Once more Jesus said to them, “I am going away, and you will look for me, and you will die in your sin. Where I go, you cannot come.”
This made the Jews ask, “Will he kill himself? Is that why he says, ‘Where I go, you cannot come’?”
But he continued, “You are from below; I am from above. You are of this world; I am not of this world. I told you that you would die in your sins; if you do not believe that I am he, you will indeed die in your sins.”
“Who are you?” they asked.
“Just what I have been telling you from the beginning,” Jesus replied. “I have much to say in judgment of you. But he who sent me is trustworthy, and what I have heard from him I tell the world.”
They did not understand that he was telling them about his Father. So Jesus said, “When you have lifted up the Son of Man, then you will know that I am he and that I do nothing on my own but speak just what the Father has taught me. The one who sent me is with me; he has not left me alone, for I always do what pleases him.” Even as he spoke, many believed in him. (NIV)
The Jews answered him, “Aren’t we right in saying that you are a Samaritan and demon-possessed?”
“I am not possessed by a demon,” said Jesus, “but I honor my Father and you dishonor me. I am not seeking glory for myself; but there is one who seeks it, and he is the judge. Very truly I tell you, whoever obeys my word will never see death.”
At this they exclaimed, “Now we know that you are demon-possessed! Abraham died and so did the prophets, yet you say that whoever obeys your word will never taste death. Are you greater than our father Abraham? He died, and so did the prophets. Who do you think you are?”
Jesus replied, “If I glorify myself, my glory means nothing. My Father, whom you claim as your God, is the one who glorifies me. Though you do not know him, I know him. If I said I did not, I would be a liar like you, but I do know him and obey his word. Your father Abraham rejoiced at the thought of seeing my day; he saw it and was glad.”
“You are not yet fifty years old,” they said to him, “and you have seen Abraham!”
“Very truly I tell you,” Jesus answered, “before Abraham was born, I am!” At this, they picked up stones to stone him, but Jesus hid himself, slipping away from the temple grounds. (NIV)
Category Archives: John
Christian Halloween ideas
Preaching to the retarded
Then Jesus said to the crowds and to his disciples: “The teachers of the law and the Pharisees sit in Moses’ seat. So you must be careful to do everything they tell you. But do not do what they do, for they do not practice what they preach. They tie up heavy, cumbersome loads and put them on other people’s shoulders, but they themselves are not willing to lift a finger to move them.
“Everything they do is done for people to see: They make their phylacteries wide and the tassels on their garments long; they love the place of honor at banquets and the most important seats in the synagogues; they love to be greeted with respect in the marketplaces and to be called ‘Rabbi’ by others. (NIV)
Ayn Rand did not believe her own philosophy. She was smarter than that.
Ayn Rand tied up a heavy, cumbersome load of bollocks and put it on her disciples’ shoulders.
She called it Atlas Shrugged. How’s that for a sense of humour? Wicked. I was wrong.
Some people mistake my own wit and wisdom for cryptic smart-assery. The same people mistake Rand’s cryptic smart-assery for good philosophy. I mistook Rand’s cryptic smart-assery for bad philosophy. But it is neither.
For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. (NIV)
God so loved the world that He gave us the gift of Life. The gift that keeps on giving.
Ayn Rand so loved herself that she gave the world the gift of Objectivism. The gift that keeps on taking.
Men have a weapon against you. Reason. So you must be very sure to take it away from them. Cut the props from under it. But be careful. Don’t deny outright, you give your hand away. Don’t say reason is evil – though some have gone that far with astonishing success. Just say that reason is limited. That there’s something above it. What? You don’t have to be too clear about it either. The field is inexhaustible. “Instinct’ – ‘Feeling’ – ‘Revelation’ – ‘Divine Intuition’ – ‘Dialectic Materialism’. If you get caught at some crucial point and somebody tells you that your doctrine doesn’t make sense – you’re ready for him. You tell him there’s something above sense. That here he must not try to think, but to feel He must believe. Suspend reason and you play it deuces wild. Anything goes in any manner you wish whenever you need it. You’ve got him. Can you rule a thinking man? We don’t want any thinking men.
