Stuff they don’t talk about in Sunday School
October 12th, 2008 — Archeology, Early Christian History, Geography, Israel, Judaism, Mormon, Movie/Book Reviews, Multi-Faith, Muslim, Old Testament
I just finished a book called “DNA & Tradition”, by Rabbi Yaakov Kleiman. The book discusses evidence of Hebrew DNA, and talks about the science and religion of Judaism. As part of the discussion, I learned these interesting facts.
The oldest diaspora communities are in Assyria, later conquered by Babylonia (now modern-day Iraq) and Persia (now modern day Iran). They have been there for 2000-2500 years.
October 5th, 2008 — Archeology, Christian, Early Christian History, History, Israel, Mormon, Science
I found this interesting article at MSNBC which references a recently discovered artifact. It’s not exactly the Holy Grail, but it dates from the time of Christ. The full engraving on the bowl reads, “DIA CHRSTOU O GOISTAIS,” which has been interpreted by the excavation team to mean either, “by Christ the magician” or, “the magician by Christ.”
So, do you think it references Christ, is it a pagan coincidence, or a fraud?
August 8th, 2008 — Catholic, Christian, Early Christian History, History, Intellectualism, Mormon, Resurrection, Theology
I attended my first session of Sunstone today. I have to say it was really nice to be around people who wanted to talk about some things where I really respected the opinions of the speakers. It was energizing. I was able to meet some of my favorite mormons, such as John Dehlin, and D Michael Quinn (a former mormon.) It was refreshing to be in an environment where intellectualism is embraced, not shunned.
My favorite session was on “ARE WE STILL GODS IN EMBRYO? THE MORMON DOCTRINE OF HUMAN DEIFICATION” by HUGO OLAIZ (probably because I just blogged about it.) One of the most interesting points to me that Hugo made was Lorenzo Snow’s couplet “As man now is, God once was; as God now is, man may be.”
July 30th, 2008 — Canon, Catholic, Christian, Early Christian History, Gnosticism, History, Mormon, Scripture, Theology
I’ve learned some interesting concepts from class #23: Eastern Orthodoxy. The podcast is one from the Ancient and Medieval Church History class from Covenant Theological Seminary. First, let’s have a little background. (Incidentally, the seminary is a Presbyterian seminary.)
The Eastern Orthodox Church officially split with the Catholic Church in 1054. The Pope excommunicated the Patriarch in Constantinople, so the Patriarch did the same to the Pope. There had been some different emphasis on theology for quite some time. For example, while the Catholic Church claimed that the Pope held all the leadership, the Orthodox Church held a much less central authority. The Orthodox belief of revelation is that God speaks through these councils, not one central person.
July 20th, 2008 — Catholic, Christian, Early Christian History, Geography, History, Islam, Mormon, Multi-Faith, Muslim
As I mentioned before, I have been learning about Ancient and Medieval Church history from the Covenant Theological Seminary. What has been so interesting to me is that Turkey is a real center for Christianity.
Paul spoke to the Ephesians in Ephesus (and his letter is in our bible now.) He also travelled to many other cities such as Perge, Derbe, Lystra, Antioch. John died in Ephesus. Peter built the first Christian church there in Antioch. Philip lived in Heirapolis, and was killed with him family there.
July 17th, 2008 — Archeology, Book of Mormon, Canon, Christian, Early Christian History, History, Mormon, Multi-Faith, Old Testament, Scripture, Theology
The history of baptism is quite interesting, and much more complex than most people know.
Baptism seems to be related to the ancient Jewish rite called “mikvah”, which was/is used for conversion to Judaism, ritual cleansing (Law of Moses type things, childbirth, women’s menstruation, and other things.) If you go to this link at Wikipedia, you can see a contemporary Mikvah font which look quite similar to a modern-day Christian baptismal font (at the bottom of the article.)
Continue reading →
July 6th, 2008 — Archeology, Christian, Early Christian History, Easter, History, Judaism, Mormon, Old Testament, Resurrection, Science
I came across an article in the NY Times about a tablet dating from before the time of Christ, that “may speak of a messiah who will rise from the dead after three days.” This would be a major shift in understanding of Jewish thought at the time of Jesus. The discovery is being called “a Dead Sea Scroll on stone.”
Here are some of the more interesting quotes from the article:
“Some Christians will find it shocking — a challenge to the uniqueness of their theology — while others will be comforted by the idea of it being a traditional part of Judaism,” Mr. Boyarin said.
June 18th, 2008 — Catholic, Christian, Early Christian History, Gnosticism, Intellectualism, Mormon, Multi-Faith, Theology
This is part 3 of Heresy and Orthodoxy. I’ve been listening to class 5 from the Covenant Theological Seminary on Ancient and Medieval Church History. They have talked about Gnosticism and Marcionism. I’d like to talk about a little known movement in early church history called Montanism and compare this to Mormonism.
June 15th, 2008 — Catholic, Christian, Early Christian History, Gnosticism, History, Mormon, Multi-Faith, Scripture
As I mentioned in my previous post, I’ve been listening to the Covenant Theological Seminary class called “Ancient and Medieval Church History.” Class 5 deals with Heresy and Orthodoxy, and they discuss 3 of the largest early heresies: Gnosticism, Marcionsim, and Montanism. I’d like to discuss Marcionism a bit.
Marcion lived 110 - 160 AD in Sinope, Turkey. He is probably the first person who tried to establish a Christian canon. His New Testament was much smaller than ours today. It included an edited version of the Gospel of Luke, and 10 of Paul’s letters. He was the son of a bishop, and originally embraced by the orthdox church, but due to his embracing of Gnostic doctrines, he was excommunicated. However, his movement became so large that it rivaled the orthodox church in size for about a century.
June 13th, 2008 — Christian, Early Christian History, Gnosticism, Intellectualism, Mormon, Multi-Faith, Scripture, Theology
I found a really cool website that offers free downloads from a seminary. It’s found at Covenant Theological Seminary. I believe it is a Presbyterian Seminary, and I’ve learned a ton about the Bible, and Jewish and Christian History. Currently, I’m listening to the course called Ancient and Medieval Church History. Class 5 deals with Orthodoxy, and Heresy. It talks about 3 specific heresies: Gnosticism, Marcionism, and Montanism.
The first thing I learned was that the term “heresy” originally meant “opinion.” It had no negative connotation. However, with these 3 movements, the term took on a much more derisive connotation. Othrodoxy literally means “straight thinking”, just as an orthodontist “straightens teeth.” These other movements are “heterodoxy”, meaning “other thinking.”
