Amo2 said:

Along with all of the other extra biblical teaching and practice in relation to Mary, who is not and will not ever be the mother of God. Who was the mother of the man Jesus Christ, certainly not the great I am, of holy scripture. She had no part in the divine nature of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, who always has been, island always will be by virtue of the immortality which god alone has. Which He alone can impart to anyone

Click to expand...

So according to you, Mary is the mother of the man, Jesus Christ, but not the mother of the divine, Jesus Christ? So how is your belief different from the heresy of Nestorianism?

Always in His Presence said:

Is it at all possible that part of the reason is the pathetic strength, or lack there of, of the Canadian Dollar

Click to expand...

They are literally telling us the reason.

"Canadians calling to cancel their tours “explicitly told me that it was because of the policies and the behavior of our current president,” he said."

MarkRohfrietsch said:

Kind of like the reformed protestants, who disagree and just start another Church

Click to expand...

Like Luther?

Ligurian said:

Amorites and Hitittes and Palestinians et al were also of "ancient Middle Eastern origin".

Click to expand...

Well, no. The original Palestinians were Phillistines, speaking an Indo-European language. Not culturally related to today's Palestinians. Hittites were also Indo-European speakers, likely from Central Asia. Amorites were a western Semitic-speaking group.

Ligurian said:

How are we able to know who was who without running the risk of making the classical mistake of misnaming the archological layers...

Click to expand...

We have texts and translations for Hittite, for example. If you want to learn more, I suggest Proto by Laura Spinney.

Ligurian said:

Outdated science superceded with "actual evidence"... as given by a handful of wikipedia writers and rewriters? Do you think for yourself at all? How else but by the Sayce quote do you explain the Aryan etymology and Aryan gods showing up in Hurrian lands? Look, I read all this from several people who published in journals... not just armchair wikipedia folks who nitpick each other into compliance... have you ever read one of their writing pages? If so, I don't know how you can fling poo at a Christian man like Sayce when he tells you what he found.

I sincerely wish you had been sincere when you said you were done with me, and I said back that I doubted it. Because you bear all the earmarks of someone just argueing to argue.

Click to expand...

At least I'm not a racist using 19th century writings to attempt to justify their views as scientific.

Xeno.of.athens said:

Well, no. Apostles are appointed by Jesus Christ, as was the case with the twelve and with saint Paul. That is the point, isn't it?

Click to expand...

From my understanding the RC church claims legitimacy partly by claiming apostolic succession.

As the @The Liturgist said. "a bishop has valid Apostolic succession only if ordained normally by three bishops

I am simply pointing out that we see no record of the apostles appointing Paul.

This being the case - added to the comment Jesus made that He can raise up believers from stones (Peter...?)

Then it never was to be up to the disciples to appoint leadership - they acted in presumption and didn't wait for God to choose. He chose Paul without their involvement.

This begs the question of whether He still does this today regardless of traditional practice.

Noble Nathan

Moses

Ligurian said:

Almost anything can be "proved" if you "search" long enough. What do you WANT to believe? is the real question.

Click to expand...

Oh the irony of you making this comment...

DaisyDay said:

And that yummy movie money!

Click to expand...

That will no doubt yield her a windfall of hundreds of dollars.

Xeno.of.athens said:

It is disappointing to see so little understanding of the scriptures in your reply.

Matthias was chosen to replace Judas Iscariot as one of the twelve apostles following Judas’s betrayal and death, in a process marked by prayerful discernment and scriptural fulfilment. After Peter addressed the gathered believers—about 120 in number—he cited the Psalms: “May another take his place of leadership” (Acts 1:20), affirming the need to restore the apostolic number. Two men were nominated, Joseph called Barsabbas and Matthias, both of whom had accompanied Jesus throughout His ministry. The apostles then prayed, saying, “You, Lord, who know the hearts of all, show which one of these two you have chosen” (Acts 1:24), and cast lots to determine the outcome. The lot fell to Matthias, and he was numbered with the eleven apostles, signifying divine approval and the continuation of apostolic witness.

Click to expand...

Can I suggest the casting of lots belongs to the Old Covenant now that we have the Holy Spirit in residence within -the corporate agreement in mutual submission is the rightful source of guidance in such circumstances.

As Paul said more than once "It seemed good to us and the Holy Spirit"

The early church being predominantly Jewish leaned on old covenant practice before learning the ropes of the New Covenant Spiritual dynamic. Ironically Paul - the most Jewish, was a prime mover in this journey.

So I see Mathias as a flawed choice that leaned on an inappropriate practice.

Ligurian said:

Since most of the gene studies seem to be based on personal memories of ancestors of the people now living in any given area

Click to expand...

I don't think you know what "genes" are, if you think it's based on "personal memories."

And there is this...

In 1903, researchers excavating a cave in Cheddar Gorge, Somerset, in the UK, stumbled upon a surprising discovery. A Homo sapien skeleton who lived around 10,000 years ago and is one of the oldest modern humans in Britain. Known today as “Cheddar Man,” the ancient gentleman has recently made the news again. Scientists utilizing modern DNA techniques believe the Mesolithic human had light blue eyes and a dark complexion. As remarkable as resurrecting the face of this ancient Briton is the fact that Cheddar Man's modern-day descendant lives less than a mile from the caves where his remains lay for millennia.

