The books of the books.
Who would ever say that?
Actually, I hear that quite a bit in church - just phrased a little different:
The books of the Bible.
How old should we be to gain the knowledge that Bible means books?
Typically on the spine it will say The Holy Bible. That means The Set Apart Books.
Words mean things - even when we don't know what they mean.
Perhaps I should pause at this point to ask that infamous Hillary question - What difference does it make?
Well, when is a sin no longer a sin?
Do we have a vote? Does it need to be unanimous or just a majority or super-majority?
Or does is stop being a sin after we commit it for a number of times, or years, or generations?
From what I've read, a sin has always been a sin and will always be a sin. What changes is the consequences of the sin.
Let's use the first murder as an example. Cain sinned when he slew Abel. God had not yet given a law regarding murder and prohibited others from taking Cain's life for the murder of Abel.
We know for sure that after the flood that God provided that shedding man's blood required capital punishment.
Some contend that Jesus put an end to capital punishment in John 8.
Let's examine that.
First, that first part of John 8 does not appear in the earliest manuscripts. I would think that added verses should be ignored and that would be the end of the argument.
But let's examine it as is.
Remember this was a trap set so that Jesus would fail regardless of the selection he was given.
One is a matter of Jewish law. The man and woman are to be brought together for trial and punishment. The proceedings should have been stopped until the man involved in the adultery was present.
The other issue is that of Roman law. I've been taught that under Roman law, capital punishment can only be carried out by the State.
Either way Jesus would have a legal problem, but he found another way. This is how it was with the other tests as well.
Regardless of what the punishment should be in order to protect society, we have the choice to repent or not repent.
Words mean things.
I'm borrowing the next lesson from The Financial State of the Union:
Never stop learning. Sometimes the hardest part is unlearning something that was wrong.
Like most of you I learned about the Ten Commandments when I was young, even before I started school. In the King James Version, and in many modern translations, one of those Commandments is presented as “Thou shall not kill.”
I could make an argument that that’s a reasonable presentation for a child. The problem is I had to learn as an adult several decades later that I was given a poor translation. The word translated as “kill” really means murder.
It’s true that all murder is killing, but not all killing is murder. Killing someone by accident is not murder, neither is killing in a war, self-defense, or as capital punishment. How much strife and division have occurred just through the poor translation of this one word?
Because of my ignorance, I couldn’t even point out someone’s using that Commandment in a faulty way.
Life is a learning experience. If you think you’ve learned enough, you haven’t learned your lesson yet.
Sooner or later in my books, we get around to discussing the actions we should take for our future. I hope that when we part you have a clearer picture about what’s best for you and yours.
I'm not sure there's enough time to write another book. That's why I'm doing this as a series of reports.
This post was created for discussion on the August 31st show of USA Prepares.
I think everyone knows the names of the month, but let me ask you about the numbers of the months.
Based on the numbers of the months, what month is it?
I'd bet the answer would be the number 8.
Would anyone give me a 6?
Not all the months were named. The last month named was August after Augustus Cesar. The previous month was named for Julius (July) giving us two months were names after Roman emperors that, like Pharaohs, were god on Earth.
Let's explore the other names:
January - named after Janus, the two faced god.
February - Februus was the god of purification and the Februa (day of purification) was on the ides of February.
March - named for Mars, the god of war.
April - may be from aperire "to bloom" or from Aphro, from the Greek Aphrodite (Venus).
May - for Maia, goddess of spring, wife of Vulcan.
June - named after the godess Juno.
That does it for the named months. The rest are:
September - the 7th (sept) month.
October - Oct the 8th month.
November - 9th month (novem).
December - the 10th (dec) month.
Before it was renamed, August was the 6th month, meaning the first month of the year on our Pagan calendar is March. That's right, our calendar leads off dedicated to the god of war. We seem to honor that all too well.
If the months aren't Pagan enough for you, check out the days of the week:
Sunday - after all the sun is #1.
Monday - for the moon.
Tuesday - Germanic Tiu, or from Latin languages - Mardi, again honoring Mars the god of war.
Wednesday - Stems from Norse influence - Woden’s Day. The equivalent of Mercurius (Mercury).
Thursday - Norse again - Thor aka Iuppiter (Jupiter).
Friday - the last Norse influence - Freya the goddess of love, in the Roman pantheon, Venus.
Saturday - after the old god Saturn.
We really do a good job of honoring these gods and goddesses, don't we?
Some would say it doesn't matter to the modern Christian, because we're not really worshiping these gods.
What does the Bible say? The first commandment is thou shall not have other gods before me?
While Bill Clinton might wonder what is is, we need to look at what before is.
In English, before can be referring to order - you can have other gods, but I have to be #1. Before can also mean in my presence - like Thanksgiving where you have a feast laid out before you.
Drilling down to the Hebrew word for before doesn't help as we're left with the same two possibilities.
The answer can be found a few chapters later in Exodus concerning foreign gods - do not even speak their names.
I haven't heard that in a Sunday School lesson or a sermon, have you?
When is a sin no longer a sin?
How do you repent without repenting?
