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@Dic…….There you go again getting caught up in all that noise going on in ya head! Just remind yourself that you are trying to CONvince me of your story and look at your posting…a ‘true’ advocate for christianity!
Hold onto your tri-cestry, you’re gonna need it!
Hopi:
FYI, I am not trying to “convince” you of anything.
I am calling you to your duty to the truth, and in that context, to proper warrant for claims you promulgate in public fora, such as this one.
On pain of the stricter judgement that those who essay to teach face.
And, in light of strong evidence that you have been teaching error, as laid out in details above.
(As to the latest turnabout accusations on con-games — I know full well your intended barbed witticism — all I will say is that con men do not call people to the serious task of comparative difficulties. A path that you are plainly baulking at. Perhaps you need to look yourself in the eye in the mirror.)
G’day
D
PS: Onlookers, observe how the mocking objectors are utterly missing in action on comparative difficulties analysis. that should tell you a lot.
@ John
Re
Could “the collapse in disorder” of the Old Kingdom in 22BC have anything to do with a flood?
Interestingly the gap between the flood and the pharaoh you speak of is about 1000 years and Moses and the Exodus occurred in this gap of 1000 years.
You got your man cornered and tied up i his own lies and morass.
You have sent the man with his moronic mouthings like a mendicant to Mangroove! Murdah!
@Dic: “PS: Onlookers, observe how the mocking objectors are utterly missing in action on comparative difficulties analysis. that should tell you a lot.
May I please suggest an alternative reason?
Perhaps some (perhaps most?) are not into autogratification.
Further, perhaps some are uncomfortable watching, knowing about and/or participating in same.
Just putting that out there for consideration….
@Dict………….You have not yet proven me wrong neither have you proven that your Jesus Christ was an original. All you’ve done is confirm what was ANTE-Christ. And it all leads back to HERU!
And for anything which neither you nor any of your sources cannot or refuse to find evidence for, does not exist. Laughable!
Did you know that Chess and Yoga were given to us by the Black Ancients?
The hard, factual, historic EVIDENCE for the BLATANT, DOWNRIGHT, out-and-out Crass, pagan *IDOLATRY* worship of DEMONIC *false* deities, that existed in ancient Egyptian *mythology* just THAT, ALL *MYTH* absolutely NO SUBSTANCE whatsoever IN any REAL, living person, other than the stupid Pharoah’s who called themselves *gods* could ONLY come FROM Satanically instigated LIES, from the Pit-of-Hell, just were he finally took them all!!!
NOT ONE of you SCOFFERS, can even begin to approach the basic LEVEL of sound analysis, across comparative difficulties re Worldviews; this SPEAKS volumes regarding the real level of you intellectual understanding of such matters; FOR without such cogent, well warranted principles of analysis, NO proper, objective, coherent conclusion can be made.
Reason IS necessary, FOR revelation, (i.e., facts, evidence) to be coherent.
You all, obviously DON’T have a CLUE what this means!
The structure of justification (warrant) IS coherence, it IS our sole criteria for truth.
It is very sad, that not ONE single objector, has even attempted to come clean, honest, objective, in light of all that has been submitted.
Any unlearned person, could easily render the sort of Redherrings, Strawmen, and personal attacks that have been so readily seen on BU.
No DEPTH, NO soundness of argument, in short, empty, voidless, ignorance!
The atoning work is done,
The Victim’s blood is shed;
And Jesus now is gone
His people’s cause to plead:
He stands in Heaven their great High Priest,
And bears their names upon His breast.
He sprinkles with His blood
The mercy-seat above;
For justice had withstood
The purposes of love:
But justice now objects no more,
And mercy yields her boundless store.
No temple made with hands
His place of service is;
In Heaven itself He stands,
A heavenly priesthood His:
In Him the shadows of the law
Are all fulfilled, and now withdraw.
And though awhile He be
Hid from the eyes of men,
His people look to see
Their great High Priest again:
In brightest glory He will come,
And take His waiting people home.
Onlookers:
Observe, again, this time from CH: a mocking (and slanderously loaded) dismissal of the serious level approach to worldviews choice, but no addressing of the issues.
