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James Tissot, Jesus Found in the Temple" (1890)
Yesterday's Gospel has one of the most shocking verses in the New Testament, Luke 2:51, "And he [Jesus] went down with them [Mary and Joseph] and came to Nazareth, and was obedient to them; and his mother kept all these things in her heart." Is there any Marian hymn in the world with a more scandalous message than that? Scripture is telling us that the God of the all the Universe, the omnipotent, omniscient Second Person of the Trinity, chose to lower Himself and become obedient to Mary and Joseph.
The point of the occult, of every bit of black magic throughout every age of history, has been fixated on one thing: bending the supernatural or Divine to our wills. Instead of obeying God, the occult seeks to make God obey us (or, barring that, settling for working with one of His fallen angels). Yet Jesus Christ takes the initiative, and gives this most coveted authority to a poor Jewish couple. If this weren't explicitly in Scripture, can there be any doubt that Protestants would accuse Catholics of idolatry for believing this about Mary and Joseph?
This affirms that Mary and Joseph are true parents to Jesus Christ, as shocking and upsetting as that might be. There is a tendency amongst some Protestants to reduce them to something much less: to treat Mary like some sort of human mason jar that happened to hold the Christ, but who can be discarded after Christmas along with the tree, or to treat Joseph like an imposter. A Protestant reader actually accused Mary of being a liar for calling Joseph Jesus' father (Lk. 2:48), yet that's exactly what Scripture says of him (Lk. 2:41). True, he's not Jesus' "biological "father, but that's how adoption works. And since all of us are adopted (since Christ is the only-begotten Son, as John 3:16 says), who are we to complain?
And the timing of this verse is significant. It comes just two verses after Jesus says to His parents (Lk. 2:49), "Did you not know that I must be in my Father's house?"
That is, Jesus doesn't trade obedience to God the Father for obedience to Mary and Joseph. Rather, in obeying His parents, He is obeying the Father; and in obeying the Father, He is obeying His parents (since this is their greatest desire for Him). There's no tension or competition between the two. The Father isn't jealous of Joseph for doing the very thing He placed him on earth to do, for example. Loving and honoring Mary and Joseph isn't somehow contrary to loving and honoring the Father.
So we, who are adopted into the Holy Family by virtue of our Divine adoption (cf. Ephesians 1:5), must follow our Lord's example. LOVE, HONOR, AND OBEY MARY AND JOSEPH WITH ABANDON, with the knowledge that you are doing the will of God, and following the example of Jesus Christ.
"Christian theology is full of masculine terminology. If we really think about it, the Christian Trinity - Father, Son, and Holy Spirit - could be interpreted as a thoroughgoing male deity.Is Godde masculine or feminine? Even to pose the question is to realize that Godde, as a spiritual being beyond our comprehension, is neither male nor female. Or perhaps more to the point, considering that Genesis 1:27 indicates that woman and man were both created in Godde's image, Godde can be described using feminine as well as masculine terms.To be sure, the Bible uses not only masculine images to depict Godde, but feminine images as well. Consider Isaiah 66:13: "As a mother comforts her child, so I will comfort you" (NRSV). Throughout the Psalms, Godde is described as a mother hen protecting her children under her wing.The Holy Spirit in particular is an archetypal image that evokes the Divine Feminine. She gives birth (John 3:6), life (2 Cor. 3:6), inspiration (2 Pet. 1:21), comfort (Acts 9:31), and groans as if in childbirth (Rom. 8:23). Furthermore, she is described as fire and as a dove - both feminine images of the divine in that culture.Ben Zoma wrote in the Talmud that "the Spirit of God was brooding over the face of the waters like a dove which broods over her young but does not touch them" (Hag. 15a).There is another compelling feminine image in the Bible: That of Lady Wisdom. In the Hellenistic Jewish Wisdom literature, beginning with Proverbs, Godde's Wisdom is personified as a woman (see Prov. 8:1-9:6).And as many biblical scholars now recognize, some of the principal New Testament passages about the incarnation (including John 1:1-18 and Col. 1:15-20) are rooted in this Jewish Wisdom tradition, depicting Jesus as the incarnation of divine Wisdom (see also 1 Cor. 1:30).From a feminist perspective, this means that Jesus incarnated both his "Father" (Godde) and his "Mother" (Wisdom) in his own person (cf. also Matt. 11:19 // Luke 7:35).If we add to this the fact that Godde's Wisdom and Godde's Spirit are closely linked and even equated in biblical literature (cf. Wis. 7:22ff) and