Thoughts on Christianity

A place to relax and socialize - to muse, think aloud and suggest
Moros

Re: Thoughts on Christianity

Unread post by Moros »

Pilgrim wrote:LOL another celebrity agnostic Professor with his own agenda, books to sell and Axe to grind who's fallacious arguments have been refuted. http://www.amazon.com/Misquoting-Truth- ... 0830834478

http://www.ivpress.com/cgi-ivpress/book ... /code=3447
LOL, another celebrity Christian professor with his own agenda, books to sell, and an axe to grind who's fallacious arguments are non-existent and solely based off his own hatred of anything that contradicts his faith-based worldview. Two can play that game, my friend. ;)
Lazlo
Member
Posts: 220
Joined: Tue Feb 14, 2012 4:13 pm

Re: Thoughts on Christianity

Unread post by Lazlo »

Moros Said:
LOL, another celebrity Christian professor with his own agenda, books to sell, and an axe to grind who's fallacious arguments are non-existent and solely based off his own hatred of anything that contradicts his faith-based worldview. Two can play that game, my friend.
That is what I thought when I read Pilgrim's post. In addition to what you have stated the idea that stating that Ehrman was "refuted" has all the disingenuous finality that a JREFer uses when they say that 9/11 alternative views have been "debunked:"
who's fallacious arguments have been refuted.
By the way I have Ehrman's book and would love to read it but I am studying French right now and am reading only in that language.
Pilgrim
Member
Posts: 61
Joined: Tue Jun 17, 2014 9:33 pm

Re: Thoughts on Christianity

Unread post by Pilgrim »

Moros wrote:
Pilgrim wrote:LOL another celebrity agnostic Professor with his own agenda, books to sell and Axe to grind who's fallacious arguments have been refuted. http://www.amazon.com/Misquoting-Truth- ... 0830834478

http://www.ivpress.com/cgi-ivpress/book ... /code=3447
LOL, another celebrity Christian professor with his own agenda, books to sell, and an axe to grind who's fallacious arguments are non-existent and solely based off his own hatred of anything that contradicts his faith-based worldview. Two can play that game, my friend. ;)
Moros wrote:
Pilgrim wrote:LOL another celebrity agnostic Professor with his own agenda, books to sell and Axe to grind who's fallacious arguments have been refuted. http://www.amazon.com/Misquoting-Truth- ... 0830834478

http://www.ivpress.com/cgi-ivpress/book ... /code=3447
LOL, another celebrity Christian professor with his own agenda, books to sell, and an axe to grind who's fallacious arguments are non-existent and solely based off his own hatred of anything that contradicts his faith-based worldview. Two can play that game, my friend. ;)
Please be reasonable, you posted a book that you thought would prove the NT to be false, i posted a book that refutes your book and highlights it logical errors and fallacies in a like manner which you have failed to address. At this stage, neither of us has presented any evidence other than pit book against book as I only answered a fool by his own logic. Your "Two can play at that game" argument fails as there many other sources that show the same false assertions, old hat fallacious arguments that have been refuted time and time again and logical fallacies in Erhman's books by other people who will not be million selling authors such as : http://www.tektonics.org/ezine/ijindex.html. I won't gain a penny either.
If you would like a more detailed debate on the issue then lets agree to stop appealing to books and other web sites and present your arguments and show how your premises are true and lead to a necessary true conclusion by deductive logic and show the presuppositions you assume to be true to base your principles upon. Good luck with that as you would be first person to prove Christianity to be false and your own presuppositions to be totally true to base your objections upon. If you can't do that at least write out Ehrman's argument or objection without expecting us to read through pages of psycho babble and opinion otherwise, which i will refute through deductive logic and reason.
What does Ehrman think about Media Fakery?
Surley such a clever Professor who has the skill to "debunk" the NT based on such poor logic can see through the far more obvious deceptions in the the world which even the Bible acknowledges. (though i admit most so-called Christians don't see this too)
He is wrong about far more obvious things but correct on historical religion is he? Why? Please show us with some non fallacious evidence and appeals to secular agenda driven authority.
It seems you are totally naive to way the School and College Education System has been hijacked to promote the secular and Moronic atheist narrative agenda from people like Dawkins and Ehrman as shown by the video "No Intelligence Allowed" Please don't tell me you have fallen for the their biggest hoax out yet EVOLUTION?........ by these same secular agenda driven clowns based on the fallacies of scientific induction and affirming the consequent.
You think they are on your side? ROTFL.
hoi.polloi
Member
Posts: 5060
Joined: Sun Nov 14, 2010 7:24 pm

Re: Thoughts on Christianity

Unread post by hoi.polloi »

Okay, you could stand to copy edit a bit, but your point is made Pilgrim. The ball is in their court. You're right that everyone should appreciate real arguments rather than mere book links when truly doing any reasoning rather than regurgitating. But also, to be fair, please double check spelling and grammar so you don't repeat (repeat) words, you do punctuate properly, and things like that. Thanks.
edgewaters
Member
Posts: 91
Joined: Tue Jan 22, 2013 3:49 am

