Saturday, April 27, 2013

Sons of God study part 1

This information in this post comes largely from a "Bible" study given by Alex Golovenko, the pastor of the church I happen to currently fellowship at. However, while Golovenko presents the view that you are about to read, he does not necessarily agree with them. He just played the role of presenting the information. The information comes from both a handout that he distributed to persons at the Bible study that took place some time ago (January 19, 2013 according to this church bulletin; I failed to record the date). For this post I will insert my own commentary throughout (in red ink/font) to let you know my view points on the matter. Due to the length of the notes, I have to break this post into a series of posts, of which this is the first.

Sons of God, according Alex Golovenko, occurs only 5 times in the oldest books of the Bible (Genesis and Job). While not specifically occurring in the book of Psalm (at least according to Golovenko), there is a similar phrase translated as "ye mighty ones" (Psalm 29:1) or "the sons of the mighty" (Psalm 89:6). (Golovenko is speaking specifically about the Hebrew word occurrence found in Genesis and Job; he does not take into account the English translations of sons of God else where in the Bible.)  Daniel also references the concept (Daniel 3:25). The Septuagint according to Golovenko, faithfully translates these other terms into "Sons of God" and so has the Peshita (Aramic/Syraic Bible).

According to Golovenko, not all translations use the term sons of God. Codex Sinaiticus (4th century), Alexandrius (5th century) and Codex Vaticanus (12th century) translate the phrases as "angels". Further, Golovenko points that sometimes, Elohim (the Hebrew plural name for God; see Wikipedia article or Maas, 1909).

Golovenko goes on to assert that it is in the Book of Watchers (1st Enoch) and the Book of Jubilees (3rd century B.C.) that propose the idea of "sons of god" being "angels". "Watchers", Golovenko said, (used in Daniel 4:13,17,23), refers to the angels pointed to guard Eden (I thought God appointed cherubs to do that! Oh Well!).

Golovenko continued to state that the early records of "church fathers" and historians of antiquity from the 1st to 3rd century including Flavius Josephus, Philo, Eusebius and many of the "Ante-Nicene Fathers" including Justin Martyr, Clement of Alexandria, Origen, Tertullian, Irenaeus (one of the early Christians that I respect based on a reading of a translation of his writings; see earlier blog post on this) and others continued in what Golovenko calls "this tradition" of fallen angels having children. Golovenko further states that, "Their pagan origins and Greek mythology permitted such a worldview" (for added emphasis I want to mention that this quote is verbatim and are not my words, but Golovenko'sIt is on this latter point that I would like to make some commentary and reserve the rest of the information presented for another post).

First of all, I must say that Golovenko is of the view or belief that angels cannot have intercourse with human beings. I however, note that such a view goes against the circumstantial evidence of females who have shared their personal stories of sleeping in the night and experiencing demons (or some unseen spiritual entity) attempting to have intercourse with them. I also note that I have never heard of men sharing those stories. I also note that apostle Paul gives a rare warning that females must cover their heads during spiritual gatherings "because of the angels" (1st Corinthians 11:10; see the KJV or NIV). It seems to me, if I interpret it correctly, going back to Genesis 6:1-2, that the angels by looking at women, their hair and all, can find them attractive. Further, Genesis 3:15 states categorically that the serpent (if we interpret the serpent as being Satan), will have an offspring or children that will fight against the offspring and children of the woman (NIV). 
I further add to the evidence the fact that many Satanic cults and pagan religions practice and celebrate sex and have many sexual  and fertility rites (Ross, 1995). Many ancient pagan deities have priestesses and orgies or group sex, as part of their ceremonies. It was within this pagan milieu that the Christian church was born. Based on all these data, it seems to me that it is not only possible that angels can have intercourse with women, but it is also prophesied that Satan will have children (sons of Satan) just like how God would have an incarnate son.

Hence, for me, Genesis 6:1-4, with references to the sons of God having intercourse with women is not a  myth. Rather, it shows that human beings are vulnerable to being raped by demonic entities. This also goes back to the issue of extra-terrestrial abduction and rapes that many females witnesses report in our modern times. I am sure, pastor Golovenko and any other Christian pastor cannot explain away such modern day occurrences by saying that females who experience extra-terrestrial abduction and rape were just imagining these things. It is further clear to me that our ancients, pagans and those closer to the time of Jesus and to Noah, know how vulnerable human beings are to such abductions and rapes by fallen angels. As such, we should not approach the Bible with the view that angels having sex with  women is a crazy or even pagan idea. It is a very real phenomenon, and one which the Bible, not giving specific details, shadows the reality. 

It is on this point that I end this posting and promise to continue the report of the Bible study, along with my commentary. Until then, God bless you.

References:


Maas, A. (1909). Elohim. In The Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company. Retrieved April 27, 2013 from New Advent:http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/05393a.htm

Ross, C. A. (1995). Satanic ritual abuse: Principles of treatment. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.






