Why is Christianity Appealing to You?

I was recently asked this question; and I thought it was very interesting.  I think that from now on, whenever I bring on a new writer, I will have them first write a post answering this very question.
At first glance, I doubt most Christians would be able to relay a response with any sort of sense tied into it.

I must wonder though, what would most Christians answer?  I don’t know, but I can answer for myself.

I am a cynic at best.  I love to question, I love to argue, I enjoy making people question things themselves.  I’m also not your typical Christian.  I was not brought up in the midst of Christianity, but had to meet Christ in my High School years.

When I was searching for something to make sense of the world, I searched through many different religions.  I read the Muslim Quran, The Jewish Torah, The Christian Bible and even quite a bit of the Hindu Vedas.  I have studied much of Bhuddism and read volumes on the New Age movement.  I have visited countless churches of countless denominations.  I have attended new member classes, read and outlined Books of Discipline, and  met with Preachers, Priests, Teachers and Laymen.
It was and continues to be a journey.

But Christianity grabbed my attention.  Here is why I believe it did.
Before I get too deep here, I want to be clear that I don’t mean to step on any toes.  This was my journey, and in order to be true to you and myself- I will relay my findings without bias or prejudice to the best of my ability.

When someone in the East is studying Western culture, we often find they study it with a bias toward the East.  When someone in the West is studying Western culture, we often find they study it with a bias toward…. The East.
Why is this?  We, in the west, have found ourselves so likely to be biased toward ourselves, that to counter it and become unbiased, we have simply decided to favor Eastern culture.
So we will attempt in this article to be bias only toward truth.

When one steps into the realm of studying world religions, they all seem to be pointing toward the same thing or things with the same motives in mind.  But what stands out about Christianity for me is motive.  While almost all other world religions that I have managed to study or come across place one’s focus on one’s self, Christianity concentrates on the external.
What do I mean when I say that other religions place one’s focus on one’s self?

Bhuddism is centered on self enlightenment through the elimination of desire.
Hinduism is based on improving one’s caste in the next life by improving the way you live your current life.
Islam is centered on living by the Q’uran and the Seven Pillars to improve one’s favor with Allah.
Judaism, much like Islam, is centered around living by the Law(Torah) and gaining favor with God.

Christianity,(the True Christian Message) though, is about living and sharing love with others.
All else takes a backseat.
We are to emulate the love that God showed and continues to show us by giving love to others.

We are to give and share selflessly.  We are to love unconditionally.  It is an outward movement.
Christianity cannot be practiced alone.

What appeals to me about Christianity?
At night- I sit up wondering.  If I wake up in another place, dead, and find out that my belief system was completely inaccurate- BUT- I am allowed to go and relive my life, without this false pretense of Christian living- Would I?
No.
Why? — What about all I missed out on?
Christianity calls me to be the best possible person that I can be.  How much more could I ask out of myself than to love unconditionally and give to others without expecting back?

History has shown us that no matter how “Great” or “Powerful” we may become, we will be forgotten.  For example:  How many Caesars can you name?

So how can I go about making my dent and imprint on the world?
I will love as God has loved me.  I will share unconditionally.
I will give of myself, until there is nothing left.

That, is Christianity.

Galatians 5:14
The entire law is summed up in a single command: “Love your neighbor as yourself.”

Biblical Courtship in Action

I hate the word dating.  I will be a Junior at University in December, and I have been actively courting a young lady named Katie since my Junior year of high school.  I don’t like the word dating, because it has a very negative, modern (don’t be confused- not all things modern are negative) connotation to it.  Young men or women may date hundreds of people before they finally choose one to marry.  Courting is a much more selective process.

It’s the difference between give and take.

It’s the decision to put her before myself, my wants, my desires- even before the ring. 

As I began to court Katie I had to make a conscious decision that this would be different from the dating I had done in the past.  Courtship ALWAYS has marriage in mind.
When you hear of someone courting, words like pursuit should come to mind.  I am pursuing this young lady for marriage.  This is, in my educated opinion, the ONLY God-honoring way to “date”.

So then what does it take to court?

