Posted on 01/16/2017 6:57:13 AM PST by pinochet
Western Civilization has always been Christian based. If it became Jewish then Western Civilization would cease to exist.
” I said they knew the exact length of a lunar month. The other ancient cultures came close, but their observation and scientific research fell short...Dr. Jeffrey Satinover has an entire chapter devoted to this issue in his book Cracking the Bible Code.”
Okay, so your claim is that God revealed to Moses that the lunar month is exactly 29.53059 days long? Is there a verse in scripture where that number appears?
And did Satinover ever examine the Umma calendar of Shulgi which predates Moses by a millennium? It apparently doesn’t appear in his book.
>I mentioned the ancient Greek and Roman cultures. But Judaism is also an important culture because Jews have lived in Greece since 300 BC, and made notable contributions to Greco-Roman civilization.
Like what?
>Relaxing the tax burden on married child bearing couples would go a long ways toward reversing this trend.
It wouldn’t make a difference. It’s how liberated women are that controls birth rates. Less liberated and women have many children. Very liberated and they have few children. Which is why Muslims are out breeding us.
Not to nit-pick but the Arabic number system actually came from India. The Arabs adopted it and it then spread to the West.
“But Judaism is also an important culture because Jews have lived in Greece since 300 BC, and made notable contributions to Greco-Roman civilization.”
Judaism is an important culture, but not for what you say. Jews living in Greece made no notable contributions to Greco-Roman civilizations.
Whatever of importance the West got from Judaism came through Christianity. Christianity is what MADE Western Civilization. There are multiple elements but Christianity brought them altogether. Judaism could have ceased to exist 1700 years ago and it would have changed absolutely nothing in regard to shaping the Western World. I mean this as no slight of what Judaism can provide. I just realize that, after the rise of Christianity, Judaism had no effect or affect on anything of any real importance until perhaps the mid-late 19th century or early 20th - oddly coinciding with the beginning of the decline of Western Civilization. Or maybe not so “oddly coinciding” at all.
“He had no hand in the development of Christianity”
Oh, really?
So, you’re unfamiliar with the following:
Matt 16:17-19, Jesus said to him in reply, “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah. For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my heavenly Father. And so I say to you, you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. I will give you the keys to the kingdom of heaven. Whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven. Whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.” Then he strictly ordered his disciples to tell no one that he was the Messiah.
In both the Old and New Testaments the Church is often spoken of under the metaphor of God’s house (Numbers 12:7 ; Jeremiah 12:7 ; Hosea 8:1 ; 9:15 ; 1 Corinthians 3:9-17 , Ephesians 2:20-2 ; 1 Timothy 3:5 ; Hebrews 3:5 ; 1 Peter 2:5 ).
The promise acquires additional solemnity when we remember that both Old Testament prophecy (Isaiah 28:16) and Christ’s own words (Matthew 7:24) had attributed this office of foundation of the Church to Himself. He is therefore assigning to Peter, of course in a secondary degree, a prerogative which is His own, and thereby associating the Apostle with Himself in an altogether singular manner. “And I will give to thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven.” In the following verse (Matthew 16:19) He promises to bestow on Peter the keys of the kingdom of heaven.
John 21:15-19, When they had finished breakfast, Jesus said to Simon Peter, “Simon, son of John, do you love me more than these?” He said to him, “Yes, Lord, you know that I love you.” He said to him, “Feed my lambs.” He then said to him a second time, “Simon, son of John, do you love me?” He said to him, “Yes, Lord, you know that I love you.” He said to him, “Tend my sheep.” He said to him the third time, “Simon, son of John, do you love me?” Peter was distressed that he had said to him a third time, “Do you love me?” and he said to him, “Lord, you know everything; you know that I love you.” Jesus said to him, Feed my sheep. Amen, amen, I say to you, when you were younger, you used to dress yourself and go where you wanted; but when you grow old, you will stretch out your hands, and someone else will dress you and lead you where you do not want to go.” He said this signifying by what kind of death he would glorify God. And when he had said this, he said to him, “Follow me.”
As for the notion Christianity wasn’t developed for centuries you may want to read the Epistles of Paul, and the writings of his contemporary Clement, Ignatius, Polycarp, Hermes, followed by John Chrysostom, Cyril, etc.
That's not going to happen and the reason is simply because male circumcision is compulsory for Jews, and you'll find very few European men who will go along with this.
“Judaism rejected their messiah and savior some two thousand years ago. Since they rejected the messiah and “savior,” the messiah and savior they are trying to get us to look to now for salvation (re: this article) will be what the New Testament calls the “antichrist.””
Yes, many Christians today have been somewhat mislead into thinking of the “antichrist” as being just an end times enemy of Christianity. The Bible clearly states that the true meaning of antichrist is that which rejects Christ.
2 John 1:7 - For many deceivers are entered into the world, who confess not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh. This is a deceiver and an antichrist.
1 John 2:22 - Who is a liar but he that denieth that Jesus is the Christ? He is antichrist, that denieth the Father and the Son.
1 John 4:3 - And every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is not of God: and this is that [spirit] of antichrist, whereof ye have heard that it should come; and even now already is it in the world.
No.
