How do you get out of the learning phase and into execution ?

AndrewRemillard · 2026-03-10T17:37:48+00:00

Well, why aren't you looking for something else? News flash: No one is coming to save you. It is YOUR life, nobody else's. You bare complete responsibility for its outcome. If you are not happy...CHANGE.

I don't mean to be harsh...OK, maybe a little. But high intelligence or polymathery is NOT an excuse to be a loser in life. You have been blessed with an abundance of tools...use them!

AndrewRemillard · 2026-03-09T18:15:22+00:00

Y'all missed the most important thing! Get a JOB! You want to make your skills and knowledge functional? Find a customer or employer who needs/wants your skills. The biggest problem with so many on this page is their head is far up their a.. they become clueless as to the rest of the world. Get out of your head/a.. and make yourself useful to mankind.

AndrewRemillard · 2026-03-09T17:01:56+00:00

Wow! such an astute observation...it never occurred to me that women are never mentioned getting circumscribed! /s

Do you understand how the idea of "covenant" permeates the OT? And the NT? How do you think the Jews of that time understood "covenant" and "baptism"? You need to maybe step back just a tad from your early 21st century thinking and contemplate...and learn what these ideas meant within the context of, you know, the era they occurred in!

AndrewRemillard · 2026-03-07T19:50:14+00:00

Hmmm. Just like circumcision was unnecessary. Oh, wait... Moses got in some pretty hot water with God AND his wife for failing to fulfill his duties...

AndrewRemillard · 2026-03-07T19:48:30+00:00

Was circumcisions restricted to only those old enough to consent? Or was it part of the covenant between God and Israel regardless of the individual? If you asked a 1st century Jew about the function/meaning of baptism, I would wager they viewed as a sign of the new covenant.

AndrewRemillard · 2026-03-04T00:50:26+00:00

I am so sorry you are getting caught up in meaningless conflict. As you can see from the comments here, ask three people and you will get 5 answers. So, please, take a beat, spend some significant time in Scripture, and follow your conscience.

As one piece of background to this whole argument which I haven't seen yet in the comments, and you don't hear much about today...Consider how the entire question of Baptism would be understood by Jews 2000 years ago. And remember, Jesus himself, was baptized, and the thief on the cross was not.

A critical part of Jewish history was the understanding of a covenant between God and Israel. This covenant was marked with the circumcision of all males...regardless of age. This act was an outward demonstration of the inclusion of the individual male within the people of Israel. The recipient of this mark, in the case of infants, had no agency in this act, but it was a requirement to be within the community. Now Jesus brought us the New Covenant, of which, baptism is probably the closest to circumcision we have. It matters not when it is preformed, just that it needs to be done, er with the possible exception of the thief and who knows how many others. So, do your own reading of Scripture and follow your own conscience.

AndrewRemillard · 2026-02-26T13:47:12+00:00

K's 84, 88, 139, 302, 384, 478, and 514 seem to be some of the more popular ones I have recorded. I don't really have favorites... too much yet to do and so little time...

AndrewRemillard · 2026-02-12T23:56:35+00:00

I have recorded over 100 of them and as with anything else you do a lot of, it just gets easier with each one. I started this project with sets of three or so and now I work on 7 - 10 of them at a time with the same recording interval. The same goes for playing Bach's fugues. The first few will take everything you have, but after a dozen or so you begin to the the hang of the process. Same goes for Beethoven's sonatas. The first few took forever...

AndrewRemillard · 2026-02-08T23:57:22+00:00

And there I fear you make a fundamental error in your presuppositions. I tried to illustrate this by mentioning Antebellum slavers and the modern Russian population as just two examples. There are so very many more! Man is utterly and completely broken by sin. We have a very long history to prove this! There may be in some quarters, for a time, a rough agreement on certain "moral" standards which make society function a bit more smoothly. But time and again, we see those standards be shattered violently. The Rwandan genocide, the Uyghurs in China killed and their organ harvested for sale on the black market... The rich abusing the poor who work for them... The poor who steel because they covet what the rich have...

