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Inquisition of usfan

dybmh

דניאל יוסף בן מאיר הירש
Became drug crazed hippie in college, dropped out, hitchhiked around the country.

Misc. Travel Questions:

What are 5 places you haven't been to that you dream of visiting some day?
What are 3 places you have been to before that you would like to visit again?
Is there any place you have been to before that you never want to visit again?
 

usfan

Well-Known Member
Boy, right out of the gate and your dander is up. Tee Hee!
,
In your dreams... ;)
I admit to being impatient, and a bit curmudgeonly, towards dogmatism and bigotry, but that is so common, anymore, in the publuc discourse, that I've come to expect it. The ravings of progressive indoctrinees don't really phase me, anymore. ..though sometimes you get so pithy that i have to go weep into my pillow for a few hours... :(

..but i compose myself.. wipe off the salty tears.. and attempt to bring wisdom, wit, and circumspection to a shallow, hostile world. Unappreciated, hated, ridiculed, and falsely accused, i carry on, deluded by the hope that i might one day attain to the lofty levels of intellectual prowess displayed on this forum. ;)
@usfan what you mean by ‘historical accuracy’ of Bible?
Why do you think “I am the way” means the person Jesus? People who came before Jesus were discriminated upon by God? They left hopeless without a redeemer
1. Biblical accuracy: the bible has been preserved, as written. All evidence points to the accuracy, historicity, and validity of the biblical texts. They are the written record of the Life, words, and mission of Jesus. There are no other credible accounts of the life of this Man.
2. Because He IS the Way. He does not show the Way, point the Way, or lead the Way. He is the Way. That is exactly the context and intent of the passage:

Jn 14:1“Do not let your hearts be troubled. You believe in God a ; believe also in me. 2My Father’s house has many rooms; if that were not so, would I have told you that I am going there to prepare a place for you? 3And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am. 4You know the way to the place where I am going.”
5Thomas said to him, “Lord, we don’t know where you are going, so how can we know the way?
6Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. 7If you really know me, you will know b my Father as well. From now on, you do know him and have seen him.”
8Philip said, “Lord, show us the Father and that will be enough for us.”
9Jesus answered: “Don’t you know me, Philip, even after I have been among you such a long time? Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’?

3. People who seek God, and respond to the nudgings of the Spirit, present, past, and future, have heard and recognized the Name of Jesus. It is the Spirit who gives life. The letter kills. It is the Living Water, drawn from a well too deep for us to reach, that quenches our internal thirst, and regenerates life in our empty souls.

People in times past may not have a Name, to go with the Spirit they respond to, but they Know Him, and receive Grace. There are too many instances of the Spirit moving in unlikely people, removed from the religious elite, to presume that God is constrained to follow human formulas.
 

sooda

Veteran Member
I would be remiss if i did not include the obvious influence of biblical Christianity in my worldview. My encounter with God, mentioned earlier, was my introduction to not only the Invisible Divine, but was specifically, my first encounter with the Redemptive power of Jesus.

Over time, intense study, and searching for Truth, i have come to these convictions:
1. Truth about the Mysteries of the universe can be discovered, through spiritual communion with God, through the Messiah: God's messenger to humanity.
2. Written accounts, through the first disciples, preserved over the millennia, keep us grounded in historical accuracy, and prevent error and tangential diversion.
3. Knowledge of God is BOTH a spiritual 'sense', AND a rational conclusion. The Creator of Reason and thinking approves of Reason, as a vehicle of Discovery.
4. Delusion and deception is common, in this world, and snares for our souls are everywhere, to drive a wedge between the individual and his Maker.

My response, in this world of deception, is to defend the Truth, from those elements in the world who attack it. I consider myself an apologist for historical, biblical Christianity, which has not changed its central message since inception. I use history, scholarship, quotes, and reason, to defend the historical Christian faith from detractors and propagandists who attack it with hostile intent.

History has a bad habit of disproving the "factual" account of Genesis as does archaeology ...

But both believers and non-believers totally miss the point.

Genesis was never written as a history text, it was written as the "creation myth" of the Hebrews. It was purely allegorical and the time setting was based on oral histories.

Fact is that much of the allegorical stuff was, in fact, based on Sumerian and other contemporary belief systems.

Even the Jews understood it to be allegorical, it was the later Christians that made it into an infallible historical/scientific document when it was never intended to be one in the first place.
 

usfan

Well-Known Member
Misc. Travel Questions:
What are 5 places you haven't been to that you dream of visiting some day?
What are 3 places you have been to before that you would like to visit again?
Is there any place you have been to before that you never want to visit again?
:D
Funny.. my wife and i have talked about that recently.
I've lived in Mexico, England, and Germany, for months at a time.. been there. Done that. Got the t-shirt. I'm not really interested in travel much, anymore. Its an age thing, i guess. We used to go to Hawaii for a month or more, every year.. but have stopped that as well.

