Busting Myths About Abraham

Alice C. Linsley



Myth 1: Abraham was a Jew

According to the rabbis, Jewish identity depends on 2 conditions: whether one’s mother is Jewish or whether one has properly converted to Judaism. By this definition Abraham was not a Jew. He did not convert to Judaism since this religion emerged after Abraham’s time, and Abraham’s mother was not Jewish.

Abraham's mother is not mentioned in the Bible, but when we explore her identity we find the suggestion that she was a high-ranking woman whose father was called Karnevo, a name associated with the Horus temple at Karnak. In the Karnak birth chapel we find a series of scenes depicting the annunciation, miraculous conception, and birth of Pharaoh Amenhotep III (1390-1352 BC) as the embodiment of Horus. The virgin queen is embraced by Hat-Hor, the mother of Horus. (Hat-Hor is later called Isis.) There is a scene in which Amun, the supreme God, holds an ankh (Egyptian cross and symbol of life) to the queen's nostril. In the final scene the queen is sitting on a couch surrounded by five figures on the left and four on the right, and one in a group of three royal persons is holding the infant king.

Amenhotep III
His kingdom extended from Nubia to Syria

Some have noted the correspondence between Horus and Jesus and argue that Christianity is a conspiracy based on the Horus myth. However, Amenhotep III died and did not rise from the grave. Further, the burden of proof is on those who believe that the Christians selected the Horus myth to explain Jesus Christ. They must explain why this particular myth was chosen.

The true reason is that Abraham and his people were Horites, a caste of ruler-priests who were devotees of Horus. Horus is the archetype by which Abraham’s descendants would recognize Jesus as the Messiah and the fulfillment of the Edenic Promise of Genesis 3:15. Here God promised to Abraham's ancestors that a woman of their own bloodline would bring forth the Seed who would crush the serpent's head and restore Paradise. The expectation of a Righteous Ruler who would overcome death and lead his people to immortality is much older than Judaism. This is evident in multiple anthropological studies of archaic rulers, ascendancy and the foreshadowing of Christ.

Christianity emerges naturally out of the faith of Abraham.  Messianic expectation wasn't invented by the Jews, neither did Jesus found Christianity.  He is the fulfillment of both. This is why Jesus and his Apostles called the religious leaders in Jerusalem hypocrites. They claimed a special status as sons of Abraham, but rejected the faith of Abraham.


Abraham’s Ethnicity

In Genesis we first meet Abraham living in the Tigris-Euphrates valley where his father Terah controlled a great portion of the commerce on the Tigris. Terah was as a ruler-priest with 2 wives living in separate households; one in Ur and the other in Haran. This was the practice of the Horite ruler-priests and explains why Abraham had 2 wives, as did Jacob.

Abraham’s people migrated to Mesopotsamia from the Nile region. Terah and Abraham were descendants of the great kingdom builder Nimrod who established a vast territory in Mesopotamia. According to Genesis 10:8, Nimrod was one of Kush’s sons, so Terah and Abraham are of Kushite ancestry.

This helps to identify when Abraham lived, since information is available about the Kushite migration into the Levant and Mesopotamia.To determine the approximate period when Abraham lived we must correlate the biblical information with findings in archaeology, anthropology, climate studies and migration studies.

The research of Dr. Catherine Acholonu of Nigeria bears on the question of when Abraham lived. Her work shows that a great Kushite ruler established a territory with Akkad as one of its center before the rise of Assyria. In Nigerian lore he was known as Sharru-Kin, which is interpreted “the righteous King.” In the eastern part of the Afro-Asiatic Dominion the word kin is khan. Sharru is related to the word sarki and in Egypt, the sarki were priests. Sarki can also mean one who takes life, as in sacrifice or hunting. The Hausa word for hunter is maharba. The Hebrew for hunter is nah shirkan (Targum).  Note the similarity to the Hausa word sarkin maharba, meaning lead hunter.

There is a large body of linguistic data to indicate that the Hebrew language emerged from the older Kushitic languages of Sudan, Egypt, Kenya, Tanzania and the Horn of Africa.

The Hebrew word for soul is nefesh and is related to the Rendille words nefsi/nefso, to the Somali naf [soul] or neef [breath], and to the Oromo nef.  These languages of the Horn of Africa and Kenya are Kushitic. The connection of Hebrew, Arabic and Aramaic to the Kushitic languages has been well established.

Sarki means ruler among the people of Kano (biblical Kain), who today are called Kanuri. They reside in west central Africa in the region of Orisha, which is where Noah lived according to African local legends. Sarki also live in the Orissa Province of India. Here we have a linguistic connection between India and Nigeria, further evidence that the Horite ruler-priests migrated north and east from the Nile valley. They went even beyond India into Nepal because Sarki live as ‘Haruwa’ in the Tarai region of Nepal. The word Haruwa is equivalent to the ancient Egyptian word ‘Harwa”, meaning priest. Horites spread also in Cambodia where they established a shrine at what is today Angkor Wat, which is actually Ankh Hor Wat, meaning shrine of the eternal Horus.

So there is considerable evidence for the migration of the great Kushite ruler to Mesopotamia and that he was what Genesis 10:9 calls a "mighty hunter before the Lord."
 
Another word for ruler is gon, although is may mean royal vassal. If so, both the name Sargon and the name Sharru-Kin mean ruler-priest. Assuming that Nimrod is Sargon I who died around 2215 BC, we can estimate the approximate dates of Abraham’s life. He would have lived between 2275-2205 B.C.

Using age 70 as the approximate lifespan for these rulers, and calculating the birth of the listed heir at about age 20, (though the age would be closer 40 for the heir of the cousin wife), we can estimate the following dates:


Noah  B.C. 2495-2425
Shem  B.C. 2475(55)-2405                          Ham B.C. 2325-2255
Arphachad  B.C. 2455-2385                         Kush B.C. 2305-2235
Selah  B.C. 2435-2365                                 Nimrod B.C. 2285-2215
Eber  B.C. 2415-2345
Peleg  B.C. 2395-2325
Reu  B.C. 2375-2305
Serug  B.C. 2355-2285
Na-Hor  B.C. 2335-2265
Terah  B.C. 2315-2245
Abraham  B.C. 2275-2205
Joktan  B.C. 2255-2185
Sheba  B.C. 2235-2165

Abraham and his Horite ancestors lived well before the time of Amenhotep III (1390-1352 BC)  Belief in Horus as the “son of God” who would be born by a virgin queen preceded Amenthotep's time. Horus was worshipped at the pre-dynastic shrine city of Nekhen (Heirakonpolis) in Sudan. Nekhen was already established in 4000 BC. By 3500 BC, it was a city of many neighborhoods, private homes and even palatial residences. There were commerical districts hosting busy industries, and Nekhen ran over 3 miles along the Nile.


Related reading: Jacob Leaves Beersheba; Hierakonpolis; Challenge to Shaye Cohen's Portrayal of Abraham; The Christ in Nilotic Mythology; The Saharan Origins of the Pharaohs

Trees in Genesis

Alice C. Linsley

Trees are significant in biblical symbolism. A study of trees in Genesis helps us to understand the ancient world of Abraham and his ancestors. Trees provided shade, were sources of water in arid places, and brought forth edible fruits. They marked boundaries, such as the Oak of Zaanannim, which marked the northern border of the territory of the Naphtali clans (Joshua 19:33).

