#that said genesis was evil and irredeemable

[getvalentined]

Biting my own fingers to keep from going off on too much scientific bullshit in this next chapter of Smoke and Mirrors because Nobody Needs All That and it breaks the pacing but also MAYBE I NEED TO EXPLAIN THAT GENESIS COPIES ARE JUST MEN WITH A DISEASE WHO WENT ALONG WILLINGLY—

[blazehedgehog]

What was the honest reaction to Sonic 06 back in 2006?

It was a long time ago, so I can only really speak to my own perspective.

Sonic 2006 was the time that Sega’s marketing department really started cranking the hype train really, really hard. Sonic 2006 was announced as a fresh start. A soft reboot. Sonic Team said they were treating it like “the first Sonic game on the Sega Genesis.” You still had Tails, and Knuckles, and Shadow, but it was the start of a new era. A new type of Sonic the Hedgehog. More serious, more realistic, more “epic.”

At this point, there was no reason to necessarily distrust any of that. Yes, Sonic games had been slipping in quality, and yes, Sega was still more or less pretending that everything was “okay.” But that was always in the typical, “we’re trying to sell a video game and not go bankrupt” sense. This felt like a tacit acknowledgement that things weren’t so great and they were going to start over and refocus. Set things right.

Early gameplay footage looked rough. I distinctly remember a Gametrailers hands-on where they were demoing the Mach Speed Zone in Kingdom Valley, and the Sega representative was very clear and upfront that the game wasn’t done yet, and all of the empty space Sonic was running through would be filled in later. (It wasn’t.) There was also the typical debate over the TGS 2006 “Bringing it Home” playable demo, where people argued then, too, that the game wasn’t done yet, and not to judge things too harshly. The final version will be better.

The final version also wasn’t done yet. So, y’know.

I had effectively bought an Xbox 360 for this game. I was broke as per usual, but I’d gotten lucky and won a Gametrailers video competition, which landed me $1000 in Gamestop gift cards. I bought a PS2, a Nintendo DS, and an Xbox 360, plus more than a dozen games between the three platforms. I knew there would be more Xbox 360 games besides Sonic 2006, and I’d even originally wanted a 360 primarily for Elder Scrolls Oblivion, but the simple fact is that once the money was in my hands and I spent it, Sonic 2006 was the only actual Xbox 360 game I owned.

Or was going to own, anyway. I think I’d won the contest in September or October of 2006, when Sonic came out in November. So I bought the 360 a few weeks early with some original Xbox games, and spent the interim with Spider-man 2, Ninja Gaiden Black, and the copy of Halo 2 I borrowed from my cousin.

Sonic 2006 was the first game I’d ever pre-ordered. The second game, pre-ordered on the same day, was The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess for the Gamecube. I still have the tiny pre-order statue that came with Sonic. His gloves and socks, once white, have begun to yellow with age, and the skin tone on his face and body is turning an ashy gray.

Even 72 hours before launch, there was not a clear picture what Sonic 2006 actually was. Sega was deliberately obfuscating certain features; early in development they’d sworn up and down that there were only three playable characters in the game, something that blatantly wasn’t true. Perhaps it was miscommunication from Japan, but it meant they were now going out of their way to hide how many other playable characters were actually in the game. I naively distrusted most (if not all) professional reviewers back then, and the earliest scores for Sonic 2006 were all over the map.

As a Sonic fan, you kind of had to know how to read between the lines on the more negative reviews, because we were definitely in the era where it felt like critics were starting to dogpile on the Sonic franchise now that Sega was a third party developer. There weren’t a lot of professional reviews you could trust regarding Sonic games, or at least, that’s what it felt like. This was the rise of the podcast, and snarky hosts were taking whatever low hanging fruit they could get.

I remember waking up on launch day -- friends had gotten up early and picked theirs up in the morning, when I’d rolled out of bed somewhere closer to noon (or maybe even afternoon). I had plans to pick up my copy later that evening, after sunset. My friends did not sound happy, but again, there was always this vibe of “Wait and see.” They had only just started the game. First impressions were still too fresh to really call.

But I had this moment, this cold spot in the pit of my stomach, where I thought “Maybe I can cancel the pre-order and get Gears of War instead?” Reviews for Gears seemed pretty good. I’d probably be happy with it instead of Sonic.

I couldn’t let myself do that. I was a Sonic fan. This was the first big Sonic game of a new generation. A new start. I bought the console for this. First game I ever pre-ordered. The second Sonic game in the history of the franchise I’d bought on launch day. This was it. This was the event. No backing down. Besides, Sonic 2006 was a big 15th Anniversary celebration game. They wouldn’t make such a big deal about the anniversary without just cause, right? Sonic 2006 was going to be great. I just needed to calm down.

So we drove out to Gamestop -- and it was the sort of thing where I think we couldn’t do the pre-order at my local Gamestop for some reason, so this one was a town or two over. It was a journey. I was nervous the whole way there. Something told me I was making a mistake. But I had to do this.

I think it may have been starting to rain as we rolled up on the store. It was around 8pm, and people were starting to camp out on the sidewalk. Literally camp out, tents and all, because of the rain. Today was the launch date for Sonic 2006, but tomorrow was the launch of the Playstation 3. These guys were here for Gamestop’s “Midnight Madness” launch event. They were going to be some of the first to get a PS3. I was probably the last person to pick up a Sonic 2006 pre-order.

Sonic 2006 might have been the first Sonic game to ever make me angry. I’d had a lot of internet debates on how I felt about Sonic Adventure 2, but most of those amounted to splitting hairs about things that felt disappointing when compared to the original Sonic Adventure. I was not angry then, I was simply let down. I was similarly let down when I finally got a chance to play Sonic Heroes. But again, not angry. Baffled, maybe. A little sad. But not angry.

With Sonic 2006, I slammed head first in to all of my excitement and uncertainty at 200mph. This was a Sonic game unlike anything I’d ever played before, and in all of the worst possible ways. Enough has been said about the quality of the game that I don’t need to describe anything that’s wrong with it -- also because literally everything was wrong with it. Perhaps the first video game I’d ever played, ever, on any platform, that actually fought back against your efforts to play it. A disaster in every sense of the word. A broken nightmare. After finishing Sonic’s story, I was mad. How could they let this happen? What was wrong with them?

I was less angry after having finished Shadow’s story. Shadow had even buggier gameplay than Sonic, but it also felt more complex, more action-oriented. His story was better, too -- instead of the sappy Princess love story, Shadow’s story was about how the world was against him, and the crossroads that brought him to: rise above his past and strive to be a better person, or give in to the temptations of evil? It was still dumb as heck, but it was less dumb than Sonic’s story.

By the time the credits rolled, I had accepted the fact that this game was a mess. More of a mess than any Sonic game ever had been before. It was clearly a deeply unfinished game. Friends theorized maybe they could patch the game, because that was a thing games could get now. Sonic 2006 could still be saved. The PS3 version wouldn’t be out for another month, surely that means they’re working on a fix, right? Some were even theorizing over an achievement called “Nights of Kronos” -- it mentioned a “complete ending to the last hidden story.” Perhaps that meant there was going to be more? Maybe we got the bad ending, and a better, more finished ending was waiting for us on the disc somewhere?