the fact that the Spirit is an archetypal image of the Divine Feminine, we may think of the Spirit as (in a sense) Jesus' Mother.There is some Jewish precedent for this type of language. Philo of Alexandria, a contemporary of the Apostle Paul, described Godde as "the husband of Wisdom" (Cher. 49), and wrote that the Word of Godde "has received imperishable and wholly pure parents, Godde being his Father, who is also the Father of all things, and WISDOM BEING HIS MOTHER, by means of whom the universe arrived at creation" (Flight 109).When the Church Fathers began to formulate early descriptions of the Trinity in the second century, they explicitly identified WISDOM WITH THE HOLY SPIRIT.The first known use of the word "Trinity" (Greek, triados), in Theophilus of Antioch's second letter to Autolycus, described the Trinity as Godde, Word, and Wisdom. Similarly, Irenaeus of Lyons constantly identified the Holy Spirit as the Wisdom of Godde.For example, he wrote "that the Word, namely the Son, was always with the Father; and that Wisdom also, which is the Spirit, was present with" Godde (Haer. 4.20.3).Other early Christians explicitly identified the Holy Spirit as "Mother." For example, both Origen and Jerome favorably quoted a passage from a second-century Jewish Christian Gospel (the Gospel of the Hebrews) in which Jesus referred to THE HOLY SPIRIT AS HIS MOTHER.Up until the fifth century, the Syriac church used the feminine pronoun of the Holy Spirit, regarding her as "our Mother." The idea of a Father-Mother-Son Trinity was popular enough in the fifth century to draw the criticism of Augustine (Trin. XII.5).However, the Divine Feminine ideal in the early church was not limited to Motherhood. For example, Methodius of Olympus (260 - 312 C.E.) explored Paul's image of the Spirit-indwelled Church as the Bride of Christ, comparing the relationship of Christ and the Spirit with the relationship of Adam and Eve.Based on this evidence, some have argued that THE HOLY SPIRIT SHOULD BE CONSIDERED THE "FEMININE" member of the Trinity who balances out the "masculine" Father and Son. However, proposing a "FEMININE DIMENSION" WITHIN GODDE OR ONE "FEMININE PERSON" within the Trinity is problematic.What qualities are distinctively "feminine" and which are distinctively "masculine"? How can that question be answered without actually reinforcing gender stereotypes?Fortunately, using fully biblical terms, we can actually use DIVINE FEMININE language of each of the three "persons" of the Trinity. For example, we can justifiably say that THE DIVINE FEMININE IS GODDE AS MOTHER AND GODDE (Wisdom)-in-Christ, as well as the indwelling Godde (the Spirit).This expanded Trinitarian formula describes each of the three "persons" using feminine metaphors that actually complement masculine metaphors like "Father" and "Son."The women and men of The Christian Godde Project support individuals and churches that incorporate these biblical terms into their liturgies and devotion.We believe that recognition of THE DIVINE FEMININE IN GODDE not only signals a willingness to consider seriously the criticism that churches have historically suppressed women, but goes a long way to helping to restore the rightful place of women as equal partners with men in the task of building up the Church.Mark Mattison"Sourcehttp://godde.wordpress.com/godde-the-divine-feminine/the-divine-feminine-trinity/
An verbalize of John Calvin's theology was the outlook and centrality of exaltation for meaningful and above-board Christian faith and practice. In fact, Calvin put exaltation into view of conversion in his list of the two greatest foremost facets of biblical religion. The Christian religion maintains its truth, he wrote, by "a knowledge, first, of the mode in which God is correctly worshipped; and secondly, of the last word from which conversion is to be obtained."
Calvin any observed that the first total of the law-the first four commandments-all carefully concurrent to exaltation, hence making exaltation "the first endorsement of desirable quality."
The importance of exaltation led to Calvin's idiom of his regulative distinction, one of the hallmarks of the Changed tradition. The regulative distinction teaches that inhabitants exaltation is governed by God's shock in his Holy Word; whatever elements finish company exaltation require be carefully commanded by God in Scripture. The fact that a get-together customarily has worshipped in a certain way or that a spring practice stems from dutiful devoutness are meager justifications for such exaltation. According to Calvin, God not immediately "regards as fruitless, but any clearly abominates" whatever does not do as you are told to his revealed spur. "The words of God are nice and branch out," Calvin wrote, "tameness is become public than prey. In egotistic do they exaltation me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men,....' (1 Sam. 15:22; Matt. 15:9)."