G’day
D
Onlookers:
Hopi is proposing a novel assertion on Egyptian pagan roots for Christ and Christianity.
Such, to be credible, would require pretty serious documentation on causal chain and clusters of worldview elements and concepts. For instance, as we have put up above several times, on a parallel case:
“It is all too easy to run eagerly after superficial parallels which cannot really be sustained under a closer scrutiny. Accordingly, [i] the parallels must have similar ideas underlying them [i.e. there must be a worldview level comonality] and, [ii] second, any suggestion of influence requires that the parallels be numerous, complex and detailed, with a similar conceptual usage and, ideally, that [iii] they should point to a specific myth or group of related myths in Mesopotamia. Finally, [iv] the parallels and their similar underlying ideas must involve central features in the material to be compared. Only then, it would seem, may any claim stronger than one of mere coincidence be worthy of serious consideration” ]Greek Myths and Mesopotamia: Parallels and Influence in the Homeric Hymns and Hesiod. Charles Penglase. Routledge:1994, 7. Bracketed numbers, comments and emphases added]
a –> By utter contrast, she has repeatedly failed to provide the required documentation on sources and evidence, and has often resorted to idiosyncratic (and sometimes slanderous and/or just plain nasty) manipulation of words and symbols. That, in a context where we can see as excerpted above just how unsubstantiated the whole category of claims she makes is, and just how shoddy and utterly outdated the known root sources are. [Cf esp here and here.]
b –> She has not cogently addressed how a pagan source trend reflective of Rom 1:18 – 32 of an intuitive pull to recognise the Creator from his strong manifestations in nature fighting a losing battle with the resentful ingratitude that substitutes pagan images and ideas of nature for the Creator gets to be the roots of e.g. Abraham’s and Melchizedek’s common faith in the Most High Creator God c. 1800 – 2,000 BC, before Israel’s sojourn in Egypt and 500 years before Akhenaten.
c –> She has simply repeatedly ignored the remarkable prophecy in the OT scriptures [esp Is 53] that are fulfilled historically in Christ’s death, burial and resurrection with 500+ witnesses.
d –> But, this is the central warranting argument of the gospel and by itself serves to validate the truth of who Jesus is, whatever creative “parallels” to pagan ideas may be imagined and claimed.
e –> It also authenticates both the OT and the NT, as the Word of Him who rose from death with 500+ witnesses, proving Himself Lord of Life, Lord of Death, of heaven, and earth and holder of the keys of death and hell. It is before this risen Lord we will all account for our words, innermost thoughts and deeds.
f –> A may be seen yesterday, I took time to show samplers on just how well authenticated the OT scriptures are, in general and in the particular case of the exchange between Abraham and Melchizedek just after the former defeated the raiding kings of the East.
g –> In that well authenticated context that could not have been faked by a much later writer without the most blatant anachronisms — and indeed originally it was thought so by no less a figure than W F Albright, until his 1929 digs which substantiated the raiders’ route of campaign (a route that would make no sense in any period after Abraham’s era) — we read the following exchange in what we have every reason to see is a well authenticated and trustworthy source document, down to incidental details:
Gen 14:17 After Abram43 returned from defeating Kedorlaomer and the kings who were with him, the king of Sodom went out to meet Abram44 in the Valley of Shaveh (known as the King’s Valley).45 14:18 Melchizedek king of Salem46 brought out bread and wine. (Now he was the priest of the Most High God.)47 14:19 He blessed Abram, saying,
“Blessed be Abram by48 the Most High God, Creator49 of heaven and earth.50
14:20 Worthy of praise is51 the Most High God, who delivered52 your enemies into your hand.”
