#binitarian

[biblenewsprophecy]

[a-god-in-ruins-rises]

talking about my little pet theory about early christianity has got me thinking a lot about it all. specifically, right now, i'm just thinking about paul and his role in all this. paul was always my favorite figure of the new testament. it was never even close. ever since i was young paul basically seemed like the central figure of christianity to me. even above jesus. if jesus is the "king" then paul was the "power behind the throne" -- at least in my mind. there would be no christianity without paul. he basically single-handedly decided the trajectory of christianity from the very beginning.

but at the same time he is kind of mysterious.

i have many questions about him and his beliefs and goals. i think i have a good grasp of much of his thought but there are still things that elude me. like his christology.

what precisely was his idea of jesus? did he believe he was literally god? no, i don't really think he did. at least i don't see much evidence he did. but it seems clear to me that he thought of him as some kind of divine being. an angel? no, not quite. he definitely seemed to think jesus was "above" a mere angel. but also, jesus clearly seems to be subordinate to god. but also paul seems to see jesus as a being worthy of worship. this would have been pretty controversial among monotheistic jews. makes me wonder if this wasn't some of the pagan influence already seeping into early christianity. so paul was probably some kind of incarnationist.

in contrast, i think that the other apostles and more "judaizing" christians probably had more of an "adoptionist" view of jesus' divinity. the idea of a man being divinized seems to already be present in jewish tradition (enoch) so this probably wouldn't have been quite as controversial. i do wonder in this was also a result of pagan/hellenic influence too, but i haven't investigated it enough yet to assert it.

so yeah paul was probably some kind of subordinationist/unitarian, but his worship ever jesus as not-god-but-god-like (perhaps as a subordinate, intermediary extension of god? kind of like how a son is an extension of his father in a very real sense, but obviously subordinate) would probably border on binitarianism. a convenient intermediate step toward the eventual dominance trinitarianism.

[thewayofyehoshua]

Examples of the Divine Name in the text of Good News according to Mark 12:29-30.

1.Elias Hutter -The Nuremberg Polyglot 1599 - Mark 12:29-30 in verses 29 and 30 you can see the Divine Name יְהֹוָה YEHOVAH. Yeshua Messiah quotes the creed of Israel - "Shema Yisrael" (Deuteronomy 6:4) and the two most important commandments - one about love for God (Deuteronomy 6:5) and the other about love for neighbors (Leviticus 19:18).

2. The same verses in the Giovanni Battista Iona edition (1668) with the Divine Name.

3. Also Franz Delitzsch 1892, wyd. XI. of NT

4. And Salkinson-Ginsburg 1898

Elijah Hutter (1553-1609) was a professor of Hebrew at the University of Leipzig from 1577 and later taught Hebrew in Nuremberg. His greatest work was the Nuremberg Polyglot, published in 1599 in two volumes, i.e. the New Testament, and in as many as 12 languages: Hebrew, Syriac, Greek, Latin, German (he used Luther's translation), Czech, Italian, Spanish, Galician, English ( used the Geneva Bible), Danish and Polish.

His skills were highly appreciated by Franz Delitzsch (1813-1890), an outstanding German Hebrewist and professor at the universities in Rostock, Erlangen and Leipzig, who said that Hutter had a knowledge of the Hebrew language that was rare among Christians.

In 1668 Giovanni Battista Iona, i.e. Yehuda Yonah of Safed, converted to Catholicism and working for the Vatican, translated the Four Gospels into Hebrew. In his translation of Quatuor Evangelia Novi Testamenti Ex Latino in Hebraicum, the Divne Name appears several times in the spelling יְהֹוָה, i.e. YEHOVAH.

Translations of the New Testament into Hebrew that include the Divine Name יְהֹוָה or in European transliteration - YEHOVAH, do not finish with the work of Franz Delitzsch. In 1877, the year the British and Foreign Bible Society published the first complete edition of his Hebrew New Testament, Isaac Edward Salkinson undertook a similar translation at the request of the Bible Society's Committee. He was consoled by the hope that his work would enlighten many eyes in Israel, but unfortunately he was unable to complete it, as he died in 1883. Professor Delitzsch later wrote that he "would be greatly delighted if Salkinson's translation found many Jewish readers and was to lead many to the belief that Yeshua the Messiah is the noblest son of Israel, the most holy and divine Man and the Servant of the Lord who offered himself for his people and for the whole world of sinners.”

Salkinson's almost finished version (1881) was completed by Christian David Ginsburg from Warsaw, an outstanding expert on Hebrew texts and the Masora, and the whole work was published in 1891 under the title הברית החדשה (Ha-Berit ha-Ḥadashah), i.e. "The New Covenant". A characteristic feature of this edition of the New Testament is the presence of the Divine Name in the complete Masoretic notation יְהֹוָה, i.e. YEHOVAH.

The text of Mark 12:29-30, which is a quotation from Deuteronomy 6:4-5, clearly shows that YEHOVAH is one. Listen, O Israel ! Yehovah our God, Yehovah - one ! (Hebrew: אֶחָֽד eḥad - means one, single, absolutely one). This term in Hebrew excluded all binitarianism, trinitarianism, modalism and pluralism. The Divine Name clearly points to the Heavenly Father as the only one true God who is the Creator of the entire universe.

[eli-kittim]

Can We Discard Trinitarianism by Rejecting Hypostasis?: A Critical Review of Frank Nelte’s Article “The Facts About 'Hypostasis' “

By Bible Researcher and Author Eli Kittim

——-

Does the Worldwide Church of God Have the Corner on the Market?

The article under discussion that’s still relevant today was written a while back by Frank W Nelte of the Worldwide Church of God——a religious organization, founded by Herbert W. Armstrong——which some have referred to as a cult: https://franknelte.net/article.php?article_id=192

Armstongism refers to the teachings of

Herbert W. Armstrong, which became the

teaching of the Worldwide Church of God.

These teachings were often at odds with

traditional Christian beliefs and at times

were explicitly in contradiction to the Bible.

The most well-known of Armstrong’s

teachings is that of Anglo-Israelism.

(Gotquestions)

Always question the systematic theology behind the articles you read. For example, T. D. Jakes, the famous televangelist, is a self-professed modalist (he believes that there aren’t 3 persons in the Trinity but rather 1, operating in 3 modes). So, we must be cautious of subscribing to theologies that are not grounded in cogent arguments. Many offshoots of The Worldwide Church of God also hold to tenuous and spurious doctrines, such as that of David C. Pack, which promotes Binitarianism (one deity in two persons), and the notion that the Holy Spirit is not a Person.

——-

Frank Nelte is trying to discredit Trinitarianism by showing that the language used to support it comes from outside the Bible and is based on Greek philosophy. He hopes to zero in on a defeater of the belief that the Greek term ὑπόστασις (hupostasis) is a reference to God’s essence or substance: https://biblehub.com/greek/5287.htm

Does Hypostasis Mean Title Deed?

Nelte starts off by trying to change the definition of the term hypostasis by introducing various questionable reference works, such as the “HELPS Word Studies for Greek/Hebrew.” But caution is advised because Bible dictionaries, especially those not accepted by credible scholars, tend to make theological assumptions concerning the denotative definition of words. Accordingly, Nelte declares:

the word ‘hypostasis’ meant ‘TITLE DEED’!

That’s incorrect. That explanation is based on theological “interpretations,” not on the classical meaning of the word per se, as I will show you anon. This assumption can be found in The “HELPS Word-studies” reference work, which reads:

5287 hypóstasis (from 5259 /hypó, ‘under’

and 2476 /hístēmi, ‘to stand’) – properly,

(to possess) standing under a

guaranteed agreement (‘title-deed’);

(figuratively) ‘title’ to a promise or property,

i.e. a legitimate claim (because it literally is,

‘under a legal-standing’) – entitling

someone to what is guaranteed under the

particular agreement. For the believer,

5287/hypóstasis (‘title of possession’) is the

Lord's guarantee to fulfill the faith He

inbirths (cf. Heb 11:1 with Heb 11:6). Indeed

we are only entitled to what God grants

faith for (Ro 14:23).

But the primary meaning of the word “hypostasis” does not mean title deed. According to the scholarly reference work of H.G. Liddell & R. Scott, “A Greek-English Lexicon” (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1901) p. 1639, the Greek term ὑπόστασις (Hypostasis) means “substantial nature, substance.” It defines “hypostasis” as follows:

the real nature of a thing, as underlying and

supporting its outward form and properties,

and so = [equal to] ουσία or η υποκειμένη

ύλη, essence.

This categorically refutes Nelte’s argument completely. The only thing Nelte is willing to concede is that hypostasis refers to some sort of support. He writes:

Hupostasis refers to something we can

stand upon;

Well, yes. But actually, stand under. It’s similar to the English term “understand.” The definition from the “Online Etymology Dictionary” is as follows:

Old English understandan ‘to comprehend,

grasp the idea of, receive from a word or

words or from a sign the idea it is intended

to convey; to view in a certain way,’

probably literally ‘stand in the midst of,’

from under + standan ‘to stand’.

According to the aforesaid meaning, to “stand under” connotes a deeper understanding or comprehension. Similarly, hypostasis means to stand under (see Strong 5287 hypóstasis [from 5259 /hypó, "under" and 2476 /hístēmi, "to stand"]). In other words, just as the word “understand” departs from its denotative meaning and implies comprehension, so does “hypostasis,” whose connotative meaning pertains to an underlying foundation. We cannot simply bypass the latter’s historical-grammatical meaning that dates back to Ancient Greek philosophy and which is described as the underlying substance of fundamental reality. By contrast, Nelte writes:

Put in very plain terms (perhaps somewhat

oversimplified) they teach that

HYPOSTASIS refers to the SUBSTANCE

(from Hebrews 11:1) that the Godhead

consists of. Supposedly God the Father and

Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit are all one

HUPOSTASIS, etc.. Now this interpretation

of the word ‘hupostasis’ is not in any way

supported by the five times that Paul used

this word in two different epistles in the New

Testament. Paul really meant exactly what

Webster's Dictionary understands the

English word HYPOSTASIS to mean. We

should remember that the word

‘SUBSTANCE’ (with its present meaning in

the English language) in Hebrews 11:1 is

really a mistranslation. Hypostasis simply

means: to stand under or upon, to support,

etc. It has nothing to do with ‘substance’.

