Reason for The Crusades explained

[Matthias]

I'm thinking they were PROBABLY "ESSENES!" In other words? "ADVOCATES FOR GOD THE FATHER!"

You’re equating “Essenes” with “Advocates for God the Father.”

Do you call yourself an Essene? Do you think @Wrangler and / or @Armour of God identify themselves as Essenes?

I’m an advocate for God the Father but I’m absolutely not an Essene.

Though they have some things in common, their teaching and practice clashes with the teaching and practice of Jesus and the apostles.

 

[Matthias]

Spurgeon is one of my favorite Christian authors …

”The true value of a sermon must lie, not in its fashion and manner, but in the truth which it contains.” - C.H. Spurgeon

”You are not following Jesus if you aren’t armed, ready to kill.” - you

If Spurgeon had ever seen or heard your teaching presented in a sermon, he would have adamantly denied it is the truth.

@Armour of God @NayborBear

 

[Wrangler]

Yet? You are STILL Throwing Jesus and the apostles heavenly Father "Under the bus" at EVERY turn!
Just as ALL the authors from ALL these books (can you even THINK "traditions of man" here?) in theirs and yours CONTINUED RELENTLESS degradation's of not only WHAT GOD the FATHER DID? But even the "WHY HE DID IT THE WAY HE DID!"
So as you keep insisting that ones' such as Armour of GOD, and Wrangler, and I, are playing "devil's advocates?"
None of "yours", and ESPECIALLY all the authors of all these books fail COMPLETELY, save for the "gaslighting effect", in even SLIGHTLY giving any credit, let alone homage, to those "advocates of GOD the FATHER!

He doesn't realize his moral poles are reversed; we are playing God's advocate; it is him who is advocating for the devil.

Your point about his throwing Jesus, the apostles and our Heavenly Father under the bus at every turn is spot on. He has no rational response to Ps 110:1, which is why you reference it frequently. "Yea but" defense is not compelling.

My favorite part is how he constantly pretends Jesus is the ultimate pacifist while actually being the one to kill more people than anyone else in history (Judgment Day ≠ Pacifism in motion).

 

[Matthias]

He doesn't realize his moral poles are reversed; we are playing God's advocate; it is him who is advocating for the devil.

I’m sure the devil would be delighted for the followers of Jesus to kill one another, as well as killing those who are not followers of Jesus. You counsel the followers of Jesus to do both. I don’t know if you realize it or not but that aligns you with the devil, not Jesus.

My advocacy is for the teaching and practice of Jesus and the apostles. @NayborBear has acknowledged that on several occasions. He doesn’t know about my advocacy for the Father. You do. And so do many other members of CB. All it takes to confirm it is a brief review of my posts and threads.

Your point about his throwing Jesus, the apostles and our Heavenly Father under the bus at every turn is spot on.

If true that would make me an enemy of God and of the Messiah; an unbeliever. At least for now, he denies treating me as an unbeliever. Time will tell if he changes his mind about that.

He has no rational response to Ps 110:1, which is why you reference it frequently. "Yea but" defense is not compelling.

Psalm 110:1 is the most frequently quoted or alluded to OT text in the NT. It is the underpinning for my theology. It may be that I‘ve written more about that verse on this forum than I have about any other passage of scripture. Again, you know that but he doesn’t.

My favorite part is how he constantly pretends Jesus is the ultimate pacifist while actually being the one to kill more people than anyone else in history (Judgment Day ≠ Pacifism in motion).

I haven’t pretended anything for any length of time. Jesus didn’t kill or physically harm his enemies during the time of his earthly ministry. They physically harmed and killed him.

You’re speaking about Jesus in the past tense, as if has literally already killed his enemies. He hasn’t.

Presently the one who is responsible for killing more people than anyone else in history is Mao Zedong.

 

[Matthias]

He doesn't realize …

How long will it take @NayborBear to realize that, while you loved his post, you glossed over his make or break Essene argument? Why did you do that? (He won’t ask you, so I am.)

 

[Matthias]

Your point about his throwing Jesus, the apostles and our Heavenly Father under the bus at every turn is spot on.

