become the envy of Europe. He drew up a new military code. The new improvements to Sweden’s military order even pervaded the state by fueling fundamental changes in the economy. The military reforms – among which tight discipline was one of the prevailing principles – brought the Swedish military to the highest levels of military readiness and were to become the standard that European states would strive for. The code drawn up encouraged the highest level of personal frugality. In the camp, no silver or gold were permitted anywhere. The King’s tent was not exempted from this prohibition... Garrison duty was required by everyone alike, there were no exceptions... Violence towards women was punished with death. Prostitutes were absolutely forbidden from camp... The soldier of merit stood in as high standing as any of the Swedish nobles of the day. Sweden was becoming what had not existed since the days of the Romans, a military monarchy.” This was a better paradigm because it replaced submission to nobility with the rule of law.
Verse 3 finishes, “We turn about even their whole body.” Turn about is used twice in the New Testament, in this verse and the next, and means ‘to change one’s mind, to lead or bring to a different place or state’. Whole means ‘where all the parts are present and working as a whole’. And body suggests that this is referring to physical organization. Adolphus’ armies had an exceptional ability to ‘turn about’ quickly. Wikipedia explains, “His forces could redeploy and reconfigure very rapidly, confounding his enemies. He also adopted the integration of combined arms. “Among other innovations, he installed an early form of combined arms in his formations, where the cavalry could attack from the safety of an infantry line reinforced by cannon, and retire again within to regroup after their foray.” And his army was organized in a manner that allowed it to turn about quickly. “He was also renowned for his constancy of purpose and the equality of his troops—no one part of his armies was considered better or received preferred treatment, as was common in other armies where the cavalry were the elite, followed by the artillery, and both disdained the lowly infantry. In Gustavus Adolphus’s army the units were extensively cross-trained. Both cavalry and infantry could service the artillery.” Notice that this flexibility results naturally from a better paradigm of minimizing the distinction between nobility and peasants.
We looked previously at the Netherlands. Wikipedia points out that Adolphus was “Inspired by the reform of Maurice of Nassau”, the stadtholder of the Dutch Republic from 1585 to 1625 and leader of the Dutch revolt against Catholic Spain. Wikipedia observes that “Previous generals had made use of drill and exercise in order to instill discipline or to keep the men physically fit, but for Maurice, they ‘were the fundamental postulates of tactics’... Maurice founded a whole new school of military professional practice. These pointed the way to the professional armies of the future.” Notice again the emphasis upon being able to ‘bridle’ the ‘horse’ of the military in order to control its direction. Notice also the historical flow from the many teachers of the Netherlands to the Dutch war of independence to the military reforms of Maurice of Nassau to the military transformations of Gustavus Adolphus, who used his armies to defend Protestantism during the Thirty Years War.
Verse 4 talks about ships. “Behold also the ships, being so great and being driven by strong winds, are turned about by a very small rudder.” Behold means ‘behold, look, see’ and implies the appearance of something new. This is the first use of this common word in James and it will be repeated in verse 5. This is the only mention of a ship in James, which comes from a word that means ‘to sail’. A ship is a small organized piece of ‘dry land’ that floats on the water and is driven by wind. This is interpreted cognitively as an organization that is able to function in an ordered manner upon the water of Mercy experiences guided by various winds of Teacher order. So great is used once in James and means ‘coming of age, reaching maximum size’. These terms describe the appearance of a new form of organization at a much larger level than has existed before. ‘Being’ is explicitly mentioned, indicating that this organization is functioning at the level of subjective being.
By means ‘under authority of someone’. Strong is used once in James and means ‘people who won’t budge, or what is unyieldingly harsh’. Wind means ‘a gust of air’, is used once in James and represents some Teacher theory blowing within the air. Driven is also used once in James and means ‘to drive, to propel, to row’. These words suggest that ships of human organization are being propelled by inflexible and harsh theories in Teacher thought.
A ship is bigger than a horse. Verse 3 talked about the ability to control horses, which was interpreted as military organization and flexibility. Verse 4 takes a bigger perspective to look at the movement of organizational ships. The cognitive principle is that organizations will often adopt new and innovative structures in order to become more flexible, not realizing that these changes will impact the organizations themselves. This happened in the Thirty Years War, fought from 1618-1648.
Wikipedia describes the ‘strong inflexible winds’ that drove this conflict. The Habsburg heir “Ferdinand once claimed he would rather see his lands destroyed than tolerate heresy within them. Less than 18 months after taking control of Styria in 1595, he had eliminated Protestantism in what had been a stronghold of the Reformation.” Similarly, “At a meeting of the Imperial Diet in February 1623, Ferdinand forced through provisions transferring Frederick’s titles, lands, and electoral vote to Maximilian. He did so with support from the Catholic League, despite strong opposition from Protestant members, as well as the Spanish.” Going still further, “Made overconfident by success, in March 1629 Ferdinand passed an Edict of Restitution, which required all lands taken from the Catholic church after 1555 to be returned. While technically legal, politically it was extremely unwise, since doing so would alter nearly every single state boundary in North and Central Germany, deny the existence of Calvinism and restore Catholicism in areas where it had not been a significant presence for nearly a century.” Finally, “Following the Edict of Restitution by Emperor Ferdinand II on the height of his and the Catholic League’s military success in 1629, Protestantism in the Holy Roman Empire was seriously threatened. In July 1630, King Gustav II Adolf [Gustavus Adolphus] of Sweden landed in the Duchy of Pomerania to intervene in favor of the German Protestants.” Thus, Sweden, which was discussed in verse 3 at the level of ‘horses’ eventually returned to center stage at the level of ‘ships’.
Turn about was used in the previous verse and means ‘to change one’s mind, to lead or bring to a different place or state’. Rudder means rudder’ and is used twice in the New Testament. Very small means ‘least, smallest, very little’ and is used once in James. In other words, these massive ships of organization are changing their minds and their directions as a result of small influences. Similarly, the Thirty Years War was characterized by constantly shifting alliances in which the ships of state were continually changing directions. The Encyclopedia Britannica gives a flavor of this confusion. “In the heartland of Europe, three denominations vied for dominance: Roman Catholicism, Lutheranism, and Calvinism. This resulted in a Gordian tangle of alliances as princes and prelates called in foreign powers to aid them. Overall, the struggle was between the Holy Roman Empire, which was Roman Catholic and Habsburg, and a network of Protestant towns and principalities that relied on the chief anti-Catholic powers of Sweden and the United Netherlands, which had at last thrown off the yoke of Spain after a struggle lasting 80 years.”
Verse 4 finishes, “Wherever the impulse of the one steering resolves.” Impulse is used twice in the New Testament and means ‘a rapid motion forwards, onrush, assault’. Steering is also used twice in the New Testament and means ‘to make straight, to guide, to direct’. And resolve means ‘to plan with full resolve’. Putting this together, some ship of organization is choosing a direction and then rushing straightforward with total planning in this direction. Wikipedia describes the impulsive but relentless nature of the Thirty Years War. “Soldiers devastated one area before moving on, leaving large tracts of land empty of people and changing the ecosystem... Contemporaries spoke of a ‘frenzy of despair’ as people sought to make sense of the relentless and often random bloodshed unleashed by the war.”
Looking at this cognitively, verse 4 describes a society driven purely by ideologies, in which Mercy feelings are being amplified by Teacher thought and then being fully followed, without being moderated by morality, the rule of law, scientific understanding, or rational thought. This can also be seen in the personal character of Gustavus Adolphus. “Gustavus, whose lively imagination was easily excited by religious ardour, enormously magnified clerical influence in Poland and frequently scented dangers where only difficulties existed.”
From Boasting to Unrighteousness to Hell 3:5-6
The next two verses describe a downward spiral and the final word of verse 6 is literally ‘hell’. These stages can be seen in the progression of the Thirty Years War. Verse 5 begins, “Thus also the tongue is a small member, and boasts exceeding things.” Thus means ‘in this manner’. Tongue means ‘tongue, language’ and is mentioned four times in verses 5-8. It is mentioned one other time in 1:26 which was interpreted as Luther being unable to bridle his tongue. Member means ‘member, part, limb’. Small means ‘little, small’ and ‘is’ is explicitly mentioned. Boast greatly is used once in the New Testament and combines ‘great’ with ‘boast’. Boasting means verbally claiming that one is important in Mercy thought. Great boasting adds a Teacher dimension to this, turning personal boasting into ideology.
This first stage of great boasting can be seen in the fervent Catholicism of Ferdinand, Holy Roman Emperor from 1619-1637. He acquired his education at a Jesuit college. And as quoted earlier, “Ferdinand once claimed he would rather see his lands destroyed than tolerate heresy within them. Less than 18 months after taking control of Styria in 1595, he had eliminated Protestantism in what had been a stronghold of the Reformation.”
Verse 5 finishes, “Behold a small fire, how great a forest it kindles.” Behold indicates that something new has appeared. Fire means ‘fire’ and is interpreted as an emotional drive that burns, consumes, and purifies rather than being harnessed productively. The Greek word for ‘small’ is uncertain, with some Greek texts mentioning ‘few in number’ and others repeating the word ‘great’. Great means ‘coming of age, fully grown’. Forest is used once in the New Testament and means ‘wood, timber, forest’. Kindle is used twice in the New Testament and combines ‘up’ with ‘to touch’. Putting this together, a small frustration is consuming mature structure by touching it in a way that leads up to Teacher generality.
This second stage began when the Catholic Ferdinand was elected king of Bohemia in 1617. Wikipedia explains that the Bohemian “estates were almost entirely Protestant... The dispute culminated after several battles in the final Battle of White Mountain [in 1620], where the estates suffered a decisive defeat. This started re-Catholisation of the Czech lands.” Ferdinand’s rival to the crown of Bohemia was the Protestant Frederick V of the Palatinate. Ferdinand became Holy Roman Emperor in 1619. And “At a meeting of the Imperial Diet in February 1623, Ferdinand forced through provisions transferring Frederick’s titles, lands, and electoral vote to Maximilian. He did so with support from the Catholic League, despite strong opposition from Protestant members, as well as the Spanish. The Palatinate was clearly lost... However, Spanish and Dutch involvement in the campaign was a significant step in internationalising the war, while Frederick’s removal meant other Protestant princes began discussing armed resistance to preserve their own rights and territories.” Notice how the ‘small fire’ of Ferdinand’s fervent Catholicism spread first to Bohemia when Ferdinand was crowned king and then spread to the whole empire when Ferdinand was crowned emperor. This spreading can also be described as a ‘coming of age’ . Looking at this cognitively, what began as Teacher thought magnifying strong Mercy feelings is now being generalized by Teacher thought, causing existing Teacher order to be threatened.
Verse 6 describes the destructive impact. “The tongue also is a fire, the world of unrighteousness.” In verse 5 the tongue was kindling a fire. In verse 6, the tongue is a fire (‘is’ is implied). This suggests that the cause of frustration is itself being questioned. World is ‘cosmos’ which refers to the Teacher order of the material human realm. Unrighteousness is used once in James and adds the prefix ‘not’ to ‘righteous’. An unrighteous cosmos is a human system of material order that is not guided by submission to universal principles in Teacher thought.
This third stage can be seen in Ferdinand’s Edict of Restitution. Wikipedia explains, “Made overconfident by success, in March 1629 Ferdinand passed an Edict of Restitution, which required all lands taken from the Catholic church after 1555 to be returned. While technically legal, politically it was extremely unwise, since doing so would alter nearly every single state boundary in North and Central Germany, deny the existence of Calvinism and restore Catholicism in areas where it had not been a significant presence for nearly a century. Well aware none of the princes involved would agree, Ferdinand used the device of an Imperial edict, once again asserting his right to alter laws without consultation.” Notice that the tongue has progressed from kindling a great fire to being a fire that is a ‘cosmos of unrighteousness’, because Ferdinand is now using his tongue to try to undo the entire existing order of the Empire.
Verse 6 continues, “The tongue is set among our members, defiling all the body.” Set means ‘to set down in place’ which means assigning a solid position in Perceiver thought. In means ‘in the realm of’. Member is the same word that was used in verse 5 but is in the plural. In verse 5, the tongue was merely a small member, but in verse 6 it has acquired stability as a fellow member. Defiled means ‘to stain, to defile’ and is used twice in the New Testament. All means ‘where all the parts are present and working as a whole’. Thus, the tongue is having a global corrupting affect that is staining all of physical activity.
The sacking of Magdeburg in 1632 provides one example of the tongue defiling the body. Wikipedia describes the background. “In March 1629, Emperor Ferdinand II passed the Edict of Restitution. It was specifically aimed at restoring the situation of the 1555 Peace of Augsburg in ecclesiastical territories that had since strayed from ‘legal’ Catholic faith and rule. Bremen and Magdeburg were the biggest examples of territories to be restituted.” The city was besieged and then attacked in 1631. Wikipedia describes the outcome. “Whilst Magdeburg was razed by the fire, many Imperial soldiers supposedly went out of control. The invading soldiers had not received payment for their service and demanded valuables from every household they encountered. There were reports of rapes and torture... Of the 25,000 inhabitants, only 5,000 survived... Much of the city remained rubble until at least 1720... The Imperial treatment of defeated Magdeburg helped persuade many rulers to stand against the Holy Roman Emperor.”
More generally, Wallenstein, the Catholic commander, paid his armies through pillage, a practice known as Bellum se ipsum alet. Wikipedia explains, “Prior to the Thirty Years’ War, the laws of the Holy Roman Empire provided for funding armies by raising special war taxes... In the course of the war, the principle of bellum se ipsum alet was applied in two phases: First, the food supplies needed for the army were derived directly from the territory occupied by this army. Later, the pay for the soldiers was derived from the occupied territory as well.” Going further, “In 1625, Albrecht von Wallenstein had promised Holy Roman Emperor Ferdinand II to raise an army and fund it himself. Ferdinand II allowed Wallenstein to exploit occupied territory with the caveat that money should not be collected by force without his approval. This caveat was however neglected, and the army was fed and paid entirely by contributions and war loot. Subsequently, all armies participating in the war adapted the bellum se ipsum alet principle... The affected territories were thereby ruined.” Notice how Ferdinand’s overturning of the rule of law is turning into armies that have no concept of the rule of law but rather extort and pillage in order to survive. And this behavior spread to all of the armies.
Verse 6 finishes, “And setting on fire the course of nature, and itself being set on fire by Gehenna.” Setting on fire means ‘to set on fire, burn’ and is only used in this verse, where it is used twice. Course is used once in the New Testament and primarily refers to a wheel or something that revolves’. Nature means ‘birth, lineage, descent’ and is used to refer to the birth and lineage of Jesus. Thus, ‘course of nature’ does not refer to the progress of the natural world but rather to the cycles of human lineage. By means ‘under authority’. Hell is the word ‘Gehenna’ which is translated by both the KJV and the NASB as ‘hell’ all twelve times it occurs in the New Testament. The name comes from a valley outside of Jerusalem where bodies and garbage were burned.
This describes the final stage of the Thirty Years War, which was essentially a hell on earth that overturned all existing societal order. Quoting from one university article, “The practice of looting became more common in the 1630’s as the financial institutions of the warring states began to exhaust their capabilities. This would have terrible consequences on the civilians inhabiting the occupied areas, as the soldiers now had no reliable source of income and food, they turned to brute force against the population to extract resources. The cruelty employed by the soldiers to acquire loot and food became absolutely barbaric... With such apocalyptic descriptions it is not surprising that some people began to see this war as God’s last judgment and the beginning of the end times.”
Before continuing, an important point needs to be discussed. Is God the source of evil? If this passage of James is prophesying the Thirty Years War, then this implies that God is responsible for instigating this literal hell on earth. I suggest that the answer lies in distinguishing between the general Teacher of plans of God and the specific ways that these plans are implemented in human reality. Notice that these verses in James do not refer specifically to war but rather to the mindset that is driving the war. I noticed a similar principle when analyzing the passages in Matthew and Luke that seem to be predicting the two world wars. The mindsets driving these wars are mentioned but not the wars themselves.
The cognitive progression described in these verses had to happen, but these verses could have been fulfilled in a manner that was less destructive to humanity. This is not mere quibbling because a primary motivation of my work is my belief that it is possible to ask God to apply his divine plan in a manner that is less destructive to humanity. Looking at this from a theological perspective, interpreting James as a prophecy of Protestantism, along with other similar essays, means that one cannot view God as some distant holy being who transcends human suffering. Instead, what emerges is the concept of a God who uses cognitive mechanisms to work within history. Saying this more simply, the doctrine of ‘justification by faith alone’ is pure self-deception. Instead, being declared justified by God means being enrolled in God’s school of character development, and if one refuses to take the courses, then one will be given remedial training until one passes the courses. Learning is not an option because God’s plan is sovereign. But one can choose how painful the learning will be, and Europe chose a path of learning that was exceptionally painful.
The progression that we have just discussed appears to be a general sequence based in cognitive mechanisms. For instance, the recent re-election of Donald Trump can be placed within this sequence. Trump’s first presidency can be interpreted as a small tongue making great boasts. Trump lied or misstated the facts about 30,000 times during his first presidency. Trump’s growing social popularity, his denunciation of opposition as fake news, and his re-election qualify as the fire kindling an entire forest. Trump’s current pronouncements of what he will do when he takes office are examples of the tongue being a fire and a world of unrighteousness. For instance, Trump promises that on his first day of office he will break the trade agreements that he made with America’s top three trading partners by imposing 25% tariffs (or more) upon all imported goods. Pronouncements such as these feel like Ferdinand’s Edict of Restitution, because in both cases, decades of careful agreement are being overturned by universal statements in an arrogant manner. That leaves the fourth stage of ‘setting on fire the course of nature, and being set on fire by Gehenna’. I pray that this fourth stage will not be as painful as it was in the Thirty Years War.
Taming Beasts but not the Tongue 3:7-8
Verse 7 changes perspective. “For every species both of beasts and of birds, both of creeping things and things of the sea, is subdued and has been subdued by the human race.” All means ‘each part of a totality’. Species means ‘inner nature, the underlying constitution or makeup of someone’. Beast is ‘the generic term for wild animal’ and is used once in James. Bird comes from a word that means ‘to fly’ and is also used once in James. A beast is interpreted cognitively as a person emotionally driven by mental networks of physical dominance and physical desire. A bird is interpreted cognitively as a person who flies through the air of Teacher theory. Creeping thing comes from a word that means to ‘creep or to crawl’. This describes the mind that is unable to use abstract thought to ‘stand up’ within the ‘air’ of Teacher theory but can only use concrete thought to ‘crawl or slither’ upon the earth of physical existence. Thing of the sea is used once in the New Testament and combines ‘in the realm of’ with ‘sea’. The sea represents the waters of social experience. Thus, a ‘thing of the sea’ describes people who are creatures of their social environment.
Subdue is used four times in the New Testament, three times in this verse and the next, and means ‘to tame, subdue, bring under control’. ‘Subdue’ is both in the present and in the past, indicating that these kinds of mindsets are being controlled at that time and were controlled in previous times. Race means ‘inner nature’ and is the same word that was translated ‘species’ earlier in the verse. (A basic principle of abstract technical thought is that a word must be given the same meaning every time it occurs. Scientific thought is based upon this principle and I follow this principle in these essays. Thus, it bothers me deeply when the same Greek word is translated by two different English words in the same verse. And this is also done by the NASB.) Human is the generic word for mankind.
Turning to history, these various mindsets were all tamed in the Thirty Years War. The soldier of that era was mentally a beast. Adolphus tamed these beasts. Repeating part of an earlier quote from Wikipedia, “The code drawn up encouraged the highest level of personal frugality. In the camp, no silver or gold were permitted anywhere... All soldiers who were caught looting were to be court-marshalled and then shot, nepotism and other forms of favoritism were unknown in the Swedish army... A chaplain was attached to every regiment... Violence towards women was punished with death. Prostitutes were absolutely forbidden from camp.” Adolphus also tamed the ‘creeping things’ of German soldiers. Wikipedia clarifies, “Only a million and a half people were living in the country at the time. As a result of this, as his campaign progressed in Germany, he came to increasingly rely on German mercenaries. Although these German mercenaries were well known for their atrocious conduct towards the local population, under the Swedish military system they were later brought to the Swedish standard of discipline.”
And Adolphus tamed the sea of culture with its ‘things’. Wikipedia elaborates, “The soldier of merit stood in as high standing as any of the Swedish nobles of the day. Sweden was becoming what had not existed since the days of the Romans, a military monarchy. By introducing this new nobility, the monarchy introduced a center of support in contradistinction to the traditional, landed aristocracy, which thereby allowed it to undercut the authority and privilege of the traditionally independent landed nobility... Numerous constitutional changes were introduced to the government in order to foster concord and cooperation. A system of social hierarchy was introduced, and given form under the ‘House of Nobles’. The purpose of this organ was to give more rigid structure to the already existing social order.”
The birds of theological speculation were tamed through theological confessions. Wikipedia summarizes, “Lutheran orthodoxy was an era in the history of Lutheranism, which began in 1580 from the writing of the Book of Concord and ended at the Age of Enlightenment. Lutheran orthodoxy was paralleled by similar eras in Calvinism and tridentine Roman Catholicism after the Counter-Reformation.” Note that Lutherans, Calvinists, and Roman Catholics all managed to tame their theological ‘birds’.
And as the reference to the Roman military monarchy implies, these various mental animals had all been tamed in the past in during the Roman era.
Verse 8 then turns to the tongue. “But no one of men is able to subdue the tongue; it is an unruly evil, full of deadly poison.” Tongue is the same word that was used twice in verse 7 and men refers to humanity. Able means ‘strength, power’ and is interpreted as active Perceiver thought. Unruly is used twice in the New Testament and means ‘unstable, restless, disorderly’. The other occurrence was in 1:8 which was interpreted as the instability of the medieval Franciscan and Dominican orders.
Evil means ‘inwardly foul, rotten’. Poison comes from a word that means ‘to rust or corrode’ and is translated as ‘rust’ the other time occurs in James in 5:3. Deadly is used once in the New Testament and combines ‘to carry’ with ‘death’.
In other words, the one thing that could not be tamed was the words and decrees of the leaders. For instance, Wikipedia describes the unstable nature of Adolphus’ religiosity. “Gustavus, whose lively imagination was easily excited by religious ardour, enormously magnified clerical influence in Poland and frequently scented dangers where only difficulties existed.” More generally, the words of all leaders were inherently unstable and restless as alliances changed, promises were broken, and new promises were made. This essay has attempted to provide a simple summary of the Thirty Years War, but the complicated and continually changing nature of this conflict becomes apparent as soon as one attempts to figure out who was doing what when and where. And the inwardly foul motivations of the leaders inexorably corroded this conflict until it turned into universal hell on earth.
Wikipedia describes the inward foulness that characterized both sides of the conflict. “It was understood by Protestants that Catholic officials (especially imperial or church officials) were vicious and jealous of the privileges acquired by the Protestants and would do anything in their power to harm the Protestant cause. It was established by practice that the Pope had the power to relieve members of his flock of the most solemn oaths, and it was a matter of principle among Catholics that faith was never to be kept with heretics. On the other hand, Catholics maintained a similar understanding of the Protestants. The avarice displayed by Protestants for Church property could not fail to go unnoticed by even the most indulgent Catholic observer. With such mutual antipathy prevailing between the Protestants and Catholics of Germany, nothing that could would fail to be misunderstood.” Stated bluntly, the Protestants viewed Catholic leaders as lying monsters, while the Catholics viewed Protestant leaders as hypocritical thieves. That was the starting point.
A similar mutual hatred now exists in the United States. Republicans view Democrats as wokeist destroyers of morality and traditional society, while Democrats view Republicans as irrational destroyers of science and civilization.
Looking at this cognitively, all the successful taming is being done by imposing MMNs of status, power, and punishment upon people. But imposing MMNs upon words in Teacher thought leads to ideology rather than tamed behavior. Instead, the only way to tame the tongue is by imposing a universal Teacher theory upon the mind. This can be done internally by acquiring a universal understanding. But what type of universal understanding did Luther implicitly and the Peace of Augsburg explicitly adopt? The idea that theological statements in Teacher thought are subject to the Mercy status of princes: The prince determines the religion and the people have to follow the religion of the prince or move to another state. This leads naturally to princes—and emperors such as Ferdinand—attempting to impose their personal emotional fervor upon their subjects.
The only alternative that remains is to externally impose a theory upon all of society. The people and the princes have to be damned so universally—and damned is not too strong a word—that they are finally willing to admit that using the state to support the church leads to hell on earth. In other words, maybe, just maybe, those radical Anabaptists were more sane than the supposedly sane majority. Unfortunately, over 5 million people had to die in order to come to this conclusion.
Blessing and Cursing from the Same Mouth 3:9-10
The next section describes the underlying cognitive disconnect. Verse 9 begins, “With it we bless our Lord and Father, and with it we curse men, those being made according to the likeness of God.” Bless combines ‘good’ with ‘logos’ and is used once in James. A ‘good logos’ is a better paradigm in Teacher thought. Lord implies submission to authority and Father indicates a source of technical thought. It may be significant that God is not mentioned. Protestantism did come up with a better theology. Catholic theology has at least two primary weaknesses: First, it regards both the pope and the Bible as authoritative. But history makes it clear that popes are not reliable or necessarily even moral, while these essays are making it clear that the Bible really is a supernaturally accurate book. Luther corrected this inadequacy. Second, it equates symbols with the Platonic forms that those symbols represent, such as saying that the bread and wine are the body and blood of Christ, that the absolution of a priest is forgiveness from God, and that the Catholic Church is the universal church of God. Calvin corrected this inadequacy. And the Catholic Church responded in the Counter-Reformation by blessing the Lord with new forms of art and music that are still used today.
Applying this to ‘horses’ and ‘ships’, Gustavus Adolphus’ army explicitly blessed ‘our Lord and Father’. Quoting from Wikipedia, “A chaplain was attached to every regiment. Prayers were offered up on every occasion before battle. It is related how strange it was to see in Germany, the marshal of high standing in the military establishment kneeling in their religious observations next to the private.” When Adolphus decided to invade Germany, “Three days of public fasting and prayer were declared in order to ensure the success of the landing.” Wikipedia also describes the underlying Swedish sense of lordship. “Gustavus owed much of his success as an empire-builder to the religious and patriotic zeal of the Swedes, and their willingness to sacrifice.”
Curse means ‘to curse, to invoke evil upon’. Men is the generic word for ‘mankind’. This cursing of mankind has been described in detail. Quoting again from Wikipedia, ‘The Thirty Years’ War, from 1618 to 1648, was one of the most destructive conflicts in European history. Fought primarily in Central Europe, an estimated 4.5 to 8 million soldiers and civilians died from the effects of battle, famine, or disease, while parts of Germany reported population declines of over 50%.”
Likeness is used once in the New Testament and means ‘likeness, resemblance’. Being made means ‘to come into being’. And ‘God’ is explicitly mentioned. This suggests that an implicit recognition of a resemblance between God and humanity is starting to emerge. This can be seen historically in the Puritan movement of England which was happening at the same time as the events on the continent that we have been discussing. Wikipedia summarizes, “The Puritans were English Protestants in the 16th and 17th centuries who sought to rid the Church of England of what they considered to be Roman Catholic practices, maintaining that the Church of England had not been fully reformed and should become more Protestant... They formed and identified with various religious groups advocating greater purity of worship and doctrine, as well as personal and corporate piety... Some believed a uniform reform of the established church was called for to create a godly nation, while others advocated separation from, or the end of, any established state church entirely in favour of autonomous gathered churches, called-out from the world.” Notice the focus upon people resembling God by ‘advocating greater purity of worship and doctrine, as well as personal corporate piety’. Notice also that the Puritans are having a gradual influence upon English Protestantism and that there is also a plurality of views, as opposed to imposing the orthodox doctrine of Catholicism or Lutheranism upon some population based upon the personal convictions of the ruler.
And instead of focusing in a Lutheran manner upon a profession of faith or in an Anabaptist manner upon separation from the state, the goal was to make the state more similar to the character of God. Wikipedia observes that “By the end of the reign of King James in 1625, Puritanism had established itself in England as a revolutionary religious and political movement. The Puritans had come to influence every institution of English society and had spread as well to the continent in Holland as well as the American colonies in the Plymouth Colony. The Puritans had moreover come to control most of the English Parliament.” Tying this in with the Thirty Years War, Wikipedia reports, “King James saw himself as the potential peacemaker of Europe, and his propaganda portrayed him as the modern Solomon. In religion the Church of England could provide a model middle ground, and in his view both Catholics and Protestants would be able to accept churches modeled after it. In this regard, he subscribed to the theory that the Church of England represented a via media or middle way between Protestantism and Catholicism.” I am not suggesting that the Puritans or King James were perfect—and England went through a series of civil wars in 1642-1651 resulting in a Puritan-led Republic. But the Puritans, and England in general, were at least trying to follow a path of developing—and applying—a more rational Teacher understanding of Christianity.
Verse 10 makes a conclusion. “Out of the same mouth proceed forth blessing and cursing. My brothers, these things ought not to be so.” Out of means ‘from out of’. Proceed forth means ‘to go or come out of’. Mouth means ‘mouth’ and was previously used in 3:3 to refer to horses’ mouths, which was interpreted as controlling armies in a more disciplined manner. ‘Mouth’ is more personal than ‘tongue’, suggesting a shift in focus from what words are being spoken to what words I am speaking. Blessing and cursing are noun forms of the verbs used in verse 9.
Ought is used once in the New Testament and means ‘to need, to have necessity’. ‘Ought’ gives the impression that one is fulfilling the demands of some person or group. But ‘to have necessity’ means that something is actually required. For instance, some prince may demand that I be willing to fight and die for him, but necessity means that I need food to live. Wikipedia describes the shift from personal demand to physical necessity that happened in the Thirty Years War. “Many historians argue feeding the troops became an objective in itself, unconnected to diplomatic goals and largely uncontrolled by their central governments. The result was ‘armies increasingly devoid of intelligible political objectives...degenerating into travelling armed mobs, living in a symbiotic relationship with the countryside they passed through’. This often conflicted with the political aims of their employers; the devastation inflicted in 1628 and 1629 by Imperial troops on Brandenburg and Saxony, both nominally their allies, was a major factor in their subsequent support for Swedish intervention.”
Making a cognitive transition from ‘who is right’ to ‘what is right’ is extremely difficult when divine forgiveness is interpreted as being declared justified by some person. In the Catholic version, some priest with Mercy status who is backed up by the Teacher order of the Catholic system pronounces forgiveness from God. In the Lutheran version, Mercy feelings of religious respect overwhelm Perceiver thought into ‘knowing’ that the Bible is true. Studying the Bible leads to the TMN of a God of the Bible and this imaginary person declares forgiveness from sin and failure. In both cases, feelings of sin and failure that come primarily from violating the ‘what is right’ of natural law and cognitive consequence are being overruled emotionally by the ‘who is right’ of divine pronouncement.
Now suppose that one wants to replace this with a rational understanding of natural and cognitive cause-and-effect. Doing this requires waking up Perceiver thought from its state of being emotionally overwhelmed. But waking up Perceiver thought will threaten existing mental networks that are based in blind faith—the same mental networks that are responsible for generating feelings of divine forgiveness. These threatened mental networks will respond by replacing feelings of divine forgiveness with predictions of eternal damnation. Stated simply, the believer will feel that rational thinking will send him straight to hell. Overcoming this feeling will take either a universal understanding of natural cause-and-effect in Teacher thought or else extended exposure to a natural hell on earth that is sufficiently strong and pervasive to overcome internal emotional threats of eternal damnation.
I know what this feels like because I grew up in a conservative Mennonite home. Developing mental symmetry has allowed me to follow the positive path of replacing an inadequate concept of God based in blind faith with a more adequate concept of God based in universal principles of cause-and-effect. But making such a transition often triggered the fear that I was following a path that would lead me to hell, which I had to counter by repeatedly observing that I was actually constructing a more adequate concept of God and not rebelling from my concept of God.
‘My brothers’ indicates that fellow Protestants are being addressed. So means ‘in this manner’ and to be means ‘to come into being’. This questioning describes the thinking of the Enlightenment, which followed the religious wars. Wikipedia explains, “The Enlightenment was marked by... an emphasis on the scientific method and reductionism, along with increased questioning of religious dogma... The central doctrines of the Enlightenment were individual liberty, representative government, the rule of law, and religious freedom, in contrast to an absolute monarchy or single party state and the religious persecution of faiths other than those formally established and often controlled outright by the State.” Notice that the existing situation of imposing religious belief upon people is being replaced by a focus upon the rule of law and personal freedom guided by rational thinking.
Spring Water and Fig Trees 3:11-12
Verse 11 gives an analogy. “Does the spring pour forth out of the same opening both fresh and bitter?” Spring means ‘spring, fountain, well’ and is used once in James. A spring is a source of water that comes out of the ground. Water represents Mercy experiences while ground represents the ‘landscape’ of human rational thought. Opening means ‘an opening, a hole’ and is also used once in James. Pour forth is used once in the New Testament and means ‘to swell, to burst forth, to abound’. The idea is that Mercy experiences are bursting out of rational thought. In other words, Perceiver thought is coming up with rules and boundaries that are trying to limit Mercy thought which is then bursting forth through these boundaries. Fresh means ‘sweet’. Bitter means ‘bitter, sharp’ and is only used in this verse and in verse 14.