Friday, April 19, 2013

Waking up in 2040

A Christian man met in an accident and was in a coma until the year 2040. His wife kept him on life support for 27 years, believing that one day he would miraculously awake from the coma. It happened that after 27 years, she lost hope, remarried and asked that he be removed from life support.

On the day that the hospital was about to remove him from life support, he miraculously awoke from the coma. The hospital staff were amazed and told him the story of what happened to him and how his wife had just decided to turn him off the machine. Bitter sweet feelings over took him, but he was so glad to be alive and to experience such a miracle.

After being examined and cleared to leave the hospital, he immediately when to the street to share his miracle with the world outside the hospital walls. As he stood on the street shouting how God was good to him, he was approached by 2 police officers, who asked to see some ID. But he had none to show them.

So one of the officer said to him: "Sir, you can't be making religious pronouncements on the street without a permit. I am afraid that we are going to have to arrest you." The man protested, but was handcuffed and taken to the police lock-up. In jail, he was visited by a lawyer hired by his wife. He inquired about the first amendment and free speech.

"The first amendment was amended, sir. All assembly, speech, expression and religious freedoms must be regulated to prevent the spewing of hatred that results in violence, oppression and public disorder." the lawyer said.

Our Christian protagonist also learned that in the year 2040, Christianity was no longer a mainstream religion, but a mere five percent of his nation and less than 10 % of the world described themselves as Christian. The majority religion was the Universal Inter-faith Religion of Love that believed in a variety of "inspired" sources of which Biblical material was just part of the rich diverse sources of human inspiration. Further this majority religion did not hold all the Bible to be inspired.

Our Christian protagonist also learned that preaching about hell was forbidden unless one was an authorized Satanist. He also found out that the state legally recognised human beings in permanent unions with any person, living creature and non-living thing that made them happy (with consent only being required for the person) as marriages.

"Oh my", the Christian man exclaimed! "My nation has become Sodom and Gomorrah!"

"Watch your language buddy," said his lawyer. "What you just said could be interpreted as treason against the state and its constitution."

"There isn't any religious freedom any more", the Christian man began to mourn.

"Yes, there is," said the lawyer. "But your religious beliefs must be practiced according to state law. State law requires that you practice your religion under the supervision of state approved theologians, who are respectable guides in how you interpret your sacred text and practice the tenets of your faith. In addition, your religious sacred text must be modified to reflect the times and modernity of human progress."

"So I can't read the King James Bible?"  the Christian man asked.

"No," said the lawyer. "You need a more update version. That can only be read as a historical work."

"What if I disagree with my approved theologian?" the Christian man asked?

The lawyer replied, "You got to be careful that you do not make yourself an enemy of state, a vagabond of public disorder and be guilty of mischief against humanity or the human race, our advanced civilisation and human evolutionary progress."

"When and how did this happen?" the Christian man in shock exclaim.

The lawyer replied, "the great International Federation has given us principles of respecting diversity. They have been able to give us great principles in order to promote peaceful and prosperous society and economy that the world now has today. Human beings have to trade certain liberties in order to secure our universal survival, in order for us to all pursue the different paths that make us happy."

"But I can't be truly happy if I can't practice my religion freely," said the Christan man.

"Is your religion hate?" the lawyer retorted. "You can't make other unhappy and uncomfortable by practicing an antiquated religion that does not take into consideration the diversity of human beliefs and feelings. You can only be happy when you can integrate and have cordial relations with those who share different perspectives from you. How can you accomplish that if you are judgemental about their beliefs and views, and make them unhappy by what you say?"

The Christian man replied, "but Jesus did not say things to make the Pharisees feel good. He always spoke to reveal truth and point the way to salvation."

"I have a copy of the New State Approved New Testament. You may want to read it and be updated on what we moderns believe is the message of Jesus," the lawyer said, pulling out a book.

THE END!

Edited April 20, 2013

A change of direction on my spiritual blog

The world has become a dangerous place for people of faith, especially those of the Christian and Jewish faith. I say this as I acknowledge the threat and movement by governments, organizations, corporations and institutions to silence the grass-root movement of social media. I also acknowledge that our laws need to be changed to protect and preserve the freedoms of people on the Web to engage in social exchange and conversations, without the threat of civil law suit or loss of employment, especially when people respectfully criticize institutions, organizations and companies in those exchanges or conversations.

I'm deeply concerned that human beings are losing their freedoms because of laws established to protect corporations, big businesses, institutions, special interest groups and organizations. My great fear is that we are entering a new dark ages, where people will be persecuted because they tell their personal stories or share their personal experiences.

We (humanity) have indeed been this route before in history, and are heading there again. In the past, early Christians were persecuted for telling their stories. Even more, humanity's history of religious intolerance continues to show that people (whatever their faith or belief) have the proclivity to persecute and punish those who do not share their stories or view points.

I'm deeply concern that our world is moving to the place where people will and are persecuted for what they post online, without proper trial or proper administration of natural justice.

