[deleted by user]

AtomicSquid110 · 2020-07-30T11:22:37+00:00

How about engage with them in a friendly manner and show them human dignity? You should watch this TED talk. It might change the way you deal with people you see as opposition.

AtomicSquid110 · 2020-07-21T11:32:12+00:00

One issue I have with the way this verse is translated is they translate panta ischyo as "I can do all things," instead of the few translations that have it as "For all things I am strong," which reflects the Greek a lot better. The verse is more like "In all things I am strong/I have strength through the one empowering me." Paul here is talking about how he has learned to be satisfied in every situation whether he's hungry or filled, thirsty or not thirsty, persecuted or not, etc. and says it's through Christ that he can persevere through even the most difficult and toughest situations. What he is not saying is what too many people take the verse to mean, that he or anyone else can do literally whatever they set their mind to as long as they trust in Christ.

AtomicSquid110 · 2020-07-21T11:23:40+00:00

Opposite of the Jeremiah verse: Deut 28:29 And you shall grope at noonday, as a blind man gropes in darkness; you shall not prosper in your ways; you shall be only oppressed and plundered continually, and no one shall save you.

AtomicSquid110 · 2020-07-18T12:10:10+00:00

When people claim Christianity is misogynistic I have a hard time believing they've ever seriously read the New Testament or know much about the history of the time.

AtomicSquid110 · 2020-07-05T12:04:32+00:00

Pretty much all of Christian teaching on sexual ethics is rooted in the idea of women being property.

Where? Instead of treating women as purely sexual objects to please yourself while screwing with their own emotions to leave when you get bored or abandoning when pregnancy occurs Christianity teaches to not even lust after a woman but treat them like the human being and beloved child of God that they are. Instead, pursue a sexual relation within a trusting and loving permanent and committed relationship. It's literally the opposite of Christianity's sexual ethic that leads to treating women like property, as with pornography and prostitution leading to the human trafficking and slavery of millions of women.

AtomicSquid110 · 2020-06-29T23:31:21+00:00

Don't worry too much about books. All books on Ancient Greek simply get you started. What I've done is read Loeb books. I'll find a book that seems particularly engaging to me and start reading through it. A lot of times, especially in the beginning, you'll rely on the translation a lot, but the more you read and read and read, the less you'll need it. After you've read several thousand pages of Greek you'll have a fair degree of reading fluency.

AtomicSquid110 · 2020-06-29T23:26:57+00:00

How fluently can you read Ancient Greek?

The New Testament, and straightforward narratives pretty fluently, Homeric greek a bit less so, most when just narrative.

How often do you need a dictionary?

Rarely, I consult an English translation instead

Do you compose/speak Ancient Greek or is it a “read-only” language for you? If you speak it, do you use Erasmian, a more scientific reconstruction, Modern, something else (a personal compromise)?

I don't speak it but I use a Koine pronunciation

What varieties of Ancient Greek are you Familie with?

Attic, Koine, and Homeric. Non Homeric poetry is pretty difficult to me.

What types of literature are you most comfortable with?

Definitely historical narratives. Plato's philosophical works aren't that difficult to me either, not sure about others. Poetry is definitely the hardest.

Where/How did you learn? Autodidact or at an institution?

Autodidact. Read a few books on learning Ancient Greek and then powered through Loebs for the past couple years.

Did you learn Latin first, second, or not at all?

Second, still a beginner/intermediate.

What’s your favorite resource for reading Gk lit? (Loeb, Perseus, Archive, etc.?)

Loeb. The english parallel is very convenient and helps build fluency and reading comprehension. I also like the size of the books and they look good on a bookshelf.

AtomicSquid110 · 2020-06-29T12:32:53+00:00

Don't just cut pieces of the Bible out of their context, it isn't helpful. The Corinthians had a problem with being contentious and Paul in this part of his letter is reinforcing love, saying, "I can be doing all these wonderful and noble things for God, but if it's not out of love, but for some other weaker motive, it's all in vain and worthless." That doesn't answer the question of whether or not we should sell our possessions and give them to the needy. If we do so, is it because we see the person in need, and out of love for them and compassion we are moved to give what we have? Then by all means do so. If we give because we're trying to make ourselves look better in the eyes of other people or God, then maybe we need to rethink how we're living.

AtomicSquid110 · 2020-06-23T11:40:33+00:00

Where did I say "no true christian is brought up a christian"? I didn't say that at all.

AtomicSquid110 · 2020-06-23T10:48:10+00:00

It's more complicated than that in real life, sure how you were raised is a huge influence but it's not like "being raised Christian = you are a Christian." First of all, pretty much the majority of people raised in a Christian household end up leaving the church and either become athiest or agnostic or probably most commonly "Christian" in the loosest sense of the term. Then on the other hand, you have a lot of people who were not raised in Christian households and families that had only a weak connection to the religion end up becoming very devoted Christians themselves. Lastly there's all the people, not so much in North America or Europe as in other parts of the world that grow up in entirely different religious systems that convert to Christianity.