Re: Thoughts on Christianity

Unread post by edgewaters »

Pilgrim wrote:Good luck with that as you would be first person to prove Christianity to be false
Of course, because it isn't a falsifiable claim. It's kind of like me saying I was abducted by aliens, you could never disprove it because the claim isn't falsifiable. All you can do is doubt it.
Flabbergasted
Administrator
Posts: 1244
Joined: Mon Nov 12, 2012 12:19 am

Re: Thoughts on Christianity

Unread post by Flabbergasted »

Herose » September 4th, 2017, 1:45 pm wrote:…a Middle-Eastern man who (all but) declared to be God incarnate [...] if you believe that conspiracy, you join Him in Heaven after you die. If you don’t, you won’t.
You seem to be saying that the Incarnation makes Christianity the only valid/true religion and means of salvation. Or is there a Heaven without Jesus for other upayas?

The three major branches of Christianity (Catholic, Orthodox, Evangelical) agree on your sola fide criteria for salvation (belief that Jesus was a real person, that He was God, that He performed miracles, that He was executed, that He died for our sins, that He rose again, and that He ascended to Heaven). Does that make all three branches equally valid means of salvation? The representatives of each branch do not seem to think so.
Alicekinnian
Banned
Posts: 8
Joined: Mon Jun 25, 2018 2:04 am

Re: Thoughts on Christianity

Unread post by Alicekinnian »

Wow, I am stunned this thread has been ongoing for several years, and even more stunned that it hasn't been locked given that I earlier had a post that was quickly locked. Either way, I was almost hesitant to mention that, as it seems to be a thread with potential significance.

I just wanted to mention a few ideas - truly "musings", though I am sure my post will be deleted.

So I agree with the earlier post where it was said that excising the work of a well-laid psy-op is actually a painful process, and the more the psy-op has touched into our emotions, the greater the difficulty. I also really enjoy the perspective that a person could be almost incapable of doing so, kind of, to some degree, as an insane person would be incapable of fully considering themselves insane (potentially?). That said I cannot say with absolute certainty that I am infallibly correct to be Christian, but I can easily say that if it was a psy-op, I cannot imagine how it could possibly be reversed, anymore than the "mark of the beast" theoretically could be reversed. The reason being - for most Christians, or at least for me, there seems to be an in-born desire for a Creator, a desire for a better, purer world, a desire to be led by a magnificent powerful, loving being; therefore to take a Christian, or even a theist - from that place where this need seems to naturally arise even in childhood, to the less spiritually fulfilling place that modern science would have us be at (atheism) - is probably impossible without wholesale crushing that person's sense of hope. I really thought the comments about how psy-ops that mean nothing to us like 9/11 are easily discarded when found to be untrue, but real psy-ops involve horrible pain - that was kind of a genius statement to me. So I do not pretend I am capable of this nor desire it for myself.

But, entertaining the thought that Christianity could be a psy-op, there could be many layers to this. As some have noted, materialistic principles that are often equated with Satanism in that they are completely antithetical to the highest values described in the Bible - appear to be flagrantly pushed in the media. So much so one could easily come to one of two conclusions; there really is a Satan, fully controlling the world, and desiring to lead people astray, using media and negative world events to either crush or distract people into capitulating their faith and hope, or, conversely, there is a faked Satanic agenda, for the purposes of inspiring fear and driving people ever harder back to the faith that apparently needs such bolstering to keep people motivated/docile enough to continue in it. Obviously, I'm Christian so, I cannot really consider on any meaningful level the latter - but, intellectually I see that it is a sad possibility. Expounding on it - it could be the reason that Christians are so often publicly derided or otherwise censored on online forums, and in the world in general - to elicit a protective response to cling ever more to a faith they were originally uncertain about. The atheists, in this case, would actually be undercover Christians, perhaps of the higher echelons, purposefully modeling nihilism, or egotism, or whatever would probably instinctively horrify a Christian and cause them to "run for cover" so to speak. Obviously for this reason other theistic religions would have to be destroyed as options, to concentrate the power - assuming power were the aim of this agenda. Perhaps even whole events like 9/11 would be staged, so as to weaken the public trust in their governments, and social dissent fomented, until the moral landscape, in media and without, looked so bad people would radically shift to the other extreme of the pendulum, embracing "hard-core", totalitarian even Christianity. I guess if one wanted to push Christianity for power, it would be no difficult thing to excise the more peaceful parts of the Bible out, and leave the statements most amenable to a theocracy in there. Sometimes, when I listen to Christian songs - the most recent ones - and it talks about being soldiers on our knees, and encouraging humans to public-ally self deprecate, and public-ally pray, and to wage wars of hate, mental or otherwise, I think - perhaps some sociopaths could be motivated to do so. After all I did visit Europe and saw the monetary corruption of some churches there, not that US churches are immune. There certainly doesn't seem to be much modern adherence to the more ascetic, flesh-denying aspects of the original faith, and the great benevolence that is supposed to most characterize a Christian.

