John 1:10-13 He was in the world, and the world had [its] being through him, and the world knew him not. He came to his own, and his own received him not; but as many as received him, to them gave he [the] right to be children of God, to those that believe on his name; who have been born, not of blood, nor of flesh’s will, nor of man’s will, but of God.

John 1:6-9 There was a man sent from God, his name John. He came for witness, that he might witness concerning the light, that all might believe through him. *He* was not the light, but that he might witness concerning the light. The true light was that which, coming into the world, lightens every man.

My short Science Fiction story, I am Sorrow, came out this month in Antipodean SF, issue 280. It is my favorite kind of Speculative Fiction story because it crosses into historical fiction. In other words, it really could have happened that way. There’s a classic no-prize (literally, no prize, but still a fun challenge) to the first person to post the exact date and time of the last event in the story.

John 1:1-5 In [the] beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things received being through him, and without him not one [thing] received being which has received being. In him was life, and the life was the light of men. And the light appears in darkness, and the darkness apprehended it not.

I have to admit that many times in my life I have felt like fighting the world. Especially when it blatantly upholds and even glorifies the worst in humanity: the murder of the innocent, the hatred of the different, the abuse and plundering of the helpless.

There are three kinds of people in the world: Those that can add and those that can’t. I guess that explains the title. Actually, I thought I was done, but after wrapping up this series, I felt there were things left unsaid… mostly about how we (individually) apply Justice and Mercy.

One of the best-known passages of the Gospel happens at the beginning of the 8th chapter of John, (verses 2 through 5): And early in the morning he (Jesus) came again into the temple, and all the people came to him; and he sat down and taught them. And the scribes and the Pharisees bring [to him] a woman taken in adultery, and having set her in the midst, they say to him, Teacher, this woman has been taken in the very act, committing adultery. Now in the law Moses has commanded us to stone such; thou therefore, what sayest thou?

If you have heard the story before, you know that the turning point in that passage happens when Jesus tells the crowd, “Let him among you who is without sin, cast the first stone.” Jesus knew what would happen after that. The woman left that place unscathed.

Did God change His mind (about the definition of right and wrong) in going from the Old to the New Covenant? We have known the answer since the days of Job and Abraham: Elihu, speaking in Job 34:10, says: “Therefore, listen to me, you men of understanding. Far be it from God to do evil, And from the Almighty to do wrong. (NASB)” Similarly, Abraham speaking to God, in Genesis 18:25, argues: “Far be it from You to do such a thing, to kill the righteous with the wicked, so that the righteous and the wicked are treated alike. Far be it from You! Shall not the Judge of all the earth deal justly? (NASB)”

Both their arguments are the same: The author of Good and Justice cannot and will not do otherwise. If God cannot change, and Justice was created by Him, then Justice and Mercy cannot change.

The loose wrappings at my wrist and neck flutter like flags of war in the wind. Hand over hand I turn and face the rocky wall of the precipice. I have to pull up; but my sinews do not remember how. I look down again and wonder if that too will be my end.

This conversation started by acknowledging that there are passages in the Old Testament that, on first reading, seem difficult to reconcile with the concept of a loving Heavenly Father that Jesus proclaimed in the New Testament. But we know that that difficulty cannot mean there is a contradiction because the God we are talking about has already told us He does not change. The things that were right and wrong back in the Old Testament were still right and wrong in the New, and are still right and wrong today. That is a logical requirement of believing in an Eternal God that created everything, including thought, logic, and all moral laws.