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Falling Stars, Damnable Heresy, and the Spirit of Evolution
Renew America ^ | Sept. 19, 2013 | Linda Kimball

Posted on 09/20/2013 4:29:03 AM PDT by spirited irish

“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 2:22).

“And the fifth angel sounded the trumpet, and I saw a star fall from heaven upon the earth, and there was given to him the key of the bottomless pit." (Rev. 9:1)

In his Concise Commentary Matthew Henry identifies falling stars as tepid, indecisive, weak or apostate clergy who,

"Having ceased to be a minister of Christ, he who is represented by this star becomes the minister of the devil; and lets loose the powers of hell against the churches of Christ."

John identifies antichrists, in this case clergy who serve the devil rather than Christ, sequentially. First, like Bultmann, Teilhard de Chardin, Robert Funk, Paul Tillich, and John Shelby Spong, they specifically deny the living, personal Holy Trinity in favor of Gnostic pagan, immanent or Eastern pantheist conceptions. Though God the Father Almighty in three Persons upholds the souls of men and maintains life and creation, His substance is not within nature (space-time dimension) as pantheism maintains, but outside of it. Sinful men live within nature and are burdened by time and mortality; God is not.

Second, the specific denial of the Father logically negates Jesus the Christ, the Word who was in the beginning (John 1), was with God, and is God from the creation of all things (1 John 1). In a pre-incarnate theophany, Jesus is the Angel who spoke “mouth to mouth” to Moses (Num. 12:6-9; John 9:20) and at sundry times and in many ways “spoke in times past to the fathers by the prophets, last of all…” (Hebrews 1:1) Jesus the Christ is the incarnate Son of God who is the life and light of men, who by His shed blood on the Cross died for the remission of all sins and bestowed the privilege of adoption on all who put their faith in Him.

Therefore, to deny the Holy Father is to logically deny the deity of Jesus Christ, the incarnate Son of God, hence,

“…every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is not of God: and this is that spirit of antichrist . . . and even now already is it in the world” (1 John 4:3).

According to Peter (2 Peter 2:1), falling stars will work among the faithful, teaching damnable heresies that deny the Lord, cause the fall of men into unbelief, and bring destruction upon themselves:

“The natural parents of modern unbelief turn out to have been the guardians of belief.” Many thinking people came at last “to realize that it was religion, not science or social change that gave birth to unbelief. Having made God more and more like man---intellectually, morally, emotionally---the shapers of religion made it feasible to abandon God, to believe simply in man.” (James Turner of the University of Michigan in “American Babylon,” Richard John Neuhaus, p. 95)

Falling Stars and Damnable Heresy

Almost thirty years ago, two well-respected social science scholars, William Sims Bainbridge and Rodney Stark found themselves alarmed by what they saw as a rising tide of irrationalism, superstition and occultism---channeling cults, spirit familiars, necromancers, Wiccans, Satanists, Luciferians, goddess worshippers, 'gay' shamans, Hermetic magicians and other occult madness at every level of society, particularly within the most influential--- Hollywood, academia and the highest corridors of political power.

Like many scientists, they were equally concerned by Christian opposition to naturalistic evolution. As is common in the science community, they assumed the cause of these social pathologies was somehow due to fundamentalism, their term for authentic Christian theism as opposed to liberalized Christianity. Yet to their credit, the research they undertook to discover the cause was conducted both scientifically and with great integrity. What they found was so startling it caused them to re-evaluate their attitude toward authentic Christian theism. Their findings led them to say:

"It would be a mistake to conclude that fundamentalists oppose all science (when in reality they but oppose) a single theory (that) directly contradicts the bible. But it would be an equally great mistake to conclude that religious liberals and the irreligious possess superior minds of great rationality, to see them as modern personalities who have no need of the supernatural or any propensity to believe unscientific superstitions. On the contrary...they are much more likely to accept the new superstitions. It is the fundamentalists who appear most virtuous according to scientific standards when we examine the cults and pseudo-sciences proliferating in our society today." ("Superstitions, Old and New," The Skeptical Inquirer, Vol. IV, No. 4; summer, 1980)

In more detail they observed that authentic ‘born again’ Christians are far less likely to accept cults and pseudoscientific beliefs while the irreligious and liberalized Christians (i.e., progressive Catholics, Protestant emergent, NAR, word faith, prosperity gospel) are open to unscientific notions. In fact, these two groups are most disposed toward occultism.

