Verbal Spark!

For you who do not live here to go through the roller coaster season we experienced here with this team, it was certainly the worst of the times and the best of times and the best was the best there could be. Fans questioned the acquisitions and questioned them even more when the players they brought in stunk up the joint. The team failed miserably against the NBA’s elite teams, sometimes being thoroughly embarrassed, even losing in the regular season to the team they beat tonight, the Dallas Mavericks, by over 30 points. When they lost the first two games of this series and looked like the Heat team we saw for much of the year, many of us figured the inevitable might be delayed by one or two games and Dallas would eventually win the championship. Well in a dramatic twist of fate and 6 minutes away from practically being swept in the series, they stormed back to win 4 straight games and snatch victory from what seemed more like the gaping chasm of defeat. Forget jaws.

Interestingly enough, two of the acquisitions actually proved, in the biggest game of the season, to be exactly what they were brought in for. Antoine Walker, much maligned throughout the season, came through in terrific fashion and James Posey played defense to the point where Dallas star, Dirk Nowitski disappeared in the 4th quarter. Not to be forgotten, Alonzo Mourning came up with the game of his life on defense. Point blank Dallas shots were returned to their senders and he dropped in some timely baskets. And then there was Udonis Haslem, busted shoulder and all, coming up with herculean numbers and rebounds.

First of all the Catholics have 73 books in their Bible, the Ethiopians, as much as 80, the Jews 39, the Protestants 66, the rare Samaritans of today, 5 or maybe 6. Somebody is missing some information about being saved or have too much information. This alone shows that there is widespread diversity as to what should be a part of the official collection of “inspired” scripture.

If we take the Samaritans who include only 5 books and sometimes 6 (Genesis through Joshua) in their canon and the Hebrew version (the Hebrew Masoretic Text) of the same books, there are some 6,000 differences between the two sets of books. There is no discernable principle here. They are merely accidents of political history and warfare.

At the Jewish Council of Jamnia (near modern day Joppa in Israel) near the end of the first century C.E, Jewish scholars came together to determine their canon. Greek speaking Jews were toting around more books than their Hebrew speaking brethren back home in Judea/Palestine. When the Christians chose the Greek Old Testament as their source of scripture which included other books, the Jews in Palestine figured they had to revisit their books. At the Council they threw out books such as the Book of Baruch (Jeremiah’s secretary), Ecclesiasticus (different from Ecclesiastes) and both books of Maccabees. By a slim vote margin, Ezekiel, Proverbs, Esther, Ecclesiates and the Song of Solomon made the cut. In the case of Daniel, they kicked out the last two chapters of Daniel settling for 12 chapters which the King James Version also has, however, the Catholic church includes the last two chapters.

As for the early Christians, they experienced the same issue. Most, however, preferred the larger Greek Old Testament. In addition to the Jewish scriptures, different Christians communities developed their own “New Testament” which may or may not have included any number of epistles and apocalypses. And as the oft mentioned “Church Fathers” never really came to a conclusion as to what should be included (as final) either.

Irenaeus (circa 130 C.E), for example, felt that the Shepherd of Hennas to be inspired but did not feel the same about Hebrews, Jude, James II Peter and III John. Clement of Alexandria included the Apocalypse of Peter, the Epistle of Barnabas, and the Shepherd of Hennas in his idea of the Bible. Tertullian rejected all the New Testament books except the four Gospels, Acts 13 of Paul’s letters, Revelation and I John.

As church centers rose and gained status in areas like Rome, Alexandria (Egypt), Anticoch and Constantinople, leaders of those areas made efforts to stamp out anything contrary to their beliefs (heresy) and these were done through the means of councils which were set up to determine which books should be included in the Bible and which should not. Just from the differences from the few church fathers up top should tell us there was going to be war. Those whose ideas did not sell, or better yet, who could not buy enough votes at the councils, were anathematized (condemned and excommunicated).

