Votive

Abramham's altars of clay and stone were systems of votive offerings which functioned differently than the city states like Sodom and Gomorrah. They were networks of free people that formed a "Polis" through charity rather than force. That network of tens and the fervent charity of those Living Altars of Men created the social bonds needed to stand fast in the liberty that set them free.

Votive welfare

A votive deposit or votive offering is one or more objects displayed or deposited, without the intention of recovery or use, in a sacred place for broadly religious purposes.

Some historians define a votive offering or tama as something that may be offered. In the Greek we see τάματα tamata which over the centuries has evolved into a form of votive offering eventually used in the the Greek Orthodox Church where the Tamata might be represented by a small metal plaque with an embossed image symbolizing the subject of prayer.

This degradation of its original meaning is more superstitious than the people who survived historically like early Israel or early Church.

What we know of votive offerings has often been obscured by a bias historical vision devoid of practical knowledge of the social bonds of a free but practically temporal society.

In more ancient times, a votive offering was considered to be a gift to God or a god and became a property of a god, which could be stored within the god's temenos.

But God does not eat that offering and there was clearly a benefit to society to perform these rituals and provide these consecrated sacrifices.

Temples as bank

In the "Temple Cleansing and Temple Bank" by Neill Q. Hamilton, explains the:

"function of the Jerusalem temple as a bank and its connection to the cause of His death."

"A brief history of banking in temples in the ancient world will prepare us for an understanding of the Jerusalem temple bank."

Rameses, "I don't have to remind you, Moses—the temple grain is for the gods."
"What the gods can digest will not sour in the belly of a slave." Moses.
The Ten Commandments 1956 American film about the Egyptian Prince, Moses.

The granaries of the temples were store house to provide a social safety net in time of dearth or famine for society and ensure the loyalty of their citizens and subjects.

Many of the temples of Rome functioned as financial institutions, investment brokers, social safety nets, or other government service providers from building roads, docks, bridges, or aqueducts and even the minting of coins or keeping public records of lands and family lineage like birth registration. The temple at Ephesus provided some banking and investment services for 127 different countries.

Others were banking on the Kingdom. The Qumram of the Essenes, as well as Jesus and the early Church called for a temple made without hands but constructed of living stones.

The Essenes called that community a "temple of men" or the miqdash adam.

Ten elders of families gather together as an altar of 'adamah' e.g. clay in a free assembly and choose the living stones for |heir altars of sacrifice for the practice of Pure Religion which is the Corban of Christ, His Eucharist.

While the "seven men" in Acts 6 formed a sort of "bank" to handle funds as needed. They were a kind of nonprofit bank more like a decentralized credit unions today than the common for profit bank.

Everything about the Kingdom of God is decentralized because it is delivering a power of choice or liberty to individuals rather than to a central power or treasury.

Consecrated

A Votive offering is also defined as "offered, given, dedicated, consecrated, etc., in accordance with a vow." But the manner and method of that consecration determines if it is worthy or abominable. There are two uses of the word vow in the Bible.

"Votive offerings" from the Hebrew noun neder(נֶדֶר‎) is consistently translated "vow" but defined as a "votive offering". It is from the verb nadar(נָדַר‎)

Originally it was specifically a religious term but this was when the definition of religion was how you provided for the needy of society. That has changed throughout the centuries. The only time religion is mentioned in the Bible in a good sense is its reference to Pure religion which had to do with the care and social welfare of the needy of society without the institutions of force found in many governments of the world at that time.

The common Hebrew word translated "freewill offering" is nëdabah(נְדָבָה‎) which is not the NunDaletReish we see with the term translated "vow" but said to mean a "votive offering" but consists of the letters נְדָבָה֙ (NunDaletBeitHey). It is from the verb nadab(נָדַב‎) meaning "offered willingly". The first time we see this term in the Torah is in Exodus 25: When the LORD directs that all offering of every man must be given willingly from his heart.

In the bondage of Egypt when the people were living in captivity their offerings were a matter of tribute because they had pledged one-fifth of their labor to the Pharaoh to obtain his free bread.

