Beyond the Dam – The fourth sonnet ******* Beyond the Dam What mighty waters flow this sunny day! How speeding current washes o’er and round Those rapids piercing powerful Penobscot’s sway Through manless scenes of nature’s roaring sound! . How waves of main wash o’er our logged deck! With raft, and paddle crude in hands, …
PAUL’S TEACHINGS ABOUT WOMEN, Epilogue, Part 4 ******* Human nature resists change. This resistance to change is perhaps one of humanity’s greatest weaknesses. Furthermore, one of the great ironies of humanity is that erroneous beliefs are often prolonged by superstitions, by misunderstandings, and, sometimes, by arrogance embodied in human institutions that claim to be the …
Michael in the Old and New Testament ******* Daniel being the only writer in the Old Testament to mention Gabriel, he is also the only one to speak of Michael. Daniel, next to the River Hiddekel (in Daniel 10:4-10), is introduced to Michael (verse 13). Then Michael was mentioned once more, in Daniel 12. Daniel …
Beyond the Dam – The Third of the Four Sonnets ******* Before and Beyond the Dam Before the dam, the cardboard channel chokes With pulp dumped up course from a paper mill. Approaching the dam, we guide our raft with strokes To shore and spend the night with a whippoorwill. . Then being reassembled beyond …
PAUL’S TEACHINGS ABOUT WOMEN, Epilogue, Part 3 ******* Not everyone is like Alabama’s former Governor George Wallace, who first stood for segregation, even standing up to the Federal Government, but who later accepted integration, even becoming a champion of jobs for blacks. With knowledge running to and fro at an ever-increasing rate, with communications uniting …
Gabriel in the Old Testament In the Old Testament, the angel Gabriel is mentioned only in Daniel. In Daniel 8, Gabriel is first introduced after the vision or prophecy of the sanctuary for the latter days, when the small voice of Purity lifted off the Ulai River (waters of purity) and commanded Gabriel to explain …
Beyond the Dam – The second of the four sonnets ******* Here we have another version of a Beyond the Dam sonnet … when he got carried away with his rhyming dictionary. ******* Penobscot Perversed ******* The sonnet with this title first Was like the river, poorly versed. The water ran with foam – the …
PAUL’S TEACHINGS ABOUT WOMEN, Epilogue, Part 2 ******* Outside the spiritual realm, perhaps the one major constant of our modern age is change. This change awakens new truths in our thought. We then synthesize them with the proven ones of the past to bring humanity closer to Truth. With this process, humanity becomes less shackled. …
Spiritual Harmony – Waters and Music, Part II ******* Daniel took leave temporally to rest on the shores of the Hiddekel River. When this author went with his wife to a concert in which a guitarist played and sang a song, he felt an awakening that gave him the answer he had been seeking about …
Introduction to Beyond the Dam – The four sonnets ******* We begin with Allan’s amazing adventure with Leonard, his brother, going down the Penobscot River in Maine on a homemade wooden raft. Allan wrote several versions of the sonnets Before and Beyond the Dam over the years when a student in 1963 at Florida State …
Paul’s Teachings about Women, Epilogue, Part 1 ******* Outside the spiritual realm, perhaps the one major constant of our modern age is change. This change awakens new truths in our thought. We then synthesize them with the proven ones of the past to bring humanity closer to Truth. With this process, humanity becomes less shackled. …
Spiritual Harmony – Waters and Music, Part I ******* Daniel for a time had been praying about the conclusion of Jeremiah’s prophecy of seventy years until the Jews could return to their own land to rebuild Jerusalem and its temple. Daniel was in his nineties and knows that, when the time came, he would not …
The Sonnet This book, being mostly sonnets, needs some introduction to the art of the sonnet. Allan’s wife Lynn (who has put this volume together) especially greatly admires the musicality of the sonnet form. Besides the meaning within a sonnet, one of the main pleasures comes from the rhythm patterns and the music it creates. …
Paul’s Teachings about Women, Part 7 ******* Specific women mentioned in Acts: Lydia, Damaris, Euodias, and Syntyche ******* Specific women mentioned in Romans: Priscilla, Aquila, and Phebe ******* When it comes to reading about women in the New Testament, one cannot always take as gospel the words on the printed page because they may be …
Gender Equality References, Part III ******* Humans in the tabernacle of God with men in the latter days must reflect the divine in a gender-equality society, the qualities of both masculine and feminine equally valued in each individual. A few years ago, an attorney friend sent an email with an attached article about so many …