As stated earlier, according to Liddell & Scott, the term hypostasis means foundation, “essence,” or “substance.” In other words, the term hypostasis can be defined as some sort of underlying support or foundation upon which something else stands or exists. So, it can certainly refer to the essence or substance of the Godhead. This interpretation of hypostasis is clearly supported in the New Testament. In Hebrews 1.3 the Greek text says ὃς ὢν ἀπαύγασμα τῆς δόξης καὶ χαρακτὴρ τῆς ὑποστάσεως αὐτοῦ. This means that Christ is the apaugasma (ἀπαύγασμα) or “radiance” of God’s glory and character, namely, the exact representation of God’s hypostasis. What could that possibly mean? It could only mean that Christ is the exact imprint or image of God’s essence or character or substance. It is true that hypostasis doesn’t denotatively (literally) mean substance. But it does appear to suggest it connotatively!

That’s why at the outset of an argument one must always try to see where the author is going with it. That will reveal their intention and motivation, whether it is pure and genuine or whether they have an axe to grind. In this case, Nelte is trying desperately to prove that the Trinity is false. So, he attempts to manipulate the language in order to prove his point. But true scholarship follows the evidence wherever it may lead. The minute you try to manipulate the evidence, you have turned it into a confirmation bias and a private interpretation.

Is a Borrowed Concept Necessarily False?

Nelte outlines his basic criticism of the Trinity by suggesting that because many of its theological concepts are grounded in Platonic philosophy——especially “the ‘hupostasis ideas’ about the nature of God”——they must therefore be inappropriate or inapplicable, at best, and erroneous or fallacious, at worst. But is this a valid argument? He writes:

It should be quite clear to anyone who takes

the time to study into this, that the religious

views of the Catholic Church, as expounded

by the Catholic ‘church fathers’ and as

discussed at the various Councils of the

Catholic Church (Nicea, Constantinople,

etc.) are STEEPED IN THE IDEAS OF PLATO!

And the ‘hupostasis ideas’ about the

nature of God are central to that whole

scheme of things.

It is true that Christianity borrowed a great deal from Platonic philosophy. But philosophical and linguistic inheritance is only one aspect of New Testament theology; divine revelation is another. There are other metaphysical considerations that need to be addressed. For example, Nelte argues that since the term hypostasis is borrowed from Plato, the 3 hypostases applied to the Christian godhead must be erroneous. And the notion that the Holy Spirit is a 3rd hypostasis must equally be false. But this is a fallacious argument. All historical, cultural, and scientific endeavors have borrowed profusely from their predecessors. It’s part of the evolution of language and culture. It’s part of who we are: Standing on the shoulders of giants! All knowledge is derived from previous predecessors.

The Old Testament Flood of Noah account was borrowed from the Epic of Gilgamesh from ancient Mesopotamia. What is more, the Hebrew name of God in the Old Testament is “El.” But this name was also borrowed from the Levant. Historically, El was a pagan deity and the supreme god of a Canaanite pantheon of gods, analogous to to the Greek god Zeus. But just because the name El was borrowed from this religious and cultural milieu (paganism) doesn’t mean that the corresponding values of the two deities are equivalent. In other words, it doesn’t follow that the Hebrew God is a false, pagan, Canaanite god. Precisely because the culture was familiar with this god, the God of the Bible chose to associate himself with this cultural icon in order to make the transition of faith smoother and far more acceptable. It’s similar to missionary work. If you’re trying to convert aborigines to Christ, you’ll try to explain certain concepts according to the existing terminology of the culture at hand. If you deviate and introduce completely foreign concepts, your theology will create cognitive dissonance with the native and local spiritual religions. Many of the New Testament narratives about Jesus are borrowed from the Hebrew Bible, but they don’t have equal value in both Testaments.

So, the attempt to judge the truth value of a concept based solely on its linguistic and philosophical antecedents is not a sound argument. Besides, historical-grammatical studies alone cannot answer metaphysical questions, as, say, the existence of God and his attributes. So, it seems to me that this is a fallacious argument, namely, the attempt to invalidate certain concepts or to explain them away simply because of previously borrowed religious, philosophical, and linguistic antecedents. That type of argumentation would invalidate science itself. Current science is very different from that of the renaissance. Yet the language of modern science is borrowed directly from Greek and Latin texts. In fact, the entire scientific project has borrowed extensively from the philosophical and linguistic heritage of its predecessors. Does that invalidate its current status? I think not!

Conclusion

Frank W. Nelte tenaciously maintains his objection to the classical interpretation of “hypostasis” throughout the paper. He writes:

The truth is that the word ‘hypostasis’ has

NOTHING to do with ‘substance’ or with

‘ousia.’

Au contraire, as the scholarly work of Liddell & Scott demonstrates, “hypostasis” has everything to do with “substance” and “ousia.” For example, in Hebrews 1.3, the New International Version translates the Greek term ὑποστάσεως (hupostasis) as “the exact representation of … [God’s] being.” The New Living Translation expresses it as “the very character of God.” The English Standard Version renders it as “the exact imprint of his nature.” The Berean Literal Bible translates it as “the exact expression of His substance,” while the New American Standard Bible explicates it as “the exact representation of His nature.” What are all these translations of the word “hypostasis” getting at? Answer: they’re depicting God’s very “being,” “nature,” and “substance.” All these credible translations are talking about the very essence or substance of God. Therefore it is not inappropriate to refer to God’s innermost nature as his hypostasis. This view is supported by the New Testament! Hebrews 1.3 reads:

ὃς ὢν ἀπαύγασμα τῆς δόξης καὶ χαρακτὴρ

τῆς ὑποστάσεως αὐτοῦ, φέρων τε τὰ πάντα

τῷ ῥήματι τῆς δυνάμεως, δι᾽ αὑτοῦ ⸃

καθαρισμὸν τῶν ἁμαρτιῶν ποιησάμενος ⸃

ἐκάθισεν ἐν δεξιᾷ τῆς μεγαλωσύνης ἐν

ὑψηλοῖς.

——-

[azdoine]

#yes very much hang on i just reread nona yesterday and there is specific textual evidence for this #in the 'this is the part where i hurt you' section of the retelling #i picked you to change and this is how you repay me?

yeah, I think John definitely got his powers from the world spirit; no other hypothesis really makes sense to me, because if we suppose he became a necromancer through natural thanergetic processes, he's not the first or only human to have worked in cryonics or been immersed in thanergy bursts from mass deaths.

it also always made sense to me why the world spirit might have picked John (charismatic indigenous scientist studying cryopreservation to save the world -> give him power over preservation) but how is a much weirder question. if the world spirit's plan was always to perform lysis with John, and to have him reciprocate without murdering her and rehousing her soul, that's - it's so obvious and so in line with the post-Catholicism of the setting that it's making my teeth hurt? b/c it's just hypostatic union. the progenitor - that is, the Earth Mother - takes on human nature by incarnating in the Son, and the Son becomes capable of speaking for the Earth Mother, where both of them are joined as cosubstantial aspects of God. the man who became mother goddess and the mother goddess who became man.

yeah god damn it lol, we're doing binitarian heresy now, no wonder Taz was afraid of getting excommunicated. the only reason I never thought about it in these terms before is because taking John's eye color change as evidence of soul chicanery would seem to be at odds with the fact that it's "natural" enough to be passed down genetically...

but John's eyes might also be a red herring for the precise details of the relationship between him, Commander Wake, Gideon Nav, and Alecto. there's some unexplained relationship between John and Hell (and we know devilry blackens the eyes), and a lot of unexplained questions about Wake's origins (because if the unique golden eyes are coded for by genetics, then they're recessive, and Wake must be physically related to John or Alecto).

do John and Alecto already share blended eye colors, like Paul does, which John has concealed by constantly siphoning thalergy off of the stoma?

you know, it's actually really fucking weird that John's eyes turned golden yellow when the only mechanism we know of for eye color swaps is soul transplants. do you think that the Earth was already trying to perform lysis with John, and she just didn't expect that he would do it through murder?

[esther-pentecostal]

[santandreas]

And in Jesus Christ, his only begotten Son, our Lord:

To believe that God has a son!

Yeshua ben Elyon

So “I believe in Jesus, the only son of God” as yet the un-anointed one.

Jesus Christ was Born not made: he was not the fashioned top rung of the ladder to God. But the first born and only son who is our Lord.

To be Christian means to be of Christ,the only son of God else there can be nothing further to acclaim.

Having children is…

[humorwithatwist]

Jesus in the Apocalypse of John: Implications for Modern Christianity (Part I)

Jesus in the Apocalypse of John: Implications for Modern Christianity (Part I)

This post is part of an ongoing series examining the Christology of the Apocalypse of John.

As a professing Christian standing in the Great Tradition of the Church, I believe that the faith and practices of early followers of Jesus form an important authority for contemporary expressions of Christianity. Regarding devotional practice, worship of Jesus remains not only acceptable, but is in fact…

[eris-and-lokis-love-child]

As someone raised in the church, and familiar with many branches...

The original ask is a mixture of heresy and certain evangelical takes on things. Nowhere in the bible is there a basis for this claim, but I have seen it claimed that certain 'gods' from other religions are actually demons, which are fallen angels under their theology. Most sects of Christianity either say they don't exist, or are some sort of weird other thing, but following them in any case will get you sent to hell.

As far as not believing in the trinity?

Most Protestants are Trinitarians. The Council of Nicaea set the trinity as the standard for most churches. Prior to that, we had a few other takes on the divinity of Jesus vs the Father.

There were those that suggested he was not equal to the Father:

Adoptionism claims Jesus became divine at his baptism or at his resurrection.

Arianism claimed that the Son of God was created by the Father before all ages, was was subordinate to him.

Psilanthropism observed Halakha, denied the literal virgin birth and viewed Jesus as the Meshiach and greated prophet of God only.

