Libertarian individualism is incompatible with Paulinism

"None of us lives to himself, and none of us dies to himself. For whether we live, we live unto the Lord; and whether we die, we die unto the Lord: whether we live therefore, or die, we are the Lord's."

-- Romans 14:7f.

"Individualism regards man—every man—as an independent, sovereign entity who possesses an inalienable right to his own life, a right derived from his nature as a rational being."

-- Ayn Rand, "Racism" in The Virtue of Selfishness (1964), p. 129.

The popular understanding about Jesus was that he was a prophet, and perhaps the coming prophet like unto Moses

Moses Aaron and Hur by John Everett Millais

 

 

When Jesus came into the coasts of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, saying, Whom do men say that I the Son of man am? And they said, Some say that thou art John the Baptist: some, Elias; and others, Jeremias, or one of the prophets.

-- Matthew 16:13f.

And when he was come into Jerusalem, all the city was moved, saying, Who is this? And the multitude said, This is Jesus the prophet of Nazareth of Galilee.

-- Matthew 21:10f.

And Jesus went out, and his disciples, into the towns of Caesarea Philippi: and by the way he asked his disciples, saying unto them, Whom do men say that I am? And they answered, John the Baptist: but some say, Elias; and others, One of the prophets.

-- Mark 8:27f.

And there came a fear on all: and they glorified God, saying, That a great prophet is risen up among us; and, That God hath visited his people. ... Now when the Pharisee which had bidden him saw it, he spake within himself, saying, This man, if he were a prophet, would have known who and what manner of woman this is that toucheth him: for she is a sinner.

-- Luke 7:16, 39

Now Herod the tetrarch heard of all that was done by him: and he was perplexed, because that it was said of some, that John was risen from the dead; And of some, that Elias had appeared; and of others, that one of the old prophets was risen again. ... And it came to pass, as he was alone praying, his disciples were with him: and he asked them, saying, Whom say the people that I am? They answering said, John the Baptist; but some say, Elias; and others say, that one of the old prophets is risen again.

-- Luke 9:7f., 18f.

Nevertheless I must walk to day, and to morrow, and the day following: for it cannot be that a prophet perish out of Jerusalem.

-- Luke 13:33

And the one of them, whose name was Cleopas, answering said unto him, Art thou only a stranger in Jerusalem, and hast not known the things which are come to pass there in these days? 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 24:18f.

And this is the record of John, when the Jews sent priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask him, Who art thou? And he confessed, and denied not; but confessed, I am not the Christ. And they asked him, What then? Art thou Elias? And he saith, I am not. Art thou that prophet? And he answered, No. ... And they asked him, and said unto him, Why baptizest thou then, if thou be not that Christ, nor Elias, neither that prophet?

-- John 1:19ff, 25.

The woman saith unto him, Sir, I perceive that thou art a prophet.

-- John 4:19

Then those men, when they had seen the miracle that Jesus did, said, This is of a truth that prophet that should come into the world. When Jesus therefore perceived that they would come and take him by force, to make him a king, he departed again into a mountain himself alone.

-- John 6:14f.

Many of the people therefore, when they heard this saying, said, Of a truth this is the Prophet. ... They [the Pharisees] answered and said unto him [Nicodemus], Art thou also of Galilee? Search, and look: for out of Galilee ariseth no prophet.

-- John 7:40, 52

They say unto the blind man again, What sayest thou of him, that he hath opened thine eyes? He said, He is a prophet.

-- John 9:17

For Moses truly said unto the fathers, A prophet shall the Lord your God raise up unto you of your brethren, like unto me; him shall ye hear in all things whatsoever he shall say unto you. And it shall come to pass, that every soul, which will not hear that prophet, shall be destroyed from among the people.

-- Acts 3:22f.

This is that Moses, which said unto the children of Israel, A prophet shall the Lord your God raise up unto you of your brethren, like unto me; him shall ye hear.

-- Acts 7:37

The LORD thy God will raise up unto thee a Prophet from the midst of thee, of thy brethren, like unto me; unto him ye shall hearken; ... And the LORD said unto me, They have well spoken that which they have spoken. I will raise them up a Prophet from among their brethren, like unto thee, and will put my words in his mouth; and he shall speak unto them all that I shall command him.

-- Deuteronomy 18:15, 17f.