Stated more simply, a mixture of attractive and repulsive Mercy experiences are coming from the same source of rational thinking. This will naturally happen when Perceiver thought is being overwhelmed by Mercy emotions. Looking at the sweetness, using Teacher thought to understand these Perceiver facts will lead to Platonic forms of ideal perfection within Mercy thought, expressed religiously as internal visions of heavenly perfection. But because these Perceiver facts came from a holy book that is unrelated to physical reality, there is no way to turn these internal visions into physical reality. Thus, all one can do is sing, talk, and paint about heaven, leading to the ‘sweet water’. Turning now to the bitterness, studying the words of a holy book will lead to a conscience that is unrelated to natural cause-and-effect, while believing that the book is holy will lead to the feeling that personal identity must be suppressed in order to maintain respect for the holy book. Stated simply, the believer will feel that God does not want me to enjoy physical pleasure and will view conscience as ‘the little voice that stops me from having fun’. The result will be a feeling of bitterness against the concept of a God who does not want me to enjoy myself.
Verse 12 mentions another analogy. “Is a fig tree able, my brothers, to produce olives? Or a vine, figs? Neither is a salt spring able to produce fresh water.” The fig is the first tree mentioned by name in the Bible in Genesis 3:7, which says that Adam and Eve sewed together fig leaves to cover their nakedness. Thus, fig leaves are interpreted as the social fabric that one uses to cover up one’s personal nakedness. Luther’s doctrine of justification by faith alone is an example of a fig leaf, because it is being used to cover up the nakedness of personal inadequacies. Building a theology upon this doctrine of justification by faith alone would be an example of a fig tree. Able means ‘to have power’ and is interpreted as active Perceiver thought. The word olive refers to either the tree or the fruit. Olives represent the spirit which is interpreted as Platonic forms of ideal perfection within Mercy thought. Produce means ‘to make, to do’. Putting this together, a theology that is based upon covering personal inadequacies lacks the power to turn into behavior that is guided by the spirit. That is because a method that ignores personal inadequacies cannot address personal inadequacies. Justification by faith alone says that God in Teacher thought does not look at personal inadequacies in Mercy thought. In contrast, a concept of the spirit emerges when God looks upon personal inadequacies in Mercy thought and proposes a more ideal alternative. A concept of God in Teacher thought cannot simultaneously shine and not shine upon personal identity.
A shift can be seen in Francis Bacon’s new scientific method that he proposed in 1620. Wikipedia clarifies that Bacon’s scientific thinking had a Christian basis. “While he advocated a very empirical, observational, reasoned method that did away with metaphysical conjecture, Bacon was a religious man, believed in God, and believed his work had a religious role. He contended, like other researchers at the time, that by doing this careful work man could begin to understand God’s wonderful creation, to reclaim the knowledge that had been lost in Adam and Eve’s ‘fall’, and to make the most of his God-given talents.” Bacon is rejecting ‘metaphysical conjecture’ that is not based upon human reality for an ‘empirical, observational, reasoned method’ that is based upon reality. His thinking is guided by the idea that ‘Adam and Eve’s fall’ prevented humans from using rational thought to develop Platonic forms of a better creation. Notice that this replaces the ‘who is right’ of God declaring me righteous with the ‘what is right’ of being able to rationally understand the laws of nature that God created.
Vine means ‘vine, grape-vine’ and is used once in James. Grapes are interpreted as the ‘wine’ of attractive culture. A fig comes from a fig tree, which was mentioned earlier. Verse 12 is saying that developing a better culture will not address basic inadequacies. That is because an attractive culture makes it possible to avoid dealing with personal inadequacies because it draws attention away from personal inadequacies and it covers up the consequences of these inadequacies.
This principle can be seen in Bacon’s idols of the mind. Bacon suggested that the human ability to think rationally is overruled by four kinds of idols. Wikipedia explains, “He described these as things which obstructed the path of correct scientific reasoning. Idols of the Tribe: This is humans’ tendency to perceive more order and regularity in systems than truly exists, and is due to people following their preconceived ideas about things. Idols of the Cave: This is due to individuals’ personal weaknesses in reasoning due to particular personalities, likes and dislikes. Idols of the Marketplace: This is due to confusion in the use of language and taking some words in science to have a different meaning than their common usage. Idols of the Theatre: This is the following of academic dogma and not asking questions about the world.” The idol of the tribe describes Teacher overgeneralization. The idol of the cave describes personal bias generated by various Mercy mental networks. The idol of the marketplace recognizes that abstract technical thought needs precise definitions to function. (That is why these essays assign a single, consistent interpretation to every Greek term.) The idol of the theatre describes the blind faith of basing Perceiver truth in Mercy respect for authorities. In summary, Bacon is recognizing that it is not enough to merely build the wine of a better culture. Instead, one also needs the figs of describing and overcoming core human inadequacies—and the four idols that Bacon mentions figure prominently in these essays.
Salt is mentioned once in the New Testament and means ‘salty, seasoned with salt’. Salt was used to preserve food, and salt is interpreted as a conservative mindset that attempts to conserve or preserve the standards of society. Fresh is the same word ‘sweet’ that was used in verse 11. And water refers to Mercy experiences. Produce is the same word ‘to make, to do’ used earlier. The idea here is that a conservative mindset does not create attractive Mercy experiences. That is because the conservative will naturally try to suppress attractive Mercy experiences in the present that threaten to change traditional behavior.
Bacon emphasized the need to start afresh rather than build upon existing knowledge. Quoting from Wikipedia, “Using Bacon’s process, man could start fresh, setting aside old superstitions, over-generalisations, and traditional (often unproven) ‘facts’. Researchers could slowly but accurately build an essential base of knowledge from the ground up.”
Verse 13 turns attention to the positive. “Who is wise and understanding among you; let him show his works out of the good conduct, in the humility of wisdom.” Wise is used once in James and comes from a word that means ‘clear’. In other words, the goal is to bring clarity to the current state of confusion. Understanding is used once in the New Testament as an adjective and combines ‘fitting on’ with ‘stand’. ‘Standing’ is interpreted as a source of stability in Perceiver thought. In other words, what is an appropriate basis for knowledge? Among means ‘in the realm of’. Putting this together, individuals within the group are looking for clarity and an appropriate basis. For instance, “In Novum Organum, Bacon details a new system of logic he believes to be superior to the old ways of syllogism. This is now known as the Baconian method.”
Show means ‘to show, to point out, to make known’ and is in the imperative. The other occurrence in James was in 2:18 which was interpreted as the Council of Trent requiring Protestants to demonstrate their faith. Conduct means ‘conduct, behavior, manner of life’. Good means ‘attractively good’. And out of means ‘from out of’. In other words, the source of this thinking should be a lifestyle of attractively good Mercy experiences. This disqualifies Adolphus’ version of Christianity because being a soldier is not a lifestyle of attractively good Mercy experiences, but rather a death-style of hellishly painful Mercy experiences. Wikipedia points out the relationship between lifestyle and thinking, observing that “There is a wider array of seminal works about the interaction of Puritanism and early science... [that describe] Puritanism as a major driver of the reforms initiated by Bacon and the development of science overall. Steven Matthews is cautious about the interaction with a single confession, as the English Reformation allowed a higher doctrinal diversity compared to the continent. However, Matthews is quite outspoken that ‘Bacon’s entire understanding of what we call ‘science,’ and what he called ‘natural philosophy,’ was fashioned around the basic tenets of his belief system.’” And we saw earlier that one of the primary motivations of Puritanism was to change lifestyle to become more consistent with the moral guidelines of Scripture. The cognitive principle is that Mercy emotion feels like Teacher emotion. Therefore, it will be emotionally difficult to use Teacher thought rationally when Mercy thought is filled with various painful experiences.
Continuing with verse 13, works refers to internally motivated behavior. Humility means ‘meekness, gentle strength’. And wisdom is the noun form of ‘wise’ used earlier in the verse which means ‘clarity’. This combination describes Bacon’s method of investigation. Wikipedia explains, “The method consists of procedures for isolating and further investigating the form nature, or cause, of a phenomenon, including the method of agreement, method of difference, and method of concomitant variation... From this Bacon suggests that the underlying cause of the phenomenon, what he calls the ‘form’, can be approximated by interpreting the results of one’s observations. This approximation Bacon calls the ‘First Vintage’. It is not a final conclusion about the formal cause of the phenomenon but merely a hypothesis... In this manner, the truth of natural philosophy is approached ‘by gradual degrees’.” This is a search for wisdom because the goal is to clarify the relationship between cause-and-effect. It is also a humble search because it makes tentative hypotheses subject to adjustment as further facts are acquired. And it is motivated by an internal desire to gain a better understanding.
Wisdom from Below 3:14-16
Verse 14 describes the alternative. “But if you have bitter jealousy and self-interest in your heart, do not boast of it and lie against the truth.” Jealousy ‘literally means hot enough to boil’. Bitter comes from a word that means ‘to cut or to prick’ and is only used in this verse and in verse 14. Have indicates that this is functioning at the objective level of having. Self-interest means ‘work done merely for hire as a mercenary’. Heart is interpreted as personal identity in Mercy thought. In other words, personal behavior is motivated either by feelings of hurt caused by others or by being paid by others as a mercenary. In both cases, one does not have one’s own motivation. The average soldier in the Thirty Years War was driven by one or both of these motivations. Wikipedia summarizes, “The high mortality rate compared to the Wars of the Three Kingdoms in Britain may partly be due to the reliance of all sides on foreign mercenaries, often unpaid and required to live off the land. Lack of a sense of ‘shared community’ resulted in atrocities such as the destruction of Magdeburg.” A mercenary is being paid to function at the ‘having’ of winning battles and conquering physical territory. An unpaid mercenary will become motivated by bitter jealousy. And such an individual will lack the normal Mercy emotions of the heart that prevent people from committing atrocities.
Boast is used twice in James and means ‘over-exalting one thing at the expense of another’. Lie is used once in James and means ‘to lie, to speak falsely’. Truth means ‘true to fact, reality’ and was previously used in 1:18 which referred to the word of truth, which was interpreted as Luther’s view of a future kingdom of God that would eventually describe reality. In verse 14, facts about reality are being overruled by Mercy emotions of submission to authority or bitterness against others. For instance, the foreign mercenary was not being motivated by Mercy feelings of preserving home or culture, but rather was over-exalting feelings of bitterness and mercenary obedience above the physical facts of a reality in which masses of people were getting maimed, tortured, killed, or dying of disease.
Verse 15 concludes, “This is not the wisdom coming down from above, but is earthly, unspiritual, demonic.” Wisdom means ‘clarity’. In other words, building and using armies will lead to increasing clarity as one learns through success and failure what makes a better army. For instance, Wikipedia reports that “Military reforms... brought the Swedish military to the highest levels of military readiness and were to become the standard that European states would strive for.” From above means ‘from above’ and is interpreted as coming from Teacher generality. Coming down means ‘to come down’ and is interpreted as descending to Mercy specifics. In an army, the starting point is not understanding in Teacher thought but rather success and failure in Mercy thought. And one is not developing principles that apply to all of life but rather clarifying how a soldier should act when fighting.
Earthly is mentioned once in James and means ‘fitting the physical earth’. Unspiritual actually means ‘soulish’, and the soul is interpreted as the integrated mind. Demonic is used once in the New Testament and means ‘demon-like’. A demon is interpreted cognitively as the TMN that drives some specific habit, and presumably real demons can empower such TMNs within human minds.
This combination can be seen in the rule of Louis XIV, the ‘Sun King’ who ruled France from 1643-1715. Like Sweden’s Army, Louis’ court was viewed by the rest of Europe as an example to copy. Quoting from Wikipedia, “His pageantry, opulent lifestyle and ornate cultivated image earned him enduring admiration. Louis XIV raised France to be the exemplar nation-state of the early modern period, and established a cultural prestige which lasted through the subsequent centuries until today.”
Louis’ reign was earthly in the sense that his primary goal was to win wars and gain more territory for France. Wikipedia summarizes, “Warfare defined Louis’s foreign policy... His wars strained France’s resources to the utmost, while in peacetime he concentrated on preparing for the next war. He taught his diplomats that their job was to create tactical and strategic advantages for the French military.” It was soulish in the sense that it attempted to integrate the various fragments of French rule. Wikipedia explains, “Louis’s legal reforms were enacted in his numerous Great Ordinances. Prior to that, France was a patchwork of legal systems, with as many traditional legal regimes as there were provinces, and two co-existing legal systems—customary law in the north and Roman civil law in the south. The Grande Ordonnance de Procédure Civile of 1667, the Code Louis, was a comprehensive legal code imposing a uniform regulation of civil procedure throughout the kingdom... The Code Louis later became the basis for the Napoleonic code, which in turn inspired many modern legal codes.”
But Louis’ reign was also demon-like because the entire country of France revolved around the daily habits of Louis XIV. Quoting from a 2017 magazine article, “From the lever ceremony when he got up in the morning to the coucher when he went to bed, Louis expected his courtiers to make every effort to be around him as much as possible. Nobles would pay huge amounts of money just to be present during the more exclusive portions of the ceremony, and if you couldn’t even make the daily Mass after the lever, you were dead to Louis... For about six decades, the entire French political system revolved entirely around one man’s daily routine. His closest advisers could never be far from his side, since anyone who was not present would have their influence supplanted by another of his ambitious hangers-on. Thousands of people would file by to watch him eat in silence when he dined au public. Noblemen of great means and high status were reduced to hustling for the honor of watching the king take a shit... Anyone who wanted a real stake in France had no option but to play Louis’s game.” It is difficult to think of something more demon-like than this.
Verse 16 concludes, “For where jealousy and self-interest exist, there will be disorder and every evil thing.” Where means ‘where, wherever’. Jealousy means ‘hot enough to boil’ and self-interest means ‘work done for hire’. Both terms are only used in James in this verse and two verses earlier. There means ‘there, in that place’ and both ‘exist’ and ‘will be’ are implied, which suggests a lack of stable identity. Disorder adds the prefix ‘not’ to ‘stability or order’. Evil means ‘easy, slight, ordinary, mean, worthless, of no account’ and is used once in James. This is more ‘worthless’ than ‘evil’. And thing means ‘the habit needed to accomplish what is necessary’ and is the source of the English word ‘pragmatic’.
Louis XIV was driven by jealousy and self-interest. Quoting from Wikipedia, “Warfare defined Louis’s foreign policy, impelled by his personal ambition for glory and power: ‘a mix of commerce, revenge, and pique’. His wars strained France’s resources to the utmost.”
Louis XIV’s daily routines were an example of ‘every evil thing’. Wikipedia describes the ceremony of Louis XIV getting up in the morning. Quoting a few excerpts, “At a quarter past eight, the Grand Chamberlain was called, bringing with him the nobles who had the privilege of the grande entrée, a privilege that could be purchased, subject to the king’s approval, but which was restricted in Louis’ time to the nobles... First, the Master of the Bedchamber and the First Servant, both high nobles, pulled the king’s nightshirt over his head, one grasping each sleeve. The Grand Chamberlain presented the day shirt which, according to Saint-Simon, had been shaken out and sometimes changed, because the king perspired freely. This was a moment for any of those with the privilege of the grande entrée to have a swift private word with the king.” The Grande entrée was followed by the Première entrée. “Now, other privileged courtiers were admitted, a few at a time, at each stage, so that, as the King was putting on his shoes and stockings, ‘everyone’ — in Saint-Simon’s view — was there... A fifth entrée now admitted ladies for the first time, and a sixth entrée admitted, from a privileged position at a cramped backdoor, the king’s children, legitimate and illegitimate indiscriminately.” Getting up in the morning is a ‘habit needed to accomplish what is necessary’. But reducing a noble to someone who pulls on the left sleeve of the king’s nightshirt is utterly ‘easy, slight, ordinary, mean, worthless, of no account’. However, if you wanted anything from the king, you had to watch him put on his sweaty day shirt.
The instability is described in the previous quote from the 2017 magazine article. “His closest advisers could never be far from his side, since anyone who was not present would have their influence supplanted by another of his ambitious hangers-on.” And Louis XIV set the standard that the rest of Europe attempted to emulate.
The magazine article then draws a parallel between Louis XIV and Donald Trump. “Donald Trump is making a considerable-but-inadvertent attempt to bring the Sun King’s court to the West Wing. As our policy is now made according to the last opinion stated out loud in his presence (or TV show that he watches), none of Trump’s senior aides can ever leave his side for fear of losing influence to the others, to say nothing of a stray TV. Everyone on the White House staff dare not tell the royal presence how He should act, relying instead on mere suggestion... We’re all part of it, really. We can never leave his side, because he just keeps freaking us all out, over and over again.”
Wisdom from Above 3:17-18
Verse 17 mentions a positive sequence. “But the wisdom from above is indeed first pure, then peaceable, gentle, reasonable, full of mercy and of good fruits, impartial, sincere.” Wisdom and from above are the same words that were used in verse 15. In verse 15, this was not present. In verse 17 it is present. An example of this positive sequence can be seen in the history of the Puritan colonization of America, which was happening at this time. Wikipedia summarizes that, “From 1629 through 1643, approximately 21,000 Puritans immigrated to New England.”
First means ‘before, at the beginning’. Indeed means ‘indeed, verily’ and this common word is only used once in James. Pure means ‘pure inside and out; holy because uncontaminated’ and is related to the word ‘holy’ which means ‘different from the world because like the Lord’. It is used once in James. This is followed by ‘is’. Purity and holiness are cognitively related. That is because Teacher thought looks for simple statements that apply universally and feels bad when there is an exception to the rule. Thus, starting from Teacher thought will naturally lead to the consistency of purity. Therefore, if the wisdom is to come down from Teacher thought, then the starting point has to be a search for universal simple statements that apply without exception. And simply talking about this is not enough. Instead, it must exist ‘indeed’. Then means ‘only then’, which means that the rest of the list follows from this first requirement.
This desire for holiness characterized the Puritan immigrants. Wikipedia explains that both the original colonists “and the later wave of Puritan immigrants created a deeply religious, socially tight-knit, and politically innovative culture that is still present within the United States. They hoped that this new land would serve as a ‘redeemer nation.’ They fled England and attempted to create a ‘nation of saints’ in America, an intensely religious, thoroughly righteous community designed to be an example for all of Europe and the rest of the world.”
Peaceable comes from the word ‘peace’ which means ‘to join, tie together into a whole’. Obviously, one can only tie things together if one is starting from a basis of internal consistency. Gentle is used once in James and means ‘truly fair by relaxing overly strict standards in order to keep the spirit of the law’. Cognitively speaking, one is going beyond technical adherence to the rules to being guided by universal principles in Teacher thought. Obviously, this is only possible with a mind that is guided by universal Teacher understanding.
The first Pilgrim colonists began by tying themselves together through a written contract known as the Mayflower compact. Wikipedia explains, “The Leiden congregants, therefore, drafted a brief contract known as the Mayflower Compact, promising cooperation among the settlers ‘for the general good of the Colony unto which we promise all due submission and obedience.’ It organized them into what was called a ‘civill body politick,’ in which issues would be decided by voting, the key ingredient of democracy... The Mayflower Compact is considered to be one of the seeds of American democracy, and historians have called it the world’s first written constitution.”
Reasonable is used once in the New Testament and combines ‘well’ with ‘to persuade’. This indicates a willingness to be guided by rational thought, which will naturally emerge if one is attempting to go beyond technical rules to discover what is truly universal. Such reasonableness was a characteristic of Roger Williams. Wikipedia summarizes that “Williams was expelled by the Puritan leaders from the Massachusetts Bay Colony, and he established Providence Plantations in 1636 as a refuge offering what he termed ‘liberty of conscience’.” Looking further at his willingness to be persuaded, “Williams wanted his settlement to be a haven for those ‘distressed of conscience,’ and it soon attracted a growing number of families who did not see eye-to-eye with the leaders in Massachusetts Bay. From the beginning, a majority vote of the heads of households governed the new settlement, but only in civil things. Newcomers could also be admitted to full citizenship by a majority vote. In August 1637, a new town agreement again restricted the government to civil things... Thus, Williams founded the first place in modern history where citizenship and religion were separate, providing religious liberty and separation of church and state. This was combined with the principle of majoritarian democracy.” Anabaptists introduced the idea of a believer’s church separate from state control but they generally thought that being a Christian meant avoiding participation in the state. Williams went one step further by limiting the power of a democratically elected state ‘to civil things’.
Mercy means ‘mercy, compassion, pity’. Full means ‘full, filled’. One can be motivated by Mercy emotions to be merciful to those who share similar cultures or beliefs. Verse 17 describes being full of mercy, which is only possible if one is being guided by Teacher understanding to bring order and wholeness to everyone and everything. Fruit means ‘fruit’ and this is the first use of this word in James. Fruit grows and it is pleasant to eat, which implies developing mental networks that others find attractive. Good means ‘intrinsically good’ and is used one other time in James in 1:17 to say that every good and perfect gift is from above.
This focus upon mercy can be seen in William’s book on Native Americans, which “was published in 1643 in London and combined a phrase-book with observations about life and culture as an aid to communicate with the Native Americans of New England... Williams also sought to correct the attitudes of superiority displayed by the colonists towards Native Americans: ‘Boast not proud English, of thy birth & blood; Thy brother Indian is by birth as Good. Of one blood God made Him, and Thee and All, As wise, as fair, as strong, as personal’... In England, it was well received by readers who were curious about the Native American tribes of the New World.” Notice William’s focus upon intrinsic goodness, recognizing that both English and North American natives had the same intrinsic worth in the sight of God.
Williams extended his mercy to other religions in “a 1644 book about government force... The book argues for a ‘wall of separation’ between church and state and for state toleration of various Christian denominations, including Catholicism, and also ‘paganish, Jewish, Turkish or anti-Christian consciences and worships.’ The book takes the form of a dialogue between Truth and Peace and is a response to correspondence by Boston minister John Cotton regarding Cotton’s support for state enforcement of religious uniformity in Massachusetts Bay Colony.” Wikipedia adds that “The publication produced a great uproar; between 1644 and 1649, at least 60 pamphlets were published addressing the work’s arguments. Parliament responded to Williams on August 9, 1644, by ordering the public hangman to burn all copies.”
Impartial is used once in the New Testament and adds the prefix ‘not’ to ‘distinguish or to judge’. And sincere means ‘without hypocrisy’. Wikipedia describes William’s impartiality and sincerity. “Williams formed firm friendships and developed deep trust among the Native American tribes, especially the Narragansetts. He was able to keep the peace between the Native Americans and the Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations for nearly 40 years by his constant mediation and negotiation. He twice surrendered himself as a hostage to the Native Americans to guarantee the safe return of a great sachem from a summons to a court: Pessicus in 1645 and Metacom in 1671. The Native Americans trusted Williams more than any other Colonist, and he proved trustworthy.”
Verse 18 finishes, “And the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace by those making peace.” ‘Fruit’ is the same word used in verse 17. Righteousness describes Server actions that are emotionally guided by Teacher understanding. ‘Fruit of righteousness’ refers to mental networks that grow out of righteous behavior. Peace means ‘wholeness’, sow means ‘sow, scatter’ and in means ‘in the realm of’. Thus, peace provides the environment for planting and growing the fruit of righteousness. Those is simply the definite article ‘the’. And make is the verb ‘to make, to do’ which is interpreted as Server actions. Thus, the fruit is planted by those who perform Server actions of wholeness.
Wikipedia summarizes the legacy of Williams. “Williams’s defense of the Native Americans, his accusations that Puritans had reproduced the ‘evils’ of the Anglican Church, and his insistence that England pay the Native Americans for their land all put him at the center of many political debates during his life. He was considered an important historical figure of religious liberty at the time of American independence, and he was a key influence on the thinking of the Founding Fathers.” William’s made peace and he lived a life of peace which sowed the seeds for the future country of America.
The concept of separation of church and state needs to be discussed before continuing. In the late 20th century, this was interpreted by liberal America as a separation of church from state. Everyone was permitted to have their own private religious convictions but this should have no bearing upon public secular activity. The end result was to create a new secular ‘religion’ based in the Teacher overgeneralization of universal tolerance. What is being promoted today by the evangelical supporters of Trump is the imposition of conservative Christian beliefs upon secular society, which is leading to a new intolerance that takes pride in scientific ignorance. (Canada suffers from a different problem. The overgeneralization of universal tolerance is being imposed upon society in an intolerant manner, while attempts to discuss morality in a factual manner are morally rejected as ‘being intolerant’.)
Mental symmetry suggests that a separation of church and state will only be successful if both church and state pursue universal principles in Teacher thought. On the one side, state should focus upon controlling public behavior guided by physical laws of natural cause-and-effect. On the other side, church should focus upon teaching people about universal principles of cognitive cause-and-effect. Going further, there is no need to impose Christianity upon others, because pursuing a path of mental wholeness will lead naturally to the doctrines and theology of biblical Christianity.
The Puritans were not perfect and are typically viewed today as being excessively judgmental. However, verse 18 does not talk about reaping the fruit of righteousness but rather of sowing this fruit, and the Puritans did accomplish this. Verse 17 emphasizes that the starting point has to be a form of holiness guided by Teacher understanding. The cognitive principle is that new wine requires new wine skins. Reforming existing European religion and culture was not enough. A new beginning was required, and the Puritan colonists started afresh on a new continent.
Warring Passions 4:1-3
The previous section talked about starting something new. In this section, new thinking has grown sufficiently to make it possible to start questioning the existing system. Chapter 4 begins by focusing upon the source of warfare. Verse 1 asks, “From where come quarrels and from where conflicts among you? Is it not from there, out of your passions warring in your members?” From where means ‘from where’ and is only used in James in this verse where it is used twice. This is a Perceiver question involving location. Quarrel means ‘to wage war or to fight’ and is used once in James. Conflict means ‘to fight or to battle’ and is also used once in James. ‘Quarrel’ seems to refer more to a state of warfare while ‘conflict’ refers to a specific battle. The Peace of Augsburg led to a state of war between Catholicism and Lutheranism which broke out in the battles of religious wars. Verse 1 is posing a negative question. It is not asking about righteousness or loving God. Instead, it is focusing in a negative way upon attempting to find the source of war and conflict.
Putting this together, the military terms suggest that people are recoiling from the religious warfare that has just happened. But instead of using Teacher thought to understand what is happening, they are responding by blaming hedonistic, personal emotions within Mercy thought. The Enlightenment has been mentioned in general terms before. Verse 1 describes the mindset driving the Enlightenment. Wikipedia relates, “Enlightenment era religious commentary was a response to the preceding century of religious conflict in Europe, especially the Thirty Years War. Theologians of the Enlightenment wanted to reform their faith to its generally non-confrontational roots and to limit the capacity for religious controversy to spill over into politics and warfare while still maintaining a true faith in God... Enlightenment scholars sought to curtail the political power of organized religion and thereby prevent another age of intolerant religious war.” Notice that religious fervor is being identified as the source of warfare and the Enlightenment is attempting to avoid this source.
From there means ‘from this place, hence’. This is another Perceiver statement involving location. Out of means ‘from out of’ which indicates that a source has been located. Passion means ‘satisfaction of physical appetite’ and is the source of the English word ‘hedonism’. It occurs in James in this verse and in verse 3. ‘You’ is explicitly mentioned three times in this verse indicating the focus upon a personal source. Warring means ‘fighting like a soldier in war’ and is used once in James. Member means ‘member, part, limb’ and was used in 3:5-6 when referring to the tongue.
This phrase is not saying that hedonism is evil but rather that a source of evil is being found in the warring of hedonistic desires. Instead of building morality in Teacher understanding, morality is being found in the regulation of hedonism. Such thinking can be seen in John Locke. Wikipedia states that “John Locke (1632-1704) was an English philosopher and physician, widely regarded as one of the most influential of Enlightenment thinkers and commonly known as the ‘father of liberalism’. Considered one of the first of the British empiricists, following the tradition of Francis Bacon, Locke is equally important to social contract theory.” On the one hand, Locke bases his thinking upon the hedonism of empiricism. On the other hand, he thinks that human hedonism needs to be morally guided through social contract. Notice also the connection with Francis Bacon, who was discussed earlier.
Looking first at the empiricism, “He maintained that we are born without innate ideas, and that knowledge is instead determined only by experience derived from sense perception, a concept now known as empiricism.” If all knowledge is ‘determined only by experience derived from sense perception’, then the entire mind is ultimately built upon hedonism. Mental symmetry agrees that the mind is initially built upon MMNs acquired from childish hedonistic experience but then suggests that becoming mentally whole involves being saved from this inadequate starting point. Mental symmetry also states that the childish mind is not a tabula rasa, as John Locke suggests, but rather is implicitly guided by the structure of the mind.
Looking now at the social contract, “Locke argued that a government's legitimacy comes from the citizens' delegation to the government of their absolute right of violence (reserving the inalienable right of self-defense or ‘self-preservation’), along with elements of other rights (e.g. property will be liable to taxation) as necessary to achieve the goal of security through granting the state a monopoly of violence.” In other words, people give up the right to physical violence in order to acquire physical security. Thus, morality is being reduced to the regulating of hedonism. Mental symmetry, in contrast, goes beyond regulating hedonism to transforming hedonism by replacing MMNs of childish experience with TMNs of rational understanding and righteousness. And this rational understanding is not arbitrary but rather is based upon understanding the structure of the mind.
Verses 2-3 describe a sequence. The first step is “You desire and do not have.” Desire means ‘to desire, to long for, to covet’. Have refers to objective ‘having’ rather than subjective ‘being’. Thus, the goal is to maximize ownership and having. This summarizes the policy of mercantilism, which guided national policies during this time. Quoting from the Encyclopaedia Britannica, “The basis of mercantilism was the notion that national wealth is measured by the amount of gold and silver a nation possesses. This seemed proven by the fact that Spain’s most powerful years had occurred when it was first reaping a bullion harvest from its overseas possessions.” More generally, the Encyclopaedia Britannica summarizes that “Before the impact of the Industrial Revolution, European activities in the rest of the world were largely confined to: (1) occupying areas that supplied precious metals, slaves, and tropical products then in large demand.” Notice the desire to have things.
The next step is “You kill and covet and are not able to obtain.” Kill means ‘to kill, murder’. Covet means ‘to bubble over because so hot’. Able is the word ‘power’ interpreted as active Perceiver thought. Obtain adds the prefix ‘suitably on’ to ‘hit a mark, reach a point’ and occurs once in James. This combination of killing and coveting can be seen in mercantilism, which used military might to enforce the control of trade.
Continuing with the quote from the Encyclopedia Britannica, “(2) establishing white-settler colonies along the coast of North America; and (3) setting up trading posts and forts and applying superior military strength to achieve the transfer to European merchants of as much existing world trade as was feasible.” Step (2) describes coveting while step (3) describes killing. Quoting from investopedia, “Under mercantilism, nations frequently engaged their military might to ensure that local markets and supply sources were protected... Colbert also increased the size of the French navy, on the belief that France had to control its trade routes to increase its wealth. Although his practices ultimately proved unsuccessful, his ideas were hugely popular.” Notice that these ‘practices ultimately proved unsuccessful’, consistent with ‘not able’. Spain’s practice of mercantilism was also unsuccessful. Quoting from the Encyclopaedia Britannica, “Though the system continued for nearly two centuries, Spain was a poor country by 1700. Ignoring this lesson, other European states adopted the mercantilist policy; the France of Louis XIV and Colbert is the outstanding example.” Thus, other countries copied Spain despite the failure of Spain’s mercantilism.
This is followed by “You fight and quarrel.” Fight and quarrel are the same two words with which verse 1 opened, except that they are in reverse order and are expressed as verbs rather than nouns. In other words, interaction is happening in a manner that leads to battles and this is occasionally extending into states of war. Mercantilism led to fighting as standard behavior. In the words of investopedia, “Under mercantilism, nations frequently engaged their military might to ensure that local markets and supply sources were protected... Military campaigns forced inhabitants to follow the dominant countries’ laws. One of the most powerful examples of the relationship between mercantilism and imperialism is Britain’s establishment of the American colonies.” Notice that the warfare is an indirect result of the desire to control trade.
The next step introduces a new form of interaction. “You do not have, because you do not ask.” The emphasis is still upon ‘having’ rather than ‘being’. Ask ‘means to ask or request something, often with a sense of urgency or need’. The focus so far has been upon limiting war and violence. Asking in order to have introduces a new positive focus upon economic exchange.
Wikipedia describes this growing realization that economic trade increases wealth and is beneficial for both parties. Looking first at France, “In 1695 French economist Pierre Le Pesant... [was] the first economist to question mercantile economic policy and value the wealth of a country by its production and exchange of goods instead of its assets.” Turning to England, “Dudley North... worked for Her Majesty’s Treasury and opposed most mercantile policy. His Discourses upon trade (1691), published anonymously, argued against assuming a need for a favorable balance of trade. Trade, he argued, benefits both sides, promotes specialization, division of labor and wealth for everyone.” This economic questioning ultimately culminated in The Wealth of Nations, published by Adam Smith in 1776, who argued that economic gain for one nation did not mean economic loss for others. Rather, trade could be mutually beneficial for all.
Verse 3 clarifies the asking, “You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, that you may spend it in your pleasures.” Ask is mentioned twice and is the same verb used in verse 3. Receive means ‘to actively lay hold of’. Because is used once in James and is ‘an emphatic because’. Wrong is the adverb of the adjective that means ‘inwardly foul, rotten’. Pleasure is the same word ‘hedonism’ used in verse 1 which means ‘pleasurable to the senses’. And in means ‘in the realm of’. Spend means ‘to spend, expend, consume’. Using economic language, the goal of the economic exchange is personal consumption.
For instance, one academic paper describes the relationship between mercantilism and luxury textiles in France. “The unique socio-economic and political conditions on the seventeenth and eighteenth century were to a large degree responsible for the creation of luxury textiles displaying an exceptional level of fine craftsmanship and artistic brilliance. While the court society, more than ever, required splendid textiles as a crucial form of status representation, mercantilistic efforts concentrated on the production of luxury wares regarding them as vital stimulation for the national economy. Along with other luxury goods, such as porcelain and furniture, fine textiles were at the center of the material culture of the period. They epitomized what John Nef has called the ‘economy of quality’, an economy that is historically more significant for its production of high quality than for the mass manufacture of goods that would characterize the following centuries.”