Socinianism claimed he was the sinless Messiah and redeemer, the only perfect human son of God, but did not exist before his birth.

A number of Gnostic sects claim he is a heavenly Aeon but not one with the father.

Then there were others:

Modalism stated God took numerous forms in Tanakh and the Christian Greek scriptures, and he had 3 modes, being Father, Son, and Spirit.

Tritheists believed each to be their own separate divinity. John Philoponus was one, and then Nominalists were another group.

Binitarians, who believe there's no separate Holy Spirit as a person.

Dualists, whose beliefs go as far back as Zoroastrian ideas.

Marcionists, who believe there are two deities, one of creation and Judgement (from the Tanakh) and one of redemption and mercy (from the Greek NT).

Modern groups include:

Unitarians, largely started in the 16th century, who see Jesus the Son as subordinate and distinct from God the Father.

Christadelphians, who think Jesus is simply the Son of God, and not inherently divine, and that the Holy Spirit is God's impersonal power.

Church of God General Conference (Abrahamic Faith) are an adventist group whose beliefs are... involved.

Iglesia ni Cristo, viewed Jesus as human but endowed by God with attributes not found in ordinary humans, and that it is God's will to worship Jesus.

JWs view there as being an Almighty God, and Jesus is first of his creations, you worship God, but only offer "obesiance" to Jesus, who they believe to be Michael the archangel.

The Mormons teach that Father, Son and Holy Spirit are not united in substance, but are one in will or purpose.

Members Church of God International views Christ as divine, but rejects the Trinity.

There are several more, but it's just retreads of several of the same bits of ground.

That said, I like Saints in some contexts. Officially, in both Orthodox and Catholic belief, Saints are intercessors with God, who you can ask to intercede on your behalf. Whether that is technically prayer is actually a huge fun theological tangle.

ALL PAGAN "GODS" ARE ANGELS WHO HAVE REJECTED CHRIST THIS IS IN THE BIBLE YOU SHOULD KNOW IT IF YOU REALLY ARE A JEW ITS IN THE OLD TESTEMENT

and jews and christians worship the same god this should be known you worship christ even if you call him something diffrent jews have always been good christan suvjects before getting cocky

WRONG!

Other gods of other religions exist

the Old testament says that "no other gods before me" meaning Hashem knows other gods exist

which you'd know if you read the tanakh and not the bible

Ok you can't say "Jews were always good submissive subjects before they got cocky" and then bitch and moan when I call you a fascist

Like that's antisemtism right there christofascist punk

I will not like you no matter how much you neg me

[apenitentialprayer]

Do you recommend any articles or books on the development of the doctrine of A) The Trinity, B) The Hypostatic Union, or C) Guardian Angels?

I'm not sure if I can give too much help about this, either. In terms of general overviews, I don't think I can recommend too many. Let's see what I have....

I'm going to get the Guardian Angels out of the way, first; Fr. Jean Danielou wrote a book, translated by David Heimann into English, called The Angels and Their Mission According to the Early Church Fathers. It's not just about guardian angels, but it does show how thoughts on angels shifted a little over time, and I found the bits and pieces of liturgical mysticism found in the work to be interesting. If you're okay trading emails privately, I have a (badly formatted) copy of this book that I am willing to send. Moving on to the Trinity....

This is a little before Christianity, but David Boyarin (who is very interested in mapping out the 'parting of the ways' of Christianity and Judaism) wrote an article called "Beyond Judaisms: Meṭaṭron and the Divine Polymorphy of Ancient Judaism" which suggests that ancient Judaism was a lot more complicated than previously imagined, moving it away from a model of competing religious sects along Christian lines and more fitting a Greek model where strands of competing religious thought could be found even within the same competing sectarian group. 'Polymorphous Judaism,' he suggests, included at least a one current of binitarian thought that was later expelled by normative Judaism. He admits that this idea is controversial, and I don't know exactly how this article was received by the academic community, but I know that his book on the Partition of Judeo-Christianity is very well regarded by all Jewish Studies scholars I have spoken to - it was even recommended by to me by one.

(While we are on the topic of Judaism, if you're interested in how medieval Jews felt and thought about the Trinity, David Berger's translation and commentary on the Niẓẓaḥon Vetus, a Jewish polemical text written against Christian doctrine during the thirteenth century, just as Christian sectarian feelings were intensifying considerably.)

In terms of early development of Trinitarian doctrine, a popular (non-academic) book is by Karen Armstrong, A History of God. It's not all about Trinitarian conflict, but it is supposed to be an overview of the three major Abrahamic faiths, so it does come up for a considerable amount of time. I always feel a little hesitant recommending her, because I do feel like she has a tendency of representing her own opinions as the academic consensus and she definitely has ideological motives, but it's still very informative.

Speaking of popular books with ideological motivations, I cannot say for myself, but I have heard good things about Rod Bennett's The Great Apostasy That Wasn't, a book about the Council of Nicaea and Saing Athanasius of Alexandria in particular. It was meant to defend orthodox Christianity's claims against restorationist Christian sects (often non-Trinitarian) that claim that the Council corrupted the Antenicene faith.

This is waaaay after what you're looking for, but "Relationality and Difference in the Mysticism of Pierre de Bérulle" talks about how that Cardinal understood the Trinity and Incarnation in a mystic sense, and since he is the father of the French school of spirituality, that might be of interest to you.

So, again, not a lot of objective overviews; sorry about that. If you have anything more specific that you want, I can dig around more, though!

[biblenewsprophecy]

1 Thessalonians & the Return of Jesus

In this sermon, Dr. Thiel goes through each and every verse of the Apostle Paul's Letter to the Thessalonians. He also gives background on the history of Thessaloniki. He notes that Paul's epistle starts out with what could be considered to be a binitarian formula. He mentioned that Paul wrote that Christians were called and predestined and states that people are not predestined to be lost. He mentions Romans 11 and the late Herbert W. Armstrong's position on the fullness of Gentiles coming in. Dr. Thiel mentions that the converted Gentiles will be kings and priests on the earth during the millennium. Scriptures related to the first resurrection, at the seventh and last trump, and the return of Jesus are read--including the fact that the Apostle Paul refers to the return several times. Dr. Thiel goes over some of the events Jesus said to watch for related to His return, and the fact that the return is after, not before, the Great Tribulation according to what Jesus said and Paul wrote. Times and seasons were mentioned as well as when some may falsely proclaim "peace and safety." Dr. Thiel mentioned that everything God does He does out of love, we are to increase in Philadelphian love, and that our hope in God and Jesus' return is real. Persecutions are also referred to. Dr. Thiel reads what Paul wrote "good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior" as well as what the Psalmist said it was good to do. The importance of aspects of hierarchical church government, via quotes from the Apostle Paul and Herbert W. Armstrong, were discussed. Warnings from the Apostle Paul to not quench the Spirit or despise prophecies were read.

A written article of related interest is available titled 'Comments on 1 Thessalonians’

Youtube video link: 1 Thessalonians & the Return of Jesus

Some items of possibly related interest may include:

1 THESSALONIANS Comments on 1 Thessalonians. Here is a link to a related sermon: 1 Thessalonians & the Return of Jesus.

What About Romans 11:25 and the Full Number of the Gentiles? Some in the West discount God’s calling of Gentiles, but the Apostle Paul wrote about the need for them to come to the truth before Jesus returns. Two somewhat related videos are available Gentiles and When Will Jesus Return? and Puerto Rico, Trials, and Triumphs.

Is There A Secret Rapture for the Church? When and Where is the Church Protected? What does the Bible really teach? Does the Church flee or is it taken up just prior to the great tribulation? Who really is left behind? Here are links to three related videos Fleeing or Rapture?, Rapture or Fleeing? Which is Great Tribulation Protection? and Did Jesus Teach a Pre-tribulation Rapture? Here is a sermon in the Spanish language: ¿El rapto o huida antes de la gran tribulación?

MATTHEW Here are links to twelve sermons covering the 28 chapters of Matthew: Matthew 1-2: Greek or Aramaic, Jesus, and the Star?, Matthew 3-5: John the Baptist, Temptations, and the Beatitudes, Matthew 6-7: Charitable Deeds, the Rosary, Prayer, the Golden Rule, and Faith, Matthew 8-10: Married Clergy, Faith, Coming Persecution, and the Ecumenical Agenda, Matthew 11-12: John the Elijah, Sodom, Unpardonable Sin, & 3 Days and 3 Nights, -14: Parables, Mustard Seeds, Birthdays, and Faith, Matthew 15-16: Tradition, Signs of the Times, and The Rock & Peter, Matthew 17-18: Transfiguration, Elijah to Come, Taxes, and Forgiveness, Matthew 19-20: Transgender? Divorce? Purgatory? The first shall be last?, Matthew 21-23: ‘Palm Sunday,’ Come as You Are?, and the Greatest Commandments, Matthew 24: Temple Destruction, Sorrows, Tribulation, and the Return of Jesus, and Matthew 25-28: Midnight Cry, False Christians, Resurrection, & Teaching what Jesus Taught.

MARK Here is a link to a sermon covering all of Jesus’ words in the Gospel of Mark: What did Jesus teach in the Book of Mark? Here is a link to six sermons covering all the verses in the Gospel of Mark: Mark 1-2: Author, Prophecy, & Miracles, Mark 3-5: Healing, Demons, and Parables, Mark 6-9: Tradition, John’s beheading, Elijah, and Restoration, Mark 10-12: Marriage, Divorce, Needle Eye, Greatest Command, & Taxes, Mark 13: Temple, Four Horsemen, Troubles, Great Tribulation, and Gospel Proclamation, and Mark 14-16: Jesus’ Priorities & Betrayal, the Resurrection, Signs, and Reaching the World.