There wasn’t. And no patch ever fixed the game. That was Sonic 2006 -- the kiss, the loading screens, the strange mannequin NPCs, the stiff controls, the glitchy physics, the empty overworlds, the bizarre dialog, the plotholes and time paradoxes, that’s just what the game was, and was always going to be, forever.

Before Sonic 2006, you could say that 3D Sonic games were bad, but there was always a place to defend them from. They had problems, but they were never irredeemable. Sonic Heroes may have had frustrating controls and repetitive level design, but it had great art direction, nice music, and fun concepts. They were always trying, dang it, and it was obvious to see that.

Sonic 2006 felt irredeemable. Offensively terrible. A failure on such a level that it was hard to comprehend. Beyond simply “a new low” for the franchise. This felt like rock bottom. It was the kind of bad that spread like a virus. Even good games, like Sonic 2 on the Sega Genesis, felt notably tarnished by the existence of Sonic 2006. It threatened to ruin the entire franchise by proximity alone. For some, it probably did. I definitely had a moment where I wondered if I would ever enjoy a Sonic game in the same way ever again. They were all tainted now. Infected by memories of Sonic 2006, the game that was supposed to save the franchise, but condemned it to the lowest pits of hell.

In isolation, that might have been the end for me. I might have continued to drift away, bit by bit, until I found greener hills outside of the Sonic franchise.

I’ve said this before, but what saved me was getting hired to write for TSSZ News. Now, suddenly, I was paid to play and write about Sonic games. It was a duty. And it helped that the first Sonic game I reviewed for TSSZ ended up being Sonic Unleashed, a game I continue to openly gush about to this day, more than a decade after its release.

But never forget that Sonic 2006 was such a disaster that it nearly made me give up Sonic the Hedgehog. It really was that bad.

[aion-rsa]

Is Nintendo GameCube the Most Underrated Console Ever?

https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

A lot of words have been spoken about the Nintendo GameCube in the 20 years since the console’s release, but the one you’re most likely to hear if you ask fans about their thoughts on the console’s legacy is “underrated.” In fact, the popular sentiment is that the Nintendo GameCube is the most underrated console ever made.

It’s a fascinating legacy for a device that once seemed destined to become Nintendo’s worst-selling home console ever (before the Wii U justifiably stole that title). We’ve talked about this more extensively in the past, but the Nintendo GameCube was something of a low point for Nintendo in a lot of ways. They were last in sales, managed to alienate quite a few developers and gamers, and generally seemed to be unsure of who they were and what their future in the video game industry looked like.

While it’s true that the “underrated” tag is usually reserved for things that failed to reach the upper echelons of mainstream popularity, I’m not sure if the GameCube is entirely worthy of that designation despite the fact that’s how many people choose to remember it all these years later.

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I obviously can’t tell you whether or not you feel that the GameCube is underrated in the minds of most people (there’s a lot of speculation involved in that process), but historically, many people have called the GameCube a pretty bad console with some truly great games. Honestly, that seems like a fair summary of what the GameCube ultimately contributed.

Now, I will say that I think it took people quite a few years to fully appreciate just how good the GameCube’s library actually was. Yes, titles like Mario Kart: Double Dash, Resident Evil 4, and Super Smash Bros. Melee were pretty much instant classics, but fewer people at the time truly appreciated how special games like Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door, Eternal Darkness, Viewtiful Joe, and Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance really were. Even successful GameCube games like Metroid Prime, Animal Crossing, The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker, and Super Mario Sunshine arguably weren’t widely recognized as the classics they very much were until many years after their release and the GameCube’s downfall. In that sense, I think there is a very strong argument to be made that the GameCube was the home of a shocking number of generally underrated gaming experiences.

The question is, “Should more people have bought a GameCube at that time to experience those great games?” That’s where things get a little tricky, but it’s important to realize that the reasons why many people didn’t buy a GameCube when it was on the market (lack of multimedia features, lack of third-party support, lack of online games, and the time between major releases) are all still valid to this day. People weren’t really ignoring the GameCube because they thought it had bad games; they were ignoring it because it was always a tough sell as a second or third console despite the obvious quality of many of its best games.

Again, “underrated” is going to ultimately mean slightly different things to different people, but in the case of the GameCube, it honestly feels like the console eventually became widely enough embraced and criticized for the proper things. The idea that the GameCube had great games and was bad at nearly everything else was always there and has only become more popular in the 20 years since its release. Maybe it should have outsold the N64, but the sales gap wasn’t that big, and the N64 didn’t have to deal with a third competitor as strong as the Xbox.

If the GameCube isn’t the most underrated console, though, then which consoles are worthy of that title? Again, this is all really a talking point meant to inspire debate, but here are a few of the top candidates that come to mind:

Sega Saturn

The Sega Saturn was pretty much “DOA” in the minds of many as soon as Sony confirmed that the PlayStation would be released at the same time as Sega’s console and for a lower price. Given how great the PS1 proved to be, it’s hard to argue against anyone who picked Sony’s console over Sega’s.

Still, the Sega Saturn was a solid and powerful console that boasts one of the most unique and impressive libraries of games ever assembled. If a few things had gone differently, I’d argue that more people would have jumped at the chance to buy a Sega Saturn for the ways it tried to bridge the gap between arcade, console, and PC gaming. As it turned out, though, Sony just had the better debut and, ultimately, the better read on where the industry was heading. The Saturn truly was a great and overlooked video game console, though.

PlayStation Vita

They say that you really had to own a PS Vita to love the PS Vita, which is kind of a problem considering that Sony only managed to sell an estimated 15-16 million Vitas during the handheld’s brief run. That’s a considerable drop from the reported 80 plus million PSPs that eventually made their way into the hands of an army of eager gamers.

The “funny” thing about that discrepancy is that the PS Vita was a better device in pretty much every single way. The PS Vita is not without its flaws, but when you really look at the handheld all these years later, you start to realize its market failures can sooner be attributed to some truly unfortunate circumstances rather than irredeemable problems with the device itself.

Sega Dreamcast

On the one hand, you could argue that the Dreamcast and GameCube share similar legacies. After all, both were underperforming consoles that are now widely recognized as “underrated” and are therefore arguably no longer entirely worthy of the title.

Whereas the GameCube’s underrated status ignores the idea that people have been having the same conversations about that console since it was released, though, the years since the Dreamcast’s demise have been filled with critical examinations that ultimately changed the narrative about the console. The Dreamcast’s controller wasn’t great, Sega failed to entice sufficient third-party support, and it turns out it really needed a DVD player, but the Dreamcast’s incredible library, online support, and nearly arcade-perfect visuals alone should have helped it sell way more than 9 million units.

Atari Lynx

The Atari Lynx should honestly be a case study in what ultimately tends to matter most to consumers. While you’d think that this console’s power, library, and features would have made it a proper Game Boy rival, many at the time simply preferred Game Boy’s portability, better battery life, and lower price.