As Bainbridge and Stark admitted, evolution directly contradicts the Bible, beginning with the Genesis account of creation ex nihilo. This means that evolution is the antithesis of the Genesis account. For this reason, discerning Christians refuse to submit to the evolutionary thinking that has swept Western and American society. Nor do they accept the evolutionary theism brought into the whole body of the Church by weak, tepid, indecisive, or apostate clergy.

Over eighty years ago, Rev. C. Leopold Clarke wrote that priests who embrace evolution (evolutionary theists) are apostates from the ‘Truth as it is in Jesus.’ (1 John2:2) Rev. Clarke, a lecturer at a London Bible college, discerned that evolution is the antithesis to the Revelation of God in the Deity of Jesus Christ, thus it is the greatest and most active agent of moral and spiritual disintegration:

“It is a battering-ram of unbelief---a sapping and mining operation that intends to blow Religion sky-high. The one thing which the human mind demands in its conception of God, is that, being Almighty, He works sovereignly and miraculously---and this is the thing with which Evolution dispenses….Already a tremendous effect, on a wide scale has been produced by the impact of this teaching---an effect which can only be likened to the…collapse of foundations…” (Evolution and the Break-Up of Christendom, Philip Bell, creation.com, Nov. 27, 2012)

The faith of the Christian Church and of the average Christian has had, and still has, its foundation as much in the literal and historic meaning of Genesis, the book of beginnings revealed ‘mouth to mouth’ by the Angel to Moses, as in that of the person and deity of Jesus Christ. But how horrible a travesty of the sacred office of the Christian Ministry to see church leaders more eager to be abreast of the times, than earnestly contending for the Faith once delivered unto the saints (Jude 1:3). It is high time, said Rev. Clarke, that the Church,

“…. separated herself from the humiliating entanglement attending her desire to be thought up to date…What, after all, have custodians of Divine Revelation to do making terms with speculative Biology, which has….no message of comfort or help to the soul?” (ibid)

The primary tactic employed by priests eager to accommodate themselves and the Church to modern science and evolutionary thinking is predictable. It is the argument that evolution is entirely compatible with the Bible when we see Genesis, especially the first three chapters, in a non-literal, non-historical context. This is the argument embraced and advanced by mega-church pastor Timothy J. Keller.

With a position paper Keller published with the theistic evolutionary organization Bio Logos he joined the ranks of falling stars (Catholic and Protestant priests) stretching back to the Renaissance. Their slippery-slide into apostasy began when they gave into the temptation to embrace a non-literal, non-historical view of Genesis. (A response to Timothy Keller’s ‘Creation, Evolution and Christian Laypeople,” Lita Cosner, Sept. 9, 2010, creation.com)

This is not a heresy unique to modern times. The early Church Fathers dealt with this damnable heresy as well, counting it among the heretical tendencies of the Origenists. Fourth-century Fathers such as John Chrysostom, Basil the Great and Ephraim the Syrian, all of whom wrote commentaries on Genesis, specifically warned against treating Genesis as an unhistorical myth or allegory. John Chrysostom strongly warned against paying heed to these heretics,

“…let us stop up our hearing against them, and let us believe the Divine Scripture, and following what is written in it, let us strive to preserve in our souls sound dogmas.” (Genesis, Creation, and Early Man, Fr. Seraphim Rose, p. 31)

As St. Cyril of Alexandria wrote, higher theological, spiritual meaning is founded upon humble, simple faith in the literal and historic meaning of Genesis and one cannot apprehend rightly the Scriptures without believing in the historical reality of the events and people they describe. (ibid, Seraphim Rose, p. 40)

In the integral worldview teachings of the Fathers, neither the literal nor historical meaning of the Revelations of the pre-incarnate Jesus, the Angel who spoke to Moses, can be regarded as expendable. There are at least four critically important reasons why. First, to reduce the Revelation of God to allegory and myth is to contradict and usurp the authority of God, ultimately deny the deity of Jesus Christ; twist, distort, add to and subtract from the entire Bible and finally, to imperil the salvation of believers.

Scenarios commonly proposed by modern Origenists posit a cleverly disguised pantheist/immanent nature deity subject to the space-time dimension and forces of evolution. But as noted previously, it is sinful man who carries the burden of time, not God. This is a crucial point, for when evolutionary theists add millions and billions of zeros (time) to God they have transferred their own limitations onto Him. They have ‘limited’ God and made Him over in their own image. This is not only idolatrous but satanic.

