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sterling-silvers · 3 years

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Star Wars: The High Republic #1 Review

In terms of the comic, the first issue is the definition of a C story – it is a 7 out of 10 because it is average. The simplicity and lack of depth is both the saving grace and condemning damnation of it.

The story follows a new, human Padawan called Keeve Trennis, who is revealed to be on the planet Shuraden, partaking in her final Jedi trial; result of which will be the deciding factor of whether she become a full fledge Jedi Knight. Chaperoning and assessing the trial is her Jedi Master, Sskeer – a Trandoshan – who is sporting one arm (more on that later on).

During said “final” trial, a swarm of giant alien insects – called Ridadi – pop out of nowhere and start stampeding toward a community of fairy like aliens, called Ximpi. Keeve makes an “audacious” choice to abandon her trial in order to save the village. One thing to note, is that she made a utilitarian decision during the course of her rescue, as did not attempt to save one Ximpi who was swallowed whole – she allowed the death of one to save the lives of many.

After relaying the situation those at Starlight Beacon’s, in particular Master Estala Maru, she is told to read the minds of the insects; in doing so, she gathers that these creatures normally using a magnetic homing beacon to guide their migration course – Starlight Beacon has thrown it off course and if Keeve were to fail to stop them here, they would eventually fly to the Beacon, itself.

Using a new lightsaber powered, Force attuned ship – a Vector – Keeve is able to steer the bugs back on course and off of the planet.

As she reconvenes and recounts with her master, he takes her the Starlight Beacon. Thinking she is about to be expelled from the Order for failing the trial, a new Jedi Master, Avar Kriss – who, via Grandmasters Veter and Yoda, most recently was christened as the new Marshall of Starlight Beacon, officially promotes Keeve to the rank of Knight. As her valediction ceremony takes place on the Beacon, itself, we see Keeve shedding an emotional tear of joy.

This is interesting as, I thought it was the padawan’s master that would knight them but, this seems not to be the case. Even more curiously, the Jedi do not exclaim “May the Force be with you” but, “For Light and Life”. At the conclusion of the comic, we see Sskeer alone in his chambers screaming “No!” at the top of his lungs.

As forementioned, this debut issue is the epitome of a C story and as so earns it’s 7 out of 10. This is my first introduction into Cavan Scott’s writing and, so far, it is subpar at best and candidly amateurish at it’s worse. The narrative was very telegraphed at times and makes mistakes that are unbecoming of a writer given this caliber of material to work with. Writers like Greg Wiseman, Kyle Higgins, and or David F. Walker would not be making these kinds of errors – Marvel might need to call them to take over.

In the same vein, Ario Anindito’s art is decent but, could be better. It’s not as crisp as I think it should be and looks like it needed another render. Artists like Dan Mora, Stefano Caselli, and especially Doc Shaner would have delivered an efficient job as opposed to the sufficient one Anindito is giving.

It’s vexing as honestly, there is something there in terms of Keeve Trennis in terms of both her character and design.

I am more than fine with a protagonist that doubts themselves because that is a manner in which we are able to learn with them, and there is definitely an avenue to explore with a newly dubbed Jedi Knight still working on finding her niche in the Order. Reviewers, like Thor Skywalker, are not so keen on her having these kind of thoughts and emotions but, it makes sense to me. One of the eventual downfalls of the Jedi was that they were trying to negate their emotions as opposed to controlling them. Keeve showing self-doubt illustrates her struggle to regulate her emotions but also that allows herself to feel the doubt work through it. Nonetheless, it seems as if we, the reader, have missed an arc and or development with this character – I think it would have been more apt to show her in the Order working her way to the trials as opposed to the last hour of her last trial AND her becoming a Jedi Knight; this is reinforced by the alleged rapport and pedestal she puts Sskeer on – it’s more tell than show and a comic book is meant to show.

In accordance with this self-doubt, she also has the quirk of cursing. This is interesting, albeit jarring because of the era she is in – the High Republic has been presented as the apex of the Order and as so, I thought that meant this would be the time where the Jedi would be the most dogmatic and adherent to their traditions and mentality.

Her design yields the same jarring aspects, once you go beyond the superficial facet. At first glance, it’s very attention-grabbing; young Black woman with half her head shaved on one side, utilizing two lightsabers – holstered on her chest – that she can combine into a dual-sided lightsaber. However, once again, this seems to be out of place given the time period and temperament of the era. Does it make sense for a Jedi in this era to be so bombastic in their look, particularly when it comes to her hair? Seems like a better fit for a time of REVIVING the Jedi Order as opposed to them being at their APEX.

In the Light of the Jedi novel, it is said that Keeve sees the Force as a tapestry – a massive piece of art that spreads across the universe. This is a really nice take on the Force and I hope it gets expanded on with her character in this series – it certainly could attest to aspects of her design, such as her hair. I haven’t really seen Star Wars characters interested in art aside from Sabine Wren, Grand Admiral Thrawn, and Alva Brenne; now we have a character who the Force IS art for her. Granted, this aspect of hers has not been seen and or mentioned in the comic and it SHOULD be as this is the formal DEBUT of this character for many people.

The issue gets some major points off, as well because:

1. Keeve’s uses her lightsaber to not only slow down descent but to stop the fall completely.

This is cardinal sin that follies in the mechanics and use of how lightsabers work. This happens nine pages in and broke my immersion within the issue - immediate red flag.

At best, an argument could be made that because this is set 200 years before the Skywalker Saga these sabers are weaker than their future counter parts and therefore not as potent in terms of lethality but, this is me – the fan – writing for the writer. Star Wars (or its content creators) simply do not get that luxury anymore. Plot holes are to be called out by the consumer and filled in/addressed by the writer; plain and simple.

2. There is a general lack of references and or footnotes to other material – particularly to the current books and comics – that would have given context to some of the events and tools used in the comic. Prime examples of missed opportunities to seed this world cohesively take form in Sskeer’s missing arm, the Ximpi themselves, and the Vectors.

The High Republic, as a whole, was marketed ongoing multimedia project and as so, interconnectivity should be the prime focal point of this serious. Continuity is key ESPECIALLY when they’ve thrown out the old canon and are new canon. The tools are there – USE THEM!!! The book – really Charles Soule in general – is doing the heavy lifting of world building and establishing many of the characters – the least Scott can do is alley oop these layups.

3. As mentioned earlier, Keeve uses a Vector to as the driving force to solve the problem but, there was no footnote and or reference to the fact that this was a special kind of ship. Moreover, the use of the Vector has already broken the canon that has JUST been established for it – Vectors are powered by the Jedi’s Lightsaber, the hub changes color to that of the lightsaber that activated it, it is steered by the user’s ability with Force, and there should be no autopilot and astromech droids there to guide it based on the fact that these innovations are rare within the galaxy in this era.

Why add these parameters if the creators that be are not going to adhere to them?

Ultimately, this issue threatened to be interesting. If this is the modus operandi of the series as a whole… making good on the threat will be the difference between triumph and downfall.

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howwelldoyouknowyourmoon · 4 years

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On the Outside Looking In: Growing Up in the Moonies

Flore Singer Aaslid, Ph.D. (2007)

Abstract The author recounts her experiences as a child and young adult in the Unification Church (“the Moonies”). She discusses the enduring sense of not fitting in, which arose from her many years of travelling and being taken care of by people other than her parents (who were usually busy with missionary work) and stigmatized for being an “unblessed” child (not born to Moonie parents). During this prolonged conflict situation she vacillated between trying to “buy it” and rebelling. Leaving the group proved to be difficult because she discovered that she did not fit in “outside” either. Ultimately, however, she left the group permanently and began to build a new life.

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There is a saying that if something doesn’t kill you it will only make you stronger. A spiritual perspective might interpret this statement as meaning that most challenges in life, however unpleasant or inconvenient, are like trials laid out by some Grand Master Plan for the sole purpose of adding some muscle to one’s otherwise weak disposition. Perceived from such a perspective, being raised in an environment such as that of the Moonies is really a blessing in disguise, with a vast array of potentials and possibilities to grow and expand in every conceivable manner. In my case, I can see how the whole experience has toughened me up in many respects. Nevertheless, for me, the most enduring and overwhelming side effect of growing up as a cult kid (having been set apart from society at large and carefully protected in a dogmatic cocoon for most of my formative years) is the relentless, almost haunting, yet mostly exasperating feeling of never quite fitting in—anywhere. I have yet to discover whether this is a blessing or a curse, but it’s probably a little of both.

Like that of many of my peers also raised in “the church,” as we called the whole ordeal, my childhood was somewhat turbulent. From the age of two, I never lived more than two years at a time in any one place. By the time I was eight, I had already lived in four different countries and learned three different languages (two of which, unfortunately, I forgot as I no longer used them). The number of “caretakers” I had during those years is beyond my recollection (probably more than 20 and fewer than 50), for both of my parents were missionaries, busying themselves with the very important task of saving the world. I was a sacrifice for the sake of a greater good, my mother used to tell me. I was put into God’s Hands, and with the help of a lot of faith and a seemingly endless number of dedicated prayers, He would protect me (sort of like paying holy instalments toward some kind of sacred life insurance). This might have worked, for all I know; I was an almost abnormally healthy child, and even today the most serious illness to fall upon me has been the flu and some nasty stomach problems in India.

Still, it is as if all this moving about, learning new languages, making new friends, adapting to different environments, only to be torn away from it all and repeat the process all over again (and again, and again, ad infinitum), somehow turned me into a weird little muddled misfit. I was doomed to feel like a perpetual stranger, forever the foreigner, like some bizarre product of shoddy enculturation, sloppy socialization, or whatever one wishes to call that process through which young children experience a sense of belonging, and identify with their nearest and dearest. I wasn’t, of course, consciously aware of my predicament at such a young age. I just felt exceedingly lonely, and of course being an only child didn’t help matters. Children, as a rule, don’t like to stand out, and lord knows I did my best to fit in. I made friends easily, was unusually outgoing, learned languages and dialects in record time, joined the Girl Scouts, the swim club, the ski club, and even a glee club (chorus). I wore the right clothes and probably liked the right things, but to no avail; that lonely feeling just never left me. And all this, by the way, relates purely to my experiences with the Outside World (that is how we Moonies referred to what other people might perceive as “normal society”). Children growing up in cults, or in any kind of fundamentalist movement for that matter, always get stuck between (at least) two worlds.