And Joshua the son of Nun was full of the spirit of wisdom; for Moses had laid his hands upon him: and the children of Israel hearkened unto him, and did as the LORD commanded Moses. And there arose not a prophet since in Israel like unto Moses, whom the LORD knew face to face,

-- Deuteronomy 34:9f.

Thy money perish with thee

Then Simon himself believed also: and when he was baptized, he continued with Philip, and wondered, beholding the miracles and signs which were done. ... And when Simon saw that through laying on of the apostles' hands the Holy Ghost was given, he offered them money, Saying, Give me also this power, that on whomsoever I lay hands, he may receive the Holy Ghost. But Peter said unto him, Thy money perish with thee, because thou hast thought that the gift of God may be purchased with money.

-- Acts 8:13, 18ff.

Candida Moss sure doesn't look like a yeastlike fungus of the peat bog

Theology faculty member, Notre Dame

Ich bin ein Häretiker!

Christianity is not a high religion where the lamb and the lion lie down together in a new utopia

"Peace" by William Strutt, 1896

 

 

Christianity is not a high religion where the lamb and the lion lie down together in a new utopia, but a low religion which affirms the world as it is with its hierarchy of violence.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And he became very hungry, and would have eaten: but while they made ready, he fell into a trance, And saw heaven opened, and a certain vessel descending unto him, as it had been a great sheet knit at the four corners, and let down to the earth: Wherein were all manner of fourfooted beasts of the earth, and wild beasts, and creeping things, and fowls of the air. And there came a voice to him, Rise, Peter; kill, and eat.

-- Acts 10:10ff.

The wolf and the lamb shall feed together, and the lion shall eat straw like the bullock: and dust shall be the serpent's meat. They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain, saith the LORD.

-- Isaiah 65:25

. . . especially Rob Bell

15.7 million black Christians say Presbyterians must repent for sin against the church for redefining marriage

Seen here:

"NBCI and its membership base are simply standing on the Word of God within the mind of Christ. We urge our brother and sisters of the PCUSA to repent and be restored to fellowship."

"PCUSA's manipulation represents a universal sin against the entire church and its members. With this action, PCUSA can no longer base its teachings on 2,000 years of Christian scripture and tradition, and call itself a Christian entity in the body of Christ.  It has forsaken its right by this single wrong act."

"No church has the right to change the Word of God. By voting to redefine marriage PCUSA automatically forfeits Christ's saving grace. There is always redemption in the body of Christ through confession of faith and adhering to Holy Scripture."

"In this case, PCUSA deliberately voted to change the Word of God and the interpretation of holy marriage between one man and one woman. This is why we must break fellowship with them and urge the entire Christendom to do so as well."

Luke's Jesus predicts it, but Luke never says that Pontius Pilate scourged Jesus or that Jesus was scourged

And they shall scourge him, and put him to death: and the third day he shall rise again.

-- Luke 18:33

Then released he Barabbas unto them: and when he had scourged Jesus, he delivered him to be crucified.

-- Matthew 27:26

And so Pilate, willing to content the people, released Barabbas unto them, and delivered Jesus, when he had scourged him, to be crucified.

-- Mark 15:15

Then Pilate therefore took Jesus, and scourged him.

-- John 19:1

You cannot serve God and mammon

 

 

 The law of thy mouth is better to me than thousands of gold and silver pieces. ... Therefore I love thy commandments above gold, above fine gold.

-- Psalm 119:72, 127

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

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

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!

  

 

 

 

"Jesus of Nazareth, a man" or "Jesus is a divine person" . . . only?

 

Here. 

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.

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

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.

The cure for fanaticism

The cure for fanaticism:

a good dose of reality;

in serious cases multiple doses of reality may be required, applied liberally;

in the severest cases nothing works except death; in such cases the patient usually asks for it.

Maybe Alabama's Ellin Jimmerson should get a new Bible

Quoted here:

"[O]ur idea of one man one woman in a union based on love just doesn't appear in the Bible."

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

For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and cleave to his wife; And they twain shall be one flesh: so then they are no more twain, but one flesh. What therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder. 

-- Mark 10:7ff.

My sin hurts you, your sin hurts me

No man is an Iland, intire of itselfe; every man
is a peece of the Continent, a part of the maine;
if a Clod bee washed away by the Sea, Europe
is the lesse, as well as if a Promontorie were, as
well as if a Manor of thy friends or of thine
owne were; any mans death diminishes me,
because I am involved in Mankinde;
And therefore never send to know for whom
the bell tolls; It tolls for thee.

