Death, an Alp from whose summit all lesser things are the same size

The saying is falsely attributed to Mark Twain.

(source)

A vast multitude of Christians were convicted in 64 AD not so much for the crime of starting fires as for hatred of humankind

". . . to die is gain"

"multitude ingens baud perinde in crimine incendii quam odio humani generis convicti sunt"

Tacitus, Annals 15.44

The progress of religion?

Judaism is replete with sacrificed animals.

Christianity is obsessed with the sacrificial death of one man.

And now Islamists want to fill the world with the blood of all infidels.

It's regressive revelation, not progressive.

 

For I desire steadfast love and not sacrifice, and the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings.

-- Hosea 6:6 

France's Muslim problem: It has about 1600 "free" foreign imams imported from Morocco, Algeria and Turkey

Reported here in Bloomberg View:

'Many of these imams don't feel French, speak the language well, or understand the lives of many of the second and third-generation immigrants they serve, according to [Abdelali] Mamoun [imam of Alfortville just outside Paris]. Many speak as though their congregations have to make a choice between being Muslim and French. Some just say daily prayers and leave, according to Mamoun, rather than trying to teach and mentor their congregations. Freelance "predators" then mix among the youngsters and draw them away for indoctrination, he says.'

Christ will not save you from the Muslim

Only you will save yourself from the Muslim

Say Jesus rose from the dead: What difference has it made?

The religion of pieces strikes again but the French remain in utter denial

In front of the theatre attacked in Paris last night, a piano is set out front on which a man comes up and plays "Imagine", John Lennon's ode to atheism, and leaves. A French soccer star who lost a cousin to the terrorists tweets that the important thing to maintain is that the horror in Paris last night "has no religion". And a rose and note are stuck in a bullet hole made by the Muslim terrorists asking "In the name of what?"

In the name of Allah, of course.

For a god who doesn't exist an awful lot of French people no longer do, either. Atheism, at any cost.

Image here.

Ayaan Hirsi Ali names religion academics John Esposito and Karen Armstrong "apologists for Islam"

It's about time somebody did.

Here in "Islam is a religion of violence" in Foreign Policy:

'Popular academics such as John Esposito at Georgetown and author Karen Armstrong believe that religion — Islam, in this case — is the “circumstantial” bit and that the real causes of Islamist violence are poverty, political marginalization, cultural isolation, and other forms of alienation, including real or perceived discrimination against Muslims. These apologists for Islam use words such as “radicalism,” “violent extremism,” and “terrorism” to describe the various attacks around the world committed in the name of Islam. If Islam is mentioned at all, it is to say that Islam is being perverted, or hijacked. They are quick to assert that Islam is no different from any other religion, that there are terrible aspects to other religions, and that Islam is in no way unique. That view is more or less the “official” view of policymakers, not only of the U.S. government, but also of most Western countries (though policy changes are beginning to appear on this front in some countries such as the U.K., Canada, and Australia). But the apologists’ position has been a complete policy failure because it denies the religious justifications the Quran and the Hadith provide for violence, gender inequality, and discrimination against other religions. ... [T]he intolerant and violent aspects of the Quran and the Hadith are never acknowledged or rejected.'

The partiality of Jesus: Good news for the lost sheep of the house of Israel

"For a certain woman, whose young daughter had an unclean spirit, heard of him, and came and fell at his feet: The woman was a Greek, a Syrophenician by nation; and she besought him that he would cast forth the devil out of her daughter. But Jesus said unto her, Let the children first be filled: for it is not meet to take the children's bread, and to cast it unto the dogs."  -- Mark 7:25ff.

"And, behold, a woman of Canaan came out of the same coasts, and cried unto him, saying, Have mercy on me, O Lord, thou Son of David; my daughter is grievously vexed with a devil. But he answered her not a word. And his disciples came and besought him, saying, Send her away; for she crieth after us. But he answered and said, I am not sent but unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel. Then came she and worshipped him, saying, Lord, help me. But he answered and said, It is not meet to take the children's bread, and to cast it to dogs." -- Matthew 15:22ff.

"These twelve Jesus sent forth, and commanded them, saying, Go not into the way of the Gentiles, and into any city of the Samaritans enter ye not: But go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel." -- Matthew 10:5f.

