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ALLEGORIES, APOLOGUES AND ACRONYMS

Imagery with Verse for Christ the Lord

 

 

 

 

Rev. Dr.  Robert E. DONALDSON

 

Published by World Wide Web Witness Inc.

July 2003

Extended and set in two volumes, 2005

and Updated 2006

 

 

©

 

ISBN 0-9750778-7-2
now refers to Volume 1

For Volume 2,
ISBN 0 9757385 6 9

 

PREFACE

 

It appears that the many allegories, apologues, acronyms, pictures in words, plays in scenes, animal speakers, dialogues and presentations for the imagination hitherto presented on this site,  might be put together in one book, allowing comparison and if desired, continual reading in one bloc, rather than through various labours,  to and fro with seekings in this and that chapter or work. Hence there is now presented this compendium, yes with some small additions, not entirely insignificant, but still in the very stream of the originals.

 

Hosea 12:10 tells us that the Lord used many images, indeed that He multiplied imagery in speaking to Israel, and it may be that imaginative presentations may be helpful in this generation also. Its sudden desire for wizardry and bizarre ‘spiritual’ personages, as works of fiction, appears to be so strong, that it is almost like a reaction to the trend to make man if not mechanical, then at least programmatic, an absurd pretension (cf. Marvels of Predestination … Ch. 7, Endnote 1), as usual making the exception of the programmatic farce, the theorist, himself miraculously delivered, in order to be the escapee who tells us what we essentially are, without being one of them himself, in the quite delicious freedom with which he is able to SAY SO! Certainly, THIS sort of escape long preceded the current fame for other exotic works of fiction!

 

Escape ? Where will they go ? What is the special appeal, now so gripping much of the cultivated world, the source of the zest for wizardry, for living in novels in 'spiritual' realms of great oddity ? It is a mental walk into adventures which SEEM to satisfy their strong need for a spiritual world, or at least a non-programmatic one, and a non-mechanical one (moving from the one which used to be in vogue when man began to see big possibilities in the mechanical, as now in the electronic, both with gross omissions, felt rather than realised by many, who hence seek escape).

Knowing that he is more than these economic and philosophic midgets imply or suggest, but scarcely daring to confront the cultural gods of heathenism which are pushing such simplistic reductionisms (cf. It Bubbles Ch. 9), the modern cultural man waits with glee for the new imaginary characters which, being absurd, are most pleasant, desirable and attractive to him. That is, they do not fit in his world and that is WHY he likes them.

 

On the other hand, they DO fit into something at least of the amplitude which he senses in his own private and inner world, and in his occasional ventures into any sort of actual thought about his origins and destiny, with a scope which is not pre-cramped into camps and controls, clamps and strictures, so that they beckon. It is, after all,  a bit like Hoyle's ghostly presence beckoning (cf. Repent or Perish Ch. 5 as linked, Secular Myths ... Ch. 7, esp. *1) the world to more of the intelligence which Hoyle, better than many (SMR pp. 209ff., 224ff., 252Aff.), saw incontrovertibly to be active in the manufacture of our own, and indeed in His other manufactures.

 

Beckons ? WHAT beckons! HOW is it beckoning ? Alas, the actual beckoning back is to Christ, the ONLY rock there ever was or will be for sinning man (II Samuel 22:32ff., Psalm 61:1-3 cf. SMR pp. 98ff.). As to that, it is by the many, not desired, but rather sought is the spiritual uplift to mere clouds of insignificant vapour (as in Ezekiel 13:6-9), which leads to sudden downdrafts, occasioning tragedy, now for the individual, now the nation, not the race and its whole world.

 

Imaginary spiritual things ? They are cheap to buy, and dear to possess!

 

So long as it does not mean ANYONE in particular (no LORD but paganism, the contemporary Baals), or any COMMAND in particular (the current desire to escape from all that when not ‘in the office’), or any TRUTH, which can cramp rebellion as little else: so long as all this is so, then the new imaginative escape hatch, or ejection seat seems eminently to be desired by many, for it brings a certain relief. It puts together

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both imagination -

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often culturally disallowed from roving freely, especially 
since it is 'directed' to be in contravention of scientific method,
in the service many of the pseudo-scientific nature ‘gods’ of our day
(a form of naturalistic fundamentalism)

(cf. News 57, TMR Chs.  1,   8, A Spiritual Potpourri Chs. 1-9,
Wake  Up World!
…  Chs. 4  -  5, Secular Myths … Chs. 7  -  8,
Earth Spasm …
Chs.  1,   7 )
 

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and unrealism, especially surrealism:

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so that a day out can be enjoyed by all, rather like an office treat for the Staff.

