#Great Apostasy explained

[mindfulldsliving]

Responding to Tom Knoff: Early Church Councils, Scripture, and Apostolic Authority Through a Latter-day Saint Lens

Tom Knoff’s article highlights a pressing issue: how the early Church councils inform our ability to face today’s theological challenges. Drawing from the councils at Nicaea and Constantinople, he argues that their reliance on scripture and precise doctrine was central to confronting heresies like Arianism. The Church has long faced challenges in clarifying and defending the person and nature of…

[trberman]

Understanding LDS Beliefs Amid Evangelical Criticism

Photo by Priscilla Du Preez 🇨🇦 on Unsplash Understanding Evangelical Criticisms: An LDS Perspective on Faith, Debates, and Mutual Respect The relationship between Evangelicals and Latter-day Saints is rich with shared hopes and honest differences, yet it’s often clouded by misunderstanding. Criticisms aimed at LDS beliefs can, at times, feel personal or even dismissive, but they’re also an…

[idylls-of-the-divine-romance]

The Garden of Gethsemane. (The place where Jesus wept?) Any thoughts? I like the way you explain things.

Hi Anonie <333. I am glad to hear that and glad to discuss this part of the narrative. This... will not be like the other ones I've done. First, because there are 4 accounts instead of 1. Second, because I am in the Agony in the Garden as I write this.

Jesus has just gotten done with an incredibly intimate moment. He has eaten with and attempted to comfort his disciples. John lays on him, listens to his heartbeat. Judas consumed him, despite what's going to happen. They sing the Passover hymns (which are absolutely amazing as a literary whole by the way). He tries to explain to his friends that he's about to die, that a New Exodus is coming and the Firstborn Death will be his own. But they love him (too much and not enough) to understand. They distract themselves by arguing about who will be the greatest. Not knowing that to live a king is to die a slave.

He takes his closest friends, John, Jacob, and Peter, and brings them to a garden. Asks them to stay awake. He's at his most vulnerable so he quotes a psalm. 42-43. A psalm of lament and exile. But they still don't get it. He's the Suffering Servant. The "one from whom men turn their faces."

Right now for me, I'm reveling in the hypostatic union of it. I rebel fiercely against the impassibility of God (the idea that God does not have emotions like ours). My God is omnipassionate. Crying in the garden. Asking. Begging. That the wrath of Babylon- "the cup" in Jeremiah, the Gospel Accounts, and the Revelation are the same - is not forced down his throat. Three times he prays this in Matthew's account. Quoting from his own Sermon on the Mount ("not my desire, but yours be done"). Each time realizing more and more that this is really happening.

"My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from Me; yet not as I will, but as You will."

"My Father, if this cup cannot pass away unless I drink from it, Your will be done."

And He left them again, and went away and prayed a third time, saying the same thing once more.

But nonetheless, God suffers alone. His disciples, despite their denials, know what is coming and so they sleep off their depression. With no one but himself to comfort him. Sure messengers come from the skies to strengthen him. But to strengthen him to do what? To die. And so he sweats blood, knowing that he must drink Rome and that he will fall.

I have a great disdain for exegesis that tries to eliminate the passion of the Passion, the agony of the Agony. The attempt to eliminate the pain of Our Lord because it is hard to look at. It is shameful. Humiliating. Look at our God. Lamenting. Crying. Begging. But this is him, and we cannot look away. To look away is to shrink back from death. It is apostasy.

But after that agony, he is composed. He knows there is work to do. That "the one who is betraying me" - why is that phrase in present tense? Has he not already done it? - "is near." That this hour "belongs to yall and the powers of darkness". Judas - his brother and his friend - kisses him. Almost brings him to tears. "Are you betraying the Son of Adam with a kiss?"

With that single moment - a moment that would change the course of history - the fires of gehenna begin to break loose against Our Lord. Swords are out on both sides. Peter cuts of the ear of a slave. Jesus rebukes him (and all the other soldiers with swords and all in the future who will ever bear an arm) and heals the slaves ear: "those who find life by the sword, will find death by the sword."

He questions them: "Why are you so scared? Have I ever taken up arms against you? Am I a rebel, that you come at me with swords and clubs? I was with you every day in the House of God, and yet you did not try to arrest me then?" There is a sense of betrayal in these words. Shock. Sadness. Anger. Despite their hatred of Rome, they have given themselves over to the exact same spiritual evil that the empire has.

It on gets worse as all the disciples flee.

And then at his arrest, it is only the women and John his Beloved who are with him.

Because at the end of the day, as it was in the Garden of Eden, so it is the Garden of Gethsemane: our God must suffer. Alone.

And yet.... I suffer with him. Crying with him. Asking our Father not to abandon us. Asking him to save us from Babylon. Asking that his desire be done. Asking our beloved's to care for our mother. God suffers alone, and yet he refuses to do so. And the gospel accounts include his agony and passion so that we might suffer and die alongside him. Pledging our allegiance to the God of Loyal Love and Covenant Faithfulness, who has power over Life and Death.

