I don’t think He meant dogs, but it’s arguable.

I like the blue on black look. What the groups you are getting?

If your husband is not Christian, you cannot expect him to act like one. Ungodly people act differently. Sadly, you may have wait your whole life.

David Lamb said:

I would say that there is no reason either to dismiss or to believe extra-biblical details about people or events mentioned in the bible. Particularly with the biblical account of the Incarnation, we find all sorts of "details" added, and accepted as an essential part of the "Christmas story." The donkey, an innkeeper, the wise men visiting Jesus at the same time as the shepherds, and much more. Some of these things actually contradict what we find in the bible, and others, we just do not know.

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Protestants (including me) usually are very, very reluctant to take into account anything extra-Biblical from the Apostolic or post-Apostolic era when it comes to the Bible or the early church history, but this position is inconsistent. Protestants assume Julius Caesar, Napoleon, St. Augustine existed - they usually attribute some degree of credibility to the various accounts about their lives - but somehow when it comes to the Apostolic and early church era all of a sudden all historical record in its entirety is disregarded because it's not the Bible E.g. what we know about Pontius Pilate comes from Josephus and Tacitus .. there is no reason to disregard that.

I would suggest to read e.g. 'History of the Church' by Eusebius (4th century) - the author was present at the famous Council of Nicea; and writes about all kind of fascinating details. We have to treat the history of the Apostolic early church era like any other historical period. Evaluate the sources using the common historian methods - and try to derive history from that with varying degrees of certainty.

The Apostles shared their accounts with others, what happened got passed on, etc. All that may not be canonised certainty but it's still very valuable.

We need historical realism for the early church era in the same way we apply it to any other historical period. It's a typical post-Reformation reflex to dismiss any extra Biblical record, but the Apostles and the early church left a historical trail of oral or written accounts. We need discernment in properly dealing with that. But the trail and the history it reflects on is real. Also we may overlook the early church fathers had access to information/libraries we now don't have anymore (e.g. Jerome mentions he personally had seen the Hebrew original version of the gospel of Matthew)

The very early church fathers who defined the Creeds didn't live in a vacuum - they lived in that trail. It's intriguing to notice that orthodox Protestant churches will vigorously defend the Creeds and Sola Scripture at the same time ... but also rejecting the worldview and many aspects of the faith of the authors of these Creeds. Many modern Protestants would deem the authors of the Creeds to be Catholic heretics, but yet somehow magically believe the resulting Creeds are infallible hallmarks of the proper faith.

We need realism, discernment and modesty - and a weighed valuation of the historical church trail.

To come back to the original subject; the Protoevangelium of James (2nd century AD) contains elements on Mary & Joseph that are referenced and valued by various church fathers. I consider it valuable background information - it's not canon, not infallible, but it may contain elements of that historical trail. Btw I don't believe in Mary's perpetual virginity as it would be very inconsistent with Jewish marriage, but the account may have truthful bits.

Be blessed brother!

My story La La Mermaid has finally been released on Amazon! I even made a video promoting it on YouTube and Instagram!:
Login to view embedded media Here it is on Amazon: La La Mermaid on Amazon!

Lord have mercy!

Michie said:

They should placing a warning on fairy tales then. That stuff was read before college and it intensifies as the student matures.. why single out the Bible? It really makes no sense when you look at the big picture.

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Yup. Not to mention many fairy tales, the original, are violent.

The Liturgist said:

No, that would be one of mine - can you guess why? I’ve mentioned it in a few posts; its something of the signature breakthrough of my project.

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I've got you beat. I was born when the highest technology machine in a house was the television, with no remote control. You had to walk across the room to change the channel.

Hank77 said:

The price per oz. is the actual cost. I love unit pricing; it saves both time and money.

In both examples, the more processed foods cost less per oz.

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But barely...

Is someone really noticing a fraction of an ounce difference per serving?

The Liturgist said:

On the contrary, a Christological-prophetic interpretation of certain OT texts insulates us from heresy.

We know from Luke 24 that the Old Testament is entirely a prophecy of Christ - most forms of recent error stem from literal-historical readings of the Old Testament that do not directly relate to God’s economy of salvation through His incarnation in the person of the Son and Word, Christ our God.

Conversely, Nestorianism resulted from the coercive implementation in tne Patriarchate of Constantinople of the literal-historical exegesis of Theodore of Mopsuestia.

Of course, Theodore’s interpretation of Scripture, although literal, would come across as alien to modern ears.

I would note that the best Church Fathers used both literal and Christological-prophetic interpretations of the Old Testament, while leaning towards literalism in the New Testament.

Many of our worst modern errors come from non-literal allegorical eisegesis of New Testament pericopdes, for example, the use of Mark 7 contra 1 Corinthians 11:2 and 2 Thessalonians 2:15 to attack the tradition of the Catholic Church, the use of 2 Peter to attack the Epistles of St. Paul whenever one disagrees with them, the claim Christ our God was only allegorically speaking of His flesh and blood in the Institution Narrative in 2 Corinthians 11 and the Synoptics and John ch. 6 and the related claim that Baptism of the Spirit excludes baptism in water, the claim of credobaptists that statements of entire households being baptized were not literally true, and the claim of liberal Christians that St. Paul’s statements on sexual morality are not to be taken literally.