Still, the Lynx was a marvel of technology and forward-thinking concepts that are honestly even more impressive to look back on than many people considered them to be at the time. The Lynx deserved to at least be seen as a viable Game Boy alternative, but it just wasn’t meant to be.

TurboGrafx-16

The TurboGrafx-16 (aka the PC Engine) was released at an awkward time that eventually ensured that it remarkably lost to two generations of Nintendo consoles as well as the Sega Genesis. Its awkward blend of 8 and 16-bit technology also didn’t help sell the console to a mass market looking for a clear explanation for a console’s power.

That said, it’s truly remarkable to look back at the TurboGrafx-16’s best games and realize that it effectively doubles as a list of some of the most underrated games of the console era. Despite its questionable marketing and lack of certain key features, the TurboGrafx-16 was a solid overall console that eventually played host to some fascinating and innovative titles that just never really found the wide audience that probably would have enjoyed them.

The post Is Nintendo GameCube the Most Underrated Console Ever? appeared first on Den of Geek.

from Den of Geek https://ift.tt/3llOHlC

[commonplacebook]

The situation in our country right now is exceedingly dire. We are in a state of moral emergency, as some of the worst crimes Judaism could imagine are becoming public policy — and becoming normalized. Many people will likely die as a result of the policies of this administration, and many more will be plunged into a deep, irreversible level of poverty. Hungry people will not be fed. The bread of massive corporations will be hoarded, and only the most symbolic of tokens — ultimately useless, ultimately irredeemable — will be offered to those desperate for sustenance and care. It’s bad, and it’s going to get worse as the months go on. We have only one option, as I see it. When God informed Abraham of God’s plan to destroy Sodom, Abraham protested, and negotiated with God. They came to an agreement: the city could be spared if a minimal number of righteous people could be found within its gates. Genesis didn’t define what “righteous” meant, but I imagine it was this: People who saw what was happening around them and refused to be silent. People who witnessed the exploitation of others and, even if they themselves were not personally touched by the horrors perpetuated, they refused to be complicit. They refused to be silent. They refused to let the poor and the alien be punished for the greed of those in power. They raised their voice in protest and put themselves at risk for the benefit of others’ sustenance and safety. They resisted evil at every turn and created spaces of protection and nourishment for those in need. They said no. Sodom wasn’t saved. There weren’t enough righteous people to carry the city through. What about here? Are there enough righteous people?

Trump’s Washington Is A Modern-Day Sodom – The Forward

[theloganshannon]

Considering the Extremity of our Sinful Potential

One of the themes of my life and writing, as well as Christian life and writing in general, is the prevailing concept that mankind is both capable of and naturally inclined to doing the most horrendous, despicable, and absolutely self-seeking deeds. All of us. And there is no exception! (Romans 3:10-12)

In the context of a world created by a perfect Creator, that leaves us in a hopelessly irredeemable place. At least on our own, that is. The reason being that, in contrast to what I previously stated, God is both entirely holy and entirely loving (which we, obviously, are not). He is therefore completely incapable of and naturally opposed to doing anything even remotely resembling evil. This is true, whether we like it or not! And it’s a consistent, logical, and reality reflecting worldview, so don’t let anyone tell you otherwise, whether you agree with it or not. If reasonable basis exists for any way of thinking, you cannot dismiss it. Those who refuse to admit this are the arrogant and self-righteous, of whichever form and in whichever context.

The fact that, in the context of a perfect Creator, none of us have the ability to save ourselves is what required the redemptive work of Christ. Jesus came to free us from chasing after the unattainable goal of making ourselves right with God. We can’t do it, so He did it for us! The Son of God sacrificed Himself in order for us to have an actual, everlasting relationship with the Lord! Praise the Heavenly Father for His unending love and unmatched grace!

But that’s not what I’m writing about today, at least not directly. Believe me, I would love to be writing directly about that because of the great joy it brings me! If I’m going to write on the good stuff though, I must be willing to write on the ugly stuff as well. So what follows is to be read in the fashion of the words of Jude, one of Jesus’ half brothers, when he wrote, “Beloved, while I was very diligent to write to you concerning our common salvation, I found it necessary to write to you exhorting you to contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints.”, in Jude‬ ‭1:3‬ ‭(NKJV‬‬). He goes on to address the dangerous teachings of dangerous men who relegate the Kingdom of God down to cheap grace serving as a license to sin (of which, there are multiple ways to do so). How deplorable! How sad!

I mean to contend for the faith in a manner similar to Jude today. I apply the same train of thought and purpose as he in doing so. Please read carefully, I believe these are interpretations of truth you do not want to miss. I remind you, as usual, this is as much, if not more, for me as it is for you.

Consider one more thing before I continue in the nature of Jude. It’s a principle found in two of Jesus’ teachings that He gives almost simultaneously in the Gospel of Matthew (NKJV): He says, “You have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not murder, and whoever murders will be in danger of the judgment.’ But I say to you that whoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment…”, in Chapter 5, verses 21-22. Later, in verse 28 of the same chapter, Christ says, “But I say to you that whoever looks at a woman to lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart.” Do you get it? Jesus is telling us that if we’ve ever acted on our anger, sinfully, towards another person, we may as well have committed murder! And He’s also letting us know that if we’ve ever sensually desired another person outside of a covenant relationship, it is as though we have committed adultery!

That tells me, as it ought to tell you as well, this: The presence of even the most minuscule root of sin symptoms leaves us guilty of the potential for the most heinous of sins. Therefore, guilty above all else, and above all others!

In fact, so guilty are we, I’m willing to bet that everyone reading this post has committed one of the two things we just discussed, either inappropriate anger or wandering eyes, in just the last week! Let’s be real, if you’re more like me, it was likely today!

Now back to the book of Jude, where he begins writing about specific attitudes attributable to an abandoning of God’s true Kingdom economy.

“Woe to them! For they have gone in the way of Cain, have run greedily in the error of Balaam for profit, and perished in the rebellion of Korah.” Jude‬ ‭1:11‬ (‭NKJV‬‬)

Earlier I made mention that there are several ways for men to falsely cheapen the grace of God. Verse 11 is a clear example of this. As I dig into these three false teacher attitudes you’ll recognize that they are all rooted in the pursuit of setting oneself up as your own God. Which, if you know the story of the Tower of Babel, is an extremely bad idea! By the way, I find it necessary to add that the Pharisees of old were largely guilty of all the following subtletys.

First, The Way of Cain:

You can read of this in Genesis 4:1-10. The problem with what Cain did is that in his offering to the Lord he relied on his own efforts rather than the blood of the lamb provided by God. This was a functional attempt at saving himself through personal righteousness.

This is an abusive adulteration of God’s grace, which instead teaches Christ alone can save us! It is an example of setting yourself up as God because it assumes that you have the power of salvation.

Interestingly (and dangerously) enough, each of the three deceptions we are covering are hard to recognize in ourselves as they are disguised beneath an aspect of truth. In Cain’s case it hides within the truth that faith without works is dead (James 2:17-26). The behavior he exhibited twists that truth so that it caters to the pride of life (1 John 2:16) because he desired to be rewarded, ultimately, for his accomplishments.