That wasn’t his point. That’s either you misreading what he wrote or you reading what you believe and want to see into what he wrote.

Here is what @NayborBear actually wrote -

“You are STILL Throwing Jesus and the apostles heavenly Father ‘Under the bus’ at EVERY turn!”

He didn’t say I was throwing Jesus and the apostles under the bus. That would flatly contradict what he wrote some days ago.

He didn’t say I was throwing “Jesus, the apostles and our heavenly Father” under the bus. That too would flatly contradict what he has previously said.

He said that I was throwing their heavenly Father under the bus. That is wholly consistent with what he wrote earlier in our conversation.

Now, if he wants to amend what he said after reading your post, he can do that. If that’s what he chooses to do, then I’ll have something more to say to him about his previous position. Unless or until he does, I don’t have anything further to add to what I already said to him.

 

[NayborBear]

You’re equating “Essenes” with “Advocates for God the Father.”

Do you call yourself an Essene? Do you think @Wrangler and / or @Armour of God identify themselves as Essenes?

I’m an advocate for God the Father but I’m absolutely not an Essene.

Though they have some things in common, their teaching and practice clashes with the teaching and practice of Jesus and the apostles.

"Peek-A-Boo" Matthias!
I SEE your "strategy" now!
You take ANY and ALL criticisms using Jesus and the apostles "argument" as your defense, and "throw" it back on "the wall" like so much "untempered mortar" in your EFFORTS to "Make it STICK" on those criticizers TO you!
While in truth and "essence?"
You are "Straining gnats, while Swallowing Camels!"
COMPLETELY disregarding "traditions of men" through Millennia, and have been "sucked into" this pacifism by the "gaslighting" from the adversary! Which "renders LOVE" into the "perverse and corrupted definition of" that it has been! And for SOME Time too!
Whilst (at least) "entertainng the POSSIBILITY" (somewhat....which is a START, anyways) those "advocates of GOD the Father" Had and STILL HAVE, mind you, CONSTANTLY working in the "furniture factory", if you will, in HIS rendering/s "THE FOOTSTOOL" FOR Jesus Christ of Nazareth!
Ya see? GOD the FATHER KNOWS, HE can do it! HE WANTS TO SEE US DO IT!
There MAY be hope for you YET Matthias!
Praying you "discover" the "Voids" and start "filling these breaches in the wall"

 

[Matthias]

"Peek-A-Boo" Matthias!

You didn’t take my advice. Do you know how foolish acting like that makes you look? No mature adult is going to be impressed by someone who talks to adults as if they were children. Before retiring, I worked from time to time with professional theologians. Never did they treat me (or any other adult) the way you do. Locked away in their ivory towers, they‘ve never understood why I spend time talking to people like you.

I SEE your "strategy" now!
You take ANY and ALL criticisms using Jesus and the apostles "argument" as your defense, and "throw" it back on "the wall" like so much "untempered mortar" in your EFFORTS to "Make it STICK" on those criticizers TO you!
While in truth and "essence?"
You are "Straining gnats, while Swallowing Camels!"
COMPLETELY disregarding "traditions of men" through Millennia, and have been "sucked into" this pacifism by the "gaslighting" from the adversary! Which "renders LOVE" into the "perverse and corrupted definition of" that it has been! And for SOME Time too!
Whilst (at least) "entertainng the POSSIBILITY" (somewhat....which is a START, anyways) those "advocates of GOD the Father" Had and STILL HAVE, mind you, CONSTANTLY working in the "furniture factory", if you will, in HIS rendering/s "THE FOOTSTOOL" FOR Jesus Christ of Nazareth!
Ya see? GOD the FATHER KNOWS, HE can do it! HE WANTS TO SEE US DO IT!
There MAY be hope for you YET Matthias!
Praying you "discover" the "Voids" and start "filling these breaches in the wall"

Same old, same old. I’ve already addressed it.

Thanks to you though, I’ve spent the morning reading about the Essenes. They had a different calendar than the other Jewish sects. Do you know when the Essenes celebrated the Passover?



You should read it.