Once Lebanon was forested with cedars and the Judean palm forests stretched over a range of 7 miles across the Jordan valley from the Sea of Galilee in the north to the shores of the Dead Sea in the south. The trees grew to a height of 80 feet and had branches all year round.

The trees known to have grown in the region of Abraham’s people include acacia, cedar, date nut palms, sycamore fig trees and baobab. These figure prominently in biblical symbolism, although not all are mentioned in Genesis. Acacia and cedar were used in the construction of the Ark and the Tabernacle. The baobab tree is likely the origin of the idea of waters flowing from a tree as in Revelation 22:1-2.

Six trees are especially important in the symbolism of Genesis: the Tree of Life; the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil; fruit-bearing trees; the prophet's oak at Mamre, the "trees" used to built Noah's ark, and the date palm (tamar) which grew around water shrines.


The Tree of Life

The “tree of life” in the Garden of Eden (as in Revelation 2:7; 22:2, 14) is a symbol of communion with God at the metaphysical sacred center. The Church Fathers regarded this tree as representing the cross upon which the Son of God died. In fact, the cross is four times spoken of as a ‘tree’ (Acts 5:30; 10:39; 13:29; 1 Peter 2:24). Deuteronomy 21:23 says that “anyone who is hung on a pole [or tree] is under God’s curse.” Quoting this verse, the Apostle Paul explains that Christ bore that curse, “becoming a curse for us” (Galatians 3:13).

The Tree of Life archetype is as old as the serpent archetype and the two are often shown together, as in the image (below) of Re's cat killing Apophis, the giant water serpent. The point of origin of both archetypes appears to be the Nile, the region from which Abraham's ancestors came.  Re's cat is perhaps the prototype of the Lion of Judah. Note in the image how the serpent's head is under the cat's paw.

The Church Fathers view the Tree of Life is a symbol of Jesus Christ and the serpent is the symbol of His adversary. We meet both in Genesis and in Revelation, at the beginning and at the end of the biblical story.

Both the Tree of Life and the serpent are associated with the first man and the first women. At the Horite shrine of Heliopolis, the first couple Isis and Osiris were said to have emerged from the tree of life.

The Gikuyu, a Nilotic people, place their first parents on a ridge north of Muranga, a town south of Nyeri in Kenya. One can visit the site. A sky-blue gate marks the entrance to Mukurwe Wa Nyagathanga—the Tree of Gathanga. Inside the gate are two mud huts, one for Gikuyu and one for Mumbi. The site looks toward the cloud-shrouded Mount Kenya (formerly called "Mount Kirinyaga"). To the Gikuyu, Mount Kenya is God's seat on earth and fig tress grow in abundance on the slopes of the mountain.

The Gikuyu call the creator Ngai and when Ngai created Gikuyu he told him: “Build your homestead where the fig trees grow." This is why many believe that the Tree of Life was a fig tree. The fig tree plays a significant role in revealing Jesus as the Son of God in the Gospels (Mark 11, Matthew 21 and Luke 13).

In the Gikuyu creation story we are told that at the beginning It was, our elders tell us, all dead except for the thunder, a violence that seemed to strangle life. It was this dark night whose depth you could not measure, not you nor I can conceive of its solid blackness, which would not let the sun pierce through it. But in the darkness, at the foot of Mount Kerinyaga, a tree rose. At first it was a small tree and it grew up, finding a way even through the darkness. It wanted to reach the light and the sun. This tree had Life. It went up, sending forth the rich warmth of a blossoming tree - you know, a holy tree in the dark night of thunder and moaning. This was Mukuyu, God's tree.

Now you know that at the beginning of things there was only one man (Gikuyu) and one woman (Mumbi). It was under this Mukuyu that He first put them. And immediately the sun rose and the dark night melted away. The sun shone with a warmth that gave life and activity to all things.


Tree of Knowledge

Cyrus Herzl Gordon suggested that the phrase “good and evil”( טוֹב וָרָע ) is a figure of speech whereby a pair of opposites refer to something greater than the constituents, as in the phrase, "they searched high and low", meaning that they searched everywhere. This figure of speech is called a “merism.” Merisms are a common feature of biblical language. For example, in Genesis 1 the phrase “the heavens and the earth” speaks of God’s creation of the whole universe. Such language isn’t merely a literary device. It also represents the binary worldview of the ancient Afro-Asiatics. Similarly, "male and female" constitute the whole of humanity. In the biblical worldview there is no gender continuum!

The tree of the Knowledge of good and evil can therefore represent all things, and all things pertain to God alone; thus the prohibition or boundary. This is a boundary that we continue to violate, attempting to make ourselves as God.

The Tree of Life is mentioned in Genesis 3:22 as distinct from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Both trees are mentioned in The Book of Enoch, a text sacred to Coptic Christians. In chapter 31 we read:

The tree of knowledge also was there, of which if any one eats, he becomes endowed with great wisdom. It was like a species of the tamarind tree, bearing fruit which resembled grapes extremely fine; and its fragrance extended to a considerable distance. I exclaimed, How beautiful is this tree, and how delightful is its appearance! Then holy Raphael, an angel who was with me, answered and said, This is the tree of knowledge, of which your ancient father and your aged mother ate, who were before you; and who, obtaining knowledge, their eyes being opened, and knowing themselves to be naked, were expelled from the garden.


Every Fruit-bearing Tree

In is on the third day that God said, “Let the earth put forth grass, herbs yielding seed and fruit trees bearing fruit.”

The third day signals the exercise of divine power, or in mystical terms, the arousal of God. Trees are the pillars that rise from the earth by God's command.  So Jesus who was lifted up on the cross also rose from  the ground; a sign of God's great power.

The Baobab is one of the trees that Abraham's ancestors likely had in mind when speaking of fruit-bearing trees. The bark is used for cloth and rope and the leaves for condiments and medicines. The baobab’s fruit is called "monkey bread."

1000 year old baobab

This legend surrounding the baobab describes what happens if you are never content with what you are:

The baobab was among the first trees to appear on the land. Next came the slender, graceful palm tree. When the baobab saw the palm tree, it cried out that it wanted to be taller. Then the beautiful flame tree appeared with its red flower and the baobab was envious for flower blossoms. When the baobab saw the magnificent fig tree, it prayed for fruit as well. The gods became angry with the tree and pulled it up by its roots, then replanted it upside down to keep it quiet.

In the wet months the baobab stores water in its thick, corky, fire-resistant trunk for the long dry period ahead. The water is tapped when drinking water becomes scarce and by this tree life is sustained in the arid months. Likely, this is the origin of the idea of a tree from which a river flows for the healing of the nations (Rev. 22:1-2), an image of the restoration of Paradise.


The Oak in Mamre

In Genesis 12:6 we read that upon his arrival in Canaan Abraham sought guidance from the Moreh (prophet) when he pitched his tent at the Oak of Moreh. The word "Torah" is usually rendered guidance or instruction, but Torah also is associated with a prophet sitting under a tree.

Males prophets sat under firm upright tress such as oaks whereas females prophets sat under soft flowing trees such as date nut palms, called "tamars." Judges 4:4-6 says, “Deborah, the wife of Lappidoth, was a prophet who was judging Israel at that time. She would sit under the Palm of Deborah, between Ramah and Bethel in the hill country of Ephraim, and the Israelites would go to her for judgment."