LUKE Here are links to eight sermons covering the entire ‘Gospel of Luke’: Luke 1-2: John the Baptist, Mary, and the Census, Luke 3-6: John the Baptist, Jesus’ genealogy, Satan’s Influence, and the Sermon on the Mount, Luke 7-9: Miracles, Purpose of Parables, Kingdom of God, and Women Supporting the Ministry, Luke 10-11: The 70, Doing the Work, the Good Samaritan, Prayer, and Signs, Luke 12-13: Priorities, Delayed Fruit Bearing, Little Flock, Prophecy, and the Narrow Way, Luke 14-16: The Lost Sheep, the Prodigal Son, the Rich Man and Lazarus, Luke 17-20: Faith, the Kingdom, Gathering, Prayer, & Rewards, and Luke 21-22: Giving, Sorrows, Persecution, Tribulation, Fig Tree, and Violence. The last sermon also covers Jesus’ words in the Book of Acts.

JOHN Here are links to a seven-part sermon series covering the entire ‘Gospel of John’: John 1-3: Anti-unitarian, Wine, Being Born Again, & Heaven, John 4-6: Jesus and the Samaritan Woman, Miracles and the Bread of Life, John 10-12: Sheep, Hirelings, Lazarus/Soul Sleep and ‘Palm Day’, John 13-15: Footwashing and the Words of Jesus, John 16-18: Truth, Trinity, and Pontius Pilate, and John 19-21: Do not only try, do what God wants.

ACTS Here is an article: The Book of Acts. Here is a link to related sermons: Book of Acts 1-2: Jesus Left, New Testament Church Began, Acts 3-5: Miracles, Trials, Proclamation, and Persecution, Acts 6-9: Widows, Stephen, Saul, and Simon Magus, Acts 10-12: Visions, Dreams, and Gentiles, Acts 13-16: Prophets, Poisoning, and Proclamation,Acts 17-19: Travels, Anointed Cloths, & the Gospel of the Kingdom, Acts 20-22: James, Sunday, and Prejudice, and Acts 23-25: Vows, Secrets, Cults, & Criticisms, and Acts 26-28: Shipwreck, the Kingdom of God, & Amen.

ROMANS Comments on the Book of Romans. Here are links to six related sermons: Romans 1-2: Believe the Truth of God, Romans 3:-6: Sin, Law, Grace, Salvation, Romans 7-8: God’s Spirit and Guarantee, Romans 9-10: Grace, Mercy, Salvation, Romans 11-12: Gentiles, Jews, and the Fulness, and Romans 13-16: Obedience, Gentiles, Love, and Women.

1 CORINTHIANS Comments on the 1st Epistle to the Corinthians. Here are links to  related sermons: 1 Corinthians 1-2: God’s Spirit & the Ways of the World, 1 Corinthians 3-4: Christianity Requires Repentance, 1 Corinthians 5-6: The Church and Bad Apples, 1 Corinthians 7-8: Sex, Remarriage, and Christian Love, 1 Corinthians 9-10: Authority, Idols, and Love, 1 Corinthians 11-12: Hair, Veils, & Spiritual Gifts, 1 Corinthians 13-14: Love, Prophecy, and Tongues, and 1 Corinthians 15-16: Resurrection Hope, Collections, and Love.

2 CORINTHIANS Comments on the 2nd Epistle to the Corinthians. Here is a links to related sermons: 2 Corinthians 1-2: Church of God Suffering and Open Door; 2 Corinthians 3: The New Covenant, Jews, & Gentiles; 2 Corinthians 4-5: Guaranteed Immortality; 2 Corinthians 6: Salvation and Persecutions; 2 Corinthians 2:7-9: Be a Philadelphian Giver; 2 Corinthians 10-11: Faithfulness, Speaking, and Fables; and 2 Corinthians 12-13: Problems and Philadelphian Proofs.

GALATIANS Comments on Galatians Did the Apostle Paul do away with God’s law as some claim the Book of Galatians teaches? What is the false gospel? Related sermon videos related to Galatians are available: Galatians 1 and the False Gospel and Galatians 2 & 3: What Law was Added? What was Abolished? and Galatians 4 & 5: Who Does Not Inherit the Kingdom? and Galatians 5 & 6: The Gifts of the Spirit.

EPHESIANS Comments on Ephesians. Here is a link three related sermons: Ephesians 1-2: Predestination, Mysteries, & Grace. Ephesians 3 -4: Godhead, Immortality, Your Purpose, and Ephesians 5-6: Put on the Whole Armor of God, Marriage, Child Rearing.

PHILIPPIANS Comments on Philippians. Here are two related sermons: Philippians 1-2: God will not give up on you and Philippians 3-4: Faith, Love, and Polycarp.

COLOSSIANS The Book of Colossians. Here is a link to a related sermon: Book of Colossians.

2 THESSALONIANS Comments on 2 Thessalonians.

1 PETER Here is a link to an article: 1 Peter: Scriptures and Commentary. Here is a link to a related sermon covering 1 Peter: 1 Peter: Humbly love, God’s plan is eternal.

2 PETER & JUDE Here is a link to an article: Second Peter & Jude: Scriptures and Commentary. Here is a link to a related sermon covering those books: 2 Peter & Jude: Lusts, Prophecy, & 144,000?

JAMES Here are links to sermons covering James: Strong Meat: James 1-2 and Strong Meat: James 3-5. REVELATION This is a link to a sermon covering words Jesus spoke as recorded in the Book of Revelation and in first and second Corinthians: Revelation: Jesus’ Final Words.

The Bible, Peter, Paul, John, Polycarp, Herbert W. Armstrong, Roderick C. Meredith, and Bob Thiel on Church Government What form of governance did the early church have? Was it hierarchical? Which form of governance would one expect to have in the Philadelphia remnant? The people decide and/or committee forms, odd dictatorships, or the same type that the Philadelphia era itself had? What are some of the scriptural limits on ecclesiastical authority? Do some commit organizational idolatry? Here is a Spanish language version La Biblia, Policarpo, Herbert W. Armstrong, y Roderick C. Meredith sobre el gobierno de la Iglesia. Here is a link to a sermon titled Church Governance.

Universal OFFER of Salvation, Apokatastasis: Can God save the lost in an age to come? Hundreds of scriptures reveal God’s plan of salvation Will all get a fair chance at salvation? This free book is packed with scriptures showing that God does intend to offer salvation to all who ever lived–the elect in this age, and the rest in the age to come. Here is a link to a related sermon series: Universal Offer of Salvation 1: Apocatastasis, Universal Offer of Salvation 2: Jesus Desires All to be Saved, Mysteries of the Great White Throne Judgment (Universal Offer of Salvation part 3), Is God Fair, Will God Pardon the Ignorant?, Can God Save Your Relatives?, Babies, Limbo, Purgatory and God’s Plan, and ‘By the Mouth of All His Holy Prophets’.

Is God Calling You? This booklet discusses topics including calling, election, and selection. If God is calling you, how will you respond? Here is are links to related sermons: Christian Election: Is God Calling YOU? and Predestination and Your Selection. A short animation is also available: Is God Calling You?

Beliefs of the Original Catholic Church. Did the original “catholic church” have doctrines held by the Continuing Church of God? Did Church of God leaders uses the term “catholic church” to ever describe the church they were part of? Here are links to related sermons: Original Catholic Church of God?, Original Catholic Doctrine: Creed, Liturgy, Baptism, Passover, What Type of Catholic was Polycarp of Smyrna?, Tradition, Holy Days, Salvation, Dress, & Celibacy, Early Heresies and Heretics, Doctrines: 3 Days, Abortion, Ecumenism, Meats, Tithes, Crosses, Destiny, and more, Saturday or Sunday?, The Godhead, Apostolic Laying on of Hands Succession, Church in the Wilderness Apostolic Succession List, Holy Mother Church and Heresies, and Lying Wonders and Original Beliefs.

Preparing for the ‘Short Work’ and The Famine of the Word What is the ‘short work’ of Romans 9:28? Who is preparing for it? Will Philadelphian Christians instruct many in the end times? Here is a link to a related video sermon titled: The Short Work. Here is a link to another: Preparing to Instruct Many.

Who Gave the World the Bible? The Canon: Why do we have the books we now do in the Bible? Is the Bible complete? Are there lost gospels? What about the Apocrypha? Is the Septuagint better than the Masoretic text? What about the Textus Receptus vs. Nestle Alland? Was the New Testament written in Greek, Aramaic, or Hebrew? Which translations are based upon the best ancient text? Did the true Church of God have the canon from the beginning? Here are links to related sermons: Let’s Talk About the Bible, The Books of the Old Testament, The Septuagint and its Apocrypha, Masoretic Text of the Old Testament, and Lost Books of the Bible, and Let’s Talk About the New Testament, The New Testament Canon From the Beginning, English Versions of the Bible and How Did We Get Them?, What was the Original Language of the New Testament?, Original Order of the Books of the Bible, and Who Gave the World the Bible? Who Had the Chain of Custody?

Proof Jesus is the Messiah This free book has over 200 Hebrew prophecies were fulfilled by Jesus. Plus, His arrival was consistent with specific prophecies and even Jewish interpretations of prophecy. Here are links to seven related sermons: Proof Jesus is the Messiah, Prophecies of Jesus’ birth, timing, and death, Jesus’ prophesied divinity, 200+ OT prophecies Jesus filled; Plus prophecies He made, Why Don’t Jews Accept Jesus?, Daniel 9, Jews, and Jesus, and Facts and Atheists’ Delusions About Jesus. Plus the links to two sermonettes: Luke’s census: Any historical evidence? and Muslims believe Jesus is the Messiah, but …

Hope of Salvation: How the Continuing Church of God Differs from Protestantism The CCOG is NOT Protestant. This free online book explains how the real Church of God differs from mainstream/traditional Protestants. Several sermons related to the free book are also available: Protestant, Baptist, and CCOG History; The First Protestant, God’s Command, Grace, & Character; The New Testament, Martin Luther, and the Canon; Eucharist, Passover, and Easter; Views of Jews, Lost Tribes, Warfare, & Baptism; Scripture vs. Tradition, Sabbath vs. Sunday; Church Services, Sunday, Heaven, and God’s Plan; Seventh Day Baptists/Adventists/Messianics: Protestant or COG?; Millennial Kingdom of God and God’s Plan of Salvation; Crosses, Trees, Tithes, and Unclean Meats; The Godhead and the Trinity; Fleeing or Rapture?; and Ecumenism, Rome, and CCOG Differences.