This being so, it is the more worthwhile to present imaginary ways and characters,  with the liberty of the unreal: but pointing to the solidity of the historical realities and divine directives, revealed, verified and perennially attested, in the interests of the real. This is done,  so that as with Israel of old (Hosea 12:10), the exploratory journey may bring people back to the home so many lack, in God. This can help by using the pent-up desire to find something, to discover what is the source of everything, but especially of man, who is like a long lost child, in the jungles of New Guinea, something like the Japanese soldier who decades after the war was over, was still in jungle hiding.

 

It is good to be lost to, absent from the current obscure and obscurantist realm of cultural commands,  and to think a while, and seek, and not in vain; for God is never sought in vain. The commanding presence of Christ is not absent, even if the approach is unexpected; and the resolution of the personal, social and national problems of this world is not so far off, that the flying of the kite of imagination may not bring it to the attention of those who, with noses so long to the cultural grindstone, have forgotten there was a sky – a REAL ONE – at all.

 

Minds swallowed up in the unsavoury interstices of the intellectual pit, moral quagmire and spiritual graveyard which man is making of his own spirit, life and world, need release, not so much into mere imagination, far less into quasi-'spiritual' episodes that are relief to the psyche but neither food for truth nor stimulus to it. Rather more deftly is it directed into the reality of the call to and the company of their God, a thing to search, to desire, to seek; for in masses man has "forgotten the God who fathered you", and "scornfully esteemed the Rock of  his salvation". If the natural heart is not attracted to this, yet the very display of wonders outside the route march of unrealism, in more leisurely mode, may find light dawn where darkness bred.

 

The story is not new; Israel has given a perspective rather freely over the last 3500 years.

 

Israel presented from God to mankind, the books of His coming, the Messiah for man, the date when He would die (Highway of Holiness Ch. 4), the locale, His works (SMR Appendix C), the  atonement itself to be completed at the date specified (Isaiah 50-55, Questions and Answers Ch. 2, TMR Ch. 3, Barbs, Arrows and Balms 17, 20): yes, and it even attested prophetically,  its own rejection of Him in advance (Isaiah 49:7).

 

Then, it forsook Him (nationally and politically). What had been foretold, it did, in the most poignant chapter of all human history!

 

The Gentiles have in large measure now followed suit, equally with a staggering insouciance and disregard, and even copied the concept of having "new gods, new arrivals" in multitudes, distorting, ignoring, annihilating, rebuilding, as did Israel, with a result rather well known.

 

If God, as He foretold (Deuteronomy 32, Micah 7, Ezekiel 36ff., SMR Appendix A), has duly brought back Israel (cf. SMR Chs. 8 -  9) to His land as He appointed, He has also brought forward the only covenant of salvation He is prepared to offer the world, one sealed in the blood of His incarnate Son. Once Israel suffered appallingly for their rejection of this One so marvellously come, so adequate, compassionate and empowered for all good; now it is the Gentile nations' turn! They too ignore what He has SAID!

 

Neither is necessary; but both have duly come. The one would not listen; now the other (cf. Romans 11). This cultural revolt is not any more necessary, as a place to be, a 'struggle' to follow, than is al Qaeda, and its eventual payments will be quite as great as will be the lot of that organisation. It is all one: revolt against the living God (cf. More Marvels... Ch. 4).

 

It is time to think again, to repent; and it is time to liberate imagination from its cultural chores and revisit truth, reality and rationality, and to follow it, find the Lord whose profile of presentation is the most manifest of anything on this earth, and finding His salvation in Christ, wallow no more in the wounded earth, its sores and its sorties against the freedom of the Lord, that liberty which He has prepared for His children. It is necessary to trust Him, receive His diagnosis and cure, and thus filled with love toward God, show it in life as the sunshine shows the rainbow on the clouds, showering light in beauty, like some aerial gardens, set in the heavens, where man does not soil or spoil.

 

But what is it like ?

 

Imagination released from the clamps and rigors of unrealism, irrationality, secular myths into the wonderful uplift of actuality, no hold barred, all things unchallengeable, sure, unaltered, is like using an aeroplane for a long desert trip, to reach one's destination, instead of chugging alone laboriously on changing sands, bogs and heats of the unsparing day. Liberation into reality is glorious; but finding that it is personal, powerful, presidential, in the very presence of the Creator and Judge, who is likewise the Saviour requiring neither cost to pay nor work to perform: this, it is better than any imagination. It involves cost, not to obtain, but to the one obtaining it, His, nor ours, like a mother with child.

 

You do not need to create it: that way is all prepared to the tiniest detail of the program. You do, however, need to care for it. If you know God, it is authentic, and it involves a change of heart which will see the end of your former aims and actuations, motivations and desire; but when God is involved, relative to oneself, what is that! Further, when He gives back life, recreated, being its original Creator, and that in His own image (Colossians 3:10, Philippians 3:20-21), imagination can soar. It has no limits, but the God who made it, and it looks forward to the day when "we shall know as we are known" (I Corinthians 13), as the very acme of the wonders already wrought.