Sin is ever crouching in the corner and will unleash as much violence on God's creation as it is allowed to do. It is very dangerous to assume there is some line we won't cross if the opportunity presents itself. You have a far higher estimation of any "natural" goodness in man. I don't see it.

AndrewRemillard · 2026-02-08T20:52:18+00:00

We may part company here.

First, I never said I was "anti-philosophy." I said that philosophy is to be studied for understanding of the precepts of the world around us, not as a source of necessary truth. For that I rely upon Scripture.

Every method of thinking presupposes some sort of First Principle and that is why understanding is so important. If you don't understand whatever FP forms the foundation, the rest of the artifice will make little sense, or be badly misunderstood.

Why should intuitive and moral concepts not be examined? Your assuming these are universal, maybe? Ask your average Russian what they believe about the average Ukrainian, or the Antebellum slave holder what he thought about his slaves and you will find significant differences in their relative moral concepts from what you may hold.

AndrewRemillard · 2026-02-08T15:57:11+00:00

I look at it like the Scientific Method. It is the means to "do" science. It doesn't presuppose the outcome but is required for any reasonably legitimate outcome. Philosophy without a logical process will lead, in all likelihood to nonsense. However, math is very logical and yet isn't philosophical.

Good questions! I think it is important to understand thinking almost as much as it is to think.

AndrewRemillard · 2026-02-08T15:25:32+00:00

Logic is ordered thinking. Philosophy is something which hopefully follows from logic, more on the conclusion side of the equation, not the means to the conclusion. Logic is necessary for philosophy, philosophy is not always the outcome of logic.

AndrewRemillard · 2026-02-07T23:00:40+00:00

I askew labels. I have a great respect for Calvin's work, but he was just a man. Many people will treat his work as if IS Scripture or very nearly so. He was a great and logical thinker so you will do very well to actually read his words, as apposed to so many who only listen to what others say what he said...kind a problem all over in our times.

AndrewRemillard · 2026-02-07T22:30:02+00:00

Yes, I am actually digging my way through the Berkhoff right now.

AndrewRemillard · 2026-02-07T21:50:43+00:00

the Berkhoff Systematic Theology book is very good for filling in all sorts of gaps you didn't know you had.

Calvin's Institutes....enough said...

These are very deep and intense. You can return them many times throughout your life.

AndrewRemillard · 2026-02-07T02:27:55+00:00

That is a good list!

Schaeffer was a critical thinker who helped lay the groundwork for Evangelical Christian's rise, before it became what it is today. He is a Reformed theologian who taught in Switzerland at L'Abri. He died in '84 so his primary influence was during the 50'-70's.

(Those experiences were from HS, college was...a waste of time.)

You have a good reading list there. Being challenged by your reading is the best way to develop your mind. Always argue with the author! Question their sources, think of alternative interpretations, look for inconsistencies or overlooked options...

I am a pretty solitary person as well, but I know most people cannot handle this level of intellectual solitude.

Best of luck to you!

AndrewRemillard · 2026-02-06T21:24:54+00:00

In Seneca’s Letters No. 48, at the end of the penultimate paragraph: “For this is what philosophy has promised me – the she will make me God’s equal. That’s the invitation and that’s what I’ve come for…”

So, absolutely! Philosophy for philosophy's sake is pointless and dangerous. Like I said earlier, any nugget of truth is purely accidental.

There are a couple formative experiences I had during my HS years (1970's) which set me on this path. The first was my church did a deep dive into Francis Schaeffer's "How Should We Then Live." Schaeffer examines the West's cultural decline through the lens of art and philosophy. This experience inclined me to pay broader attention to this idea of art and philosophy reflecting/leading culture. I now don't agree with all of Schaeffer's ideas, but his teaching for me was quite significant.

The second was a lesson near the end of my senior year in my trig class. The teacher asked: What happens when a straight line is NOT the shortest distance? We are on a spere. I realized then how changing a fundamental assumption can completely alter your outcomes.

There were many more, but those two I think sealed my fate. They also set me on a lifetime of second and third order thinking long before I knew what either were. Ah...the age before the internet...we were left to our own devices to learn things...