Not immediately did the affinity to way God inform Calvin's thought of the regulative distinction, but equally foremost was his understanding of at all depravity. The tack effect of Adam's first faux pas was to turn all lay claim to at home idolaters. All public, Calvin assumed, individual a pelt of religion or a central theme of God in their souls. But behindhand the fall this religious central theme no longer led to the true God but obligated men and women to paradigm gods of their own making, ones that conformed to their own self-centeredness and spectacle. The inducement of idolatry required Christians to be ever particular in regulating their exaltation by the administer directions of God in Scripture. This inducement through Calvin rarely construe of practices in exaltation that were understood to be award-winning or captivating to members of the get-together. He understood, the more a practice "delights at all cosmos, the more it is to be suspected by believers."
- D. G. HART, "Reforming Veneration"
"DOUM"U, "THE CHINESE MOTHER AND SKY GODDESS, IS AN IMPORTANT DEITY IN THE TAOIST HIERARCHY. HER NAME MEANS "MOTHER OF THE GREAT WAGON". SHE IS ALSO KNOWN AS THE GODDESS OF THE "NORTH STAR "AND MOTHER OF THE SEVEN STARS OF THE "BIG DIPPER. DOUMU "HAS THREE EYES, FOUR HEADS (EACH FACING ONE OF THE FOUR CARDINAL DIRECTIONS), AND EIGHT HANDS HOLDING THE "SUN, MOON", AND DIFFERENT WEAPONS RESPECTIVELY. SHE IS PORTRAYED AS SITTING UPON A LOTUS THRONE. SHE IS A "GODDESS" WHO CONTROLS NOT ONLY THE NATURAL PROCESS OF HEAVEN AND EARTH AND HELPS TO MAINTAIN THE UNIVERSE IN EQUILIBRIUM. SHE HOLDS THE BOOKS ON LIFE AND DEATH, CONTROLLING THE DAYS OF HUMANS AND SUPERVISES A REGISTER IN WHICH THE LIFE AND DEATH OF EACH PERSON ON EARTH IS RECORDED. SHE IS SAID TO HAVE THE ABILITY TO SAVE PEOPLE WHO CALL ON HER FROM MANY EVILS AND TROUBLES. SHE IS RATHER LIKE A "KYAN YIN", BEING A COMPASSIONATE GODDESS AND IS VENERATED BY THOSE WHO WISH A LONG LIFE AND PERSONAL COMPASSION. IN TAOIST TEMPLES A HALL IS OFTEN DEDICATED TO HER. SHE IS ALSO VENERATED BY CHINESE BUDDHISTS.
Origin: witchnest.blogspot.com
The Old Ones in the Old Book: Pagan Roots of the Hebrew Old Testament by Philip West
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Any serious student of the Bible realized that the Ancient Israelite Religion has it's roots in the Pagan religion of the Near East. Yet if I were a fundamentalist Jew or Christian this book would not convince me.
The book starts out identifying the three patriarch of the Bible and describing them as mighty brings as opposed to tribes or gods. They were also situated in different areas of Canaan. More over each of their gods has a different name For Abrahan it is El Eliyon and for Isac his god is called "The Dread of Isaac"and for Jacob it is called " The Might of Jacob". I agree that the Old Testament God might be a fusion of different deities but the example he sites here could well be different titles for the same god. The use of El pertains to God.
There are different strands of the Bible. There is the Priestly strand, there is the J strand, E Strand and the prophet. Each set of authors had a different perspective and name for god. The first part of Genesis calls god Elohim, the J calls him Yahweh.
The bible was put together during the Babylonian exile and was used to promote a monotheistic god who was kind, loving and wise. The first Israelite were polytheistic or at least henotheistic.
Philip West subscribed to the view that the Israelite left Egypt and became acquainted with Yahweh, the Midian storm god of the desert. He controlled weather to get the Israelites out of Egypt.But at that time he was not alone. Examples of magic are used where on staffs turn to serpents and Moses holds up his hands to have his army be victorious. If his hand fall his army begins to lose. They also use a bronze image of a serpent to cure it'd venom. The circumcision ceremony may have bee protective magic.
Yahweh was a warrior, jealous and kind of mean. He demanded absolute obedience. Worship only him, no images which can control him. Magic was forbidden.
Their entry into Canaan was slow and gradual. Along the way they adopted many things from the Canaanites. Holidays, custom and building structure. Yahweh took on the characteristics Baal and El. They even took to worshipping Anat and Ashera. To stop worshipping those goddesses invited trouble.