However, I don't believe this to be a "double psy-ops". I partially do in terms of - the latest videos featuring end times and raptures and I think even the whole alien invasion and the whole "boycott these Satanic symbols and the media." I am not sure. I do just to be sure but, I feel like they actually drag more attention back to the original media they are espousing people boycott, back to the original culture even more - so, it is very possible they are running on the flip-side of those who wish to profit from running churches, along with those indoctrinated into the belief that they are doing good by helping people in this fashion. It's a definite possibility.


But, there's also the "psy-ops" so to speak that, as Christians, we are taught that Satan was the first "liar" and that he operates through deception, the greatest one being that he doesn't exist. Where is there to go rationally from there? With one's soul's destiny in the mix? So if one were hypothetically Satan, it would be most "rational" as far as one can imagine such things, or hopefully discern from prophecy, that one would want to actively deceive the world and establish exactly the kind of morally degenerate lie-filled world that some Christians will say exists today.

A lot of people may say "well, if you're going to die anyway, why risk being on the 'wrong-side' even if you can't subjectively tell the truth? Just basically guess and if you're right you'll be with God and won't that be great?". But Pascal's wager doesn't really apply. I think that's one of the greatest disservices to Christianity, and I saw another poster even implied that "those who reject God will do so after Christ return, to his face" - sorry, paraphrasing. I don't think this is quite Biblical at all. Yahusha's return is said to be "like a thief in the night" and only those found "doing the Father's commandments" (sorry, I don't know the exact words here but, you probably know it well enough). I would imagine, at the very least, this would imply having faith beforehand, when one "cannot see", and the worst, being "perfect as Yahushua is perfect" - which I understand to mean trying one's best every single moment and constantly praying and repenting for the "failures" - which we are told basically everyone has "no man is righteous". There's quite a few lines in there indicating that sanctification is a process, and experience seems to bear this out as even calling out with all one's soul for salvation - well it hopefully effects it but, one continues to live after that point, and it would seem more rational that that alone, if it were purely 100% faith based without any subsequent need for action - would suddenly funnel one up to heaven but...it does not at least visually appear to do so, so...there must be some kind of testing or further expectation after that point. I hardly see the need for the Bible at all if after Christ returned and the day of judgement was about to start, if one could suddenly be like "oh, God, there you are, I've been cursing you out and killing people all my life but now I'm sorry, now that I see you standing here." I mean there is the story of the prodigal son so there's some hope but...even that has ominous overtones about before the day is done, and time is up, etc. Certainly hopefully before one dies in case none of the modern rapture theories happen in a person's lifetime (perhaps another psy-op to distract from the fact that it won't happen soon at all?) I don't know. It might happen soon. But if it does happen soon, I think there's a distinct possibility that there might be some tribulation for Christians as well, and I don't know if the whole fear-mongering part about Christians getting beheaded under persecution is another Satanic permutation to inspire unnecessary fear and drive the weak away - but, it could just be stating a fact - it might actually require tons of specific-to-this-life suffering. Does that make sense to me - not exactly but, I have to admit if one were to compare my faith with that of Isaac who was just about willing to sacrifice his son, I can admit that perhaps my faith needs more perfecting.

Anyway, if the whole reverse Satanism thing is a psy-op, I have to say it is a hugely pervasive one. I would imagine the Church would be wasting more money on it than they could possibly be making back, especially as it seems to be so ineffective at changing most people's thoughts (I don't see a preponderance of Christians coming to Christianity because of these "scare" tactics"). For example, I saw a website that extensively defined sorcery as everything from Harry Potter to candles, incense, card games, dragons, dinosaurs, witch-anything, stars, pentagons, hexagons, circle in circles...etc. etc. it was tons of things everything from sideways stars to concentric circles to heart symbols, etc. Everything can be demonified. Literally this stuff can drive you crazy. I'm not just talking about turning off the TV - because after watching enough of these things, you start to see this stuff everywhere - I'm basically saying on every consumer item or everywhere modern producers make their mark, you're going to see probably on 80% things something that could be construed as falling under sorcery (aside from actual pharmika like medical drugs and psychedelics). I've often wondered if the actual purpose of this if it is a psy-op is to literally drive people to insanity or cripple their ability to make purchases or relax. But anyway, if it is legitimate, it is hardly working to turn people off to Satanism and drive them back into the church (apart from possibly a few people like myself), because most people happily paste the supposedly Satanic logos, merchandise, and consumerist/materialistic paraphernalia all over themselves and their kids. So how can this be the case to flood the market waiting for a reverse reaction. Makes you think perhaps it's a legitimate argument after all.

Anyway, I would really love to hear from the other Christian people on here. I want to know your thoughts. PMs would be welcome. I hope this doesn't get deleted. I believe in Christ but it's purely a matter of faith; I don't think there's any way to prove a historical text, I choose to because of it's great beauty and how strongly this concept of God resonates with everything in me.

