Entries Tagged 'Theology' ↓

This is an unusual post for me on 2 counts.  (1)  I generally hate lessons on tithing, because I don’t think there’s much new to say on the topic.  (2)  I tried to read “The Screwtape Letters” by CS Lewis a few years ago, and just couldn’t get through the book.  I’ve heard many people quote CS Lewis, especially from this book, but I just didn’t like it.  However, I did like the movie “Shadowlands” which was based on some true stories of Mr Lewis.

A friend of mine gave me a copy of Sunstone, the magazine.  I’ve never read it before, and have really wanted to get it for quite some time.  I am very grateful to my friend for giving it to me.  I read the articles he suggested, as well as many others that he didn’t, and came across a really interesting one by Jeff Burton.

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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 →

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.”

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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.

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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.)
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Ok, the title of my post actually comes from two different books.  The first is called “DNA and Tradition:  The Genetic Link to the Ancient Hebrews“, by Rabbi Yaakov Kleiman.  The rabbi looks into DNA evidence concerning the tribe of Levi, as well as the other lost tribes of Israel.

In the introduction to the book, there are several interesting quotes, and he quotes from a book written by Rabbi Moses Maimonides (1135 – 1204 ) called Guide for the Perplexed, which examines the issues of being a religious scientist.

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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.

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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.

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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.”

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I recently came across a blog of Zelph, who is struggling with some tough issues in Mormonism.  I also posted a comment in The Milk Ceiling about the Exodus.  I thought I would address some of these issues.

Too often, I think we have a concrete view of religion.  Either something is true, or it is not.  When we learn things that don’t conform to the ways we believe they should, we lose testimony.  This is true of all religions.

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