Saturday, November 14, 2015

 TOWER 7
NOTE- There are many ‘conspiracies’ about 911- and many videos you can watch on the subject.
Actually- I don’t consider myself a ‘truther’.
But I do talk about it on my video- and added actual footage of the collapse of tower 7.
We know tower 7 was on fire- the question is could a structure fire alone cause a collapse like this?
Tower 7 was not hit by a plane on 911.

I added a few videos below- besides mine. I don’t agree with all the stuff- but figured I’d add them because I talked about it on the post.

https://youtu.be/aoNy7AzSVAU [collapse of tower 7]
ON VIDEOS
.Altar better than gift
.Conspiracy?
.Don’t flatter me
.Should we pay taxes?
.Why so mad Jesus?
.What is truth?
.Married in heaven?
.I have one question- FOR YOU!

VERSES [posts below]

. Matthew 22:1 And Jesus answered and spake unto them again by parables, and said,

Matthew 22:2 The kingdom of heaven is like unto a certain king, which made a marriage for his son,
Matthew 22:3 And sent forth his servants to call them that were bidden to the wedding: and they would not come.
Matthew 22:4 Again, he sent forth other servants, saying, Tell them which are bidden, Behold, I have prepared my dinner: my oxen and my fatlings are killed, and all things are ready: come unto the marriage.
Matthew 22:5 But they made light of it, and went their ways, one to his farm, another to his merchandise:
Matthew 22:6 And the remnant took his servants, and entreated them spitefully, and slew them.
Matthew 22:7 But when the king heard thereof, he was wroth: and he sent forth his armies, and destroyed those murderers, and burned up their city.
Matthew 22:8 Then saith he to his servants, The wedding is ready, but they which were bidden were not worthy.
Matthew 22:9 Go ye therefore into the highways, and as many as ye shall find, bid to the marriage.
Matthew 22:10 So those servants went out into the highways, and gathered together all as many as they found, both bad and good: and the wedding was furnished with guests.
Matthew 22:11 And when the king came in to see the guests, he saw there a man which had not on a wedding garment:
Matthew 22:12 And he saith unto him, Friend, how camest thou in hither not having a wedding garment? And he was speechless.
Matthew 22:13 Then said the king to the servants, Bind him hand and foot, and take him away, and cast him into outer darkness, there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
Matthew 22:14 For many are called, but few are chosen.
Matthew 22:15 Then went the Pharisees, and took counsel how they might entangle him in his talk.
Matthew 22:16 And they sent out unto him their disciples with the Herodians, saying, Master, we know that thou art true, and teachest the way of God in truth, neither carest thou for any man: for thou regardest not the person of men.
Matthew 22:17 Tell us therefore, What thinkest thou? Is it lawful to give tribute unto Caesar, or not?
Matthew 22:18 But Jesus perceived their wickedness, and said, Why tempt ye me, ye hypocrites?
Matthew 22:19 Shew me the tribute money. And they brought unto him a penny.
Matthew 22:20 And he saith unto them, Whose is this image and superscription?
Matthew 22:21 They say unto him, Caesar's. Then saith he unto them, Render therefore unto Caesar the things which are Caesar's; and unto God the things that are God's.
Matthew 22:22 When they had heard these words, they marvelled, and left him, and went their way.
Matthew 22:23 The same day came to him the Sadducees, which say that there is no resurrection, and asked him,
Matthew 22:24 Saying, Master, Moses said, If a man die, having no children, his brother shall marry his wife, and raise up seed unto his brother.
Matthew 22:25 Now there were with us seven brethren: and the first, when he had married a wife, deceased, and, having no issue, left his wife unto his brother:
Matthew 22:26 Likewise the second also, and the third, unto the seventh.
Matthew 22:27 And last of all the woman died also.
Matthew 22:28 Therefore in the resurrection whose wife shall she be of the seven? for they all had her.
Matthew 22:29 Jesus answered and said unto them, Ye do err, not knowing the scriptures, nor the power of God.
Matthew 22:30 For in the resurrection they neither marry, nor are given in marriage, but are as the angels of God in heaven.
Matthew 22:31 But as touching the resurrection of the dead, have ye not read that which was spoken unto you by God, saying,
Matthew 22:32 I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob? God is not the God of the dead, but of the living.
Matthew 22:33 And when the multitude heard this, they were astonished at his doctrine.
Matthew 22:34 But when the Pharisees had heard that he had put the Sadducees to silence, they were gathered together.
Matthew 22:35 Then one of them, which was a lawyer, asked him a question, tempting him, and saying,
Matthew 22:36 Master, which is the great commandment in the law?
Matthew 22:37 Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.
Matthew 22:38 This is the first and great commandment.
Matthew 22:39 And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.
Matthew 22:40 On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.
Matthew 22:41 While the Pharisees were gathered together, Jesus asked them,
Matthew 22:42 Saying, What think ye of Christ? whose son is he? They say unto him, The son of David.
Matthew 22:43 He saith unto them, How then doth David in spirit call him Lord, saying,
Matthew 22:44 The LORD said unto my Lord, Sit thou on my right hand, till I make thine enemies thy footstool?
Matthew 22:45 If David then call him Lord, how is he his son?
Matthew 22:46 And no man was able to answer him a word, neither durst any man from that day forth ask him any more questions.


