How strange, and wonderful, that changeable mother earth gives birth to mothers, and fathers, who are not

The parents share incubation, changing duty daily for over a month.

Th' air doth not motherly sit on the earth

To hatch her seasons, and give all things birth.

-- John Donne

How to seem a saint

Then thus I cloath my naked villany

With old odd ends, stol'n forth of holy writ,

And seem a saint when most I play the devil.

-- William Shakespeare, Richard III, Act 1, Scene 3

A chaos of individualism

'Tis with our judgments as our watches, none

Go just alike, yet each believes his own.

-- Alexander Pope

Like orthodoxy, heresy delivers little in the way of observable improved condition

 

 

As for speculative heresies, they work mightily upon men's wits; yet do not produce great alterations in states.

-- Francis Bacon (1561-1626)

On the utility of heresy

Till Arianism had made it a matter of great sharpness and subtlety of wit to be a sound believing Christian, men were not curious what syllables or particles of speech they used.

-- Richard Hooker (1554-1600)

A rogue's epitaph

 

 

Reader, if any curious stay

To ask my hated name,

Tell them, the grave that hides my clay

Conceals me from my shame.

-- Samuel Wesley (c. 1662-1735)

To resist or not to resist, that was a question

Don't resist the evil one (μὴ ἀντιστῆναι τῷ πονηρῷ) -- Matthew 5:39

     But deliver us from the evil one (ἀλλὰ ῥῦσαι ἡμᾶς ἀπὸ τοῦ πονηροῦ) -- Matthew 6:13, Luke 11:4

     But I ask that you keep them from the evil one (ἀλλ᾽ ... ἵνα τηρήσῃς αὐτοὺς ἐκ τοῦ πονηροῦ) -- John 17:15

    The Lord is faithful and will guard you from the evil one (... φυλάξει ἀπὸ τοῦ πονηροῦ) -- 2 Thessalonians 3:3

Resist the devil (ἀντίστητε τῷ διαβόλῳ) -- James 4:7

One of the greatest scientists ever was a Protestant

"Science is the belief in the ignorance of experts" – Richard Feynman, atheist, Jew, theoretical physicist, Nobel Prize winner in 1965

Catholic Archbishop of Philadelphia praises pope's anti-fanaticism and Athanasius all in the same breath

Charles Chaput, here.

It's always amusing to listen to fanatics have their cake and eat it too.

The pope can travel to Egypt and "speak eloquently against religious fanaticism" while these priests never consider that their own vows of celibacy just might be a sign of an extreme obsession of their own. Muslims who kill in the name of their religion are fanatics, they say, but Christian clergy who won't be fruitful, multiply and contribute new lives like normal people do somehow get a pass. There is active killing, but apparently not passive. Mortal and venial anyone?

Anyway, to the mind of Chaput the pope visiting Egypt suggests Athanasius, 4th century bishop of Alexandria, whom Chaput without the slightest whiff of embarrassment holds up as someone who zealously lived his faith, believed deeply, and courageously stood against the whole blasted heretical world. His name became attached to a creed which anathematized Arians, etc., condemning them to "everlasting fire". Wow. Nothing to see in the way of fanatical there, no sir. Move along. 

Religious founders are by definition fanatics. They have to be in order to be successful at founding something. That's why we remember them and follow them. Some are worse than others (I'm talking about you, Muhammad), which is to say some are better than others (your choices are any, except Muhammad). The also-rans in the competition don't found whole new world religions. Typically they become "saints" or their equivalents. Like the rest of us, they have mixed human natures, with some admirable qualities and frankly, some not so admirable, either in their own lives or because the law of unintended consequences yielded something awful from what they taught or from an understandable misunderstanding of what they taught. You know, like jihad, or pacifism, communism or apocalypticism.

Generally speaking, the more fundamental they are, the more kinda mental they are.

So a Paul of Tarsus tamed the wild beast who was Jesus, and a Martin Luther tamed the wild beast that was Paul. And now the Western world, at least, is a sort of circus of tamers.

But there's no one yet to tame Muhammad.

Pope Francis: In communism he found the same aspect of the social he found in the doctrine of the Church

To paraphrase Oswald Spengler, there is no contradiction between Roman Catholic social doctrine and Bolshevism.

Pope Che, quoted here:

“She often read Communist Party texts to me and gave them to me to read. So I also got to know that very materialistic conception. I remember that she also gave me the statement from the American Communists in defense of the Rosenbergs, who had been sentenced to death,” he has said. Learning about communism, he said, “through a courageous and honest person was helpful. I realized a few things, an aspect of the social, which I then found in the social doctrine of the Church.” As the archbishop of Buenos Aires, he took pride in helping her hide the family’s Marxist literature from the authorities who were investigating her. According to the author James Carroll, Bergoglio smuggled her communist books, including Marx’s Das Kapital, into a “Jesuit library.”

Unbeliever excommunicated from Science Mike's church for unbelievers

The following comment stream was deleted from here today by Science Mike.

Priceless!

The intolerance of religion is eternal, especially heretical religion.

The problem with Science Mike is that he seems to want to put a ring fence around Jesus

He hasn't seriously considered whether Jesus' teachings in fact promoted war, apathy and immorality.