Yes, the Lord has called us to works of righteousness, a fruit or proof of our salvation, but as soon as you take pride in accomplishing those things you are dancing with false teachings. Beware the man who perceives he has achieved a higher moral status than another, for when you meet him, you have met the spirit of Cain.

On to The Error of Balaam:

The record of his sin can be found in the book of Numbers, chapters 22-24. The issue with the dealings of Balaam was that he postured himself as God’s ordained mouthpiece to extend the curses and blessings of the Lord, and did so to earn dishonest pay. In reality, Balaam intended to bestow a curse on Israel because he was promised an income for doing so, but God intervened and thwarted him by controlling him to speak forth blessings instead. Crazy, right?! He pretentiously connived in order to take advantage of God’s people!

He functionally believed that, for his “skill”, he was worthy of the praise due only to the Father. Sounds familiar doesn’t it, almost like men who promise a bounty of health and wealth if you pay them their respects, because, after all, that’s exactly what Jesus came for, right?...

God’s grace abused and aldulturated, taking glory away from the appropriate recipient. Assuming yourself to be an imminent source of blessing and wisdom is to set yourself up as a god.

The truth this lie is hidden in is found in the Gospels and the book of Acts where Jesus, in His almighty power, gives His followers the power to heal. In other words, when there is healing in Christian ministry, it is not the Christian who performs the miracle, but God working through them. His behavioral truth twisting catered to the lust of the flesh (1 John 2:16) because he pursued being able to get and do whatever he desired.

Be wary of the individual who uses ministry to gain fame, influence, and fortune, for when you see them, you have seen the face of Balaam.

The Rebellion of Korah:

See Numbers 16:1-35. His sin was questioning the leadership of Moses that had been completely guided by God, when he really had nothing substantial to complain about. At one point in verse 3, Korah says this against Moses and Aaron, “You take too much upon yourselves, for all the congregation is holy, every one of them, and the LORD is among them. Why then do you exalt yourselves above the assembly of the LORD?” As far as I can tell, he meant well, but he spoke way out of line and thought far more highly of himself than he ought to (Romans 12:3)! It was not his place to publicly criticize the one in command. In function, he was convinced that, because God is no respecter of persons, he had no reason to show respect toward any person.

It is an abusive adulteration of the Father’s grace for it ignores the fact that the sacrifice of Christ has freed us from all competition. To assume that your discernment of others’ motives, behaviors, and deserved place is infallible is to set yourself up as God.

He was catering to the lust of the eyes (1 John 2:16) by twisting the truth of equality of all believers before the eyes of the Almighty, despite our differing gifts and roles (1 Corinthians 12) because he saw the opportunity to gain a foothold of power.

Nowhere do we read that it’s appropriate to undermine another follower of Christ when we dislike or disagree with them. Instead we are to work towards unity at all costs and to seperate, only, as the very last resort. Beware the man who seeks to usurp his positional superiors in order to remove or replace them, for when you hear him, you have heard the voice of Korah.

Now that you understand the nature of the misdeeds of these men, and their manifestations, let me add another spin on them. In 1 Timothy 4:1, Paul speaks about doctrines of demons that will become pervasive in the latter days. The teaching that most key into when it comes to that phrase, is that of, “God has saved us, His grace is more than sufficient, because of that it’s OK how much you keep on sinning. He has already forgiven you, we are totally free from accountability. We are all in a process, eventually your behavior will naturally line up with your faith all on its own.” That lie is exposed in Romans 5:20-6:14. And that lie is actually a manipulation of the truth of sanctification found in a number of Paul’s writings. Don’t get me wrong, that false teaching is absolutely a demonic doctrine. But it’s the one that’s easiest to recognize, it doesn’t take much to see how that is inconsistent with biblical scripture. Anyone can take notice of just how illogical and incomplete that conclusion is. It simply is not reconcilable with the God-ordained laws of justice. When the price is paid, the redeemed act redeemed.

Rarely do we view the deceptions of Cain, Balaam, and Korah in the same light though. That has left us even more prone to these subtler demon doctrines. We must be just as careful with these mindsets as we are with the others. And we need to call out and challenge those mentalities in our churches. The lascivious and the self-righteous are both a step away from falling away.

From there, Jude lists a number of behaviors that can be used as fruit evidences to identify individuals that have been influenced by the three above mentioned deceptions. The appearance of the following habits will reveal whether someone’s way of thinking has been tainted by doctrines of demons or not.

The Lord is coming again “to execute judgment upon all, and to convict all the ungodly of all the ungodly deeds they have done in an ungodly way, and of all the harsh and cruel things ungodly sinners have spoken against Him.” These people are [habitual] murmurers, griping and complaining, following after their own desires [controlled by passion]; they speak arrogantly, [pretending admiration and] flattering people to gain an advantage.” - Jude‬ ‭1:15-16‬ ‭(AMP‬‬) Feel free to cross-reference these verses with other properly translated Bible versions in order to solidify its meaning in your personal understanding.

The sin behaviors that Jude mentions will be judged by God at the end of days make up a very surprising list. One that ought to convict us all! It reveals to me that, at a certain point in time, and often even to this day, we have all behaved and continue to behave in a manner similar to apostates. To be an apostate simply means to purposely rebel against God‘s perfect standard even after hearing and understanding the Truth of His Word. Have we not all at least unintentionally rebelled against God’s standard? Do we not all still do this? If we are honest, the answer is yes to both questions. We are all sinners. And we have all, at some point, willfully walked in sin, albeit unintentional at times, even after knowing the truth. Therefore, we are all near apostates. The only people God saves are men with the nasty potential for apostasy! The man who does not recognize or admit his potential for apostasy is in danger of becoming an apostate.

Now back to the list in these verses, so that I can make more sense of what I’m saying if you’re struggling with it. Have you ever constantly complained about the behavior of others or specific personal circumstances? Have you ever been so controlled by your personal opinions and impulsive conclusions that you are unable to keep your mouth shut? Have you ever, knowingly or unknowingly, spoken arrogantly, harshly hardening your speech? Have you ever spoken in a manipulative way in order to get a certain response or reward from another person?

Jude goes on furthermore, “But you, beloved, remember the words which were spoken before by the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ: how they told you that there would be mockers in the last time who would walk according to their own ungodly lusts. These are sensual persons, who cause divisions, not having the Spirit.” Jude‬ ‭1:17-19‬ (‭NKJV‬‬)

Have you ever, while assuming all your personal perceptions and interpretations are only ever correct, belligerently mocked another man, be he godly or ungodly? Which, by the way, is considered to be a mocking of God (James 3:8-10). In doing so have you caused at least an inkling (likely more) of uneccessary division between a group of people, dare I say, even among brothers and sisters of Christ? To do so caters to all the natural tendencies of the flesh!

I for one, know that I have done all the deeds I have mentioned in this article in some form or another. Therefore, I must admit to the fact that I have walked in a behavior pattern similar to that of an apostate. Are there any others brave enough to humble themselves before God and join me in admitting to this? The verses are clear, do you believe them?

I close by repeating a pertinent earlier statement: The man who does not recognize or admit his potential for apostasy is in danger of becoming an apostate.