Abram gave Melchizedek53 a tenth of everything.
h –> Now, as we can see from the nature of causes in WCT’s 3, 4, & 5 , whether necessary or sufficient, they must be present earlier than or at least at the time of their effects.
i –> But in this case, Hopi’s claimed effect, Hebraic monotheism, is present BEFORE her claimed cause, Egyptian paganism is in a position to influence during he sojourn in Egypt. indeed, Abraham’s whole significance is that God called him out to serve him, from Haran. (And again the archaeology supports the Biblical timeline.)
j –> Moreover, we see signs that the understanding of the Most High Creator God has never been wholly lost to humanity, as Melchizedek shows, and as does Job.
k –> Indeed, the ethnographic evidence as Don Richardson so ably documents in Eternity in their Hearts, is that around the world, peoples retained a knowledge of the Most High god, but found themselves alienated form Him and thus dealt with earth and sky bound spirits instead.
l –> Soon, with kings and heroes being seen as indwelt or even sired by such spirits, we easily see the myths of gods and demigods emerging. thence, with priestcraft to institutionalise this, we see paganism emerging as the result of apostasy and alienation from the known God; precisely as Romans 1 explains.
m –> And, all too soon,men refuse to even remember God in what they deem knowledge, creatign a tension between the evidence of the world without and the mind and conscience within and the isntitutionalised stories of the roots of our world. [Nowadays, under the institutionalised secularist evolutionary materialist agenda, the same is happening again, but the idols/images “made to look like men, birds, beasts and reptiles etc” are now in museums and textbooks.]
n –> So we see a much better explanation of all the material facts, and surprise — NOT! — it is the biblical one, supported by various streams of research over the past 200 years and especially in recent decades.
___________
In short, Hopi is simply clinging desperately to a failed paradigm, the Afrocentrist, black racialist glorification of an Egypt of the imagination. And, in the teeth of much cogent evidence.
Sad.
But, through prayer, there is hope.
G’day
D
PS: As a simple further case, the evidence suggests that chess was an originally Indian game, which spread E to China and W to Europe. Start from Wiki’s article on the history of Chess.
PPS: Genesis preserves an interesting little remark on the credible process of creating myths of gods and demigod heroes through rebellion against the true God in the ante-diluvian world:
6:1 When humankind1 began to multiply on the face of the earth, and daughters were born2 to them,3 6:2 the sons of God4 saw that the daughters of humankind were beautiful. Thus they took wives for themselves from any they chose. 6:3 So the Lord said, “My spirit will not remain in5 humankind indefinitely,6 since7 they8 are mortal.9 They10 will remain for 120 more years.”11
6:4 The Nephilim12 were on the earth in those days (and also after this)13 when the sons of God were having sexual relations with14 the daughters of humankind, who gave birth to their children.15 They were the mighty heroes16 of old, the famous men.17
6:5 But the Lord saw18 that the wickedness of humankind had become great on the earth. Every inclination19 of the thoughts20 of their minds21 was only evil22 all the time.23 6:6 The Lord regretted24 that he had made humankind on the earth, and he was highly offended.25 6:7 So the Lord said, “I will wipe humankind, whom I have created, from the face of the earth – everything from humankind to animals,26 including creatures that move on the ground and birds of the air, for I regret that I have made them.”
6:8 But27 Noah found favor28 in the sight of29 the Lord.
And, again, in the original city of Babel settled after the great flood:
11:1 The whole earth1 had a common language and a common vocabulary.2 11:2 When the people3 moved eastward,4 they found a plain in Shinar5 and settled there. 11:3 Then they said to one another,6 “Come, let’s make bricks and bake them thoroughly.”7 (They had brick instead of stone and tar8 [NB: how Iraq is a source of oil . . . which often seeps tot he surface in tar pits as, famously, in Trinidad] instead of mortar.)9 11:4 Then they said, “Come, let’s build ourselves a city and a tower with its top in the heavens10 [evidently a Ziggurat, or astrological observatory, i.e. here we see the substitution of divination through the false lore of sky-bound spirits for the true God . . . leading to the placing of the gods in the heavens . . . ] so that11 we may make a name for ourselves. Otherwise12 we will be scattered13 across the face of the entire earth.”
11:5 But the Lord came down to see the city and the tower that the people14 had started15 building. 11:6 And the Lord said, “If as one people all sharing a common language16 they have begun to do this, then17 nothing they plan to do will be beyond them.18 11:7 Come, let’s go down and confuse19 their language so they won’t be able to understand each other.”20
11:8 So the Lord scattered them from there across the face of the entire earth [which then sets up precisely the pattern of localisation of animisim (which still has in it a memory of the Most High God) and its further deterioration into full paganism (which has forgotten the true God and serves gods and idols made to look like men, birds, beasts, reptiles etc) that Don Richardson documents . . . ] , and they stopped building21 the city. 11:9 That is why its name was called22 Babel23 – because there the Lord confused the language of the entire world, and from there the Lord scattered them across the face of the entire earth.