"Give not that which is holy unto the dogs, neither cast ye your pearls before swine, lest they trample them under their feet, and turn again and rend you." -- Matthew 7:6

"Blessed are they that do his commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life, and may enter in through the gates into the city. For without are dogs, and sorcerers, and whoremongers, and murderers, and idolaters, and whosoever loveth and maketh a lie." -- Revelation 22:14f.

The conversion of Peter to Paulinism

Ye know how that it is an unlawful thing for a man that is a Jew to keep company, or come unto one of another nation; but God hath shewed me that I should not call any man common or unclean. ... Of a truth I perceive that God is no respecter of persons: But in every nation he that feareth him, and worketh righteousness, is accepted with him.

-- Acts 10:28, 34f.

The stairway to heaven, but the highway to hell

(seen here)

The way of life: It's your choice

[T]here is iron in your words of life. No signed paper can hold the iron. It must come from men. The words of Ten Bears carry the same iron of life and death. It is good that warriors such as we meet in the struggle of life ... or death. It shall be life. So will it be.

 

-- Ten Bears in The Outlaw Josey Wales

And unto this people thou shalt say, Thus saith the LORD; Behold, I set before you the way of life, and the way of death.

 

-- Jeremiah 21:8

The Way of God

And they sent out unto him their disciples with the Herodians, saying, Master, we know that thou art true, and teachest the way of God in truth, neither carest thou for any man: for thou regardest not the person of men. -- Matthew 22:16

And when they were come, they say unto him, Master, we know that thou art true, and carest for no man: for thou regardest not the person of men, but teachest the way of God in truth: Is it lawful to give tribute to Caesar, or not? -- Mark 12:14

And they asked him, saying, Master, we know that thou sayest and teachest rightly, neither acceptest thou the person of any, but teachest the way of God truly: -- Luke 20:21

And [Apollos] began to speak boldly in the synagogue: whom when Aquila and Priscilla had heard, they took him unto them, and expounded unto him the way of God more perfectly. -- Acts 18:26

What marriage used to mean

'In publicly advocating that the king’s marriage was indissoluble, Fisher argued that “this marriage of the king and queen can be dissolved by no power, human or Divine.” For this principle, he said, he was willing to give his life. He continued by noting that John the Baptist saw no way to “die more gloriously than in the cause of marriage,” despite the fact that marriage then “was not so holy at that time as it has now become by the shedding of Christ’s Blood.” Like Thomas More and John the Baptist, [Bishop John] Fisher was beheaded, and like them, he is called “saint.”'

Read the whole thing, here, from Archbishop of Denver Samuel Aquila.

However consequential Jesus has been for human history, zeal for Muhammad's message and its success have been at least comparable

From a follower of NT Wright, here:

"The real Jesus must have been . . . consequential. Jesus left such an impact on the early Christians that they were willing to suffer and die for their testimony that he’d risen from the dead. A failed prophet or revolutionary might have attracted lasting admiration at best, but what could’ve happened to make devout monotheistic Jews worship this man after his death?"

For a false prophet in the opinion of Christians, Muhammad's message has built quite a following in the world despite being a younger religion in the history of humankind. It's laughable not to notice how successfully Islam has revolutionized vast swaths of the globe despite having no divine man who rose from the dead to worship, and how many have died in the cause of pressing its case on an unbelieving world in the past and in our own time, through war and through martyrdom. 

Worldwide the 1.6 billion adherents of Islam face Mecca five times a day in something more than "lasting admiration", and now equal more than 70% of the global Christian population, while Hinduism's practitioners equal another 50%. Together the Muslims and Hindus outnumber the followers of Christ by over 20%.

Consider how many Muslims have martyred themselves in suicide bombings just in the period since 1982, as tracked by the Chicago Project on Security and Terrorism, here. There are in excess of 4,600 cases. Compare that with the number of Christians martyred until the time of Constantine, which my late teacher Robert M. Grant in a seminar on the apologists back in the day once put at no more than 5,000.  