These councils were sometimes hilarious, sometimes, bewildering and sometimes abominable. At the council of Laodecia (363 C.E), the council included the Book of Baruch in the Old Testament but rejected Revelation in the New Testament. The Council of Carthage (397 C.E) included Ecclesiasticus, Wisdom, Tobit, Judith, and 1st and 2nd Maccabees. None of these books are in the Protestant bibles today. The Greek Orthodox Church closed out its canon in the tenth century when they finally decided to include the Book of Revelation. The Syrian Orthodox church included it in their canon a century later with much grudge.

At the Council of Nicea in 325, the first Church Council under an emperor (Constantine), the big issue was that of the Trinity. A certain Arius argued against the equality of Jesus with God while Bishop Alexander of Alexandria argued they were equal. By a packed vote, Arius’ view was rejected, branded a heretic, excommunicated and exiled. He is of course associated in church history with what has become known as the Arian Heresy. However, three years later Constantine recalled Arius to Constantinople as part of a supposed reconciliation. On the same day Arius was to enter the cathedral to confirm his reinstatement, his bowels burst and he died eliminating any need to reconsider his views. Of course those who thought he was a heretic considered this turn of events a judgment from God, but others knew he was murdered (poisoned).

In 431 A.D at the Council of Ephesus. St. Cyril, the holy father of Alexandria bribed enough bishops to be able to start the council before the holy father of Antioch showed up who opposed him. Without opposition from Antioch in the midst, it was a quick matter to condemn a certain Nestorius as a heretic and proclaim Mary to be theotokos or “the mother of god.”

At the Second Synod of Ephesus in 449 A.D, Dioscorus,the pope of Alexandria and successor to Cyril condemned his rival Flavian, the pope of Constantinople. In the ensuing riot, Dioscorus or someone from his party, kicked Flavian to hard that he died three days later. Armed with a “Christian” mob of monks and soldiers wielding swords, sticks and chains, Dioscoros was able to convince the bishops who were set to vote for Flavian to make sure they voted “correctly.”

This quite frankly is how “truth” and the books of the Bible were often determined in the orthodox Catholic Church. Amongst the Protestants it was more like every sinner for himself on the matter. They of course were influenced by what the Catholic Church brought to the table before them no matter how much they tried to distance themselves. Martin Luther the Reformer didn’t think Esther belonged in the Bible, but highly esteemed the book of Sirach and I Maccabees. He thought little of Hebrews and Revelation and he called the Book of James “an epistle of straw.”

Today the Left Behind series are making a killing off the gullibility of people again using the book of Revelation. I think the books have become the biggest selling books of all time or somewhere near there. To me, this proves quite clearly that you can fool countless people using fear and misinterpretation because people will believe what they’re told if packaged under the guise of “God said so.”

So what is the book of Revelation about? Some historical background would help a great deal something most people are too lazy to even look into. Most people don’t even know that the book was initially REJECTED as a book to be included in the Bible because even the superstitious religious leaders of 1,500 years ago thought the book was too wild to be believable but it eventually made the cut and has been used since then by end time fanatics to scare the masses while making quite a bit of people VERY rich.

The Jews were living in great tension with the Roman Empire 2,000 years ago. Fanatical Jews (Zealots, Siccari) were walking about the place raising fears that the world was coming to an end and because it was, the Messiah was soon to arrive and his arrival would bring about the complete and total destruction of the hated Roman Empire - the evil empire. One group, the Essenes, were so convinced, they pack up and left the city (Jerusalem) and moved to the desert and became an esoteric sect of monks, purging and purifying themselves and awaiting the arrival of the holy one.

From the Jewish community came about another sect known as the Christians. Carried over by some into their system of belief was a general hatred for the Roman Empire. Jerusalem was seen as the city of God while Rome was the seat of Satan and all things evil. The Christians, however, believed Messiah had already come and gone and was set to return while their Jewish counterparts were still looking for him. The Jews were eventually humiliated in a war with Rome, their city and temple destroyed and inhabitants killed or carted off into slavery and/or exile. The Christian Jews experienced suspicion and persecution from Roman emperors prior to and after the destruction of the temple in A.D 70. Their leaders like Paul and Peter, or people writing under their names encouraged the Christian community to take their persecutions in stride and to continue obeying Roman law.