Things probably would have been slightly different, although not necessarily better, had I felt some sense of belonging in the Inside World (my own personal term for the Moonies, or “the family,” as we insiders referred to ourselves). This fate was not to be mine, however, for one big reason that I can explain only by examining the Moonie Belief System (B S). This “family” came complete with a set of True Parents (Sun Myung Moon, also founder and self-proclaimed messiah, and his wife) and True Children (their 14 children). All the other members lovingly referred to each other as True Brothers and Sisters to complete the Holy Metaphor, but also, I suspect, to linguistically prevent any kind of sexual activity from occurring between these “Brothers and Sisters.” Premarital sex was regarded as an almost unforgivable mortal sin. Sex was so terrible that any children born from this impure act were blemished forever with the stain of Original Sin, passed on through generations all the way back to when Adam and Eve had premarital sex. This is “the fall” according to the Moonie bible (otherwise known as “The Principle”)—which, incidentally, was Eve’s fault because she had sex with Satan first and then felt guilty because she remembered that it was Adam she was supposed to have sex with, whereby she seduced him, but, alas, too late or too early, or both, and so women became the inferior sex and suffer childbirth and menstruation and all sorts of womanly misfortunes as a consequence of this badly timed and somewhat bungled-up sex act.

To remedy this calamity, all lowly mortals (both men and women) must pay Indemnity. Any kind of personal misfortune could be seen as one form of paying Indemnity, but most members supplemented this payment with additional suffering, just to make sure that Indemnity was indeed being paid. There was fasting (often for [7] days with absolutely no food whatsoever); getting up very early and praying hysterically for days, weeks, or months on end; as well as fundraising (practically all the members fundraised at some point or another; many did nothing but fundraise) and witnessing (getting other unsuspecting outsiders to join the happy family). The only other activity that could remove the stain of Original Sin was The Blessing. Here, several hundred (sometimes several thousand) couples, whom True Father himself picked out from pictures or in a great big gathering called “The Matching,” would all get married at the same time by True Parents, in some very big place, like a football stadium, or Madison Square Garden.

▲ Sun Myung Moon “matching” couples in the 1980s.

Not only the Blessed Couple, but all the future children born from this holy matrimony, would then be freed of Original Sin (which explains why it was so popular; I think the Moonies are even in the Guinness Book of World Records for the biggest mass weddings in history). The offspring of these decontaminated couples were then subsequently called the Blessed Children since these lucky little cherubs were born into the world unblemished and completely free of Original Sin. In all metaphysical respects, as perfect as can be.

Unfortunately (or fortunately, depending on one’s point of view), I was no such child. Born to an unwed mother before she joined the church, I was doomed to carry the burden of Original Sin. I and others like me were continually reminded of this disgraceful state of affairs by simply being given the rather unflattering designation of Unblessed Children [“Jacob children”].

As an Unblessed Child, I was excluded in several different ways: Ritually during Sunday morning prayers (which always took place at the ungodly hour of 5 a.m.), for example, where I was consistently prohibited from saying the Pledge of the Families (not belonging to a Blessed Family myself). Socially, during big Moonie celebrations such as God’s Day, where special seats were always reserved for Blessed Children (I was allowed to sit there on many occasions, but hardly ever without first being solemnly informed that these seats were really for Blessed Children). Then there was the obligatory trip to Korea ( [usually for 40 days, but possibly] lasting several years), which was an absolute must for most Blessed Children, but not for me (although from what I’ve heard, I think I was blessed to have missed it). And of course, as opposed to most of the Blessed Children, I was in no way exempt from the fundraising and witnessing. After all, Indemnity must be paid, and I have many (not so very fond) memories of myself standing on street corners selling flowers with my mother, usually for some worthy “Christian” cause (we hardly ever said it was for the Moonies, unless we happened to be in the mood for some rather unpleasant “persecution,” as we called the stone throwing, name calling, and other mostly verbal abuse).

Understandably, after many years of this kind of treatment, one is always in danger of feeling vaguely inadequate and prone to a slight sense of inferiority with respect to those Holier Than Thou. So, to finally make my point, even in the Inside World, amidst my own True Brothers and Sisters, I felt like an outcast, a recluse, a misfit, and once again, the freak in the group.

Psychologically speaking, there are probably several ways to deal with this type of dilemma. I have ascertained two primary methods: Either you buy the crap (pardon my French), or you don’t. Choosing the first method would have been highly destructive to my fragile psyche. No complex psychological analysis needed here; I simply state what to me seems obvious: believing that one is fundamentally inferior to most of one’s peers, for whatever reason, can dangerously stagnate one’s own personal growth and development. (However, believing that their superiority is due to a somewhat more elaborate mating ritual between their parents than that of one’s own does make it all the more absurd, even though some 50-odd years back, the majority of our God-fearing citizens adopted this view regarding unwed mothers and their “bastard” children. But this just goes to show how cruel and easily duped we humans can be.) Therefore, probably to protect myself and spare myself serious damage in the long run, somewhere in the depths of my psyche (possibly even subconsciously), I decided at a relatively early age that I was surrounded by a group of gibbering morons.

This was, perhaps, not the most sophisticated strategy, but it was effective, and it worked wonders when it came to ignoring and shutting out most of the ranting and raving that appeared to compose the greater part of my conceptual reality tunnel (the Inside World), although, admittedly, many times the two worlds collided. The resulting clash was so straining that I did my best to convince myself that this plump little Korean guy jumping about on a stage, flailing his arms energetically and barking loudly in gibberish (Korean), really was the Messiah, here to save the world and populate the planet with little Blessed Children. Fortunately, this phase was usually fleeting, and then I was back to my familiar miserable, cynical self. Ironically, I strongly believe today that had I been a Blessed Child, this strategy (deciding that I was surrounded by a group of gibbering morons) would have been very difficult to adopt. This is because Blessed Children had, for the most part, been told all their lives how very special, important, and unique they were, sort of like Holy Super Kids. The whole world depended on them, and if there is still widespread misery and suffering today, it is because they haven’t taken their role and mission seriously enough (what a burden, poor kids). Basically, my guess is that it is much harder to disregard and block out positive affirmations that build self-esteem and make one feel like a Very Important Person than it is to ignore a Belief System that ultimately makes one feel like a little piece of poop. In other words, I think I was blessed to have been unblessed (life is funny that way).

Another factor worth mentioning here is that many of the Blessed Children, in addition to being conveniently Blessed to one another, later became very economically dependent on the church, which mediated and sponsored both jobs and higher education, making it hard for a recipient to break free on any level, even if one did start developing a mind of one’s own. Put slightly differently, where subtle and sophisticated mind-controlling techniques fail, hard economic facts still tend to win out in the end (I, of course, was never worth sponsoring and have had to make do with a combination of student loans and welfare, sigh). Finally, I do believe that all that moving about during my early years, and the fact that I never really managed to “bond” successfully with my mother, made it much easier for me to break out later on. Filial piety (playing the role of obedient and devoted daughter) just didn’t seem to be in my nature; and as for my father, he drifted out when I was 12 and later helped me do the same.

I have often wondered why it was so easy for me to turn my back on my True Family, and (almost) never look back. I left to live with my father in California when I was 14 (although mentally I was long gone way before then). About two years later, I decided to re-join, and become a missionary myself in France (the Outside World was too much for me at such a vulnerable age, and I had to escape before it gobbled me up—“from the frying pan into the fire,” as they say). Being a missionary in France was probably the most serious attempt I made at “buying it” my whole life. Growing up in the Moonies was due to unfortunate circumstances way beyond my control, but becoming a missionary at the age of 16 was a desperate and conscious choice. It was, in many ways, a matter of survival, at least existentially. The loneliness and emptiness I felt in the Outside World at the age of 14 was so intense that I’m really quite surprised I emerged from it all as relatively unscathed as I did (my mother was almost certainly paying holy instalments to my sacred life insurance more than ever at that point).

The best illustration I can think of to illustrate this feeling is that of a small animal, locked up in a cage most of its life, and then suddenly set free to manage as best as it can in the jungle. Or, as another cult kid I read about in a Norwegian newspaper described it, being raised in a sect is like growing up in a spaceship, protected and confined, and then one day leaping out into space. Compared to the chaos, the overwhelming freedom and the incredible loneliness I encountered out in the big cruel world, being an Unblessed Child in the Moonies seemed like peanuts. After all, here at least I was part of something, even if it was the lesser part of an otherwise perfect family. Orbiting the Outside World, having cut all ties linking me to the Mother Moonie Spaceship, I felt utterly and completely alone. Therefore, I quit high school and set off to become a missionary and sell flowers (more out of necessity than conviction). A stranger in yet another strange land, but, as fate would have it that was probably one of my wisest and most courageous decisions. Sunny California would have been the death of me, and even though I ended up staying in France only for a year (after which I fell in love with a young Norwegian and moved to Norway), I knew instinctively that I had to get away, no matter where, no matter how.

The Moonies (or whatever they call themselves today) are not the Ku Klux Klan, as one of my childhood friends has already pointed out in a previous article. They do have some positive values, and they do mean well (yes, I know, the road to hell is paved with good intentions). On the whole, my experiences have taught me a lot about society, human nature, and this very bizarre and sometimes unpleasant state called life. The feeling of being a misfit, a social freak, doomed to dwell forever on the outside looking in, still haunts me wherever I go. However, I do have a new “family,” I have my friends, and I have my son (and I can rest assured knowing that when it comes to child rearing, I certainly know what NOT to do). I also have my sense of humor to chase away any new devils (traumas and tragedies) that might happen to fly my way. I have noticed that fanaticism (in its many forms and guises) and humor are unhappy bedfellows; they just don’t mix very well. So for those of you who find this article somewhat offensive in any way, my sincere apologies; but when it comes down to a conflict between preserving other peoples’ Belief System and my own mental health, I tend to get a little selfish.