May the favor of our God and Lord Jesus the Anointed One be with us, so that we might have the strength to not shrink back from death.

[dustorange]

omg pls share more about your sub stack project??

okay so SABBATEANISM.

the over-under: in the 17th century, in the muslim world, there was a man named shabbetai sevi, and he was making enormous, global waves because he was believed to be the messiah. i’m talking seriously, deeply, truly believed to be the messiah by people from all over the world. enormous amounts of gold donated. etchings carved. sincere true belief. kabbalist mystic etc. He was born in smyrna—he travels all over—the grand vizier has him imprisoned. It is a problem, of course, if this man is claiming to be the jewish messiah and people are believing him. Zevi is transferred between prisons before he ends up in one in Adrianople. The sultan, MEHMED THE HUNTER, hears about him and summons him to his court. Mehmet asks Zevi to explain himself. Who is he—really?

Here’s a good-enough retelling of sevi’s response, poetically true if not 100% word-for-word—although historicity matters loads:

“Shabbathai Zevi answered, with a trembling heart, and said, ‘My lord, the Sultan, I am a Jewish Rabbi. I fear the great God, the God of Abraham, from my youth till now. As to what men are saying concerning me, that I am the Messiah, when it shall come to pass at the time accepted by the great God, the question will be settled, whether it shall be accomplished by my hands or by those of another man. This is known to our God.’”

When the Sultan heard his words, he was wroth, and said, ‘If it be true, according to thy words, that thou fearest God, I will prove thee, as thy father Abraham was proved.’

What choice was Zevi asked to make to prove himself? An oft-repeated claim is that Zevi was given three choices: impalement; a trial by ordeal with arrows, which would, if Zevi’s claims to messiahdom were true, be deflected by heaven; or conversion to Islam. This is fascinating because it sets up three dimensions through which we can view a person’s belief:

Impalement—to die for your beliefs without, presumably, truly believing those beliefs. This is a hardnose kind of surrender. It lets you escape interpersonal shame—you won’t live to see the shame in your supporters’ faces, but you will also be giving up the game, implicitly, ante-mortem; you are saying that you are a fake. After all, if you were real, why not take the chance and face the arrows?

Trial by ordeal—to keep up the charade to the very end. This option, one hopes, would be preferable. And if the arrows are not deflected, hasn’t the Sultan just made the messiah into a martyr? Of course, seeing the so-called messiah’s claims refuted, and seeing the messiah bleeding and dead…it may show definitively that you were false.

Apostasy—to save your skin but bear the judgment of your disciples.

BEFORE WE SAY WHAT ZEVI CHOSE, we should toward the historiography surrounding Sabbateanism. Also, just internet history in general. Above you may have noticed the red-flag term: “oft-repeated claim.” It was said in relation to Zevi’s three-choices-ism. If you Google or Microsoft Edge (Bing?) the phrase “Zevi” or “Sevi” or “false messiah” alongside “three choices,” you will see that there are many websites describing the tripartite choice Zevi faced. 

Even this Fine Judaica antiques seller, Kestenbaum & Company, typed the “three choices” story in their digital history-of-the-piece description. 

And our nail-in-the-coffin, this-is-the-absolute-definitive-truth proof: Wikipedia says it. 

Quoth that foul beast Wikipedia (okay, maybe I’m giving away where this is going): 

The kaymakam informed Sultan Mehmed IV and Sabbatai was removed from Abydos and taken to Adrianople,[9] where the vizier gave him three choices; subject himself to a trial of his divinity in the form of a volley of arrows (should the archers miss, his divinity would be proven); be impaled; or convert to Islam.[16]

That’s that rumor we described earlier! Except is it really true? Let’s check out an interesting citational character from that Wikipedia excerpt—that [16]. That [16] should tell us something about the kind of historiography we’re working with here. The footnote source labeled [16] in the paragraph above that belongs to the Wikipedia article for Shabbetai Sevi is a 2011 book titled God is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything. This book is by Christopher Hitchens. And indeed, on page 171, Mr. Hitchens lays out the three-part system we are familiar with by now. 

And yet no other historical source that I have found has been able to back up this three-choice idea. Instead, they relay something very different. Something much more dualistic. Something that sounds much simpler 2 our two ears. Zevi was offered two choices. Go searching on your own for old sources of this event. I’ll give one here, but you don’t have to just take my word for it. 

Giacomo Saban, in “Sabbatai Sevi as Seen by a Contemporary Traveler,” relays:

When the Sultan saw him, he asked him if it was true that he was the Messiah of the Jews, as was being said everywhere. The Jew gave the Gran Signor the same answer he had given the Vizir, namely, that this was not true, although the Jews were making it known as such. "Perhaps," he said, "they have recognized in me certain talents and particular knowledge that God has granted me, and for this reason they prefer me to any other. I declare," he added, "in the presence of Your Majesty not to be the Messiah; in fact, I renounce entirely such a dignity."

