Plumb Line

Those of us who have studied the ruins of Ancient Egypt, the great temples at Karnak, Abu Simbel, and even the great pyramid on the Giza plateau wonder how the ancients could be so mathematically precise. The Egyptologist at Giza, wanting to impress my guide and his American client, insisted that this blind man go inside the great pyramid even though it has been closed for many years to the public. Covering the 13 acres (the size of Solomon's temple), the 6 million tonnes of sandstone, each block weighing 40 to 60 tons, joined so exactly that a human hair cannot go between them, built at the exact midpoint of the Earth's total land surface. Like Napoleon who entered the pyramid in 1792, I was filled for the first time in my life with claustrophobia. The interior which would hold both the cathedrals of St. Paul in London and Notre Dame in Paris, it is so exact that mathematicians are still incapable of explanation. The north star looks directly into the uncapped apex. One item used in the construction of these ancient temples, the plumb line, a heavy-pointed object attached to a string or rope, used a vertical reference line. You can always be sure of gravity, gravitas, whether in a building or an individual.

It seems impossible now, that I was ever that young, but, starting at 18, I was on my own. Trying to get through 8 years of university professional education, I was selling books door-to-door during the summer months...the hardest work known to man. Covering Brunswick county, I was staying in Shallotte, NC. There were only two strangers in town, the highway patrolman and myself, we both stayed at the home of Ms. Huet. On the first Sunday morning, I went to the Methodist church, it has been 60 years, but I remember it as if it were yesterday. The pretending Methodist minister, still drunk from the night before, hanging on to the pulpit, securing himself from falling, talking about salt, that we as Christians are the “salt of the earth” (Matthew 5:13). He had a box of salt, and was talking about the “saving power of Christians and the Church”, I can well understand why the Methodist church is rapidly disappearing from view. With their gay agenda, promotion of abortion and every sin which so easy besets us. If all churches were Methodist, the church would have disappeared long ago. A Methodist bishop, in Goldsboro, NC said to me one time, “it is none of my business how Methodists live.” This is probably the plumb line of that denomination.

Churches are disappearing because they do not believe in anything, any more. The world has been invaded and conquered, and like the Stockholm syndrome, the church have fallen in love with the invaders. Instead of the church changing the world, the world has changed the church. I have been accused of not being optimistic, too pessimistic, too cynical. Like the South Carolina catholic priest who won a tremendous amount of money playing poker on television.... he said he learned to play poker while in the seminary. Another preacher said he learned to play championship pool while at Bible college. “If gold rusts, what do you expect iron to do?” If preachers of the Gospel, those who live from “storehouse giving”, do not have an interest in the souls of men, what can you expect from the rest of us? How does anyone remain optimistic when churches have been taken over by the world, the flesh, the devil. The government, local, state, and federal taken over by corruption. The businessman, the professional man, “doctors, lawyers, accountants, etc.” all seem to be interested in one thing: the almighty dollar.

If the doctor were interested in your health, he would warn you about fluoride in your water. Autism, and other neurological diseases brought on by vaccinations, keeping aspartame, MSGs (monosodium glutanates) in the prevention of Alzheimer's disease. Diabetes was a rare disease when I was in school, now about 50% of the population is diabetic, 27% of the population is obese. Captured by government money, government programs, the scientific community has become captive, slaves of political correctness. The plumb line of most lives, regardless of education, spirituality, politics is political correctness. In today's culture we believe that mankind is just a horizontal being, no need for the vertical ethos (honesty), pathos (emotion), logos (logic), Greek words describing human nature.

St. Augustine realized mankind's true plumb line, “our hearts are restless until we find rest in thee, Oh Lord.” The best way I know to describe the power available to every human being, each knows how to insert a plug into an electrical outlet, immediately you have power, light, noise, even temperature. The power sources of God is available to every man, even though unmerited. God holds Christ accountable for us, even our sins: past, present, and future. Most of us are unworthy vessels, whited sepulchres full of dead men's bones (Matthew 23:27).

There is a new heresy in the spiritual world, the heresy of the emerging church, people who do not believe in the divinity of Christ. Who believed that the God of the Old Testament is different from the God of the New Testament. It is bad enough to have our blessed Lord insulted, dissipated by bereaved, by non-believers, but to have the blessed Trinity trampled by the likes of Brian McLaren and his fellow preachers and authors defies comprehension.

You cannot fool anyone, any time, with the insincerity of love. One can always tell if a man is still in love with his wife. When he comes on the scene, she is the first thing his eyes see, even before his children, his parents, anyone else. If you are in love with your Savior, it will be shown and known. The severest unbeliever always recognizes hypocrisy, the unbeliever may not recognize anything else, but he recognizes hypocrisy...the one who does not have the gravity of conviction, whose plumb line leans. God gave His Son, His Son gave His Life, if the desire to give is not in you, time, talent, treasure, you can know that you are lost and still in your sins. Giving is the essence of Christianity, God is Boss, He insisted on giving you one day out of seven for rest, giving you a book to live by, giving you wealth and only asking a percentage in return, cheerfully given. If the spirit of God is in you, in your church, everyone will know it. Not just individuals, some church buildings are empty of the Spirit of God.

A friend left one of our local Baptist churches, where she had been a faithful, giving member. On returning to the city for a visit, as would be the custom with most people, she visited her former church, in order to freshen her memories there, and see her friends. While there, a woman she did not know walked up to her and said, “I am on the church Sunday school committee, and we would like for you to teach a class this coming year.” This woman did not know that she was no longer a member, knew nothing about her at all, was willing to enlist just anyone to teach impressionable children. This is the depravity, the lack of a plumb line to which some churches have fallen. Any teacher, before any Sunday school or any group, should be carefully studied. Are you willing to hire just any preacher, any one with a license, a degree, perhaps even a doctorate?

The First Baptist in Wilmington, NC hired a man as pastor simply because he had a doctorate...he had never pastored previously. So anxious to have stripes on the robe (robes worn by pastors with doctorates have stripes on the sleeves), one man paid one baptist college to give an honorary doctorate to the last pastor, who later left town with a girl about the age of his daughter. One of my friends gave him a new robe with the stripes before he left town. Earthquakes, floods, hurricanes, wars, and political fascism...God is talking to us, is anyone listening?

Christ said, “you are my disciples if you continue in My Word. (John 8:31)” The sower threw some seed on stony ground, some on fertile ground, it is only when you understand the sower, that you will understand the stony ground of today's church life, today's seminary failure, today's denomination's blights and blotches.

Alfred Tennyson said in “Crossing the Bar”: Sunset and evening star, and one clear call for me! And may there be no moaning of the bar, When I put out to sea!