Additionally, evolution inverts creation. In place of God’s good creation from which men fell there is an evolutionary escalator starting at the bottom with matter, then progressing upward toward life, then up and through the life and death of millions of evolved creatures that preceded humans by millions of years until at long last an apish humanoid emerges into which a deity that is always in a state of becoming (evolving) places a soul.

Evolution amputates the entire historical precedent from the Gospel and makes Jesus Christ unnecessary as the atheist Frank Zindler enthusiastically points out:

“The most devastating thing that biology did to Christianity was the discovery of biological evolution. Now that we know that Adam and Eve never were real people the central myth of Christianity is destroyed. If there never was an Adam and Eve, there never was an original sin. If there never was an original sin there is no need of salvation. If there is no need of salvation there is no need of a saviour. And I submit that puts Jesus…into the ranks of the unemployed. I think evolution absolutely is the death knell of Christianity.” (“Atheism vs. Christianity,” 1996, Lita Cosner, creation.com, June 13, 2013)

None of this was lost on Darwin’s bulldog, Thomas Henry Huxley (1825-1985). Huxley was thoroughly familiar with the Bible, thus he understood that if Genesis is not the authoritative Word of God, is not historical and literal despite its’ symbolic and poetic elements, then the entirety of Scripture becomes a collection of fairytales resulting in tragic downward spiraling consequences as the Catholic Kolbe Center for the Study of Creation makes clear in part:

“By denying the historical truth of the first chapters of Genesis, theistic evolutionism has fostered a preoccupation with natural causes almost to the exclusion of supernatural ones. By denying the several supernatural creative acts of God in Genesis, and by downplaying the importance of the supernatural activity of Satan, theistic evolutionists slip into a naturalistic mentality which seeks to explain everything in terms of natural causes. Once this mentality takes hold, it is easy for men to regard the concept of spiritual warfare as a holdover from the days of primitive superstition. Diabolical activity is reduced to material or psychological causes. The devil and his demons come to be seen as irrelevant. Soon ‘hell’ joins the devil and his demons in the category of antiquated concepts. And the theistic evolutionist easily makes the fatal mistake of thinking that he has nothing more to fear from the devil and his angels. According to Fr. Gabriele Amorth, the chief exorcist of Rome, there is a tremendous increase in diabolical activity and influence in the formerly Christian world. And yet most of the bishops of Europe no longer believe in the existence of evil spirits….To the Fathers of the Church who believed in the truth of Genesis, this would be incredible. But in view of the almost universal acceptance of theistic evolution, it is hardly surprising.” (The Difference it makes: The Importance of the Traditional Doctrine of Creation, Hugh Owen, kolbecenter.org)

Huxley had ‘zero’ respect for modern Origenists and received enormous pleasure from heaping piles of hot coals and burning contempt upon them, thereby exposing their shallow-reasoning, hypocrisy, timidity, fear of non-acceptance, and unfaithfulness. With sarcasm dripping from his words he quipped,

“I am fairly at a loss to comprehend how any one, for a moment, can doubt that Christian theology must stand or fall with the historical trustworthiness of the Jewish Scriptures. The very conception of the Messiah, or Christ, is inextricably interwoven with Jewish history; the identification of Jesus of Nazareth with that Messiah rests upon the interpretation of passages of the Hebrew Scriptures which have no evidential value unless they possess the historical character assigned to them. If the covenant with Abraham was not made; if circumcision and sacrifices were not ordained by Jahveh; if the “ten words” were not written by God’s hand on the stone tables; if Abraham is more or less a mythical hero, such as Theseus; the story of the Deluge a fiction; that of the Fall a legend; and that of the creation the dream of a seer; if all these definite and detailed narratives of apparently real events have no more value as history than have the stories of the regal period of Rome—what is to be said about the Messianic doctrine, which is so much less clearly enunciated? And what about the authority of the writers of the books of the New Testament, who, on this theory, have not merely accepted flimsy fictions for solid truths, but have built the very foundations of Christian dogma upon legendary quicksands?” (Darwin’s Bulldog---Thomas Huxley, Russell Grigg, creation.com, Oct. 14, 2008)

