An old inside joke: Proof that Lutherans are mentioned in the Bible

1 Thessalonians 4:16

How Evangelicals trivialize the resurrection as present day love, consolation and social action

Zack Hunt, here:

[W]e can begin to see [the resurrection's] transforming power in how we respond to the tragedies in our own lives, how we love and console one another, how we work together to keep evil from ruling tomorrow, and how we come together to alleviate the daily suffering that is all around us.

Apart from its orientation, this is really little different than the historic catholic approach, in which the supposed "already" of the kingdom of God is manifest sacramentally, primarily through the Eucharist. It makes little difference, however, how the divine is immanentized. Either way it is immanentized by human agency through temporal means.

Neither conceptualization pays the proper respect due to the singular character of the resurrection as an idea, as a metaphysical phenomenon, if that oxymoron be allowed. The born again Christian protests that Jesus changed his life even though there is plenty of evidence to the contrary available to outsiders looking in, while the sacramentalist protests that he literally eats the body and blood of the Lord, purchased though it may be from a church supply house. The cemeteries are no respecters of these persons, and are as full of such people as of any other.

The thinking person must reject these expressions of human enthusiasm, for that is what they are, pale reflections of the "real" thing. The real thing was not under human control, was not susceptible of human interference and manipulation. To insist otherwise is to misunderstand the claim made by the resurrection.

If God ever transformed us, there wouldn't be any doubt about it. In truth that remains "not yet" for the Christian. Only the resurrection of Jesus can seem to lay claim to express such an "already" about which there is no doubt.

And yet there is doubt, as there is belief.

The problem of the resurrection of Jesus is not just a problem for the history of apocalyptic, with which the resurrection represents a radical break. The question also remains whether God really acted in human history in such a way, or did human hope once again overstep its bounds, as it is perennially wont to do, in claiming the apotheosis of a man? If we in our own day can insist on our own participation in the divinity to some extent on the very thinnest of evidence, the likelihood of the early Christians having committed this ancient sin is high.

The latter question is not new by any means. Jews, but also Muslims, have asked it, or rather charged it, for centuries. The great success of the West has much to do with the fact, from their point of view, that Christianity is a form of human hubris, a blasphemy. It is hard to imagine the world as it is today without it, or that it would have become the way it is without it, and the prospect of actually losing what we have achieved in the West by abandoning this plastic way we look at human nature to some extent stands in the way of our thinking about this important question on a Tuesday.

A lousy Tuesday.

And ye are witnesses of these things, says the risen Christ

Despite the confidence put in eyewitness testimony, it is wrong up to a third of the time, and of wrongful convictions for certain violent crimes, some 75% have turned out to be based on eyewitness testimony.

Ultra-religious Protestants predominate among those suffering manic episodes known as Jerusalem Syndrome Type III

Snake-handling faith healers, Stone Creek, VA August 1944

From the story here:

These are just a few examples of what has come to be known as the Jerusalem Syndrome: a well-documented phenomenon where foreign visitors suffer psychotic delusions that they are figures from the Bible or harbingers of the End of Days.

Israel’s health ministry records around 50 cases a year where a tourist’s delusions are so strong that police or mental health professionals are forced to intervene. Many more incidents go undocumented on the streets of Jerusalem’s Old City. ...

The most contentious point of debate among scholars of Jerusalem Syndrome is what one group of doctors has called Type III cases: people with no history of mental illness who become overwhelmed by the city’s religiosity and temporarily lose their minds. ...

They record 42 cases of people who arrived in Jerusalem as regular tourists, suffered severe psychotic episodes while there, and then recovered completely after leaving the city. Of the 42 individuals, 40 were from what doctors described as “ultra-religious” Protestant families.

For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own life?

Caiaphas continued as high priest until deposed by Vitellius, Roman governor of Syria, in 36

Kayafa ossuary

And Jesus said, "I am; and you will see the Son of man seated at the right hand of Power, and coming with the clouds of heaven."