MEDITATION XVII
Devotions upon Emergent Occasions
John Donne 

I don't wonder why God allowed ISIS to burn a man alive

I wonder why we allowed them to.

Panentheism is the logical conclusion of fully realized eschatology

It takes a special form of delusional thinking in its own right to mistake what is for the kingdom of God:

Only an arrogant, delusional Jesus would have claimed divinity or predicted resurrection, Borg noted, adding, “We have categories of psychology for people who talk that way about themselves. ... [W]e and everything that is are in God. God is not something else. God is right here and all around us. We are within God. The best way to refer to God is You, the You who is right here.”

-- the late Marcus Borg, quoted here

The answer is: Either Florida, or to write for Charlie Hebdo

Oral cardiac defilement syndrome

 

 

But those things which proceed out of the mouth come forth from the heart; and they defile the man. For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies: These are the things which defile a man: but to eat with unwashen hands defileth not a man.

-- Matthew 15:18ff.

Catholic George Weigel says Charlie Hebdo is as corrosive of decency as the jihadists are destructive of order

The Holy Trinity by Charlie Hebdo's Luz

 

Quoted here:

Issue after issue, Charlie Hebdo mocks, not vice and folly (which are fair game), but many people’s most deeply held and cherished beliefs, including their religious convictions. I won’t describe its cover cartoon lampooning the doctrine of the Trinity after the Catholic bishops of France had opposed so-called “gay marriage;” if that cover was not pornographic, than the word “pornographic” has no meaning.

In the world of Charlie Hebdo, sadly, all religious convictions (indeed all serious convictions about moral truth) are, by definition, fanaticism—and thus susceptible to the mockery of the “enlightened.” But that crude caricature of religious belief and moral conviction is false; it’s adolescent, if not downright childish; it inevitably lends itself to the kind of vulgarity that intends to wound, not amuse; and over the long haul, it’s as corrosive of the foundations of a decent society as the demented rage of the jihadists who murdered members of Charlie Hebdo’s staff.

Mollie Hemingway is trying to serve two masters: God and journalism

 

 

I understand she's a Lutheran, Missouri Synod. It used to be a very conservative denomination. Predictably one of their members would be upset by the lengths to which liberals will go to outrage the sensibilities of scrupulous religious believers, such as Lutherans. And I think she is one of those.

But what she's calling for here in The Federalist is The New York Times to outrage the sensibilities of Muslims like it does every other scrupulous religious sect. How dare they, The New York Times, stick it to Orthodox Jews but shrink from offending Muslims!

OK, The New York Times is hypocritical, along with a bunch of other news outlets. That's supposed to be news?

In picking this fight Mollie Hemingway has chosen journalism over God. Her journalistic sensibilities are more outraged than are her religious sensibilities.

Religious people should be upset about deliberate attempts by the press to offend all religious people, not just some. This includes Muslims. But so far I don't hear anyone saying this except for Pope Francis, and Bill Donohue of the Catholic League.

All I'm hearing from so-called conservatives in America is the call to jump on the pig pile supporting Charlie Hebdo, the now defacto organ of the secularist dogma in the West.

How come? Have you all lost your minds?

The Book of Proverbs counsels self-censorship

A fool vents all his feelings, But a wise man holds them back. 

-- Proverbs 29:11

Have you noticed it's the godless communists provoking Muslims, not the Christians?

Charlie Hebdo was and still is full of godless communists, like Corinne "Coco" Rey, who let the terrorists into the offices to kill all her colleagues.

Colossians says (last third of the first century) the gospel is already come "in all the world"

For the hope which is laid up for you in heaven, whereof ye heard before in the word of the truth of the gospel; Which is come unto you, as it is in all the world; and bringeth forth fruit, as it doth also in you, since the day ye heard of it, and knew the grace of God in truth:

-- Colossians 1:5f.

And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come.

-- Matthew 24:14

If the gospel is good news to the rich, why doesn't it say so?

The blind receive their sight, and the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, and the poor have the gospel preached to them.

-- Matthew 11:5

He hath filled the hungry with good things; and the rich he hath sent empty away.

-- Luke 1:53

The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised,

-- Luke 4:18

But woe unto you that are rich! for ye have received your consolation. Woe unto you that are full! for ye shall hunger. Woe unto you that laugh now! for ye shall mourn and weep.

