Bethel Music

A Few Observations

According to taxemptworld.com, Bethel Music is a 501(c)3 nonprofit corporation (FEIN 47-4005681), whose mailing address is 5090 Caterpillar Rd., Redding, CA 96003-1412. Its stated purpose is:

Production, publication, and sale of assets exclusively for the benefit of Bethel Church of Redding (FEIN 94-1514037).

The most recent information is that Bethel Music holds approximately 1 million dollars in assets, and its annual income is 10 million dollars.

Yes, you have read that correctly. Its annual income is 10 million dollars. The purpose of Bethel Music is to benefit Bethel Church. That's probably a whole lot of benefit, even when you subtract out the operating expenses. I was surprised.

So if there are any church leaders out there who dislike pastor Bill Johnson and Bethel Church but don't mind paying Bethel Music licensing fees to use its copyrighted worship music — because it is trendy and "top of the charts" — well, be aware that those fees ultimately are used to benefit Bethel Church. This may or may not have been your intention.

My personal feelings are pretty much limited to the modest opinion that Bethel Music music is starting to be played to death (the same goes for Hillsong music). For example, "Reckless Love" gets kind of old after you have heard it in church about two or three dozen times. I think we're overdue to move on.

Ghost of Pershing Square

The Google Maps camera accidentally captured this eerie apparition that haunts Pershing Square, Los Angeles. He is known in the local folklore as the "topless dead hippie" who walks around Pershing Square, always trying to find the rest of himself. Sometimes he is visible even in broad daylight.

Secular CityVille

By now everyone has heard of Zynga's social network games, which you can easily find as Facebook applications. Facebook constantly advertises them and they are nearly unavoidable. You have FarmVille, FrontierVille, CityVille, and dozens of other games that you can play inside your browser when you are logged onto Facebook, provided your web browser can run the Adobe Flash Player at a reasonable speed. For a time, I played FrontierVille, having managed to build up for myself a nice little homestead out in the electronic frontier, which had what I thought was a lovely orchard of fruit trees. A short distance away from it on the other side of my homestead, I placed a small cemetery and flower garden. And I recollect having a doctor's office, and land office, several other buildings, and a corral where I kept my livestock. I liked growing mint and harvesting the crops from my orchards.

Zynga also likes to throw game "projects" your way, which have some kind of reward if they're successfully completed. Unfortunately, Zynga rained so many of these projects down on me in FronterVille that it became tiresome trying to keep up with them all. Besides this, FrontierVille could be on the buggy side, where things didn't always work correctly or exhibited quirky behavior. After a time, I called it quits and shut down my little homestead and pulled up stakes, so to speak, and moved to Zynga's CityVille. I really don't have time to keep up with more than one game.

I consider CityVille adorably cute. I am forgiveably proud of how over time I have laid out the little town that I created, which now has a population of a little over 6000 virtual souls. The place has a post office, a large city hall, two schools, a factory, a pub, a museum, a library, other "community" buildings, a small farm where crops are grown, a colorful mall, restaurants, and many other places to go shopping. Recently, I managed to expand to the other side of the river after having built a bridge. On that side, there is a sandy beach which I have big plans for. And I have put in on the "north" side of town what can be called an big amusement park. As I recall, my town has reached level 47, mediocre as far as towns go within CityVille. You should see some of my neighbors' sprawling megapolises. Now if the virtual souls enjoy anything while living there in my virtual city, they very much love to go shopping. When I deliver the "goods" to my various virtual stores, the inhabitants will begin all at once to troop out of their little houses, perambulating up and down the streets and sidewalks, and finding their way to the stores so as to spend their virtual incomes. And also I collect the rent from the virtual houses they live in, the virtual funds being spent expanding and furbishing the town. It's all a curious sight to behold. Some of inhabitants even stroll along with baby carriages as if they had families, and some even ride motor scooters up and down the streets. It's a bustling little town, and some of the animation is genuinely amusing.

However, I do have one complaint. Zynga allows you to build a imaginative array of very cute virtual buildings. But there's one thing glaring for its absence. In CityVille, Zynga allows no churches. That's right. You can't build a church in your little town, let alone a sprawling megachurch campus with an enormous parking lot. You can have anything else, but no churches. Nor you can have cathedrals, nor synagogues, nor mosques, nor zoroastrian shrines, nor buddhist temples. You can't even have a Masonic Lodge, or a sweat lodge, as far as I can tell. I guess Zynga's virtual universe allows only for the purest, most unadulterated atheism imaginable, as if the virtual people inhabiting my town had no virtual souls as they live on in their Godless Zynga universe. Can we call this Virtual Existentialism? Or Zyngaism? Even though Gene Roddenberry's Star Trekian universe was relentless for it humanist outlook, at least the Klingons there were allowed to have their sanguinary quasi-shamanistic paganism, and the Vulcans their New-Agey, matriarchal, somewhat cornball spirituality. And in George Lucas's galaxy, long ago and far far away, the coldly impersonal and dualistic Force is always with you, in a way that somehow manages to be both good and evil, darkness and light. But in Zynga's virtual world, everybody is a hardcore secularist and any sign of religion is strictly verboten, or so I would guess.