Jesus was no more comprehensible in his time than Noah was in his

From a disciple of NT Wright, here:

  The real Jesus must have been ... comprehensible. Jesus was a first-century Jew from Galilee, and so we should expect his words and deeds to fit within this historical and geographical context. His message must have been understandable and on some level plausible to first-century Jews in order to have gained a hearing among them. This is why it’s so hard to see Jesus as a pagan myth or a Cynic philosopher; these portraits simply don’t make sense in Jesus’s Jewish context.

On the contrary, Jesus' frame of reference came entirely from the last episode of worldwide judgment in Jewish mythology.

 

Did Noah's warning of impending doom "make sense in Noah's 'Jewish' context"? No. Did he "gain a hearing among" his peers? No, they all perished. And with what social convention did Noah comply in building and entering the ark? None. He was by all accounts crazy.

As it was in the days of Noah . . ..

-- Luke 17:26

They don't call him NT Wrong for nothing.

In Paul's mind, the Council of Jerusalem boiled down to one thing, about which Acts 15 says not one thing

 

Only they would that we should remember the poor; the same which I also was forward to do.

-- Galatians 2:10

A Methodist imagines a more demanding form of discipleship would look like the church of the post-war

You know, when families were bigger, more people went to church, more came weekly, more prayed, perhaps at least at every meal because families ate together then, more attended Bible study or Sunday School, and more tithed of their time if not of their treasure.

Now all that looks like an impossibly lost ideal.

Seen here:

"Discipleship has some built-in defining characteristics that are much more demanding than occasionally showing up. People who haven’t shared in public worship for two years should not be called disciples. Those too busy to pray, who have no time to meet with other Christians for accountability and spiritual practice, who neglect a sacrificial commitment of time or money should not be called disciples. Those who do meet to debate carpet colors, criticize the pastoral leadership, snipe over music styles, and decide who isn’t welcome are not disciples. Those who only pay attention to the parts they like and that make them feel comfortable and lovable are not disciples. Come on! Why would anyone want to be a disciple if the key qualification is breathing?"

There's that dying vision of discipleship, at least in America, and then there's discipleship, the kind Jesus taught which the church has from the beginning safely stored away in a box reserved only for its true believers, its fanatics.

"So you cannot become my disciple without giving up everything you own." -- Luke 14:33

When you drop this first demand, all the other dominoes fall . . . eventually. 

The tragedy of our times is that we are incapable of being disciples

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Seen here, where asceticism is kept as the way of the true Christian life, followed by the very few, whereas the imminently coming judgment, for which Jesus' asceticism was originally prescribed to permit the disciple successfully to navigate it, goes wholly unmentioned:

You know, I recall the words of St. Gregory the Dialogist. He asked which is more correct: to zealously keep the fasts and be ascetic but proud, or to be humble and keep almost nothing? ... Gregory the Dialogist says, no. Let there be pride, but the person should labor ascetically; and the Lord Himself will find a way to humble him. However, there are few of us who zealously observe everything. ... [T]he tragedy of our times is that we are incapable of being disciples. ... Specifically the will for asceticism is paralyzed. Everyone knows and understands all this very well but they can hardly do anything about it. It is because this web has ensnared all of us, and only the Lord can somehow interfere and change it all. Thus have we gotten stuck in these nets—and this includes you and me. ... God looks at the man, at how he forces himself. ... We all have different passions, different inclinations. If we force ourselves, the Lord will reward us.

The tragedy of our times is the same tragedy which has afflicted Christianity since its inception: the failure of the kingdom to come, and the failure of the parousia.

With two hours to go to the end of the world there's no sign of a fireball let alone any heat

'Twas the night of the eschaton

and all through the house

not a creature was stirring 

in fear of a megaton . . .

Uh oh, the world's ending again . . . TOMORROW!

And I thought I was going to a piano lesson as usual.

Glad I found out, and just in the nick of time, too.

Story here, about eBible Fellowship's Chris McCann.

No sign from heaven shall be given

And the Pharisees came forth, and began to question with him, seeking of him a sign from heaven, tempting him. And he sighed deeply in his spirit, and saith, Why doth this generation seek after a sign? verily I say unto you, There shall no sign be given unto this generation.

-- Mark 8:11f.

