Productivity produces wealth

 

If one studies conquests and the clash of civilizations it has been popular to label the conquerors as exploiters.  Their morals are condemned and their causes explained to show why (corruption and exploitation) one society is rich and another poor.  But despite the popularity of these exploitation theories, in the actual historical record they are rare.  Usually the mundane reality is that productivity produces wealth. 

            Exploitation theories have condemned European imperialism and colonialism.  But when the Europeans left Africa, instead of the continent becoming richer, the nations there saw national incomes and living standards fall significantly. The same was true when Romans left Britain and when every Chinese dynasty fell.  The overlords brought labor skills and abilities that the natives lacked.   Conversely, slavery, the ultimate exploitation, has never made slave-owning regions more prosperous. This was true comparing the antebellum North with the South in USA.  Northern Brazil with lots of slaves, was poorer than southern Brazil, populated with free Italian, German, and Japanese immigrants. So why do people choose to believe such bunk? Anger is the motivator. The true answer is that there are often great differences in productivity and wealth. It’s easy for the loser or their sympathizer to blame poverty on someone else’s malfeasance. But envy of someone rich is precisely what the last 2 of the 10 Commandments warn Christians against.

            Changes of productivity of the conquered can often be traced to transfers of cultural capital.  The English had laws, banking and improved agriculture that they transferred to the Scots. Henceforth,18^th century Scots had an explosion of prosperity. Western Europeans brought the industrial age to Eastern Europe.  China transferred a great deal to Japan and Korea. The Cowboys married the Oklahoma Indians and today we see Oklahoma rising from a poor state into the middle. Human capital, as it is transferred is often a boon to the lesser developed party, whether they be conquerors like the barbarians who invaded Rome (or the Hebrews who invaded Canaan) or conversely, Germans who brought industry to Brazil and transformed Argentina into an agricultural breadbasket. The Italians have been winemakers from California to Australia, transforming dry pastureland into wealth-giving vineyards.  The dominance of overseas Chinese who pick up ideas and teach production is stunning.  In 1994 the 36 million overseas Chinese had a higher GDP than all of Communist China.

            Perhaps no country has had more success in spreading productivity and culture than USA.  It derives wealth from a free market of goods and ideas of many immigrants. Its notion of Liberty and republican democracy has spread to nearly 70 countries in 200 years. Evidently free men work harder and smarter. John Locke, father of modern psychology, derived six principles from the Bible that he insisted people would thrive under—Liberty, Equality, Tolerance, Natural Law, Separation of Powers, and Rights—especially property rights.  Dinesh D’Sousa is an author and film maker. When he was an Indian exchange student at Dartmouth, said that people would come up to him and say, “Oh, you’re from India. I love India!” And he would say, “What part do you love? That the electricity works only 3 days a week—you just don’t know which days?  Or is it the constant riots between Muslims and Hindus that claim thousands of lives?  Wife burnings? Or is it 400 languages where no one can understand his neighbors unless they use English?”  Dinesh said he never asked if they admired the malnutrition. His dream of coming to America started by watching a socialist propaganda film in India in grade school where the narrator said that USA was a horrid country.  There were lots of food lines.  Indeed the film showed some poor Americans standing in line getting food. Another kid next to Dinesh gave him the elbow and whispered, “They are all FAT! I want to go to a country where even the poor people are FAT.” And so D’Sousa came to America, studied economics and began to understand that a system based on Christian liberty principles is superior.  This then led to the Christian faith and a spiritual walk that he claims has transformed his life. Truly the Holy Spirit will set up circumstances in your life, uniquely aimed at your heart, to bring God’s faith!

Sator Squares

 Soldiers have battles to fight and training to do. In between is time off.  The Roman soldiers amused themselves with puzzles.  In particular they liked palindromes, puzzles of perfect word squares that the maker challenges his buddies to solve.  One soldier presents a word or partial word square and the others tried to solve it. The trick with palindromes is to make the square read forwards or backwards, vertically and even diagonally.  One clever Latin palindrome that can be read 4 ways is found on many military training grounds carved into walls and pillars. It is called the SATOR square.