In many respects, I suppose that growing up the way I have has made me stronger and wiser. But I certainly didn’t choose the easy way out, and sometimes I can’t help but wonder if things might have been less problematic if I’d just stayed on the inside, content with looking out. But then, I seem to attract adversity; and besides, I was never really on the inside, just like I’ll never really be on the outside. You’ll find me floating in those fuzzy grey zones in between.

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This material was originally prepared for a presentation at the AFF [now known as ICSA] annual conference, June 14-15, 2002, at the Crowne Plaza Hotel, Orlando (FL) Airport.

It was published in Cultic Studies Review, 2(1), 2003, 1-8

http://www.icsahome.com/articles/on-the-outside-looking-in-growing-up-in-the-moonies

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Flore Singer Aaslid was born 12 October 1972 in Rosenheim, Germany. She was raised as a “non-blessed” child [a “Jacob child”] in the Unification Church and grew up in Germany, England, USA, France, and Norway, respectively.

She was about 8 when her mother was ‘blessed’ to her father at a Unification Church mass wedding at Madison Square Gardens in 1982.

Currently, she is a social anthropologist based in Trondheim, Norway, where she lives with her son.

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Wise Mind – A Case for the Integration of Subjective Experience with Objective Reality in the Age of Fragmentation written by Flore Singer Aaslid

Introducing ‘Ethnography and Self-Exploration’ — Sjaak van der Geest, Trudie Gerrits, Flore Singer Aaslid

Marginal groups, marginal minds Reflections on ethnographic drug research and other traumatic experiences by Flore Singer Aaslid

Flore Singer Aaslid Thesis: Facing the Dragon: Exploring a conscious phenomenology of intoxication

Flore Singer Aaslid Book: Facing the Dragon: Exploring a conscious phenomenology of intoxication Paperback – 23 Feb 2010

Do you see it? Adam and Eve were husband and wife before the Fall, not brother and sister.

In the 1952 Divine Principle, Jesus was married.

Sun Myung Moon’s explanation of the Fall of Man is based on his Confucian ideas of lineage, and his belief in shaman sex rituals.

Hooked on the “true lineage” rhetoric

Sun Myung Moon’s theology used to control members

Sun Myung Moon: The Emperor of the Universe

Writings of former FFWPU members Many recount their experiences in the organization or their journeys out of it

Ashamed to be Korean

#Flore Singer Aaslid #Sun Myung Moon #trauma #Unification Church #Family Federation for World Peace and Unification #Divine Principle

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epistolizer · 3 years

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Dogmatic Pluralism Results In Operational Intolerance

An old adage contends that it is all fun and games until someone loses an eye. Something quite similar could be said regarding living by the “live and let live” philosophy espoused by many early twenty-first century relativists thinking they are too cool and hip to be stifled by any one religious creed.

In a letter to the editor regarding an 4/27/2010 USA Today article analyzing the tendency of young adults not to be devoted to a particular faith, a respondent observed this trend is the result of being more educated than previous generations and “exposed to the realities of life in the twenty-first century.”

But rather than thinking for themselves, what may be taking place among the youth such as the letter's author is their indoctrination or brainwashing by those educators the young are spending record time around.

The correspondents on this topic claim to applaud and embrace an iconoclastic eclecticism. But in reality such souls do little more than parrot the notions expounded upon and bandied about the typical college lecture hall.

The author writes, “Who seriously believes that an infinite God, who created the vast complexities of the cosmos, can be understood by finite humanity, let alone be reduced to a statement of faith that's subject to the limits of human understanding?”

Some of humanity's greatest minds actually. It's actually a concept not all that difficult to get one's mind around.

The assumption that finite man cannot fully comprehend an infinite God is (to use a much maligned term) absolutely correct. Isaiah 55:8-9 says God's thoughts are not our thoughts.

However, though we cannot fully know God, it does not follow that God cannot fully know man. Since the infinite is beyond the finite, it is not beyond the realm of the possible for the infinite to reveal of itself what it knows the finite is capable of comprehending of that which is beyond our meager understanding.

In the New Testament, God's only Begotten Son Jesus Christ took on human form by being born of a virgin so that He might dwell among us, die upon a cross for our sins, and rise from the dead so that we might have eternal life if we admit that we are sinners and accept His free gift of forgiveness and salvation. In essence, God condescended to our level so that we might know Him.

When asked why evolution caught on as a theory of origins among the intelligentsia, a popular anecdote posits that Julian Huxley responded that Darwinism supported the sexual morays of that particular social class. Thus, all the grandiose proclamations against the dogmatism of the Almighty and the seeming existential nobility of the libertines ends up being a cover to sleep with whomever you want with the hopes of no regret the next morning.

One of the letters to the editor reads, “Beyond that is the nasty habit of many Christian fundamentalists to deny basic human rights to those who don't agree with them theologically.”

And what “basic human rights” might those be? Just about nowhere in the United States are “fundamentalist” Christians denying anyone the traditional rights such as freedoms of speech, creed or property where an ACLU media whore is not before a network news camera within a hour of such an alleged transgression transpiring.

When articulated by a progressive, the phrase “Fundamentalist Christians denying basic human rights” is actually a euphemism for daring to stand in disagreement of the trend towards sodomite matrimony or refusing to enforce preferences for certain groups simply because they are favored minorities. If anything, Christian “fundamentalists” are the ones having their “basic rights” curtailed and infringed upon here at home in America and most certainly around the world.

One cannot name a single regime around the world today where the rulers hold to an explicit traditionalist Christianity that abuses its power by persecuting its population. If anything, Christians unwilling to give up and compromise these truths that they hold dear by refusing to participate in the rejection of moral absolutes are more likely to be the ones persecuted (ironically by the ones that whine the loudest about the church's curtailment of postmodernist understandings of human liberation.

For examples, secularists and radical ecumenicalists applauded the decision on the part of the Department of Defense to disinvite Franklin Graham to the Pentagon's commemoration of the National Day of Prayer over his comments that Islam is an evil and wicked religion as evidenced by the 9/11 attacks and the treatment of woman in lands where that creed prevails.

For you see. Franklin Graham made the mistake of concluding that the First Amendment is something to live by rather than a abstraction to talk about in vague generalities. As Chesterton is credited with saying, the problem with the freedom of religion is that people end up discussing everything but religion.

It is of this fear of appearing impolite and offensively stepping on someone's toes in a manner that delicate psyches will never recover from that our society has come to such a screeching halt that it can become an act of considerable courage to simply state the obvious. And this is something the enemies of this great nation have learned readily.

For example, Eboo Patel, founder of the Interfaith Youth Core, in a 5/10/10 USA Today column titled “Graham's Anti-Mulsim Jabs Hurt Islam and America” applauded CAIR's public statement emphasizing the American value of “differing faiths united in shared support of our nation's founding principles” rather than the “message of intolerance that Graham advocates.”

But while CAIR puts forward a public face espousing tolerance and cooperation, the groups and individuals the organization supports behind the scenes advocate something else entirely. For example, CAIR has supported Islamic extremists such as Hamas who not only advocate a form of religious exclusiveness that goes far beyond anything advocated by Franklin Graham but also endorse violence against those with whom they disagree.

An old country song admonishes that you've got to stand for something or you'll fall for anything. Should Americans continue down the path imposed by cultural agnosticism, the result will not be a relaxed, easygoing paradise. Rather, the result will be the establishment of a sociopolitical milieu where the deceptive will manipulate the weak to undermine the liberty of all Americans.

By Frederick Meekins

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lovehaswonangelnumbers · 5 years

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Archangel Metatron ~ Embracing Change & the Requisite Release of Fear

Archangel Metatron ~ Embracing Change & the Requisite Release of Fear,

Heart and Mind Commentary

FCGCT Commentary: We are moving from the mind, to the Heart... not the balancing of the two. The mind conflicts with the Heart, and is the cause for imbalance, pain, fear, suffering and more. It is the Heart and Brain which work in harmony together. The mind... the ego, blocks the Heart, as it Edges God Out. It is the Heart and Brain which work in harmony to allow Balanced Harmonics, your Divine Blueprint. Let go of the mind, and solely flow from the Heart, connected to the Unified Heart in Unity Consciousness.