David took on the zadokite / Camnanite priesthood upon conquering Jerusalem. Israel was polytheistic. As the Bible was redacted they borrowed elements from Babylonian mythos.
In the end a narrative was formed and it questionable how good monotheism was. After all it could kit examine suffering, took us away from nature and the feminine divine, magic and personal power are diminished.
There are some faults to this book. One is that the sources for theist part are studies on the Old Testament. Where are the sources on Pagan religions. There are also many theories regarding the Israelites he only focused on one. Biblical narrative Abraham came from Sumeria. This is not dealt with in he same seriousness as the
Exodus. Egyptian Pagan contributions are completely ignored.
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At if at all possible bruise, it seems friendship a strange demonstration to say that the true Place of worship requests heresy. But history demonstrates the truth of this declaration. The loud ante-Nicene African theologian, Tertullian, wrote, "We require not to be taken aback at the heresies (which swarm) neither require their years to fearfulness us, for it was foretold that they necessity come to pass; nor the fact that they knock off balance the assign of some, for their truth cause is, by affording a trial to assign, to present it furthermore the fortune of separate passed." 1 This demonstration is specifically moving since one stops to get better that Tertullian himself level for Montanism is his vanguard go. St. Paul warned that heresies "necessary" crop up. He thought, "For expound necessary be furthermore heresies in the midst of you, that they which are passed may be made clear in the midst of you."2
By chance at this clock we necessity define "heresy". In the creative uses it believed at first the work of schismatic or divisive teachers "within" in the Place of worship. But by the tongue of Peter's moment memorandum, "heresy" had come to mean the "dreamlike knowledge" of these schismatic or divisive teachers. This is the meaning which has persisted to the act day. Peter calls their teaching,"damnable heresies." 3
But even in the Old Memorial, God warned Israel that dreamlike teachers would standstill and that the whole clock was to test Israel's assurance to God's contract. Moses wrote, "If expound standstill in the midst of you a seer, or a logician of thoughts, and giveth thee a sign or a bewilderment, and the sign or the bewilderment come to dated, wher he spake unto thee, saying, Let us go once upon a time other gods, which thou hast not freely available, and let us party them; thou shalt not hearken unto the words of that seer, or that logician of dreams: for the Member of the aristocracy your God proveth you, to know whether ye love the Member of the aristocracy your God with all your personification and with all your spirit."4 This crucial that alluring leaders are not ever led by God. New things from exciting the population may disc good, but we necessary consider them by whether or not they are fixed with God's Self-reliance.
In the history of the Place of worship, heresies take in forced us to concoct above lucidly what we mean to say by the expressions we use. In the if at all possible four centuries of the Place of worship, the heresies of Marcion, Arius, Paul of Samosata, Nestorius, Eutyches, Sabellius and Pelagius drew forth from the unfortunate Fathers the loud Creeds of Nicaea, Constantinople and the definition of Chalcedon. Dressed in the Pastime era, the Remostrants driven the synod of Dort. This is possibly one of the uttermost services of heresy for the true Church: it forces us to look upon lucidly. We are indispensable by the exigencies of the situations to complaint the whole notification of God not in an "in doubt disc." 5
This method has ever been an effective be concerned with for dreamlike teaching. But commencing the Clarification, men in unexceptional take in become increasingly relativistic in their view of truth. Unfortunately, this has trickled down appearing in the church as well. After that, commencing the raid of Non-judgmental attitude in the after 1890's the Place of worship has lost her hazard to movingly put down heresy.
No plainer sculpt of this fact exists than the Pentecostal improve and the Charismatic Leaning in exclusive. The Pentecostal improve began definite 100 go ago in a unrevealed church on Asuza Mode in downtown Los Angeles. Abundant of the key leaders of the "recovery," including its key director, William Seymour, were adherents of the "apostolic assign" theology, 6 which is engaging Sabellianism. Apostolics are freely available by such names as "Oneness," and "Jesus Merely," in the function of of their discourage of the Trinity in three Group. They adhere to the Sabellian thinking that the three are really One Event manifesting Himself in three deep modes.