Pouring more contempt on them he asked,

“When Jesus spoke, as of a matter of fact, that "the Flood came and destroyed them all," did he believe that the Deluge really took place, or not? It seems to me that, as the narrative mentions Noah’s wife, and his sons’ wives, there is good scriptural warranty for the statement that the antediluvians married and were given in marriage; and I should have thought that their eating and drinking might be assumed by the firmest believer in the literal truth of the story. Moreover, I venture to ask what sort of value, as an illustration of God’s methods of dealing with sin, has an account of an event that never happened? If no Flood swept the careless people away, how is the warning of more worth than the cry of “Wolf” when there is no wolf? If Jonah’s three days’ residence in the whale is not an “admitted reality,” how could it “warrant belief” in the “coming resurrection?” … Suppose that a Conservative orator warns his hearers to beware of great political and social changes, lest they end, as in France, in the domination of a Robespierre; what becomes, not only of his argument, but of his veracity, if he, personally, does not believe that Robespierre existed and did the deeds attributed to him?” (ibid)

Concerning Matthew 19:5:

“If divine authority is not here claimed for the twenty-fourth verse of the second chapter of Genesis, what is the value of language? And again, I ask, if one may play fast and loose with the story of the Fall as a “type” or “allegory,” what becomes of the foundation of Pauline theology?” (ibid)

And concerning Cor. 15:21-22:

“If Adam may be held to be no more real a personage than Prometheus, and if the story of the Fall is merely an instructive “type,” comparable to the profound Promethean mythus, what value has Paul’s dialectic?” (ibid)

After much thought, C.S. Lewis concluded that evolution is the central, most radical lie at the center of a vast network of lies within which modern Westerners are entangled while Rev. Clarke identifies the central lie as the Gospel of another Spirit. The fiendish aim of this Spirit is to help men lose God, not find Him, and by contradicting the Divine Redeemer, compromising Priests are serving this Spirit and its’ diabolical purposes. To contradict the Divine Redeemer is the very essence of unfaithfulness, and that it should be done while reverence is professed,

“…. is an illustration of the intellectual and moral topsy-turvydom of Modernism…’He whom God hath sent speaketh the Words of God,’ claimed Christ of Himself (John 3:34), and no assumption of error can hold water in the face of that declaration, without blasphemy.” Evolutionary theists are serving the devil, therefore “no considerations of Christian charity, of tolerance, of policy, can exonerate Christian leaders or Churches who fail to condemn and to sever themselves from compromising, cowardly, shilly-shallying priests”---the falling stars who “challenge the Divine Authority of Jesus Christ.” (ibid)

The rebuttals, warnings and counsels of the Fathers against listening to Origenists (and their modern evolutionary counterparts) indicates that the spirit of antichrist operating through modern rationalistic criticism of the Revelation of God is not a heresy unique to our times but was inveighed against by early Church Fathers.

From the scholarly writings of the Eastern Orthodox priest, Fr. Seraphim Rose, to the incisive analysis, rebuttals and warnings of the Catholic Kolbe Center, creation.com, Creation Research Institute, Rev. Clarke, and many other stalwart defenders of the faith once delivered, all are a clear, compelling call to the whole body of the Church to hold fast to the traditional doctrine of creation as it was handed down from the Apostles, for as God spoke and Jesus is the Living Word incarnate, it is incumbent upon the faithful to submit their wills to the Divine Will and Authority of God rather than to the damnable heresy proffered by falling stars eager to embrace naturalistic science and the devil's antithesis--- evolution. But if it seem evil to you to serve the Lord,

“…you have your choice: choose this day that which pleases you, whom you would rather serve….but as for me and my house we will serve the Lord.” Joshua 24:15


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Extended News; Philosophy
KEYWORDS: apologetics; be; crevo; evolution; forum; historicity; historicityofchrist; historicityofjesus; inman; magic; naturalism; pantheism; religion; scientism; should
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To: BroJoeK

That thread won’t be poisoned by your heresy like this one has been.

And you won’t even log onto the open thread for historicity, so you’re the one who has been exposed as the irrational one.

Best of luck with your continued heretical trolling /s


2,181 posted on 12/23/2013 5:46:57 PM PST by Kevmo ("A person's a person, no matter how small" ~Horton Hears a Who)
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To: tacticalogic

The previous thread I opened had an atheist very similar to your background start posting unhistorical garbage from atheistic websites. That ain’t conservative, that ain’t pro-God, it ain’t a discussion of historicity, it is simply troll vigilante censorship. T4BTT


2,182 posted on 12/23/2013 5:49:15 PM PST by Kevmo ("A person's a person, no matter how small" ~Horton Hears a Who)
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To: Kevmo

Are you sure he wasn’t just a normal guy that wouldn’t take crap from sanctimonious twits?


