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Sunday, January 22, 2017

Do you know About the Defects of Jesus?

Do you know about the defects of Jesus? Personally, I never knew that Jesus had any defects; however, while reading an article on aleteia.org, I discovered that he actually did because of Vietnamese cardinal Francis Xavier Nguyen Van Thuan. The following are excerpts from that article:

“Vietnamese cardinal Francis Xavier Nguyen Van Thuan’s extraordinary life deserves to be better known, particularly his great love for the Holy Eucharist. Imprisoned by the communist regime for thirteen years (9 of which were spent in solitary confinement), the priest ministered to others throughout his ordeal....

In an address in 2,000 Van Thuan declared that he had “…met the living Jesus; he fascinated me. I followed him – because I love the defects of Jesus.” His address may be found in one of his books, Testimony of Hope (aleteia.org).”


Well, I also love the defects of Jesus after reading The 5 Defects of Jesus. Read all about them in the full article at the following link. Blessings!


The 5 defects of Jesus - Religion - Aleteia.org – Worldwide Catholic Network Sharing Faith Resources for those seeking Truth – Aleteia.org









Reference:


http://aleteia.org/2017/01/18/the-5-defects-of-jesus/?


Sunday, January 1, 2017

Happy 2017!

Wishing all have a wonderful new year! May 2017 be filled with many blessings.

Saturday, December 24, 2016

Feliz Navidad a todos! Merry Christmas!

Feliz Navidad a todos! Merry Christmas!

Tuesday, December 13, 2016

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

Friday, November 11, 2016

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 8th, 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 9th, 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

Thursday, November 3, 2016

Happy Eighth Birthday!

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

Sunday, October 16, 2016

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:





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

RSV Bible