Notice the relationship between mercantilism and the Thirty Years War. Most of the fighting was done by mercenaries and paying mercenaries required lots of gold. When the gold ran out then the mercenaries turned into marauding hordes. Spain was able to continue fighting because of all the gold it imported from Spanish America. The goal of mercantilism was to acquire more gold and silver than other countries. Notice also the relationship between mercantilism and the court of Louis XIV. Functioning within this court required fabulous clothing and other luxury goods. Thus, a major goal of the French economy was to produce luxury goods within the country without having to import them from other countries by paying gold. As quoted in the previous paragraph, “The court society... required splendid textiles as a crucial form of status representation [and] mercantilistic efforts concentrated on the production of luxury wares.”
Friends of the World and Hostile to God 4:4
This questioning of various aspects of existing society led to a general condemnation of the whole system. Verse 4 begins, “Adulteresses! Do you not know that friendship with the world is hostility with God?” Adulteress is used once in James and means ‘a married woman who commits adultery’. Cognitively speaking, an adulteress is a set of mental networks that is attempting to attach itself to a different form of technical thought. Know is ‘seeing that becomes knowing’ which is interpreted as empirical evidence. Friendship is used once as a noun in the New Testament and comes from ‘phileo’, which is interpreted as the feeling of liking that comes from having compatible mental networks. World is the word ‘cosmos’, which describes the Teacher order of natural materialistic existence. Hostility is used once in James and means ‘enemy, hatred, hostility’. This describes the natural enmity that happens from having incompatible mental networks. And the Greek ends with the verb ‘to be’, indicating that the hostility to God affects the core of being.
Looking at this cognitively, verse 4 is describing a polarization between two different systems in Teacher thought. There is the Teacher order of human society and there is a concept of God in Teacher thought. People are realizing at an emotional level that these two are fundamentally incompatible. This implies that a new concept of God has emerged in Teacher thought. However, this new concept of God did not come from Protestant theology because it was focusing upon studying the Bible and was not changing. Wikipedia explains, “Protestant scholasticism or Protestant orthodoxy was academic theology practiced by Protestant theologians using the scholastic method during the era of Calvinist and Lutheran orthodoxy from the 16th to 18th centuries... It refers to both Lutheran scholasticism and Reformed scholasticism. Protestant scholasticism ‘became the dominant organizational approach to teaching theology in the academies’ before its influence began to wane in the 17th and 18th centuries.”
What did emerge during this period was Isaac Newton’s Principia Mathematica, published in 1687, which used general laws in Teacher thought to describe physical movement. Wikipedia observes, “The Principia is considered one of the most important works in the history of science... The French scientist Joseph-Louis Lagrange described it as ‘the greatest production of a human mind’, and French polymath Pierre-Simon Laplace stated that ‘The Principia is pre-eminent above any other production of human genius’. Newton’s work has also been called the ‘greatest scientific work in history’.”
Mental symmetry suggests that a concept of God will emerge when a sufficiently general theory in Teacher thought applies to personal identity in Mercy thought. In verse 4, this new concept of God based in the rational Teacher understanding of Newton is colliding with the existing Teacher system of human society and authority. Notice that the break that Martin Luther should have made is now finally happening. Luther declared that salvation was by faith alone, but he then chose to base the salvation of this message upon the existing Teacher system of human society and authority.
The emergence of a Teacher understanding of the natural universe caused many intellectuals to regard existing Christianity as an adulteress, because the mental networks of personal relationship with God had allied themselves with the cosmos of human authority rather than the divine order of the universe. The Encyclopedia Britannica describes this attitude. “Inevitably, the method of reason was applied to religion itself. The product of a search for a natural—rational—religion was Deism, which, although never an organized cult or movement, conflicted with Christianity for two centuries, especially in England and France. For the Deist, a very few religious truths sufficed, and they were truths felt to be manifest to all rational beings: the existence of one God, often conceived of as architect or mechanician, the existence of a system of rewards and punishments administered by that God, and the obligation of humans to virtue and piety.” On the one hand, there is a concept of God in Teacher thought ‘often conceived of as architect or mechanician’. This is accompanied by universal Perceiver ‘truths felt to be manifest to all rational beings’. On the other hand, there are the ‘religious truths’ of blind faith which are being questioned. Wikipedia clarifies what was being questioned. “Atheism was much discussed, but there were few proponents. Wilson and Reill note: ‘In fact, very few enlightened intellectuals, even when they were vocal critics of Christianity, were true atheists. Rather, they were critics of orthodox belief, wedded rather to skepticism, deism, vitalism, or perhaps pantheism.’” Notice that intellectuals who believe in God are becoming ‘vocal critics of Christianity’.
Verse 4 then makes a general conclusion, “Therefore whoever has chosen to be a friend of the world is appointed an enemy of God.” Chosen means ‘to plan with full resolve. This goes beyond some desire in Exhorter thought to choosing to implement some plan in Contributor thought. World is the same word that was used earlier in verse 4 which refers to the order of human society. Friend is also related to ‘philos’ but the beginning of verse 4 referred to a general concept of friendship while the end is talking in personal terms of being a friend. And the term ‘be’ is explicitly mentioned. Thus, one is choosing to follow a plan of being a friend of the cosmos. Similarly, enemy is a more personal version of the word ‘hostility’ used earlier in verse 4. Appoint means to ‘set down in place’ which is interpreted as a source of stability in Perceiver thought. Verse 4 initially described enmity with God at the level of being. Verse 4 finishes by describes being a personal enemy supported by stability in Perceiver thought.
In other words, what began as an abstract distinction between a rational concept of God and blind faith is turning into personal antagonism between two established systems. Wikipedia describes this growing personal antagonism. “The central doctrines of the Enlightenment were individual liberty, representative government, the rule of law, and religious freedom, in contrast to an absolute monarchy or single party state and the religious persecution of faiths other than those formally established and often controlled outright by the State. By contrast, other intellectual currents included arguments in favour of anti-Christianity, Deism, and even Atheism, accompanied by demands for secular states, bans on religious education, suppression of Monasteries, the suppression of the Jesuits, and the expulsion of religious orders.” The first part of this quote refers to the abstract ‘central doctrines of the Enlightenment’ opposing the ‘adulteress’ church which had wedded itself to some system of government. The second part of this quote describes a more personal antagonism between two systems, including ‘bans on religious education, suppression of monasteries’, and ‘expulsion of religious orders’.
Before continuing, the topic of the relationship between science and religion needs to be discussed. I am writing this a few weeks before Donald Trump is to be inaugurated as president. Trump has major support from evangelicals and Trump is appointing ministers who, generally speaking, are strongly anti-science. This type of thinking is based upon the assumption that there is an irreconcilable conflict between science and Bible-believing religion. Going the other way, many scientists feel that pursuing scientific thought means rejecting Bible-based fundamentalism. This division was only starting to emerge during the Enlightenment and many Protestant evangelists of that time viewed science as an expression of the glory of God. For instance, John Wesley, one of the founders of Methodism that we will discuss later, wrote a five volume set about current science for the layman, entitled A survey of the wisdom of God in the creation or, A compendium of natural philosophy. Wikipedia, which has a page on almost every subject, has no article on this book, though it is possible to find copies online elsewhere.
Looking at this cognitively, we saw earlier that both Lutheranism and Calvinism came up with Teacher systems of theology that did not include the realm of human or natural behavior. Protestant theology may have lacked a detailed Teacher understanding but the very fact that it used rational thought to build a Teacher understanding of God acted as a starting point for further investigation. Thus, the Encyclopedia Britannica recognizes Protestantism as one of the primary causes of the Enlightenment. “The roots of the Enlightenment can be found in the humanism of the Renaissance, with its emphasis on the study of Classical literature. The Protestant Reformation, with its antipathy toward received religious dogma, was another precursor. Perhaps the most important sources of what became the Enlightenment were the complementary rational and empirical methods of discovering truth that were introduced by the scientific revolution.” This describes primarily the negative role that Protestantism played in questioning religious dogma, but it also played the positive role of laying a mental foundation for the scientific revolution. For instance, Wikipedia says that Johannes Kepler “is a key figure in the 17th-century Scientific Revolution, best known for his laws of planetary motion... influencing among others Isaac Newton, providing one of the foundations for his theory of universal gravitation. The variety and impact of his work made Kepler one of the founders and fathers of modern astronomy, the scientific method, natural and modern science.” Kepler was a Lutheran and “Kepler’s belief that God created the cosmos in an orderly fashion caused him to attempt to determine and comprehend the laws that govern the natural world, most profoundly in astronomy.”
Using an analogy, the ‘dog’ of the Protestant Reformation was followed by the ‘tail’ of the scientific revolution. The scientific revolution discovered Teacher theories of natural law that had much greater order-within-complexity than the Teacher theories of Protestant theology. The end result was that the ‘tail’ started wagging the ‘dog’ during the Enlightenment, when scientifically minded individuals started to rethink the blind faith of Protestant theology. However, as Wesley’s five volume book on science illustrates, the tail was still attached to the dog. The tail became detached from the dog during the 19th century when science replaced God with evolution and evangelical Christianity reinvented itself as blind faith despite science.
Looking briefly at another aspect of ‘science versus religion’, many evangelical Christians are supporting Trump because he is anti-woke and pro-gender. Wokeism is based in the Teacher overgeneralization of total equality. Asserting in an overgeneralized fashion that everyone is equal generated positive results during the civil rights era when artificial social distinctions based in racism were being questioned. However, overgeneralization by its very nature is opposed to Perceiver facts. Thus, total equality becomes anti-scientific when it asserts that equality overrides scientific facts. For instance, gender is based in DNA; there is an X chromosome and there is a Y chromosome. Sexual ambiguities do exist, but they are rare, affecting about 1 in 4500 people. Total equality focuses upon these rare exceptions and expects everyone to regard gender as a function of personal choice, morally denunciating those who dare to refer to the facts of DNA. It is true that many evangelical Christians have become anti-science. But denying the physical basis of gender is also anti-science and the liberal who screams tolerance is no better than the Trumpist who screams MAGA.
Returning to James, the shift from the ‘dog’ of theology wagging the ‘tail’ of scientific thought to the ‘tail’ of the Enlightenment wagging the ‘dog’ of Christian belief can be seen in the interpretation of the first verses of chapter 4. This essay presents the hypothesis that James is a detailed prophecy of Protestantism. However, this section focused upon several secular topics, including the Enlightenment, mercantilism, and the Newtonian revolution. That is because Protestantism was no longer being driven by theological understanding but rather was being waved by various ‘tails’ that had emerged from the ‘dog’ of Protestant faith.
A New Spirituality 4:5-6
Verse 5 describes a re-emergence of Protestantism, but not at the Teacher level of God the Father but rather at the Mercy level of God the Spirit. “Or do you think that the Scripture says in vain, ‘The Spirit that He has made to dwell in us yearns with envy’?” Think means ‘forming an opinion, a personal judgment’. Scripture means ‘scripture, writing’ and was last used in 2:23 which was interpreted as filling a biblical belief in justification by faith with content. Similarly, vain means ‘empty, without content’, which means that verse 5 is describing a temptation to regard biblical doctrine as lacking in content.
Spirit was previously mentioned in 2:26 which stated that the body without the spirit is dead, which was interpreted as Lutheran and Counter-Reformation art fulfilling a spiritual need. In verse 5 the spirit is wanting to express itself. Envy is used once in James and ‘refers to a resentful awareness of another's advantages or possessions, often accompanied by a desire to possess the same’. This word is used nine times in the New Testament and this is the only time that it is treated as something positive. Yearn means ‘to long for, especially as it is fitting’ and is also used once in James. Made to dwell means to ‘settle down as a permanent resident’. Looking at this cognitively, spirit is interpreted as the Platonic forms of ideal simplicity that emerge within Mercy thought as a byproduct of using Teacher thought to analyze Perceiver facts. When Perceiver facts come from reality, then spirit becomes the internal image of how things could be that emerges as a result of understanding how things work. When these Platonic forms turn into mental networks, then this will create an emotional drive to make Mercy thought, social interaction, and physical reality more consistent with these internal images of ideal perfection. This corresponds with what verse 5 is saying.
Applying this to history, the Enlightenment pursued rational understanding in an objective manner that suppressed strong emotions and religious fervor. But the rational understanding of the Enlightenment created Platonic forms leading to an emotional desire to express these Platonic forms of the spirit. Wikipedia describes this 18th century desire to express Christianity in a more emotional form. “Unlike the Second Great Awakening that began about 1800 and which reached out to the unchurched, the First Great Awakening focused on people who were already church members. It changed their rituals, their piety, and their self-awareness. The new style of sermons and the way people practiced their faith breathed new life into religion in America. People became passionately and emotionally involved in their religion, rather than passively listening to intellectual discourse in a detached manner. Ministers who used this new style of preaching were generally called ‘new lights’, while the preachers of old were called ‘old lights’.” Thus, what changed was not the content of theology in Teacher thought but rather how one responded to theology in Mercy thought. Churchgoers had been ‘listening to intellectual discourse in a detached manner’, consistent with the dispassionate mindset of the Enlightenment. This was replaced by becoming ‘passionately and emotionally involved in their religion’.
But notice that verse 5 does not mention God and even the pronoun ‘he’ is implied by the conjugation of the verb. However, this implicit source is having a strong enough impact to cause the spirit to take up permanent residence. This can be explained cognitively as the implicit impact that the Teacher theories of science were having upon Mercy thought. The Enlightenment was being emotionally driven by the growing Teacher theories of science while attempting to suppress Mercy emotions of authority and religious fanaticism. This encouraged theologians to preach sermons in a similar manner that described the Teacher theories of theology in a dispassionate manner. On the positive side, this long-term focus upon Teacher theories developed lasting Platonic forms of heavenly perfection that took up permanent residence within Mercy thought. On the negative side, the objective mindset prevented Mercy thought from focusing emotionally upon these Platonic forms.
This resulted in the emotional conflict described in verse 5. On the one hand, people were being driven to express themselves emotionally by Platonic forms of the spirit. On the other hand, preachers and theologians were emptying the Bible of this emotional content, guided by the personal opinions of an enlightenment mindset. The Encyclopedia Britannica describes this conflict. “Protestant Orthodoxy, in both its Lutheran and Reformed types, was deemed too intellectual by the Pietists, whose movement stressed personal faith and biblical tradition over doctrine.”
This conflicted thinking can also be seen in the theology of Jonathan Edwards. Wikipedia summarizes, “A leading figure of the American Enlightenment, Edwards is widely regarded as one of America's most important and original philosophical theologians... Recent studies have emphasized how thoroughly Edwards grounded his life’s work on conceptions of beauty, harmony, and ethical aptness, and how central the Age of Enlightenment was to his mindset. Edwards played a critical role in shaping the First Great Awakening and oversaw some of the first revivals in 1733–35 at his church in Northampton, Massachusetts.” Thus, Edwards represents the first stage of moving beyond cold abstract theology to warm personal faith.
Edwards saw science as an expression of his Christian faith in God. Quoting from Wikipedia, “Although many European scientists and American clergymen found the implications of science pushing them towards deism, Edwards believed the natural world was evidence of God’s masterful design. Throughout his life, Edwards often went into the woods as a favorite place to pray and worship in the beauty and solace of nature. Edwards was fascinated by the discoveries of Isaac Newton and other scientists of this time period.” Notice that Edwards was attracted to both the theories of science in Teacher thought and the Platonic forms of science expressed in nature.
Calvinist theology teaches that humans lack the free will to be able to choose to become Christians, a doctrine known as total depravity. Wikipedia explains that Edwards was attempting to defend this doctrine in the light of growing skepticism. “Another traditional Reformed teaching under attack in the 18th century was the doctrine of total depravity, that sinful humans are by nature unable to love or submit to God. Inspired by Enlightenment ideas of freedom and liberty, some theologians were replacing Calvinism with an Arminian view on free will. In Freedom of the Will (1754), Edwards attempted to show that human freedom was consistent with human depravity.”
The Great Awakening began when Edwards’ preached about people being powerless to choose to follow God and this was followed by hundreds of people choosing to follow God. Quoting from Wikipedia, “On July 8, 1731, Edwards preached in Boston the ‘Public Lecture,’ afterwards published under the title ‘God Glorified in the Work of Redemption, by the Greatness of Man’s Dependence upon Him, in the Whole of It,’ which was his first public attack on Arminianism. The emphasis of the lecture was on God’s absolute sovereignty in the work of salvation: that while it behooved God to create man pure and without sin, it was of his ‘good pleasure’ and ‘mere and arbitrary grace’ for him to grant any person the faith necessary to incline him or her toward holiness, and that God might deny this grace without any disparagement to any of his character. In 1733, a spiritual revival began in Northampton and reached such an intensity in the winter of 1734 and the following spring that it threatened the business of the town. In six months, nearly 300 of 1,100 youths were admitted to the church.” Stated more simply, what Edwards experienced in Mercy thought contradicted what he taught in Teacher thought. Edwards explained this with another sermon which “set forth what he regarded as the inner, moving principle of the revival, the doctrine of a special grace in the immediate, and supernatural divine illumination of the soul.” In other words, people were not really choosing to follow God. Instead, God was supernaturally enabling people to choose to follow him.
But why were so many people choosing to follow God at this specific point in time? Looking at this cognitively, mental symmetry suggests that free will becomes maximum when people are forced to choose between two different sets of conflicting mental networks. The average Protestant mind at that time contained one set of mental networks that was based in the Teacher theories of objective theology as well as another set of mental networks based in the Platonic forms of the spirit that had taken up residence within Mercy thought. People could choose between theoretical theology and personal spirituality.
Thus, the Great Awakening happened during a unique time of opportunity when people could choose between two competing mental networks of Christianity. Going further, these essays are showing that such times of opportunity have emerged as a result of God manipulating human history through a divine plan. Thus, there is some truth to the statement that humans require divine grace to be saved, but this is not a matter of God intervening in some mysterious and magical fashion. Instead, God is guiding cognitive mechanisms in order to generate both social and personal opportunities that maximize human free will. A similar time of opportunity existed during the end of the 20th century which is now closing as people are losing the ability to exercise their free will.
Jonathan Edwards was caught in the middle because he insisted that following God means being emotionally driven solely by a concept of God in Teacher thought. Quoting from Wikipedia, “Edwards believed that true Christians are disinterested in themselves and completely preoccupied with the beauty of God and his desires, ways and purposes. Their lives are God-centered rather than self-centered. Attainment of this disinterested spirituality was only possible through regeneration and conversion, when the Holy Spirit allowed the individual to see and understand the inherent beauty and excellency of God. Such disinterested spirituality was an important part of Edwards’s own doctrine of assurance. If one’s religious feelings or, in Edwards’s language, affections (such as love and desire) are driven by self-interest (such as ‘God loves me’ or ‘I am saved’), then they are not marks of true religion.” Beauty is a form of Teacher emotion. Being preoccupied with the beauty of God means focusing upon Teacher emotions while being ‘disinterested in themselves’ means suppressing Mercy emotions.
Mental symmetry agrees that one must ‘obey God rather than men’ when making a transition from following personal emotions in Mercy thought to following a concept of God in Teacher thought. But once such a transition has been made within some context, then it is possible to add personal Mercy emotions to that context because an emotional hierarchy of submitting Mercy thought to Teacher thought has now been established. It was historically important for Edwards to focus upon Teacher thought because he was making a transition from theological Protestantism to the Great Awakenings, but Edwards himself was unable to make this transition. It is interesting that Immanuel Kant, who lived during this time, concluded in a similar manner that morality should be based in a Teacher-driven categorical imperative rather than a Mercy-driven hypothetical imperative.
Verse 6 adds, “But He gives greater grace.” Grace comes from a verb that means ‘to rejoice’, which is interpreted as Teacher emotion. This common word only appears in James in this verse where it is used twice. ‘He’ is again implied by the conjugation of the verb. Great means ‘large, great, in the widest sense’ and is interpreted as Teacher generality. Giving implies that control is being transferred to someone else. Putting this together, an emotion of Teacher generality is being transferred to people.
Looking at this cognitively, Luther’s emotional sense of feeling forgiven by God was based in the TMN of studying and understanding the Bible. For the average Lutheran, the feeling of forgiveness was partially based in understanding the Bible and partially rooted in MMNs of respect for religious rituals, because Lutheranism regards the Eucharist as a source of grace from God. A new emotional basis for grace emerged in the time of Jonathan Edwards because the feeling of being forgiven by God could now be based in the TMN of scientific understanding. This new emotional basis was described explicitly by Edwards, but in most cases the connection did not happen consciously but rather happened implicitly in a shift from Teacher emotion to Mercy emotion. That is because understanding the laws of nature in Teacher thought will cause Platonic forms of ideal perfection to emerge within Mercy thought. Objective science will naturally ignore these Platonic forms as being too emotional but they can be interpreted by Mercy thought as the imaginary person of Jesus.
Such a shift from academic Teacher theory to popular Mercy Platonic forms was encouraged during this time by widespread public lectures. Looking at the situation in England, Wikipedia relates, “Between 1735 and 1793, there were over seventy individuals offering courses and demonstrations for public viewers in experimental physics. Class sizes ranged from one hundred to four or five hundred attendees. Courses varied in duration from one to four weeks, to a few months, or even the entire academic year. Courses were offered at virtually any time of day... Barred from the universities and other institutions, women were often in attendance at demonstration lectures and constituted a significant number of auditors. The importance of the lectures was not in teaching complex mathematics or physics, but rather in demonstrating to the wider public the principles of physics and encouraging discussion and debate... New advancements in the study of electricity offered viewers demonstrations that drew far more inspiration among the laity than scientific papers could hold.” Notice how these public lectures are translating the abstract Teacher theories of science into practical demonstrations that appeal to Mercy thought. In addition, books were printed that described technical theories in layman’s language. Quoting from Wikipedia, “Increasing literacy rates in Europe during the course of the Enlightenment enabled science to enter popular culture through print. More formal works included explanations of scientific theories for individuals lacking the educational background to comprehend the original scientific text.”
The ‘greater grace’ can be seen in the Second Great Awakening. The Encyclopedia Britannica relates that this was a “Protestant religious revival in the United States from about 1795 to 1835... Many churches experienced a great increase in membership, particularly among Methodist and Baptist churches. The Second Great Awakening made soul-winning the primary function of ministry and stimulated several moral and philanthropic reforms, including temperance and the emancipation of women. Generally considered less emotional than the Great Awakening of the early 18th century, the second wave of evangelical revivalism led to the founding of numerous colleges and seminaries and to the organization of mission societies across the country.” There was a massive increase in church membership, consistent with the idea of a greater grace. But there was also a strong emotional drive to make external society and physical reality more like internal Platonic forms of perfection. This went further than the First Awakening which focused upon allowing abstract theology to touch subjective Mercy emotions.
And this was a ‘giving’ of grace because Calvinist doctrines of total depravity were overturned practically by Arminian experiences of people choosing to become Christians. Quoting from the Encyclopaedia Britannica, “During the Second Great Awakening revivalistic theology in many denominations shifted from Calvinism to a practical Arminianism as preachers emphasized the ability of sinners to make an immediate decision for their salvation; theological differences almost disappeared among evangelical churches.”
Verse 6 continues, “Therefore it says: ‘God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble.’” Says indicates the use of Teacher words, but unlike verse 5, there is no mention of Scripture. God is explicitly mentioned and preceded by ‘the’. Proud is used once in James and combines ‘above’ with ‘to shine’. Oppose combines ‘against’ with ‘to arrange or to order’. Give and grace are the same words that were used earlier in the verse. Humble means ‘lonely, humble’ and is used one other time in James in 1:9 to talk about the humble being exalted, which was interpreted as monks who had taken a vow of poverty being willing to accept official and material support.
Notice that God is not opposing people in Mercy thought, as the English suggests, but rather setting up a new structure in Teacher thought. This can be seen historically in the rise of scientific academies. Wikipedia explains, “Scientific academies and societies grew out of the Scientific Revolution as the creators of scientific knowledge in contrast to the scholasticism of the university... As the role of universities in institutionalized science began to diminish, learned societies became the cornerstone of organized science. After 1700 a tremendous number of official academies and societies were founded in Europe and by 1789 there were over seventy official scientific societies.” Scholasticism studies texts written by esteemed sources, which is an example of ‘shining above’. In contrast, “Official scientific societies were chartered by the state in order to provide technical expertise... Society activities included research, experimentation, sponsoring essay prize contests, and collaborative projects between societies.” Observing and studying how nature functions is an example of receiving grace through humility because one is acquiring understanding from Teacher thought. God was ‘opposing the proud’ by setting up an alternate system of scientific research to replace the human pride of scholasticism.
Verse 6 is describing the emotional relationship between a concept of God in Teacher thought and personal identity in Mercy thought. The humble person places Mercy identity below a Teacher concept of God, which makes it possible for the TMN of a concept of God to impose its structure upon Mercy identity. A proud person, in contrast, uses Teacher thought to magnify personal feelings in Mercy thought, leading to a ‘shining above’. The basic principle of scientific research is that one has to submit personally to an understanding of how things work without imposing personal bias upon Teacher thought.
Science had humble beginnings, as described here, but eventually became proud. This change in attitude is illustrated by the rise and fall of English coffeehouses. Wikipedia explains that “The first coffeehouses established in Oxford were known as penny universities, as they offered an alternative form of learning to structural academic learning, while still being frequented by the English virtuosi who actively pursued advances in human knowledge... In a society that placed such a high importance on class and economic status, the coffeehouses were unique because the patrons were people from all levels of society. Anyone who had a penny could come inside.” Thus, the coffeehouse began as a place where knowledge could be shared in an attitude of humility and equality. However, “Towards the end of the 18th century, coffeehouses had almost completely disappeared from the popular social scene in England... The coffeehouse rules that had made coffeehouses once accessible meeting places for all sections of society, fell into disuse. ‘Snobbery reared its head, particularly amongst the intelligentsia, who felt that their special genius entitled them to protection from the common herd. Strangers were no longer welcome.’” Thus, humility became replaced by the ‘shining above’ of snobbery.
Drawing Near to God 4:7-8
Verse 7 talks about making a choice. “Therefore subject yourselves to God. But resist the devil, and he will flee from you.” Therefore means that verse 7 follows from verse 6. Subject combines ‘under’ with ‘to arrange’ and is in the imperative. It is used once in James. This is not a Mercy kind of submission in which one views some other person as a source of ‘truth’ but rather a Teacher submission in which one system is placed under another system. For instance, mental symmetry is not a theory that replaces competing theories but rather a meta-theory that is more general than other theories in Teacher thought. ‘Arranging under God’ is a new concept that has not been discussed yet in James because until now a concept of God has not exist under which one could arrange oneself. One could not arrange under the Catholic God because the pope demanded absolute obedience in Mercy thought. One could not arrange under the mystical God because God was regarded as transcending all human activity in Teacher thought. One could not arrange under the Lutheran God because all human activity was regarded as worthless to God. One could not arrange under the Calvinist God because God controlled everything and gave humans no freedom to arrange. And one could not arrange under the Anabaptist God because following God was viewed as avoiding human arrangements.
Resist combines ‘against’ with ‘stand’ and is used once in James. Standing is interpreted as solid facts in Perceiver thought. Verse 6 talked about God opposing the proud by setting up new systems of Teacher order. In verse 7, one is resisting the devil by holding on to alternative Perceiver facts. Devil means ‘to slander, accuse, defame’. This is the only reference to either ‘Satan’ or the ‘devil’ in James. These two names are generally regarded as synonymous, but Satan means ‘adversary’ which is different than slanderer. It is not possible to resist Satan, because the very act of resisting is itself satanic. But it is possible to resist the devil by speaking truth from an alternate system of Teacher order. Slander attempts to attack some source of truth in Mercy thought, guided by the assumption that ‘truth’ is based in Mercy sources of authority. Resisting the devil replaces this basis of absolute truth based in Mercy authority with universal truth based in Teacher order. For instance, these essays are replacing the absolute truth of biblical fundamentalism with the universal biblical truth of cognitive theory. This is not slandering absolute truth but rather submitting to the higher form of universal truth. Flee means to ‘escape, flee away’, which suggests that victory will be achieved without a fight.
Wikipedia describes how this new approach emerged in science. “Isaac Newton was the first to unify the three laws of motion, and to prove that these laws govern both earthly and celestial objects. Newton and most of his contemporaries hoped that classical mechanics would be able to explain all entities... Newton also developed the calculus which is necessary to perform the mathematical calculations involved in classical mechanics... After Newton, re-formulations progressively allowed solutions to a far greater number of problems. The first was constructed in 1788 by Joseph Louis Lagrange, an Italian-French mathematician. In Lagrangian mechanics the solution uses the path of least action and follows the calculus of variations.” Notice how Teacher theory is spreading to more areas. Newton came up with a general Teacher theory of motion that applied to both heavenly and earthly movement and Newton (along with Leibniz) developed the mathematics that was needed to apply this theory. Newton hoped that this theory ‘would be able to explain all entities’. Newton’s theory was then reformulated by Lagrange to be able to explain more subjects with greater simplicity. This illustrates what it means scientifically to ‘arrange under God’.
This resulted in a struggle between ancient and modern learning, referred to as the Battle of the Books. Wikipedia explains, “In France at the end of the seventeenth century, a minor furore arose over the question of whether contemporary learning had surpassed what was known by those in Classical Greece and Rome. The ‘moderns’ took the position that the modern age of science and reason was superior to the superstitious and limited world of Greece and Rome... The ‘ancients,’ for their part, argued that all that was necessary to be known was to be found in Virgil, Cicero, Homer, and especially Aristotle.”
A similar struggle between the slander of established authority and the structure of new authority happened religiously with Methodism. Methodism began as part of the Great Awakening that was discussed earlier. Wikipedia describes the slander experienced by early Methodism. “During Wesley’s lifetime, many members of England’s established church feared that new doctrines promulgated by the Methodists, such as the necessity of a new birth for salvation, and of the constant and sustained action of the Holy Spirit upon the believer’s soul, would produce ill effects upon weak minds. Theophilus Evans, an early critic of the movement, even wrote that it was ‘the natural Tendency of their Behaviour, in Voice and Gesture and horrid Expressions, to make People mad.’” Notice in passing the emphasis upon becoming personally reborn in Mercy thought by submitting to the Platonic forms of the spirit, consistent with verse 5.
Methodism began as a methodical approach to Christianity. Quoting from Wikipedia, “A small group of students at Oxford University, including John Wesley (1703–1791) and his younger brother Charles (1707–1788), met together for the purpose of mutual improvement; they focused on studying the Bible and living a holy life. Other students mocked the group, saying they were the ‘Holy Club’ and ‘the Methodists’, being methodical and exceptionally detailed in their Bible study, opinions and disciplined lifestyle.” Methodism responded to the slander by setting up an alternate system of Teacher order. Wikipedia explains, “The Wesleyan societies were composed of ‘bands’, which were meetings of 5 to 10 like-minded people seeking Christian perfection, and considered the inner core of the societies. John Wesley drew up rules for these in December 1738... A class book was kept recording their attendance and their contribution to the funds. When membership rolls started being used to record names of those attending, the very early ones begin with a list of class members. Members were defined as those who had been baptised, received instruction in Methodist governance, and at a special service, were received into ‘full membership’. Others in the congregation were called simply ‘adherents’, and although they supported the activities of the Church as fully as members, they did not enjoy voting rights. Each class was headed by a class leader.” This Teacher order may appear to be excessive, but remember that a transition was being made from the abstract Teacher order of the Enlightenment to the spirit of the Great Awakening. Therefore, it was important to maintain a sense of Teacher order during this time of transition in order to ensure that the new Mercy emphasis upon the spirit and personal faith would not collapse into emotionalism and crowd hysteria.
In both cases, there was no real battle between the new and the old. Instead, the new was enthusiastically embraced. Wikipedia describes the popularization of science. “One of the most important developments that the Enlightenment era brought to the discipline of science was its popularization. An increasingly literate population seeking knowledge and education in both the arts and the sciences drove the expansion of print culture and the dissemination of scientific learning... Popularization was generally part of an overarching Enlightenment ideal that endeavoured ‘to make information available to the greatest number of people.’” Similarly, the new Protestant message of personal rebirth led to the mass movement known as the Great Awakening. As with science, there was a conflict between new and old. Wikipedia relates, “It incited rancor and division between traditionalists, who insisted on the continuing importance of ritual and doctrine, and revivalists who encouraged emotional involvement and personal commitment.” But the new was enthusiastically embraced in a manner that broken down existing religious barriers. “The First Great Awakening... was a series of Christian revivals that swept Britain and its thirteen North American colonies in the 1730s and 1740s. The revival movement permanently affected Protestantism as adherents strove to renew individual piety and religious devotion. The Great Awakening marked the emergence of Anglo-American evangelicalism as a trans-denominational movement within the Protestant churches.”
Verse 8 goes beyond structure to behavior. “Draw near to God, and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and have purified hearts, you double-minded.” Draw near means ‘To draw near, to approach, to come near’ and is used three times in James, twice in this verse. Verse 8 describes a mutual drawing near, in which personal identity in Mercy thought draws near to God in Teacher thought while God responds by drawing near to personal identity. The first ‘draw near’ is in the imperative which means that personal identity is taking the initiative by choosing to drawn near and God is then responding. This contradicts Calvinism, which asserts that God always initiates the interaction because humans are incapable of choosing to draw near to God. However, it is important to place this within the context of the spirit.
Drawing near implies compatible mental networks. A concept of God that is based in Teacher order does not normally want to draw near to Mercy mental networks of childish behavior but rather finds these mental networks emotionally repulsive. But a concept of the Holy Spirit translates the Teacher order of God into Mercy images of ideal perfection, and allowing personal identity to be guided by the Platonic forms of the Holy Spirit will transform personal identity into a form that is compatible with a concept of God in Teacher thought. Saying this another way, the emotional experiences of the Holy Spirit can be followed—and need to be followed—by reconnecting with theology in Teacher thought.