"So be it," the Sultan answered, "but in order to remove the scandal that you have brought on the People of this Empire and in order to free your Nation from this lie, it is necessary that you become a Muslim or that you now resolve to die." He was given no more than a moment to decide. Without thinking too much about it, he readily declared that he wanted to live and die a good turk.

In the end, Shabbetai Zevi says that he is not the messiah—and not even, any longer, a Jew. He becomes a Muslim, a turban wearer (a very meaningful signifier of renunciation of what he was and acceptance of something else in this place-and-time), and, to put it charitably, pretty much a door holder for the Turks. (More, too, but for brevity, we’ll leave it there.)

All of this! What does all of this matter? It’s some microhistory in the Jewish Ottoman story. So what that Wikipedia got it wrong, said THREE instead of TWO? So what that Wikipedia getting it wrong influenced the narrative for pop culture pop history articles about Sevi?

IT MATTERS BECAUSE TWO OPTIONS VERSUS THREE OPTIONS IS VERY DIFFERENT. It matters because it shows a vulnerability in our information production line in the internet era. And it matters because if he was wrong about the basic, most fundamental details of Shabbetai Zevi’s story, what else might the author of God Is Not Great be wrong about?

Anyway! The substack is going to be called Three Choices From Adrianople. It’s going to go deep into the players in the Zevi story—Zevi, Mehmet, Nathan of Gaza, the vizier—in historical profile kind of way, but other articles are going to cover other false messiahs in the Ottoman world. I’m also hoping to tackle some theological elements, plus some MORE big historiographical issues.

[tinyflowercat]

I am Eris. I am the leader of Team Apostasy. I will not let anyone derail me from my goal.

If you are receiving this message it is because we believe you could be a great addition to our team.

We are Team Apostasy, we mean you no harm. Our mission is for the good of all.

The term 'team' is mainly for aesthetics (and to get more attention, all publicity is good publicity) In truth, we are a revolution.

We wish to free humanity from the shackles our 'gods' keep us in.

Our Legendaries, our 'gods' hold no empathy for their creations. We are their playthings, nothing more than a sick joke and a form of entertainment.

So I ask you, do you truly wish to live under the tyrannical rule of those that pretend to care? Do you wish to live in fear of these creatures?

Or do you wish to rise up and fight against them?

It is your decision, we await your response.

@team-apostasy-official

I don't know how else to explain this but no.

I have literally seen worlds thrown into complete chaos- I have SEEN a future without anyone in charge. Without Dialga there to protect the time gears. It is nothing but despair and desolate rock.

Idk what exactly you are planning, but you can bet I'll be with the ones trying to stop you and your little team.

To say that we are toys to legendaries is to say that Battlemons are also toys to us. They aren't. Everyone or Mon works on the same level to maintain the balance. Including the legendaries. I think you'll find you're walking into your own trap. You have no idea what pure-hearted kids are capable of these days.

Good luck getting steam-rolled by a 10 year old.

[rock-bird-go-brr]

I am Eris. I am the leader of Team Apostasy. I will not let anyone derail me from my goal.

If you are receiving this message it is because we believe you could be a great addition to our team.

We are Team Apostasy, we mean you no harm. Our mission is for the good of all.

The term 'team' is mainly for aesthetics (and to get more attention, all publicity is good publicity) In truth, we are a revolution.

We wish to free humanity from the shackles our 'gods' keep us in.

Our Legendaries, our 'gods' hold no empathy for their creations. We are their playthings, nothing more than a sick joke and a form of entertainment.

So I ask you, do you truly wish to live under the tyrannical rule of those that pretend to care? Do you wish to live in fear of these creatures?

Or do you wish to rise up and fight against them?

It is your decision, we await your response.

@team-apostasy-official

//ooc bit before we get started! i am about to tap into the part of me that grew up in Christianity to write this bit. notos isn’t super religious, but you can see the hints of religion in how they speak of the legendaries, especially Rayquaza. just uh. be warned!

okay i genuinely needed to take a second before starting to write this because i needed to process what the fuck you were saying.

alright. your main talking point is that the gods hold no empathy for their people. if that is true, explain why, when hoenn was on the brink of destruction due to the hubris of people like you, Rayquaza came down to cease the chaos? explain why i have seen that same God allow the children of my Team members to clamber over Them like a drampa would?

if all the Gods are merciless tyrants who care not for mortals, explain why i saw Tapu Bulu Himself flying over the city towards the jungle, and why when i returned to the site of that battle with Slash Man, i found it back to how it was before he arrived?

If the Gods shackle us, would the Swords help those in abusive situations escape the ones that harm them?

if the Gods want us to live in fear, why do they Choose some of our own to carry their power and protect us?

if the Gods want us to suffer, would Suicune go around purifying water sources for disadvantaged communities?

you say they only pretend to care. you say they are tyrants. you say that this is a revolution.

you need to understand something, kid. the only time anything legendary-related ever reaches the international news circuit is when it’s a tragedy. never when they do something good. its always when some prideful bastard tries to harness the God’s power without their consent.

going against the Gods. it’s a tale as old as time, and never one that ends well for the rebels. there’s a reason that in Hellenistic mythos, the fatal flaw was always hubris.