[Update, 2011 Sep 05] Later on, after what I wrote above, Zynga came out with a new game called "SunnyTown," which is similar to CityVille in several ways. However, my wife has pointed out to me that in SunnyTown you are allowed to build churches. I wonder if someone at Zynga has been reading Lunar Ossuary for hints. I hope they will extend the same feature to CityVille.

Three Mysterious Numbers

There are three mysterious triangular numbers in the New Testament. The first is 153 which occurs in John 21:11. The second is 276 which occurs in Acts 27:37. And the third is 666 which occurs in Revelations 13:18.

These three numbers have certain curious relationships with each other, which I will endeavor to illuminate.

First, there are some elementary properties we should notice. Using the formula for the nth triangular number, T(n)=n(n+1)/2, it's easy to see that 153 is the 17th triangular number, 276 is the 23rd triangular number, and 666 is the 36th triangular number. And 36 is the square of 6.

Also, we note that the greatest common divisor of these three triangular numbers is 3. Notice also that 3 is the divine number, since it represents the Godhead.

The three largest prime numbers that divide each of the three without dividing the other two are 17, 23, and 37, for 153 is divisible only by 17, and 276 is divisible only by 23, and 666 is divisible only by 37.

Looking at the context of the verses cited above, we notice that the three triangular number have some sort of connection with water, which is one of the primordial elements mentioned in 2 Peter 3:5. The number 666 is of course the infamous "number of the Beast", and in Revelations 13:1 the Beast is said to come up out of the sea. As for the other two numbers' connection with water, that is left as an excercise for the reader.

The sum of the three triangular number is 1095, which when divided by 3 gives 365, the number of days in a year, the primary unit for measuring the seasons.

The three prime divisors 17, 23, and 37 that were mentioned are when added together the sum 77. The number 7 occuring very frequently in the Scriptures as the number of completion.

Using 7 as a modulus, and 3 as the base, the discrete logarithms of the three triangular numbers are respectively 9, 7, and 6. This is because under modular congruencies 3^9=153 and 3^7=276 and 3^6=666 under modulo 7. Furthermore, the product of 9×7×6 is the number 378. But the number 378 is itself the 27th triangular number, 27 being the cube of 3.

We can make the observation that (17+23+37)+(9+7+6)=99. However, the number 9 is the number peculiar to the angelic creation (whereas 6 is peculiar to Man). And 9 happens to be the square of 3.

That 2²+3²+5²+7²+11²+13²+17²=666 is also very curious. In other words, the "number of the Beast" is also the sum of the squares of the prime numbers up through 17, which was the prime divisor we associated with 153.

It was on the 17th day in the month that the Noachian Flood struck (Genesis 7:11). And it was also on the 17th day that Noah's Ark came to rest in the mountains of Ararat (Genesis 8:4). This is the first occurrence of the number 17 in the Scriptures. And here also is another connection with water. The last occurrence of 17 happens to be in Jeremiah 32:9, where Jeremiah the prophet redeems his inheritance in Anathoth for 17 shekels of silver.

The prime divisor 23 associated with 276 also has an odd connection with humanity. Supposedly there are 23 chromosome pairs in human cells. And there are 23 disks in the human spine.

The number pair 23 and 7, which are associated with 276, happen to occur together in 2 Chronicles 7:10, where it is recorded that the 23rd day of the 7th month marked the joyful ending of the dedication of the first Temple, which was built by Solomon.

As for 37, which is associated with 666, there are supposed to be 37 genes in the human mitochondrial genome. And it requires 37 skeletal muscles to move the human hand.

[I'll see what other things turn up about these numbers and add to this later]

The Unnerving Hobo

On Friday night I finally watched "Polar Express". The idea of a magical train was interesting, and the movie was very dream-like in places. In fact, some parts bore a resemblance to some of my dreams, especially the urban landscape of Santa's North Pole metropolis. The Hobo on the carriage roof was unnerving in a Stephen Kingish sort of way, but apparently he was not malevolent as he rescues the main character at various points in the story. However, Santa's Elves at the North Pole seemed downright creepy to me, more like midget, shopping-mall versions of Nosferatu. The Conductor's final admonition, which ran something like "it doesn't matter where the train is going just as long you get on", was just about the most stupid advice ever given out in a Hollywood production.

Worst Ever Made

The movie I was trying to think of was entitled "The Pride and The Passion", released back in 1957, which was almost half a century ago, a fact which makes me feel really old. Although they didn't exactly present some of their best performances, Cary Grant, Sophia Loren, and Frank Sinatra starred in the movie, along with a cast of thousands. Of course, Sophia Loren was cast as the stereotypical fiery "Latin woman", who in one scene couldn't feign dancing a flamenco convincingly enough if only to save her own life — at least according to one reviewer I glanced over. Another reviewer I read classified it as one of the worst movies Hollywood has ever made. None of the synopses I came across mention anything about the statue of Santa Teresa showing up at the end of the movie, but I am very sure that I recollect that happening. In any case, Ávila was definitely the city that got bombarded by the really big cannon.