By the way that Age of Deceit thing is terrifying. I really dislike the concept of extreme suffering as the only way to prove faith. It's possibly true, and I guess I would have to pray for the strength to endure it but, I find it fills my whole body with tension and terror and I have to spend quite a bit of time reflecting on the loving and merciful nature of God to clear thoughts of being burned at the stake. I'm not entirely sure terror-filled videos like that are actually meant to encourage Christians, who, let's face it - like all people - don't desire to maximize their pain. Is that cowardice? I don't know...just...I'm not sure why we always have to go there...
dblitz
Member
Posts: 248
Joined: Sat Apr 27, 2013 2:32 am

Re: Thoughts on Christianity

Unread post by dblitz »

Alicekinnian, I sent you a private message.
ICfreely
Member
Posts: 1078
Joined: Sat Feb 07, 2015 5:41 pm

Re: Thoughts on Christianity

Unread post by ICfreely »

Christian Zionism

It’s one of the most successful, and in some ways unlikely, interfaith movements in the modern world

On 23 June 1969, at the Midtown Manhattan headquarters of the American Jewish Committee, the evangelist Billy Graham met with two dozen rabbis and Jewish leaders. According to one rabbi, the meeting was to allow Graham to convey ‘the need for dialogue and communication’ between American evangelicals and American Jews, and to find common ground by explaining ‘his relationship with Israel’. It was a pivotal moment in the American Jewish and evangelical Protestant interfaith relationship.

Though some of the Jewish leaders were wary of the ‘wild raving fundamentalist’, Graham won them over. He cited the Hebrew Scriptures, or Old Testament, to describe his understanding of God’s covenant with the Jewish people, and explained his support for Israel as recompense for past Christian anti-Judaism. ‘All Christians are guilty as far as Jewish experience was concerned,’ he said. Graham also spoke of his conversations with the Israeli prime minister Golda Meir, and assured American Jewish leaders that the United States’ president Richard Nixon was ‘extremely sympathetic’ to Israel.

Today, for many evangelicals, Christian Zionism is no mere side issue. They believe that they are not only correcting the ancient injustice of anti-Semitism, but contributing to the salvation of the world and the completion of God’s redemptive plans. It is, for many, the metanarrative that makes sense of the biblical drama and current events, and provides a road map for the future.

That 1969 meeting contained all the essential elements characterising the exceptional support that evangelical Protestants in the US give to the state of Israel. The spirit of this meeting has since been replicated dozens of times…

https://aeon.co/essays/christian-zionis ... lain-sight
The Road to Hell is Paved with Good Intentions. I absolutely love this maxim. Whoever came up with it is an incredible genius. It helps explain most of the problems in the world…

Izzy Kalman

https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog ... intentions
Modern Christian Zionism is an Antichrist Spirit

Look no further than an article in the Guardian this week describing how Christian Zionism has hijacked the Trump administration. These so-called “evangelicals” are extremely pro-Israel, pro-war, and utilize and manipulate Biblical doctrine as means to support Israel no matter what.

The article talks about former CIA director and current Secretary of State Mike Pompeo as being a rabid evangelical Zionist, as are others in the Trump administration. I do recommend you read the entire article but here is a relevant snippet concerning the reasoning behind the war-fever at the heart of the Christian Zionist movement in Trumps cabinet.
“As Donald Trump finds himself ever more dependent on them for his political survival, the influence of Pence, Pompeo and the ultra-conservative white Evangelicals who stand behind them is likely to grow.

“Many of them relish the second coming because for them it means eternal life in heaven,” Andrew Chesnut, professor of religious studies at Virginia Commonwealth University said. “There is a palpable danger that people in high position who subscribe to these beliefs will be readier to take us into a conflict that brings on Armageddon.”

Chesnut argues that Christian Zionism has become the “majority theology” among white US Evangelicals, who represent about a quarter of the adult population. In a 2015 poll, 73% of evangelical Christians said events in Israel are prophesied in the Book of Revelation. Respondents were not asked specifically whether their believed developments in Israel would actually bring forth the apocalypse.” (Guardian)
This is the very definition of an antichrist Spirit

https://wakethechurch.org/articles/the- ... ish-spirit
ICfreely
Member
Posts: 1078
Joined: Sat Feb 07, 2015 5:41 pm

Re: Thoughts on Christianity

Unread post by ICfreely »

There are all sorts of theories about who/what the Antichrist/New World Religion will be. Speculations abound.
Antichrist's Coming World Religion
May 1, 1990
Hunt, Dave

The Antichrist is generally depicted as a militant atheist who brazenly opposes Christianity. Communism has been called an antichrist system because of its overt suppression of Christianity. It is not surprising, then, that when they were finally able to speak their minds, the Romanian people who suffered under him for 24 years called their deposed president, Nicholae Ceausescu, "the Antichrist." That is why they chose Christmas as the day most fitting to execute him and his wife Elena before a firing squad, having found them guilty of murdering at least 60,000 Romanians and of robbing the Romanian people of more than $1 billion.
...
https://www.thebereancall.org/content/a ... d-religion
The Islamic Antichrist: The Shocking Truth about the Real Nature of the Beast - Joel Richardson
https://www.amazon.com/Islamic-Antichri ... B01E4CLT5Y

IMHO, the Antichrist isn’t a person. It’s the spirit (or zeitgeist if you will) of the age and the New World Religion is Scientism!

