Genesis 1: Creation as an Ordered Good

In the beginning, God the Father freely chose in love to create Heaven and Earth. He did this through words of truth spoken by God the Son. Those words were instantly made real by God the Spirit.

Cleopatra (69-30 BC)

Alexander 3^rd of Macedon led an army to victory over Egyptian forces in 332 BC. He founded the city of Alexandria the next year before leaving Egypt for further conquests to the east. When he died in Babylon in 323, Ptolemy, one of his generals, became ruler of Egypt. Ptolemy brought the body of Alexander back to Egypt for burial.

Ramses 2nd (ca 1303-1213 BC)

Ramses 2^nd was the son of Seti 1^st, the ruler of Egypt, and his wife Tuya. He was born around 1303 BC, began his rule of Egypt around 1280, and died in 1213 at the impressive age of 90. He was born and raised in Pi-Ramses, a city near the northeast corner of the Nile Delta and close to the old Egyptian capital of Avaris. During his rule, he moved the capital of Egypt from Thebes to Pi-Ramses.

Tutankhamun

Tutankhaten was born around 1341 BC in the Egyptian capital of Akhetaten. He was the son of the pharaoh Akhenaten and an unknown woman (but not Nefertiti). His father died when he was only seven years old. He became the ruler of Egypt, if only in name, in 1333 at the age of eight.

Trinity

When the Bible speaks about God, it speaks about one god who nonetheless has three different ways of being god. Speaking rightly about God would be much easier if this one god had only one way of being god.

Early Egypt: Akhenaten

In 1351 BC, Amenhotep 4^th (“Amun is Satisfied”) was crowned ruler of Egypt in Thebes. He was a very different ruler and the source of many great changes.

Witness: Intentional, Unintentional, and Normative

All of us live in the Global Technological System (GTS). In this GTS, Olympianity is the most important religion. The GTS itself is the fullest embodiment yet of the will of the Olympian gods and of our devotion to them. Worse, the more powerful the GTS grows, the more inescapably Olympian it makes our societies, cultures, and personalities. Even as Christians and churches, we are increasingly expressing our devotion to these Olympian gods without even realizing it.

A witness is a person who tells other people about what they have heard and seen. Even though we all live in the GTS, Jesus still invites every person, each day, to witness to what they hear him saying and see him doing. Sometimes we do.

Amarna, Letters, and Nefertiti

The Amarna Letters are ancient Egyptian letters written on clay tablets. They were written in Akkadian because that was the common international language of the time. Their script is called cuneiform, which means “wedge-shaped,” because that is what the letters look like. In them the Egyptian ruler and regional leaders exchanged ideas.

Witness: Unconventional, Marginal, Mischievous, Radiant

All of us live in the Global Technological System (GTS). In this GTS, Olympianity is the most important religion. The GTS itself is the fullest embodiment yet of the will of the Olympian gods and of our devotion to them. Worse, the more powerful the GTS grows, the more inescapably Olympian it makes our societies, cultures, and Olympian personalities. Even as Christians and churches, we are increasingly expressing our devotion to these Olympian gods without even realizing it.

A witness is a person who tells other people about what they have heard and seen. Dominated though we are by the GTS, Jesus still invites each one of us, every day, to witness to what we hear him saying and see him doing. Sometimes we do.

At the same time, Jesus differs from our favorite six gods of Olympianity. We might call him the one odd god of truth, freedom, love, and vitality. When we witness to his words and actions, this makes us odd too. We can use different adjectives to qualify our witness to Jesus as the one odd god: unconventional, marginal, mischievous, and radiant.

Unconventional. The six gods of Olympianity are the conventional gods of our world. They are the gods whose existence we all take for granted. So witnessing to them makes us normal or conventional as well.

When we witness to Jesus, we become unconventional. We become different from others in unexpected ways. As we do, we disappoint the expectations which others, remaining normal, have for us.

Marginal. Remaining proud participants in Olympianity, and happily devoting ourselves to its gods, keeps us closer to the center of our society where we normally belong. If we witness with special devotion to the gods, they might even reward us with the most important jobs in our society. Then we might become central leaders or even rulers.

Witnessing to Jesus, our favorite odd god, will have the opposite effect. This is especially true if we witness to him with any consistency and clarity. Since he comes to us from way outside our world, we will end up turning our backs on the center, where the Olympian gods live, and moving toward the edge where he lives.