Personally Enough

Taking a walk in neighborhood around sunset is something I do fairly habitually. Usually I take a little digital AM/FM radio and listen to assorted stations. The other day I happened to tune in to a local xtian station and heard some fairly big-name preacher say, in so many words, that he didn't like to call XP his "personal Savior" because using the word "personal" might suggest there was something special about himself, the big-name preacher. Also, at times, whilst I was voyaging upon the vast Blogific Ocean, I have stumbled occasionally across this particular meme elsewhere, this strange "we don't want to call Him personal anymore" idea.

The big-name preacher I heard is unduely alarmed. Believe me, there is no danger of anybody ever thinking there was something special about him, the big-name preacher. Nobody would be that mistaken. So really, he has nothing to worry about. Besides, fussing about the word "personal" seems, to me at least, more like silly quibbling over words.

But let us recall a few things about XP:

• He personally agonized in the garden of Gethsemene.
• His closest personal friends abandoned Him in His hour of deepest need. One of them even betrayed Him.
• He personally endured beatings, insults, and mockery from many of His people's religious rulers, the very ones who should have recognized who He was.
• He personally endured the horrific scourging inflicted up Him by the Romans.
• He personally wore a crown of thorns.
• He was personally condemned to be crucified by the Romans, with the crowds shouting for it. Instead a career criminal was released.
• He personally carried His cross to Golgotha, until He was so weakened by His ordeal that Romans forced another man to carry it.
• He personally was nailed to that cross. Cruel spikes were driven through the hands and feet of His blessed person.
• He personally endured hours of agony and thirst. His mother stood by and watched in horrified helplessness.
• He personally died, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world.
• He was pierced by a Roman spear, and out of His person flowed blood and water. Witnesses personally saw this.
• They buried His person in a borrowed grave.
• He personally rose from the dead, on the third day, and in His very person appeared to many of His disciples.

So if someone were to ask me, a wretched sinner such as I, all of this is enough for Him to be my personal Savior.

Quo Vadis

I rarely watch television myself. However, Mrs. Moonbones sometimes does, since she is a fan of Survivor, American Idol, and Star Search, and a few other shows. So last night as we were preparing to retire our collective ossicles for the night, she had the television in the bedroom turned on and was flipping through the channels. To my surprise, the PBS television station out of Spokane, Washington, station KSPS to be exact, was broadcasting an old movie. That by itself is not unusual, since they often broadcast old movies late at night. What was unusual was that the old movie was none other than Quo Vadis. Yes, it was the Technicolor™ Quo Vadis (1951), starring the raven-haired and debonair Robert Taylor, the ravishing young redhead Deborah Kerr, and the young, roly-poly, hyper-histrionic Peter Ustinov. “Quo Vadis on public television? This is out of the ordinary!” I said to myself. So I went out to the living room and watched it on the other television, beginning roughly about in the middle of the film. Mrs. Moonbones on the other hand wasn’t interested and instead went to sleep.

There are several things that strike me as remarkable about Quo Vadis. First of all, I didn’t realize until the closing credits that the heroine, Lygia, was played by Deborah Kerr. Up until then I remembered only that she played a singing role opposite Yul Brenner in the movie rendition of Roger and Hammerstein’s The King and I, back in the Fifties as I recall. But in Quo Vadis she was young enough that I didn’t immediately recognize her. And though his face looked vaguely familiar, all the time I was watching the movie I kept wondering who was playing Marcus, the Roman centurian with major hots for the Xtian Lygia. Marcus turned out to be Robert Taylor.

Secondly, Peter Ustinov’s super-thespian rendition of the worse-than-decadent and laughably degenerate Nero was so over-the-top, so hyperbolic, and so dripping with self-conscious irony, that it verged on eclipsing the rest of the story in the movie. I would go so far as to say that nowdays when most people think of Nero they will picture in their minds something very close to Ustinov’s depiction of him.

Also, there were often scenes in Quo Vadis that were very much charged with erotic undertones. But what is remarkable is that the film incorporated them without so much as having anybody take their clothes off.

The movie ended with most everyone dead, except for Marcus and his new bride Lygia—who were married by the apostle Peter himself while they were waiting in the dungeon to be dispatched. (Peter was crucified shortly thereafter. Upside down, of course.) But later they barely managed to escape martyrdom by a fortuitous Roman military coup d’etat against Nero, who later committed suicide, bemoaning the world's under-appreciation of his artistic talents.

But finally, what was most amazing to me was that Quo Vadis actually cast Xtians in a somewhat favorable light. When was the last time PBS ever did that? When was the last time Hollywood ever did that? In any case, I think I can confidently predict that Hollywood will never do a remake of Quo Vadis. It would be just too “politically incorrect” nowadays.