Matthew 23:1 Then spake Jesus to the multitude, and to his disciples,

Matthew 23:2 Saying The scribes and the Pharisees sit in Moses' seat:
Matthew 23:3 All therefore whatsoever they bid you observe, that observe and do; but do not ye after their works: for they say, and do not.
Matthew 23:4 For they bind heavy burdens and grievous to be borne, and lay them on men's shoulders; but they themselves will not move them with one of their fingers.
Matthew 23:5 But all their works they do for to be seen of men: they make broad their phylacteries, and enlarge the borders of their garments,
Matthew 23:6 And love the uppermost rooms at feasts, and the chief seats in the synagogues,
Matthew 23:7 And greetings in the markets, and to be called of men, Rabbi, Rabbi.
Matthew 23:8 But be not ye called Rabbi: for one is your Master, even Christ; and all ye are brethren.
Matthew 23:9 And call no man your father upon the earth: for one is your Father, which is in heaven.
Matthew 23:10 Neither be ye called masters: for one is your Master, even Christ.
Matthew 23:11 But he that is greatest among you shall be your servant.
Matthew 23:12 And whosoever shall exalt himself shall be abased; and he that shall humble himself shall be exalted.
Matthew 23:13 But woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye shut up the kingdom of heaven against men: for ye neither go in yourselves, neither suffer ye them that are entering to go in.
Matthew 23:14 Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye devour widows' houses, and for a pretence make long prayer: therefore ye shall receive the greater damnation.
Matthew 23:15 Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye compass sea and land to make one proselyte, and when he is made, ye make him twofold more the child of hell than yourselves.
Matthew 23:16 Woe unto you, ye blind guides, which say, Whosoever shall swear by the temple, it is nothing; but whosoever shall swear by the gold of the temple, he is a debtor!
Matthew 23:17 Ye fools and blind: for whether is greater, the gold, or the temple that sanctifieth the gold?
Matthew 23:18 And, Whosoever shall swear by the altar, it is nothing; but whosoever sweareth by the gift that is upon it, he is guilty.
Matthew 23:19 Ye fools and blind: for whether is greater, the gift, or the altar that sanctifieth the gift?
Matthew 23:20 Whoso therefore shall swear by the altar, sweareth by it, and by all things thereon.
Matthew 23:21 And whoso shall swear by the temple, sweareth by it, and by him that dwelleth therein.
Matthew 23:22 And he that shall swear by heaven, sweareth by the throne of God, and by him that sitteth thereon.
Matthew 23:23 Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye pay tithe of mint and anise and cummin, and have omitted the weightier matters of the law, judgment, mercy, and faith: these ought ye to have done, and not to leave the other undone.
Matthew 23:24 Ye blind guides, which strain at a gnat, and swallow a camel.
Matthew 23:25 Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye make clean the outside of the cup and of the platter, but within they are full of extortion and excess.
Matthew 23:26 Thou blind Pharisee, cleanse first that which is within the cup and platter, that the outside of them may be clean also.
Matthew 23:27 Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye are like unto whited sepulchres, which indeed appear beautiful outward, but are within full of dead men's bones, and of all uncleanness.
Matthew 23:28 Even so ye also outwardly appear righteous unto men, but within ye are full of hypocrisy and iniquity.
Matthew 23:29 Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! because ye build the tombs of the prophets, and garnish the sepulchres of the righteous,
Matthew 23:30 And say, If we had been in the days of our fathers, we would not have been partakers with them in the blood of the prophets.
Matthew 23:31 Wherefore ye be witnesses unto yourselves, that ye are the children of them which killed the prophets.
Matthew 23:32 Fill ye up then the measure of your fathers.
Matthew 23:33 Ye serpents, ye generation of vipers, how can ye escape the damnation of hell?
Matthew 23:34 Wherefore, behold, I send unto you prophets, and wise men, and scribes: and some of them ye shall kill and crucify; and some of them shall ye scourge in your synagogues, and persecute them from city to city:
Matthew 23:35 That upon you may come all the righteous blood shed upon the earth, from the blood of righteous Abel unto the blood of Zacharias son of Barachias, whom ye slew between the temple and the altar.
Matthew 23:36 Verily I say unto you, All these things shall come upon this generation.
Matthew 23:37 O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and stonest them which are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not!
Matthew 23:38 Behold, your house is left unto you desolate.
Matthew 23:39 For I say unto you, Ye shall not see me henceforth, till ye shall say, Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord.