         S A T O R

         A R E P O

         T E N E T

         O P E R A

         R O T A S

The game might start with the leader writing SATOR as the first line and first column.  Challenge is to fill out the square so that it reads the same phrase horizontally, vertically, backwards from the bottom both horizontally and vertically. Solving it depends on knowing words that, written backwards in Latin, are still a word.

 The translation of the finished square is Sator (The sower) Arepo (some odd name) Tenet (holds, operates, masters) Opera (work) Rotas (wheels). “The sower, Arepo, operates the wheels that work.” (Latin, unlike English, has word endings that define the grammar and assumed articles, and word order can be interchanged in sentences and they will still say the same thing.)  Amazingly enough, SATOR squares are found in nearly 30 tiny house churches dating before 150 AD as well as in military barracks.(not graffiti—the letters were carved into the stone)  The earliest is in a bakery shop in Pompeii (destroyed by Vesuvius in 79 AD) that was run by a military veteran.  His proud record of service is carved prominently on the wall of the eatery.  In the back of his shop was a room that one would guess is a storage room, but it was almost empty. Here was erected a small Christian altar, fish symbols, and the enigmatic Sator Square. This secret little church belonged to a retired soldier and its discovery stunned archeologists.  It had long been thought that Roman soldiers were not accepted into Christian company since they went into battle calling on the Roman gods to protect them. Here was direct evidence that soldiers and Jesus Christ were a match from the beginning. See also Phillipians 1:13.

 But who was the sower, AREPO? There is no such Latin word or name known.  No doubt the puzzle maker would tell his pagan buddies in a public setting that he made the name up to fix the puzzle. But if one writes Arepo in Greek it means Alpha and Omega written in a short Aramaic form.   In quiet company, it allowed a Christian soldier to share the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Alpha and Omega, who holds the whole world’s working ‘wheels’ in His hand.  Who, more than a army man needs real assurance of a Savior, Lord and Friend who holds your life and the universe in control? After all, each day may bring death. The Sator Squares are found in Italy and even as far away as Sweden.  Who would make a better secret traveling evangelist than a soldier constantly getting new orders?  In some churches, the letters are rearranged next to the square to form a cross saying PATERNOSTER crossing at the N.  Then around the cross are two remaining A’s (alphas )and two O’s (omegas).

the Navigators

 

Our church denomination is particularly careful about doctrines, and so it rarely endorses other books and programs written by other church bodies or parachurch organizations.  One exception is Navigators Ministry of Colorado Springs. Navpress, their publishing company, has almost universal endorsement.  How did that come to be?

            Dawson Trotman was a kid from California whose parents were divorced.  He was bright—both President of his high school class and valedictorian.  He also led a youth organization at Lomita Presbyterian Church but he shed his Christianity once he graduated and immersed himself in the crazy life of rebellious young adults in the Roaring Twenties.  When the police picked him up for public drunkenness, his distraught mother asked her friend to pray for him.  The friend called back the next day and said she had spent a night in prayer and God showed her in a dream that Daws was holding a Bible and speaking to a large crowd of people.  “Don’t worry about him anymore.”  Indeed two days later, Daws went to visit his old Christian youth group which was challenging the young people to a scripture memorization contest.  Well, he thought, I’ll show them!  But God’s word doesn’t return empty.  Daws was walking to work a week later and one of the verses hit him hard.  “But as many as received Him, to them gave He power to become sons of God, even to them who believe on His name.” (John 1:12 KJV) Here was God, a true father. Here was a faith he’d always pretended but couldn’t trust. And so he prayed a simple prayer, “O God, whatever it means to receive Jesus, I want to do it NOW.” Spirit granted, and Dawson Trotman became what he called an ‘awkward Christian.’ 