The MYSTERY of GOD’s PLAN Why Did God Create Anything? Why did God make you? This free online book helps answers some of the biggest questions that human have, including the biblical meaning of life. Here is a link to three related sermons: Mysteries of God’s Plan, Mysteries of Truth, Sin, Rest, Suffering, and God’s Plan, and The Mystery of YOU.

Christians: Ambassadors for the Kingdom of God, Biblical instructions on living as a Christian This is a scripture-filled booklet for those wishing to live as a real Christian. A related sermon is also available: Christians are Ambassadors for the Kingdom of God.

The Ten Commandments: The Decalogue, Christianity, and the Beast This is a free pdf book explaining the what the Ten Commandments are, where they came from, how they develop love, how early professors of Christ viewed them, and how various ones, including the Beast of Revelation, will oppose them. A related sermon is titled: The Ten Commandments and the Beast of Revelation.

The Gospel of the Kingdom of God This free online pdf booklet has answers many questions people have about the Gospel of the Kingdom of God and explains why it is the solution to the issues the world is facing. Here are links to three related sermons: The World’s False Gospel, The Gospel of the Kingdom: From the New and Old Testaments, and The Kingdom of God is the Solution.

Where is the True Christian Church Today? This free online pdf booklet answers that question and includes 18 proofs, clues, and signs to identify the true vs. false Christian church. Plus 7 proofs, clues, and signs to help identify Laodicean churches. A related sermon is also available: Where is the True Christian Church? Here is a link to the booklet in the Spanish language: ¿Dónde está la verdadera Iglesia cristiana de hoy? Here is a link in the German language: WO IST DIE WAHRE CHRISTLICHE KIRCHE HEUTE? Here is a link in the French language: Où est la vraie Église Chrétienne aujourd’hui?

Continuing History of the Church of God This pdf booklet is a historical overview of the true Church of God and some of its main opponents from Acts 2 to the 21st century. Related sermon links include Continuing History of the Church of God: c. 31 to c. 300 A.D. and Continuing History of the Church of God: 4th-16th Centuries and Continuing History of the Church of God: 17th-20th Centuries. The booklet is available in Spanish: Continuación de la Historia de la Iglesia de Dios, German: Kontinuierliche Geschichte der Kirche Gottes, and Ekegusii Omogano Bw’ekanisa Ya Nyasae Egendererete.

CCOG.ORG Continuing Church of God The group striving to be most faithful amongst all real Christian groups to the word of God. There are links to literature is about 160 different languages there.

LATEST SERMONS

[ibiverse]

location: the solar system

Overview

A medium-sized yellow star with a modest family of planets, the “mother sun” is the cradle of the now-interstellar human species. Life is old here, with a rich and complex history going back for more than a terasecond. 

Historiography

Dates are measured both in Earth Years (31.6 Ms) and in total seconds, the reference for both being “After Sun Eater” (ASE), which is used not because anyone particularly likes Sun Eater, but because his deeds are easily correlated with solar eclipses that can be precisely defined from orbital data. 

Other major date systems include:

Binitarian Calendar (BinCal): Based on the dispensation of the Binitarian holy texts 1194 years before the zero year of the Sun Eater calendar, the BinCal is widespread in the east and south continents

Digital Epoch (DE): Beginning more or less arbitrarily in year 310 ASE, this is the “computer-friendly” date system widely used in technical settings, and increasingly in everyday life

Magical Epoch (ME): Functionally similar to the DE system, the Magical Epoch has the “Conifer Telltale” detonation test as its zero time. It is fairly obscure, only used, unsurprisingly, in the context of magical stuff. 

The “present day” is assumed to be second 20^10 of the Magical Epoch, year 2188 of the Binitarian Calendar, year 994 ASE, 21.5768 gigaseconds into the Digital Epoch. 

The System

Inner System

Dee

The ancient Piprima civilization wrote on the Obelisk of the Planets that Dee was an ethereal counterpart to migrating swallows, due to its small size and relatively fast back-and-forth motion. They associated its movement with crops and imagined it as an arbiter of prosperity and health.

A small, rocky planet, Dee is tidally locked: one hemisphere in eternal, scorching daylight, the other in eternal night. Despite its proximity to the sun, the night side of Dee is quite cold and hosts a lot of water ice. Humans have built some mines and cities near the terminator, underground to protect against high-energy solar radiation. Dee civilization is notable for its production of solar sail craft, used in power generation and shipping throughout the inner system. 

Daa

The Obelisk of the Planets characterized Daa as a counterpart to Dee, chasing it across the sky but forever falling behind, like a falcon that could never catch up to a swallow, condemned to starvation. Indeed, the Piprima tradition treated Daa as a harbinger of famine when moving “away from” Dee, and a charm for successful hunting when moving “towards” it. Conjunctions between the two were omens of plenty.

In a 2:1 resonance orbit with the sun, Daa is thoroughly heated and much less hospitable than Dee. Several thousand orcs live in “caravan-cities”, trains of rugged crawler-vehicles that follow the terminator across the parched landscape. Wildly divergent religious beliefs produce cultural divides between “strands” of the cities.

Katua 

Big and bright in morning and evening skies, Katua has long held a special sway over human imaginations. The first record of understanding it as one object and not a distinct “morning star” and “evening star” was in our old friend, the Obelisk of the Planets. Occupying the border between day and night, the planet was seen as a symbol of change, especially in the forms of birth and death. Katua was a fate-like figure who dictated the lifespans of mortal humans. “May Katua have mercy” was a phrase of blessing often appended to the names of kings of Piprima in many ancient texts. 

We now know that Katua is similar in size to earth, but with a dummy THICC atmosphere that makes its surface a hellscape. Orbited by four small moons. Humans and orcs permanently inhabit the four small moons as well as giant, feudal cloud-cities floating in the Katua’s upper atmosphere. Robotic exploration of the surface is conducted often. [more about major cloud cities]

Ulta

Smallest and closest-orbiting moon

Ara

Largest moon, orbiting at a high inclination

Rua

A small moon on the ecliptic

Earth System

Mother Earth 

The blueprint of all habitable planets, this terrestrial world has a relatively strong magnetosphere, a surface with active plate tectonics, vast areas of ocean, and diverse life forms of all kinds. It was here that humans first evolved, and where billions live. 

The most definitive social unit of Earth is the Megacity – large areas of densely populated artificial environment. The chief megacities are:

Liopolu 

Liopolu (pop 2E+8) is a coastal port city. It was formed in 310 yr. ASE from the Kaulahao Polu Republic, a maritime successor state to Sun Eater’s Empire; and the Liomahina Republic, which had been mainly agrarian under Sun Eater but rapidly industrialized post-empire. Its climate is rather cold, so many of its main public spaces are sub-surface. 

Talfnapiti 

(pop. 4E+7), the Peach Coast, has a long history as an industrial nexus between the vast desert to its south and the populous regions to its north. 

Palenaani 

(pop 6E+7), the Honey Coast, is renowned for its nice weather and steep, narrow streets. It’s a storied center of research and education

Geopolus

(pop. 8E+7), spanning the three large volcanic islands of Tiradelfa and largely supplied by vast pelagic agriculture systems, is considered by many to be a totally unique society. Vast pontoon bridges cross the huge stretches of deep ocean between the islands. Piers stretch out from the coasts with buildings rising dozens of stories above the sea. The northeasternmost island is designated for natural preservation, and is home to many species found nowhere else. 

Charra Kell 

(pop 6E+7) is absolutely massive, almost indescribably diverse and dynamic. Notable for the sheer scale of its monolithic apartment buildings. 

Pen Tappodam 

(pop 5E+7), the city of five rivers, is Totally Not Seattle. 

About 85% of Earth’s population live in these megacities, but there are many other noteworthy regions outside them. 

Earth-orbital regions 

Low Earth Orbit

Several large space stations exist here. After a catastrophic atmospheric entry event, international law requires that low-orbit stations be modular and rapidly dismantleable to minimize the damage they can inflict on the surface of Earth. 

Earth-Moon Lagrange Points 

Stable orbits with relatively low delta-V requirements to reach from the Moon, the Lagrange Points are a natural place for space stations. And do they ever have space stations! 

L1

L2

L3

An Earth-dominated space city - it’s location counter to the moon makes it a symbol of the Earthling Space Renaissance and the end of Lunar hegemony. 

L4

Carcinized orcs live here. Largest lagrange point station due to location prograde of the Moon

L5

Geostationary Orbit

This is where the space elevators anchor. Lots of cargo is transferred here, and space stations built in the modular style of the LEO stations (and with a lot of shared standard components)

Earth’s Moon

The classic O’Niellian moon: mining and processing ores, then catapulting them to Low Earth Orbit and the Lagrange Points for fabrication into gigantic space stations and spacecraft. Vast tunnel-cities home to more than a billion people. Solar arrays towering above the poles on rotating platforms to get that sweet eternal sunshine. Humans first settled the moon in 355 yr. ASE after a mysterious supernatural force compelled  them to venture to the stars, with the moon as the starting point. 

The moon’s topography is characterized by spiky mountains and enchanting caverns containing rare and beautiful gems. It was once its own planet, but was gradually captured by earth’s gravity (this is different from our universe’s moon, which coalesced from a collision between earth and another planet!) In a matter of a few billion years the moon’s orbit may decay and it will collide with the earth! 

Socially, the Moon is dominated by the Moonicipality, a sprawling bureaucracy that maintains the mostly underground city near the moon’s north pole where most of its people live and work. Notable among Moonicipal ventures are the “FedSpheres”, huge spherical caverns created by underground nuclear blasts. The first of these were deliberately built on the far side of the moon as a gesture of independence from Earth, where at the time governments were uninterested in the affairs of the moon. 

Asteroid Belt

The asteroid belt is a thinly dispersed region of small-ish space rocks. Some are the remains of ancient, destroyed planets, some the hearts of planets never formed, but most are piles of dust and rock that gently accrued together over billions of years. 

Most of the asteroids are uninhabited. Hundreds, however, are dotted with bubble villages where small human populations dwell. 