PAST POSTS
. Many were surprised at how willingly Socrates faced his demise- and this willingness had a great impact on those who witnessed it.

Socrates never wrote anything- but most of what we do know about him comes from the writing of others- most notably from Plato’s Dialogues.
Plato wrote down what Socrates taught- In his writings we see Socrates engaging in this method with various people- thus the name of Plato’s works- Dialogues.

There is a debate about how much of what was written about him was actually true- Plato did add his own ideas into these debates- and the controversy about this is so strong that we actually have a name for it- the ‘Socratic Problem’.
During the time of the disillusionment of the Athenians- there were a group of philosophers known as the Sophists.

The word comes from Sophia- meaning wisdom.

Philosophy itself means The Love of Wisdom.
In our day the words Sophomore- Sophistry and Sophisticated are derived from this root word.

The Sophists were the original Pragmatists.

Pragmatism is a form of belief that says ‘do what works- regardless of the ethical implications’.
We will get to Pragmatism at the end of this whole series on Philosophy.

But for now- we see the division between what Socrates taught- and the Sophists.

Socrates did indeed teach a form of Ethics- which contrasted with the Sophists.
He said that the pursuit of virtue was better than the pursuit of wealth- much like the words of Jesus ‘what does it profit a man if he gain the world- and lose his soul’.

His most famous saying is ‘The unexamined life is not worth living’.

He emphasized the importance of mind over body- which inspired Plato’s philosophy of dividing reality into 2 separate realms- the world of senses and the world of ideas.

Socrates actually challenged the Democratic process- he believed it better for the wise men- the Philosopher Kings- to run the show.
Athens did have a form of Democracy at the time- and because of the rise of the Sophists- and the itinerant teachers- you had sort of an election process- much like in our day- where those who would attain office were those who spoke the best- and made the best public argument.

We elect judges and stuff in our day- and even presidents- not because they are the most capable- but because they ran the best campaign.

So- in a way I agree with Socrates- at times I think we need a better process of electing those to higher office- then the one we have now.

It’s important to note that even though we started this study with Thales- and in the study of Western philosophy it’s commonly understood to have started with Thales.

Yet- Socrates seems to be the Father of philosophy in many ways.
He probably has had the most influence in the field philosophy- and the 2 great philosophers that we’ll get to next come right out from the heels of Socrates [Plato and Aristotle].

Why is this important to note?
As we progress in this study- and get closer to the 19th/20th century philosophers- we will see a trend- away from the idea that there are actually any ethical values- moral virtues- or ‘right or wrong’.

These philosophers dabbled with the idea that values themselves are the cause of man’s problems [Freud].

So- keep in mind- one of the main streams of thought in the early stages of philosophy was that values were indeed the main thing- Socrates challenged the Sophists of his day- he said that moral virtue was very important- that to live life with the values of courage- honesty- self-denial- these were the things that made men good- noble.
[parts]
1825- PHILOSOPHY [conclusion]




Today let’s wrap up the last philosophy post for now.

Over the last 6 months or so I have posted around 25 posts- covering the pre Socratic thinkers [800 B.C.] and we made it all the way up to the 19th century.

The main philosophical thought of the 20th century was called Logical Positivism.

This idea said there were 3 stages to Western thought/culture;

First- Infancy [religious/myth]

Second- adolescence [philosophy]

Third- adult [science/empirical]

This idea said that man in the 20th century has finally advanced beyond the silly stages of religion and has now moved into a stage where the only true things are empirical in nature.