-- Mark 14:62

Vitellius was there [at Jerusalem] magnificently received, and released the inhabitants of Jerusalem from all the taxes upon the fruits that were bought and sold, and gave them leave to have the care of the high priest’s vestments, with all their ornaments, and to have them under the custody of the priests in the temple, which power they used to have formerly, although at this time they were laid up in the tower of Antonia, the citadel so called ... Vitellius put those garments into our own power, as in the days of our forefathers, and ordered the captain of the guard not to trouble himself to inquire where they were laid, or when they were to be used; and this he did as an act of kindness, to oblige the nation to him. Besides which, he also deprived Joseph, who was also called Caiaphas, of the high priesthood, and appointed Jonathan, the son of Ananus, the former high priest, to succeed him.

-- Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews, XVIII.

And there shall be no more eating

And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away.

-- Revelation 21:4

Here's a little "Two Corinthians" for Ted Cruz

Do not be mismated with unbelievers. For what partnership have righteousness and iniquity? Or what fellowship has light with darkness?

-- 2 Corinthians 6:14

Mormon Glenn Beck doubles down, lectures Christians that real Christians cannot vote for Trump

Quoted here:

“No Christian, no real Christian – I don’t mean a judgmental Christian, I mean somebody who is living their faith – no real Christian says, ‘I want that guy, that guy is for me,’” he said during a broadcast of his radio show. "Nobody, nobody.”

Obviously, at length driving the Mormons west to the Great Salt Lake was still a sea too short.

The coming crack-up of Ted Cruz

Camille Paglia, here:

Cruz seems consumed by a vainglorious conviction of his own destiny, tied to an apocalyptic view of history. He reminds me of glad-handing televangelists like Jimmy Swaggart and Jim Bakker, who were loved and trusted by so many but whose careers ended in disgrace.

Mormon Glenn Beck attacks evangelicals for not voting for Ted Cruz

"Sheesh, I can't wait til this is over and I can throw Beck under the bus"

Beck quoted here:

"But all throughout the South the Evangelicals are not listening to their God."

When you take communion with LCMS Lutherans, 44% of them believe homosexuality should be accepted

68% believe there is more than one true interpretation of the religion.

51% believe abortion should be legal in all or most cases.

39% do not believe in verbal inspiration of Scripture.

Survey says, here.

No one blamed Dylann Roof's race-war shooting on the "moderate" Christianity of ELCA-style Lutheranism?

So says an ELCA vicar from New York here:

Not pretending also means being honest about what is happening inside our churches. When Dylann Roof, a member of an ELCA congregation, murdered nine people at a historically black church last year, there were no talking heads asking moderate Christians to condemn the shooting, no protestors denouncing Christianity as anti-American. Not pretending means more than speaking out against the unfair treatment of others. It means holding ourselves to account, even when no one else will. It means not just speaking out against injustice in the world but also being honest about the racism and xenophobia in our own congregations. It means acknowledging that the brokenness of the world includes the church.

---------------------------------

How can anyone expect ELCA Lutherans to be honest about racism in their congregations when they can't even be honest about what kind of Christians they are?

Moderates?

They are liberals, and have been forever.

Why is it that liberals can't call themselves what they are?

The honesty ought to start there . . . good luck with that.

There was no TIME for a devout and holy life

And sent his servant at supper time to say to them that were bidden, Come; for all things are now ready. -- Luke 14:17

John Kasich's religion is inspired by Dallas Willard's ideas of discipleship and realized eschatology

Noted here:

Kasich cites the late University of Southern California philosophy professor Dallas Willard as one of his theological inspirations—an unusual choice because Willard was not always accepted by the Christian establishment. His teaching that the Kingdom of God is available here and now—“eternity is already in session,” he was known to say—follows a school of thought known as spiritual formation, or the idea that with discipline and spiritual development, ordinary Christians can grow to become more like Jesus.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Much of Dallas Willard's writing assumes that personal transformation of the disciple was the object of discipleship as taught by Jesus because the expectation of the kingdom's imminent coming is not granted. Jesus' expectation of the in-breaking of the kingdom, of course, means that any concern with spiritual formation is a distraction. The call to discipleship instead is in reality a call to escape the judgment that is coming perilously soon. Discipleship is actually a form of radical repentance, a turning away from a world about to be cleansed by fire, analogous to embarking Noah's Ark.