[authoralexharvey]

Hi Alex! Happy STS!

If you had to sum up the central theme of each of your WIPs in one word (Hope, Love, Revenge, Family, etc.), what would that word be?

~Morri🗡 (@memento-morri-writes)

Oh boy this is a great one hahaha thanks for the ask @memento-morri-writes and happy STS

Let's see....

ASMLP - Determination. Simone is determined to get answers. Nadia is determined not to die. Etienne is determined to make sure no one gets between him and Nadia. Betrayal may also fit.

TWEfA - I struggled with this one, but ultimately, I think the answer here is Faith. There is discussions of Katalin's faith in Luriel and the Scholars, Maka's faith in the gods. Dakota's faith in herself and then, later on, in Luriel's goals.

Lilium - Closure, I think. While Lilith and Oliver don't fully get the closure they desire out of each other, the story explores how this lack of closure between them bleeds into the other issues they're facing through the course of the story.

Little Vicious Minds - Vengeance. I don't think I need to explain this one.

BTMS - Longing or mourning. Again, fairly self-explanatory.

ABTB - Apostasy. I just learned what this word means (renouncing one's religious/political beliefs) and that fits Toshiko's character arc to a fuckin T.

TOOD - Growth. Quinn changes as a person through the course of the book, in good and bad ways. They decide to regain control of their anxiety. They grow to take more agency of their life. Their love life grows with the addition of Jayashekar. It's meant in a lot of different ways.

WTTV - Heartache. I would also say mourning.

[icephas]

The True Meaning of the 7 Churches Explained

What does Revelation have to say about the Christian Church throughout history? Is it relevant for the Church today? In a look at the prophetic interpretation of the seven churches of Revelation 2 and 3, this episode sweeps through the history of the Christian Church. From the time of Christ through a time of spiritual decline and apostasy, a time of compromise to a time of Gospel restoration, these chapters set the stage for the unraveling of the great controversy between Christ and Satan. Learn how the Sabbath was changed. Revelation is a book you can understand. See for yourself!

[thefernmanner]

"The Frost." From the Book of Sirach, "The Manner of the Fern" 3: 12-16.

Duties to Parents, aka how to read the Torah and Tanakh continues. This section covers a circumstance everyone in the world is wondering about, how to cope with a frost in fair weather. Well beyond disappointment is damage to crops or the soil before plants have a chance to grow or too soon before a harvest. We have just experienced a frost, a major decision, the wrong one, was made by the world's most powerful people and it has destroyed the field. We have to deal with it.

The Torah contains the wisdom we need to face deep corruption and carry on. Except it is not found in homespun self-help advice...how to pay the future back when there is little to plant is of the utmost importance to Jews. The following explains:

12 My child, help your father in his old age,     and do not grieve him as long as he lives; 13 even if his mind fails, be patient with him;     do not despise him because you have all your faculties. 14 For kindness to a father will not be forgotten     and will be credited to you against your sins; 15 in the day of your distress it will be remembered in your favor;     like frost in fair weather, your sins will melt away. 16 Whoever forsakes a father is like a blasphemer,     and whoever angers a mother is cursed by the Lord.

We still have our jobs, our faculties, and our traditions. All the routines that create holiness have not gone the way of the wind because the US Government cannot do its job. But if it is ever going to reform itself, the people of Israel must know and discuss the correct interpretation of the Torah.

v. 12-13: The mind must not fail. The Number is 9914, טטיד‎ ‎‎, tatid, "the tide". The tide is the result of the arrival of the Fourth Day. Once the sun, the moon, and the stars appear in the sky, there will be tides in the sea. The US Elections showed the absence of a moral tide. Back and forth the waters swished but pattern recognition, this was absent.

We are not new to this, we know what is going to happen during a Trump Presidency, we are now married to the mob again, and we know it, but while there was time to do something about it, we chose not to act competently. The Sirach Torah says this is not allowed. Without pattern recognition, man cannot evolve.

v. 14-15: Kindness cures distress. This is a page from the Great Hillel which we have chosen to ignore. The government represents paid professional kindness. The general population is not supposed to trouble itself over immigration, inflation, wars, or the climate, we pay highly trained persons to do these for us. Why they have not been doing it is the question. They have not been doing their jobs because our twin party systems debate details that do not pertain to our spiritual attainments through the work of the government. I have said religion is why, government is how.

While billions starve and wander, some are blind, deaf, lame, or sick because complications due to war, the people of America discussed Pro-Life while children who rape adults for fun cheered in the background. This was all captured on camera. How do we explain this to others? "sorry about your homeless situation, but Bo Loudon the famous Takoma Park money changing boy slut whore was busy manraping his neighbors during the Trump Campaign and we got sidetracked." Sorry about the kindness thing. (?)