Genesis 12 that tells us that the Oak of the Moreh was at the sacred center between Bethel and Ai (an east-west axis). Deborah's Palm was between Ramah and Bethel (a north-south axis). The Tree of Life was in the middle of the garden. If the sacred center is the place where the east-west axis and the north-south axis intersect, we have the image of the Cross.

Many Bibles render the oak of Genesis 12 as the terebinth (Pistacia terebinthus), also called turpentine tree. It is a small deciduous tree or shrub related to the pistachio and likely the earliest known source of turpentine. It is also possible that the word in the original telling was the "tree of the daughter of Terah."  Terah was the father of both Abraham and Sarah. This is a reasonable explanation and it suggests that when Abraham and Sarah left Haran they went first to a place where they had kin on their father's side. Arabic is older than Hebrew and the Arabic word bint (بنت) means "daughter of" and tera or Terah is a royal title that means priest. Also related to the name Terah is the word teraphim, which were ancestors figurines of Terah's ancient Horite family.


The Tree of Weeping

Rebecca's nurse, Deborah, was buried at Bethel under a tree known as the “Oak of Weeping" (Gen. 35:8). The type of tree is not specified. It is named allon-bachuth, which means “tree of weeping.” Although allon is often translated oak the word can refer to a large tree of any species. Here it probably refers to an oak, a terebinth or a sycamore fig. The sycamore fig was associated with Hat-Hor, the virgin mother of Horus and there is some evidence that graves were placed beneath sycamore fig trees.

There is a natural association between the fig tree and the name Deborah which means bee or wasp.  The wasp lays its eggs inside the ripening figs.


Gopher Wood  (גפר gofer)

Noah's ark was made of this material according to Genesis 6:14. Since this word does not appear elsewhere in the Bible, it is uncertain what material is indicated. However, archaeology and anthropology provide adequate information about boat building in Noah's time in east Africa to safely say that the material used was reeds or sedge such as the boat shown in the masthead of Just Genesis.  This is supported by the fact that the word translated "ark" in Genesis 6:14 is found only one other place in the Bible: in the story of Moses' mother putting him in a reed basket (Exodus 2:3). The Schocken Bible reads: "Make yourself an Ark of gofer wood, with reeds make the Ark...", Vol. I, p. 35.

Reed Boat

Sedge is a grass-like plant which grows in wet areas, such as the Nile region. At the time of Noah much of the Sudan was wet. In ancient Kush sedge reeds were used to construct boats, baskets and sandals. Bas-reliefs of the Fourth Dynasty show men cutting reeds to build a boat; similar boats are still made in the southern Sudan. As Noah's sons and their descendants spread across the ancient Afro-Asiatic Dominion, they spread their ship building technologies so that reed boats exactly as those made along the Nile are also found in Pakistan and India.


The Tamar (Date Nut Palm)

The date nut palm is probably the most ancient cultivated tree in Africa. The Hebrew and Arabic word for the date palm is "tamar” and the tree was traditionally associated with females, probably because the nut has the appearance when opened of the vagina (below). In ancient Kush, as in Sudan today, fluidity and softness are associated with the female principle, so the soft movement of palm branches contrasts with the firm, pillar-like quality of the oak.

A. Zaid and P.F. de Wet report “that the date palm was cultivated as early as 4000 B.C. since it was used for the construction of the temple of the moon god near Ur in Southern Iraq - Mesopotamia (Popenoe, 1913; 1973).

More proof of the great antiquity of the date palm is in Egypt's Nile Valley where it was used as the symbol for a year in Egyptian hieroglyphics and its frond as a symbol for a month (Dowson, 1982). However, the culture of date palm did not become important in Egypt until somewhat later than that of Iraq (Danthine, 1937), about 3000 - 2000 B.C.

The above is confirmed by history, and corroborated by the archaeological research into ancient historical remains of the Sumerians, Akadians and Babylonians. Houses of these very ancient people were roofed with palm tree trunks and fronds. The uses of date for medicinal purposes, in addition to its food value, were also documented.”

The association of palm trees (tamars) with rulers and prophets is a common among many Africans and Arabians and is found in the Bible. Fresh palm tree fronds are used ceremonially at the installation of rulers and are used to decorate places of worship. The tamar as a sacred symbol is the complement of the oak tree. Male prophets sat under oaks while female prophets sat under date palms.

Jebu (Jebusite) rulers are installed with palm branches. Jude Adebo Adeleye Ogunade writes in his memoir about growing up Ijebu. He was warned not to touch the leaves of the Igi-Ose tree because, as his Mama Eleni explained, "That tree is the tree whose leaves are used to install Chiefs and Kings of Ijebu and as your grandfather was a custodian of the rites of chieftaincy and kingship you must not play with its leaves." This explains the greeting of Jesus with palm fronds as he entered Jerusalem.

Related reading:  Theories About the Tree of Life; The Fig Tree in Biblical Symbolism; The Tree of Life; The Chiastic Center of Ecclesiasticus; Wells and Brides; Circumcision and Binary Distinctions

17 Undiscovered Pyramids Seen from Space

The following article from The Star reports on the work of the American archeologist Sarah Parcak whose technology has helped Mary McDonald to make important discoveries in Egypt and Sudan.

A satellite perched hundreds of kilometres above the Earth has produced a fusion of modern technology and ancient wonder that some experts are hailing as one of the great archeological finds in a century.


“Seventeen lost pyramids!” exclaimed Kathlyn Cooney, an assistant professor of Egyptology at the University of California at Los Angeles. “That would be one of the most important discoveries in the last 100 years. That’s amazing.”


Cooney was referring to a series of infra-red images and high-resolution photographs taken from a satellite suspended 700 kilometres above Egypt, in a project directed by University of Alabama archeologist Sarah Parcak.


What those images have revealed nearly boggles the mind — 17 previously undiscovered pyramids, more than 1,000 antique tombs and at least 3,000 ancient settlements.


All of them are invisible to the human eye, all buried beneath the countless layers of sediment that have been deposited over the millennia by the annual flooding of the Nile River.

Read it all here.

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Canadian archeologist Mary McDonald's work has provided conclusive evidence of Saharan/Kushite antecedents to Nilotic culture. McDonald has shown that the ancient Pharaonic civilization built upon the culture of Saharan peoples. Comparing ostrich eggshell excavated from the Bashendi circles with those found in Egypt, she found that nearly all of the shared artifacts showed up in Dakhleh, in the southwestern desert of Egypt, 500 to 2000 years before they appeared in the Nile Valley. Additionally, cattle domestication took place in the Sahara long before it appeared in the Nile Valley. No solid evidence has been found for cattle domestication in the Nile Valley before 6000 years ago.

Fekri Hassan, Petrie Professor of Archaeology at University College London, believes that “Mary’s work has been an outstanding contribution to our understanding of the origins of Egyptian civilization.” Hassan says, “Her work confirmed that one of the main strands in the early civilization of the Nile Valley was the contribution from the inhabitants of the Sahara."


