@LeeWoofenden Well that comes from the idea of the new earth in 2 Peter and Revelation.
(And Isaiah!) But you raise a very interesting possibility, that the new earth wasn't in Paul's understanding.
The closest thing I can think of though is Romans 8:21 where he says that the whole creation is waiting for its renewal from death and decay, along side God's children.
He doesn't strictly say that we will inhabit the renewed creation here instead of being in the heavens, but I think the fact that it's mentioned in Isaiah makes it a safe assumption.
How should I ask this question? A couple of weeks ago, I asked for the Catholic perspective on the transfiguration. Jesus Elijah and Moses appeared together on the mount. All three are uniquely recorded as having fasted for forty days. I am not able to pass this off as coincidence. My question was closed as 'not clear what I was asking.' I don't know how to rephrase this to conform to the sites requirements.
I have searched the church fathers, but I don't find any specific acknowledgement of this peculiar association. I thought that the Catholic perspective might give me a place to start.
@Abstractioniseverything. you may want to refer to the last paragraph of the first link
> Some people place too much significance on numerology, trying to find a special meaning behind every number in the Bible. Often, a number in the Bible is simply a number, including the number 40. God does not call us to search for secret meanings, hidden messages, or codes in the Bible. There is more than enough truth in the plain words of Scripture to meet all our needs and make us “complete and thoroughly equipped for every good work” (2 Timothy 3:16).
I respect the insight of the Church Fathers, and Catholic tradition often springs from their writings. I was hoping I could piggy-back traditional references to read do myself.
Ok
Yes sir I am mostly in agreement with you.
I I am not generally too focused on numerology, but I do recognize its significance. This particular occurrence deserves more attention in my opinion.
In a lot of books in the Bible, the number 40 keeps appearing. E.g. Jesus went into the desert for 40 days and nights, and the Jews spent 40 years looking for the promised land. Is this because of some significance of the number 40, or is it just coincidence?
I don't think there is any hot opposition to numerology directly made by the early church. The opposition is more about the so called 'mathematics' that you found Augustine complaining about. Even earlier, around AD 383, there is an interesting Canon against 'mathematics' that Bishops who assembl...
The Council of Florence commenced greater unity for the Orthodox and Roman churches http://catholictube.ru/media/document/925.pdf. It was written in greek and latin, signed by many. Concessions were made by Eastern Patriarchs, yet there was only a very minor military support and the loss of great...
Is it something about what is prescribed in the Koran and what is called 'The New Testement'? Is what large numbers of religious (Christians and Muslims) follow from these texts that has given them the ability to gain conversions and great swaths of land? The Roman Empire, when combined with Chri...
@Abstractioniseverything. I don't recall that question, so I can't comment on why it may have been closed as "unclear what you're asking." However, from what you say here about it I think it could be made on-topic if the question is made clear and specific, and a tradition (Catholic) is specified.
A Christian made a joke about converting to Christianity to which I responded I don't know maybe that Christian would convert to Judaism first. Did break any Halacha? How should one respond to such jokes?
@LeakyNun That depends on exactly what you want to ask. Do you want to know the biblical basis for Father, Son, and Holy Spirit each being a different Person of God? Or do you want to know the biblical basis for their being distinct from one another? Or is there some other specific thing you want to know that relates to both of these?
Right now "person" appears only in the final sentence of the question, and it's not connected explicitly to the three points that constitute the main question in the body.
@LeakyNun For old questions, invalidating existing answers is a problem. For new questions, before they've reached an acceptable form, people "answer at their own risk" if they answer when there's still an issue about whether the question will be closed and what edits will need to be made so that it can remain open.
@LeakyNun Hmm, maybe my latest answer doesn't quite get at what you are wondering then. Are you basically looking for evidence for the personhood of each of the three persons of the Trinity? If that's the case, then maybe it'd be better to ask about each one separately, as has already been done for the Holy Spirit.
Hmmm... okay, then I think my answer is okay. But I suspect that Lee's approach to an answer would be pretty similar, even though he doesn't believe in persons. And even a modalist would probably cite all the same passages when asked "What are the main ways that the three modes of God are distinguished?"
@Nathaniel I generally don't answer questions whose fundamental premise I disagree with. Also, if by "true modalist" you mean to distinguish from Swedenborgian doctrine, I would simply point out that traditional trinitarian doctrine is closer to modalism than is Swedenborgian doctrine on the subject.
@LeeWoofenden Yeah, I mean that your answer to a question like "What is the biblical basis for distinctions between the ___ in Swedenborgian theology" (what word do you use instead of persons? Parts? Elements? Components?) would look like mine.
@Nathaniel I'd probably just say "between/among the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit." Swedenborg's Latin essentialia is difficult to translate into a satisfactory term in English. It doesn't exactly mean "components." Nor does it exactly mean "essentials." The New Century Edition split the difference by translating it "essential components." But even that is not an entirely satisfactory translation.
To put it in concrete terms, the material/substance, structure/form, and function of a chair are not really "components" or "parts" of the chair. They are sort of "essentials" of the chair. I suppose they could be called "elements" of the chair. But so far I haven't come up with a really good term that covers that particular distinction.
Hence my difficulty (and not only mine) in translating Swedenborg's essentialia. They're "things that all have to be there to be God."
