December Status
We're headed out for the holidays. Much going on. Here's the latest.
The Testimony
We're continuing to check section headings (future chapters) against the Commandments. The Commandments are turning out to be a major source of context for various stories. Here are some examples.
When Gabriel appears to Zechariah to tell him about the birth of John the Baptist the governing commandment is Don't Lie. Zechariah is the liar in this story, and like anyone who is a liar today, Zechariah cannot believe Gabriel because Zechariah presumes Gabriel is a liar too. The commandment helps us understand the key word "believe" in that story is not as in believe to salvation, but believe what Gabriel is saying. This is why Gabriel shuts up Zechariah, so he will not lie about what is to happen. When he finally does open his mouth, he has few, but important, things to say.
Another example are the various resurrection stories, where Joshua, especially, raises someone from the dead. The dead son of the widow of Nain, the dead daughter of a certain leader and Lazarus being examples. In cases of resurrection the governing commandment is Have No Other Gods besides Joshua. Why are these stories under this commandment? Because only Joshua raises the dead.
This pass has caused us to drop several stories that do not appear to be inspired. The Jordan River crossing being the biggest surprise here. Seems the editors wanted to venerate the carriers of the ark in contradiction to the distributed nature of Moses' design for the nation.
The story of David and Goliath is another story out on this pass. The contradiction in this story is how Saul first met David. They met either at the battle with the Philistines OR as a harp playing slave. The text as given by history gives both as the first meeting. In this case Goliath is the addition. David as a harp playing slave of Saul fits the commandment structure better. Editors did not want readers to notice the inspired story showing kings are by definition slave masters.
A final interesting example of stories that are out is the story of Cornelius. The editors were (at least) building a story where the gospel went from the Jews to the Gentiles. The contradiction, though, is Stephen had done that long before, in a simpler, geographic/language way, and paid with his life over it.
If Cornelius stays out, it tells on the editors in remarkable ways. For now, there is no room under the commandment headings and alphabet folds for the story of Cornelius to be inspired. Ryan made the observation that this can be shown as an early edit because it provides some level of alternative map to these systems.
Friday's Update
We're leaving on Wednesday for Seattle, but expect to update the Testimony on Friday as usual. Some changes to note. In the About Box is a new table that shows the section header to commandment map. This is worthy of memorization. In the Friday update we'll have worked through the Kings and Incarnation scrolls, maybe a little more of the New Testament, but not the Prophets.
The Prophets have their own set of hard problems because they have an unknown book sequence. On the front side of the Incarnation Scroll are Ezra, Nehemiah and Esther. These 3 books, in their inspired form, are perhaps the most important books for understanding our world. The context they set for the rest of the Testimony runs to this very day.
As a set, these 3 books fold the alphabet and match the commandments, causing several "prophet" books that were in this section to show they really belong out of time order in the Prophet Scroll. We've moved them back with the other prophets, but without much attention yet to the inspired book order.
We previously split apart the Book of Kings into independent books for the Northern and Southern Kingdoms. This pass strongly supports we did right on that earlier decision. The short run of northern kingdom kings ends with the fall of Samaria. The longer run of southern kingdom kings also ends with the fall of Samaria. The fall of Samaria folds across the alphabet, a beautiful structure. The tail of that alphabet run spans across the remaining kings of the city-state of Jerusalem.
The current testimony work is a "vertical" pass through the book, looking for commandments in order and alphabet folds. When done with this pass, we will turn to a "horizontal" pass. This second pass will follow individual commandments and letters from the beginning to the end of the Testimony. This will help clean up some spots that are still rough. Obviously, still much work to do.
Videos
We're taking the new teleprompter to Seattle with us in order to give it some time in a real machine shop. It will get properly sized support rods, an expensive piece of teleprompter glass, a new camera mount and a cloth shroud. Hope to start videos when we return to Colorado in January.
On the subject of videos... We've had many private conversations with folks on this list about using Patreon for financial support once videos start. If you're not aware, Patreon imploded about 2 weeks ago. We are tracking Jordan Peterson on this and will probably use his replacement service when ready. In no case will we use Patreon.
Here is a video that explains what happened to Patreon if you don't know. The controlled rage you hear in this video is widespread.
3D Models
I've been working on design cleanup and assigning part numbers to the entire 3D system of models. I'm currently at about 360 part numbers, and expect to shoot well past 500 parts before I'm done. We're taking 2 printers with us, and will combine them with a 3rd and attempt to get a massive set of initial prints done over the holidays.
When I started test printing some of the most important models in the 3D system, I had an idea... In the end, I sent a gift box to all of this year's financial supporters.
The box may arrive before Christmas, but most should arrive after Christmas. The Christmas delivery cutoff happened while we were at the cash register at the shipper...
When I was packing them, I found the "grill" to be weak. I've changed the 3D design for future prints, but if you find trouble, a drop of super glue should repair.
Part of the move to Colorado was the start of a new business. It has been about 8 years since we even tried to have a business, as the definition of what we've been working on kept changing. This year has been a great restart.
Thank You to everyone who has been helping us.
More Later,
Phil