Related reading:  Who Were the Kushites?; Kushite Kingdom Building; 3000 B.C. Rock Carvings in Sudan

Impressions of North American Anglicanism

Alice C. Linsley

Fr. J. Scott Newman's insightful comments on this article which originally appeared on March 31, 2011, were deleted at Kendall Harmon's blog, as were mine. Neo-Anglicans like Sarah Hey, in the words of Archbishop Haverland, are "the slow lane to modernist mush." They refuse to entertain comments at Stand Firm that question the dangerous innovation of women priests. 

The Episcopal bishops are schismatic and the denomination remains unrepentant from its involvement in Spiritualism. The Archbishop of Canterbury, the confused Rowan Williams, is ineffectual in leading the worldwide Anglican Communion. Anglicans face a crisis of authority that will either burn them up or ignite a great renewal.

Female bishops in the Anglican circus

It is a historical and anthropological observation that no woman ever served in the office of priest until 1944, at which time Florence Li Tim-Oi was ordained by Ronald Hall, Bishop of Victoria, Hong Kong, in response to the crisis among Anglicans in Communist China. She later stepped down from serving as a priest. Her circumstances were unusual and though her ordination is often cited as precedent, she set aside holy orders when her service was no longer needed. Her case illustrates how well the all-male priesthood was grasped even by those who rejected and opposed Christianity.

In 1976 the Episcopal Church broke the age-old tradition of the all-male priesthood by vote of General Convention. At that time the "irregular" ordinations of the "Philadelphia Eleven" and the "Washington Four" were made regular. The first woman ordained to the priesthood in the United States was Ellen Marie Barrett (January 1977). She was ordained by the Rt. Rev. Paul Moore, Jr., Bishop of New York. Ellen Barrett, a lesbian, had served as Integrity's first co-president. Other lesbians had been among the Philadelphia Eleven. In the United States, the ordination of women and gay and lesbian "rights" were intertwined from the beginning, so that today it is difficult to treat these as separate issues. Both have been framed as "equal rights" issues, revealing a profound misunderstanding of the nature and origin of the priesthood.

This misunderstanding contributes to the Anglican identity crisis. Yet it is not the main factor. This crisis comes as a result of many years of unsound teaching in the Episcopal Church, weak lay and ordained leadership and worldly bishops.

Despite what feminists, politically-correct academics, and rights activists might say, the ministry of priests in the Church developed organically from the Horite Hebrew (Habiru) priesthood of Abraham's people and was exclusively the work of a select group of men (a ruler-priest caste) whose devotion to the worship of the Creator involved, by today's standards, extreme asceticism and purity of life. The objection that there were women priestess in the Greco-Roman world is irrelevant as this is not the origin of the priesthood know by Jesus Christ and his followers.

Contrary to the position of the Roman Church, Horite Hebrew priests were married and enjoyed sexual relations with their wives. However they abstained from sex, shaved their bodies, fasted, and entered periods of intense prayer in preparation for their time of service at the temple or shrine.

In the ancient world Horite Hebrew priests were known for their purity, sobriety and devotion to the High God whose emblem was the Sun. Plutarch wrote that the “priests of the Sun at Heliopolis never carry wine into their temples, for they regard it as indecent for those who are devoted to the service of any god to indulge in the drinking of wine whilst they are under the immediate inspection of their Lord and King. The priests of the other deities are not so scrupulous in this respect, for they use it, though sparingly.”

The Horite Hebrew priests worshiped the Creator (Ra or Ani) and the Creator's Son (Horus or Enki) when other peoples were worshiping lesser deities. They anticipated the coming of the Seed of God (Gen. 3:15) and believed that He would be born of their ruler-priest bloodlines. That is why the lines of priests intermarried exclusively (endogamy) and why unchaste daughters of priests were burned alive (Lev. 21:9). Sexual impurity was not tolerated.

In the ancient world, only men born into the priestly caste could serve a priests and many of those never did. Some instead served as warriors, scribes, rulers and metal workers. There was never a question about having a "right" to this work. It was appointed to those who were born into this order, and this is the order from which Jesus Christ descended.

The Horite Hebrew marriage and ascendancy pattern remained unchanged from the Neolithic period of Genesis 4 and 5 (the lines of Cain and Seth) to the time of Joseph and Mary. The pattern can be traced through the Bible using the anthropological tool of kinship analysis, and it is an impossibility that this pattern could have been written back into the text at a late date.

There were priests among Jesus' first followers. Nicodemus and Joseph of AriMathea were members of the Sanhedrin and of the Hebrew ruler-priest caste. This was Jesus' ancestry through both Mary and Joseph. Horite priests expected a Righteous Ruler to defeat death and lead his people to immortality. This is why Horite priests took great precautions in the preparation of the bodies of dead kings. It is likely that Joseph of Hari-Mathea and Joseph, the husband of Mary, were both of the Pharisee persuasion.

Priests were dispersed throughout Palestine. Settlements often took their names from the priestly division that resided there. For example, Nazareth was the home of the eighteenth priestly division, Hapitsets (a word of Nilotic origin), so Nazareth is Happizzez in 1 Chronicles 24:15. Nazareth was the home of Joseph who married Jesus' mother. Mary was from Bethlehem. Her full name would have been "Miriam Daughter of Joachim, Son of Pntjr, Priest of Nathan of Bethlehem." From predynastic times among the Egyptian Horites, ntjr designated God or the king. Pntjr is Pa-Netjer, the name of Joachim’s mother. The Horite priests traced descent through both the mother and the father. A limestone stela (1539-1291 B.C.) bearing the names of Pekhty-nisu and his wife Pa-netjer is on exhibit at the Brooklyn Museum. The Ancient Egyptian word nisu (ruler) became nasi in Hebrew and applied to the High Priest who presided over the Sanhedrin.

Through Mary the promise of Genesis 3:15 came to be fulfilled. The Seed of the Woman crushed the serpent's head and death has been overcome. The ancient expectation of a divine royal son who would overcome death and lead his people to immortality was fulfilled.

The connection between Bethlehem and the Horites is alluded to in I Chronicles 4:4, which lists Hur/Hor as the "father of Bethlehem." To this day Jews call their ancestors Horim, which is Horite in English. The ancient Horite priests were devotees of Horus, the son of Ra, the creator. Horus' conception took place by divine overshadowing. He is the pattern by which Jesus would be recognized by Abraham's descendants as the Son of God. When the Virgin Mary asked how she was to have a child since she "knew" no man, "The angel answered her and said, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the holy child will be called the Son of God." (Luke 1:35)

Anglican Orders

Anglican holy orders include bishop, priest and deacons. Some priests may also be monks. In the Eastern churches these are called "hieromonks" and all bishops in the Eastern Orthodox churches are taken from the ranks of celibate monks. This is one of the differences between Anglican orders and Eastern Orthodox orders. Anglican and Eastern Orthodox orders differ also from Roman Catholic orders on the matter of celibacy.

Prior to the ordination of women priests, Anglican orders were more highly regarded by the hierarchs of both the Roman Catholic Church and the Eastern Orthodox churches. There is no doubt that this innovation devalued Anglican orders in the view of those churches and continues to be an obstacle to healthy intercourse within catholic Christendom. The innovation reveals a profound confusion among Anglicans about the nature and origin of the priesthood as a sign of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, our great High Priest. The ordination of women priests also suggests infidelity to the received tradition of the Apostles and the early priests of the Church who understood the nature of the priesthood better than we do today.