The Number is 12389, יבגחט‎ ‎ ‎, yevghat, "you will trust in God."

The problem is Trump ran on a campaign that fixated on a Christian foundation that surely does not smile upon the rapist boy next door paying us a hard visit or ten or twenty while we lay sleeping. In tandem with pattern recognition, we must incorporate common sense through our study of the Torah. Lapses in common sense cause frost.

v. 16. Whoever forsakes a father is like a blasphemer, and whoever angers a mother is cursed by the Lord. Blasphemy is apostasy, a decision to deliberately do the opposite of the scripture. We are presently living in an age rife with blasphemy. The Torah says first thing do not have sex with little kids, but we have elected a president who does this. Many of his friends claim it is a spiritual practice. The Quran says do not be corrupt, do not fight, the Book of Mormon says do not mint weapons...so why is mankind doing these things?

The Number is 6166, ואוו‎ ‎, "what do you desire the most?"

Shabbos is the correct answer, the ability to be happy without being in trouble for it. We read the Torah etc. in order to train the mind and the society to embrace ways to be happy without causing harm or incurring debt.

To read in search of ways to get to heaven for constant forgiveness is not the correct way.

[berenices-commas]

Hoping for an Angel of Vengeance: the tuFatingau Mission to the Court of Stars Uncounted (209–16/123-9) - 3.9

This normalisation of tuFaruao-Umliwe relations would be followed by another apparent overture from Rampas-Ketawan, when the world-queen permitted the coming-to-Obedience of her nieces, the three daughters of Princess Puangayin – Kentelmusang, Wosahayabus, and Piapileh. The three princesses were under the tutelage of Tuito’on Tumetiai and Fu’ura’a Rout. For the missionaries, the conversion of three members of the Umliwe royal family represented a coup that put their mission in Asiga on a par with the more successful tuFatingau exploits in Tahana, Hamanta, and Imayenisi. Rampas-Ketawan’s decision reanimated hopes for the world-queen’s own conversion and the formation of a tuFaruao-Umliwe entente. In a letter of 179/105, Deputy Ma Tuipe tuHu reported the declarations of the three Umliwe princesses to Queen Ne'ato'aha III (r.191–168/112-99), mentioning that they would assume the names Mamara, Umaraa, and Nekatongaha – the names of the previous and current monarchs of Faruao and Ito’o. The connection with the tuIlakso thrones was made even more explicit by Rampas-Ketawan’s order to court diviners to determine an auspicious numero-oracular link between Ne'ato'aha III and Nekatongaha.[1] For the tuFatingau, the coming-to-Obedience of the princesses had the potential to enhance the status of the Obedient in Umliwe Ikam.

A somewhat more anecdotal example of the lobbying undertaken by the missionaries to improve the prestige of the Obedient community is Rampas-Ketawan’s decision in 180/106 to allow the tuFatingau to celebrate comings-to-Obedience in public with the same honorary privileges granted to those who converted to Anticipation. The story behind this privilege, however, exposes the tuFatingau missionaries’ subaltern position at the Umliwe court. In 180/106, Rampas-Ketawan allowed a formerly Obedient Imetya who had converted to Anticipation to parade the halls of Asiga mounted on a god-machine with great pomp. Aware of the implications of the symbolic dimension of the public honours granted to someone who had abandoned Obedience for Anticipation for the local Obedient communities, Rout asked the world-queen for a similar privilege for those who came to Obedience (despite reservations over connecting false gods to a public display of Obedience). Rampas-Ketawan agreed, upon the condition that the convert should ride only a small hauler in imitation of the Child’s humility. Rout noted that in Si this might be considered degrading. Rampas-Ketawan reconsidered and allowed Obedient converts to be mounted on god-machines, but only if the tuFatingau rode in the same procession on haulers, a condition they accepted. By forcing the tuFatingau to participate in a ceremony involving elements with negative connotations in the tuSi symbolic imagination, the world-queen exposed the fragile position of the missionaries as utterly dependent on the benevolence of the Umliwe authorities.

The conversion of Rampas-Ketawan’s nieces ended in probably one of the greatest fiascos of the tuFatingau exploits at the Court of Stars Uncounted. After a few years, the three Umliwe princesses reverted to Anticipation. The tuFatingau explained this setback as another case of Listener untrustworthiness, but the meteoric conversion and apostasy of the princesses seems to have been influenced by complex and subtle political manoeuvres that Tumetiai and Rout were unable to grasp. Rampas-Ketawan’s surprising decision to allow her nieces to come to Obedience in the first place should be understood as a move which would neutralise three potential rivals for the Throne-that-is-the-World by altering their religious affiliation while making a friendly overture to the tuFaruao Enclosure of Ikam, the patron of the tuFatingau mission. The conversions, and specifically the declarations, were also conceived as a public event that exposed the subordination of the tutu and the Obedient communities to the Umliwe polity.