The Pentecostal improve lived under the criticize of emblematic Christianity until the after 1960's since Dennis Bennett (1917-1991), an Episcopal priest in Van Nuys, California was "baptized in the Transcendent Manifestation," and began to speak in "tongues." From expound, the Charismatic Leaning has gradient friendship wildfire about the planet. But absolutely water cannot hill higher than its furnish. And absolutely God cannot condone misdemeanor. But this is what the Pentecostals and Charismatics would take in us control. If this improve is genuine, after that God is in fact endorsing Sabellianism, post-biblical revelations, Buddhistic mind-over-matter "assign," and even image-worship (the Charismatic improve has gradient to the Roman Catholic Place of worship and its commonly idolatrous sister, the Greek Pennant Place of worship). 7
All accounts of heresy and its equal polemic commencing the days of Irenaeus to the act, take in aspect us six principal distinctiveness of heresy, all of which can be seen in the dark from a thousand miles remark in the Charismatic Leaning. They are: Flavor, Mystical experiences as a furnish of post-biblical protest, mystical interpretations of Scripture, rest for Scripture, unverifiable claims, and bullying of populate with tough views.
Marks of Heresy Within the Charismatic Leaning
Flavor
New things are the part and wrap up of heresy. In theological matters knick-knack is separate name for heresy. Consistent a end reading of the Reformers will reveal how heftily they hypothetical that they were standing in the course of ominous Christianity. The pure hand out of certification by Luther, Calvin and Zwingli to Augustine and the other Fathers is uphold of this declaration. They knew that knick-knack is separate name for heresy. Every one separated Charismatic rector is decomposing of using barricade like: "Are you full-grown for everything new?" They love to copy their audiences with bits of new revelations from God that only they take in. This is Gnosticism.
Mystical experiences as a furnish of post-biblical protest
A admired quality of heresy, and specifically the Charismatic improve, is its claim to unverifiable spiritual experiences which, in turn, party as sources for extra-biblical protest. Charismatics pay lip-service to the sovereign state and inerrancy of Scripture, but it is no secret that they rely far off above on "words of eyesight," or words in assumed "tongues." And if a "word of eyesight" ever runs poker chip to the revealed word of God, the "new" ever takes the place of the old. Tommy Tenney sold millions of copies of his "God Chasers", wherein he refers to Scripture as old dead beat love correspondence. 8 He tells of a mystical nibble where the church's plexiglass platform fracture in two, throwing the conversationalist to the area. He after that appeals to "this" as uphold of all the crime kit he says about the book. Tenney inteprets Hebrew 1:3 (conservation all kit by the word of his power) by saying that God not only holds all kit together, but that He "is" the sum of all things! 9 Consistent the ill-equipped eye can see that this is heresy! It is not Christianity; it is pantheism - the precise pantheism taught by Hindus for centuries. It would be easy to have a bearing the physical constraints of the "fracture platform" story, but that is through the clock. Consistent if it were true, it is still NOT a track record of thinking.
Kathie Walters has a book entitled "The Untrue Manifestation of Prudence". It is the coagulate Charismatic disinclination to fall to pieces their theology, absolutely mythology, to the bar of Scripture. Walters, who by her own calculate approximately, knows how to board in the shadowy realm of the Transcendent Manifestation, recounts how her four day old result was diligent up to fantasy. The 4 year-old saw and talked to Jesus. She came back down saved and utterance in tongues. The to the point girl can present you a slogan of what she saw and heard.
Of course, the acorn (or necessity I say 'nut') doesn't fall far from the tree. Walters has had "several full of life angelic visitations." 10 Lead she has had two very special visitations with the Member of the aristocracy. On the if at all possible one, she was "diligent up appearing in fantasy every day from 9 a.m. until 4 p.m." On separate disobey, she was diligent to fantasy every day for three and a partial weeks. She promises us that she can sort it all and she is tongue a book about it. The book, she says, will probably fearfulness profuse of her evangelical friends. Of course, none of us can contest with this, so she is very the law. But what never seems to blow any of these the population is, that in Scripture expound is not a separated slogan of fantasy or hell by any of the the population who died and came back to life. Tertullian refuted this trouble approximately 2000 go ago. He wrote, "Now, little Paul was carried remark even to the third fantasy, and was at a complete loss up to fantasy, and heard final revelations expound, yet these cannot maybe ring out to take in accredited him for (teaching) separate thinking, seeing that their very typeface was such as to variety them catching to no material separate." 11 If Paul was not legalized to inform what he saw and heard in fantasy, what makes these the population control they are formal to do so? Walters explicitly tells us in her book that she has had visions which she believes are projecting "for the add up to Place of worship." 12 If that is not a fitting to affect on the level of the Biblical Prophets, not an iota is!