-- Luke 6:24f.

Then Jesus answering said unto them, Go your way, and tell John what things ye have seen and heard; how that the blind see, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, to the poor the gospel is preached.

-- Luke 7:22

Are Americans really generous in their charitable giving when they give just 2.68%?

Are Americans really generous in their charitable giving when they give just 2.68%? And 2.68% is really stretching it, since that includes all the money given by the heavy hitters among the rich, the corporations and the foundations.

Charitable giving came to about $335 billion in 2013, according to the story here citing Giving USA statistics. That's still more than 4% lower than the amount given in 2007, adjusted for inflation, but rising since the end of the intervening depression.

Consider that total disposable personal income in 2013 was $12.505 trillion, according to the latest GDP report from the Bureau of Economic Analysis of the US Department of Congress here. That means everyone, from individuals to corporations and foundations etc., gave just 2.68%.

So what's with all the Christians, many of whom preach tithing, which is giving 10%?

75% of the country claims to be Christian of some sort after all. If 75% of just the $6.7 trillion in net compensation in 2013 were tithed on by the Christians they would be contributing over $500 billion to charity. And tithing on 75% of the total disposable income would come to a whopping $938 billion.

Of course we can't really say that 75% of either sum is what the Christians actually make.

A closer approximation of that would start with the sometimes heard claim that 9 out of 10 people sitting in the pews make less than the senior pastor. The high end of the scale for senior pastors is currently almost $88,000 per year, which puts them in the 90th percentile of income in 2013. In other words, many of them are rich. Net compensation for everyone making below $90,000 a year in 2013 totaled $4.06 trillion. Taking 10% of 75% of that yields $305 billion in theoretical tithes expected from the Christians in 2013. Typically, however, only about a third of total charitable contributions go to specifically religious institutions and organizations, so we're talking about roughly $110 billion in specifically religious contributions in 2013, a giving rate of about 3.6%, not 10%. Of course the rate could be much higher than that if the Christians are also supporting non-religious charities at higher rates than they support their own, but how likely is that?

Overall it must be said the Christians are more generous than the overall rate, but fall rather short of their oft-stated goal.

Well, don't we all.

Paul transformed Jesus' teaching of repentance as self-amputation into an object of derision

 

 

 

And if thy hand offend thee, cut it off: it is better for thee to enter into life maimed, than having two hands to go into hell, into the fire that never shall be quenched. ... And if thy foot offend thee, cut it off: it is better for thee to enter halt into life, than having two feet to be cast into hell, into the fire that never shall be quenched. 

 

-- Mark 9:43, 45

I would they were even cut off which trouble you. 

 

-- Galatians 5:12

Merry Apocalyptic Christmas: The chaff he will burn with fire unquenchable

"there is a fire asbestos . . ."

 

 

 

His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing floor and gather his wheat into the granary, but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire.

-- Matthew 3:12

His winnowing fork is in his hand, to clear his threshing floor, and to gather the wheat into his granary, but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire.

-- Luke 3:17

Reza Aslan still misunderstands Jesus, and multiculturalism means you end up not praying to anyone

Just like Reza Aslan's family, here.

"For I am come to set a man at variance against his father, and the daughter against her mother, and the daughter in law against her mother in law. And a man's foes shall be they of his own household."

-- Matthew 10:35f.

I am a poor boy, too

 

  

From the best story you can read this Christmas, or any Christmas, or any day, here, because in its own misguided way, it makes for a beginning at recovering the call to poverty which lies at the heart of the lost message of the historical Jesus:

So, on hearing "Little Drummer Boy" each Christmas, we should be reminded that the very birth we are celebrating is a call to poverty of the spirit. To be poor in spirit, as Christ asked of us on the Mount of Beatitudes, is to admit of our weaknesses, our insecurities, our shortcomings. In recognizing these in ourselves, we are able to feel compassion when we find them in others, and we are moved to act on their (rather than our own) behalf.

This is the best of Christmas and the Christian message: to say, in the manner of a scared young boy before the most unlikely of Kings, in the cold of an often harsh world, "I am a poor boy too."

Rob Bell defender John Pavlovitz imagines the confines of the Sermon on the Mount are "cozy"

Here:

"This [Rob Bell] wasn’t someone who preached from the cozy confines of the Creation story, or the Psalms, or the Sermon on the Mount."