As you know, I’m a retired adjunct theology professor. If you want to persuade me then you’ll have to present your case using the real history of Judaism (Second Temple era, in particular) and Christianity (Apostolic and Ante Nicene eras, in particular) for support. I’m bound by the constraints of history. Made up scenarios don’t do either one of us, nor our readers any good.

P.S.



These are the writings of Josephus that I asked you about in post #2620.

 

[Wrangler]

"Peek-A-Boo" Matthias!
I SEE your "strategy" now!
You take ANY and ALL criticisms using Jesus and the apostles "argument" as your defense, and "throw" it back on "the wall" like so much "untempered mortar" in your EFFORTS to "Make it STICK" on those criticizers TO you!
While in truth and "essence?"
You are "Straining gnats, while Swallowing Camels!"
COMPLETELY disregarding "traditions of men" through Millennia, and have been "sucked into" this pacifism by the "gaslighting" from the adversary! Which "renders LOVE" into the "perverse and corrupted definition of" that it has been! And for SOME Time too!
Whilst (at least) "entertainng the POSSIBILITY" (somewhat....which is a START, anyways) those "advocates of GOD the Father" Had and STILL HAVE, mind you, CONSTANTLY working in the "furniture factory", if you will, in HIS rendering/s "THE FOOTSTOOL" FOR Jesus Christ of Nazareth!
Ya see? GOD the FATHER KNOWS, HE can do it! HE WANTS TO SEE US DO IT!
There MAY be hope for you YET Matthias!
Praying you "discover" the "Voids" and start "filling these breaches in the wall"

I love all your analogies - furniture factory, throwing under the bus, "Straining gnats, while Swallowing Camels!", Mortar, make stick, etc.

I go back to the significance of our Lord being called "The Prince of Peace." Everybody knows a prince is a power in the waiting. Jesus is NOT called the king of peace for only after Judgment Day will he be such a king and for now, he remains Lord of the damned as well as the chosen, those elect and those yet to be annihilated in God's ultimate solution to the problem of evil in the Lake of Fire, aka, "the Second Death."

For sure, such ultimate justice is the weightiest matter of the law! Turning the other cheek is "Straining gnats, while Swallowing Camels!" - the camel of allowing evil a pass for some perverse and corrupted sense of theology.

 

[Matthias]

Turning the other cheek is "Straining gnats, while Swallowing Camels!" -the camel of allowing evil a pass for some perverse and corrupted sense of theology.

Go to Spurgeon - or any other commentaries of your favorite Christian authors - to provide support for your teaching. I’ll take the time to read it and give it serious consideration.

That’s a simple and reasonable request. Will you do that for my benefit? Will you do that for the benefit of your other readers?

@NayborBear

 

[Matthias]

"Peek-A-Boo" Matthias!
I SEE your "strategy" now!
You take ANY and ALL criticisms using Jesus and the apostles "argument" as your defense, and "throw" it back on "the wall" like so much "untempered mortar" in your EFFORTS to "Make it STICK" on those criticizers TO you!
While in truth and "essence?"
You are "Straining gnats, while Swallowing Camels!"
COMPLETELY disregarding "traditions of men" through Millennia, and have been "sucked into" this pacifism by the "gaslighting" from the adversary! Which "renders LOVE" into the "perverse and corrupted definition of" that it has been! And for SOME Time too!
Whilst (at least) "entertainng the POSSIBILITY" (somewhat....which is a START, anyways) those "advocates of GOD the Father" Had and STILL HAVE, mind you, CONSTANTLY working in the "furniture factory", if you will, in HIS rendering/s "THE FOOTSTOOL" FOR Jesus Christ of Nazareth!
Ya see? GOD the FATHER KNOWS, HE can do it! HE WANTS TO SEE US DO IT!
There MAY be hope for you YET Matthias!
Praying you "discover" the "Voids" and start "filling these breaches in the wall"

Just for fun I asked AI this simple question: Does Matthias advocate for the Father on Christianity Board?

