Jamie123

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Everything posted by Jamie123

  1. This is mostly new to me. I'll need to set aside some time to study it.
  2. For what it's worth, many traditional Christians - or at least those who concern themselves with such matters (which isn't many) will tell you that there was only ever one priest "of the order of Melchizedek" and that was Christ himself. Some even suggest that Melchizedek was Christ - what they call a "Christophany" - an appearance of Christ prior to the incarnation. I still think the placement of the story is odd. My theory is that Moses (or whoever wrote Genesis) realized too late that he should have included it. He wrote it out on a separate sheet and inserted it between the page which ended with verse 17 and the page which begins with verse 21. Later when it was copied (maybe onto a scroll) the scribe just wrote it all out as a continuous text. (All speculation of course and maybe not v. important.)
  3. Maybe you need to do a Wikipedia edit! (Though be warned, if you want your edits to stay, you'll be committing yourself to a lifelong edit-war with whoever wrote the current version!) And yes by all means link it please! I'd be interested to see.
  4. Interesting - according to Wikipedia the book of Jasher is a "lost book" although there are forgeries around claiming to be it.
  5. There's definitely a parallel here with Acts 16:26 - except that Paul and Silas never actually got super-powers like these two! I remember well when I first heard that story at "Crusaders"* (similar to your "Primary" I suppose - though maybe for slightly older kids), with the guard preparing to kill himself, and Paul saying "Don't, we're still here!" What a relief that must have been for him! Of course Paul and Silas weren't in prison so much for preaching as for taking away a slave-girl's prophetic powers and depriving her owners of "a nice little earner". But still... P.S. I've just noticed one of my own marginal notes: "Didn't the other prisoners try to escape?" Maybe they felt the power that was with Paul and Silas, and knew they were safe. But anyway this is the Bible - not the BoM. *They're not called "Crusaders" any more, but "Urban Saints". Probably because they're afraid of offending Muslims. (They don't say so of course, but I'd bet a tenner that was the real reason! I wonder if Billy Graham were alive today, he'd still be doing "Crusades"!)
  6. You're talking about Genesis 14:18-20. I've always considered this very odd. The note I wrote years ago in my Bible here reads "This interlude seems to pop up from nowhere. Where did Melchizedek come from? Where was Salem? [Jerusalem?])" In verse 17 we have the king of Sodom coming out to meet Abraham. Verses 18, 19 and 20 suspend the narrative and deal with the entire story of Abraham and Melchizedek. Then in verse 21 "normal service is resumed" we have what the king of Sodom said to Abraham. It's almost like a commercial break! (Yes, I know that's not a very reverent thing to say about the Bible, but it is how it seems!)
  7. Social conventions have changed. There was a time when, if you took a young lady out, you were expected to open the car door for her. Nowadays you're expected to have sex with her on the second date. At least that's the impression I get from the TV shows I've watched over the last 10 or 20 years. Is it true? Or is it just a myth of the media? P.S. and the church isn't "The Church" anymore. It's that building with the funny windows which you have nothing to do with except when you want to get married or have your baby baptised - unless of course you're one of those religious loonies who goes there every week, like me, or like Sheldon's mum, and even she (since she's a "goody" in the show) needs to get cold-shouldered out of the place by the "the Christian hypocrytes" ("the baddies") coz her son got a girl pregnant and isn't going to marry her.
  8. You may not agree with my Protestant theology, but I would say that to be "saved in your sins" would mean that you can carry on sinning merrily away and you'll still be saved. (This is a common strawman.) To be "saved from your sins" means that you were once under the power of sin but are no longer. Not only does Christ take the punishment of your sin upon himself (and that would include your future sins), but he also changes you so you become less sinful, and eventually become like him. I liked that too. "You know perfectly well there is a God, you just find it convenient to ignore the fact!" (Actually now I look back that was verse 24.) Verse 34 talks about "claim on mercy". Some Christians balk at the idea that we can have any kind of "claim on God", or to have God "in our debt". I have a theory about this, which I have never been able to articulate fully without someone "butting in" on me. But for what its worth, here it is: Imagine there was a father who was worried about his teenage son's poor performance at school. He had tried to impress upon him the importance of working hard and getting a good job, but it was never any use. So one day he says to him, "Son, you know how you are always complaining that you don't have your own car? If you get an A for your next school report, I will buy you one." So the son works hard and (much to his teachers' astonishment) gets an A. He takes the report card to his father and says "OK Dad, I kept my side of the bargain, now you owe me a car." Well in an absolute sense of course he doesn't. (Legally speaking, he would be quite within his rights if he refused.) But within the context of the covenant he made with his son, he does owe him a car.
  9. Jesus did say we need to "hate" our own fathers, mothers, wives, children, brothers and sisters (Luke 14:26), so I agree the word "hate" needs careful interpretation.
  10. Absolutely. By far the best way to know if you understand something is to try to explain it to someone else. I'm afraid I'm still one of those "others" who struggle. Maybe one day it will all "click" and I'll understand, but right now I don't. For example, I can't help asking if God gave Pharaoh (I mean the Pharaoh out of Exodus) the best mortal experience, when he kept on "hardening his heart". The best maybe for the purposes of God's own plan, but was it the best from the point of view of Pharaoh himself?
  11. Yep. Esther and Song of Songs are the two books of the Bible that never mention God.
  12. Try reading the version of Esther in the Apocrypha. (Sometimes called "Greek Esther".) It's one of the bloodiest books ever written!