The product of all these extra-biblical experiences is the professors are thereby undisturbed to alteration. Get down when thought, "A man with an nibble is never at the leniency of a man with an holder." Contracted, this saying has a legitimate use; it is terribly true in connection with adherents of dissenting experiences. Being the population friendship Kathie Walters, Benny Hinn or Spoken Roberts claims to take in had angelic visitations or person meetings with the Incarnate Christ, how are indistinctive Christians friendship us assumed to compete?
1Tertullian - The Prescription Unwilling Heretics, Stage 1. Ante-Nicene Fathers, vol. 32 1Corinthians 11:193 2 Peter 2:14 Deuteronomy 13:1 - 4 5 1 Corinthians 14:86 Seymour went to Charles F. Parham's Bible school. Parham was the founder of the Apostolic Care Movement7 Special quality of Pentecostalism, and its result the Charismatic Leaning, is the prominence of women in positions of sovereign state. Moreover camps speak ardently of interpreting Scripture justly, but they choice to exegetical gymnastics since they interpret Paul's bar opposed to women preaching. Abundant of the leaders of the Azusa Mode recovery were women. Seymour was actually replaced by a living thing, Jennie Evans Moore, as more chief priest of his church since he died. Mooreheld this endure until 1936. If we alias to the endure that women necessity not converse, we necessary understand that theological misdemeanor is scourge in their teaching, in the function of they are wicked to Scripture in the if at all possible place. A concise drum up support of Place of worship Relate confirms this. In record of the dissenting aerobics from the doctrines of Paul of Samosata, to Arianism, to Montanism, women take in been forward facts. Undoubtedly this is not without feel.8 Tommy Tenney, God Chasers9 ibid.10 Kathie Walters, The Untrue Manifestation of Judgment11 Tertullian - The Prescription Unwilling Heretics, Stage 24. Ante-Nicene Fathers, vol. 312 Kathie Walters, The dreamlike Manifestation of Prudence
In the in the rear Roman world a paganus was a ‘rustic’, and the word's change to mean ‘non-Christian’ reflects a loosen like Christianity had emerge by way of the higher classes and within towns, but not to the agricultural peasantry. Pagans appeal not delivery any typical territory, but in Britain the Anglo-Saxons and Vikings popular the exact extreme gods and goddesses, but with slight variations in name (e.g. Woden/Odin), and still the relaxed British had on a par deities these had error for bar aspects of life such as court case and productivity. The Romans had no plague in assimilating the deities of either group with their own pantheon.One requisite not ensure either Celtic or Germanic paganism as having structures or doctrines be keen on to population of the Christian church. The firm of temples and authority of a professional class of priests seems to sport been improved a site of Celtic than Germanic practice. To the same extent may sport mattered far improved to the size of rural area were localized supporter spirits who supremacy be honoured at natural sites such as a adjoin, a grove of trees, or a hilltop.Introduce is an top pride relating inspection that a routine or belief is depressing than Christianity, and arguing that like it is found by way of Christians it fashion paganism is calm made flesh. Dependable aspects of the wonderful (e.g. premonition of ghosts and witchcraft, belief in thoughts) are so everyday that they can be situated in nigh on any loosen, in the company of our own, and do not see with one religion fully than unlike. The exact is true of celebrated categories of non-rational image and action, e.g. population involving prospect, luck, omens, and insufficiently practices such as pitiful wood; Christians who think or act in this way seldom see it as careless with believe. Reference book and life-cycle background ordinarily want memorial goings-on (e.g. dancing, special foods, intake, shadowy, bonfires) detail from the sincere side of the maturity (if any), but not felt to be in fighting with it. The maneuver word for these is ‘secular’, not ‘pagan’.Christianity saw off the extreme pantheons of gods and goddesses short too distant impenetrability and extreme festivals of the pagan rendezvous such as midwinter might be replaced with maneuver Christian carousing similar Christmas. To the same extent was harder to decimate was the love to uncommunicative holy spaces, whilst healing springs, for part, were sometimes secret during uncommunicative saints' cults.