Consider the field of Evolutionary Psychology. Just what are they trying to convince us of here?

Infidelity--It may be in our genes. Our Cheating Hearts

Devotion and betrayal, marriage and divorce: how evolution shaped human love

Time Magazine, 1995, By Robert Wright, August 15, 1994

ROBERT WRIGHT, a senior editor at New Republic, adapted this article from his new book, The Moral Animal: Evolutionary Psychology and Everyday Life, to be published this month by Pantheon.

The language of zoology used to be so reassuring. Human beings were called a "pair-bonding" species. Lasting monogamy, it seemed, was natural for us, just as it was for geese, swans and the other winged creatures that have filled our lexicon with such labels as "lovebirds" and "lovey-dovey." Family values, some experts said, were in our genes. In the 1967 best seller The Naked Ape, zoologist Desmond Morris wrote with comforting authority that the evolutionary purpose of human sexuality is "to strengthen the pair-bond and maintain the family unit."

This picture has lately acquired some blemishes. To begin with, birds are no longer such uplifting role models. Using DNA fingerprinting, ornithologists can now check to see if a mother bird's mate really is the father of her offspring. It turns out that some female chickadees (as in "my little chickadee") indulge in extramarital trysts with males that outrank their mates in the social hierarchy. For female barn swallows, it's a male with a long tail that makes extracurriculars irresistible. The innocent-looking indigo bunting has a cuckoldry rate of 40%. And so on. The idea that most bird species are truly monogamous has gone from conventional wisdom to punctured myth in a few short years. As a result, the fidelity of other pair-bonding species has fallen under suspicion.

https://canadiancrc.com/Newspaper_Artic ... AUG94.aspx
Infidelity Lurks in Your Genes – Richard A.Friedman

May 23, 2015 - But now there is intriguing new research showing that some women, too, ... Women who carry certain variants of the vasopressin receptor gene…

https://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/24/opin ... genes.html

Genius. Evil genius, that is. What better way to convince the cattle that they indeed are cattle?
pov603
Member
Posts: 870
Joined: Thu Jun 30, 2011 8:02 pm

Re: Thoughts on Christianity

Unread post by pov603 »

You could say that is a “moo-t” point!...
ICfreely
Member
Posts: 1078
Joined: Sat Feb 07, 2015 5:41 pm

Re: Thoughts on Christianity

Unread post by ICfreely »

Dr. Ray Hagins- Who Really Owns And Runs America?

full link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ykmwS-Pi-b4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ykmwS-Pi-b4
A powerful message by Dr. Ray Hagins, Chief Elder and spiritual leader of "The Afrikan Village" in St Louis, Mo and a former Christian Pastor of The Church of God and Christ.

22:11

Dr. Hagins: “…and unfortunately, the one place that most of us go [church] where we ought to be taught, most preachers aren’t doing it. So we’re stuck right where we were. Oh come on people, do an inventory of yourself. And ask yourself the question, ‘OK I’m 35 years old, been in the church all my life, what am I learning at this point in my life that I didn’t learn at five years old?’ Ask yourself that question. If you can’t add any more than you learned your first five years in Sunday school, then you need to get your tail up and out of that place and go somewhere where you can learn!... What happened in New York a couple weeks ago? What tragedy happened? Y’all tell me.

The World Trade Center was destroyed, right?... And you know what they told us? They told us that the Arabs did this. They told us that Muslims did this. That’s what they told us. But nobody has asked, ‘Why would Arabs want to do that?’ Why would Arabs want to destroy the World Trade Center? ‘Cause they’re “terrorists”...
Natural Philosopher
Member
Posts: 23
Joined: Sat Mar 02, 2019 9:35 pm

Re: Thoughts on Christianity

Unread post by Natural Philosopher »

I am intrigued by the hypothesis that Christianity is a Flavian (as in the Flavian Dynasty of the Roman Empire) invention for the purpose of pacifying and assimilating rebellious Jews. The most well-known proponent of this view is Joseph Atwill, whose Caesar's Messiah discusses numerous striking parallels between the works of Josephus, a Jewish "historian" who served as a propagandist for the Flavian dynasty and the Gospels. While Atwill has not won over many (or any) professional historians to his position a recent book called Creating Christ by James Valliant and C.W. Fahy has won high praise from the prominent "Christ mythicist" and PhD theologian Robert M. Price to the Roman origin of Christianity hypothesis. Particularly convincing is the archaeological evidence that the Flavians employed symbols and motifs identical to those later adopted by Christians particularly fish symbology. More information on the book: https://www.creatingchrist.com/
ICfreely
Member
Posts: 1078
Joined: Sat Feb 07, 2015 5:41 pm

Re: Thoughts on Christianity

Unread post by ICfreely »

“Out of clutter, find simplicity. From discord, find harmony. In the middle of difficulty lies opportunity.”
― Albert Einstein

My question is, “Cui bono fromo ordo ab chao?”