Accordingly Willard actually trivializes the teaching of Jesus, an example being the teaching on personal poverty, which in Willard's description and understanding of discipleship is ridiculed even though it is the very first thing embraced by the disciples of the historical Jesus. Instead Willard offers a list of spiritual practices, which are not meant to be exhaustive, which includes the practice of  "frugality" as one example of what it means to follow Jesus.

You know, as in "Be frugal with what ye have and give alms" (Luke 12:33).

Ted Cruz' constituency: In 2011 American Christians who said they were Christian first were 46%

Pew reported here:

Asked to choose, nearly half of Muslims in the U.S. (49%) say they think of themselves first as a Muslim, 26% say they think of themselves first as an American, and 18% say they are both. Among U.S. Christians, 46% say they identify as Christian first, while the same number identify as American first.

Ted Cruz, quoted here in January 2016:

In the interview, [former Senate Majority Leader Bob] Dole also said he questioned Cruz’s “allegiance” to the Republican Party.

“I’m a Christian first, American second, conservative third and Republican fourth,” said Cruz, who is currently a distant second place, behind Trump, for the GOP nomination in several national polls. “I’ll tell ya, there are a whole lot of people in this country that feel exactly the same way.”

Kelleigh Nelson of Rocky Top Freedom Campaign explains how Ted Cruz' dominionist theology is like Islam

From her conclusion here:

The doctrine of Dominionism is heretical according to God’s Word. Like Islam, they want a theocracy, based on their form of theonomy, with stoning still in practice. Surely we all know folks who have led lives that were unchristian, only to later come to realize the error of their ways. Repentance and salvation can come any time up to your very last breath, and it is faith alone that saves. “For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast.” Ephesians 2:8-9 We are all sinners, just saved by grace. ... With Dominionist theology, there is no grace, and the opportunity to change would be cut short with their punishment. When Ted Cruz said as a teenager that he wanted to rule the world, people found it humorous and the silly statements of youth. But, his form of aberrant doctrine truly believes he should rule the world.

Moscow Idaho's Doug Wilson: An entry point to the fever swamp behind Ted Cruz

Who believes (here) that the point of the gospel of Christ is at the very least alleviation of poverty through free-market economics:

Does the gospel of Christ, in setting men free, bring in free markets or not? I would be happy to take the affirmative.

Ted Cruz is a Christian ideologue who wants to immanentize the eschaton through what might as well be Sharia Law

From John Fea, here:

According to his father and Huch, Ted Cruz is anointed by God to help Christians in their effort to “go to the marketplace and occupy the land … and take dominion” over it.  This “end-time transfer of wealth” will relieve Christians of all financial woes, allowing true believers to ascend to a position of political and cultural power in which they can build a Christian civilization. When this Christian nation is in place (or back in place), Jesus will return.

... Cruz’s approach to politics is inseparable from this theology. His goal is to lead a Christian occupation of the culture and then wait for the Second Coming of Christ.

Well, I guess if I were really a Pentecostal and not a Southern Baptist . . .

. . . I wouldn't tithe to my Baptist church, either.

See, everything can be explained.

Ted Cruz: Phony baloney plastic banana good time holy roller

Read all about it here in the East Orlando Post.

Ted Cruz' lunatic dad believes in the "end times transfer of wealth" to Christians, that we're in them and that Ted will lead the way

Here.

The cost of discipleship: Her whole life

 ὅλον τὸν βίον αὐτῆς

"her whole life"

For all they did cast in of their abundance; but she of her want did cast in all that she had, even all her living. 