Cleanse means to ‘make pure, removing all admixture’. This word is used once in James and is different from the word that was used in 3:17. 3:17 said that the wisdom from above is first pure, using a word that is related to holiness, and that was interpreted as Puritans starting afresh in North America. ‘Cleanse’ in verse 8 describes eliminating all inconsistencies. 3:17 took the first step of following a new theory in Teacher thought. Verse 8 is taking the next step of universally applying this new theory. Hands are interpreted as a reference to technical thought because hands are used to perform technical manipulation. ‘Cleansing hands’ would mean removing inconsistencies from technical thought, and this is the only time these two words are combined in the New Testament. Sin means ‘missing the mark’ and a sinner is someone who misses the mark. This describes a person who is aiming at some target and not hitting the target. Thus, the goal of adopting technical purity is not to follow some ideal standard but rather to stop being a person who fails.
This purifying of methodology can be seen in the shift from alchemy to chemistry, which began with Robert Boyle in the 17th century. Wikipedia relates, “Anglo-Irish chemist Robert Boyle (1627–1691) is considered to have initiated the gradual separation of chemistry from alchemy. Although skeptical of elements and convinced of alchemy, Boyle played a key part in elevating the ‘sacred art’ as an independent, fundamental and philosophical discipline.” Boyle advocated more careful methods but still believed in alchemy while being skeptical of the modern concept of elements. Moving forward, “In 1702, German chemist Georg Stahl coined the name ‘phlogiston’ for the substance believed to be released in the process of burning... In 1754, Scottish chemist Joseph Black isolated carbon dioxide, which he called ‘fixed air’... In 1773, Swedish German chemist Carl Wilhelm Scheele discovered oxygen, which he called ‘fire air’.” Notice how the technical thinking of chemistry is gradually becoming transformed from the magic of alchemy to rational understanding.
Similarly, Methodism taught that the Christian life should be characterized by a purifying of behavior through the process of sanctification. Quoting from Wikipedia, “Methodism, inclusive of the holiness movement, thus teaches that ‘justification [is made] conditional on obedience and progress in sanctification’, emphasizing ‘a deep reliance upon Christ not only in coming to faith, but in remaining in the faith.’ John Wesley taught that the keeping of the moral law contained in the Ten Commandments, as well as engaging in the works of piety and the works of mercy, were ‘indispensable for our sanctification’.” Using the school analogy, the justification of being enrolled should be followed by the sanctification of taking the classes, and if one is not taking the classes, then it is possible to question if one really is a student.
Purify means ‘to purify, to cleanse, to sanctify’ and is related to the word that was used in 3:17 that combined purity and holiness. Purity refers to internal consistency while holiness means following God in Teacher thought rather than people in Mercy thought. Heart is interpreted as personal identity in Mercy thought. Double-minded means ‘two-souled’ and is used one other time in the New Testament in 1:8, which was interpreted as mendicant monks following both papal authority and the rules of their order. In other words, people need to personally choose to which of two competing systems they will personally submit.
Being two-souled implies that a person is being internally motivated by two distinct systems. In 1:8 this was a final state from which one could not recover. In verse 8 this is a starting point from which one is supposed to recover. So what are the two systems in verse 8? Looking first at Methodism, one is the existing religious system of combining theology with inadequate behavior. The second is a new system of submitting personal identity in Mercy thought to an understanding of God in Teacher thought. Wikipedia mentions the Methodist focus upon rational understanding. “It is a traditional position of the Methodist Church that any disciplined theological work calls for the careful use of reason by which to understand God’s action and will.”
And Methodism suggested that is possible to stop being two-souled and become unified in heart. Quoting from Wikipedia, “In Wesley’s theology, entire sanctification was a second work of grace received by faith that removed inbred or original sin, and this allowed the Christian to enter a state of perfect love—‘Love excluding sin’ as stated in the sermon ‘The Scripture Way of Salvation’... The entirely sanctified Christian was perfect in love, meaning that the heart is undivided in its love for God or that it loves nothing that conflicts with its love for God. Christians perfected in love were still subject to conditions of the Fall and liable to commit unintentional transgressions.” Looking at this cognitively, behavior is being emotionally guided by a TMN of God in Teacher thought as well as MMNs of the Holy Spirit in Mercy thought. This combination is sufficient to draw personal identity inexorably in the direction of greater Teacher righteousness as well as greater Mercy perfection.
Wesley emphasized that this was a unity of heart and not technical perfection. “There may be ten thousand wandering thoughts, and forgetful intervals, without any breach of love, though not without transgressing the Adamic law. But Calvinists would fain confound these together. Let love fill your heart, and it is enough!” Technical perfection means that one never makes a mistake in technical thought. Wesley is talking about a purity of heart, which means being unable to resist the emotional pull of a TMN of God combined with MMNs of the spirit.
Wikipedia clarifies that “Involuntary transgressions (such as those arising from ignorance, error, and evil tempers), according to Wesley, were not properly called sins. Therefore, regenerated Christians would continue to be guilty of involuntary transgressions and would need to practice regular confession. Furthermore, Christians continued to face temptation, and Wesley acknowledged that it was possible for a regenerated Christian to commit voluntary sin.” Stated cognitively, one can only be guided by a TMN of God and MMNs of the spirit to the extent that one has mentally constructed these concepts. Thus, there will always be sins of ignorance or error. Wesley defined these as not being sin, but if one defines sin as ‘missing the mark’ then one will ‘often miss the mark’ because of ignorance or error. However, Wesley’s general concept is cognitively sound. In addition, one can choose temporarily to violate mental networks of righteousness and spiritual perfection, but this will take effort and one will eventually find that one cannot continue resisting the emotional pull of one’s concept of God and the Holy Spirit.
It should be added that truly escaping the condition of being two-souled is only possible as long as the ‘tail’ of Christianity remains attached to the ‘dog’ of science. And in the 19th century the tail became detached from the dog. This led to a shift in Methodist doctrine. Quoting from Wikipedia, “Some turned to ‘a watered-down version’ of the doctrine outlined by William Arthur in his popular work The Tongue of Fire, published in 1856. While Arthur encouraged readers to pray for a greater experience of the Holy Spirit, he de-emphasized the instantaneous aspect of Christian perfection. According to Bebbington, this eliminated the distinctiveness of Wesleyan entire sanctification, and by the 1860s, the idea that Christian perfection was a decisive second blessing or stage in Christian sanctification had fallen out of favor among some Methodists, though not all Methodists.” Mental symmetry attempts to reattach the tail to the dog—and put the dog back in charge—by using a single theory of personality based in biblical spiritual gifts to summarize both Christian doctrine and secular science and society. Thus, Wesley’s statements regarding perfection line up with what mental symmetry suggests, but mental symmetry defines perfection in terms of mental wholeness, which means developing all seven cognitive modules so that they function and interact in an intelligent manner.
I suggest that the reason that Wesley could teach this theology is because it resonated with what was happening within the realm of science at that time. At a surface level, scientific knowledge was growing explosively and the average person was becoming increasingly aware of science and how it was developing. Thus, people found it natural to believe that the Christian life could also be characterized by submission to a growing rational understanding of God and Christian character. Even though the tail of science was wagging the dog of Christianity, the tail was still attached to the dog.
Looking at a more technical version of the growing perfection of science, an earlier quote referred to the Lagrangian. This is a truly bizarre fundamental concept of science that implies heavenly perfection. However, even though this connection seems to be obvious, I have not seen it mentioned anywhere on the Internet—an example of everyone believing today that the dog of Christianity has no connection whatsoever with the tail of science.
Looking at how this concept emerged historically, light will refract when traveling from one medium to another. For instance, a straw or spoon in a cup of water looks like it is bent. The angle of refraction can be calculated using Snell’s law, a simple formula that is learned in high school physics. Fermat realized that light was actually traveling along a path that took the least time. In the words of Wikipedia, “The earlier geometrical ideas in optics were generalized by Pierre de Fermat, who, in the 17th century, refined the principle to ‘light travels between two given points along the path of shortest time’; now known as the principle of least time or Fermat’s principle. Fermat showed that principle predicts the observed law of refraction. His approach was metaphysical, arguing that Nature acts simply and economically.” This would be equivalent to a commuter always managing to take the quickest path, no matter what the traffic. Humans are incapable of such perfection, but light always travels along the quickest path. This can be explained in terms of waves propagating and being canceled, but it is still an example of the physical universe being guided by inhumanly perfect perfection.
Lagrange discovered that all of physics exhibits such inhuman perfection and he reformulated all of physics in terms of the principle of least action. Wikipedia summarizes, “Lagrangian mechanics is a formulation of classical mechanics founded on the stationary-action principle (also known as the principle of least action). It was introduced by the Italian-French mathematician and astronomer Joseph-Louis Lagrange in his presentation to the Turin Academy of Science in 1760 culminating in his 1788 grand opus, Mécanique analytique.” This led to a one-souled integrated view of physics based in mathematical equations. Wikipedia quotes Mach as saying, “Analytic mechanics... was brought to the highest degree of perfection... Lagrange’s aim is... to dispose, once and for all, of the reasoning necessary to resolve mechanical problems, by embodying as much as possible of it in a single formula. This he did. Every case... can now be dealt with by a very simple... schema; and whatever reasoning is left is performed by purely mechanical methods. The mechanics of Lagrange is a stupendous contribution to the economy of thought.” This is an example of purity because the various facets of physics are being integrated and it is an example of holiness because everything is being unified with a ‘very simple schema’ in Teacher thought.
Let Laughter turn to Mourning 4:9-10
Verse 9 follows with grieving. “Be grieved and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned to mourning, and the joy to gloom.” Grieve is used once as a verb in the New Testament and means ‘to suffer distress, to be miserable, to endure hardship’. It is in the imperative which means that a choice is involved. Mourn is used once in James and means to ‘mourn over a death’. Weep means ‘expressing uncontainable, audible grief’. This suggests that core mental networks are falling apart and dying and one must choose to openly recognize this passing away. This happened historically as a result of the Industrial Revolution, which began in the late 18th century. Quoting from Wikipedia, “The Industrial Revolution marked a major turning point in history, comparable only to humanity’s adoption of agriculture with respect to material advancement. The Industrial Revolution influenced in some way almost every aspect of daily life... Economic historians agree that the onset of the Industrial Revolution is the most important event in human history since the domestication of animals and plants.”
Wikipedia mentions some of the traditional mental networks that died as a result of the Industrial Revolution. “Prior to the Industrial Revolution, most of the workforce was employed in agriculture, either as self-employed farmers as landowners or tenants or as landless agricultural labourers. It was common for families in various parts of the world to spin yarn, weave cloth and make their own clothing... In Great Britain in the 16th century, the putting-out system was practised, by which farmers and townspeople produced goods for a market in their homes, often described as cottage industry.”
Laughter means ‘laughter’ and is used once as a noun in the New Testament. Cognitively speaking, laughter is a release of emotional intensity. One does not laugh at important mental networks. Instead, one laughs at mental networks that one no longer regards as important. Mourning means ‘mourning, grief, sorrow’ and only occurs here and several times at the end of Revelation. Turn is used once in James and combines ‘change afterward’ with ‘to turn or to twist’. In other words, what began as laughing at mental networks that one no longer regards as important is turning into mourning the loss of these mental networks as one recognizes that they really were important. This explains why the grieving is a choice. One can either laugh at what is passing away and then be hit by the mourning or else choose to grieve and experience a less traumatic transition.
Looking at the laughter, the Industrial Revolution started to lift the average person out of poverty. Quoting from Wikipedia, “There was however a rise in real income and increase in availability of various consumer goods to the lower classes during this period. Prior to the industrial revolution, increases in real wages would be offset by subsequent decreases, a phenomenon which ceased to occur following the revolution. The real wage of the average worker doubled in just 32 years from 1819 to 1851, which brought many people out of poverty.” Looking at the mourning, the Industrial Revolution also created personal hardship. Quoting further, “Factories had few safety measures, and accidents resulting in injuries were commonplace... Housing conditions of working class people who migrated to the cities was often overcrowded and unsanitary, creating a favourable environment for the spread of diseases such as typhoid, cholera and smallpox, further exacerbated by a lack of sick leave. According to one observer, ‘I am convinced that at no period of English history for which authentic records exist, was the condition of manual labor worse than it was in the forty years from 1782 to 1821, the period in which manufacturers and merchants accumulated fortune rapidly, and in which the rent of agricultural land was doubled.’” Thus, the manufacturers and merchants were laughing while the factory workers were mourning.
Joy refers to Teacher emotion. Gloom is used once in the New Testament and means ‘with eyes downcast’. ‘Down’ is interpreted as moving from Teacher generality to Mercy specifics. Thus, one is supposed to redirect attention away from the joy of growing Teacher understanding to what one is losing within the Mercy realm of specific experiences. This redirection of attention was reflected in the various labor laws that were eventually passed to improve factory conditions. Wikipedia summarizes, “The early Acts concentrated on regulating the hours of work and moral welfare of young children employed in cotton mills but were effectively unenforced until the Act of 1833 established a professional Factory Inspectorate. The regulation of working hours was then extended to women by an Act of 1844. The Factories Act 1847 (known as the Ten Hour Act), together with Acts in 1850 and 1853 remedying defects in the 1847 Act, met a long-standing (and by 1847 well-organised) demand by the millworkers for a ten-hour day. The Factory Acts also included regulations for ventilation, hygienic practices, and machinery guarding in an effort to improve the working circumstances for mill children.” Notice that most factory owners had to be forced to replace their joy with gloom.
Methodism played a major role in this transition. Encyclopedia.com explains, “Methodism influenced and was influenced by the Industrial Revolution. One result of the rapid industrialization of Great Britain during the late eighteenth century was the mass movement of people toward the emerging industrial centers. Uprooted people in economic peril tended to lose their connections with the parish church. Methodism, with its informal and vibrant piety and its practice of taking religious services to the people, was better positioned to meet the spiritual needs of these uprooted masses than the structured Anglican establishment... Historians have fiercely debated the political consequences of this proletarian revival... Most historians agree, however, that Methodists’ humanitarian concerns, coupled with their passion for order, exerted a powerful influence on the social and political landscape of eighteenth- and nineteenth-century England.”
England experienced a gradual transformation as laughter and joy were turned to mourning and gloom. France, in contrast, experienced the shock of a revolution because those in power refused to mourn and gloom. France, like England, was transformed by the early Industrial Revolution. Quoting from Wikipedia, “The most dynamic industries of the period were mines, metallurgy, and textiles. The advances in these areas were often due to British inventors. For example, John Kay’s invention of the flying shuttle revolutionized the textile industry, and James Watt’s steam engine changed industry as the French had known it. Capital remained difficult to raise for commercial ventures, however, and the state remained highly mercantilistic, protectionist, and interventionist in the domestic economy.” Notice that economic advances, largely from Britain, were transforming major areas of the economy, but the regime attempted to preserve existing mental networks of government and society instead of allowing them to die.
This eventually turned into a societal crisis. Wikipedia explains, “The agricultural and climatic problems of the 1770s and 1780s led to a large increase in poverty... Overall about one third of the French population lived in poverty, approximately 8 million people. This could increase by several million after bad harvests and the resulting economic crises. Although nobles, bourgeoisie, and wealthy landholders saw their revenues affected by the depression, the hardest-hit in this period were the working class and the peasants... In these last decades of the century, French industries continued to develop. Mechanization was introduced, factories were created, and monopolies became more common. However, this growth was complicated by competition from England in the textile and cotton industries.” First, there was an agricultural crisis that hurt everyone, but mostly the poor. Second, French industry started to modernize, showing that the Enlightenment was not just a matter of new thinking but also had major physical implications. Third, those in power attempted to hold on to existing mental networks of status and society. Fourth, France’s attempt to cling to the old meant that it could not compete economically with England. These major causes illustrate what happened when the instructions of verse 9 were ignored.
Verse 10 makes a promise. “Humble yourselves in the presence of the Lord, and He will exalt you.” Humble means ‘to humble, to bring low, to abase’. In the presence means ‘before the face of’. ‘Lord’ indicates the presence of some authority to which one must submit. Exalt is used once in James and means ‘to lift up, to exalt’, and moving up is interpreted as gaining Teacher generality. We have looked at the economic hardships of the early Industrial Revolution. Submitting to the lordship of this new factory-dominated economy eventually led to significant exaltation for both the worker and society as a whole.
This long-term promise of a better society is described in an academic paper. “In 1838 William Howitt observed that ‘a mighty revolution’ was occurring ‘in the sports and pastimes of the common people’. For Howitt, that ‘revolution’ primarily entailed the loss of traditional recreations at the hands of reformers and urban necessity. Little could he foresee that a growth in the quality of time free from work, and new modes of recreation as well as new patterns of spending on recreational diversions, would prompt future historians to take the view that there was in Victorian England a ‘virtual leisure revolution’.”
The national exaltation of England was illustrated by the Great Exhibition of 1851. Wikipedia summarizes, “Although the Great Exhibition was a platform on which countries from around the world could display their achievements, Britain sought to prove its own superiority. The British exhibits at the Great Exhibition ‘held the lead in almost every field where strength, durability, utility and quality were concerned, whether in iron and steel, machinery or textiles.’”
This was accompanied by personal exaltations, “New businesses in various industries appeared in towns and cities throughout Britain. Confectionery was one such industry that saw rapid expansion. According to food historian Polly Russell: ‘chocolate and biscuits became products for the masses, thanks to the Industrial Revolution and the consumers it created. By the mid-19th century, sweet biscuits were an affordable indulgence and business was booming... Increased literacy rates, industrialisation, and the invention of the railway created a new market for cheap popular literature for the masses and the ability for it to be circulated on a large scale... In 1861, Welsh entrepreneur Pryce Pryce-Jones formed the first mail order business, an idea which would change the nature of retail. Selling Welsh flannel, he created mail order catalogues, with customers able to order by mail for the first time.” Notice the major role being played by Teacher order and universality: Mass-produced biscuits and chocolates are being sold widely. Literature is being circulated on a large scale via the railway. And mail order catalogues make it possible for many people in many locations to order a wide variety of items.
Judging the Law 4:11-12
The next two verses turn to the topic of judging. Verse 11 begins, “Do not speak against one another, brothers. The one speaking against his brother or judging his brother speaks against the Law and judges the Law.” Speak against is used three times in James, only in this verse, and means to ‘speak down to in a hostile, deriding way’. This describes the sort of emotional belittling that happens when technical thought encounters thinking that does not meet its standards of technical rigor. One another indicates that this emotional belittling is happening both ways, and ‘brothers’ implies that this mutual belittling is happening between various Protestant groups. ‘One’ and ‘he’ are both implied, indicating that the emphasis is upon the behavior of mutual belittling.
This ‘speaking against one another’ happened in the 19th century with the emergence of liberal theology. Wikipedia explains that “Liberal Protestantism developed in the 19th century out of a perceived need to adapt Christianity to a modern intellectual context. With the acceptance of Charles Darwin’s theory of natural selection, some traditional Christian beliefs, such as parts of the Genesis creation narrative, became difficult to defend.” Stated cognitively, liberal scholars felt that traditional Protestant belief did not meet the standards of modern technical rigor. They responded by the belittling of ‘speaking against’. Quoting from Wikipedia, “Traditional Protestants understood the Bible to be uniquely authoritative (sola scriptura); all doctrine, teaching and the church itself derive authority from it. A traditional Protestant could therefore affirm that ‘what Scripture says, God says.’ Liberal Christians rejected the doctrine of biblical inerrancy or infallibility, which they saw as the idolatry of the Bible. Instead, liberals sought to understand the Bible through modern biblical criticism, such as historical criticism, that began to be used in the late 1700s to ask if biblical accounts were based on older texts or whether the Gospels recorded the actual words of Jesus. The use of these methods of biblical interpretation led liberals to conclude that ‘none of the New Testament writings can be said to be apostolic in the sense in which it has been traditionally held to be so’. This conclusion made sola scriptura an untenable position.”
Examined cognitively, sola scriptura uses Mercy respect for the source of the Bible to overwhelm Perceiver thought into believing that the Bible is ‘true’. Liberal theology recognized that this mindset is actually ‘idolatry of the Bible’. The primary response was to emotionally belittle the Mercy respect upon which sola scripture was based: ‘The Bible does not really describe what Jesus actually said. In fact, none of the New Testament was really written by the apostles.’
Those who believed in the Bible responded by attempting to belittle the liberals. Quoting from Wikipedia, “Beginning in the nineteenth century, effort on the part of evangelical scholars and writers was expended in opposing theories of historical critical scholars. Evangelicals at the time accused the ‘higher critics’ of representing their dogmas as indisputable facts. Bygone churchmen such as James Orr, William Henry Green, William M. Ramsay, Edward Garbett, Alfred Blomfield, Edward Hartley Dewart, William B. Boyce, John Langtry, Dyson Hague, D. K. Paton, John William McGarvey, David MacDill, J. C. Ryle, Charles Spurgeon and Robert D. Wilson pushed back against the judgements of historical critics.” I have included the list of names to emphasize the extent of ‘speaking against one another’ that was happening.
Judging means to ‘separate, distinguish, judge’ which implies the use of abstract technical thought, and here ‘him’ is explicitly mentioned. Law is mentioned four times in this verse and each occurrence is without the definite article, suggesting that specific laws are being addressed rather than some system of law. Verse 11 says that belittling and judging language is actually belittling and judging law. In other words, such behavior questions the idea of Perceiver thought ruling over personal MMNs.
The liberal belittling of the sources of the Bible led naturally to an emotional belittling of Christian doctrine. Wikipedia gives an example of this progression. “In general, liberal Christians are not concerned with the presence of biblical errors or contradictions. Liberals abandoned or reinterpreted traditional doctrines in light of recent knowledge. For example, the traditional doctrine of original sin was rejected for being derived from Augustine of Hippo, whose views on the New Testament were believed to have been distorted by his involvement with Manichaeism. Christology was also reinterpreted. Liberals stressed Christ’s humanity.” Notice that the doctrine of original sin is not being examined cognitively or historically to see if it is an accurate description of the human condition. Instead, it is being belittled by connecting it with the lesser emotional source of Augustine of Hippo. Similarly, emotional respect for Jesus Christ the Son of God is being belittled by focusing upon the lesser emotional status of Jesus the historical man.
This belittling of Christian doctrine can be seen in a volume published in 1860. Wikipedia summarizes, “Much of the indignation aroused by the book ‘was due to the fact that the writers were mainly clergymen bound by their ordination vows and the Thirty-nine Articles’... It sparked five years of increasingly polarized debate with books and pamphlets furiously contesting the issues. The book summed up a three-quarter-century-long challenge to biblical history by the higher critics and to biblical prehistory by scientists working in the new fields of geology and biology.” Most of the seven essays in the book are characterized by belittling and Wikipedia provides a brief summary of the essays: “Denying the predictive character of Old Testament prophecies... flatly denied the possibility of miracles... questioned the eternity of damnation... a critique of the attempted ‘Harmonies’ between Genesis and geology... a learned and cold study of the evidential theologians of the eighteenth century... urged that the Bible be read ‘like any other book’ and made an impassioned plea for freedom of scholarship.”
Verse 11 continues, “But if you judge the Law, you are not a doer of the Law, but a judge.” Doer is the word for Server action. The progression here is that questioning the rule of Perceiver thought over personal identity will be followed by not submitting personally to Perceiver thought. Instead, one will regard oneself as a personal source of Mercy truth. This was recognized by the critics of liberal theology as mentioned in a previous quote. “Evangelicals at the time accused the ‘higher critics’ of representing their dogmas as indisputable facts.” In other words, liberal theologians were replacing blind faith in the Bible based in emotional respect for the sources of the Bible with blind faith in liberal theologians based upon emotional respect for liberal theologians.
This judging of the law can also be seen in the 1860 volume mentioned earlier. Looking first at the Bible, “The essay ‘On the Interpretation of Scripture’, contributed by Benjamin Jowett, was ‘by far the most startling essay’ in the book. When asked to contribute, Jowett saw the opportunity to challenge traditionalists... Jowett’s essay and his other writings [stated] that revelation was ongoing and that scripture was always subject to reinterpretation as each generation encountered them.” In other words, not only is Jowett judging the law of the Bible, but he is stating that every generation responds to the Bible by judging the law.
Turning now to the judgment of hell, “Another ‘of the two most controversial’ essays was H.B. Wilson’s, which denied the eternity of hell, affirming that there can be spiritual progress in the afterlife after the day of judgment.” In other words, Wilson is declaring himself to be a judge of eternal judgment.
In response, traditional clergy responded en masse by asking the judges to judge these judges. “Williams and Wilson were charged with heresy in the Court of Arches. They were found guilty... but appealed to the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council. The Judicial Committee comprised secular judges sitting with the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Archbishop of York and the Bishop of London. In 1864 it overturned the convictions, with the Archbishops of Canterbury and York dissenting... 11,000 clergy and 137,000 laity signed a letter of thanks to the Archbishops of Canterbury and York for voting against the Committee, and a declaration in favour of biblical inspiration and eternal torments was drawn up at Oxford and circulated to the 24,800 clergy, being signed by eleven thousand of them.”
Verse 12 points out the ultimate source of judgment. “There is one Lawgiver and Judge, the One being able to save and to destroy.” ‘Is’ is explicitly mentioned, indicating a focus upon being. Lawgiver is used once in the New Testament and combines law with ‘to place’ which indicates giving Perceiver stability to laws. One is the number ‘one’. ‘Is one lawgiver’ indicates that one should find Perceiver stability for rules in a unified Teacher understanding, as opposed to basing one’s opinion in a multitude of Mercy sources. For instance, mental symmetry is ultimately based in a unified model of cognition. ‘Judge’ is the same word that was used in verse 11.
This unified approach to law and salvation can be seen at least to some extent in the evangelical movement. Wikipedia summarizes, “Evangelical Protestantism is a worldwide interdenominational movement within Protestant Christianity that puts primary emphasis on evangelization. The word evangelic comes from the Greek word for ‘good news’ (evangelion). The Gospel story of the salvation from sin is considered ‘the good news’.” A ‘worldwide interdenominational movement’ focuses upon the oneness of the evangelical message. And the evangelical message is the ‘good news’ of ‘salvation from sin’. Looking at this in more detail, “In Britain in addition to stressing the traditional Wesleyan combination of ‘Bible, cross, conversion, and activism’, the revivalist movement sought a universal appeal, hoping to include rich and poor, urban and rural, and men and women... ‘Christian conscience’ was used by the British Evangelical movement to promote social activism. Evangelicals believed activism in government and the social sphere was an essential method in reaching the goal of eliminating sin in a world drenched in wickedness. The Evangelicals in the Clapham Sect included figures such as William Wilberforce who successfully campaigned for the abolition of slavery.” There is the oneness of seeking ‘a universal appeal’ that crosses MMNs of class, culture, and gender. There is an emphasis upon judging by passing government legislation. And the goal is to save people from ‘a world drenched in wickedness’. Among other things, this succeeded in abolishing slavery, a stupendous achievement.
Verse 12 then points out the criteria for evaluating law. Able means ‘power’ and refers to active Perceiver thought. Save means to ‘deliver out of danger and into safety’. And destroy means to ‘fully destroy, cutting off entirely’. Looking at this cognitively, the rise of technical thought is causing experts to belittle previous theological thought as insufficiently rigorous. The solution is to approach the topic from the perspective of an integrated Teacher understanding guided by universal principles of moral cause-and-effect. In other words, religious taboos need to be replaced by an understanding of what actually leads to personal salvation and personal damnation.
This ‘power to save’ is illustrated by the Salvation Army which was founded by William Booth in London in 1865. Wikipedia summarizes, “William was motivated to convert poor Londoners such as prostitutes, gamblers, and alcoholics to Christianity, while Catherine spoke to wealthier people, gaining financial support for their work... William Booth described the organisation’s approach: ‘The three S’s best expressed the way in which the Army administered to the ‘down and outs’: first, soup; second, soap; and finally, salvation.” Wikipedia explains, “The theology of the Salvation Army derives from Methodism... As with other denominations in the Holiness Methodist tradition, the Salvation Army lays emphasis on the New Birth (first work of grace) and entire sanctification (second work of grace).” Notice the focus upon going beyond verbal justification to the salvation of sanctification.
Similarly, Charles Spurgeon responded to liberal theology by pointing out that it was powerless to save people. Wikipedia quotes Spurgeon, “Assuredly the New Theology can do no good towards God or man; it, has no adaptation for it. If it were preached for a thousand years by all the most earnest men of the school, it would never renew a soul, nor overcome pride in a single human heart.” Spurgeon was a powerful preacher. “He is said to have produced powerful sermons of penetrating thought and precise exposition. His oratory skills are said to have held his listeners spellbound in the Metropolitan Tabernacle, and many Christians hold his writings in exceptionally high regard among devotional literature.” But he also practiced his message of salvation. “While at the Metropolitan Tabernacle, he built an Almshouse and the Stockwell Orphanage. He encouraged his congregation to engage actively with the poor of Victorian London.”
Verse 12 then asks, “But who are you judging the neighbor?” ‘Are’ is explicitly mentioned. Neighbor comes from a word that means ‘near’. In other words, does liberal theology have anything to say at the level of being or is it merely a form of intellectual criticism that leaves people empty? Wikipedia describes the abstract focus of historical criticism. “The historian applying historical criticism has several goals in mind. One is to understand what the text itself is saying in the context of its own time and place... The historian also seeks to understand the credibility and reliability of the sources in question... In this process, it is important to understand the intentions, motivations, biases, prejudices, internal consistency, and even the truthfulness of the sources being studied... In the context of biblical studies, an appeal to canonical texts is insufficient to settle what actually happened in biblical history. A critical inspection of the canon, as well as extra-biblical literature, archaeology, and all other available sources, is also needed.” Notice that nothing is being said about becoming someone or being saved. As Spurgeon pointed out, this ‘would never renew a soul, nor overcome pride in a single human heart’.
Going further, liberal theology is actually extrapolating from local cultural MMNs to making universal statements in Teacher thought; it is ‘judging the neighbor’. For instance, we saw earlier that “The implications of Jowett’s essay and his other writings [was] that revelation was ongoing and that scripture was always subject to reinterpretation as each generation encountered them.” This is an example of ‘judging the neighbor’ because each generation is making universal statements based upon its own culture.
More generally, this ‘judging the neighbor’ is a core aspect of historical criticism. Quoting from Wikipedia, “Historical-critical methods are the specific procedures used to examine the text’s historical origins, such as the time and place in which the text was written, its sources, and the events, dates, persons, places, things, and customs that are mentioned or implied in the text.” The underlying assumption is that the biblical text was speaking primarily to its neighbors and that understanding the Bible properly means understanding the neighbors to which the authors of the Bible were speaking.
One can gain meaningful insights by looking at the culture within which the biblical message was written. But these essays are showing that the Bible also contains a universal message that transcends the local culture. This essay on James, combined with other similar essays, demonstrates beyond reasonable doubt that the New Testament ultimately had a supernatural author.
Saying this as clearly as possible, 19th-century liberal scholars declared that they were smarter and wiser than who they were belittling as ‘blind and ignorant’ authors of a Bible that they regarded as a product of a blind and ignorant society. However, the book of James predicted that this would happen, but the liberal scholars were too blind and ignorant to recognize this because they were a product of their blind and ignorant society.
Looking at this more carefully, liberal theology did attempt to construct a rational understanding of biblical morality. Quoting from Wikipedia, “Liberal Christians sought to elevate Jesus’ humane teachings as a standard for a world civilization freed from cultic traditions and traces of traditionally pagan types of belief in the supernatural. As a result, liberal Christians placed less emphasis on miraculous events associated with the life of Jesus than on his teachings.” But the 19th century only had a rational understanding of physical reality that was incapable extending beyond the material realm. Wikipedia explains, “The debate over whether a belief in miracles was mere superstition or essential to accepting the divinity of Christ constituted a crisis within the 19th-century church, for which theological compromises were sought. Some liberals prefer to read Jesus’ miracles as metaphorical narratives for understanding the power of God... Nineteenth-century liberalism had an optimism about the future in which humanity would continue to achieve greater progress. This optimistic view of history was sometimes interpreted as building the kingdom of God in the world.” Notice that miracles and the divinity of Jesus did not fit into the materialistic Teacher theories of liberal Christianity and that the kingdom of God was interpreted as a purely materialistic kingdom. Going further, the theory of evolution, which replaced Christian faith in the 19th century, is a purely materialistic theory that tries to explain everything in terms of the physical mechanisms of mutations and survival of the fittest.
Mental symmetry, in contrast, builds upon a Teacher theory of cognition. This theory is consistent with both neurology and psychology and compatible with science, but it is one step removed from materialism. This cognitive perspective makes it possible to explain Christian doctrine and practice as the pursuit of mental wholeness, and the theory of mental symmetry has been used successfully to explain Christian doctrine. Going further, descriptions of both the spiritual and the supernatural can be explained as extensions of this cognitive model: Mental symmetry suggests that the spiritual realm resonates with mental networks and functions in a manner that is consistent with mental networks while the supernatural realm resonates with abstract thought and functions in a manner that is consistent with abstract thought. This does not lead to an emotional belittling of respect for the Bible. Instead, these essays are showing that approaching the Bible from a cognitive perspective reveals that the Bible is a supernaturally clever book.
Economic Growth and Temporary Life 4:13-14
The final section of chapter 4 looks at commerce. This is appropriate because the late 19th century was a time of international trade and colonization based upon the technical breakthroughs of the Industrial Revolution. Verse 13 describes this economic mindset. “Come now, those saying, ‘Today or tomorrow we will go into this city, and will spend a year there, and will trade, and will make a profit.’”