The Torah makes provision for "freewill offerings" which may be made by any individual. These are different from votive offerings which are some times linked to the term vow in the sense of prayer which is an expression of intent. Understanding that the temples were places before they were buildings and they had a function in society like the altars of clay and stone. That God only considers freewill offerings to be righteous and pledges or promises to be binding and God seems to not favor their use.

In the Old Testament, a votive offering was a voluntary offering vowed (offered) to God but not required or compelled by a Law imposed by men. The technical term in Hebrew for such an offering is neder(נֶדֶר‎) but translated vow. It does not mean a promise or an oath.

The distinction

Vows, votive offerings and freewill offerings are all offerings freely made from the heart by a free choice of the individual. But we can make at least one distinction here:

"Either a bullock or a lamb that hath any thing superfluous or lacking in his parts, that mayest thou offer [for] a freewill offering; but for a vow it shall not be accepted." Leviticus 22:23

In this verse a clear differentiation is made between the two. The Hebrew root letters for a freewill offering are נדב (NunDaletBeit) which is the noun nëdabah from the verb nadab, but for a votive offering there are the letters נדר (NunDaletReish) forming the noun neder from the root word, a verb, nadar.

The distinction seems to be in the "any thing superfluous" which is sara‘(שָׂרַע‎) appearing in the text as śārūa‘(שָׂר֣וּעַ). And also "or lacking in his parts" where we see the words qalat(קָלַט‎) appearing as wəqālūṭ;(וְקָל֑וּט).

On first examination it would seem reasonable that they are concerned with defects in the animal offered.

It was already established that almost any blemish would be rejected in verses 20 through 24.

much of this seems to serve to exclude a variety of blemished animal, which is still permitted for consumption but not as a votive offering we have a seemingly unique exclusion.

The word Saru’a can mean too long as mentioned (Leviticus 21:18) and the word Kalut can mean "too short" and is related to the word miklat meaning refuge in the city of refuge (Joshua 21:13). Is their another meaning or idea connected to the words śārūa‘ wəqālūṭ(שרוע וקלוט)

"Feed my sheep!"
Pastors should be like shepherds who tend to all the welfare needs of the people in a daily ministration of faith, hope, and charity, so that none of the sheep of Christ have to eat at the tables of legal charity provided by the exercising authority of the Fathers of the earth.
Before Jesus was able to provide the people with loaves and fishes in Mark 6:39 He "commanded" His disciples to "make" the people sit down in Tens. And then those groups were to organize in companies upon companies in divisions and "ranks" of "fifties and hundreds".
Christ also told His disciples not to be like the rulers and princes of the Gentiles who provided benefits by exercising authority one over the other.
Everyone who got the Baptism of Christ was "put out" by the ordinance of the Pharisees of the Jewish synagogue system which was also composed of ten families through which they provided welfare with the "Corban" of the people.
Christ appointed a kingdom to His "called out" group He called His "little flock" to be ministers or servants to the people in "free assemblies" not rulers like the "benefactors" of the "world" who "exercise authority". Every man should be led by the Holy Spirit to gather in order to love one another. The minister is supposed to be serving by making or requiring the people voluntarily organize themselves in Companies of tens, fifties and hundreds, and thousands so that people may love one another through daily ministration in the practice of Pure Religion as we see the early Church doing in history for centuries.
If all the people who say they are Christians were actually doing what Christ commanded, socialism would be obsolete and no one could be or would be exploited. Socialism is the religion you get when you refuse to do what Christ commanded and have no Pure Religion.

The whole system of freewill offerings given from the heart of the individual created a peculiar people through the altars of clay and stone which allowed the people to care for the needs of society by a Corban that makes the word of God to effect without waiving individual God endowed rights nor engaging in covetous practices that degenerate the masses.

Contrary to the systems of Sodom and Gomorrah or Nimrod of Babylon and the Pharaoh of Egypt they strengthened the poor.

It was not the symbols of the ancients but the spirit reflected in their form that alters men.