Among some of the asteroids live “aster-elves”, humans adapted to the vacuum of space. They hold pure oxygen in their lungs, which they deplete very slowly. They carry spherical fuel tanks atop their heads, which power pistol-like handheld rocket thrusters. They dissipate heat through their impermeable skin, and through leaf-shaped structures protruding from their backs. Many believe they’re just mythical, but those few ‘nauts who see them never forget.

Dwarf planets:

Asteroids large enough to be in hydrostatic equilibrium are called “dwarf planets.” 

Shoy

Only ever faintly visible from earth in the darkest and clearest conditions, Shoy was not recognized as a planet until after the invention of the telescope. Its (idk how yet) resonance with Kotha prompted its discoverers to name it after the mythical Kotha’s companion, lord of all bison. 

A third the mass of Earth’s moon, Shoy today is filled with deep rotating underground cities. Most are cone-shaped to combine their centrifugal force with the gravity of the dwarf planet. The closer to the surface, the shallower the cone, thanks to our old friend the inverse-square law. The largest cone-city by far, Fissile Fount, is not actually a cone, but a curved funnel like shape that gently changes its slope from [PENDING ANGLE] just below the surface to [PENDING ANGLE] at its lowest depth of [PENDING DEPTH]. 

The Great Crystal Ball is a major cultural landmark: a glittering garden-dome over Featherman Crater, filled with magnificent strains of giant flowers found nowhere else, and home of the historic first landing site, preserved as a museum. 

Its moonlet Thellei has long been a pivotal port of call for ships heading outward. Mining and shipbuilding are its predominant industries. 

Kotha

The only belt body easily visible from Earth with the naked eye, Kotha has been interpreted differently across many cultures. The Obelisk of the Planets calls it Dasra and associates it with memory, whereas the Tammarong associated it with their farming god Kotha, and the name stuck. 

A moon-and-a-quarter in mass, surface sparsely dotted with majestic bubble-cities, Kotha is regarded by many as the crown jewel of the belt. Its seventeen moons are iconic, lauded in poetry and art. Seeing all the moons in conjunction is a huge tourist event. 

Its largest city is Golden Dome, considered an architectural wonder and home to over a million people. Also noteworthy is Silver Spire, the base of a space elevator, and Expo Dome, constructed as a showcase of the wonders of every world in the solar system on Gigasecond 20 D.E.

Dess

A quarter the mass of Earth’s moon, Dess is something of a backwater. Its inclined orbit it’s inconvenient for shipping; the million or so residents of its impoverished tin-can means cities are largely dependent on import for essential goods. 

Entoormedon

The terraformed one! Four-fifths moon mass, its craters are turned to seas of towering surf rimmed by forested mountains. Rolling grasslands are traversed by sprightly deer-like creatures. Birds that could never fly in earth’s gravity grace the skies. A tourist destination of the outer belt, for obvious reasons. 

Prominent Asteroids:

Istiris

“Gateway to the Belt”, about two-thirds of the way between Earth and Shoy, Istiris was one of the first asteroids to be settled. 

Darican

“Capital of the little rocks”, Darican is a heavily urbanized asteroid orbiting about halfway between Kotha and Entoormedon. Due to its near lack of gravity well, it’s preferable to any dwarf planet as a fueling and transfer station, especially for tight-margined independent ore-haulers. The city of Darican takes the form of a tangle of vast wheels - slowly rotating centrifuges - some concentric, some interlocked - that are home to tens of millions of people. A central mast extends outward for miles in each direction, providing a stationary mooring point for vessels coming and going. 

Tollemm

Vesk

Named fairly recently after the pan-Maxamari deity of metalwork, Vesk is a precious metal world. Rapidly settled in a literal gold rush before it turned out no one could do much better than break even shipping metals back to earth, it became, by necessity, a world of artists - a society dedicated to making precious metals into strange and beautiful goods. 

The Heavenly Gardens

A canvas sphere containing an immense volume of air. The microgravity atmosphere hosts floating islands, sky-ships, bird-people, aerojellyfish, and many other natural wonders. 

Gas Giants: 

Mind-bogglingly big planets with no solid surface, the gas giants are like little suns, hosting families of moons that are like planets unto themselves! Gas giant subsystems tend to develop more insular shared cultures due to their distance from the rest of civilization. 

Theshu 

The ancient Tammarong civilization associated this bright, slow-moving planet with their chief deity Theshu - bringer of dreams and fertility, ultimate wellspring of life spiritual and physical. Its opposition to the sun, when it’s brightest, was one of the most significant festivals, traditions from which continue to this day. 

This veneration was well-deserved: king of planets, with the mass of over three hundred earths, and orbited by as many moons, Theshu is truly sublime. Its gravitational force shapes the asteroid belt, its magnetic field is deadly to humans without a lot of shielding, many of its moons are planets in their own right. 

Needless to say, no one lives on Theshu itself (though there are a few remotely operated atmospheric research platforms). But its moons host a vibrant civilization. 

Iscu

A moon in the process of destruction! Iscu, due to a slowly decaying orbit and intense tidal forces, is breaking up and spewing giant chunks of rock into space. It is very dangerous, but scientists persist in exploring it!

Sebzevaan

A large, rocky moon. All its cities are deep underground due to radiation from Theshu. One and a third the mass of Earth’s moon, it is home of a geothermal foundry powerhouse civilization. 

Tzashe

A small moon with a rotating cylinder-city at its center. Settled because it is conveniently positioned to derive power from tidal forces via huge “tether-towers” extending megameters above the surface. 

Essetoi

Two thirds the mass of Earth’s moon. Huge caves and volcanoes. 

Reethar

With an artificial magnetosphere, three quarters the mass of Earth’s moon, Reethar is an industrial and cultural hub of the Theshu subsystem. Elegant, almost gothic bubble domes dot its surface, connected by high-speed railways that are a matter of pride for the moon’s inhabitants. 

Telbi

Largest moon in the solar system (roughly three quarters the mass of Earth), it has its own moon! The tidal force of this moon makes the surface of Telbi safe, radiation-wise, for habitation. People live in gigantic bubble-cities. Terraforming has been attempted but was unsuccessful in making the surface human-habitable; only scary lichens survive amidst the caustic rain. 

Telbitzi

The moon-moon of Telbi, a spaceport and staging point.

Other Moon names

Thesti

The ancient Tammarong associated the planet Thesti with their god of healing, judgement and death. The god Thesti was a mysterious figure, and the planet turned out to be no different!

A hundred times the mass of the earth, surrounded by a shimmering ring system, and with a near-90-degree axial tilt, Thesti is truly a world of wonder and intrigue. 

The Rings

A vast disc of ice chunks, the ring system is a largely mysterious wasteland. It’s insanely vast. Like a sea of ice floes covering more than 80 times the surface area of earth, all shifting and drifting in three dimensions with the gravitational influences of mountain-sized moonlets, it’s a surreal and haunting place. The rings of Thesti are sparsely populated, but home to a number of cultures:

The iceworms are serpentine cyborgs slithering among the chunks of ice and rock. They rarely contact others and remain largely mysterious to human knowledge. 

Ring-scrapers search the ring system for valuable minerals and objects of scientific intrigue. A meager livelihood dwelling in small spaceships, the ring-scraping life produces tough people.

There is also a population of aster-elves in the innermost rings. They are more sedentary than most of the belt aster-elves, more often inhabiting one meteorite as something of a genus loci than moving between them. 

Shesse

Used to have rivers and lakes. Intricate sedimentary formations remain to this day. 

Beeleh

The surface of this moon is covered in huge tubular structures that give it a “fuzzy” look from a distance. There’s a mysterious crystalline mountain that is seemingly unrelated to the geology of the rest of the moon...and has grown slightly over time!

Estaza

Most of the above described moons are equatorial with respect to Thesti, near-perpendicular to the disc of the rest of the solar system. Estaza, however, is roughly coplanar with Earth and the other planets, making it a valuable fueling station for ships heading further into or out of the Thesti system. Its shape is irregular, its mass less than a tenth that of Earth’s moon, and its composition rocky and icy, though its ice reserves have been depleted to an alarming extent to make fuel for the ships passing through. 

Outer Planets

The cold, dark outer region of the solar system is a bit of a wilderness. Its planetary systems populated by only the strongest of people, the lags in communication and travel time painfully long, mysteries around every corner. 

Ashta

An ice giant with some cloud cities. Dozens of  moons, most inhabited by a blue-skinned strain of long-lived cyborg humans.

In the upper atmosphere of Ashta itself is the Cloud Palace, a blocky structure of pumice-like aerogel (helium-gel?) that floats in its gaseous environment. It is here that the Council of Kings convenes in times of great importance. 

Thetnia

Very low-orbiting moonlet that serves as a staging point for travel to the cloud-cities.  

Deshta

A world of smooth icy plains and towering mountains. Capital of the Ashta Federative Empire and a premier center of cybernetic research

Alfna

A moon with enough atmosphere for wind and snow! wowee! Relatively thin atmosphere, but with less gravity than Earth’s moon, so people travel with gigantic. lightweight sail-like wings. 

Esh

Subsurface water ocean that is considered sacred. Pyramid-shaped cities on the surface

Rinla

A dry, rocky, spherical moon with several active volcanoes. Its orbit closely resonates with that of Esh. A handful of vast bubble cities house its population. 

Huusek

A solid, icy world nearly twice the mass of earth, Huusek is a foreboding world where few dare venture. Few, but not none! Giant centipedes, brought by humans, have evolved to be right at home in the brutal gravity and temperature conditions. And populations of humans and orcs have adapted to live in bubbles, even under the immense gravity the world exerts! They’re very short though lol. Huusek is named after a Stone Tree goddess of summer, and has several moons: 

Thuusek

Two thirds the mass of Earth, Thuusek is a huge sphere of ice. Named after the mythical daughter of Huusek and patron goddess of migratory birds, it is mostly uninhabited save for researchers. 