Thankfully, in the severe extremity of our sinful potential, we have not been left there. God sent His only Son in the humble form of a baby boy, Emmanuel, God with us. That boy grew up to be the perfect God-man, Jesus Christ, who sacrificed His sinless self on a cross to be the propitiation for mankind’s sin. He is the Messiah, the Savior, for all who receive Him! He redeemed us, covered us in His righteousness, and made it possible for us to be relationally intimate with the Father! And, sealed with the Holy Spirit, it will be that way for all of eternity! God is good. God is gracious to us.

[timhatchlive]

Only the Pure Shall Enter

You are going to be disturbed by the contents of Numbers 31 if you don't understand ancient cultures and how to read the Bible. In this chapter, Moses is commanded by God to take vengeance on the Midianites for how they turned Israel from the Lord at Peor in Numbers 25. We remember that episode ended with Phinehas' zeal taking out the rebellious man and his Midianite concubine in one stab of spear. During the conquest upon the Midianites God instructs Israel to carry out their first "holy war" as defined by theologians. This kind of war involved total elimination of a culture. Men, women, everyone and everything... except for one group of people. The people carry out only a portion of those commands and they let the women live. Moses' response? Read for yourself: Numbers 31:15–20 (ESV) Moses said to them, “Have you let all the women live? 16 Behold, these, on Balaam’s advice, caused the people of Israel to act treacherously against the LORD in the incident of Peor, and so the plague came among the congregation of the LORD. 17 Now therefore, kill every male among the little ones, and kill every woman who has known man by lying with him. 18 But all the young girls who have not known man by lying with him keep alive for yourselves. 19 Encamp outside the camp seven days. Whoever of you has killed any person and whoever has touched any slain, purify yourselves and your captives on the third day and on the seventh day. 20 You shall purify every garment, every article of skin, all work of goats’ hair, and every article of wood.”

Now if you are a modern person this kind of passage really troubles you. How could a loving God have Moses instruct the people not only to kill the men but the little boys and all the women SAVE ONLY the unwed virgins? Is God sadistic? Will you now turn from the faith having found that elusive loophole by which you can deny the entirety of God's commands in exchange for a palpable moral code of your own choosing? Perhaps instead of tossing out the proverbial "baby with the bathwater" we should let this questionable text draw us in to examine God's ways.

First, it is clear the people of Israel are God's hand of vengeance upon utterly corrupt people groups in the Ancient world. God said to Abraham concerning the timeline of his descendent's entrance to the land in Genesis 15:16 "they shall come back here in the fourth generation, for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet complete.” These cultures, such as Midian, were not innocent people void of treacherous acts. They were a wicked and depraved culture that offered child sacrifice, temple prostitution and unthinkably more atrocities. 

It is clear that culture becomes so toxic it becomes irredeemable. Consider the 20th century. While the West was jettisoning "outdated" scriptural records of human evil the world experienced the blood baths of several genocidal maniacs who murdered mass millions of people. The Nazi system was NOT redeemable. Neither was the Khmer Rouge. Today we have ISIS with images, videos and stories of systemic indoctrination of murderous intent that knows no limits. Even if they survive war and external annihilation their conduct will eventually cause them to rot into extinction from within. 

Beyond our perception of Midian's evil, we must be careful never to wait until we feel that such people are worthy of judgment. God is absolutely holy. He could and ONCE did wipe out the whole of mankind with perfect justification. When we are troubled by God's judgment, the issue is NEVER God's rightness, if you will, but our wrongness. Who are we, mere mankind, to question the righteous judgment of the Holy God of the Universe? I fear our disturbance by these moments says more about our radical pride than anything else.

Finally, this passage calls us to a fuller perception of what God is doing in the world. He is giving the wicked time to repent. When the time is up there will be a great sweeping judgment by the armies of the Lord coming from heaven (see Revelation 19:11ff). A final judgment will take place. And yet, who will be spared? NOTE the words of Moses above...

"But all the young girls who have not known man by lying with him keep alive for yourselves"

The pure young women who have not attached themselves physically or spiritually to the evil of their society will be brought in to the land of promise. This is a clear image of God's redemptive working. He is presently preserving for Himself a people who will not join themselves to the wickedness of society. He is preparing His bride to enjoy the blessings of God forever with Him. 

Now of course, none of us are clean. We are NO spiritual virgins at all. But this is the beauty of the Gospel. In the Gospel, instead of putting to death those who had fornicated, Christ bears their penalty on the cross and makes the impure pure! This is why Jesus could touch the impure woman with the issue of blood and CHANGE her status. This is why Jesus could touch the leper and CHANGE his status. In Christ we have a change of status before God and by His blood we can freely enter in. He became a curse so that we could become the righteousness of God in HIM! 

Only the pure can enter. 

You aren't pure in yourself. You can be MADE pure in HIM.

Now that you have heard this, will you receive it?

Ask the Lord to cleanse you and bring you in by His grace. Amen.

via Blogger http://ift.tt/2q0HxWT

[dailyaudiobible]

01/08/2017 DAB Transcript

Genesis 18:16-19:38 ~ Matthew 6:25-7:14 ~ Psalm 8:1-9 ~ Proverbs 2:6-15

Today is the 8th day of January.  Welcome to the Daily Audio Bible.  I'm Brian.  It is awesome to be here with you as we greet a brand new week.  Usually this is the week around the world in our lives where we kind of settle into the new year, the holidays are kind of behind us now and we’re moving forward into the year.  We’ve set sail.  And that's what’s we’ve done in the Bible.  We have set sail.  A lot happens in the first week.  There is a lot to contemplate.  All of a sudden we realize, “oh, the Bible, not such a stagnant thing like I thought. It is very much alive and speaking into my life and touching places inside of me that are true.”

So here we go, launching into the new week.  We’ll read from The Common English Bible this week and picking up where we left off.  We’re traveling on the journey, getting to know this man named Abraham.  Genesis chapter 18, verse 16 through 19:38 today.

Commentary

Jesus says some riveting things today that are disruptive when they are juxtaposed against the way we live our lives and we’ll talk about that in a minute, but we can’t pass over the book of Genesis today because the passage in Genesis today is difficult.  It's difficult, what all happens.  It starts out so interestingly.  

Yesterday the promise of Isaac is given.  Specifically, the Lord says, “about this time next year…”  And we talked about that yesterday.  Immediately after that, that is when they are heading down toward Sodom and Gomorrah.  And we see something beautiful, this collaborative nature of God, this relational nature where he says, “how can I keep what I'm planning to do from Abraham?”

The plan is that God is going to go look at Sodom and Gomorrah and see if the evil that he is aware of is actually as bad as it seems.  He tells Abraham and is so patient with Abraham, letting Abraham speak his mind.  “Surely you wouldn’t do this if there were righteous people down there, if there are 50 people.  What if you go down there and you find 50 people that are righteous, are you going to destroy the place?”

And God is like, “no,” and then it's 45 and then its 40 and then its 30, then its 20, then its 10 and God is just patiently saying, “no, that's not really how this works.  I'm not going down there just for the sake of destruction.  If it is completely evil, if it is completely irredeemable, then it is going to go away.  But if there are righteous people there, that is not what I'm trying to do.”