The tabernacle was a symbol of that way of righteousness taught by Moses and again by Jesus. It was a reminder in its symbolic construction of this moving monument echoed the patterns of the kingdom. It also housed a unique golden box called the "ark of the covenant" and "ark of the testimony" and "ark of the LORD". But with all its mystery it was not the tabernacle, nor its contents that made Israel a great nation.

What made Israel great was the willingness of the people to obey the LORD's directions in their heart and mind in order to be a "government of the people, by the people, and for the people".

The viable republic that resulted from this conformity to the righteousness of God, like the early Church, operated within the "perfect law of liberty" by "freewill offerings" only, which in the New Testament were called the "charity" and "love" of the Corban of Christ because they had no need for forced taxation nor the men who "call themselves benefactors" but "exercise authority one over the other" in order to provide a social safety net for the care of the needy through pure Religion. They followed The Way of righteousness in fellowship with the righteousness of God with no king or no legislature of the world, and no covetous practices which makes men merchandise, curse children, and is idolatry.

Is voting bad

So much has changed since the original Constitution when we could say that the “People of a state are entitled to all rights which formerly belonged to the king by his prerogative.” Or we could argue that “In one sense, the term ‘sovereign’ has for its correlative ‘subject.’ In this sense, the term can receive no application; for it has no object in the [Original] Constitution of the United States. Under that Constitution there are citizens, but no subjects.” “For when the revolution took place, the people of each state became themselves sovereign; and in that character hold the absolute right to all their navigable waters, and the soils under them, for their own common use, subject only to the rights since surrendered by the constitution to the general government.”

Originally, citizenship did not include the title or sense of subject ,but later in the United States, we see a citizenship binding subjects to the laws of a “sovereign”. Prior to the Fourteenth Amendment, “No private person has a right to complain, by suit in court, on the ground of a breach of Constitution. The constitution it is true, is a compact, but he is not a party to it. The states are party to it.”

Today, “in the United States ‘it [citizenship] is a political obligation’ depending not on ownership of land, but on the enjoyment of the protection of government; and it ‘binds the citizen to the observance of all laws’ of his sovereign.”

This is not so much do to the fact that legislators have altered laws but because the people have altered their relationship with the government. Because of the rise of the welfare state and the people not “Constantly bearing in mind that in entering into society individuals must give up a share of liberty to preserve the rest…" the status of American citizenship has changed. People today are already in a political system that is a direct or indirect democracy certainly have motivation at least to vote for their own protection.

Democracies are not always a good form of government and for centuries in America they were not considered to good. In fact, until World War II democracy was considered “A government of the masses. Authority derived through mass meeting or any form of direct expression. Results in mobocracy. Attitude toward property is communistic - negating property rights. Attitude toward law is that the will of the majority shall regulate, whether it is based upon deliberation or governed by passion, prejudice, and impulse, without restraint or regard for consequences. Results in demagogism, license, agitation, discontent, anarchy.”

If you live in a democracy and you have a right to vote. You certainly may feel a need to vote in self defense in order to protect yourself and your neighbor from the covetous practices of the welfare state and those who desire to rule over and even rob their neighbor through socialist schemes of wealth distribution.

John Adams: “Democracy... while it lasts is more bloody than either aristocracy or monarchy. Remember, democracy never lasts long. It soon wastes, exhausts, and murders itself. There is never a democracy that did not commit suicide."

Israel, before they made the grave mistake of electing to have a king/commander in chief supported their government entirely with freewill offerings. They had gathered in small groups tens and linked those groups through a network of tens, hundreds and thousands. Jesus commanded that his disciples do the same thing. The primary purpose was to create a daily ministration based on charity rather than the forced contributions of Rome and Herod.

Quotes

“Society will develop a new kind of servitude which covers the surface of society with a network of complicated rules, through which the most original minds and the most energetic characters cannot penetrate. It does not tyrannise but it compresses, enervates, extinguishes, and stupefies a people, till each nation is reduced to nothing better than a flock of timid and industrious animals, of which the government is the shepherd.” ― Alexis de Tocqueville

Herod had set up such a system if compelled sacrifices of the people with the support of the Pharisees which is referenced in the Bible as Corban. It was a system of taxation to fund the welfare system of Judea.