Espna

Subsurface hydrocarbon ocean? Only place in the Huusek system with an interplanetary-grade spaceport, making it de facto capital of the Huusek subsystem

Eshei

Giant ice spikes

Essenai

An ice giant with one spherical moon. Supercritical fluids deep in its atmosphere host native extraterrestrial life! An intergovernmental accords established a mandate that only a particular Essenani Liaison could interact with the planet itself. 

Rasseku

Discovered well into the digital epoch, Rasseku remains something of a frontier world. A gaseous planet only twice the mass of Earth

It has a few major moons:

Dasta

Tubular, maaaan. Nearly a fifth the mass of Earth’s moon, Dasta is shaped like a cylinder.

Sesta

Small, icy and spherical, site of the only permanently inhabited base in the Rasseku system. It is about a quarter the mass of Earth’s moon. 

Driani

Even in the faint sunlight of Rasseku, Driani is a world of darkness. Two thirds the mass of Earth’s moon but with one of the lowest observed albedos in the solar system. 

The Fringe

The extremities of the solar system are a true wilderness. Few have ventured here,fewer heard back from, but It is thought that a few trans-Essanani and trans-Rassek objects host fusion-powered tunnel towns of rugged settlers determined to live free and far from the rest of humanity. 

[flagellant]

I would love to know where you think the Catholic doctrine of Trinity is really at all comparable to literally every single other splinter denomination's idea of the One-and-Three. I would absolutely adore to hear you try and lecture me about trinitarianism and the countless sects it birthed in unitarians, binitarians, antitrinitarians, the modalists, etc. This isn't sarcasm!

I am genuinely super interested in the idea that you, some random person who doesn't know who I am, could tell me something about Christian theology and doctrinal history that I didn't learn when I studied those things for seven years in academia, where my thesis was on the anthropology of religion and spirituality and my study focus was on Christian heretical histories.

Does that exist for protestants? I need to find a way to get kicked tf out /srs

Nope, excommunication is a Catholic only thing

[wildernessproject2020]

Philippians

빌립보서 Background

신약성경에 바울의 서신서는 몇권인가?

13권 (데살로니가 전,후서, 갈라디아서, 고린도 전,후서, 로마서, 골로새서, 빌레몬서, 에베소서, 빌립보서, 디모데 전, 후서, 디도서)

그 중 옥중서신이라고 하는 서신서, 즉 감옥에서 쓴 편지는 모두 몇 권인가?

4권  (골로새서, 빌레몬서, 에베소서, 빌립보서)

목회서신이라고 부르는 서신서는?

3권 (디모데 전, 후서, 디도서)  

빌립보서의 기록된 연도는 A.D. 61-62년 경 (로마에서)

빌립보라는 굉장히 unique한 도시: 왜냐하면, 이 도시의 Roman-ness 때문이고, 유대인 community 가 아주 적었다는 점에서 바울이 전도한 그 어떤 도시보다 굉장히 특이한 도시였다.

팔레스타인에 가이사랴 빌립보와는 다른 빌립보

역사적 배경: “빌립보는 원래 크레니데스라고 불렸다. 마케도니아의 필리포스 2세(알렉산더 대왕의 아버지)는 기원전 4세기 중엽 트라키아인들로부터 이 도시를 빼앗아 자신의 이름을 따서 이 도시를 명명하였다. 이 지역은 매장량이 풍부한 금광이 있어서, 필리포스의 이름이 새겨진 금화가 발행된 곳이었다. 기원전 168년경 로마의 집정관 루키우스 아이밀리우스 파울루스는 마케도니아의 마지막 왕인 페르세우스를 무찌르고 빌립보와 그 주변 지역을 점령하였다. 기원전 146년에는 마케도니아 전 지역이 로마의 한 속주를 이루게 되었다. 옥타비아누스와 마르쿠스 안토니우스가 율리우스 카이사르를 암살한 브루투스와 가이우스 카시우스 롱기누스의 군대를 무찌른 전투는 빌립보 평원에서(기원전 42년에) 벌어졌다. 그 후 자신이 거둔 큰 승리를 기념하기 위해 옥타비아누스는 빌립보를 로마의 “식민지”로 만들었다. (행 16:12) 몇 해 후 옥타비아누스는 원로원에 의해 카이사르 아우구스투스가 되자, 이 도시를 가리켜 콜로니아 아우구스타 율리아 필리펜시스라고 불렀다.”  https://wol.jw.org/ko/wol/d/r8/lp-ko/1200003467=5

“It was twice founded as a Roman colonia (Acts 16:12), first by Gaius Octavian (later Augustus Caesar) and Mark Antony after a double battle there in 42 b.c. when they defeated Cassius and Brutus and ended the Roman Republic; and then, after the defeat of Anthony and Cleopatra in 31 b.c., as Colonia Iulia Augusta Philippensis”  (*Reumann, John. 2008. Philippians : A New Translation with Introduction and Commentary. The Anchor Yale Bible. New Haven: Yale University Press. https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=nlebk&AN=302229&site=ehost-live)

가이우스 옥타비아누스와 마크 안토니우스가 빌립보 전투에서 카시우스와 브루투스를 격파한 후, 카시우스와 브르투스 참패. 빌립보는 로마의 식민지로 세워짐 (B.C. 42년경), 두번째로 그 이후 안토니와 클레오파트라의 전쟁 이후 B.C. 31 Colonia Iulia Augusta Philippensis 으로 세워짐

헬레니즘 문화에 로마의 정치적영향력, 마게도냐 현지인들의 종교와 황제의 종교 / 유대인회당은 (아예 없지는 않았겠지만)없었음 (사도행전 16:13)

“이 도시는 로마의 식민 도시로 지정되었기 때문에 세금을 면제받는 데 더해 다른 여러 가지 특전들을 누렸는데, 그러한 특전들 중에는 이곳 주민들에게 준(準)로마 시민권을 부여하는 것도 포함되었을 수 있다. 따라서 이곳 시민들은 그러한 특전들이 주어지지 않았을 경우보다는 로마에 대해 더 강한 애착과 호감을 갖게 되었다. 이러한 점을 생각해 볼 때, 바울이 점치는 악귀를 쫓아내 준 소녀의 주인들이 행정관들 앞에서 바울과 실라를 고발하면서 “우리 로마인들”이라고 말함으로 그러한 사실을 강조한 이유를 이해할 수 있다. (행 16:16-24) 또한 나중에 바울이 빌립보의 그리스도인들에게 보낸 편지에서 그리스도에 관한 좋은 소식에 합당한 “시민으로서 행동”하라고 권고하였을 때나, 그들에게 “우리의 시민권은 하늘에 있”다고 상기시켰을 때, 그들은 그것을 매우 쉽게 이해할 수 있었을 것이다. 세상적인 면에서 로마의 시민권은 빌립보에서 높이 평가되었으며 심지어 자랑할 만한 것이었기 때문이다.—빌 1:27, 3:20”.   https://wol.jw.org/ko/wol/d/r8/lp-ko/1200003467#h=6

사도행전 16장 말씀이 빌립보 교회의 성장배경이다. 말씀을 읽어보자, 빌립보에서 어떤 사건들이 있었는가?

바울의 제 2차 선교여행 중 빌립보에 다다름 (A.D. 48/49-51) / 그 이후 로마에서 빌립보교회로 보내는 편지를 쓰게 됨 (에바브로디도 편으로 A.D. 60년경에

마게도냐를 어떻게 설명하고 있는가? (16:12 로마의 식민지 / 16:21 ‘로마 사람인 우리가’ (마게도냐 사람들이지만 정치적으로 이 곳에 사는 사람들은 로마사람들에게 부여하는 특별대우를 받음, 자긍심이 느껴짐)

빌립보: 정치적이고 군사적인 도시였음 / 그래서인지, 빌립보서에는 군사용어가 많이 등장함

마게도냐 지방의 첫 성인 빌립보에서 자색 옷감 장사인 루디아를 만나, 그녀와 그 온 집이 복음을 듣고 세례를 받음

바울과 실라가 점치는 귀신들린 여종을 자유케 함, 그로 인해 여종의 주인들에 의해 옥에 갇히게 됨

바울과 실라가 감옥에서 기도하고 하나님을 찬송함 / 죄수들이 다 듣게 됨 / 지진이 나고 옥터가 움직이고 문이 다 열리니, 간수가 자결하려고 함 / 바울과 실라가 막음 / 간수가 한 유명한 말 16:30 “그들을 데리고 나가 이르되 선생들이여 내가 어떻게 하여야 구원을 받으리이까 하거늘” / 바울과 실라의 대답 16:31 “이르되 주 예수를 믿으라 그리하면 너와 네 집이 구원을 받으리라 하고”

간수가 복음을 듣고 예수님을 따르게 됨 (주의 말씀을 전하고, 간수가 바울과 실라를 씻어주고 온 가족이 세례를 받음)

바울이 로마시민임을 밝힘 / 다시 루디아의 집으로 들어감

>> Observation and Reflection Questions (1:1- 2)

발신인이 누구인가?

바울과 디모데는 자신을 어떻게 소개하고 있는가?

“그리스도의” “of Christ,” “그리스도 예수 안에서” “in Christ,” “하나님 우리 아버지와 주 예수 그리스도로부터” “from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ” 이 of, in, from 의 전치사에서 우리는 바울과 디모데에 대해 무엇을 배울 수 있는가?

수신인은 누구인가?

바울의 Greeting 인사를 관찰해보자. 이 인사는 유대인들에게, 특별히 기독교로 개종한 유대인들에게 어떤 의미의 인사였을까?

빌립보 교회에 대해서는 우리는 무엇을 알 수 있는가?