Trump the great
Who is King Cyrus, and why did Netanyahu compare him to Trump?
Mysterious Persian ruler is credited for helping Jews return from exile to Jerusalem 2,500 years ago, rebuild the Temple
By Andrew Silow-Carroll 8 March 2018

JTA — Before their Oval Office meeting on Monday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu lavished praise on US President Donald Trump for, among other things, declaring Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and vowing to fix or scrap the Iran nuclear deal.

In doing so, the Israeli leader likened Trump to Harry Truman, Lord Balfour — and Cyrus the Great.

What gives with Cyrus?

As Netanyahu explained in his remarks:
I want to tell you that the Jewish people have a long memory, so we remember the proclamation of the great king, Cyrus the Great, the Persian king 2,500 years ago. He proclaimed that the Jewish exiles in Babylon could come back and rebuild our Temple in Jerusalem. We remember a hundred years ago, Lord Balfour, who issued the Balfour Proclamation that recognized the rights of the Jewish people in our ancestral homeland. We remember 70 years ago, President Harry S. Truman was the first leader to recognize the Jewish state. And we remember how a few weeks ago, President Donald J. Trump recognized Jerusalem as Israel’s capital. Mr. President, this will be remembered by our people through the ages.
What is known about Cyrus is as much myth as fact, although scholars agree that during his lifetime (c. 600-530 BCE) he ruled an empire that included the ancient Near East, Southwest and Central Asia, and the Caucasus.

But Jewish tradition has been consistent in treating him as a pagan agent of God’s divine plan for Jews to return to the Land of Israel from their exile in Babylon (modern-day Iraq). Cyrus shows up in Chronicles saying, “The Lord, the God of heaven, has given me all the kingdoms of the earth and he has appointed me to build a temple for him at Jerusalem in Judah. Any of his people among you may go up, and may the Lord their God be with them.”

In Isaiah, God chooses Cyrus “to subdue nations before him and to strip kings of their armor … so that you may know that I am the Lord, the God of Israel.”

The first-century historian Josephus also credits Cyrus with freeing the Jews from captivity and helping them rebuild the temple in Jerusalem.

The idea that Trump is a modern-day Cyrus is particularly popular among evangelical Christians, in part to explain the gap between Trump’s, ahem, personal behavior and his support for policies that advance their agenda.

In December, an evangelical leader explained this “vessel theology” in welcoming Trump’s move on Jerusalem. Mike Evans told the Christian Broadcasting Network that Cyrus “was used as an instrument of God for deliverance in the Bible, and God has used this imperfect vessel, this flawed human being like you or I, this imperfect vessel, and he’s using him in an incredible, amazing way to fulfill his plans and purposes.”

Some observers wonder if the comparison is just a convenient way for evangelicals to deal with Trump’s multiple divorces, his confessed womanizing, and the multiple accusations of sexual assault.

“I think in some ways this is a kind of baptism of Donald Trump,” John Fea, a professor of evangelical history at Messiah College in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, told Vox. “It’s the theopolitical version of money laundering, taking Scripture to … clean [up] your candidate.”

In addition to Netanyahu, at least one Jewish group has picked up on the notion of Trump as Cyrus: Last month, The Mikdash Educational Center, which promotes reverence for the temples that once stood in Jerusalem, started selling a coin with Trump’s silhouette superimposed over one of Cyrus. Its leader, Rabbi Mordechai Persoff, told The Associated Press that Trump, like Cyrus, made a “big declaration that Jerusalem is the capital of the holy people.

Like most Israeli leaders, and maybe unlike rabbis and Christian activists, Netanyahu doesn’t need to reconcile a president’s personal behavior with his policies — he just needs a president who delivers the goods. Comparing Trump to Cyrus is another way of saying he’s just wild about Donald.

https://www.timesofisrael.com/who-is-ki ... -to-trump/

This observer wonders if the comparison is just a convenient way for Zionists to establish a “Greater Israel” from the Nile to the Euphrates.

Cyrus Cylinder: Ancient Persia Foreshadowed Modern Values

Washington — The Cyrus Cylinder has left its British Museum repository for its first U.S. tour, beginning at the Smithsonian Institution’s Arthur M. Sackler Gallery in Washington. “The Cyrus Cylinder and Ancient Persia” showcases this 2,600-year-old archeological treasure amid other artifacts from the Achaemenid Empire (550–331 B.C.) founded by the Persian ruler Cyrus the Great.