Come means ‘to lead, bring, carry’ and is in the imperative. Now means ‘now, at present’. Saying is the normal word for speech. This suggests that people are talking about progress and thinking in terms of progress but they themselves need to be encouraged to make progress. This personal reluctance was reflected in a growing sense of privacy. Wikipedia quotes a historian, “The English home closed up and darkened over the decade (1850s), the cult of domesticity matched by a cult of privacy. Bourgeois existence was a world of interior space, heavily curtained off and wary of intrusion, and opened only by invitation for viewing on occasions such as parties or teas. ‘The essential, unknowability of each individual, and society’s collaboration in the maintenance of a façade behind which lurked innumerable mysteries, were the themes which preoccupied many mid-century novelists.’” In other words, people are choosing to block off the subjective in order to prevent economic and technological progress from intruding into the personal realm. Thus, they need to be told to ‘come now’.
Today is used once in James. It combines ‘this’ with ‘day’, and a day is ‘the period from sunrise to sunset’. Thus, ‘today’ would represent the current era that is being lit by some ‘sun’ of general understanding. Tomorrow comes from a word ‘meaning breeze or breath’ and is used in this verse and the next in James. Wind represents Teacher thought. Thus, tomorrow would represent future possibilities that come from Teacher understanding. This describes modern technological society in which today’s scientific breakthroughs are followed by tomorrow’s new gadgets. But this was something totally new at the end of the 19th century.
A University of Cambridge webpage describes the mindset of the Victorian era. “Above all, it was an era that knew it was a time like no other, a time of radical progress and visionary reform. As the Victorians were forging remarkable economic and technological innovations, they were also obsessed with understanding their own history. In archaeology, geology, history, theology and evolutionary biology, how the past was understood was revolutionising the present – and shaping the future in which we now live.” There was a conscious awareness of yesterday, today, and tomorrow, guided by the conviction that ‘radical progress and visionary reform’ would make tomorrow better than today.
Go is used once in James and means ‘to transport’; this is interpreted as movement that is accompanied by some change. ‘We will go’ describes the idea of societal progress, in which the development of new technology by some group will cause the transformation of that group. This describes the research and development of today’s society but it was totally new in the Victorian era. This is just a generic pronoun. City is interpreted as civilization because in Roman times cities were the centers of civilization. Spend is the normal word for doing. There means ‘there, in that place’. Year means ‘year’ and is ‘derived from a primary Greek root related to the concept of a cycle or period of time’.
The Victorian era was characterized by colonization that went beyond establishing colonies to taking over entire civilizations and remaining there in a manner that generated change. For instance, a colonialism museum website elaborates, “Victoria’s relationship with India is best described as exoticizing and orientalist. She styled herself in the 1860s as ‘Empress of India’, a title that would later be officially bestowed upon her by Parliament in 1876. Victoria saw herself as heir to the Mughal Emperors... Indeed, she held this orientalist attitude towards many of the peoples colonised by Britain... Victoria was well informed of colonial policy; whilst she was a self-declared anti-racist and humanitarian, she was an advocate for benevolent imperialism everywhere. She justified the Empire on the basis that the British were kind rulers, especially compared to other Europeans.” Notice the focus upon generating change by entering various ‘cities’ and remaining for a while.
Trade is used twice in the New Testament and means ‘to trade, to engage in business’. It is the source of the English word ‘emporium’ and combines ‘in the realm of’ with ‘to transport’. Thus, one is engaging in trade in order to make progress and generate change. Make a profit means ‘to exchange what is mediocre for the better’.
A primary goal of Victorian colonization was trade and economic profit. Wikipedia explains that a “New imperialism characterizes a period of colonial expansion by European powers, the United States, and Japan during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The period featured an unprecedented pursuit of overseas territorial acquisitions. At the time, states focused on building their empires with new technological advances and developments, expanding their territory through conquest, and exploiting the resources of the subjugated countries... The new wave of imperialism reflected ongoing rivalries among the great powers, the economic desire for new resources and markets, and a ‘civilizing mission’ ethos.” Notice that the civilizing mission of ‘entering cities’ and staying is being combined with the business of ‘exploiting the resources of subjugated countries’.
The transformation of trade is also illustrated by the department store, invented in the mid-19th century. In the words of Wikipedia, “The advent of the department store represented a paradigm shift in the experience of shopping. Customers could now buy an astonishing variety of goods, all in one place, and shopping became a popular leisure activity. While previously the norm had been the scarcity of resources, the industrial era created an unprecedented economic situation. For the first time in history products were available in outstanding quantities, at outstandingly low prices.” Notice how economic activity is being transformed through a form of shopping that makes more available at cheaper prices than ever before.
Verse 14 points out the underlying uncertainty. “Who know not what is on the next day.” Know is used once in James and combines ‘fitting on’ with ‘stand’, which would refer to an appropriate source of stability in Perceiver thought. ‘Know’ is preceded by ‘not’ which means that an appropriate Perceiver basis is lacking. Next day is the word tomorrow that was used in verse 13 which means ‘breeze or breath’. The phrase is more literally, ‘not having an appropriate Perceiver basis for the ‘breeze’ of Teacher theory’. An academic paper points out the underlying uncertainty that emerged within Victorian society. “Until late in the nineteenth century it was widely assumed that truth is one. This assumption made the skeptics ferocious in attacking outworn theology and believers adamant in refuting the latest ‘errors’ of science... All sides seemed to agree, nevertheless, that, although doubt was nothing new to the western world, the nature of Victorian doubt was different from anything that had gone before... The unbelief of the nineteenth century was more penetrating... Modern doubt ‘destroys the sense of reality.’ It questions truth itself and ‘envelops all things in its puzzle, God, immortality, the value of life, the rewards of virtue, and operation of conscience.” Thus, Victorian technological growth and empire building was accompanied by a growing uncertainty about fundamental moral and religious topics. Victorians realized that they did not have a fitting basis for Perceiver stability but rather started to ‘question truth itself’. Using the dog analogy, until then it had been ‘widely assumed that truth is one’—the tail has to remain attached to the dog. These two became separated during the Victoria era.
Verse 14 then warns, “What is your life? It is just a vapor, appearing for a little while, and then vanishing.” What means ‘of what sort’. Life refers to both physical and spiritual life. ‘Your’ is explicitly mentioned. In other words, the fundamental nature of Victorian life is being questioned. This can be seen in the previous quote which described the fundamental attributes of life itself being questioned, including ‘God, immortality, the value of life, the rewards of virtue, and operation of conscience’.
Vapor is used twice in the New Testament and means ‘breath, steam, vapor’. Just is actually ‘for, because, since’. Similarly, Victorian life was based in the ‘vapor’ of a temporary Teacher understanding. Appear is used once in James and means ‘to bring to light, to cause to appear’. This indicates that something with the light of Teacher order and understanding is becoming visible, which describes the glory of Victorian civilization. Little means ‘few, little’ and ‘while’ is implied. This emphasizes the limited extent of this life rather than the limited duration. ‘Little’ is preceded by motion towards, which suggests that the light will initially be more universal and become restricted over time.
Looking at this in more detail, the Victorian era was characterized by great moral and societal light. Wikipedia describes, “The spiritual reform closely linked to evangelical Christianity... imposed fresh moralistic values on society, such as Sabbath observance, responsibility, widespread charity, discipline in the home, and self-examination for the smallest faults and needs of improvement. Starting with the anti-slavery movement of the 1790s, the evangelical moralizers developed highly effective techniques of enhancing the moral sensibilities of all family members and reaching the public at large through intense, very well organized agitation and propaganda. They focused on exciting a personal revulsion against social evils and personal misbehaviour.”
However, this light became restricted during the Victoria era, which is described in the academic paper quoted above: “This change of mind involved the restriction of attention to natural phenomena, which provide science with its only data, and consequent neglect of (and even denial of) things supernatural. More than this, it involved an increasingly emphatic insistence that we support all our assertions by critical observation and experiment, and that we limit our inquiries to matters that may be settled by an appeal to empirical evidence. The first of these trends has been called ‘naturalism.’ The second has been variously called ‘scientism’ and ‘positivism.’” Notice that the tail of materialistic science is becoming detached from the dog of Christian belief.
Then means ‘only then’. Vanishing is used once in James and adds the prefix ‘not’ to ‘appear’. Thus, the glory that has appeared will stop appearing when its extent become sufficiently limited. The disappearing of Victorian life became obvious in the Second Boer War which started in 1899. The war was triggered by the discovery of gold in South Africa. The British responded to Boer guerrilla warfare with genocide. Wikipedia relates, “As Boer farms were destroyed by the British under their ‘Scorched Earth’ policy—including the systematic destruction of crops and slaughtering of livestock, the burning down of homesteads and farms—to prevent the Boers from resupplying from a home base, many tens of thousands of women and children were forcibly moved into the concentration camps. This was not the first appearance of internment camps... but the Boer War concentration camp system was the first time that a whole nation had been systematically targeted, and the first in which whole regions had been depopulated... The vast majority of Boers remaining in the local camps were women and children. Around 26,370 Boer women and children were to perish in these concentration camps.”
Wikipedia adds that the majority of Victorian society continued to support this war. “After the Boers switched to guerrilla warfare in 1900 and British forces adopted scorched earth policies, the intensity of rhetoric opposing the war escalated. However, at all times supporters of the war controlled the UK government and represented a majority of British public opinion. Outside the British Empire, the Boer cause won far more support, particularly from left-wing political circles... However, no foreign government chose to intervene in the conflict, which ended in 1902.” Thus, Victorian society that had responded earlier with moral indignation and extensive legislation to slavery and the abuse of factory workers continued to support a war that was inflicting genocide upon women and children.
Understanding versus Arrogant Boasting 4:15-17
Verse 15 describes what the attitude should be. “Instead you ought to say, ‘If the Lord should will, both we will live and we will do this or that.’” Instead is the word ‘anti’ which means ‘instead of, in place of’. ‘Say’ is the normal word for speech. Thus, one is supposed to take a different perspective. If ‘is used to introduce conditional clauses’. Lord indicates submission to authority. Will means ‘to desire, wish’. In other words, one needs to recognize the feelings of Teacher thought. Live is the verb form of ‘life’ used in verse 14 and is in the future tense. In other words, the continuation of the temporary life depends upon submitting to Teacher thought. Do is the word for action and is also in the future. ‘This or that’ means that this transcends specific Mercy experiences while the verbs indicate that Teacher thought needs to guide the processes and actions of society.
Scientific theories in Teacher thought were increasingly the source of new technology in Victorian society. For instance, electric telegraphs were invented in the 1840s and Morse code became the international standard in 1865. Telegraphs were a totally new invention developed as a result of electromagnetic theory which allowed people to send messages long distances for the first time. This was a technological example of social interaction being guided by Teacher emotions of order and structure.
A similar Victorian scientific approach to human well-being emerged with utilitarianism. Wikipedia explains that utilitarians “were not moralistic but scientific. Their movement, often called ‘Philosophic Radicalism,’ fashioned a formula for promoting the goal of ‘progress’ using scientific rationality, and business-like efficiency, to identify, measure, and discover solutions to social problems. The formula was an inquiry, legislation, execution, inspection, and report.... Evangelicals and utilitarians shared a basic middle-class ethic of responsibility and formed a political alliance.” Using rational investigation to guide moral progress is an example of saying ‘If the Lord wills, we will live and do’. Utilitarianism tends to be viewed today as a materialistic mindset that ignores religion and morality. However, 19th-century utilitarianism allied with evangelicals to introduce social reform. And it was also guided by facts and rational analysis, unlike much of the social activism today which focuses upon slogans and rejects factual analysis as prejudice. I examine 19th century utilitarianism further in an academic paper on John Stuart Mill.
This led to a desire to improve life through the doing of social gospel. In the words of Wikipedia, “In the late 19th century, many Protestants were disgusted by the poverty level and the low quality of living in the slums. The social gospel movement provided a religious rationale for action to address those concerns. Activists in the Social Gospel movement hoped that, if by public measures as well as enforced schooling, the poor could develop talents and skills, causing the quality of their moral lives to improve. Important concerns of the Social Gospel movement were labor reforms such as abolishing child labor and regulating the hours of work by mothers.” Again, a distinction needs to be made between a Teacher-based social gospel that extends the lordship of Christ to all areas of life and a Mercy-based social gospel that limits the Christian message to the physical realm of helping the disadvantaged. Verse 15 is talking about the former. And the fact that the social gospel turned into a material substitute for Christian belief illustrates the inadequate basis of Christianity mentioned in verse 14.
Verse 16 describes the attitude that actually exists. “But now you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil.” Boast means ‘living with head up high’. Arrogance is used twice in the New Testament and means ‘a vagabond making empty boasts about having cures to rid people of all their ills’. This boasting is epitomized by the concept of ‘the white man’s burden’, a poem written by Rudyard Kipling in 1899. Wikipedia explains, “The imperialist interpretation of ‘The White Man’s Burden’ (1899) proposes that the white race is morally obliged to civilise the non-white peoples of planet Earth, and to encourage their progress (economic, social, and cultural) through colonialism: The implication, of course, was that the Empire existed not for the benefit — economic or strategic or otherwise — of Britain, itself, but in order that primitive peoples, incapable of self-government, could, with British guidance, eventually become civilized (and Christianized).” Thus, at the same time that Victorian society was losing its moral light it became increasingly convinced that it was the source of moral and Christian light to ‘primitive peoples, incapable of self-government’.
Boasting is the noun form of the verb used earlier in the verse. Such means ‘such as this, such’. Evil means ‘pain-ridden, emphasizing the inevitable agonies that always go with evil’. All means ‘each part of a totality’. And ‘is’ is explicitly mentioned. In other words, there will be painful results and this will happen at a detailed level. The Encyclopedia Britannica summarizes the agonies that accompanied the late 19th century Scramble for Africa. “The effects of the Scramble for Africa on African peoples themselves were devastating, and they continue to be felt to the present day. For instance, it is estimated that as much as half the population of Leopold’s Congo Free State died under his brutal and deadly rule... In another example, from 1904 to 1907 the German colonial government undertook the genocide of the Herero and Nama peoples in German South West Africa, doing incalculable harm to those societies. Some studies have shown that the borders put in place by colonial powers that became the basis for national borders in the 20th century have had a measurable negative impact on the stability of various countries.” It is popular these days to regard all European colonization as evil and I think that this is an overstatement that disregards the facts. However, I think that one can conclude that the combination of Europe losing its moral light and viewing itself as the source of moral light led to extensive, long-term, pain-ridden agonies, and this is what verse 16 seems to be saying.
Verse 17 concludes, “Therefore to the one knowing to do good, and not doing, it is sin.” Therefore means that this verse proceeds logically from the previous verse. Know means ‘seeing that becomes knowing’ which is interpreted as empirical evidence. Good means ‘attractively good’. Doing is the word for Server actions. Stated simply, one has the technology to make gadgets that benefit people and one is not doing so. Sin means ‘to miss the mark’ and ‘is’ is explicitly mentioned.
This leads to the interesting conclusion that choosing not to pursue a consumer society at this point will cause people to become sinners at the level of being. A history website describes one aspect of the transformation that began at the end of the 19th century: “The last years of the nineteenth century witnessed a revolution in the nature of housework. Beginning in the 1880s, with the invention of the carpet sweeper, a host of new ‘labor-saving’ appliances were introduced. These included the electric iron (1903), the electric vacuum cleaner (1907), and the electric toaster (1912). At the same time, the first processed and canned foods appeared. In the 1870s, H.J. Heinz introduced canned pickles and sauerkraut; in the 1880s, Frano-American Co. introduced the first canned meals; and in the 1890s, Campbell’s sold the first condensed soups.” More generally, Wikipedia summarizes, “The period from 1870 to 1890 saw the greatest increase in economic growth in such a short period as ever in previous history. Living standards improved significantly in the newly industrialized countries as the prices of goods fell dramatically due to the increases in productivity.”
However, the same period was also characterized by a technologically-driven arms race. Wikipedia relates, “The late 19th and early 20th centuries witnessed a trend toward military mechanization, with the advent of repeating rifles with smokeless powder, long-range artillery, high explosives, machine guns, and mechanized transport along with telegraphic and later wireless battlefield communication. Still, independent inventors, scientists and engineers were largely responsible for these drastic changes in military technology.” Notice that these technological advances are coming primarily from individuals who can see with their eyes the new consumer conveniences that are being developed and are choosing instead to develop new ways of killing and destroying people.
A similar choice was being made at the national level as illustrated by the naval arms race between Britain and Germany. Wikipedia summarizes, “From 1897 to 1914, a naval arms race between the United Kingdom and Germany took place. British concern about rapid increase in German naval power resulted in a costly building competition of Dreadnought-class ships. This tense arms race lasted until 1914.” This naval arms race began with a book about imposing power upon weaker nations. Wikipedia relates, “In 1890, Alfred Thayer Mahan, an American naval officer and historian, published The Influence of Sea Power upon History, widely considered the most important work in modern naval strategy. Mahan argued that sea power was the deciding factor that allowed strong nations to thrive and impose their will on weaker nations, and that the proper way to achieve naval supremacy was large-scale battles between fleets... Kaiser Wilhelm II immediately subscribed to Mahan’s ideas after reading his book in 1894 and sought Reichstag funding to implement them.” Being driven by Mercy feelings of arrogance and domination to pursue Teacher-driven technology is an example of ‘arrogant boasting’.
Misery and Loss of Wealth 5:1-3
James 5 begins with a description of disaster. “Come now, you rich, weep, wailing over the miseries that are coming upon you.” ‘Come now’ is the same two Greek words that started the previous section in verse 4:13 and ‘come’ is in the imperative. The implication is that personal progress is lagging behind scientific and technological development. Rich means ‘fully resourced, rich’ and was previously used in 2:6 to describe the rich oppressing the poor, which was interpreted as princes oppressing peasants during the Protestant Reformation. Weep means ‘to weep aloud, expressing uncontainable, audible grief’ and was previously used in 4:9 to tell people of the early Industrial Revolution to stop focusing on progress and start thinking about the personal harm being caused by this progress. ‘Weep’ is in the imperative.
Verses 1 to 6 talk extensively about disaster, pain, and even slaughter. Thus, a simple glance at history indicates that this passage is referring to World War I. It is estimated that between 15 and 22 million people died in this war. But notice that war is not explicitly mentioned. Thus, it is possible that the crisis described in this section could have been fulfilled in a less brutal manner, such as some corporate elite deciding to exploit the masses. This is a significant point because it means that God is not the author of evil.
The command to weep is appropriate since World War I began with great enthusiasm because people thought that it would be a short war. A Hapsburg historical website observes, “At the beginning of the war there was enormous patriotic euphoria in all the countries concerned. The capitals witnessed patriotic rallies at which the most significant participating group was the urban middle class.” The article clarifies, “Although the ardent martial fervour that overcame large parts of Europe in the summer of 1914 is hardly comprehensible to us today, there were several reasons for the positive image that war possessed in the popular mind of the time. Firstly, nobody in Europe had any experience of the kind of industrialized ‘war of the masses’ that the First and Second World Wars turned out to be.” In other words, Western countries were now ‘fully resourced’ as a result of the Industrial Revolution, and nobody realized that the same industrial might that was bringing unprecedented wealth to the people could also bring unprecedented death and destruction.
This is partially because social development had lagged behind technical development. Hence the command to ‘come now’. The Hapsburg article describes this social lag. “Existing prejudices were intensified and new stereotypes of the enemy created. The Habsburg Monarchy presented itself as a superior ‘bulwark of civilization’, whose ‘honour’ had to be defended against the ‘barbarian East’, meaning the Serbs and the Russians. The alliance with the German Empire was continually invoked, principally with calls for the blind faith summed up in the watchword ‘Nibelungentreue’ (‘Nibelung loyalty’); and the rest was done by phenomena typical of the time such as social Darwinism (‘Only the strongest survive!’), the glorification of force, and the cult of manliness (‘soldier’s honour’)... There was very much less questioning of state orders than there is today. In most Central European states a patriarchal authoritarian state meant that large parts of the population were totally excluded from the decision-making process. Hardly any critical voices were raised in the media.” Thus, emotional appeals to MMNs of culture, dominance, and social expectation enforced by MMNs of government power were used to emotionally overwhelm Perceiver thought into ‘blind faith’.
A British Army website describes a similar initial enthusiasm. “The outbreak of war was largely greeted with popular acclaim in Britain. The public rallied around what they perceived to be a just cause. Around 30,000 men were enlisting every day by the end of August. Neither the Second World War (1939-45) nor more recent conflicts have generated anything like this degree of enthusiasm.”
Wail is used once in the New Testament and means ‘howl, cry out audibly, expressing feelings too intense for words’. ‘Wailing’ conveys the impression that this is an ongoing expression of sorrow. Misery is used twice in the New Testament and means ‘wretchedness resulting from ongoing, intense affliction’. It is in the plural indicating many forms of ongoing, intense affliction. Coming upon ‘stresses the fitting results of the coming’ and is in the present. And ‘you’ is explicitly mentioned.
The WWI encyclopedia explains that, unlike the average person, some experts recognized that a technological war would be long and bloody. “There was little awareness of the terrible effects of modern weapons or the fact that they would result in a long war, although books, articles and newspapers did refer to the negative impact a conflict might have. There were exceptions of course – famously Horatio Herbert Kitchener as well as Helmuth Karl Bernhard Graf von Moltke and Friedrich Engels had envisaged a long war; Jan Gotlib Bloch had predicted that modern war would prove long and an economic catastrophe. Western military observers, however, largely ignored the lessons of attrition and the difficulty of carrying out speedy offensives.” Von Moltke led the German army during the start of the war while Kitchener was British Secretary of War during the start of the war—he was also responsible for the concentration camps during the Second Boer War. This long brutality was a ‘coming upon’ because it was a ‘fitting result’ of technology and mass production.
Verse 2 describes an accompanying rottenness. “Your riches have rotted, and your garments have become moth-eaten.” Riches is the noun form of the adjective used in verse 1. Rot is used once in the New Testament and comes from a word meaning ‘to putrefy or to decay’. Verse 1 told the rich to weep. In verse 2, riches are being lost. Garment is used once in James and refers to ‘the outer garment’. This is interpreted as the ‘fabric’ of social interaction. Become means ‘to come into being’. Moth-eaten is used once in the New Testament and actually means ‘eaten with grain, grain-eating’. The idea of moth-eaten comes from associating this verb with ‘garments’ but the verb does not mention moths. Grain is interpreted as intellectual food. Thus, ‘grain eating garments’ would indicate social interaction that is both being dictated by and affecting intellectual food.
The continuation of war led to a rotting of riches as Victorian prosperity was replaced by wartime shortages. Quoting from one museum website, “Hunger stalked the civilian populations of all the combatant nations. Agriculture and food distribution suffered from strains imposed by the war and naval blockades reduced food imports. Some countries met this threat more successfully than others. The war took men and horses away from farm work. Imports of nitrate fertilizers were hit. Reduced agricultural output forced up prices and encouraged hoarding. Governments responded by putting price controls on staple foodstuffs. Food queues formed of women and children became a common sight in cities across Europe.”
More literally, Wikipedia also describes the putrefaction of the trenches. “The predominant disease in the trenches of the Western Front was trench fever. Trench fever was a common disease spread through the faeces of body lice, which were rampant in trenches... Entrenched soldiers also carried many intestinal parasites, such as ascariasis, trichuriasis and tapeworm. These parasites were common amongst soldiers, and spread amongst them, due to the unhygienic environment created by the common trench, where there were no true sewage management procedures. This ensured that parasites (and diseases) would spread onto rations and food sources that would then be eaten by other soldiers... The trenches were inhabited by millions of rats which were often responsible for the spread of diseases... Rats would feed on half-eaten or uneaten rations as well as corpses. Many soldiers were more afraid of rats than other horrors found in the trenches.”
Turning to the ‘grain eating garments’, the riches of industrial production were largely expended in creating the putrefying and decaying lunar landscape of the front lines. Quoting from Wikipedia, “The main killer in the trenches was artillery fire; around 75 percent of known casualties. Even if a soldier was not hit directly by the artillery, shell fragments and debris had a high chance of wounding those in close proximity to the blast. Artillery use increased tremendously during the war.”
Producing all these artillery shells required a war economy while motivating soldiers to be willing to get blown up required propaganda. The result was a total war that transformed the fabric of society. Wikipedia describes the propaganda. “One of the features of total war in Britain was the use of government propaganda posters to divert all attention to the war on the home front. Posters were used to influence public opinion about what to eat and what occupations to take, and to change the attitude of support towards the war effort.” Wikipedia also describes how the production of artillery shells dominated the economy. “The countries involved in the war applied the full force of industrial mass-production to the manufacture of weapons and ammunition, especially artillery shells. Women on the home-front played a crucial role in this by working in munitions factories. This complete mobilization of a nation's resources, or ‘total war’ meant that not only the armies, but also the economies of the warring nations were in competition. For a time, in 1914–1915, some hoped that the war could be won through an attrition of materiel—that the enemy’s supply of artillery shells could be exhausted in futile exchanges. But production was ramped up on both sides and hopes proved futile. In Britain the Shell Crisis of 1915 brought down the British government, and led to the building of HM Factory, Gretna, a huge munitions factory on the English-Scottish border.”
This total war fed upon the ‘grain’ of research and technology. Quoting from an American museum webpage, “The First World War, however, saw a breadth and scale of technological innovation of unprecedented impact. It was the first modern mechanized industrial war in which material resources and manufacturing capability were as consequential as the skill of the troops on the battlefield. Heavy artillery, machine guns, tanks, motorized transport vehicles, high explosives, chemical weapons, airplanes, field radios and telephones, aerial reconnaissance cameras, and rapidly advancing medical technology and science were just a few of the areas that reshaped twentieth century warfare.”
Verse 3 connects loss of wealth with responsibility, “Your gold and silver have corroded, and their rust will be for a testimony against you and will eat your flesh like fire.” Gold is mentioned once in James and represents the accumulation of wealth. Silver is also used once in James and represents economic exchange because ‘Silver was a common medium of exchange in the ancient world and is frequently mentioned in the context of transactions, offerings, and betrayal’. Corroded is used once in the New Testament and combines ‘down or against’ with ‘poison, venom, rust’. Rust is this same word ‘poison, venom, rust’.
Turning the First World War into a total war corroded both the ‘gold’ of accumulated wealth and the ‘silver’ of economic activity. Looking first at the ‘gold’, Wikipedia relates, “In all nations, the government's share of GDP increased, surpassing 50% in both Germany and France and nearly reaching that level in Britain. To pay for purchases in the US, Britain cashed in its extensive investments in American railroads and then began borrowing heavily from Wall Street.” Similarly in Germany, Wikipedia summarizes, “The cumulative impact of the First World War on the German economy was disastrous. The German economy shrank by approximately one-third during the war, with overall industrial production down by 40% compared to pre-war levels.
Looking now at the ‘silver’ of economic exchange, the WWI Encyclopedia elaborates, “Great Britain has demonstrated a good example of a state-directed industrial mobilization. Here state control transformed the economic order from a liberal, free-trade economy into a regulated welfare state... The institutions of such states as Germany, Austria-Hungary and Russia adopted a far more distinct statist design. In production and distribution of food, Germany was transformed into a Zwangswirtschaft (a compulsory economy), in which market forces completely yielded to the rule of the managers. Overall, in 1916-1918, German industrial economy operated more as a command system than a market economy. In Austria-Hungary, all major munitions workshops and mining establishments were supervised by military directors.” Stated simply, economic exchange was replaced by centrally controlled production.
For means ‘motion into’. And testimony means ‘eye- or ear-witness’. Will be is the verb ‘to be’ in the future. Eat means ‘to eat, consume’ and is in the future. Flesh is used once in James and ‘primarily refers to the physical body or flesh of a living creature’. Like means ‘as, like as’ which indicates a similarity. Fire is interpreted as frustrated motivation that consumes and purifies and was previously used in 3:6 to describe the tongue as a fire.
The economic decay and cost of World War I became a ‘testimony against them’ after the war was finished, especially for Germany, which was officially blamed for causing the destruction and forced to pay reparations. History.com summarizes, “Article 231, commonly called the war guilt clause, required Germany to accept responsibility for causing ‘all the loss and damage’ inflicted on the Allies. That provision became the basis for the Allies for demand that Germany pay reparations, which were set by a series of conferences in 1920 at $33 billion (about $423 billion in 2019 dollars). History.com explains, “Germany was already in deep financial trouble, due to the former imperial regime’s trick of printing a lot of currency and borrowing heavily to cover its military expenditures. The new German government, struggling under the weight of debt and budget deficits, defaulted on the payments in gold-backed marks that it was obligated to make. France then tried to put on the pressure by occupying the Ruhr, an industrial region in western Germany. That only exacerbated Germany’s economic chaos, and contributed to the hyperinflation that made the nation’s currency virtually worthless in 1923.” Notice that Germany became consumed by having to pay while France was obsessed with making the Germans pay.
Wikipedia describes the impact this had upon German culture. “As a consequence of World War I and the subsequent inflation... the new youth generation saw no point in saving for marriage in such conditions, and preferred instead to spend and enjoy. According to cultural historian Bruce Thompson, the Fritz Lang movie Dr. Mabuse the Gambler (1922) captures Berlin's postwar mood: The film moves from the world of the slums to the world of the stock exchange and then to the cabarets and nightclubs–and everywhere chaos reigns, authority is discredited, power is mad and uncontrollable, wealth inseparable from crime.” Notice how the fire of German hyperinflation and postwar uncertainty was consuming the flesh of normal human existence. This turned into a ‘fire that ate the flesh’ of Germany both economically and societally. Economically, the war debt combined with reparations led to a hyperinflation in 1923 that frustrated and corroded the flesh of German society.
All countries experienced a similar psychological effect, resulting in what is known as the Lost Generation. Wikipedia explains, “Beyond the extent of the deaths, the war had a profound effect on many of its survivors, giving many young men severe mental health problems and crippling physical disabilities. The war also unsettled many soldiers’ sense of reality, who had gone into the conflict with a belief that battle and hardship was a path to redemption and greatness. When years of pain, suffering, and loss seemed to bring about little in the way of a better future, many were left with a profound sense of disillusionment.”
Workmen Crying Out 5:3-4
Verse 3 finishes, “You have treasured up in the last days.” Treasured means ‘to lay up, store up’. Last means ‘last, final’. Day means ‘the period from sunrise to sunset’ and is interpreted as some cycle of society. This is the first use of this common word in James and it will be repeated in verse 5. This reference to ‘last days’ does not contain the definite article which suggests that it is describing a different ‘last days’ then ‘the last day’ mentioned elsewhere. In means ‘in the realm of’. The previous part of the verse referred to the future. This phrase looks at the past and says that the treasuring up of the past happened within the realm of ‘last days’.
The goal of World War I for most countries was to store up the treasure of empire but it was fought during the last days of Empire. Four empires fell as a result of this war: the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the German Empire, the Ottoman Empire, and the Russian Empire. The British Empire also started to fall apart as various British colonies sought either greater autonomy or independence as a reward for supporting the British in the war. Wikipedia summarizes, “When Britain declared war in 1914, the dominions were automatically at war; at the conclusion, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa were individual signatories of the Treaty of Versailles.” Similarly, one paper summarizes that “During the war, Indian subjects had contributed over one million soldiers and suffered influenza, plague, and famine. The possibility of a new relationship between those governing and those being governed led many Indians to demand an adherence to the rule of law, a guarantee of civil liberties, and the foundations of a government that was for and by the Indian people.” Stated simply, the European powers had been hoarding a currency that was in its last days of being accepted as money.
Verse 4 focuses upon long-term injustice. “Behold, the wage of the workmen having harvested your fields, having been kept back by you, cries out.” Behold indicates that something new is coming to light. A wage is ‘a reward that appropriately compensates’. Workman is used once in James and comes from the word that refers to internally motivated action. Harvested is used once in the New Testament and comes from a word meaning ‘at the same time’, implying the idea of collecting in a collective manner. Field means ‘a wide-open area’ and is in the plural. One normally harvests grain, and grain is interpreted as intellectual food. However, the focus here is upon combining individual efforts within some ‘field’. Kept back means to ‘keep away from someone’. Cry out is used once in James and means ‘cry out loudly with an urgent scream or shriek’. On the one hand, workmen are being internally motivated, but on the other hand, these workmen are not harvesting their own fields but rather the fields of others. Notice also that the appropriate compensation is shrieking and not the workmen.
This combination happened often within World War I but is exemplified by the Canadians at Vimy Ridge. Wikipedia describes the context, “The battle occurred from 9 to 12 April 1917, marking the commencement of the Battle of Arras and serving as the inaugural assault of the Nivelle Offensive... The Canadian Corps were to capture the German-held high ground of Vimy Ridge, an escarpment on the northern flank of the Arras front.” Canadian success helped to define Canadian identity. Quoting from Wikipedia, “Historians attribute the success of the Canadian Corps to technical and tactical innovation, meticulous planning, powerful artillery support and extensive training, as well as the inability of the 6th Army to properly apply the new German defensive doctrine. The battle was the first occasion when the four divisions of the Canadian Expeditionary Force fought together and it was made a symbol of Canadian national achievement and sacrifice.” This was a ‘behold’ because a new Canadian identity emerged as a result of collective efforts of Canadian troops working together for the first time. This working together involved harvesting intellectual knowledge because it exhibited ‘technical and tactical innovation’.