St. Peter in the 1st century thought the blood moon prophecy was already being fulfilled and meant the end of the world

 

 

In Acts 2:16f, 20, Luke the Historian has St. Peter explicitly connect the Pentecost phenomenon with the fulfillment of our lately called "blood moon prophecy", saying that "this is that", namely that Pentecost ushered in the last age of the Spirit, but the end of the world it most certainly was not, then anymore than it will be today:

  But this is that which was spoken by the prophet Joel; And it shall come to pass in the last days, saith God, I will pour out of my Spirit upon all flesh: and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams: ... The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before that great and notable day of the Lord come . . ..

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

What is notable is that the historical Jesus did not talk this way.

 

He said the kingdom of God was not coming with signs to be observed, but that it would come by stealth, like a thief in the middle of the night, intruding into the midst of normality suddenly and without warning, as it was in the days of Noah . . .. By the time you realize it, it will be too late. The many will perish, and only the few will be saved. Therefore repent! Sell that ye have! Give alms! And come, follow me.

Roman Catholic superstition is alive and well in the US Congress

Stories here and here.

God was performing extraordinary miracles by the hands of Paul, so that handkerchiefs or aprons were even carried from his body to the sick, and the diseases left them and the evil spirits went out.

-- Acts 19:11f.

Hate evil!

You who love the LORD, hate evil! He protects the lives of his godly people and rescues them from the power of the wicked.

-- Psalm 97:10

And he was transfigured before them: Jesus as Brocken spectre

And after six days Jesus taketh Peter, James, and John his brother, and bringeth them up into an high mountain apart, And was transfigured before them: and his face did shine as the sun, and his raiment was white as the light.

-- Matthew 17:1f.

And after six days Jesus taketh with him Peter, and James, and John, and leadeth them up into an high mountain apart by themselves: and he was transfigured before them.And his raiment became shining, exceeding white as snow; so as no fuller on earth can white them.

-- Mark 9:2f.

And it came to pass about an eight days after these sayings, he took Peter and John and James, and went up into a mountain to pray. And as he prayed, the fashion of his countenance was altered, and his raiment was white and glistering.

-- Luke 9:28f.

A Brocken spectre (German Brockengespenst), also called Brocken bow or mountain spectre, is the apparently enormous and magnified shadow of an observer, cast upon the upper surfaces of clouds opposite the sun. The phenomenon can appear on any misty mountainside or cloud bank, even when seen from an aeroplane, but the frequent fogs and low-altitude accessibility of the Brocken, a peak in the Harz Mountains in Germany, have created a local legend from which the phenomenon draws its name. The Brocken spectre was observed and described by Johann Silberschlag in 1780, and has since been recorded often in literature about the region. 

More here.

Phil Jenkins never tells you the crackpot solution of Ellen G. White to "The Great Disappointment"

Namely, The Investigative Judgment, a doctrine wholly derived from "a charismatic prophetic leader" and not found anywhere in Scripture, here:

"The Adventists grew out of the millenarian fervor that swept the United States in the 1840s. In 1844, William Miller warned of the Christ’s imminent return and the world’s destruction. In fact, he did so twice, and the double failure provoked what is termed the Great Disappoint­ment. A rem­nant of Millerites then reconstructed their movement under the visionary leadership of New England–born Ellen G. White."

Seventh-day Adventism is a failed apocalyptic cult, not unlike Christianity itself.

The apple doesn't fall far from the tree. By their fruit ye shall know them. "Does a spring pour forth from the same opening fresh water and brackish?" -- James 3:11

Phil Jenkins should know better, but practices a form of political correctness all too characteristic of the contemporary academic community by not addressing Seventh-day Adventism's raison d'être. Too prickly no doubt for The Christian Century, and for his career. So much for thinking critically, living faithfully.

The religion of Ben Carson does no real harm in the world, except insofar as its adherents are occasionally no better than your average criminal, which Jenkins does mention. Thank God for small favors, I suppose.

But Adventism is still nuts.