Originally welfare in free societies were based on a systems of charity. That system of votive offerings was originally based on faith, hope and charity but under these systems which are rooted in force, fear, and fealty the nation is altered. This can be seen under FDR's New Deal or LBJ's Great Society. Any system of forced offerings makes the people merchandise and often curse children with debt. It is because these systems of socialism are essentially covetous practices that make the people a surety for debt.

The Bible is filled with warnings of these one purse schemes which run to death.

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We have only a few things to do:

Repent which means to think a different way.

Seek to establish a government that run on love and charity instead of fear and force.

Seek righteousness in everything we do where ever we are at or what ever status we are in.

While we do that we should do that together in small intimate groups networked together.

Vows and Prayers

Today the word vow is defined “a solemn promise, pledge, or personal commitment: marriage vows...” But in the KJV of the Bible vow is translated from a word that means prayer. Translating horkos as vow might lead someone to think that Jesus prohibited vows yet the original words of the text may reveal a very different meaning.

These little deceptions through sophistry can go a long way to confuse the whole world. We have shown this a hundred times and more in our writings. Sophistry like this leads many people astray and has kept people from becoming doers of the word.

Some translations use the word vow instead of oath in Matthew 5:33 but this leads to confusion since we see another word for vow which appears in the biblical text in Acts 18:18 where we see that Paul took a vow, Acts 21:23, and in James 5:15 where the word is also translated prayer.

• Acts 18:18 "And Paul after this tarried there yet a good while, and then took his leave of the brethren, and sailed thence into Syria, and with him Priscilla and Aquila; having shorn his head in Cenchrea: for he had a vow <euche>."

• Acts 21:23 "Do therefore this that we say to thee: We have four men which have <euche> a vow on them;"

• James 5:15 "And the prayer <euche> of faith shall save the sick, and the Lord shall raise him up; and if he have committed sins, they shall be forgiven him.

You do not have to become a Greek scholar but you should be willing to peek over the theological fence that other men have constructed in your mind with their different translations and private interpretations. The word we see for vow in these verses is euche or euchomai which means a prayer to God, a vow, what you desire or intend to do. It is the word from which you get eucharistos or Eucharist.

Other words like proseuche translated prayer 36 times or proseuchomai which is the word pray almost 90 times are extensions of this word we see translated vow.

The word euche is clearly not the same as word horkos more often translated oath but some people want to imagine that they can use these words interchangeably. They do the truth and Christ a disservice and if they continue in this they are bearing false witness about what Christ actually said and meant.

We have seen how translators can translate five different words into the same English word and the same Greek word into five or more different English words. If you couple this practice with the truth that each English word can have many different definitions then you should clearly see without some reference to original texts that you are opening the door to confusion and even lies. There should be a consistency in translating and the use of words in translations and especially in formulating your own conversations about Christ's doctrines.

So the word vow can mean several things. Matrimony is established with vows publicly announced before witnesses and God. This is not the same as Marriage vows as established by the authority of the State which fences a husband and wife under the authority of the State.

By not examining the meaning of words and the purpose and spirit of the original authors including their choice of words we are dissembling the Gospel of Christ and equivocate over the meanings of His words by worshiping what we want to believe is true rather than accepting the truth of what Christ actually said. We are leading people astray and are fencing in our thinking by our own personal interpretation and prejudice.

Don't be led astray by bad translations and other tools of sophistry.

A vow, as used with the translation of the Greek word eucho and used in the Bible, is a prayer.

A vow is a statement.

"A vow is not an oath."

"A vow is not an oath."

"A vow is not an oath."

A vow is a statement.

A vow (euche¯) is a willing undertaking of good things.

A vow is not even a promise.

Can a vow be like vote?

A promise is "a declaration that something will or will not be done, given, etc." and it is made to someone or some organization but a vow is an expression of intent to the general public but between you and God. It does not bring you under the authority of others, adjure or establish a jurisdiction under the authority of others.

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