Among the most important objects in world history, the cylinder “in its time declared a new way of ruling in which disparate races and people were not oppressed into conformity but respected for diversity,” Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery Director Julian Raby told journalists at the preview.

The baked clay cylinder inscribed with cuneiform script is small in size — only 22.86 centimeters long and 10 centimeters in diameter — but vast in influence. The principles that Cyrus established outlasted his empire into the present day. The respect for diversity of race and religion evident in the text ultimately reached Europe and the Founders of the United States of America.

The cylinder was hidden for centuries, buried in a building foundation, until its discovery in Babylon in 1879 by British Museum archeologists. Although it is missing about one-third of its text, fragments discovered in a British Museum drawer helped reconstruct the text. Cuneiform scholar I.F. Finkel not only recognized text from the cylinder, but the particular scribe’s calligraphy. The fragments are considered evidence that the text was copied and circulated.

Typical for the era, the text begins with criticism of the previous ruler, Nabonidus (555–539 B.C.), who perverted ritual practices and abused the people. “He did yet more evil to his city every day,” it reads, describing how the chief Babylonian god Marduk [AKA - Mars/God of War], after seeking “an upright king” in all countries, “took the hand of Cyrus” and proclaimed him king “over all of everything.”

A first-person message from Cyrus himself follows, stating he abolished slave labor and allowed people deported by earlier rulers because they worshipped different gods to return. He restored their damaged temples and gods, asking for their prayers.

Unlike ancient Chinese and Egyptians, who wrote much about what they did and how well they did it, British Museum Director Neil MacGregor said, “The Persians just did it. They don’t write about how they did it. They left no memoirs” about their great lives and times. We know what happened from Greek and Jewish sources.

The Cyrus Cylinder has special significance to Jews, because it alludes to their return to Jerusalem, which is supported by biblical references. In the Book of Isaiah (44:28), God says of Cyrus, “He is my shepherd and will accomplish all that I please; he will say of Jerusalem, Let it be rebuilt, and of the temple, Let its foundations be laid,” and goes on to call Cyrus “anointed” by God. Other references may be found in 2 Chronicles and the Book of Ezra.

Cyrus held sway over the largest known early empire
. It eventually encompassed the entire eastern Mediterranean, extending from Libya in the west to Afghanistan in the east. Cyrus had to devise a system to rule this unprecedented diverse, multilingual, multicultural and multireligious empire. Tolerance was the hallmark of this efficient system, which lasted 200 years, until Alexander the Great conquered the region.

The values articulated by Cyrus influenced Europe and the United States, conveyed there by Classical Greek writers Herodotus and Xenophon, admirers of Cyrus’ leadership. Xenophon’s Cyropaedia, a partly fictional account of the ruler’s life, was read by the Founders of the United States, including Thomas Jefferson and Benjamin Franklin. Jefferson is thought to have possessed two copies, one of which is on display in the current exhibit at the Sackler Gallery. “Only the United States takes up the Persian model,” MacGregor said. “Jefferson constructs a state … which supports the idea of faith but doesn’t endorse any particular one.

The Cyrus Cylinder is, MacGregor said, as relevant today as when it was created; it is “a document about regime change, and is a meditation on how you govern a society.”

MacGregor characterized the Smithsonian and the British Museum as “sister institutions” founded on the same principles: to gather important objects from around the world for everybody to contemplate and learn “histories the world needs to know to make sense of the world now.”

The exhibition, which has significant funding from the Iran Heritage Foundation, will travel to Houston, New York, San Francisco and Los Angeles.

http://iran.usembassy.gov/cyrusc.html

So Trump is the new Cyrus and Iran is the new Germany. Go figure.


"You never let a serious crisis go to waste. And what I mean by that it's an opportunity to do things you think you could not do before."
-Rahm Emanuel
ICfreely
Member
Posts: 1078
Joined: Sat Feb 07, 2015 5:41 pm

Re: Thoughts on Christianity

Unread post by ICfreely »

From Cyrus to Stalin: The Hamanization of Donald Trump

Is Trump the New Stalin?
Lasha Darkmoon April 7, 2019
Published on Truthseeker

Is Donald Trump a copycat Stalin? Does he have the makings of a dangerous dictator?

Is Donald Trump the New Stalin? A bizarre question, it would seem. To most people, I believe, it wouldn’t even occur. To answer it, a few words first about Stalin. We can then return to Trump.


First and foremost, the conspiracy theory that Stalin was a “Jew” and that all his wives and mistresses were “Jewish” needs to knocked on the head with a sledgehammer at once. And buried in unholy ground. Nothing could be further from the truth. The simple truth is that Stalin was a Georgian, and a proud one, and he would have been the first to get very angry if someone had dared to suggest he could be Jewish.