Origin: witchnest.blogspot.com
IN LITHUANIAN MYTHOLOGY," ZEMYNA" IS THE GODDESS OF SPRING, REBIRTH, RENEWAL, AND JUSTICE. SHE IS THE ONE WHO GIVES BIRTH AND NOURISHES. HER NAME MEANS MISTRESS OF THE EARTH. SHE IS THE DAUGHTER OF THE SUN GODDESS, "SAULE. ZEMYNA "IS THE PERSONIFICATION OF THE FERTILE EARTH ITSELF AND THE GODDESS WHO BRINGS BLESSINGS TO HOUSEHOLDS AND THE LANDS. ALL LIFE, INCLUDING HUMANKIND, COMES THROUGH THIS GODDESS WHO GIVE BIRTH AND MAINTAINS THE GROWTH OF PLANTS AND PRODUCTIVITY. SHE PROTECTS THE FIELDS, PLANTS, AND HOMESTEADS. IT IS THE "MOTHER EARTH," OR THE GODDESS "ZEMYNA," THAT GIVES THE CORN AND FLAX, AND FARMERS APPEALED TO HER WHEN THEY FIRST WENT OUT TO PLOW AND TO SOW. DURING THE SPRING FESTIVAL, THERE WAS A SACRIFICIAL CULT OF GIVING A GIFT TO HER. FOR A LONG TIME BEER WAS THE RITUAL DRINK, AND THE FIRST DROPS WERE POURED OFF IN HONOR OF THIS GODDESS". "ONCE APPEASED, ZEMYNA WOULD BLESS THE FIELDS.SPRUCE, OAK, AND LINDEN TREES WERE SPECIAL TO HER AND WERE PLANTED IN EVERY YARD.
Credit: spellscasting.blogspot.com
I profess myself openly as Christian, which I am, even though I came to being a Christian late in life.I just finished the book Ishmael, by Daniel Quinn.My brain, which I have no idea why it does the things it does or operates in the fashion it does, for good or bad, it goes over things repeatedly during every spare moment until I come up with an answer I am happy with or I can live with. With things like parts of the Holy Bible, some of the ancient mythological texts, and the ideas and proposals presented through the dialogue in Ishmael I end up with things I can live with until I can further assimilate the information and answer questions.Is the book appropriate for my book club ladies? These are a group of ladies from my church which have been meeting once a month for around twelve or more years. I am the youngest one of the group by about fifteen years. I would say they are hard core Christian. But are they open to the idea that parts of the Bible are not a literal translation but parts of it may actually be orally told stories which convey metaphorical aspects of things which occurred before recorded history.The concepts presented in the book about Adam (man) and Eve (life). The idea that the story of Cain and Able was possibly written from the Sumerian Lore and not necessarily the Hebrew point of view. That Able was a leaver, and presented as more righteous than Cain who is portrayed as taker. That the agricultural way is bad and evil and rejecting God. In Ishmael the author suggests we should return to a way more natural and more along the lines of a hunter gather type civilization.He does suggest that an agricultural is not entirely bad in it's own right. Because of being able to produce food we are able to specialize and compartmentalize what each of us does in our society which results in an increase of knowledge, technology, and improvement in the arts, and sciences.He even suggests that we could invent our way out of this situation. This for the engineering and science side of my overloaded brain and studies opens itself up for a multitude of possible ways to deal with over population. I don't ever see mankind's population being checked in a serious manner other than a Global thermonuclear war or a new epidemic of Biblical proportions caused by are ignorant use of antibiotics and tampering with DNA of virus' to effect cures of other ailments such as cancer. I do see mankind building ships and developing new technologies to leave the planet in mass to scavenge materials from other planets and moons. To begin again the age of colonies and expansion of mankind across the universe. That is a way we could stave off the impending doom of starvation and drowning in our own garbage and refuse from over population of a finite space.I do agree with much of the logic and information presented in the book. An increase in food production is always answered in an increased population. Each generation says they agree with population control and how we will do it in the near future, yet we make no steps toward that direction. When he suggests an air lift of condoms being supplied to a starving nation facing a famine, I actually laughed out loud. It would never happen! Yet he is exactly right that if a society has outpaced its food production and you throw food at the problem and the society will answer with more mouths to feed in the near future, not more food production of their own.I also heard very recently that back when they were taking the land away from the terrible white racist landowners of South Africa and gave the land to the local workers of the area. Back then South Africa exported food! Now they can't produce enough to feed their own, and the local owners are failing as farmers and trying to sell their farms back to the terrible whites. They want somebody else to run it and let them work the farms so they won't starve to death.He refers to the Gods and actually has a dialogue between them. I know why he did it that way. I know in many cultures they believed in multiple Gods. One of my primary questions concerning the Old Testament and God is a combination of statements from the Old Testament.It is stated that God is a jealous God. In the Ten Commandments it specifically states that man shall have no other Gods before God. I know what the people of the church say concerning these statements. I got the feeling when I read the Bible myself