 

 

 

CONTENTS

 

Literary Variations

Volume I

 I

Some OVERVIEWS

1 Grace in Gardening and the Flower Bower -

A Theological, Horticultural, Arboreal Encounter,

filled with acronyms you may not have met before 

This is ACRONYM PARK!
... from The Biblical Workman Ch. 8

2 The Observation Post Allegory ...  from Galloping Events Ch. 6

3 Conversation between Two Computers- an allegorical  dialogue, probing into much ...
from SMR.
(Another dialogue ? this one, The Logic and Language Dialogue ? see SMR pp.  3ff.. )

4 On the other hand, Architecture ? ... from SMR

5 Creation of Eyes - Blank verse on (in logical context) ... from A Spiritual Potpourri, in Ch. 7

6 The Magpie, the Termite and the Truth - a trio talks - truth is not available for invention: it is there ... from Stepping Out for Christ Ch. 9
 

7 Easter Alert- Versified Journey below and above ... from Barbs, Arrows and Balms 8

8. Realising the Release of Rest  (an ancient theme in a renewed stream) ...
from Biblical Blessings Appendix 1

 

2

SOME INTERVIEWS and PROCEDURES

9  Laughing Children - delightful kids, so spiritually alert ...
relayed from The Kingdom of Heaven, Ch. 8

10-16  Action and Allegories ... a group, from TMR Ch. 4

 

bullet 1. The Fast Track and the Established Track
bullet 2. Knowing Nothing of the King
bullet 3. Words
bullet 4. The Ice People
bullet 5. The Visionaries of Light
bullet 6. Sunlight
bullet 7. The Lame Man and the Children
... from TMR

 

17  Method in Christian Apologetics - Versified ...
from A Spiritual Potpourri: use *18 plus *19 and *20
(1)
(2) this seen in its broader setting
(3) and in its larger scope
(this chapter slightly updated for this purpose).

 

3

FACT and FICTION WITHOUT FRICTION
BECAUSE OF TRUTH

(and don't forget to pack Jerusalem for the trip)

18 The Eagle, the Willy Wagtail and the Nightingale - the wagtail spreads his tail: on the Return of Christ  ... from Little Things Ch. 6

This is a series, the above being Part I:

19 Part II: The Mosaic - A Matter of Method, giving 20 ways the pieces fit together in that floor of understanding, the return of Israel and its whole history, and the earth's! ...
from Little Things Ch. 9

20 Part III: Mosaic of Fields - Moving Aloft and Looking Down ...
from Little Things Ch. 10
 

21 Part IV: Flight to Freedom - or From It ? ...
from Pall of Smoke, and Diamond of Joy, Ch. 3

 

22 Israel in the Middle East 2 sets of TWO CHOIRS of assonantial alliteration
singing of the significance of things ,,, from It Bubbles, It Howls, He Calls Ch. 7 (cont.)

 23 The Galloping Allegory   Share in the author's boyhood horse experience, in horse life, in the
perils of too much galloping, and that, not only on horses. Direction of flow ... is important, even when the wind is in your hair, and the trees flit past. Sometimes the posture must change! ...
from Galloping Events Ch. 5


24 Calvary and Auschwitz, verse on the comparison and the chasm ... from
Biblical Blessings, Appendix I

25 The Witness of the Worm - an enlightening conversation with the lowly: professorial worm and friends have much to divulge on creation and life ...
from Stepping Out for Christ, Ch. 10

 

4

FROM TOP TO BOTTOM

26 Aviary of Idolatry  ... from Barbs, Arrows and Balms, Appendix IV

27 From Rock Bottom to Celestial Light - A Practical Conversation in a Submarine ...
from Acme, Alpha and Omega: Jesus Christ Ch. 11

28 Dialogue at the Lake - the lake, the rose and the lily - with the lost soul:  principles, power,  purpose and person ... from Stepping Out for Christ, Ch. 8

 

29 Strategic Conversation in Hell ... from Cascade of Truth, Torrent of Mercy, Ch. 5

30 THE NIGHT OF THE LITTLE BITES
ANT ANTICS AND LICE LORE ... from The Pitter-Patter of Prophetic Feet, Ch. 9
 

31  Aeronautical Allegory - has a lot to say without saying much: aeronautics can be like that
... from The Kingdom of Heaven... Appendix Section I

32 The Worth of Surf - An Allegorical Excursion into Tubes ... from Wake Up World!... Epilogue

33 Oceanic Parable- The Predicament of the Mouse ... from TMR, Ch. 3

34 Flight to hell ? Destination hell ... and the passenger who got off, and those who did not!
... from The  Frantic Millenium, Ch.  11

 

5

FRIENDLY ANIMALS

The process of salvation, the basis of it and the result

35 The Hunter, the Fox and the Lamb - an allegory on the meaning of meekness, and of creation
... from Little Things, Ch. 7

36 The Squirrel, the Badger and the Peacock - Victory in various senses, some of which require spiritual sensors ... from Victory, Ch. 10
 

See also 18 and 25 above, which are in this category as well. As a late entry from 2004, the consortium of the Bull-Ant, the Butterfly and the Porcupine might be consulted.