A Footnote:
Augustine in City of God against the Pagans, Bk VII Ch 35, on the hydromancy — divination magic [note, again the fell role of magic, forbidden in the Law and accursed in the New Testament!] — through which King Numa Pompliilus {successor tot he twins] was said to have introduced the rituals for worship of Roman gods:
______________
>>Chapter 35.—Concerning the Hydromancy Through Which Numa Was Befooled by Certain Images of Demons Seen in the Water.
For Numa himself also, to whom no prophet of God, no holy angel was sent, was driven to have recourse to hydromancy, that he might see the images of the gods in the water (or, rather, appearances whereby the demons made sport of him), and might learn from them what he ought to ordain and observe in the sacred rites. This kind of divination, says Varro, was introduced from the Persians, and was used by Numa himself, and at an after time by the philosopher Pythagoras. In this divination, he says, they also inquire at the inhabitants of the nether world, and make use of blood; and this the Greeks call νεκρομαντείαν [nekromanteian]. But whether it be called necromancy or hydromancy it is the same thing, for in either case the dead are supposed to foretell future things. But by what artifices these things are done, let themselves consider; for I am unwilling to say that these artifices were wont to be prohibited by the laws, and to be very severely punished even in the Gentile states, before the advent of our Saviour. I am unwilling, I say, to affirm this, for perhaps even such things were then allowed. However, it was by these arts that Pompilius learned those sacred rites which he gave forth as facts, whilst he concealed their causes; for even he himself was afraid of that which he had learned. The senate also caused the books in which those causes were recorded to be burned. What is it, then, to me, that Varro attempts to adduce all sorts of fanciful physical interpretations, which if these books had contained, they would certainly not have been burned? For otherwise the conscript fathers would also have burned those books which Varro published and dedicated to the high priest Cæsar.294294 Comp. Lactantius, Instit. i. 6. Now Numa is said to have married the nymph Egeria, because (as Varro explains it in the forementioned book) he carried forth295 Egesserit. water wherewith to perform his hydromancy. Thus facts are wont to be converted into fables through false colorings. It was by that hydromancy, then, that that over-curious Roman king learned both the sacred rites which were to be written in the books of the priests, and also the causes of those rites,—which latter, however, he was unwilling that any one besides himself should know. Wherefore he made these causes, as it were, to die along with himself, taking care to have them written by themselves, and removed from the knowledge of men by being buried in the earth. Wherefore the things which are written in those books were either abominations of demons, so foul and noxious as to render that whole civil theology execrable even in the eyes of such men as those senators, who had accepted so many shameful things in the sacred rites themselves, or they were nothing else than the accounts of dead men, whom, through the lapse of ages, almost all the Gentile nations had come to believe to be immortal gods; whilst those same demons were delighted even with such rites, having presented themselves to receive worship under pretence of being those very dead men whom they had caused to be thought immortal gods by certain fallacious miracles, performed in order to establish that belief. But, by the hidden providence of the true God, these demons were permitted to confess these things to their friend Numa, having been gained by those arts through which necromancy could be performed, and yet were not constrained to admonish him rather at his death to burn than to bury the books in which they were written. But, in order that these books might be unknown, the demons could not resist the plough 143 by which they were thrown up, or the pen of Varro, through which the things which were done in reference to this matter have come down even to our knowledge. For they are not able to effect anything which they are not allowed; but they are permitted to influence those whom God, in His deep and just judgment, according to their deserts, gives over either to be simply afflicted by them, or to be also subdued and deceived. But how pernicious these writings were judged to be, or how alien from the worship of the true Divinity, may be understood from the fact that the senate preferred to burn what Pompilius had hid, rather than to fear what he feared, so that he could not dare to do that. Wherefore let him who does not desire to live a pious life even now, seek eternal life by means of such rites. But let him who does not wish to have fellowship with malign demons have no fear for the noxious superstition wherewith they are worshipped, but let him recognize the true religion by which they are unmasked and vanquished. >>
__________________
I of course do not cite this as a proof in itself, but to illustrate the pattern that was already highlighted.