@Nathaniel My Latin is fairly specialized to Swedenborg's Latin. I could probably contribute, but I am also loath to get drawn into another SE, given how much time I waste spend on C.SE.
:) I hear you on that one! Every now and then I think about trying to weigh in more on History or Politics or Hermeneutics and thankfully so far I've largely resisted the temptation except for self-serving purposes of asking questions :)
@Nathaniel The other site that I would theoretically be most interested would be Hermeneutics. However, my early experience on that site was not particularly good, so I haven't been back much. I've got enough to keep me busy here on C.SE.
@Nathaniel Meanwhile, questions are good. Sites need good questions to generate good answers.
@Nathaniel I did ask one question on Latin Language. The one answer I got suggested that the other participants in that SE are about where I am when it comes to some of the technicalities of Latin.
@LeeWoofenden In that question, you're wondering if bonum has any shades of meaning that one wouldn't expect it to have compared to a simple substantivized adjective?
@Nathaniel At the time I think I was wondering more if there was any derivation of bonum distinct from the adjective. I was working on some nitpicky issue in one of the notes on one of Swedenborg's works, and hoped to get a little more insight on it. But that was a year ago, and whatever the issue was it is far in the rearview mirror now.
Unfortunately, when I've asked questions on any of the SEs that were prompted by a specific issue I was working on in my (paid) work, I haven't gotten much help.
I asked one on Judaism.SE a while back, and just ended out getting into a big tangle about what question I could ask and how I could ask it, because I didn't really understand the culture of the site. And the answers I did get, though they were interesting, didn't really answer the question I intended to ask. When I finally re-asked the question in the required specific form, I got no answers at all.
I just don't think they're interested in answering Christians' questions about the Hebrew Bible and things Christians want to know about Judaism as part of their Christian research, questions, and interests. And I can't really blame 'em for that.
So although I am actually quite interested in Jewish Bible interpretation and views on various subjects, I mostly stay away and leave them in peace.
I think they're probably used to Christians asking them questions so that they (the Christians) can turn around and tell them how wrong they are and how they ought to convert to Christianity.
But I've found that for my purposes in understanding and interpreting what we call the Old Testament, Jewish exegesis is often better than Christian exegesis because Christian exegesis almost always starts by viewing the whole Old Testament as being about Christ. And though I don't disagree with it, it didn't start out to be about Christ, but about issues of ancient Jewish religion, life, and culture.
@LeeWoofenden Yeah, often if you already know enough to ask a good question, you're just as well-suited as others to figure out the answer. Sites may have experts, but often not an expert in every area.
And I think that before we can even understand properly how the OT prophesies Christ, the meaning of the Crucifixion, Atonement, and so on, we need to understand what the OT meant in its own time and terms. I believe not understanding this has led to a lot of bad atonement doctrine in traditional Christianity through a bad understanding of the meaning of the sacrifices of the Old Testament.
@Nathaniel Probably sticking around and getting everyone annoyed at you for at least a year. Sort of like what it takes to learn the culture here at C.SE. :-P
But at Judaism.SE I think it certainly helps if you're Jewish. My sense is that they're less tolerant of people who aren't part of their particular religion coming in and asking questions there.
@Nathaniel Yes, after an initial month or two of cognitive (and other types of) dissonance I figured out what this site is all about and got with the program.
@LeakyNun You handle English very well, considering you're not born and raised in an English speaking country. Are you kind of a student of everything or just have a diverse background? You seem well educated on a number of topics.
> The good Christian should beware of mathematicians. The danger already exists that mathematicians have made a covenant with the devil to darken the spirit and confine man in the bonds of Hell. - St.Augustine of Hippo
I came across this quote by St.Augustine:
“The good Christian should beware of mathematicians. The danger already exists that mathematicians have made a covenant with the devil to darken the spirit and confine man in the bonds of Hell.” - St.Augustine of Hippo
It is my understanding that...
> De Genesi ad Litteram ii 17. 37. [...] Quapropter bono christiano, sive mathematici, sive quilibet impie divinantium, maxime dicentes vera, cavendi sunt, ne consortio daemoniorum animam deceptam, pacto quodam societatis irretiant.
@LeakyNun I try to stay in medical conferencing. I have a lot of optometry conferences though as well. This helps build and maintain a library of like-content.
I'm still surprised at your young age. Your knowledge of some topics seems to far surpass a typical high schooler. You must like reading or something like that.
recently (like few days ago) I have a new interpretation of it: that we can't "know" anything, in the sense of "know" being "absolutely certain", i.e. there is currently no solution to hard solipsism. @fredsbend
I understood him as claiming that absolute amount of knowledge is extremely vast therefore no single person could ever know any significant amount of it.
In a lot of books in the Bible, the number 40 keeps appearing. E.g. Jesus went into the desert for 40 days and nights, and the Jews spent 40 years looking for the promised land. Is this because of some significance of the number 40, or is it just coincidence?
A Christian made a joke about converting to Christianity to which I responded I don't know maybe that Christian would convert to Judaism first. Did break any Halacha? How should one respond to such jokes?
I came across this quote by St.Augustine:
“The good Christian should beware of mathematicians. The danger already exists that mathematicians have made a covenant with the devil to darken the spirit and confine man in the bonds of Hell.” - St.Augustine of Hippo
It is my understanding that...
The Upper Room
The Upper Room