To my knowledge, only five denominational groups, plus isolated churches in other denominations, namely - the Eastern Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox, Roman Catholics, High Church / Anglo Catholic Anglicans of the Continuing Anglican / GAFCON / conservative alignment, and Confessional Lutherans of the Orthodox Evangelical Catholic alignment such as my friends @MarkRohfrietsch @ViaCrucis and @Ain't Zwinglian have managed to avoid these errors (partially in the case of Roman Catholics as there are liberals vying for control such as the German bishops).

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I agree, for the most part. Implemented correctly, the use of allegory can be highly beneficial. However, it is a very slippery slope for some and I have encountered many truly amazing allegorical interpretations of scripture which hardly align with orthodox teaching.

As for the Bavarian bishops, you probably know their history. Bavarian Catholicism has had a curious relationship with Rome for a very long time. When the unification of Germany was accomplished by Otto Von Bismarck, the Bavarian Catholics found themselves as relative aliens in a Lutheran and Reformed conglomerate. In any event, we shall see how Pope Leo relates to them. Hopefully, truth and peace will prevail.

rjs330 said:

....In banking, much like other businesses we have large conglomerates that have a lot of control. Big banking. We do not have as many locally run and funded banks as we used to. Banks that would know their customers and would help them out. Now, like so much huge banks control a lot of the findings and loans.

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That is capitalism right there. People seeking the means for the most aggressive wealth accumulation.

I'm all for private enterprise. But in the name of "free markets" so called conservatives have opened every possible door for unregulated consolidation AND for unregulated corporate and billionaire campaign funding. I do realize that other parties rarely say no when donors come knocking. But its the Rs and their partisan supreme court who insisted this should be the rules of the game.

Simple objective experiment. Ask these two questions of your Google AI

1. Did Protestant reformers use the historicist method of interpretation for the prophecies in the book of Daniel?
2. Using the historicist model, please interpret the 2300 day prophecy of Daniel 8

As for this thread title, ask Google AI this question

"Did rival popes refer to each other as antichrist before Martin Luther did?"

John Emmett

Apelles of Kos (4th century BC) was a renowned painter of ancient Greece.

Artwork partially created using artificial intelligence.

Lord have mercy!

Praying for your intentions and your healing and peace.

Across the centuries, Church crypts — from Roman catacombs to American cathedrals — testify that death is not the end but the beginning of eternal life.

In the Cathedral of St. John the Evangelist in downtown Cleveland, a chapel adjoins the north transept. There’s a wrought-iron gate with Requiescant in Pace fashioned above the entrance. It’s the cathedral’s burial crypt, containing the tombs of the deceased bishops of Cleveland.

While a “crypt” implies a place under or below a structure, Cleveland’s cathedral burial chamber on the ground floor, named the Resurrection Chapel, reflects that definition as well as the tradition of burial crypts throughout the history of Christianity. It is significant that figures of both St. Peter and St. Paul are prominent on the Resurrection Chapel’s upper half of the north wall, as both martyrs of the early Church were buried in crypts: St. Peter below the altar in the basilica that bears his name, and St. Paul, buried under what is now the papal altar of the Basilica of St. Paul Outside the Walls.

“Every ordinary, that is, a bishop of a diocese, is a member of that diocese and has a right to be buried in the cathedral crypt,” Bishop Roger Gries, retired auxiliary bishop of Cleveland, explained to the Register.

A contemporary example of a burial crypt is below the apse of one of the most famous churches in the world, Barcelona’s Sagrada Familia, which began construction on the feast of St. Joseph, March 19, 1882, and is set to be completed in 2026. The visionary behind the mammoth basilica, Catalan architect Venerable Antoni Gaudí, is buried in the Sagrada Familia Crypt. The crypt, completed in 1889, is the oldest part of the basilica.

Continued below.

Hawkins said:

This is tied to how history is legitimately written. Chinese history is also canonized, and as a necessity or else historical information cannot convey legitimately. The Jews often quote from difference sources, including common stories, common theologies which are usually Pharisaic in nature, just as Jesus put, "the Pharisees are on Moses' seat" (the significance is that Canon needs an authority to legitimize it).

Quotes from common stories include how archangel Michael had a dispute with Satan on the corpse of Moses. When this was quoted, at best it means the source is partially reliable, or more strictly speaking only this part of the source book is legitimate. The quote itself doesn't automatically legitimize the whole book. Canonization on the other hand, authenticate the whole book as being legitimate and can be regarded as the Word of God. That lies a fundamental difference.