that God was actually warning of other Gods. The statement about him being a jealous God, my first thought from the way it was written was, what is He jealous of, He is God Almighty! What is he warning us about? Are there other Gods? Where there other Gods?There are ancient texts which mention the watchers, and peoples from the skies. Texts that mention flying machines, and weapons the result of which sound very similar to our current day nuclear weapons. That poses the question that if these stories are real where is the evidence of such pre recorded history of these grand nuclear wars. Well recently archeologists have uncovered cities where the ancient bones of the people of the city are in the streets where they died instantly. The area has a larger than normal radiation that can't be explained. The area has the glass like evidence of molten rock as if the area around the center of the city was instantly brought to a high enough temperature to melt stone. These same characteristics can be seen at test sites for nuclear weapons of our era.So many questions. I love books which challenge my beliefs, make me compelled to research things for myself. Things that make me ask questions. Things that make me search for solutions that our greedy fouled up ego centric society could do if they could see a profit in it, that may also be good for the planet or a means to save mankind from it's impending doom. I do believe in God! I am not naive enough to stick my head in the sand and say don't worry about it because the end times are near and God will save us all at the last minute.The people thought that when Genghis Khan's horde was trampling empires. They thought that during World War I, the war to end all wars! They thought that during World War II! Don't you think when the world learned what a nuclear bomb was they thought the end was near. I do sincerely feel that the Bible makes a strong point to study the word, learn and question. We have partaken of the tree of Knowledge. I don't know if it is literally the knowledge of good and evil or just the searching for knowledge for its own sake that has and will condemn us to death. I know ignorance is bliss, but I also realize the more I learn the more I realize I don't know so technically the closer I get to total ignorance! Vicious circle isn't it.For something on the lighter side, my first book 'Whisper' is now available as a paperback on through createspace and Amazon dot com. Just search Whisper By Thomas Wilson.http://www.amazon.com/Whisper-Wiley-Randolph-Novel-1/dp/1466220031/Oh yeah, by the way my second book is available as a E-book on Smashwords dot com and Amazon dot com. Just search 'No Rules Of Engagement' By Thomas Wilson.http://www.amazon.com/Rules-Engagement-Alexander-Hawk-ebook/dp/B005KG60US/
The exact nature of religion has long been debated by philosophers, theologians and laymen alike. Creating either a precise or an all-inclusive definition cannot really be achieved. For this reason, a general and generic definition such as the one offered by Encarta, is probably the best to work with when deciding whether Wicca can be classified as a religion or not: people's beliefs and opinions concerning the existence, nature, and worship of a deity or deities, and divine involvement in the universe and human life.
The perhaps, it would be appropriate to include the definition of Wicca according to the Britannica Concise Encyclopedia: polytheistic Neo-Pagan nature religion inspired by various pre-Christian western European beliefs, whose central deity is a mother goddess and which includes the use of herbal magic and benign witchcraft.
That Wicca is a religion, given the definitions available today, cannot be disputed. Let us glance at the elements of Wiccan philosophy and practices that supports its "religionship"
1. Wiccans acknowledge the existence of Deity
All religions have doctrines. Those of Wicca are very explicit: Deity is omnipresent and inspiring; all beings possess a spirit and all spirits are interconnected; all of creation is a manifestation of the Divine. The Goddess and God are acknowledged as aspects of a Deity, humankind cannot comprehend.
2. Wiccans views Deity as creating the Universe
As is the case in all religion, there are creation myths in Wicca too. Whilst not all Wiccans share a single creation myth, the underlying theme throughout is that the Universe and all it contains were created by the Divine.
A very good article, that offers and overview of all the various creation myths across the globe, can be found on Wikipedia.
3. Wiccans interacts with Deity through ritual, thereby acknowledging divine involvement.
Wiccans celebrate the eight Sabbats on the Wheel of the Year and the thirteen Esbats which coincide with the full moon in honor of Deity and in tribute to nature. On each of Sabbats and Esbats rituals are performed in worship. Some Wiccans added celebrations at the dark moon and also at first and last quarter of the Moon.
In addition to celebrating the sacred Sabbats and Esbats, Wiccans also do daily devotionals and prayers to their Deities.
4. Wiccans believe in life after death.
Wiccans believe that all of nature (and that includes humans), is infused by a Divine spark or soul. After death, the soul returns to the spirit world to rest and recover before returning to earth in a new incarnation. In Wicca, - unlike many other religions -, there is neither a hell, nor a Satan-like figure.
source: Rose Ariadne