Apparently Pavlovitz has never read the Sermon on the Mount:

"If your right eye causes you to sin, pluck it out and throw it away; it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body be thrown into hell. And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away; it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body go into hell."

-- Matthew 5:29f.

"Enter by the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the way is easy, that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many. For the gate is narrow and the way is hard, that leads to life, and those who find it are few."

-- Matthew 7:13f.

Just another reason I'm not a member of the American Academy of Religion

Story here:

This past weekend the New York Times ran a column—”Setting Aside a Scholarly Get-Together, For the Planet’s Sake“—about the American Academy of Religion’s new commitment to battling climate change.

On the assured results of scholarship

"Having learned and taught the subject for more than thirty years, I can honestly say, I have no idea how Christianity began.  Having also read, however, most of the theories put forward by mythtics and Jesus-skeptics, I can also say, in a friendly kind of way: you’re not close to an answer."

-- R. Joseph Hoffmann, 11/5/11, here

The New Rob Bell: In Oprah the whole fulness of deity dwells bodily

full of divinity

Seen here:

Many evangelicals are suspicious of Oprah, leery that she represents what many see as the worst of self-help spirituality. Bell, not surprisingly, disagrees once again.

“She has taught me more about what Jesus has for all of us, and what kind of life Jesus wants us to live, more than almost anybody in my life,” Bell said.

“Is she a Christian? That word has so much baggage, I wouldn’t want to answer for someone. When Jesus talks about the full divine life, you think, this is what he’s talking about.”

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

The latest personification of godliness has a net worth of $3 billion.

Giving up one's land was unthinkable to Jesus' agrarian audience

"[T]he explicit condemnation of earthly treasures ... and the negative attitudes toward wealth ... suggest that the [Q] group was intentionally trying to appeal to the peasant class. Typically, it is this set of sayings that have caused many scholars to assume that the message of Jesus was well received by the Galilean peasants.

"But the ideology of this Jesus Movement appears to transcend or breach the bounds of acceptable ideology for the security-seeking agrarian villagers. For instance, there are many sayings that ask the audience to take risks or give up possessions that are rightfully theirs, and abandon their traditional kinship based obligations and lifestyles. These demands were unacceptable to peasants who valued the security measures available in the traditional village setting."

-- Richard A. Horsley, ORAL PERFORMANCE, POPULAR TRADITION, AND HIDDEN TRANSCRIPT IN Q (Society of Biblical Literature Semeia Studies Issue 60, 2006), p. 174.

"The Jubilee year was mainly instituted in order to prevent violent changes in the tenure of lands (Lev. xxv. 23 et seq.). The land, the law declares, properly belongs to YHWH, who is sole landlord, while all the Israelites are but his tenants. Therefore the land must not be sold in perpetuity. It may be leased, or its crops may be sold; but in the Jubilee year the land returns to its original owner."

-- Jewish Encyclopedia, "Agrarian Laws", 1906 

"In the year of jubilee the field shall return to him from whom it was bought, to whom the land belongs as a possession by inheritance."

-- Leviticus 27:24

John Gray strikes a blow for human evil, which never goes away

Here:

[T]hose who govern us at the present time reject a central insight of Western religion, which is found also in Greek tragic drama and the work of the Roman historians: destructive human conflict is rooted in flaws within human beings themselves. In this old-fashioned understanding, evil is a propensity to destructive and self-destructive behaviour that is humanly universal. The restraints of morality exist to curb this innate human frailty; but morality is a fragile artifice that regularly breaks down. Dealing with evil requires an acceptance that it never goes away.

Matthew Avery Sutton grossly overestimates how many American Christians believe in the rapture

Which just proves that you can become infected by apocalyptic while studying it.

Seen here:

"And yet the apocalyptic never leaves. It’s still there, that’s where the polls come back. It’s now assumed by hundreds of millions of Americans that the rapture is a real thing and that Jesus is coming back."

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That is said notwithstanding the fact that the country as a whole doesn't have enough population to support making it in the first place. Don't they teach geography in the schools anymore? It's pretty embarrassing coming from a Ph.D.

Meanwhile Pew polling most recently shows that 78% of the adult population is nominally Christian, with 51% Protestant and just 26% Evangelical, ground zero for the rapture theology. That puts the upper limit on who would likely believe in an apocalyptic interpretation of the Christian faith somewhere in the neighborhood of 63 million, not "hundreds of millions", if that.