Notice, Augustine is here addressing at fat book length a challenge by the remaining pagans, that it is the abandonment of the gods that has brought plagues, disasters and wars etc on Rome; so, he is unlikely to be advancing claims or authorities that were not generally accepted by said pagans.
And so, we see the precise pattern of divination and consorting with spirits that lays the base for pagan polytheism.
Something to think on . . .
D
PS: And to think I ever thought ploughing through City of God was a toilsome task! (I have found ever so many key insights therein that cut across so many of the stridently advanced claims on many topics, whether theological [e.g. disputes on spiritual gifts] or philosophical, or even political and historical etc.)
David
A comment (a citation from Augustine City of God, Bk VII Ch 35 — oops on the link to 34 in the mod piled . . . ) is in the mod pile. Pardon my sins against Akismet. D
My further comment is also in mod, David, maybe Akismet does not like links to CCEL.
Thanks, David.
@Dictionary……….I can see that your history of the BLACK MAN clearly dates back to wiki, so we’ve just entered the threshold of boredom and folly so I have to leave you right there. No need to discredit yourself any further!
Hopi:
Distractive and ad hominem, not substantial, again.
FYI, I am stating very clearly that you need to surmount the Wiki threshold, as that is now the baseline that “anybody” can access. If you cannot show why and on what evidence you have a better answer, you are not good enough to be heard in public. Dismissive remarks will simply underscore that you indeed have nothing of substance to say, especially when they are laced with inappropriate personalities. As you habitually seem to be doing.]
G’day
D
Spiritual Warfare!
From the very beginning in the Garden of Eden, (Genesis 3) when Satan subtly deceived Eve, by *twisting* and perverting the Word of God, there has been a relentless battle for the ‘souls’ of mankind.
The kingdom of Satan, personified *Evil* a diabolical hatred against Almighty God, and His Word, and all Righteousness, has being waging on throughtout the ages, right down to this very era, this very generation, the very End-Times we are living in; unfolding on the World Stage, exactly as the Lord said it would, converging on a number of fronts, unparalled in intensity.
Here on BU, we have a classic example of this kind of *Warfare* where the same kind of tactics are being used, as Satan did in Eden, and he has never stopped. Distortion, maliging, utter perversion of the Word of God, the Bible, in a desperate attempt to confuse those quiet onlookers, who are not sure what to believe.
God’s Wrath on Unrighteouness.
It is a fearfull thing to fool around with Almighty God’s Word, and His absolute Righteousness.
“For the wrath of God IS revealed from heaven *AGAINST* ALL ungodliness and *unrighteousness* of men, who SUPPRESS the *truth* in UNRIGHTEOUSNESS, because what may be KNOWN of God IS manifest in them, for God has SHOWN it to them.”
“For SINCE the *creation* of the world His invisible attributes ARE CLEARLY seen, being UNDERSTOOD by the things that are MADE, even His *Eternal* power and Godhead, so they are WITHOUT EXCUSE.”
“Because, although they knew God, they (Pagans et al) did NOT glorify Him as God, nor were thankful, but became *futile* in their thoughts, and their FOOLISH hearts were darkened.”
“Professing to be wise (Pagans et al) they became fools, and changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an *IMAGE* made like corruptible man – *BIRDS* and *FOUR-FOOTED ANIMALS* (Egypt et al) and creeping things.”
“Therefore, God also gave (released) them up to uncleanness, in the lusts of their hearts, to dishonour their bodies among themselves, who EXCHANGED the *truth* of God for the *LIE* and worshipped and served the *Creature* (Egypt et all) rather than, the *Creator* who IS blessed forever. Amen.” (Romans 1: 18- 25) emphasis added.
You cannot have the RIGHTEOUSNESS of Almighty God, without corresponding *wrath* whenever His absolute Holiness, and Righteousness is trampled on and grossly rejected in abominable Paganistic Idolatry.