I have three “Main Tenets” to a Bibl

It seems this archaic, but its not.

ical Courtship, though I am very certain that you could add several more.  And I may do so in the future.  But in order to Start your courtship; here are the tenets:
1.  You MUST be able to see yourself with that person in a marital relationship.
2.  You MUST be able to openly communicate with that person about that future.
3.  (For the Men)  You MUST be able to convey that to her Father and have EARNED his permission to court her.

Ladies and Gentlemen: As Christian, even in your youth, you are to embody the image of Christ- in EVERY aspect of life.  This includes your love life. 
We all know and accept that marriage is meant to be a symbolism of Christ and His Church.  What if you could show others His love through your dating life as well?  If you could become an example of just what it means to love and treat someone with the adoration and devotion that Christ reserves for us all.

Seem daunting?  If so, should you be with her?  Are you willing to live up to the standard that you are called to live up to with her?  Have you established a relationship with Christ that shines firmly enough that others would expect the very same devout walk to shine through in a dating relationship?
And finally- Does she see and feel the same need to emulate this courtship that you do?

If any of the answers are negative, you need to rethink your position and why you are dating.  Is it for your glory?  For your own happiness?  Or for HER happiness and HIS glory?

I’ll close with this verse from Song of Songs:  Keep in mind that Song of Songs can be read both allegorically (as a symbol of Christ speaking to his Church) or literally as a Man speaking to his Wife.

You are beautiful, my darling, as Tirzah,
       lovely as Jerusalem,
       majestic as troops with banners. 
Turn your eyes from me;
       they overwhelm me.
Song of Songs 6:4-5

In Depth Analysis: Bill O’Reilly’s Interview of Richard Dawkins

For those of you who don’t know Richard Dawkins, He is the best selling author of The God Delusion.  He is one of the leading scholars in the Atheistic field.  The infinitely wise and humble Bill O’Reilly, who does a fantastic job holding his own in the Political Field, but far too often wanders into fields completely outside of his expertise, managed to lure Dr. Dawkins into an interview and then proceed to do harm to his own Theistic cause.  HOWEVER, He did manage to reveal something very important about American culture and an American Approach to theism though.
Before continuing on, please take four minutes and watch the interview:

Now I’d like to you to pay extra attention to the point at which Mr. O’Reilly claims that truth for him is Different from truth for everyone else. 
This is the point at which we need to distinguish between relative truth and absolute truth.  A relative truth could be considered the color of the wall:  Though the wall may look beige to me, it may be a very different color to you.  An absolute truth, however would be, as Bill O’Reilly stated, “That Jesus is God”.  This is absolute because it MUST either be true for EVERYONE or for No one. 
O’Reilly claims though, that because he cannot prove that Christ is God, it is true for him, but not for everyone.  I think that there is a cultural flaw here that transcends most American minds and their approach to religion as a whole.

As an American searching for further meaning, in a comforatable lifestyle with virtually no needing or wanting, we are in need of finding some sort of belonging in this enormous world.  It can be very daunting to find ourselves in a 6 billion person world, seemingly without purpose and without influence. 
Christianity, as a faith that brings about individual purpose as well as an overall divine purpose. 
For those not grounded in a faith though, or those raised in a secular cuture, it is exceedingly necessary to convince yourself that you matter to the world.  Most accomplish this by convincing themselves that “their” world is different from those around them.  The world I wake up into each and every day is My world.
It is through this sort of delusion that we are able to convince ourselves that Christ may be God in My world, but may not be in Your world- because they are (pretendedly) different.

If we could get past our Western delusion of a world of individuals, and reestablish a world in which we are all a part; we might be able to achieve a world of love. 

 

Enjoy this Post? Why not…

Subscribe to Our Feed

Save This Page

Digg it

Song of Songs Commentary: Chapters 7 and 8

In case you missed them:
Intro ; Chapters 1 and 2 ; Chapters 3 and 4 ; Chapters 5 and 6

Chapter 7

Lover: (How beautiful your sandaled feet, O prince’s daughter! Your graceful legs are like jewels, the work of a craftsman’s hands. Your navel is a rounded goblet that never lacks blended wine. Your waist is a mound of wheat encircled by lilies. Your breasts are like two fawns, twins of a gazelle. Your neck is like an ivory tower. Your eyes are the pools of Heshbon by the gate of Bath Rabbim. Your nose is like the tower of Lebanon looking toward Damascus. Your head crowns you like Mount Carmel. Your hair is like royal tapestry; the king is held captive by its tresses. How beautiful you are and how pleasing, O love, with your delights! Your stature is like that of the palm, and your breasts like clusters of fruit. I said, “I will climb the palm tree; I will take hold of its fruit.” May your breasts be like the clusters of the vine, the fragrance of your breath like apples, and your mouth like the best wine.) He re-tells her of her beauty and the reasons she has hold on his heart.