I don’t have to retell the story.  We just read the story.  They go down. They find Lot.  There is this strange scene that takes place.  Lot takes the men into his house.  The house is surrounded and they want to rape these guys. Lot is in this predicament and we see this kind of patriarchal society that they are living in at the time where Lot's daughters, they don’t have the value of the guests and so Lot is offering his daughters to the mob.  Yeah, that is just…  I don’t live in that kind of society, so I can’t imagine that.  But we are getting a look into the society, the culture of that part of the world at that particular time, but what ends up happening is that Lot's guests pull Lot back in, they do not throw his daughters out, they seal the door, they blind the people, and they put the plan into action.  The place is evil.  So they get Lot out with his family, those that would go with them, and the place is destroyed.  Lot's wife, she looks back.  There is plenty to contemplate right there because sometimes when God is leading us on and rescuing us, which he is constantly doing, we need to not be looking back.  But anyway, Lot is like, “I can’t go to the mountains.  I need to go to this little village of Zoar.  Can I go there?”  

And they are like, “Yeah, you can go there.”  And he does.  Then Sodom and Gomorrah are destroyed, but the next thing we find is that Lot and his daughters are hiding in the mountains.  The place that he said he couldn’t go is the place he ended up.  We don’t know exactly why, but they end up hiding in the mountains.

So here are two daughters and a father hiding in the mountains. Everything that they’ve had is destroyed.  The life as they knew it is gone.  Lot was prosperous.  He lost it all and he lost his wife.  So we can see that they have fallen into some serious hard times and the daughters have this conversation among themselves.  And without a little context, it is confusing because what they are contemplating is having sex with their father, trying to get pregnant by their father, so all of a sudden we have this incest story in the Bible, a great way to begin week two.  But let's move into the story here.  

These are young women.  These are teenage women who had been betrothed to be married.  Life as they knew it is gone.  Their mom is gone.  They’ve been offered up to a mob of men.  They are in a pretty precarious situation.  Their father, who had some means and had some respect because he was sitting in the city gate, has fallen on circumstances that changed everything. So now they are hiding in a cave with their dad.  Their mom is gone.  They are not going to be getting married to the men they were planning to be married to because they are gone as well.  The city that they grew up in is gone and they are hiding.  So what are their options?  Their father is getting old.  He is the only one in this patriarchal society that can speak up and defend them, but he doesn’t really have what he had before.  They are all destitute, homeless, on the run.  So they come up with this plan.  If they can have male children, then those male children can take care of them as they age as mothers.  There is a man to claim them and carry on the family story.  But Lot is not going to last forever and the options aren’t what they used to be so they decide what they have to do is try to get pregnant.  

So it is not like there was some crazy, weird lusty thing going on.  It was more practical for them.  A horrible option, but the best of the worst of the options.  That is how this all happened.  What we have to look at is our own heart when we read a story like this.  

At least for me, I read this story for years and thought, “I just don’t get it.  Why is God involved in incest?  Why? What is going on here?”  And it wasn’t until I really read and read and read the story that I began to realize, “Hang on, God's role in this story was to rescue Lot and his family from the destruction of the evil that he was doing away with.  That's it. Everything that came next was all decisions that were made by the people who had been rescued in the first place.”  So we don’t have this narrative of them crying out to God.  Why didn’t they flee to Hebron and find Abraham, their uncle?  

We can see pretty clearly our own stories overlaid here.  People get to make choices and those choices get to matter. Every choice is a decision to walk down a certain path and that path is going to lead somewhere.  It may lead to other forks in the road and it always does, but the choices that we make become the roadmap of the life that we live.  It's not right or true to blame God for every choice that we make that we have not consulted him in or walked with him on.  

At the end of our New Testament reading today Jesus says there is a narrow path and that path leads to life, but it is a narrow gate and it's a difficult road and few people find it.  There is a wide highway that leads to destruction, but there is a narrow path that leads to life.  And we walk that path when we walk with God.  Blaming God that we get off that narrow path and on the wide road that leads to destruction when he didn’t do it and it's not his fault, yeah, that's not the kind of relationship that we’re looking for when we talk about a relationship with God. Have you ever been in a relationship where you got blamed all the time for things that you didn’t do?  Or things were aimed at you and nuanced in a way that weren’t true?  That's horrible.  It's not a life-giving relationship.  We have to understand we can’t have that posture of heart toward God and have a true intimate relationship.  You can’t truly love somebody you don’t really actually trust.  And we watch this play out in the book of Genesis.  

In the New Testament, Jesus gives us such a gift today.  He shows us what life is supposed to look like.  You don’t have to worry, is what he says.  You don’t have to worry about your life.  You don’t have to worry about what you’re going to eat or what you’re going to drink, what you’re going to wear.  Life is more than all of that.  Life is bigger than the exterior things we focus most on.  

What Jesus says is essentially you’ve got it backwards.  You’re trying to live from the outside in and it's the reverse.  Life comes from the inside outward, so if you’re foremost desire is God's kingdom and God's righteousness, then all this other stuff that you need and want will be given to you.  So stop worrying about tomorrow and focus on God's kingdom and God's righteousness right now and continue to do that.  Make that choice every day.  Follow that narrow path every day and you’ll have all of the rest, but you will be living as you were created to live, intertwined with God.  Just ask.  Just seek. Just knock.  It's all here for you.  It's all available to you.  Just most people won't.  

Most people won't walk through the narrow gate.  Most people won't live from inside out.  Most people are just distracted by what is exterior, things like judging each other, which Jesus talks about.  And he simply says the same kinds of things he does about forgiveness. If you're going to judge, it’s your prerogative, but you’re going to be judged using the measuring stick that you judge others.  So if you're going to be harsh that way, that's how it is going to come back to you. Stop paying attention to the speck that is in your brother or sister's eye when you have a log in your own. Focus on what is going on inside of you. Walk with God on the narrow path. Walk in intimacy.  Stop blaming him for what he hasn’t done.  Own your stuff.  If we would just listen, we would have so much margin in our lives.  Things would become spacious because we’re living from within.  We’re not looking at our lack on the exterior.  We’re looking at abundance from within that then spills out into everything.  

Prayer 

Jesus, we thank you for the gift that we don’t have to worry.  It's a gift.  It's also a choice.  And we can ignore it.  We can continue to live the way that we’re living, but it is erratic and it is close to the edge and it has no margin in it.  Or we can realize we don’t have as much control as we think we do.  Ttrying to control every eventuality and every person in our lives, including you, isn’t working.  It doesn’t work.  It can’t work.  You're giving us permission to relax and rest in you and be obedient to you.  So come Holy Spirit in this and forgive us, Lord, for the ways that we’ve blamed you for things you had nothing to do with that were our own choice and they have landed us where we’ve landed.  But here you are.  Here you are wherever we’ve landed.  You haven’t abandoned us.  You’ve simply allowed us to have the fruit of our  own choices.  You’ve always done this because you’ve desired true intimacy and true love.  You have loved us unconditionally but we have not loved you unconditionally.  We’ve blamed you for all kinds of things.  Forgive us for that.  We’re sorry for that.  That stops now, right here at the beginning of the year.  That stops now.  You are good and you love us and we believe that.  So we’re sorry for the ways we’ve built walls around ourselves to protect ourselves that have only brought us destruction.  Come Holy Spirit, help us see things as they really are, from the inside out.  We ask in Jesus’ name who makes this possible, amen.  