Mischievous. One thing about witnessing to Jesus is that it is very fun. Talking and walking with him almost always fills one with great joy.

Even so, our Olympian friends will see our joy as wrong. They will find both our witness and joy irritating. So sometimes our witness will be mischievous: both playful (for us) yet irritating (for others).

Radiant. Of course, during those odd moments when we do witness to the one odd god, our goal is not to irritate others. Our goal is to serve as radiant witnesses to Jesus: sharing with others the light of his truth, the warmth of his love, and the strength of his vitality. When we do that, God’s good creation is cared for, our fellow human beings are nurtured and protected, our churches are strengthened, and God is glorified. Let's do that!

Copyright © 2012 by Steven Farsaci. All rights reserved. Fair use encouraged.

Egypt: Early 18th Dynasty

Hyksos, immigrants from Southwest Asia, eventually took control of the Egyptian government from about 1650-1550 BC. They ruled from their capital city of Avaris located in the northeast corner of the Nile delta.

Ahmose, ruling southern Egypt from his capital in Thebes (now Luxor), led an army to victory over the rulers in Avaris in 1550. With that victory, he became the first ruler of the 18^th dynasty of rulers in Egyptian history. Historians also think of his rule as the beginning of a new era in Egyptian history which they refer to as the New Kingdom.

Early Egyptian Capitals: Memphis and Thebes

Memphis. Tradition tells us that Menes was the first ruler of a united northern and southern Egypt. His rule began around the year 3000 BC. Herodotus (ca 484-425 BC), the great Greek historian, says it was Menes who first ordered the construction of the city of Memphis. He chose an excellent location for it: the southern tip of the Nile Delta. The ruins of Memphis now lie 12 miles (20 km) south of Cairo on the west bank of the Nile.

Naaman, Elisha, and Jupiter (2 Kings 5:1-19)

Naaman is the general of the Syrian army. His king is very pleased with him. He has been very successful in battles against Israel. But then this story makes an odd statement. It says that Naaman has only been successful because Israel’s god has enabled him to beat Israel. It says that Israel’s god has given victory to Israel’s enemies. Already we can see the difference between Israel’s god and the Olympian gods Jupiter (god of politics) and Mars (god of war). They would never act so strangely!

Septuagint (ca 250 BC)

Alexander of Macedon led his army to victory in the conquest of Egypt in 332 BC. He ordered the construction of Alexandria the next year. He then left Egypt to battle in other lands and never returned.

Alexandria grew rich through trade in all directions. By 300 BC, it was bigger than Carthage and the largest port on the Mediterranean Sea. By 200 BC, it was the largest city in the whole Mediterranean world.

King Herod, Wise Men, and Jupiter (Matthew 2:1-18)

Jupiter is the false if conventional god of politics. He justifies all we do to gain and maintain political power. How we might act as people devoted to Jupiter is well illustrated by Herod, a king, in a story found in the Bible.

Eratosthenes (276-194 BC)

In 332 BC, Alexander of Macedon led an army of battle-hardened veterans in the conquest of Egypt. The following year he ordered the construction of a city which he named after himself. Then he left to fight other battles and never returned.

After his death in 323, Ptolemy, one of his generals, became the new ruler of Egypt. Ptolemy ordered the construction of a great library. Under the care of his son, Ptolemy 2^nd (ruled 285-246 BC), this library became the best the world had yet known. It held more than 500,000 scrolls. They contained some of the best ideas ever imagined by human beings.

Alexandria: The Great Library (ca 285 BC-AD 391)

Alexander 3^rd of Macedon, called "the Great" by tradition, used a battle-hardened army to conquer Egypt in 332 BC. The next year he ordered the building of a new city which he named after himself. Alexandria remained the capital of Egypt until the Muslim conquest of AD 641.

Israel ben Eliezer: The Baal Shem Tov (1698-1760)

Israel ben Eliezer was born in August 1698 in the village of Okopy. At that time the village was in Poland but, following many shifts in borders, it is now in Ukraine.

His parents, Eliezer and Sara, were Jewish and poor. His father died when he was five years old. Eliezer’s last words to him: fear no one but God and love every Jew unconditionally.

As school, Israel was no doubt taught Torah and Talmud, but he was frequently absent. He preferred to enjoy the beauty of God’s good creation alone in the woods.

Pyramids of Giza (2500s BC)

The world’s three most famous pyramids brood silently near the Nile River at Giza. Giza is about 15 miles (25 km) southwest of the center of Cairo, Egypt.