Beloved: May the wine go straight to my lover, flowing gently over lips and teeth. (I belong to my lover, and his desire is for me.) The Beloved is convinced. She reaffirms once again that he belongs to her and she belongs to him. She believes his love. (Come, my lover, let us go to the countryside, let us spend the night in the villages. Let us go early to the vineyards to see if the vines have budded, if their blossoms have opened, and if the pomegranates are in bloom- there I will give you my love. The mandrakes send out their fragrance, and at our door is every delicacy, both new and old, that I have stored up for you, my lover.) She is suggesting that they return to the place they met. The reaffirmation of love between the two has set her desire upon him.

Chapter 8

Beloved: (If only you were to me like a brother, who was nursed at my mother’s breasts! Then, if I found you outside, I would kiss you, and no one would despise me.) She is saying that she wishes that they were more alike. Then she would not be despised by the others in the kingdom. Keep in mind she was a working peasant girl who has suddenly risen to be the favorite of the most powerful, wisest, and wealthiest man in the world. I would lead you and bring you to my mother’s house- she who has taught me. I would give you spiced wine to drink, the nectar of my pomegranates. His left arm is under my head and his right arm embraces me. Daughters of Jerusalem, I charge you: Do not arouse or awaken love until it so desires.

Friends: Who is this coming up from the desert leaning on her lover?

Beloved: Under the apple tree I roused you; there your mother conceived you, there she who was in labor gave you birth. (Place me like a seal over my heart, like a seal on your arm) She asks him to “place her as a seal over his heart” that her jealousy never be founded. That he always love her with his whole heart; for love is as strong as death, its jealousy unyielding as the grave. It burns like a blazing fire, like a mighty flame. (Many waters cannot quench love; rivers cannot wash it away.) Mayim rabin lo yukhlu lekhbot ethaAhava uneharot lo yishtefuha imyiten ish etkol hon beito baAhava boz yavuzu lo.” If one were to give all the wealth of his house for love, it would be utterly scorned.

(Friends This point in our story is actually a reflection of the Beloved on her youth. She is reflecting from the point of view of her Brothers. We have a young sister, and her breasts are not yet grown. What shall we do for our sister for the day she is spoken for? (If she is a wall, we will build towers of silver on her.) This point in our story is actually a reflection of the Beloved on her youth. She is reflecting from the point of view of her Brothers. (If she is a door, we will enclose her with panels of cedar.) If she chooses to be a harlot, we will enclose and defend her honor at all costs.

Beloved: (I am a wall) The beloved chose to be a wall; She chose Chastity, and my breasts are like towers. (Thus I have become in his eyes like one bringing contentment.) She now reflects on the effect this decision has had on her husband, and the desire he now feels for her because of her decision to save herself for him. (Solomon had a vineyard in Baal Hamon; he let out his vineyard to tenants. Each was to bring for its fruit a thousand shekels of silver. But my own vineyard is mine to give; the thousand shekels are for you, O Solomon, and two hundred are for those who tend its fruit.) The vineyard she mentions is the same vineyard that Solomon owned and found her at. She then goes on to say that her own virginity was hers to give to whomever she pleased and she has chosen her husband, King Solomon.

Lover: You who dwell in the gardens with friends in attendance, let me hear your voice!

Beloved: Come away, my lover, and be a gazelle or like a young stag on the spice-laden mountains.

Enjoy this Post? Why not…

Subscribe to Our Feed

Save This Page

Digg it

Song of Songs Commentary: Chapters 5 and 6

In case you missed them:
Intro ; Chapters 1 and 2 ; Chapters 3 and 4

Chapter 5

Lover: (I have come into my garden, my sister, my bride; I have gathered my myrrh with my spice. I have eaten my honeycomb and my money; I have drunk my wine and milk.) The marriage is now consummated. The couple has had sex for the first time together.

Friends: Eat, O friends, and drink; drink your fill, O lovers.