  13. Having thought about this a bit, I wonder if we need to clarify a potential misunderstanding. Latter-day Saints (if I understand correctly) believe that everyone is a child of God, and is therefore loved by God. Now an alternative view (to which I have been somewhat exposed) is that the Natural Man is not a child of God, but can be "adopted" by accepting Christ - by being "born again". Inevitably, many people will not be born again, and that will include many who are (by our earthly standards) "good people" whom we would respect and love. Some (I could call them "Calvinists", but this is a bit of a libel against John Calvin) would say that God never intended to save these people, and that the atonement was limited only to God's "elect". Everyone else was created by God, but only for the purpose of "making a point". He never in any real sense loved them. (No Calvinist would ever put it in those words, but I'm calling a spade a spade.) So the possibility does arise that one of the elect could love one of the reprobate, and thus be more loving than God. This has always been a problem for me (though I've not always articulated it very well to my teachers, and gone away my head spinning with non- explanations). But if everyone (including the Devil) at least started out loved by God, then maybe it's not such a problem. It still bothers me though how God could be "working his purposes out" (to quote the hymn) if he didn't ordain in advance the choices people were going to make. Unless of course God is continually zipping backwards and forwards through time and adjusting his prophecies to make everything fit. The mind boggles!
  14. As a young man I went for a while to a church where they were always saying things like: "I believe we are living in the Latter Days! I believe that with all my heart, which is why it is so important...etc." I always wanted to get up and say: "I don't believe we are living in the Latter Days, and I don't think it matters two hoots anyway." I never quite had the nerve to say it though.
  15. I always think (1) isn't it a bit presumptuous of me to assume automatically that I'd be one of the righteous? And (2), even if I am amongst the righteous, would there not be plenty of people I care about amongst the unrighteous? Would I even want to be "...safe on Zion's Hill, singing praises...etc." when "...thy judgements spread destruction" upon people I care about? Which leads me to another matter: if I love someone whom God doesn't love, does that make me more loving than God? It's a question I endlessly puzzle over.
  16. Thought long and hard about this! I don't really mind, but if we're going to continue this game with other people it might be fun to do it blindly and see where imagination leads! (The reality, though, is always as nice as our imaginings, if a little different!)
  17. Haha - I think you're right - brewed by his son-in-law, the "bearded prig"! The Bearded Prig: (Objecting to Reggie having called him "a bearded prig" for the umpteenth time that day) Why am I a bearded prig? Reggie: You really want to know? BP: Yes! Reggie: OK! [Takes a deep breath and gives a long, detailed explanation of exactly why he is a bearded prig] So that's why you're a bearded prig. OK? BP: (Deflated) Er...OK.
  18. Actually I'm being rather uncharitable here - sorry. Live and let live.
  19. To take the mickey out of something means to make a joke out of it. No idea where it came from - anyone else know? Less polite people would say "take the [rude word for urine]". P.S. I did a bit of web searching. It seems that the "impolite version" was the original and "Mickey" came later. "Mickey" is apparently a contraction of "Mickey Bliss", which is Cockney rhyming slang for...the bodily fluid mentioned in the impolite version. But who was Mickey Bliss? No one seems to know for sure - though he may have been a popular music hall performer. P.P.S. If you're not familiar with Cockney rhyming slang, it's best explained with a few examples: Currant bun = sun Saucepan lids = kids Apples and pears = stairs Adam and Eve = believe Tit for tat = hat Jam jar = car Trouble and strife = wife Mince pies = eyes You get the idea...
  20. OK here is my first attempt to draw you Zil... Well to be strictly accurate, its the second. The first attempt was just too goofy for words. (Just to be clear, the picture was too goofy for words - not you!) The spiky hair goes with the "Z". It sounds zippy and zappy - so your hair in the picture is the same way! I'll try to do a picture of you too Vort - though you are a bit harder. "Vort" makes me think either of Vortigern (usurper in Welsh legend) or Lord Voldemort (heaven forbid!!!)
  21. If you wanted to get a tattoo, even though you hate tattoos, for the sole purpose of sticking it to someone, what about: "Tarot cards are just pieces of cardboard with pretty pictures on them, and have as much magic in them as "The Hanky Panky Magician's Outfit" and if you're going to ask me how I can say Tarot cards are a bunch of garbage and at the same time believe in the Bible then...well I can't think of an answer right now, but when I do it's going to burn like...like getting a tattoo, and you can't say I don't know what that's like 'coz I just got this one!" Snappy, don't you think? Seriously though, I'm not really thinking of getting a tattoo (or of "sticking it" to anyone) but talking about Don Quixote the other day got me thinking. Like him I need to do something crazy for a change!
  22. Good story, thanks! (It puts The Ghost of the Fifty Pence Piece in the shade! 😉)
  23. I can remember a time when the Intercessions (public prayers, traditionally said by the priest but nowadays more often by a regular person) typically ended "...and so rejoicing in the fellowship of [whatever saint the church is named after] and all your saints, we commend ourselves and all Christian people to your unfailing love". When its my turn I never say "Christian". It seems to me that if someone is not a Christian, they need Our prayers more, not less. Too right. I once got dragged along to the Kingston Spiritualist Church, and do you know how many times Jesus was mentioned in the service? Big fat zero! (I already had a rant about that in another thread so I'll shut up about it here.) Reading Alma 7, I couldn't help thinking of a Pauline epistle - one where Paul is pleased with the people he is writing to. Maybe Ephesians. Some very beautiful language in this part.
  24. Just in case any of our Cymric friends are offended, here's the Red Dragon of Cadwaladr to show I'm really on your side, guys!