2,183 posted on 12/23/2013 5:56:12 PM PST by tacticalogic
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To: tacticalogic

He was an atheist posting on the religion forum. It is obvious that he was trying to pollute the thread, just as this thread has been. T4BTT


2,184 posted on 12/23/2013 6:04:06 PM PST by Kevmo ("A person's a person, no matter how small" ~Horton Hears a Who)
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To: tacticalogic

Ha! Too much of a shock to his world view for him to even begin to comprehend, but still damn funny!!!


2,185 posted on 12/23/2013 6:04:23 PM PST by Hegewisch Dupa
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To: Hegewisch Dupa

I agree. The atheist on that thread had a shock to his world view, so he proceeded to pollute it. T4BTT


2,186 posted on 12/23/2013 6:11:06 PM PST by Kevmo ("A person's a person, no matter how small" ~Horton Hears a Who)
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To: Kevmo

Was it Winston Smith?


2,187 posted on 12/23/2013 6:28:28 PM PST by tacticalogic
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To: tacticalogic; Kevmo; spirited irish; BroJoeK
Christian sectarian difference over doctrine should not be matter of politics or public policy.

Of course, it should not. Nor should the sectarian differences of any other religion. Liberalism, Atheism, or Islamism, for example. But, is that the opinion of the society in which we live? Is your disapproval reserved exclusively for Christians (and, perhaps, some Jews)? Do you greet with equanimity the expression of any idea opposing or supporting any doctrine of any ideology other than that of Christians? I have no indication that you do not.

Our Friend BroJoeK has quoted the First Amendment (“Congress shall make no law”) in his attack on Kevmo and spirited for their comments regarding heresy. Do you wish to join him in his attack?

I wasn’t aware that Kevmo and spirited were “Congress.” Like the rest of us, Kevmo and spirited have no force behind their comments save opinion.

But, is it your opinion that some opinions are simply intolerable? Does that include the opinion of Phil Robertson? They are, after all, Bible grounded (according to Phil) BTW, what are Phil’s opinions exactly? Can you name them, and remain truthful? Are Phil’s opinions more outside the boundary of Society than (let us say) that of NAMBLA? The GLBT community?

Likewise, the opinions of Kevmo and spirited. Are their opinions more outside the boundary of Society than NAMBLA? The GLBT?

2,188 posted on 12/23/2013 7:37:42 PM PST by YHAOS
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To: YHAOS
From Joseph Story's Commentaries on the Constitution re: Article VI:

§ 1841. The remaining part of the clause declares, that "no religious test shall ever be required, as a qualification to any office or public trust, under the United States." This clause is not introduced merely for the purpose of satisfying the scruples of many respectable persons, who feel an invincible repugnance to any religious test, or affirmation. It had a higher object; to cut off for ever every pretence of any alliance between church and state in the national government. The framers of the constitution were fully sensible of the dangers from this source, marked out in the history of other ages and countries; and not wholly unknown to our own. They knew, that bigotry was unceasingly vigilant in its stratagems, to secure to itself an exclusive ascendancy over the human mind; and that intolerance was ever ready to arm itself with all the terrors of the civil power to exterminate those, who doubted its dogmas, or resisted its infallibility. The Catholic and the Protestant had alternately waged the most ferocious and unrelenting warfare on each other; and Protestantism itself, at the very moment, that it was proclaiming the right of private judgment, prescribed boundaries to that right, beyond which if any one dared to pass, he must seal his rashness with the blood of martyrdom. The history of the parent country, too, could not fail to instruct them in the uses, and the abuses of religious tests. They there found the pains and penalties of non-conformity written in no equivocal language, and enforced with a stern and vindictive jealousy. One hardly knows, how to repress the sentiments of strong indignation, in reading the cool vindication of the laws of England on this subject, (now, happily, for the most part abolished by recent enactments,) by Mr. Justice Blackstone, a man, in many respects distinguished for habitual moderation, and a deep sense of justice. "The second species," says he "of non-conformists, are those, who offend through a mistaken or perverse zeal. Such were esteemed by our laws, enacted since the time of the reformation, to be papists, and protestant dissenters; both of which were supposed to be equally schismatics in not communicating with the national church; with this difference, that the papists divided from it upon material, though erroneous, reasons; but many of the dissenters, upon matters of indifference, or, in other words, upon no reason at all. Yet certainly our ancestors were mistaken in their plans of compulsion and intolerance. The sin of schism, as such, is by no means the object of temporal coercion and punishment. If, through weakness of intellect, through misdirected piety, through perverseness and acerbity of temper, or, (which is often the case,) through a prospect of secular advantage in herding with a party, men quarrel with the ecclesiastical establishment, the civil magistrate has nothing to do with it; unless their tenets and practice are such, as threaten ruin or disturbance to the state. He is bound, indeed, to protect the established church; and, if this can be better effected, by admitting none but its genuine members to offices of trust and emolument, he is certainly at liberty so to do; the disposal of offices being matter of favour and discretion. But, this point being once secured, all persecution for diversity of opinions, however ridiculous or absurd they may be, is contrary to every principle of sound policy and civil freedom. The names and subordination of the clergy, the posture of devotion, the materials and colour of the minister's garment, the joining in a known, or an unknown form of prayer, and other matters of the same kind, must be left to the option of every man's private judgment."