Beloved: [(I slept but my heart was awake.) Dream #2 See commentary for description of dream. Listen! My lover is knocking: “Open to my, my sister, my darling, my dove, my flawless one. My head is drenched with dew, my hair with the dampness of the night.” I have taken off my robe- must I put it on again? I have washed my feet- must I soil them again? My lover thrust his hand through the latch-opening; my heart began to pound for him. I arose to open for my lover, and my hands dripped with myrrh, my fingers with flowing myrrh, on the handles of the lock. I opened for my lover, but my lover had left; he was gone. My heart sank at his departure. I looked for him but did not find him. I called him but he did not answer. The watchmen found me as they made their rounds in the city. They beat me, they bruised me; they took away my cloak, those watchmen of the walls!] This dream is the first sign of a developing jealousy within the Beloved. She is becoming Jealous of her Lover’s concubines, wives and virgins. O daughters of Jerusalem, I charge you- if you find my lover, what will you tell him? Tell him I am faint with love.

Friends: How is your beloved better than others, most beautiful of women? How is your beloved better than others, that you charge us so?

Beloved: (My lover is radiant and ruddy, outstanding among ten thousand. His head is purest gold; his hair is wavy and black as a raven. His eyes are like doves by the water streams, washed in milk, mounted like jewels. His cheeks are like beds of spice yielding perfume. His lips are like lilies dripping with myrrh. His arms are rods of gold set with chrystolite. His body is like polished ivory decorated with sapphires. His legs are pillars of marble set on bases of pure gold. His appearance is like Lebanon, choice as its cedars. His mouth is sweetness itself; he is altogether lovely. This is my lover, this is my friend, O daughters of Jerusalem.) The Beloved begins reminding herself while describing to others how much she loves her husband and why it is that she loves him so.

Chapter 6

Friends: Where has your lover gone, most beautiful of women? Which way did your lover turn, that we may look for him with you?

Beloved: My lover has gone down to his garden, to the bed of spices, to browse in the gardens and to gather lilies. ( I am my lover’s and my lover is mine; he browses among the lilies.) She then reaffirms to herself not only that he loves her, but that she loves him as well. They belong to eachother.

Lover: You are beautiful, my darling, as Tirzah, lovely as Jerusalem, majestic as troops with banners. (Turn your eyes from me; they overwhelm me.) Solomon begins reassuring his beloved of his love for her. He begins telling her all the reasons that he loves her. – The highlighted line is incredible as well. When read allegorically, it shows that Christ sees us and is overwhelmed with love. One glance of our eyes can overwhelm an infinite God! Your hair is like a flock of goats descending from Gilead. Your teeth are like a flock of sheep coming up from the washing. Each has its twin, not one of them is alone. Your temples behind your veil are like the halves of pomegranate. (Sixty queens there may be, and eighty concubines, and virgins beyond number; but my dove, my perfect one, is unique) Solomon assures his love that though there are sixty queens, eighty concubines and virgins beyond number, she is his one and only TRUE LOVE., the only daughter of her mother, the favorite of the one who bore her. The maidens saw her and called her blessed; the queens and concubines praised her.

Friends: Who is this that appears like the dawn, fair as the moon, bright as the sun, majestic as the stars in procession?

Lover: (I went down to the grove of nut trees to look at the new growth in the valley, to see if the vines had budded or the pomegranates were in bloom. Before I realized it, my desire set me among the royal chariots of my people.) Solomon tells her that he went to see his women and immediately his desire set him on his way back to her.

Friends: (Come back, come back, O Shulammite; come back, come back, that we may gaze on you!) The people of Israel now cry out to see this beautiful woman who has stolen the heart of their king from countless other women who belong to him.

Lover: (Why would you gaze on the Shulammite as on the dance of Mahanaim?) Solomon then becomes very defensive of his wife. By asking this question he is telling the people that she is his and his alone, and not a source of entertainment for the people. She belongs to him alone, and he belongs to her.

Enjoy this Post? Why not…

Subscribe to Our Feed

Save This Page

Digg it

A Critique of the Kalam Cosmological Argument

A Critique of the Kalam Cosmological Argument
Written by David Carlisle

Interesting argument. For anyone not familiar with it, here is an outline as given by William Lane Craig:

Premise 1: Everything that begins to exist has a cause.