Here, from his Axioms About Faith:

Jesus is AT LEAST a man so connected to God that he was called the Son of God and the largest religious movement in human history is centered around his teachings. EVEN IF this is all Jesus is, following his teachings can promote peace, empathy, and genuine morality.

What is every year of a wise man's life?

 

 

A censure and a critique on the past.

-- Alexander Pope

Paul claimed his gospel was not mediated by flesh and blood, but he must have heard something at Stephen's stoning

But I certify you, brethren, that the gospel which was preached of me is not after man. For I neither received it of man, neither was I taught it, but by the revelation of Jesus Christ. ... But when it pleased God, who separated me from my mother's womb, and called me by his grace, To reveal his Son in me, that I might preach him among the heathen; immediately I conferred not with flesh and blood: Neither went I up to Jerusalem to them which were apostles before me; but I went into Arabia, and returned again unto Damascus. Then after three years I went up to Jerusalem to see Peter, and abode with him fifteen days. But other of the apostles saw I none, save James the Lord's brother.

-- Galatians 1:11f., 15ff.

Before this conversion, Luke puts Paul in Jerusalem keeping the coats of those who stoned Stephen for his long proclamation of the gospel and corresponding indictment of Israel:

Then they cried out with a loud voice, and stopped their ears, and ran upon him with one accord, And cast him out of the city, and stoned him: and the witnesses laid down their clothes at a young man's feet, whose name was Saul. And they stoned Stephen, calling upon God, and saying, Lord Jesus, receive my spirit. And he kneeled down, and cried with a loud voice, Lord, lay not this sin to their charge. And when he had said this, he fell asleep. And Saul was consenting unto his death.

 

-- Acts 7:57ff.

How do you consent to something the details of which you are not aware?

An instance of justification, without a cross, without a bloody sacrifice, without a Messiah, without baptism, without the Lord's supper, without the Sinner's Prayer, without a priest, without resurrection from the dead, without works, without faith, without belief, without knowledge, only remorse!

δεδικαιωμένος

And the publican, standing afar off, would not lift up so much as his eyes unto heaven, but smote upon his breast, saying, God be merciful to me a sinner.

I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other: for every one that exalteth himself shall be abased; and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted.

-- Luke 18:13f.

Man is the worst of all animals when sundered from law and justice

 

 

When devoid of virtue man is the most unholy and savage of animals, and the worst in regard to sexual indulgence and gluttony.

-- Aristotle, Politics, 1, 1253a

And GOD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.

-- Genesis 6:5

. . . for the imagination of man's heart is evil from his youth;

-- Genesis 8:21

Jesus was killed because he taught that his generation was uniquely guilty and had to pay with its own blood for sins immemorial

Therefore also said the wisdom of God, I will send them prophets and apostles, and some of them they shall slay and persecute: That the blood of all the prophets, which was shed from the foundation of the world, may be required of this generation; From the blood of Abel unto the blood of Zacharias, which perished between the altar and the temple: verily I say unto you, It shall be required of this generation.

-- Luke 11:49ff.

The interpretation is wholly in keeping with one Jewish interpretation of the suffering servant of Isaiah 52f. as referring to the Nation of Israel itself and not to an individual. Since Christians adopted the latter view, Luke's testimony to this point of view flies in the face of the subsequent Christian understanding, to which Luke himself is also witness in Acts 8. But Luke shines as an historian in this capacity, as in so many other instances, uniquely preserving interpretations, traditions and sayings of the Lord which when taken together appear to leave an incoherent mess, but when properly analyzed and appreciated preserve what we believe to be the historical Jesus' original eschatological message. According to that interpretation, the Son of Man would descend with God's armies of angels to exact from Israel the penalty of sin, the Temple would be destroyed, and all who had not repented would perish. The idea that Jesus came to die for sins is wholly alien to it.

Only Matthew 13 and Hebrews 9 discuss the "foundation" of the world and its final "consummation" in the same narrative

What is noteworthy is that Matthew's narrative is wholly lacking in any notion of an "intervening" sacrifice for sins (the case is similar in Matthew 25 where "foundation of the world" also appears in a context of final judgment):

That it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet, saying, I will open my mouth in parables; I will utter things which have been kept secret from the foundation [καταβολῆς] of the world. Then Jesus sent the multitude away, and went into the house: and his disciples came unto him, saying, Declare unto us the parable of the tares of the field. He answered and said unto them, He that soweth the good seed is the Son of man; The field is the world; the good seed are the children of the kingdom; but the tares are the children of the wicked one; The enemy that sowed them is the devil; the harvest is the end [συντέλεια] of the world; and the reapers are the angels. As therefore the tares are gathered and burned in the fire; so shall it be in the end [συντελείᾳ] of this world. The Son of man shall send forth his angels, and they shall gather out of his kingdom all things that offend, and them which do iniquity; And shall cast them into a furnace of fire: there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth. ... So shall it be at the end [συντελείᾳ] of the world: the angels shall come forth, and sever the wicked from among the just, And shall cast them into the furnace of fire: there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth.

-- Matthew 13:35ff., 49f.