Rand didn’t want any thinking men. Philosophy. Who needs it? Rand didn’t want her disciples needing it or reading it, which is why, on the one hand, she disparaged philosophy and philosphers, especially modern ones, and on the other hand, she exalted herself to the heights of Aristotle and Aquinas. As predicted by the Law of Intended Consequences, Rand’s debased disciples don’t think, they proclaim.
Rand didn’t want any thinking men. She just wanted to be called ‘Rabbi’ by dumbfounded dipshits. She got what she wanted. Good and hard.
Objectivism is a Trojan Horse. Woe to those who allow it through the gates of their tiny minds. For Rand was, indeed, packing a snake. A talking one.
Objectivism. Who needs it? There is another gift. A gift beyond human reach. Ask, and it will be given to you. Seek, and you will find a hidden treasure, a pearl of great price. Why settle for the baubles of Ayn Rand’s orifice?
I am Jesus
Phew! It’s hard work trying to be *like* Jesus. Even harder work trying to actually *be* Jesus.
But at last! I’ve joined the exclusive Messiah Complex Club. My Christ delusion is complete.
I’m the latest in a long list of poor deluded fools to join the ranks.
But this time is different.
I’m the first person who thinks he’s Jesus who has logical proof to back the claim!
Here’s my argument.
(P1) I am the light of the world. – John 8:12
(P2) You are the light of the world. – Matthew 5:14
Therefore, (C) I am you and you are me.
So there you have it. Deductive proof that I am Jesus and Jesus is me. It’s a valid argument, which is to say, the conclusion follows from the premises. The premises cannot both be true and the conclusion false. And it’s sound. The premises are true. Take my Word for it.
It’s a Rock solid argument against which even the gates of Hell shall not prevail.
as ever: what is to be done?
I can do nothing without myself. I don’t know what you think you can do. (Just kidding. I read your mind. And your email.) But here are some ideas.
(1) Humour me. (Please don’t point out that I don’t have enough hair to be Jesus. That’s just cruel.)
(2) Medicate me. (Just send me the drugs. Contact me privately and I’ll give you the address.)
(3) Appeal to the last vestiges of reason in my poor deluded fool mind. (I’m probably still more rational than you’ve ever been.)
The last one’s your best shot IMOO.
He that hath seen me
For an entertaining exercise, name the third person of the Unholy Trinity.
Who is it? Mini-Me? Fat Bastard? Frau Farbissina? Or … ?
Brian Leftow on “One Person Christology” is Glenn Peoples’ latest blog post.
How can a Chalcedonian Christology avoid ending up with Christ being two people? If the divine logos (the second person of the Trinity) combined with a fully functioning human body and soul (which some people take to be the ingredients of a human being), that is surely two people and not one, right?
Commenter Nathan thinks it would be an entertaining exercise “to try and define Logos and Human as classes, and then try and bring them together to get incarnate Jesus.” He adds, “but ultimately it won’t work.”
Class, superclass, subclass, interface, implementation, instantiation, inheritance—these are all concepts in object-oriented programming (OOP). Object-oriented programming is a programming paradigm that represents things in the real world as objects with attributes (“properties”) and abilities (“methods”). In software development, object-oriented programming is the one true way. But in theology?
The theology question of the day is not
How can God be three persons?
but the closely related
How can the Incarnate Christ be only one?
By implementing the Human interface, that’s how! Not sure if serious or trolling? I’m serious. I think everything is software.
(Incoming! Genetic fallacy! “When you’re a hammer, everything looks like a nail,” you say. “You’re a progr(h)ammer, Richard, so *of course* everything looks like software to you!” Nice try but no chocolate fish. Thales was not a tap.)