Archangel Metatron ~ Embracing Change & the Requisite Release of Fear

Archangel Metatron via James Tyberonn

Greetings! I am Metatron, Lord of Light! I am joined by Tyberonn of Crystalline Service, and we embrace each of you in coherent divine light, in unconditional love. Dear Hearts, in this session, we devote our energies to address an important & timely topic. A subject important for humanity at this time….the toxicity of fear & hate. And we offer our knowledge in love, for you are in a time in which conflict is easily amplified. Please consider our words…but as we share our message, it is for you as sovereign beings to accept these words if they resonate with you, or to reject them if they do not. For your discernment is ever required for reception any such message, from any source, including this one, for you are Masters in the making. Masters, as 2019 dawns, so then another precious, timeless moment brings us together, uniting thoughts within the divine matrix of the unified field. Combining geometric thought patterns with desire, with awareness & vital life force. And so do all things come together in this way. For all thoughts, all experiences, all life are crysto-electromagnetic representations of consciousness, of manifestation, of all that ever was or ever will be. Dear Humans, as 2019 enters, let us remind all of you of the importance of this time of change.You waited in line, metaphorically speaking, to be here at this juncture, to be a part of the Ascension. You prepared for this in many lifetimes, for you knew well in advance that this key phase of humanity’s earthen evolution would be both magnificent and challenging. Indeed, there are certain reincarnational sojourns that carry more light, carry more opportunity, and although this is a time of rather precarious intensities, it is also an extraordinary period, an opportune sojourn, of key import, which offers an astonishing prospect for soul- growth, indeed a quantum leap in consciousness. In the new energy you may expand your perceptions, your beliefs and indeed your priorities. It is a time of great to greater light, and thus lessening shadow. It is time to embrace the challenge, to embrace the opportunity. For the years that are rapidly approaching offer yet another refinement of light, and indeed contains multiple phases of crystalline light-code influx. Full-Tilt Polarity Continuing in 2019, the remaining shadows of unknowing, will slowly, gradually be replaced by streams of Truth. As you progress, all manner of myth, darkness and ignorance will continue to surface for dissolution…to erode, slowly, piece by piece, bit by bit. Your true origins, your true history & nature is slowly being made available to you, in small digestible bites. Change is ever the nature of reality, and major change is happening. Indeed planetary transformation from the old energy to the new, is at full tilt in the present. The Omni-Earth upshift is now in an erratic mélange, a chaotic fervor ….and this can at times be quite overwhelming, disorienting...and frightening. In the next 2 decades, the divinity of the seekers, of the Earth-Keepers, Lightworkers must learn to overcome the obstacles and project light, as the pendulum of duality’s extreme ‘Arc-Swing‘ gradually lessens. As we have told you in numerous channels, that in the present time, duality’s polarity-span is extreme. For in the present, for the next 7 years the excessive divisiveness will actually increase, until Uranus comes into play in 2026….then leading faithfully to the Quantum-Leap, the Return of Light in 2038. In the interim the masses of humanity will at times experience conflict & crisis from the ongoing extremities of polarity… constantly pushing, pulling & stretching your energy fields. This rather turbulent ubiquitous phase of linear time between 2019 and 2026 is fraught with acute energies of disharmony & imbalance. Fear, anxiety and anger will be rampant in this piercing frenzied phase of Crucible Astrology … all unresolved energies are percolating to the surface. As an important note, we will tell you that the extreme polarity and divisiveness ongoing in the political area, particularly in the United States, UK & Europe, has a tangent field of negativity, of violence….even undertones of hatred. This zealous attachment aspect, if dogmatically skewed & influentially misdirected. Beware the wolf in sheep’s clothing! Negativity can be disguised as righteous in the arenas of religion & politics. Especially in this imbalanced phase of transition it can be both deceptive, subtle & quite overwhelming. Indeed, the collated thought-form of this energy can be detrimentally erratic in the present astrological gravities. And we tell you, this will remain so for 7 more years until 2026. The energy can be quite draining. You must avoid the fear! Fear can open the door to hatred! A human never hates anything or anyone that he or she believes to be worthy or meritorious. One who hates thinks they are being ‘right’, justified. … but the hatred itself forms a very strong malignant attachment to the 'hater'. Hatred becomes a living 'negative thought form' which stakes an energetic claim to the hater … and will follow the ‘hater’ life time after lifetime…until one eventually learns that hatred itself is the real enemy, the bastard of fear, the great destroyer….Fear ! The Choice of Focus Remember what you concentrate upon, you draw to yourself, what you dwell upon you manifest into reality. ...and we emphasize this point, for it is a great truth that few choose to live by. When you focus on deep negativity, deep fear, deep hatred your vibration immediately changes, and your Auric Field will shatter like broken glass. When you dwell on negativity toxic enzymes are fed into your bloodstream. These are 'poisons' that are degenerative to the nervous system, immune system, vital organs and glandular systems of your body. These result in mental and emotional imbalances that fuel toxic anger and an acceleration of negative experience by impairing ones judgment. Left unchecked, your energy will become quite repulsive to others, such that former friends will no longer choose to be in your presence. And masters, in this time of gravitational low cycle, and extreme energy shift, fear can easily attach. . Negativity: Fear & Hate Vibrationally speaking, fear and hate are the same frequency. Fear is toxic, indeed Masters, the primary reason individuals fail to achieve their soul-contract & sojourn purposes, is fear not recognizing ,confronting and resolving ingrained patterns of fear. Fear is the driver of hate. Fear is the base of all negativity. Fear hijacks your abilities and holds them hostage, disguising its crime with various rationalizations assembled with half-truths. In terms of the auric field, hate and fear are the primary disruptive forces that create auric imbalance and energetic toxicity. When your auric field is open, the destructive vibration of negativity can mal-effect you in myriad ways. At its base, the core vibration of hate is fear, but the nuances, causes and mechanisms of hatred are not always as apparent to you. And so in this discourse we will speak on the far reaching effects of hatred. We would define our use of the word hate to mean a deep hardening of the heart in which one stoically and adamantly refuses to see any light any Divinity in the other and becomes obsessed with deep destructive emotions. Hate is earmarked by dwelling upon hateful feelings toward the other with no consideration of forgiveness or rectification. Hatred is widespread in duality. Your bible speaks of the Cristos, Jesua ben Josef as having been tortured and crucified, and yet asking for those that committed the execution to be 'forgiven for they know not what they do.' Your religious texts also speak of 'An eye for an eye'. There is a saying most of you are familiar with that speaks of 'forgiven but not forgotten. So there is a widespread gamut of approaches to perceived injustice, some that would indicate that retribution is befitting vindication. Knowledge Not Utilized Masters, by the Law of Grace, you are more able to receive merciful rectification for transgressions that are committed in ignorance than for actions you know to be harmful. Did not Jesua ben Josef say ‘Forgive them for they know not what they do”? And so ‘sin’ in your biblical terms is the commission of an act you know to be wrong. Your Edgar Cayce beautifully defined 'sin' as 'Knowledge not utilized'. We ask you to add to your knowledge the fact that hatred is wrong in any circumstance….and act accordingly. So what we tell you is that hatred is mutually destructive, but even more devastating to the one that hates than to the one that is hated. Although in most situations both parties of an egregious hatred hostility spiral downward to become equal generators and thus victims of hate. Dear Ones, it is an absolute Truth that there is no human who hates but that hatred is reflected outward and made physical, and in-kind there is no human who loves but that love is projected outward and made physical. The energy involved in the emotion of hate is much more destructive and far reaching than many of you realize. Its effects are akin to a growing malignancy, because hate is in fact quite toxic to body, mind and spirit. Hate and fear are the same resonance, and both, if focally dwelt upon, will absolutely weaken the body, distort the mind and open your field into 'dis-ease'. So in this channel, we are emphasizing the issue of negativity because it is essential that you be clear that by dwelling upon destructive forces you draw more negativity to you. And as such not only months and years can be tainted; entire lifetimes can be unnecessarily wasted. No soul ever incarnates with a plan to include hatred. Yet hatred will draw you to those whom you hate in order to resolve the conflict. For hatred will follow you year by year, lifetime after lifetime until you eventually learn that it is hate itself that is the enemy. Laws and Balance There are Laws pertaining to growth in duality. The Law of Attraction and Law of Belief are spawned and shaped by the Law of Cause and Effect. Cause and Effect is an absolute truth of duality. It is not malleable, forgiven only in grace and oft experienced in what you may term as the school of 'hard-knocks' but is quite unbending whether in the 'hidden' corridors of mind or in the external visible planes of 3d. Thoughts are things. And where you dwell in thought, you will soon experience. Period ! You will draw to yourself that which you fear, and that which you hate. Hatred will attach you to those whom you hate with absolute certainty until the hatred eventually evolves into love. The one you hate in the present may well be your parent, child, sibling or colleague in the next sojourn. Those who act unjustly to another often come back to balance the soul. Karma is not a debt, rather the seeking of balance....a 'righting' of the Self. Your civil rights movement in the United States contained many former slave owners. Your Native American reservations contain many reincarnated gold miners. That is why so many casinos are on Native land, gold miners attempting to bring back the gold they took away....and to experience the situation their greed created, which cannot be restored. All sojourning souls seek to retain, or re-gain harmonic balance. You must understand that no soul is ever without retribution for misactions in the purposed illusion and dramatic lessoning of the Earth. No soul is eternally condemned, no soul is left behind, no matter how heinous the act. Rectification is available to every soul. Such is the grace of that you term God. All of you will at one juncture or another make grave misactions in your sojourns, and the path allows for all to right that was wrong in the manner that allows them to understand the error. When deep malice and despicable acts of hatred are involved the facing, analytical understanding and balancing process for rectification and balance is of course much more complex, depending on the individual. We tell you again, all injustice, all that you term sin, is against the Self, in higher aspect. Hatred, greed, injustice, every whit will be met and faced....not as punishment but in individual soul balance. Some in realization and Law of Grace, others in actualization, ever chosen by the SELF. But no soul is beyond forgiveness, just as each soul must forgive those that trespass against them. When you hate those that offend, you become ingrained with the very energy that attacked. All in duality will experience both the creative benevolent force of the positive aspect, and the destructive force of negativity. How you react in negative situations will determine to no small degree how you move forward. It is an interesting truth that the self-righteous find it easier to forgive someone for being wrong, than to acknowledge someone who is right. We say again, and please note…a human never hates anything or anyone that he or she believes to be worthy or meritorious. One who hates thinks they are being ‘right’, justified. … but the hatred itself forms a very strong malignant attachment to the 'hater'. Hatred becomes a living 'negative thought form' which stakes an energetic claim to the hater … and will follow the ‘hater’ life time after lifetime…until one eventually learns that hatred itself is the real enemy, the bastard of fear, the great destroyer….Fear ! Closing: A soul does not achieve Wisdom & Mastery by chance. Rather is Mastery achieved by continued discipline and effort in 'right thinking followed by right action. Radical zealotry, self-aggrandizement and self-righteousness are also imbalances that distort ones thinking...and open one to the down spiral of hatred in the disguise of false justification. Persons who hate will always believe themselves to be fully justified, and do not consider themselves as erroneous in that feeling. The hatred is hidden behind a skewed sense of misaligned reasoning of right. And again, the core of all hate, all destructivity…is Fear. Fear is the great destroyer. In closing we say again…Fear & hatred will follow you year by year, lifetime after lifetime until you eventually learn that it is Fear & Hate, that opposes love…Fear itself is the enemy. I am Metatron, Angelic of Light, with Tyberonn of Crystalline Service….and we share with you these Truths. You are ever beloved. And so it Is…And it is So...

