Posted on 03/12/2011 2:58:25 PM PST by betty boop
Well, I was just trying to be "polite" — to a visitor, whose recent attendance here is mysterious to me, on both "how" and "why" grounds....
It's difficult to draw any further impressions, since the person in question has — so far, at least — avoided any further communication.
Notwithstanding, I do hope that said person will continue to engage on these topics, hoping to learn the next thing about what, exactly, his or her point actually is....
I gather that holding my breath for the duration is not a good strategy....
As yet, said “new” member has not only failed to respond to any comments directed at her on this thread, but has also not posted any other comments on any other threads.
It appears that DM signed up to merely do apologetics for Islam.
I would agree that holding your breath would not be advisable.
While the presence of Muslims on these threads may contribute to a more target rich environment you run the risk of losing effectiveness by not concentrating your fire on your more traditional Catholic and Mormon enemies.
“You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be children of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous." Matthew 5:43-45
Peace be with you.
In short . . . Man’s conceit that nothing in the Universe lies beyond his comprehension,
Man’s conceit that nothing lies beyond his reach . . . it is but a question of time,
Man’s conceit that the Universe is in his control.
In a word . . . “All things are permissible” as you have characterized it.
The meek will he guide in judgment: and the meek will he teach his way.
. . . Psalm 25:9
Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and he shall lift you up.
. . . James 4:10
It is said that the meek shall inherit the Earth. Many a wisenheimer is fond of saying that he wishes to be around when the meek inherit the earth . . . just to see how long the meek can keep it. The wisenheimer doesn’t understand . . . he puts himself before the Lord . . . he thinks he owns the world. The meek put themselves behind the Lord, knowing who it is that commands. It is they who shall inherit the Earth.
Note that the Truth and authority under discussion are transcendent to the world. They are not “one with” the world but outside of and discontinuous with the world because the supernatural Triune God Who is all Truth and Authority is Himself outside of and discontinuous with the world.
The True Faith (supernatural Christian theism)is two-dimensional rather than one-dimensional, as are all pagan and neo-pagan (i.e., Gurjieff’s Eastern oriented occult pantheism) systems including neo-Gnostic Hegelianism, Karl Marx’s dialectical materialism and today’s occult pantheist New Age.
We tend to think of Progressive Liberals and others of that ilk as revolutionary radicals. In reality they are regressives seeking a return to one-dimensional neo-pagan systems. It is two-dimensional Christian theism that is both radical and revolutionary.
The revolutionary impact of Christian teaching about the supernatural realm and the natural realm, the Incarnation, Resurrection and Gospel of salvation was nothing less than a scandal to pagan thinkers. It was inconceivable to them that both a supernatural and a natural realm exist. Furthermore, it was utterly repugnant to them that God should assume materiality, for matter was evil. This thought was as abhorrent to them as the idea of creation ex nihilo, which if true meant that matter was of God’s creation and did not preexist creation as a separate and evil principle.
In “Against the Christians” (frag. 77) Porphyry, disciple of Plotinus and Arnobius, writes:
“How can one admit that the divine should become an embryo, that after his birth he is put in swaddling clothes, that he is soiled with blood and bile, and worse things yet?” (The Pagan Temptation, Thomas Molnar, p. 27)
In “Adversus nationes” (2.37) Arnobius complains:
“If souls were of the Lord’s race…They would never come to these terrestrial places (and) inhabit opaque bodies and (be) mixed with humors and blood, in receptacles of excrement, in vases of urine.” (ibid)
Pagan thinkers held that souls are not God created, for how could an impersonal, nonthinking all-permeating substance create anything, let alone souls? Things mechanically emmanate, emerge, or evolve from the One Substance of which souls are mere particles that have fallen into evil matter.
The closest pagan thinkers came to Incarnation was with a purely negative connotation in the teachings of Pythagoras and Empedocles. They taught that souls fallen from the divine Substance are subsequently incarnated in animal forms as punishment.
From Plato to Plotinus, it was held as axiomatic that the fall of souls into the material realm was either inexplicable or explained as punishment. At any rate it was a plunge from being as one with or an aspect of the Divine Substance into the multiple, or binary. (The Pagan Temptation, Thomas Molnar)
In other words, there is no distinction between the Divine Substance and the creature as all things are aspects of (in contiunity with) the Divine Substance. Human beings have a share of the Divine substance. The fall then is into evil matter. The body being matter it is perceived as an evil tomb, a receptacle of excrement, from which spirit must escape that it can become one with, or be reabsorbed into, the Divine Substance. Salvation is reabsorption into the collective, to use a contemporary term for the one substance.
Purification and/or perfection of the soul (re-birth) was attained through rites of initiation into secret doctrines and by purgation. Since the Divine Substance is neither male nor female the truest symbol of perfection was the hermaphrodite (androgyne). Thus homosexuality had an important part in the purification process. And so Xenophon declared:
“I must now speak of pederasty, for it affects education.” (The One and the Many, Rousas John Rushdoony, p. 73)
Passages from Revolutionary Christianity: A Scandal to Ancient and Modern Pagans http://patriotsandliberty.com/?p=17202
True enough spirited. They also are frightened little children, who must harness the efforts and the wealth of everyone else for their security, just so they might feel safe
YHAOS: “who must harness the efforts and the wealth of everyone else for their security, just so they might feel safe”
Spirited: Rather than ‘safe’ St. Augustine would say their evil wills seek ‘self-satisfaction’ at the expense of others:
“Our first parents fell into open disobedience because already they were secretly corrupted; for the evil act had never been done had not an evil will preceded it. And what is the origin of our evil will but pride? For “pride is the beginning of sin.” Sirach 10:13 And what is pride but the craving for undue exaltation? And this is undue exaltation, when the soul abandons Him to whom it ought to cleave as its end, and becomes a kind of end to itself. This happens when it becomes its own satisfaction. And it does so when it falls away from that unchangeable good which ought to satisfy it more than itself. This falling away is spontaneous; for if the will had remained steadfast in the love of that higher and changeless good….” St. Augustine, The City of God, Book XIV
And so what is the harnessing of “the efforts and the wealth of everyone else for their security” (covetousness and theft) but consent of the will to the unlawful taking and possession of what belongs to someone else? And when consent of the will takes the form of denying the truth to others what is this but the lie?
Gossip, slander and back-biting are consent of the will to envy (one of the most cold-blooded sins of all) and crucifixion of others for possessing that which the envious one lacks.
What are speech codes, hate crime laws, ‘gay’ marriage, pornography and blasphemy as civil rights, and ‘choice’ but evil wills offended by life, transcendent Truth, Moral Law and order of being?
And finally, what is prayer and Ten Commandments removed from schools and the constant promotion of ‘new’ spirituality but consent of the will to hatred of God the Father?
bookmark
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.