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I am one with the Force; the Force is with me – A Star Wars theology

...they were Jewish, they were being the hypocrites and overlooking the fact God was walking amongst them! (Jn 5:38). Another reason for prayers becoming vain is when it’s not from the heart. Prayer is about connecting with God, knowing and meaning what you say, and praying without becoming discouraged as Jesus tells his disciples in Luke 18:1. But more than just praying and keeping focused on God, we need to be as Jesus said: at one with each other and totally united with the Spirit (John 17:11,22).   So I propose an adaptation to the film quote to make it something more real and relevant to our faith:   "I am one with the Spirit, the Spirit is with me"...

Creedal Christians: Introduction

...Greek and Jewish sayings: “There are three blessings for which I am grateful to fortune: First, that I was born a human being and not one of the brutes; Next, that I was born a man and not a woman; Thirdly, a Greek and not a barbarian” (A quote attributed to Socrates or Thales; Diogenes Laertius, Thales 1.33). “Blessed are you, Lord, our God, ruler of the universe who has not created me a woman.” (This appears as part of a sequence of blessings found in the Talmud, which men would recite in their morning prayers) There’s also other examples of early New Testament creeds, of various lengths, which can be found in: 1 Corinthians 8:6; 1 Corint...

Creedal Christians: The Nicene Creed

...followed Jewish customs of Passover for the date, and the West followed another custom. Other than that, the other decrees (“canons”) declared were to do with how bishops should be consecrated, how bishops and priests should stay within their parishes and some rules on lending money with interest. There were 20 short canons/rulings in all which you can read here, if you’re interested to see exactly what went on. For another viewpoint of what occurred during the Council, Eusebius of Cæsarea (who you may know as the author of Ecclesiastical History) was in attendance and wrote a letter covering the events to send back to his Diocese explaining the formati...

26 Differences Between Muhammad and Jesus

...eaded 800 Jewish men and boys. (Sahih Muslim 4390)  ? Jesus said, “Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you” (Matthew 5:44–45) Muhammad murdered those who insulted him (Bukhari 56:369, 4:241)  ? Jesus preached forgiveness (Matthew 5:38–39, 18:21–22) Muhammad said, “if anyone attacks you, retaliate in the same manner.” (Qur’an 2:194) ? Jesus said, “If someone strikes you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also.” (Matthew 5:39) Muhammad claimed jihad in the way of Allah elevates one’s position in Paradise by a hundredfold. (Muslim 4645)  ? Jesus said, “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they...

Does Christmas have pagan origins?

...om a more Jewish heritage didn’t see any importance on marking the exact day and month that Jesus was born, as it was his death and resurrection which held a far greater importance and cause for celebration. Easter was really the first major festival of the Church in its early years over and above anything else that came to be recognised. The next real reference to Jesus’ birth being on the date we are more familiar with, comes from an important early theologian called Hippolytus of Rome, around the year 220 AD, in his Commentary on Daniel: For the first advent of our Lord in the flesh, when he was born in Bethlehem, eight days before the kalends of Janu...

Did the Qumran community predict the coming of Jesus?

...I'm going to start a new category here for "General Interest" which will be for things I see or read about that I think are interesting or informative about the Bible, Christianity or the Faith in general; but which aren't necessarily topics I could, or would need to, write a full blog post about. I'll kick off this new venture with an brief look at something I read the other day from the Dead Sea scrolls which is very interesting – Qumran text 4Q521. It gives us a glimpse of early Jewish expectations of the coming Messiah from the time before Jesus arrived, and shows just how Jesus did actually meet those expectations. For example, when John asks his disci...