Why are you judging me by the standard of sola scriptura? Are you sure you're Orthodox?
Yet Jews know that chickens are committed.
Eew! Did I type "committed" instead of "permitted?" My bad!
Well, judging from the above, you have pretty much used up that "knowing" card. But I am sure there is a convoluted reason or maybe it's just a game you are playing and there is no reason. If the reason is religious, it's an assumption.
The answer is that Jews know that they may eat chicken because their parents ate chicken, and their parents ate chicken, and their parents ate chicken, and THEIR parents ate chicken, and so on, "all the way back." There has never been a generation that did not eat chicken. Thus the eating of chicken could not have been erroneously introduced at any time.
As for me "pretending" to be Eastern Orthodox, I was baptized Eastern Orthodox as an infant and raised in the Orthodox faith. So, where is the pretense? If I have my doubts does that nullify my baptism? And how would you know anyway? And, yes, Orthodox Christianity is not only real but the purest Christianity of all. It's a historical issue, not a value judgment. Eastern Orthodoxy remains liturgically unchanged more than other branches of Christianity.
Why does this mean anything? If it's a fraud, it's a fraud. The "purest form" of a fraud is still a fraud. I'm sure islam and b*ddhism have their "most unchanged" versions as well. Big whoop.
No I don't know if Jesus ever existed. That doesn't mean one cannot believe he did. How do you know Moses existed? How do you know Exodus happened when there is no trace of it? And how could over a million people (if one can trust biblical figures) roam around a patch of land the size of West Virginia for 40 years—"lost" when the whole place can be covered on foot in five days' time? And how can such multitude leave nothing behind, not even their garbage? I am sure there is some numerological, mystical, kabbalistic explanation for that as well that I would just love to hear along with your chicken story, but don't expect me to readily believe it.
Where on earth did you ever get the idea that the Israelites "wandered around lost for 40 years?" That you would think this does not speak well of your attention to the Biblical text.
The chronology of the Torah from the Book of Exodus through Deuteronomy is as follows:
1)The year prior to the Exodus
2)The first year after the Exodus
3)Thirty-eight years camped at Qadesh-Barne`a after the sin of the spies (during which time they performed the sacrificial service in the Tabernacle and studied Torah systematically as elucidated in great detail by Maimonides)
4)the Final year.
So much for "wandering around lost for forty years." And was their garbage supposed to fossilize?
My pay is the same, no matter what you call me. I guess I should be flattered that you spend so much time finding labels that would fit your idea of me, and memorizing my posts. Sounds a little obsessive to me that I am that important in your life? I am sorry, I don't care about you nearly as much.
You know something? This is not an easy world for "rednecks." The liberals hate them (while praising every other primitive superstitious ethnic group to the skies for not "giving in" to "Western" modernity) and war against them as the one and only thing blocking the way to Utopia. If only those awful people weren't around! Then atheist liberals and Australian aborigines and snake-handling COGIC churches in the Mississippi Delta and homosexuals and moslems could all join hands and make this world a paradise. And with Barry's "civilian police force" on the way, who is to say that one day the "ends justify the means" mentality won't take that ultimate step?
In this crazy, redneck-hating world places like Free Republic are supposed to be a refuge. This is where "the people who cause all the trouble in the world" can gather with their own kind to vent and feel at home. It's a tiny little refuge. And in this refuge they can proclaim their devotion to the Nazarene "messiah" who supposedly loves them so much and "his" Bible, and complain about how the American Civil Liberties Union wants to outlaw chr*stmas.
And then, kosta, the snake crawls into this little garden: "authentic chr*stians" who belong to "ancient, unchanging" churches who pour more scorn on the simple rednecks than the ADL and the ACLU put together. They flaunt their belief in anti-scientific impossibilities like transubstantiation and the "virgin birth" while scolding the rednecks for believing that silly stuff in Genesis which "embarrasses" them so. In fact, if it weren't for "you awful people," they tell them, the entire world would convert. Once again, the redneck is the only thing standing in the way of paradise!
And they are so malicious. Calling them "Cletus," "brain dead Bibliolators," making snide references to "Billy Bob's Glory Barn," etc. Do you know why they do it? Cruelty. Pure, unadulterated cruelty. They get an almost sexual pleasure from coming into the redneck's supposed "safe haven" in the "conservative movement" and attacking him and everything he has ever believed or held dear in the name of "authentic chr*stianity" and telling him how "alienated" he is from this "authentic chr*stianity." "You'll never be a real chr*stian. You aren't Greek/Russian/Irish/Armenian/Filipino/Ukrainian/Mexican/Polish/East Timorese. You are the offspring of a heretical race. You are doomed to be forever inferior, second class chr*stians because through no fault of your own you were born into the wrong ethnic group and grew up with a devotion to Genesis instead of to Mary." My, how that must tickle you and your buddies. It's like pulling the wings off flies, isn't it? And how fun it must be to see their puzzlement and even outrage when you adapt pagan holidays and totem poles and "baptize" them while maintaining that the Book of Genesis is inherently un-chr*stian and can never be so adapted!