Curiously enough, both Stalin and Trump have been accused by their respective haters of being crypto-Jews. There is no reliable evidence for this groundless suspicion, but conspiracy theorists and peddlers of misinformation are not troubled by lack of evidence. This is because they are astute psychologists and know the human heart: that the will or believe and its corollary, the will to disbelieve, override any need for evidence. We see this process in operation most clearly in regard to the existence of God, where we find the world is divided into two warring camps: the theists or believers in God, who are driven by “the will to believe”, and the atheists or disbelievers in God, who are driven by “the will to disbelieve”. There is a third category of course: the agnostics, the “don’t knows” or ditherers who have yet to make up their minds.



Yes, Trump is the New Stalin!!!

Even more bizarre, the comparison of Trump with Stalin is not meant to be an insult. As when unpopular leaders are compared to Hitler. In this case, the comparison of Trump to Stalin is meant to be a compliment. An accolade.

This hagiography of Stalin and his alleged understudy and copycat disciple Donald Trump comes to us from an admittedly brilliant (if somewhat eccentric) thinker of Croatian ancestry and Canadian citizenship who has delighted our readers on the Darkmoon site for many years with his charm, his wit, and his penetrating insights. His pen name is “Lobro van Helsing”.

The original Dr Van Helsing, the reader will recollect, is the name of the hero in Bram Stoker’s sensational novel, Dracula. Armed with his trusty crucifix, he is the ultimate Vampire Slayer. (See here). Lobro van Helsing, one might say without exaggeration, is an intellectual vampire slayer and is an authority on exorcism, demonic possession, and other such esoteric subjects too numerous to mention — as indeed this impressive article on contemporary demonic possession will testify. This mysterious individual’s real name I am naturally unable to disclose to the reader because this is privileged information. However, just let me say that Dr Lobro Van Helsing knows more about Mathematics and Quantum Physics than anyone else I know. He is also a fund of invaluable information on philosophy, economics, politics and current affairs. So he has to be taken seriously when he says Trump is “the New Stalin”.

https://www.darkmoon.me/2019/is-trump-the-new-stalin/
Oh how quickly the tide turns...

Is Dr. Darkmoon incapable of differentiating between nationality and religion?

NEWSFLASH: Jewish and Georgian are NOT mutually exclusive!

History of the Jews in Georgia

History

The Georgian Jews have traditionally lived separately, not only from the surrounding Georgian people, but also from the Ashkenazi Jews in Tbilisi, who had different practices and language.

The community, which numbered about 80,000 as recently as the 1970s, has largely emigrated to Israel, the United States, the Russian Federation and Belgium (in Antwerp). As of 2004, only about 13,000 Georgian Jews remained in Georgia. According to the 2002 First General National Census of Georgia, there are 3,541 Jewish believers in the country.[5] For example, the Lezgishvili branch of Georgian Jews have families in Israel, Moscow, Baku, Düsseldorf, and Cleveland, Ohio (US). Several hundred Georgian Jewish families live in the New York tri-state area, particularly in New York City and Long Island.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_o ... ia#History

Is there any doubt that Trump, once he’s outlived his usefulness, will be Haman-ed in short order?

Purim 1953: When a Haman of our time collapsed

Stalin got a stroke and collapsed (possibly assisted by his inner circle) on March 1, 1953, during Purim. He died shortly thereafter on March 5, 1953.

In 1948 he supported the establishment of Israel in the UN and even allowed or instructed by then Communist Czechoslovakia to provide arms and military training for Israel’s War of Independence. He assumed or hoped that the then Socialist Israel would turn into a Soviet colony, just as the previously colonized Eastern and Central European countries after World War II. Israel didn’t become Bolshevik…

For this and other reasons, in 1948 the Soviet Union launched a series of show trials and executions, including those of members of the wartime Anti-Fascist Committee, Soviet Jewish writers, and later Czechoslovakia’s Jewish Communist leaders. In 1952/early1953, under the leadership of dictator Mátyás Rákosi (Rosenfeld), Hungary’s Jewish/Zionist leaders and others were arrested and tortured in preparation for show trials. They were falsely accused of murdering Raoul Wallenberg in 1945 and spying for the “Imperialists” and “Zionists.”

Preparations coincided with the infamous “Doctors’ Plot” in the Soviet Union, when a group of mostly Jewish doctors were accused of planning to murder the Soviet leadership. Gradually, an increasingly antisemitic atmosphere was orchestrated, and many Jews lived in fear especially in the Soviet Union. Some historians write that Stalin’s plan was to execute the doctors followed by massive deportations of Jews in the Soviet Union possibly accompanied by pogroms – with similar anti-Jewish actions possibly in Hungary and other Soviet colonies.

https://www.jewishpress.com/blogs/guest ... 017/03/10/

viewtopic.php?f=28&t=2053&start=135#p2411972

This begs the question, “Who is Lasha Darkmoon?”

Where was she born?

Is she English, American, Jewish, Gentile, agnostic, atheist, etc…?

What purpose does our higher degreed “truth seeking” comrade serve?
Post Reply