It is the absolute temper of Almighty God towars SIN, not rage, but the warth of *reason* and law (Shedd). The revelation of God’s righteousness in the Gospel, was NECESSARY, because of the failure of men to attain it without IT, for God’s warth JUSTLY rested UPON all men, both Gentile (1: 18-32) and Jews (2: 1-3:20).
“Unrighteousness” (akikain) Lack ( a privative and ‘dike’) of right conduct toward men, injustice ( Rom. 9:14; Luke 18: 6). This follows naturally from irreverence. The bais of ethical conduct RESTS on the nature of Almighty God, and our attitude toward Him, otherwise the law of the jungle (cf. Nietzsche, ‘might makes right’).
“Hold down the truth” ( ten aletheian katechonton). Truth (aletheia, alethes, from a privative and ‘letho’ or ‘lanthano’, to conceal) is OUT in the open, but *wicked* men, so to speak, put IT in a box and sit on the lid, and “HOLD IT DOWN IN UNRIGHTEOUSNESS.” Their EVIL deeds *conceal* the open TRUTH of God from men. Cf. II Thess. 2: 6f. for this use of ‘ketecho’, to HINDER.
‘Because’ (dioti). Gives the reason (dia, hoti, like our ‘for that’) for the revelation of God’s warth. ‘That which may be known of God (to gnoston tou theou). Verbal adjective from ‘genosko’, either ‘the known’ as elsewhere in the New Testament Greek, that IS ‘the knowledge’ (he gnosis) of God. ‘Manifest in them (phaneron en autois). In their HEARTS and CONSCIENCES. ‘God manifested’ ( ho theos ephanerosen). First aorist active indicative of ‘phaneroo.’ Not mere toutology. See 2:14-16).
“The invisible things of Him’ (ta aorata autou). Another verbal adjective ( a privative and ‘horao’ TO SEE), old word either unseen or invisible as here and elsewhere in NT. (Col. 1:15f., etc.).
The attributes of Almighty God’s NATURE defined here as ‘His EVERLASTING POWER and divinity” ( he te aidios autou dunamis kai theiotes).
Therefore, NO people, however ancient, WAS/IS without excuse, in not knowing through Almighty God’s natural revelation in NATURE, that He IS NOT revealed in IMAGES of birds, four-footed beast, etc, etc, and as IS revealed througout the history of nations, whenever a civililization resorts to this crass Idolatry, they will FEEL His Holy Righteous Wrath, none excepted, BOTH Gentile and Jew, have being, and will continue to be subject to His Divine Wrath.
As He IS no respector of persons!
Onlookers:
First, let us remember the plight of our sister Caribbean nation Haiti, today, as its capital seems to have been extensively damaged and/or destroyed by the Richter scale Magnitude 7 quake that hit at 4:53 pm yesterday, local time.
Now, too, let us look back on the foal topic fro this thread, and in summing up some findings. For, as we look back on the above, we can see ever so plainly the force of what Our Lord had to say in Matt 24, as he looked across the intervening valley at Jerusalem from Mt Olivet:
The Destruction of the Temple
24:1 Now1 as Jesus was going out of the temple courts and walking away, his disciples came to show him the temple buildings.2 24:2 And he said to them,3 “Do you see all these things? I tell you the truth,4 not one stone will be left on another.5 All will be torn down!”6
Signs of the End of the Age
24:3 As7 he was sitting on the Mount of Olives, his disciples came to him privately and said, “Tell us, when will these things8 happen? And what will be the sign of your coming and of the end of the age?” 24:4 Jesus answered them,9 “Watch out10 that no one misleads you. 24:5 For many will come in my name, saying, ‘I am the Christ,’11 and they will mislead many. 24:6 You will hear of wars and rumors of wars. Make sure that you are not alarmed, for this must happen, but the end is still to come.12 24:7 For nation will rise up in arms13 against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. And there will be famines14 and earthquakes15 in various places. 24:8 All16 these things are the beginning of birth pains.
