Who is Christ?

I suppose that based on the title of this post I am getting ready to explain or answer the question, who is Christ. Well, yes and no! Since it is the season of Advent and Christmas is practically around the corner, I suppose sharing or reaffirming who Christ isn't a bad idea. However, one might ask: why all this hullabaloo about Jesus for almost 2000 years, now? Well, I can tell you what the first Christians believed simply based on St. Paul's writings, and trust me he wrote most of the New Testament, and planted most of the early churches we read about in it, so I can assure what he said was pretty much what they believed, unless you where gnostic. And, if you were gnostic back then it is possible that your views on Christ would have seemed a bit delusional. Regardless, what I am about to share probably sounds a bit gnostic since it explains the divinity of Christ in a clear way. Anyhow, enough said, the following texts are from the Epistle of Paul to the Colossians.

Colossians 1:15-23 (NRSV)

"The Supremacy of Christ

15 He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation; 16 for in[a] him all things in heaven and on earth were created, things visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or powers—all things have been created through him and for him. 17 He himself is before all things, and in[b] him all things hold together. 18 He is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, so that he might come to have first place in everything. 19 For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, 20 and through him God was pleased to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, by making peace through the blood of his cross.

21 And you who were once estranged and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds, 22 he has now reconciled[c] in his fleshly body[d] through death, so as to present you holy and blameless and irreproachable before him— 23 provided that you continue securely established and steadfast in the faith, without shifting from the hope promised by the gospel that you heard, which has been proclaimed to every creature under heaven. I, Paul, became a servant of this gospel (NRSV)."

I hope you enjoyed reading. Blessings and I hope everyone has a Merry Christmas, just in case I don't post again before then.

Reference:

NRSV Bible

Nobody is Right if Everybody is Wrong, but also Nobody is Wrong if Everybody is Right

Nobody is right if everybody is wrong, but also nobody is wrong if everybody is right. Obviously, part of that line comes from the song For What it’s Worth written by Stephen Stills back in his days with the band, Buffalo Springfield. On November 8^th, in the United States it was Election Day. We voted for many of our future political leaders, for various political issues, and also for who will be the president for the next 4 years. The leading candidates who got the majority of the votes were Hillary Clinton (D), and Donald Trump (R). The moments leading up to the election were very intense and harsh. In the early morning hours of November 9^th, Hillary Clinton conceded to Donald Trump, and he will now be the president. Of course, the supporters of Mrs. Clinton think she was the right candidate, and the supporters of Mr. Trump believe he won fair and square based on the electoral vote count. And, this is correct; Mr. Trump had the most electoral votes thus making him the winner. However, if one looks at the popular vote, it seems that Hillary is possibly a winner too, but either way the popular vote is indeed very close. What this means to me is that the United States is very polarized in our political views thus making us quite divided as a people. Everyone is really aware of this problem, but we don’t seem to figure out a way to solve it via dialogue. Moreover, no one seems to be willing to compromise any of their personal views. But, I do have and know of a solution.

I believe the solution to our problems and for post-election healing lies in what Jesus said two millenniums ago: “love God..., and love your neighbor as yourself.” Of course, if every human being is not on board with this idea, it isn't an effective solution. The alternative is however to continue beating our heads against the wall. What I love about Christianity is that not one gets a free ride; Jesus didn't make it easy for anyone, regardless of whether you are on the right or left politically. Yes, this is my best post-election idea for the healing of our country based on one of the biggest principles in Christianity. In the Gospel of Matthew 22:36-40, Jesus was asked which was the greatest commandment in the Law. Jesus’ response was “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’[a] 38 This is the first and greatest commandment. 39 And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’[b] 40 All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments (NIV Bible).” I am convinced that if everyone practices these two commandments, we can easily solve all of our differences; however, it is up to us. The ones that are unhappy with the results can go to an extreme, and chose revolution, but based on my personal experience coming from a country that experienced revolution; I think this is the worst choice.

My views on revolution based on personal experience are the following. A revolution, past or future, if it commits violence against fellow human beings and does not give them due process is not a revolution. It's criminals committing crimes, and using civil disobedience to justify their out of control urges. Of course, uneducated people or people with no morals are often the authors in such a revolution. Ultimately, many innocent people die, and the instigators also end up dead sooner or later. Radical ideas that threaten institutions often become institutions that are threatened by radical ideas.... And thus, the human condition is a vicious cycle that repeats.