It was also an example of ‘workmen’ because of the ‘extensive training’ of troops. Quoting from Wikipedia. “The corps implemented the tactical doctrine for small units by assigning objectives down to the platoon. Assaulting infantry battalions used hills behind the lines as full-scale models of the battlefield... Recognizing that leaders were likely to be wounded or killed, soldiers learned the jobs of those beside and above them. At the First Army headquarters, a large plasticine model of the Vimy sector was constructed and used to show commissioned and senior non-commissioned officers the topographical features of the battlefield and details of the German trench system. Upwards of 40,000 topographical trench maps were printed and distributed to ensure that even platoon sergeants and section commanders possessed a wider awareness of the battlefield.” Instead of following orders in a blind fashion, low-level officers were given an understanding of the situation that enabled self-initiated action, and soldiers were taught the jobs of those beside them. However, this was being done in the fields of Europe as part of the British war effort. The result was a sudden emotional recognition that this Canadian example of independent coordinated action needed to be recompensed by a recognition of Canada as an independent entity.
A similar sudden crying out happened with Australia and New Zealand at Gallipoli. Wikipedia summarizes, “The significance of the Gallipoli campaign is felt strongly in both Australia and New Zealand, despite their being only a portion of the Entente forces; the campaign is regarded in both nations as a ‘baptism of fire’ and had been linked to their emergence as independent states. Approximately 50,000 Australians served at Gallipoli and from 16,000 to 17,000 New Zealanders. It has been argued that the campaign proved significant in the emergence of a unique Australian identity following the war, which has been closely linked to popular conceptualisations of the qualities of the soldiers that fought during the campaign, which became embodied in the notion of an ‘Anzac spirit’.”
Looking beyond the British Commonwealth, a similar emerging of national identity happened with Poland. Wikipedia explains, “In June 1914, Józef Piłsudski had correctly predicted that the war would ruin all three of the partitioners, a conclusion often considered unlikely before 1918. Piłsudski therefore formed the Polish Legions to assist the Central Powers in defeating Russia as the first step toward full independence for Poland.” Notice the same combination of functioning as an integrated unit in order to be recognized as an independent entity.
Verse 4 finishes, “And the cries of those having harvested have entered into the ears of the Lord of Hosts.” Cry is different than the word used earlier in the verse, it is used once in the New Testament and ‘expresses strong feelings’. Harvested is also a different term that means ‘summer or harvest’. Into means ‘motion into’. Ear means ‘ear’ and is used once in James. Enter means ‘to enter, to go into’. Hosts is used twice in the New Testament and is actually derived from a Hebrew word that means ‘hosts or armies’.
This describes the recognition of national identities that happened after the war during the Paris peace negotiations. These negotiations were controlled by the four major Allied powers—the ‘lord of hosts’ of the existing world. However, these lords of armies were not functioning as armies but rather were verbally discussing the fate of the world. And national identity became a major guiding principle that ‘entered into the ears’ of these lords. Previously, specific ‘baptisms of fire’ were screaming out for national identity. Here, these groups are applying a more long-term emotional pressure. The previous emphasis was upon some collective action of harvesting. Here there is a season of harvest in which everyone is reaping the results from their previous efforts.
Wikipedia describes the domination of this conference by ‘lords of hosts’. “Dominated by the leaders of Britain, France, the United States and Italy, the conference resulted in five treaties that rearranged the maps of Europe and parts of Asia, Africa and the Pacific Islands, and also imposed financial penalties.” Wikipedia also describes the cries of those who had harvested. “The dominion governments were not originally given separate invitations to the conference and had been expected to send representatives as part of the British delegation. Convinced that Canada had become a nation on the battlefields of Europe, Prime Minister Sir Robert Borden demanded that it have a separate seat at the conference. That was initially opposed not only by Britain but also by the United States, which saw any Dominion delegation as an extra British vote. Borden responded by pointing out that since Canada had lost nearly 60,000 men, a far larger proportion of its men than the 50,000 American men lost, it had at least the right to the representation of a ‘minor’ power. Lloyd George eventually relented and persuaded the reluctant Americans to accept the presence of delegations from Canada, India, Australia, Newfoundland, New Zealand, and South Africa, and that those countries receive their seats in the League of Nations.”
More generally, the concept of self-determination ‘entered the ears’ of the leaders. A historical website clarifies, “As Wilson arrived in France in December, 1918, he ignited great hopes throughout the world with his stirring Fourteen Points – especially the groundbreaking concept of ‘self-determination.’ Yet, Wilson … seemed vague as to what his own phrase actually meant. No clear explanation of ‘self-determination’ was ever provided by Woodrow Wilson. Many inspirationally perceived it to mean an identified grouping of people should have the liberty to create the government it would like. Deep conflict occurs upon implementation when determinations must be made on what identifies a ‘grouping of people’ and what rights are provided with ‘liberty.’” Verse 4 does not say that the cries of the harvesters will be rewarded but it does say that these cries will ‘enter the ears’ of the leaders.
Fat Hearts versus Righteousness 5:5-6
Verse 5 describes luxury in a time of slaughter. “You lived in luxury and lived in self-indulgence upon the earth.” Notice that this is in the past tense, indicating that some earlier mindset is being described. Lived in luxury is used once in the New Testament and means ‘breakdown of character from living in luxury’. Earth means ‘physical earth; the arena we live in which operates in space and time’ and is interpreted as rational materialistic human thought. Lived in self-indulgence is used twice in the New Testament and ‘The modern term ‘fast,’ in which the notion of prodigality and wastefulness is more prominent than that of sensual indulgence, exactly expresses the significance of this word.’ This describes a consumerism based in material science and technology which leads to a breakdown in internal character which is being compensated by a continual stream of new-and-improved gadgets. People lack the ability to enjoy these new gadgets and so novelty is substituting for appreciation.
Living in luxury and self-indulgence describes the mindset that pervaded Europe before the war, known as the Belle Époque. An art website portrays the decadent luxury of this era. “An era where a regular stream of new inventions made life more pleasurable, and the sense that anything was possible was pervasive. Such was the atmosphere of the Belle Epoque, or ‘Beautiful Era,’ a luxurious period that blanketed the European continent between the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Modern conveniences, combined with new trends to transform many cities, but most famously Paris, into scenes of unimaginable decadence. At the same time, art and design flourished, producing novel styles that are still captivating today.” Another art website focuses upon the moral decadence. “An era defined by hedonism, sexual liberation and the fading of social barriers... the 1880s and 1890s across Europe were just that. They were to be known in hindsight as La Belle Époque – an era of great optimism that began at the end of the Franco-Prussian war in 1871 and ended at the outbreak of the First World War in 1914... Paris, with its nightclubs, artistic communities and a joie de vivre (joy of living) ideology, was the epicentre of the era. And it was here, on the hill of Montmartre overlooking the city, that a new group of bohemian painters captured the essence of that time.” More generally, “It was a period characterised by optimism, enlightenment, regional peace, economic prosperity, nationalism, colonial expansion, and technological, scientific and cultural innovations. In this era of France’s cultural and artistic climate (particularly in Paris of that time), the arts markedly flourished, and numerous masterpieces of literature, music, theatre and visual art gained extensive recognition.” Notice the interplay of technological advancement and artistic expression, living luxuriously upon the ‘earth’ of human rational thought.
Verse 5 continues, “You have fattened your hearts in the day of slaughter.” Fatten means ‘to nourish, to feed, to bring up’. The heart represents personal identity in Mercy thought. ‘Fattening your hearts’ means fully satisfying personal identity in Mercy thought. Day is interpreted as some era of society. Slaughter is used once in James and means ‘to slay or slaughter, often in the context of a sacrificial or violent death’. ‘The’ is not in the original Greek and so this is a day of slaughter.
World War I can be summarized as a ‘day of slaughter’. A historical website describes the peak of slaughter in 1916. “Germany planned to draw the French into an enormous, grinding battle that would drain them of men and supplies. They launched this effort in February by attacking at Verdun. For the next ten months, the armies threw millions of men and countless tons of firepower at each other... In the end, the Germans... had inflicted 370,000 casualties while suffering nearly the same number themselves, all for a gain of about three miles... The Battle of Somme was shorter, but even more violent and just as futile. The Somme was the first major action for the Britain’s new armies. On July 1, the first day of the battle, the attacking British suffered 57,000 casualties, with almost 20,000 deaths. Some units lost over 90% of their men in just minutes... The Allied attacks were finally halted in November by bad weather. In four and a half months they had advanced six miles, at a cost of over 600,000 casualties.”
Verse 5 does not say that people are becoming rich or fat but rather that their hearts are being fattened. This is evident in the propaganda that characterized all sides in World War I. A University website summarizes, “Between 1914 and 1918, war propaganda was virtually unavoidable. It came in many different forms, including posters, pamphlets and leaflets, magazine articles and advertisements, short films and speeches, and door-to-door campaigning. Print propaganda blanketed the nation, in both rural and urban areas, covering walls, windows, taxis and kiosks... Propaganda often incorporated national symbols and figures that drew on each nation’s history and mythology. Propaganda also employed depictions of the enemy to scare citizens into action and strengthen national resolve. These images were also used to justify the war, recruit men to fight, and raise war loans. A successful poster allowed for only one interpretation.” Notice how the heart of personal identity is being fattened with MMNs of history, mythology, fear, and resolve conveyed through endless images that blanket the concrete world of Mercy experiences.
Verse 6 concludes, “You have condemned and have put to death the righteous; he does not resist you.” Condemned is used once in James and means ‘to condemn, to pass judgment against’. Put to death means ‘to kill, murder’ and has been used several times in James. This is the first use of the word righteous in James. This is significant because Protestantism began with the doctrine of being declared righteous by faith. Righteousness is defined as Server actions being guided by Teacher understanding. Resist combines ‘opposite to’ with ‘arrange, order’ and was previously used in 4:6 to describe God resisting the proud, which was interpreted as science setting up an alternate structure to existing scholasticism.
Verse 6 does not say that people are kind or good or loving but rather that they are righteous. We saw when looking at Gustavus Adolphus that he managed to tame the soldier by imposing Christian morality. World War I produced the righteous soldier who learned how to function intelligently within the modern, structured world of technology. This process of training is illustrated by Lord Kitchener’s Army, which turned about two million British citizens into soldiers between 1914-1916. (This was the same Kitchener who set up the concentration camps in the Second Boer War). Quoting a few excerpts from a historical website, “Over many tough months, the volunteers left their old lives far behind. They learned military discipline, drill and how to fight with rifle and bayonet... Their lives were now controlled by the Army. Men from every walk of life, from clerks and teachers to factory and shop workers, were crammed together. For many it was their first time away from home... The time spent in training created a spirit of comradeship as soldiers became familiar with each other's habits and lives, and men learned to operate as a cohesive unit... Each soldier carried a message from Lord Kitchener in his pay book, reminding him to be ‘courteous, considerate and kind’ to local people and allied soldiers, and to avoid ‘the temptations both in wine and women’.” These men were all condemned to trench warfare and 20,000 were ‘put to death’ on the first day of the battle of the Somme.
The country with the highest level of government murder was Bulgaria. The Encyclopedia Britannica summarizes, “By the autumn of 1918, approximately 900,000 Bulgarian men, nearly 40 percent of the male population, had been conscripted. The army suffered 300,000 casualties, including 100,000 killed, the most severe per capita losses of any country involved in the war.” ‘Put to death’ is especially appropriate in this case because Bulgarian leaders chose to enter the war. “When World War I began, Bulgaria declared strict neutrality, but the tsar and a Germanophile government under Vasil Radoslavov encouraged both sides to bid for Bulgarian intervention.”
Looking more closely at troop righteousness, Wikipedia explains, “In the first part of the war, the standard assault on a trench line consisted of a lengthy artillery barrage all along the line, attempting to smash the enemy positions, followed by a rush forward of infantry in massed lines to overwhelm any remaining defenders. This process either failed, or at most gained only a short distance, while incurring enormous casualties.” The endless slaughter led Germany to develop storm troopers who were better trained and had more personal initiative. Wikipedia adds, “The creation of these units was the first, and perhaps most innovative, attempt by the German army to break out of the impasse of trench warfare. With the use of well-trained soldiers, commanded by NCOs with autonomous decision-making capacity, an attempt was made to traverse no man’s land and to break through enemy lines in predefined points.” Similarly, “The British Army standard training manual for platoon tactics, SS 143, was used from February 1917 onwards and contained much of what was standard for German shock troops.” Looking at this cognitively, a distinction can be made between self-initiated behavior and righteousness. Self-initiated behavior means that I am choosing to follow internal goals within Mercy thought. Righteousness means that my Server actions are being guided by general theories in Teacher thought. These two can and should go together but they are not the same.
Turning to the resistance, the British did not suffer any major mutinies during World War I. One website attempts to explain why. “At the times when conditions and catastrophic events were most expected to provoke unrest, the soldiers in the British army were largely volunteers from Kitchener’s New Armies and conscripts... Embracing the full width of British society, from the landed aristocrat to the rural labourer, most of the soldiers of the New Armies and the conscripts had families and friends at home with whom they had strong emotional and family ties. They were unlikely to behave in any way liable to bring disgrace to themselves or their family. Also, all were used to an authoritative society strongly dependent on deference. These ‘for the duration’ soldiers both knew their place and understood the expectation that they maintain it. Orders were orders, be they ever so irrational, providing they were considered legal and morally right.” Notice that the righteousness of allowing Server actions to be governed by Teacher order and structure is present but not necessarily the self-initiated behavior of deciding to act on my own initiative. Notice also the reference to Lord Kitchener’s army.
In contrast, about half of the French Army mutinied in 1917 but even here they did not set up an alternate structure. According to Wikipedia, “The mutinies and associated disruptions involved, to various degrees, nearly half of the French infantry divisions stationed on the Western Front. The term ‘mutiny’ does not precisely describe events; soldiers remained in trenches and were willing to defend but refused orders to attack.” Instead, soldiers wanted officers to be guided by a Teacher understanding of how modern warfare worked. Wikipedia clarifies, “Even in regiments in which there was direct confrontation, such as the 74th Infantry Regiment, the men did not harm their officers but refused to attack. Most mutineers were veterans who did not refuse to fight but wanted the military authorities to be more attentive to the realities of modern war. The soldiers had come to believe that the attacks they were ordered to make were futile.” Notice that the soldiers were more righteous than their leaders. The leaders were attempting in a futile manner to reach Mercy goals, while the soldiers wanted their Server actions to be guided by a Teacher understanding of ‘the realities of modern war’.
Before leaving the horrors of World War I, it needs to be re-emphasized what James 5 is and is not saying. It is saying that an economic and political elite will become corrupted by technology and exploit those who use and develop technology. This system of the elite will become obsolete as users of technology become self-initiated and self-aware. The elite will attempt to prop up their obsolete system through propaganda while their followers will become righteous. This could have happened through some form of economic exploitation. Thus, James is not saying that God has ordained horrific warfare, even though that is how this passage became fulfilled in history.
The reader may have noticed that our discussion of World War I did not refer to the church. That is because most Protestant churches in most countries heartily endorsed the propaganda and resulting carnage. The WWI Encyclopedia summarizes, “When war finally broke out in 1914, the majority of church officials and prominent clerics in the public sphere devoted themselves to the interests of the state. Underpinning this mindset was the belief shared by all sides that they were fighting a just war of defense against aggression. This war of civilization included religious rationales, with official churches as a key element in heightening ideological hatreds during the conflict... Churches took leading roles in disseminating official propaganda. In the military, courses in ‘Patriotic Instruction’ were often led by clerics and military officers, stressing the need for obedience to the state... On the home front, religious education fostered loyalty to the state.” Thus, discussing the Protestant church at this point means discussing the war from a secular viewpoint, because the Protestant church had largely become a cheerleader for the state. Consistent with this interpretation, the word ‘brother’ is not used in verses 1-6.
In contrast, the Catholic Church took an active role in promoting peace and helping the hurting. Quoting further from the WWI Encyclopedia, “Though Benedict XV strongly denounced the war as a ‘catastrophe’ and the ‘suicide of civilized Europe,’ the pontiff’s actions spoke louder than his words. Indeed, the Great War was a milestone in the Catholic Church’s advancement as an activist humanitarian institution, relatively impartial to party politics. Benedict XV nearly bankrupted the Vatican coffers in his efforts to secure aid for prisoners of war, displaced persons, and refugees.”
However, Protestantism did play a positive role after the war because Woodrow Wilson’s attempt to found the League of Nations was motivated by his Christian faith. Quoting from the official presidential library, “He conceived of such things and many more—all in the League of Nations’ Covenant—as an application of Christ’s law to national affairs. This was the public climax of Woodrow Wilson’s Christianity. Other Christians had dreamed before of a government of the world in accordance with the precepts of the Lord Jesus, but here was a man in great power, consecrated to the service of his country and of Christ, and perceiving that the time had come when nothing but the law of Christ could preserve nations from repetitions of the madness and bloodshed of the Great War.”
Patience and Growth 5:7-8
The next section focuses upon patience. Verse 7 begins, “Therefore be patient, brothers, until the coming of the Lord.” Patience means ‘long-tempered, refusing to retaliate with anger, because of human reasoning’. This is in the imperative which implies that people have a choice. Coming means ‘coming, presence, arrival’. It is used 24 times in the New Testament with about two thirds of these referring to the coming of the Lord. This is interpreted in evangelical circles as a single event that will happen during ‘the rapture’. However, a more careful reading indicates there is more than one coming. The phrase ‘coming of the Lord’ occurs twice in James, in this verse and in the next.
Looking at this historically, a ‘coming of the lord’ did begin with the League of Nations. The mandate of the League of Nations was to improve living conditions and replace war with negotiation. Quoting from Wikipedia, “The League’s primary goals were stated in its eponymous Covenant. They included preventing wars through collective security and disarmament and settling international disputes through negotiation and arbitration. Its other concerns included labour conditions, just treatment of native inhabitants, human and drug trafficking, the arms trade, global health, prisoners of war, and protection of minorities in Europe.” Notice the emphasis upon improving the life of the oppressed. And although the League failed to prevent World War II and was ultimately replaced by the UN, it did have some impact. Wikipedia relates, “Even though the League failed to achieve its main goal of world peace, it did manage to build new roads towards expanding the rule of law across the globe; strengthened the concept of collective security, gave a voice to smaller nations; fostered economic stabilisation and financial stability, especially in Central Europe in the 1920s; helped to raise awareness of problems like epidemics, slavery, child labour, colonial tyranny, refugee crises and general working conditions... and paved the way for new forms of statehood, as the mandate system put the colonial powers under international observation.” Thus, the League of Nations did improve life for vulnerable people, smaller countries, and colonies. This may not qualify as a ‘coming of the lord’, but it was a definite precursor. And we just saw that Woodrow Wilson, who played a major role in setting up the League of Nations, explicitly viewed this league as a coming of the Lord of Christianity.
However, many groups did not exhibit patience and the postwar period was characterized by numerous revolts where people chose to retaliate with anger rather than be long-tempered. Wikipedia summarizes, “Revolutions of 1917–1923 were a revolutionary wave that included political unrest and armed revolts around the world inspired by the success of the Russian Revolution and the disorder created by the aftermath of World War I. The uprisings were mainly socialist or anti-colonial in nature. Most socialist revolts failed to create lasting socialist states.” And the Wikipedia article gives a list of about 70 revolts or revolutions that occurred during this postwar period, the main one being the Communist revolution in Russia.
Verse 7 continues, “Behold, the farmer awaits the precious fruit of the earth.” Behold implies that something is appearing. Farmer is used once in James and combines ‘earth’ with ‘self-initiated worker’. ‘Earth’ represents the physical realm of rational thought, which means that a farmer is attempting to develop self-initiated action within the physical realm. Await combines ‘from out of’ with ‘welcome’ and is used once in James. Fruit means ‘fruit’ and implies that something attractive and tasty is gradually growing at the level of mental networks. It was used previously in 3:17-18 which was interpreted as the legacy of the kindness shown by William the Puritan. Precious is used once in James and comes from the ‘word meaning honor or value’. Personal status and religious authority assign emotional importance in Mercy thought. Value, in contrast, recognizes that something has inherent emotional status. Earth is then explicitly mentioned, which is interpreted as the ‘solid ground’ of physical reality.
Applying this to the historical context, true independence is not something that is simply given or taken. Instead, it is something that has to grow over time. One cannot simply declare that everyone is valuable. Instead, one has to create a climate that encourages people to become valuable. And in the post-World War I era, this involved the earth of political, economic, and physical development.
The League of Nations attempted to exhibit such patience with the former colonies of the defeated powers. Quoting from Wikipedia, “At the end of the First World War, the Allied Powers were confronted with the question of the disposal of the former German colonies in Africa and the Pacific, and the several Arabic-speaking provinces of the Ottoman Empire. Many British and French leaders wanted to annex colonies of the defeated Central Powers, but U.S. President Woodrow Wilson strongly insisted that instead of annexation, these territories should be assisted under League of Nations supervision in achieving self-governance and eventual independence depending on the inhabitants’ choices.” Thus, Wilson, motivated by his Christian ideals, convinced European powers to recognize that the ultimate goal for these mandates was self-governance and independence. Wikipedia adds that “Most of these territories did not begin to gain their independence until after the Second World War, in a process that did not end until 1990”, indicating that substantial patience was required.
Verse 7 finishes, “Being patient for it until it receives the early and latter rains.” Patient is the same word that was used at the beginning of verse 7, but in this case it is the farmer that is being patient. Until means that this patience has a final goal. Received means to ‘actively lay hold of’ which implies that initiative is required. Early is used once in the New Testament and combines ‘before’ with ‘day’. ‘Rain’ is implied by the context. Latter is also used once in the New Testament and comes from a word that means ‘late or evening’. Looking at this cognitively, self-initiated action does not emerge instantly. It usually begins with some decision to be self-initiated but this is only a first step that occurs ‘before the day’. A person or group that is given independence at this point lacks the rational thinking that is required to function intelligently. Instead, this first choice needs to be followed by a ‘day’ during which the fruit of value grows from the earth of rational existence. When this day is coming to an end then it is appropriate to recognize the value of what has developed. At this point, one is not so much giving independence as recognizing independence. Independence then becomes a graduating from dependence rather than a rebelling from dependence.
Canada provides an example of this gradual road to independence. We saw earlier that Canadian success at Vimy Ridge created a sense of Canadian identity and that Canada had a separate seat at the Paris peace conference. That was the ‘early’. Going further, History.com relates that “In 1931, the U.K. put Canada on equal footing with other Commonwealth countries through the Statute of Westminster, which essentially gave its dominions full legal freedom and equal standing with Great Britain and one another. However, Britain still had the ability to amend the Canadian constitution, and Canada took time to cut its legal ties to Great Britain. Meanwhile, it adopted its own national symbols, like the Canadian flag, featuring the maple leaf, which debuted in 1965.” Notice the gradual growing of independence. The ‘latter’ finally came in 1982. “It took five decades after the Statute of Westminster for Canada to make its final step toward full sovereignty. In 1982, it adopted its own constitution and became a completely independent country.”
India followed a path to independence that that was a combination of patience and anger. Wikipedia explains, “The British themselves adopted a ‘carrot and stick’ approach in response to renewed nationalist demands. The means of achieving the proposed measure were later enshrined in the Government of India Act 1919, which introduced the principle of a dual mode of administration, or diarchy, in which elected Indian legislators and appointed British officials shared power. In 1919, Colonel Reginald Dyer ordered his troops to fire their weapons on peaceful protestors, including unarmed women and children... The massacre was a decisive episode towards the end of British rule in India.” Dual administration is an example of the ‘farmer’ growing valuable fruit, while the massacre is an example of the ‘farmer’ lacking patience.
Verse 8 continues with the theme of patience. “You also be patient; strengthen your hearts, because the coming of the Lord has drawn near.” Both verse 7 and verse 8 begin with the same imperative to ‘be patient’ implying that this is a choice. Strengthen is used once in James and comes from a word that means ‘a support that fixes, plants down’. Heart refers to personal identity and was previously used in verse 5 which referred to ‘fattening your hearts’. In verse 8, the hearts of personal identity need to grow solid roots. In other words, traditions of behaving in a self-initiated manner need to be established.
The Indian Administrative Service (IAS) provides an example of this principle. A 2013 Guardian article reminisces, “The IAS owes it structure to the British India Civil Service, the ICS, which administered the country as a colonial possession from 1858 until 1947 through the district-officer system... Lloyd George called it ‘the steel frame on which the whole structure of our government and of our administration in India rests’, and the IAS has kept the steel frame pretty much intact... The IAS still possesses a nobility that comes from its long and dutiful record of public service, and the people who join it do seem touched by idealism.” In other words, the British civil service formed MMNs of honest public duty that sent down deep emotional roots which continued to have an impact fifty years after independence.
‘The coming of the Lord’ is the same phrase that was used in verse 7 but in verse 8 it is described as drawn near. The implication is that the development of independence will eventually be accompanied by a rule of law that recognizes this independence. Verse 8 does not say that this lordship has arrived but rather describes how one should respond to its imminence. One should prepare for this transition by setting up institutions that will survive the transition to independence. A 1997 academic paper supports this advice. Quoting from the abstract, “In a sample of 63 ex-colonial states from 1961-1990, I find that colonies that were held for longer periods of time than other countries tend to perform better, on average, after independence. Finally, I show that the level of education at the time of independence can help to explain much of the development gap between the former British and French colonies in Africa.” A longer period of time allows deeper mental networks to form, while a higher level of education encourages the development of internally-generated behavior and righteousness.
There is another aspect to ‘strengthen your hearts’ that relates to eugenics. The genome website summarizes, “By the 1920s, eugenics had become a global movement. There was popular, elite and governmental support for eugenics in Germany, the United States, Great Britain, Italy, Mexico, Canada and other countries. Statisticians, economists, anthropologists, sociologists, social reformers, geneticists, public health officials and members of the general public supported eugenics through a variety of academic and popular literature.” Stated simply, eugenics was universally accepted and promoted during the interwar period. The basic premise of eugenics is that strengthening physical breeding is more important than strengthening the heart. This is a natural error when the fruit of value is growing upon the earth of human rational thought, because people will focus upon physical development rather than emotional and spiritual development.
Before continuing further, the idea of associating the coming of the Lord with the League of Nations needs to be discussed. That is because many evangelicals viewed the League of Nations as the coming of the Antichrist and not as the coming of the Lord. Quoting from one academic chapter, “The Protestant community’s most active and passionate opponents of the League of Nations were the dispensational premillennialists. They were anti-internationalists long before the Covenant of the League of Nations had even been sketched, let alone publicly discussed, and much that the Social Gospel campaigns helped fuel their opposition, it is safe to assume that they would have resisted the League even had their liberal rivals not been its apologists. In the course of World War I, they developed a distinct premillennialist critique of internationalism from which few in later generations of prophecy thinkers diverged.” Similarly, the prophecy literature that I read as a youth regarded the European common market as a harbinger of the kingdom of the Antichrist.
This belief can be explained cognitively using the analogy of the dog and the tail. Initially, the dog of Christianity gave birth to the tail of science. During the Enlightenment, the tail started to wag the dog and the tail became detached from the dog during the Victorian era, which replaced the ‘dog’ of Christianity with the ‘monkey’ of evolution. The resulting social Darwinism was at least partially responsible for the horrors of World War I. The secular world then recoiled in horror and grew a new ‘puppy’ based in universal principles of morality. The League of Nations was an expression of this new puppy of universal morality. Evangelical Christianity responded to the separating of dog and tail in the Victorian era by inventing the imaginary ‘tail’ of the rapture, popularized by John Darby. Evangelicals believed that God would eventually rapture Christian believers out from the secular world to some heavenly realm, where the ‘dog’ of Christianity would once again wag the ‘tail’ of a heavenly kingdom of God. Thus, evangelicals viewed the ‘puppy’ of the League of Nations as a false dog—or antichrist.
Saying this more rigorously, science and technology use technical thought within some limited context. This leaves an emotional vacuum within the Mercy realm of subjective identity as well as the Teacher realm of universal order. Evangelical Christianity fills this emotional vacuum with the concept of personal identity in Mercy thought forming a relationship with a concept of God in Teacher thought. For instance, the rapture teaches that those who have a personal relationship with God in Mercy thought will ultimately be saved out of the secular realm of science and technology to live within a heavenly realm of Teacher thought. The rapture is viewed as a magical supra-technological process which will lead to a heavenly realm that transcends science. Notice the mental split between what has become the ghost of a dog in Teacher and Mercy thought and the well-developed tail of science and technology. This predicament happened naturally because, as we have seen in this essay, Christian theology has never been that well-developed and most of what one studies in theology is actually the history of theology.
Going further, whenever science and technology extend beyond specializations to form general Teacher theories that apply to Mercy identity, then this is regarded by evangelicals as humans invading the realm of God. Thus, the League of Nations was regarded as a potential antichrist that was invading the realm of God. Similarly, the European common market committed the same ‘crime’ of invading the realm of Teacher generality in a rational manner. Moving forward, evangelicals tend to be skeptical of global warming, because this is another example of a rational worldwide theory that affects people personally in Mercy thought. Similarly, evangelicals regarded the covid lockdown and vaccine with skepticism, because it was being implemented in a rational, international manner that affected people at a subjective level.
One would think that evangelical Christians would appreciate these essays because they present an interpretation of biblical prophecy that is far more detailed and far more consistent with the biblical text than anything that has been written before. But these essays utterly violate this evangelical split by reconnecting the ‘wrong’ kind of dog with the ‘wrong’ kind of tail; they present God as a rational being who uses cognitive mechanisms, respects science, and appreciates international order. They also describe the ‘magical’ doctrines of Christianity as a rational process of cognitive transformation. Thus, the average evangelical would rather support the pathologically-lying, self-worshipping, law-breaking, factually-ignorant Donald Trump than even consider the idea that God is a rational being and that the Bible and prophecy can be understood rationally. Thus, I now feel rationally, morally, socially, psychologically, cognitively, scripturally, and theologically justified in suggesting that the League of Nations was not the antichrist but rather an initial partial stage in the coming of the Lord. Plus, behavior such as this strengthens my feeling that I am writing an obituary about evangelical Christianity.
Grumbling versus Persevering 5:9-11
Verse 9 follows with a warning. “Do not grumble against one another, brothers, so that you may not be condemned.” Grumble is used once in James and means ‘to groan because of pressure of being exerted forward’. The idea is that people do not want to be patient but are rather expressing their frustration. One another means that this grumbling is mutual and that groups are viewing each other as sources of frustration. So that provides a motivation for not grumbling. Condemned is the word ‘judge’ which means ‘to pick out by separating’.
The German ‘stab in the back’ myth provides an example of grumbling. Wikipedia explains that this “was an antisemitic and anti-communist conspiracy theory that was widely believed and promulgated in Germany after 1918. It maintained that the Imperial German Army did not lose World War I on the battlefield, but was instead betrayed by certain citizens on the home front.” A PBS article examines this reasoning further. “For many other Germans, the stab-in-the-back idea seemed to make sense. German leaders had never admitted how badly the war was going in the west... So the idea that Germany had been betrayed by cunning enemies became an easy way to explain failures for which no one among the German elite would accept responsibility... Many of Germany’s losses under the Treaty of Versailles were more severe symbolically than they were in practice... Reparation payments did not wreck the German economy, but they did provide a popular grievance around which German nationalists could focus the German people’s antagonisms toward their European neighbors... France and Belgium had the additional burden of rebuilding their countries, where much of the fighting in the west had occurred. Very little actual fighting happened in Germany, so German cities, roads, factories, and farms were intact... [But] Instead of teaching people to respect the new republic, professors, teachers, and pastors stirred up resentments against it and encouraged nostalgia for old times.” In other words, Germany survived the losses of defeat and, unlike France and Belgium, it was physically intact. But it was psychologically vulnerable to grumbling.
Verse 9 finishes by portraying a time of choice, “Behold, the Judge is standing before the doors.” Behold indicates the appearance of something new. The previous phrase talked about impending judgment. A judge is a person who executes judgment. Before means ‘before, in front of, prior to’. Door means ‘door, gate, entrance’ and is in the plural. Standing means ‘to stand, to set, to establish’ and is interpreted as Perceiver stability. Notice that the judge is not behind a door. Instead, the judge is standing in front of several doors and the judgment involves the door through which one will go, because travelling through the door will create a new context from which it is very difficult to emerge.
The PBS article describes the German vulnerability. “The mass inflation of 1923... created hardships for Germans on fixed incomes and for individuals and institutions that had loaned out money. But... the German government allowed the inflation to persist longer than it might have, because it provided a way to avoid making reparation payments. Once the hyperinflation was stopped—within a year—its most serious legacy was a sense of vulnerability among many Germans that made them willing to listen to demagogues who promised stability.” Mixing metaphors, the vulnerability meant that German society was facing a ‘window of opportunity’ during which it could choose to go through one of several doors.
Germany chose the door marked ‘Hitler’, thinking that it could undo this choice, but that was not the case. The PBS article adds that Hitler “was appointed by a coalition of German nationalists, conservatives, industrialists, and military men who thought they could control him and use him for their own purposes. They were mistaken. He used his new position to promote his own plans for German expansion and so-called racial purification.” I think that the United States is currently in a similar situation. Trump has been re-elected by a coalition of MAGA nationalists, evangelical conservatives, and billionaire industrialists who all think that they will be able to control him and use him for their own purposes. They may be mistaken.
The Russian communist revolution also went through a provisional period during which it could have chosen between one of several doors. Wikipedia describes this transitional time in 1917. “During this chaotic period, there were frequent mutinies, protests and strikes. Many socialist and other leftist political organizations were struggling for influence within the Provisional Government and the Soviets... Initially the Bolsheviks were a marginal faction; however, they won popularity with their program promising peace, land, and bread: cease war with Germany, give land to the peasantry, and end the wartime famine.” Notice that the Bolsheviks, who became the Communists, were initially a marginal faction. But, like Hitler, once chosen they could not be unchosen. Quoting from Wikipedia, “To secure the new state, the Bolsheviks established the Cheka, a secret police and revolutionary security service working to uncover, punish, and eliminate those considered to be ‘enemies of the people’ in campaigns called the Red Terror.”
