When doubting the resurrection got you fined, imprisoned and dead

From Phil Jenkins, here:

'Between about 1690 and 1740, the British Isles were home to several quite brilliant scholars and thinkers who applied critical scholarship to the Bible and Christian tradition generally. I stress “British Isles” because some were Irish or Scottish as well as English. We know them collectively as the Deists. Major figures included John Toland, Thomas Woolston, Thomas Chubb, Anthony Collins, and Matthew Tindal. Their assault on orthodoxy was many sided, but they ranged widely over both the Old and New Testaments. ...

'It was in the early eighteenth century that there came into existence a culture with the critical tools and the relative freedom to examine this question, and the Resurrection soon came under attack.

'In England, this was a central issue in the pamphlet wars known as the Deist Controversy (c.1725-35). Woolston wrote (1727-29) an attempted demolition of the literal Resurrection, together with most of the Miracle stories. The resulting legal reaction led to Woolston dying in prison . . ..'

From the Wikipedia entry, here:

The Discourses, 30,000 copies of which were said to have been sold, were six in number, the first appearing in 1727, the next five 1728-1729, with two Defences in 1729 1730. For these publications he was tried before Chief Justice Raymond in 1729. Found guilty of blasphemy, Woolston was sentenced (28 November) to pay a fine of £25 for each of the first four Discourses, with imprisonment till paid, and also to a year's imprisonment and to give security, for his good behaviour during life. He failed to find this security, and remained in confinement until his death.

Moses and the American founders

From James P. Byrd, here:

[T]he story of Moses and the Exodus was one of the most cited biblical texts in revolutionary America. In 1776, John Adams wrote to his wife, Abigail, about “a Parallel between the Case of Israel and that of America.” John Adams had heard this preached in a sermon, and he thought it was enlightening because it “indicated strongly the Design of Providence that We should be separated from G. Britain.” ...

In 1776, when Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Jefferson discussed what should be on a “Great Seal” for the new nation, they both thought of the Exodus story. As John Adams reported, Franklin wanted the seal to feature the parting of the Red Sea, with Moses raising his staff while Pharaoh and his chariots of soldiers drowned as the waters closed in on them. In contrast, Jefferson wanted another scene from the Exodus, with the Israelites led through the wilderness by a cloud in daytime and a pillar if fire at night.

Some of the founders saw themselves as politically enslaved by the British “pharaoh,” King George III, and his oppressive policies. ... [M]any patriots adopted this story, viewing themselves as the new Israel, and naming George Washington the American Moses. ... 

[Thomas Paine] turned to 1 Samuel 8 to make his case. Paine asserted that God did not want the people to have a king. God warned that kings would oppress them, and so they did, Paine argued. 

Ideas have consequences: The time value of money is being destroyed by the Christian West

The 10-year government bond currently yields less than 1% in the following countries of Europe:

Switzerland: -.18

Germany: +.18

Czech Republic: .23

Netherlands: .26

Denmark: .28

Austria: .31

Finland: .32

France: .38

Belgium: .41

Sweden: .41

Latvia: .54

Lithuania: .59

Ireland: .78

In these nations of Europe and the world, the 10-year government bond currently yields less than 2%:

United States: 1.93

Portugal: 1.65

United Kingdom: 1.54

Canada: 1.44

Norway: 1.34

Italy: 1.22

Spain: 1.15

Slovenia: 1.08

The only others of note are:

Hong Kong (former British colony): 1.50

Israel (!): 1.11

Japan (conquered by America): .33

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Who may worship in your sanctuary, LORD?

Who may enter your presence on your holy hill? ...

Those who lend money without charging interest,

and who cannot be bribed to lie about the innocent.

-- Psalm 15:1, 5

Do good and lend, hoping for nothing again.

-- Luke 6:35

There is no human person named Jesus of Nazareth? Scripture repeatedly says people knew such a person, including the ascended Christ himself!

Subordinationism of one kind or another is inevitable, as illustrated by William Lane Craig

Here, where the full humanity of Jesus is denied because it is subordinate to the one divine person:

[T]here is no human person named “Jesus of Nazareth.” Jesus is a divine person, and medieval theologians were careful never to refer to Jesus as a human person.

 

Oops:

Ye men of Israel, hear these words; Jesus of Nazareth, a man approved of God among you by miracles and wonders and signs, which God did by him in the midst of you, as ye yourselves also know.  

-- Acts 2:22

 

 

 

 

And he said unto them, What things? And they said unto him, Concerning Jesus of Nazareth, which was a prophet mighty in deed and word before God and all the people.

 

-- Luke 24:19

Rachel Held Evans joins the enemies of Christ

Quoted here:

"I felt drawn to the Episcopal church because it offered some practices I felt were missing in my evangelical experience, like space for silence and reflection, a focus on Christ’s presence at the communion table as the climax and center of every worship service, opportunities for women in leadership, and the inclusion of LGBT people."

The formerly pro-slavery denomination has blessed same-sex unions since December 2012.

Atheist John Gray notices that secularism presupposes the sacred, and ends up affirming an atheist form of original sin

Here:

The trouble is that it’s hard to make any sense of the idea of a universal morality without invoking an understanding of what it is to be human that has been borrowed from theism. The belief that the human species is a moral agent struggling to realise its inherent possibilities – the narrative of redemption that sustains secular humanists everywhere – is a hollowed-out version of a theistic myth.  ...

If you set aside any view of humankind that is borrowed from monotheism, you have to deal with human beings as you find them, with their perpetually warring values. ...

[R]eligions have their own distinctive flaws. But the fault is not with religion, any more than science is to blame for the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction or medicine and psychology for the refinement of techniques of torture. The fault is in the intractable human animal.

FDNY hires lesbian chaplain to minister to 0.2% of New York's +10,000 firefighters

It's only $20,000 of the taxpayers' money.

From the story, here:

Maybe it is her short, spiky hair, or the cigarettes, which she gives to the men repairing the wiring in her Brooklyn apartment. Maybe it is because she swears. For whatever reason, the Rev. Ann Kansfield does not fit the stereotype of a minister. ... 

As of this year, there are 44 female firefighters in the department, the most in its history, but the number has not risen much over the years and they are a tiny fraction of a force of over 10,000 firefighters. ...

Steven Sanfilippo, the president of FireFLAG/EMS, a fraternal organization for gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender firefighters and emergency medical workers, said homophobia occupied a less prominent place in firehouse culture than it once did. ...

But Mr. Sanfilippo said he suspected there were many closeted firefighters who had not joined his group, which has about 15 active members. “Sometimes it’s easier to carry on your career without anyone busting your chops,” he said.

Luke's Jesus says that in a real sense God's kingdom has already come like a thief in the night

The kingdom of God is not coming with signs to be observed; nor will they say, 'Look, here it is!' or, 'There it is!' For behold, the kingdom of God is in your midst.

-- Luke 17:20f.

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The individualistic interpretation which says "within you", that is inside of the individual in some mystical sense, instead of "in your midst" is excluded by the plural. Luke has Jesus claiming that the kingdom is present wherever Jesus happens to be at the moment.