https://mewe.com/group/60c498173e0d0e7bca0e1a8a The post What is literalism? appeared first on Christian Forums ..read more

Zyzka was a very clever Czech-Slav military leader who also followed the Jon Hus protest against the HRE in the mid-1400s.  He was the leader of the Hus movement in its second generation, and also a founding father of modern Czech republic.  Mechanically, he is credited with the concept of the tank, and of a moving fortress (connecting several “tanks”) and he developed a primitive gun.  He was known for leading several battles to victory from very underhanded starts.  In one battle, he was able to train peasants to more effective use with farm tools, even the women, than th ..read more

“What is real, then, is freed from the darkness of my individual perception.  …  My perception stands in a system of coordinates that are set by the external world, the Bible, the continuity of time and the scope of all men across the world and throughout history.  All of these are controls on each other, so that together they provide me with a view of reality that is more accurate than any one of them, or than my perception of any one alone.” –U. Middelmann, “The Circumference of Reality” in PRO-EXISTENCE, 1974. I find that many Christians, even preachers, are limited by their ..read more

I’ve put this under Christian Cliches because there are a number of expressions where we can get off on a tangent that is off the mark of Paul’s meaning, for ex: 1, don’t be captured by deceptive philosophy 2, a person must take up their cross and follow me 3, I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me They each have a degree of legitimate meaning as one-liners, but of course, nothing in the NT is a one-liner.  The NT has some 300 pages of material.  The thing is that if we know what Judaism is about at the time, and if we know the historical structure that was changing at ..read more

Sin is both a debt and a stain.  It has at least 2 dimensions and things can be confusing if they are blurred. 1, Justification deals with sin as a debt.  It was God’s work for us in Christ.  The debt is solved by payment by a 3rd party (Christ, or God himself, if you like).  His righteousness is then seen as a ‘monetary’ value that is to be credited, imputed, transferred to us, but not as something we do; only as credit.  When 2 Cor 5 refers to God reconciling the world to Himself, he does not mean he befriended it anew, but was providing something that would deal wit ..read more

The account of Shakespeare’s MERCHANT OF VENICE provides an important detail about how Jews were treated.  They were prohibited from charging interest to (nominal) Christians.  Because of this and many other restrictions, they had a form of usury among themselves, in which those who were having a shortage during a month could borrow from another to manage it, and charge interest while doing so, in free negotiations with each other. The post What was usury in medieval church times? appeared first on Christian Forums ..read more

I believe the answer is found in the quotes of the OT in the earliest speeches in Acts.  This comes from the line in Lk 24, which is the scene or page before Acts 1:  that Jesus taught them for 40 days about how Moses and the prophets spoke of Christ’s suffering for forgiveness, and being preached among the nations.  We should then go locate the earliest quotes from these speeches.  I have made this a complete study in THE ENTHRONED KING.  https://www.goodreads.com/search?utf8=%E2%9C%93&query=sanford+enthroned+king The post How do we find what was taught the apostl ..read more

If Romans 13 opening paragraph means a “Hitler” is ‘ordained by God’ then what?  There are things in the paragraph which turn us away from such obedience.  Indeed, there is no point in using the terms “judgement” “good conduct” “good” “bad” “wrong” or “conscience” if they are not the same definition as elsewhere. Then there is the subtle translation note that ‘servants’ is a neuter.  Government is to serve the public with safety and protection.  It is not to be a tyrant but such a servant as any other anonymous person who is a mere domestic in a household. Finally, there is ..read more

After reading I Cor 7 with a men’s breakfast fellowship, I noticed that the line about prayer–not having sex in marriage so that you can devote yourselves to prayer–has an important assumption built in.  It seems that when sex is refused, it is for something else which should, in any case, be a greater passion:  prayer. There is quite a bit in ch 7 about not seeking another marital status.  So obviously some of the people listening are not married and are dating, while others are already sexually active but wrongly so.  By putting in this line, Paul is quietly reminding us ..read more

The analogy here of a child becoming an adult tells us that the Law/Judaism was a child-trainer to bring us to Christ.  Christ completed what the Law could not do.  He was ‘under the Law’ for us (Paul reminded his friends in Judaism that the Law was upheld this way).  But the person no longer needs the child-trainer stage, and in fact it has adverse effects to go back under it. This line was begun back when Paul discussed how Judaism ‘voided’ or ‘replaced’ the Promise of the Gospel to all nations in 3:17.  The Law was added some 430 years after the Promise, he says, but not ..read more