The narrative in Hebrews borrows this terminology but reinterprets the eschatology in the christological and soteriological terms which came to rationalize the Son of man's death as well as individual deaths among mankind generally. The Son of man now has to come back a second time at some unspecified but presumably near future date to effect the final judgment which did not occur the first time (obviously this too is now long "delayed"):

For Christ is not entered into the holy places made with hands, which are the figures of the true; but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us: Nor yet that he should offer himself often, as the high priest entereth into the holy place every year with blood of others; For then must he often have suffered since the foundation [καταβολῆς] of the world: but now once in the end [συντελείᾳ] of the world hath he appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself. And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment: So Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many; and unto them that look for him shall he appear the second time without sin unto salvation.

-- Hebrews 9:24ff.

What Matthew 13 imagines intervening is repentance in obedience to the warning, variously demonstrated by accepting the message with a good heart, turning away from evil, and bearing good fruits of righteousness, by selling everything one has to acquire the kingdom (Luke 14:33), giving to the poor, etc.

The most obvious indication that Jesus taught that few would be saved is the parable of the sower

The parable of the sower is found in the triple tradition, in Matthew 13:3ff., Mark 4:3ff. and  Luke 8:5ff. 

In each version the word of God sown in only 25% of the territories described becomes harvestable, and in each version this wisdom is revealed only to the disciples. This is in keeping with the double-edged sword of the prophetic message of Jesus, to issue one last call to repentance before the final judgment. It is good news to the few who repent, and bad news to the many who do not.

And he said unto them, Unto you it is given to know the mystery of the kingdom of God: but unto them that are without, all these things are done in parables.

-- Mark 4:11

He answered and said unto them, Because it is given unto you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it is not given.

-- Matthew 13:11

And he said, Unto you it is given to know the mysteries of the kingdom of God: but to others in parables; that seeing they might not see, and hearing they might not understand.

-- Luke 8:10

A big part of the attraction of Christianity in China is its answer to communism

From the story in The Atlantic, here:

“[Auntie Wei] was not someone who heard the word wansui [long live] too often. If she heard it, she would have thought it applied to China, or the Communist Party, or Chairman Mao. Wansui: that’s almost always reserved for them. This is wrong. Wansui, this word, if it belongs to anyone, it belongs to Auntie Wei.” A couple of people looked up startled.

“I tell you that she can hear wansui now because she is wansui; she is immortal because of Jesus. It’s not the government that can confer this word. It’s God, and it’s us by how we live our daily lives. It’s the choices we make despite the immoral society we live in. This is what real wansui is. It’s nothing that the Communist Party can provide. It’s something we can make ourselves.”

Suddenly people were smiling; this was why they came to Early Rain Reformed Church. It was different from the anodyne churches sponsored by the state. It was warm and direct, but most of all it was relevant. It was for people who didn’t want the status quo, who were searching for alternatives to the life around them.

Early Rain Reformed Church is located in Chengdu

Reinhold Niebuhr's Christianity fatefully argued that the end justifies the means, playing into the hands of today's radicals

With which Jesus would most certainly not have agreed, otherwise we would know Jesus as a zealot instead of as an eschatological prophet who eschewed human agency in establishing the kingdom of God.

The pacifism against which Niebuhr was reacting is simply one of human beings' competing fall-back positions put forward from his teaching to take the place of Jesus' ultimately mistaken prediction of the end of the world. Pacifism is monstrous in the sense that it is an exaggeration of a part of Jesus' message, distorting that message, as are all interpretations divorced from the eschatological imperative, including Niebuhr's.

There is a direct line connecting Niebuhr to the present, where leftist radicals now eschew the nonviolence of previous civil rights movements and justify aggravated battery in the streets, destruction of private property, and suppression of freedom of speech, among other crimes against the liberal democratic order, in the name of the goals of that order. It's not a coincidence that Niebuhr is a hero to people like Barack Obama, John McCain and James Comey, realists who justify lying for the greater good.

If Niebuhr were alive today, one wonders if the irony of the unintended consequences of his own thinking would be lost on him.

Reinhold Niebuhr, recently discussed here:

A reviewer wrote in 1933 of Moral Man and Immoral Society, “To call this book fully Christian in tone is to travesty the heart of Jesus’ message to the world.” The reviewer took issue with the text because Niebuhr implied that Christians must sometimes resort to violence when dealing with groups. Niebuhr traded barbs with pacifists for the rest of the decade. “If modern churches were to symbolize their true faith,” he wrote in 1940, “they would take the crucifix from their altars and substitute the three little monkeys who counsel men to ‘speak no evil, hear no evil, see no evil.” ... In his view the aggressive fascist powers stood on one side. On the other were the naïve pacifists who would refuse to fight evil. We must choose the sensible middle ground, he argued. We must do evil for the sake of the good.

The basic meaning of honoring father and mother has been truncated by the introspective conscience of the West

kabad -- to be honored, to be great, to be plentiful, to be glorious, to multiply oneself, to make oneself numerous

The basic meaning of adding honor to father and mother is giving them grandchildren, in obedience to the Urgebot to be fruitful and multiply, and in fulfillment of the promise to Abraham to make his descendants as the sands of the seashore and the stars of the firmament. It's not simply about "obedience", as Luther would have it in his Large Catechism. Few commentators, in fact, connect the honoring of parents with the number of their posterity as the Old Testament does generally.

Children's children are the crown of old men; and the glory of children are their fathers.