Verse 10 provides an example of patience. “Brothers as an example of suffering evils and of patience, take the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord.” Example is used once in James and means ‘an exhibit for imitation or warning’. Take means to ‘actively lay hold of’ and is in the imperative. This implies that people are aware of this example and can choose to follow it.
Suffering evils is used once as a noun in the New Testament and combines ‘inwardly foul, rotten’ with ‘having strong feelings’. Patience is the noun form of the verb that has been used several times which means ‘long-suffering or slow to anger’. Prophet is used once in James and means ‘elevating/asserting one idea over another, especially through the spoken-word’. Thus, a prophet predicts the future by focusing verbally upon certain trends in the present. Speak is used two other times in James and means ‘talk, chatter in classical Greek’. Thus, this is not referring to formal announcements. Name describes a personal label in Teacher thought. And lord is the same word used in the ‘coming of the Lord’. Putting this together, sources of truth are referring to the rule of authority in everyday speech.
The League of Nations began with such prophecies of being slow to anger when having strong feelings about inward rottenness. Wikipedia relates, “By 1916... long-range thinkers had begun to design a unified international organisation to prevent future wars. Historian Peter Yearwood argues that when the new coalition government of David Lloyd George took power in December 1916, there was widespread discussion among intellectuals and diplomats of the desirability of establishing such an organisation... Wilson himself included in his Fourteen Points in January 1918 a ‘league of nations to ensure peace and justice.’”
But the league had no power to implement its decisions. Instead, it depended upon the victorious states that had set it up to follow its example. Quoting from Wikipedia, “The League lacked its own armed force and depended on the victorious Allied Powers of World War I to enforce its resolutions, keep to its economic sanctions, or provide an army when needed. The Great Powers were often reluctant to do so.” The United States provides an illustration of following the example of the league. The US did not join the League of Nations because Wilson did not want congress to limit the president’s ability to declare war. Wikipedia explains, “Republicans led by Henry Cabot Lodge wanted a League with the reservation that only Congress could take the U.S. into war. Lodge gained a majority of Senators and Wilson refused to allow a compromise.” However, the US did increasingly look to the example of the League of Nations. Quoting from Wikipedia, “Although the United States never joined, unofficial observers became more and more involved, especially in the 1930s. American philanthropies became heavily involved, especially the Rockefeller Foundation. It made major grants designed to build up the technical expertise of the League staff.”
Verse 11 talks about public response to such individuals. “Behold, we count blessed those having persevered.” Count blessed comes from the word ‘blessed’ which means ‘become long, large’. In other words, Teacher generality is being given verbally to these individuals. Persevere means ‘remaining under’ and was previously used back in 1:12 which was interpreted as maintaining a positive attitude during the late medieval time of troubles. This happened with the non-violent resistance practiced by Gandhi in India. The Encyclopaedia Britannica describes the Teacher generality that Gandhi achieved in India. “A provoked Gandhi finally revealed a sense of estrangement from the British raj and announced a satyagraha [nonviolent] struggle. The result was a virtual political earthquake that shook the subcontinent in the spring of 1919... By the autumn of 1920, Gandhi was the dominant figure on the political stage, commanding an influence never before attained by any political leader in India or perhaps in any other country.” Notice that satyagraha, the idea of ‘remaining under’ is being ‘counted blessed’ by achieving widespread influence.
Verse 11 continues with another example of patience. “You have heard of the perseverance of Job.” Perseverance is the noun form of the verb is used two words earlier. Heard means to ‘comprehend by hearing’ which implies that this is a verbal example and not necessarily an experiential one. Job is only mentioned once in the New Testament and comes from a Hebrew root meaning ‘to be hostile or to be an enemy’. Job provides the classic example of receiving a blessing from God as a result of continuing to respond to persecution in a positive manner that focuses upon God.
Gandhi’s continued nonviolence can be compared to the perseverance of Job. Quoting further from the Encyclopaedia Britannica, “In March 1930 he launched the Salt March, a satyagraha against the British-imposed tax on salt, which affected the poorest section of the community. One of the most spectacular and successful campaigns in Gandhi’s nonviolent war against the British raj, it resulted in the imprisonment of more than 60,000 people... when Gandhi returned to India in December 1931, he found his party facing an all-out offensive from Lord Irwin’s successor as viceroy, Lord Willingdon, who unleashed the sternest repression in the history of the nationalist movement. Gandhi was once more imprisoned, and the government tried to insulate him from the outside world and to destroy his influence... In September 1932, while still a prisoner, he embarked on a fast... The fast produced an emotional upheaval in the country, and an alternative electoral arrangement was jointly and speedily devised by the leaders of the Hindu community and the Dalits and endorsed by the British government.” Notice how Gandhi continued to respond to repression in a non-violent manner, choosing to ‘remain under’ the oppression rather than rebel from it.
I am not suggesting that Gandhi was a saint. A university article declares that “He was a sexual weirdo, a political incompetent and a fanatical faddist—one who was often downright cruel to those around him. Gandhi was therefore the archetypal 20th-century progressive intellectual, professing his love for mankind as a concept while actually despising people as individuals.” Thus, Gandhi’s perseverance was more at the conceptual level of hearing. I am also not suggesting that the civil rights movement which took inspiration from Gandhi was flawless. Instead, the civil rights movement was motivated by the Teacher overgeneralization of universal equality—a vague theory of oneness in Teacher thought that motivated many initial improvements but broke down when it came to adding factual details and eventually turned into a frontal assault upon morality. But Gandhi still practiced, to a certain extent, what Christians were preaching but refused to practice.
Finally, Gandhi’s method of nonviolence did not work in Nazi Germany because it began after Germany had already gone through the door into Fascism; by then it was too late. However, it is possible that Germany might have been dissuaded from choosing Fascism if the German church had spoken up during the earlier time of uncertainty when it was still possible to choose. Instead, the Confessing Church that spoke up against Hitler only emerged as a backlash to the German Christian movement that was supporting Hitler. Wikipedia summarizes, “With their Gleichschaltungspolitik [forced unity] and their attempts to incorporate the Aryan paragraph into the church constitution so as to exclude Jewish Christians, the German Christians entered into a Kirchenkampf [church struggle] with other evangelical Christians. Their opponents founded the Confessing Church in 1934, which condemned the German Christians as heretics and claimed to be the true German Protestant Church. The Nazis found the German Christians useful during the initial consolidation of power, but removed most of its leaders from their posts shortly afterwards.”
Verse 11 finishes, “And you have seen the outcome from the Lord, that the Lord is full of compassion and is merciful.” See is a common verb that means ‘to see with the mind’ but it is only used one other time in James in 2:24 which talked about ‘seeing’ that a human is justified by works and not by faith alone. In both cases, a fixation upon the external needs to be replaced by an internal focus upon behavior. Outcome is used once in James and is the word ‘telos’ which means consummation, the end-goal, purpose’. And this outcome is coming from the Lord, indicating that authorities will eventually respond in a positive manner. In other words, one can tell that some goal is being pursued, but the goal has not yet been reached.
Full of compassion is used once in the New Testament and combines ‘much or many’ with ‘gut level compassion’. Such compassion goes beyond Mercy feelings to gut-level responses such as disgust. Looking at this neurologically, Wikipedia reports that “f-MRI studies have provided evidence for the activation of the insula in disgust recognition, as well as visceral changes in disgust reactions such as the feeling of nausea.” On the positive side, insula activation is also related to empathy. ‘Full of compassion’ describes positive emotion functioning at this gut level. The verb ‘is’ is explicitly mentioned, which was last used back in verse 3. Merciful is a less common word used three times in the New Testament which means to ‘express visceral-compassions’.
Turning now to history, the League of Nations achieved some success dealing with gut-level issues related to disgust. Quoting from Wikipedia, “The ILO [international labor organization] successfully restricted the addition of lead to paint, and convinced several countries to adopt an eight-hour work day and forty-eight-hour working week. It also campaigned to end child labour, increase the rights of women in the workplace, and make shipowners liable for accidents involving seamen... [The Health] body focused on ending leprosy, malaria, and yellow fever, the latter two by starting an international campaign to exterminate mosquitoes... The Slavery Commission sought to eradicate slavery and slave trading across the world, and fought forced prostitution.” Issues such as child labor and forced prostitution are disgusting and trigger moral outrage. It is interesting that both the ILO and the Health organization survived the demise of the League of Nations and became part of the UN.
In other words, the League of Nations was performing a moral service to the world. And the world would have been significantly different if Nazi Germany had been guided by the mental disgust of moral outrage rather than the physical disgust of racial outrage. But there was no ‘seeing with the mind’ in Nazi Germany. And the German Christians separated between these two with a cognitive split. Quoting from Wikipedia, “For German Christians, race was the fundamental principle of human life, and they interpreted and effected that notion in religious terms. German Christianity emphasized the distinction between the visible and invisible church. For the German Christians, the church on earth was not the fellowship of the holy spirit described in the New Testament but a contrast to it, a vehicle for the expression of race and ethnicity.” In other words, they relegated moral disgust to the realm of the invisible church while embracing racial disgust with the visible church. A similar cognitive split can be seen in the evangelical supporters of Donald Trump.
Do not Swear 5:12
Verse 12 gives a strong warning. “But before all things, my brothers, do not swear, neither by heaven, nor the earth, nor any other oath.” Before means ‘before, in front of, prior to’. In other words, this must be the starting point. All things means ‘each part of a totality’, which means that this priority applies to all contexts and is not just a vague, general statement. Swear is used once in James and biblehub explains that ‘Swearing by something greater, such as God or sacred objects, was intended to add weight to one’s words.’ Cognitively speaking, one is adding emotional weight to words by invoking powerful cultural and religious mental networks.
Nazi Germany was built upon propaganda. Wikipedia summarizes, “Propaganda was a crucial tool of the German Nazi Party from its earliest days in 1920, after its reformation from the German Worker’s Party (DAP), to its final weeks leading to Germany’s surrender in May 1945.” German propaganda was pure swearing. Wikipedia elaborates, “Nazi propaganda promoted Nazi ideology by demonising the enemies of the Nazi Party, notably Jews and communists, but also capitalists and intellectuals. It promoted the values asserted by the Nazis, including heroic death, Führerprinzip (leader principle), Volksgemeinschaft (people’s community), Blut und Boden (blood and soil), and pride in the Germanic Herrenvolk (master race). Propaganda was also used to maintain the cult of personality around Nazi leader Adolf Hitler, and to promote campaigns for eugenics.” Notice all the powerful mental networks being invoked: enemies, heroic death, leadership, community, blood, and race.
Soviet communism was also built upon propaganda. Wikipedia summarizes, “Propaganda in the Soviet Union was the practice of state-directed communication aimed at promoting class conflict, proletarian internationalism, the goals of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, and the party itself. The main Soviet censorship body, Glavlit, was employed not only to eliminate any undesirable printed materials but also ‘to ensure that the correct ideological spin was put on every published item.’” Nazi propaganda swore primarily by Mercy mental networks of culture and heroism. Soviet propaganda, in contrast, emphasized Teacher mental networks of class conflict, internationalism, and communism, ensuring that this swearing was universally present in ‘every published item’.
Heaven is interpreted as a realm based in Teacher thought where humans can live. This could refer to the heaven of the Bible or some other technologically generated utopia. Earth is interpreted as the realm of physical reality. The Nazi concept of Reich (realm) was an example of ‘swearing by heaven’. The Encyclopaedia Britannica explains, “By claiming for his government the mantle of the Third Reich, Hitler attempted to position himself within the larger context of German and European history. In his mind, Hitler’s ‘thousand-year Reich’ would serve as the natural conclusion of a process that he traced back to the coronation of Charlemagne in 800.” The Nazi concept of lebensraum (living space) was an example of ‘swearing by earth’. Wikipedia clarifies, “Hitler’s strategic program for Greater Germany was based on the belief in the power of Lebensraum, especially when pursued by a racially superior society. People deemed to be part of non-Aryan races, within the territory of Lebensraum expansion, were subjected to expulsion or destruction. The eugenics of Lebensraum assumed it to be the right of the German Aryan master race (Herrenvolk) to remove the indigenous people in the name of their own living space.” Notice how the acquisition of physical territory is being turned into an emotional ideal that justifies genocide in order to acquire living space.
Turning to communism, the Soviet concept of the worker’s paradise was an example of swearing by heaven. Quoting from Wikipedia, “Throughout the history of the Soviet Union, the concept of a socialist utopia was heavily proselytized by the Soviet government.” Soviet five-year plans provided an example of swearing by earth. Wikipedia explains, “The Soviet Union entered a series of five-year plans which began in 1928... The plan, overall, was to transition the Soviet Union from a weak, poorly organized agricultural economy, into an industrial powerhouse. Its grand and idealistic vision, enforced through Stalin’s various ministries, saw planners and builders often disregarding practical constraints as they worked to meet demanding schedules, with the possibility of facing severe consequences for failure to do so.” Notice how technological development is being turned into an emotional ideal. And this ideal was also used to justify genocide. “In 1929, Stalin edited the plan to include the creation of kolkhoz collective farming systems that stretched over thousands of acres of land and had hundreds of thousands of peasants working on them. The creation of collective farms essentially destroyed the kulaks as a class... The resistance to Stalin’s collectivization policies contributed to the famine in Ukraine, Russia, Kazakhstan as well as areas of the Northern Caucasus.”
Other means ‘another of the same kind’. But the word oath is different than the word ‘swear’ and comes from a word that means ‘fence, enclosure’. Thus, an oath erects fundamental restrictions that fence in or enclose some group. ‘Other’ suggests that these restrictions are similar to the swearing by various mental networks. Such restrictions that fenced off various undesired groups emerged in both Nazi Germany and Communist Russia.
Nazi anti-Jewish laws are a prime example of oaths. Wikipedia summarizes, “The 1933 Law for the Restoration of the Professional Civil Service excluded all ‘non-Aryans’, including those who had even just one Jewish grandparent... In 1935, the Nazis passed the Nuremberg Laws which forbid Jews from citizenship and prohibited sexual relations and marriages between Jews and ‘Aryans’. The total number of laws against Jews reached 400 since the end of the war.” Notice how Jews were fenced off from normal society, eventually being physically fenced off into ghettos. Quoting again from Wikipedia, “Beginning with the invasion of Poland during World War II, the Nazi regime set up ghettos across German-occupied Eastern Europe in order to segregate and confine Jews, and sometimes Romani people, into small sections of towns and cities furthering their exploitation.”
The anti-kulak movement was a communist example of making oaths. Wikipedia explains, “Kulaks referred to former peasants in the Russian Empire who became landowners and credit-loaners after the abolition of serfdom in 1861.” Like the Jews in Nazi Germany, the kulaks became fenced off and liquidated as an entire class. Wikipedia clarifies, “The ‘liquidation of kulaks as a class’ was the name of a Soviet policy enforced in 1930–1931 for forced, uncompensated alienation of property (expropriation) from portions of the peasantry and isolation of victims from such actions by way of their forceful deportation from their place of residence... The campaign to liquidate the kulaks as a class constituted the main part of Stalin’s social engineering policies in the early 1930s.”
One sees that the strong emphasis that verse 12 places upon avoiding swearing and oaths is not merely poetic hyperbole but rather is backed up by horrific facts of recent history.
Verse 12 finishes, “But let your ‘Yes’ be yes, and the ‘No,’ no, so that you might not fall under judgment.” Yes means ‘truly, yes’. And no ‘is used as a strong negative particle, signifying absolute negation’. In other words, statements have factual validity and do not require emotional enforcement. The Greek sentence begins with the word ‘be’ which means that this factual validity needs to function at the level of being. Judgment means ‘to judge or to decide’. Fall means ‘to fall, to descend’ which is interpreted as descending from Teacher generality to Mercy specifics. Under often means ‘under authority of someone’. Thus, when one descends to specific Mercy experiences one may end under the authority of judgment rather than general Teacher principles. Such judgment happened to both Nazism and communism.
This type of simple honesty can be seen in the fireside chats of president Roosevelt. Quoting from Wikipedia, “The fireside chats were a series of evening radio addresses given by Franklin D. Roosevelt... between 1933 and 1944. Roosevelt spoke with familiarity to millions of Americans about recovery from the Great Depression, the promulgation of the Emergency Banking Act in response to the banking crisis, the 1936 recession, New Deal initiatives, and the course of World War II. On radio, he quelled rumors, countered conservative-dominated newspapers, and explained his policies directly to the American people. His tone and demeanor communicated self-assurance during times of despair and uncertainty.” Notice the emphasis upon lowering emotional intensity and explaining the facts clearly and simply. This helped to prevent the United States from ‘falling under judgment’. Quoting from Wikipedia, “This level of intimacy with politics made people feel as if they too were part of the administration’s decision-making process and many soon felt that they knew Roosevelt personally. Most importantly, they grew to trust him. The conventional press grew to love Roosevelt because they too had gained unprecedented access to the goings-on of government.” Nazi and Soviet propaganda demanded allegiance from the people. Roosevelt gained their trust. Nazism and communism dictated propaganda to the press. Roosevelt’s fireside chats gave the press access to the government.
Both Nazism and communism attempted to replace the ‘dog’ of Christianity with a secular, scientific ‘hound’. But both of these turned into flesh-eating wolves because they focused upon the physical rather than the cognitive and the spiritual. Nazism sought a pure race, leading to amoral animals with blue eyes and blond hair. Communism sought industrial development, while liquidating those who had the individuality and initiative required to run a modern economy. Mental symmetry, in contrast, emphasizes the cognitive rather than the physical, while being consistent with the physical, the scientific, the spiritual, and the supernatural. However, mental symmetry has also been developed in an era of computers, cognitive science, and neurological brain scans that make it possible for scientific thought to extend beyond the physical to the cognitive.
The term ‘brothers’ occurs five times in verses 7-11 implying that Christians are being addressed. However, while brothers are being told to be patient, not complain, and not swear, brothers are also being instructed to learn from the examples of others who are not referred to as brothers. This implies that the Protestant church has emerged sufficiently from its instinctive cheerleading of World War I to be able to respond in a different way than society but not sufficiently to be able to set an example for society. Verses 13-18 also do not mention ‘brothers’ but refer instead to ‘anyone among you’. ‘Brothers’ in the plural implies that Protestant Christians are functioning as a group, while verses 13-18 will focus upon individual response.
The next section jumps to the situation after the Second World War. Notice again that war is not explicitly mentioned—because God is not the author of evil. But it is clear that the verses that we have just analyzed apply to Nazism and communism because of the extensive warnings being given. The first thing that struck me when reading this next section is how different it sounds from the previous verses. New concepts are being mentioned and they are being effective.
Prayer and Praise 5:13
Verse 13 talks about hardship. “Is anyone among you suffering hardships? Let him pray.” Suffering hardship is used once in James and combines ‘inwardly foul’ with ‘having strong feelings’. It was used as a noun in verse 10. Pray means ‘to exchange wishes’. This is the first occurrence of this fairly common word in James and it will be used three more times in the remaining verses. James has talked a lot about God but there has been no exchange of wishes. That is because Protestant faith regards the Bible as a holy book supported by MMNs of reverence for God. This kind of blind faith will only survive if the source of truth is regarded as far more important than personal identity. Therefore, the very idea of humans exchanging wishes with God will threaten the Protestant premise of blind faith in the Bible. Exchanging wishes indicates the presence of a new general concept of God in Teacher thought who is capable of interacting emotionally with individual humans.
This transition to a new Christian attitude is illustrated by Kirchentag, a regular Protestant gathering that began in Germany in 1949 after World War II. A doctoral thesis explains that “It was devoted to strengthening the spiritual lives of German Protestants, serving as a forum of their self-expression, as a place to strategize and coordinate the church’s role in society, and as a platform for political and social transformation... By the early 1950s the Kirchentag was drawing crowds in the hundreds of thousands to its massive opening and closing assemblies, and tens of thousands to its several-day-long programs of workgroup sessions, cultural activities, and religious services. Covered extensively in the religious and secular press, on the radio, and on television, its influence was even wider than these attendance numbers indicate.” Notice how an exchange of wishes is happening within a focus upon God and spirituality.
In contrast, most German Protestants functioned before the war as a source and supporter of inward foulness. Quoting further from the thesis, “Before 1945, the German Protestant churches had been characterized by a rigidly hierarchical—even authoritarian—organizational structure. The heirs of a longstanding alliance between church and state, they had preached almost-unquestioning obedience to state authority. Deeply conservative in their political values, they had rejected the democratic system of the Weimar Republic as a foreign imposition, working to undermine its legitimacy. And, taking a reactionary stance against social and political change, they had thrown in their lot with authoritarian leaders like Adolf Hitler, who promised to bring back the traditional social order.” This describes ‘inward foulness’ and history shows that this led to exceptionally ‘strong feelings’. Kirchentag was a postwar Protestant attempt to deal with this inward foulness and these strong feelings.
Moving to the United States, racism can also be described as inward foulness, and this led to strong feelings after World War II. A Library of Congress webpage explains, “The fight against fascism during World War II brought to the forefront the contradictions between America’s ideals of democracy and equality and its treatment of racial minorities. Throughout the war, the NAACP and other civil rights organizations worked to end discrimination in the armed forces... After the war, and with the onset of the Cold War, segregation and inequality within the U.S. were brought into sharp focus on the world stage, prompting federal and judicial action.”
Prayer also played a role in the early civil rights movement. For instance, Wikipedia relates that “The Prayer Pilgrimage for Freedom... was a 1957 demonstration in Washington, D.C., an early event in the Civil Rights Movement.” Wikipedia adds that Martin Luther “King was the last speaker, and it was the first time that he addressed a national audience... About 25,000 demonstrators attended the event to pray and voice their opinion. At the time, the event was the largest demonstration ever organized for civil rights.” And Luther’s speech Give us the Ballot at this event can be summarized as an exchange of wishes, with King promising that blacks would behave in a responsible manner if given the vote.
More personally, a Huffington Post article relates, “On Jan 27th, 1956, just eight weeks after the start of the boycott, King hit a ‘saturation point’ when he received a particularly disturbing death threat... King turned to prayer... Shortly after, King said he experienced the divine like he had never experienced Him before. King heard an inner voice assure him, ‘King, stand up for justice.’ And He knew God was with him, and would be with him until the end... King describes this experience as one of his most revelatory spiritual experiences. He continued to share about this experience for years to come through his sermons. It seemed to be a meaningful turning point in King’s rise to leadership.”
More generally, American church attendance was at an all-time high in the 1950s. Quoting from a university article, “On a typical Sunday morning in the period from 1955-58, almost half of all Americans were attending church – the highest percentage in U.S. history.” Thus, one might think that a lot of people were praying. However, the article adds that there was also a hidden inward foulness that was not being addressed. “Ellwood suggests that the beat movement was an outlet for ’50s males who turned away from the postwar family bonding. ‘Fifties males felt deep, probably almost inexpressible, tension between the postwar nesting instinct and those restless other drives. Expressed in religious or quasi-religious ways, the alternative impulses helped shape the spiritual underground.’”
Wikipedia elaborates, “The central elements of Beat culture are the rejection of standard narrative values, making a spiritual quest, the exploration of American and Eastern religions, the rejection of economic materialism, explicit portrayals of the human condition, experimentation with psychedelic drugs, and sexual liberation and exploration.” This describes ‘having deep feelings about inward foulness’ but instead of prayer there was anti-prayer. Quoting from Wikipedia, “The Beat movement introduced Asian religions to Western society. These religions provided the Beat generation with new views of the world and corresponded with its desire to rebel against conservative middle-class values of the 1950s, old post-1930s radicalism, mainstream culture, and institutional religions in America.” Wikipedia adds that the Beat movement turned into the hippies. “The Beats adopted the term hip, and early hippies adopted the language and countercultural values of the Beat Generation. Hippies created their own communities, listened to psychedelic music, embraced the sexual revolution, and many used drugs such as marijuana and LSD to explore altered states of consciousness.” Notice that Christianity was replaced by Eastern religion, prayer was replaced by drugs, and the exchange of wishes was replaced by sex.
The quote from the previous paragraph referred to the ‘psychedelic music’ of the hippies. Music is mentioned in the next phrase of verse 13. “Is anyone cheerful? Let him sing praises.” Cheerful is mentioned once in James and combines ‘well or good’ with ‘a sense of boiling agitation or sudden outburst of emotion’. The only other occurrences of this word are at the end of Acts where it (and a similar word) is used four times. Sing praise means to ‘pluck a musical instrument, used of singing along with instruments’ and is mentioned once in James. Looking at this historically, Jesus music emerged out of the hippie Jesus movement. Wikipedia explains, “Jesus music primarily began in population centers of the United States where the Jesus movement was gaining momentum... around 1969–70... In the aftermath of such conversions, these musicians continued playing the same styles of music that they had been playing prior to their conversion, though they now infused their lyrics with a Christian message.”
Looking at this cognitively, the instruction to ‘sing praises’ is related to the statement in 2:26 that the body apart from the spirit is dead. That was interpreted as the artistic expression of both Lutheranism and the Catholic Counter-Reformation, and it was observed that humans need Mercy mental networks of the spirit to survive. Jesus music, and more generally Christian praise and worship, fulfills this need. Using the analogy of the dog and the tail, praise and worship provides an imaginary tail, because it is a Mercy expression of people imagining what it would feel like to apply the Teacher words and theology of Christianity.
Jesus music started out being a ‘cheerful’ expression of a ‘good outburst of emotion’. Quoting from Wikipedia, “Initially, the music tended to be relatively simple, as it drew largely on guitar-based folk and folk-rock influences. The message also seemed to be relatively simple, as the songwriters attempted to present the value of a Christ-centered spiritual experience without evoking the vocabulary or other trappings of ecclesiastical religion.” However, what started out as a ‘cheerful outburst of emotion’ has tended to turn into a dark wall of sound. Wikipedia describes this transition, “Most traditional and fundamentalist Christians did not view rock music favorably when it became popular with young people from the 1950s... Christians in the United States did not want their children exposed to music with unruly, impassioned vocals, loud guitar-riffs and jarring, hypnotic rhythms.” However, “The musical genre that was once rejected by mainstream Christian churches is now considered by some as one of the most-important evangelism tool of their successor congregations.”
Notice the change in focus from becoming more like God to attracting converts. A concept of God that is based in an integrated Teacher understanding will lead to Platonic forms of ideal perfection within Mercy thought. This will naturally lead to music that is ‘a cheerful expression of emotion’. I have played violin in churches for decades so I know from personal experience what this feels like. Generally speaking, I find that most Contemporary Christian music troubles my spirit. By the same token, such music will naturally attract a secular audience that is troubled in spirit. But is the primary goal of Christian music to worship God or to attract non-Christians? Jesus answers this question in Matthew 6:33, and the words of this verse have been set to music in a pleasant popular chorus written during the early Jesus music era in the original center of Jesus music.
Anointing with Oil 5:14-15
Verse 14 turns to personal problems. “Is anyone among you sick? Let him call near the elders of the church.” Sick means ‘to be ill, without strength; to languish’. Thus, the focus is more upon a lack of strength than some specific illness. Let him call near is awkward English but it reflects the Greek word which means ‘to call to oneself’ and it is in the imperative. An elder is ‘a mature man having seasoned judgment’ and this is the only mention of elders in James. Church means ‘called out from the world and to God’ and this is the only mention of ‘church’ in James, which implies that what we have seen so far has not necessarily been functioning as a church. We have seen groups being ‘called out from the world’ as well as people attempting to gain a more adequate understanding of God in Teacher thought, but I think that the closest that we came to seeing these two combined was with Methodism.
Verse 14 continues, “And let them pray over him, having anointed him with oil in the name of the Lord.” Pray means ‘exchange of wishes’. However, in verse 13 individuals were being told to pray, while in verse 14 the imperative is directed to a group of elders. Verse 14 also adds ‘over him’ indicating that the group is focusing upon the weaknesses of some individual. Anoint means ‘to anoint, typically with oil’ and this is the only use of this word outside the Gospels. Oil means ‘olive oil’ which is typically interpreted as the Holy Spirit. A concept of the Holy Spirit emerges in Mercy thought when an integrated Teacher understanding brings unity to various Platonic forms of ideal perfection. This relates to Plato’s concept of the Form of the Good. The ultimate source of Teacher understanding is brought out by the phrase ‘in the name of the Lord’. Thus, pursuing Platonic forms of ideal perfection in some disconnected manner is not enough. Instead one must continue to hold on to the Teacher understanding that gave rise to these Platonic forms.
Looking now at recent church history, verse 14 describes the charismatic movement, which claimed that being ‘anointed with the oil of the Holy Spirit’ would give power to those who were ‘languishing’ and ‘without strength’. Quoting from Wikipedia, “Adherents of the Charismatic Movement teach the belief that ‘baptism in the Holy Spirit unleashes the Holy Spirit that is already present within us, by revitalizing the graces we received in the sacrament of Baptism’ and that it ‘equips and inspires the individual for service, for mission, for discipleship and for life.’”
More specifically, the charismatic movement emphasized the gifts of the spirit. Quoting from Wikipedia, “Charismatic Christianity is a form of Christianity that emphasizes the work of the Holy Spirit and spiritual gifts as an everyday part of a believer’s life. It has a global presence in the Christian community.” Using the language of verse 14, a lack of strength is being replaced by an anointing of the oil of the spirit.
‘Pray’ is mentioned 86 times in the New Testament but this is the only time that it is combined with the preposition ‘over’. This suggests a human participation in prayer that is not normally present. A Christian history article portrays this participation. “The service is not planned in advance. Rather its structure develops round basic themes as members follow the leading of the Spirit... One by one various members read from the Bible, or offer a prayer... Once or twice there is a prophecy, a word from God speaking to a specific situation. It is not so much a prediction of the future as a practical message for the present... These prayer and praise meetings offer an opportunity for members of the body of Christ to show a variety of spiritual gifts for building up the community, for giving new strength to its worship, witness and service.” I attended a charismatic church in the 1980s and while the services did have some structure they also contained aspects of what is being described in this article. Notice also the emphasis upon giving power to those who are ‘without strength’.
Verse 14 mentions turning to the elders of the church for anointing. This describes a key aspect of the charismatic movement. One ministry webpage describes this as a democratization of spiritual power. “Historically speaking, however, with a few exceptions, the realm of the spiritual gifts has been reserved by church leaders as strictly for church leaders... Over the last forty years, or so, since the heyday of the charismatic movement there have arisen a number of charismatically gifted men and women who have had a God given burden for releasing everyday men and women in the gifts of the Holy Spirit... [as] Jesus did with His disciples. He modeled, trained, and released people into the supernatural gifts of the Holy Spirit for the work of the Kingdom of God.” Thus, ‘calling near the elders’ can be interpreted as minimizing the gap in emotional status between clergy and layman.
This democratization is also reflected in the phrase ‘anyone among you’. It is difficult to determine how many times this phrase occurs in the New Testament because it is composed of three common words. But in James it is only found in verses 13, 14, and 19 of chapter 5.
Verse 14 also mentions some elements which I have learned are critical for determining the health and life span of a charismatic movement. First, calling near the elders implies that one is seeking the advice of mature Christians as opposed to those who are flamboyant or charismatic. When Christian maturity becomes de-emphasized, then a charismatic movement will naturally degrade into crowd hysteria manipulated by leaders with strong personalities. Second, ‘in the name of the Lord’ is quite different than in the name—or personality—of some charismatic preacher. Instead, it emphasizes the need to maintain a theological foundation in Teacher thought. My experience is that the typical charismatic movement is like the discharging of a battery. This ‘battery’ is charged by gaining theological understanding in Teacher thought and it is discharged by having charismatic experiences in Mercy thought. Focusing upon the name of the Lord extends the life of this ‘battery’. Third, in the name of the Lord also means submitting to some lordship. This is related to the second point because in the absence of theological understanding, submitting to lordship will be interpreted as submitting to some charismatic leader. Instead, one needs to submit to the lordship of a moral understanding of the character of God in Teacher thought. When this is missing, then being spiritually empowered to live the Christian life will degrade into having an ecstatic experience.
Verse 15 promises a beneficial result. “And the prayer of faith will save the one ailing, and the Lord will raise him up.” Prayer means ‘prayer, vow’ and is translated as ‘vow’ by both the King James and the New American Standard the other two times it occurs in the New Testament. Faith means to ‘be persuaded’ which implies being convinced by rational thought. It was previously used back in 2:26 in the section that talked about faith and works, which suggests that the intervening eras were not necessarily characterized by rational persuasion. Generally speaking, those who used rational thought were not willing to be personally persuaded by this rational thinking, while those who pursued personal change tended to be emotionally driven and not rationally persuaded.
While the charismatic movement is often viewed as irrational, it was more rational and more willing to be persuaded than the Pentecostal movement that preceded it. The Canadian Encyclopedia clarifies, “Charismatics do not share the anti-intellectualism, fundamentalism and dispensational theology of the Pentecostals, nor is the primacy of ecstatic spiritual experience seen as necessarily antithetical to the development of a social conscience.”
Save means to ‘deliver out of danger and into safety’ and was previously mentioned in 4:12 which referred to the one who is able to save and to destroy. Ailing is used twice in the New Testament and means ‘weary to the point of sickness’. Raise up is used once in James and means to ‘awake, lift up, raise up’. Moving upward is interpreted as heading in the direction of Teacher generality. Notice that this raising up is coming from ‘the Lord’. This is unusual because lords usually use their emotional status to put others down and not raise them up. This relates to the democratization of the charismatic movement, which emphasized that the average person could exhibit spiritual gifts and not just the church leadership.