To close, I wanted to say that we often hear people say “he is a Christian” or “she is a Christian.” I think we should instead realistically be saying “he claims to be a Christian,” or “she claims to be a Christian.” In all honesty, if we are not following what Jesus said was the greatest commandment, we probably aren't really Christians anyhow, and we are actually just claiming that we are. My final thought is to put yourself in someone else's shoes, and you might learn a thing or two. Whether you agree with their political views or not! Now, if this is too difficult for you, you might not be a redneck, but you might very well be a very arrogant person.We need to arrive at place in which nobody is right if everybody is wrong, but also nobody is wrong if everybody is right.Thanks for reading! Blessings!

Reference:

NIV Bible

Happy Eighth Birthday!

Today this blog turns eight years old. Happy Birthday to Arango's Apologetics Page!

The Watchers from Daniel Chapter 4 and the Book of Enoch, 300 Igigu or Igigi, The Age of Leo and The Sphinx is 36,000 Years old?, Atlantis 70, 000 years ago?

Hello, I hope everyone is doing well. We are at the start of autumn in the northern hemisphere of our planet. Although, the closer to the equator one is, it still feels more like summer. Trust me on that one! Anyhow, I hope you are enjoying your version of autumn. As you read the title to this post, you may have wondered, what the heck is this? As I wrote the title, I think I wondered where I am going with this. I suppose questioning is always good. I often heard George Carlin (may he rest in peace) say: “question everything.” So a question here, and a question there is always good in my book. Since at this point neither of us know where we are going with this, although I will know before you since I am writing this piece, let us see how many questions we end up asking, and if we can get any answers from them. I think I will break up each idea in the title and discuss them individually, or else this might turn out way too messy.  Well, let’s get started.

The Watchers from Daniel Chapter 4 and the Book of Enoch

The Watchers! They appear in both of these Hebrew Books. Question: who are they, and who are they watching if they are indeed watchers? We find out about the Watchers in Nebuchadnezzar’s Second Dream. The Book of Daniel chapter 4 reads:

13 “I saw in the visions of my head as I lay in bed, and behold, a watcher, a holy one, came down from heaven...

17 The sentence is by the decree of the watchers, the decision by the word of the holy ones...(RSV).

The Book of Daniel mentions the Watchers, but the Book of Enoch goes into great detail about them. I am not going to write much on the subject, but I highly recommend reading the Book of Enoch, and also the following article titled: Enoch & the Watchers: The Real Story of Angels & Demons, written by Michael Howard and found at the link below.

Enoch

300 Igigu or Igigi

What? This is Ancient Near Eastern stuff, I studied it, but I am nowhere near an expert on it. I will tell you that there is a lot of mystery around the whole thing. Here is what some have said below:

“Igigi/Igigu (a group of gods)

This Semitic term describes a group of possibly seven or eight gods. It is likely that the god Marduk was one of them, but the total membership in this group is unclear and likely changed over time....

Like the term Anunna, the term Igigu is equally complicated and in need of a comprehensive new study. Igigu, which is likely of Semitic origin, indicates a group of gods in the Mesopotamian pantheon. It is, however, not entirely clear what distinguishes the Igigu from the Anunna (oracc.museum.upenn.edu/).”

“Igigi was a term used to refer to the gods of heaven in Sumerian mythology. Though sometimes synonymous with the term "Annunaki," in one myth the Igigi were the younger gods who were servants of the Annunaki, until they rebelled and were replaced by the creation of humans (A Dictionary of Ancient Near Eastern Mythology, p. 85).”

Why 300?

“The name Igigi instead is less used, and it almost always describes a portion of the Anunnaki (300 of them, as we read in the Enuma Elish) residing in Heaven and who occasionally went down to Earth (KI), as in the tale about Marduk marrying Sarpanit (www.bibliotecapleyades.net)”

The reason why I wrote about this is because some experts on the subject would tell you all sorts of interestingly mysterious things they interpret or translate from the Sumerian texts. For example, some believe the Igigi were astronauts from the planet Nibiru who remained in orbit around the Earth on platforms and assisted in the transfer of gold back to their home planet. Some believe that man was created by the inhabitants of Nibiru in order to assist in the mining of gold on Earth to take back to use to repair the atmosphere on Nibiru. I am no expert, but the whole thing sounds fascinating. You should read up on it, if you are interested in this whole subject.

The Age of Leo and The Sphinx is 36,000 Years old?