            He joined a personal evangelism group.  But when others began to explain how to explain the Gospel, Daws already was convinced what it took—God’s eternal Word.  God’s Word is powerful and speaks to people in their hearts! Scripture memorization would shape his future and his ministry.  He started a discipling group called “Minute Men”.  A Navy sailor joined the group and the guy talked about how they would spend boring months at sea.  It crystallized Trotman’s vision of a group he called The Navigators, spiritual Navigators, who would lead other sailors in faith. World War II was around the corner.  By 1945, Navigators had a presence on 800 Navy ships. They not only were spiritual leaders, they shared the gospel.  And most importantly, they developed programs for Follow-Up, the notion that one doesn’t just become a Christian in a one-off decision of faith (as Trotman’s Calvinist upbringing would suggest) but we grow in the Gospel, as Luther taught.  As the war ended, thousands of those Navy men came home to attend colleges under the GI Bill. The Navs became an important, but small campus ministry.  Later, Daws met Billy Graham, a young Southern Baptist evangelist who was leading crusades.  But who follows up on all those people who come forward when the choir sings Just As I Am Without One Plea?  Graham had tried to enlist local churches but only some were interested.  The Navigators were challenged by the mission, often steering people to churches they had attended for worship but also doing follow-up Bible Studies with the new Christians.  The key to success?  It was to realize that there are 9 principle doctrines that 97% of Christian churches agree upon. These form the core of Christian doctrine all Christians share.  Those 9 orthodox principles and close faithfulness to the Word were the Nav hallmarks.  This is why LCMS has little trouble with Navigator materials—they are Christianity 101. Other ministries have been heavily influenced as well with the Nav philosophy.  Wycliffe Bible Translators, Operation Mobilization, Campus Crusade for Christ are a few.  If your son or daughter goes to college or military, there is no better fellowship organization to have them look up than Navigators. 

            Scripture memory works.  Navs stress that you not only need to memorize the passage, but also the verse number (like John 3:16).  They use flash cards, but you can make them yourself out of old business cards or chits of paper. Take them in the car with you or put them on a window sill or your desk to review.  The beauty of memorization is that you can meditate—recall God’s Word in your idle moments—or use them to share the gospel.  I had a non-Christian friend in school and we played in a band together.  He joined the Navy thinking he would get into the USO.  But they put him on a small ship, the Pueblo, as the radio operator. Pueblo was captured by the North Koreans who broke Steve’s legs in torture, accusing him of running a spy network from the radio. Steve came back home, a Christian. I asked how it happened. “Captain Lloyd Bucher, was an old Navigator, who had memorized 2000 Bible passages.  He would write these on toilet paper scraps and we would pass them around,” Steve related. “That is how I found God and He found me.”

Fabric

 

Oddly, historians don’t make much note of fabrics and garments.  Often when archeological sites are excavated, the cloth is rotted away.  But we know that clothing is highly important in human history. Neanderthals wore only animal skins loosely and thus could populate only southern Europe.  They were displaced by our ancestors. Egyptian slaves and poor classes worked nude in the hot desert climate.  But linen from flax was discovered.  The fibers are easy to extract and are some of the strongest known, thus allowing the development of thin, airy fabrics as well as ropes, a huge step in technology.  Hebrews and Mesopotamians raised sheep for wool, good for making clothes to protect against the weather. Hebrews were skilled in weaving and dying (think Joseph’s coat of many colors) and lived at the crossroads of Egypt and Mesopotamia, making them not only strategic but also rich, dealing in prized fabric, becoming highly skilled at commerce (think of Jesus’ many stories about money and business). Cloth was the economy’s backbone. Jesus’ tunic (inner garment) was woven without a seam (special loom used in Galilee near Nazareth) hence was so valuable the soldiers cast lots over it. So important was clothing to the Galilean economy that what you wore (or didn’t) indicated staus, mental state, spiritual state, and is an important part of the Bible.  The Demoniac that Jesus exorcised, was naked when possessed, but after his healing was noted by all when he was clothed.  The prodigal son is given the best robe and clean clothes indicating acceptance of the father. The guy who showed up at the wedding without a wedding garment immediately appalled the king. Yet the story doesn’t tell us what he lacked.  Have you ever heard a sermon explain it?