Announcements

Www.DailyAudioBible.com is the website and it’s home base.  It's where you find out what is going on around here, so check it out.  

If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible, you can do that at www.DailyAudioBible.com.  There is a link on the home page.  And thank you for clicking that link.  If you're using the Daily Audio Bible App, you can push the More button in the lower right-hand corner.  Or, if you prefer, the mailing address is P.O. Box 1996, Spring Hill, TN 37174.

And, as always, if you have a prayer request or comment, (877) 942-4253 is the number to dial.  

And that is it for today.  I'm Brian. I love you and I’ll be waiting for you here tomorrow.  

Community Prayer Requests and Praise Reports

Good morning DAB family.  I'm Carol from the UK and I want to wish everyone a Happy New Year.  Today I felt I needed to share my testimony with you. I became a Christian believer in 1984 when my brother-in-law phoned us up one Friday evening and told us he had been diagnosed with advanced lung cancer and had to have an operation the following Tuesday.  Although I wasn’t a believer, I knew to pray for this kind of thing but I didn’t feel I had authority enough.  I didn’t think God would answer an unbeliever, so I phoned a family friend who happened to be a local Baptist minister and asked him to pray for him, which he did over the phone.  Monday evening we received a call from my brother-in-law and he told us he had to go to the hospital that morning for further x-rays for the operation in order to see if the cancer had spread.  After a while, his consultant called him into his consulting room and there were about four or five other cancer specialists there studying x-rays.  They told him the tumor had gone and that there was no sign of cancer in his body at all.  He asked them to explain what had happened and one of them told him that he was an atheist and didn’t believe in religious stuff.  And then he said that medically speaking what they were looking at was absolutely impossible, medically absolutely impossible and that someone must have been praying for him over the weekend.  They immediately discharged him.  It was then that I realized that Jesus really existed today and is still performing miracles.  I just gave my life to him there and then.  I want to encourage everyone that when you pray God hears you.  So never give up hope.  Sometimes it doesn’t always work the way you want it to, but you must trust and open your heart to Jesus and let him in.  There will always be a room for you in one of his mansions. God bless you all.  Bye-bye.

Good morning Dabbers.  Good morning new Dabbers, DABers.  My name is Walta.  I started as Liberian Walta because I'm from Liberia and now I go as the burning bush that will not be devoured for the glory of our Lord and King.  And hopefully in time you understand why. But I'm just calling to say welcome! Welcome, welcome, welcome!  I'm so glad you started.  I invited a few of my friends.  I hope you guys are listening.  Love you guys so much and you will never regret it.  Every single day is brand new, so it is unlike any other audio Bible you’ve ever listened to and you’re listening with hundreds of thousands of people.  I listened in Liberia.  I listened in Europe.  All over the world people are listening and just to remember that.  This is a global campfire and a glimpse into what heaven looks like, all nations, all peoples, all ages.  Welcome!  I'm just going to say a little prayer.  Father God, we thank and praise you, Lord, for everyone listening today.  God, I pray that you will bless their families, bless them, and just bless this audio Bible reading for this year.  God, I pray for Brian and family.  I pray you keep them, sustain them, and continue to provide for them.  I pray that every single day we listen to your word, we pray that you will speak through your word into our hearts and into our daily lives.  We love you.  We love you. We love you and we trust you.  In Jesus’ name.  Love you guys.  Have fun!

Good morning Daily Audio Bible.  This is Sandy from New Hampshire.  It is the 2nd of January.  Happy New Year!  I'm starting my second year with Daily Audio Bible and I'm grateful for all the hard work that everybody put in toward it.  Thank you. I am calling this morning because I'm listening as I'm doing my quilting and what-not to the prayer requests and Lana from Canada, hello friend.  Hello Sister. And I'm so sorry for your loss of your mom.  You asked to hear your name.  Even if nobody else says your name, Jesus knows.  I know that you just need a hug, so I hope that my call is your hug from Jesus. Father God, in the name of Jesus, I lift up Lana.  I thank you, Lord, that your word says that you are the comforter, that you alone, Lord, can comfort and heal and restore.  I ask that you would just touch Lana's heart and help her, Lord, through this holiday season.  Help her as she mourns her mom but also trusts in you.  I give you thanks and praise for Lana.  I thank you for people, Lord, that are grieving, mourning, and their hearts are wounded.  I ask you, Lord, to touch and heal them.  Move in the midst of the grief, Lord God.  Help us to trust you when we can’t see, feel, or know you.  In the midst of it all you are there.  God bless you, Lana.  I'm praying for you and I’ll continue to pray for you, Sister.  God bless you, friends.  This is Sandy in New Hampshire.  Have a great rest of your day.  Bye.  

Good morning guys.  This is Jen in SoCal, aka Prayer Warrior Princess.  Happy New Year.  Here is a prayer for all of us for the new year.  Father, we thank you that you have been our dwelling place.  We have found you faithful in the midst of uncertainty and trials and grief and suffering.  You have been our refuge and our ever-present help in all of our struggles. You’ve been a shield about us in the face of persecution.  You’ve been our strong tower.  How glorious that we can be sheltered under your wings and be lifted on the wings of eagles above our challenges.  Oh what mystery you hold in these truths, Father God.  You have been our refuge in the valley of the shadow of death. You’ve prepared tables for us in the presence of our enemies.  You’ve anointed us with grace to persevere and adore.  You’ve made goodness and mercy follow us.  You’ve secured for us the promise that we who sow in tears shall reap in joy, bringing the sheaves in with us.  We rest in this and we rest in you.  Oh Father, be our vision for 2017.  Keep our eyes firmly fixed on you.  Only you know what awaits us in this coming year.  Fill us with faith to trust you as you pave the way.  You are our glory and the lifter of our heads. Keep us in this mindset and daily encourage us in our endeavors to submit ourselves as living and holy sacrifices acceptable and pleasing to you.  Only by your grace and tender mercies can we do this.  Overflow us with your Spirit, your power and your grace that we might yield our hearts today, proclaiming that no matter what befalls us this year, that we align ourselves with the truth about you, hold us together and believe all truth about you.  In Jesus’ name, amen.  

Hi, good morning Daily Audio Bible family.  My name is Rosalea and I'm calling from the Los Angeles area.  This is actually my first time calling ever, my first time actually starting the Daily Audio Bible for the entire year. Initially I began back in late August from a recommendation through a sister in Christ and I'm very thankful for that.  So I'm very excited to start the new year with the readings from January 1st. More than anything, I feel very, very blessed to be in this new year with everyone.  I want to ask for some prayers for my sisters in Christ.  We have a group, a few sisters that listen to the Daily Audio Bible.  They have finished the Daily Audio Bible throughout the year, so just prayers that we continue to keep this group alive.  We will be meeting this weekend at one of the girl's cabins, so I'm very excited for that as well.  And just prayers for guidance throughout this year.  It was a trying year for me this past year, but regardless I feel very blessed and very thankful that God has worked his way in my life and my family's life. With that being said, I hope you guys have an amazing day.  I'm not quite sure what else to ask for or what to do, but I’ve listened to everyone's prayers and I will be praying for everyone who has prayer requests. Everyone have an amazing day and I hope to be calling more often with praise reports and praying for the people who ask for it.  Have a great day.  Bye.