While revisiting the apostasy of the three princesses, Rout concluded that their conversion was a stunt that demonstrated Rampas-Ketawan’s ability to manipulate the tuFaruao authorities and the tuFatingau. Besides revealing Rampas-Ketawan’s dissimulative approach, the failed conversions reinforced Rout’s doubts about the true intentions of converts from Anticipation. Evoking the edicts that had ordered the expulsion of the tuToma, the tuRa’ma missionary stressed that the comings of Listeners to Obedience were often dissimulative acts motivated by personal gain. Despite this problem and the discouragingly low number of conversions, the tuFatingau mission in Umriwe was necessary to support the local Imetya, Loyalist, and Legitimist Obedient communities. According to Rout, the functions of spiritual supervision and political representation performed by the missionaries were not necessarily a guarantee that even they themselves would not convert to Anticipation.

[1] This represents the adoption of a traditionally Obedient practice.

[mindfulldsliving]

Apostolic Christianity Restored: How the LDS Church Revives Christ's Original Teachings

What if the Christianity practiced today wasn’t quite what Christ Himself established? For many, this idea sparks curiosity. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints answers this question by claiming to restore the original Apostolic Christianity, complete with Christ’s teachings, ordinances, and priesthood authority. Grounded in scripture and revelation, this restoration offers a…

[trberman]

Part 2 | A Faithful Critique of "4 Reasons the Apostasy is a False Doctrine of Mormonism"

Introduction and Recap In the previous article – I critically examine a video by God Loves Mormons counter-cult ministry group produced and published to their YouTube channel. This video is titled “4 Reasons the Great Apostasy is a False Doctrine of Mormonism.” In my critique, I identify several logical fallacies Bradley Campbell employs: Begging the Question: The video assumes its…

[ramrodd]

COMMENTARY:

Derek, where did you leave to? You say you left Christianity, but you are still flogging the same Evangelical dollar of Campus Crusade for Christ and all things Pro-Life Christian Nationalism, You are a different side of the same Marxist dialectic, It has to do with the Post Modern Historic Deconstruction you believe is a superior method of inquiry than Hegel's Historic Gestalt, I mean, it's the difference between what you need to be able to do to win at Call of Duty and what they teach you in the Army Ranger School. All you podcast contrarians and Jesus Freaks, you devolve the literature of the bible to a video game based on some double bind that is necessary to take Pro=Life women seriously, A problem is that you guys believe, in your heart of hearts that problems like Gaza and Ukraine and the Korean DMZ can just be turned on and off like the apps on your iPhone,

Abram was a Pagan God Fearer like Cornelius was before he met Jesus,

As I mentioned previously, I don't do any original scholarship, My method is based on the axiom that the Gospels can shed a great deal of light on the commentaries. Rec, Dr, Frank Wade, National Cathedral, said that was advice he was given in Seminary he always found reliable.

So, I listen to shows like yours to pick up the scholarship I can't do any more, Fore example, you had Paul Davidson on talking about Melchizedek and he provided me the evidence of Yaweh, Queen of Battle, fighting along side Abram in Genesis 14, Also, he is correct about the tithing: I;ve heard it explained by all the Prosperity Gospel Preachers that it went to Melchizedek, but was was aalways incongruous to me, intuitively, The Bread and wine makes perfect sense, The tithe to Melchizedek, not so much, This ties in perfectly with the tithe of the Maji in Matthew, whether Dom Crossan likes it or not, the nativity narrative in Matthew is reliable, It only seems to clash with the other narratives. They represent gaps Quelle couldn't capture, like the career of Paul described in Acts, Anyway, Davidson's scholarship around Genesis 14 and Genesis 15 reveals Yaweh, Queen of Battle, Goddess of Decision, in legend and that's close enough for government work for me to complete the Hellenistic ontology of the Bible, The only thing missing in the scriptures before Jesus was Jesus to complete the ontology, Tertullian presented the incomplete ontology with his epiphany regarding the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, Elohim the verb is presented in Genesis 1:1 and Elohim the demi urge , the Spirit of God which still hovers over the waters, and caused the clouds to clear at Niagara Falls this afternoon during the Total Eclipse is presented in Genesis 1:2.

And The Satan is presented in the Book of Job, All these are identifiable as Jungian Archetypes and available for fun and profit or in the line of Duty, That's what both the Jesus Seminar and Campus Crusade for Christ is missing with your asshole legalistic solo scriptura and mechanistic Marxist dialectic.

So, if you are leaving Christianity, how do you leave all that shit behind? You can't, That's why Bart Ehrman's apostasy or born again is a fraud, Dracula is an example of Fascist sophistry in literature: he can only happen on paper. Like John Galt. Ayn Rand lost track of John Galt's actual status, humanity wise, Inher own Metaphysics, John galt had achieved metaphysical existence in her mind and an apparently compelling literary figure in the minds of millions of Objectivists and anti-DEI executives. But, in the final analysis, John Galt and Dracula hung out with the Wereworlves of London and Roland, the Headless Thompson Gunner.