This tendency to exaggerate is not limited to the sphere of religion, however, where members of all faiths fudge on polls asking how many times they attend religious services. A famous politician in America known by all, a left-wing ideologue, also frequently opines that the country is far more populous than it really is, which suggests that politics and religion often operate with the same defective spatial reasoning, not to mention the same defective enthusiasms.

Or was it the dope smoking?

The inspiration for Paul's refusal of table fellowship with sinning Christians is in Pharisaism, not in Jesus

 

"The Pharisees were a Palestinian holiness movement of laymen whose aim was the ritual sanctification of everyday life in the Eretz Israel, such as was required of priests in the sanctuary."

-- Martin Hengel, "The preChristian Paul", in Lieu, J., et alia, THE JEWS AMONG PAGANS AND CHRISTIANS IN THE ROMAN EMPIRE (Routledge, 2013), p. 37.

'"Perisha" (the singular of "Perishaya") denotes "one who separates himself," or keeps away from persons or things impure, in order to attain the degree of holiness and righteousness required in those who would commune with God (comp., for "Perishut" and "Perisha," Tan., Wayeẓe, ed. Buber, p. 21; Abot iii. 13; Soṭah ix. 15; Midr. Teh. xv. 1; Num. R. x. 23; Targ. Gen. xlix. 26).

'The Pharisees formed a league or brotherhood of their own ("ḥaburah"), admitting only those who, in the presence of three members, pledged themselves to the strict observance of Levitical purity, to the avoidance of closer association with the 'Am ha-Areẓ (the ignorant and careless boor), to the scrupulous payment of tithes and other imposts due to the priest, the Levite, and the poor, and to a conscientious regard for vows and for other people's property (Dem. ii. 3; Tosef., Dem. ii. 1). ...

'A true Pharisee observed the same degree of purity in his daily meals as did the priest in the Temple (Tosef., Dem. ii. 2; so did Abraham, according to B. M. 87a), wherefore it was necessary that he should avoid contact with the 'am ha-areẓ (Ḥag. ii. 7).'

-- Jewish Encyclopedia, "Pharisees", 1906.

And it came to pass, as Jesus sat at meat in the house, behold, many publicans and sinners came and sat down with him and his disciples. And when the Pharisees saw it, they said unto his disciples, Why eateth your Master with publicans and sinners? But when Jesus heard that, he said unto them, They that be whole need not a physician, but they that are sick. But go ye and learn what that meaneth, I will have mercy, and not sacrifice: for I am not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.

-- Matthew 9:10ff.

Laying your burden down is not about your angst . . .

. . . it's about all your junk!

My yoke is easy, my burden light.

 

-- Matthew 11:30

A Vatican II Catholic defends "official splendor and personal austerity"

Here:

The Church is a great Spirit-powered machine for re-divinizing the world; this necessarily involves feeding the poor and making the world more beautiful. ... It is good that the Vatican be splendrous, but it is good that those who live and work in it live and work in spartan style (as Francis does, and as his immediate predecessors did, since the official Papal apartments were also spartan). Against those who would strip our altars and our churches in fits of utilitarian, iconoclastic madness, we must stand athwart. ...  It is incumbent on all of us to practice ascesis and self-mortification; but I would add that it is particularly incumbent on those who have powerful responsibilities to be reminded of their sinful nature, and of their ontological poverty. A bishop should wear liturgical garments of unimaginable splendor–and a hair shirt underneath. His cathedral should be sublime, and his bedroom poor. ... As is always the Catholic Way, we have here a beautiful both/and: official splendor and personal austerity. This should be the way. Sell the apostolic palaces and split the money between art and service to the poor.

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There's your ontological poverty, and then there's your existential poverty, practised by none.

Now when Jesus heard these things, he said unto him, Yet lackest thou one thing: sell all that thou hast, and distribute unto the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come, follow me. -- Luke 18:22

Jesus ate with just about every member of his community, but not so Paul with every member of his

So says the triple tradition about Jesus (Matthew 9:10ff., Mark 2:15ff. and Luke 5:27ff.):

And after these things he went forth, and saw a publican, named Levi, sitting at the receipt of custom: and he said unto him, Follow me. And he left all, rose up, and followed him. And Levi made him a great feast in his own house [a going away party?]: and there was a great company of publicans [tax collectors] and of others that sat down with them. But their scribes and Pharisees murmured against his disciples, saying, Why do ye eat and drink with publicans and sinners? And Jesus answering said unto them, They that are whole need not a physician; but they that are sick. I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.