I received a surprisingly large response, including specific examples, confirming what @Wrangler already knows but won’t tell you. (Of course I do.) Don’t rely on my enemy. Go and look for yourself. Speak out of knowledge - whether or not you agree with me - not out of ignorance.

 

[NayborBear]

You didn’t take my advice. Do you know how foolish acting like that makes you look? No mature adult is going to be persuaded by someone who talks to others like that

One of the main reasons I do NOT attend churches much anymore!
Unless you "tickle ears?" You aren't much GOOD to their cause!

I worked from time to time with professional theologians. Never did they treat me (or any other adult) the way you do. Locked away in their ivory towers, they‘ve never understood why I spend time talking to people like you.

Fortunately for me, (it seems), which (apparently) seems shocking to you, and probably those "professional theologians" as well? GOD didn't put me here to "tickle ears!" But rather? Relate to you, and/or those "professional theologians", as well as your, or anyone else reading these posts here, as well as other threads I've posted on?:
A, or the correct interpretation of the "parable of the talents!" Which? By the way, are NOT in reference to some "prophecy" for some "future" event, or "Judgement!" UNH! UNH! Nope? It "was, and IS" in reference to the "HERE AND NOW!" Just as it was in reference to?.......Actually?.......To the "HERE AND NOW" "WAY BACK" during the time/s of the Nation and children of Israel. But had long since been "abandoned" due to "traditions of men" and the "gaslighting" from the adversary! WAY BACK THEN! JUST AS IT IS NOW!
That what Jesus did? Was merely strive in REITERATING this GOOD NEWS!
And? contrary to the teaching/s from WAY BACK THEN? As WELL as the teaching/s SINCE not too long at all AFTER Messiah's ascension back to His Father and GOD?
SHOULD be taken like this! As it has like a "snowball effect!"
Luke 11:46:
4And he said, Woe unto you also, ye lawyers! for ye lade men with burdens grievous to be borne, and ye yourselves touch not the burdens with one of your fingers.
5 But all their works they do for to be seen of men: they make broad their phylacteries, and enlarge the borders of their garments,
13 But woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye shut up the kingdom of heaven against men: for ye neither go in yourselves, neither suffer ye them that are entering to go in.
Luke 6:39

And he spake a parable unto them, Can the blind lead the blind? shall they not both fall into the ditch?

I’m bound by the constraints of history. Made up scenarios don’t do either one of us any good.

Well? Well? WELL!..........There's the crux of your issue right there!
You are "bound/trapped/enslaved" "In EMPIRICISM!"
Take a trip into the "Spiritual!"
So that your "eyes be made OPEN!"
And your ears "made to HEAR!"
NOT WHAT "TONS OF BOOKS" WANT TO TELL YOU!
But? What the "SPIRIT of GOD" wants to tell you!
Let HIM lead you what and when HE deems you're "ready" to "absorb" that which HE wants you to absorb!

Thanks to you though, I’ve spent the morning reading about the Essenes. They had a different calendar than the other Jewish sects. Do you know when the Essenes celebrated the Passover?

What I know concerning the Essenes, is they were (how can I say) more or less "Commissioned Curators" in the "scribing" of, and keeping "fresh" the "Scrolls" that we call the O.T. Even those scrolls NOT "CANONIZED!
But even more than that?
They wrote on scrolls concerning a "particular WARFARE" and how it was to be conducted concerning the "Sons of Light against the sons of darkness!"
Which after my Ma and Pa gave me a "Thompson Chain Reference Bible" (NIV....which I've come to abhor.......preferring the KJV)
I was reading in the "Analysis of the Bible" (page 1789 under "Dead Sea Scrolls"...if you happen to have one)
Which REALLY (how can I say) not only "piqued my interest", but stirred, or awakened something, or someone inside of me!
THAT? Was 40+ years ago! Been under GOD'S "tutelage" more or less SINCE then!
And HE'S fine with the way I speak!
Hebrews 5:11

Of whom we have many things to say, and hard to be uttered, seeing ye are dull of hearing.

And? FWIW? Not EVEN interested in no "popularity contest!"

 

[Matthias]

View attachment 85189
One of the main reasons I do NOT attend churches much anymore!
Unless you "tickle ears?" You aren't much GOOD to their cause!