Despite these warnings, as with any group, there were still the radical ones and one of these must have been the writer of the book of Revelation. The book is wildly vivid and symbolic and for good reason. It was apparently written at the height of Christian persecution under the Roman emperor Domitian and because suspicion no doubt was very high, code language had to be used. The writer wrote the book with the expressed purpose to show that God was still in control, regardless of the current persecution. He tried to show that the world was at its final stage and that at such a stage great wonders and signs would occur that would lead up to the destruction of Babylon, a code name for Rome. He depicted Rome (under the code name of Babylon) in symbolic form as a harlot that fed off the blood of saints and driven by a spiritual force behind the scenes known as Satan. He went to great lengths to scandalize Rome and to show that she was ripe for destruction by an angry God and that Jesus would be proven to be the victor and exalted one over the devil and his cohorts, a savior who was soon to come to rescue his remaining people from their troubles, one who would wipe away all their tears and create a new heaven and a new earth for their eternal bliss, but was this something that was to occur in HIS day or well into the future?

The answer is right in the very FIRST verse of the book, something most people completely miss or ignore.

Quote:

The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave Him to show His servants— things which must shortly take place . And He sent and signified it by His angel to His servant John,…

- Revelation 1:1

It is VERY clear that the author was TOLD (so he says) that the things which he was about to write were going to come to pass in a short period of time. In fact, he writes it to them because the details were going to affect THEM as there would have been NO need if they were not. Time and time again the book he repeats the alleged words of Jesus where Jesus supposedly says, Behold I come quickly and my reward is with me. In chapter 2 he (the writer supposedly speaking for Jesus) tells the Church of Thyatira to hold fast to what they have until HE (Jesus) comes. As far as we can tell there is no such church anymore in existence and Jesus never came as promised.

“My mommy’s short and fat
She has a butt like that.
And when she cross the street
Cars go beep, beep, beep.”

The best the other girls could come up with was a cartwheel and I guess my daughters mocked them and the fight started. My oldest daughter decided to start throwing things after them like her doll, the yard broom and a few other things and told them to “take their crap with them.” My other daughter picked up yard mulch and started throwing it after them. From what I understand the other girl’s mother came to my house, but no one opened the door. I have no idea what started this feud, but it has been going on for about a year now. When my girls are out in front of the house and those other girls are out there, they usually look at each other and cut their eyes and snarl at each other. Because they are kids and don’t hold eternal grudges like adults, they will play with each other, but eventually a fight will break out and then I will hear about it. It’s somewhat funny, but then again I don’t want my girls growing up to be little thugs.

I also heard my daughter say that one of the other girls said something about her (my daughter’s) mother and my daughter responded with:

“Uh uh. You don’t know my mother like that!”

I happened to be in the middle lane of this three lane roadway sandwiched between this cop and an elevated pickup truck to my right which was a few feet ahead of being completely aligned with my car. As we began to approach the second to last intersection before the Wal-Mart entrance, I decided I would start looking for an opportunity to merge over to my right to get myself in position to get into the turning lane for Wal-Mart. This now brought my car partially ahead of the police car and more in line with the pickup truck. As I made my move to ease past the pickup truck, looking in my rearview mirror and passenger side mirror to check out my surroundings, I was now in the intersection, but as I cleared the truck which stopped abruptly (and so did the police car) clearing my right peripheral vision, a fire truck emerged in my view to the right, but again, I was now in the middle of the intersection. At the same time I was in the intersection and I saw the fire truck to my right, I noticed the driver reaching for the horn and just turning on his lights, but he was a complete stop. Why? Well the fire station was about 200 feet down the road he was on, so he was just beginning his journey and coming to the light, he was just beginning to warn oncoming traffic that he was about to make his move. It was not as if he was barreling down the road, blowing his horn with sirens blaring and lights spinning around. He just so happen to start this process as I was caught in no man’s land and as I saw him in that quick second, I accelerated a little faster out of the intersection as not to block him. If I would have decided to stop in the next second, I would have stopped right in front of him which would have clearly defeated his purpose.