We've talked about Asia, Australia, NZ, central Europe, Ireland, etc, but i just don't have the energy or motivation, anymore. Pictures and videos suffice. ;) I've been around enough to know that the world is varied, awesome, and different, but it is also the same, wherever you go. Change in perspective, is the best part of travel, but once that becomes internalized, repetition isn't necessary.

“Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts. Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one's lifetime.” ~Mark Twain

My favorite place that i have visited is Hawaii.. not the tourist meccas, but the old Hawaii.. big island rural. I have cousins there, from half hawaiian, half white uncles and aunts, that i unearthed in genealogy research. The Aloha spirit is very appealing, and being born landlocked, i have a mystical draw to the ocean. Clear waters, turtles, volcanoes, tropical vegetation, a paradise on earth.. i can see why my paternal grandfather lived there so long. I never knew him, even though his daughter, my late aunt, searched for him for decades. The internet and information age has made many things easier.

Where would i not go? ..any hostile, war torn, corrupt region, where personal safety, as an American, are at risk.. come to think of it, that describes my current location pretty well! :D
 

usfan

Well-Known Member
History has a bad habit of disproving the "factual" account of Genesis as does archaeology ...
I wasn't talking about Genesis. The context was the life, words, and mission of Jesus. And while there are glimpses of Him in Genesis, that is not the source of His biography.

And, i do not view Genesis as a science text book, regardless of what the caricatures say.

But as for literal vs allegory.. everybody gotta believe something.. :shrug:

We all must do 2 things alone:
1. Our own believing
2. Our own dying
 

sooda

Veteran Member
I wasn't talking about Genesis. The context was the life, words, and mission of Jesus. And while there are glimpses of Him in Genesis, that is not the source of His biography.

And, i do not view Genesis as a science text book, regardless of what the caricatures say.

But as for literal vs allegory.. everybody gotta believe something.. :shrug:

We all must do 2 things alone:
1. Our own believing
2. Our own dying

You mentioned your extensive study of the Torah. Do you think the Jews got the messiah wrong? Have you also studied Rambam?
 

usfan

Well-Known Member
You mentioned your extensive study of the Torah. Do you think the Jews got the messiah wrong? Have you also studied Rambam?
No, i have not claimed, 'extensive study of the Torah', whatever that is supposed to mean.

Why do you misquote and falsely accuse me, all the time?

I have studied the bible.. both testaments.. for decades, and consider myself a student of the scriptures. But i make no claims of authority. I prefer facts.

Obviously, regarding Jesus, the Messiah, many of the Jews of that time (and since) missed Him. So yes, they 'got it wrong'. There are a handful of messianic Jews, but the majority are not believers in Jesus, as the Messiah.. along with a great many non Jews, as well.

Shouldn't that be obvious?
 

atanu

Member
Premium Member
I
People in times past may not have a Name, to go with the Spirit they respond to, but they Know Him, and receive Grace. There are too many instances of the Spirit moving in unlikely people, removed from the religious elite, to presume that God is constrained to follow human formulas.

Yeah. In my view, this is correct. Spirit has no name but its first experience evident to everyone is "I am". "I am" is different from "I am this".
 

usfan

Well-Known Member
Yeah. In my view, this is correct. Spirit has no name but its first experience evident to everyone is "I am". "I am" is different from "I am this".
My memory is fuzzy, but, iirc, it was Watchman Nee, the Chinese evangelist/apologist from early/mid 20th century, relating a story about when he spoke the message about Jesus, in a small village. An older man rose, and exclaimed, 'I know this Man! I heard from Him years ago, i just did not know His name!'

Peter had a similar experience with gentiles, in Acts. Jesus, with the centurion and other gentiles. Abraham, who encountered Him, and found redemption in the coming Event.

Acts11:1The apostles and the believers throughout Judea heard that the Gentiles also had received the word of God. 2So when Peter went up to Jerusalem, the circumcised believers criticized him 3and said, “You went into the house of uncircumcised men and ate with them.”
4Starting from the beginning, Peter told them the whole story: 5“I was in the city of Joppa praying, and in a trance I saw a vision. I saw something like a large sheet being let down from heaven by its four corners, and it came down to where I was. 6I looked into it and saw four-footed animals of the earth, wild beasts, reptiles and birds. 7Then I heard a voice telling me, ‘Get up, Peter. Kill and eat.’
8“I replied, ‘Surely not, Lord! Nothing impure or unclean has ever entered my mouth.’
9“The voice spoke from heaven a second time, ‘Do not call anything impure that God has made clean.’ 10This happened three times, and then it was all pulled up to heaven again.
11“Right then three men who had been sent to me from Caesarea stopped at the house where I was staying. 12The Spirit told me to have no hesitation about going with them. These six brothers also went with me, and we entered the man’s house. 13He told us how he had seen an angel appear in his house and say, ‘Send to Joppa for Simon who is called Peter. 14He will bring you a message through which you and all your household will be saved.’
15“As I began to speak, the Holy Spirit came on them as he had come on us at the beginning. 16Then I remembered what the Lord had said: ‘John baptized with a water, but you will be baptized with b the Holy Spirit.’ 17So if God gave them the same gift he gave us who believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I to think that I could stand in God’s way?”
18When they heard this, they had no further objections and praised God, saying, “So then, even to Gentiles God has granted repentance that leads to life.”
 