Fortunately for me, (it seems), which (apparently) seems shocking to you, and probably those "professional theologians" as well? GOD didn't put me here to "tickle ears!" But rather? Relate to you, and/or those "professional theologians", as well as your, or anyone else reading these posts here, as well as other threads I've posted on?:
A, or the correct interpretation of the "parable of the talents!" Which? By the way, are NOT in reference to some "prophecy" for some "future" event, or "Judgement!" UNH! UNH! Nope? It "was, and IS" in reference to the "HERE AND NOW!" Just as it was in reference to?.......Actually?.......To the "HERE AND NOW" "WAY BACK" during the time/s of the Nation and children of Israel. But had long since been "abandoned" due to "traditions of men" and the "gaslighting" from the adversary! WAY BACK THEN! JUST AS IT IS NOW!
That what Jesus did? Was merely strive in REITERATING this GOOD NEWS!
And? contrary to the teaching/s from WAY BACK THEN? As WELL as the teaching/s SINCE not too long at all AFTER Messiah's ascension back to His Father and GOD?
SHOULD be taken like this! As it has like a "snowball effect!"
Luke 11:46:
4And he said, Woe unto you also, ye lawyers! for ye lade men with burdens grievous to be borne, and ye yourselves touch not the burdens with one of your fingers.
5 But all their works they do for to be seen of men: they make broad their phylacteries, and enlarge the borders of their garments,
13 But woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye shut up the kingdom of heaven against men: for ye neither go in yourselves, neither suffer ye them that are entering to go in.
Luke 6:39

And he spake a parable unto them, Can the blind lead the blind? shall they not both fall into the ditch?


Well? Well? WELL!..........There's the crux of your issue right there!
You are "bound/trapped/enslaved" "In EMPIRICISM!"
Take a trip into the "Spiritual!"
So that your "eyes be made OPEN!"
And your ears "made to HEAR!"
NOT WHAT "TONS OF BOOKS" WANT TO TELL YOU!
But? What the "SPIRIT of GOD" wants to tell you!
Let HIM lead you what and when HE deems you're "ready" to "absorb" that which HE wants you to absorb!

What I know concerning the Essenes, is they were (how can I say) more or less "Commissioned Curators" in the "scribing" of, and keeping "fresh" the "Scrolls" that we call the O.T. Even those scrolls NOT "CANONIZED!
But even more than that?
They wrote on scrolls concerning a "particular WARFARE" and how it was to be conducted concerning the "Sons of Light against the sons of darkness!"
Which after my Ma and Pa gave me a "Thompson Chain Reference Bible" (NIV....which I've come to abhor.......preferring the KJV)
I was reading in the "Analysis of the Bible" (page 1789 under "Dead Sea Scrolls"...if you happen to have one)
Which REALLY (how can I say) not only "piqued my interest", but stirred, or awakened something, or someone inside of me!
THAT? Was 40+ years ago! Been under GOD'S "tutelage" more or less SINCE then!
And HE'S fine with the way I speak!
Hebrews 5:11

Of whom we have many things to say, and hard to be uttered, seeing ye are dull of hearing.

And? FWIW? Not EVEN interested in no "popularity contest!"
View attachment 85194

I’m about to attend a lecture and only had time to skim through your message. What I saw was little new from you (the Dead Sea Scrolls caught my eye, so maybe something there), and nothing uplifting. It appears to me that you wrote primarily to entertain @Wrangler. I’ll try to get back to it this evening.

Meanwhile, my trip to the library has already paid off.

“It has been said that it is impossible to forgive a man who deliberately hurts you for the sole purpose of destroying you or lowering you. If this be true, you have but one hope: to see this unfair hurt as coming by permission from God for the purpose of lifting your stature above that place where formerly you stood.”

(Gene Edwards, The Prisoner in the Third Cell)

 

[Matthias]

“He who takes up the sword perishes by the sword. He who refuses to take up the sword perishes on the cross.”

(Gene Edwards, The Prisoner in the Third Cell)

Lecture time.