Premise 2: The universe began to exist.

Conclusion 1: Therefore, the universe must have a cause.

Craig asserts that the first premise is “relatively uncontroversial”. He defines “begins to exist” as “comes into being,” and argues that we know from metaphysical intuition that things don’t just pop into being uncaused. According to Craig, this establishes premise 1.

The second premise is usually supported by the following argument:

1. An actual infinite cannot exist.
2. A beginningless series of events is an actual infinite.
3. Therefore, the universe cannot have existed infinitely in the past, as that would be a beginningless series of events.

So where lies the problem?

Theists regularly talk about a place “beyond” the universe, a transcendent realm where God exists “outside of time.”

“. . . the universe has a cause. This conclusion ought to stagger us, to fill us with awe, for it means that the universe was brought into existence by something which is greater than and beyond it.”

Of course, if you live “outside of time,” whatever that means, then you don’t need a beginning in time. A transcendent being, living “beyond” nature, is conveniently exempt from the limitations of natural law, and all complaints that God himself must have had a cause or a designer (using the same natural reasoning that tries to call for his existence) can be dismissed by theists who insist that God is outside the loop, unaffected by natural causality, beyond time.

Yet theists continue to describe this “timeless” being in temporal terms. Phrases such as “God decided to create the universe” are taken by us mere mortals to be analogous to such natural phrases as “Annie Laurie decided to bake a pie.” If such phrases are not equal or analogous to normal human language, and if they are not redefined coherently, then they are useless. We may as well say “God blopwaddled to scrumpwitch the universe.”

The word “create” is a transitive verb. We have no experience of transitive verbs operating outside of time (how could we?), so when we hear such a word, we must picture it the only way we can: a subject acts on an object. Considering the point at which an action is committed, there must be an antecedent state “during” which the action is not committed, and this would be true either in or out of time.

To say that “God created time” is not comprehensible to us. But if he did it anyway, in spite of our lack of imagination, then it couldn’t have happened “after” the decision to commit it, because there was no “before.” However, we might still imagine the act of creation as “following” the decision to create. Or, to avoid temporal terms, the creating succeeds the deciding in the logical order. (In logic we say that a conclusion “follows,” though we do not mean this happens in space or time. Craig writes that “the origin of the universe is causally prior to the Big Bang, though not temporally prior to the Big Bang.”)

Either in or out of time, the decision of a personal agency to commit an action happens antecedent to the action itself. Even if the deciding and the acting happened simultaneously, it would still not be true that the acting was antecedent to the deciding. Imagine God saying, “Oh, look! I just created a universe. Now I’d better decide to do it.”

This means that there must exist a series of antecedent causal events in the mind of a time-transcendent creator, if such a being exists. Since the Kalam argument claims that “an actual infinity cannot exist in reality,” it shoots itself in the foot: although Kalam deals with temporal succession, the same logic applies to non-temporal antecedent events, if such things are a part of reality. If the series were infinite, then God never could have traversed the totality of his own antecedent mental causes to arrive at his decision to say “Let there be light.” Therefore, sticking with Kalam, there must have been a “first antecedent” in the mind of an actual God, which means that God “began” to exist. (This means “began causally,” but theists have conceded the appropriateness of expressing non-temporal actions in temporal language.)

If theists counter that the Kalam argument applies only to the impossibility of an actual mathematical infinity within the material universe and that the transcendent, timeless domain of the Creator is an entirely different kind of “infinity” that is not subject to the same laws, then they are begging the question, again. Exempting the conclusion, by definition, from the premises by excluding the supernatural (the very thing theists are trying to prove) is circular reasoning. If it is true that an “actual infinity cannot exist in reality,” then a being who is actually infinite cannot be a part of reality. In other words, the Kalam disproves the reality of a beginning-less God. If infinity is just a concept, as Kalam insists, then an infinite God is just a concept.

If we take Kalam seriously, there is no escaping the fact that God (if he exists) had a beginning, either in or out of time. Since this is true, the phrase “Everything that begins to exist” includes God, and sticking with the cosmological argument, it follows that God has a cause.