10,000-Year-Old Skeleton Found in Britain Has a Modern-Day Descendant Living Close By

“It seems that pale eyes entered Europe long before pale skin or blond hair, which didn't come along until after the arrival of farming.”

mymodernmet.com

It appears that each wave of Indo-Europeans into Western Europe were relatively few, assuming control of a more ancient population.

Always in His Presence said:

WOW, that sure does make things complicated

.

Click to expand...

It’s simple to believe in our Lord, God and Savior Jesus Christ, but that doesn’t mean understanding the nuances of dogmatic theology or ecclesiastical history or pastoral care or the many other subjects studied by clergy are simple. There is a reason why so many important theologians such as Martin Luther have obtained doctorates or had equivalent education, going back to the early church where St. Irenaeus, Origen, St. Athanasius, the Cappadocians, Eusebius of Caesarea and St. John of Damascus, among others, were the most brilliant and educated minds of their era. Indeed if we go back to the New Testament itself, I am aware of no academic of the first century whose intellectual ability approached that of St. Matthew, St. Paul, St. Luke, St. Mark, St. John, St. Peter, St. James or St. Jude. Not all of the apostles were intellectuals, but the ones who required advanced intellectual abilities were granted it after the fashion of St. Solomon the King and Prophet. Indeed we see this in how those Apostles who wrote books of the Bible had originated, except for St. Matthew, St. Levi and Judas the traitor, as a group of fishermen, some of them being young; teenagers probably in several cases.

As an aside, I myself believe St. John the Beloved Disciple was probably 13 when he and his elder brother St. James the Great became disciples of our Lord were recruited - this makes his adoption by the Theotokos of mutual benefit and also explains how he managed to live into the ninth decade and survive his exile on Patmos in the years prior, which was a harsh wilderness; it helped that he was not martyred, but that he was younger than the others makes a great deal of sense. This is an example of what we call a theologuomemnon: a theological opinion which does not contradict Orthodox, Patristic doctrine but which is also not officially doctrinal; in the Orthodox church one has the freedom to embrace theologoumemna as long as one remains within the pale of Orthodoxy as established by the ecumenical councils, which gives us quite a lot more freedom than many, perhaps most denominations, while still ensuring we agree on that which is important. The other thing is that we don’t try to elevate theologoumemna to the level of doctrine or conflate them with doctrine, since this could lead to error, but rather differentiate between the two, and we do not believe in doctrinal development.

Tropical Wilds said:

She has nothing to bleat about, anyway. She got a movie sure to be watched by dozens of people.

Click to expand...

And that yummy movie money!

Ligurian said:

Back atcha.

Click to expand...

You've done nothing of the sort. You've made claims and tried to support them with outdated science that has since been superceded with actual evidence, that is all you've done and continue to do.

seeking.IAM said:

Thank you. Isn't that just handing our problem to someone else?

Click to expand...

Yeah, but we pay them well.

Ligurian said:

Which only means that proselytizing happened very early on...

Click to expand...

No. It was gradual intermarriage. The Jewish religion was not one inclined to proselytize. How can we be sure?
Adherents to the Jewish faith have resided in numerous geographic locations over the course of three millennia. Progressively more detailed population genetic analysis carried out independently by multiple research groups over the past two decades has revealed a pattern for the population genetic architecture of contemporary Jews descendant from globally dispersed Diaspora communities. This pattern is consistent with a major, but variable component of shared Near East ancestry, together with variable degrees of admixture and introgression from the corresponding host Diaspora populations. By combining analysis of monoallelic markers with recent genome-wide variation analysis of simple tandem repeats, copy number variations, and single-nucleotide polymorphisms at high density, it has been possible to determine the relative contribution of sex-specific migration and introgression to map founder events and to suggest demographic histories corresponding to western and eastern Diaspora migrations, as well as subsequent microevolutionary events.

The population genetics of the Jewish people - PMC

Adherents to the Jewish faith have resided in numerous geographic locations over the course of three millennia. Progressively more detailed population genetic analysis carried out independently by multiple research groups over the past two decades ...

pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

They have become genetically more like the populations in which they live, but there remains a set of genes showing an ancient Middle Eastern origin.

Hi Dan,

I agree that God has 3 groups He has purposes for - the Body of Christ, Israel and the Nations. That scripture in Gal. 6: 17 clearly shows that God has not cast-off Israel. It is often misquoted though, as you would know.

concretecamper said:

Anyone want to come to @Hentenza rescue? Buehler? Buehler?

Click to expand...

Show me where in your catechism does it say that other than scriptures anything else is inspired. Do you have an answer or just looking for a lifeline? It should be simple for you.

Ligurian said:

I am Western European.

Click to expand...

You've still not answered my question:
Are you personally offended by the idea that you share ancestry with someone from Africa?

Wrong. The Human Genome Project debunked that notion finally and absolutely.

When scientists unveiled the first draft of the Human Genome Project 25 years ago, it seemed to deliver the final word on some antiquated myths about race. It provided definitive evidence that racial groupings have no biological basis. In fact, there is more genetic variation within racial groups than between them. Race, it showed, is a social construct.

Ligurian said:

Are they part of the old "Out of Africa" mentality?

Click to expand...

That was much earlier. We are talking about anatomically modern humans. The other races and species of human no longer exist, although many humans have genes from Neanderthals, Denisovans, and one as of yet unidentified group. But there is only one race of humans alive today.

Ligurian said:

Give me half a minute, and I can find a dozen "finally and absolutely" debunkers of the debunked...

Click to expand...

Sounds interesting. What do you have? Checkable sources?