Monday Field Notes

Jerusalem syndrome, Whose Koilia, and The Demon of Unrest

This series was previously called A Few Things on Friday. It has moved and is now called Monday Field Notes. I collect interesting things on the internet and when I reach six, I publish them the following Monday. Enjoy.

Jerusalem Syndrome

There is a mental hospital outside of Jerusalem which deals with multiple cases of “Jerusalem Syndrome“ a year. This is a syndrome in which mentally ill people make their way to Jerusalem and declare themselves the messiah.

The Kfar Shaul Mental Health Center in Israel gets about 50 cases a year of people in Jerusalem claiming to be the Messiah. As one commenter mentioned, group therapy must be very interesting.

An amazing opportunity for Pentecostal Education

Over on his substack, Joseph Lear rolled out an accredited program through Evangel University that if super cheap. It can be used for ordination in the AG and can be used as transfer credits toward a Bachelor’s degree. This is a great resource for any Spirit-filled church that doesn’t have an accredited school in it’s network.

Confusing Biblical Issues with Partisan Issues

Casting Down Imaginations is looking back through the transcripts of the appendix of a book by Cal Thomas and Ed Dobson on the religious right’s attempt to “save America.”

Here are some excerpts from Cal Thomas’ interview with then-Representative Hall, with comments interspersed.

I look at Europe, and I see that the Church of England is the official government church, and it’s dead. What has happened in many of the European nations is that they have not separated the church and state. Therefore the church, down through history, has said, “If we can get control of this situation, we can just change it.” But the fact is, the church is one of the worst compromisers of all, because they get into something they don’t understand and then they start thinking the way politicians think, and what happens is, they get compromised. (p. 228)

If this interests you I would suggest to read the whole post.

Whose Koilia is this?

with Jennifer Houston McNeel: John 7:38

Dr Jennifer Houston McNeel makes a compelling argument on the Exegetically Speaking podcast (one of my favorites.)

The NRSV translates John 7:38, “Out of the believer’s heart shall flow rivers of living water.” Behind that stand entangled questions of the punctuation of the Greek sentences (punctuation is lacking in the earliest manuscripts), the meaning of the word κοιλία (koilia), and whose koilia is in mind. Another translation could be, “Out of Jesus’ womb flow rivers of living water,” which fits nicely with John’s wider context.

Dr. Jennifer McNeel is a NT professor at St. Mary’s Ecumenical Institute in Baltimore, MD. She also teaches at United Lutheran Seminary and is active in leading church retreats. She has authored Paul as Infant and Nursing Mother: Metaphor, Rhetoric, and Identity in 1 Thessalonians 2:5-8 and Under Her Wings: Mothers and Motherhood in the New Testament.

San Storm Has a Forthcoming IHOP Book

Sam Storm was as big a fanboy of Mike Bickle as there was. He discovered with everyone else that Bickle was a fraud, false prophet and a sexual predator. After years of support he put out an apology for endorsing Bickle and stopped his writing of the IHOPKC book he was working on. He realized he has more research than anyone on the movement and he is now uniquely situated to write the truthful history.

He talks about this in an interview on the Minor Prophet podcast.

Presented without commentary.

A note from Christopher Lind:

Interesting reflection that struck me about the temptation Jesus experiences when Satan freely offers to let him rule the world.
The whole situation makes it abundantly clear that if we want to grasp power and control over the things of this world on our own terms, we must first bow down to Satan.
Given where we are and how determined many, including proclaiming Christians, seem to be at grasping power on their own terms, I can’t help but wonder how many realize who they’re really bowing down to.

What Happened to All the Prophets?

I wrote an article, What Happened to All the Prophets? remarking on all the prophets at work when the political right was trying to gain power and their quietness today. I don’t think it was because most of them found out they were false prophets. But I don’t know the real reason either. It may be that I am not interacting in their spaces but who knows? But as I wrote I was reminded of PizzaGate where the accusation that text messages that contained CP were about CSA happening in a pizza place instead of an order for Cheese Pizza as claimed.

It reached a boiling point when a man stormed the restaurant with a rifle, convinced he was rescuing trafficked children. There were no children. There wasn’t even a basement.

Based on PizzaGate, a scholarly study examined how conspiracy culture infiltrates religious communities through digital media. It was a case study in deception masquerading as discernment.

Don’t rush past this. Scholars are studying why Christians would believe something as ridiculous as this based on the words of false prophets. Let that sink in.

Yet now, republican politicians are known to have raped children on Epstein Island and none of the prophets are hearing from God. These people can’t be taken seriously and must be rooted out of our love feast.

Nothing Spiritual

The Demon of Unrest

Just finished The Demon of Unrest about the run up to the taking of Ft. Sumter and the start of the Civil War. Lots of details about how southern aristocracy viewed the owning of enslaved people as part of their role in life. Crazy to think about but its the same as any other feudal system throughout history. Though was more cruelty than most at the time.