Who you gonna call, Derek? Ghostbusters? , I mean, leaving Christianity: wasn't that a John Denver song Mary Travers' covered, back in the day, It was a favorite with officers in Vietnam.

[bernardo1969]

A story in the First Book of Maccabees in the Bible is a demonstration of the importance of the fear of God (constancy, firmness, devotion, and equanimity) for the interpretation of the law of Moses, and that excessively rigorous interpretations of the law can have serious consequences against life and common sense. The story begins by relating that after the death of Alexander the Great, the peace that had brought the Persian Empire since the rise of Cyrus the Great was dissolved; and so explains the Bible, this fact, filled the Middle East with calamities. And among the successors of Alexander the Great arose an impious man, Antiochus IV Epiphanes, who had no better idea than to Hellenize his entire empire. As a result of this decision, persecution of the Jews began. The resistance of the Maccabees began when the priest Mattathias, father of Judas Maccabees, took the life of a royal official when he tried to impose apostasy in the city of Modin. But then other events occurred: "Many of the people who desired to live in accordance with justice and the law went down to the desert and settled there, taking with them their sons, their wives, and their livestock, so oppressive were the sufferings that they had been forced to endure" 1 Maccabees 2:29. As a result of this, a royal garrison left Jerusalem and laid siege to them, attacking the Jews on the Sabbath; but since they did not want to desecrate their sacred day, the Bible relates, the Jews did not defend themselves: "So they attacked them on the sabbath, and they died, with their wives and children and cattle, to the number of a thousand persons" 1 Maccabees 2:38. But the priest Mattathias, who was a great expert on the law of Moses, made another interpretation, because he understood through the fear of God that defending life was the most important thing: "Let us fight against anyone who comes to attack us on the sabbath day" 1 Maccabees 2:41. These facts are a verification that the law of Moses must always be interpreted under the common sense that brings with it the fear of God, because as the Bible teaches: "Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man", Ecclesiastes 12:13.

[ancestorsofjudah]

2 Kings 10: 32-36. "28 Years Later."

Jeroboam "expand the people" was a kind of a dick cheese. He made the people numerous, fat, pushy, shovey. He was the "teacher of fat people."

The verb רבב (rabab) means to be or become many. Adjective רב (rab) means much, many or great, and the identical noun רב (rab) means chief or captain; hence too the familiar noun ραββι (rabbi), meaning Rabbi. Noun רב (rob) means multitude or abundance. Nouns רבבה (rebaba), רבו (ribo) and רבוא (ribo') mean ten-thousand or myriad. Noun רביבים (rebibim) denotes copious showers.

Noun רבב (rabab), describes a smear of viscous fat, an obvious sign that someone was well off. That same noun was spelled רבד (rabad), which may have helped the formation of the word ραβδος (rabdos), staff, rod or scepter.

After Jehu threw down King Ahab, Jezebel, Joram, and Ahaziah, the Lord told him to reverse engineer the real reason things got so schcrewy, a bunch of fat cats that took over the government and generation or two before:

32 In those days the Lord began to reduce the size of Israel. Hazael overpowered the Israelites throughout their territory 

33 east of the Jordan in all the land of Gilead (the region of Gad, Reuben and Manasseh), from Aroer by the Arnon Gorge through Gilead to Bashan.

34 As for the other events of Jehu’s reign, all he did, and all his achievements, are they not written in the book of the annals of the kings of Israel?

35 Jehu rested with his ancestors and was buried in Samaria. And Jehoahaz his son succeeded him as king. 

36 The time that Jehu reigned over Israel in Samaria was twenty-eight years.

Hazael, "the Instrument of the Vision" took the Israelites by storm, especially East of the Jordan where the virgin boys splash and play, in the land of Gilead, the Fountainhead, where one begins "to search, to find, to evaporate and replace" ignorance with understanding.

The process is called Aroer, "to strip and accumulate" which means to study the Talmud, was done by the Arnon Gorge, the love place, which runs from Bashan, the place where the bread gets bakefd and the head brain.

Something went wrong in this place that the country ended up producing an Ahab so long ago. The Lord asks Jehu to cut back, not literally cut the size down, but cut back the layers of falsehood, delusions, heresy, apostasy, and malpractices in the Yeshiva that were producing an Assembly of Israel that could not properly name, anoint, or manage a Sovereign.

As with all things Jewish and Royal this process upon which the identification of the King of Israel is dependent falls on the shoulders of the other Royals who must be trained from birth how to handle a Jewish Royal Court. After puberty, one starts to lose the opportunity, so that is far too late.

Members of the Assembly must be named from birth and they must manage the Sovereign for life. What the Sovereign knows during his life must be passed down to the youngest members of the Assembly so when it comes time to name a new King there are candidates with sufficient vision and proficiency waiting backstage to take the job.

This process went entirely wrong between the time of Solomon and Jehu. According to the Melachim, the correct process takes 28 Years.