I’ll try to elaborate. But there’s a problem. Whereas the procedural paradigm is intuitive, the object-oriented paradigm is counter-intuitive. I started out in the procedural paradigm. Next stop, bitter experience. That’s when I made the paradigm shift. But it wasn’t easy explaining the object-oriented paradigm to myself then, and it won’t be easy explaining it to you now. That’s the problem. But I’ll try to elaborate.
I don’t always determine the meaning of a word by looking at its etymology, but when I do I look at the etymology of the word ‘logic’. The word ‘logic’ derives from the Greek λόγος or Logos, which has no exact translation but means, roughly, “reason, idea, word”. But Logos is the second person of the Trinity. Christ is Logos.
God is the author of the logic of the world, and his son is the expression of this logic.
So says philospher Nicholas F. Gier. Now, what is software but an expression of logic? Think about it.
In the beginning was the Code, and the Code was with God, and the Code was God.
Controversial? Heretical? Or just plain bat-shit crazy? No more so than the Logos Christology of the Gospel of John is any of those things.
A brain (and the body housing it) and a mind (the software running on it) are what constitutes a human person. Christ Incarnate was a human person. He was simultaneously the second person of the Trinity. How come he was not two persons, but just one? Simple. He was running different software. You and I instantiate the class DomesticatedPrimate. Christ Incarnate instantiated the class Logos. Christ is the class Logos. He instantiated himself.
An interface is an abstract class that defines a set of abstract methods. The Human interface is an abstract class that defines what it is to be human in terms of distinctively human attributes and distinctively human abilities. The classes DomesticatedPrimate and Logos have this in common. They both implement the Human interface.
That’s my destructive heresy for today. I’m not teaching it, mind. Just putting it out there.
OOP or Oops!? Be sure to let me know in the comments.
Nyctophilia: Hiding in the Dark….
Does that actually mean anything????
This Meme is supposed to inspire Awe and portray Atheism as ‘an Enlightenment’.
Is this so?
What sort of ‘self’ is ‘discoverable’ via the loss of religion?
It can only be an ultimately worthless self… trapped within a Cold, nihilistic, indifferent universe which will inexorably pulverize and expunge all evidence of humanity’s existence into oblivion … and render our acts of love and kindness as valueless, and indistinguishable as our Acts of Violence and depravity…. When Man looses God… he suffers Eternal death.
He looses everything that makes his Humanity ‘distinguishable’, from the cold indifferent Material reality. He looses his Rights. His Moral compass looses it’s North.
What is left but to Eat, Drink and be Merry…for tomorrow we die?
I pity the man who believes this is ‘Self discovery’!
Yet there is something in all of this which I believe is *Really what such People* seek… and that is that they actually *want* to loose their ‘north pole’…because they are tired of knowing that that is the direction they ought to travel …when all their lusts and their sloth has them looking South!
When they Loose God…and seek to hide from objective moral reality… they abandon their conscience… and travel south ‘free’ of Objective morality…. Now in their new Nihilistic reality they can do as they please…
They have abandoned God to escape Moral accountability.
This is what Pitt means by being ‘Untethered’.
I ask… “For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?”
Matt16vs26
I do not deny the fact that this is a very ‘Natural’ a very powerful urge’ for The Sons and Daughters of Fallen Adam… Yet it must be resisted at all costs!
This is not an enlightenment, but the very opposite!
It is to Run from the light… into the Dark.
It is pure self Delusion!
It is not an act of bravery, but a cowardly retreat… a defeat from following the High road, and instead to take the Lower, easier path…. with all the rest who cant be bothered living as Human beings…. that is Moral Agents in a Moral reality…
They prefer to run off into the Jungle and live as beasts…
That is their self delusion…. their verdict on humanity.
Yet God is not mocked.
It is appointed unto man once to die, and after this, the Judgement.
“And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.”
John 3:19
One of the chief reasons many Atheist’s react with Demon-like Tirades and Blasphemies against Theistic declarations of faith in God is because they simply wish to remain hidden in the darkness of their own self delusion. The last thing they need is Pesky Theists… spoiling their Buzz by Being told that one day they shall stand before God and give account for their sins!