*****

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pamphletstoinspire · 7 years

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Catholic Philosophy - Part 3 - General Articles - Omnipotence

"With God all things are possible"—Matthew 3:9

Catholic Dogma: God is almighty (De Fide)

If we grant the theists victory of the philosophical question "Does God exist?" we inevitably come to the question, "Does the Christian God exist?" This seems a valid question. For if the ontological proof is truly correct, then it implies that some being "which nothing greater can be conceived of" truly exists. A skeptic will ask what these "great-making" qualities are that make God the being "which nothing greater can be conceived". In answer to this, Catholic Christians posit a handful of divine properties that make God "great". The following list of properties are attributed to God by Catholic dogma:

Omnipotent

Omniscient

Omni-benevolent

Impassable

Infinitely Just

Infinitely Merciful

Eternal

Knowable by Nature

Omni-present

Absolutely Perfect

Absolute Immutability

The First Efficient Cause

If we are to answer the question, "Does the Christian God exist?" we must analyze the properties attributed to God and see if they are at least philosophically sound. In this first essay on God’s qualities I wish to consider God’s omnipotence (God’s power) and some of the difficulties with the idea of God’s omnipotence.

There are two major difficulties with an all-powerful being. The first problem has to do with the extent of God’s power. Does omnipotence allow God to redefine logic or break the laws of logic? Does God’s omnipotence mean that he is capable of sin? The second major difficulty is the apparent conflict between God’s power and his omni-benevolence. Namely, if an all-good, all-powerful God exists, why does evil exist in the world he created? These questions are real problems for Christianity, and I wish to address each of them carefully.

The reader should also be aware, that many of the problems with God’s omnipotence proceed from conflicts with his other "great-making" qualities. One possible solution to some of these conflicts is to abandon one of the properties which conflict. Another possible solution is to abandon Christianity entirely. As a devoted Catholic, I will not consider these "solutions" as valid alternatives. Indeed, I believe that most of these conflicts can be overcome or neutralized with some thought and a careful definition of the qualities of God. The definitions I will expound are Catholic definitions; in essence I will not address ad hominen arguments against non-Catholic doctrines. Instead, the following paper is a defense of the Catholic Faith from skeptics and not a general defense of the myriad of non-Catholic Christian doctrines. With this in mind I will proceed to analyze the first skeptical argument against God’s omnipotence.

Problem 1: The problem of the scope of God’s omnipotence

An Initial Definition of Omnipotence: God can do anything

The following question is often posed by skeptics of Christianity to bring about a conflict with the idea of omnipotence. The question often posed is, "Can God create a rock so heavy he can’t lift it?" This question creates a dilemma in our initial definition of omnipotence. For if God can do anything then that means he must be able to create a rock he can’t lift (even if it’s infinitely heavy). Yet, if this were true then he would not be able to lift the rock; so we must conclude that God is not omnipotent. I think the argument can be broken down in the following manner

Def. Omnipotence means a person X can do anything.

P1. Person X can make an object heavier and heavier by way of omnipotent power.

P2. Because Person X is omnipotent, X should be able to make a rock so heavy X can’t lift it.

P3. If Person X does not have the power to lift the rock this conflicts with omnipotence

C1. Person X is not omnipotent

I think this is not a valid argument against God’s omnipotence because P2 does not make logical sense. The reason P2 is not logical, is that P2 basically says:

Suppose a Person X exists and is purportedly omnipotent

Omnipotent beings must be able to do A (create rocks)

Omnipotent beings must be able to do B (lift rocks)

X must be able to do A such that B is not possible otherwise X is not omnipotent.

Do you see the logical conflict here? Our skeptical argument asserts that God must be able to do A and B or he is not omnipotent (which makes logical sense) AND God must be able to do A in such a way that B is not possible or God is not omnipotent. The argument sets God’s omnipotence up to fail by stating that in order to be omnipotent he must be able to do three things:

X must do A

X must do B

X must do A such that B is not possible

There is no logical way God can "do B" and "not do B" at the same time! I suppose we must conclude that there is one limit on God’s power: logic. Yet, is that really a limit? Does the skeptic truly suppose that an illogical God is more powerful than a logical God? I don’t believe so, and if the reader disagrees than re-read the above argument. The implication is that an illogical God either doesn’t exist (by the stone-lifting example) or can’t be discussed at all. For if God transcends logic, then we have absolutely no way of knowing or discussing him. Logic is the only mode by which we can make sense of the world in a rational manner. How can we even conceive of a being whose very nature is based on illogic? I submit that only a logical God is part of Catholic dogma. In fact, I will now give the reader the proper definition of omnipotence as defined by the first Vatican council:

Dogmatic Def: God is almighty (De Fide)

Def. of almighty: God has the power to execute all that He may wish, that is all that is real and possible. God’s power is identical with God’s essence

Dogmatic Def: The Divine Attributes are really identical among themselves and with the Divine Essence (De Fide)

These two definitions proceed from the absolute simplicity of the divine Essence. The essence of God is his nature. The nature of God is defined as that which he is capable of. For example, for us humans our human nature is from what we derive all of our powers (be they cognitive, physical, emotional and psychological). Therefore our nature defines "what" we are while our person defines "who" we are. Since the cosmological argument for the existence of God concludes that God is in pure actuality it follows that he is entirely simple. The fact that he is simple also demands that the nature of God (his essence) is entirely simple. In this way, the divine attributes (omnipotence, omniscience, omni-benevolence, etc.) are really one and the same due to the simplicity of the divine Nature. Here is an explicit summary of my argument that all the divine attributes are really identical among themselves and with the divine essence:

P1. The cosmological argument proves the existence of a completely actualized God.

By the term "actualized God" we mean that God has no potentiality, only actuality. In this sense, God cannot change.

C1. A being of total actuality is entirely simple because of his unchanging nature.

P3. By entirely simple we mean that God’s nature is entirely simple.

P4. If the nature of God is entirely simple, then all the divine attributes (omnipotence, omniscience, etc.) which describe his nature are entirely simple.

P5. The divine attributes of God’s nature can only be entirely simple if the divine attributes are really identical among themselves and with the Divine Essence.

C2. The divine attributes are really identical among themselves and with the Divine Essence.

The reader may ask why I have gone through such pains to prove that God’s attributes are one and the same. The reason I have done so is because I wish to justify a redefinition of God’s omnipotence. Catholics believe that God’s power is subject to logic, and I believe that I have justified this premise already. However, there is another "constraint" on God’s power which I have not yet named. This constraint becomes clear when we ask the question "Can God sin?" This is a very interesting question because if we say that God is absolutely incapable of sinning then this means that there is something God cannot do. Therefore, it follows that he is not omnipotent. For example, I have the power to steal a candy from a baby. This action would be a sin, yet it is within my power to do so. If we say God cannot possibly sin, then God would not have the power to steal the candy from the baby, thus we can’t say that God is omnipotent. It is logically possible for God to steal the candy, yet if God can’t sin then he is incapable of doing a logical possibility. One solution to this problem is to admit that God CAN sin, it’s just that he refrains from doing so. Unfortunately, if we accept this solution then that means that it is conceptually possible that God could stop refraining from sinning and start sinning whenever he wants. Could you imagine a "God" who stopped refraining from sinning and started raping, pillaging and destroying randomly? Certainly this is not the Christian God! I submit that we have no reason to accept this alternative as true. In fact, it is my belief that God’s omni-benevolence (God’s all-goodness) prevents him from sinning. In this sense, God’s omni-benevolence is another "restriction" on God’s power. Now the skeptic may argue that it is ridiculous to keep redefining God’s omnipotence to suit the Christian position. In response, I offer the following argument:

P1: The divine attributes are really identical among themselves and with the Divine Essence.

P2: Both omnipotence and omni-benevolence are divine attributes

C1: By premise 1, it follows that omnipotence and omni-benevolence are really identical among themselves and with the Divine Essence.

I have already proved that premise 1 is true previously in this paper. Additionally, premise 2 is true because these are definitional properties of the Christian God. Thus, the above argument is both logical and sound. So what is the consequence of the above argument? The above argument shows that omnipotence and omni-benevolence are not conflicting qualities in God’s nature. Instead, these properties are our human way of understanding the infinite nature of God. We can’t grasp the infinite nature of God with our finite intellects, so we must resort to assigning properties such as "power" and "goodness" to God’s nature. Thus we are justified in redefining God’s omnipotence as:

Def : God can do anything logically possible which does not conflict with his nature.

One final comment on the scope of God’s omnipotence: a skeptic might suggest that if the above definition is true then that still means that a human can steal candy from a baby but God cannot. Does this suggest that we have the power to do something that is impossible for God? Yes, in a sense this is true. We have one power that God does not: we can sin. For what is sin? Sin is a direct violation of the Divine Will of God, which is always unified with his omni-benevolence. Since God’s power is identical with his love, and his Will proceeds from his Nature then it is logically impossible for God to violate his own perfect Will of goodness. In this sense, it is logically impossible for God to violate his own divine Will. This does not mean that God is helpless to the whim of an infant (as the example seems to assert), only that God’s very Nature is of such an essence that power and goodness are joined together in such a way that Evil can never proceed from it.

Problem 2: The problem of Evil

Now if evil cannot proceed from the combined qualities of omnipotence and omni-benevolence we seem to be in a real dilemma. Namely, how can an all-good and all-powerful God allow evil to exist in the world? This problem is called the problem of evil; and it is a very real problem for Catholic Christians. The classical atheist argument against the existence of God goes something like this:

P1. Evil exists in the world

P2. God is all-good and all-powerful and all-knowing

P3. An all-good, all-powerful, all-knowing God should only create a world of total goodness

C1. Yet P1 conflicts with P3 so we must conclude that an all-good, all-knowing, all-powerful God does not exist.