dybmh

דניאל יוסף בן מאיר הירש
What are your favorite Bible verses? ( maybe limit it to 3? )

Preferred Bible translation? ( apologies if you answered this in another thread... )

Do you consider yourself "religious"? Would you consider your wife "religious"?
 

usfan

Well-Known Member
What are your favorite Bible verses? ( maybe limit it to 3? )

Preferred Bible translation? ( apologies if you answered this in another thread... )

Do you consider yourself "religious"? Would you consider your wife "religious"?
Hmm.. those are tough..
1. Bible Verses:
This is one that struck a nerve in me, early on..

Eccl8:16When I gave my heart to know wisdom and to see the task which has been done on the earth (even though one should never sleep day or night), 17and I saw every work of God, I concluded that man cannot discover the work which has been done under the sun. Even though man should seek laboriously, he will not discover; and though the wise man should say, “I know,” he cannot discover.

The clarifying passages about Jesus's divinity are good, and important, but so are many others.

2. Translations: i quote more from the NIV, but the new king james, the NAS, and others are good. I don't really have a favorite.. I'm more utilitarian in my view of translations. ;)

3. Depends on context. I do not attend, nor am a member of any organization or institution, party, or club. Wife isn't either. But my outspoken defense of Christianity would garner me the 'religious!' ..:eek:.. ..label, i am sure.
 

dybmh

דניאל יוסף בן מאיר הירש
I do not attend, nor am a member of any organization or institution, party, or club. Wife isn't either. But my outspoken defense of Christianity would garner me the 'religious!' ..:eek:.. ..label, i am sure.
I am the same way; but people probably won't believe it because of the positions I take during debates.
 

dybmh

דניאל יוסף בן מאיר הירש
Given the choice of hiking in the mountains, in the forest, in the desert, or along a river bank, which would you chose?
 

dybmh

דניאל יוסף בן מאיר הירש
If you had to give up 2 of the 5 physical senses, which 2 would you chose?
 

usfan

Well-Known Member
Given the choice of hiking in the mountains, in the forest, in the desert, or along a river bank, which would you chose?
All of the above. Everything in its season.. since Ecclesiastes has been breached, how about this one:

Eccl3:1There is an appointed time for everything. And there is a time for every event under heaven—
2A time to give birth and a time to die;
A time to plant and a time to uproot what is planted.
3A time to kill and a time to heal;
A time to tear down and a time to build up.
4A time to weep and a time to laugh;
A time to mourn and a time to dance.
5A time to throw stones and a time to gather stones;
A time to embrace and a time to shun embracing.
6A time to search and a time to give up as lost;
A time to keep and a time to throw away.
7A time to tear apart and a time to sew together;
A time to be silent and a time to speak.
8A time to love and a time to hate;
A time for war and a time for peace.
9What profit is there to the worker from that in which he toils? 10I have seen the task which God has given the sons of men with which to occupy themselves.
11He has made everything appropriate in its time. He has also set eternity in their heart, yet so that man will not find out the work which God has done from the beginning even to the end.


If you had to give up 2 of the 5 physical senses, which 2 would you chose?
None.. i like them all. ;)
 

dybmh

דניאל יוסף בן מאיר הירש
How many more questions can I ask? Have I already exhausted/exceeded my quota?
 

usfan

Well-Known Member
How many more questions can I ask? Have I already exhausted/exceeded my quota?
..i might have to sleep, or go to the bathroom.. ;)

..but there isn't really a quota.. though as the resident curmudgeon, i may get snippy if the questions are too sappy. Snippy for sappy ok with you? :D

And seriously, though i am flattered by the personal attention, i still prefer a rousing philosophical discussion, where the mysteries of the universe are pondered by insightful, intelligent people. My own feeble person is decidedly less interesting.. :oops:
 

dybmh

דניאל יוסף בן מאיר הירש
Snippy for sappy ok with you? :D
Please don't hold back....

..i might have to sleep, or go to the bathroom.. ;)
I repeat... don't hold back. ( It's not healthy. )

And seriously, though i am flattered by the personal attention, i still prefer a rousing philosophical discussion, where the mysteries of the universe are pondered by insightful, intelligent people. My own feeble person is decidedly less interesting.. :oops:

rousing philosophical questions:

Should there be limits on AI development? Why or Why not? If so, who should insure that these limits are enforced?
Should there be limits on Genetic Engineering? Why or Why not? If so, who should insure that these limits are enforced?
 
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