This is the very truth they seek to hide from!
It summons the deepest hatred, wailing, and gnashing of teeth.
What is truely sad about this is that they will be damned by their own choice.
God has done everything to save us sinners from Damnation if we will but simply trust in Christ and his work of Salvation on the cross.
“But God commendeth his love toward us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us”
“Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord, shall be saved”
“For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Chriat our Lord”
St Paul.
Tim Wikiriwhi
Read more…
Comfortably Numb : Confessions of a Nyctophilliac.
“Keep things in the shallow end… because I just didn’t want to know…”
Materialism renders Man Nought. Meaning-less, Value-less, Right-less
Got Jesus?
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.
There was a man sent from God whose name was John. He came as a witness to testify concerning that light, so that through him all might believe. He himself was not the light; he came only as a witness to the light.
The true light that gives light to everyone was coming into the world. He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him. He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him. Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God— (NIV)
Satan Laughs As You Eternally Rot
There are two kinds of Christians in this world. Those who post tributes to Jeff Hanneman, Slayer’s recently deceased guitarist, on Facebook. And those who post comments like this on said tribute posts.
A sad wasted life. Hell awaits.
I took umbrage at this, and messaged the author. He explained
It was a sad life. I wish he would have turned to Christ, but it didn’t appear that he did.
Fair comment. I, too, am sad that Jeff did not repent before he took his final breath. But a sad, wasted life? And hell awaits? On a tribute thread?
Yes, folks, this is the post on which you get to speculate (in the comments) on Jeff Hanneman’s afterlife destination!
Here’s what I believe.
Hell, or “Hades” in the original Hebrew, is the grave. And that is where Jeff Hanneman will soon be. (After his funeral, but I’ll get to that.) In God’s eyes, we are all sinners, and the wages of sin is death, so (other things being equal) we’re all going to die. It’s a simple enough argument, and even atheists agree with its conclusion. But here is Christ’s promise to mortal man.
For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.
Christians live in the hope that one day Jesus will return to fulfill His promise. Then shall be the Resurrection of the Dead and the Final Judgement. After which there is rest for the wicked, who succumb to the Second Death (Satan Laughs As You Eternally Rot) while the redeemed enjoy eternal life.
It’s a simple, stark choice. Do you go to the grave, or do you submit your life to Christ? Doing God’s will is all that’s asked of you. It sure beats pursuing your own pitiful plans!
But the reality is that that’s what Jeff Hanneman did. And he succeeded, by earthly standards. He drank lots of Heineken. Lots. And he screwed lots of hot metal chicks. Lots. As rock stars do. And then he settled down and married his lovely wife, Kathy. (So, this is all speculation, but I bet I’m not wrong.) And, in the meantime, he wrote the best songs for, and played lead guitar for, the greatest heavy metal band of all time. I am in awe. This is not a good Christian life by any reckoning, but a sad, wasted life? I don’t think so.
I am grateful to Jeff Hanneman for his life. He has brought me, and countless other metallers, hour upon hour of listening pleasure. And he’s saved people’s lives. Slayer’s music has given many disaffected, disturbed, depressed young people, on the verge of topping themselves, the strength to carry on. (Again, this is all mostly speculation, but I bet I’m not wrong.)
Thank God for Jeff Hanneman.
That’s my comment on my friend’s Facebook thread, and it leaves the comment at the top of this post for dead. Which brings me to my final point. The commenter’s Christian brothers and sisters will, I hope, at least understand where the commenter was coming from. But non-Christians (as I was, until recently) will not. I took exception to the comment because it was a steady diet of such dismissive, derogatory, judgemental comments from Christians that helped sustain my more than three decades of atheism in adult life.
We are Christ’s representatives on earth, and we should act like we know it. It’s one reason I founded this blog. To reach out to other Slayer fans!
Jeff Hanneman’s afterlife destination is ultimately up to his Maker. May God have mercy on his soul.
Oh Really Albert? Beware vain philosophy my children, and Science falcely so-called!
“Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ.”
St Paul Colossians 2vs8.
*Everything* is energy you say Albert? Why should I believe that *I* am merely energy?
This is an unproven materialistic assumption… not a scientific fact.
Does anyone appreciate the truth of what I am saying?
Albert himself said something to the effect that “Blind submission to Authority is the enemy of truth”.
Does anyone here have the courage to challange the authority of The great Albert Einstein?
It is because of the Prevalent acceptance of this sort of unscientific atheist fundamentalism in the Academic communities of the world that brings into question the existance of Free will and the human soul.
Because Modern infidelity and Rationalism has succeeded in portraying belief in supernaturalism/ spiritual reality as being a hallmark of scientific ignorance, many Christians have been duped into thinking this Materialistic world veiw is a scientific fact rather than an unproven atheist assumption.
These rationalist Christians also tend to follow their atheist brethern and also abandon the Classic Judeo-Christian Morality as being valid… and faith in the reliablity of the scriptures.
They have stepped away from being true theists and have become Deists.
Those Christians whom pride themselves as being the most ‘Educated’ and Ruggedly consistent rationalists will then go further…as a matter of course… and deny the existance of Eternal Damnation, because to their rationale, it would be grossly unfair to Damn someone to eternal torment if they had no freewill choice in the evils they committed or had no freewill in their decision to reject Christ.
I wonder how they can reconcile all this with their voluntarily accepted moral obligation to preach the gospel of God’s grace in Christ to the lost?
Do they believe they have the freewill to actually bother?
Can they justify their own inaction as being materialistically determined and that therefore they are not morally responcible for not bothering to preach?
“O Timothy, keep that which is committed to thy trust, avoiding profane and vain babblings, and oppositions of science falsely so called:”
St Paul 1 Tim 6:20
Thus a little leven leveneth the whole lump.
The mind boggles at just how utterly corrosive the Materialist world veiw is.
How effective it is in absolutely destroying faith in the Bible, in particular the classic moraity of a Holy and judging God and Mankind as a fallen yet Free willed and morraly culpible beings.
It is Sad yet interesting to witness the responce of Humanity to testimonies which dare to suggest that the Bible is the preserved word of God!
Such calls to true theistic faith are met with venimous cursings and accusations of maddness and folly… from all quarters!
The unadulterated arrogance of the skeptics!
They speak with the highest authority!
Human Rationalism!
Kneel Petty theist they command!
How dare you challenge the consensus of High academia?!
Humble thyself before the edifice of Modern scholarship ye unlearned fellow!
We will not yield to that ghastly Bible!
A harmony of outrage, and a choris of ‘rational proofs’ batter the Bible believer From both Atheists and so-called Christians alike.
The Bible believer finds himself alone.
The Rationalist Christians assure the atheists that these Bible believers are deluded fools… Throwbacks from a bygone age….not at all representative of the modern Christian position.
Mankind simply cannot bear the Idea that God’s Pure revelation Exists.
They know that to admit such a thing places them and all their Rationalisms under condemnation… under Judgment.
They don’t want to admit there is a light shining a path in the darkness!
They want to carry on the delusion that ‘nobody knows’…nobody can tell me what I should do, what I should believe, how I should live, why I should change…etc.
And they certainly don’t want to admit that the Great Moral light is that accursed and judgmental Bible!
To the Proud Sinner that is the most unacceptable proposition of all!
The Rationalist Christian doe’s not even want to believe that!
It’s too filled with things which they find repugnant… like Hell!
It is relatively easy to understand why the average sinner does not want to believe in moral culpability and a judgment day.
There is pleasure in sin.
The low road is an easier path to travel than the high steep path, and many Christians prefer to deny the reliability of the scriptures than having the burden of preaching an unpopular message to the lost.
What is truly sad to grasp is that these rationalists Christians have completely smoked themselves!
They have chosen to follow the delusions of the children of Darkness rather than the Light of the word of God.
Professing themselves to be wise they became fools.