Words mean things.
Who would ever say that?
Actually, I hear that quite a bit in church - just phrased a little different:
The books of the Bible.
How old should we be to gain the knowledge that Bible means books?
Typically on the spine it will say The Holy Bible. That means The Set Apart Books.
Words mean things - even when we don't know what they mean.
Perhaps I should pause at this point to ask that infamous Hillary question - What difference does it make?
Well, when is a sin no longer a sin?
Do we have a vote? Does it need to be unanimous or just a majority or super-majority?
Or does is stop being a sin after we commit it for a number of times, or years, or generations?
From what I've read, a sin has always been a sin and will always be a sin. What changes is the consequences of the sin.
Let's use the first murder as an example. Cain sinned when he slew Abel. God had not yet given a law regarding murder and prohibited others from taking Cain's life for the murder of Abel.
We know for sure that after the flood that God provided that shedding man's blood required capital punishment.
Some contend that Jesus put an end to capital punishment in John 8.
Let's examine that.
First, that first part of John 8 does not appear in the earliest manuscripts. I would think that added verses should be ignored and that would be the end of the argument.
But let's examine it as is.
Remember this was a trap set so that Jesus would fail regardless of the selection he was given.
One is a matter of Jewish law. The man and woman are to be brought together for trial and punishment. The proceedings should have been stopped until the man involved in the adultery was present.
The other issue is that of Roman law. I've been taught that under Roman law, capital punishment can only be carried out by the State.
Either way Jesus would have a legal problem, but he found another way. This is how it was with the other tests as well.
Regardless of what the punishment should be in order to protect society, we have the choice to repent or not repent.
Words mean things.
I'm borrowing the next lesson from The Financial State of the Union:
Never stop learning. Sometimes the hardest part is unlearning something that was wrong.
Like most of you I learned about the Ten Commandments when I was young, even before I started school. In the King James Version, and in many modern translations, one of those Commandments is presented as “Thou shall not kill.”
I could make an argument that that’s a reasonable presentation for a child. The problem is I had to learn as an adult several decades later that I was given a poor translation. The word translated as “kill” really means murder.
It’s true that all murder is killing, but not all killing is murder. Killing someone by accident is not murder, neither is killing in a war, self-defense, or as capital punishment. How much strife and division have occurred just through the poor translation of this one word?
Because of my ignorance, I couldn’t even point out someone’s using that Commandment in a faulty way.
Life is a learning experience. If you think you’ve learned enough, you haven’t learned your lesson yet.
Sooner or later in my books, we get around to discussing the actions we should take for our future. I hope that when we part you have a clearer picture about what’s best for you and yours.
I'm not sure there's enough time to write another book. That's why I'm doing this as a series of reports.
This post was created for discussion on the August 31st show of USA Prepares.
I think everyone knows the names of the month, but let me ask you about the numbers of the months.
Based on the numbers of the months, what month is it?
I'd bet the answer would be the number 8.
Would anyone give me a 6?
Not all the months were named. The last month named was August after Augustus Cesar. The previous month was named for Julius (July) giving us two months were names after Roman emperors that, like Pharaohs, were god on Earth.
Let's explore the other names:
January - named after Janus, the two faced god.
February - Februus was the god of purification and the Februa (day of purification) was on the ides of February.
March - named for Mars, the god of war.
April - may be from aperire "to bloom" or from Aphro, from the Greek Aphrodite (Venus).
May - for Maia, goddess of spring, wife of Vulcan.
June - named after the godess Juno.
That does it for the named months. The rest are:
September - the 7th (sept) month.
October - Oct the 8th month.
November - 9th month (novem).
December - the 10th (dec) month.
Before it was renamed, August was the 6th month, meaning the first month of the year on our Pagan calendar is March. That's right, our calendar leads off dedicated to the god of war. We seem to honor that all too well.
If the months aren't Pagan enough for you, check out the days of the week:
Sunday - after all the sun is #1.
Monday - for the moon.
Tuesday - Germanic Tiu, or from Latin languages - Mardi, again honoring Mars the god of war.
Wednesday - Stems from Norse influence - Woden’s Day. The equivalent of Mercurius (Mercury).
Thursday - Norse again - Thor aka Iuppiter (Jupiter).
Friday - the last Norse influence - Freya the goddess of love, in the Roman pantheon, Venus.
Saturday - after the old god Saturn.
We really do a good job of honoring these gods and goddesses, don't we?
Some would say it doesn't matter to the modern Christian, because we're not really worshiping these gods.
What does the Bible say? The first commandment is thou shall not have other gods before me?
While Bill Clinton might wonder what is is, we need to look at what before is.
In English, before can be referring to order - you can have other gods, but I have to be #1. Before can also mean in my presence - like Thanksgiving where you have a feast laid out before you.
Drilling down to the Hebrew word for before doesn't help as we're left with the same two possibilities.
The answer can be found a few chapters later in Exodus concerning foreign gods - do not even speak their names.
I haven't heard that in a Sunday School lesson or a sermon, have you?
When is a sin no longer a sin?
How do you repent without repenting?
Words mean things.
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