That is- for something to be true- you must be able to show it scientifically [or mathematically].

It did not take too long before the critics figured out the major flaw with this idea.

This philosophy states ‘the only truth is empirical’ this statement in itself [as well as all the books written on it] is not an empirically proven statement.

Therefore- according to its own criterion- it is false.

This particular aspect of the philosophy was called The Verification Principle [had to be proven/verified scientifically to be valid].

Pragmatism- this is the only home grown philosophy that had its roots in the U.S.

Founded by Dewey and Peirce- this thought denied objective reality and states that ‘whatever works- use it’.

Of course being ‘pragmatic’ in a practical way is fine- we do want things to work.

But at its core Pragmatism says there are no real ethics- no right or wrong- just things people do.

In the beginning of the 20th century you had the British thinker/mathematician Bertrand Russell.

Russell was a good man- raised as a Christian.

But as a young man he read a book by John Stuart Mill [19th century] that questioned one of the classic arguments for the existence of God [the argument from first cause].

Mill said ‘if everything has to have a cause- then why not God- who caused him’.

Russell accepted Mills claim- and became an influential atheist/agnostic.

The main flaw with this argument- that everything ‘has a cause’ is that it’s false.

The law of Cause and Effect [Causality] does not state that everything has a cause- it says that ‘every effect has a cause’.

That is- there is nothing in existence- an effect- that came from nothing.

Some argued that there was no initial cause- but an infinite series of ‘little’ cause and effects that go on forever.

This too is wrong- it leads to another problem called the Infinite Regress.

 If there is no First cause- then logically you can never arrive at ‘Now’

There had to have been a starting point somewhere [Einstein has since proved this] and the starting point [Big Bang] could not have come from nothing.

This too is a very common belief among many well meaning people- that somehow science has taught us that all things came from nothing.

This could not be further from the truth- this is referred to as Creation Ex Nihilo- which too is scientifically false.

The only other option- beside the Infinite Regress- and the creation out of nothing- is there had to have been some type of first cause- who is not limited to the material realm.

By nature this being would have to be Metaphysical [outside the physical realm] and would have to be self existent- having no beginning.

To have a First cause- who himself is infinite- is indeed consistent with the principals of logic- and at the end of the day is the only reasonable explanation for the existence of all other things.

Okay- as we end our posts on philosophy for now- why did I cover this?

Thru out the history of the church Christians have grappled and challenged the other world views- and have done a good job at it.

The Christian perspective is not some silly religious way of life that has no real proof.

To the contrary- the church has had the upper hand in all these debates down thru the centuries.

But in today’s ‘media market’ Christianity- the proliferation of self help books [everyday day a Friday?]

The nonstop talk about becoming rich- or sending your money to ‘my ministry’ as a ‘seed faith’ to become rich.

In this environment- many outsiders see the church as an irrelevant- never ending drum beat that they can’t wait to switch to another channel.

This is not the history of the church- and the church has historically won the debate on the reality of God.

It’s just the average person does not know it.

So- for the Christian to be learned in these fields- to have a working knowledge of the opposing world views- is a good thing.

Why do so many believers avoid a field like philosophy?

The apostle Paul warned the Colossians ‘beware of the philosophies of men’.

He also wrote to his protégé Timothy ‘beware of the oppositions of science- falsely so called’.

The word for science in this text is Gnosis- the Greek work for knowledge.

In the early days of the church there was a Christian cult that rose up- called Gnosticism.

More than likely- Paul was not saying that all science- as we use the term today- is bad- but he was warning against a particular from of science- called Gnosticism.

The same with the warning on philosophy- while you could apply it to all philosophy- that is to say that we should be careful when people try to give us opposing ways of thought- yet in context it seems like the apostle is dealing with the philosophies that oppose Christian thought.

For the first 1500 years of the Christian church the study of Theology and Philosophy went hand and hand.

After the Protestant Reformation [15th century] many Protestants avoided the field- which I think was a mistake.

So- as we close up this subject for now- maybe review a few of the posts on the blog that I did these last few months- become more familiar with the apologetic arguments for the existence of God.

Christians do not have to argue- or oppose atheists- or other religions that hold a different view than we do.

But we should be able to give a defense for the faith- to explain to society around us why we believe the things we do.

At the end of the day- we really do have the winning argument.










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