At this point, the theist might remind us that we do have scientific knowledge of the beginning of the universe, but we have no such evidence regarding God. That is true, but it is self-incriminating. Yes, science is a material endeavor–it is impossible to probe the supernatural (whatever that is) with the tools of the natural world–but to say that we have no evidence that God had a beginning is to underscore the fact that we have no evidence about God at all. The Kalam argument was being propounded a millennium before scientists embraced the Big Bang, and its merits were then, as now, nonscientific.

Enjoy this Post? Why not…

Subscribe to Our Feed

Save This Page

Digg it

Song of Songs Commentary: Chapters 3 and 4

In case you missed them:
Intro ; Chapters 1 and 2

Chapter 3
Beloved:(All night long on my bed) This signifies the first dream- read intro for more description. I looked for the one my heart loves; I looked for him but did not find him.  I will get up now and go about the city, through its streets and squares; I will search for the one my heart loves.  So I looked for him but did not find him.  The watchmen found me as they made their rounds through the city.  “Have you seen the one my heart loves?”  Scarcely had I passed them when I found the one my heart loves.  I held him and I would not let him go until I had brought him to my mother’s house, to the room of the one who conceived me.  Daughters of Jerusalem,  I charge you by the gazelles and by the Does of the Field:  Do not arouse or awaken love until it so desires.  Who is this coming from the desert, like a column of smoke, perfumed with myrrh and incense made from all the spices of the merchant?  (Look!  It is Solomon’s carriage, escorted by sixty warriors, the noblest of Israel,) During the Night Solomon has disappeared and is now returning as a King in all his glory. The beloved is called to him, though she is still unaware that he is her shepherd lover. all of them wearing the sword, all of them experienced in battle, each with his sword at his side, prepared for the terrors of the night.  King Solomon made for himself the carriage; he made it of wood from Lebanon.  Its posts he made of silver, its base of gold.  Its seat was upholstered with purple, its interior lovingly inlaid by the daughters of Jerusalem.  Come out, you daughters of Zion, and look at King Solomon wearing the crown, the crown with which his mother crowned him, on the day of his wedding, the day his heart rejoiced.

Chapter 4

Lover: (How beautiful you are, my darling!  Oh, How Beautiful!  Your eyes behind your veil are doves.) Solomon does not waste time attempting to explain to his love the story of his disguise, but simply goes straight into telling her of his love for her. That even as a king, he is overcome and overwhelmed by her. (Your hair is like a flock of goats descending from Mount Gilead.) The hidden meanings of several of the disguised King Solomon’s complements towards his beloved following this can be quite intriguing. (Your teeth are like a flock of sheep just shorn, coming up from the washing.  Each has its twin, not one of them is alone.) In ancient Israel, before dentistry or orthodontics for one to have straight teeth without any missing was an incredible rarity. Your lips are like a scarlet ribbon; your mouth is lovely.  Your temples behind your veil are like the halves of a pomegranate.  Your neck is like the tower of David, built with elegance; on it hangs a thousand shields, all of them shields of warriors.  (Your two breasts are like two fawns, like twin fawns of a gazelle that browse among the lilies.) He desires her body as well as her love. He desires to “pet” her. This seems explicit for scripture, but it is not a desire of lust, but of love and commitment and a desire to fulfill the Dod portion of Love with his soul mate. Until the day breaks and the shadows flee, I will go to the mountain of myrrh and to the hill of incense.  (All beautiful you are, my darling; there is no flaw in you.) “Kulakh yafa Rayati umum ein bakh.” Come with me from Lebanon, my bride, come with me from Lebanon.  Descend from the crest of Amana, from the top of Senir, the summit of Hamon, from the lion’s den and the mountain haunts of the leopards.  (You have stolen my heart, my sister, my bride; you have stolen my heart with one glance of your eyes, with one jewel of your necklace.) Notice the repetition he uses- It shows a bewilderment at his love for her. Notice also the “with one glance of your eyes” showing that he acknowledges love at first sight. How delightful is your love, my sister, (my bride) They are married. He refers to her as his bride, symbolizing the marriage ceremony with only consummation remaining; milk and honey are under your tongue.  The fragrance of your garments is like that of Lebanon.  (You are a garden locked up, my sister, my bride; you are a spring enclosed, a sealed fountain.) King Solomon begins to describe her virginity. This shows that she has decided to wait for him and him alone. A garden is used many times through the story as a symbolism for her virginity, sexuality, body, etc. Your plants are an orchard with pomegranates, with choice fruits, with henna and nard, nard and saffron, calamus and cinnamon, with every kind of incense tree, with myrrh and aloes and all the finest spices.  You are a garden fountain, a well of flowing water, streaming down from Lebanon.
Beloved: (Awake north wind, and come south wind!  Blow on my garden, that its fragrance may spread abroad.) Notice that she invites him to come into HIS garden. This can be referenced forward to 1 Corinthians 7:4 stating that once married your body no longer belongs to you alone. (Let my lover come into his garden and taste its choice fruits.) Notice as she invites him to consummate the marriage.