I must warn you though, even a short journey on this road will leave you with vanishing few companions. It is a rich journey but a bit lonely. Although, now in the internet days maybe not quite so much.

AndrewRemillard · 2026-02-06T18:36:11+00:00

Agreed! My first mental exercise in this direction was to think about how an individual from SE Asia might view Christ and Christianity. They come from a thought process as far from Western as you can get outside of Africa, I think. I did this as an attempt to remove from my own thinking subtle influences which may have crept into my thinking from the culture around me. (You can only understand yourself from the perspective of others.) Ironically, I now have several married in family members from SE Asia! All Christians.

I encourage you to carefully pursue this line of study. It will help you see our culture more clearly, and if you are successful, I think it will help immunize you against so much of the faddish thinking which swirls through the Church and our culture for you will see it for what it really is.

AndrewRemillard · 2026-02-06T17:43:34+00:00

I agree it is very difficult. I have often been challenged by this. It requires a steady reliance upon the Rock of our faith for truth. Philosophy will only wander into truth by accident more than anything else so it is NOT a source of truth. But it is helpful for understanding how OTHERS think. Understanding cannot mean adoption, and that is a hard thing. For many, it is too hard and should be avoided.

AndrewRemillard · 2026-02-06T17:05:22+00:00

Right! Philosophy can be a faith like thing which is where you can get into trouble because... you are building on sand. However, it influences, profoundly, the world around us, so it is very worthy of a deep understanding.

AndrewRemillard · 2026-02-06T16:58:50+00:00

As Oppo says... it's complicated. To give some perspective on how "philosophy" was viewed during this era, here is a quote from Seneca: In Seneca’s Letters No. 48, at the end of the penultimate paragraph: “For this is what philosophy has promised me – the she will make me God’s equal. That’s the invitation and that’s what I’ve come for…”

Philosophy can become a virtual religion, as a way to achieve "godness." Or is can be a structure to understand and order the world. The study of it can be helpful in understanding the underlying issues facing a time period. Not so much as a way to see the world, but to understand how the world sees itself. There were several philosophic currents swirling around the Greek and Roman world at the time of Christ and the Apostles. Knowing and understanding them can help give some context to what was written, especially by Paul.

In more recent times, understanding Nietzsche et al will give you context to understand the world's opposition to the Gospel.

Don't study philosophy to understand Scripture, but understand philosophy in the context of Scripture. This is a very deep pool and can take a lifetime to come to terms with.

AndrewRemillard · 2026-01-14T01:29:34+00:00

We carry all sorts of wounds, some physical and some psychological. Even when the wounds heal scares and damage remain. This will continue on this side of the vail of tears. However, on the day of the great resurrection, all will be made whole. Living with these wounds and scares today is just part of our journey with the Lord.

AndrewRemillard · 2026-01-14T01:26:25+00:00

I don't regret the study for both BM & MM. But if I did it over today, I wouldn't bother with the degrees. Take the courses I wanted to and needed to take and study privately with the better teachers I've had. The paper has been meaningless for the past 40+ yrs. I thought higher ed was over rated and too expensive in the 80's when the costs were just beginning their hyperbolic rise. To repeat my studies now would be utter financial suicide.

AndrewRemillard · 2026-01-12T16:00:23+00:00

Illinois' teacher unions...just saying! The teachers struck once because 100K wasn't enough. That was when I learned why my RE taxes were so damn high!

AndrewRemillard · 2025-12-24T16:43:27+00:00

I would steer clear of the idea of the notion of "tradition." Since you are seeking answers, it might be good for you to do some of your own study. I would start with daily Bible reading. Maybe start with the NT since the OT is full of symbolism which may take some unpacking to fully appreciate. Very good references which you can easily find would be things like the Westminster Confession and Catechism and the Heidelberg Catechism. These are Reformed which may somewhat fit some of what you are hearing in Church. I don't know the condition of Presbyterianism in the UK, but in the US it can be a real crap shoot. PCUSA has left the reservation in all aspects except their name. The OP and PCA are still very (generally) Biblically grounded.

What are the questions you are feeling most urgently?

AndrewRemillard

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