tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3709348811583804427Mon, 09 Mar 2026 01:49:54 +0000original poetryHelmut ThielickebooksheresytheologyPoems, musings and thoughts of a theologous philosophisthttp://www.antechurch.com/noreply@blogger.com (Antechurch)Blogger20125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3709348811583804427.post-5596737623346243649Sun, 18 May 2025 13:10:00 +00002025-05-18T09:10:21.428-04:00God is the name that we give to things that we do not understand The universe, its origin, purpose and the process by which we are, all are this mystery. Evil is taking delight in the misfortune of other The cosmos suffers immeasurable harms because of evil, and the ‘natural working balance’ deteriorates Sin is a resultant consequence of a world forced to deal with evil Goodness and lighthttp://www.antechurch.com/2025/05/this-is-core-doctrine-of-antechurch.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Antechurch)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3709348811583804427.post-648448331129510848Sun, 09 Feb 2025 14:43:00 +00002025-02-09T09:43:01.616-05:00booksHelmut ThielickeheresytheologyI once set out, to write a heresy of my own, but much like Chesterton, I found that everything I could say had been said in various ways in many volumes already. There are some volumes however that I turn to again and again because of their keen instructive wisdom. The first theological book I ever had, and by far the best (I've read many times over the years, it is very short) has been "A Littlehttp://www.antechurch.com/2009/12/a-little-exercise-never-hurt-anyone.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Antechurch)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3709348811583804427.post-5198560363763174601Tue, 10 Sep 2024 23:07:00 +00002025-02-01T14:12:13.827-05:00Having long forgotten the problems of our progenitorswe resent the constraints that served in their time to “civilize”we cast them off in self-actualized hubris manifesting our “freedom”Without those constraints society regresses to a dark agewhere we are unable to recount either our freedom nor the solutions and constraints that tamed the scourge of rakes;or we “will” ourselves to power andhttp://www.antechurch.com/2024/09/a-rake-and-lawyer.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Antechurch)0MPFJ+MW Portland, ME, USA43.6741378 -70.26772443.624486508520121 -70.336388550781251 43.723789091479873 -70.199059449218751tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3709348811583804427.post-6315344503210737665Fri, 13 Aug 2021 00:30:00 +00002022-02-01T20:13:57.390-05:00I believe God is in everyone, and to know God, we must find the divine within ourselves. Jesus said "The kingdom of heaven is within you." (Luke 17:21) John calls it light. Relating to each other, and walking in light IS our spiritual act of worship AND it is the means of our salvation. Walking imperfectly in the light of the blood and flesh of another, and yet recognizing the divinity within http://www.antechurch.com/2021/05/been-in-works.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Antechurch)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3709348811583804427.post-5325725980076384535Fri, 13 Aug 2021 00:04:00 +00002021-08-12T20:04:51.999-04:00Love is a choice insomuch as you water the grass that you want to be green. Most of life goes by with us trying to be whole before we can love. The unexamined life is not worth living, but life without love is life without beauty. The key to intimacy is to plough through difficulty and emerge together. That is not neediness or lack of boundaries it is divinity in me and you recognizing the http://www.antechurch.com/2021/08/love-is-thing.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Antechurch)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3709348811583804427.post-2902476977258700248Sun, 20 Jun 2021 00:49:00 +00002021-06-19T20:49:43.072-04:00 JoyTears, Heart broken For the pain of another. And they push away The love that intends To find a way. The ache makes you heave As you try to breathGasping for air, why If not for some cosmic purposeAre we compelled to careWe say all kinds of stupid thingsDefending our prideGrasping for loveHoping to be seenReal Beauty hurtsIt burns and brands The http://www.antechurch.com/2021/06/tears-heart-broken-for-pain-of-another.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Antechurch)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3709348811583804427.post-661065273746779189Thu, 06 May 2021 10:28:00 +00002021-05-06T06:28:41.880-04:00Broken hearts destroy the good people that we in more naive times romanticized we’d grow up to beWe numb ourselves protectively from love’s sting forgetting all the while that we did not choose our feelings penitent for the crime perpetuated on us by our own heart love could never live up to its own reputation but heartbreak http://www.antechurch.com/2021/05/meditation-of-heart.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Antechurch)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3709348811583804427.post-2817194979885041569Thu, 21 May 2020 10:39:00 +00002021-06-19T20:53:03.272-04:00 There are things in life that beat you leave you feeling less than whole some of them don't kill you they just take away your soul If you try to stop it you'll do it to another and if you let it happen you may not e'er recover Is God there at all? Is there grace for me? I am "god" to others Is there "god" for me?You showed me quiet waters Brought joy into my pain inspired me from weakness helpedhttp://www.antechurch.com/2020/05/i-and-thou.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Antechurch)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3709348811583804427.post-8629982049271380927Sun, 09 Jun 2019 17:21:00 +00002019-06-09T13:21:31.176-04:00 One of the last things my father told me before he lost the ability to think and speak theologically, was how interesting impermanence is. As a young man he had been an actor in the play “Teahouse of the August moon” and he remarked to me how the teahouse was designed to be impermanent - disassembled - and reassembled in a different time and place. He went as far as to suggest that if, as I hadhttp://www.antechurch.com/2019/06/impermanence.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Antechurch)1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3709348811583804427.post-3989967217906519386Sun, 27 Jan 2019 19:28:00 +00002019-01-27T14:37:16.340-05:00 I’ve performed more than a hundred funerals, some were for people I knew, some were for important people, some had committed suicide, some had overdosed on drugs, others were for people who didn’t have a church, or a home, or even a family; all deserved the decency of a proper burial, and a prayer of blessing as they face the great beyond, the end and beginning.  