Posted on 12/23/2004 5:48:43 AM PST by KidGlock
Substantive??? If you consider "Festivus" substantive, you absolutely need to get a freakin' life!
It's a holiday about nothing from a show about nothing.
Priorities are so important...
I say nicely, you say tht without a grasp of the thread of discussion I was responding to. Yes, what I was referring to was substantive. No, it wasn't Festivus.
Dan
So far, nothing I've said has even been touched.
So far, I've refuted your post #89 twice. But who's counting?
Joyeux Noel: I'm off to a party.
Once again, never refuted:
"Later Jewish tradition" became the seedbed for a great deal of mischief. I avoid the whole game of "telephone," whether talking with a Jew or a Roman Catholic, by going back to the source. In the Hebrew OT the Name "Yahweh" is used about 6,823 times, all the consonants spelled out as with every other title or name of God.
Not only is it positively not "reverent" to refuse to spell the word "God," it is rather a violation of the many urgings in the Bible to call on His name, swear by His name, take refuge in His name, and the like. There isn't the echo of the shadow of the hint of an example in the pages of God's Word itself for this practice. No prophet is depicted as saying, "Thus says yod-wink-wink-he" (or, to Anglicise it, "Thus says the L-wink-R-D"). Quite the opposite.
Further, being a manmade rule, it devolces quickly into silliness. I note it is not practices with names with theophoric elements. Otherwise, I'd have to be called "Dani-l," or we'd have to speak of the book of "Isai-h."
Like all "improvements" on the Word of God, it isn't. In fact, refusing to obey God's calling on believers to use His name leads the wrong way, and calls attention only to the pecularity of the writer, not the majesty and holiness of God.
Dan
Dan.... you are just wrong here. Of course the word "Yahweh" is used in the Old Testament and other holy books. Those works that will be handled with care and respect. The custom is to not write the name on lesser works that will only be thrown away as garbage. If you write the name, that page now should be treated with reverence and kept.In a sense it is similar to the way we treat American flags different than other pieces of cloth. Once that cloth is a flag, it shouldn't be thrown in the trash.
Whether you want to follow this custom or not really isn't important, the initial point simply being that it was not put to you as a ~curse~ word, but a term of intended respect that contrasts with other abbreviations of Christ to "X" that you found objectionable. Writing G-d in casual writing and Free Republic flame wars in no way interferes with anyone's exclamations of faith, but rather draws attention to the writer's humble obedience. That it angers you is what is peculiar.
Irrelevant to anything I said the first time, and still irrelevant this time. It would be irrelevant if you tried it a third time, in case you're considering it.
To be a "refutation," it would have to actually engage something I said, and counter it. Not just say something virtually unrelated, then announce victory.
Dan
I take back my apology. You enjoy being sanctimonious. You apparently take absolute pride in it. Not only do you not concede that Jews avoid casual use of the Name out of respect, and not for your alleged self-glorification or blasphemy, but have the gall to lecture them on the correctness of their beliefs.</p>
I pray that you are content and warm with the feeling that such self-righteousness gives you, and bid you good day.
Thanks for the ping. I got a lot done while this conversation was going on.
I asked the question because I thought it was ironic that people insist on fully writing out the name (or title) Christ in Christmas, even though Xmas is commonly recognized to mean the same thing, while others are equally insistent that the name (title) of God never be fully written out. In one case, we must write the name, in the other, we must not, yet both are truly our Lord.
Given the context of the argument, I thought of the Pharasees and their insistence on the rigorous application of rules and laws, while they completely missed the entire concept of love, forgiveness, and honor to the Father.
I hope God and Jesus and the Holy Spirit will take mercy on us and will bless us all despite our shorthand usage or other errors that we may commit, typographical or otherwise.
I believe that to type "Xmas" when you mean "Christmas" is far better than to type "Christmas" when you mean nothing.
Merry Christmas to all.
Yes, it got silly. And it's a crying shame really.
Merry Christmas to all of you and may you have health joy and peace in the new year..
Also already answered, post 114, among others.
Dan
" ...a backyard game of "pitching washers". There's basically a hole in the ground, she said. You try to throw the washers in the hole, and apparently the more you drink the better you get at it. "
In the last round of the game they fill the washers with water to make them heavier and harder to throw.
The first Seinfeld episode I ever watched was the finale. I had to see what all the hype of the past years was all about.
Then I checked out a couple reruns and remained hooked.
"It spoofed so many different meaningless things that people got so worked up about"
Exactly!
"It's okay, my boyfriend's black."
"He's black?"
"I'm black?"
"I'll give you a couple minutes to decide."
And:
"Excuse me, you must know where the Chinese restaurant is around here."
"Why must I know? Oh, Honorable Chinese mailman must know where every Chinese restaurant is!"
Dan,
You celebrate Christmas, then in somebody's eyes you're a heretic. You neglect Christmas, in somebody's eyes you're a heretic. You go to church on Sunday instead of Saturday, in somebody's eyes you're a heretic. You believe in universal salvation, in somebody's eyes you're a heretic. You believe in elective salvation, in somebody's eyes you're a heretic.
All of us who deeply love Christ are all heretics. Relax and join the club.
"Self-righteous" should have been hyphenated.
I'm a non-practicing Protestant who hasn't set foot in church in at least twenty (maybe more) years. I have fond memories from my youth and remain friends with two of the kids with whom I attended Sunday school classes.
I've chosen a road that I walk with my family and friends, with NO need for organized religion. Meeting people with an attitude like that of BibChr make the prospect of ever returning to church totally unappealing.
Merry Christmas, Happy Festivus, and Happy New Year!
~ Blue Jays ~
Festivus is more real than Kwanzaa.
Anyone who celebrates Kwanzaa is Kwazee.
Thanks for doing everything in your power to kill a fun thread.
All true.
Except you're too tense about being relaxed. You must be a heretic!
JK!
I don't really know what you mean, specifically, though. Give in to my culture? I don't think that's what FR is about. It isn't for me, anyway. Shrug off slander and illogic? Well, sometimes I do, sometimes I don't. So maybe you'll have to see me as a tension-heretic.
Dan
(c;
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