Carly Fiorina's non-denominational Christianity is of the Willow Creek variety, dating to about 2010 after battling cancer in 2009

Reported here in August 2012:

'Carly Fiorina, former CEO of Hewlett-Packard, came to the stage as a guest at the end of the first day to share her story of coming to faith in the midst of battling cancer, losing her daughter to suicide, and serving for years as a high-powered business executive. According to Fiorina, Bill Hybels's persistence kept her pondering the complexities of faith, and after praying with him on stage at the summit a couple years ago, then praying to God on her own for a sign, she began seeing little miracles. At the end of her talk, Fiorina stated that now she lives "unburdened by fear," because she sees life as "not measured in time—it's measured in love and contribution and moments of grace."'

Incredible but true: Ben Carson's Seventh-day Adventist Church, begun after 1844, believes it is mentioned in the Bible

Here:

'In Revelation 12, John the Revelator identifies the church in the last days as the "remnant . . . which keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ" (verse 17). We believe that in this brief prophetic picture the Revelator is describing the Seventh-day Adventist Church, which not only keeps "the commandments of God" but has "the testimony of Jesus Christ," which is "the spirit of prophecy" (Revelation 19:10).'

WaPo wants to remind us in 2015 that Hillary Clinton carried around a Bible in her purse in 2007

Seriously.

Here:

'In 2008, Clinton told CNN that she had “tried to take my beliefs, my faith, and put it to work my entire life” to help others. In 2007, she told the network about how she prays regularly and carries a Bible in her purse.'

The story writer, Daniel Silliman, in fact offers a complete shorthand history of Hillary Clinton's liberal Methodist Christianity.

At one point he even writes that her faith was recently "on display" because she had an informed religious conversation with a Reverend in a bakery, documented conveniently by CNN, in which she demonstrated to him surprising and impressive knowledge of the "living word" of God. Silliman even links to that story for your convenience.

How nice.

No mention, however, of all those flying ashtrays and flying expletives in the White House years, or how the Secret Service to this day considers assignment to the Clinton detail a form of punishment. The Clintons are said to refer to them as "pigs" and routinely tell them to "f^$k off".

Faith was never so easy as it is in the hands of The Washington Post.

Liberal exceptionalism: The post-war liberal West is suddenly suffused with self-doubt, but the rest of us are fine

Steven Erlanger reporting from London in The New York Times here, conflating post-war liberal values with Judeo-Christian ones:

"THE West is suddenly suffused with self-doubt. ... Are Western values, essentially Judeo-Christian ones, truly universal?

"The history of the last decade is a bracing antidote to such easy thinking. The rise of authoritarian capitalism has been a blow to assumptions, made popular by Francis Fukuyama, that liberal democracy has proved to be the most reliable and lasting political system. ... The fight over values is not limited to democracy . . . with radical disagreements over the proper place of women and the rights of homosexuals. In its rejection of Western liberal values of sexual equality and choice, conservative Russia finds common cause with many in Africa and with the religious teachings of Islam, the Vatican, fundamentalist Protestants and Orthodox Jews."

It's as if liberalism were a frightened little child, running to hide behind her mother's skirt after having gone too far with some opponent, maybe the dog. Judeo-Christian values, the last refuge of the liberal scoundrel.

Historically speaking, Judeo-Christian values produced what was a relatively quiescent American republican mercantilism until the dawn of the 20th century, not the worldwide crusade for democracy and unfettered capitalism we have come to see thereafter, but sixty years of lousy public education has a way of making people forget such things.

Amnesia also exists about traditional values, which gave us their easy imprimatur for social relations organized around the family and children, with a long and storied history until recent times. The pipe dream has been egalitarian individualism and its various licenses for perversion, which are still fringe arrangements for most people, even for those who purchased them. Regret is everywhere. Such things are the specialties of liberalism, which does indeed look like it's coming undone, but the truly universal things like religion and the family and the arrangements they inspire continue to suggest themselves by nature to billions.

Only a liberal could fail to see them everywhere, as if they were the exception, not he.

The kingdom of God belongs to the poor

And he lifted up his eyes on his disciples, and said, Blessed be ye poor: for yours is the kingdom of God. ... But woe unto you that are rich! for ye have received your consolation.