-- Proverbs 17:6

Lo, children are an heritage of the LORD: and the fruit of the womb is his reward. As arrows are in the hand of a mighty man; so are children of the youth. Happy is the man that hath his quiver full of them: they shall not be ashamed, but they shall speak with the enemies in the gate.

-- Psalm 127:3ff.

That in blessing I will bless thee, and in multiplying I will multiply thy seed as the stars of the heaven, and as the sand which is upon the sea shore; and thy seed shall possess the gate of his enemies;

-- Genesis 22:17

The Hatfield Clan in 1897

The first schismatics are the Roman Catholics themselves, and then the Greek Orthodox, and they are divided to this day

Spare me the critique of "schismatic" Protestantism beginning with Luther in 1517.

You Catholics and Orthodox were at it over 400 years before us, and still are.

Meanwhile Protestants laid the groundwork for the most free, enlightened and prosperous populations which have ever existed in human history while you sit there arguing about who runs this rathole and that rathole as both are being overrun by Muslims.

In 1053, the first step was taken in the process which led to formal schism: the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople Michael I Cerularius ordered the closure of all Latin churches in Constantinople, in response to the Greek churches in southern Italy having been forced either to close or to conform to Latin practices. According to the historian J. B. Bury, Cerularius' purpose in closing the Latin churches was "to cut short any attempt at conciliation". ... Several attempts at reconciliation did not bear fruit. In 1965, Pope Paul VI and the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople Athenagoras I nullified the anathemas of 1054, although this nullification of measures taken against a few individuals was essentially a goodwill gesture and did not constitute any sort of reunion. Contacts between the two sides continue: every year a delegation from each joins in the other's celebration of its patronal feast, Saints Peter and Paul (29 June) for Rome and Saint Andrew (30 November) for Constantinople, and there have been a number of visits by the head of each to the other. The efforts of the Ecumenical Patriarchs towards reconciliation with the Catholic Church have often been the target of sharp criticism from some fellow Orthodox.

"Bible Answer Man" Hank Hanegraaff falls for superstition, booted from US radio network serving 51 million listeners, mostly Baptist, for converting to Greek Orthodoxy

From the story here:

[Bott Radio Network] had reportedly been broadcasting the "Bible Answer Man" since the 1980s, even before Hanegraaff joined the show in 1989. ... BRN says on its website that it operates over 100 broadcast signals with a combined coverage of 51 million people in 15 states, offering "family quality Christian programming 24 hours a day." The "Bible Answer Man" page could no longer be found on the BRN website. The Christian Post confirmed last week that Hanegraaff, who is also the president and chairman of the Christian Research Institute, was chrismated on Palm Sunday at Saint Nektarios Greek Orthodox Church in Charlotte, North Carolina.

http://www.stnektarios.org/files/various_pdf/baptism_requirements.pdf

Filial piety: The first rule for a long and happy life

Honour thy father and thy mother: that thy days may be long upon the land which the LORD thy God giveth thee.

-- Exodus 20:12

Honour thy father and thy mother, as the LORD thy God hath commanded thee; that thy days may be prolonged, and that it may go well with thee, in the land which the LORD thy God giveth thee.

-- Deuteronomy 5:16

My, how the country, and even NYC, has changed in the last 61 years

Perhaps Jesus' worst legacy is the trail of "heroic" but really mentally ill "self-sacrificial" suicides he encouraged, starting with Paul

He that findeth his life shall lose it: and he that loseth his life for my sake shall find it. -- Matthew 10:39

For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it. -- Matthew 16:25

For whosoever will save his life shall lose it; but whosoever shall lose his life for my sake and the gospel's, the same shall save it. -- Mark 8:35

For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: but whosoever will lose his life for my sake, the same shall save it. -- Luke 9:24

Whosoever shall seek to save his life shall lose it; and whosoever shall lose his life shall preserve it. -- Luke 17:33

He that loveth his life shall lose it; and he that hateth his life in this world shall keep it unto life eternal. -- John 12:25 (!)

For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain. -- Philippians 1:21

Organs of the liberal media showcase anti-Christian progressive Christians preening and calling Trump anti-Christian

Tutt Tutt . . . looks like bullshit

The Rev. Ann Kansfield, smoking, cursing, lesbian preacher employed by the FDNY (church and state issue anybody?), sure knows how to get her name in the newspapers, here, where however you never learn from the Christian Science Monitor that she's a smoking, cursing, lesbian:

Rev. Ann Kansfield, the minister of proclamation at Greenpoint Reformed, isn’t sure how much the congregation’s recent surge can be attributed to a “Trump bump.” More people voted for Bernie Sanders in Greenpoint, after all, than any other area of New York City in the Democratic primary last year, and Reverend Kansfield noticed a simmering political energy going back to 2015.  

Up to then, the church had plateaued with about 35 adult members. On Sunday, there were more than 60, including children. “We were already established as the progressive church in the neighborhood,” she says, noting that LGBT inclusion and its soup kitchen and food pantry were its primary ministries. “But with this new energy, we’ve been doing some deciding over who we are and what we do, and what following Jesus should look like in our context.”