Hi there.  This is Beth B. in South Carolina and I'm calling to let China and Brian know how thrilled I am that China is going to read the Bible chronologically this year. I have been listening for eight years. Brian, you probably don’t remember. My husband and I went with you on the first trip to Israel and I am the woman with low vision.  I'm probably the most blessed to be able to listen through the Bible. And of course the community is such a great bonus.  I took a break a few years ago to listen through the Bible chronologically and it was so rich and I was so broken and I was so longing for the Messiah by the time he showed up in late August and I was considering doing it again this year, but didn’t want to take a break from the community, so it is such a blessing that I get to listen chronologically.  I appreciate China's wisdom already in the past two days and also remain part of the community.  So China, I’ll be praying for your strength and wisdom and just direction from God as you go through the year.  I’ll be praying for the requests that come in even though I'm an old lady, but I won't be calling into your line myself.  So thank you. And Brian, I'm just again so blessed and thankful and have grown so much through the wisdom of reading the Bible through or listening through every year so thank you very much.  Bye.  

[getvalentined]

Friendly reminder that the only reason Genesis is the antagonist of Crisis Core is because Zack is with Shinra. Literally.

Once he's on the run, once Genesis knows that Zack can't help him, he literally brings Hollander to Gongaga for Zack to kill—he tells Zack what Hollander is planning under the guise of it being a joint effort, but once Hollander runs off, Genesis then tells Zack what he intends to do. He talks to him about Loveless and the Lifestream, he shoves a Banora White into his hands when Zack charges at him, and then he leaves. Hollander is left behind—in Zack's hometown, his own turf, so there's nowhere to run and nowhere to hide—allowing Zack to enact poetic justice at last by striking down Angeal's birth father with the very sword that the man who actually raised Angeal died to earn, the sword that honorless Gillian said represented all the honor the Hewleys had left.

And then, finally realizing what's actually going on, Zack sets out to to Banora to save Genesis from dying.

There's no point after Modeoheim that Genesis outright attacks Zack until he's cured at the Light of Doom; there, he calls Zack First Class SOLDIER even though he's not anymore, because Genesis isn't trying to strike down Zack, he's trying to reclaim the right to the only title he's ever had that felt worth anything, and he's trying to take the burden of that title from Zack.

If he wins, Genesis takes the guilt of killing both Angeal and Sephiroth—because he doesn't know Cloud's role, he doesn't know that Zack wasn't the one to strike Sephiroth down, he doesn't even know Cloud's name. Conversely, if he loses, then it's confirmation that Zack is the hero of the story, truly and completely, and that's all right too. If that's how the story ends, that's how it ends. (Minerva intervenes, pulls Genesis from the duel, and he never gets to see the ending. The final act, as in his beloved ancient poem, remains a mystery.)

Genesis is the main antagonist of Crisis Core, but he's never been the bad guy. The entirety of Final Fantasy VII has a single monolith of villainy, and that's always been—and will always be—Shinra. Shinra made the Reactors and dug up Jenova. Shinra made Genesis, Sephiroth, Angeal, and DeepGround. Shinra burned Kalm, Banora, and (partially) Nibelheim. Shinra used any corpse they found or made as research fodder. Shinra killed the last fullblooded Cetra and drove her only daughter to a place where the only way to save the people she loved was through her death. Shinra is the bad guy.

Zack is with Shinra for the majority of the game, and thus the story behaves accordingly. Shinra's enemies are Zack's enemies, because that's the side he's on. Shinra sees Avalanche as enemies, too, but no one ever refers to Barret or Elfe as "irredeemably evil" the way they do Genesis. Barret dresses up his quest for revenge in the guise of saving the planet, but all that matters to him is that anyone even remotely connected to the company suffers the way he's suffered. Elfe allowed Fuhito to experiment on people, to take the corpses of SOLDIER and make undead weapons out of them, violating the sanctity of their final rest and denying them entry to the Lifestream altogether.

"Genesis experimented on his men!" It was a desertion, not an abduction. People who become Copies when they aren't properly enhanced don't get the same enhanced abilities as a First and they degrade very quickly, we see that in Hollander and Lazard—meaning that every single Genesis Copy was one of those SOLDIER Seconds or Thirds that defected with Genesis of their own free will in Wutai after he grew a wing and the world turned upside-down. Genesis' men loved him and they went along willingly.

When Genesis locks himself up in the Light of Doom, his last hope for a cure, he has one last Copy in there with him. When Zack unlocks the gate, he's attacked by one last Copy, even though Genesis has been waiting for him, he's not antagonistic toward him anymore, he hasn't been for a long time.

Genesis took that last Copy, a man with a horrible disease who is definitely too far gone to save, and brought him along to the Light of Doom in the hopes that maybe, maybe things could be set right. When Zack unlocks the gate, that man throws himself at him to protect Genesis, because this is his last chance and Genesis' men love him.

When Zack fights Genesis' Weapon avatar and is attacked by incomplete and twisted ghosts of Genesis Copies, magical inhuman wisps that hold him back while Genesis heals—they're in the Lifestream then, the Light of Doom pulled them both in. Those Copies are literally the ghosts of Genesis' men, unable to diffuse into the Lifestream because of their Jenova infection, fighting to protect him from beyond the grave. Genesis' men love him. They want to save him. They went with him willingly.

"Genesis killed his parents!" The parents who lied to him his entire life in order to keep getting a paycheck from Shinra? The parents that funded his fanclub as a form of marketing for a company that literally wouldn't exist without Genesis' world-changing contribution to food processing as a teenager? Those parents?

Genesis has a little shrine in the Banora Underground where he keeps all his awards and achievements—a little desk with a lantern in an unfinished stone tunnel. They survived the bombing of Banora because they weren't in the house; the chalkboard has sketches of what would clearly become the Banora brand logo, which was presumably made about a decade prior to the Nibelheim Incident, not long after Genesis figured out how to make Banora White juice shelf stable, not long before he left for Midgar to enlist.

Having all the proof of every good thing Genesis has ever done shoved into a tunnel under his hometown, hidden from the public, while his family raked in huge amounts of wealth based on those achievements, indicates quite clearly that Genesis' parents were the exact opposite of good and loving.

But he buried them anyway, didn't he?

Genesis may not be a particularly good person, but he's never been evil, he's never been the bad guy. Genesis was right—more than that, he was justified. His methods were not. He did terrible things. He hurt and killed a lot of people.

But he was only ever the enemy because Shinra said he was. Genesis doesn't need a redemption arc because he already had one, and Minerva herself said he could serve the planet forever to prove it.