Anglican Orders and the Horite Priesthood

None of the twelve Apostles served as ruler-priests, as far as we know. Originally only priests belonging to prominent families were members of the Sanhedrin (bet din). A "prominent" family was one whose lineages could be traced back to Horite ruler-priests of renown. These members of the Sanhedrin served under the presidency of the high priest much as priests today served under the presidency of their bishop. The high priest bore the title nasi (ruler, king, prince) and retained this even after the presidency was transferred to other hands. Similarly, in Anglican orders there is an understanding that a bishop remains a bishop even after he has stepped down from serving in that office.

The second in charge was a ruler-priest who was called ab bet din (father of the court). The role of the ab bet din appears to have been a combination of the roles of the Bishop's chaplain and the chancellor of the Diocese who serves as the chief legal consultant to the Bishop.

The third century Rabbi Johanan enumerates the qualifications of the members of the Sanhedrin as follows: they must be tall, of imposing appearance, of advanced age, and scholars. They were also required to be adept in the use of foreign languages.

The only followers of Jesus that are known to be members of the Sanhedrin were James the Just, Nicodemus, and Joseph (of Arimathea, sic.) According to Mark 15:43, Joseph was bouleutēs (honorable counselor), that is, a member of the Jewish Sanhedrin. He was "waiting for the kingdom of God." Joseph's correct designation is "Hari-Mathea" which means he was of the Horite line of Matthew. In other words, he was a Horite ruler-priest of a prominent lineage. Apparently, he had business and family connections in the British Isles. Eusebius of Caesarea (A.D. 260–340) may have been referring to this connection in Demonstratio Evangelica when he reports that some of Jesus' earliest disciples "have crossed the Ocean and reached the Isles of Britain." Since a qualification of membership in the Sanhedrin was facility of languages, Joseph would have been able to communicate with the people of Britain.

As a ruler-priest Joseph would have appointed men who were qualified to serve as priests in Britain. Being of advanced age, he would have been older than Jesus and the disciples. This suggests that the priesthood came to Britain very early and is older than generally supposed. It must be nearly as early as the episcopacy of Evodius of Antioch (53–69 A.D.) and the episcopacy of James the Just of Jerusalem (d. 69 A.D.), but would likely precede the episcopacy of Linus of Rome (67-79 A.D.). If Joseph is the ruler-priest who brought the Christian priesthood to England, as tradition holds, Anglicans should regard the ruler-priest pattern as an essential aspect of Anglicanism.

Further, the legend concerning Joseph of Ari-Mathea coming to Britain has basis in science. Horite priests were among the Ainu and genetic studies have confirmed that the Ainu dispersed widely across the ancient Afro-Asiatic Dominion. Some came to the British Isles and from there some migrated to Finland, Greenland, Labrador and Eastern Canada.

Anthropological studies have shown that the Ainu were among Abraham's Nilotic ancestors. Further, Genesis 41 confirms that Joseph, the son of Jacob, married the daughter of a priest of On (Heliopolis) and On has been identified as an Ainu shrine city.

If Joseph as ruler-priest, member of the Sanhedrin, and a kinsman of Jesus Christ brought the Christian priesthood to Britain, Anglicans should be especially careful to preserve the Horite pattern of the priesthood.

American Anglicanism: Another Form of Evangelicalism?

One impression is that considerable sections of the new American Anglicanism constitute another form of evangelicalism, which typically tilts toward cultural norms such as contemporary music, streamlined liturgies, leniency toward divorce and remarriage, and interpretation of Scripture through a mainly Protestant lens. For these people tradition is less important and therefore more easily set aside.

It must seem so to most African Anglicans, who like the Nigerians, tend to be evangelical and far more sacramental than is often realized. The Nigerian bishops are orthodox on questions of human sexuality. They are serious about being “Lambeth Quadralateral Evangelicals” and they hold to the mainstream catholic understanding of Church, sacraments, and the male priesthood. Now there’s a godly balance!

There is also an impression that this movement might be calcifying. This can happen when a group wraps itself in a protective cloak and breathes its own stale air. Might this be happening with Anglicanism in America?

Young clergy must be encouraged to pursue God's truth without agenda or ideological bias. Truth must always be pursued by Christ’s followers if we are to avoid becoming a stagnant community. Truth is embodied in the God-Man Jesus Christ, in the Holy Scripture, and in Church Tradition as that was delivered once and for all to the Apostles and to the Church.

Most women who are priests in ACNA serve honorably and with hearts for Christ and his people. However, having been one myself, and having looked into the question more deeply, I wonder if these women priests were even aware of the strength of the tradition which binds them from priestly ministry? I know I was not at the time of my ordination, nor for many years after. In those days I had no one to talk to about my doubts, least of all my bishop who already had suspicions about me being a "maverick priest" - as he put it - because I was not going along with his gay rights agenda.


Ignorance and Confusion about Church Tradition

Many of the new Anglican clergy are Evangelicals on the Canterbury Trail and lack deep understanding of Anglicanism. Some have done all their formal training outside of the Anglican tradition. So it is that questions about the Virgin Mary as “the Woman” of Gen. 3:15 are sometimes dismissed as “Anglo-Catholic.” This actually happened at a conference! When did Anglican clergy become dismissive of the Incarnation and the Virgin Mary’s role in fulfilling God’s promise?

The new clergy of the Anglican realignment appear to have a shallow understanding of the relation of Scripture and Holy Tradition. This will pose an obstacle in conversation with Roman Catholics and Orthodox, Anglicanism two best friends in its continued struggle to uphold church discipline. A friend attended an 8-week seminar lead by a new Anglican priest who didn’t want to address questions. He only wanted to give the approved evangelical answers. My friend confided: “Holy Tradition and the Ancient Faith were summarily dismissed by an ad hominem. After years of listening to priests of varying quality, very few of them have as much to say as they think they do. I think they need to tread carefully and listen and learn, starting with the ancients, but they can't get their egos out of the way to recognize that.”

There is the problem of former Episcopalians who, like myself, never could find a high church orthodox parish. Here in Kentucky the choices are either the Episcopal churches (hopelessly revisionist) or “happy clappy” low church congregations. Bishop John Rodgers famously said "the real difference in the Church today isn't between those who are high-church and those who are low-church, but between those who believe Jesus' tomb is really empty and those who don't." That may be the most important difference, but it does not mean the difference between high church Anglican worship and evangelical Anglican worship does not matter. It matters because of the inextricable linkage of prayer and belief. It matters very much to me that there is not a single catholic Anglican parish in my state.

A friend expressed my sentiments well in these words: “What the Episcopal Church has become and what its replacement is just breaks my heart and challenges my soul.” He is a mature and intelligent person with a profound understanding of the nature of the priesthood. While exploring the priestly vocation, he looked into different divinity schools, but received a “severely negative reaction” when he expressed to his Anglican priest his preference for Harvard over Trinity School for Ministry. At Harvard the circle of discussion is wider, his career options less limited, and given the wide range of viewpoints, nobody thinks it strange that he should select Harvard over a seminary that trains women to be priests contrary to the tradition of the Church Fathers.

Another friend is helping her struggling AMIA parish through a clergy search process. She reports that the list of candidates is small and dismal. She wonders why her bishop won’t approve a retired ECUSA priest who already worships with them. He is theologically sound and experienced. Could it be that the ECUSA label is enough to block his approval? That happens when a church becomes so sensitive to past problems that it can’t embrace the newness of each day.