2,189 posted on 12/23/2013 7:51:10 PM PST by tacticalogic
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To: BroJoeK; betty boop; marron; Alamo-Girl; hosepipe; spirited irish; MHGinTN; Kevmo; tacticalogic
You've already, several posts ago, condemned, stoned, burned & crucified me for it, and now I'm just "spiraling"?

We all weep and mourn over your burned, broken body.

2,190 posted on 12/23/2013 7:54:58 PM PST by YHAOS
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To: YHAOS

But did he “pull his head out of his rear orifice before the huge spiritual price to be paid?”


2,191 posted on 12/23/2013 8:00:22 PM PST by Kevmo ("A person's a person, no matter how small" ~Horton Hears a Who)
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To: Kevmo; BroJoeK
I have no clear indication of where BroJoe has his head, other than a certainty that it is not a place where I would care to be.
2,192 posted on 12/23/2013 8:12:00 PM PST by YHAOS
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To: YHAOS

Yeah, roger that.


2,193 posted on 12/23/2013 8:30:43 PM PST by Kevmo ("A person's a person, no matter how small" ~Horton Hears a Who)
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To: tacticalogic

sanctimonious

From Dictionary.com... Sanctimony

pretended, affected, or hypocritical religious devotion, righteousness, etc.

Now, that’s pretty much the opposite of what you trolls have been complaining about me on this thread. You’ve been whining about someone getting butt hurt because I keyed up on their heresy and didn’t write in soft, flowery tones. Make up your troll mind what it is that you find so objectionable.


2,194 posted on 12/23/2013 9:43:37 PM PST by Kevmo ("A person's a person, no matter how small" ~Horton Hears a Who)
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To: betty boop; Kevmo; spirited irish; tacticalogic; Alamo-Girl; YHAOS
betty boop: "He was an existential threat to their own power and authority, which was increasingly dubious under the Roman occupation in the first place.

"In the end, they persuaded Pontius Pilate to accept a "mutually-beneficial" political accommodation, wherein the rabble would be coached to free the thief Barrabas instead of Jesus.
Thus both the Sanhedrin and Rome could "save face." "

Agreed, FRiend boop, but that's not the question here.
The assertion on the table, from Kevmo, is that Jesus claimed to be God Himself, and that's why the Sanhedrin had him murdered.
But in fact, in all four gospels, Jesus made no such claim:

  1. Matthew 14:63-65: But Jesus remained silent.
    The high priest said to him,
    “I charge you under oath by the living God: Tell us if you are the Messiah, the Son of God.”

    64 You have said so,” Jesus replied. “But I say to all of you: From now on you will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of the Mighty One and coming on the clouds of heaven.”[e]

  2. Mark 14:61-65 Again the high priest asked him, Are you the Messiah, the Son of the Blessed One?”

    62 I am,” said Jesus. “And you will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of the Mighty One and coming on the clouds of heaven.”

    63 The high priest tore his clothes. “Why do we need any more witnesses?” he asked.
    64 “You have heard the blasphemy."

  3. Luke 22:67-71: "If you are the Messiah,” they said, “tell us.”

    Jesus answered, "If I tell you, you will not believe me, 68 and if I asked you, you would not answer.
    69 But from now on, the Son of Man will be seated at the right hand of the mighty God.".

    70 They all asked, “Are you then the Son of God?”

    He replied, "You say that I am.”

