No, there will not be a sequel: Werewolves in the Kingdom Hall!
Vampires in the Church!!
by Terry 16 Replies latest watchtower beliefs
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Quentin
The blood of the risen dead was all the authority necessary to conquer the world!...Terry
Good off the cuff history lesson. Isn't it interesting though that most religious movements were born in blood?
Martyrdom of the leader, long dangerous pilgrimages from point A to point B. Airest of the leader/leaders, well, you get the point. However, that's not were it really starts. You have to go back in time to find the pivotal point that sets the stage for the jump start of the new, bold way to relate with Deity.
Like I said above a well done history lesson. Pithy too.
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Terry
Isaac Asimov, in one of his history books, tells of an incident in which he was on a panel discussing various topics and the subject of Persecution came up. A Rabbi stated that the Jews were the only people who had never persecuted anybody. Asimov spoke up and pointed to the Maccabees. The Rabbi paused, thought about it and replied, "well, other than that instance, Jews have never persecuted anybody."
There are a great many ideas we have about History and Religion separately simply because we've heard them spoken out loud all of our lives. But, when you read History with a View to Religion and Religion with a View to History--you often come away discovering something has never been true.
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designs
Eat the flesh of your Leader and drink the blood of your Leader and gain his immortality, sounds like an episode of True Blood.
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Terry
Eat the flesh of your Leader and drink the blood of your Leader and gain his immortality, sounds like an episode of True Blood.
Well, it struck me that way too!
My favorite mental exercise is to try and force myself to look at the same old things from a fresh perspective. Sometimes a fresh angle causes you to suddenly "see" something you never noticed before.
Most of what religion insists is TRUE is really camouflage.
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Joe Grundy
I remember when I first came across the books of Maccabees (many years ago). The discovery raised some questions in my mind.
First was why these books weren't in the protestant bibles I was used to - which led to a whole lot of other questions ...
More importantly, I was trying to research the context in which the NT books came about. It seemed strange to me that the OT stopped abruptly and then the 'Jesus' story started. A bit like bad continuity between the first and second series in a drama.
The Maccabees helped to fill that in (as did many external sources) and helped explain about 'zealots' etc. I vaguely remember something which suggested that Jesus may have had a claim of descent from the Hasmonean kings.
Finding out more about the 'context' gave me more understanding about concepts such as 'render unto Caesar' and 'go the extra mile' - and helped me to see the NT and development of 'Christianity' in a more realistic light.
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Knowsnothing
I also saw a thing on History Channel 2 about the Dead Sea Scrolls and the Essenes. These guys wrote to encourage themselves amidst Roman domination. That's what they wanted. A Messiah, a turning about for their luck. The restoration of the temple.
The jews that came to believe in Jesus were no different. They looked for these things, and when the Messiah came and went, they brought their own unique concepts with them. As they say, and you so eloquently put it, the rest is history.