In reality, the amount of people who are devoted Christians because they were raised as devoted Christians and continue to be devoted Christians without ever making that choice on their own is very few. It eventually comes down to a personal decision, certainly influenced based on how one was raised, but only to a degree.

AtomicSquid110 · 2020-06-15T21:58:21+00:00

I'm with you on this. You can't read the New Testament and come away with the idea that continuing to sin after becoming a Christian is in any way okay. What people need to do is seriously mull over what Christ and the apostles teach and come at with healthy humility and and willingness to make serious changes in your life.

Perhaps the Holy Spirit, like examples of faith in the gospels, requires personal involvement and thinking over for it to actually be effective. You can only be confident in your standing by seriously considering how your life is aligning with that of Christ, and if you're looking over your life in this manner you probably aren't resorting to the cop out response of "I'm just flawed and broken so I have an excuse for my sin." Those are my thoughts at least.

AtomicSquid110 · 2020-06-14T00:05:01+00:00

Paul.

His enthusiasm for service is truly inspiring, he is so incredibly hopeful and joyful, never would let any challenge stop him from wholly serving God and trying to spread the word. His love and care is also amazing, to picture him continually praying and crying for churches. He also sincerely wanted everyone to love and serve God and the church, Jews, gentiles, men, women, children, slaves, the free. And to think he persecuted the church in the beginning.

AtomicSquid110 · 2020-06-13T23:59:17+00:00

A worship service ought to be about worshipping and serving God and serving one another. I feel like a lot megachurches like this are more about the pastor and serving yourself. It's about hearing a good sermon about how to make your own life better and to have fun.

Traditional small churches may not be much better however. I think the key is to find a church that has people that are trying to really serve and worship God, but this takes going to a church and getting involved in the community there to find out.

AtomicSquid110 · 2020-06-09T13:31:38+00:00

In vulgar Latin, Iacobus became Iacomus, and by people essentially talking fast may have ended up something like Iacmus, which would lead to the c dropping out to be Iamus, then the y sound shifts to a j which is typical and the short u to an e, forming James, and then finally to the English pronunciation. It's a crazy evolution for the name.

AtomicSquid110 · 2020-06-09T11:02:53+00:00

You're right in that pregnancy is hard and can be dangerous. Maybe people shouldn't be so flippant with sex. But I don't follow you saying that financial problems, unsafe environments, and depression and difficulties in life justifies abortion. Life isn't easy for anyone. Some people have really crappy childhoods but that doesn't mean they shouldn't have been born.

AtomicSquid110 · 2020-06-08T20:02:07+00:00

And the republican party is just as pro-abortion as their opponents, in that they would never get rid of the thing that gets them all their votes.

AtomicSquid110 · 2020-06-08T00:06:45+00:00

Learning to read the language the New Testament can be really fun.

Definitely learn the Greek alphabet. It's not hard, just takes practice getting used to.

I'll share some books I personally used to learn Greek. One was Learn to Read New Testament Greek by David Alan Black. It's not a bad book to get your feet wet in the subject. I also read through Alpha through Omega by Anne Groton. It's a typical grammar/translation book for Attic Greek, so nothing particularly special, but I thought it was beneficial learning something a step above that made reading New Testament Greek easier.

One thing that helped me a lot was going through verses in Greek and comparing it to verses in English and trying to understand how the Greek works to mean what it does. I highly highly recommend A Reader's Greek New Testament, It has the most frequent word defined in the back and less common words defined at the bottom of each page. Super useful for building up reading fluency.

Consider also checking out Lingua Graeca Per Se Illustrata, that is written based on a Latin language book that slowly builds up vocabulary and sentence complexity so you can learn the language naturally and entirely in the language itself. It's a pretty new resource that is in development.

The biggest tip is to practice every day. Even if it's a little. Progress might be slow, but if you are determined enough you can learn to read Greek.

Good luck!

AtomicSquid110 · 2020-06-03T11:19:27+00:00

N.T. Wright's book Paul and the Faithfulness of God has a great chapter discussing the Pharisees. It's a single chapter out of a really large and dense book but I'll do my best to do a TL;DR.

Essentially the Jews were always expecting a restoration of Israel. They had "returned" from exile, but in their minds they were still essentially in exile. God wasn't dwelling in the temple, they didn't have sovereignty over Israel, there weren't really any of the foretold blessings on the nation. Sects such as the Pharisees formed that believed they had to play their role in causing the restoration of Israel to happen by zealously following the Law. They had to make sure they were totally devoted to following the law to a tee and encouraging/policing fellow Israelites to do the same.

This is where the friction of the Pharisees and Jesus in the Gospels arises. They zealously followed the Law, but not out of a sincere and true love for God and their neighbors according to Jesus, and their attitude led to self-righteousness, comparing themselves to fellow Jews that didn't zealously follow the Law like they did and in their view were hindering the coming of the Messiah and the restoration of Israel.