In the Conclusion to this book of Allan’s sonnets and poems, he writes: “Reading, including not only non-fiction and fiction, but also poetry, is the closest thing to true magic that humans possess. It allows us to enter the mind of another person, to see what they see, experience what they feel, and understand their …
ST. PAUL’S TEACHINGS ABOUT WOMEN, Part 6 ******* In addition, as we can see from the many examples at the end of this chapter, Paul named many women who were leaders in his churches. He even honored a married couple, Priscilla and Aquilla, mentioning her name first, a sign that she probably was the greater …
GENDER EQUALITY REFERENCES, Part II ******* The Tabernacle of God with men in the latter days must live gender-equal ideals among humankind. Jesus demonstrated how to live a life reflecting equality of the sexes. Some religious convictions result in unconditional acceptance of false ideas from scholastic theology, which is a mixture of pagan philosophy and …
Allan, a poet at heart, has been writing sonnets and poems since his college days. He writes in his Preface: “When a book of poems is opened, what does the reader hope to find? Generally, we find one wants a poem to have some kind of beauty and meaning. … The purpose of this collection …
ST. PAUL’S TEACHINGS ABOUT WOMEN, Part 5 ******* Paul wrote, “There is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus” (Galatians 3:28). But we must also acknowledge the challenge Paul had in building a Church from two cultures, Hebrew and Greek, both of which were based on hard-core dominance by men. …
GENDER EQUALITY REFERENCES, Part I ******* John in Revelation 9:21, “Come hither, I will shew thee the bride, the Lamb’s wife.” If in the divine, both the bride-wife and the Lamb are righteousness or purity, then they both are equated or the same. Thus, humans in the Tabernacle of God with men in the latter …
Beyond the Dam, Sonnets and Poems Allan’s book of Sonnets and Poems, Beyond the Dam, is now available on the websites of Balboa Press, Barnes & Noble, and Amazon. (A note about the Kindle version: the format changes depending on how you set it and the best is to change to “view full screen” (the …
DANIEL’S PROPHECY OF THE MESSIAH Part III (Daniel 9) ******* Recall, there are three types of days in the Bible: (1) a literal day, (2) a spiritual day, as in the first chapter of Genesis, and (3) a symbolic or prophetic day. Perhaps the most important of all the codes to understanding the apocalyptical portions …
PAUL’S TEACHINGS ABOUT WOMEN, Part 4 ******* A PBS program says that all three monotheistic religions—Judaism, Christianity, and Islam—teach men and women to “love a spouse the way God loves us.” However, today an examination of actuality shows that some men don’t necessarily follow this teaching. Patriarchy contradicts all three faiths, substituting Aristotle’s commanding and …
DANIEL’S PROPHECY OF THE MESSIAH Part II (Daniel 9) ******* Determining the Year to Begin the First Advent ******* Continuing as referenced in the previous Blog #34, Daniel 9, verses 20 through 27 presents his prophecy of the Messiah, giving the year he was to begin his ministry and the year he was to be …
PAUL’S TEACHINGS ABOUT WOMEN, Part 3 ******* To get a clear picture of Paul’s thought, let’s start with a passage that did not get mistranslated: “There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus” (Galatians 3:28). The message …
DANIEL’S PROPHECY OF THE MESSIAH ******* Part I ******* Daniel 9, Verses 20 through 27 presents his prophecy of the Messiah at the First Advent, giving the year he was to begin his ministry and the year he was to be “cut off,” or crucified. When Christ Jesus began his ministry, he came “preaching the …
PAUL’S TEACHINGS ABOUT WOMEN, Part 2 ******* The purpose of this chapter is to examine what Paul wrote about men and women. To do this, we will have to remove the Aristotelian translating filter to find the Pauline thought in the epistles he did pen or dictate and also to separate the epistles that Paul …
DANIEL’S PROPHECY OF THE SANCTUARY, PART II (Daniel 8) ******* We continue with more on the sanctuary from Chapter XI. Subsequently, Daniel sought to know when the sanctuary was going to be restored. The 2300 prophetic days stood for 2300 years, which pointed to a long wait, to the time at the end of days …
PAUL’S TEACHINGS ABOUT WOMEN, PART 1 ******* The Apostolic Church began with a continuation of Christ Jesus’ exoneration of women. Men and women prayed together, as when they prayed “with one accord” to be led of God in choosing a replacement for Judas, the traitor (Acts 1:14+). “Multitudes both of men and women” were accepted …