A Collision of Two Christianities

[Clare73]

But you're saying that you know God's "secret will", while Deut says that some things are simply not revealed. Either way, you're trying to squeeze a meaning out of the passage that doesn't fit with Pharaoh's situation to begin with.

Secret to whom the secret regards. . .in this case, secret to Pharaoh, but not secret to Moses.

Demonstrate how God"s will for Pharaoh (binding him to his hardened heart so that he was unable to change his mind) was not a secret to Pharaoh.

If his secret will regards mankind, then that particular secret will is secret to mankind.

If his secret will regards the church, then that particular secret will is secret to the church.

 

[Erik Nelson]

Yes, that would be quite strange. Now, if someone believed that faith, alone, wasn’t enough, that would make sense. And that is what James was emphasizing in chap 2 of his letter, that faith without good fruit would be ridiculous, or worthless.

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Twice in James Chapter 2 we read: “Faith without works is dead” (Jas 2:20, 26). And once we read, “Faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead” (Jas 2:17). Many commentators focus on the word dead. They wrongly think James means that faith without works is not faith. But dead in this context means unprofitable. Note the expression “What does it profit?” at the start of verse 14 and the end of verse 16. Then James says, “Thus also by itself, if it does not have works, is dead/unprofitable” (Jas 2:17).

The rest can be read here What Is Faith Without Works? James 2:17, 20, 26 – Grace Evangelical Society

and more here on this topic Faith Without Works is Dead — James 2:14-17 – Grace Evangelical Society
The KISS Method for James 2 – Grace Evangelical Society - Salvation by a Dead, Spoken-Only Faith – Grace Evangelical Society

Yes unprofitable towards salvation, like the faith of demons. Faith that doesn’t please God.

On places like social media, those who strongly oppose Christian culture say things such as, "in by 4 up by 10", "no rest for the wicked", "you can sleep when you're d**d". (Perhaps lifelong sleep deprivation accounts for some of the mania?)

They also mock Christians for, ironically like Nero, simply praying as the world burns around them. The only thing necessary for the opposite opponent to triumph is for you to do (essentially) nothing.

Uncritically accepting their perceptions, Christianity teaches people to do nothing for defense, even as everything else teaches to do everything possible for offense ("go for the in, go for the in").

No (real) defense, all offense. Lots of laughter.

One might think of the Roman coliseum, wherein Caesar gave the slaves many weapons but (virtually) no armor...

 

[The Liturgist]

One might think of the Roman coliseum, wherein Caesar gave the slaves many weapons but (virtually) no armor...

Not all gladiators were slaves and aside from a few monsters like Caligula, skillful gladiators were regarded as valuable. I am not defending gladiatorial combat, particularly given that the same arena was used for feeding Christian martyrs to animals and killing them in sadistic ways, for example, St. Ignatius the Martyr was devoured by lions.

But not all emperors were equally bad, and not everything about ancient Rome was perverse. Rome was in many respects a more moral society than ancient Greece and several other ancient civilizations. For example, in ancient Rome, sodomy was less common and to the extent that existed it could be regarded as a Hellenistic import.

Furthermore, the Romans did convert to Christianity, and after that conversion, the Roman demonyms Romiioi (Greek) Romanian, Aromanian (the names of two surviving Eastern Romance languages spoken from a region stretching from Greece to Galicia) and Rum (Arabic) has been maintained by the Eastern Orthodox population of the Mediterranean, descended from the predominantly Greek-speaking population of the Eastern Roman Empire and their descendants to this day, many of whom now speak Arabic due to the expansion of the Islamic caliphates, which were much worse than the Roman Empire in terms of their distillation of savagery and rank hypocrisy (reading an account of the life of even the most enlightened Islamic rulers like Suleyman the Magnificent is most akin to the experience of reading or watching a book or film about the Mafia), and the suppression of languages other than Arabic by these regimes, which resulted in Coptic ceasing to be a vernacular language (although it is coming back thanks to educational initiatives both in Egypt and the Diaspora; for example, in Simi Valley, California, there is a thriving Coptic Orthodox Church that has successfully taught its children to read and sing in the language at a fairly advanced level, and this is huge in terms of opening up access to a treasure trove of Christian literature that previously could only be read by what is essentially a subset of egyptologists).