As it happens, this Christian Science Monitor story links to an Atlantic story here from last December which is in fact skeptical of the surge in attendance, but where, lo and behold, another guy pops up who also manages to work the organs of the liberal media by being outrageous, namely the devil-denying Timothy Tutt, except the Atlantic never tells you that Timothy Tutt denies the existence of the devil:

While a number of pastors spoke about their parishioners’ feelings of pain, they also spoke of a newfound sense of mission. “I am finding the coming Trump presidency … to be clarifying,” wrote Timothy Tutt, the senior minister at Westmoreland Congregational United Church of Christ in Bethesda, Maryland, in an email. “As a liberal Christian preacher it helps me find my voice. It helps me know who I am called to be. And helps our congregation know who we are—and who we aren’t.”

"Progressive" Christians such as these, the Atlantic informs us, imagine that Trump is "the antithesis of everything Christian".

Written without the slightest hint of irony.

Actual forgiveness of sins, without a bloody sacrifice, without resurrection from the dead

For if ye forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. -- Matthew 6:14

And, behold, they brought to him a man sick of the palsy, lying on a bed: and Jesus seeing their faith said unto the sick of the palsy; Son, be of good cheer; thy sins be forgiven thee. -- Matthew 9:2

When Jesus saw their faith, he said unto the sick of the palsy, Son, thy sins be forgiven thee. -- Mark 2:5

And when ye stand praying, forgive, if ye have ought against any: that your Father also which is in heaven may forgive you your trespasses. -- Mark 11:25

And when he saw their faith, he said unto him, Man, thy sins are forgiven thee. -- Luke 5:20

Judge not, and ye shall not be judged: condemn not, and ye shall not be condemned: forgive, and ye shall be forgiven. -- Luke 6:37

And he said unto her, Thy sins are forgiven. -- Luke 7:48

What if the Jesus Movement wasn't originally a resurrection cult at all?

For a resurrection cult which came to believe in Jesus' resurrection, Jesus' closest followers seem like the biggest bunch of dimwits about it despite all of Jesus' "predictions" that he would rise on the third day.

One begins in Matthew 12:40 with the prediction that the Son of Man would be "three days and three nights in the heart of the earth".

Then follow all the rising-on-the-third-day predictions in Matthew 16:21, 17:23, 20:19 and 26:32.

Mark has these in 8:31, 9:31, 10:34 and 14:28.

Luke in 9:22, 44, 18:33, and ex post facto 24:6ff., 21, 26, 46.

Yet there is unaccountable bewilderment on the part of the disciples about Jesus' prediction: "what the rising from the dead should mean" (Mark 9:10).

There is even fear to inquire: "But they understood not that saying, and were afraid to ask him" (Mark 9:32).

You have to wonder about such dumbfoundedness given the ubiquity of the topic in the gospels otherwise.

In Matthew 10:8 Jesus sent out these same disciples to "raise the dead"! Well, did they?

Resurrections are proof of Jesus' ministry (Matthew 11:5, Luke 7:14, 22 and 8:54).

And speculation existed that Jesus himself was John the Baptist risen from the dead (Matthew 14:2), or one of the prophets (Luke 9:8, 19). Like they hadn't heard that.

You also have to wonder about other perplexing behavior.

Why would the women followers of Jesus bother to prepare spices for the burial of his body and bring them on the third day if he actually predicted that he would die and rise, and they believed this? (Mark 16:1, Luke 23: 56, Luke 24:1)

Even the authorities knew of this prediction, we are led to understand, and took measures to secure against it. (Matthew 27:63f. "that deceiver said 'After three days I will rise again'") The unbelievers knew, but Jesus' own followers did not? (John 20:9 "For as yet they knew not the scripture, that he must rise again from the dead")

None of this is satisfactory.

The predictions of Jesus' death and rising on the third day all look to be revisionist history, imported into the narrative from the future when reflection had settled on a resurrection narrative.

That narrative was largely Pauline. It made resurrection the centerpiece of the religion, replacing Jesus' original message of the imminent coming of the kingdom of God. As such the narrative was a Christian form of Pharisaism, in which Paul's genius as a theologian invented the new availability of individual holiness apart from the temple cult, secured through the once for all sacrifice of God's own son.

Jesus meanwhile had intended none of this, not to die for the sins of Israel let alone the whole world. If he intended the replacement of the temple cult, it was with individual repentance and mercy, prayer, and delight in the law of the Lord, bringing an end to the shedding of blood in preparation for the descent of the heavenly temple when God himself would establish justice and peace once and for all, and remove everything from Israel which offended. "Thy kingdom come, thy will be done . . .."

The historical kernel on which was built a religion wholly different from this was simply Jesus' own conviction that as a prophet he would likely be killed.

Out of the molehill of this sober expectation and its unfortunate realization was made the historical accident, the mountain we call Christianity.

The durable Great Commission and the transitory Not So Great Commission: Pick one

Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them . . . teaching them . . . and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen.

-- Mt. 28:19f.

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. And as ye go, preach, saying, The kingdom of heaven is at hand. . . . for verily I say unto you, Ye shall not have gone over the cities of Israel, till the Son of man be come.

-- Mt. 10:5ff., 23

The anti-Protestant lunatics get to spread their hate at Rod Dreher's blog

Seen here in the comments section from Roman Catholic partisans:

Luther, in effect, by concocting a doctrine that he said was THE essence of the faith, swept away all church history . . ..

And this:

. . . God was killed by Martin Luther. What we are now witnessing is the final product of that deicide.