Anglicanism in America is at a critical place historically. It needs to find balance between Evangelicalism and Catholicism; and between Scripture and Holy Tradition. It needs to settle the issue of women’s ordination, which means struggling to understand the origins of the priesthood and to shape priestly ministry according to that divine ordinance. And it must restore the undivided Trinity as the central focus of worship.

Planting churches and inviting people to commit their lives to Jesus Christ is a very good thing, but a calcified church won’t hold people. They will want to move to a deeper understanding of the Son of God and the mystery of the Trinity. They will want to see Him in the sacraments and in the life of the Body. They will want clergy who aren’t afraid of Truth regardless of where it is found, and they will want to breathe fresh air.


Some Promising Signs

One promising sign is the cooperation between Trinity and Nashotah House. The Rev. Dr. Robert S. Munday in a VOL interview said: “One thing that gives our two schools a close affinity is that I was a faculty member and associate dean at Trinity for 15 years before coming to Nashotah House as Dean. Father Doug McGlynn, our Seminary Sub-Dean at Nashotah House, taught on Trinity's faculty as well. Fr. Arnold Klukas, our professor of Liturgy and Spirituality has taught at Trinity also. So we have lots of ties and friendships between the faculties of the two schools.

We have hosted Trinity's entire faculty for a visit at Nashotah House, and our faculty looks forward to reciprocating with a visit to Trinity in the future. There is a warm fellowship and collegiality between the members of both faculties, and we are often involved with the same mission agencies, speak at the same conferences, and cooperate in all sorts of ways.”

There are signs of sharing between evangelicals and the traditionally Anglo-Catholic dioceses of Fort Worth, San Joachin and Quincy, including a recent A.M.I.A. ordination by Bishop "Doc" Loomis in Peoria. When Bishop Alberto Morales of the Diocese of Quincy heard that AMIA wanted to start a church plant in his see city, he encouraged them. He recognizes that AMIA is culturally different to Anglo-Catholicism, and capable of reaching people for the Lord who might not be attracted to the more formal Anglican worship. Bishop Alberto generously offered St Andrew's Peoria, his largest Anglo-Catholic church for the ordination. Bishop "Doc" Loomis preached and presided at the ordination of his newest clergyman. Bishop Alberto celebrated a Pontifical Mass "the Quincy way" with smells and bells to delight the hearts of Anglo-Catholics. Bishop Alberto had intended simply to sit in quire, but his participation with Bishop Loomis set the tone for the kind of cooperation that will enable Anglicanism in America to further the cause of the Kingdom of God.


Related reading: Women Priests and the Anglican Church of North America; Consensus that Women Priests Must Be Addressed; Modernist-Traditionalist Divide in Anglicanism; God as Male Priest; What's Lost When Women Serve as Priests?; Why Women Were Never Priests; Ideologies Opposed to Holy Tradition

Luci Shaw's Genesis for Children

I knew Luci Shaw when I lived in Wheaton, Illinois.  At that time I attended Bethany Chapel, where she and Harold had been members for many years.  Luci's poetry and story telling is always expertly crafted and full of life.  That is the case with her book The Genesis of It All, illustrated by Sr. Huai-Kuang Miao and Sr. Mary Lane.

Here is a review of the book:

In her inimitable style, Luci Shaw presents the Genesis narrative in fresh and contemporary language that sparks the imagination. You will delight in “watching” as God creates, first in black and white, and then bursting into color.

Experience the exhilaration of the Creation and the Creator as work of art and great artist, developed in richness and diversity. Whether you are young or old, you will find yourself in the picture as you reflect on the Creator’s purpose in bringing human beings into the world.

"A luminous and rambunctious book. Shaw imbues the Old Testament account of the Creation with a joyful bounce that will be irresistible to children of all ages. Her God is kindly, imaginative, and mischievous—a father who loves his creation and wants nothing better than to delight his children. Shaw's poetic talents and spiritual wisdom combine to breathe new life into a familiar story." —Suzanne Wolfe, author of The Unveiling.
 
From here.
 
 

Astonishment, Part III

Kenneth W. Linsley's sermon on "The Doctrine of the Lord" (Part III)

(Do you want Christian maturity or respectability?)

Part I is here. Part II is here.

Kenneth W. Linsley was a pilot, an attorney, a pastor and an author.  Read his account of his extraordinary mother here.

Astonishment, Part II

Part II of Kenneth W. Linsley's sermon on "The Doctrine of the Lord."  Part I is here.

Part III is here.

Kenneth W. Linsley experienced a dramatic conversion while a young pilot in the United States Air Force. Read the account of his experience here.

Astonishment at the Doctrine of the Lord

Kenneth W. Linsley's sermon on "The Doctrine of the Lord" - Part I

Part II is here.

Rock Art in Sudan and Somalia

Alice C. Linsley

Rock art is found in many parts of Africa. In Somalia there are magnificent painting in the Lass Geel Complex. The Laas Geel region once was a watering ground for herds and caravans. The complex is located near a confluence of two dry rivers, which explains why this place is called Laas Geel, meaning "water source for camels."  There are spectacular paintings scattered among ten rock alcoves that have been dated between 3500 and 2500 BC.  

Ancient rock art of Somalia

Somalia is at the extreme southern end of what was once a well-watered area that included the Nile Valley. It may have been part of ancient Nubia. Between 5000 and 10,000 years ago Somalia and Sudan were much wetter and there were sedentary populations that relied on water systems for their grazing cattle and for fishing.

The oldest known cemetery in the Sahara (about 7500 B.C.) reveals "The burial density, tool kit, ceramics, and midden fauna suggest a largely sedentary population with a subsistence economy based on fishing and on hunting of a range of savanna vertebrates." The discovery was made by National Geographic photographer Mike Hettwer in 2000.

Sudan, Chad, Nigeria, and Niger had rivers and lakes that connected to major water systems that are identifiable today, such as the Nile, the Niger, the Benue and Lake Chad.  The 8000 year old Dufuna boat, a fishing dugout, was found buried in the Sahara. This is the region in which Noah lived and experienced catastrophic flooding.

Fish was consumed in the Middle Paleolithic period. The Khormusan sites of ancient Nubia date to between 65,000 and 55,000 and "contain an abundance of fish remains as well as numerous bones of wild cattle, gazelle and hartebeest." The Khormusan industires have affinities with the Sangoan-Lupemban of central and west Africa. This entire region was biblical Kush.

Notice the discrepancy between what has already been established about fishing in this part of Africa and Karberg's theory. Here is part of a report from Live Science on the 3000 B.C. rock art, carved about 900 years before Abraham.

Another, even more mysterious, set of rock art appears to be at least 5,000 years old and shows a mix of geometric designs.

The "oldest rock art we found are the spiral motifs," said Karberg, which, as their name suggests, twist up in a way that is hard to interpret. Similar drawings have been found in the Sahara Desert.

They were created at a time when Africa was a wetter place, with grasslands and savannah dominating Sudan; people were moving to a lifestyle based on animal husbandry and, in some instances, farming.

Understanding what these drawings mean is difficult. Some researchers connect the "spiral motifs to some astronomical or astrological forms," Karberg said, but he thinks it might have more to do with math. "The regularity of the spiral might be one of the earliest mathematical ideas the people developed."

