Stuff they don’t talk about in Sunday School
August 19th, 2008 — Canon, Christian, History, Intellectualism, Islam, Israel, Judaism, Mormon, Old Testament, Scripture, Theology
When most of us hear the word “jihad” or “holy war”, we immediately know that a jihad is not what God wants. Most of us feel the same when we hear the word “crusade.” Really, does anyone think God wants people to fight in his name?
In the book of Joshua, Joshua claims to be commanded by God to destroy everyone and everything in what is now the land of Israel. Continue reading →
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 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 →
June 29th, 2008 — Archeology, Evolution, Intellectualism, Mormon, Old Testament, Science, Scripture
We all know that science and religion can often be at odds with each other. Some examples include Evolution vs creation, DNA and the Book of Mormon; the list could be endless. In a recent comment, Book1830 makes the claim that Science and Religion (he refers to them as Scholarship and Apologetics) are at odds with each other. His summarized comments are below:
June 22nd, 2008 — Book of Mormon, Canon, Christian, Gnosticism, History, Judaism, Mormon, Old Testament, Scripture, Theology
I posted previously on the topics of Gnosticism, Marcionism, and Montanism in my previous three posts. While discussing Marcionism, there was a debate about the apostasy. The topic got sidetracked into a discussion of the definition of scripture, so I thought I’d post a new topic regarding that topic.
Falcon makes the case that Joseph is a fraud because of his polygamy, and by extension, the Book of Mormon should not be considered scripture. So, I decided to issue a challenge. Here’s the reader’s digest version of the challenge, but you can see the entire set of instructions here.
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.”
May 21st, 2008 — Archeology, Early Christian History, Gnosticism, Israel, Judaism, Mormon, Scripture
My previous post comments had drifted off topic, so I thought I’d post a new topic along those lines.
Gnosticism means “secret knowledge.” This is not to be confused with the term Agnostic, which means “without knowledge.” Typically, Agnostic people are without knowledge of God. Some are atheists, but not all. Agnostics typically are ambivalent about whether God exists or not.
Gnostics, on the other hand, date from the time of Christ. Gnostic should probably be considered a generic term, such as Protestant. For example, while Baptists, Lutherans, Presbyterians, etc. are all considered “protestant”, they certainly don’t all believe exactly the same. Protestant is a term to group nearly all “non-Catholic” groups together. In essence, these groups are “protesting” against some of the beliefs of the Catholic church.
April 19th, 2008 — 10 tribes, Archeology, Book of Mormon, Geography, History, Islam, Israel, Judaism, Malay, Mormon, Movie/Book Reviews, Movies, Scripture, Theology
Ok, I probably won’t get too many comments on this, but it is an interesting topic for me. For some quick background, I previously posted on this topic. I recently purchased a copy of “Quest for the Lost Tribes” by Simcha Jacobovichi. In this documentary, he tries to make a case where he identifies most of the lost tribes, and their possible locations throughout the world. He comes up with some startling conclusions.
What is interesting to me about these lost tribes is the connection to the Book of Mormon. The BOM claims that the Nephites were descendants to the Tribe of Manasseh. So I was interested to see what insights the movie might have on this tribe in particular.
April 6th, 2008 — Archeology, Book of Mormon, Geography, History, New York, Scripture
I am on an email list for the Nephi Project, and I get some interesting information. This is a group that does most research in Saudi Arabia, and has uncovered some interesting discoveries supporting the Book of Mormon. They also release information that others might find interesting for new world sites.
In the latest email they sent, is a link where they discovered a stone box, similar to the one that Joseph Smith described when he discovered the Golden Plates. The link is a Word doc, and shows some pictures.