-- Luke 6:20, 24

Donald Trump asks who does Ben Carson think he is to question Trump's faith

Seen here:

Trump added, “he’s questioning my faith. I happen to be a great believer in God, and great believer in the Bible. Who is he — hey Chris, who is he to question my faith, when I am — you know, I mean, he doesn’t even know me. I’ve met him a few times, but I don’t know Ben Carson. He was a doctor, perhaps, you know, an okay doctor, by the way, you can check that out, too. We’re not talking about a great — he was an okay doctor. He was just fine.” And “now, because he’s a doctor, and he hired one nurse, he’s going to end up being the president of the United States? But, for him to criticize me on my faith is absolutely — and for him to read from the Bible, in his memory, it looked like he memorized it about two minutes before he went on stage. But, Ben Carson is not going to be your next president, that I can tell you.”

Who is he? Well, Ben Carson is a follower of the scores of visions experienced by this woman, originally a Millerite and later a co-founder of Seventh Day Adventism:

Ellen G. White in 1899

Nearly a third of Americans, nearly 50 million individuals, made poverty level wages in 2013

The poverty guideline for an individual in 2015 is just under $12,000.

Catholic clergy pension funds severely underfunded

The Reuters story was picked up here:

"A Reuters review of U.S. Catholic financial disclosures shows the pension funding shortfall in 2014 likely approached $2 billion, with much of that coming due in the next five years as thousands of priests retire. ... A review of 51 dioceses that provide detailed financial information showed a clergy pension funding gap of nearly $700 million - a figure that does not include other post-retirement benefits, or obligations to lay staff. If the remainder of the roughly 197 dioceses in the United States face similar funding issues, the total pension gap would be close to $2 billion. ...

"Pensions for priests became commonplace in the U.S. Catholic Church in the 1970s, typically funded through donations, fundraising drives, and – in some cases – contributions from clergy wages. The pensions are generally fairly meager at around $20,000 per year. A report issued by non-profit group Laity in Support of Retired Priests (LSRP) last year showed that an average priest's pension and social security benefits are projected to be lower than the cost of living."

Still one thing eludes you!

Luke 18:22

One thing you lack!

Mark 10:21

What archaeology tells us Jesus left behind

Reported by Eric Metaxas here:

'Nazareth wasn’t quite the backwater Nathanael and everyone else since thought it was. It was likely “larger” and “slightly wealthier” than previously believed.'

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

"In the same way, those of you who do not give up everything you have cannot be my disciples."

-- Luke 14:33

"John did baptize in the wilderness, and preach the baptism of repentance for the remission of sins."

-- Mark 1:4

"And Jesus answering said unto him, 'Suffer it to be so now: for thus it becometh us to fulfil all righteousness.' Then he suffered him."

-- Matthew 3:15

Muhammad the plagiarist: Age of Koran manuscript pre-dates his career by as many as forty-two years

The story is here (subscription required). The UK Daily Mail here had the money quotes:

Historian Tom Holland, told the Times: 'It destabilises, to put it mildly, the idea that we can know anything with certainty about how the Koran emerged - and that in turn has implications for the history of Muhammad and the Companions.'

Keith Small, from the University of Oxford's Bodleian Library, added: 'This gives more ground to what have been peripheral views of the Koran's genesis, like that Muhammad and his early followers used a text that was already in existence and shaped it to fit their own political and theological agenda, rather than Muhammad receiving a revelation from heaven.'

Students of the Koran in the West have long doubted the story of the miraculous origin of the words of the Koran given to the illiterate prophet, based in part on Muhammad's version of Christianity in it, which is derivative of heretical Nestorianism, not revelation. Muhammad had contact with Nestorians according to various accounts, but it is thought that it was primarily through the family of his wife Khadija, from whom he must have learned much of what he knew about Christianity and Judaism. An anonymous philologist (who fears for his life) has even proposed that much of the Koran was originally a Christian Arabic lectionary translated from Syriac sources, which makes even more sense now that a manuscript of the Koran appears to be dated precisely to the period when the words were supposedly circulating only as oral tradition, as recitation.

It would seem that Muhammad and his companions raided more than caravans.

Believe it or not, the King James Version of the Bible remains the most read in America

The NIV is second most read version of the Bible.