 

 

Volume  II

6

SYMBOLS AND SIGNIFICATIONS

37 Dramatic Verse:  Wars, Words, Works ... from Red Alert   Ch. 10

38 Snorkelling ? It seems so natural. And you can look at the depths! ... from TMR Ch. 8, Epilogue

39 On Great Burials - the dead lie strewn like Autumn leaves on the philosophic pages of history
Suppression orders are the order of the day, as it turns to night... from SMR Ch. 4

40 The Vessel of Christ and the Phantom Flotilla of the Heady Opposition: Nautical Allegory ... 
Repent or Perish Ch. 5.

41 Dreamings and Musings with a certain Bureaucratic Air: from Lord of Life Ch. 3,  Barbs 18, Aspiration to Ascend , Divine Agenda Ch. 7

42 The Wonder and the Witch - Who has bewitched you? asks Paul, and not without reason! from A Spiritual Potpourri Ch. 13

43 The Trendy Ecumenical Museum - a prelude to the above ? A DIFFERENT sort of museum ... from Stepping Out for Christ Ch. 1

44 Drama - Blood Sport - the illiberalism of liberalism, with the young, and its exposure in drama after the style of Shakespeare's Julius Caesar  ... from TMR Ch 10, Section 3

 

7

THE JOURNEYS

by air, by imagination and by acronym

45 The Flight, a journey not to be forgotten with strange, but occasionally sound passengers.

... from A Spiritual Potpourri 17

46 Evangelical, Scientific and Secular Acronyms ... from The Frantic Millenium Ch. 3

47  Intertwining Acronyms and Images

acronymic activities or work-out with acronyms or losing spiritual weight
for athletic purposes with which we add pictorial compilations, to stir the imagination and oil the spirit -

both to aid memory and activate faith ... from Joyful Jottings 20

48 Failing Grades for Grads ... from A Spiritual Potpourri first part

 

49-50 The Hu of Humanity has ... hiccoughs in hus soul

bullet 1. Desolatory Signs of the Times,
Inspecting Hu and Hus Humanism ...
from Lord of Life Ch. 8
 
bullet 2. Hus Hubris, Super-Duper Dreams, 
Hus Genome Reconstruction unit,  and the Necrotic Ambition ... from Divine Agenda Ch. 7

51 The Religious Service of Naturalism, priests and all

52 Necrosis from Naturalism ... Free among the dead, in acronym and verse:
the obtuse publisher and the gyrations of the gorbie feature, including the woeful worship service

53 What is Worse than Confusing Prose with Verse ?
Genesis 1 has all the poetry of a science laboratory book, of a family tree, of a situational survey. Being negative about the positive confusion ...

54 Verse on the Christian Life, from Barbs, Arrows and Balms 21

55 Assembling Thoughts with Acronym - from SMR, followed by the tireless testimony of truth

56 Aspiring by Acronyms ... from Beauty of Holiness Ch. 9

57 Conversations with Mr Nothing and Mr Moron

58 Conversation of Father with Children in Fairy Story Time

(much about 'nothing' :the ludicrous misuse of the thought and term is exposed by ... children, first)

59  AIRCRAFT ALLEGORY… from Let God be God! Ch. 6

 

Now, as one born out of due time, and in fact retrospectively added from January 2005, is a further allegory: the Mountain of Separation

60 The Mountain of Separation

 

This present work ramifies, and constitutes some 860 pages, or nearly 350,000 words drawn from various parts of the preceding works, with very little change - though occasional addition: being largely selection set together with the initial conspectus provided in the Preface. However, just as the groupings are significant, so the progression is deliberate.

Further, we now have:

61 Pastoral Symphony  WHY AND WHY NOT!

62 Micah and Majesty that is not his own

63 The Kaleidoscope which Insisted on Being Opera Glasses

64 The Nano-Fragment Stores His Story

 


  SEE ALSO THE SEPARATE VOLUME OF ALLEGORY: LITTLE ANGEL

With this, comes its SEQUEL:

Journey to God or Fantasy's Flight to the Infernal


  This provides you in all with
four volumes in this field of symbol, imagery and literary variation.