This is why I shy away http://www.antechurch.com/2019/01/death.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Antechurch)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3709348811583804427.post-2706093412970259331Fri, 14 Dec 2018 11:26:00 +00002018-12-14T06:26:39.470-05:00 (A silly poem I actually sent to Stanley tools) Always ready to give a dimension with tables and conversions to save aggravation Lightweight and small it won’t hurt your back 32nds of an inch help keep accurate track 8 foot stand-out and plastic coating thats smooth the only drawback is its easy to lose.  http://www.antechurch.com/2018/12/an-ode-to-old-discontinued-stanley.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Antechurch)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3709348811583804427.post-3984565670259875372Mon, 08 Oct 2018 08:38:00 +00002018-10-08T04:38:11.718-04:00 The pointy end of things you get with helical blades adjacent engineering feats that men forget the humble pencil sharpener screwed upon a workshop wall always roughly four feet tall a handle crank for use by all the humble pencil sharpener Self feeding holder so adroit at gently carving the sharpest point graphite lubricates its joints  the humble pencil sharpener A http://www.antechurch.com/2018/10/for-rich-who-asked-if-i-still-write.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Antechurch)2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3709348811583804427.post-2398000321731606605Thu, 27 Apr 2017 11:40:00 +00002017-04-27T07:40:36.403-04:00 I’ve been broken at the foot of the cross so long I’ve forgotten how to walk and opening up my mouth is apparently an invitation for “His followers” to mock. Their blind faith in the system that prospered them causing the misfortune of others I’m not sure that I can continue at all to call these people brothers. They use the book I love - and hate [and I used to say] “and twist it” But I’m http://www.antechurch.com/2017/04/broken.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Antechurch)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3709348811583804427.post-1945684330826370618Fri, 06 Jan 2017 03:05:00 +00002017-01-05T22:05:55.807-05:00 (Originally in response to a Facebook quote of Dietrich Bonhoeffer's Letters and Papers from Prison) I'm beginning to have my doubts about the theologians of the early 20th century... statements like "Evil always carried within itself a germ of its own subversion in what it leaves behind in human beings at least a sense of unease." (Bonhoeffer) seem to not play out in the modern world... Did http://www.antechurch.com/2017/01/current-musing.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Antechurch)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3709348811583804427.post-5657379967512311554Thu, 22 Sep 2016 10:40:00 +00002016-09-23T10:43:24.825-04:00original poetry We all have our very own demons to fight very often we face those demons at night when we, all alone, struggle in darkness there is no weapon no friend nor solace to ease the treacherous battle that wages in our aching hearts we write empty pages we live in a poem that attempts to express what we have to offer the world it’s our best which isn’t good enough to earn a days pay Says some lucky http://www.antechurch.com/2016/09/politburo.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Antechurch)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3709348811583804427.post-8725692553343565851Fri, 15 Jan 2016 05:18:00 +00002017-01-08T08:11:57.101-05:00original poetry(with a little inspiration from P.K.W.) How we rushed to get through antiquity discarding the pre-socratics their dialec-tic monistic vapory esteemed anachronistic. Until meeting with Friedrich Hegel's dialectic holds absolute sway engendered in reality philosophy of day to day. Utilitarianism of desire accumulating gains observes the train that’s crashing and Calculates net pain. And if it’s http://www.antechurch.com/2016/01/gollum.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Antechurch)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3709348811583804427.post-9019157655845623876Sat, 02 Jan 2016 20:44:00 +00002017-01-08T08:11:09.614-05:00original poetry The most perverse of pleasures eject from us at whim and yet our humblest moments evoke from us no sin The tongue untrained unskilled commits a genocide though mightier than the sword or penis wherein we chance confide Words contain no meaning yet, until to them ascribed a fluidity of motion, by interpretive design Convey to you myself I fail, but know you shall insist http://www.antechurch.com/2016/01/democritus-was-right.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Antechurch)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3709348811583804427.post-1993977362319186457Tue, 23 Jun 2015 15:54:00 +00002017-01-08T08:12:14.360-05:00 Much has been written and spoken in response to the killing of nine people during Bible Study at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston SC - some of it does not bear the dignity of a response, much of it verges on appropriating the very real suffering of others as our personal cause. There is a temptation to repeat the phrase that the Christian should have "The Bible in one http://www.antechurch.com/2015/06/beauty-hate-is-denial-of-beauty.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Antechurch)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3709348811583804427.post-3219296110129683613Tue, 29 Nov 2011 01:09:00 +00002026-03-01T21:50:11.369-05:00Originally published 11/28/11 Have you ever noticed the different language people of different income brackets use when describing economic realities. Watch any investment program and you'll hear about winners and losers, as if this was a game - Talk to any of the families that use our food pantry, and you'll here the language of trying to keep enough food on the table to feed hungry kids, of http://www.antechurch.com/2011/11/language-of-class.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Antechurch)3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3709348811583804427.post-1145219556520978913Sat, 20 Nov 2010 20:57:00 +00002025-12-23T13:09:39.284-05:00Do a quick search for Christian literary agents, and see what they're interested in publishing (same goes for publishers) It reflects pretty much what takes up most of the shelves at the Christian Book store; Junk. I was in the Christian book store the other day browsing the new releases and was struck by the fact that some of the authors of supposed theological books were people who were famous http://www.antechurch.com/2010/11/why-im-waiting-for-ron-jeremy-to-become.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Antechurch)0