Meanwhile Muslims are mass-murdering Coptic Christians in Egypt in coordinated attacks on Palm Sunday.

But the enemy for Catholics is Lutherans. And anti-migrant populists.

Last time I checked it was Protestant America that saved Rome's sorry ass.

I'm so Protestant . . .

. . . I object to what even I believe.

N. T. Wright tells an existential whopper about Jesus' triumphal entry into Jerusalem

 

 

 Here's N. T. Wrong telling us Jesus was weeping as he entered Jerusalem on Palm Sunday, for all manner of reasons except for what the text says:

The crowd went wild as they got nearer. This was the moment they had been waiting for. All the old songs came flooding back, and they were singing, chanting, cheering and laughing. At last, their dreams were going to come true. But in the middle of it all, their leader wasn't singing. He was in tears. Yes, their dreams were indeed coming true. But not in the way they had imagined. He was not the king they expected. Not like the monarchs of old, who sat on their jewelled and ivory thrones, dispensing their justice and wisdom. Nor was he the great warrior-king some had wanted. He didn't raise an army and ride to battle at its head. He was riding on a donkey. And he was weeping - weeping for the dream that had to die, weeping for the sword that would pierce his supporters to the soul. Weeping for the kingdom that wasn't coming as well as the kingdom that was. What was it all about? What did Jesus think he was doing?

What a gooey mess this is, which is fitting I suppose for a part of the tradition which is itself utterly confused and self-contradictory.

The weeping is only Luke's. Matthew, Mark and John do not know it in the triumphal entry.

Luke for his part nevertheless explains quite clearly that Jesus wept for a good and sober reason, namely the coming judgment of Jerusalem, which he believed was the consequence of the imminent coming of the kingdom:

And when he was come near, he beheld the city, and wept over it, Saying, If thou hadst known, even thou, at least in this thy day, the things which belong unto thy peace! but now they are hid from thine eyes. For the days shall come upon thee, that thine enemies shall cast a trench about thee, and compass thee round, and keep thee in on every side, And shall lay thee even with the ground, and thy children within thee; and they shall not leave in thee one stone upon another; because thou knewest not the time of thy visitation.

-- Luke 19:41ff.

This is no dream dying. This is a nightmare being expressed, the bad news part of the good news. It's Luke's Jesus at his eschatological best.

This is what Jesus expected, that many would be called, but only few chosen. Not even his father's house would survive in its current form.

And he went through the cities and villages, teaching, and journeying toward Jerusalem. Then said one unto him, Lord, are there few that be saved? And he said unto them, Strive to enter in at the strait gate: for many, I say unto you, will seek to enter in, and shall not be able. When once the master of the house is risen up, and hath shut to the door, and ye begin to stand without, and to knock at the door, saying, Lord, Lord, open unto us; and he shall answer and say unto you, I know you not whence ye are: Then shall ye begin to say, We have eaten and drunk in thy presence, and thou hast taught in our streets. But he shall say, I tell you, I know you not whence ye are; depart from me, all ye workers of iniquity. There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth, when ye shall see Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, and all the prophets, in the kingdom of God, and you yourselves thrust out.

-- Luke 13:22ff.

Luke says Jesus believed this bad dream to the bitter end, even while being led to crucifixion:

And there followed him a great company of people, and of women, which also bewailed and lamented him. But Jesus turning unto them said, Daughters of Jerusalem, weep not for me, but weep for yourselves, and for your children.

-- Luke 23:27f.

Instead of Rod Dreher's Benedict Option, just try the Book of Proverbs

Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it.

-- Proverbs 22:6

The one time being a dumb ass was a good thing

 

[Balaam] was rebuked for his own transgression; a dumb ass spoke with human voice and restrained the prophet's madness.

-- 2 Peter 2:16

Can't dig ditches, too ashamed to beg

Then the manager said to himself, What should I do, since my master is taking my position away from me? I'm not strong enough to dig, and I'm too ashamed to beg.

-- Luke 16:3

Be a good dog

Be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee a crown of life. -- Revelation 2:10

The triple tradition is unanimous that Jewish sects at the time of Jesus preyed on the property of widows

Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye devour widows' houses, and for a pretence make long prayer: therefore ye shall receive the greater damnation. -- Matthew 23:14

And he said unto them in his doctrine, Beware of the scribes, which love to go in long clothing, and love salutations in the marketplaces, And the chief seats in the synagogues, and the uppermost rooms at feasts: Which devour widows' houses, and for a pretence make long prayers: these shall receive greater damnation. -- Mark 12:38ff.

Beware of the scribes, which desire to walk in long robes, and love greetings in the markets, and the highest seats in the synagogues, and the chief rooms at feasts; Which devour widows' houses, and for a shew make long prayers: the same shall receive greater damnation. -- Luke 20:46f.

Pure and faultless religion looks after the widow and the fatherless in their affliction . . .

Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.

-- James 1:27

A sick disciple is unthinkable to today's preachers of divine healing

I was sick and you looked after Me.

-- Matthew 25:36

"The least of these my brethren" remains misunderstood divorced from the meaning of discipleship in its apocalyptic milieu

The misunderstanding was recently on vivid display here, where conservative and liberal interpreters feud over the meaning of Matthew 25:40 for the contemporary social situation of wealth and poverty.

And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.