I would like to point out that though there may be a cozy bit of kinship between atheists and Modern Rationalist ‘educated’ ‘Christians’ in their mutual hatred of ‘Fanatical Bible believers’, that in reality the Atheists are laughing at the so-called Rationalist Christians whom have abandoned faith in the scriptures, and share the atheist views that the Bible is unreliable.
Atheist laugh when Christians claim to also accept the theory of evolution instead of believing the book of Genesis.
They Laugh because they know they have won!
They have managed to get the Christians to abandon the Bible and instead accept atheist Materialism as the truth!
It is my solemn belief that is is impossible to convert the lost to faith in the truth of the gospel of Christ without preaching and teaching faith in the trustworthiness of the scriptures themselves in which the gospel is found.
News Flash Ye Christians!
Materialism is not a scientific fact!
Belief in the supernatural is not definitive of Ignorance!
Ye of Little Faith!
“ O fools, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken!”
Jesus Christ. Luke 24:25
Tim Wikiriwhi
Christian Libertarian
Dispensationalist.
King James Bible believer.
“For this cause also thank we God without ceasing, because, when ye received the word of God which ye heard of us, ye received it not as the word of men, but as it is in truth, the word of God, which effectually worketh also in you that believe.”
St Paul 1 Thes2:13
“Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.”
St Paul 2 Tim 2vs 15
“And that from a child thou hast known the holy scriptures, which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus.”
St Paul 2 Tim 3:15
“Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth.”
Jesus Christ John17:17
“Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away.”
Jesus Christ Matt 24:35
“…So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.”
St Paul Rom 10:17
UPDATE: Did Albert Really say that?
Thanks to Eternal Vigilance commenter and Libertarian ‘Terry’ I have been made aware that there is a dispute as to whether this Meme has a genuine Einsten quote or whether it is an evil deception. It is a testament to the sickness of Humanity that unfortunately there are millions of unscrupulous liars out there whom manufacture Frauds either to push their own agendas or simply to cause chaos and destruction. I must Therefore warn readers that there is doubt as to this quotes reliability. I will leave the blogpost up because even if the quote is a fraud, my argument against Materialism still holds good, and it may be discovered that Albert did in fact say this. Thus the controversy! Check out this discussion here… http://www.physicsforums.com/showthread.php?t=583449
Keep Vigilant!
Update 2: Pondering further upon the problem about the verasity of this Meme raises a very interesting dilemma, very similar to the basic premise behind the Face book page ‘Did Abraham Lincoln really exist?’ https://www.facebook.com/alincolnism.
Ie that is is impossible to say with certainty that Einstein did not say this quotation…even if no reference to it can be found in the common places one looks (eg Google)
All that skeptics can claim is that *they cannot find sufficient evidence to convince them in their own minds that Einstein did say this.
The reality is that this could very well be a genuine quote from an obscure source… ie It may be a record of a conversation, or a lecture he gave which does not enjoy fame.
And this is a very common reality!
Not everything famous people say becomes common knowledge.
The majority of their sayings actually get quicky forgotten.
I find this dilemma very interesting because it also relates to arguments used by textual critics in their attacks against the trustworthyness of the King James bible because according to them it includes portions of scripture the authenticity of which they dispute.
What is of grave concern is that all valid and truthful historic records can be undermined via such devious rationalisms which only need to caste doubt to destroy faith… and what sort of Malevolent spirit loves to caste doubt against the truth?
The Thinking person must navigate this Dominion of Devils filled with snares and stumbling blocks deliberately engineered to keep people in the dark.
Eternal Vigilance… In Da House.
Communion. Christian Libertarians / Eternal Vigilance bloggers Reed, Richard, and Twikiriwhi. Liberty Conference. Crowne Hotel. Auckland. 6-10-12.
It was great to meet you Reed, and to catch up again with you Richard.
HAHAHA! Check out our Halo’s!
“…And there appeared on their heads Cloven tounges… as of Fire…”
(Acts2vs3) 🙂