I felt the need to stitch together some things addressed in this week’s community Bible lesson in Galatians 2. The Talmud has roots all the way back even before the Exile. However, during the Exile it began to take formal shape, since the common language of the Hebrew people shifted away from the classical Hebrew….
Month: January 2024
Crusader Failures
Protestants seldom realize just how much they agree with Catholics. I’ve had plenty of unpleasant encounters with evangelicals who are openly hostile to Catholicism. They are quite unforgiving that about my friendliness toward Catholics, just as I am not that difficult with other religious traditions. I get along okay with Orthodox, Mormons, and JWs just…
9 Feet Thick
As a teenager, I spent time with a lay minister in local missions. One of his signature statements was that the pages of the Bible are nine feet thick. He didn’t know the half of it. Someone sent me a book: The Language of Creation: Cosmic Symbolism in Genesis by Matthieu Pageau. It is not…
Another Catholic Schism?
Some of you have commented about the internal disputes within the Catholic Church. I think it matters. The reason it matters is that the Catholic Church as an institution remains a very influential political actor. In terms of social science analysis, the Catholic people and their priorities are one thing. There are way too many…
No Common Cause
Following Christ is all-inclusive. It is not simply a side-line, something you do separate from all the other stuff in your life. Either He is Lord of all, or not Lord at all. I’m getting some feedback indicating that some of my readers cling too tightly to what is proposed by various sources as the…
Multi-level Reckoning
We can understand the social sciences. Granted, the field is rife with sheer truculent stupidity and evil, but the broad knowledge of human nature is still there. We can still make sense of the data and analysis for things like economics and politics as long as you have no dog in the fight. The problem…
Why Suicide Is a Sin
The real sin in suicide is cowardice. Put it in context: This world is a lie. The only escape is death. But that escape must be earned, in the sense that it comes as a reward for valorous service to our Lord. It is the spiritual equivalent of a military pension. The metaphor of Christianity…
Should Have Already Been Praying
My series of posts on mind-control touch on a basic theme in moral evil: dehumanization. A primary spiritual weapon of evil is to reduce us in our own minds to machines. The Devil and his allies on the elohim council knew what the Fall would do, how God would react. They knew that tempting humans…
Fleeing the Slaughterhouse
It’s likely that you pay some attention to the TV news in your area, and maybe the national networks, as well. How much actual knowledge and understanding lies behind those pretty faces? You can bet that their education was very lopsided, and that they actually believe most of the crap they say on camera. I’m…
It’s All Justified
Most church folks never really think about this: Following Christ is a radical change in your orientation on this life. We can hear and read talk using such language, but the pool of meaning is absent. Instead, most people simply incorporate Jesus into their existing orientation. They don’t have any trouble making Him the new…