Posts by Village Idiot

Christian Nationalists, which every Republican seems to be, do not believe in bringing back all O.T. law, just the ones that they pick and choose. There are in this nation 10s of millions of people with this mentality.

Reconstructionists, who refer themselves as Theonomists (God's law.) are the ones who state that all O.T. civil law should be followed exactly as they are. Some of them even go so far as to say that capital punishment should be by stoning instead of lethal injection or the gas chamber. Below is a sampling of their beliefs:

Those who are obedient to His commands will rule the world, reconstructing it for His glory in terms of His laws. Psalm 2 shows God laughing and sneering at the pitiful attempts of the wicked to fight against and overthrow His Kingdom. He has already given His Son "all authority in heaven and earth," and the King is with His Church until the end of the age (Matt. 23:18-20)! Is it possible that the King will be defeated? He has, in fact, warned all earthly rulers to submit to His government, or perish (Ps. 2:10-12). And the same is true of His Church. The nation that will not serve us will perish (Isa. 60:12); all the peoples of the earth will be subdued under our feet (Ps. 47:1-3)--promises made originally to Israel, but now to be fulfilled in the New Israel, the Church.

David Chilton, The Days of Vengeance: An Exposition of the Book of Revelation (Ft. Worth, TX: Dominion Press, 1984), p. 117.

So let us be blunt about it: we must use the doctrine of religious liberty to gain independence for Christian schools until we train up a generation of people who know that there is no religious neutrality, no neutral law, no neutral education, and no neutral civil government. Then they will get busy in constructing a Bible-based social, political, and religious order which finally denies the religious liberty of the enemies of God. Murder, abortion, and pornography will be illegal. God’s law will be enforced. It will take time. A minority religion cannot do this. Theocracy must flow from the hearts of a majority of citizens, just as compulsory education came only after most people had their children in schools of some sort. But religious anarchy, like “democratic freedom” in ancient Greece, is a temporary phenomenon; it lasts only as long as no single group gets sufficient power and accepted authority to abandon the principle. Religious anarchy, as a long-term legal framework for organizing a society, is as mythical as neutrality is. Both views assume that the institutions of civil government can create and enforce neutral law. They are cousins, and people believe in them only temporarily, until they make up their minds concerning which God they will serve.

Gary North, "The Intellectual Schizophrenia of the New Christian Right" in Christianity and Civilization: The Failure of the American Baptist Culture, No. 1 (Spring, 1982), p. 25

The bible permits slavery. This statement will come as a shock to most people. The laws in the Bible concerning slavery have very seldom been studied, much less preached upon. But the biblical laws concerning slavery are among the most beneficent in all the Bible. ...

David Chilton, Productive Christians in an Age of Guilt Manipulators (Tyler, TX: Institute for Christian Economics, 1981), pp. 61-62.

Biblical law sanctions capital punishments in the forms of the sword, burning, and stoning (and possibly hanging, as noted in chapter 13). With the sword and hanging not considered nearly as barbaric and primitive as burning and stoning by today’s humanistic standards, there is no pressing need to currently defend these forms of punishment. We will briefly defend burning carried out biblically, and then turn our efforts to defending stoning carried out biblically. At the outset, though, we must note that “the Bible does limit the gruesomeness of capital punishment. Deuteronomy 21:23 says that a body was not to remain hanging overnight. There was not to be a morbid delight in death even if it was legal.

It is amazing how many consider burning to be too harsh an execution. Every single sin—no matter how small we think it is—deserves eternal burning. And violating God’s civil code is a sin. Thus execution by temporal burning for violating God’s law (insofar as it relates to an offense the state is biblically authorized to punish in this way) is actually extremely lenient compared to what the sin truly deserves.

Steve C. Halbrook, God is Just: A Defense of the Old Testament Civil Laws – Second Edition. PDF Page 255, Chapter 23: Old Testament Capital Punishment Methods. (Registration required)

There are hundreds of thousands Theonomists in the U.S. but in spite of their small number they have influence amongst Republicans such as Michelle Bachman who was mentored by John Eidsmoe who himself was one of the original apostles of their founder, Rousas Rushdoony.

24

Andromeda awaits the "Great Crowd of Other Sheep"

by Doug Mason in

the great crowd, the other sheep will live forever on planet earth.. years will move from centuries, millennia, and millions of years to billions of years.

after 4 billion years, the sky will fill as their milky way galaxy and its neighbouring andomeda galaxy collide, with amazing changes in gravitational forces.

what an amazing sight!.

Village Idiot

I'm sure the elders would simply say that Jehovah would not allow that to happen. As for the stars that blow up now they might probably blame that on 'original sin' disrupting all of creation.

5

Spin off Public Witness cart songs already appearing on Internet

by Esse quam videri in

how thy racks are so shiny!

how thy racks are so shiny!.

Village Idiot

Any links to youtube?