    71 Then they said, “Why do we need any more testimony? We have heard it from his own lips.”
    65 Then the high priest tore his clothes and said, “He has spoken blasphemy!"

  4. John 18:22-24: When Jesus said this, one of the officials nearby slapped him in the face. “Is this the way you answer the high priest?” he demanded.

    23 "If I said something wrong,” Jesus replied, "testify as to what is wrong.
    But if I spoke the truth, why did you strike me?”

    24 Then Annas sent him bound to Caiaphas the high priest.

So, in four Gospels, only Mark has Jesus telling the Sanhedrin he is the Messiah -- not that Jesus is God Himself.
In all the others Jesus answers are vague enough so the Sanhedrin could interpret them however they wished.
The Sanhedrin obviously wished to find blasphemy, and so it didn't matter what Jesus actually said.

Kevmo insists that Jesus remarks in Matthew, Mark and Luke (but not John!) about the "Son of Man sitting on the right hand of the Mighty One", are code words which meant: Jesus is God.

Kevmo's "proof" is that the Sanhedrin heard these words as "blasphemy" and only a claim of being God Himself would qualify for their death sentence.

I say that the title "the Son of Man" certainly does not refer to God Himself, and does not suggest that Jesus = God.
Furthermore, from the context it's obvious that regardless of what Jesus actually said, or didn't say, as we see clearly in the Gospel of John: it didn't matter.
The Sanhedrin was "out to get him", and would have convicted him regardless.

Finally, let's look at the reason why Kevmo claims that "Son of Man sitting on the right hand of the Mighty One" means: Jesus = God.

This passage in Daniel says nothing -- zero, zip, nada -- about Jesus being equal to God.
It does, however, make a political claim that Jesus will rule over "all nations and peoples", a political claim which certainly justified the Sanhedrin's sending Jesus to their political authority: Pontius Pilate.

Do you disagree?

2,195 posted on 12/24/2013 1:32:15 AM PST by BroJoeK (a little historical perspective....)
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To: Kevmo; betty boop
Kevmo: "How dare you say such things, Betty Boop.
Your sanity will now be questioned on this forum. /s"

But Kevmo, FRiend, I have never doubted or questioned Ms boop's sanity, nor your insanity.
Unlike you, Ms boop has never insanely yammered "heretic" at me.

2,196 posted on 12/24/2013 1:37:43 AM PST by BroJoeK (a little historical perspective....)
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To: Kevmo; betty boop; spirited irish; tacticalogic
Kevmo quoting John 20:28 "Thomas answered and said to Him, “My Lord and my God!”

As we have reviewed already, titles "Lord" and "God" are also used in the Old Testament as terms of the very highest respect, for a king -- Psalm 45:6, Psalm 82:6.

Jesus himself notes this in John 10:34.

All claims that the Gospel writer John wants us to believe Jesus is God are countered by definitively accepting John 20:31 as fully expressing John's purpose and intention on this question.

2,197 posted on 12/24/2013 1:57:22 AM PST by BroJoeK (a little historical perspective....)
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To: Kevmo
Kevmo: "***If you had clicked on the thread I provided, you’d see that I was interested in historicity from start to finish."

Sorry FRiend, but your repeated claims to "historicity" are nothing more than thinly veiled bullying for your orthodox religious beliefs.
That fact is proved by your subsequent unbelievably atrocious behavior.

Serious "historicity" begins with studying the works of serious historians (i.e., Crossan), not apologetics & proof-texts for your religious orthodoxy.

2,198 posted on 12/24/2013 2:03:24 AM PST by BroJoeK (a little historical perspective....)
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To: Kevmo
Kevmo: "***It’s all there, all first century evidence."

What's there does not prove Jesus = God.
Of course, you are free to believe whatever you wish, but the text itself does not require that.

2,199 posted on 12/24/2013 2:06:09 AM PST by BroJoeK (a little historical perspective....)
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To: Kevmo
Kevmo: "*** I already did, heretic.
You’re just too lazy to read posts directed to you, and then you want other freepers to play fetch, like the troll you are."

In fact, you've provided no quotes -- zero, zip nada -- to support any of your ludicrous accusations against yours truly, BroJoeK.

That proves your accusations are 100% false, and Kevmo is 100% lunatic.

2,200 posted on 12/24/2013 2:08:52 AM PST by BroJoeK (a little historical perspective....)
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