Enjoy this Post? Why not…

Subscribe to Our Feed

Save This Page

Digg it

A Brief Outline of Zeno’s Paradox

A Brief outline of one of Zeno’s Paradoxes
Written by David Carlisle

A brief reflection on what we know as “now” and “motion”.

If everything when it occupies an equal space is at rest, and if that which is in locomotion is always occupying such a space at any moment, the flying arrow is therefore motionless.- Aristotle

In the arrow paradox, Zeno states that for motion to be occurring, an object must change the position which it occupies. He gives an example of an arrow in flight. He states that in any one instant of time, for the arrow to be moving it must either move to where it is, or it must move to where it is not. It cannot move to where it is not, because this is a single instant, and it cannot move to where it is because it is already there. In other words, in any instant of time there is no motion occurring, because an instant is a snapshot. Therefore, if it cannot move in a single instant it cannot move in any instant, making any motion impossible.

PAUSE.   This is far different from how I have read it in the past lol. Let’s find another version.

Let me word it myself. An arrow is shot. Really watered down version. 3 seconds from release until the arrow is in the ground.

Time Line in Seconds:
1s arrow leaves bow, 2s arrow in air, 3s arrow in ground.

If you isolated 2s, you have an arrow in mid air. At that moment, the arrow is at rest. No motion. Motion then is an illusion. Furthermore, it sees to me that any such thing as “now” must also be an illusion.

There are solutions out there to be found, but think about it yourself. See how it makes you feel.

Enjoy this Post? Why not…

Subscribe to Our Feed

Save This Page

Digg it

Must you know Christ’s Name?

As Christians, we are part of what many view as one of the most exclusive (yet ironically welcoming) clubs in the world.  If you’re not a member, and dont openly express Christ’s literal name, you’re destined to an eternity in Hell… Or are you?

Lets pose an idea.  How important is it that you truly use the name Christ? or even the name God?

Let’s pose a hypothetical.  There is a young lady living in Saudi Arabia in a family of devout Muslims. She, obviously, has devoted herself to Islam and the service of Allah, as it is what she has always been taught throguhout her life.  Occassionally, she sees the Christian missionaries coming through the city, and has even had the opportunity to speak with a few of them (though in secret, because speaking with a virgin in Saudi Arabia under Sharia Law can be fatal) about their beliefs and this jesus guy.  As expected, she is not receptive, because she has always been taught by her loving family that Allah is the way to Heaven and Muhammad was his one and only prophet.  During the week, our heroine spends her time volunteering in a womens hospital, caring for the sick and the ill.  She is striving to find new ways to serve and help, because she loves to feel as if she is making a difference in people’s lives.  Her friends, given the chance to descrive her using one word, said loving.

Is our heroine destined to Hell?  Doesn’t her life show an eery resemblance to the life of Christ?

Let’s get a bit more scriptural here. 1 John sheds some light on this idea.
1 John 4:8
Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.

God is Love.  Many, before even having read this verse would probably have allowed you to use the words God, Christ and Love synonymously.  Christ’s ministry was about showing love and serving God through loving others.  ”Whatever you do for the least of these you do for me”? Sound familiar?

So if God is love, and Christ is God, and Christ is love- then if you spend your life in love and in service to others and in living a Christ-like life (though you may not use the word Christ), arent you serving God?  If so, aren’t you glorifying him, utilizing the salvation provided in him, and thus finding yourself in Heaven?

This doesnt take away from Christ’s divinity or sacrifice, because we are still unable to reach Heaven without him.  We are still sinful and unable to earn our way.  It is simply that these people, though unknowingly, are serving Christ and God(love) and developing a relationship in love.  They are then taking on the salvation presented to the world by Christ which could ONLY be provided through Christ; simply through a different medium that has been presented us before.