24

Andromeda awaits the "Great Crowd of Other Sheep"

by Doug Mason in

the great crowd, the other sheep will live forever on planet earth.. years will move from centuries, millennia, and millions of years to billions of years.

after 4 billion years, the sky will fill as their milky way galaxy and its neighbouring andomeda galaxy collide, with amazing changes in gravitational forces.

what an amazing sight!.

Village Idiot

prologos:

"Picture the next star to the Sun to be 2 instead of 4 light years away; welcome the changes to come."

Stars do not need to hit each other in order to create massive chaos. Even with our relatively distant stars in the arm of the Milky Way the gravitational effect of each other could be enough to pull a planet at least a few tens of millions of miles from its stars orbit. That could be enough to freeze a planet.

There will also be the union of the two massive black holes that are believed to exist in the center of every galaxy including ours. The detonation of two black holes joining together will be enough to fry many star systems close to the center and possibly our sun which is somewhat distant from the center of our galaxy.

Just the radiation released from such a detonation could endanger life on Earth.

Just look at the chaos below and give me your opinion.

3

Question re: TerryWalstrom post on Reza Aslan

by Esse quam videri in

as i understand reza alsan's explanation of our view of history vs the ancients, the ancients were not so committed to recording accurate facts as recording ideas which, reza aslan stated , would be their understanding of truth.

it appears many have been quick to accept reza aslan's comments as having great weight.

he is a convincing speaker, i think mainly, because he believes what he says.

Village Idiot

The Greek Additions to the Old Testament that are accepted by the Orthodox Churches are the following:

First Esdras

Second Esdras

[The Greek Orthodox accept 1st Esdras, but not 2nd Esdras, considering 2nd Esdras to be the proto-canonical Ezra-Nehemiah. The Russian Church accepts both, but titles them 2nd and 3rd Esdras, 1st Esdras being the proto-canonical Ezra-Nehemiah.]

Tobit

Judith

Additions to Esther

The Wisdom of Solomon

Ecclesiasticus, or the Wisdom of Jesus the Son of Sirach

Baruch

The Letter of Jeremiah

Additions to Daniel:

Song of the Three Youths

Susanna

Daniel, Bel and the Dragon

The Prayer of Manasseh

First Maccabees

Second Maccabees

Third Maccabees

Fourth Maccabees

3

Question re: TerryWalstrom post on Reza Aslan

by Esse quam videri in

as i understand reza alsan's explanation of our view of history vs the ancients, the ancients were not so committed to recording accurate facts as recording ideas which, reza aslan stated , would be their understanding of truth.

it appears many have been quick to accept reza aslan's comments as having great weight.

he is a convincing speaker, i think mainly, because he believes what he says.

Village Idiot

Perfect preservation?

The Additions to Esther is most likely the work of an Egyptian Jew, writing around 170 BC, who sought to give the book a more religious tone, and to suggest that the Jews were saved from destruction because of their piety. The additions completely change the tone of the book from what was originally intended from the Hebrew Manuscripts...and the additions were NEVER in the Hebrew scriptures.

24

Andromeda awaits the "Great Crowd of Other Sheep"

by Doug Mason in

the great crowd, the other sheep will live forever on planet earth.. years will move from centuries, millennia, and millions of years to billions of years.

after 4 billion years, the sky will fill as their milky way galaxy and its neighbouring andomeda galaxy collide, with amazing changes in gravitational forces.

what an amazing sight!.

Village Idiot

@ Doug Mason:

"One billion years later, after surviving the collision of two galaxies, the Great Crowd of Other Sheep will experience the sun expand and self-destruct."

The Earth would most probably be pulled out of its orbit by the mixing of stars and their gravitational effect on each other.

The Earth however won't have to wait 5 billion years to get vaporized by the sun. Reason being that, as the sun slowly gets warmer and warmer throughout the hundred millions of years the Earth's oceans would vaporize creating a runaway greenhouse effect. This is supposed to happen a billion years from now.

The result would be no ocean, an atmosphere of water vapor that's 200 times our current pressure and temperatures over 600 degrees Fahrenheit.

The Great Crowd would have to move to Pluto.

25

Which of these activities bothered you the most?

by RULES & REGULATIONS in

which of these activities did you hate/bothered you the most?

rank them from 1-5 with the most hated to the least.. .

field service.

Village Idiot

Field Service

During my final year as a JW I started having anxiety attacks out in field service.

2 - 4 day assemblies

I actually liked the 2 day, circuit assemblies. I stuffed myself with all that 'spiritual food'. I would even record them.

Giving Ministry School Talk - for men and women

I once gave a talk where I forgot to put on my tie. I was counseled, nicely, but I thought it was a somewhat trivial. I considered it amusing when I saw a sister, on stage, in her late 50s wear a head covering while talking to an elder who was half her age.

Watching 12 years getting baptized

Back in my day 14 years seemed to be the minimum. I believe I was 15 when I got baptized.

Watching young children getting disfellowshipped

The youngest df that I heard was about 14 and his younger brother who was not baptized and 11 was announced separately as disassociated.