            Fabric changed history and affects our language. We ‘text’. If someone collapses mentally, they ‘unravel’. Stories are ‘pieced together’; lives ‘hanging by a thread.’ The last ice age ended only about 15,000 years ago. Fabric has been found that dates to 32,000 years ago. Dyed cloth as old as 20,000 years ago has been found. The Nazca lived in desert Peru and died out 2500 years ago, leaving mysterious massive drawings in the desert.  Wild speculation abounded until their magnificent colorful weaving was found. The cloth and laces prove that the figures were religious pathways inscribed in the desert. If you want to sew skins together to stay warm, you will need a good, tough needle made from sharpened bone as the Inuits do. The Egyptians were first to make widespread fabrics from linen but we have 8000 year old Indus Valley wool.  The Vikings probably had their breakthrough technology in becoming adept at wool.  Wool has micro-fibers (40 microns in Merino sheep), round with scales that interlock shedding water effectively.  Vikings used this to make warm, sea-resistant coats and sails that didn’t fail.  Wool was their leading export. Their marauding and exploration may well have been to find sufficient land for sheep. As a result, the sheep they brought to England made the English into shepherds and wool-making was the origin of the first Industrial Revolution in the 1600s. The later finding of cheap cotton after Whitney’s 1793 cotton gin gave rise to the flying shuttle, the spinning jenny, the water frame, and steam powered Jacquard looms. Fabric was the original airplane material, and nylon won WW II. Synthetics led to polymer science that changes our world.

            What’s the big deal about cotton and linen?  They are cool and sweat absorbent, allowing easier work. Cotton grows all over the world (ironically, Egyptian cotton is really from South America) but was extremely expensive due to the labor of separating seeds and fibers. Hence we are supposed to be impressed with the fact that the Persian queen had cotton clothes in the Book of Esther. Cotton took the world by storm in the 1800s—comfortable underwear! Labor intensive silk has the strongest natural fibers known.  A silk shirt of a Mongol warrior would not tear when struck by an arrow.  It wrapped around the invading arrowhead, allowing the warrior to pull out the arrow with less damage to the flesh.  Pants were also an invention of the Asiatic nomads that allowed better riding.

            By Jesus’ day, the Greek world had invaded Palestine.  Men and women wore a “chiton” a linen tunic fastened at one shoulder (Roman style) or 2 and with a waist belt. On top was usually a robe (with sleeves) or a cloak (square shawl) or a poncho-like ‘coat’.  When you threw off your outer woolen coat, you were said to be ‘naked’ (said of Peter when he dove in). When you washed your one valuable suit of clothing, it was when you took your monthly bath in the river. If a man needed to be bare-legged as he worked he ‘girded his loins’ by pulling the hem of his tunic between his legs and stuffing it in his belt behind his back. If you had a pocket sewn in, that was a ‘purse’. Priests wore an ephod, an apron-like garment that derives from one of the first Mesopotamian ways of dress. And so valuable was cloth, that an old garment was torn into strips of cloth for patching, and for entwining bodies of the dead or infants—‘swaddling cloths’. Lydia, “seller of purple goods” met Paul at the Thyatira river.  That’s where the snails were processed to make Thyrian purple dye, worth it’s weight in silver, which did not fade in cloth with age.  Cloth must have made a good conversation-starter for tent-maker Paul.  So truly, why don’t we learn more about fabrics and clothing? They allow better work, modesty, glamour, and explain many Bible stories.

Christianity and Judaism at Passover and Easter

 

Passover is begins with what Christians call Maunday Thursday but is not over until sunset Good Friday as Jewish days go from sunset to sunset. Then on Saturday comes the feast of Unleavened Bread and the next day begins the Feast of First Fruits.  Of course, Passover marks the 14^th of Nisan of the Lunar Calendar, so won’t  be a Thursday every year, and this year was the 27^th of March.  Christians have re-jiggered the calendar to make Easter Sunday. Passover celebrates the Liberation of God’s people.  Feast of Unleavened Bread celebrates the Separation/Uniqueness in being God’s people, his followers. (Leaven is earthly and unholy.  You clean house to get rid of any leaven) And First Fruits celebrates consecration to God as the first fruits of the barley harvest were sacrificed.  That Christianity was truly an outgrowth of Judaism is shown by the Messiah, Jesus, the Passover Lamb of God, who was announced on Palm Sunday, 10^th of Nisan, then observed for purity 5 days as he endured withering questions from the authorities, then was sacrificed on Passover.The Liberator from sin. The rite of Baptism reminds Christians how they are separated to be God’s children as per the Feast of Unleavened Bread.  Jesus said, he was the bread of heaven. And he was the First Fruit of the Dead in the Resurrection, when Christians thrill at being consecrated to God.

       I hope I haven’t insulted anyone by what I have said.  It just proves how close Christians and Jews are in brotherhood.  When Jefferson quoted Christian author Locke, “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness…,” it should be understood that only a Judeo-Christian writer would think and pen such stuff.