Persecution of Disciples
24:9 “Then they will hand you over to be persecuted and will kill you. You will be hated by all the nations17 because of my name.18 24:10 Then many will be led into sin,19 and they will betray one another and hate one another. 24:11 And many false prophets will appear and deceive20 many, 24:12 and because lawlessness will increase so much, the love of many will grow cold. 24:13 But the person who endures to the end will be saved.21 24:14 And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached throughout the whole inhabited earth as a testimony to all the nations,22 and then the end will come . . .
a –> Of course, the temple was destroyed in AD 70, as soldiers of Titus’ legions tore its stones apart to get at its gold that had run in between stones during a fire. (Many prophecy teachers hold that it is to be rebuilt, and there is now evidence that it was located S of where the Muslim building now stands, based on water levels and on the line of site from a Herodian palace.)
b –> Above, we see the rhetorical power and widespread impacts of anti-gospel ideas in our time, and an associated clearly rising tide of hostility against those who adhere to the Faith once for all delivered to the saints.
c –> At the same time, we see how the central warranting argument for the Christian faith has power to overturn such arguments, and to stabilise our faith.
d –> For, we see just how the scoffing objectors were utterly unable to cogently address the historicity of the NT (which they tried to dismiss and displace with far, far less well supported claims; often amounting to myths), especially the record of the life, salvific death and resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth, the Christ of God, as attested by 500+ witnesses, and as fulfilling prophecies such as in 700+ BC Is 53; and the resulting outpoured, life transforming power of the Spirit in millions across the ages.
e –> We also saw how, once the historical credibility of the OT was addressed and in that context, we were able to see how — contrary to confidently asserted (but not properly documented) assertions that in effect the Judaeo-Christian tradition derived from Egyptian polytheistic paganism and its derivatives [cf. also here] — the faith in the Most high God was in fact never wholly lost and in the case of Abraham and Melchizedek as brought out in the archaeologically surprisingly well supported Gen 14, ante-dates the Israelite sojourn in Egypt. (And, in that context, too, we have seen just how powerful is the Warranted Credible Truths approach to grounding confidence in the understanding how the world without and our minds and consciences within jointly and compellingly testify to the reality of the Creator and God who made us.)
f –> So, we have a far better supported account of the roots of the Biblical faith tradition than we can have for what the objectors would substitute.
g –> Similarly, we also have a clearer account of the roots of paganism and also of radical secularism, not only today, but in ancient times.
h –> So, then, our task is to carry forward the gospel with confidence in the power of the Spirit to all nations in our day, even in the face of deception, chaos and hostility.
__________
And so, let us be about our task.
G’day
D
PS: To see the quality of the Wikipedia discussion of the origins of Chess, cf. wiki here, noting the seventy references. Observe how we saw a mocking dismissal above, but no well documented, cogent response, which has become all too habitually the case for mocking objectors. Cf. JPH here on the way to do good library-based research (which approach extends to the Internet).
PPD: Strictly, the scale in use on Haiti is the Moment Magnitude Scale, the “successor” to the Richter scale, and which often gives results that differ by 0.1 – 0.2.
Great British MC’s Team Rasta
Mi God Mi King(*)
(*)=Philip Levi
dem trick wi from di wondaful land a AFRICA
fi slave fi di plantation ownah
dem tek way wi name JAH MAN dem call wi niggah
di only word wi know “i is a coming mastah”
dem tell wi say wi ignorant an inferiah
an how dem intelligent an superiah
true di complexion of dem skin colah
but i as a yute bawn as a supah
mi badda dan di bite from a tarantulah
yuh hear fi mi voice a come tru di speakah
but it soun sweetah wid di echo chambah
say R fi di roots C fi di culchah
say S fi SELASSIE earth rightful rulah
say once as a lamb going to di slawtah
now di conquering lion a di tribe a JUDAH
yuh cann enta ZION wit a bushmastah
a m16 or a rrrevolvah
say tana babylon wid yuh ammunition
cau deh so a di ultamate destruction
Well, Hal Lindsey did a great job of predicting that the rapture would happen in 1980, so I’d rely on his ability to interpret Bible passages and reality. Revelations was written assuming this was all going to happen within a couple of hundred years of the author’s life time. That was a very long time ago.
What is the name of this ‘nativity scene’ painting, and who is the artist responsible?
Thankyou
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