The Values in Gematria for the above verses explain.

v. 32: the Value in Gematria is 7449, זגגט, zaggat, "Reverence for the King's Table and Winepress."

v. 33: the Value in Gematria is 4572, דהזב, dezhev, "the transition from that which prostrates to that which leads."

v. 34: the Value in Gematria is 7127, זאבז, zavez, "reverence for the father of the angel agent of the protection."

v. 35: Jehoahaz= "Help and support in the Name of God", the Value in Gematria is 6305, וגאֶפֶסה, and gapesa, "Passover."

v. 36: the Value in Gematria is הטז‎א, "the Tza". 28 Years of laughter in God's Name clothes the Naked Ape:

"Laughter, like speech, is an acquired ability which developed in our past for reasons that have long been obscure. This obscurity in turn was due to the obvious fact that laughter is a continuation of the fear reflex — that's why it's so contagious, so hard to stop when you're at it and often so unclear whether someone is laughing or crying: it's basically the same sound produced by the same body parts.

In the last few decades, the study of natural synchronicity has made the connection clear. Humanity's incredible success in the world is not due to our intelligence, but much rather to our ability to tune into each other: synchronicity, or the mentally blending together at the reflex and subconscious level.

Many closely monitored and double-blinded experiments have shown that humans (and particularly kin and romantic partners) have the ability to synchronize their heart beat, skin conductivity and even general mood. Women living together often menstruate at the same time.

In the natural world, one "naked ape" isn't much of a foe, but fifteen of them could be problematic, unless of course these fifteen don't want anything to do with each other.

Should they, however, demonstrate a very high level of synchronicity, namely by exclaiming their alarm cry in utter synchronicity (perhaps even in multiple voices and snazzy rhythms, hence vocal music) any enemy with any sense at all will realize that the group is not simply fifteen times a naked ape, but rather one super-organism like a dragon with fifteen heads and a transparent body.

Human singing and laughing originated not in entertainment but in shows of force and are similar to an animal's standing upright, showing teeth or flapping brightly colored feathers. The name Abraham means Their Strength (or They Are Now Protected) and expresses international synchronicity. His son's name Isaac means Laughter."

There is a time in a man's life (or a woman's) when we realize we are no longer naked apes though we long to be nothing but naked around each other. During the time, we know we are just meat and skin, but the soul rejects this and tries to figure it out and then it finds it cannot unless it falls in love while doing it. This is a process that begins early in life when little children who are not yet susceptible to prejudice demonstrate complete understanding of each other's presences and needs.

These two states of being, the child and the fully feathered adult are required to make and guide a king. This is what is known as the Kabbalah of the 28 Years. The King of Israel must periodically spend time in the child's classroom and not solely in the role of the instructor.

[7r0773r]

The Name of the World by Denis Johnson

This picture was an anonymous work that almost anybody on earth could have made, but as it happened, a Georgia slave had produced it. The work's owners, the Stone family of Camden County, had found the work in the attic of the family's old mansion. It was drawn with ink on a large white linen bedsheet and consisted of a tiny single perfect square at the center of the canvas, surrounded by concentric freehand outlines. A draftsman using the right tools would have made thousands of concentric squares with the outlines just four or five millimeters apart. But, as I've said, the drawing, except for the central square, had been accomplished freehand: Each unintended imperfection in an outline had been scrupulously reproduced in the next, and since each square was larger, each imperfection grew larger too, until at the outermost edges the shapes were no longer squares, but vast chaotic wanderings.

To my way of thinking, this secret project of the nameless slave, whether man or woman we'll never know, implicated all of us. There it was, all mapped out: the way of our greatness. Though simple and obvious as an act of art, the drawing portrayed the silly, helpless tendency of fundamental things to get way off course and turn into nonsense, illustrated the church's grotesque pearling around its traditional heart, explained the pernicious extrapolating rules and observances of governments—implicated all of us in a gradual apostasy from every perfect thing we find or make.

Implicated. This wasn't my reaction only. I talked with lots of people who'd seen this work, and they all felt the same, but in various ways, if that makes sense. They felt uneasy around it, challenged, disturbed. I suppose that's what made it art, rather than drawing.

The piece wasn't beautiful, particularly, unless you like looking at tree rings on a fresh stump, and not as engrossing or as mystifying, in fact, as a piece of wood. Natural entities, the clouds, the sea, these are four-dimensional, and so is the slab of wood, because it invites you to consider that each ring took a year to make. The anonymous drawing was just a lot of sorrowful concentricity, but it spoke a truth. It made me in all matters a fundamentalist. I didn't go to "take it in." I went to be convicted. (pp. 12-14)

***

I doubt there were more than a dozen others at the tables around us. All men. Middle-aged, middle-income, midwestern. Golfers. In this twilight they were more imagined than seen, but I felt surrounded by the practitioners of a sacred mediocrity, an elegant mediocrity cloistering inaccessible tortures. I don't know quite how to put it. People, men, proud of their clichés yet full of helpless poetry. (p. 56)