The OT canonization started (as authorized by God) with King Hezekiah. It's said that 17 out of the 24 books of the Jewish OT Canon are with the mark or seal of King Hezekiah. The more critical authentication is through Ezra (authorized by God). It seems that 22 out of the 24 canonical books are the effort more or less from Ezra. These 22 books were written in Hebrew. 2 more books were added later, more likely they are the book of Ezra (naturally so) and the book of Daniel (there's a reason for this as well, by God's will). These two books were written in Aramaic as a later add-in. They are legitimized by the Pharisees (more likely involving Pharisee elites inside the Great Sanhedrin) near Jesus' days. Even Josephus only reckoned the 22 book version of the Jewish Canon (Josephus is an elite Pharisee but not one in the inner circle of the Great Sanhedrin, Paul is a closer candidate to the Great Sanhedrin).

That said, Daniel was added (as by God's will) to the Canon, more likely because Daniel actually encountered Jesus, if you compare the description of Jesus' appearance in Revelation with that in Daniel. The Jews didn't reckon Daniel as a formal prophet, but Jesus authenticated Daniel by calling him a prophet directly.

In a nutshell, whenever an outside source is referenced, whether it's from a common story, a common Pharisaic theology or even from the Septuagint, it only means that part of the book is reliable, no less no more. In contrast, only a canonical book can be deemed as the Scripture or Word of God. Only the Scripture is not broken, as Jesus put.

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Alas, no, the Church, which possess the fullness of the truth, has the authority to make decisions on what is canonical, which is why for example the Eastern Orthodox in the Byzantine RIte read The Wisdom of Solomon in the Divine Liturgy, Western Christians read Sirach (Ecclesiasticus) among other texts, and these texts are in our bibles. The Eastern Orthodox don’t even call them Deuterocanonical; rather one can gauge the relative importance of a scriptural text by how often it is read in the liturgy, at least with regards to the Old Testament (since only the Coptic Orthodox read the Apocalypse of St. John in the liturgy; but its validity for Eastern Orthodox purposes I think is attested to by the fact that at the same time on Holy Saturday that the Copts read it in a formal liturgical setting, many Athonite monks read it in an informal, extra-liturgical group to prepare their minds for the Paschal Divine Liturgy at midnight, which the Copts are also doing by reading it - Coptic and Ethiopian laity do a number of things only monastics do in other rites, despite also being one of the churches that retains vestiges of what in the Byzantine Rite is called the “Cathedral Typikon” which in our church completely disappeared due to a fusion of monastic and cathedral praxis, as monasteries replaced the cathedrals especially after the Fourth Crusade and Turkocratia as the main centers of religious authority and also served not just the brethren and pilgrims but Orthodox communities in the surrounding area).

In the case of the Ethiopian church, they made the decision to put 1 Enoch in their canon, but it doesn’t affect their doctrine, presumably because they’re reading it as Christological prophecy rather than as a source of historical information, where it could cause the sort of problems my friend @Jipsah has pointed out.

The Czech Republic, known for its historical heritage, fairytale castles, and medieval architecture, is considered the most atheist country in Europe.

Evangelization in this land — which still bears the scars of a past marked by communism and division — is a constant challenge but not an impossible goal. Czech missionaries say they perceive “miraculous touches of God’s presence” in a society increasingly thirsting for love and truth.

Approximately 80% of the Czech Republic’s more than 10.5 million inhabitants claim to have no religious affiliation. Although about a third of the population say they believe in God — in many cases without being linked to a specific denomination — only 9.4% identify as Catholic.

Nearly a quarter of Czechs declare themselves atheist, according to the 2017 Pew Survey on European Values, making the country one of the most secularized on the continent. Comparing census results since 1991 reveals a clear decline in church membership and an increase in personal belief in God without institutional affiliation.

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The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) approved a new translation of the Bible, which will be used for personal Bibles, the lectionary at Mass, and the text in the Liturgy of the Hours.

Bishop Steven Lopes, chair of the Committee on Divine Worship, announced the translation will be called the “Catholic American Bible.” The translation for personal Bibles and the Liturgy of the Hours will be available on Ash Wednesday in 2027.

The bishops have not announced when the revised lectionaries will be available.

The USCCB also approved a Spanish-language translation of the New Testament, the Biblia de la Iglesia en América, which will be available on Ash Wednesday in 2026.

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The Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith (DDF) has declared that the alleged apparitions of Jesus in Dozulé, France, do not have an authentic divine origin and are therefore “not supernatural.”

The prefect of the dicastery, Cardinal Victor Manuel Fernandez, confirmed the declaration based on the Norms for Discerning Alleged Supernatural Phenomena in a document released Nov. 12 and addressed to the bishop of Bayeux-Lisieux, Jacques Habert.

In 1972, Madeleine Aumont claimed that Jesus had appeared to her, asking the Church to build a giant “glorious cross” in Dozulé, next to a “shrine of reconciliation.” Furthermore, the alleged visionary claimed that Jesus had announced his “imminent” return.

In the document, the Vatican authority notes that the alleged apparitions in the Normandy town “have elicited spiritual interest” but also “not a few controversies and difficulties of a doctrinal and pastoral nature” that require clarification.

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