Huh? I am not sure that huh qualifies as a question; however, in a conversation in combination with the right body language it can be a huge question. If you read up on it, you will probably find out that some scientist, specifically geologist; believe the Sphinx in Egypt is possibly 800, 000 years old. Of course, this age does not line up with any current understanding of Earth history. The age of 36, 000 does not line up with Dynastic Egyptology, but it does line up with Egyptian history generationally. I won’t go into much detail about it, but here is a theory below that is only based on Astronomy, and has no mention of the water erosion on the Sphinx, which is also a way of dating it:

“The Sky above Giza at Vernal Equinox in the year 36,400 BC: my proposal on Historical Golden Age of the Zep Tepi (processing by Armando Mei)

At the dawn of the vernal equinox.

The Lion constellation and Sphinx are closely connected to the East. The Orion constellation is on the Celestial Meridian, exactly above the Pyramids.  Most importantly, it’s a perfect connection between Al Nitak – the largest Star of the Belt of Orion – and the Great Pyramid, the biggest monument in the Giza Plateau. The connection occurred only in this astronomical configuration and in no one astronomical alignment ever proposed by experts, from 2,000 AD to 100,000 BC (www.ancient-origins.net).”

Atlantis 70, 000 years ago?

When? Okay, I have to admit that I randomly wrote 70,000 years to get your attention. We know about Atlantis from the Greek philosopher Plato from the dialogues of "Timaeus" and "Critias."  Now, was Atlantis fact or fiction (mythology)? Atlantis was a highly advanced civilization that existed way before the Greeks. Whether it existed 12,000 years ago or 70,000, it doesn’t matter because if it was a real place, which based on Plato’s detail it probably was, then it is amazing that perhaps a civilization that existed thousands of years before us was probably just as or more technologically advanced as we are today. I will let you do research on it, but the whole idea sounds pretty amazing. The Vedas (Ancient texts from India) mention flying machines thousands of years ago. We know that humans have great imagination, but could our writings also be describing eye witness accounts. Even the Hebrew Scriptures mention “Chariots of Fire” thousands of years ago. For instance, in 2 Kings 2:11 Elijah was taken up to heaven in a whirlwind when a chariot of fire appeared. My point is that the fact that such advanced technology is mentioned in writings from many years ago is almost incredible, whether it was written by Plato, or found in the Vedas, or the Hebrew texts.

Conclusion

Did we ask every question? Did we answer every question? I imagine the response to both of these questions is no. Hopefully, we will never stop asking questions until we have all the answers. However, if we are not asking questions, shouldn’t we get started doing so because we should know what we don’t know? Knowledge is power, but research wisely and manage your time wisely, also. Tend to the important and don’t be tyrannized by the urgent. I hope you enjoyed reading! Blessings!

References and Sources:

http://oracc.museum.upenn.edu/amgg/listofdeities/igigi/.

http://www.ancient-origins.net/ancient-places-africa/36400-bc-historical-time-zep-tepi-theory-002617

http://www.bibliotecapleyades.net/sumer_anunnaki/anunnaki/anu_47.htm

http://www.newdawnmagazine.com/articles/enoch-the-watchers-the-real-story-of-angels-demons

Leick, Gwendolyn: A Dictionary of Ancient Near Eastern Mythology (NY: Routledge, 1998).

RSV Bible

Unifying the Faith: Pray for Creation

"September 1 was proclaimed as the World Day of Prayer for Creation by the Orthodox Church in 1989, and many other Christian churches have joined since then, with Pope Francis most recently in 2015. It was then extended to be a month-long Season of Creation, ending on October 4 (Feast of St. Francis)(http://seasonofcreation.org/)."

In our day and age, the message from this post is of utmost importance, Please click on the link below, and go to the ecumenism sibling blog to find out more!


Unifying the Faith: Pray for Creation

Low Church, High Church!

"Evangelical Protestants sometimes become offended when they hear that they are from a "low church" tradition. Indeed, in some cases those from more liturgical traditions use that term in a pejorative way to mean "less sophisticated" or "uneducated."  But then, Protestant Evangelicals are not beyond throwing around the term "high church" to mean "less spiritual than we."  The fact is, neither term in itself carries any of those negative connotations (www.crivoice.org)."

The preceding lines are an excerpt from an article by Dennis Bratcher titled: "Low Church" and "High Church." Either of the terms basically describes a type of worship, and are not intended to imply a social status, per se. Anyhow, I just thought it was a fantastic article, and I simply wanted to share it with everyone. Please follow the link below for the full article.