One way out of the problem is to deny premise 1. A few philosophers have actually done this (I think the Buddhists probably see reality in this manner), but this view does that seem to be that of orthodox Christianity. Not only does it seem obvious that evil exists (a posteriori), but it is a defined dogma of the Church that evil exists in our world as the direct result of the devil. Thus a rejection of premise 1 seems out of the question.

A second way to solve the problem is to deny premise 2. One could accept that God is not all-good or all-powerful or all-knowing. For example, a God which is not all-good is not bound by his nature to create only good; he could create both good and evil. In a sense, if a Catholic were to take this position then he has already granted victory to the atheist. A Catholic must remember that it is an article of faith that God is all-good. In a similar manner, a Catholic cannot abandon the definition of God’s power and knowledge. Therefore, a Catholic defender of the belief in God cannot reject premise 2.

A third way the proof can be defeated is to deny premise 3 or show that the conclusion does not follow from the premises. St. Augustine gives the traditional response to the problem of evil:

"Since God is the highest good, He would not allow any evil to exist in His works, unless His omnipotence and goodness were such as to bring good even out of evil."

I think Augustine would agree that God allows evil to exist so that the highest form of good can exist. Now we come to the inevitable question, "what is this highest form of good which God can draw exclusively from evil?" Essentially, everything that comes from God flows from his omni-benevolent nature. I think it is possible to reconcile evil with the omni-benevolent nature only if we define evil and treat each definition separately.

Definition of evil:

Moral Evil—That which contrasts with God’s love and the principles of his nature

Physical Evil—Pain, the privation of goodness (deformities, starvation, etc.)

Evil in Nature—The effects of nature on Man (hurricanes, floods, disease, etc.)

The Evil of Death—The loss of life and the psychological aspects of death (fear, grief of lost loved ones)

If it can be shown that God draws a greater good from these evils, or that these evils do not conflict with the divine benevolence, then we can successfully show that the conclusion of the problem of evil does not follow from the premises.

Moral evil seems to proceed from the will of each person. This form of evil is committed in its simplest form when an individual makes a choice between two moral options, one of them good and the other evil. As Augustine noted, moral evil is a necessary consequence of the gift of free will. Free will is a part of the nature of man which allows him to choose either to accept the Creator or to reject the Creator. It should be noted that not all of God’s creations are endowed with free will (such as stones, plants or perhaps even animals who are slaves to instinct). However, all men are endowed with free-will; this knowledge seems to be known a posteriori. If we grant that men have free will as part of their nature it becomes immediately obvious that free will allows men to freely choose between good and evil. Thus the possibility of man succumbing to evil is a consequence of free-will. This explanation of how evil exists in God’s creation is called the free-will theodicy. The free-will theodicy successfully explains how evil can enter the creation of an all-good, all-knowing, all-powerful God. Evil is accounted for by the free choices of creatures. God permits free-will because he deems it a greater good to create creatures of will than to eliminate all possibility of evil.

The other three evils (physical, nature and death) seem to be unanswerable with the free-will theodicy. However, Christian doctrine does tie the existence of death and natural evil to the choice of a man; namely Adam, the first member of the human race. In attempting to answer this problem, St. Augustine sought to understand the nature of evil. He realized that evil is not a tangible thing; in a way evil is not a reality like goodness. Augustine believed that evil was a privation of goodness; a lack of something that should be. This astounding statement helps us to understand the very nature of evil and how it can exist in creation.

In truth, Augustine realized that all things of the universe (even the devil) were originally created entirely pure and good. They were morally and physically good in the sense that God had endowed them with existence. The goodness of God ensures that everything created by God is entirely good. However, the free choice of the devil to refuse submission to the divine will lead to a corruption and a dissolution of the natural powers of Satan’s will. In a metaphysical sense, the will of Satan was corrupted by his choice to disobey God. This was the beginning and origin of all evil: for the choice of Satan lead to a corruption within the very will of Satan. It is important to realize that the source of evil is not God; the source comes from the fallen angel Satan. Because the very nature of angels is spiritual, the will is the primary mode of being for the angels. A corrupted angelic will would mean a fall from goodness (which is a positive reality created by God) into evil (which is a lack of goodness). Consequentially, the angelic nature of Satan ensured that he became entirely evil. There are two results of an "angelic fall" from good to evil. First, the initial corruption of the angelic will resulted in a permanent and indelible loss of goodness. Satan’s very nature was weakened and transformed into an intangible lack of goodness. For an angel, there is no repenting and turning back after sinning because of the catastrophic loss within it’s own nature. Secondly, Satan’s power was unaffected by the corruption of the will. His natural powers over matter and spiritual beings (such as the lesser choirs of angels) were not lost. Therefore, a fallen Cherub such as Satan would be a deadly and horrific foe. A fallen angel, unchecked, would destroy everything in existence (morally and physically) and would seek to create a vacuum of despair. It is only by the power of God and the higher angels, that Satan is kept from literally destroying the Universe.

We can now see the consequence of the fall of Satan: Satan constantly seeks to destroy all that is good. The powerful fallen angel, source of evil, is one explanation for the evil we see in nature. Yet, a final question remains: why doesn’t God stop the devil from spreading natural evil. We know God allows moral evil so that he can allow us to exist as creatures of free will, but why the natural evil? One solution is to recognize that justice demands retribution for evil. In this sense, the moral evils done by man are punished by natural evils. The human race is bound up as one family, and the evil done by one member merits punishment to all members. Therefore, the evil done by the first father and mother of the human race (Adam and Eve) merited punishment. Scripture attests to this fact:

And God said to Adam, "Because you have listened to the voice of your wife, and have eaten of the tree of which I commanded you, 'You shall not eat of it,' cursed is the ground because of you; in toil you shall eat of it all the days of your life; 18 thorns and thistles it shall bring forth to you; and you shall eat the plants of the field. 19 In the sweat of your face you shall eat bread till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; you are dust, and to dust you shall return" (Genesis 3:17-30).

Therefore it is likely that God permits the devil and his army of fallen angels to prey on man and on all material things. Certainly this is a hard and difficult fact, but St. Paul recognized that suffering had a redemptive value. He believed that if a person experiences the unavoidable suffering of life, they can the suffering to draw themselves closer to God. A person bereft of the joys of the world can either despair or avail themselves to the deeper joy in God.

Thus, the existence of evil in creation is not incompatible with an all-good and all-powerful God. Evil is not a tangible thing created by a good God; instead it is an intangible lack of goodness caused by the abuse of free will of Satan. Ultimately, the problem of evil loses its force because P1 (premise one of the proof against God’s existence) is false. Evil is not a tangible reality within the universe; therefore we acknowledge that God did create a perfect universe. However, the corruptions of the good universe entered it through the free choice of Satan. Thus, the loss of goodness within creation cannot be ultimately attributed to the work of God. We can be comforted with the knowledge that nothing can ultimately contest the power of God; eventually in the fullness of time, good will triumph over evil.

#catholic prophecy

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johnchiarello · 7 years

Text

Sunday sermon 9-3-17

SUNDAY SERMON [9-3-17]

Mark 8:34 And when he had called the people unto him with his disciples also, he said unto them, Whosoever will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me.Mark 8:35 For whosoever will save his life shall lose it; but whosoever shall lose his life for my sake and the gospel's, the same shall save it.

https://youtu.be/jEEmneNvK24 Sunday Sermon

https://ccoutreach87.files.wordpress.com/2017/09/9-3-17-sunday-sermon.zip

https://ccoutreach87.com/9-3-17-sunday-sermon/

https://youtu.be/9IbTl4tAJk8 Update

https://ccoutreach87.com/9-3-17-update/

ON VIDEO-

.Verses from the Mass- Church Unlimited and New Christian Harvest

.North Korea- Hydrogen bomb

.Samuel 1

.Hannah has a son- Samuel

.She keeps her promise- gives him to God

.Jeremiah- ‘God- you tricked me’!

.How?

.Prophets and their callings

.Compulsion to speak [In Hebrew]

.The good- and bad confession of saint Peter

.He denied the gospel

.Don’t lose your soul- in more ways than one

.Ephesians- God chose us

.May God open our eyes [Paul’s prayer]

.Bethany reads

.Jesus is the good Samaritan

.One from outside the law showed compassion

.Prayer for the hurricane victims

NEW- Today I spoke on the verses from the Mass- Church Unlimited- and New Christian Harvest.

I already taught on Samuel 1- and will post that below.

In Jeremiah we read-

Jeremiah 20:7 O LORD, thou hast deceived me, and I was deceived; thou art stronger than I, and hast prevailed: I am in derision daily, every one mocketh me.

Jeremiah 20:8 For since I spake, I cried out, I cried violence and spoil; because the word of the LORD was made a reproach unto me, and a derision, daily.

The prophet had received a divine calling from God- to speak his word.

The message was not easy- and like most of us- he figured he would simply call it quits.

But then he realized- he couldn’t!

Jeremiah 20:9 Then I said, I will not make mention of him, nor speak any more in his name. But his word was in mine heart as a burning fire shut up in my bones, and I was weary with forbearing, and I could not stay.

That's why he said ‘You God-have tricked me’!

The gifts and callings of God our without repentance- meaning- once your in- there is no way out.

Romans 11:29

For the gifts and calling of God are without repentance.

In Matthew we see the rebuke of Peter by Jesus-

Matthew 16:21 From that time forth began Jesus to shew unto his disciples, how that he must go unto Jerusalem, and suffer many things of the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and be raised again the third day.

Matthew 16:22 Then Peter took him, and began to rebuke him, saying, Be it far from thee, Lord: this shall not be unto thee.

Matthew 16:23 But he turned, and said unto Peter, Get thee behind me, Satan: thou art an offence unto me: for thou savourest not the things that be of God, but those that be of men.