It must be true. I read it here in The Washington Post, which also says 88% of Americans own at least one copy and that 40 million Bibles are sold here annually:

'The Bible business is booming. There are annual sales of 40 million Bibles — from study Bibles to family Bibles to pocket Bibles. That’s not even counting foreign markets. As journalist Daniel Radosh observed, “The familiar observation that the Bible is the best-selling book of all time obscures a more startling fact: The Bible is the best-selling book of the year, every year.”'

Why is God silent?

 

Because God is light.

This then is the message which we have heard of him, and declare unto you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all.

-- 1 John 1:5

Unresting, unhasting, and silent as light,

Nor wanting, nor wasting, thou rulest in might;

Thy justice like mountains high soaring above

Thy clouds which are fountains of goodness and love.

-- "Immortal, Invisible, God Only Wise", Walter Chalmers Smith, stanza two (1867)

Elite wannabes like Thomas Kidd of Baylor are so pissed off over evangelicals' support of Donald Trump they're denying reality

 

 

'Why in the world would so many Christians support a rude and crude candidate like Trump, whose pro-life credentials seem obligatory at best, and who specializes in vilifying Hispanics? ... I frankly do not believe that most of the people identifying as “evangelicals” in these polls are evangelicals (or conservatives) in any useful sense. The sympathy for Trump is, instead, a holdover of the worst aspects of American civil religion and Bible Belt culture.'

Well, that clears it up. Y'all must be fundamentalists.

You would think that an historian worthy of the name would take care to identify Trump more accurately as a critic of law-breakers and those who excuse them, but that would get in the way of the elite agenda, wouldn't it? I mean, Christian America must forgive, must it not? Separation of church and state my sweet German-American ass!

More at the link.

The sun will swallow the earth

Reported here:

According to experts from the Galaxy And Mass Assembly (GAMA), the universe is only churning out half as much energy as it did 2 billion years ago, and is gradually approaching a state of entropy. The study confirmed something researchers have suspected for decades: the stars that populate countless galaxies are slowly burning themselves out. ...

The study, which was jointly led by Simon Driver and Andrew Hopkins, was an international effort that harnessed technology both on land and in space to study 200,000 galaxies and the energy they generated. Basically, it found that stars have lost roughly half their firepower over the last 2 billion years. ...

There is one type of cosmic body largely responsible for emitting galactic energy, and it's slowly losing steam, experts said. "Those emissions are dominated by stars," said Adam Burrows, professor in the astrophysical sciences department at Princeton University. The galaxy gas that creates these stars "is being depleted, and is not being adequately replenished." ...

[O]ne scientist contends it could be 100 billion years out before the universe fizzles. For perspective, the universe is just 14 billion years old, according to NASA. ...

Meanwhile, there might be more immediate challenges for the universe—and again, those too are much further on the horizon. "In 5 billion years, the sun will expand and swallow the Earth," said Driver. "In 10 billion years, our galaxy will merge with Andromeda." ...

Astronomers estimate there are more than 100 billion galaxies in the observable universe, said David Kaiser, a physics professor at MIT whose work focuses on Early-universe cosmology.

But reported here previously:

[T]he heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up. ... the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat . . ..

-- 2 Peter 3:10,12

Abortion just in the US approaches 60 million but Christians still wring their hands over Hiroshima and Nagasaki

Here.

If I didn't know better I'd say all these children killed in the United States since 1973 have been a guilt offering for the horrors of World War II in which we participated.

What morality can there possibly be in war, Christian or otherwise? All such thinking is a rationalization of war. All's fair in it. Who cares that millions of lives were spared by the atomic bombings? Certainly not Americans, who have gone on to kill millions of their own whose only crime was to have the temerity to begin existing as a consequence of someone else's pleasure-seeking.

In truth all such thinking about just war is actually an attempt at rationalizing Christianity itself, not simply war. It is an attempt to reconcile good and evil on the grand scale instead of on the puny stage we all occupy, where a beautiful life is tragically ended by a criminal, an accident, or a disease, and there's no explaining it.

The message of Jesus made perfect sense until it didn't, when the kingdom of God did not come as he thought it would, when God's justice failed to appear on earth as it is in heaven.