Unfortunately the text has little meaning for the contemporary social situation, except perhaps to teach those who think that they are Jesus' followers that they are not, and those who are self-satisfied humanitarians that they are dull.

The significance of "my brethren" is much more than what its conservative interpreters say it is. The phrase locates it in apocalyptic time, to the activity of The Twelve before the end of the world. It cannot refer to future generations, as if it were some timeless instruction for right living which liberalism for example can pride itself on by making it the law of the land. Jesus does not at all imagine such a future. He does not even imagine our existence. Instead Jesus imagines a future cut short by judgment and the arrival of the kingdom of God. It is the narrowest of time horizons constrained by the expectation of an imminent end of the world.

Then shall the King say unto them on his right hand, Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. ... Then shall he say also unto them on the left hand, Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels (Matthew 25:34, 41).

The activity of The Twelve is what is expected of disciples who have paid the cost to escape the apocalyptic sentence of death: Leaving all and following their Master, selling what they have and giving to the poor, embarking on an itinerant life preaching a similar repentance, traveling without visible means of support and relying on God to provide, and so on. This is all of a piece with the teaching on discipleship and the instructions to missionaries elsewhere, summarizing and presupposing it.

"Salvation" comes to a house that provides these itinerants their food, drink, clothing, shelter, palliative care for illness in the event, and companionship if and when imprisoned for posing a threat to the powers about to be overthrown by the inbreaking of God's reign. Such acts constitute their own repentance and solidarity with the "Christian" message.

Needless to say, this is a vision which has almost nothing to do with the Pauline Gospel per se, but amazingly survived in the written record anyway despite its failure to materialize.

It does live on in Paul, however, in another form, in "the collection for the saints". Paul's pledge "to remember the poor" is specifically defined by that, and not by a dull humanitarianism. Paul's collection for the saints in Jerusalem, in fact, is the second great animating feature of his missionary journeys but is still little remarked let alone appreciated in your average church today. As for the dull humanitarianism, we have to wait until the 19th Century and Liberal Christianity before we really get the groundwork laid for that contemporary misreading of the ancient sources referred to above. It was against this that Schweitzer's critique based on apocalyptic was launched at the beginning of the 20th Century.

We talk about that critique a lot here.

For Luke Harrington at Christ and Pop Culture

Sorry, Luke, couldn't help myself. Boring sermon you know, and the mind wanders. Think of it as free advertising.

I write of a scribbler named Harrington

whose 'juvenilia' show he's a simpleton,

when regretfully I see

he means 'juvenility'

A poor boy just being a charlatan.

 

-- Johnny 

Get out of bed, you drunks!

Who has anguish? Who has sorrow?

Who is always fighting? Who is always complaining?

Who has unnecessary bruises? Who has bloodshot eyes?

It is the one who spends long hours in the taverns,

trying out new drinks.

Don't gaze at the wine, seeing how red it is,

how it sparkles in the cup, how smoothly it goes down.

For in the end it bites like a poisonous snake;

it stings like a viper.

You will see hallucinations,

and you will say crazy things.

You will stagger like a sailor tossed at sea,

clinging to a swaying mast.

 

 

And you will say, "They hit me, but I didn't feel it.

I didn't even know it when they beat me up.

When will I wake up

so I can look for another drink?"

-- Proverbs 23:29ff.

A juvenile who doesn't realize "juvenilia" refers to compositions by the young, you know, like by him

Poor boy, here, means "juvenility".

Martin Luther wanted to drain the Vatican swamp, using as his Twitter his German translation of the Bible and the Pamphlet

Peter Stanford, here:

The 95 theses – and much of what Luther subsequently said in public as his message spread across the continent, right up to his excommunication in 1521 – were the work of a classic disrupter who, in today’s terms, wanted to drain the “Vatican swamp”.

Fluent in the language of the street, the undeniably charismatic Luther wrote most of his best-known and most inflammatory texts not in church Latin but in German, going on to produce in 1522 the first translation of the New Testament into everyday German, and in 1534 a translation of the whole Bible.

Those in the pews no longer had to rely on the word of priests and bishops instead of the word of God. He realised the force of appealing over the head of “experts” long before Michael Gove hit upon it in the Brexit push.

And in working with the owners of newfangled printing presses, he was among the first to spot the potential of what was the social media of its day as an alternative means of spreading his new anti-establishment gospel. Pamphlets of edited versions of his tracts spread like ripples through Germany, then Europe, Rome and even England. In an age of widespread illiteracy, he made sure he engaged those who could not read by including illustrations, using crude, often satirical woodcuts from the studio of his close friend and fellow Wittenberger, Lucas Cranach the Elder.

So when he stood before the Holy Roman Emperor and the princes and prelates of Germany at the Diet of Worms in 1521, defending his writings on pain of death, Luther had crowds outside on the streets rallying to his defence, stirred up by leaflets and posters saturating the town.

Much as they wanted to be rid of “this petty monk”, as pope Adrian VI labelled him, the establishment could not hand him over to his fate for fear of igniting an uprising. So Luther, unlike those earlier would-be reformers, lived to put his theories into practice.

A proposed definition of "middle class" for The Devil's Dictionary

Middle class 

n. The economic class situated between the working class and the upper class, uglier than either for combining the worst features of the other two into one. It has just enough leisure at once to dream of being the idle rich, and to loathe those who do not.  