Does this take away from following Christ?  Absolutely not, as we said before, He is still divinity and still our only path to salvation.  To follow and know Christ can only benefit and help us to live our lives in the best possible way with a relationship that we can confidently fall back on.

Keep in mind, we have a Just God- and no matter what the outcome of this question, we are not God and we can keep comfort in the knowledge that he will be Just in all He does.

This lesson is meant to keep you thinking and wondering above all else.  We can never and will never know the answers to questions like these.  If we do not continually ask questions such as these and remind ourselves that as opposed to living out exclusivity, we will forget to be living out unconditional love as did our Holy model Christ.

Maranatha.

Commercialized Christianity

This lesson was actually written as a Newspaper Article for the Opinions and Editorials Section of the Kennesaw State University Sentinel.  The article can be found here.

The first 31 verses of the Christian and Jewish scriptures, more commonly referred to as the “Creation Story” have been the cause of some of the most vehement debates seen throughout human history. These arguments over our origin, most often between theologians and scholars, have created a rift between theism and science that seems almost too wide to span. However, this rift, according to Dr. Gerald Schroeder an MIT educated philosopher and astrophysicist, has never existed. In the words of the famous medieval philosopher Moses Maimonides, “Conflicts between science and the bible arise from either a lack of scientific knowledge or a defective understanding of the bible.” Schroeder, working in light of Maimonides’ quote, has introduced a uniting idea between scientific and biblical ideas of the age of our universe.

Genesis has told us for about 2300 years now that the universe and everything in it were created in six days. As many have argued that the “days” may have symbolically meant eons or ages, recent study of the Hebrew word “Yom” which is used for “day” in this passage tells us that we can interpret it to mean a 24 hour period with certainty. How then could we ever dream of reconciling the difference between a 6,000 year old universe and a 15 billion year old universe? Fortunately, Schroeder is far from finished.

This uniting of theories begins with Einstein’s theory of relativity which tells us that the higher V (velocity) and the higher G (gravity) in a place, the slower time moves in that place relative to a place with lower V and G. We have found this to be true by measuring light waves. For example: On the sun time moves 67 seconds slower per year relative to time here on Earth. We have found this to be true in that light waves generated on the sun are 2.12 parts per million longer than light waves of the same type generated here on Earth. This is not because it is taking more time for the light to be generated, but time is simply moving more slowly, stretching the light itself. One then takes 2.12 seconds per million, applies that to the amount of seconds in a year and finds that the sun’s time is actually 1 year minus 67 seconds for every year we have here on Earth. Feel free to do the math yourself to settle any doubts.

What then if we applied this same principle to the total universe at the time of the Big Bang? Remember that at the Big Bang, the entirety of the energy and matter in the universe were constrained to a very small area: initially a single mathematical point which expanded exponentially upon explosion. Fortunately, there is a leftover evidence of the Big Bang which can be found throughout our entire universe. By using CBM (Cosmic Background Microwave Radiation) which NASA as well as most modern Astrophysicists has acknowledged as microwave residue left over from the Big Bang, we can calculate the difference in time in the same way that we did with the Sun by comparing the microwaves to microwaves generated here on Earth. These microwaves are stretched by a million million times comparatively. By applying the same mathematical principles to this early universe we find that the 260 million years since the dinosaurs roamed our world amounts to only 1 hour in terms of the universe as a whole. This does not represent a symbolic time, but an actual passage of total universal time of one hour since the dinosaurs roamed the Earth. What if we apply it to the scientific 15 ¾ Billion year age of our universe? We find the total age of the universe using universal time to be exactly 6 days. This would make sense in regards to a biblical narrative as well, considering Genesis 2:4 and 5:1 separate the scriptures into two segments of “generations” or time. When working on a universal scale, God used Universal time. When working on an Earthly scale, God used Earthly time. This seems logical.

Is it possible that our theologians and physicists have spent their time arguing and debating in vain? Could both answers be equally accurate, true and valuable? This research seems to tell us exactly that. These sort of ideas and theories should teach everyone, Theist and Secularist alike, to keep their minds open and searching for wisdom in all areas and facets of our world.