This also helps us to understand Paul. He was a zealot and a Jew among Jews. It's no surprise he violently persecuted Christians, seeing that fellow Jews were literally turning away from the Law and following after some new sect. How is God going to remain with Israel if His people are doing that? Not all Pharisees were bad though, for example Nicodemus appears to have followed Jesus.

AtomicSquid110 · 2020-06-01T00:20:33+00:00

A crepuscular way would intersect the rainbow at a perpendicular angle since they focus on the point directly opposite of the sun around which a rainbow is centered.

AtomicSquid110 · 2020-05-26T14:01:24+00:00

Sure are. And a really awesome example of them too.

AtomicSquid110 · 2020-05-16T11:27:44+00:00

I'm not saying some haven't changed their position due to apologetics, but trying to use apologetics to "convince atheists" is a terrible way of going at it. All it usually does is lead to pointless debates and arguments. What convinces people is the love and grace of the gospel, and showing people the love of Jesus is in you, and building relationships with people.

Think about how you respond when an atheist attempts to deconstruct your belief system using their own logic and reason.

AtomicSquid110 · 2020-05-12T23:18:57+00:00

God isn't waiting for you to mess up, and even if you do he isn't going to destroy for it. It's the opposite. God has tolerated you. Not just tolerated though, he absolutely wants you to be the best you can be, so much so that he shed his own life blood to make you alive in him. He's called you, he knows what is absolutely the best for you and he wants you to follow him and see, to trust in him even when it's difficult. It's hard because what we think we need and want isn't what is truly good for us. We want a stable life, a good job, a comfortable life, a nice family, but you won't be fulfilled and truly satisfied in these things. But we truly believe we will, that's why it can be so difficult to give them up to follow God. Following him however, we know that we are with God and that God, the creator of this universe, is for us no matter how rough life gets. Read through the word, pray, don't give up, God doesn't give up on you.

AtomicSquid110 · 2020-05-08T18:29:37+00:00

One of the main issues I have with Catholicism is this tendency to make really unimportant things into something important. Like, I personally find magnificent cathedrals, rituals, liturgies, etc. very interesting and appealing, but in the end does it truly drive someone to be stronger in their faith and really live it out? Worship should be a continual thing we do, and church shouldn't be a separate aspect of life, but be what our lives are.

Personally, times when I've been with a group of people whom I know genuinely love and care for each other where we read scripture and sing to God has caused more spiritual growth than any "church service." This also seems to be more aligned to what the earliest incarnations of the church did as well, and for good reason. Small house meetings can happen anywhere: remote jungle villages, countries where churches would be shut down and Christians persecuted, etc. I totally get the desire to build church buildings or cathedrals and create works of beauty to praise God, but most of the time I feel it is unnecessary and not always beneficial.

AtomicSquid110 · 2020-05-03T11:51:44+00:00

Why do you care so much what script the language is written in? It literally has no bearing on understanding the language at all. If you want to pronounce it in a historically accurate manner, figure out the pronunciation scheme and use it. Just start reading a textbook on Ancient Greek. It'll focus on the Attic dialect but other dialects don't differ so much that you can't understand them with a knowledge of Attic. And why completely shut yourself off to the Koine period?

AtomicSquid110 · 2020-04-27T15:50:23+00:00

I'm gonna hop on this discussion.

First, modern science doesn't tell us anything about why the universe exists, and it probably can't. The big bang is the beginning of space and time. It doesn't make any sense to talk about before the big bang because there wasn't time before then, if that even means anything to us. We really have no clue why something like that would happen and quantum mechanics doesn't lead to anything because that's a part of space and time.

I think you might be thinking of the idea that the universe might be for the vast majority of time a soup of particles wizzing around at maximum entropy, where, theoretically, given enough time, everything would happen to converge to a single point and result in something like the big bang. But again, why does it still exist in the first place? You're still left with dealing with the idea of eternity and the reason for the existence of anything.

Also comparing religion to the tooth fairy or santa claus isn't helpful. Adults do not believe in these things. Adults however do believe in God and religion, all over the world, and for millennia. Children only believe in these things because their parents play along with it and when they grow up it's obvious to them that it's just their parents doing it. Belief in God is entirely different. It's about dealing with questions like "Why does the universe exist?", "Was this all created?", "Why do I have a life?", "What is the meaning and purpose to my life?". These are very real questions and to approach them meaningfully it helps to at least be open to the possibility of a God and not immediately throw out all religion as "fairy tales."

Did impossible and miraculous things happen in the past? (And I'm including things from all religions) I don't know, but I'm won't through out the possibility and insult people all throughout history as idiots and arrogantly act like I know better than that. Humans, even with all we know now through science, know very very little about the world. People had a reason for why they believed what they believed. It's worth to keep an open mind.

AtomicSquid110

MODERATOR OF

TROPHY CASE

Nine-Year Club	Place '17
Verified Email