Peter was seeing the movement [of Jesus] as a great ministry- I mean he just told Peter he was the rock [His confession actually].

And yet now- because he is thinking in human terms- he is used by satan himself to tempt Jesus not to go thru with the mission.

The mission of the Cross that is.

Jesus warns his men the Cross- the death itself- is Indeed the key aspect of fulfilling your calling in God-

Matthew 16:24 Then said Jesus unto his disciples, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me.

After all- what good is it if you accomplish all the earthly goals one could have- achieve all the desires of Hedonism- and in the end- you lose your soul?

Matthew 16:26 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?

And the verses from Ephesians speak of the great blessings we have- those who have died with Christ- and embraced the Cross-

Ephesians 1:17 That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him:

Ephesians 1:18 The eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that ye may know what is the hope of his calling, and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints,

Ephesians 1:19 And what is the exceeding greatness of his power to us-ward who believe, according to the working of his mighty power,

We now have this great power of God working thru us as well- we have been raised together- with him-

Ephesians 2:4 But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us,

Ephesians 2:5 Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved;)

Ephesians 2:6 And hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus:

Pastor Bil spoke on the good Samaritan-

Luke 10:30 And Jesus answering said, A certain man went down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and fell among thieves, which stripped him of his raiment, and wounded him, and departed, leaving him half dead.

Luke 10:31 And by chance there came down a certain priest that way: and when he saw him, he passed by on the other side.

Luke 10:32 And likewise a Levite, when he was at the place, came and looked on him, and passed by on the other side.

Luke 10:33 But a certain Samaritan, as he journeyed, came where he was: and when he saw him, he had compassion on him,

Luke 10:34 And went to him, and bound up his wounds, pouring in oil and wine, and set him on his own beast, and brought him to an inn, and took care of him.

Luke 10:35 And on the morrow when he departed, he took out two pence, and gave them to the host, and said unto him, Take care of him; and whatsoever thou spendest more, when I come again, I will repay thee.

Jesus shows us that the Priest- and the law [Levi] could not save the man.

But one from outside the levitical priesthood did save the man-

New Living Translation What I mean is, our Lord came from the tribe of Judah, and Moses never mentioned priests coming from that tribe. Heb. 7:14

He not only paid the immediate debt- but also said ‘when I come back- I’ll pay any future debts incurred by the man’.

Yes- Jesus himself took our sins to the Cross- and as believers- if we fall along the way- he takes care of that debt as well-

John 1:9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

John 1:10 If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.

John 2:1 My little children, these things write I unto you, that ye sin not. And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous:

John 2:2 And he is the propitiation for our sins: and not for our's only, but also for the sins of the whole world.

In short- that's briefly what I talked about on today’s video-

I’ll add my past teaching below- and the verses at the end of the post-

God bless all-

John

PAST POSTS- [Past teaching I did that relates to this post- Sunday Sermon- 9-3-17]

https://ccoutreach87.wordpress.com/1st-2nd-samuel/ [Old commentary I wrote years ago]

https://ccoutreach87.com/2017/04/30/mark-8/

https://ccoutreach87.com/1st-2nd-samuel-links-updated-3-17/

https://ccoutreach87.com/588-2/

https://ccoutreach87.com/2017/09/01/sunday-sermon-5/

https://ccoutreach87.com/2017/08/18/sunday-sermon-4/

https://ccoutreach87.com/protestant-reformation-luther/

https://ccoutreach87.com/romans-updated-2015/

https://ccoutreach87.com/1st-2nd-corinthians/

https://ccoutreach87.com/hebrews-updated-2015/

https://ccoutreach87.com/galatians-links/

(882)1ST SAMUEL; INTRO, CHAPTER 1- Originally the books of 1st and 2nd Samuel were one volume. When the Greek translation of the Hebrew Old Testament was made [the Septuagint] they were added with 1st and 2nd Kings and were called ‘The books of the kingdoms’. In order to keep this volume from becoming too big, they were divided into the present divisions. In chapter one we see the family of Elkanah and Hannah [and wife #2 Pininnah!]. They go up to the Tabernacle of the Lord in Shiloh to worship the true God. Hannah has no children while wife # 2 does. This becomes a point of contention and jealousy between the two wives. Hannah pours her heart out to the Lord and makes a vow. She tells the Lord if he gives her a son that she will dedicate him to the Lord. Eli the priest sees Hannah praying silently [her lips moving but hearing no voice] and he assumes she’s drunk! Why? Was she stumbling and acting drunk? No. It was because he thought she was mumbling [speech] like a drunk. In Acts chapter 2 the same thing is assumed. Those who received the outpouring of the Spirit were thought to be drunk. Why? Were they stumbling and falling? No, once again it was a speech thing. They were speaking all types of unknown languages [known to the various groups there that day] and people thought they were acting like drunks when they can’t talk clearly. I emphasized this because it’s common today for renewal movements to associate the Spirit with people actually stumbling and driving in a drunken type state. While I don’t want to be dogmatic and say this can never be of God, yet many of these believers will use the Acts chapter 2 example to justify their belief. Act’s 2 does not teach ‘being drunk in the Spirit’ in this manner. Now the Lord hears Hannah’s request and she gives birth to Samuel. She keeps him until he is weaned [2 or 3 years old] and then she honors her vow and dedicates him to the Lord. She actually gave him up to become a full servant of God at Shiloh. It was not an easy vow to keep. As we go thru this book we will cover lots of interesting history. Samuel will become a mighty prophetic leader in Israel. He will be the one to introduce king Saul as Israel’s first king. The last verse in Judges says ‘there was no king in the land in those days, every man did what he thought was right in his own eyes’. It’s common to think this means God punished Israel for not having a human king. In actuality God will tell Israel that they were rejecting his kingship over them by wanting a ‘king like the other nations’. We will learn that God did not originally intend for Israel to have a singular human king. The description from judges simply shows us that sinful people, who reject God’s law, will go astray. In these instances a king can bring some sort of stability and government. The kings of Israel will serve in this capacity.

VERSES-

Ephesians 1:1 Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, to the saints which are at Ephesus, and to the faithful in Christ Jesus:

Ephesians 1:2 Grace be to you, and peace, from God our Father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ.

Ephesians 1:3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ:

Ephesians 1:4 According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love:

Ephesians 1:5 Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will,

Ephesians 1:6 To the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved.

Ephesians 1:7 In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace;

Ephesians 1:8 Wherein he hath abounded toward us in all wisdom and prudence;

Ephesians 1:9 Having made known unto us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure which he hath purposed in himself:

Ephesians 1:10 That in the dispensation of the fulness of times he might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven, and which are on earth; even in him:

Ephesians 1:11 In whom also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will:

Ephesians 1:12 That we should be to the praise of his glory, who first trusted in Christ.

Ephesians 1:13 In whom ye also trusted, after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation: in whom also after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that holy Spirit of promise,

Ephesians 1:14 Which is the earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, unto the praise of his glory.

Ephesians 1:15 Wherefore I also, after I heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus, and love unto all the saints,

Ephesians 1:16 Cease not to give thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers;

Ephesians 1:17 That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him:

Ephesians 1:18 The eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that ye may know what is the hope of his calling, and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints,

Ephesians 1:19 And what is the exceeding greatness of his power to us-ward who believe, according to the working of his mighty power,

Ephesians 1:20 Which he wrought in Christ, when he raised him from the dead, and set him at his own right hand in the heavenly places,

Ephesians 1:21 Far above all principality, and power, and might, and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this world, but also in that which is to come:

Ephesians 1:22 And hath put all things under his feet, and gave him to be the head over all things to the church,

Ephesians 1:23 Which is his body, the fulness of him that filleth all in all.

Mark 8:27 And Jesus went out, and his disciples, into the towns of Caesarea Philippi: and by the way he asked his disciples, saying unto them, Whom do men say that I am?

Mark 8:28 And they answered, John the Baptist; but some say, Elias; and others, One of the prophets.

Mark 8:29 And he saith unto them, But whom say ye that I am? And Peter answereth and saith unto him, Thou art the Christ.

Mark 8:30 And he charged them that they should tell no man of him.

Mark 8:31 And he began to teach them, that the Son of man must suffer many things, and be rejected of the elders, and of the chief priests, and scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again.

Mark 8:32 And he spake that saying openly. And Peter took him, and began to rebuke him.

Mark 8:33 But when he had turned about and looked on his disciples, he rebuked Peter, saying, Get thee behind me, Satan: for thou savourest not the things that be of God, but the things that be of men.

Mark 8:34 And when he had called the people unto him with his disciples also, he said unto them, Whosoever will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me.

Mark 8:35 For whosoever will save his life shall lose it; but whosoever shall lose his life for my sake and the gospel's, the same shall save it.

Mark 8:36 For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?

Mark 8:37 Or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?

Mark 8:38 Whosoever therefore shall be ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation; of him also shall the Son of man be ashamed, when he cometh in the glory of his Father with the holy angels.

1Samuel 1:1 Now there was a certain man of Ramathaimzophim, of mount Ephraim, and his name was Elkanah, the son of Jeroham, the son of Elihu, the son of Tohu, the son of Zuph, an Ephrathite:

1Samuel 1:2 And he had two wives; the name of the one was Hannah, and the name of the other Peninnah: and Peninnah had children, but Hannah had no children.

1Samuel 1:3 And this man went up out of his city yearly to worship and to sacrifice unto the LORD of hosts in Shiloh. And the two sons of Eli, Hophni and Phinehas, the priests of the LORD, were there.

1Samuel 1:4 And when the time was that Elkanah offered, he gave to Peninnah his wife, and to all her sons and her daughters, portions:

1Samuel 1:5 But unto Hannah he gave a worthy portion; for he loved Hannah: but the LORD had shut up her womb.

1Samuel 1:6 And her adversary also provoked her sore, for to make her fret, because the LORD had shut up her womb.

1Samuel 1:7 And as he did so year by year, when she went up to the house of the LORD, so she provoked her; therefore she wept, and did not eat.