Next question.
Huh? Almost all historians view Western Civilization as beginning with Greece in antiquity. The beginnings of the Scientific Method, several branches of math, classical philosophy, the Western artistic tradition of sculpture, Western architecture, Western medicine, and more.
Then you had the Romans, who built great monuments, spread their empire around the entire Mediterranean. The Roman Civilization was not Christian for almost all of its existence.
Western History and the extent of our civilization also includes the Viking period, which changed the nature of Europe dramatically. So Western Civilization predates Christianity by at least 1000 years.
Christianity was still a tiny cult when Jesus died. It really only becomes central to Western Civilization with the Emperor Constantine. In 313 he signed the Edict of Milan that allowed Christians to practice their faith without fear in the Roman empire. So what ever was achieved till then in "the West" was certainly not based on Christianity, prior to the edict it was a underground and outlaw religion.
It took many years and lots of war and killing by Christian armies to complete the conquest of Europe and destroy the last vestiges of European paganism.
One could claim that these peoples were "not civilized" before the Christian killers came to inflict Christian civilization on them, but I'm pretty sure they would have disagreed.
The so-called "Northern Crusades" began in 1193, under the leadership of Pope Celestine III. The subjects of the forced religious conversion included (from Wikipedia):
The official starting point for the Northern Crusades was Pope Celestine III's call in 1193; but the Christian kingdoms of Scandinavia, Poland and the Holy Roman Empire had begun moving to subjugate their pagan neighbors even earlier.So, to sum up: Christianity was not the foundation of Western Civilization but a later arrival, an alien faith the grew up within Western civilizaiton, eventually becoming symbiotic with it's host, while continuing to expand itself by force of arms (much as Islam did in the same period) as well as it's primary means, the creation of powerful and self-replicating memes.The non-Christian people who were objects of the campaigns at various dates included:
- the Polabian Wends, Sorbs, and Obotrites between the Elbe and Oder rivers (by the Saxons, Danes, and Poles, beginning with the Wendish Crusade in 1147)
- the peoples of (present-day) Finland in 1154 (Southwest Finland; disputed), 1249? (Tavastia) and 1293 (Karelia)
- Livonians, Latgallians, Selonians, and Estonians (by the Germans and Danes, 1193–1227),
- Semigallians and Curonians (1219–1290),
- Old Prussians,
- Lithuanians and Samogitians (by the Germans, unsuccessfully, 1236–1316).
From 800 BC and classical antiquity until 30 AD there was no Christianity in the world. But there was Western Civilization. From 30 AD to 330 AD Christianity was a growing religious cult, but not central to the organization or growth of the Roman Empire or other Western societies. For the next 1000 years, from 330 to 1300 AD Christianity spread to eventually encompass all of Europe, a colonization that included both religious and military operations to establish the unity of Europe under the Cross. Many long established parts of Western Civilization were lost to the competing monntheistic-militaristic venture in this era, Islam. Most notably the capital of the Eastern Roman Empire, the city built by the first Christian emperor of Rome, Constantinople, fell to Islam in 1453.
The period when Christianity when from a cult to the major religion of all of Europe was the Middle Ages, from 5th through 15th century. It's called the Middle Ages now, though when I was a child the term "Dark Ages" was still used in history books. Either way, Christianity was not the harbinger of some greater more civilized Europe, it's rise was coincident with the fall of Rome and the loss of civilization, a period that took almost 1000 years to recover from.
Read Shakespeare’s “The Merchant of Venice”. A muslim could openly woo a Christian woman, whereas a Jew would likely have been executed for doing the same.
As for why Jews would settle in Europe, it was largely a question of “Where else?”
Following WWII, any Jew who remained in Europe was/is crazy. But there are plenty of nutty Jews here in the US as well, who’ve sold their birthright for secularism, or at the least, are completely un-Orthodox.
Right — all good points. The English had a huge advantage over the other European powers because they were a small island nation in the harsh environment of the North Atlantic. This meant that had the motivation to trade extensively, and the superior seafaring skills to make it work.
The development of Western Civilization since that time is inextricably tied to the growth of Christianity — which is exactly what the destruction of the Temple was all about.
I just did a bit of research and learned that the word algorithm is derived from the name of Al-Khwarizmi, a Persian mathematician who developed the branch of mathematics known as algebra.
Constantine's role was much bigger than that. For one thing, the Edict of Milan covered most or all religions -- not just Christianity. But Christianity flourished largely because Constantine himself adopted it as his own faith, and he ordered the Christian leadership to seat the Council of Nicaea to develop a unified doctrine regarding the Divinity of Christ.
I agree. My main point was that Western Civilization predates Christianity by a long, long time. And that even after Christianity came to Rome there were parts of Europe that were not Christian for almost 1,000 years. Some had quite developed civilizations, and a huge impact on European History.
I still think Constantine's greatest achievement is the founding on Constantinople (now Istanbul).
As for why Jews would settle in Europe, it was largely a question of “Where else?”
North Africa, Turkish Empire and Central Asia. Areas that always had Jewish populations.
Kazimierz the Great, that's why.
“It really only becomes central to Western Civilization with the Emperor Constantine.”
Pls see my post #67.
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