A second set of geometric drawings, probably a bit younger than the spirals, is "hard to describe," Karberg said. They consist of "amorphous patterns which are not circular. ... It looks like an irregular-shaped net," Karberg said.

There is no evidence that people were fishing in this area 5,000 years ago, ruling out fishing nets. One possibility is that these irregular "nets" may actually be animal hides. Similar drawings found in Uganda were identified as showing the hide of a crocodile or some other animal, Karberg said.

I wonder if the geometric patterns are similar to those found on these 60,000 year ostrich eggshells? Here is a sample of 270 engraved eggshells that were mostly excavated at Diepkloof Rock Shelter in South Africa.

Related reading:  Noah's Homeland; Africa in the Days of Noah; 70,000 Year Old Settlement Found in Sudan; El Castillo Rock Art in Perspective; Sudan is Archaeologically Rich

Alice Williams Linsley

The Rev and Mrs. Williams at home in Redlands, California in 1915 

with their children, shown here from left to right: 

Robert (chemist), Henry, Paul, Alice (philosophy professor) and Roger (chemist)

May her memory be eternal.


My paternal grandmother, Alice Williams Linsley, was born in India in 1883, the daughter of pioneer missionaries. She was the only daughter and had 4 brilliant brothers. One was a Philosophy professor in New York City. Another was a successful businessman and finance consultant. Another was Dr. Roger J. Williams, the biochemist who discovered pantothenic acid and concentrated and named folic acid. The fourth brother, Robert R. Williams, published the chemical formula of vitamin B1 (thiamin) in the 1930s and set out to eradicate Beriberi in the Philippines. Robert wrote of his efforts in his book Towards the Conquest of Beriberi (Harvard, 1961).

My grandmother met her future husband at Redlands University. She married Paul Judson Linsley, a published poet and horticulturalist who cultivated hybrid roses with Luther Burbank of Santa Rosa, California. He also developed several strains of disease resistant avocado trees. His twin brother was Earle Garfield Linsley, a well known astronomer and former Director of the Chabot Observatory in Oakland.

My grandmother may have felt overshadowed by all this brilliance and productivity, but I doubt it. She too was an exceptional individual. She was ordained to the “Defense of the Gospel” in 1925 and she read the Bible in four languages, one of which was Telegu. The Telegu translation of the New Testament was largely the product of her father’s labors.

I was named after a woman of great faith and I am humbled and honored to uphold this godly heritage. What follows is my father’s testimony about his mother, Alice Williams Linsley.



An Extraordinary Witness
By Kenneth W. Linsley

My sheep hear my voice, and I knew them, and they follow me: And I give them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand. --John 10:27,28

By anybody’s standards my mother was an extraordinary person. She was born in Ramapatnam, India, in 1883 the eldest child and only daughter of Baptist missionary parents. Until she came to the United States at age twelve, she had no experience in going to school in the customary sense and spoke only Telegu, a Hindu dialect. Even so, she did well in school and ultimately graduated from Ottawa University in Kansas and later went on to obtain a master’s degree and to become a teacher at the University of Redlands.

She was a master of the English language and read her Old Testament in Hebrew and her New Testament in Greek; and- what is perhaps more unusual – she was a minister, ordained by a church which was then part of the Northern Baptist Convention.

As a small boy, I probably heard my mother speak more times than did any other person, but you will have to excuse my fogginess with respect to sermon content. I just didn’t get it. I do remember that her approach was always positive, that she had a kind of Churchillian eloquence, and that she spoke easily and with great personal conviction.

For the first thirty-seven years of my life I did not know what it meant to be a Christian. But I could not have been an atheist, for in all of my years of floundering in darkness I never once doubted that my brilliant, praying mother knew what she was doing.

Near the end of her life she literally became as a little child. Her magnificent mind was damaged by a massive paralytic stroke that deprived her of her remarkable abilities to write and to speak. She required constant care and was unable to acknowledge that she understood anything that I said. She knew me, her only son, and at our last reunion she seemed to enjoy listening to my voice as I stood by her bed and read to her about the good shepherd from the tenth chapter of the Gospel of John. When I finished, she took the Bible in her one usable hand, raised it to her lips and kissed it, and smiled radiantly; and then suddenly, as if very tired, she dropped off to sleep. I never saw her again. Several months later she was liberated by death.

To have a funeral for Mother would have been a kind of blasphemy. So we simply had a reunion in the church to which she had given so much of her life. We asked her favorite young pastor to come and conduct a service of worship and praise. Long before that service started, my mother’s earthly remains had been buried in an unmarked grave in a public cemetery. There was no graveside ceremony. Her mortal clay was attended by a solitary grave digger. Mother simply was not there. She was “present with the lord.”

We began the service by singing one of Mother’s favorite hymns. Because it had been her father’s favorite, she especially liked “There is a Fountain Filled with Blood.” We also sang George Matheson’s great hymn, “O Love That Wilt Not Let Me Go.” Then Dr. Ivan Bell, my mother’s pastor, explained to the crowd what my mother believed. There was not a tear from any member of the family – husband, children, or grandchildren – just a kind of joyful sadness, as in our minds we placed her great faith alongside of the promises of God.

When Dr. Bell finished, a prominent judge, who, at sixteen, had accepted my mother’s invitation to give his life to Christ came to the platform; with marvelous love and a lawyer’s consummate skill, he pretended to talk to members of the church who had long since been in glory, calling each one by name and reminding us that my mother had brought them to Jesus. There is no possible doubt in my mind that seeing this parade of people in heaven would have been the grandest reward my mother could ever have contemplated.

Flowers were deliberately limited to one great bouquet sent by mother’s four distinguished brothers. But because Mother had been a Sunday school teacher for more than sixty years, members of her Sunday school class collected several hundred dollars to be used in Mother’s memory. This money was sent to the Christian in Ramapatnam, India, who read the New Testament in Telegu and worship in a beautiful sanctuary which I was able to visit in the 1950s. Both the Telegu New Testament and the church are products of my grandfather’s loving concern and personal efforts.

The persistent claim of Christians like my mother is that the man Jesus was God; He was not merely “divine” but God, declared to be God by His resurrection from the dead.

Those who accept Him have eternal life and those who reject Him are condemned already, He says, and will never see life. When one believes this, as I now do, it becomes clear that the ultimate tragedy of life is not death but rejection of Jesus, the Christ. The only real failure is not to give your life to Him. Death simply marks the end of the time of testing and opportunity. For those who die having rejected Jesus the tragedy is irrevocable and complete.

But the Bible says that Jesus came to “deliver them who through fear of death were all their lifetimes subject to bondage” (Hebrews 2:15). For the “Christ-one,” death means eternal glory. In the words of our Savior, “I am the resurrection and the life; he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live and whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die” (John 11:25-26).

My mother surely bore glorious witness to this truth, both in life and in death. And a few short years before her death, I too, had begun to bear witness to this truth.


Taken from Kenneth W. Linsley's book, Advocate for God, Judson Press, 1977, pp. 27-29

You Must be Born Again

What follows in my attorney father's testimony of his conversion. This was first published in Faith at Work magazine, vol. 80, no. 1 (Jan-Feb 1967), pp 3-5.