1Samuel 1:8 Then said Elkanah her husband to her, Hannah, why weepest thou? and why eatest thou not? and why is thy heart grieved? am not I better to thee than ten sons?

1Samuel 1:9 So Hannah rose up after they had eaten in Shiloh, and after they had drunk. Now Eli the priest sat upon a seat by a post of the temple of the LORD.

1Samuel 1:10 And she was in bitterness of soul, and prayed unto the LORD, and wept sore.

1Samuel 1:11 And she vowed a vow, and said, O LORD of hosts, if thou wilt indeed look on the affliction of thine handmaid, and remember me, and not forget thine handmaid, but wilt give unto thine handmaid a man child, then I will give him unto the LORD all the days of his life, and there shall no razor come upon his head.

1Samuel 1:12 And it came to pass, as she continued praying before the LORD, that Eli marked her mouth.

1Samuel 1:13 Now Hannah, she spake in her heart; only her lips moved, but her voice was not heard: therefore Eli thought she had been drunken.

1Samuel 1:14 And Eli said unto her, How long wilt thou be drunken? put away thy wine from thee.

1Samuel 1:15 And Hannah answered and said, No, my lord, I am a woman of a sorrowful spirit: I have drunk neither wine nor strong drink, but have poured out my soul before the LORD.

1Samuel 1:16 Count not thine handmaid for a daughter of Belial: for out of the abundance of my complaint and grief have I spoken hitherto.

1Samuel 1:17 Then Eli answered and said, Go in peace: and the God of Israel grant thee thy petition that thou hast asked of him.

1Samuel 1:18 And she said, Let thine handmaid find grace in thy sight. So the woman went her way, and did eat, and her countenance was no more sad.

1Samuel 1:19 And they rose up in the morning early, and worshipped before the LORD, and returned, and came to their house to Ramah: and Elkanah knew Hannah his wife; and the LORD remembered her.

1Samuel 1:20 Wherefore it came to pass, when the time was come about after Hannah had conceived, that she bare a son, and called his name Samuel, saying, Because I have asked him of the LORD.

1Samuel 1:21 And the man Elkanah, and all his house, went up to offer unto the LORD the yearly sacrifice, and his vow.

1Samuel 1:22 But Hannah went not up; for she said unto her husband, I will not go up until the child be weaned, and then I will bring him, that he may appear before the LORD, and there abide for ever.

1Samuel 1:23 And Elkanah her husband said unto her, Do what seemeth thee good; tarry until thou have weaned him; only the LORD establish his word. So the woman abode, and gave her son suck until she weaned him.

1Samuel 1:24 And when she had weaned him, she took him up with her, with three bullocks, and one ephah of flour, and a bottle of wine, and brought him unto the house of the LORD in Shiloh: and the child was young.

1Samuel 1:25 And they slew a bullock, and brought the child to Eli.

1Samuel 1:26 And she said, Oh my lord, as thy soul liveth, my lord, I am the woman that stood by thee here, praying unto the LORD.

1Samuel 1:27 For this child I prayed; and the LORD hath given me my petition which I asked of him:

1Samuel 1:28 Therefore also I have lent him to the LORD; as long as he liveth he shall be lent to the LORD. And he worshipped the LORD there.

1Corinthians 15:1 Moreover, brethren, I declare unto you the gospel which I preached unto you, which also ye have received, and wherein ye stand;

1Corinthians 15:2 By which also ye are saved, if ye keep in memory what I preached unto you, unless ye have believed in vain.

1Corinthians 15:3 For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures;

1Corinthians 15:4 And that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures:

John 15:13 [Full Chapter]

Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.

September 3, 2017

« September 2 | September 4 »

Twenty-second Sunday in Ordinary Time

Lectionary: 124

Reading 1

JER 20:7-9

You duped me, O LORD, and I let myself be duped; you were too strong for me, and you triumphed. All the day I am an object of laughter; everyone mocks me. Whenever I speak, I must cry out, violence and outrage is my message; the word of the LORD has brought me derision and reproach all the day. I say to myself, I will not mention him, I will speak in his name no more. But then it becomes like fire burning in my heart, imprisoned in my bones; I grow weary holding it in, I cannot endure it.

Responsorial Psalm

PS 63:2, 3-4, 5-6, 8-9

R. (2b) My soul is thirsting for you, O Lord my God. O God, you are my God whom I seek; for you my flesh pines and my soul thirsts like the earth, parched, lifeless and without water. R. My soul is thirsting for you, O Lord my God. Thus have I gazed toward you in the sanctuary to see your power and your glory, for your kindness is a greater good than life; my lips shall glorify you. R. My soul is thirsting for you, O Lord my God. Thus will I bless you while I live; lifting up my hands, I will call upon your name. As with the riches of a banquet shall my soul be satisfied, and with exultant lips my mouth shall praise you. R. My soul is thirsting for you, O Lord my God. You are my help, and in the shadow of your wings I shout for joy. My soul clings fast to you; your right hand upholds me. R. My soul is thirsting for you, O Lord my God.

Reading 2

ROM 12:1-2

I urge you, brothers and sisters, by the mercies of God, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God, your spiritual worship. Do not conform yourselves to this age but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and pleasing and perfect.

Alleluia

CF. EPH 1:17-18

R. Alleluia, alleluia. May the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ enlighten the eyes of our hearts, that we may know what is the hope that belongs to our call. R. Alleluia, alleluia.

Gospel

MT 16:21-27

Jesus began to show his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer greatly from the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes, and be killed and on the third day be raised. Then Peter took Jesus aside and began to rebuke him, "God forbid, Lord! No such thing shall ever happen to you." He turned and said to Peter, "Get behind me, Satan! You are an obstacle to me. You are thinking not as God does, but as human beings do." Then Jesus said to his disciples, "Whoever wishes to come after me must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me. For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. What profit would there be for one to gain the whole world and forfeit his life? Or what can one give in exchange for his life? For the Son of Man will come with his angels in his Father's glory, and then he will repay all according to his conduct."

MY SITES

www.corpuschristioutreachministries.blogspot.com [Main site]

https://www.facebook.com/john.chiarello.5?ref=bookmarks

https://ccoutreach87.wordpress.com/

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCZ4GsqTEVWRm0HxQTLsifvg

https://twitter.com/ccoutreach87

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http://ccoutreach.over-blog.com/

https://www.reddit.com/user/ccoutreach87

https://ccoutreach.yolasite.com/

https://ccoutreach87.jimdo.com/

Note- Please do me a favor, those who read/like the posts- re-post them on other sites as well as the site you read them on- Thanks- John.#

#bible #religion

0 notes

lovehaswonangelnumbers · 5 years

Text

Archangel Metatron ~ Embracing Change & the Requisite Release of Fear

Archangel Metatron ~ Embracing Change & the Requisite Release of Fear,

Heart and Mind Commentary

Archangel Metatron ~ Embracing Change & the Requisite Release of Fear

Archangel Metatron via James Tyberonn

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*Please Indicate the Purpose of Donation: Session or Mission

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Support Our cause in the creation of the Crystal Schools for Children. Visit our fundraising link below:

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#angel numbers #numerology #astrology #angel messages #synchronicity #lovehaswon

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lovehaswonangelnumbers · 5 years

Text

Archangel Metatron ~ Embracing Change & the Requisite Release of Fear

Archangel Metatron ~ Embracing Change & the Requisite Release of Fear,

Heart and Mind Commentary

Archangel Metatron ~ Embracing Change & the Requisite Release of Fear

Archangel Metatron via James Tyberonn

*****

Donate Update

TOTAL DONATION RECEIVED: $22.22

TOTAL AMOUNT REMAINING: $4,977.78

Donate to Love:

*Please Indicate the Purpose of Donation: Session or Mission

t="" icon_right=""]LoveHasWon Charity for Crystal Schools[/symple_button]

Support Our Charity in Co~Creating the New Earth Together by Helping Mother of All Creation. Visit our fundraising link below:

Support Us on PATREON

[symple_button url="https://www.patreon.com/lovehaswon" color="teal" size="default" border_radius="3px" target="self" rel="" icon_left="" icon_right=""]PATREON[/symple_button]

Support Us Through Our LoveHasWon Wish List

[symple_button url="http://a.co/1JauhdT" color="brown" size="default" border_radius="3px" target="self" rel="" icon_left="" icon_right=""]LoveHasWon Wish List[/symple_button]Donate to Love

**If you do not have a Paypal account, click on the gold button below

~~~When donating via Paypal please select "personal payment", as opposed to goods and services, this in turn gives more of your donation to LoveHasWon~~~

Use Cash App with Our code and we’ll each get $5! FKMPGLH

Cash App Tag: $lovehaswon1111

[symple_button url="https://cash.me/app/FKMPGLH" color="orange" size="default" border_radius="3px" target="self" rel="" icon_left="" icon_right=""]Cash App[/symple_button]

Donate with Venmo

[symple_button url="https://venmo.com/lovehaswon1111" color="rosy" size="default" border_radius="3px" target="self" rel="" icon_left="" icon_right=""]VENMO[/symple_button]

Support Our cause in the creation of the Crystal Schools for Children. Visit our fundraising link below:

[symple_button url="https://www.gofundme.com/cherishingourmothergaia" color="gold" size="default" border_radius="3px" target="self" rel="" icon_lef

We also accept Western Union and Moneygram. You may send an email to [email protected] for more information.

***If you wish to send Donations by mail or other methods, email us at [email protected] or [email protected]***

**** We Do Not Refund Donations****

MeWe ~ Youtube ~ Facebook ~ Apple News ~ Linkedin ~ Twitter ~ Tumblr ~ GAB ~ Minds ~ Google+ ~ Medium ~ Weibo ~ StumbleUpon ~ Reddit ~ Informed Planet ~ Steemit ~ SocialClub ~ BlogLovin~ Flipboard

#angel numbers #numerology #astrology #angel messages #synchronicity #lovehaswon

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