God's justice. The scoffers among us ridicule him for being wrong about this when we should be honoring him for showing us how far we are from it, the more now than in 1945 over Japan.    

Theologian seems completely unaware of the teaching of Jesus about becoming the poor

Robin Lane Fox in 2013

Here, for whom it is also news that rich ancient luminaries were expected to be benefactors of their cities and so on, something Robin Lane Fox discussed way back in the 1980s. Patron-client relationship and all that.

What do they teach the Christian theologians these days? Obviously not classical antiquity, its milieu.

The whole thing is quite astonishingly uninformed really, until you realize this theologian is a Paulinist and wouldn't know much about the teaching of Jesus anyway because Paul didn't, which is the relevant point lost on one who is going to worship an unknown Jesus whilst pondering voting Labour in the 21st century.

You can't take the Jew out of the apostle to the Gentiles: "Don't walk like Gentiles walk"

Don't walk like an Egyptian

So I tell you this, and insist on it in the Lord, that you must no longer walk as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their thinking.

-- Ephesians 4:17

Christianity obliges one to be a communist

SOAMES.  "My advice to you all is to do your duty by taking the Christian vows of celibacy and poverty. The Church was founded to put an end to marriage and to put an end to property." ...

SOAMES.  "I am a Christian. That obliges me to be a Communist."

-- George Bernard Shaw, "Getting Married" (1908)

Catholic priest tells Cardinal Dolan to apologize to Donald Trump for calling him a nativist

Here:

"I am no big fan of Trump’s, and I want someone else to be our next president. But it is unworthy of a high Church official to casually accuse this man of being aligned with the most bigoted and violent elements of the Nativist movement, people who literally burned down Catholic Churches and killed Catholics, as well as opposed their immigrating to this country. Where’s the proof? It’s common now for Churchmen to apologize for past wrongs. Cardinal Dolan owes Donald Trump an apology for this present wrong."

To inherit eternal life Jesus wanted people to do something, but Paul wanted people to believe something

And, behold, one came and said unto him, Good Master, what good thing shall I do, that I may have eternal life? ... Jesus said unto him, If thou wilt be perfect, go and sell that thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come and follow me.

-- Matthew 19:16, 21

And when he was gone forth into the way, there came one running, and kneeled to him, and asked him, Good Master, what shall I do that I may inherit eternal life? ... Then Jesus beholding him loved him, and said unto him, One thing thou lackest: go thy way, sell whatsoever thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come, take up the cross, and follow me.

-- Mark 10:17, 21

And a certain ruler asked him, saying, Good Master, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?... 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 18:18, 22

Then he called for a light, and sprang in, and came trembling, and fell down before Paul and Silas, And brought them out, and said, Sirs, what must I do to be saved? And they said, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house.

-- Acts 16:29ff.

That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.

-- Romans 10:9

. . . it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe.

-- 1 Corinthians 1:21

By which also ye are saved, if ye keep in memory what I preached unto you, unless ye have believed in vain.

-- 1 Corinthians 15:2

He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be damned.

-- Mark 16:16 (from the longer ending verses 9-20, clearly not original but in keeping with the apostolic emphasis)

Those by the way side are they that hear; then cometh the devil, and taketh away the word out of their hearts, lest they should believe and be saved.

-- Luke 8:12 (the last clause is missing in the versions by Matthew and Mark and is perhaps evidence of the influence of Paul et alia upon Luke)

A millennial's lights are on but nobody's home

Rachel Williams, here:

"It is encouraging to remember the United States remains the most Christian nation in the world.  After all, 7 out of 10 Americans claim some to follow some form of Christianity.  Even better, two-out-of-three Americans believe Jesus was the Son of God and rose from the dead."

And you thought 70% was better than 66%.

Roman Catholics, Orthodox and fundamentalists fear Donald Trump's Protestantism

Here, here, and here, just to name three recent examples: Trump can't be a good Christian according to Cardinal Dolan because he supposedly doesn't welcome the stranger, or doesn't have a high enough view of the Lord's Supper, or hasn't repented and been born again.

Mitt Romney's Mormonism was supposed to be off limits in 2012, but suddenly fellow Christians get to pile on Trump.

Better watch out. He's been known to fight back.