The term ‘ailing’ is stronger than the ‘sickness’ of verse 14. My personal experience is that I receive answers to prayer when I really need them. Saying this cognitively, mental networks of God and the Holy Spirit can only empower mental networks of personal identity when personal identity is ‘weary to the point of sickness’. When one reaches this state emotionally, then it is also possible to experience salvation, because one will be emotionally ‘raised up’ and placed upon more solid ground psychologically. Saying this more carefully, I have repeatedly found that when I fall apart inside and have no strength to continue, then I find renewed strength in my Teacher understanding of ‘how things work’. Instead of trying to continue reaching some goal, I am merely submitting to the inevitability of universal principles that will ultimately prevail and can only be temporarily suppressed. This is also a ‘prayer of faith’ because it is based upon emotional interaction with a rational understanding of ‘how things work’.
Looking at this more generally, mental symmetry is based in the list of spiritual gifts described in Romans 12 and the theory was initially formulated during the charismatic era while my older brother and I were attending a charismatic church. Thus, it is important to examine how verses 14-15 apply to mental symmetry. Mental symmetry suggests that the average person emphasizes conscious thought while minimizing or shutting down subconscious modules. Using only part of the mind or picking one cognitive module against another will obviously lead to mental weakness. However, simply stating that one needs to use all cognitive modules is not enough. Instead, one needs to gain a fuller understanding of mental wholeness by looking at mature people (elders) who are seeking a Teacher understanding of human thought (of the church) rather than following cultural mental networks, which means studying psychology, cognitive science, and neurology. But one should not go to the elders by submitting to their paradigms but rather ‘call near’ these elders by placing their knowledge within the model of mental symmetry.
This placing of knowledge involves three different aspects: First, one accepts the technical knowledge of these elders (letting them pray over). Second, one is guided by the Platonic forms of how each cognitive style would ideally function (anointed with oil). Third, whenever one discovers a cognitive principle, one then submits to this principle (in the name of the Lord). Notice that instead of interpreting ‘being anointed’ as expressing some heavenly spiritual gift, ‘being anointed’ is being interpreted as expressing the Romans 12 spiritual gift of cognitive style in a heavenly manner.
One then uses a rational understanding of how each cognitive module ideally functions to provide each cognitive module with what it needs to function optimally. This is a prayer because different cognitive modules are exchanging wishes and it is a prayer of faith because this being guided by a rational understanding of how each cognitive module functions. This leads to the salvation of being taken out of the condition of imposing conscious thought upon the rest of the mind and into the condition of seeking greater mental wholeness. But one will only make the transition to this more integrated way of operating if the existing method of operating reaches a dead end, which means that one must be ‘ailing’ to be saved.
Submitting to the lordship of mental symmetry also leads to a personal raising up. First, a mind in which cognitive modules are cooperating will function better than a mind in which cognitive modules are fighting. Second, one will discover that mental symmetry can also be used as a meta-theory to analyze many different fields and specializations.
Thus, mental symmetry, which began as an aspect of the charismatic movement, actually practices verses 14-15 in detail. One might think that the approach of mental symmetry removes all spiritual and supernatural elements, but what actually happens is the opposite. Those who attempt to follow the normal Christian charismatic path will be forced by reality to limit their embrace of supernatural gifts. In contrast, I have found that following the cognitive path of mental symmetry continues to open the door to both the spiritual and the supernatural, because the spiritual realm appears to interact with mental networks while the supernatural realm appears to interact with abstract thought. Saying this more simply, the dedicated ‘charismatic Christian’ tends to lose touch with common sense and physical reality while it is possible to continue pursuing mental symmetry while remaining in touch with reality and common sense.
The final phrase of Verse 15 says, “And if he might be one having committed sins, it will be forgiven him.” ‘Be’ is explicitly mentioned. Having committed is the verb for Server actions. Forgive means to ‘send away, release’. James has talked a lot about justification by faith but this is the only reference in James to forgiveness. Justification provides an emotional covering for personal inadequacy because a concept of God in Teacher thought verbally overrides feelings of personal inadequacy in Mercy thought. Forgiveness sends the problem away so that it no longer comes to mind.
This idea of leaving old inadequacies behind is a fundamental aspect of the charismatic movement because the charismatic movement emphasizes a baptism of the Holy Spirit that makes it possible to become a new person who is able to ‘send away’ previous inadequacies. Quoting from Wikipedia, “Those who have received Baptism with the Holy Spirit ‘testify that the experience brought them to a new awareness of the reality and presence of Jesus Christ in their lives [as well as] a new hunger for the Word of God, the Sacraments and were filled with a renewed desire for holiness.’” Notice how new spiritual drives are emerging that leave previous experiences behind. However, my experience is that those who claim such an instant empowerment are usually Contributor or Exhorter persons who are mentally capable of blocking off some old context in order to follow a new plan. One can tell that this is the case, because the new spirit-led life of such individuals tends to be limited in extent and/or duration. Stated simply, they often turn into super-spiritual caricatures that lack depth of personality and tend to backslide.
In contrast, I have found that submitting to an understanding of how the mind functions really does make it possible to leave behind the old habits of fragmented thought and behavior. This is not a simple process and will involve numerous episodes of ‘being weary to the point of sickness’. But I have repeatedly found that these episodes are always followed by the theory of mental symmetry putting my mind back together in a more solid and integrated manner.
Mutual Confession and Righteousness 5:16
Verse 16 concludes, “Therefore confess the sins to one another and pray for one another, so that you may be healed.” Therefore means that verse 16 follows logically from verse 15. Confess means to ‘fully agree and to acknowledge that agreement openly’ and is used once in James. ‘Confess’ and ‘pray’ are both in the imperative. In justification by faith, God in Teacher thought overrides personal identity in Mercy thought. With confession, personal identity in Mercy thought fully agrees with God in Teacher thought. In verse 16, the confession is happening to one another which refers to mutual honesty. Sin means ‘missing the mark’. This describes the absence of a positive as opposed to the presence of a negative. Thus, one is being honest with others about failures to meet positive goals.
Pray means ‘exchange of wishes’. Thus, the result of this mutual honesty is a mutual exchange of wishes. So that means ‘so that, in order that’. And healing means ‘healing, particularly as supernatural in bringing attention to the Lord himself’. Cognitively speaking, this means going beyond normal therapy to the application of Teacher understanding in a new way.
Mutual confession relates to the concept of accountability in which one confesses one’s sins to an accountability partner. This can be seen in the Promise Keepers organization, founded in 1990. The Wikipedia article on Promise Keepers is not helpful, focusing almost exclusively upon the organization’s politically incorrect views about homosexuality and the role of women. The article on accountability partner is more helpful, explaining “Within evangelical Christianity, accountability partners have been used as part of programmes to help young men who have committed to sexual purity avoid temptations such as masturbation, viewing pornography, and sexual activity. The Promise Keepers, an Evangelical Christian parachurch organization for men, advocates the use of accountability groups to help their members put into practise their Seven Promises, including (but not exclusively) a promise to sexual purity... Many find disclosing their internal struggles to a trusted other to be a powerfully cathartic exercise.”
The problem with the Promise Keepers approach is that it builds the wrong kind of fellowship upon the wrong definition of ‘sin’. Looking at this in more detail, maintaining an attitude of blind faith in the Bible requires feeling that the source of the Bible is far more important than personal identity and that following God means focusing emotionally upon the alternate reality described in the Bible rather than the physical world. Such a mindset will naturally regard sexual desire as evil, because it is physical rather than spiritual and it brings pleasure to self rather than focusing upon God. More generally, an attitude of blind faith will regard sin as stepping beyond the boundaries of acceptable behavior. The sexual accountability advocated by Promise Keepers attempts to help men to follow fundamentalist sexual taboos by building mental networks of fellowship upon violations of these taboos. This is fundamentally self-defeating, because openly discussing one’s personal violations of a taboo is by definition a violation of that taboo.
Mental symmetry, in contrast, views sin as missing the mark of mental wholeness, in keeping with the definition of the Greek word. Instead of sharing with others how one is personally violating taboos, one shares with other cognitive styles how one is using cognitive modules in an incomplete manner. For instance, I as a Perceiver person can learn from a Contributor person what it means to use Contributor thought, which will help me to develop Contributor thought within my mind. This leads to a fellowship based upon mental wholeness, in which cognitive styles hold each other accountable to using all cognitive modules.
Praying for one another then becomes an exchange of wishes between cognitive styles, with each cognitive style expressing to others the wishes of that cognitive style. The result is a super-natural healing in the sense that it extends beyond the capabilities of any one cognitive style. Instead, all cognitive styles submit to a common Teacher understanding of how the mind ideally functions when it is whole.
Turning briefly to sex, mental symmetry focuses upon the cognitive distinction between male and female thought rather than the physical distinction between male and female bodies. Male thought emphasizes technical thinking whereas female thought emphasizes mental networks. The cognitive styles of Perceiver, Server, and Contributor will naturally emphasize male thought, while the cognitive styles of Teacher, Exhorter, and Mercy will naturally emphasize female thought. (Facilitator thought helps to integrate the mind.) Mental wholeness requires developing both of these forms of thought and mentally ‘marrying’ them together. This provides a positive, cognitive reason for promoting heterosexual relationships. Going further, respecting the cognitive modules of male and female thought will naturally lead to a strong desire to respect men and women as well as a desire to satisfy sexual desire in a manner that preserves and promotes mental wholeness rather than mental fragmentation.
A more widespread example of verse 16 can be seen in the talk show programs of that era, epitomized by the Oprah Winfrey show. Wikipedia summarizes that “Many of its themes have penetrated into the American pop-cultural consciousness. Winfrey used the show as an educational platform, featuring book clubs, interviews, self-improvement segments, and philanthropic forays into world events.”
Wikipedia describes several ways in which the Oprah Winfrey show was an example of individuals confessing their sins to one another and praying for one another. “On November 10, 1986, during a show about sexual abuse, Winfrey revealed that she was raped by a relative when she was nine years old. Since this episode, Winfrey has used the show as a platform to help catch child predators, raise awareness, and give victims a voice... While doing a show centered on women drug users in 1995, Winfrey opened up about her personal history with drug abuse... In 1996, Winfrey spoke with seven of the Little Rock Nine and three white former classmates who tormented the group on their first day of high school in 1957 as well as a student who had befriended them... Comedian Ellen DeGeneres came out publicly as a lesbian during her appearance on the show in 1997 after appearing on a Time magazine cover next to the headline ‘Yep, I'm gay.’ ... During the farewell season, two hundred men who were molested came forward as part of a two-day event in 2010 to take a stand against sexual abuse... On January 24, 2011, Winfrey revealed that just before Thanksgiving 2010 she had discovered she has a half-sister.” The goal of this extensive, mutual, public confession was for people to become healed of their hurts. And some healing probably did occur.
Looking at the bigger picture, though, I suggest that both the approach taken by Promise Keepers and the approach taken by talk shows like the Oprah Winfrey show were ultimately self-defeating and that each of these two methods guaranteed the failure of the other method. As described previously, the problem with Promise Keepers is that a morality system based in taboos can only survive as long as these taboos remain taboos and are not discussed. The problem with the talk show is that it is based in the Teacher overgeneralization of universal tolerance, the underlying concept being that everyone should be free to confess their sins in a non-judgmental atmosphere. Unfortunately, whenever some previously condemned lifestyle comes ‘out of the closet’ what happens in practice is that the closet expands to include the rest of society. Saying this more carefully, a Teacher overgeneralization of universal tolerance will be maintained emotionally. Any lifestyle that generates negative personal emotions will be given more public approval while any lifestyle this is experiencing positive personal emotions will be given less public approval. But to a large extent, people experience negative personal emotions by violating principles of cognitive cause-and-effect while experiencing positive personal emotions as a result of following principles of cognitive cause-and-effect. Therefore, emotionally maintaining universal tolerance leads eventually to an inverted morality in which those who follow moral rules are socially disapproved while those who violate moral rules are socially approved.
Putting these two methods together, a religious system of morality based in taboos cannot survive when everybody is coming out of the closet and airing their dirty laundry before millions of viewers on public television. Going further, a mindset of universal tolerance will frontally attack any system of morality based in taboos, as illustrated by the Wikipedia article on Promise Keepers. That is because a societal taboo will be viewed as the deepest form of intolerance, because it is using societal pressure to regard certain lifestyles not just as disapproved but rather as disapproved to the point of being unmentionable.
Going the other way, a moral system based in taboos will instinctively respond to all this public confession by placing a taboo on the universal tolerance of liberalism. Eventually, anything that comes from mainstream media will be suppressed as ‘wokeist fake news’. This also will lead to an inversion of morality, in which following biblical morality becomes replaced by attacking liberalism. This essay has shown that Protestantism played a major role in the development of modern science, technology, democracy, and civil society. These societal fruits of Bible-based Christianity will now become rejected as expressions of liberal tolerance and godlessness.
Verse 16 finishes, “The prayer of a righteous man being made effective prevails much.” Prayer is a different word used once in James which means ‘praying for a specific, felt need’. Much means ‘much in number’. Prevail means ‘embodied strength’ and is also used once in James. Righteous means ‘approved by God’ and is interpreted as Server actions that are emotionally guided by a concept of God in Teacher thought. The term is in the singular indicating that verse 16 is referring to individuals who are righteous. ‘Man’ is implied and is not in the original Greek. Being made effective is used once in James and combines ‘in the realm of’ with ‘a deed that carries out an internal desire’.
Looking at this cognitively, mental symmetry suggests that the path of personal transformation can be subdivided into three stages: First, one constructs a concept of God in Teacher thought based in personal honesty. This is related to ‘keeping’ the word of God, with keeping meaning holding on to something factually in Perceiver thought. Second, this concept of God turns into a TMN that emotionally guides behavior in a righteous manner. This relates to following God rather than cultural or personal MMNs. Third, personal identity becomes reborn within the realm of Mercy experiences.
Applying this to the contemporary Christian church, personal honesty has become overcome by the teaching of unconditional love and non-judgment, emotionally supported by secular TMNs of universal tolerance and political correctness. Thus, the personal honesty that is required to construct an adequate concept of God is rejected as being unloving and judgmental. Going further, becoming righteous requires the mental concept of a God who behaves in predictable ways. If the character of God is ultimately an incomprehensible mystery, then it is impossible to become righteous. Becoming righteous also requires a sense of sequence, in which the verse 2 follows verse 1 and stage two follows stage one. These essays illustrate what it means to treat Scripture in a sequential manner. In contrast, the standard Christian practice is to pull verses out of context in a random manner without any context of sequence. The end result is that both Christian adherents and theologians lack an adequate concept of righteousness. The modern professional soldier understands the concept of righteousness. The typical Christian does not. Obviously, the reference in verse 16 to a righteous person cannot apply to people or groups who do not understand the concept of righteousness.
However, verse 16 would apply to individuals who are attempting to follow the three-stage path of personal transformation within such an environment. First, practicing personal honesty and constructing a rational concept of God in an environment that preaches unconditional love, rejects honesty, and proclaims divine mystery will force a person to become internally motivated, satisfying the requirement of ‘being made effective’. That is because one will have to gain sufficient Perceiver confidence to hold on to facts about God and personal identity despite emotional pressure from the social environment. And one will have to construct a mental concept of God that is based totally upon this internal Perceiver confidence because one will not receive any emotional support from the thinking or paradigms of others. If this stress continues, then this will naturally lead to a concept of divine sequence, because one will realize that one’s concept of God is developing over time and one will also observe that various segments of society are following sequences of cognitive cause-and-consequence.
Second, applying this understanding in Server actions will lead to righteousness because one will continually be forced to choose between following an internal concept of God in Teacher thought and succumbing to surrounding MMNs of culture and expectation. Continuing to follow such a path will lead to significant ‘embodied strength’ because one will become able to behave in a manner that goes against the stream of society, as opposed to merely complaining about society or talking about some theoretical solution.
Third, this will lead to a deep ‘praying for a specific, felt need’, because one will be prevented by society from moving beyond the second stage of righteousness to the third stage of rebirth. This will be felt as a deep longing to live as a transformed person within a transformed society. That is because a growing gap will emerge between one’s internal vision of a better society and the external reality of existing society.
These previous paragraphs are a description of the last forty years of my life. I do not know how many other people are following similar lonely paths of growing righteousness. I do know that I have become estranged from all of my family, I have only a few friends who are following a similar path, and while I have achieved academic legitimacy, I continue to be academically ostracized. The only academic individual I know of who is attempting to follow a similar path is Jordan Peterson and he lacks an integrated Teacher understanding of both the mind and theology, though he is attempting to interact with others in order to broaden his understanding.
Elijah Praying for Drought 5:17-18
Verse 17 provides the example of Elijah. “Elijah was a man of like nature to us, and with fervent prayer he prayed for it not to rain, and it did not rain upon the earth three years and six months.” This is referring to the story in 1 Kings 17 where Elijah told King Ahab that there would be three years of drought, which ended with the contest between Elijah and the prophets of Baal on Mt. Carmel. Elijah is a Hebrew word that means ‘Yah is God’ and Elijah is interpreted as following a concept of God that is disconnected from normal human reality, because the eternal nature of God is being connected with a concept of God. Man is the generic word for mankind. Like nature is used twice in the New Testament and means ‘of like feelings or affections’. Thus, what is being emphasized is an emotional gap. On the one hand, the name Elijah implies focusing upon a concept of God that is disconnected from normal human reality. But on the other hand, verse 17 explicitly says that Elijah has normal human emotions.
This emotional tension is evident in the story of Elijah in 1 Kings 17. Initially, he is living alone by a brook being fed by ravens, suggesting that he is developing a concept of God that is disconnected from normal human reality. This is followed by living with a widow and her son on the edge of starvation, because they are being fed by a bowl of flour and a jar of oil that never gets empty. One can tell that Elijah is feeling human emotions because when the widow’s son dies, he says in verse 20, “O Lord my God, have You also brought calamity to the widow with whom I am staying, by causing her son to die?” Going further, Elijah explicitly complains to God twice in chapter 19 that he is the only one who is following God. In verse 10, he says, “I have been very zealous for the Lord, the God of hosts; for the sons of Israel have forsaken Your covenant, torn down Your altars and killed Your prophets with the sword. And I alone am left; and they seek my life, to take it away.” He then repeats this verbatim in verse 14. And he is saying this to God in the wilderness all by himself.
In conclusion, the interpretation that has been given to the prayer of the righteous man in James 5:16 corresponds exactly with the example of Elijah mentioned in James 5:17.
Continuing now with James 5:17, ‘fervent’ is not mentioned. Instead prayer and prayed are the noun and verb versions of ‘to exchange wishes’. I suspect that the word ‘fervent’ has been added because the translators felt that the prayers of Elijah must have had some extra magic ingredient to be so effective. However, Young’s literal translation accurately says that ‘with prayer he did pray’. Prayer is mentioned 37 times in the new Testament, but this is the only time that the noun is accompanied by the verb. The exchange of wishes has already been described: On the one hand, both the name Elijah and the example of Elijah suggest following a concept of God that is different than physical and social reality. On the other hand, verse 17 as well as the life experiences of Elijah at this time indicate that Elijah has normal human feelings. When one is forced to continue living with such an emotional contrast, then there will be a continual exchange of wishes between one’s concept of God in Teacher thought and personal identity in Mercy thought. One will not just be exchanging wishes with God occasionally in episodes of prayer. Instead, one will be continually praying prayers, because the emotional gap between an ever-growing concept of God in Teacher thought and increasing personal need, loneliness, and frustration in Mercy thought will become an ever-present gnawing. I speak here from personal experience.
Rain means ‘to rain or to wet’. Water represents Mercy experiences. Thus, rain would represent Mercy experiences falling from the ‘sky’ of Teacher thought. Earth is interpreted as the physical realm of rational thought. For instance, the current stream of new-and-improved technological gadgets is an example of ‘rain upon the earth’ because the ‘earth’ of physical rational thought is continually being ‘watered’ by experiences of new technology falling from the ‘sky’ of growing scientific understanding.
In verse 17, Elijah prays for this to stop. ‘Three years and six months’ are explicitly mentioned in the Greek. I do not know what this exactly represents, but I suspect that it refers to 3 1/2 cycles of society. These cycles happen fairly quickly in the modern world, but we are still looking at several years if not decades.
But why would Elijah want the ‘rain’ of technological progress to stop? Because the Exhorter excitement of continually having new physical gadgets is making it possible for society to avoid dealing with fundamental issues. As long as we can bury our heads in the latest smart phones, we can ignore the fact that we are becoming amoral, anti-social, climate-destroying, self-worshiping, locally-rational fools. Truly seeing such a deep-rooted problem will require an extended drought that is long enough and deep enough to get us to stop staring at our screens and start looking in the mirror, stop searching on Google and start searching our souls.
This cannot be done by merely having a few Mercy experiences. Instead, it has to be done at the Teacher level by imposing an entirely different Teacher paradigm upon society, which can only be done by an Elijah who has developed an entirely different Teacher paradigm and has acquired the embodied strength of being able to follow this paradigm despite the pressures of society.
Such a prayer could be answered in different ways. One possibility would be for an anti-scientific, anti-woke, fundamentalist group of MAGA evangelicals to impose their concept of God upon society. This is on the verge of happening because, at the time of writing this paragraph, Donald Trump will be inaugurated in two weeks, and Trump has already made it clear that he plans to disrupt society at a worldwide level. This would force people to look in the mirror because it would severely disrupt the existing Teacher order of society by imposing a totally different concept of God upon society.
It should be added that many Trump supporters are rightly appalled at the intolerant tolerance of liberal society which condemns common sense while advocating deviant lifestyles. However, the opposite of liberal tolerance is not arrogant stupidity. Instead, lifestyles need to be evaluated in a positive rational manner by examining if they are consistent with mental wholeness—which mental symmetry attempts to do. In contrast, rational analysis appears to be almost totally lacking in the pro-Trump crowd.
Another possibility would be for mental symmetry to be imposed upon society. Mental symmetry is pro-science and pro-technology, but it is diametrically opposed to the materialistic, objective, and specialized kinds of science and technology that exist today. Mental symmetry is pro-Christian and pro-Bible, but it is diametrically opposed to blind faith in the Bible backed up by a God of mystery. Mental symmetry is pro-globalism and pro-universality, but it is diametrically opposed to corporate globalism and the universal tolerance of wokeist political correctness. And mental symmetry is pro-spiritual and pro-heaven, but it is diametrically opposed to spirituality that lacks content and heavenly-minded thinking that suppresses rational thought. Thus, mental symmetry would qualify as a prophetic fulfillment of the prayer of Elijah.
But this will only happen if mental symmetry is given societal prominence by real angelic beings because I have tried—and failed—to appeal to human beings to the extent of ‘being weary to the point of sickness’. This may sound like an appeal to magic but it is actually a reasonable alternative because the underlying premise of this essay and similar essays is that human history is being guided by real angelic beings. Saying this another way, the biblical Gospels and epistles have been providing supernatural beings with road maps to follow. Such roadmaps would naturally take the form of verbal messages because the word angel means ‘messenger’. This must be the case because the human authors of the Bible were not clever enough to predict the future with such detail. Saying this another way, these essays describe the existence of an actual Hari Seldon Plan that is not merely a work of science fiction.
I do not know how many humans will read this essay. I do know that no academic or theologian has responded to the academic paper that I posted on similar cognitive prophetic analyses of the Gospels of Luke and Matthew (though there have been a number of reads). Therefore, I am attempting to respond in a righteous manner by addressing this essay to the angelic beings who have been guiding human history and asking that they would stop the rain from falling.
The anti-scientific Trump supporter wants to destroy science and overturn liberal society by replacing rational understanding with blind faith in authority. My goal is to disrupt existing society by replacing incomplete Teacher understanding with more complete Teacher understanding. One might think that this would not disrupt existing society, but I have learned through extended experience that people do not want a more complete understanding. The vast majority of evangelical Christians will run away from a cognitive analysis of Christian doctrine in order to embrace magical thinking. Similarly, the vast majority of academic specialists want the feeling of a vague meta-theory and will instinctively reject a legitimate meta-theory that actually ties various specializations together. Likewise, many people and groups are seeking to add a spiritual dimension to material existence but will recoil from a spirituality that contains the moral content that is required to impact material human existence.
Saying this as simply as possible, we currently live in a semi-obscure world of partial understanding and incomplete wisdom. The evangelical Trumpist wants to plunge this world into darkness, whereas my prayer is to blind this world with light. What scares me about verse 17 is the three years and six months. This strongly suggests that Elijah’s prayer will disrupt society for an extended period of time. This is backed up by my analysis of Luke. As far as I can tell, Luke describes the cycle of current Western civilization. Luke ends in chapter 24 with Jesus presenting a new understanding of incarnation and history to the disciples, similar to what is being proposed in these essays. However, my analysis of Luke indicates that we are currently in Luke chapter 12, which means that Western society has to go through 11 more chapters of history—which include a crucifixion and resurrection—before reaching Luke 24. I now suspect that Luke 13-23 corresponds to the three years and six months mentioned in verse 17. And when I look now at these chapters of Luke, I see several cycles being described. In addition, Jesus says in Luke 13:32-33 that he has to go through three days before going to Jerusalem to be crucified. This is different than Jesus saying elsewhere that he will be crucified and rise from the dead on the third day.
I do not want to go through such a long period of idiot-imposed insanity. But I would enjoy going through such a period of heavenly-imposed light.
Verse 18 continues with the story of Elijah. “And he prayed again, and the heaven gave rain, and the earth produced its fruit.” Pray is the normal word that means ‘exchange wishes’. Heaven means ‘heaven, sky’ and is mentioned one other time in James in verse 12 which said that one should not swear by heaven. The word rain is different than the word used in verse 17 and means ‘rain, especially a shower’. Gave means to give and implies transfer of ownership. Earth is the same word used in verse 17. Produce means ‘to sprout, to bud’ and is used once in James. Fruit means ‘fruit’.
The final state after the rain recommences is different than the initial state before the rain stopped. First, ‘rain especially a shower’ is more intense than ‘to rain, too wet, to moisten’. This suggests that the science and technology that re-emerges will actually be more powerful than before. This corresponds to the concept of spiritual technology that is mentioned in other essays. My hypothesis is that existing technology will become supercharged by an additional spiritual component. I do not know exactly what this means, but I do know that a ‘rain’ of technology plus spiritual enhancement would be more intense than the current ‘rain’ of materialistic technology. This idea of spiritually enhanced technology is also consistent with the story of Elijah, who manages to successfully call down fire from heaven in 1 Kings 18 before praying for the rain to return.
Second, the description in verse 18 is more organic than verse 17. Sprouting, budding, and fruit all portray mental networks of cognitive and spiritual life that are emerging, growing, and becoming mature. This is quite different than the development of current technology which is only peripherally related to the personal maturity of either the inventor, the investor, the producer, or the marketer.
Third, giving suggests that there will be a personal element to this spiritual technology. In other words, individuals who go through a process of developing mature cognitive and spiritual mental networks will be given the personal ability to add a spiritual component. Current technology is based upon economies of scale in which the largest factories and the biggest corporations can undercut, out-produce, and take over smaller groups and individuals. A spiritual addition to technology would function in precisely the opposite manner by being most potent in individuals who have followed a lonely, personal path to maturity.
Finally, both verses 17 and 18 refer to the earth of rational thought, suggesting that the spirituality which is added will be compatible with the rational thinking of current technology. Thus, this will not be a case of science versus magic, as is typically portrayed in fantasy novels, but rather a case of science plus spirituality.
Restoring the Sinner 5:19-20
The final two verses describe the purpose of this drought. Verse 19 refers to a change in direction. “My brothers, if anyone among you might wander from the truth, and someone should bring him back.” ‘If anyone among you’ is the same phrase that was used in verses 13 and 14, which was interpreted as the average person receiving benefits and not just the leadership. This implies that verse 19 refers to individuals changing in direction and not necessarily leaders or groups.
Wander means to ‘go astray, get off course’ and was previously used in 1:16 to talk about people associating God with evil during the crisis of the late Middle Ages. From means ‘away from’. Truth means ‘true to fact’. ‘Wandering away from the truth’ definitely describes the current postmodern, post-truth society which doubts the very existence of truth. The liberal condemns moral truth as bigotry, the MAGA Trumpist rejects factual truth as alternate news, while postmodernism rejects scientific truth as imposed opinion. The late Middle Ages experienced a combination of primarily physical crises; modern society is experiencing a similar combination of primarily mental and societal crises. When the crisis is primarily mental, then this both forces individuals to respond and gives them the freedom to respond.
Bring back means ‘to turn, to return, to turn back, to convert’. ‘Anyone’ and ‘someone’ imply that people are doing this correcting but the pronoun can refer both to people and things. Thus, someone or something is causing a turn in direction.
Verse 20 concludes, “Let him know that the one having brought back a sinner from the error of his way will save his soul from death.” Know refers to experiential knowledge and is in the imperative. ‘Him’ is implied by the conjugation of the verb. And ‘one’ is not in the original Greek. The imperative suggests that one can choose to ignore this experiential knowledge, and the lack of personal pronouns suggests that various individuals are acquiring experiential knowledge as they observe or experience changes in direction. For instance, I gain experiential knowledge by choosing to apply mental symmetry, but I also gain experiential knowledge by observing how others respond to situations.
Brought back is the same verb ‘to return’ used in verse 19. Sinner means ‘to miss the mark’. In verse 19, people were wandering away from truth in Perceiver thought. In verse 20, this is being redefined as personally failing to meet some positive standard. Christian morality focuses upon the personal but regards morality as a list of moral taboos to avoid. Scientific research expects facts to meet the positive standard of statistical significance and peer review but does not apply such standards to the person of the researcher. Mental symmetry focuses upon mental wholeness, viewing immorality as failing to function personally in a mentally whole manner, while viewing science as an attempt to learn in more detail what it means to function in a mentally whole manner.
From means ‘from out of’. Error is used once in James and is the noun form of the verb ‘wander’ that was used in verse 19. Way means ‘road, way, journey’ and refers to the sequence or path that a person is following. Notice the progression in verses 19-20 from truth in Perceiver thought to wholeness in Teacher thought to way in Server thought, corresponding to the first two stages of personal transformation.
Save means to ‘deliver out of danger and into safety’. Verse 15 talked about being saved from deep weariness, which happens when Teacher understanding reaches down and gives a person the emotional ability to continue. Soul refers to ‘a person’s distinct identity’ and is the source of the English word ‘psyche’. It is interpreted as the integrated mind. ‘Soul’ was mentioned once previously in James in 1:21 which talked about receiving ‘the implanted word, being able to save your souls ’. That was interpreted as going beyond merely believing in justification by faith to living out biblical principles. Chapter 1 referred to this salvation as hypothetical, suggesting that it was more an aspiration than reality. Verse 20 talks about actually saving the soul, which suggests that at this point it is possible to become mentally integrated.
However, ‘from death’ is more literally ‘from out of death’. The cognitive principle is that a mind that has been assembled in an inadequate manner can only become mentally whole by first ripping apart the existing inadequate mental construction, which will be felt as death. Thus, the mental wholeness is coming ‘from out of death’. Such death will only be produced through extended exposure to a world system that is fundamentally different than the previous dominant worldview. This could happen in a negative manner with an anti-scientific, anti-rational, anti-order worldview ripping apart the partial order of current civilization followed by people gradually and painfully putting the pieces back together. Or it could happen in a positive manner with a mentally whole worldview exposing the band-aid solutions of current civilization by demonstrating a better way.
The final phrase of James returns to the topic of justification. “And will cover over a multitude of sins.” Cover over means ‘to cover, to hide, to veil, to conceal’. Multitude means ‘to be full’ and ‘sin to miss the mark’. Luther’s doctrine of justification by faith alone was a form of covering sin because the verbal pronouncement of forgiveness based in a TMN of understanding the Bible was overriding or ‘covering’ MMNs of personal inadequacy. Something similar is happening in verse 20. However, I think that the reference to fullness is significant. The cognitive principle is that Teacher understanding can only reach down to put Mercy identity back together when Mercy identity reaches a dead end. Thus, missing the mark has to reach a fullness before identity finally falls apart, stops struggling, and calls for help. This is a legitimate covering for sin, because I have learned from personal experience that I will have a feeling of being right with God as long as I continue to follow this path of allowing Teacher understanding to shine on my personal inadequacies, reaching a personal dead-end, and then being put back together by Teacher understanding.
I began this essay about six weeks ago by suggesting that I was writing an obituary for Protestant Christianity. These final verses suggest that this is actually the case. One option is for evangelical Christendom to become such a grotesque parody that people recoil from blind faith in horror and are forced to develop a better formulation of Christianity. Another option is for mental symmetry to demonstrate that a cognitive reformulation of Christianity leads to results that are immeasurably better than what current Christianity achieves. My prayer is that the second option will happen and not the first.
Looking at the bigger picture, the high point of early Protestantism was Martin Luther’s doctrine of justification by faith. The epistle of James ends with a description of a multitude of sins being covered over and souls being saved from death. This actually describes a more complete version of justification by faith followed by sanctification. In Luther’s version, Mercy respect for the source of the Bible is sufficient to allow the words of the Bible to overrule personal feelings of guilt.
This is replaced at the end of James by something much more potent. Righteous individuals break through to a new way of thinking and living which is then supernaturally imposed upon society through the prayer of the righteous. Society goes through a period of soul-searching prompted by the ‘rain’ of technological progress no longer falling from heaven while understanding the example of righteous individuals provides an emotional covering that brings Teacher meaning to soceity and makes it possible to reassemble the fragments of society. Saying this more simply, the path of society stops being interpreted as existing civilization coming to an end but instead as a new civilization coming to birth.
The inauguration of Donald Trump is in one month. Trump has recently ‘joked’ several times about Canada becoming the 51st state. As a Canadian, I find this threatening rather than funny, and a current poll found that only 13% of Canadians want to become part of the US. Even in the most pro-American province of Alberta, 74% do not want to become the 51st state.