Larry W. Hurtado, At the Origins of Christian Worship (참조)

“There are basically two main identifying marks of early Christian worship, when considered in its religious context: 1) Christ is reverenced as divine along with God, and 2) worship of all other gods is rejected.” “From the Jewish tradition of the time, earliest Christianity inherited a monotheistic exclusivity of worship, demanding of adherents a renunciation of the worship of other gods.” (39)

“My point is simply the historical observation that at its earliest observable stage Christian worship was more “binitarian’, with devotion directed to God and Christ. Earliest Christine religious experience involved God, Christ and the Spirit; but the devotional pattern was more ‘binitarian’ as to the divine recipients of worship (64).“As I hope to show in the final section of this chapter, the inclusion of Christ as recipient of religious devotion was not intended by early Christians as recognizing another god. Although ‘di-theism’ might well represent the sort of charge that at least some critics might have hurled at them, the term does not seem to represent their own views of their devotional pattern. I propose that in this characteristic ‘twoishness’ of their devotional practice there is also a pattern of religious behavior that links Christ with God in ways that seem intended to maintain an exclusivist ‘monotheistic’ stance. It is this early Christian accommodation of Christ as an additional figure along with God (‘the Father’) within a strongly monotheistic religious commitment that I refer to as the ‘binitarian’ shape of Christian worship.” (70)

>> Observation and Reflection Questions (1:3-11)

“주 안에서” 라고 말할 때 그대는 어떤 의미로 이 말을 하는가? 어떤 의미를 내포하고 있는가?

바울과 빌립보 성도들과의 관계에 대해서 관찰해보라

바울은 빌립보 성도들을 생각할 때마다 하나님께 감사할 수 밖에 없다라고 한 이유가 무엇이라고 말하고 있는가?

복음을 위한 일을 어떤 일일까?

복음을 위한 일에 빌립보 성도들은 어떻게 참여했는가? (partnership in the gospel)

바울은 또한 빌립보 성도들이 은혜에 참여한 사람들이라고 설명한다. 이들은 어떻게 은혜에 참여하였는가? (partakers with me of grace)

바울은 빌립보 교인들을 어떻게 사랑한다고 표현하고 있는가?

바울의 빌립보 교인들을 위한 기도를 읽어보라. 이 기도문에서 바울이 빌립보 교인들이 갖길 원하는 가장 중요한 것이 무엇이라고 생각하는가?

사랑하는 일에 지식과 총명이 어떤 역할을 하겠는가? 왜 바울은 사랑함에 이 두 가지를 덧붙여 기도하고 있는가?

하나님이 원하시는 의의 열매를 얻기 위한 전제가 무엇이 되어야 한다고 바울은 말하고 있는가?

“그리스도의 날까지 이르고…” 그리스도의 날은 어떤 날을 의미하는 것일까? (예수님 부활하신지 30년 정도 되어가고 있다. 그분은 언제 오실것일까? 그 날이 언제 올 지는 모르지만, 다시 오시는 그 날, 곧 오시겠다 하셨으니, 곧 오실 그 날)

하나님의 영광과 찬송이 된다는 것은 어떤 의미일까?

≫ As we wrap up 

생각날 때마다, 하나님께 감사가 쏟아지는 사람이 있는가? 간구할 때마다 내 마음에 기쁨이 넘치는 사람이 있는가? 그 이유는 무엇일까? 복음을 위한 일에 함께 하는 동역자가 있는가? 스승이, 제자가 있는가?

기쁨으로 간구한다는 것 – 염려와 근심이 아닌. 기쁨으로 기도하는 삶 (그 content는 9-11절이 되어야 할 것이다)

지식과 총명함으로 with knowledge and all discernment  사랑하는 것 – 나에게 어떻게 적용될 수 있을까? 지극히 선한 것을 분별 (discern)하는 것이지, 판단 (judge)하는 것이 아니다. What makes the two different is love. 사랑이다. 사랑이 없으면 판단이 되고, 사랑이 있으면 분별이 되는 것이다.

우리가 5년 후에, 10년 후에, 이 자리를, 우리 찬양팀 한 사람, 한 사람을 생각해볼 때 우리의 마음이 감사와 기쁨으로 가득 찰 수 있으려면  우리는 서로를 위해 기쁨으로 하나님께 감사하며 간구해야 할 것이다. “ ______ 사랑을 지식과 총명으로 점점 더 풍성하게 하사 ______ 로 지극히 선한 것을 분별하며 또 진실하여 허물없이 그리스도의 날까지 이르고 예수 그리스도로 말미암아 의의 열매가 가득하여 하나님의 영광과 찬송이 되기를 원합니다” (외우고 축복하자)

>> Worship Insights

바울의 제 2차 선교여정 중에 만난 빌립보에서의 사람들, 빌립보 교회는 썩 기분 좋은 만남으로, 애초부터 나에게 힘이 되는 사람들과 시작한 교회가 아니었다. 물론 루디아가 첫번째 회심자였고, 그녀는 빌립보 교회에 기둥 같은 존재였겠지만. 바울과 실라가 갇힌 감옥의 간수도 빌립보 교회의 교인이었다. 인생의 어떤 시즌에서 어떤 사람들을 만나느냐는, 어쩌면 우리의 기대를 넘어서는 놀라운 일이 될 수 있다. 그냥 버릴 수도, 끊어버릴 수도 있는 관계라는 것이 과연 존재할까? 주님을 믿는 우리들의 인생안에서? 바울은 약 10년이 흐른 지금 빌립보 교회에 편지를 보내고 있다. “내가 너희를 생각할 때마다…(3)” “…간구할 때마다…(4)” “이와 같이 생각하는 것이 마땅하니…(7)” “내가 예수 그리스도의 심장으로 너희 무리를 얼마나 사모하는지…(8)” “내가 기도하노라…(9)” 빌립보 교회는 늘 바울의 마음 속에 있었던 것이다.

주님을 믿고 따르는 제자 한 사람 한 사람이 교회다, 라고 한다면 내 마음 속에 바울이 빌립보 교회를 생각하듯, 내 마음 속에 자리 잡고 있는 교회 된 형제, 자매들은 누구인가? 나는 이들을 과연 생각할 때마다, 간구할 때마다 예수 그리스도의 심장으로 보고파하며, 사랑하며, 기도하고 있는가? 빌립보 교회, 즉 그 교회를 이루고 있는 한 사람 한 사람을 향한 바울의 심정은 어머니이고, 아버지이다.    

[talmidimblogging]

Naked Bible 243: ETS Conference Interviews Part 2 — The Naked Bible Podcast

This episode features conversations with Dr. David Capes of Wheaton, Dr. Gerry Breshears of Western Seminary, and Dr. Mark Futato of Reformed Theological Seminary. We talk about a new book for the non-specialist on earl high Christology / Jewish binitarianism; uses of, and responses to, Mike’s book, The Unseen Realm; Hebrew, and a forthcoming book…

via Naked Bible 243: ETS Conference Interviews…

[tanadrin]

So I have a short attention span sometimes and I really like Dan McClellan’s videos on TikTok, because he talks about religion both from a text-critical POV and also from a sociological and cognitive point of view, and he mentioned something not too long ago, about the cycle of religious dogma. Any dogma inevitably introduces questions as to how it relates to contemporary concerns, which inevitably leads to more issues that lead (in turn) to the development of new dogmas that respond to new social concerns, and so on and so forth, in a continuous cycle of religious development as each subsequent generation adapts the tradition they’ve inherited to their own needs.

But this can make major dogmatic concerns from other eras look quaint or pointless: why do the early Byzantines care so much about Christology? What about important (to us) moral issues, like slavery or the status of women? What about political concerns that gripped the West like who has the right to appoint bishops? Well, for various reasons (they thought slavery was fine and didn’t care about the status of women; the position of the emperor as basically equal to the Ecumenical Patriarch and differences in church governance made those political questions less important) these weren’t important issues at the time.

I think the reason Christology was so important to the early Christians was because the whole doctrine of Christ as God, and by extension the Trinity (plus the rare but occasionally-seen binitarian(? duotarian??) variant) was a lot more important for the status of Christianity relative to competing sects and practices in the ancient eastern mediterranean region: it was not obvious that Jesus’s divine status followed from his being the Messiah, and divine status had to be squared somehow with monotheism, which is exceedingly tricky coming out of a religious tradition that was scrupulously monotheistic. You can actually see a bit of this developing across the Gospels, with John, being a little later, taking a much more developed position on this than Mark, which was the earliest. Christianity also had to establish why Jesus was important and/or worthy of that status in an environment with lots of competing religions and soteriologies, and I think a lot of this got bound up in the Christological debates.

I also think these theological differences probably almost immediately became political and cultural differences. The linguistic fault lines somewhat reflect the Christological fault lines in the Byzantine empire at the end of antiquity, with Greek speakers in Asia Minor and Greece, Aramaic speakers in Syria and Palestine, and Coptic speakers in Egypt forming what would become major divisions of the church--later attempts to reconcile the monophysites, as Robin Pierson points out, foundered in part because aside from doctrinal differences, monophysites eventually developed liturgical differences they were strongly attached to, and didn’t want to give up their distinct traditions for centrally-imposed orthodoxy, even as those doctrinal differences perhaps receded in importance.

And it’s telling that outside Byzantine political hegemony, in Persia and Mesopotamia, the Church of the East flourished--spreading as far as Beijing!--because the process of imposing orthodoxy was as much about a political project of uniting the church as it was a religious one. Both probably for mundane political reasons (can’t have challenges to the Emperor’s authority!), but also because it was genuinely important to the Byzantine emperors to try to heal divisions within the church, for the spiritual unity of Christians everywhere.

Hence, knock-down drag-out fights about what seem to us extremely petty formulations, distinctions possibly without differences. We don’t have a lot of the social context that would be obvious to the contemporaries to these debates, and are left only with the central issues that were the symbols these conflicts rallied around, and I suspect that if we could go back and observe these arguments firsthand they would feel much more relatable.

But it is also extremely funny even in retrospect to watch people fight about something so arcane, and I also love Christological debates for the Star Trek Into Darkness Wikipedia page energy they give to that era of history. Just a reminder that humans love to fight about petty shit, I guess.

miaphysitism has gotta be one of the most pointless and abstruse heresies, like

They hold that Jesus, the "Incarnate Word, is fully divine and fully human, in one "nature" (physis),"[1] rather than using the wording established at the Council of Chalcedon (451) that Jesus is one "person" (in Greek ὑπόστασις hypostasis) in two "natures" (in Greek φύσεις physeis), a divine nature and a human nature.

like. literally what does this even mean. why did anybody give a shit. why is christology so stupid