Posted on 12/04/2006 7:52:47 PM PST by Pyro7480
There could be a NEW HELL too.. maybe versions of it.. or degrees of it.. or versions and degrees of it.. A positive vision and revelation would preclude mentioning it though..
Could be GOD is going to do a new thing exclipsing the Garden of Eden <<-as a metaphor or TYPE of the Garden of the Universe.. The future looks BRITE to those waiting and even GROANING for these things to happen..
Thanks.
Puts masterfully in words chunks of my perspective better than I had been able to.
. . . back to the kiln.
Praise God!!!
Indeed.. these concepts were foreign to ALL other languages and cultures.. for they came from and were inspired by God(the real one).. since the Jews (when/after they became Jews).. were dealt with the real God.. Certain Hebrew words were unique to what God was doing with the hebrews.. like Messiah.. Holy.. Shekinah.. Angel.. in the unique hebrew sense..
Joseph Campbell (the study of myth) missed this unique event.. God(the real one) choosing(even constructing) a certain group of people.. on this planet for a particular TASK..
No fair!!!! I thought that was me!!!!!!!
As to the latter characterization at least, let me offer proof. :^)
The Protestant denominations tend to have little use for classical philosophy on the grounds that it isn't "scripturally based." I imagine this has to do with St. Paul, who was so "thoroughly Jewish" that he regarded all classical philosophy as "pagan," and thus not trustworthy (according to Voegelin). It took "young radicals" like Justin Martyr to see that Christianity actually validated the insights of the great pagans, such as Plato and Aristotle; whereby in due course they entered into Christian theology, "by the back door" as it were.
Justin at least saw that this Christian theology that he encountered was a more powerful "philosophy" than any offered by the philosophical schools of his time -- or of any other time, I might add. One could further say (as Voegelin does) that without this connection to the classical past becoming explicit over time, Christianity might not have survived. If it were to depend for its life on its identification as a radical Jewish sect, it probably would not have survived....
Christian life, it seems to me, is the life of both faith and reason. The orthodox confessions of Christianity -- Eastern and Roman -- set great store by the life of reason as set forth in the classical philosophy of ancient Greece. The Eastern Orthodox give pride of place to Plato; the Roman Church after Thomas, to Aristotle (whereby you get Plato, too; for Plato was Aristotle's great teacher and a profound influence on his work. Plus Aristotle was the great teacher of Alexander, whose imperial expansion helped spread Christianity to the four quarters of the then-known world).
It seems to me that the Gospel of John has a strongly Platonist "flavor" to it. Which might have something to do with the fact that certain of my Protestant friends, whose formation is essentially Pauline, find John so puzzling....
I am now going to go hunker down in the bomb shelter.... :^)
Thank you oh so much, my dearest sister in Christ, for your splendid essay/post!
Thus I shall take the risk and completely agree with you!
I am persuaded that God intends man to be a co-creator of creation. When man does not live up to his responsibilities along this line (by living in God's law of Life and Love and Light -- what we are called to do), then all of creation suffers, and must suffer.
Thank you for your magnificent insights, Kolokotronis!
I concur. The more we know, the more we realize we know nothing.
This is one contest I prefer to observe from the sidelines, if you know what I mean...
I'll be in the cheering section. Go, team!
And then Alexander of Macedon -- who was steeped in Greek language and culture -- facilitated the transmission of the faith to all the lands of his conquest. That is, the classical intellectual culture was also a type of preparation for the dissemination and receipt of Christian ideas.
In short, I share your view regarding this Greek line of transmission....
Thank you so much for writing!
What a penetrating insight, dear marron! Thank you ever so much for writing!
Well said! Biblically correct and clear.
Of course, if creation were not involved in a time process (according to God's Will), then we wouldn't need to be discussing such things....
The "time" Good took to create the world is not earthly time. The "days" in Genesis are not our days. They are not changes but creations that didn't exist prior to that.
One more thing: time "exists" only in relationship to man. We record changes and with those changes "tell time." Without us, changes take place but no one records them. Time is simply a record, not a dimension.
Maybe there are many "perfect" Gods?
Jeepers, it's like we've been comparing notes this afternoon, my dearest sister in Christ! LOLOL!!!
I do agree with you, we need to remember that Christianity's heritage is both Hebrew and Greek. Christ then took it all "to the next level."
Must run away for a while to take care of certain chores. But I'll be back soon!
Thank you so much for your beautiful, wise, and graceful essay/posts!
we also dont generally accept the branch theory...
Absent either of these whatever "it" is gets too serious..
And by being too serious also hubris..
A very heavy concept "made in his image" does imply much..
I beleive the greeks had a word for complete but no word for perfect.. If so it would be logical.. since in this paradigm everything known or observed is in a state of flux.. even GOD(Father, Son, Holy Spirit)..
I agree with that.. i.e. seems logical to me..
In the "Spiritual Dimension"(if there is one) TIME could be thingly..
Good point. Probably because I am in time, I don't experience God as eternal. I experience him as motion and purpose. The notion of an unchanging God is not my experience, quite the contrary. Principles are unchanging, but God himself is in motion, at least here in river city.
One more thing: time "exists" only in relationship to man. We record changes and with those changes "tell time." Without us, changes take place but no one records them. Time is simply a record, not a dimension.
I used to think of this as you do.
But, it seems that modern scientific observation says otherwise. Time seems to have an effect upon and to interact with velocity, acceleration, mass and gravity.
If it is a fact that it behaves as described above, it would be a dimension, rather than simply a record.
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