Researchers report on "INC, Christianity": Bethel Redding type utopians preaching dominionism

From the report here:

The influence of INC Christianity can be seen in the millions of hits on many of their web-based media sites, large turnouts at stadium rallies and conferences, and millions of dollars in media sales. In our interviews with leaders, we found that Bethel, an INC ministry based in Redding, California, for example, in 2013 had an income of US$8.4 million in media sales (music, books, DVDs, web-based content) and $7 million in tuition to their Bethel School of Supernatural Ministry. ... [I]ts proponents have a fundamentally different view of the relationship between the Christian faith and society than most Christian groups throughout American history. ...

Most INC Christian groups we studied seek to bring heaven or God’s intended perfect society to Earth by placing “kingdom-minded people” in powerful positions at the top of all sectors of society.

INC leaders have labeled them the “seven mountains of culture.” These include business, government, media, arts and entertainment, education, family and religion. In this form of “trickle-down Christianity,” they believe if Christians rise to the top of all seven “mountains,” society will be completely transformed.

Baptists who want to extend religious liberty to people who want to kill us are clearly insane

You know, like Russell Moore.

And Presbyterian NeverTrumper David French here in National Review defends him:

At the same time, the ERLC was working diligently to try to bridge persistent racial divisions in the SBC and the Evangelical church more broadly and to persuade the public that religious liberty wasn’t just a Christian concern, but a deeply American value. Towards that end, it controversially (to some) signed on to an amicus brief defending the religious liberty of Muslims seeking to build a mosque in New Jersey. (To criticize this decision is particularly odd given the ERLC’s explicit mission to preserve religious liberty. The same legal standards that apply to mosques will also apply to churches.)

Jesus taught extreme avoidance of temptation because he was pessimistic about human nature and expected imminent judgment

The evidence is unequivocal.

Matthew 6:13  And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.

Matthew 26:41  Watch and pray, that ye enter not into temptation: the spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.

Mark 14:38  Watch ye and pray, lest ye enter into temptation. The spirit truly is ready, but the flesh is weak.

Luke 11:4  And lead us not into temptation; but deliver us from evil.

Luke 22:40  And when he was at the place, he said unto them, Pray that ye enter not into temptation.

Luke 22:46  And said unto them, Why sleep ye? rise and pray, lest ye enter into temptation.

Matthew 5:29  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.

Matthew 5:30  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 13:41  The Son of man will send his angels, and they will gather out of his kingdom all causes of sin and all evildoers.

Matthew 18:6  But whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him to have a great millstone fastened round his neck and to be drowned in the depth of the sea.

Matthew 18:8  And if your hand or your foot causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away; it is better for you to enter life maimed or lame than with two hands or two feet to be thrown into the eternal fire.

Matthew 18:9  And if your eye causes you to sin, pluck it out and throw it away; it is better for you to enter life with one eye than with two eyes to be thrown into the hell of fire.

Mark 9:42  Whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him if a great millstone were hung round his neck and he were thrown into the sea.

Mark 9:43  And if your hand causes you to sin, cut it off; it is better for you to enter life maimed than with two hands to go to hell, to the unquenchable fire.

Mark 9:45  And if your foot causes you to sin, cut it off; it is better for you to enter life lame than with two feet to be thrown into hell.

Mark 9:47  And if your eye causes you to sin, pluck it out; it is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye than with two eyes to be thrown into hell.

John 2:24f.  But Jesus did not trust himself to them, because he knew all men and needed no one to bear witness of man; for he himself knew what was in man.

Matthew 22:16  And they sent their disciples to him, along with the Herodians, saying, Teacher, we know that you are true, and teach the way of God truthfully, and care for no man; for you do not regard the position of men.

Mark 12:14  And they came and said to him, Teacher, we know that you are true, and care for no man; for you do not regard the position of men, but truly teach the way of God.

Matthew 7:11  If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him!

Luke 11:13  If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!

Matthew 3:7  Who hath warned you to flee from the wrath to come?

The apocalyptic timeline is pessimistic about human beings, no matter how you draw it

There can be no talk of building the kingdom of God on earth among men, no talk of extending it far and wide into every human heart, no talk of progress in the faith, no promise of doing greater works than he has done nor of good works which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them which is compatible with Jesus' apocalyptic pessimism. 

When the son of man comes, will he find faith on earth?

-- Luke 18:8

After eating human brains, what's next, Reza Aslan arguing practitioners of ritual cannibalism should be free to practice their religion in the US?

Take, eat, this is my brain . . .

Story here.

Don't read the story if you're eating lunch right now, I'm about to lose mine.

The hubbub isn't about what it should be about, the cannibalism, but about the purported caricature of Hinduism implied by Aslan's documentary.

The guy should be arrested and put away for participating, but hey, he's inviolable because he's a Muslim.

Pope Francis thinks about temptation and faith like a Marxist, not like Jesus

Pope Francis, quoted here:

“Temptation is always present in our lives. Moreover, without temptation you cannot progress in faith,” he said.

If temptation is necessary to advance in faith, in vain do we pray "lead us not into temptation" as Jesus taught his disciples to pray, for then we would be praying not to make progress in faith according to the pope.

Only a Marxist would make faith and temptation antitheses from which a new synthesis of greater faith would ensue.