From:
david.j.worrell@gmail.com
On Saturday, October 21, 2017 at 12:33:12 AM UTC-7, LowRider44M wrote:
In the spring there is growth.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bow1ZJTV4L4
Truth creates power, power is best left to die.
"The Feeding of the 5,000 is also known as the "miracle of the five loaves
and two fish", because the Gospel of John reports that five barley loaves and two small fish supplied by a boy were used by Jesus to feed a multitude."
The boy was a quite a clever writer. He was in the tomb to.
A black sheep so to speak, but just as lost, like everyone else.
Trapped cleaning the mineral pools in Jerusalem for all eternity.
Then a bridge opened.
R.C. Symes essay on "Jesus' Miracles and Religious Myth"
http://www.religioustolerance.org/symes04.htm
Excerpts:
The validity of miracles depends upon the reliability of evidence and witnesses. The Old Testament (a.k.a. Hebrew Scriptures) relates about 76 miracles...
There were reports of miracles in ancient Greece such as the healer Asclepius (ca. 300 BCE) raising men from the dead, and in the first century BCE in Palestine, a Jewish scholar named Honi the Circle Drawer was famous for successfully praying for rain
during times of drought. In the first century of the Common Era, Hanina ben Dosa, a contemporary of Jesus, was a Jewish wonder-worker who healed the sick and could control rain...
Apollonius of Tyana was an itinerant Greek philosopher and contemporary of Jesus who reportedly cast out demons and raised people from the dead...
The miracles associated with Jesus need to be placed in context, namely, the cultural history and societal norms of first century Palestine. Over 90 per cent of the people around Jesus’ time were illiterate, but steeped in Jewish history as related in
the Old Testament. They were also exposed to Greek and Roman religious myths as
a result of past conquests. The masses were superstitious and believed in magic
(Acts 19:19; 13:6-12), witchcraft (Galatians 5:19-20) and supernatural intervention (Mark 16:
17-18). They had no understanding of modern astronomy – sacred texts told them that the earth was flat (Zechariah 9:10; Isaiah 11:12; Matthew 4:8), and that it did not rotate but was fixed in place on pillars (1 Samuel 2:8; Psalm 93:1).
Jews believed that above the firmament (dome of the sky) there were seven layers of heaven (once Paul was taken up to the third heaven as described in 2 Corinthians 12:1-4). God or demons caused earthquakes, floods, droughts, sea storms, solar eclipses
and other natural phenomena. Nor did the people understand modern medicine – for them, disease was usually a result of sin, evil spirits or direct punishment by God (e.g. John 5:13-15; Luke 13:11; Deuteronomy 28:27-29). Mental
illness was believed to
be a result of a person being possessed by demons (Matthew 9:32-34), or was a punishment from God (1 Samuel 16:14-16). Rarely could potions and talismans cure the more serious diseases such as chronic illnesses and demon possession -- only miracles and
exorcisms by holy men or God were successful (e.g. Acts 5:15-16; 19:11-12). Bacteria, viruses and psychoses, the real causes of illnesses, were unknown, as
were the causes of natural phenomena such as the movement of tectonic plates (earthquakes), high
and low pressure areas (weather conditions), and planetary movements (solar and
lunar eclipses).
The ordinary people of Jesus’ day were ignorant, superstitious and gullible when it came to understanding nature and disease. The gospels relate that the man named Jesus (i.e., Yeshua, meaning “salvation”) had the same understanding of nature and
disease as the people of his day...
Mark was faced with a challenge - he was not an eyewitness to these events and there were no examples of miracles in the earlier epistles of Paul and others. Moreover, most contemporaries of Jesus were dead, and there were few, if any, oral traditions
about miracles. Since Jesus was the Messiah, certain characteristics would be expected of him, and a reinterpretation of Old Testament prophecies would serve
Mark well. He used the book of Isaiah for his inspiration for the type of messianic miracles of
Jesus: “See, your God comes with vengeance, with dread retribution he comes to save you. Then shall blind men’s eyes be opened, and the ears of the deaf unstopped. Then shall the lame man leap like a deer, and the tongue of the dumb
shout aloud” (
Isaiah 35:4-6). Also from Isaiah: “But your dead live, their bodies will rise
again.” (26:19); and “The spirit of the Lord God is upon me because the Lord has anointed me; he has sent me to bring good news to the poor, to bind up
the broken-hearted.
” (Isaiah 61:1). This same theme is reiterated in Matthew’s gospel, when in
reply to the query of John the Baptist’s disciples whether Jesus was the one who is to come, Jesus says, “Go and tell John what you hear and see: the blind recover their
sight, the lame walk, the lepers are made clean, the deaf hear, the dead are raised to life, the poor are hearing the good news” (Matthew 11:4-5). Jesus reached out to the marginalized and outcasts of Jewish society to bring them into his movement for
the new Israel. These wonders by Jesus serve to fulfill prophecy and legitimize
Jesus as the Holy One of God.
Where did Mark find details for specific miracles? Mark knew that holy men of the Old Testament performed miracles. For Mark, the great leader and miracle-worker Moses, who established the first Covenant between God and the Israelites and led them out of
slavery, is to be superseded by a new and greater Moses named Jesus. He will establish a new and superior Covenant (Jeremiah 31:31-34), conduct greater miracles and lead the people to a new promised land, an eternal kingdom of God.
Elijah the prophet (
9th century BCE) who rose to heaven in a fiery chariot was expected to return to earth and precede the coming of the Messiah. He, along with his disciple and
successor Elisha had performed miracles such as multiplying food and raising people from the
dead. Mark draws on these Old Testament stories to model events in Jesus’ career. However, since Jesus the Messiah is greater than the prophets and holy men of the past, his miracles have to be greater, and more numerous. Elisha doubled the number of
miracles Elijah did, and Mark has Jesus double Elisha’s...
Among the many miracles in Mark’s original narrative, there are two sets of five miracles each. Each set begins with a sea-crossing miracle and ends with a
miraculous feeding. He uses this literary construct so his readers will recall the role of Moses
leading his people through water towards the promised land, and feeding them with manna from heaven. Jesus does something similar. And with each water and feeding miracle, there is one exorcism and two healing miracles that are to remind readers of the
works of the prophets Elijah and Elisha and how Jesus surpasses them. The parallels between events in Jesus’ life to those in the lives of Moses, Elijah and Elisha and others are too close for a coincidence. This points more to constructing religious
myths in the gospel for theological reasons, than to reporting historical facts.
etc. etc.
***
Unt now... an important new development in "unwitting WILD". :)
Aspiring Pastor Accused Of Killing Wife
Who Was Stabbed Dozens Of Times
http://tinyurl.com/yar2djpf
Excerpts:
"A newly released autopsy report tells the story of a Mid-South woman’s savage slaying, allegedly at the hands of her husband who claims he awoke from a dream to find her bloody body."
Cops say Matthew Phelps called a 911 dispatcher at about 1 a.m. on Sept. 1 and reported finding his wife’s body in their bedroom. He said he was unsure what
happened to his wife because he had been asleep at the time, according to a transcript of the
call.
“I had a dream, and then I turn on the lights and she’s dead on the floor,” Matthew Phelps said, according to the transcript. “I have blood all
over me, and there’s a bloody knife on the bed, and I think I did it.”
***
Then Mr. "Man of God" blames the deed on his cough medicine.
He stabbed his wife 123 times "in a dream". Must have been 'Satan', eh?
--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: www.darkrealms.ca (1:229/2)