Luke 7: 33ff. adds that he ate also with Simon the Pharisee, the setting for the absolution of the harlot who washed Jesus' feet with her tears:

For John the Baptist came neither eating bread nor drinking wine; and ye say, He hath a devil. The Son of man is come eating and drinking; and ye say, Behold a gluttonous man, and a winebibber, a friend of publicans and sinners! But wisdom is justified of all her children. And one of the Pharisees desired him that he would eat with him. And he went into the Pharisee's house, and sat down to meat.

And Luke 14:1ff. puts Jesus in the house of another Pharisee to eat, the setting for his remarkable teaching about divestiture to the poor:

And it came to pass, as he went into the house of one of the chief Pharisees to eat bread on the sabbath day, that they watched him. ... 

So Jesus eats with just about everybody, except perhaps Sadducees.

But here in 1 Corinthians 5:9ff. Paul tells Gentile believers not to eat with fellow believers who openly sin, nor to keep company with them, but to put them out of the Christian community:

I wrote unto you in an epistle not to company with fornicators: Yet not altogether with the fornicators of this world, or with the covetous, or extortioners, or with idolaters; for then must ye needs go out of the world. But now I have written unto you not to keep company, if any man that is called a brother be a fornicator, or covetous, or an idolater, or a railer, or a drunkard, or an extortioner; with such an one no not to eat. For what have I to do to judge them also that are without? do not ye judge them that are within? But them that are without God judgeth. Therefore put away from among yourselves that wicked person.

The love of the church grows cold, gives up on the "dones"

Seen here:

They’ve been the target of evangelistic efforts now and then, but the newer term, “dones,” captures a fact about them that other monikers didn’t: they’re finished — and most likely for good.

“There’s not a whole lot of hope of them coming back,” said Thom Schultz, a Colorado-based blogger and co-author of Why Nobody Wants to Go to Church Anymore. ...

Schultz said churches would be wise to let the “dones” go and focus on fixing the issues that led them to quit in the first place. ...

“We need to look at the people we already have and how we can listen and talk to them and be sure they are not the next ‘dones.’”

The Paulinists compromised Jesus' asceticism

So if we have enough food and clothing, let us be content. -- 1 Timothy 6:8

"That is why I tell you not to worry about everyday life—whether you have enough food and drink, or enough clothes to wear. Isn't life more than food, and your body more than clothing?" -- Matthew 6:25

Why Jesus was a prophet without honor in his own home

And they were offended in him. But Jesus said unto them, A prophet is not without honour, save in his own country, and in his own house. -- Matthew 13:57 (Mark 6:4)

Imagine Jesus the bastard child of Mary taken in by the carpenter as his own son. The carpenter Joseph raises Jesus as his own and presumably trains him to be a carpenter also. Joseph disappears from the record, probably due to early death, so that we never hear of him again in the Gospels in the active sense, beyond the time when Jesus at the age of twelve tarried in the temple according to Luke. Thus Jesus no doubt became the man of the family and its material provider from that point on, which would explain in part why the spiritually precocious child had to wait so long to begin his public ministry as a teacher with pupils. He had a personal obligation of support for his family, which also included training his younger brothers in the trade to take over for him when the time was right.

Jesus turned his back on all this, that is, he repented of his former life, when he left them all and submitted to the baptism of repentance, the baptism of John. In doing so Jesus was demonstrating that he himself was willing to pay the price of discipleship, personal poverty, which he demanded his followers to pay also. "No man can be my disciple who does not say goodbye to everything that he owns."

We can well imagine how this went over with his own family, which found it difficult to accept even if it never caused them to shun him as he now seemed to shun them. The famous scene in Mark 3 where Jesus fails to recognize them as his true mother, sisters and brothers no doubt was confirmation to them that he was indeed "beside himself". You can almost hear some of them saying, "Brother Jesus has gone off the deep end and started a cult!"

But to others from Jesus' hometown not simply the failure to meet his social obligations but his rejection of those obligations in principle was a scandal causing them to be indignant at him, despite his reputation for "success" as a prophet and wonder worker, and now they felt alienated from him. "What if everyone did what he did? How would anyone survive? Those unwilling to work will not get to eat! If any one does not provide for his relatives, and especially for his own family, he has disowned the faith and is worse than an unbeliever!"