 

-- Mark 12:44

A dick joke only Marco Rubio's Jesus would be proud of

Rubio, quoted here:

In an interview after the GOP debate in Michigan, Fox News host Bill O’Reilly questioned Rubio about the vicious personal attacks that have emerged between the two candidates. During the debate, Rubio called for his rivals to focus on policy, but the Florida senator tangled in several spats with Trump. Rubio slammed the front-runner's candidacy as a scam and tied him to his controversial Trump University, which faces a class-action lawsuit alleging fraud. “If I don’t do it, it’ll be because I don’t want to do anything, for example, that Jesus wouldn’t be proud of, to be honest with you,” Rubio said. “Or that my kids would look at and say, ‘I don’t want you to keep doing that.’”

Fellow church member of Ted Cruz says she didn't vote for him because he practises (Christian) identity politics

"They love to pray that they may be seen of men"

Just now on the Laura Ingraham Show.

The woman said she doesn't have to vote for anybody just because he claims to be Christian, which in her opinion is what Ted Cruz expects.

The stupid statement of the day comes from the solitary Joel Miller

Here:

"The early Church flourished without any political power."

The early church was a political power.

The statement is breathtakingly oblivious to the irreducible political nature of man, most memorably articulated in antiquity by Aristotle, reinterpreted in St. Paul's notion of the one body of Christ and its many members, and most famously embraced by the Christian theologian Aquinas. You have to be a dumb animal, eating the grass of the field, not to grasp the self-evident fact that the early church itself constituted a (rival) political force which took over the Roman Empire from within because it became socially dominant.

From Aristotle, Politics 1, 1253a:

From these things therefore it is clear that the city-state is a natural growth, and that man is by nature a political animal, and a man that is by nature and not merely by fortune citiless is either low in the scale of humanity or above it (like the “clanless, lawless, hearthless” man reviled by Homer, for one by nature unsocial is also ‘a lover of war') inasmuch as he is solitary, like an isolated piece at draughts. And why man is a political animal in a greater measure than any bee or any gregarious animal is clear. For nature, as we declare, does nothing without purpose; and man alone of the animals possesses speech. The mere voice, it is true, can indicate pain and pleasure, and therefore is possessed by the other animals as well (for their nature has been developed so far as to have sensations of what is painful and pleasant and to indicate those sensations to one another), but speech is designed to indicate the advantageous and the harmful, and therefore also the right and the wrong; for it is the special property of man in distinction from the other animals that he alone has perception of good and bad and right and wrong and the other moral qualities, and it is partnership in these things that makes a household and a city-state.

Thus also the city-state is prior in nature to the household and to each of us individually. For the whole must necessarily be prior to the part; since when the whole body is destroyed, foot or hand will not exist except in an equivocal sense, like the sense in which one speaks of a hand sculptured in stone as a hand; because a hand in those circumstances will be a hand spoiled, and all things are defined by their function and capacity, so that when they are no longer such as to perform their function they must not be said to be the same things, but to bear their names in an equivocal sense. It is clear therefore that the state is also prior by nature to the individual; for if each individual when separate is not self-sufficient, he must be related to the whole state as other parts are to their whole, while a man who is incapable of entering into partnership, or who is so self-sufficing that he has no need to do so, is no part of a state, so that he must be either a lower animal or a god.

Therefore the impulse to form a partnership of this kind is present in all men by nature; but the man who first united people in such a partnership was the greatest of benefactors. For as man is the best of the animals when perfected, so he is the worst of all when sundered from law and justice. For unrighteousness is most pernicious when possessed of weapons, and man is born possessing weapons for the use of wisdom and virtue, which it is possible to employ entirely for the opposite ends. Hence when devoid of virtue man is the most unholy and savage of animals, and the worst in regard to sexual indulgence and gluttony. Justice on the other hand is an element of the state; for judicial procedure, which means the decision of what is just, is the regulation of the political partnership.

Depart from your cell, Joel, and join the human race.