I have contemplated pulling the plug on my spiritual blog, but when I look back at what Jesus did, how he spoke out in the face of danger, I reconsider. Rather, to follow my spiritual leader and mentor, I will do as my Lord would and instead of speak directly about the issues that concern me, I will address those difficult subjects in parables. Hence, I write this entry to inform my loyal (but small) readership that you should expect from me more short stories and parables addressing the concerns that are of interest to me, in a way that does not directly attack any person, group or institution. Rather, all things will be left up to your interpretation. (I cannot take responsibility for how you will interpret my future stories). So that said, expect to see a change in my future posts on this blog.

God bless you.

Tuesday, April 2, 2013

A look at women ordination and roles in the church: Part II

Before I begin, I must apologize for the lack of citations to support the points in this post. This is one of those posts that I just want to get the opinion out first, and perhaps come back to later with supporting references.  That said, most of my view point for this post comes from my interpretation of the Genesis story (Chapters 1 to 3). That also said, please forgive me and endure my opinionated response (which is still emerging as I encounter many life experiences and mature spiritually in my walk with the LORD).

In part I of my post on this subject, I laid out my views about how I as a father of daughters welcome some of the gains of feminism in Christianity, but disagree with the challenge to overthrow the patriarchal hierarchy totally. I however, welcome the role of feminist thought in the church to re-emphasize what men's Biblical obligations for the proper treatment of females, especially the transformation of our thinking towards women. However, in this post, I want to discuss the dangers of extreme feminism in Christianity, especially in leading us into apostasy.

If one wants to know the role that women play in church history, one only has to look at the Catholic's elevation of Mary as the mother of God. This was done, in my understanding of church history, as a way of marketing Christianity to pagans, through use of symbols and stories that pagans were familiar with. Pagans at that time in history, possessed views about a god-family (father, mother and son), and so early Roman-dominated Christianity adapted these ideas in order to market the religion to the new market of pagan adherents.

Today, however, we as Christians do not need to emphasize the merits of our faith through incorporating pagan ideas. In addition, we do not need to appoint women as priestesses, which follows a spiritually dangerous tradition of pagan religious systems. God has ordained a hierarchy since the fall of humanity, that in time he will redeem all those who oppressed or under authority, giving them the true status they deserve. (This does not mean a justification for slavery, a subject that I am prepared to write in a future time). Yet, God has established an order and hierarchy that is contrary to pagan practices for purposes that only he knows best, that at the end of time, he will reverse, and men and women will be elevated to their rightful status, after Satan, sin, death and evil is finally dealt with.

Let us look at the hierarchy before the fall of humanity in Eden

Man and Woman - Earth

We must note that the Genesis story mentions that both man and woman were equally responsible for tending the garden of God and the earth. Dually, their roles were to name and understand objects and things in nature, and through nature and their work, come to an understanding of who God is as well as to love and appreciate the Creator more. They were to equally share the roles and responsibilities for the earth and all the animals. In this state, there was no hierarchy.


Let us now look at this post-sin hierarchy established from Eden.


Earth - man - woman - child  -Serpent and serpent's child

Instead of man having power over the earth as God intended, man is now subject to nature and need to exert effort in order to produce for human needs and wants. Man also goes back to the earth in death. In addition, woman, who was made an equal partner with man becomes, becomes subjected to him and now becomes the one that has the full responsibility to bear the child needed to overcome the serpent. The serpent, who apparently had some other means of travel, is now demoted to only being able to travel by land on his belly, with the added burden that there would be war between his descendants and that of humans, with humans becoming victorious.

The hierarchy established after sin, also reverses the order in which sin was introduced into the world.
Serpent - woman - man - Earth

So while the feminist movement has brought along some advancement in women rights, the true women's liberation is yet to come through God's timing and intervention. In fact, in God's timing and intervention, there will be total liberation of man and woman from their subjugation to nature and natural laws, as well as liberation of the Earth from death and decay. Hence, there will be an overthrow of hierarchy, but I have no confidence that we as human beings with our errors and faults can justly correct the situation.

However, until then, we must make the necessary incremental improvements to provide justice for women and care for our environment. Justice for women however, does not necessarily mean equity or even equal treatment. Justice means fairness, a fairness that respects and affirm differences. Also, differences do not imply a hierarchy, as objects can nominally differ. Differences mean that there is separation and demarcation, especially due to different characteristics. Justice means that people get what they deserve: where people get what is fairly, reasonably and rightly due to them based on their needs and situation.

There are some within the [radical] feminist movement that implies that there are no scientific differences between male and female. But women and men are biologically different also, which should also affect how we allocate what is due to women. Biological differences between make and female include:

  • different sexual organs (and the fact that we are sexually stimulated differently)
  • women experience menstrual cycle; men don't
  • women possess natural wombs and can naturally give birth to children; men can do so only artificially
Hence, such differences need to be taken into consideration in seeking justice for the genders.