But you know, you're an honest person. I give you that. I appreciate it. But what to make of your more "orthodox" Orthodox and Catholic colleagues who know your eccentricities and, aside perhaps from an occasional private admonition, treat you like family, finding not the slightest thing wrong with your admitted outrageousness. You I can in a way understand. They I cannot. You have an excuse . . . you believe what you believe and can't help it (just as we all do). Their refusal to reprove you, their implicit endorsement of your idiosyncrasies (while scolding rednecks for believing the Biblical Adam was a real person) makes them much more culpable, much less honorable, and much lower.
At the risk of this post being deleted (perhaps I should save it), such people, when they come onto conservative forums and give rednecks the ACLU treatment, are the scum of the earth.
Because you said the Jews know they must believe in God because God told them so, and you used a Biblical reference to "prove" it. Trouble is, your reference doesn't prove it. It cites supposedly God introducing himself to Moses.
But when I ask you to provide Biblical proof where God actually says to the Jews they should believe in him you pull the sola scriptura excuse. Make up your mind. You can't use scripture to prove your point and refuse scripture when you can't.
Eew! Did I type "committed" instead of "permitted?" My bad!
Given that "p" is on the opposite end of the keyboard from "c", and so are "e" and "o", and "r" and "m" are diagonally opposite...some typo, like dog ate my homework. Try again.
The answer is that Jews know that they may eat chicken because their parents ate chicken, and their parents ate chicken, and their parents ate chicken, and THEIR parents ate chicken, and so on, "all the way back." There has never been a generation that did not eat chicken. Thus the eating of chicken could not have been erroneously introduced at any time
I thought you'd have a much better rationalization. This is quite disappointing. Interestingly, the Orthodox use the same line of "reasoning" to ascertain tradition, which is, just as in the case of the Jews, obviously fallacious.
The reason it is fallacious in your example is because (a) you don't know that; someone told you and you accepted it blindly because there is no proof.
But, how many people were separated from their parents or lost their lineage, were sold into slavery or adopted? (b) the Jews were not always or consistently observant, nor did they always consistently worship the God of Abraham, so claiming "all thew way back" may sound really neat but it is obviously sophism.
Obviously, eating chicken could have been introduced at any point in those "off" periods for several generations and made into a tradition "all the way back."
Why does this mean anything? If it's a fraud, it's a fraud. The "purest form" of a fraud is still a fraud. I'm sure islam and b*ddhism have their "most unchanged" versions as well. Big whoop.
But you have not proven that it is a fraud, nor have you proven that Judaism is one true faith. So, the finger you use to accuse is accusing you back. I think all religions are somewhat of a fraud in their organized, matter-of-fact approach because they operate on unprovable assumptions and often skillfully say.
Where on earth did you ever get the idea that the Israelites "wandered around lost for 40 years?" That you would think this does not speak well of your attention to the Biblical text
Well, they were on their way to the promised land and didn't get there in over 40 years. It's a heck of a detour no matter what you call it. I think they were lost one way or another.
Thirty-eight years camped at Qadesh-Barne`a after the sin of the spies (during which time they performed the sacrificial service in the Tabernacle and studied Torah systematically as elucidated in great detail by Maimonides)
Studied the Torah for 38 years? What Torah? You mean Moses wrote all five books before they got there? (actually all evidence seems to show that he didn't write a single one of them)
And how does Maimonides know all that? What reference does he use? Or is it yet another tall tale based on assumptions?
So much for "wandering around lost for forty years." And was their garbage supposed to fossilize?
I doubt it would fossilize in 3,000 years, but a huge garbage dump made by over a million people over 38 years would be a formidable "contribution" to historical science and pretty hard to miss archaeologically speaking.
Then there would be pottery, artifacts, graves!, and a slew of other things the Israeli scientists could not find at or near Qadesh-Barne`a (or anywhere else on the Sinai) for the last 40-plus years, so much so that one prominent Israeli archaeologist stated "there never was an Exodus," and he is not alone among Israeli scientists to make such a statement.
But they found plenty of Egyptian artifacts, and garbage dumps of the same period and in the same area. You are more than welcome to consult Israeli sources lest others be accused of "anti-Semitism."
You know something? This is not an easy world for "rednecks.
I believe the topic was "I have no labels" and you saying that you had some for me, even if I didn't care to know them, and I said "My pay is the same no matter what you call me," and you respond with this "article" on rednecks!?!
Okay, I will just let that one slide, because it is completely unrelated to my comment, and quite hateful. It seems to me that you were just looking for an opportunity to let everyone know what you think and we thank you very much for that, although coherent it is not, and certainly has very little to do with the subject matter of proving that God told his people they must believe in him.
Shalom!