A Certain Lawyer
Kenneth W. Linsley

"Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God." (John 3:3)



It was a beautiful January day. The bright morning sun gave an aura of exotic elegance to the lowly castor bean trees near the window.  The apartment was quiet. Betty Ruth had gone shopping, taking our three daughters with her. I was at home alone, intent on fixing the family washing machine that had long since failed to function.

Across the cluttered courtyard a huge, one-eyed Alaskan malemute lay motionless in the mud, as above him a kindly faucet dripped incessantly. The world as then seen from my kitchen window gave no cause to suspect that this was to be a very special day for me.  If I had any needs greater than a way to wash dirty clothes, I was unaware of them. I commenced dismantling the washing machine.

Lying on the kitchen floor amidst faint odors of rust, grease, stale detergents, and a growing accumulation of washing machine parts, I began to hum the tune of a hymn I had heard a few nights before on a telecast from Billy Graham's San Francisco Crusade. And then, unable to remember the words, I did what was, for me, a very odd thing.

I got up, went to the piano in the living room, found the words in a hymnbook, and then went back to my place on the kitchen floor, wondering why I had done such a foolish thing, but nonetheless singing.

Just as I am, without one plea,

But that Thy blood was shed for me,

And that Thou bid'st me come to Thee,

O Lamb of God, I come, I come!

I kept singing this over and over for no other reason, I suppose, than that my quite awful singing voice seemed to sound a little better coming off the floor.

A few moments later, I had a strange feeling that someone was praying for me; and immediately I suspected a slightly nutty Pentecostal woman named Joy, who had been coming to me for legal counsel.

I began to sing the hymn again, but something had changed. This time it was different. This time, I meant the words I was singing.

Suddenly, the room was flooded with a warmth and a great light. Overwhelmed, I stopped singing, knowing absolutely that I was in the presence of the Almighty.

This was my introduction to the love of God. It occurred to me that the only reason that God would ever come to my house was because He cared about me. I simply could not be in his presence and begin to see something of his love for me without also experiencing a staggering conviction of my unworthiness of such love. Some people have called this "conviction of sin."  I never knew what they were talking about before, but suddenly I did.

I pushed my face against the cold asphalt tiles of the kitchen floor and, in a torrent of tears of joy and shame intermixed, said over and over words somehow dredged up from my subconscious memory, "Lord, be merciful to me, a sinner."

That was all I could think of to say - not witty, not original - but I did mean it.

Then the Lord spoke to me. He said, "Come and put your fingers in the nail holes in my hands, and place your hand in the hole in my side."

As a young boy, I had read the Gospel of John, but with this absolutely astounding invitation came a wholly new consciousness of what our Lord had meant when he said to Thomas, "Blessed are they who have not seen and yet have believed."

Revealed to me for the first time was the terrible sense of rebuke that is in those words, and now that sense of rebuke was mine. I did not want to be a Thomas; so I kept my face hard against the floor and exclaimed in a halting voice, "Lord, that won't be necessary."

There are no words to describe what happened next. Gertrude Behanna says of her conversion that it was more like a spiritual shower bath than anything else. Someone else has described it as feeling as if somebody pulled out a plug and drained away the sin. I suppose it may depend upon how one is accustomed to being cleansed.

The room was shiny with love. I knew that I had been permanently forgiven, and along with this came a wonderful sense of peace; and I said to myself, “This is the peace that passes understanding.”

Incredible as it now seems to me, for the first sixteen years of our marriage my wife, Betty Ruth, and I never talked much about God. I was not sure how to tell her what had happened. I began saving up courage, and that night when we were in bed, I said, “Dear, a very strange and wonderful thing happened to me today.”

“That’s nice,” she replied disgustedly as she settled into her pillows. “When are you going to get my washing machine fixed?”

With that I abandoned any attempt to tell her in so many words; but in the weeks that followed, she began to get the message. Playfully Beth Ruth now says, “I knew something had happened to you when you suddenly began to insist that we give a tenth of our income to the Lord.”

Several days later, in a conversation with my slightly nutty client, I guardedly made some vague references to having had a spiritual experience on Saturday morning. Joy volunteered that on that same morning she had walked out on an ocean pier to pray. High on her prayer list was the concern that I, Ken Linsley, be born again. She also mentioned that she had at the same time received some kind of miraculous assurance. I never pressed her for details.

Two months earlier, on a Sunday afternoon, Joy and her husband, an air force captain, and their two young children had been enjoying a drive on a back country road when, with awful suddenness, a speeding oncoming car had veered wildly across the center line, causing a terrible head-on collision and bringing instant death to the captain and their eight-year-old daughter. Somehow Joy and their ten-year-old son had escaped serious injury.

The driver of the other car had been a drunken woman returning from a weekend party. Her companion had survived the crash but had been injured to the extent that he would never regain his senses.

Tried for manslaughter, the woman had been acquitted when she testified, contrary to the state’s evidence, that the now senseless companion had been the driver of the car.

A few days following the terrible bereavement, Joy, numb with grief, came to me for help. For several weeks I worked to try to bring order out of the sudden chaos of her affairs. I was touched by her grief and apparent helplessness and resolved to be of all possible assistance. It never entered my mind that it was I to whom she was about to minister.

When by appointment she came to my office, she was trim, smartly dressed, and seemed terribly alone. She wanted to talk and proceeded to tell me virtually her entire life history. She had been raised in poverty and had no education beyond high school. Her life had been marked over and over again by tragedy, and yet there were no signs of self-pity. Even now, her greatest sorrow seemed to be the bereavement of her son.

She prays a lot, I thought, as she went on to tell me how she thanked God that her husband and the daughter whom she had loved so dearly had “gone together to be with Jesus.” She also seemed to take great comfort in the fact that her husband and daughter were, as she said, “born again Christians.”

The phrase born again Christians” disturbed me. It purported to make distinctions which seemed judgmental. A Christian is a Christian, I thought, so what is a “born again Christian”? It was obvious, however, that the term meant a great deal to Joy; and even more annoying, there was no mistaking the fact that she considered herself to be one.

In the several meetings that followed, she further embarrassed me by insisting that God had sent me to help her in this time of need. Not once did she try to instruct me. She simply talked naturally and unashamedly about her living Lord Jesus.

Perhaps the thing that impressed me the most, however, was the fact that she had completely forgiven the wretched woman whom she knew had killed her jet pilot husband and beautiful young daughter. She not only had forgiven her, but, what is far more, she also prayed for her salvation.

I suppose that all of these things were part of the reason I suspected Joy might be praying for me that glorious day when, at age thirty-seven, I first came to know what it means to be a “born again Christian.”

A few months after my conversion, I was transferred to duty in the Philippines. It was several years before it occurred to me that I should write Joy and thank her for what she had done for me. When I did, I received a reply which read, in part, as follows:

It was thrilling to receive your letter. It gave me insight into things I had not known before. It also made me feel very humble that the Lord used me as a vessel for his work in such a way.

That day out on the ocean, as I watched the water swirl and tumble, I thought about how constant is our eternal God. I was praying for the Lord to shower you abundantly with his love and blessings.

At the same time, I was surrounded by a tremendous warmth and love and glow beyond all human comprehension. Although I came to the Lord when I was eighteen, this was beyond anything I had ever experienced before. It is really beyond description, isn’t it?


END