The Difference Between Low Church and High Church

Reference:

http://www.crivoice.org/lowhighchurch.html

877 Years

877 years! What? I suppose a more specific title for this post would have been 877 Years of Celibacy. I decided to write this piece because I have often had people ask me, why is it that priests have this vow of celibacy and can’t get married? I usually have to correct them and tell them that it's mainly Roman Catholic priests. But, then they ask “doesn't the Bible say to be fruitful and multiply?” And I respond by saying yes, supposedly God gave Adam and Eve those instructions, according to the Hebrew Sciptures in the Book of Genesis. I add that this celibacy thing actually has not always been the case, and is more recent in the history of the Western Church. In fact, Peter who was supposed to have been the first Bishop of Rome was married. Saint Paul, however, was celibate as well as other church leaders and priest in history that also chose to be celibate. Now, with relevance to St. Peter being the first Bishop of Rome, some argue that it was really Linus, although that is another subject altogether. Eastern Orthodox priests are allowed to be married, and also Anglicans. In fact, many other clergy and pastors do not practice celibacy. So, why did I mention 877 years? I shall elaborate.

 The Church united originally had a few councils, starting with the Council of Jerusalem in the Book of Acts, and such as the Council of Nicaea in the year 325 AD. In 1054, East and West split up and the East (Orthodox Churches) only recognizes about seven ecumenical councils, to my understanding, in which the church was not divided. The Roman Catholic or Western Church continues to have councils independently such as the more recent Vatican II during the early 1960’s. In the year 1139 the Roman church had the Second Council of the Lateran. Well, you can do the math, between 1139 and 2016 there are 877 years, hence.... So, what happened in this council of 1139?

"In Lent of 1139 a general council was summoned by Pope Innocent II and held in the Lateran basilica {1}. As we know, the synod had been convoked the previous year; for the papal legates in England and Spain pressed the bishops and abbots to go to the council. Thus, a good number of fathers, at least five hundred, met in Rome. One of these came from the East, the patriarch of Antioch, but he was a Latin. With the pope presiding the council began on 2 April and it seems to have ended before 17 April, as far as we can judge from the sources (papalencyclicals.net)."

Thirty canons resulted from this council, and the following are very relevant to this post.

“6. We also decree that those in the orders of subdeacon and above who have taken wives or concubines are to be deprived of their position and ecclesiastical benefice. For since they ought to be in fact and in name temples of God, vessels of the Lord and sanctuaries of the holy Spirit, it is unbecoming that they give themselves up to marriage and impurity.

7. Adhering to the path trod by our predecessors, the Roman pontiffs Gregory VII, Urban and Paschal, we prescribe that nobody is to hear the masses of those whom he knows to have wives or concubines. Indeed, that the law of continence and the purity pleasing to God might be propagated among ecclesiastical persons and those in holy orders, we decree that where bishops, priests, deacons, subdeacons, canons regular, monks and professed lay brothers have presumed to take wives and so transgress this holy precept, they are to be separated from their partners. For we do not deem there to be a marriage which, it is agreed, has been contracted against ecclesiastical law. Furthermore, when they have separated from each other, let them do a penance commensurate with such outrageous behaviour.

8. We decree that the selfsame thing is to apply also to women religious if, God forbid, they attempt to marry (papalencyclicals.net)."

In the book Christianity The First Three Thousand Years, Diarmaid MacCulloch briefly discusses the Second Council of the Lateran. MacCulloch wrote:

“…it is true that churchmen were deeply concerned about the loss of ecclesiastical estates to possession by families; that had a further effect on the Church’s regulation of marriage…. Married clergy might well found dynasties, and might therefore be inclined to make Church lands into their hereditary property…. Celibacy set up a barrier between the clergy and the laity, becoming the badge of clerical status; at a time when everyone was being called to be holy…. (MacCulloch, p. 372-373).

I strongly suggest that you read up some more on this subject because it is really fascinating. Celibacy has been the norm or the rule in the Roman Catholic Church for 877 years, and counting. I do not know if this will change anytime soon. Moreover, I am aware that Anglican priests that convert to Roman Catholic were recently allowed by the Pope to remain married, please correct me if I am wrong…feel free to comment. I also know about Fr. Alberto Cutie, who is an Episcopal (part of the Anglican Communion) priest here in South Florida who left the Roman Catholic Church because he was in love and got married. Moreover, Fr. Albert and his wife have two children together now. To conclude, I personally do not agree with the celibacy rule, but that is just my opinion and I am not a Roman Catholic. Blessings and I hope you enjoyed reading!

References:

http://www.papalencyclicals.net/Councils/ecum10.htm.

MacCulloch, Diarmaid. Christianity: The First Three Thousand Years. New York: Viking, 2010.