Well donut head decided to bolt out of the intersection after the fire truck passed through and merged over into my lane and followed me into the Wal-Mart parking. He did not put on his lights, but I stopped because I knew he wanted to come make my day miserable. Both of us stepped out of our cars and he started being a wise ass. He asked no questions, but he started accusing, telling me I intentionally tried to fly through an intersection and sped up to get past an oncoming fire truck. I told him I was not rushing to go anywhere and asked him if it made sense for me to see an oncoming fire truck (which was not moving, by the way) and a cop to my left and blatantly disregard both and fly through an intersection? He told me not to question what he saw with his own two eyes. That alone had my blood boiling, but to further infuriate me, he looks at my uniform and tells me I was rushing because I must have missed an appointment with a customer. So now he turns into a mind reader and when I checked him on telling me what he ASSumed I was doing, he tells me to tell that to the judge, walks away and goes to write me a ticket. He wanted to hear no explanation on my part and failed to realize the circumstances, that it would be highly unlikely that I would pull such a stunt to put my life at risk and/or put myself in a position to get a ticket.

In recent years I was still teetering at the edge of hate for cops. I had developed a strong dislike for them after some incidents I had with them where again, they refused to hear anything I had to say. None of my tickets have been of a DUI nature as I do not drink, nor reckless driving or even speeding. They were for sign related offenses such as stop signs appearing out of nowhere overnight around corners where there were once yield signs. Of course, with the erection of such new signs, cops hang out around them knowing full well that locals, accustomed to some other sign OR no sign being there will commit an offense initially. These type situations are there jackpots. Let’s not forget the change in speed limits from say, 45 down to 35 on a road you have traveled for years at the 45 MPH clip or even 5 miles over that. You don’t notice the change in speed limit and a nice friendly cop could care less and hands you a ticket.

So the Israelites are going around kicking ass, methodically wiping out the Canaanite scum from the face of the earth at the command of the Lord (at least that’s what they tell us). They had just finished beating up on Jericho and got a hooker (Rahab) out of it.

Their next target was the tiny city of Ai but they got their asses handed to them and lost 36 men. Something went terribly wrong because defeat was not supposed to happen because the Lord was on their side (at least that’s what they tell us). Well it turns out that the reason for this is because some dude by the name of Achan took some ‘accursed thing’ and God became pissed off with everybody because of this. This shouldn’t sup rise us, however. It’s biblegod’s M.O. Interestingly enough, he apparently knows this, but doesn’t care to drop this little bit of information on his right hand man, Joshua. So Joshua sends out his men to Ai and they meet defeat.

Joshua then hits the dirt and enquires of the Lord about the defeat. Biblegod then reveals to Joshua (a little late don’t ya think?) that ‘Israel hath sinned’ by pocketing ‘the accursed thing’ (we read about this ‘accursed thing’ from chapter 6 and still are not told what the hell it is) and some of the loot from Jericho. Biblegod then tells him that he is not going to support them anymore until they remove the accursed thing. All this time, the big guy does not reveal who the culprit is, only generalizing that ALL Israel was guilty.

Biblegod then instructs Joshua on what needs to be done. He has to bring every tribe of Israel before him (the numbers claim the population was in the millions), man by man, but for some reason he focuses on the tribe of Judah. We are not told why and how he eventually narrows it down to Achan. Then again, Joshua must have had the spirit of discernment…er, wait…that’s a New Testament thing, right? Well anyway, he found out it was Achan.

Achan eventually fessed up to the crime and his tent was searched and the goods were found. As a consequence for this crime, Achan, his kids, his oxen his asses, his sheep, his tent and everything he had was brought into a valley so the lord could ‘trouble’ Achan and all his goods by means of some nice sized stones up against their heads. Not feeling that was bad enough, they outdid themselves by lighting them on fire too and to top it off, covered their carcases with stones. These are god’s people we’re talking about, right? :2eek: